The Joy Of Grandfathers

I have two of the greatest grandfathers in the world, they are kind, loving, hilarious, and outstanding!

Kindness. Both my grandpa's are very kind. Gramps will plop down five bucks for ice cream cone any day of the week, he'll give you control of the remote, and help you mow your lawn! Papa is a wonderful host! When you visit he'll take you on boat rides, out to dinner, and let you use his computer.

Loving. One time, a long time ago, Gramps took my siblings and me to a movie. He bought us candy, and popcorn, and drinks! We got into the theater, and the movie started. Five minutes into the movie the lead started cussing and got into a fight, and Gramps leaned down and said "we don't want to watch this movie." So we left. Five minutes into the movie! Tickets and snacks for four little children are not cheap! But Gramps didn't care about getting his money's worth, he cared about his grandchildren, our minds, our hearts, and our innocence. That's love!
Papa is very loving too! Almost every time I go over to his house he sits down to breakfast with me and Bekah, with a bible in his hand and he reads scripture to us! Papa wakes up at two or four o clock in the mornign and he prays for his grandchildren! Every single one of us! Papa cares about us too, he cares about our souls and where we'll spend our eternity, he wants us to know the Son as he does. That's love!

Hilarious! If Gramps doesn't have a joke to share or something funny to say! he's probably sleeping. Just today he came in and was talking to us, somehow we got on the subject of dogs, and Gramps says "yeah we had a dog once with really good hearing... (the pause is more important than the punch line) She would fart and turn around and bark at it!" we all laughed really hard, cause Gramps is just funny that way! Papa is really funny just because it's a part of his personality, he's always making up songs, making faces, and making up words like "yell to ped-eh-stree-anse" (Yield to pedestrian)s  "turn right at lake jack-ah-mo." (turn right at lake Jackomo)  "flight to indiana-Poe-lis" (flight to Indianapolis) . He is really funny!

Outstanding! I love both my grandpa's! They are both wonderful respectable men! Both personable and hard working men always trying to make someone smile. I love both my grandfathers and have been blessed immensely with them!

Thank you Lord for blessing me with such wonderful Grand fathers! Amen.

I'm Going Home

If you've been to my house, You know that it is a good sized house. My father built this house 19, almost 20, years ago with his bare hands, some power tools, and a church family. At the time of its foundations the Bricker family was big but not complete. A wife and husband with six boys and one perfect little girl, But by the time the upstairs was built, the family had grown. A husband and wife with six boys and two perfect little girls. The Brickers were complete! As for the house that they lived in, well lets just say it was livable.

By the year 2004, over half the boys had moved out and back and out again, Then . . . the family grew, In the summer of 2004, Jeremiah married Jessie. In the winter 2005 Benjamin married Alyssa. Then in February 2006, born to Jeremiah and Jessie, came Ethan James, the next generation! In the spring, Josiah married Sarah. By 2010 Jeremiah and Jessie had three children with one on the way, Ben and Alyssa  had Three children. Making the final tally come to 19 Brickers.

This house has served us all well. For a few years Josiah and Sarah lived with us, Simeon who currently lives in Lee's Summit spends his weekend's here. Joanna, Rebekah's best friend, sometimes spends the night, so she can be 3 minutes from her work rather than 20. Every Christmas the whole family spends the night, and we spend every Sunday here together eating lunch and hanging out. No to mention every Halloween the party we host, with up to fifty guests.

Currently there are 11 People living here, 3 of which are under the age of 5. There are many benefits that comes from such a full house 1) Designated dinner nights, 2) I haven't been a day without getting to hold a baby 3) You're never alone 4) There's always a conversation going 5) Surrounded by people you love. Just to name a few.

I've lived in this house my whole life. It's a nice white house in the middle of a forest, my neighbors are my relatives.We have one big pond for fishing and swimming and boating, then we have two small ponds, for good looks and fish for feeding. We own forty acres, plenty of woods to hike through and plenty of fields to play in. And in the summer, we cover the front yard with lawn chairs and blankets and rest in the shade. Our house is pretty! A welcoming place that I call home.

They say "Home is where the heart is." But I don't really believe that. Because as much of a home this place is to me it isn't where my heart is. My heart is with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Where ever he is there I want to be also. He is my treasure, the pearl of greatest price! While I love immensely this place our God has blessed us with, It's not where I belong. And  I know that if I lived here alone I wouldn't love it so much, it's my family that makes this place home. Their welcome and counseling, their fellowship and games, their company and love, and encouragement that makes everything wonderful here. I am glad that we all share hope in the promise of eternal life. One day when I go home, When I really go home, my family will go with me. We will all see the face of our Savior, and spend all eternity, getting to know the awesome God who created us and blessed us.

God be praised forever and always!

"She Killed My Jabber-Baby-Wocky!"

I found this poem in a book. It made me think of the scene from Alice In Wonderland, where the hatter is walking through the forest, with a mad look in his eye, quoting this poem while Alice jumps from his hat to his shoulder. I like that movie a lot! And I liked this poem a lot. So I decided to share it with you!

 Hope you enjoy it. Oh and by the way, it's really so much more enjoyable if you read it with a Scottish accent! 

Jabberwocky 

 

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths out grabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock my son! 

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand: 

Long time in the manxome foe he sought-

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood, 

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! and through and throug

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head 

he went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slaing the Jabberwock!

come to my arms my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

he chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogroves 

And the mome raths outgrabe

-Lewis Carroll 

From Through the Looking Glass

Make It A Classic!

So, today at the movie theatre, a commercial came on about diet coke. It was filled with good looking people, artists and famous people, who were drinking diet cokes out of cool cans and bottles, which diet cokes don't really come in (false advertising, sheesh making the cans look cooler in the commercial). Anway where was I? Ah yes. And it just made it look like life is always better with diet coke.

Gag me.

At this time I leaned over to Sam and said "elch, make it a classic," (Now I will have you know I was not the person who said this. I heard Derek say it one time and ever since then every time my sister and me ask for a coke we say that. (I have been reading Morgenstern, a man who used parenthesis all the time).). But it is true, coke is th best, I used to think pepsi was, but my ways have been turned. I am an avid coke lover now.

Anyhow,

I sat there thinking, I want a coke! But it is true diet coke is terrible, dr. Pepper is good, pepsi decent, water... Sweet tea yummy, but the best, the ultimate best would have to be a cooks a cola classic.

"Bricker Residence This Is Liz Speaking!"

What is it about listening in on mothers conversations whilst she is on the phone?

I remember as a child, whenever mom would answer the phone she would lean against her bed and laugh and talk and say "yeah. yeah. yeah. right. right." And everytime she did this the youngest four in the Bricker bunch Matthew, Simeon, Rebekah and I would lay on her bed and listen to her. It wasn't really that we cared about what she was talking about or who she was talking to, sometimes we would try and guesse by the tone of her voice or what she was saying, but that really didn't matter.(Usually at this time we would get excited and loud and mom would snap her fingers and wave her hand at the door, then we would sigh and file out of her room :)

When we got a little older we stopped listening in, we became more interested in other things than mothers phone converstations. Just today though, I walked into the library at my house to hear my mom talking on the phone and I was reminded of when we all used to listen to mother talk on the phone.

I'm not exactly sure why we loved it so much, it takes a lot for a child to sit still during a sermon or a school lesson, but when it comes to a one sided conversation "looook ouut!". Today I figured it out. The sound of a mothers voice. There is no greater sound in the world! Non so comforting and reasuring.

Why is it that when a child has a nightmare, the mother says "It's alright. just go back to bed." And the child believes them! Because they trust them. They are comforted by their mothers promise.

When we listened in on her conversation I think it was because we wanted to hear her talk, without the risk of her asking about our school, or telling us to do our chores, or ever pointing us in the right direction. She just talked in an intirely different way! And we liked to listen to her. Like our favorite CD.

Anyway theres just a little blurp about my childhood and my mother! I love my mother so much. She is the best there ever was!

The End

Africa

I'm stealing this idea from my Sister in law Jessie. You see my Brother and said sister in law are adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia, it has been a long process and we are all doing our best to be patient. Sometimes that's harder than other times. So today I decided I'd write Zoey a letter, and it goes like this . . .

Dear Zoey,

Recently I have been thinking about you a lot! I'm so excited to fly across the ocean to pick you up one day! I can only imagine what you'll look like, and how you'll act! I am excited about all the adventures we will have together.

You are a bit of a "Supper Star" here, everyone asks about you and everyone is so excited to meet you. I like to imagine the day we bring you home, oh what a welcome you will get! We shall drown that airport with tears of joy and shouts of excitement. But don't worry, we'll try not to embarrass you to much your first time in The States.

You have five Uncle Brickers who will love you and protect you all your life, they are loud and funny and like to talk about guns and Lake City, but if you just blink your beautiful eyes at them they'll do just about anything for you. You have four Aunt Brickers who will love you and teach you things, like how to style your hair, how to dance, and most importantly how to serve of the Lord.

You have wonderful Grandparents, Queenie and Grampa. Yes... Your Grandmother is a queen :) And she will love you and buy you presents, let you dress up in her cloths, she'll help you bake cookies. You have a wonderful loving Grandfather who will always be kind, always smile at your tricks and always encourage you in the right directions.

You have two wonderful parents. They are funny, loving, sweet, wonderful, and God fearing people. Their love for you is so big sometimes its unimaginable, but because they have the perfect lover(which is Christ) as their example, I know their love for you is real!

Your siblings and cousins, are lots of fun and well behaved -for the most part- Your big brothers are really smart and protective, they'll teach you lessons, and if you watch closely you can learn from their mistakes. Your sister is going to love you, and take care of you, and together you'll go on countless adventures, a sister is the greatest thing a girl could have. Your cousins are much like sisters Olivia likes to dress up and dance, Selah likes to play house, and Ellie, finds joy in eating a lot.

You will be a huge blessing to our family so we will try our hardest to return the favor. I know that you will love it here! Every Sunday after church, everyone comes over to your Queenie's house to spend some quality family time together. Even now we look forward to the day when you will be with us!

I can't wait to meet you, baby girl!

With love and care,

Aunt Abigail.

I Wonder As I Wander

The other day I was driving to church, and my mind began to wander. First I wandered to a school that much resembled Hogwarts! Where I was studying physics and architecture, for a second I jumped to china to mutter a prayer for my cousin, Then I was on the moon. And I began to wonder at the science of the stars, and why the moon affected the earth like it does, and how crazy it is that everything just works. And suddenly I was back in my car feeling very small, thinking, "Because God made science.". Isn't it a mind blowing thought. Another mind blowing thought I had was this "God could have made a different science." In the beginning when God spoke everything into existence, He could have spoken a completely different science. Things are, the way they are, because they have been that way since the beginning of time, therefore it is hard for us to grasp the thought that perhaps at one time God made a list of sciences and decided which one he wanted to use to create the universe.

He is not bound by time, or science, or anything else, like we are. He is infinite and original, something we can never imagine! So as I wander I wonder at the infinite greatness and worth my my Savior and Creator.