Could you please keep my sweet friend in suffering in your prayers! Her husband died one year ago on August 20. She has been so faithful to God and through her blog she has shared some of her soul with the blogging world! I know this is a super hard time for her. Here is her link if you want to check in on her and come away feeling as if SHE has ministered to YOU!

10 Things I have Learned Walking with God on the Path of Grief

A good friend of mine asked me to speak to some women in her town last Thursday. I was so excited to get to share some of what I have gleaned over the last 10 months about my God who has been so faithful, tender, compassionate and loving! It was soooo neat meeting some of the people who have been praying for me and my family and don't even KNOW us! I thank each and every one of you have that has been praying - we FEEL and KNOW your prayers.

The main focus of the talk was 10 things that I have learned this last year. There are obviously many more than just 10 BUT I am sure people wouldn't want to sit there and listen to me for so long - so, I kept it to just 10! I am just listing them without any explanation - maybe one day they will be chapters in a book!

1. God grants us the grace, the strength and energy needed for our circumstances.
2. God wants us to follow Him – trust Him – no matter our circumstances.
3. God showed me that I can soar on wings like eagles, that He would RENEW my strength, that I could run and not grow weary, that I could walk and not be faint EVEN and ESPECIALLY in circumstances such as these.
4. God makes us BOLD when we depend on Him.
5. That Brent's death is God’s PERFECT and Holy plan for my life and for my children’s life.
6. That trusting God does not equate to ease! But in the long run it does! It is easier to trust God NOW then to trust Him after the fact! The blessings are fuller and richer by trusting Him amid the storm.
7. I have learned that this year has been beautiful and fruitful and I am sad it is coming to an end! I have learned so much of God's grace, mercy, compassion and love through these hard months!
8. To look at life through His glasses and not my own! That it is out of His unfailing love and mercy that He does anything for us. He wants to shape me and mold me into the person He wants me to be – a daughter who reflects the glory of her Father!
9. That God grants peace and joy even amongst so much pain.
10. That I belong wholly to my God and that I am not my own.

New Contest!

Guess how long the new addition to our family will live! Her name is Peanut!

thought about applying for this one!!!!

(saw this hand painted sign hanging from a tree on the drive home from Rockport! anyone happen to know what "muy catalica" might mean? Jill? anyone?

Texas sized FUN

Here are some pics from the last couple of days - I added a sweet girl who isn't a cousin BUT still had great cousin fun with us! Thanks, Megan for hanging out with us! Sure hope you get to come see us one day!




We are off to the Texas coast in the morning where Hurricane Dolly was so polite to hit shore BEFORE we got there! We are sure to have some great TEXAS fun on the coast!

TEXAS!

Here we are in Texas! We just got here yesterday - we have big plans of hanging out with cousins, sailing with cousins, swimming with cousins, movie watching with cousins, playing tennis and volleyball with cousins, and more hanging out with cousins! This is our last fling before school starts. We get back the Friday before school starts - I will try to post during our trip -BUT I have made those promises before and they turned out to be empty promises. Who knows! I just might surprise you!

(please NOTE my HEALTHY dad!)

Also - check out what my friend, Denise, commented on the last post! It must've been something she read somewhere - CAUTION, it might - just might - move you to tears!

PSYCH!

Turns out - Brent isn't really dead after all! He has been in San Jose vacationing! I recieved a PARKING TICKET that he got on June 16, 2008 for letting his parking meter run out!

Jan - at least it isn't a warrant for his arrest!

edited to say - ok! so he is still dead in body BUT quite alive with CHRIST!

ONE MORE EDIT: I called the ticet office in San Jose and the lady told me that it was a simple mistake of the ticket officer writing down the wrong liscense plate. That he must have messed up on one of the numbers. YEAH! Because even though I thought it was funny - I wasn't looking forward to the mess of dealing with it! Thank you, God for a little humor in my life!

What happened to RINGO?

I am super slow these days - as evidenced by my blog! I just now noticed that I don't have a header anymore. Anyone else noticed?! I have seen that before but just thought my computer must be acting up or something like that - it turns out that my header photo was hosted on ringo and now they have decided to END the ringo website altogether! It doesn't really affected me too much - just my header BUT I think of all those people who had put their photos online at Ringo! WHat happened to their photos?! They simply vanished into thin air. BACKUP - I think is the word for the day! Remember to back up your photos. Have I backed up my photos you ask?!! NO! But this makes me think -

I will get around to making a new header BUT til then enjoy the grayish blueish plainish header thing going on!

6 weeks!

Can you believe it has already been 6 weeks since my dad got his wonderful news that his cancer was ... well not growing and not cancer?! Remember how the drs told him to come back in 6 weeks because they were so flabbergasted and not sure what to make of this man who came in needing a bone marrow transplant and within 2 weeks of testing had made a remarkable turnaround! Well, today is the day that he goes in a finds out the results of the test he had done last Wednesday. Obviously, we are praying for complete restoration - maybe you could too?! I am so thankful for the network of prayer warriors God has graced me with. Prayer DOES make a difference. He is with the dr right now as I am typing this - I will update when I hear something!

(updated . . . )

****GOOD NEWS ****
I heard from my dad tonight and he said that the cancerish thing is still shrinking and that they want to see him back in Houston in 4 MONTHS! Thank you, God for your sweet mercy to my dad!

We are HOME

We made it home late Friday night - after 2200 miles logged on the road! We were very glad to all sleep in our own beds - BUT we miss our friends already! Don't worry, sweet friends that live here - we will not be moving! We might spend one month a year on the west coast - but NOT 12!

We had a geat time and it is late now - so I will post more later. We have a quick trip to El Paso tomorrow to see the Newsboys in concert and then I will post some pictures and details - maybe even a movie from our trip!

Quick Update

We are totally enjoying our California vacation and we are more than halfway done now! Each day has been filled with sooooo much fun - we are overloaded on fun but still hanging in there! I do not have easy access to the internet - that is why there has been no update! We will be home later this week and I will make a movie with all our pictures so keep checking! We miss everyone at home but have totally loved seeing all our family here in California! God has totally blessed us over the top with friends!

Broken In Revisited Part 3!

We made it to California - boy was that a long drive! My NEW (make sure you read that right! NEW) car did great BUT while we were driving somewhere in the desert a rock must have hit my windshield because NOW there is a 12-16 inch CRACK (make sure you read that right! CRACK!) in my NEW car's WINDSHIELD! What is up with this car?! I have never ever - ok! wait just a minute - I am having a thought! Well, to be honest - the ford taurus that we had overheated quite a bit, the mazda overheated quite a bit, the headliner thingy on my plymouth sundance fell and we had to staple it back up - it looks like maybe I do have issues with cars!

New Coyote Blue

Post from C girl!
Well as some of you know I was going to try out for Rio a club soccer team. Tryouts were yesterday and I was very nervous. I hadn't slept well for the past couple of nights,so it was kinda hard. When we got there it was very windy. It was the very first time I had gone to tryouts. It was also kinda crowded. There were 3 coaches to get on a team. 18 girls were at the tryouts for my age group. Only 11 would make it on the 3 teams. So I guess you want to know all I did at the tryouts right? Well the 3 coaches warmed you up then they put you on 4 teams to play a little game of soccer. They had to see who works well with each other. Well after tryouts one coach talked to the parents and said thank you for coming out. After that I was a little disappointed because they didn't tell us who made the team. We might had been at home not more than 10-15 minutes that the coach called us and said that I made it - now I was very excited to know that I made it.I am on the Coyote Blue team.

Broken In REVISiTED

Well - yesterday, Brent's birthday, was a hard day for me. Not so much for the kids, but definitely for me. It just seems that some days the reality is a little much. Anyway - I had been on the edge of tears all day. We made our cake and picnic and headed down to the cemetery to meet up with Brent's parents. But before we got there - AND while we were stopped at a red light - some woman REAR ENDED us! OOOH did I forget to mention that we were in the NEW car! IT didn't really do any damage - and we heard it more than we felt it - BUT it was just what I needed to go ahead and push me off the edge and into the tear ZONE! I cried so hard that that poor lady didn't get the nice ME at all. She got to know all about how new my car was and just where we were heading! BUT the crying did feel good and I woke this morning alot lighter than I awoke yesterday!

Anyway - Megan thought that the last post titled Broken In was going to be about my NEW car in an accident instead of just getting stuck in the mud - SO, glad not to disappoint this time!

Happy Birthday My Love

Jeff Probst

"Dude! It's Jeff! Jeff Probst!! Right there - right in front of you!!!" said jumping up and down!

I absolutely heart God's sense of humor and his freshness! I stole this pic from Kandid Kiwi's blog - in order to get the wholeness of this you MUST go over there and READ her blog.

Of all celebreties for this particular group to see - this is the perfect one! Who would have ever thought. For those of you that simply don't get it - we have hosted Survivor parties for the last 8 years every Thursday night! Brent sent in 2 audition videos - we have decided that the reason he never got called in was because his job title was just too boring! AND these are some of the Survivor Gang! The ones that weren't there are quite JEALOUS!!!

They told Jeff all about Brent and he seemed genuinely saddened. They chatted Jeff up for quite a while AND then managed to get the group celebrity shot!

First Day of Summer Vacation

So much for warmth and sunshine on the first day of summer vacation. At 2pm - PM mind you - it was 43 degrees. We had NorthWEST weather with lots of thick clouds that hung over the city and sometimes sleet with some thunder. However, this was God's hand and our land is in huge need of this kind of weather. BUT the proof is in the picture. On our way to our picnic tonight this is what we saw - a FULL rainbow. Full in form and color! It was absolutely AMAZING and I made A stick her head out the sunroof in the rain to get this picture. (I said, "do it for the blog!") It looked like you could find the pot of gold at the gas station at the end of the street! It was so beautiful and this made this weather day sooo worth it - not to mention the sunset it caused at the end of the day! Thank you, God for giving us little gems like this - help me to be more aware of these gems!

Word for the Day

Has anyone noticed The Word for the Day in the side bar? I am really digging it - some days are sooo perfect. AND I am hoping that the days that aren't so perfect for me are sooo perfect for you! ENJOY my new little blogging toy!

The Prince

Tonight for our date night (A and me) we are going to see the long awaited Prince Caspian. We have both read ALL the Chronicles of Narnia Books and although this is not my favorite book (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - which is the next book in the series after Prince Caspian) I am still excited to see this one!

(Edited to say - IT was fabulous and my friend's husband totally took his family and went to London for 6 months to work on it! You should check out her blog)

Broken In

Well - today was a big day in the life of my new car. It got a chance to get on the highway and RUN in the RAIN! It performed fabulously and I loved it! Then when we got to Santa Fe to the El Rancho de las Golondrinas it WAS MUDDY muddy muDDy! I couldn't even get out of the car it was so muddy. So, when trying to leave my BRAND spanking NEW car got stuck in the mud (oh wait - did I tell you it was MUDDY!) So, some nice parking attendant fellow got the tractor and hooked my nice NEW car up to the tractor and pulled her out! She is officially broken in. She got messy and had a tow and now she has 300 miles. Maybe I will just trade her in! (hee hee not really!) Here is a picture of the mud - it is from my phone so it won't do it justice BUT it was realllllly SOGGY muddy. I ended up taking C and we went to the outlet mall and lunch instead.