A dog had followed his owner to school. His owner was a fourth grader at a public elementary school. However, when the bell rang, the dog sidled inside the building and made it all the way to the child's classroom before a teacher noticed and shoo'ed him outside, closing the door behind him. The dog sat down, whimpered and stared at the closed doors. Then God appeared beside the dog, patted his head, and said, "Don't feel bad fella'.... they won't let ME in either."

Will the Christ Child Come?

Written by Gaye Willis

One Christmas we had an interesting experience that I would like to share. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waited excitedly for the next night's surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set.Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ's birth.On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, all but the Baby Jesus. My 12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate dinner in the minivan, watching and waiting, but no one came. Finally, we called him in to go through our family's Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed, we checked the front step - - no Baby Jesus! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they dropped the Jesus and there wouldn't be anything coming. Somehow, something was missing that Christmas Eve.There was a feeling that things weren't complete. The kids went to bed and before I went to bed, I again checked to see if the Jesus had come - - no, the doorstep was empty.
In our family, the kids can open their stockings when they want to, but they have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Even before they opened their stockings, each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the Baby Jesus had come.Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child. We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree.He handed me a small package from my former visiting teaching companion. This sister was somewhat less-active in the church. I had been her visiting teacher for a couple of years and then, when she was asked to be a visiting teacher, she requested to go with me. I had learned over time they didn't have much for Christmas, so that their focus was on the children. It sounded like she didn't get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package -- new dish towels, the next year's Relief Society lesson manual -- not much, but something for her to open.I was touched when at church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation. As I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in this giving me a gift. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the Baby Jesus! He had come!I realized on that Christmas Day, that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don't expect. The spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to come, expecting the dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying of feet" but He came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude and love.This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Savior. But we will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to feel again the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that, I want to open my heart to Him all year that I may see Him again.

Yes! This was a GREAT Christmas and Stacy and Duchess enjoyed it all!

Blair, Garrett, Chase, Elizabeth Sammons Christmas, 2004

Grandma, Grandpa and Duchess, by the Christmas tree, Tucson, AZ 2004

Christmas 2004 in Tucson AZ! The dinner was more than we could eat - ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, fruit plate, apple pie, and on and on.

Felix Update

Monday the 20th the doctors walked Felix around the hospital, up and down 8 steps and declared he was ready to go home.

Melanie and Larry checked him out and took him before noon!

He was tired from all the activity but home and happy!

It is nice to know that all of this was no surprise to our God. We are the ones that take it a day at a time!

Merry Christmas to each and all and thanks for your encouraging emails.

Because He lives,

Ray and Phyllis

Felix Update

Felix went into ER again on Monday the 13^th because he was spitting up bile and didn’t feel good. The day before he went to ER because an intestine had come out through his hernia (that he has had for years) and he couldn’t get it back in like he has done for years. The hernia is just above his navel.

On Monday they kept him and operated on the hernia at 9 pm. There was a blockage and they operated in time so here was no blood loss damage to the intestine.

Today (Wednesday 12/15) he is still in the hospital. He still has the tube in his nose that pumps the bile from his stomach. He is on IV glucose because his stomach and intestines are not ‘working properly’ yet and he can’t eat.

Melanie has been with him 24.7 and says she is still wearing Monday’s clothes. She reports he is breathing very shallow and complains that he can’t get enough air, yet his oxygen level remains high. He is very weak and doesn’t want to talk on the phone. Melanie reports that he feels worse today and is weaker than yesterday.

The therapist comes in and gets him up because they don’t want pneumonia to develop in his lungs.

I’ll pass on more when I have it.

Ray

Felix Hoff in the Hospital

Last evening (12/13/04) the Billings emergency room staff put Felix in the hospital and about 9 pm Larry called saying they were going to operate on him in a few minutes – he had his 90^th birthday in October.

About 11:30 pm Melanie called to report all went well. They found an ‘obstruction’ in an intestine and that was what caused him to spit up the bile.

They operated in time to get the blood flowing through the intestine so no damage was done (they didn’t have to remove anything).

When Melanie called he still had a tube down his throat pumping out the bile, but all was going good.

I’ll pass along more information when I get it.

Ray

Christmas letter from Elizabeth Sammons parents

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

At this Holiday Season our thoughts and prayers turn to those who have made our life so richly blessed. It is a time to reflect on God greatest blessing to each of us.....the gift of His Son.....Jesus Christ. May your Christmas be a time to reflect on the simplicity of His birth and the magnitude of His Purpose.........."Call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people form their sins." Matt 1:21

After being in the great Northwest for 8 months ...we have finally made it back to Newport Beach for a month to be with our family----Beth & her three boys (16-15-10) and Jayson & Jamie and their 4 girls (16-15-10 & 17 months) plus great friends. Life is very busy and we are going to many of the grandchildren's events, seeing friends, and finishing our shopping. Of course, cooking and eating.

We spent a month in Sedona AZ and while there we found a wonderful home to settle in for 6 months of the year and continue to travel in our Motor home the other 6 months. It is the best of both worlds! We close on the house mid Feb and will be doing double time moving...getting some remodeling, painting done plus getting organized in our territory and leave on April 1 for Washington state. We really enjoyed our Woodall 's experience this past year and look forward to seeing our clients and friends that we have made along the way. You can not believe how beautiful Washington is in the Spring & Summer. We are so fortunate and blessed!

It was grand seeing some of you this past year and had to say goodbye to a few dear friends and family ..... so keeping in touch is very important, we hope you put us on your favorite email list and drop us a line along the way. We always hope our paths will cross ....our welcome mat is out for you in Sedona and if not then may our Lord bring you His joy, peace and love.

Chuck & Nancy Hanson
JUST ENJOYING LIFE
cfhanson@msn.com

Kailey and Duchess - 2004

That is one HOT simulator ride! Tucson 12-2004

That is one BIG grill! Saw it in Tucson 12/2004

The Texas Cadillac Ranch - On the same road as the Bug Farm below. Leave it to the Texans!

Prescription Drugs

My insurance doesn’t cover some of the prescription drugs I need and I can buy them cheaper in Mexico than in the USA, but this day I thought the savings was not near enough.

The usual drug run routine is to drive south from Tucson for an hour, walk over the border and get your drugs, 30 minutes, and return to Tucson. Today I followed the routine but there was one disturbing difference.

South of Tucson I-19 goes through the San Xavier Indian Reservation and the tall white double towers of the old San Xavier Mission are visible on the right. Farther south a big brown sign points the way to the Titan Missile Museum. The road next passes through the retirement city of Green Valley. The huge Santa Rita Experimental Range and Wildlife Area goes by on the left completely unnoticed, it looks exactly like all the other cactus and creosote bush desert.

The next big brown sign announces Tubac Presidio State Historical Park which is on the south edge of Tubac City, a small town filled with artisans with dozens of small shops displaying their talents. Tubac is a nice outing and they have several nice restaurants, mostly of the Mexican variety.

Just a few miles farther south is the three old (1671) missions in Tumacacori National Historic Park and from there the road continues south flanked by residential areas and the mountains of the Coronado National Forest.

The road signs on I-19 are marked in kilometers, the first sign says it is 86 km to Nogales and I drive about 120 km/hr so Nogales comes into focus in almost no time at all.

In Nogales I always park my car in the McDonalds parking lot, make a bathroom stop there and then walk down hill to the formidable looking eight foot high turn style (it only turns in one direction) that lets you into Mexico. There is no need to slow up passing their meager check point and from there I pass a dozen shops on my one block walk to the drug store.

The drug store is run by a protestant Mexican family and I enjoy talking to whichever family member that is behind the counter. Today the owner’s wife is there and she has a new hairdo; her hair is bleached and she is almost blonde. Soon I’m back on the street, I have one bag with eight bottles Mexican vanilla and another with my prescriptions.

When I walk up to the USA customs checkpoint, the place where everyone leaves Mexico and crosses into the USA, the door is locked!

Locked? How can the international border checkpoint be locked? Peering through the glass I can see that no one is in the building! It is vacant! Not a soul inside! A line of people is forming expecting to cross the border, but it is locked! Nobody is there!!

Immediately I take mental inventory of what identification I might have to prove to some Mexican official that I am an American citizen and should be allowed to cross the border and go home. The TV images of refugees waiting at closed checkpoints flashed into my mind and the sagging feeling in the pit of my stomach gave me a new sympathy for them.

I was jerked back to the present by honking cars. I looked across the usually busy street to see that all the cars wanting to cross the border are stopped! Drivers were milling around not knowing what to do but honk their horns. Traffic is not moving! I can see the big tall wall extending up over the hill east of the check point that divids the USA and Mexico; it looked ominous and cold!

The line keeps getting longer and the cars continue to honk!

Finally a couple of civilian looking Mexicans with not very official looking tags around their necks came to the head of the line and started waving their arms and giving instructions in Spanish indicating we should all go back into Mexico. A smile on someone’s face would have been reassuring, but no one was happy. Everyone quickly retreated back towards Mexico and not knowing what else to do I followed.

The people that are now in the front of the line walk around the end of the block long steel picket fence that keeps cars and people separate and start across the street between the stalled cars - the cars that should be moving toward the check point but that have now formed a impromptu parking lot in the usually busy street.

The dissipating line of people moves down streets that I’ve never seen before and I follow trying to be sure those people up ahead are still walking with purpose in their stride.

Finally a block ahead and next to that big cold fence I see a small one story pinkish building with a small blue and white sign that says ‘To USA’. Yes! I walk on with a new spring in my step and some confidence in my stomach.

On the US side of the building two Homeland Security Guards checked the credentials of people crossing the border. As I passed through the small movie type turnstile I ask the black guard why the other building is closed, “They have a small problem but everything will be alright.” What he didn’t know was that everything was already alright! I was back in the USA! My only problem was being several blocks away from the McDonalds parking lot and my ride home.

Crossing the streets between me and my Jeep I saw police cars everywhere turning all cars away from the border. It is obvious the border was closed! But I’m home!

As I approached the McDonald counter to buy a Quarter Pounder for lunch I saw some Homeland Security Guards in the next line and I asked a man why the border crossing building was closed. He responded, “There is a bomb threat.” The way he said it he might as well have been giving me the time of day.

I got my sandwich ‘to go’, walked to my Jeep, and left town. The small savings on the drugs was almost too high!

Chicago doesn't feel like Aarizona

Another Simulator

The Texas Bug Farm

Gas Pump Green Handles

Have you ever noticed that the green gas pump handles are for diesel? Everywhere you go the green handles are for diesel! Right?

This past Sunday (November, 28 2004) I was on the last leg of my trip to Chicago and I was deeply engaged in a story on CD when I needed diesel in my pickup. A set of gas stations appeared on the right side of Interstate 55 and I tapped the brake slowing down from my cruise control speed of 70 mph and made the exit to the station, still engaged in my story.

As I turned right off the Interstate I saw a big green sign Diesel $2.08 so I turned in stopped in front of the pump with the green handle,took off my head phone, and filled up both tanks, $50+. Inside I ordered a Burger King Whopper, no cheese, to go, paid for my fuel, and pulled around to the back of the station to eat my lunch. The wind-chill was in the 20s so I kept the pickup running while I enjoyed the Whopper and drank my water.

About half way through my hamburger the engine sputtered, ran rough for a few seconds and died! I was 80 miles from Chicago.

I finished my hamburger wondering what caused the engine to die. I tried to start it again and all I got was 10 seconds of sputter and cough. I wondered if I could have picked up the wrong gas nozzle so I looked at my receipt, checked the gas pump number, and walked back around to the front of the station to check.

I was right, I used the green handle, but when I looked closer I saw the green handle on all the islands were for regular gas!

What? I said, to myself. Nowhere in the 11 western states is there a gas nozzle with a green handle! I always look for the green handle!

I went in inside, explained my problem to the manager. He said they did not sell diesel and that the sign I saw was for the station across the street. He also went on to say that his station used to be an AMACO station and they had blue handles on the regular gas pump. AMACO was bought out by British Petroleum (BP) and they put green on the regular gas nozzles to match their yellow-green color scheme. He also said they had never had any problems with gas in diesel vehicles until last week and they had two people make the same mistake – I was the second.

He was a nice fellow and he called a station a mile away (in town) and made an appointment for me at 8 AM Monday morning; there was a Motel 8 across the street and I checked in for the night. The wrecker came promptly at 8am and I was on the road again in two hours and $150 dollars later.

I won’t be fueling up every again at one of those BP stations with their big green letters!

e-sword.net "The Word of the Lord -- with and electronic edge"

One of the things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving is Rick Meyers’ contribution to computer Bible Study.

If you want to study the Bible the easy, quick, and complete way then I encourage you to go to

www.e-sword.net

and download the FREE Bible Study software that Rick Meyers has written. Over 2 million people have downloaded that software and it is used in every country in the Western Hemisphere and most of them in the Eastern Hemisphere.

You can see a verse in 10 Bible versions and compare 12 commentaries and a half dozen Bible dictionaries on that verse with just a click of the mouse!

I can’t say enough good things about this amazing Bible Study tool. The following is a copy of the first screen at www-esword.net. It is really worth looking at!

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"Without payment you have received; without payment you are to give." (Mat 10:8 ISV) Jesus told us that since we've been blessed we should bless others. For years I have been on the receiving end of His glorious riches, and I am happy to provide this blessing to others in the form of free Bible study software!

As a Bible student and teacher I have experienced the necessary work involved in searching the Scriptures for the competent preparation of a Bible study, Sunday school lesson, or a sermon. There are volumes of books available as study tools (and the Christian community is indebted to the various authors' perseverance and scholarship), but there is not enough time, money, or shelf space to properly take advantage of these resources. Computer software has changed the way we can study the Word of GOD. With a simple search or click of the mouse button, we now have access to these same volumes of scholarship within seconds! e-Sword is a fast and effective way to study the Bible. e-Sword is feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free software package. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the blessings and does not speak of the quality of the software. I make my living writing software and I believe I have put forth my best effort in this endeavor. The real work, however, was put in by the godly men and women who devoted countless years creating the texts that have been made available for our benefit.




In His service, Rick Meyers

Sunny Arizona

The weather -- sunny Arizona is not so sunny this morning. Both Chicago and Mission Viejo are warmer than Tucson!

We are 43 degrees, overcast, and rain with 93% humidity.

The forecast is for a cool Thanksgiving also.

Bummer!

Ray

The horse didn't mind

Stacy's new simulator color

Let's have some fun and keep in touch

I've created this Blog site for the whole Sammons family to post wherever it interesting to them: papers written in school, interesting things you've found on the Web, some personal thoughts on any subject (our pastor had a great sermon this week I'd like to summarize), whever!

In addition you can put up pictures of the happens in your household.

It is a place for us to meet and keep in touch on the Web.

It will only work if we each contribute something at least every week or so.

Try it, let's keep in touch and have some fun!

Ray

Gammy and Chase playing a game...

Blair (56) getting last minute instructions...

After the games - leaving for home

Garrett's last game

Loading the 4-wheelers to take them to Arizona.

Wesley with the ball!