Mary Ann

banner made by sarahrae!!

So I'm sitting at work, BORED out of my mind! Our boss blocked MySpace, which sucks! I can still go on it with schoolunblocker.com, but that's just a pain! haha! And she's probably have a stroke if she found out we did that! So regardless of the sites that I go to, I delete ALL files and cookies and everything. I'm sure she's love to know I was blogging at work!! hahaha!

So not much has been happening lately. I'm looking for a place to rent that won't take ALL of my money because I'll still have to pay for utilities! lol! A friend of mine is very good friends with a girl who works for the state's Habitat for Humanity. So she's going to talk to her about what I might be able to get. I'm waiting!! That would be awesome. Low interest (low payment) mortgage...and I'd OWN the house one day!!

ummm...I still talk to Adam...almost everyday. Wade registers for MIDDLE SCHOOL (6th grade) tomorrow. It only depresses me because I remember starting middle school like it was yesterday...so I feel a little OLD! lol! I can remember many events from 6th grade!! So he's gonna give band a try. We'll see how that goes. And I've let him know that if he gets bad grades or gets in trouble then NO SPORTS. And in later grades the school won't let him play sports if he has bad grades or whatever. So I'm hoping that this can be the REBIRTH of behavior that he so desperately needs!! Hopefully middle school will be the difference he needs. I DON'T KNOW! I remember quite a few kids who were kinda bad in elementary school who either didn't act so bad in middle school or the school wasn't as "strict" as PTH! lol!

Speaking of PTH...I felt for them DEEPLY when I read the newspaper Friday (I think it was). Lee Walker (old CESCA principal) was named the interim principal at PTH. Poor poor PTH folks!!! I could go on and on about Lee Walker, but alas, I won't speak TOO ill of the battle-axe!!

Anyways, I know I've been a little slack at commenting, but I swear that I have been reading posts, but sometimes I just don't have the time to comment...especially at work!

1. What is your local lake/river/sea?
Lake Wateree...then a small one which is Kendall Lake

2. Do you believe in dragons and unicorns?
no

3. What is your favorite fruit?
Granny Smith apples...and Grapples!!

4. Do you smoke?
yes

5. Friday fill-in:
Together they would BE HAPPY! - lmao!

Kurt Vonnegut

The author of Slaughterhouse-Five and one of America's greatest humanists dies at 84.

I found this video made at the Pavilion in Myrtle Beach 2 weeks before it closed forever. Man, Myrtle Beach is not gonna be the same to me without the Pavilion. If you're from SC or been to Myrtle Beach, you probably know what a landmark the Pavilion was. I loved that place!!

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America’s history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

The statement did not say where Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

Ford was an accidental president, Nixon’s hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial.

He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile and declared “our long national nightmare is over.” But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act, it was widely believed, cost Ford election to a term of his own in 1976, but it won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on.

The Vietnam War ended in defeat for the U.S. during his presidency with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. In a speech as the end neared, Ford said: “Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned.” Evoking Abraham Lincoln, he said it was time to “look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Ford also earned a place in the history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew who also was forced from office by scandal.

He was in the White House only 895 days, but changed it more than it changed him.

Even after two women tried separately to kill him, the presidency of Jerry Ford remained open and plain.

Not imperial. Not reclusive. And, of greatest satisfaction to a nation numbed by Watergate, not dishonest.

Even to millions of Americans who had voted two years earlier for Richard Nixon, the transition to Ford’s leadership was one of the most welcomed in the history of the democratic process — despite the fact that it occurred without an election.

After the Watergate ordeal, Americans liked their new president — and first lady Betty, whose candor charmed the country.

They liked her for speaking openly about problems of young people, including her own daughter; they admired her for not hiding that she had a mastectomy — in fact, her example caused thousands of women to seek breast examinations.

And she remained one of the country’s most admired women even after the Fords left the White House when she was hospitalized in 1978 and admitted to having become addicted to drugs and alcohol she took for painful arthritis and a pinched nerve in her neck. Four years later she founded the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, a substance abuse facility next to Eisenhower Medical Center.

Ford slowed down in recent years. He had been hospitalized in August 2000 when he suffered one or more small strokes while attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

The following year, he joined former presidents Carter, Bush and Clinton at a memorial service in Washington three days after the Sept. 11 attacks. In June 2004, the four men and their wives joined again at a funeral service in Washington for former President Reagan. But in November 2004, Ford was unable to join the other former presidents at the dedication of the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

In January, Ford was hospitalized with pneumonia for 12 days. He wasn’t seen in public until April 23, when President Bush was in town and paid a visit to the Ford home. Bush, Ford and Betty posed for photographers outside the residence before going inside for a private get-together.

The intensely private couple declined reporter interview requests and were rarely seen outside their home in Rancho Mirage’s gated Thunderbird Estates, other than to attend worship services at the nearby St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert.

In a long congressional career in which he rose to be House Republican leader, Ford lit few fires. In the words of Congressional Quarterly, he “built a reputation for being solid, dependable and loyal — a man more comfortable carrying out the programs of others than in initiating things on his own.”

When Agnew resigned in a bribery scandal in October 1973, Ford was one of four finalists to succeed him: Texan John Connally, New York’s Nelson Rockefeller and California’s Ronald Reagan.

“Personal factors enter into such a decision,” Nixon recalled for a Ford biographer in 1991. I knew all of the final four personally and had great respect for each one of then, but I had known Jerry Ford longer and better than any of the rest.

“We had served in Congress together. I had often campaigned for him in his district,” Nixon continued. But Ford had something the others didn’t, he would be easily confirmed by Congress, something that could not be said of Rockefeller, Reagan and Connally.

So Ford it was. He became the first vice president appointed under the 25th amendment to the Constitution.

On Aug. 9, 1974, after seeing Nixon off to exile, Ford assumed the office. The next morning, he still made his own breakfast and padded to the front door in his pajamas to get the newspaper.

Said a ranking Democratic congressman: “Maybe he is a plodder, but right now the advantages of having a plodder in the presidency are enormous.”

It was rare that Ford was ever as eloquent as he was for those dramatic moments of his swearing-in at the White House.

“My fellow Americans,” he said, “our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”

And, true to his reputation as unassuming Jerry, he added: “I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.”

For Ford, a full term was not to be. He survived an intraparty challenge from Ronald Reagan only to lose to Democrat Jimmy Carter in November. In the campaign, he ignored Carter’s record as governor of Georgia and concentrated on his own achievements as president.

Carter won 297 electoral votes to his 240. After Reagan came back to defeat Carter in 1980, the two former presidents became collaborators, working together on joint projects.

Even as president, Ford often talked with reporters several times a day. He averaged 200 outside speeches a year as House Republican leader, a pace he kept up as vice president and diminished, seemingly, only slightly as chief executive. He kept speaking after leaving the White House, generally for fees of $15,000 to $20,000.


© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a giant of R&B and an inspiration for rap, funk and disco, died early Christmas morning. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music.

I started a group on MySpace called Piggly Wiggly. For those who work at (or used to work at) Piggly Wiggly...anywhere. Hopefully it'll catch on. I hope that a lot of people from Piggly Wiggly Carolina stores join. I'm trying! lol!!! If you ever worked at the Pig then JOIN!!!!! http://groups.myspace.com/pigglywiggly78

And all you ever wanted to know about Piggly Wiggly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggly_Wiggly

This sends one heck of a message!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmLhyPjHVes

TO MY REBEL FRIENDS, THIS WILL PUT A LUMP IN YOUR THROAT.... ALL THEY LEFT OUT WAS ABOUT OUR PIG PICKENS, OYSTER ROASTS, SWEETGRASS BASKETS, CRABBIN ... AND THE SMELL OF PLUFF MUD TELLIN YOU YOU'RE HOME...... AND WE DO GO BARE-FOOTED AN AWFUL LOT.

My South

This was written by Robert St. John, executive chef and owner of the
Purple-Parrot Cafe, Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar of Hattiesburg,
MS.

Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging out
with his friend, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day. When
I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of the
movie
Billy Jack, one of the boys asked, in all seriousness; "Do you guys have
movie theaters down there?" To which I replied, "Yep. We wear shoes too."

Just three years ago, my wife and I were attending a food and wine seminar
in Aspen, Co lo. We were seated with two couples from Las Vegas. One of
the Glitter Gulch gals was amused and downright rude when I described our
restaurant as a fine-dining restaurant. "Mississippi doesn't have
fine-dining
restaurants!" she insisted and nudged her companion. I fought back the
strong desire to mention that she lived in the land that invented the
99-cent
breakfast buffet. I wanted badly to defend my state, my region, and my
restaurant
with a 15-minute soliloquy and public relations rant that would surely
change her mind.
It was at that precise moment that I was hit with a blinding jolt of
enlightenment, and
in a moment of complete and absolute clarity it dawned on me ... my South
is the
best-kept secret in the country. Why would I try to win this woman over?
She might move down here. I am always amused by Hollywood's
interpretation
of the South. We are still, on occasion, depicted as a collective group of
sweaty, stupid,
backwards-minded, racist rednecks. The South of movies and TV, the
Hollywood South, is not my South.

THIS IS MY SOUTH...

My South is full of honest, hardworking people.
My South is the birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock n' roll.
It has banjo pickers and fiddle players, but it also has BB King,
Muddy Waters, the Allman brothers, Emmylou Harris and Elvis.
My South is hot.
My South smells of newly mowed grass.
My South has kick the can, creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird
hunting.
In my South, football is king, and the Southeastern
Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference is the kingdom.
My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet.
In my South, soul food and country cooking is the same thing.
My South is full of cornbread, butter beans, fried chicken, grits and
catfish.
In my South, our transistor radios introduced us to the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time they were introduced to
the rest of the country. The Beatles' performance on the Ed Sullivan Show
was
even on our TV's !
In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday,
so big that we call it dinner ... (supper comes later).
In my South, family matters.... deeply.
My South is blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, banana pudding
and oatmeal cream pies.
In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coca-Cola
and hot sauce on almost everything.
In my South the tea is iced
and almost as sweet as the women.
My South has air-conditioning.
My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas.
In my South, the only person that has to sit on the back of the bus
is the last person that got on the bus.
In my South, people still say ...
"Yes, ma'am," "No ma'am,"
"Please" and Thank you"
In my South, we all wear shoes.... most of the time.
My South is the best-kept secret in the country.
Please continue to keep the secret....
it keeps the idiots away.

reply from my brother who is a Baptist preacher:

First you must correct the statement about Baptism. The act of Baptism is one of the two obedience commandments given by the Lord (the other being the Lord's Supper). Baptism is done as an act of public affiliation with Christ. After a person is saved they are commanded to follow the Lord in Baptism to demonstrate the act of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord. That same thing happens to a person spiritually when they are saved. Baptism is an outward expression of an inward transformation. Baptism doesn't wash away our sin.

About the Gnostic Gospels. They were found in 1945 at the Jabal al-Tárif mountain in Naj 'Hammádì, Egypt. They were found by a poor Arab named Muhammad 'Alí al-Sammán. The documents were handled very poorly and were even used as fire starter by the discoverers mother on accident. After a while the documents were sold on the black market to American collectors.

When the documents were deciphered the translator freaked when he finished the first line which said, ""These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin, Judas Thomas, wrote down." The document made the claim that Jesus had a twin brother. This is a huge problem! We have more documents proving otherwise than we do proving it to be so.

These gospels were also self-proclaimed as the "Secret" gospels.

Included in these documents were the gospels of Thpmas and Phillip. Here is an excerpt frrom one of the manuscripts.

. . . the companion of the [Savior is] Mary Magdalene. [But Christ loved] her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]. The rest of [the disciples were offended] . . . They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you as (I love) her?"

Other sayings in this collection criticize common Christian beliefs, such as the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection, as naïve misunderstandings.

You have to ask yourself why these documents have been hidden from man for nearly 2,000 years. Could it be that God wanted them to be hidden to keep the church from wandering into heretical doctrines?

The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of secret gospels, poems, and quasi-philosophic descriptions of the origin of the universe, to myths, magic, and instructions for mystical practice.

The Nag Hammadi texts, and others like them, which circulated at the beginning of the Christian era, were denounced as heresy by orthodox Christians in the middle of the second century.

There is very little debate about the dating of these manuscripts. The copies found in Nag Hammadi were very likely written around the middle of the 3rd century. The originals are strongly believed to be written somewhere around 225-250AD

The New Testament manuscripts were written inbetween 65-95AD, and the older copies that we have now were produced from the 2nd-3rd century. So you can see that there's not alot of difference between the time that the Gnostic gospels and the real New Testament gospels were written.

The content of the gnostic gospels are completely contrary to the content of the New Testament gospels. The gnostic would say that Jesus came to enlighten and help man understand his full potential as it relates to self-sufficiency. This is far from what He taught in the New Testament, that He came to save humanity from their sin.

Jews and Christians both claim that God is an individual and is completely seperate from his creation. The Gnostic would say that self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical. This is incorrect in 5,000 different ways. Man is in no way divine! The more man becomes aware of himself the more he sees the need for a saviour. Man is corrupt, he is totally cut off from God because of his wickedness.

The Bible we have today has to be accurate, if not, God is a liar. God said that His word is forever settled in heaven. He also claims that His word is true and cannot be tainted, neither will it come back void. If one can't believe that God has preserved His word, then man has no hope and is better off living life as he sees fit. If God's word is inaccurate we might as well close our church doors and go home.

The Gnostics were a Christian sect that emerged during the second century AD. The mystical group believed one had to possess a certain secret knowledge in order to obtain salvation.

They developed their own brand of theology, which was quickly condemned by Orthodox Christians.

When the Gnostics began producing documents the church faced the tremendous task of cleaning up a huge mess (and I express the word "mess").

Its also important to note that Egypt was a melting pot of idol worship and pagan practice. Alexandria was widely known for it's heretical biblical manuscripts. The manuscripts that were used in the New Testament came out of Antioch, which was known as a place of orthodoxy among Christians. Having said that, which manuscripts should be trusted? The scripts that came from a place known for heresy and were completely contrary to what everyone knew to true about Christ, or the scripts that were consistent with the character of Christ and the church?

The choice is yours.

About the other comment, that the Jews didnt turn the other cheek. I agree, the Jews did alot of stuff that was disgusting in God's sight. God even called them a stiff-necked people. But, this doesn't change the fact that God loved them inspite of their stupidity, just as He does today.

And the most important factor in the Christian life is that of faith. Without faith it impossible to please God (Heb.11). If one doesn't have the faith in God to beleieve that He has kept His word over the years, then they may want to think very hard about their life and their inability to keep themselves out of hell.

Hope this helps Sissy, hopefully I'll get a chance to write more. Standing for God isn't easy, but its worth every second. the disciples thought themselves blessed to be able to suffer for Christ's sake.

(We have a picture like this at my house now--MAS)

Who God Uses

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the Courage to change the one I can, and the Wisdom to know it's me.

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember...

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs (crickets and honey...to be exact--MAS)
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer
and Lazarus was dead!

No more excuses now. God can use you to your full potential.
Besides, you aren't the message, you are just the messenger.

1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
2. Dear God, I have a problem, it's me.
3. Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional.
4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
6. Do the math. Count your blessings.
7. Faith is the ability to not panic.
8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.
9. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you pray, don't worry.
10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.
11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
12. The most important things in your house are the people.
13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Share this with a friend or two. In the Circle of God's love, God is waiting to use your full potential.

May God Always Bless You !

Like I told margaret75, I'm gonna start posting questions from a book I read called "Answers to Tough Questions: Skeptics Ask About the Christian Faith" by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart.

( question14 )

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and
complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.
"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have
heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I
can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my
time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor"
column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks
until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has
cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot
recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I
do know this ... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I
needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I
would be physically dead today.

Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be
spiritually dead today!"

My mom sent this e-mail to me.