My friend Renae Brumbaugh asked me to review her first book, Morning Coffee with James. It was an honor and a delight to do so, and I’d like to share my review here before I post one at Amazon.com. You can pre-order her book there for only $10.39.  If you are fortunate enough to have a 7th grader at Cove Junior High this year, you might find out Renae is your child’s English teacher.  Here’s my review:

Morning Coffee with James is a delightful devotional that doesn’t read like a devotional! Since I do like to read my Bible with a cup of coffee, it fit my quiet time perfectly. The appeal of this book is in its format. Renae presents the book of James in five main chapters: What We Have, What We Do, What We Say, What We Feel, and What We Give.  Within those chapters, Renae provides morsels of truth that go so well with that cup of coffee.

The daily scripture is presented as the “first cup of coffee.” After the first cup, the “cream and sugar” is a self-reflection question, followed by an encouraging prayer. Next there’s the “second cup of coffee,” in which Renae teaches through cross references, to be finished to the “last drop,” which is a pithy quotation to finish that morning’s coffee.

Renae has a conversational style that teaches rather than preaches to the reader. And every few chapters she throws in some interesting coffee facts or recipes that are just fun to know.

I’m so glad Renae chose James as her first in this series, as it is such a good book to curl up and get to know. Maybe her next devotional book will be on “He Brews!”

Here’s an article from the Copperas Cove Leader Press in @ 2003.

By KRISTAN HALL
News editor – Halstead Elementary is overrun this year. Overrun, not with varmints, but with twins. Halstead has eleven sets of twins enrolled this academic year, a record number.

Aubrey and Alyssa Odum are seven-year-old twins who were born five minutes apart. Alyssa, who is older by five minutes, likes being a twin. “It gives me someone to play with,” she says.

Nine-year-old twins Breanna and Breonne Ande like being twins as well, though Breonne does admit, “Sometimes my mom calls me Breanna instead of Breonne.” Breanna is older by one minute.

Identical eight-year-old twins Maria and Anna Joseph love being twins. Says Anna, the younger twin – by one hour and one minute, “I love being a twin because when our brother is being mean, we still have someone to play with.”
Maria adds that it’s easier to talk to other twins. “Plus when you need to find one twin, you already know what she looks like,” she reports.

Although the girls say they aren’t mistaken for each other very often, Maria did pretend to be Anna once. “One time Maria told her teacher she was me,” says Anna. “It was funny,” giggles Maria. Until mom found out. Will Maria pretend to be Anna again? “Maybe not,” she says.

While eight-year-old twin Nisha Davis likes being a twin, her younger, by 11 minutes, sister doesn’t. “They always get me and her mixed up,” she grumbles. The duo are fraternal twins.

Identical five-year-old twins Hannah and Joanna Legare are often “mixed up” as well, they say. “I’m not Hannah,” states Joanna, the older twin.

Devin and Dane Parsons are the only twins that have one boy and one girl in the set. Eight-year-old Devin only likes being a twin sometimes, but loves being in a school with so many other twins. “You can make other twin friends,” he declares.

Other twins attending Halstead are four-year-olds Sebahn and Ayanna Baxter, four-year-olds Ryan and Aaron Brumels, six-year-olds Sydney and Taylor Phillips, five-year-olds Ashley and Asia Hemphill, and seven-year-olds Celia and Sonia Leslie, all identical.

Halstead Principal Coley Howell likes having a school full of twins. “It’s wonderful to have so many different sets of twins,” he states. The most sets of twins Halstead has ever had at one time is six, he says. He adds that the twins’ parents have been wonderful to work with.

After a drive to Houston last weekend, our family van was covered in bug guts. So after picking up all three children from school, we headed over to our local gas station to buy slushy drinks and a car wash.

This is our favorite car wash, as it’s “touchless,” and does a great job, even on the tires. I punched my purchase code into the machine, but had to wait for a truck in front of me before I could proceed. While we watched the truck being washed, we were laughing, because every time the strong water jets made a pass around the truck, everything in the bed of the truck would fly into the air, (to include a large box and styrofoam inserts) and then settle back into the bed or around the car wash bay.

When the wash portion of the cycle was finished, a very sheepish soldier stepped out of the truck and started picking up all the things that were strewn about the bay. He tossed them back into the bed of his truck and drove toward the powerful dryer, which was already working. Once the dryer hit the bed of the truck, all the stuff flew out again. The soldier drove off, oblivious to everything he’d left behind.

The green light went on for me to “Drive Forward,” but I was afraid the big box left in the middle of the bay would get hung up under my van. So I told my 13-year-old son, Daniel, to hop out and go move the box for me. Daniel willingly complied, and ran into the bay.

Whoops! As soon as he entered the bay, the tire wash sensors triggered, and powerful jets of water hit Daniel from both sides, knocking off his hat and giving him a thorough soaking!

The look on Daniel’s face was priceless! He must have jumped three feet in the air when those jets hit him. The girls and I laughed so hard we couldn’t catch our breath. Daniel got back into the car, soaking wet, with teeth chattering from the cold water.

Now I understand what a “touchless” car wash is! No car required.

Where are the video cameras when we need them? That would have made it onto America’s Funniest Home Videos for sure!

Saw this at Renae Brumbaugh’s site and had to have it too!