Josh got me the most beautiful white roses Saturday night. If you know me, I love flowers of all kinds. These are such a pure white. To sad that they won't last very long. You know I was thinking about how Josh brings me flowers and they die and get thrown away, but every time he brings them to me it puts a huge smile on my heart. I think just the act of thinking of me and bringing them adds to it. So, in that case I am glad they die and have to be thrown away because it gives Josh another opportunity to put another smile on my heart and I love that feeling. I guess flowers must die over and over again. I hope when we get to heaven that God puts me in charge of something that grows from the earth, it would be even better if they were flowers.

SORRY IT HAS TAKEN ME FOREVER TO POST THIS
Labor Day Weekend

I know it has been a few weekends since here, but I just haven't gotten around to putting something up, particularly my pictures. We had a really restful Labor Day weekend. It started out with Norcross' 1st football game at Duluth. We left early because there was lightning and we thought the game was going to be called, but it stopped and Norcross kicked Duluth's butt. This weekend is yet another Norcross football game; I can't wait. Since we left the game early we decided to run home and head to Dean and Judy's (Josh's parents) house one night early. Dean and Judy were at the Keith and Joan Jansen's lake house. So we stayed the night up at Josh's parents house all by ourselves. It was nice. Saturday morning we left Dean and Judy's early and headed with the dogs to Lake Hartwell (Keith and Joan's lake house). We spent all day there. It was a good time. My favorite was playing with all the dogs in the water. We jumped off the dock and played around. The dogs were so much fun to watch and play with. You'll recognize us and our two black dogs. These pictures also have Mark Jansen and his dog Baylor in them. Baylor is another awesome dog. We liked to think of Baylor being Bogie's girlfriend until Zoe came around. Anyways all three had a great time together. We were so proud of Bogie for actually getting in the water and swimming out to the dock; no jumping off for him though. Zoe went crazy once Josh and I were both in the water; she just had to be in there with us. She would job off the dock to the boat and then to the water full on. It was great. Zoe liked to swim over to you and then rest on you. She doesn't do much to help herself; she just lays on you. Even when helping her out of the water back onto the boat; she didn't help me at all she just layed there as I drowned in the process. Well the dogs swam all over the place. Bogie finally entered the water when all three were playing on the shore; Baylor and Zoe came charging into the water and Bogie was following. All of a sudden you could tell Bogie had realized he was in the water cause his eyes got real big, it must have been the peer pressure of the other two dogs. Well he kept coming out to us with the other dogs, but once he reached us he turned right around and shot back to shore. All in all it was a really great day and I loved being in the water with the dogs. (I am almost done) Well Saturday night we spent the night back at Dean and Judy's without them. Sunday morning woke up and drove down to Duluth for church. Zach was preaching and Eric and Callie were leading worship. It was a morning not to be missed. Boy am I glad we didn't miss it. Zach did an really great job of leading us through scripture. It was really awesome. Eric and Callie did an awesome job as well leading worship. I love it when they lead worship. I hope they get to do it again sometime soon. Well, I told you I was almost done and I meant it. Bye.

House Update

Well, she didn't place an offer. She placed an offer on a house across the street. Josh and I are bummed. I can't help but feel a little ticked at my realtor. Do ya'll think the mess with her could have influenced the other realtor to pursuade his client to the other property? Even beyond that, I am noticing that she doesn't do to much to sell our house. Anybody who has come to look at it has found it off MLS or some other listing service. I want to fire her and hire a discount realtor. Now that I look back they suckered us into signing our contract on their first meeting. I am really down about it. Pray for us because the farther and farther we get towards the holiday the more and more less likely our house will sell in time for seminary, based on satistics. If we don't sell, then that would mean we won't leave in January.

Email Devotional From A.W. Tozer

Revival: The Urgency of God's Will

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. --Revelation 7:13-14

If we are serious about our Christian witness, the day may be near when we may be persecuted-even killed-for our faith. We should be stirred, as John was stirred, as we witness this vast company of God's saints in heaven who have come through earth's great tribulation.I am not saying we are not Christians. I am only trying to find out why we are so far from revival and refreshing and renewal. I am only trying to determine why we are so far from recognizing the urgency of God's will laid upon us by the Holy Spirit.If we belong to Jesus Christ, we should never compromise our spiritual decisions on the basis of "What is this going to cost me?" We ought only to ask, "What is my spiritual duty and my spiritual privilege before God?" Jesus Is Victor!, 115.

"Please, Lord, give me this kind of commitment. I fear it's far too easy and all too common for me to be guilty of asking, 'What is this going to cost me?' Strengthen me to only ask, 'What is my spiritual duty and my spiritual privilege before God?' Amen."

House Update

I bet some of you can hardly stand it that I haven't updatd about our House. Yeah right! Anyways, I apprecate everybodys prayers in this matter. The buyer we have been telling you about got sick last week. So, we didn't hear anything until yesterday. I finally emailed again to the buyers agent. He said she was sick and that they were suppose to talk this week. This girl isn't urgent to buy a house if you ask me. Josh was talking to our neighbor and found out that the buyer knocked on their door and asked if she could put her dogs in his fence. They are really great neighbors, but I can only imagine. They had just had a baby too, crazy buyer. Anyways, I hope it helped in her decision making. So, even though we were suppose to have known something this time last week, hopefully we will know something by the end of the week.

In the mean time, we have had at least one showing a week. This is where I need your feedback. My realtor from week 2 has said we need to lower our price. When we signed they said ahh sure we can list it at 188, well now she wants to drop it to as low as the other properties, 182-184. What do ya'll think?

Steve and Shannon are old friend from high school. This story is 100% true. I enjoyed it so much that I really wanted to share it with ya'll. No worries, I got his permission to do so. Sorry for it being all over the place in formatting, I have no clue how to do formatting on this blog. I hope you enjoy it. "You can take the Mersingers out of Kentucky but you can't take the Kentucky out of the Mersingers." -ancient redneck wisdom So most of you are wondering, who are these people again? It's been a while since we've communicated with the outside world, sorry! A lot has been going on and we'll fill you in with more details later on. For now, the best thing for me to do is hop right to the Story of Caleb and "the DGC". It's a delightful tale in which no exaggerations need occur. I do have the gift of exaggeration but what you're about to hear requires none of my skill, and you'll see why! Most of you know that nearly 21 months ago we popped Naomi out on a Lazy Boy in Kentucky. Little did we know that it would cause a deep curse to be placed upon our family. Approximately 4pm on 9/13/2007 Shannon Mersinger started to receive increased contractional activity. So we went to Applebees. Dinner was good and stuff. Around 7pm those contractions got even crazier so I (Steve Mersinger Jr.) drove Naomi to my parents for them to watch her. By the time I returned Shannon's contractions were causing her to spurt profanity and throw stuff (slight exaggeration). After 24 hours of labor with Naomi, we didn't want to rush off to the birthing center and end up having to turn around if she wasn't dilated enough. However, Shannon's mom, Kitty, with crazy wide eyes said "it's 45 minutes away, we should leave". I'm not one to ignore the advice of someone who has popped out nine kids, but Shannon wanted to wait until she was having minute long contractions (she likes to feel the burn!). The contractions were only lasting 40 seconds so she didn't want to leave quite yet. However, they were starting to be only 2 minutes apart. So eventually, at midnight, we couldn't outlast Kitty's gaze of foreknowledge saying if you don't leave soon you're going to pop this baby out in the van on the way. We packed Shannon up, I was already tired from pushing on her back and felt like I needed to rest for the long night ahead of us. So when she asked me to let her mom drive and hop in the back with her, I nobly (cowardly) deferred to her mom and said I needed to drive. We were about five minutes from the house (on a 45 minute trip) when Shannon cries "oh my God, my water broke". I grinned and thought "of course her water broke, why wouldn't it." I then beat the crap out of my weak stomach and told myself that placenta stuff smells like roses and continued driving. Kitty had me call the mid-wife and fill her in on what was going on. She remarked how calm I sounded, I replied that freaking out wouldn't help (besides, we had hours left in this thing). The phone call ended and was met by an abrupt cry by Shannon "I feel his head!" Surely this was intense emotional overreaction. Shannon's mom checked and I was right again! But Kitty said, you need to drive faster. So I cruised up to 55 in a 45. She said faster and I said I didn't want to get pulled over. Then three words shook my steel like confidence "yes you do!" I suddenly wondered about all of those roadside birth stories and got this grin on my face that I wish someone had recorded. I thought what a cool story it would be to have Caleb in a vehicle, but reality set in that this kind of thing doesn't really happen, or if it does certainly not to people like us. (heavy foreshadowing, but you're doubting aren't you?) I eventually found myself cruising up to 75mph in a 45 and running red lights. While my wife was in intense pain, I was experiencing my dream! I've always wanted to get chased by cops and outrun them in a piece of crap car, now my son was giving me the perfect excuse. 10 minutes down the interstate doing 20 over still hadn't drawn out any coppers. Shannon started saying something about pushing, I checked the vomit from my esophagus, and realized that I had a job to do. Faster and faster we sped, while pieces began to shake on the van threatening to fly off and solidify our roadside appointment with destiny. I saw flashing lights up ahead and decided to take matters into my own hands. As I stopped halfway in the third lane of traffic (in SW FL where everyone is in bed by 7), I jumped out of the van and ran for the state trooper who sat in his vehicle grinning like a hall monitor who's hopped up on impotent power and pop rocks. I said to him "sir, I don't know how important this issue HERE is but my wife is in labor and I was hoping you could give us an escort". I'm not sure that he knew what labor was or if he'd ever seen a woman naked, but he looked panicked and said I"ll call an ambulance. I told him that was unnecessary and we were fine, we were just hoping for an escort. He told me that he could call an ambulance but wasn't allowed to escort us. I think he was scared. I said no problem and ran back for the van. During my sprint I noticed two forms hanging into the passenger window from the outside. Two women from the "accident/speeding violation/whatever was going on there" were staring at my wife while she screamed and bled and pooped all over the interior of our van. They began screaming like crack addict banshees telling me to get her to the hospital. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't instantly sped away they would have climbed inside and rode with us screaming the whole way. We found the trooper about 3 miles from our exit. As we got off I put my game face back on, dreamt of nice, pleasant smells, and determined to tear up Fruitville road like an illegal alien getting paid by the pound. This is a long road filled with lights that like to get in your head and tell you how they own you. I wasn't having it, I came off the interstate and flew through the red light making a statement. Shannon was doing great but I started catching random phrases like "feeling the head" and "need to push" and "he's coming" and I felt a bit unnerved(slight underexaggeration). We were about 10 minutes from the birthing center and I heard a sound come from her that screamed "baby is being shoved out of me as I groan". I'm cutting into turn lanes and around traffic stopped at red lights flashing my brights and honking; varying between 75 and 90 mph depending on how close the next light was. Kitty tells me that I have to call the midwife again and tell her that Shannon is starting to push. I reach to the passenger seat to find the number again and realize it's gone! I look everywhere and it finally smiles at me obnoxiously from up in the corner near the passenger door. Dodge Grand Caravans are larger than you might realize and the only way for me to get that number was to bust out some crazy Tony Hawk move while I'm flying down this road. So I look around and realize there are no cars which makes swerving an acceptable maneuver, I take the steering wheel in my left hand and get out of my seat, step across, and grab the paper with my right hand. We managed to stay between the three lanes of traffic during this. I get the number dialed in and as the phone is ringing I hear a sound like Jim Carrey coming out of the fake Rhino in Ace Ventura 2. The midwife picks up as I hear my son cry and all I can say is "it's a boy!" My grin from earlier comes back as I realize that my freakin awesome wife just popped a kid on the front bench seat of our Dodge Grand Caravan. Kitty, mother of 10, winner of 33 consecutive wife/mother of the year awards (not to be confused with the mother/wife award) just delivered our kid while swerving across three lanes of traffic doing 75 mph down Fruitville road. All I can do is shout "Caleb, holy shit you are so freakin cool, you were just born in a van!" I love my family! I told Harmony, our midwife, that I was still flying there and would get there as quick as possible but Caleb was crying, sounded fine, and Shannon seemed totally fine as well. We pulled in to the birthing center, got Shannon and Caleb in and cleaned off. Homeboy is 7lbs 4oz and somewhere between 20 and 21 inches (he was squirmy). He was born near the intersection of Fruitville Rd. and Lockwood Ridge Rd. in Sarasota, FL at 12:32am 9/14/2007. He's super chill and looks a good bit like Shannon. Naomi isn't quite sure what she thinks of him yet so pray that they bond and she loves him like crazy! On our way home around 415am Shannon said "it's pretty crazy that we keep having our kids on things that our friends and family might have to sit on." Quote of the year! Also notable: Aunt Jackie was coming for the birth, but missed out. She wouldn't have made it anyways, unless she jumped in our van as we sped down the road, but she stopped at 7-11 for flowers and mentos. Like 35-55 percent of you, she did not believe me when I said we popped Caleb in the van. Unlike 35-55 percent of you, she got to see Caleb and find out that I didn't even need to exaggerate this story (though a little spicing up never hurts). So for those of you that think this is as big of a ploy as last pregnancy's modeling of Rob Raborn in a diaper (can't ever get enough of that, personally I love saucy pics of Rob), you'll have to wait a day or two to call and get Shannon's confirmation, but she has read this and fully approves of the facts, details, and spicy anecdotes that lie within. We love you all, sorry about not keeping everyone up to date; our new info is: 380 Harvard Rd. Venice, FL 34293 941-493-3870 mersingerzoo@gmail.com (man that email fits even more today!) We'll write more soon, check out the attached pics (one of Caleb, one of Naomi)!

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HOUSE UPDATE

Ok, Today was yet another day of waiting. The buyer's parents came by with their agent on Monday for the 4th time. I spoke with their agent today and he hasn't heard anything, but anticipates an offer being brought this week. Well, if you read our blog you know we had our home listed as a FSBO for a while. Well, this buyer came to us through our FSBO sign. I have been in a bit of a struggle with my realtor. We listed our house about 3 weeks ago. I told my realtor about these people the night I signed our contract, how they contacted us the first time off our FSBO sign; even at that point my realtor took no action ( I didn't expect her to) and I considered it a direct sell if they were to put an offer since they came off my FSBO I listed.

Well, it has gotten a little messy. Even without having an official offer. YUCK! So, if anybody knows anything or can give some insight to what you are reading right now. PLEASE HELP!

I have spoken with my realtor asking about the possibility of breaking our contract if I get an offer. She says as of right now she can't release the property. I guess her broker is the only one who can do that, and he or she says no as well. I have been a little frustrated from the get go because they made lots of grand promises and appearances in their interview which haven't held up. She says she wants us to sell our home no matter what. I wonder if that is her blowing smoke. We spoke this evening and settled on waiting to see if we got an offer before we talked and tried to negotiate. I wonder if their is anything to negotiate. I can't see them making commission of this potential offer. I have done 100% of the follow-up with the buyers agent, and they found my property through my FSBO stuff. In our contract their was a cancellation fee of I think $495.

Note * When I contacted my realtor about the preparation and logistics of canceling our contract, Then is when she decided to contact the buyers agent. In our conversation leading up to that I told her she had no need to contact them, I have been in contact the entire way. She did anyways and when I asked her after the fact she said it was a customary follow-up. I was thinking you never initiated a follow-up when I told you about them when we signed three weeks ago. Seemed fishy.

Ok, I am going to leave it at this. It is getting late and I can't type anymore. Zach if you are reading this and my english is all messed up I apologize; I am tired and not even paying attention. If any of you needs more information to access our situation please ask and I will post more. Seriously, anything ya'll have to offer on this subject will be greatly appreciated.

So I haven't posted in a while, and I do have a lot to post. This is one of the most recent pictures Josh took. It is of me sleeping with Bogie. I don't really care for the me part sleeping, but it is cute that Bogie is snuggling with me taking a nap. You can tell he is asleep too.