Giveaway Going on Over at The Preacher's Wife!

One of my all-time favorite blogger/friends has written a book! I can't wait to read it myself, and I definitely plan on buying a copy or three for some friends of mine. But Lisa is also giving away copies at her blog, so go over there and check it out!

Compassion International Disaster Relief Updates

Through Compassion International, I was able to give just $35 and provide food and clean water to a family of Earthquake victims in Haiti for an entire week. There are many other ways to help if you want to as well. If you have a link or information to share, please feel free to leave it in the comments.

Sad and Proud....all at the same time.

It's no secret to any of you that I'm a fan of The Texas Longhorns. But this past 4 years, I've become not only a team fan, but a player fan as well. For the past 4 years, my team has been led by Colt McCoy. This picture is my computer desktop wallpaper. And I chose it because it's obvious that Colt is giving God praise, but when I opened the thumbnail in full screen for the first time, I liked the picture even better. If you click on it to enlarge it, and then look at Colt's right arm, you will notice a wristband that reads, "I Am Second". I wear that same wristband. It's a testament to the world, that in my life, and Colt's :), God is first...always.

In fact, Colt doesn't just wear the wristband. He recorded a video for the "I Am Second" project. Here is what he had to say about both God and football.



Just words? It's easy to sit in a room full of Christians and talk about living out your faith on the football field, but how easy is it to actually do it? After being injured in the opening drive of the biggest football game of his life, and having to endure the suffering of watching the team he has led for 4 years fight for victory and come up just short of football glory, this was his response to the world.




And it isn't just Colt either. His favorite receiver and best friend, Jordan Shipley, openly shares his faith, as does field goal kicker, Hunter Lawrence. In fact the two of them are known for sharing scriptures with each other before games, and during games for encouragement, and confidence.

All in all, this has been a wonderful class to be able to cheer for at The University of Texas. So, while I am sad that they didn't get to bring home the national championship, I'm very proud to be a Longhorn fan at this particular moment in time.

Oh, and Colt, if you're reading this, I have an amazing daughter who is about to be nine, if you could just hold off finding Mrs. Right until she is old enough to date, I'd really appreciate it. :) [It's only going to be about 15 to 20 years...you can wait that long, right?]

Seen and Heard

Today I was working with Maddie on a History review. The material was comprehensive including all that we have studied so far this year. Since we take off school from Thanksgiving through the New Year, it's been a little tough to get back into the swing of things. And some of that material from way back in September can elude the 8 year old brain, you know?

So, taking this into consideration, I was trying to prompt her with some leading questions to see if she couldn't bring some of that long ago information back to mind.

Her question read something like this, "______________ time is when the farmer prepares the meat for us to buy in the market."

She was struggling to remember, so I prompted her with this question.

"What do you call it when they kill the pig to get the meat?"

Her answer, "Pork?" :)

"Well yes, the pig meat is called pork. How about the man in the market who cuts the meat so we can buy it. Do you remember what he is called?"

Her answer, "The Pork Chopper?" Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

*By the way, the answer is Butchering Time... in case you were wondering. :)

Ask and You Shall Receive!

Okay, so after having absolutely NOTHING worth posting yesterday, I had my eyes wide open for anything that might be remotely interesting to post. Lo and behold.....

On our way home from dance class, we had to stop for a red light. As we were sitting there, the lady one lane over and one car up from ours, opened up her door. My attention turned to see what she might be doing, and I noticed that she was holding in her hand a travel mug. I assumed that she was about to pour an old beverage out onto the street.

But I was wrong.

As I watched, I noticed that she was dipping a tea bag up and down in her cup. I was wondering why she was about to pour out a cup of tea that she had seemingly just made? It occurred to me that perhaps it wasn't the tea that she was pouring out, but I just couldn't fathom that I could be right about the only other possible thing she could be doing.

But I was right.

She then proceeded to squeeze the tea bag and DROP IT IN THE STREET!

She then closed her door, the light turned green, and she drove away!

Honestly, have you ever seen anything like that?

I've seen people toss apple cores, chewing gum, banana peels, etc. out of a car window on the highway, but I've never seen someone make a cup of tea and drop the tea bag onto Main Street and drive away. Definitely a first for me!

So tell me, what is the strangest thing you've ever seen on the streets of your hometown?

Well this is embarrassing...

For the life of me, I can't think of anything to blog about! Life seems to be so totally crazy/busy, and yet, I can't think of anything interesting enough to share with you....ho-hum.

I have taken up knitting. And I'm reading the sequel to the wonderful book, "The Friday Night Knitting Club", which is titled "Knit Two", and I'm enjoying that. But neither is really good blog-fodder just yet. I'm not good enough at the knitting yet to show off any projects. And I'm not far enough into the book yet to give it a decent review.

I am excited about the new season of 24, LOST, American Idol, and Burn Notice! But since they haven't started yet, there isn't much to talk about is there?

The Biggest Loser did start last night, and that was fun. It's always fun watching Bob and Jillian torture OTHER people. :)

The grandparents bought the kids a Wii for Christmas, so Ben bought the Wii Fit Plus for me. (Because I asked, NOT because he thought I needed it!) ;)

When I had my first "Wii Fit" Session, it told me that my "Wii Fit Age" was 46...oops! But after only one week, I've brought that down to 34--and since that is 10 years younger than my actual age, I'm liking the Wii Fit just a bit more this week. :)

I'm still not making much running progress, but I did join a "Lose it for Life" class at my church, and we do a 3.2 mile walk together once a week before the class starts, and although the hills are still kicking my behind, I'm able to hang in there with the rest of them, and have worked up to walking an average 18 minute mile. Which is about 2 min. per mile better than I was able to walk before. I'm not sure if it's the kidney issues or what, but my leg fatigue just isn't getting better fast enough for me to be able to jog for more than a few minutes, and then if I go ahead and try to push through it, my recovery time is way too long and I end up not going at all. My doctor recommended that I just stick to walking so that I could be more consistent with it, so I think I'll take his advice on that one.

So that's it. I told you I had nothing interesting to say! I think I need to take some time to go and catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs and try to get some inspiration!

I did make some cookies and one cake over the holidays, but I don't have pictures ready to post, so I can't even offer you that! Sigh.

I think I'll give up now and just sign off, and hope that something GOOD happens for me to share with you all tomorrow! :)

The God Boots

As you know, the weeks just before Christmas were a bit crazy with dancing and whatnot, but what you may not know is that the weather was even crazier. We have had the coldest, and wettest Fall in a sweet forever around here. In fact, it's felt more like Seattle than Texas lately!

Well, as you can imagine running a girl to dance class in cold, wet weather was not pleasant. Add to that the fact that her normal flip-flops were not working to go to class in, and her only boots are made of a very nice suede. So each day, it was a decision to freeze her toes off, or ruin her good boots...sigh. (It is important to wear shoes that are easy to get on and off, because they have to change into their various dance shoes when they get there.) I mentioned to the girl that it would be really nice if we could find her some waterproof boots that were also warm before she had to start her crazy Christmas schedule of 8 dance performances in 9 days! She agreed.

Unfortunately, we were low on cash, and with Christmas fast approaching, new boots didn't seem like a "necessary" expense. So I told the girl that we were just going to have to ask God for new boots. She looked at me and said, "Mom! You can't ask God for BOOTS!" I explained to her that God didn't just provide the basics for His children, but that He loves to bless us as well, and that anything that we need, we can ask Him to provide.

Fast forward to the very next day!

I was making a Sam's Club and she was still at home getting ready to go to yet another dance class. On my way into the store, I stopped to walk around a giant puddle of water, and noticed the corner of a bill sticking up out of the water. I picked it up and it was a $20 bill. I wasn't really sure that we could get what we were looking for with only $20, but I was convinced that this was God's provision for her new boots, and that He knew just how much they would cost.

I called her up and told her to be ready a few minutes early because we had a stop to make on the way to class. It occurred to me that we had not yet looked at Academy Sports for boots, and since there is one right near our house, I decided to try there. I picked her up, told her how I'd found the money and that we were going to see if it would be enough to get her some boots.

We walked to the shoe department and right on the end-cap was a display of weather-proof winter boots ON SALE FOR $17.99!!! They had her size, and they had her colors...pink and black. We bought the boots and with tax and everything, it was just under $20.

What an amazing testimony to my daughter, (and myself!) that God truly wants to bless us, not just with our "daily bread" but with our wants and desires as well. :)