Had lunch with my friend Melody today… I told her we should take a pic for the ‘blog’ but we forgot until she was getting out of my car and into hers… she suggested we could take time to do it… but it was an ‘ugly’ day for me so I decided to skip it this time. We ate at panera (don’t worry Jenny… I had a cup of broccoli soup and a sour dough roll). It was fun to visit with her and my whole point in driving to town was that I needed to run to the bank. I drove away from eating and got several miles towards home only to realize I didn’t go to the bank!!! I turned around and went back, and they were slower than usual. I had to be home by 1p.m. so Amanda could leave for an outing to White water… Anyway, I made it.

I got the coolest thing in the mail today!!! It was from my secret mailer! This is one of the groups that have branched off of the good mail girls. I love good mail. I got some cool pop rocks from Chele. Me and Amanda shared them! I haven’t had pop rocks in so long! I also recieved the cutest stickers and sweet card from a bloggy friend “Tori.” Thanks Tori! Linda (Ribbon Rock Star) mailed me a couple of the sweetest clips ever, I put one in izzy’s hair as soon as I opened them. Thanks Linda! and Melissa sent me a great recipe too! But today I found this on my front porch!:

Isn’t this just so cute? Thanks secret mailer, you’re awesome!

I’ve mentioned the huge amount of rain and that my ivy is finally growing up the tree like I’ve always wanted so I took a pic today before Amanda ran off with her camera (mine is broken and I’m getting another soon… hopefully).

And finally Izzy’s new stroller came. It is huge, too big in my opinion but it came nonetheless… We always say we will use it until Izzy doesn’t need it and pass it along to another somebody… I guess that other somebody will be a big girl who needs a big pink stroller )… Here is the pic as it looks now. We got this thinking it would be lighter getting it in and out of my suburban, but it has to be disassembled to transport and that metal part is quite heavy. A blessing was that my fellow ND parent buddy Dawn from Colorado has a light stroller that her son can’t use now so she is shipping it to me. Yeah Dawn!!! for those quick trips in the store you know? We’ll be set!

Here’s how it looks on the website (these things are like $6K, crazy huh???) You can see Izzy’s is raspberry rather than the red shown…That’s all I have today, well all I have time for. Gotta get Izzy fed and then hit my list! Have a great Thursday!!! I’ll leave you with a pic I found while downloading these pics off the camera (amanda’s camera) it is her with her new friend T…

Thanks Jenna for the info!

It’s Wednesday. Izzy has school this afternoon which is just therapy for Summer… Gives me two hours of sheer freedom! )…
I made a new schedule yesterday. This was prompted by a phone call from my IRL friend Julie. Julie is queen of charts, schedules, and planning. She is an all or nothing kind of girl and with 7 children now, it’s usually all. We were talking about just keeping things done so we exchanged schedules for our weekly things. She’s a bit more ‘gung ho’ than I am, but at least I have a plan, or a method to my madness. I just looked at my ‘schedule’ and today is dusting and vacuuming. Yesterday was kitchen day which includes cleaning out fridge and extra cooking… (I made matt’s taquitos, beans and then chili later for another day and prepared the meatloaf for today … my menu is all scatterwonked). Monday was bedding day… check!
I’m also spending more time in Bible study, and reading different devotionals etc. I’m trying to fill my mind and heart with good things. I was convicted this weekend to stop tivo-ing a show that I have watched since junior high. This show was m-f everyday, it was a silly show, but one that I just always watched… if only for a few minutes while ff the annoying stuff. Well, those days are over. I realized how much was unholy in that show, everyone was married to each other’s spouses and having other people’s babies and other things that are just not part of my life. I was talking to Matt yesterday. He was talking about feeling so pumped up after leaving Dallas and how an email from a friend had messed with him a bit. Not really reduced his faith, just messed with him. I said, “It’s like we come home as a big tall glass of pure clear water and all the bits of the world are like tiny droplets of blue dye, changing the water from it’s clear pure state, little by little.” Well, he appreciated my analogy and ask that I write it down for posterity… so I have. I refuse to allow my water to darken. I want to walk pure and holy before the Lord. I cannot expect Him to move and work in my life if I do not seek Him with my whole heart. Kat wrote a post yesterday about the worldliness of certain things and I applaud her post. It is so true and we (as a society) are so numb to sin that we don’t think it matters or hurts anything to repeatedly see it. Even those shows that bleep out the bad words, tell me your mind doesn’t know and speak what those bleeps don’t. You hear over the bleeps just like you can read a word with only the first and last letters and the middle scrambled and your mind knows the word. Our hearts take in all of that negative sinful material and I just don’t have any interest in polluting my mind or my heart.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9

I usually have my groceries bought and menu planned by Sunday evening. I don’t even know what I have in the kitchen to begin with ). We got home tonight and had sandwiches… Matt says I make the very best sandwiches so it wasn’t a bad thing. I tried a few new things last week and have requests for some regular meals so I think this week is going to be some old standbys… and I’ll shop in the morning. Bailey and Emelia start Art Camp tomorrow. Bailey is taking a film class and Emelia a jewelry making class. Me, Amanda & Iz will be home. Should be a quiet week (during the days anyway, it’s just a day camp).

Monday
Meatloaf
new potatoes
green beans
rolls

Tuesday
tortilla soup

Wednesday
beans & ham
cornbread
corn on the cob

Thursday
bean burritos (with leftover beans)
rice
salad

Friday
chicken spaghetti with ww pasta
broccoli
garlic bread

(btw ~ in case you don’t know… Laura(org. junkie) is hostess of MPM!)

OH~I almost forgot! Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for time travel tuesday! We’re headed to summer camp this week (I think Karen suggested this one).

1. Do you eat breakfast every day and if so, what do you usually have?
Pretty much every day… unless we have an early appointment and I don’t have time. I usually have cheerios w/milk & sugar. (and a coke)… (or coffee)… and on a good/bad day some cinnamon toast made on chewy french bread. yum. None of that this week though!

2. What 5 places do you like to visit in the United States?
mississippi – to see my buddies
niagara falls – after the pictures amanda brought home I can’t wait to see it firsthand.
NYC, NY – I would love to live there even!
florida – to see another friend
michigan – yet another friend

3. What place/s overseas would you like to travel to?
south africa!
greece!
new zealand!

4. Do you have a Bible verse that’s meaningful to you and why?
yes!!! so many.
One is John 14:12-14. I was very distraught at a point in time when Izzy was first in the hospital… we were given a prognosis that I didn’t know how to handle at that time… I found myself in the chapel of the hospital, opened the bible and my eyes fell directly to this verse… it gave me new hope and planted the seed of faith that has grown and grown…

5. Who are a few of your favorite singers or songs?
I have a few on my sidebar on the playlist… I love eva cassidy. The song ‘songbird’ is so beautiful. I also love beth nielson chapman… I love nicole nordeman too! There are too many to name.

Great questions Gail! I enjoyed them. Thank you.

Now my five

1. What brings tears to your eyes, just about everytime?
2. What does your favorite outfit look like, the one that you feel great in?
3. What color are you looking at a lot these days?
4. Do you let your kids/hubbie drink after you, would you ever share a toothbrush with hubbie?
5. You’re having dinner at your best friend’s house, you find a hair in your food… what do you do?

I tag Marcia Karen Julie Melody & judi!

Whew, it sure is good to be home! I’m pooped, and not really in a ‘bloggy’ mood, but I want to share our weekend with my friends so…

We got to Dallas Friday evening. Jane Ann (matt’s sister) and her boyfriend Clay were waiting to go to dinner with us. Matt & Iz stayed back to rest up from the drive and me & Emelia went with them to Snuffers. Wow, can I just say they have the BEST cheddar fries on the planet? So good! We made a quick Target stop on our way back and then came home to get Iz to bed and then… I highlighted, colored, and cut Jane Ann’s hair and put together the breakfast casserole for the morning. Guess what time I laid my head down on the pillow? 1:30 a.m.

Saturday morning we had casserole for bfast, it was yummy… then we started getting ready for the healing school. It was a really good day, the teaching by Thurman Scrivner was great as usual… maybe even better. When he first started teaching, Izzy does this ‘thing’ where she turns left and then laughs. We’re not sure why. Anyway, she did… right after he started teaching/preaching. We were sitting on the back row and his wife was standing behind us organizing cd’s etc. Well, she just kept on and was kinda loud. I don’t know if I got embarrassed or what. (I didn’t really feel embarrassed) but I noticed everyone turned to look at us and thurman said a short prayer and his wife was too. I was bawling… which is VERY uncharacteristic of me. I rarely cry. So, Matt is looking at me like, “what’s wrong?” I pulled it together ).
Then I left to feed Iz (went back to JA’s house) and came back to find out that many people had come in and tried to sit by Matt because it was filling up but Thurman’s wife (Sheryl) wouldn’t let anyone have my seat. We stayed until it was over… 5:00 pm and then this woman came over and asked if I was from Florida. She said her daughter met someone on the internet that was bringing her child and wondered if I was that person. I quickly said that I wasn’t from Florida. We went over to pray with Eldon (one on the ministry team) and I talked to her and her daughter again. The daughter’s baby is in the hospital in Dallas and her other daughter had seen the healing school on my blog and suggested they go. They came! We finally put it all together and I even remembered the new blogger friend mentioning a sister in Dallas hospital. So, my first IRL blog encounter. So sweet, and I was so glad they were ministered to. We then prayed with Thurman and Sheryl. We came away strengthened in our faith and ready to fight the fight and stand on His word.

We were at the healing school until about 7:30 p.m. As soon as we got back JA, her bf, and Emelia were ready for mexican food! yay!
So we went to dinner. It was a great ending to a super day.

So, we’re home! I didn’t get a chance to do much but read emails yesterday and then today when Matt opened my laptop to read his devos he showed me that it was so easy to use JA’s wireless dsl! ugh. Well, I’ll know next time, although it was so busy I didn’t get to play on the computer anyway.

Thanks guys, all your prayers really surrounded us this weekend and I appreciate it so much. Sorry Kat, no pics! I took a few with my phone at the healing school because Iz was sitting up like a big girl but haven’t sent them over to the computer yet… and I forgot to take the digital camera. ugh ).

Well, since Jenna already has her menu posted… I guess I’m off to excel to plan out my week’s meals.

Love you guys~

Well, we’re off to Dallas this afternoon. I should be packing as I type (I’m a multi-tasker, but don’t think even I could pull that off)… I am taking the laptop with us, but it’s dial up so I’ll probably just be checking email. We plan to return on Sunday evening.

I don’t know if I mentioned that the other day (Wednesday I think) I ran errands and was specifically looking for a new bedding set for my room. I went to several places including Kohls. At Kohls I saw (while walking briskly by) a shirt/top that I passed on because it wasn’t part of my shopping plan. But, I needed wanted something to wear while we are away… and I couldn’t get that shirt out of my mind… so I figured if I went and actually tried it on I would hate it and then would have it out of my mind. See how rational I am? **on a sidenote, I was on the cell with Judi while shopping and had my bluetooth on (yes, Corrie… I know you hate them ) So Judi shopped with me that morning … it was tons of fun shopping with Judi!** Anyway, I did try that top on and I did hate it! yeah! So, I found a few others on the “clearance rack” and was so inspired by Gail’s altering job on her daughter’s top that I bought a dress that was on sale and thought would make a perfect top! I am 6’1″ so shirts can sometimes be too short, although I am mostly legs )… So I got the dress, cut it and hemmed it and also got two other shirts really really marked down. For the price of the one ugly shirt I got three!!! and some earrings! Exciting stuff I know you would really be missing out if I didn’t share that with you!

Anyway, most of all I just want to thank you all for lifting us up in prayer as we head out of town and let you know we are expecting great things!

When fear knocks on your door, let faith answer!