A Time To Remember - Christmas Extravaganza 2009

Last night, the FABULOUS kids of Restoration Church sang during the churches' 5th annual Christmas Extravaganza. They were AWESOME! They sang their little hearts out! I was so very proud of them and just couldn't believe that I get to work with these precious kids every week. They really do make me smile!

A Night of Wonder

This past week, our church participated in "A Night of Wonder". 6Stones Ministry found out through the HEB school district, that almost 2000 children just in the HEB area would have no presents under the tree this Christmas. So our church, along with 12 other churches in the HEB area, adopted all those children. Church families adopted these children and their siblings and bought toys and clothes for them. Then, each one of the churches was given a school and the churches provided a Christmas party for these families and passed out the presents. 6Stones even provided a gift for the kids to give to their parents on Christmas morning. My part in all of this was to provide supplies for the kids so they could make a card to put in their parents' gift. We had volunteers who sat with the children, loved on them and helped them make their cards. These are a few of the pictures from that night. It was an exhausting, exhilarating night! What a treat to go love on somebody....just because.....I loved it!

Our Babies - Part 2

This is our other baby, Dory. She wasn't feeling very photogenic when I wrote my last blog.

She is such a sweetie! Loves to sing! She brings sweet, sweet music to our home.

One of Dory's favorite things to do is to fly to Bruno's cage and pester him. I guess she has to let him know that she was here first and she's the top bird!

Birds are the perfect pet for an airline pilot's home. Wes gets so fascinated watching both birds maneuver and land....just like the Super 80! Hmmmm......maybe the Super 80 flies just like the birds!?

Our Babies

We have 2 pets in our home - Dory and Bruno. Dory is a blue/green parakeet and these 2 pictures are of Bruno, our gray cockatiel. Dory was our Christmas present from Austin and Shawna 4 years ago. She brings so much joy with her singing. She is such a sweetie!
Bruno is fairly new to our family. He was abandoned at Austin's clinic, where Austin found him out in the yard.....with his wings clipped....and NOT in a cage. The poor little thing was pretty much defenseless. Bruno ended up at our house in March and has become part of our family. He can whistle a cat call, charge, and Wes is trying to teach him the Aggie War Hymn. That one has him a little puzzled, but we'll keep working on it!
Bruno even decided to help us decorate the tree last night. Dory chose to sit in her cage and sing while Christmas carols played in the background. They are so much fun and bring lots of sweet noise to our house!

Singing in the Rain

One of the things my family likes to do is mimic different scenes from movies, particularly from The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Singing in the Rain. One time, Austin and I sang and danced in the rain in a WalMart parking lot.....Brendon walked ahead and pretended not to know us. So, I'm thrilled to see this tradition be carried on to the next generation! Here's Austin and Ashlynn portraying one of our favorite scenes from Singing in the Rain. I've also posted the original scene from the movie so you can see just how talented my granddaughter is!





Thanks, Brendon, for a great video!

Servant

These are pictures of Ashlynn and Mr. Jack, one of the neatest people I know. Mr. Jack has been at our church about as long as we have.....he is there EVERY Sunday, opening doors, welcoming people, moving chairs or tables, or whatever needs to be done - including drawing with a cute little girl on the foyer floor! He always has a smile on his face and usually a poem in his heart. I'm so glad he has been a part of my sons' lives, and now, Ashlynn has the opportunity to be a friend to one incredible man.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Luke 18:17

Cookies!

I got a nice surprise that I wasn't expecting today. Ashlynn spent part of the afternoon with Granddaddy and me. We decided to make cookies. After they had cooled on the cookie sheet, we packaged some and walked down to Pawdy's house to give him a few....packaged some up for Uncle Brendon, and then some for Ashlynn to take to her momma and daddy. We had so much fun......and as you can see from the pictures, some of the dough didn't make it to the cookie sheet! Sorry some of the pictures are blurry, but that girl doesn't sit still very long!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Shawna! My precious daughter-in-law's birthday is today. She has brought so much joy and happiness into my family! It's great having another girl around - and then she gave us Ashlynn! So "us girls" have finally caught up with the guys!

Wes and I began praying for Shawna the day that Austin was born. We knew God had someone very special picked out for our son, but we are so in awe of Him to see how well Shawna compliments Austin. They make a great team! She is such a good wife and such a wonderful momma! I wish I had had her wisdom when I was her age. Our family is truly blessed to have her!

So, happy birthday, Shawna! Thank you for saying "yes" when Austin asked you to marry him under the Century Tree at A&M! Our family would be so incomplete without you.

Mom - Part 2

Well, 5 years ago today, Mom went to be with Jesus. So, a couple of days ago, I remembered some of my favorite memories of her. Today, I'm sharing my favorite picture of her and my boys. We were living in San Antonio at the time and took many trips to the zoo. This is a picture we took right after feeding the fish. Sweet Memaw......sweet memory.

Mom

Today is Mom's birthday. She would have been 82 years old today. As I sit and think back to all the sweet times, a few memories stand out in my mind:

1. She always loved to cook holiday meals. The idea of having her whole family together excited her so very much and all she could think about was all the food she "had" to prepare!

2. Shopping - she loved to go shopping; however, she never tried on anything nor did she rarely buy anything. She always had to "think about it" before buying it.

3. Even though I rarely saw her buy anything....she always looked beautiful! Mom was always colored co-ordinated - right down to her shoes! I was always amazed how she could make everything match!

4. Fried shrimp - oh man, Mom cooked shrimp for us all the time! It made such a mess in the kitchen, but it was so worth it!

5. And my favorite memory - when the family was all together, my sister-in-law and my sister would wait until it was getting late and then we'd ask Mom to play Liverpool Rummy with us. She always played....yawn after yawn....but never gave in. If you've never played Liverpool before, you play with 2 decks of cards and with each hand you deal one more card than the last, and the requirements change from what you needed to get from the last time. So, Mom would always be saving cards for what she needed for the last hand not the present one. She always made us laugh! We loved playing cards with her.

So, happy birthday, Mom. It'll be so fun to get to laugh with you again some day.

This is the day!

Our entire family had the opportunity to spend several days on the Mexican Yucatan peninsula - Playa del Carmen to be exact. It is on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, so the water and weather there is wonderful! God had blessed Wes and I financially to where we were able to take Brendon, Austin, Shawna, and Ashlynn for a visit to this wonderful place.

It was a challenge getting to Playa.....between 9 suitcases, 3 back packs, a 2 1/2 hour flight delay due to mechanical problems, customs and immigrations, plus an hour van ride to the hotel from the airport, we were pretty worn out by the time we arrived. Because of the flight delay, we arrived at our hotel after dark and we were starving! We hurried to get something to eat before they shut down the buffet for the evening. Ashlynn didn't even get to see the beach except in the dark when we had finished eating. What a disappointment! We couldn't even see the gorgeous sea God had created!

We did take Ashlynn to the beach and let her put her feet in the warm water and promised her a wonderful day the next day. Pretty much exhausted, we headed to our rooms. Grandaddy looked at Ashlynn and asked her if she was glad to be at the beach. She said, "Yes, this has been a wonderful day." I couldn't believe what I heard! This had not been a wonderful day. We had lugged that poor child everywhere, pulling her in and out of her car seat all day long. She had to wait for vans....it was hot.....humid......we had to wait in line after line.....we didn't even get to see the beach or the pretty water....and yet, to her, it had been a wonderful day.

Then, I began to think.....at the beginning of our day, many of us quote Psalm 118:24: "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." But how many of us speak that verse at the end of our day....particularly when it hasn't been a very good day. So, once again, my granddaughter has taught me something very important about loving God. And I want to put it into practice. Today wasn't the greatest of days, but you know what? This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Yes, this has been a wonderful day.

Thank you, Ashlynn.

Journaling

I am so not a "journaler" and the whole idea of blogging kinda scares me! I'm not a baker, like my good friend, Elaine, so there won't be many recipes to share here. I don't have the gift of "finding the great deals" like my daughter-in-law, Shawna. So, you won't find that info here either.

However, I love talking about my God and my family so I thought this would be a great way to share my thoughts. God has been so good to me.....He has never let me down or not come to my rescue. He has blessed me with an incredible husband, 2 awesome sons, a precious daughter-in-law (how I hate that name! She's our daughter...there's no in-law about it!), and the most adorable, beautiful, precious, granddaughter on this earth!

So, how can I not be thankful? How can I not sing His praises over and over again. My goal? For this blog to become my testimony of the faithfulness of my Savior.