Technical Difficulties

Oh my goodness!! I have had the worst weekend with technical difficulties with my computer. My husband thinks that I must have some kind of magnetic force surrounding me that makes anything electronic break. My coffee pot no longer turns on when I turn it on, then hours later I smell something very "caffieninated smelling" and the durn thing has turned on and brewed the coffee. I don't know what that is all about.

I was looking at Facebook the other day and saw that one of my "friends" had joined a group that had the capabilities to put cute wallpaper on my profile. I am all about "cutesy" and joined the group and added a cute wallpaper to my profile. BIG MISTAKE!! I got that terrible Trojan virus on my computer and I totally had a cancer that metasized all over my entire computer. I am hopeful that we are now in "remission". Hubs not too happy with me now and says "I owe him big time now". Uh oh....what does that mean??

This here is my precious and most talented nephew. John Bennett, aka...JB, Bubbie, Ben. I guess you could say the boy had some "technical difficulties" himself today too. He got his first start, pitching for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. "Whoo Hoo...Get Your Guns Up!!"

Word from the folks (proud momma and poppa, my sister and bro-in-law) that he had a rough start in the first inning he pitched, but had a great inning the next. I think it was just the jitters and he is ready to roll now that the nerves have settled down. The boy is talented and we are so excited to have another generation at our alma mater.

That about wraps it up for today...The Academy Awards are on tonight and I love to see the red carpet. Please pray that I don't have technical difficulties turning on the TV, that would be just about my kind of luck.

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Gracie!!

Today is my sweet niece Grace, aka...Gracie, Sissy, G-Flo's 22nd Birthday. Happy Birthday!! This pic is of my Little Man, Grace, and her big sister Hannah doing the thing Gracie likes to do most,COOK! A girl after my own heart! She is the only beautiful, sorority girl, college student, fashion plate that I know that takes a cake decorating class while in college and get excited about pots,pans, and dishes!!! That girl loves to cook! I look at her and we have so many of the same characteristics and crazy quirks. Thank you Gracie for never conforming to what others do and always being who you are!! We love you!! ( I did this post in crimson in honor of your Oklahoma Boomer Sooners!)

A Sigh Of Relief

I am so relieved!! My meetings for our Family Dance and Auction are over and went really well. Thank you to my accountability sisters for your prayers. Leslie, you are so sweet. After I had made the big presentation, my cell phone rang because I had forgotten to silence it. When I looked at it, there was an e-mail from you with a quick prayer and scripture. Thank you so much!! I know you and the Big Man pulled me through on that one.

We got great response from our room parents and they seem so excited about the challenge. Here are a few pictures from the event last year. We worked really hard and we are so lucky to have such great volunteers that help out. You can "feel the love" when working with these people.

We did this rainbow in memory of a very special student 1st grader ~ Spencer Squire, who passed away right before school started last year. They are very close friends of ours and rainbows have been very significant to Spencer's family and friends since he passed away. It was only fitting to honor our friend and fellow student someway at our event.

http://www.spencersquire.com/

We turned the trophy cases into a bakery and restaurant store front.

This area was all the food/restaurant auction items.One of our talented moms, Lori Chalson made these silhouettes by free-handing them. They were amazing!

I had to show you one more.

Me, Betsy, and Judi

Betsy has been in charge of the silent auction set up for many years. Last year she handed the reigns over to me. Whoa!! Those are some BIG shoes to fill. Judi is our PTA President. I am so lucky to call both of these ladies my friends, and bonus that they both live right by me!!

As you can see, this is a big undertaking and takes alot of blood, sweat, tears from many and not to mention prayers and support from my sweet friends and family. I know that they will see me though and today, I was encouraged.

A Day Of Preparation

Whew....I am so tired as I write tonight. I have had a full day getting ready for our Family Dance and Auction at my boy's school. I am in charge of the fundraising at our school and this is THE biggest fundraiser that we do. ( No pressure!!) We are having a silent auction meeting tomorrow with our wonderful and very talented room parents and I had alot of preparation to do. I am really nervous about talking in front of a large group of people. I need lots of prayers and my accountability sisters are on it!!

Speaking of preparation, I had the yearly conference at my little man's preschool today. It is the final conference before kindergarten. He is so ready!! I guess you could say " well-prepared". It was so uplifting to hear what a great student and leader he is. (I think he is, but I'm his momma). Little man is a quiet leader that leads his friends by example. I so hope to be like him!! I'm Encouraged!!

Accountability Sisters

Tonight I met for the first time with my accountability sisters. Tricia and Leslie are a couple of girls from my wonderful bible study group and we have decided to meet every Monday night for about 30 minutes to keep one another accountable with things that we are working on in our lives. They are two of my friends that I shared the "Joy" with the other day. It was so fun to hear how they were "encouraged" and felt loved by the fun surprise in their mailboxes. It was definitely a "better to give than to receive moment".

One of the things that I want my accountability sisters to do is help keep me accountable with the Living Proof Ministries bible verse memory challenge. I told them the verse tonight that I had chosen and was excited to share how I came upon the verse. I think I will share it here as well.

Last Thursday was the first day of our bible study, Beth Moore's, Esther~Its Tough Being A Woman. Our leader started the study with a little mediation moment with us listening , resting, calming, etc...to the Marc Schultz song, Remember Me. While the song was playing I turned to the concordance in my bible and looked up "remember" just to see what might be inspiring and I saw Philippians 1:3 " I thank my God every time I remember you". Hmmm...I thought "that's a good one". OK, song over. Then Leslie has us turn to that exact passage, coincidence? No, I don't think so. Then she goes down a few verses to the prayer that starts in verse 9. "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ." I had that passage already underlined and starred TWICE. I also have two little pink flag post-its on pages in my bible and there is one on that scripture! Coincidence? No, I don't think so. You can only imagine yesterday, the 15th of February, the day that I am to choose and post my scripture how I must have felt when I opened by new autographed book from Celia Whitler and one of the scriptures was Philippians 1:3. Coincidence? No, I don't think so. All of this gave me pause and remembered something that Beth said in the first video session: " Coincidences are revelations when God wants to remain anonymous, but God never wants to be anonymous in our lives." Thank you God for showing me there are no such things as coincidences and that YOU want to be the center of my life. Don't you love it when you hear God talking to you? Be Encouraged!! I know I am!!

One Wish

Celia Whitler came and was apart of our worship team this morning. She is a singer/songwriter from Franklin Tennessee. She has become such a special and inspirational person to the members of our church at Suncreek United Methodist Church. She was a very good friend of our pastor Kathleen Baskin-Ball who passed away from a very courageous battle with cancer in December. Many of the songs on this CD were inspired by our Pastor, Kathleen and her faith, hope, and witness. Whenever I hear Celia sing, I feel close to God and know that He is near. Celia is the real deal and you can check her out at http://www.celiamusic.net/. She wrote the following song and sang it at Kathleen's Celebration of Life service.

One Wish for You

If I had one wish

I'd wish for you,

You'd know only love

Will see you through

From morning to morning

You'd live in this truth

If I had one wish

I'd wish this for you

If I had one dream

I'd dream each day

I'd dream you a life

Of simple grace

Grace that brings peace

To each of your days

If I had one dream

I'd dream you grace

(chorus)

One wish
One dream

One song to sing

May your life be as full

As all you bring

I wish you today

You'd have all you gave

If I had one song

I'd sing of you

I'd sing of the big ways

Your love is true

I'd sing of the small ways

You do your part

If I had one song

I'd sing from my heart

(chorus)

One wish

One dream

One song to sing

May your life be as full

As all you bring

I wish you today

You'd have all you gave.

Celia's new book is called One Wish for You~Celebrating the Women in Our Lives. It is a book filled with beautiful photographs, inspirational quotes and scriptures. It includes a CD in the back that has five songs including One Wish for You. Thank you Celia~You filled our cups!!

Happy Valentine's Day-A recap in pictures

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. We had a fun filled day today. Not alot of special stuff planned, just a basketball game and then some "down time" at home. (even caught a nap today) Hubs had a coaches meeting for football this morning and we were lucky to have my sister, E-Rich, and my niece Grace come watch Zack's game. Grace is a senior at OU and was in town for an interview with the Richards Group, a really well thought of advertising agency. It is odd thinking that in a few months she will be a sorority girl turned working girl.

Here is the re-cap...

YUM! Brownies...I know they are from a box, but they are Ghirardelli. I can't do better than that. Notice, the coffee cup...that is my java to help me in my recovery from the joy sucking valentine day preparation from last night.

Little Man helping make the heart shape brownies. We had extra batter, so we made some regular ones. Muffin style brownies are the best, each one has an edge.

Chocolate hearts from my sister and family. Love the sports themed boxes. She knows her nephews!!

Musical cards from my mom, Meemomommie. She loves those musical cards and so does Little Man. She even put 10 crisp $1.00 bills in each card. Thanks Meemommie!!

The coveted "Allen Eagle" Footballs that my boys have been wanting. Numero Uno was upset that we had gotten one for a friend for a birthday present and he didn't even have one yet. Little did he know... Our Allen Eagles won the 5A State Championship this year! Go Eagles!!

These are few of the goodies in the boys valentine sacks. Their tastes are different as night and day. One LOVES sweets, the other not so much!! I like them both!!

This is my Valentine to myself...I still have Christmas dishes on my dining room table and can't seem to get them put away. I need to get this area cleaned off so I can set up to work in here for our school's biggest fundraiser of the year, our family dance and auction.

Mission Accomplished!! It is a good feeling to finally have that done. I am so embarrassed that it is February 14th and the last of Christmas is finally put away. Happy Valentines to me!!!

Momma Is Getting Ready For Valentines Day

Man O Man...I hit the floor running today. I was so behind getting treats for my sweets because I have been so busy the last week working and being exhausted from "Flu Season" (My friend Tricia, calls it Tax Season for nurses). Nothing like dropping off your preschooler at school and saying " Honey, Mommy will be back with Valentines for your teacher in a little bit" to a sweet boy who has painstakingly worked on his valentines for classmates all week. Sweet Boy! OK...no time to feel guilty, push the stabbed heart back down and mom on a mission in search of something to give to 5 teachers that doesn't look like you just drove through the flower tent set up on the local grocery store parking lot for last minute husbands. And definitely a step above something from the local drug store that says "As Seen On TV" on the box. I needed some fuel to think, so I made a quick stop at Sonic for a DP to contemplate my strategy and logistics. Caffeined up! I landed at Ikea... and got these cute felt blanket for 4.99. JACKPOT!

I tied them up with cute ribbon and clever note and I was done! They turned out cute and were a huge hit! I guess the teachers can curl up with their throws and eat one of the many box of chocolates they got today. Hey, maybe I should have gotten myself one?...oh yea...I did!!



Mission One accomplished...Now off to Number One Boys Valentine Party. I am not a room parent this year and it is so nice just to breeze in at party time to help out, but not be responsible for everyones fun. Thank goodness I am not the one having to read the story after everyone is whipped up on candy, adrenaline, and oh yea, more chocolate.

My boy looks like one of the kiddos in Diane Sawyer's report on the people in the Appalachian Mountains with no teeth. I swear to you he doesn't drink Mountain Dew!!

Numero Uno and buddy Isaiah

Yes, Its February 13th and my boy is in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. That's Texas for ya!

Party over, Mission Two accomplished...30 minutes left before I have to pick up The Zizgmister. Can I get the Valentines for boys wrapped up before I snatch him?...hmmm...Main item bought-check!, (have to wait until tomorrow's post to see), cutting through parking lot and get idea for Hubs, swing into store # 2,-check!, have little over 10 minutes left and that is enough time to drop off item for monogramming at Eagle Designs -no time to chit chat with Nancy...Time to head to preschool. Going to have to make a Target run later to get birthday present anyway, maybe I can finish Valentines then.

Picked up Little Man and he was so excited to show me all of his valentines. He is so grateful for the small things in life. Treated my trooper to a Cherry Limeade with 2 cherries at Sonic.

I won't bore you with the rest of the saga on getting the Valentines finished, but they are bought, but not yet pulled all together for presentation. Maybe I will just get up early in the morning and put on the finishing touches. Numero Uno had a fun play date after school with his teammate Jake. He got home just in time for Ziggy's flag football practice. Zig is at a birthday party/sleepover with best bud Will for the night. So, that means Numbero Uno gets the folks all to himself, not to mention gets to sleep on the "sacred" pallet in our room. We had a fun dinner with The Renfros at Scotty P's. Mike is an assistant coach for football and Leslie is one of my accountability sisters. Nothing like burgers on a Friday night. Yippee...I didn't have to cook. While we were eating at Scotty P's, we saw one of our other accountability sisters, Tricia. This town is so small!! That's why we love it. I also saw one of my students there as well as two other students while I was finishing the now dreaded valentines after dinner at CVS. :-)

One last thing....I am going to share, I did a little secret thing for a couple of my accountability sisters tonight. Shhh.....I put these in their mailboxes with a little encouraging note.

These are Ultra Concentrated Joy for use when you feel like you have been attacked by the "Joy Suckers" in life. May we all find the Joy in everything we do! Hmmmm.....I think Valentines have now become "Joy Suckers".... Be Encouraged!!

The Whole Megillah

It has been a while since I have gotten back around to posting and all I have done since I last posted was tell myself that certain things that my family has done have been "blog worthy". Today I started my bible study again and am so grateful for the wonderful Christian ladies that God has put into my life. My group has just started Beth Moore's newest study, Esther~Its Tough Being A Woman. This leads me to the title of my post...The Whole Megillah. I feel like there have been so many things that I want to share since the last time I was here that I need to share the "whole megillah" (translation...the whole story or at least the highlights of what has been going on.)

The A-Town Wreckin Crew

My hubby planned a really fun evening out with a group of our closest friends to go out to dinner and to play whirly ball. I wasn't sold on "whirly ball", but if it was going to get me a night out and dinner at my favorite restaurant Mi Cocina, I was in. What is whirly ball you ask? Good question. It is a combination of tennis,lacrosse, and basketball all while driving a bumper car! I will have to admit that it was alot of fun, but I realized how out of shape I was. I was exhausted from playing and we were practically riding in a buggy!! What is wrong with me?? I need to hit the pavement and start exercising!
We really did have a fun time and want to do it again!

My first born, Zack's baseball team is in the throws of getting ready for their season opening tournament. My sweet husband has practically consumed himself with getting the team ready. I have a really great picture of Shawn showing Zack his new jersey. This is the first time that he has had his name on the back of his baseball jersey and it is such a big deal! The boys earned their names by finishing their fall season undefeated. You know the saying..."if you look good, you play good". That needs to be the motto of the team because Shawn has made sure the boys have the best of everything!!

A big thanks to Nancy and Chris Tripucka at Eagle Designs for always having a smile on their faces when we come in to order uniforms and spirit wear. The always make it happen! It is like having an in-house outfitter! I don't know how we would have done it without them! One of the MANY blessings of living in a small town where everyone knows one another.

We also had a very fun night last Sunday night going to root on the Dallas Stars Hockey team. We have a wonderful friend that lives down the street, Geoff Moore and he is a big "muckdy muck" in the Dallas Stars Franchise. He always remembers us lowlies on the street and hooked us up with a suite to watch the game.
This is our suite at the game. Once you been treated like a VIP in is hard to go back to the cheap seats!! Thanks Goeff!

THE AAC ~The American Airline Center home of the Dallas Stars and Mavericks

Parking lot G!!! THANK YOU MR.MOORE!!! This is the best part of going to the game in my opinion. This sweet parking is right across the street. This is what makes you feel like a VIP

My Boys

We had one more very important event this week and that was the celebration of the 43rd anniversary of Shawn, my hubby's entrance into this world. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY!! We had a VERY low key celebration dinner of pulled pork sandwiches (one of his new favs), killer green chile dip and my famous banana pudding. Then he was off to a football coaches meeting. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! GO PATRIOTS, or LONGHORNS, or COYOTES....which team is it??