Volunteer Valentine Party

One of our Highlights during the year is our winter volunteers.  We have a group of retired folk who come and help with maintenance items here on campus.  Last year we were blessed with a couple from North Dakota, Wayne & Judy.  They took it upon themselves to throw us a Valentine Party.  I never thought a party would be such a blessing but it was.  And, I've never walked away from a party with such gratitude before.  This year Wayne & Judy came back and did it again.  And again I walked away gleaming at how much fun I had,  and how very encouraged we felt. 

Dessert

When Judy throws a party, in order to eat, we have to work to get our dinner.  Last year our table had to sing a song with love in it.  This year our table had to write a poem containing at least one reference to Valentine's Day and one reference to Love, and had to be four verses long. Piper loves writing poems so we set her to the task but her brain was in need of dinner.  

So Ace stepped in and helped her out.

We were the last table to read our poem.  Don't you just love Cherry waiting patiently?  I'm pretty sure her fork is being used as a person.

Piper reading our poem.

Our gift is not one of rhyme

But is one of Valentine.

We may be kind of late,

But I want food on my plate!

I am getting in a mood 

that means I want FOOD!!!

I want to say something about Love

But it's hard when in my mouth 

there is a milk chocolate Dove.

After Dinner the games were started lots of laughter.  My favorite quote from Judy was if you want to win a prize there has to be pain.  Those were not quite here words but it was something along that line.  

Oreo cookie on the forehead game working down to the mouth.  I've seen this game all over the internet so I know you've tried it. Notice, Ace doing his usual stand and watch and not participate.  He's excuse, was he was still eating his cupcake.

It's the kids turn.  Notice, Gustie doing the same thing?  HA! Ace says she's not like him, but she's like me.  I think Gustie looks like her ma but has Ace's brain.

Sam, Aurora, & Stormie participate in a game.  It's two pop bottles taped together with gumballs inside.  The first team to get them down to the other end is the winner.

Each age group got a turn

Ace & Paul need to use chopsticks to move conversational heart from one bowl to another.  Time to be a missionary from China.

Here we have, Larry & Kim kissing for the "how many kisses can you give your spouse in 60 seconds game".  The lipstick the ladies put on, did not do a good job leaving its mark, so there was a do over request. However the audience voted that Larry & Kim put on the best show leaving them to win the prize.

Time is Flying By

A lot has been happening here.

House #8 has been painted.  I still need to get a picture of it.  Choosing the color was very hard for me.  I finally picked one. Randomly! Yeah!  The volunteers asked me to come see if its the right color.  And, it is!  I guess they were trying to decide if it was gray or green.  Ace said its split pea soup.  Yesterday, when up close it looked blue.  We are in the shade of the carport so you can't tell, but the sun really bleaches out the color.  So, every time I look at the house in the sun, it looks white.  Now I know why all the houses in Arizona are brightly painted or are dirt color.  The dirt is always blowing so the houses get very dirty and the sun bleaches the color out of the paint.  So you just might as well paint them dirt color.

I was overwhelmed by a surprise box!  The Ladies at Alton Bible Church, our sending church sent me a care package.  It felt like a spa for my body and my soul.  Lots of fun thing like lotions, spiritual CD's, devotional books, chocolate, bath soaps and so much more.  As I read their cards and notes I cried.  Thank you so much ladies.  You were and encouragement to me.

They even sent a little something for the kiddos for Valentines Day.

 The kiddos are working on their cars for the Grand Prix, a time consuming activity, and a whole other blog about that!

A Visit to the Cotton Gin

Cotton Modules

loading on to the feeder

Feeder cleaning out stick, leaves, and debris.

Removing seeds

5,000 lbs of pressure to make a 500lb bale of cotton.  This bale can make over 300 dresses.

Samples of cotton are taken from each bale an are tested for length and thickness and given a Grade

Each bale is given a bar code that stays with it for life. This bar code tells all about the cotton, where it came from and its Grade.

A Big Pile of Cotton Seed

Cute babies dressed in cotton!

Going to see the cotton bales.  This is our large homeschool group.

Everyone was given some cotton to take home

And we were all given some cotton seed too.

Because of the loud noise our tour guide was hard to hear so the kids got board quickly.

Kids finding shade

Here it is, the life time identity of this cotton bale.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, we did!  Gin stands for engine in case you were wondering.  I liked this video on Cotton found on You Tube.  I wish there was a good video on Eli Whitney who invented the cotton gin but couldn't find one.

Wow & Thank You!

Source

Wow,  Thank You so much for your out pouring of love, support, prayers, and gifts.  I'm truly blessed!  When I wrote my blog I really just wanted to catch you all up on what has been going on with the Glidewells.  Many things didn't get documented like the skunk story. LOL  If you don't follow us on Face book then you probably don't know the story.  Just raise your hand and maybe I'll retell it.  :-)  Thank You again for the flowers, prayers, tea, herbs, & letters of encouragement.  You are so WONDERFUL!  I was amazed how each part of my blog met people in different areas that you all are struggling with. There's a scripture verse I think in 1 Thes. that says something about encouraging our brothers in Christ and all the more as we see the day approaching.  May we all encourage one another.

My blog reached national headlines with NTM!  Yup got called into the counselor office!  Reminded my of my school days. LOL  Guess they were worried about me and wanted to make sure I wasn't mental.  Well I am! JK  Its good to know your loved.  Thanks Millers!  I was so overjoyed that I personally got to use the Kleenex box in the office too. :-)

source

Ace and I had a little family conference....  When we got married we took marriage classes, when we had babies we took pregnancy classes and birthing classes and family planning classes.  As our kids grew we took parenting classes.  I guess its time to find perimenopausal (I think I can almost spell it now) classes.

1.) Pray and ask the Lord to move me to the next trial. I'm ready to learn something new.

2.) Listen to everyone's stories - find I'm not alone

3.) Listen to Family Life - menopause series Guest speaker Lois Rabey, Very good 

4.) Order Lois Rabey's book Postcards from Menopause: Wishing I Weren't Here

5.) Make Dr. appt. to just check and make sure its menopause and not depression advice from family and friends. (I guess they think I'm to young, Thanks Mom for passing the gene of no grey hair until your in your 50's!)

6.) Recognize I'm going to have a melt down, SOS friends,  jump in bed with Kleenex box and cover my head with blanket.  (On good days its nice to laugh about it all isn't it?)

source

So the question is, what was God thinking when it comes to perimenopause? Or, does it fall under the category of pain in labor when Eve sinned?

Coming Back to Blog Land!

Standing at The Lowell House what we thought would be our last time ever.

 I've decided its time to blog again that is if I have anymore friends out there who will listen.  Big Smile.  Its been a roller coaster ride since I last blogged.  That is why I stopped, I was going on a ride that God is still taking me on.  We last left off with that crazy house in Lowell.  We tried selling it in summer of 2010 and gave it our all.  Then it flooded a week after the showing.  Insurance covered a huge chunk of it but there was the deductible that took every last dime we had.  No sell, No renters, No money, No Mortgage payment!  We started a road we never thought we would take and found out how nasty Mortgage company's can be.    Lots of notices in the mail, lots of long frustrated phone calls.  Our house went into foreclosure and a few days before it did a few generous givers gave us just enough money to redeem the house.  It was a hard decision to make whether we wanted to give the house to the bank and keep the funds that was given to us or did we want to redeem ourselves and keep a house that eats our income and causes us such heartache?  We choose the harder rout knowing it was what God would want us to do.

Through a FB plea we found renters who moved in a month after the foreclosure episode.  God continues to be good!  Our renters are wonderful and are a christian couple.  Praise The Lord!

Telling the kids were having a baby!

During the whole foreclosure  episode we announced to our children we were going to have a baby!!!!  :-)  This announcement was made near the end of November.  In December we delivered Gabriel Joy Glidewell (into the arms of Jesus). Dec. 17th at 20 week Gestation.  It was a very sad day.  I delivered at home and lost a lot of blood.  After going to the Dr. in Jan. my test results showed I was very close to needing a blood transfusion.  I have a very, very strong faith that God will take me home when he is ready to take me home.  I guess it wasn't my time.  Ace should have been a Dr. he was sooo wonderful during this time. He was my nurse, Dr., comforter, & took my place in the family with kids and homemaking.

Glidewell Baby #11

So here is the surprise!  In Feb,  I just wasn't getting better from my miscarriage in Dec.,  because we were pregnant!  I cried at this ultrasound watching little baby wiggle and heart-beating.  We got pregnant with this little G the week after we lost Gabriel.  We carried this baby again 20 weeks and lost him/her  we were so very, very, very sad we didn't want to tell anyone we couldn't bear it.  Because of my anemia and low blood count we scheduled a D&C.  It was so very hard for me not knowing what our little-one was going to be.  But God knows so I left Him to name him or her.

Refrigerator number 2

We went through 3 frig's during that same time of loosing Baby G. They all belong to NTMA.  The last one they had to offer us was a small family frig so we are snug.  I'm praying that God would bless us with a bigger frig so we have room to put a week's supply of food and not 3 days. 

Currently, Ang is walkin thru the Desert.

For the past year and a half I've been living in the desert with God not just in AZ. but in my spiritual life.  When I open Gods Word to read it I cry, or it's word's are meaningless to me.  Its like my ears are sealed shut.  I pray to Him and it feels like He's not there.  Have you lived in the Desert?  I have a wonderful series that I bought from Nancy Leigh Demoss on living in the Desert.  I listened to one lesson and our CD player broke.  After listening to the first CD I think of the Israelites in the desert and I wonder how long will my spiritual life be in the desert. 

I am also dealing with Perimenopause.   My Mom went through this and from my perspective it wasn't that difficult, she didn't even take drugs.  What I'm finding out is its very rough!  Lots of suicidal thoughts, tears, feelings of hate, feeling of not being loved, feeling angry.  Friends have encouraged me to take natural progesterone and drink soy milk.  I've noticed a difference, but I still have some very low times.  At the same time the three oldest are going through teen mood swings & puberty.  Lots of fun in the Glidewell home.

Siding, Gas, Electric, Heating & bathtubs are being installed these past couple of weeks.

NTMA is replacing all there trailer homes with stick homes.  We are the next family to receive the next stick house.  They have given us a  lot of freedoms to choose with boundaries.  This freedom comes with mixed emotions as its difficult to make choices that will effect others who may live in the house.  The process building has been a long one because it's based on finances and volunteer help.  We are looking forward to more space.  But, when it comes down to it we would much rather live off campus so we can have a pet.

 Something we would love to have is a small dog.  However, NTMA has a policy of No pets inside the home.  We are a pets inside family and even more when its hot outside with snakes, large birds, and coyotes who eat small pets.  We would love to move off campus so our family could enjoy a pet.  Please pray for us as this tends to be more of a need than a want.  Many times my Perimenopause emotions are set off by the need of a pet.  A missionary told me their pet brought a lot of healing to their family and I think the same would happen here in the G fam.

On the Ministry side it has been a long wait but we are seeing progress.  NTMA was organized by a committee, that committee was not working out.  Last summer we were told by NTM HQ that NTMA would be downsizing, nobody was sure what was meant by that information, so we waited, and waited, and waited.  While we waited for HQ to deal with some hard issues involving Grace and MK abuse in the 80's & 90's.  Finally, they were able to make a trip to NTMA and a NTMA Board was formed and the NTMA Committee no longer exist.  We were pleased to see most of the changes that have taken place.  During that waiting we were wondering if this was the place God had called us to be?  Ace is a gifted man and he has many former students and friends who call him up often asking him to come work at their airport.  So lots of options were available and believe me I was rooting for other options.  Its not pleasant living on a missionary income and we would love to have a pet in our home.   Ace didn't have peace about leaving NTMA  God is still calling him to stay here.  

This is just a few of  many Glidewell Adventures you've missed out on while I've not been blogging.  Hopefully, I can set a New Year Resolution to do some more Blogging!

Closing with a prayer to God

Dear God thank you so much for loving us even when we are in the desert!  Please help  any of my friends who are in the desert spiritually may they learn what they need to quickly so they can press on for your name.  If any of my friends are going through Perimemopause wrap your loving arms around them and give them a big squeeze.  Give their families wisdom on how to be there for them.  I pray that they wont do any thing stupid like commit suicide or kill anyone and I say that with all seriousness.  (I know you laughed!)  Lord PLEASE please help me to be content!  Content with our measly income, content with not having the right frig, content with not having a dinning table that can seat just our own family, content with the house we live in, content with not having a family pet.  Every time I think of my needs I think of the poor people in other countries that don't have electricity, kitchens to put their kitchen tables in and the list of all the other things they don't have that I'm so rich in.  Help everyone to remember its all about people and saving them from the awful fiery eternity.  

We Love you God!  

Amen