Yes. I asked permission from Keith. He said yes.
Meg would deliver about 6 weeks later. Ashton delivered about 4 months later. Keith has not delivered yet ;). Though it is dissipating as I type, he is on a mission to lose, so probably will in about a week, knowing him!
Laugh it is ok! I love that Keith has no problem doing this, in the first place, and that he does not mind sharing, forever.
It is a big Item. But I do treasure my home. The house that Keith and I built. WE literally did build it, with help from friends and those we contracted to, who became friends,, in a year. .
We have been blessed beyond our imagination. We have always made everything we lived in a home for our family, the boys have some of their best memories even from what I considered our worse house. Keith and I had a dream home in our hearts. We would talk the IF we designed one it would have this and that and the other. Be in homes that inspired, share our covet’s with each other. Then one day the opportunity – Something I know God gave us. Our house doubled in value. Evan moved to San Antonio for school at just that time. The other two had been gone for years. We jumped out on faith. Found some land from a man who was looking for someone to buy, he died 2 months after we bought it. Found some one who was moving out of their used 5th wheel and wanted little for it. Found the material to build the concrete forms at 1/4 the price… EVERY door was being flung open for us. We designed the house exactly as we wanted it. We lived in a travel trailer for a year, and did not divorce. We had friends and family come and offer their help just when we needed. Those we contracted to ended up all becoming friends, they wanted for our dream to happen as much as we. When the rain came on cement pour day and should have ruined it all, and did not, cement guys as well as we all praised God. The men that rocked the house, who did not speak english, knew God was present in our dream home. They implanted in our house with these specially carved rocks
I treasure these.
My side gate is the gate from my child hood home, front courtyard.
WE added a center that goes better with our house. My front gate was built by Keith and the Texas in the middle is made by our dearest friend Roy.
The concrete walls have the been placed by Lee, and Keith and Brian and Ricky and Dave and me and…..
The walls are painted
by Keith and I.
Exactly the way we want them , just for us. Every electric outlet installed by dear friends and co workers of Keith’s. I flip a switch or plug in a lamp and I thank God for each one of them. every day! The baseboards put in by Evan on his weekends home. The roof a combined effort of family and church friends. Our well pump installed by a friend of years. Our main gate built by Brian, adorned, again, by Roy
My pedestal sink completed by Lee after his dad finally had enough.;) Door’s hung high and low by my guys. 
A friend built the fence with his father in law. At the completion of the job, we found that we had given our testimony to our faith in God,by just being, and the father in law, decided if being a believer meant having the joy we had, he wanted to know more!!!
Blood, Sweat, tears and love all hold this house together. My house is my most treasured item. It is a gift, a blessing from God. It is the house that God built, we just were his tools. I pray everyday that I can have opportunity to use it for His Glory.
I thought on this a bit, maybe too much. I had to contemplate the purpose of the trade. Was I going to be me in their place, or them in their place. Them in their place made no sense to me, because I would not experience the ‘day’. So then I had to consider I would make MY decisions in their day. This opened a whole new perspective for me. I could change their world, their influence, by being in their place. BUT there is the word ‘trade’ they would be in my place, they too could influence by being in my place.
So being in a leadership position (ie President) of one I don’t like, agree with, or trust is OUT. I don’t want them in my place. Don’t want them to influence MINE.
The idea of changing the course of time by just one decision entered my head. If I took this route, then I had to make this life trade a timeless day. What if I changed with Eve, on that fateful day Satan crawled in (he squirmed out)? Do I know I would be able to discern the deception? Or would I, too, succumb to temptation? Then, instead of ‘Eve took and ate and influenced the hubby to do the same’, it would be ‘Christy went and started all this mess by being such a ninny’. Nope, don’t wanna trade that way, either.
I finally thought it through. Still,too much. Decided the trade would be- Me possessing them and them possessing me. Same skills or lack of staying with the possessed. More like a fly on the wall existence.
I could learn so much about someone if I knew what they had to deal with. And they could learn so much about me, if they saw me from my eyes. (Though I hate to have anyone see my naked body)
My Keith, Lee, Brian, and Evan I would trade with. Purely selfish reasoning. I could see their lives, know what they have to do, how others treat them, how they think in a given situation. See them at work. See them as fathers and husbands. See what they see when they look at me. I could also see how I screwed them up. Know what it is I do that drives them absolutely NUTS and why. Then on the ‘versa’ they see my life, from my eyes, know why I feel and act like I do. They could see and know how I love them. See that most every thought, every motion, every decision is somehow tied to them. Then maybe they could understand why I drive them NUTS. 
Of course, there would have to be some kind of clause in there of not having to view or retain any memory of naked bodies or pooping.
Bryan Daniel’s explains the idiocy of universalism well here:
Why I Can’t Just Say, “To Hell!” With Hell (Even If I Wanted To).
I had no knowledge of this heresy until recently, and then I found that this idea (and it is an idea not a truth) has been going on for years. Different preachers and venues, but same heresy. Actually it was presented first to man, by Satan, in the garden of Eden, ; Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” Genesis 3:4
If you believe there is no Hell or that Hell’s ‘eternity’ is different than Heaven’s eternity, your have been deceived.
The photo challenge for the day, I put off until today. For a couple of reasons, one I was terribly busy yesterday, and it was Sunday, I don’t blog on Sunday usually. Two, today is Memorial Day and my brother Kirk’s birthday
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Kirk’s birthday has always meant good memories, it usually not only was close to or on Memorial day, it was also close or on the last day of school. Now Memorial day is a time I remember Kirk.
I have two brothers , Kirk 6 years older and Mike 11 years older
Kirk is the tall one, I am the girl,which leaves Mike to be the curly haired dude.
Kirk won a KOOL cigarette contest in high school, and the prize was a sailboat, the boat itself was styrofoam, the sail a big green and white KOOL advertisement. We lived on a lake so, perfect! Kirk also took up fishing once we moved to Ransom. Instead of just loading up his boat and sailing off and fishing by his lonely, Kirk got me (through Mom and Dad) a tackle box with the same lueres he had (different colors) He would wake me up on random mornings and we would go ‘fishin’ together. I don’t know why he decided to do this, I never asked, I was thrilled to be with him.
Kirk was in a band called The Nice Guys, they were pretty good. They played all over Lubbock, I got to go to the venues that were bar/restaurants, it was so cool to be ‘part’ of the band. Kirk wrote music, as well as played just about anything you put in his hands. Guitar was his instrument of choice. Kirk was a funny funny guy, he was the personality of the band, sang and told jokes, looked good too. And he was MY brother. The Nice Guys came to the house and played for my 16th birthday, I was the ONLY from my class that had a party with a live band!! Did I say they were a good band? one that was paid to play? I was sooooo proud.
Kirk was an amazing artist. His sense of humor combined with his gift he was able to create hilarious art. When Kirk’s wife divorced him he dealt with the misery he was going through with expressing himself through his art. He would send letters with his artwork on the outside of the envelopes. I am so glad we did not have cell phones then! Keith had a collage made of some of the favorites.
Kirk was a long tall guy
6’2″ very lean. Size 13 flat feet wearing either cowboy boots or more often track shoes, those black ones with the white stripes. Tall thin guys always remind me of Kirk. A close friend of Brian’s, Brent M, immediately stole my heart when I met him, he talked and walked and moved like Kirk, AND he shares the same birthday!
I love my memories of Kirk. The drawings and paintings I have framed or tucked in a folder. The sound of his voice on the tapes of him and his band. Songs of others, that he used to sing. Map colors, his favorite tool to draw cartoons with. The movie Blazing Saddles, his favorite.
. Monica, his daughter.
His pride and joy.
Men who resemble him, Tim Robbins, Bon Jovi (I don’t think so, but people used to tell him that, he thought it hilarious), any tall thin man with a smile. I see these reminders as charms from God to put on my memory bracelet. I thank God for all the many charms he left me to remember him by.
Kirk left this world almost 23 years ago. I don’t say died, because he still lives in my heart and memories. He lives eternally with our Lord. Kirk was 32.
Kirk was addicted to alcohol. He was ready to quit, saw the damage it had done, was doing. Kirk never was a drunk, just had to have alcohol to function. It was taking its toll. Kirk would call and talk to me about how frustrated he was with being addicted, the problems it caused. He wanted to quit. He decided to, cold turkey. 24 hours in, he started D.T’s. Kirk passed out in the driveway, as he and his fiance were going to the MD. His 6″2′ frame slung his head to the ground. Kirk died 2 days later, 6 weeks after Evan was born, from the head injuries.
I remember sitting in the hospital room with him, holding his hand. We had been told everything was shutting down, and possibly he was brain dead. They were still getting brain response from the area of the brain for thinking process and reasoning, he was not brain dead,yet. I was talking to that part of Kirk, to Kirk who was listening either there or as he was passing to eternity. I was praying. I remembered to Kirk my favorite song that he wrote. Fields of Clover– One verse is ” Some fine day we will all be there walking hand and hand in that field of clover in the distant land” I told Kirk I so wanted him to stay, so wanted him to meet his newest nephew. I wanted for him to be healed of his struggles. I wanted him to stay and be with his joy, his daughter Monica. Yet, I knew he was looking at that field of clover. I knew what he was so close to was more wonderful than anything I could want for him. I told him we would meet him in that field of clover someday.
A favorite memory is my Kirk, on this memorial day. A favorite memory that reminds me of a future of walking hand in hand in a distant land. 
My night is very very dark. We live in the country of West Texas. No lights. It is a cloudy night, wind has been blowing for over 48 hours about 40 mph . The few trees we have around here look tired. There was a storm predicted, it supposedly did rain somewhere west of us, a 100 miles or so away. The moon looks so much closer than my camera shows. It is not a quarter moon, it is just partially covered by the clouds.
I tried to get a picture of a drilling rig, but it is so far away it does not do it justice with the night lense. Rigs lit up at night look like the eiffel tower, or land of oz, they are beautiful at night. Someday I will get closer to one and post a picture.
Good night– it is bed time
I love these guys! At least the characters ;). Nerdy and not. Misfits and not. Outcasts and not.
I love that the quirky, individuals, all different from each other in so many ways. The OCD, nerdy, so smart he is oblivious, asexual Sheldon can be ‘friends’ and consoled by the sexual, adorable, ‘under educated’ savey, a bit slobby, laid back, Penny– None of them have anything alike, yet they are the bests of friends– I think we all are misfits, it is those that accept that, that can accept others and enjoy life and each other.
I'm Not So Petty 