Demolition Derbies

We made our way to the annual Rockingham County Fair Demolition Derby. My family has been involved in Demolition Derbies as long as I can remember, most of my life I guess you could say. My Dad has a huge collection of trophies, mostly 1st place. My brother is following in my Dad's foot steps and has a great collection of trophies, a lot of 1st place. And now starting this year my son was in his first derby in Winchester, Virginia in the north end of the Shenandoah Valley. He placed 4th in his first derby.

Like I said before this has been something in our family which seems like forever. And as I've grown, it seems the demolition derby popularity has grown too. A long time ago, I would only see country people, rednecks (as my son puts it) and the families of the drivers. Now just over the past few years, there is a huge variety of people there. All walks of life. I find that very exciting. We have so much fun at the derbies because it's a family event. And we've also gotten to know other drivers families. I've watched some of the drivers kids grow and that's just fun in itself.

There's some derbies that are horrible. There's cheatin' going on, the officials do not call out anything. And if you have alot of hours on your hands, go to one of these derbies. They are very poorly ran. And they dont seem to care of they have a big audience sitting there waiting, waiting and waiting for things to roll along. I'm not gonna name which ones they are, but I'm sure if there's any drivers and/or their families reading this....they'll know which ones I'm talking about.

My two absolute favorite derbies are ran by Mangled Metal Productions and Nation-Wide Derby. Their whole crew is just awesome and the announcers....well, they make you feel like you're right down there in the drivers seat. Cheating is not allowed, safety comes first and they always make sure everyone knows we're here just to have fun! Great job everyone.

My point being; next time there's a demolition derby around your area...go to it. It's a cheap family event that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, an extra thump in your heart and make your hair on the back of your neck stand up. Hows that for fun?


**please note, I do not and have never worked for any of the above businesses.I'm just a derby Mom, derby Sister and derby daughter**

How to Have a Good Friendship

1. Pray before I speak

2. Slip up, pray after I speak

3. Plan ahead to avoid calamity

4. Choose the words that fill my mind

5. Choose the words that come from my mouth

God, creation and....

In the Daily News Record, here in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley there has been many Letters To The Editor about God, creation, belief in God, etc. You can go online and post your comments. And quite frankly there's just been too much of the letters and comments.

As a Christian, I don't have to and will not agree with everyone. I am going to take the "Road less traveled". I read online all the time how you can't force someone to believe in the same thing as someone else does. You're absolutely correct. I can't force you to believe God is our Creator, I can't force you to believe you're only way to Heaven is being saved through the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior. I can't force you to go to a great Bible believing church and participate in different church activities. I really can't force you to do anything.

A few months ago my Pastor had a sermon about "Empty Christianity". My Pastor is very to the point, no tip toeing around the point. He doesn't make everything sound all nice and gooey. He speaks the truth as it does in the Bible. But here's some points to his sermon (from my notes). In I Corinthians 15:14-21, it describes an "empty Christianity". You basically have no hope, no message, no salvation, every ministry offered is empty, every belief we have is empty, we are false witness, we are fools and our faith is wasted. If Jesus wouldn't have died on the cross for us and rose again...we would have an empty Christianity. BUT He did do all that. So we don't have to play the "what if" game. By the way my daughter loves that game. :)

Jesus did do all that. So instead of no hope...we have hope. In I Corinthians 15:58, we are given hope. We can put our faith into accurate scripture, we can proclaim the Gospel and we can have hope in Christianity.

No, I can't force you to do anything, I can't force you to change your views about God.
But I can and will plant that seed. I will witness to you, I will pray for you and pray God softens your heart. I will pray for your salvation.

Romans 10:13 For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Canning Tomatoes.....

My daughter and I did our tomato canning today. I love canning and it's special because I'm teaching my daughter something that will be passed down to her daughters and granddaugthers, etc. Just as my family did. And sometimes one of my nieces helps, but she didn't get to this time.

As we were going through the tomatoes, she threw a few out that looked horrible on the outside. So I picked one up, cut it open and showed her that the inside was perfect. So of course I found this to be a perfect lesson on how to treat others.

Not all people are absolutely beautiful and perfect looking. And even those perfect looking people have flaws. But some people will not have anything to do with "ugly" people. Those people might not be so flattering and beautiful on the outside, but if you get to know that person....their inside is absolutely beautiful. They might be the nicest person you'll ever meet in your life and you will miss out on a special friendship. Because you didn't look on the inside. Just as my daughter may have missed a great tomato because she didn't look on the inside.

Kindness.....

We live in the Land of the free, because of the Brave! Remember our Troops of Yesterday and Today !

Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.
- Mark Twain

A great example of why we should be kind and patient.

*taken from an email I received