Deanna Doss Shrodes

Just one more night here in Ruskin/Apollo Beach for our little honeymoon getaway. I can't really call it a "second honeymoon" because Larry and I have been on so many "second honeymoons"...we've just decided to live life as a honeymoon as much as possible. :-) Tonight for our last night here, I surprised Larry by setting it up for our good friends, Gary & Tammy Rice (Senior Pastors, Evangel Assembly of God, Orlando) to come and meet us here for dinner. They met us at Inn @ Little Harbor for dinner. Larry was so pleasantly surprised! First of all, if you're looking for a great place to eat and watch the sunset, Little Harbor is IT! Great little private beach, just absolutely exquisite. We took the photos here at sunset...as we were getting ready to eat. I am very, very grateful for the friends in my husband's life. While I open up with many people, there are not many people that Larry shares with and really gets candid about the challenges in the...

Here are some photos of this cozy place we have until tomorrow... by the way, if you want to do some slow dancing with your spouse or significant other, (yes, I do that even though I'm A/G), just come right here to http://www.lifetimeintimateportraitds.blogspot.com/ and turn up the volume on your computer...it's perfect if you haven't already realized that. :-)

So, here we are on our getaway for Larry's 40th birthday. We are in Ruskin/Apollo Beach. Spent all day in this great room we have, (we even have a little mini-kitchen so we really don't have to leave unless we really want to) and then went to Circles in Apollo Beach for dinner. We love the food at Circles in Tampa but in Apollo Beach the highlight is the view...GORGEOUS. It is just good to be away, and have all the time in the world to do whatever we want. Today we watched half of the movie, Out of Africa , but decided to save the other half for later. I really wanted to see it because it's filmed in Kenya. Even thought the movie was from 1985, it holds more meaning for me now... Not a lot of time to blog tonight...having so much fun with Teeby and want to get right back to it... G'night

Beforeyou click play, be sure to go to the bottom right corner of the blog and turn my "Unforgettable" music off... This is the DVD we showed last night at Larry's party after the "speeches"...everyone loved it and I think my blog readers will too. By the way, we're at a very quaint place in Ruskin, FL the next few days, and just loving it. I'll blog more about it later...

Well, today's the day! My babe turned 40. I have not blogged yet about what I have been planning because it's been a surprise til now. This morning when he woke up I greeted him with my standard morning greeting (rolling over and snuggling with him for a few minutes before I get up) and then I said, "Happy Birthday Teeby!" Things are very rushed in the morning as we are getting out the door so I waited until work to give him a gift. This morning I gave him a Callaway (golf) hat, a golfing book, and a new really sharp red tie (wanted him to have a new one for Christmas.) For lunch the staff went to the Acropolis for his birthday, and basically ate food that had me moaning the whole time. We had bread that was AMAZING, calamari, spanakopita, and a lot more... I seriously needed the elliptical machine today but had no time for it. At the office today I had to finish up a TON of work because the rest of this week I won't have time to (more about that in a minute!) T...

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." - Roberta Brenick, Weight Watcher leader, Williamsburg, VA Today was my first day back at Weight Watchers since I came back from Africa. I lost almost 5 lbs! I'm not surprised...my eating habits (how much I ate, and what kind of food) was so different while I was away. But I'm pleasantly surprised that I have been able to keep it off and I've been home 11 days now. So, I'm only 5 lbs. away from Lifetime Membership now. The leader and class were astonished today and said, "how did you do it?" I said, "just went to an impoverished country and ate like they did..." Everyone laughed and said, "oh, so that's what we all need to do?" I said, "Actually I would highly recommend it..." Well, only 5 lbs. more to go by their standards, and by mine personally, 11. I want to be about 6 lbs. under goal and not have to ...

So yesterday I wrote a post on the fact that I'm so glad I didn't marry somebody stupid. Today I want to share with you what COULD have happened...without the grace of God - and the discernment of the Holy Spirit. When I was in college, I was dating someone who seemed like a wonderful guy. My friends really liked him a whole lot especially because he seemed so wonderful compared to a guy who had asked me to marry him (who I really did love), and then dumped me in a rather cruel way. Well, compared to him (a guy my friends nicknamed "the viper in a pretty box"...) this guy seemed like the next best thing to Jesus Christ himself. I would come back to the dorm and a dozen roses would often be waiting for me. When I went to get in the car, if I tried to open my door he would shout, "DON'T TOUCH THAT DOOR!" and race to open it. He would be late to his own classes to walk me to mine. He was attractive...he smelled delicious (always important to me). He hung on...

The other day I was having lunch with Lisa. And over a cuban sandwich at Weck's Deli, she remarked that Larry really is the perfect man for me. When Larry announced in church two Sundays ago that I was back from Africa and the congregation clapped, he said, "believe me, that wasn't the reaction I had..." what he meant by that was the fact that their reaction was only a fraction of the reaction he had when I got off the plane. He was never so excited to see me. As I've said before in my posts...it was a hard week for him without me, actually an excruciating week. Nobody really knows the extent of what he went through without me in dealing with some things and nobody ever will know. This is because Larry is a very private individual and the type of pastor where a bomb could go off and he'd remain calm and just pray about it, clean up the shrapnel and mess, and bear the burden upon himself for the sake of others. That man goes through hell and back sometimes and...

Here is a 5 minute video presentation of my trip to Africa. Pastor Trinity put this together for me to show at the end of my message this past Sunday. I hope you enjoy it... it's to the song, "Here I Am" by Michael W. Smith...a song that has meant so much to me over the past year as I've prepared to go.

At every church we have pastored, at some point we dealt with individuals who would leave signs around the church in abundance and they were not always of a positive nature although the people always thought they were doing something needful. There are times I've constructed a sign myself and then had to check myself and ask..."is this positive?" and "how is this looked upon by others who read it -- especially first time guests or newcomers?" My husband often says that many churches are churches of "signs and wonders"...with all the SIGNS, it's a WONDER anyone gets saved! I found this cartoon above and just had to chuckle... Any other pastors/pw's deal with this? I'm sure you've all got your own stories to tell!

I am rejoicing...I am glad in it! Very good day in the house at Northside today. It's all about expectancy and I for one was believing for a great day. I thought we had a good number of people for Thanksgiving weekend. So many are away and with all the folks telling me, "we won't be there this weekend...we'll be in ________________" I wondered if anybody but the faithful few would be there! It was so good to get back to teaching Sunday School. I've been two weeks without teaching my class and I really missed it. I live for SS. This is my 25th year of teaching, can you believe it? I always crack up at people who say, "I've been teaching SS for quite a while and dealing with some burnout...I think I need a break..." and I just shake my head. After 25 years you couldn't pull me away from this if you tried. And if somebody made me quit, oh well, I guess I'd just go down to McDonalds and gather a few unsaved people and form a new class or som...

Well, we're all ready to get into the full swing of the Christmas season. Today we put up our two trees and all our other holiday decor. Usually we do it the day after Thanksgiving but yesterday we had David & Cathy's wedding so we didn't. Dustin worked today at the church and then went to Casey's so it was up to the other four of us to do it. Larry and I arranged things the past week so that we were able to have most of today to ourselves at home to do things versus church work. I would say I only did about an hour and a half of church work today and for a Saturday that is par excellance! We got the tree in the living room up with relatively little problem which is incredible since the paper was lost somewhere between last year and this year. (Yes, I put up artificial trees now...stopped with the real ones once we moved to Tampa.) I figure, department stores do it, and so will I. Our living room tree is all of our ornaments that the kids have made and our special o...

Although I consider it's people most beautiful, you can't deny the awesomeness of the African landscape. What a wonder to behold. I found myself transfixed by the beauty of each morning ~ the colors of the foliage, the sound of birds that wake you up every day, and more. The photo below is my view out my window at the missionary's home, in the A/G compound there. I loved to get up when the rain woke me in the middle of the night and just look out the window for a while and listen to the sounds. I really love the Jacoranda and Acacia trees... and the giraffes... I came home with about 50 giraffe photos, reason being they are my favorite. I think they are so tall and graceful, and until going to Africa I had never seen one run. I had only experienced them at the zoo, where they are just standing there, or maybe walking a few ste ps. It was so incredible to see several of them together, running. They are still graceful, in my opinion, when they are running. I think t...

Today was David & Cathy's wedding...what a beautiful day! It was just perfect...the weather, the ceremony, the bride, the groom, the preacher... (smile)...EVERYTHING! The wedding was held at the Davis Island Garden Club. How absolutely exquisite the place was...and the bride and groom were just beaming...such a delight... I really love weddings...not only because I'm happy for the bride and groom but because it reminds me of my own commitment to my marriage, and why it's something to be so cherished. I think at every wedding, the married couples there can't help but reflect back to their own day, and squeeze hands a little tighter during the ceremony... I thank God every day for the blessing of my husband. Everyday I realize more and more how fortunate I am to have a relationship that has stood the test of time for 20 years and is headed for 20 more. It's amazing to think I've now been with Larry longer in my life than I've been without him. We have weat...

Today we are headed to David and Cathy's wedding and I hope to post some photos later. However for now I'm going to post more Kenya photos as promised. Today I thought we'd do some of me with "special people"...so here we go... with some of the "big boys" and a "big girl" from Mathare Valley A/G Barb Kuert and me with some of the Kenya Kids. My favorite is Samantha, the girl right next to me. with Barb Kuert...a great woman of God and an extraordinary hostess! with Dr. Bill Kuert ~ one of the smartest men in the world not to mention a very Godly man & his wonderful wife, Barbara ~ my missionary hosts. I have them to thank for so many things, the first of which is extending the invitation for me to come to Kenya. I am forever grateful.

Well, it's officially Thanksgiving day! Oh how much we have to be thankful for. We had 15 at our table today for Thanksgiving and I'm posting some photos of our day here with this post. Okey dokey...things I'm thankful for. Here's my short list. Last night I went to sleep sans clothing and in the middle of the night woke up to my husband laying beside me, massaging my bare shoulders, saying, "you're so beautiful..." He's so glad I'm home from Africa, for more reasons than just helping him lead the church. :-) This morning I woke up to begin my day at about 8 am and wanted to sit up in bed and read while having my tea before cleaning again and getting ready for our guests. Larry got up, warmed up a piece of pumpkin bread for me and put my special low-fat butter on it, and brought me a cup of hot tea with one of my tea bags I brought home from Kenya. I'm also glad he rolls with my mistakes and helps me fix them. I woke up this morning, opened my ...