Hannah's Prayer

I was working on my first lesson in "Life Principles from the Prophets of the Old Testament" and was reading in 1 Samuel chapter 2.  For those of you who don't know, Hannah was barren for many years and prayed to the Lord to give her a male child and in return would give that child back to the Lord.  This is her prayer after her son, Samuel, was born. It's amazing!

¹ And Hannah prayed and said:

      “My heart rejoices in the LORD;
      My horn^[a] is exalted in the LORD.
      I smile at my enemies,
      Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

 ² “No one is holy like the LORD,
      For there is none besides You,
      Nor is there any rock like our God.

 ³ “Talk no more so very proudly;
      Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
      For the LORD is the God of knowledge;
      And by Him actions are weighed.

 ⁴ “The bows of the mighty men are broken,
      And those who stumbled are girded with strength.

 ⁵ Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
      And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
      Even the barren has borne seven,
      And she who has many children has become feeble.

 ⁶ “The LORD kills and makes alive;
      He brings down to the grave and brings up.

 ⁷ The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
      He brings low and lifts up.

 ⁸ He raises the poor from the dust
      And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
      To set them among princes
      And make them inherit the throne of glory.

      “For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s,
      And He has set the world upon them.

 ⁹ He will guard the feet of His saints,
      But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.

      “For by strength no man shall prevail.

 ¹⁰ The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces;
      From heaven He will thunder against them.
      The LORD will judge the ends of the earth.

      “He will give strength to His king,
      And exalt the horn of His anointed.”

Jaw Dropping

I cannot even begin to describe what I am about to tell you! It's so crazy! If I was telling you this in person, I bet your jaw would drop like mine did.  I cannot believe this woman did what she did!

So, I was helping a lady customer pick out a chain for herself.  She said she wanted a yellow gold, box chain.  I showed her the only two that I have in stock.  They were too thin.  I showed her the white gold, box chain.  It was too thick.  She then asked me, "Are these the only two you have in yellow gold?"  She asked this after me saying "these are the only two yellow gold box chains that I have." I hate when people ask me stupid questions after I have just explained to them the answer beforehand.  Well, she didn't think they were thick enough for the pendant she wanted to put on it.  So then she wanted to look at the rope chains.  She picked one out, so I took it out of the showcase to show to her.  It was (notice the emphasis there) a 10 karat yellow gold rope chain.  It was a really nice looking chain.  It was $88.  I explained to her that rope chains are actually supposed to be just as durable as box chains because of the way they are made.

Now just to point out that gold in any shape or form is a soft medal.  If the chain is 10 karats, that means there is 10 parts gold and 14 parts other metals to make the chain (or any piece of jewelry for that matter) hold together, to equal 24 karats.  I don't care what country you come from, or what jewelry store you shop at, you cannot make anything out of pure, and only 24 karat gold.  It's just not possible!  It's way too soft and would literally fall apart in your hands.  If something says 24 karat gold, then it is either plated with 24 karat gold, or has other metals mixed in with the 24 karat gold.

Ok, back to my story.  This is where my jaw hit the floor.  Just as I finished telling her that rope chains are just as durable as box chains, this woman...and I still can't believe she did this....This woman grasped the chain with both hands (like if you were to make 2 fists and put them next to each other where the thumbs and index fingers meet) and pulls on it and breaks it and says "Nope, they're not!" 

SHE BROKE THE CHAIN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!!!!!!

And then she had the nerve to say, "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't actually mean to break it."  Well what did you expect when you pull so hard on a necklace!?  I didn't know what to say.  My jaw fell down and there were no words.  If she asked to see another chain I would have said, "Ok, but I'm gonna have to ask that you not break this one!"  Too bad we don't have a You Break It, You Buy It policy.  I mean, who comes into a store and purposefully pulls on something like she did, with force I might add, to see if it will break!?  I didn't say that it wouldn't break, but with the ropes and box chains there a chance that they can take some abuse if they are pulled.  But she pulled so hard like it was a tug-o-war contest.  Who does that??

So now I have to claim out an $88 piece of jewelry because a customer broke it, and I lost a potential sale.  I mean, since I am claiming it out, my warehouse will send me a replacement, but still!  This whole thing could have been avoided if I had just called in sick. LOL. Just kidding.

Jennifer Nicole

Q: Are you 22 or 23? A: Neither, I'm 25.

I went to a birthday party on Friday for my friend Ashley.  She just turned 27, although she certainly doesn't look it.  I think nowadays people look younger as they get older.  One of my brother's friends'(and one of my newest friends as well), Gina for example, does not look her age which will be disclosed as I think she would not want me to mention it here.  Oh heck, I'll say it. She's 31.  If you saw her though, you would think maybe 27 or 28 as I did.  She thanked me of course because every woman wants others to think she is younger than she actually is.

The party was really fun.  We had chips and dip, red velvet cake, pop, and spirits which I have recently learned means mixed drinks.  Mine was pretty good.  I am not a beer drinker, so I had a fruity drink which gave me a headache.  Not a hangover headache, just a headache because I do not drink regularly.  I probably had my last drink about 3 years ago when I visited my friend Jamie at school in Kentucky.  I might have had a rum in coke last year at the karaoke bar, but I don't know.  Needless to say, I do not drink.  I'd rather have water!

Some of us girls played Boulder Dash where you are given 4 categories and one player reads one of the categories and writes down the real answer, and the rest of us write down what we think the answer is.  Then the one player who read the questions reads all the answers and we have to choose which one we think is correct.  We only played one round, but it was fun in the moment.

We also played a video game called Let's Dance on the Wii.  Have you heard of it?! (*my sarcasm is coming out*).  Of course you've heard of the Wii.  Well if you haven't heard of it, it's a video game console where you use the motion of your body as you hold the Wiimotes (Wii Remote).  It's only the most popular video game in the world.  I did not dance but it was fun watching the others dance, badly I might add.  Actually Gina was the best and kicked everyone's butt.

The funniest part of the night had to have been when my sister-in-law Nikki looked at me and asked, "Are you 22 or 23?"  I looked at her and laughed and said, "Neither. I'm 25."  She asked for reasons which might have to be a whole blog in itself, but she was thinking that my sister turned 21 this year so I had to be the next in line which I am not because my brother is younger than me.  It was just funny.  I guess you had to be there.

Jennifer Nicole

The weather is changing and I can feel my nose getting stuffy.

Harvest time is almost here! I can almost smell the apple cider and pumpkin pie as it passes through the house and into my nose when I walk in the door!  This is such a special time of year.  Soon the leaves will be changing into the most beautiful arranges of greens, reds, oranges, and yellows.  I can picture myself walking my dog and filling my nostrils with the aroma of freshly cut grass.  Hmmm... Autumn has a lot to do with smells!  Well, let's talk about some of the things we get to do in the Fall, shall we?

I always look forward to doing things outdoors in the Fall.  Cider Mills, apple picking, pumpkin patches, hayrides, bonfires, cook outs, playing in the leaves, etc...  I love it all!  September through November, sometimes December depending on Michigan weather, allows for so many activities.  I enjoy spending time with my friends and family.  Last year my church went to a farm for a hayride where the wagon was in the shape of an ark, as in Noah's ark.  We had many different and yummy types of chili, although I only ate the white bean chicken chili, and corn bread.  Mmm mmm, cornbread!  We also sat around a camp fire and listened to the Word of God being taught to us as we sat under the stars.  The sky was so clear that night and the air was cool.  It was a beautiful sight.  Here are a few pictures from that night!

   I can't wait for Autumn to get here.  My mom and I already spotted a tree with it's leaves changing colors.  So exciting!!

Thanks for reading.

Jennifer Nicole

Mark Twain House Peach

So we all know that Mark Twain is famous for his novels such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but did you know that his real name is actually Samuel Clemens?  I stumbled across a website called Welcome to the Mark Twain House and Museum to look up some info on him, and in his biography it mentions Sam Clemens.  And I was thinking, who the heck is Sam Clemens?  It's Mark Twain.

Now that that is clarified, I would like to tell you about my weekend.  It started last week when my good friend Susie asked if anyone wanted to help her paint the front room in her house.  I, for some odd reason volunteered.  She sent me a text saying to be at her house around 11a.m.  So I sent her a text back saying Ok.  What seemed like 10 minutes had passed by when I received another text saying, and this is word for word, "Wear old clothes and a lot of deodorant."  The reason I say it seemed like 10 minutes is because that is how long it took her to write that second text.  She just got a texting plan, but can't quite grasped the concept of quick texts.  I love her anyways despite this flaw!  Anyhow...  I went over there Friday morning around 11 and she quickly put me to work;  taping off doorways with that lovely blue tape was really hard.  I worked up a sweat taping more than I did painting, and to be fair she did warn me to wear a lot of deodorant (and I did!).  The walls had already been sanded and Spackled in some spots so it was ready for a fresh coat of paint.  I must have been taping for an hour and a half when we took a break.  We are girls after all.  Susie bought me lunch at Subway but before we could go to Subway, she had to run some errands; the post office and Rite Aid and the bank.  Our lunch break had turned into an errand run.  While I was waiting for her in the van, i tried to turn on the radio to listen to some music.  I couldn't get it to work.  I pushed every button but nothing seemed to turn it on.  So I sat there in the parking lot of the post office, waiting.  Good thing it wasn't hot out and she did crack the windows.  When she got back into the van, she thanked me for waiting.  I replied, "Where was a I gonna go?"  Apparently, her son Noah does not like running errands with his mom and is always complaining.

We get back to her house and had our lunch then got right back to work.  Somehow, I got stuck with doing most of the painting with the roller while Susie used a sliding tool along the ceiling so I didn't have to tape off the ceiling.  And because I'm such a good steward in the Lord, I did the painting without complaining (Philippians 2:14).  By 3:30 we got a huge chunk of the walls and hallway painted with a first coat, including a small spot on the ceiling where I accidentally brushed it with the roller. Oops!

As if I didn't have enough fun with her and her two boys, I tagged along to their karate class.  Noah is really good and I think karate will help Caleb with strengthening his legs.  I have to admit though, I was paying more attention to one of the older, taller, and very good-looking black belts.  *Blush blush blush*  Anyways, it's a really cool class.  It's at a church in Warren and they pray, read Bible scriptures, and share a lesson with the students.  I told Caleb I wanted to come see him and Noah get there new belts.

After the karate class it was time for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.  This was not my first choice in movies but the kids liked it.  It was very Disney predictable.  At one point the two main characters, Demi Lavato and Joe Jonas' characters (yes, I know there names now) got into a fight.  I looked at Susie and said, "I know what happens.  They're gonna sing a song, and kiss and make up and hold hands."  Noah quickly replied with such seriousness, "You've seen this already!?"  It was a brand new movie and first time premiere, so no I haven't seen it.  I haven't even seen Camp Rock the first movie.  We were laughing so hard!

Now it's 10pm and Susie was thinking she wanted to paint some more but some of church friends came over to see the room, so we ended up talking for a while instead.  She kept saying I should just spend the night because she was going to paint in the morning and wanted my help.  Her husband, Scott went to bed because he leaving for Cedar Point in the morning.  He came back out around midnight and turned on the TV.  We made cookies and watched Who's Line Is It Anyway? and then went to bed, finally!

I was awakened by their dog, Cino (as is cappuccino) when he jumped on my stomach.  It was about 9 in the morning.  Apparently the boys were waiting for me to wake up so they could watch TV and play video games.  We had breakfast and started painting again.  I was really tired so I took small breaks.  When I went to grab some cereal and watch TV with Caleb, guess what he was watching?  That's right!  Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam again!!  I now have one of the songs in my head; "I'm giving you the fire..."

We finally called it quits on the painting around 12:30 and as if I haven't spent enough time with Susie's family, she invited me to her brother-in-law's birthday party BBQ.  I looked at her and said, "Susie, I"m running out of clothes and I didn't bring any deodorant!"  So I took a shower to freshen up and borrowed her stick of deodorant.  It sounds really gross, but I was not going to go anywhere without smelling nice.  We're friends. It's OK.  She also let me borrow a sweat shirt because it was cold outside.

The party was nice and the food was good.  Some friends from church were there too.

So, that was my weekend with Susie; painting, Disney Channel, cookies, and a BBQ.

By the way, the color of the paint is called Mark Twain House Peach.

Thanks for reading!

Jennifer Nicole