Weight Lost

I have set a goal for myself. I want to lose 20 pounds by July 1st. If anyone has special tips on how to do it fast that would be great. I am going to walk 5 days a week. And I am going to eat better foods and control how much I have for calories.

Please give me advice!

The Vacation

Well we have finally decided when and where we are going to take our vacation. When: July 6th-22nd Where: Beulah & Cape Breton. We hope to spend the first week at Beulah and the second at Cape Breton somewhere. We have yet to decide where in Cape Breton to go and camp. But I know, that I would like to see Nate Weaver because he is a great friend of mine. MORE details later.

Stuart, We will make some time for Raquel and you some other time.

Sunday Night's Crazy Moments

It all started when Matt want to impress me on how neat he can hop into bed and kick his feet, so when he landed, he was laying on his side and smiling at me. Then I wanted to take pictures of the moment. Which Matt, then wanted to see how well the Flash work so we turned off the lights and I blindly took more pictures. The funnier the picture the harder we laughed. What a night!

My baby Substitution

Looking for Suggestions

Matt and I can not come up with and make the final decision on what we want to do for a vacation. Here is our list vote for what you like.

• Go to Beulah Camp for the Conference week - July 6 - 15th
• Go to Edmonton Alberta Canada to see Jason - in the fall
• Go to the Bay of Fundy's National Park Camping, around our 4th Anniversary in August
• Go to woodstock and do nothing
• Go to Cape Breton's National Park Camping, around our 4th Anniversary in August
• OR something you have thought of

Please Vote for the one that you like the most.

Women should read this book!

I have just started reading this book, and I love it. It has Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary, sister of Martha; and Mary Magdalene. It is a have to read book.

Victory Over Bitter Difficulties

A couple of years ago I was in a church that turned out to be a very bad experience. Things happened that many would say should never happen in a church to a pastor let alone anyone. Things were not dealt with correctly and feelings were hurt. I walked away from that experience bitter, angry and hurt. I loved the people that I served but other things held me back. I also walked away from that experience telling myself and God that I was never going back into church ministry again. I told Him that it was not worth it and I guess that I could not take the pressures of ministry! As time pushed on I found myself in a huge green house working with plants. With this pain and bitterness from the church experience I started to burn bridges with people that I had known for a while. This I regret terrible after all of the hurt has passed. Two individual I apoligized to about three weeks ago and in God's hand healing has begun. As time went on in as I worked in the greenhouse I still felt that I was not going to back into the ministry but the hurt and anger slowly started to fad away but the bitterness nagged on like a cancer to my spirit. Because of the bitterness my attitude started to turn sour and things that I would have trusted to Jesus to look after in my life I started to take into my own hands and distrusted Jesus. With this happening I started to burn more bridges in the greenhouse that I was working at. For a time I stopped going to church and used work as a safety net to keep myself from going into a church and facing the bitterness that I had from my experience. I was ashamed of what I had become but yet I would still harbour the ugly bitterness in my heart. I left that job because nothing was going my way. What a selfish attitude I had. This not an attitude of a mature Christian pastor but an attitude of a whinny brat. In which I was! A big whinny little brat! I left that job to start the job that I am in now. As I started and worked with the kids that I am with I learned from them that if anyone had anything to be bitter, hurt, angry, and in pain it should be them. I read and learn about their screwed up families, what they have been through I realized that I had been a selfish baby and I had no right to act the way that I had been acting. I started to pick up the Bible and read. Jesus and I started going for walks together and he helped me loose about 30 pounds. Though that Jesus started to renew a right spirit within me and rekindle the passion of church ministry. I sense that I need to go back. I do not know when exactly or how But I will begin heading that direction again.
I thank my wife for putting up with me in all of this and walking with me the whole way. Some people would have just left me in my miserable state. And most importantly I need to give Jesus the glory for being so faithful for when I was not. This reminds me of the lyrics from a Skillet song. "You are more faithful then the rising sun. You are more faithful then the changing of seasons." Thank you Jesus!

My favorite Girl

My thoughts on marriage

I have been think about marriage and about how many marriages fail. It is like 50% I stopped to think why that increase now vs. 100 years ago. And I realize that our culture has changed. We have turned into a people that wants things "here and now; not five minutes later" (fast food, drive thru banking, microwave dinners, etc) Quick-n-easy. "If it breaks get a new one". People don't have to work as hard or wait as long for the basic needs. We get upset in fast food places when we have to wait five minutes for our food to come.

Bottom line - We are impatient and lazy.
Marriage is hard work. And too many people don't want to realize that, until it is too late and the spouse is walking out the door. The people that don't want to do the work and invest in their marriage are not going to have that dream marriage like everyone wants. That is when that children (if they get that far) the are left to pick up the broken pieces. I have been there and I do not wish that on my worst enemy. It was hard and it was only the Lord that got me through that.

My mission of this blog is not to make people mad but to help people realize marriage does have great joys and that you can have the "dream marriage" but it is work. You can have it if you really want it and pray for the marriage. If you ask any older married couple in church how they stayed married for so long, they will tell you GOD, Pray and WORK!

Some Steps to success:
To learn what real love is. I will give you the answer. GOD. How many people do you see giving their son (that did nothing but love sinners) to save people that hate, murder, curse God, worship false gods, cheat, lie,etc.; so that we might have a chance to go to heaven, choose God and live forever. That's love. If we can love our spouse even 1% of how much God loves us. Our marriages would be changed. The divorce rate would drop.
To realize that with God we change. He can change us to be more compassionate; filled with grace, and mercy; learn that are not always right and don't always have to be; learn to first change ourselves to be more lovable.
To realize that Prayer does change everything but the catch is that we have to wait for it and it will not happen over night. Praying together and having the same goals will sometimes increase the speed. (at least it seems that way to me)
Getting closer to God will in turn make you closer to your spouse.
Have Goals.

I love my husband more than I did when I married him and I did not think that would be possible. I loved him so much then and even more now. I praise God for him everyday. I love you Matt.

I am in it until the end!!!!! I refuse to give up and I know that it is not always going to be a bed of roses and all peachy. But it only through those tough times, is when you then realize I have it and I am so blessed! Amen!

Our Anniversary

Unitl 4 Years

New News

Well since we have moved to Portland, we have been through a lot of good and bad things. The bad things were having a 13 year old get out of control. We had no choice but to call the police to remove him. And the good things. Matt and I (for once) have had itchy feet to go into ministry. We feel that it will be a good thing to finish our work in Maine before doing this. I for the first time really long for this to happen and I want to get involved in Sunday school and counseling teens. I know that I have no counseling education but I find myself doing this everyday at work with these kids. I do like it a lot and I think that I am pretty good at it. Matt thinks so as well.
I find myself wondering about what God has for us next and hoping so how that involves me having babies. We both would like that to happen. We have the names picked out. For a boy - Perrin Kelly Palmer and for a girl - Anberlin Jessica Palmer. Our spare names are Emery Lloyd Palmer and Marjorie Elizabeth Palmer