Chase Your Dreams

They can't stop me from dreaming

~ Cinderella

 

If you can dream it you can do it ~ Walt Disney 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams ~ Eleanor Roosevelt       Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true ~Lyman Frank Baum                   The only thing that will keep you from fulfilling your dream is you ~ Tom Bradley     Dreams won’t come looking for you. That’s why you have to chase them. Pursue them until they become reality, then hold on tightly ~Unknown     You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream ~ C.S. Lewis       Chase Your Dreams!

10,000 Reasons

This blog just passed a milestone (at least to me) of 10,000 pageviews. That just means that there have been 10,000 looks at this blog.  This is you kind folks who actually go to Just Passin' Thru  - it doesn't count you who read my posts on your emails.  It also does not the count the ten thousand times I reread after posting to check again for misspelled words.

Now, I'm not a numbers person, but I'm absolutely amazed that I've had 10,000 reads.  Amazing.  I look at those numbers and wonder who I'm talking to, and what you think, and if you sometimes laugh, or roll your eyes, or delete, or wish I'd write better structured sentences.  (one blog expert actually recommends writing the way you talk, Y'all!)

The online educated guessers estimate that there are 181,000,000 bloggers out there in the big world wide web.  One hundred eighty one million bloggers at last estimate.  180,999,999 (is that right?) bloggers and little old me with 10,000 pageviews.

When I started this blog I had hardly even looked at a blog - much less written one - now I think in blog posts and photo opportunities.  My man says things to me like, "I see a blog a coming" and "this had better not show up in a blog".  Uh-oh!

I always have 3 or 4 posts sitting over in the drafty area that I am pondering over.  Some get pondered for a long time.  Some get rewritten 10,000 times and some never make the final cut.  As I write this post in draft there are actually only 9,994 pageviews for all time - not yet 10,000, but I'm writing in faith that there'll be 10,000 by.....maybe tomorrow.  I smiling.

She made her debut in June of 2010 when we went to North Dakota the first time.  That's really only about 11.83 pageviews per day for a total of 10,000 pageviews.  Not really that many pageviews - but it looks like a lot to me!

I don't advertise, sell anything, or really have any lofty goals for this blog - except to keep you updated on our where-abouts. And maybe give you a chuckle.  And maybe encourage you.  And maybe show you the amazing things going on in my life.  And maybe just to write.

I love all 10,000 of you (ok - 26 - but I love you all the same).   Thank you for telling me in the grocery store and post office that you read me. Thank you for overlooking my misspelled words and bad Texas grammar. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you. 

You are one of my 10,000 reasons..........to Bless the Lord.

Living in a Boomtown

 

It's hard to explain what's really going on in North Dakota with the Oil Boom,

But the article printed below, explains it pretty good. (And it's all true!)

 

The following article was copied from the Dickinson Press - Dickinson, ND.

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy,

 You might be living in a boom town if:

Unemployment is an election issue in the other 49 states, and if you can’t find a job here, you don’t want one or can’t read.

Merchant signs now broadcast they need help instead of telling you how they can help you, and preference is given to prospective employees who brought housing with them.

Fast food workers and maids earn more than teachers.

 You can rent an apartment or motel room cheaper in the Big Apple, despite having more motels than churches.

Your neighbor’s house guest hasn’t moved his RV for three years, and your other neighbor has nine pickups parked in front of his two-bedroom house.

Subdivisions spring up overnight and folks are still living in their cars.

City and county zoning meetings require a dinner and supper break.

You can’t find a dry cleaner but coin-operated laundry mats stay busy 24/7.

Guns, bottled water and energy drinks don’t fly off the shelves because they don’t hang around long enough to make it to the shelves.

You get a U.S. geography lesson counting license plates while driving through the Walmart parking lot.

There is no such thing as fast food and ordering a cheeseburger would be easier with a translator.

New fine dining features award-winning BBQ and moves around on four wheels.

Three out of four vehicles on the road are white pickup trucks.

Scoria is a color as much as a road building material.

Driving on state highways require nerves of steel.

Auto horns are no longer used for greeting each other, and usually used in unison with a raised middle finger.

Police officers serve as mixed martial arts referees at closing time in bar and bowling alley parking lots.

Newcomers and long-term residents think each other talk funny.

Finally, star gazing has been replaced by counting gas flares more numerous than lakes in Minnesota.

Waiting at the Gate

The routine is always the same. 

 Get up at 3 a.m., leave the house at 3:30, get to the airport at 5,

hunt a parking place, go through security, wait, and depart at 6:20. 

 Then we snuggle onto what my crazy man calls a flying culvert

 with the big galoot society of the oil patch. 

We've done it at least a dozen times since we've been in North Dakota. 

 

 When we land at Denver International Airport,

(not my picture)

 we usually exit the culvert onto the tarmac -

  climbing down the ladder-steps hoping we don't fall,

(my picture)

in all kinds of weather including snow and ice.

 

  We enter at Gate B58, walk a long hall, climb stairs, grab a bite of breakfast

 and wait for our departure at Gate B95 at the very end of the terminal. 

 

Then one day our flight was moved, and moved and moved again

 

(my picture)

 

 until we were up an escalator and in a new-to-us place in the terminal.

So we waited for our flight to a much anticipated trip to Texas

in a new place.

 

Then another day, not too long ago, our flight was delayed and

with a little time on our hands,

we ventured out of our comfort zone,

down three moving walkways

 

(not my picture)

 

 into a great unknown beyond the last familiar gate.

 

And there in the open space were restaurants, coffee shops, candy stores 

and wonderful shopping. 

We found an artisans jewelry shop, a chic western wear shop,

and the most eclectic gift shop ever.

 

It was wonderful.

It was too wonderful for words

and apparently too wonderful for pictures.

 

We could have waited at our familiar gate from now on,

and missed all those fun places.

 

Isn't that how it is in life?

 

We just sit at our same old gate and wait...

 

because,

we don't know what's over there

we might get lost

we might miss our flight

we might not like it

and for heaven's sake...

WE'VE NEVER DONE IT THAT WAY BEFORE!

 

and we miss...

new places

new food

new friends

new opportunities

and great adventures

 

Likewise, when we enter the narrow gate of salvation

and just wait for our departure to everlasting life,

we miss the greatest adventures of all.

 

We miss

the glories of living

in heaven on earth.

 

We miss

answered prayers

coincidences that aren't

truths in the Bible that take our breath away

being in His presence

love

joy

peace

abundant life

and knowing his other precious children.

 

The Kingdom of God,

is

 here and now.

 

Don't miss the greatest of adventures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

 

 

Christian Unity

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to a church door in 1516,

protesting teachings of the Catholic Church,

and beginning what we know now as the Protestant Church. 

And we've been protesting each other ever since. 

If you don't believe it, just take a look in the yellow pages and

 check out the different denominations and churches

...just sayin'...

we have divided and divided and divided some more

....just sayin'...

 

This tiny North Dakota town of 1250

(at last census and excluding thousands of us oil field vagrants)

has 5 churches -

 all different denominations. 

 But, I have never, ever, never seen such unity.

 

The first church service I attended here was a community service held 

downtown under a tent

 and sponsored by the Ministerial Alliance. 

 The local ministers shared in the service. 

 They have a couple of those community worship services a year.

 I like that.

 

But the really big thing to me, is Wednesday nights in town.  I am impressed.

 

Just as a body, though one, has many parts,

 but all its many parts form one body,

 so it is with Christ.

(1 Corinthians 12:12)

 

One church sponsors a program for younger children called Power Kids.

Kids from all over town come.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

(Ephesians 4:3)

 

Another church sponsors AWANA for older children

which has outgrown their church

and now meets in the elementary school gymnasium.

Kids from all over town come.

 

 

...put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

(Colossians 3:14)

 

And yet another church sponsors the teenagers (from all over town)

and meets early so that these teens can go help with

Power Kids and AWANA.

There are also seven adult Bible Studies, that I know of,

 going on in both homes and churches 

all over town that welcome all denominations.

 

God must be so pleased.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

(Psalm 133:1)