Who Do You Like?

With the elections this year, all you hear on the news is politics, politics, politics. Part of me is the concerned citizen who feels it her duty to stay informed and know who I'm voting for and part of me is already so sick of it I want to plug my ears and sing "la la la" everytime I hear it on the news.

In spite of my slight media induced illness, I am trying to stay up to date on things. Vince, of course, is doing a much better job than I am but I'm getting there.

So with "Super Tuesday" coming up I thought I would add a link to a website that someone sent me. It's a short quiz that helps you chose the candidate that most reflects your personal views. It's pretty interesting. At the end there is a brief overview of the stands each candidate has on key issues. Click the picture above to take the quiz.

Only One Life, Will Soon Be Past- Only What's Done For Christ Will Last

Ok, I know I wasn't very faithful about writing in January so I'll try to be better this month.
The last few weeks have been pretty busy so I didn't have much time to post, plus the fact I was pretty sure a list of our daily taks wouldn't make for a very interesting blog entry.
We spent a lot of time last month involved in church activites. We were at several homes as well as at the church participating in church events. We have also recently started weekly visitations.
The newest ministry involvment for us is going every 6 weeks to a resuce mission in downtown Detroit and helping in a service there. Vince and I are mostly involved in the singing but Vince was also helping with the prayer service.
Most of you who know me well know that the last two projects are a tad bit out of my comfort zone but I don't think God wants us to stay where we are comfortable all the time. I believe He wants us to be willing to stretch ourselves beyond what we know to experience what He can do though us. I'm enjoying this new opportunity to share God's word with others. My prayer of late has been, "Let my life's work be about Your work."
Everyone around here has been sick but so far, praise God, we have dodged it. It seems to be sticking around awhile and our church services are lacking people. This cold air sure doesn't help.
It's been nasty cold lately but we are hanging in there. It has also snowed a lot. There's not a lot of accumulation, it just snows every other day. We do have snow on the ground now (maybe 4 inches) but I'm learning not to even blink at that. The roads are good so that's all that matters. I can just enjoy the snow and not worry about bad roads.
Well, I guess I should go. I have to get out and play in the snow for awhile. Sure would be a nice day to stay inside and watch the snow fall, maybe drink some hot tea and read a book, but alas that won't be happening today.

Culture Shock

Yesterday Vince and I went on a little excursion to Dearborn, MI. It's about 20 miles north of us so it wasn't far but we'd never been there. The reason for going was to hunt down some middle-eastern/Mediterranean food.
We had heard that there were a lot of communities in the area that would sell the food we were after but we had no idea just how big the Arab speaking community would be. It was like entering another country.
We kinda felt out of place because we were one of the few that spoke English. If Vince, who can at least slightly pull off the Mediterranean look, hadn't been with me I would have been very out of place. But we had a really good time experiencing that culture.
We first went to this bakery/grocery store that was ran by Italians and the meats, breads and cheeses they had there looked soooo good. Then we headed on up the road and got into the Arab community. We spent close to 2 hours just going to markets. Those of you who know Vince well will understand that. :) I must say I had a whole new experience with food.
We didn't go to any bakeries but I not so subtly hinted that it would be a great date night to go to one of the restaurants there and then go to a bakery (or two) for some baklava and to try some other Middle Eastern delicacies. I did have one bite of home made baklava from one of the markets and it was one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. It was amazing!
Over the course of the day we found some really good deals and brought home lots of good food at pretty great prices. We now have enough grape leaves, olive oil, dried dates and bulgar wheat to last as the year. I have a feeling we will be cooking a lot of "ethnic" food for awhile which is fine by me because I just love it.
We made Tabouli last night and it was delicious. I'm so glad I married someone who introduced me to such "strange" food. It has quickly become my favorite.
We were both excited about finding a place like that so I'm sure we will venture up there a lot more. It was great fun!

New Year-New You

Since it is the start of a new year and everyone is busy putting the effort into all those New Year Resolutions that will fall by the wayside by the first of next month, some of us girls at GBC thought that we would get in on the fun and start the year off with the 2008 Health Challenge.
I've never bought into the whole resolution thing so we aren't looking at it like that but we all could use better health so we are in the midst of a 5 month "Health Challenge" to encourage each other with our personal health goals.
We all have at least 5 daily goals that we have individually created to help us achieve whatever goal we are ultimately working toward. The rule is they have to be activities that will push us to our goal and they have to be a challenge, meaning something you have to work at to do.
It is much easier to stay committed knowing you are accountable to others and it's just more fun. We all have different things to achieve but with God's help and pushing each other to keep going, it should be successful.
While we are working on our physical heart we are also working on our spiritual heart. We are challenging each other to spend more time with God each day. We will be keeping a journal and once a week we will share what we have learned/what God has spoken to us about in that week. I think we may be starting an actual Bible study too.
So with that all said, I have to go. It's time to be about those daily goals.

2008

What did I do to bring in the new year?.....talk to Vince on the phone.
While Vince was off flying around the country I was at our church having a New Years Eve party. It was really fun. We played the game Survivor, Mexican style, complete with tribal councils and stunts. Our clan got voted off right at the first but it was sure fun watching everyone else do all those crazy things. The food wasn't bad either. ;)
I got home around 11:30 all partied out, but it was a great way to close out the old year.
My prayer for the new year: "LORD, may we live it for Your glory!

December Recap

This month has been interesting. I could ramble on and on with all the details but I'll spare you. (You're welcome) I'll just give you the highlights.

We got our first decent snowfall this month but it wasn't too much. Just enough to close the schools and make it pretty. We estimated about 10-11 inches. We enjoyed playing in it and breaking in our boots. Our cars were buried under snow so we had to dig ourselves out. That was fun. Thank goodness we have kind neighbors who let us borrow their shovel or it would have taken a lot longer.
Here are some pics of the snow on the day of the storm. It was a Sunday and yes, we went to church. I got lots of prayer time in on the way. The roads were not fun! The third pic is our church.

After the drive home from church, we took some pics from around our apartment. Here they are.

On the 19th, my mom flew out here and stayed until after Christmas. It was so nice to have her here. We had lots of fun. We shopped, baked Christmas goodies and just enjoyed being together again. Below is a pic of the strawberry candy we made. They used to be almost a tradition in our family. We also made fudge (for Vince) and pfeffernusse cookies which are a huge tradition. I'm not so sure Vince likes them but I have to admit, they are a bit of an acquired taste. I don't have a pic of them.

Our Christmas was very nice. It was just the three of us and we made a nice dinner including duck, homemade noodles (a family recipe), sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh baked bread and a pecan pie (with Oklahoma pecans). It was delicious!
We all got wonderful gifts but the most wonderful was just being together, we just don't get to be with family enough. Vince did have to go to work Christmas night but we were just thankful we had the day together.
Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Have A Blessed Christmas and may Christ be at the heart of all your celebration!

A day in the life...

I just found this video on youtube that is about a day in the life of a pinnacle airline pilot. That's the airline Vince works for so it's kinda neat. It gives you a short inside look at what Vince does. Check it out.

New Car

Here are the pics of our new car. It's a 2007 Ford Focus and we named her Forcus. Okay, I named her Forcus.

Listening to God

I recently came across a blog by a Christian speaker/writer named Lysa TerKeurst. I had never heard of her but she occasionally writes for a devotional series I am going through.
She emphasizes that she is just an everyday, average woman but she has done one really WOW thing and it has been stuck in my mind for days.
She was going about her everyday life when God spoke to her and asked her (out of the blue) to do something that would change her life. Not only her life, but her family's as well.
She had gone to hear some orphans from Liberia sing near her home and ended up adopting two of them after hearing God whisper to her "Two of those boys are yours". What she did was so amazing, and the response of her friends was so unusual that she was invited to speak on Oprah. You can see the video clips from her interview with Oprah on her blog. They tell the whole story. It's a story that really tugs on the heart.
After visting her blog and hearing her story I was amazed and a little humbled.
My question to you (and myself) is this: How quickly would you be willing to take that big a risk and walk out on faith to do something that would so drastically impact your life if God told you to do it?

Christmas comes to the Inzerillo House

I finally got around to getting the house decorated for Christmas. I spent all day yesterday getting the house in the Christmas spirit. Since most of my decorations are in Kansas at my mother's house I made do with what I already had and what the dollar store had to offer me. I just can't stand the thought of spending a lot of money on decorations when I already have quite a bit of them, even if they happen to be hundreds of miles away. We are making it work for us though and we're just pleased as punch with our little 1 foot tree. Vince did get me some mistletoe this year ;) but I think that's actually the biggest Christmas investment we've made. And it'll be the most fun too!
Vince is supposed to be getting in today from a four day trip. God has been good during that time and kept the nasty weather away. We've had bad weather in the forecast almost every day he's been gone but nary a flake has fallen. I did have to drive in a little bit of snow/ice the day he left for his trip but I found out a trick, if you drive the freeways, it's mostly clear.
Well, I'm off- time to get back to work sprinkling "Christmas Cheer" around the house.

Update to Blog

I have added a guestbook to our blog so I know who has been here. It will help alleviate my curiosity.
I know that my dear mother has been spreading the fame of this blog so I am hoping that more people will stop in and say Hi.
This blog is first and foremost a way for us to stay in contact with all of you. With the creation of the guestbook we have another way of doing that and hopefully, have new contact with friends we have lost touch with.
The guestbook is located right above the archives. Please take a moment to sign it and leave a quick note. Thanks much :)
NEW UPDATE (12-13-07):
I have taken the guestbook away because I can't keep the message displayed.