goodbye, farewell

It's a new year and I'm making some changes.

I'm shutting down this whole blog thing. After a while, I am going to set this page to private so I can blog/journal for my own eyes, not the entire internet.

You can catch me over on Facebook (Ana, join!) and if you really need to know my day-to-day business, I'm a phone call/email away.

Happy New Year!

I kid you not

I'm going to go broke buying these dinners!

She had one for lunch at 12:45 (after we restocked our stash from a Walmart trip) and she just went into the pantry for another one.

Paige: I eat one my dinners.
Me: No, you just ate one for lunch.
Paige: (Repeat louder and with a lip tremble)
Me: You are going to turn into a dinner.
Paige: No, I turn 3.

So, I caved. It is 4:35 and she wants to eat chicken, mashed potatoes w/gravy and carrots.

Really.

I've got bigger fish to fry.

she'll probably eat them until she's a graduate

Paige loves, loves, loves Gerber Graduates dinners.

She'll go into the pantry and beg to eat one my dinners. And I usually let her. Because it's healthier than anything I have to offer her.

This picture was taken at 8:30 one morning. Seriously.

Then she asked for a chocolate pudding when she had chomped it all up.

You know, why not?

for I am the blessed one

The story I am about to share is three weeks in the making. It is a long one, with many links but please humor me and check it out.

A few weeks ago, our church gave out $10,000 to the congregation over the three services. It was a mission to Bless Back the community of Lubbock.

Sealed envelopes were passed out in buckets with $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 or $250 inside. The rule was to bless someone in the community back with the money.

As the envelopes were being passed out, I leaned over to Gregg and told him I was going to do something for a couple from our church, Jeff and Tami, with whatever money I got. So, I was really hoping for the big money.

The other rule that our pastor gave out was that we were not to open the envelopes until we leave the church.

This was a problem.

We usually attend church at the Saturday night 5pm service, but this week we were at the 11am Sunday am service. There was a membership lunch after church and we needed to make things "official". No way was I waiting another hour or so to know what was in my envelope.

I made a beeline to the restrooms so I could rip into my envelope. On the way, I ran into Tami and chit-chatted w/her and found out that they were going to the luncheon as well. Of all people I could've run into, I run into the lady I am going to bless back. I took it as a sign of a good thing to come.

And it was! There was a $100 bill in my envelope. I was so pumped. And then we sat with Jeff and Tami at the luncheon. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time.

So, why Jeff and Tami??

Gregg and I have gotten to know him through our LifeHouse and I am just amazed by them as a couple. Jeff and Tami have 5 children ~ a 7 and 5 year old, 3 yr old twin boys, and 4 month old. Tami home schools them and Jeff is a third grade teacher.

When I am around them, I am inspired by their faith, their mission work, their love for each other, their children and the Lord. Their mission work?? They are advocates for orphans in India and have their own ministry to them ~ K.O.R.E (King of Kings Orphan Reach Evangelism).

They both have blogs as well. My jaw dropped in awe the first time I went to their sites and read their titles.

Jeff blogs at http://beavoicefororphans.wordpress.com/.
"God's calling to love my family, be a voice for orphans, & help the poor and needy..."

Tami blogs at http://beehappyhomes.wordpress.com/.
"Learning practical wisdom to love God, love family and love others"

They are passionate about God, each other, their children and their ministry. I just wanted to bless them for always blessing others.

The next day, I placed $100 bill in a small jewelry box and gift wrapped in Christmas paper. If nothing else, I thought that maybe Jeff and Tami could do something nice for each other with it or buy something for their FIVE children.

I wrote on a plain, white card a simple note.

May the Lord continue to bless your servant's heart.

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
Ephesians 6:7

I left the note unsigned and the envelope return address blank.

Later that week, I was at the church office and our pastor called me into his office. He had asked the congregation to post on the church website how they used their money to bless others. A reporter that was doing an article about the project read what I wrote and wanted to interview me! Chris said he had given him my number and I should be getting a phone call.

Within moments of me returning home, the reporter called and I did a phone interview. And could I please email him a head shot of me?

Why sure.

Luckily, I had been at the Christmas lunch that morning, and I had had my hair fixed and jewelry on. So, I went into the backyard and had a little photo session with myself. Because any picture of myself that I have, has some child's head smack next to mine.

The next day, Tami posted about the package on her blog and what they did with the money.

Whew! It got to her! And her response to the money, made the whole Bless Back Project more incredible.

I called her the next day and told her it was me and why I chose to bless them back. But mainly, I wanted to tell her about the article and see if she would be willing to talk to the reporter herself. I thought he needed to know the conclusion to the story.

She was thrilled, just hoping her little orphans would get some media attention.

Then she blogged about how it was me who sent the money.

The story ran yesterday, Christmas Day, in the Lubbock paper. We only subscribe to the Sunday paper and I completely forgot about the article until about 8:00 last night. I searched the paper's website and found it here.

And the funny thing is, in the background of one of the pictures of a couple reaching into the bucket, there is Gregg's face and the arm of my purple sweater choosing my envelope. Random.

Let me include something that the article didn't mention but is totally incredible. A local businessman was visiting our church for the 1st time that Sunday morning the envelopes were being passed out. After the 1st service, he walked up to our pastor and handed him a $10,000 check to cover the Bless Back Project!

Also, in my conversations with the reporter, I found out he is the new religion reporter for our paper. He relocated to Lubbock in September and hasn't found a church. Since covering this story, he and his family have continued to attend Experience Life and will probably join.

If you went on to read the link of the newspaper article, you read about a man named Johnny Landrum.
Johnny Landrum

I took this picture of him a few weeks ago in preparation of a blog that I was planning on writing about him over on my other blog. Then he was mentioned in the article, and I thought I might as well tell about what I know about him here and now.

This.man.completely.fascinates.me.

From what I understand, he was employed and felt God was calling him to minister to others. He turned in his two weeks notice and sold all of his belongings and now has a street corner ministry. Johnny Landrum stands on a busy street corner in Lubbock, day in and day out, whatever the weather with his JESUSAVESOULS sign.

The day I took this picture, it was 16 degrees and snowing.

You can read his story here.

Between Johnny Landrum, Jeff and Tami, Experience Life, and just being here in Lubbock, Texas, I AM the blessed one.

May God continue to bless ALL of us!!

Merry Christmas!

God, the pharmacist

Macy: I'm glad you're feeling better today Paige. God made you feel better.

Paige: God in my medicine?

Kindergarten Christmas

The past couple of weeks have been filled with some festivities over at the school.

Christmas lunch

I packed Macy cold pizza because that is one of her favs! And Paigey had eaten lunch at home but I packed her some grapes, pudding and juice anyways. She has a mouthful of pudding in all of the pics.

Paige loved taking her lunchbox to school. And yes, even though she won't start preschool until the fall, she already has a lunchbox. That is from the company that I used to do home parties for.

Everyday I draw or write something on Macy's napkin. And since Paigey had a lunch, she was showing me her Christmas tree I drew her.

school-wide singalong
classroom party

The school wide theme was Hip hop Christmas. Kindergarten had the kids pics on CDs and they were to decorate them for an ornament. And look who put a crown on herself. Typical!

It was nice not to have to be somewhere this morning or get Macy to school. But Paige has a slight fever and threw up twice this am. So, I've been snuggling little girls under the light of the Christmas tree and watching endless Christmas movies.

The original plan for the day was to make and decorate sugar cookies. I lost my appetite early on in the day and Paigey's little fingers need a good detox before it handles anything that someone else might eat!

The girl's excitement for Christmas is so contagious. I am soaking it up for sure!

Lookie what came in at the airport

McKenzy (and Melinda & Anthony) are in town until Friday!
The girls are absolutely in love with their baby cousin!

Flashback Friday

There are some old pictures of myself that I see that I see Paige in me ~ like this one.

But then I found this kindergarten picture and I saw my Macy in me as well.

Paigey time

The other day (ok, it was the week after Thanksgiving), Paigey and I met Gregg up at his store to go to lunch. It is fun just having some Paigey time. And she gets lots of attention at Daddy Whoas.
I run Daddy Whoas.

(When Gregg saw the pic, he wasn't too happy. He said that a picker could've been coming out of the aisle and she could've gotten hurt. Probably true but I thought she looked so cute running through the store looking for him)
I hide Daddy Whoas.
(looks safe to me)

Oh, that's probably what I should've been doing. Holding onto the child.

Then we went to eat Mexican food. Paige ate chips and hot sauce. She finished her own bowl and moved onto another.

I love this baby!

Visiting Santa

tonight

I don't think there's anything wrong with Dr. Pepper for Christmas

Last Saturday, Macy and I had some girl time. I took her to the mall to run a few errands and then over to Target to let her pick out presents for McKenzy and Gregg.

While at the mall, we headed to Gymboree to check out the sale in-store, to Helzberg to visit Aunt Lindsey, and to Victoria's Secret to cash in a coupon.

VS sends these wonderful $10 any purchase coupons every so often. As I was looking through the panties, Macy kept saying those are ccccuuttteee to whatever I had my hands on. To busy her, I handed her as stack of four that I chose and told her to count them for me.

Five she says.

I told her, "girl, I need to send you back to kindergarten."

We don't count panties in kindergarten.

And for good reason.

When we got home, Gregg and Macy were off to Walmart to get my present.

They came home with something and went onto to wrap it. And then a couple of days later, a commercial came on and Macy said to Gregg that like the one we looked at for Mommy.

So, we'll see. I'll post what it was if I get it after Christmas.

And it wasn't a Dr. Pepper commercial.

Because a year later, that would still be A-OK with me.

BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes

Welcome Friends ~ old and new! I love having people over for any occasion and this year I'm excited to be a part of BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. And as you know, I'm striving to be more like BooMama.We moved this year so everything so decorating was a challenge! And the first on the list was getting lights on the house. We've always done icicles but this year we invested in some classic white lights. And nothing says class like a blowup of The Grinch and Max.
It's cold here in Lubbock tonight so come on in!

Husband has a fire going but we'll just let the dog and the little ones keep sleeping.

The stockings are hung on the mantle. Someone asked me yesterday if I made the stockings. No, but in 2002, an HEB in San Antonio had these priced at $9.99 a piece. They were exactly what I was looking for. So even though I was pregnant with our first child, I bought four ~ I figured that eventually, hopefully we would have another child. And God answers prayers ~ meet Macy and Paige.Here's husband the day he put the lights on the house. Apparently the previous owners had covered the top of the chimney with plastic so I caught Gregg on the roof on a ladder! Santa needed an entrance and our fire needed an escape!
We have the perfect spot in the corner of the living room for our Christmas tree. There was an end table there but I moved it into the dining room.

My tree and wrapping paper is all in burgundy, gold and green.
I love the Mary and Joseph holding Baby Jesus at the top of our entertainment center. They are front and center just how they should be.
The girls love this Little People Nativity set. It is to the left of the fireplace and they sit on the floor to play with them. The basket is full of Christmas books only. Notice which book is on top!
Two years ago, Macy drew this picture of "Baby Jesus in the manger". It is one of my treasures for sure.
I'd love to offer up a snack but these M&M's are the best I have right now. After a cookie exchange Friday night and a graduation reception over here last night, I threw out anything that resembled a calorie.

But the M&M's made the cut. And I've got some cold Dr.Pepper in the fridge.

Last on my tour, I have my favorite candle to show you. It smells the whole house up like cinnamon sticks. And this book that Blair wrote about helping your children find Jesus in our holiday traditions.

I'm embarrassed to say that in the three years I've had it, it hasn't been opened. Every year I have the best of intentions but with all of the other Christmas hoopla, it ends up just looking pretty on my counter.

There are not enough days in December to do everything I want to do with my children to celebrate the season. I have learned over the years, it is not the activities but just the little things that make the memories that become tradition.

I hope that you enjoyed my tour of my West Texas home. May you all have a wonderful Christmas!