A Christmas Story you will love!

I love Christmas stories! I have books and books of them. Well I have one that I want to share with you that happened with Parker. Parker is not even 2 yet and he is the son of Gordan and Ruth who were teenagers in our youth church and now are fantastic leaders in our church. Well here it is...
Ruth took Parker to a store this week and it was really windy and cold. She was hurrying in to get him in a basket and Parker started pulling on her hand. She turned to see a 3 year old boy and his old grandmother sitting on the bench. The boy had on a very thin hat and was quite cold. Parker had removed his hat and put his new hot wheels car in it and was handing it to the little boy. The little boy asked if he could give Parker a hug and of course Ruth said "yes". Then the grandma told Ruth that she had been sitting there praying that some how her little grandson would get a Christmas present. She then asked Ruth if she could give her a hug. It really brings tears to my eyes as I write this because memories are coming back to me of Gordan and Ruth going to Hollywood with us to minister on the streets and also going on late night outreach right here in Lubbock on Friday nights. Now as adults they are ministering to youth and kids. Can you imagine what kind of man of God Parker is going to be? This is really what Christmas is about! God is with us and He is with the world through us. I am so proud of you Gordan, Ruth and Parker!
Here they are.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love Christmas! Having Will has made it so much better this year! I wanted to share some our fun with him so far. Last week I took him to the mall with my niece Staci and thought I would get a picture of him with Santa. Will's other grandma, Cindy collects pictures of her kids with Santa so I thought she would enjoy one too. We got in line and he loved Santa's house but when it came to Santa he freaked out! We were 3 feet away from Santa when it happened. There would be no photo with Santa. He was so traumatized that when we got out to where Staci was he was reaching for her to rescue him from Santa and the mean Lolli who took him to Santa. We always took our kids to see Santa but he never brought them stuff because my parents always bought their big presents and I wanted them to be grateful. One year when Denae was about 4 we were shopping the day after Christmas and a lady in a store asked Denae what Santa had brought her for Christmas. She said "nothing". The lady persisted "Oh, sure he did". Denae got pretty frustrated that the lady didn't believe her and she reiterated that Santa did NOT bring her anything. This lady gave me a look that could kill. I mean you would have thought I was a child abuser! What is Christmas about anyway??? I think Will already understands the true meaning. He doesn't like Santa but he got in the car with me the other day and saw that I had bought a Fisher Price Nativity, he started screaming excitedly for me to get it out. Here is some video of him playing with it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

I have the best husband in the world!!!

I have had some sort of crazy bug for nearly the last 3 weeks. Honestly I can pinpoint 4 different things. You don't want to know the details but the bottom line is that I have been chastised by my doctor for wearing myself out. My friends have confronted me on the issue that I have, it is hard for me to delegate and not do everything myself (I mean I just want everything done right HA). Basically I have been told that I need to slow it down and listen to God. (My mother gave me that one, I can't do anything without finding out if God wants me to do it). I am so compelled by my passion that sometimes I get myself into doing things that I have no business doing. So I am trying to listen. What God is saying to me is "Be still and know that I am God". That is so hard for me! Now to my husband who is the greatest. To help me get started on this better lifestyle he came home with an escape package to Oceans Spa. I LOVE OCEANS! My favorite location is the one on South Quaker. It is so relaxing just to go in there. I just would be happy sitting in the living room and not even having a service. I have even redecorated my guest bedroom and bath after the Oceans theme. Here are some pics of my redecoration:





Honey, I love you and appreciate all you do for me to make my life great!!!

Ed and Will last Christmas. (Hopefully we will have new Christmas pics soon, our photographer is really busy!)

Happy Holidays?????

Once again I am confronted with this saying that really gets under my skin. It just seems to me that Christmas (THE BIRTH OF JESUS) has been degraded to a holiday the equivilant of a British vacation. The birth of Jesus was the best day ever only to be followed by the best death ever! I will get off of my soap box now. Actually this all came up again because I was looking for a new Christmas layout. I have found one that truly describes Jesus and that is joy. For those of you who may have missed out on my Happy Holidays story from last year, it is worth repeating. I sent Ed to Sams to get a birthday cake for Jesus for our kid's party at church. I didn't look at the cake until Sunday morning right before the party when to my dismay, our cake said "Happy Holidays Jesus". I asked Ed what in the world he was thinking and he said he just saw "Happy" and missed "Holidays" on the cake. His experience at Sams was starting to make sense to him though because he said that when he took his cake to the bakery lady and asked her to add Jesus to the cake she said ok and then took his cake to another lady, discussed it with her and then they preceeded to laugh. He didn't think much of it until I pointed out the error. I mean really how many people actually associate Happy Holidays with Jesus? This just brings the point home further. Let's try to include Jesus in all of our holidays, hey how about all of our DAYS!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS JESUS!!!

Lance & Olivia's Wedding- What a Day!

Lance and Olivia got married last Saturday and it was an amazing day! The service was absolutly beautiful. Olivia was driven up to the wedding in a horse carriage, she was coming across a bridge to wonderful sax music being played. It was one of the most romantic, breath taking scences I ever seen. They had 3 ministers as seen in the picture above. Ed has really enjoyed getting to be part of all of our kid's weddings. He loves weddings! We have been so blessed with amazing kids of our own but God has brought the most wonderful spouses to them all. We have had a consistent prayer for our kid's spouses since they were born and God has answered that prayer in the most perfect way! Chris, Lacey and Olivia are such a blessing to us. Our family would not be complete without them! Olivia and Lance are a wonderful compliment to each other. She has a huge heart for God and people as does Lance. I know that God has great plans for them together. Here are some more pics of the big day.
Me and Denae before the wedding

Lance and his men (he had 8!)

Lance and Olivia took Communion together and washed each other's feet.
It was really special!



Will pooped out during the reception.

The mother-son dance. This was really special because Ed consistantly has asked over the years "Has anyone told you that they love you today?, I do" to all of our family and friends. Denae chose the song "Have I told you lately that I love you?" for her's and Ed's dance at her wedding and Lance chose it for our dance. I feel like one of the most blessed women in the world. I have an amazing husband who has raised three fantastic kids with me and now we get to see what wonderful things that God has in store for their families! Don't ever quit praying for your kids, because it works!

Scooping the Poop with Pop

We love it when Denae is busy taking pictures because we get to spend an hour or so with Will before Chris gets off work. I had to post this visit because it was just too funny! As I've told you before, Will is partial to Pop. He loves for Ed to take him outside to play ball or just go for a walk down the block with our dog Maggie. I usually go out and join them. What I found on this day was really funny as you will see. Will and Pop were on a Maggie poop walk. Ed is equipped with the scooper and Will was very excited to help. The really funny thing that I didn't capture was when Ed brought the scooper in and put it up. Will had a fit! He loved scooping poop. Chris and Denae don't have a dog so Maggie is one of the draws to our house for Will. He has started calling her "dog" and he is petting her very gently now. It is really fun to watch them together. I love seeing the world through the eyes of Will, it takes so little to make him happy!

Pop and his poop helper

Will is excited about his first scoop

Job well done

What great bonding for Will and Pop

Corn Dogs, The Beach and New York City!

My life has been to the extremes the last month! Our church ran a corn dog stand at the fair. Really, I thought I had retired from corn dogs! It seemed to come back to me like riding a bike. I even learned how to cook (something I had played dumb on in the past). I really had a great time even though I was so tired I thought I would die. I loved getting to know my church better. There is nothing like sticking wienies together or being confined in a tiny stand together all day. Not to mention how ugly you look by the end of the week. It's awesome to get out of our churchy setting (even though ours isn't too churchy) and get dirty together. We had a great 10 days and God really blessed our church. Sorry I have no pictures of this because when I say I looked bad I mean it! Thanks to all my friends and family for working so hard!
The day after the fair we left for St.Martin to celebrate our 30 years of marriage. We saved airline points for 3 years to be able to take this trip and boy was it wonderful. This is our fourth time to go and I never get tired of this wonderful little island. I would suggest to all of you to get there someday!

Ed wrote this on our beach. The hotel has two private beaches, it is amazing!

We took this on the balcony of our room, the room is right on the beach. I love going to sleep with the sound of the ocean!

We took a water taxi to Marigo to shop

Deke and Carrie, our hotel is in the background

Me and Carrie shopping in the market

This man is my hero! He really deserved this vacation after working at the fair about 18 hours a day for 11 days! I love my life with him, we get to do so many cool things together!

I love the sunsets in St. Martin!
We ended our trip with a 9 hour layover in the middle of the night in New York City. I have always wanted to go there! We made the most of it. We went to the Empire State Building at Midnight and we walked to Times Square from there. It made me want more! I so bad wanted to visit the biggest store in the world (Macy's) but it was closed! My camera went dead before we got there so I will have to post more pics later when I can get some from Deke.