In His Fathers Arms~

I am sorry to write that we have lost another friend. Many of you had been praying for our friend and neighbor Byron. He was diagnosed with cancer 4 months ago and spent his first day in Heaven yesterday. We will miss seeing and talking to Byron, however we know where he is and that he is no longer in pain. I feel very honored to have been able to sit and visit with him a few times over these past few months. Please read the note below which was on his family's blog and written by a family friend~

Thank you for all your prayers. This is Pam writing on behalf of the Mote family.

Byron's homecoming was at around 11:00 am today. Jennifer and the 4 oldest grandsons were there anointing him and praying over him. He took a deep breath and fell into the Father's arms. Joni Vaughn and I arrived moments later. It was very peaceful in the room. The family was able to spend several hours in the room saying good byes. Friends arrived to visit with Byron and pray with him and were told the news. Many shared what a wonderful friend and pastor he was. He was loved much in this life, and he loved his family deeply and he loved his friends.

This is just a "see ya later."

There will be no visitation or viewing. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days. A public memorial is being held tentatively on Saturday, November 15th at 2:00 pm at Glory of Zion Church in Denton. Another message will be sent with the definite plans.

If you would like to leave a testimony about Byron or send the family condolences, you can do so on blog.byronsfight.com.

Please forward this to anybody that would want to be contacted about this.

Continue to pray for Jan, Jennifer, Marc, Meredith and the 6 boys.

Anybody that is local and would like to bring food for the family, send an email to Ellen Samek at ellen@sameks.us

Our Fall Camping Trip!

October camping trip

Evening Sunsets at the beach~ each night we went to the beach area to watch the sunset. By Kayak ,this was definitely the best~

We walked down there one night~


And Biked one night~




We love to hit the trails on foot or bikes. We found this one part of the woods that had lots of pine trees ~ smelled like home in New England and Oregon.


Usually as we are exploring we come across a preserved historical area. I am always amazed as we stand there, imagining that a very long time ago this was someones home. Probably a small cabin that only has the fireplace remaining. Here we are in 2008 riding our bikes through what was another families home long ago.Can't help but wonder what their lives were like?


Good Morning after a VERY cold night. We have a heater in the camper but the door opened up during the night and we did not know it until morning. It was cold!
Chris is making us garden omelets for breakfast :)


I am literally under 5 blankets here ~ I did not want to get out from under the covers :)





We got another campsite on the water so we were able to have our morning coffee and kayak time~ "Life is Good" :)





Hot chocolate and a campfire each night~





we played our "every camping trip" game of scrabble and as you can see from Chris's intense concentration that this was more serious to him this time and he did win :(

We had a great time and look forward to our next trip which will be a winter camping trip!

Halloween with the Minichs & Weeks

When the guys were little they loved trick or treating, getting and making their costumes, haunting the house and scaring the neighbors. Many of you that have known us for a long time have shared some of our Halloweens with the Minichs :)



We love to hide in closets, in the bushes, under beds, put Mr. Bones in each others beds to scare each other. It usually begins the beginning of October and we have had some great scares and even better laughs!

Kevin has always been the hardest to scare but we have got him :) Needless to say the person he marries would have to share in his love of Halloween and scary movies. He found that with Nikki and her family :) Matt was waiting for them in the front yard when they arrived :)

Nikki, her Mom and Dad and her friends joined our family for passing out candy, haunting the house, scaring the neighbors and watching scary movies.

Everyone made creative treats to share from cupcake eyeballs, snake soup, Shrek q-tips a haunted house and much more. Needles to say, we all ate way too much sugar.


We all wore Dallas Cowboy clothing as we are all Cowboy fans as well. It was a very fun night that went way too fast. We took our first Family picture with Nikki, Angie & Tom. We had a great time guys!

In Memory Of Jerry

Yesterday was a sad day for our family and many friends. We attended the funeral of our friend Jerry Haught. He had a heart attack on Saturday and is now in heaven.

We met the Haught family 8 years ago when our kids all went to Calvary together. Our boys played football and basketball together and I believe at one time all our boys worked with Chris and Colleen at Wendy's. Kevin became best of friends with Chris, Jerry's son in high school. They moved out and shared an apartment together which we remember talking to Jerry and Sandy about how nervous we all were about this move as they were only 18 and trying to go to school and work full time. Kevin and Chris are still great friends and I am proud of Kevin for how has been there for Chris every day. Chris has a sister, Colleen and his Mom, Sandy left at home and they will all be in need of prayer.

We have very fond memories of Jerry. He was the "voice" of Calvary sports. He announced all the games and well, let's just say, we were glad he was on our side :) A wonderful man, father and husband. I am glad we had the time with him when we did. Those days are wonderful memories.
This was from the card we received yesterday at the funeral~
Jerry William Haught
Date of Birth Nov. 29, 1948
1rst Day in Heaven Oct. 25, 2008

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

We Voted Today!

Early voting has begun, so Chris and I took advantage of his day of working at home today and cast our ballots! We were asked if we wanted to vote using paper or electronically. We both chose the electronic option. So we are done and will not have to fight the long lines on election day. For those of you in this part of the world, Lake Dallas City Hall is where you go for early voting.

You Have Our Attention, Lord

A Prayer by Max Lucado~


Our friends lost their house
The co-worker lost her job
The couple next door lost their retirement
It seems that everyone is losing their footing

This scares us. This bailout with billions.
These rumblings of depression.
These headlines: ominous, thunderous -
“Going Broke!” “Going Down!” “Going Under!” “What's Next?”

What is next?

We’re listening. And we’re admitting: You were right.

You told us this would happen.
You shot straight about loving stuff and worshipping money.
Greed will break your heart, You warned.
Money will love you and leave you.
Don’t put your hope in riches that are so uncertain.

You were right. Money is a fickle lover and we just got dumped.

We were wrong to spend what we didn’t have.
Wrong to neglect prayer and ignore the poor.
Wrong to think we ever earned a dime. We didn’t. You gave it. And now, tell us Father, are You taking it?

We’re listening. And we’re praying.
Could you make something good out of this mess?

Of course You can. You always have.
You led slaves out of slavery,
Built temples out of ruins,
Turned stormy waves into a glassy pond and water into sweet wine.
This disorder awaits your order. So do we.

Through Christ,
Amen

God will always give what is right to His people who cry to Him night and day, and He will not be slow to answer them. (Luke 18:7 NCV)

The Great Pumpkin Patch!

We took our nieces Anna & Sarah to a pumpkin patch a couple of years ago. I love these pictures and don't think I ever gave them to their mom so here they are~ Happy Fall!