Angels In Voice

Its been a hot and humid week here in the Valley of the Sun.  Yesterday we were out shopping with our parents and it was 113 degrees out.  Terribly HOT!! It literally feels like your skin is going to melt off as your walking from the car into the store.  We definitely lather up our arms and ears with sun block. We just don't want to take the chance of getting sun burned.  It's so important to stay cool and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated too. I really can't believe the summer is coming to an end. My goodness!!! Where does the time go? As much as I hate to see the summer end it'll be nice to look forward to some cooler weather.  Yesterday, Mervyns was having a huge clearance blowout sale. They had racks of clothes priced anywhere from 2-8 dollars.  It really does take a while to go through all the clothing on every rack, and even longer to find two of the same things.  We spent about two hours there and we both ended up buying a pair of gray capris as well as some really nice soft stretchy jeans. They were only $8.00 dollars a piece.  Our mom found some really cute things as well.  We all got a good deal. Its nice when you can find clothes at such a bargain.  Besides we women can never have too many clothes.

We also went with our mom yesterday afternoon and got our hair cut.  We had the lady that cut our hair take about 3 inches off.  She kept our side layers but left more of a blunt cut through the back of our hair.  Its much shorter, but it looks pretty though, nice and full.  We have very fine, thin hair and we feel we need a hair style that's going to make it look like we have a head full of hair. 

Dad put up four new cabinets in the craft room and a new table for mom.  Mom is in the process of cleaning through all her craft stuff.  It's very time consuming.  Last night Mom pulled out a box that was stored in the guest room closet. It had never been opened since we've moved here.  In the box was a bunch of crayons, packages of pens and pencils as well as notebook paper.   It's amazing how you pack things, store them and forget about them.   

We are working on four new gospel songs.  We have so much fun learning a new song.  We enjoy playing around with all kinds of harmonies and arranging songs to where they suit our voice style.  The songs that we choose to sing are songs that we buy in the accompaniment tracks section in the Family Christian Bookstore.  We usually spend a couple of hours playing through different songs to find one that ministers to us.  Its important to us to find a song that has a strong Christian message in it.  Its nice to find a song that you can also relate to.  We've have many songs in our repituar that we enjoy singing. We are praying that the Lord will open another door for us to write a couple more.  

We have another booking scheduled for November 11th.  The Superior Baptist church has invited us back for their Thanksgiving service.  They are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner after the service.  It should be very enjoyable.  We are looking forward to that. 

We're thankful for the good health we are having during these months.  God is good!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

It's been a while since we've updated.  We are doing well  Our dad has finally finished painting the inside of our home.  He just finished painting the craft/music room last week.  It has definitely been a big project, but we are glad that he has it all completed.  He used a cornerstone creme and accented in terracotta.  It's amazing at how much warmer the house looks.  The two colors are beautiful, they compliment each other nicely.  Tonight our dad is putting up cabinets in the craft room.  I think the room will look nice when he finishes.  Candice and I have been working on some new music as well as booking ourselves for the fall.  So far we have two bookings.  The Romanian Baptist church on September 9th.  We sang at the Romanian church last Summer.  It was quite an experience.  The whole service was in Romanian and it was neat because Candice and I had our own interpreters so we could understand what was being said.  We are looking forward to going there and ministering again.  The people were very welcoming and friendly.  We are singing at the Logos Mission church which is the Indian church the first weekend in October.  They will be celebrating their 7th anniversary and Pastor Thomas has asked us to come and sing for that.  We sang for their very first service back in October of 2000.  It's amazing to see how the Lord is using our ministry.  We never thought we would get an opportunity to sing in an Indian or Romanian church.  It is quite awesome.

Candice and I had an enjoyable weekend.  We got together with our friend Krystle on Friday.  She use to sing in the group Little Women with the two of us.  Her husband is serving in Iraq so she has been here since March.  He is due back here at the end of September and they will be moving back to Washington.  Krystle, Candice and I always enjoy our time together.  We watched and sang along with our Little Women Christmas videos.  It brought back all those memories of when we use to sing in the group.  We went to see a movie in the  afternoon, "No Reservations" with Katherine Zeta Jones and Abigail Brazilian.   It was a very good movie.  The little girl is adorable in it.  I thought Katherine Zeta Jones did a wonderful job in this movie.   That evening Danielle and her husband Mike came down to pick up a computer table that our parents gave them.  They spent the night on Friday night and we had some time to visit with them for a little while on Saturday.  We always enjoy seeing them whenever we can. 

On Saturday evening we went to a get together at a couple from our church's home. They were having a gathering for Delbert and Joyce Lloyd.  Delbert was the music minister and choir director at our church for 24 years.  He and his wife moved to Texas in October of 99.  We were saddened to see them leave.  Delbert allowed the two of us to start singing in church at the young age of four.  They are very special to our family and it was so wonderful seeing them again.  They visited both our Sunday morning and evening service.  The choir sang "Days of Elijah" in honor of Delbert.  It was awesome!!  Pastor is doing a series on "Great Prayers of the Bible".  Yesterday's message was on the Prayer of Asa.  "Lord Give Me Deliverance" 2 Chronicles  14:9-12.  It's an interesting study and I encourage you to read 2nd Chronicles 14.

Delbert brought the message in the evening service.  He talked about how we need to be ready for the rapture of the church.  We need to be living each day for Christ and seek his direction for our life.  It was a very enjoyable service.  Pastor and Delbert played a saxophone duet and Pastor asked Delbert to repeat the song he played for the morning service which was "I Sing Praises to Your Name O Lord."  It was beautiful, it's one of Candice's favorite songs.

Candice and I are doing pretty well, dealing with some allergies, but nothing serious.  We are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us this coming fall.  

I Sing Praises by Terry MacAlmon

I Sing Praises to your name O Lord,

Praises to your name O Lord,

For Your name is great and greatly to be praised.

I Sing Praises to your name O Lord,

Praises to your name O Lord for your name is great

and greatly to be praised.

I give Glory to your name O Lord,

Glory to your name O Lord,

For your name is great and greatly to be praised.

I give glory to your name O Lord,

Glory to your name O Lord,

For your name is great and greatly to be praised. 

We had a wonderful weekend.  Our sister Rhonda and niece Danielle came down to visit us from Cottonwood on Saturday morning.  We went shopping at the mall for a couple of hours because we had to exchange some turquoise jeans that our parents bought us for our birthday.  We spent a couple of hours walking around the mall showing Rhonda and Danielle the new shops that moved into the mall.  We had a great time.  That evening we pulled out the game "Catch Phrase."  It's a lot like charades, we had a blast playing it last time they were down, and we wanted to play again.  Our brother Sanjay came to visit and brought his girlfriend Becca.  They both played a few rounds of "Catch Phrase" with us and stayed to eat dinner.  Mom made spaghetti.  It waa so good!!  We ate dinner out on the patio, it was beautiful out and not too hot.  Danielle and Rhonda stayed the night and we all woke up early the next morning for church.  Pastor is doing a series on "Great Prayers of the Bible."  Yesterday his sermon was on the Prayer of Hezekiah. "Lord I need an answer." 2 Kings 19: 16-19  Pastor was saying that we need to be more like Hezekiah.  We need to be more faithful in praying.  God always answers our prayers, it may not be in our time or how we want them answered, but he always does and we should always give God the glory for everything no matter what it may be.  It was an awesome message and I was blessed by it.  I was also thankful that Danielle and Rhonda could come to church with us.  We came home and ate a light lunch and then had our birthday cake and ice cream.  Dad added a couple of pictures of us with the cake under the last post.  Danielle and Rhonda bought the cake for us, it has blue, green and hot pink flowers on it and in big hot pink letters says "Sweet Lips."  Now you may be wondering why it says that.  Well, it's kind of a joke between the four of us and our mom.  Back in March Danielle and Rhonda bought our brother Jody a birthday cake.  His birthday is in January, but we celebrated it then because they had told him they'd bring him a cake the next time they came to visit.  Well we discovered that we all looked beautiful in the blue icing on our lips so we created our own lip stick line called "sweet lips."  So this time I put the green on my lips, blue and pink mixed together make purple and that's the color Candice and Danielle used and mom and Rhonda used hot pink.  It's the sweetest lip stick you could ever use.  WE ALL LOVE IT!!  So, now you understand why the cake says sweet lips. FUN Huh!!  Thanks Danielle and Rhonda for our yummy cake and ice cream we had a blast with you both.  You both are so special to the two of us and we truly enjoy our time with you.

This past Wednesday was our 27th birthday.  Can you believe it? I know, we are getting to be old ladies!! Only three more years until we hit the big 30.  I think as humans its natural for us to sit and complain about being another year older.  However, we've decided to look at our birthday in a different perspective this year.  We are thanking the Lord for giving us another year that we are alive and able to serve HIM.  He has brought our family through many trials and tribulations over the years but to take all those life experiences and move forward has made us stronger as Christians.  Its allowed us to remember he only asks us to take one day at a time and rely on him through the difficult times.  Crystal and I have been in prayer about what the Lord has in store for us this coming year.  We strongly feel that he has a plan for our lives and more for us on earth to do.

On Wednesday morning, our family went to Catlin Court.  Catlin Court is located in downtown Glendale, they have different historical and antique shops.  We walked through a doll shop, a bear shop and a shop with mostly glass in it.  Our favorite was the doll shop, you are never to old to have dolls. There were all kinds of dolls.  Some were dressed like angels, and just beautiful!!  That was our favorite store.  We saw so many neat things, our mom feels inspired now because she got so many decorating ideas.  We went into an Indian store and saw the Indian jewelry and Indian outfits.  The Indian dresses were so elegant and the head pieces, were so authentic. So many neat and gorgeous things.  We walked around for about three hours going from shop to shop and we had a good time looking.  We stopped at Jack In The Box and had a chicken sandwich for the drive back home. 

We enjoyed some rain for a little while that evening.  We have had a lot of rain through the week but it seems to hound other areas in Arizona.  We never seem to get any here in Avondale.  So it was nice to enjoy some for a change.

Our sister Anjeli along with our niece Jasmine and nephew Azion took us out for a late dinner that night.  We went to a Japanese restaurant in Scottsdale.  The chef cooks your food right in front of you, it's kind of cool.  Crystal and I had the teriyaki chicken, steamed veggies and fried rice.  The food was pretty good.  After dinner we went to a gelado shop.  It was our first time eating gelado, it's a lot like ice cream, but has a silkier texture.  It was very good, very refreshing too.  We had a nice evening and enjoyed our time spent with them.  It was a long, but fund day.  We received a lot of neat cards and a few really nice gifts too.