THANKFUL THURSDAY

(Insert cute Thankful Thursdays logo here)

After Tuesday's pitiful post, here's a little cherrier one:

I'm so thankful for:

1. My Savior

2. My family. Hubby goes from being Mr. cool to Mr. panic in the blink of an eye. But I love him none the less.

3. My church. Ya'll that have been reading know how I struggled with this one. For the new folks, we moved to Houston in 2002 and it took until 2006 to find a church we liked for all the obvious reasons.

4. My choir. So many large churches are using Praise teams only. Not ours. We are squeezed in like sardines at 2nd service. What would it take to get another row of risers? The funny thing is we in choir think we are the praise team. They just don't have enough mics to go around.

5. Bloggy friends. How odd is it they we talk to total strangers as if we know them? Pray for them. Laugh at their stories and share in their sadness?

6. Warm weather. 'nuff said there.

7. My paid for automobile. I don't take that for granted at all.

8. Planning our cruise with our friends in June. We're going with our BFFs from OKC. I cannot wait.

9. My Wed. morning Ladies Bible Study. I've been going to weekly Bible studies since 1994. When I'm not participating in one, I don't like me so well. Our church in Owasso used to have craft time after the Bible study. One time, someone had the brilliant idea we could make baskets. Never will I say "basket weaving" in a sarcastic tone. That was stinkin hard!!!

10. Flower catalogs. I love to garden. I love taking my sweet tea outside and studying all the pages of the beautiful catalogs. Remember the post about the bird of paradise? (I tried for an hour to get the link to work and have decided I'm just technology challenged when it comes to that but it is from July 28, 2008 if you want to look at it)I can't wait to see if there will be TWO blooms this summer.



Happy Thursday Everyone.

JUST DO IT

It's 9:47 A.M. Tuesday morning. That means I'm SUPPOSED to be at the gym. I go on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Except, I haven't been on Saturday in several weeks so technically I only go Tuesday & Thursday. Except today, I'm still sitting in my jammies at the computer. I don't want to go today. I've eaten a zillion girl scout cookies and really, really need to be doing something. I'm not finished with Bible Study yet either. I don't like it when I feel this way. Just not wanting to get up and do anything. I should be searching the scriptures for something about laziness but, well, I don't want to do that either.

SNAP OUT OF IT!

Any suggestions?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. WRIGHT

As promised to Bev at http://bevsbigadventure.blogspot.com/ here's a pic of her hubby from 2001. I can't remember how he got the boo-boo on his head, but Dave is loving on him. Might have been from that crazy tug o war game Rob made us play.



Glad I had the camera.

Romans 12:2 reminds us "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God".

After I sent out the word last week that my hubby needed prayer, I was amazed at the number of emails and comments I received from my friends praying for him. I also made that my prayer request at Bible Study Wednesday morning. I am happy to tell you he's doing much better this week! Spiritual warfare was present all week and I felt the battles between good and evil with him (no, he wasn't battling with me).

Hubby's family is notorious for hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I've been trying to un-do this thinking for almost 27 years now. Some days it works, some it doesn't. That's when I put out the call for prayer. Thank you for praying for him.

Seems like many folks I know are fighting illness. Do you feel like that too? Serious illnesses. I've lost count the number of people I'm praying for with cancer. What's up with that? We had a special prayer time at church Sunday. I'm a little embarrassed to admit our church doesn't have organized prayer time during the service other than opening, closing & praying during offering. But the "altars were open" and I was astonished at the number of people who came down to ask for prayer for themselves or on behalf of others. They even had the choir go down and pray with people (that wasn't the plan, we were supposed to sing another song).

Keep praying for each other.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY BLOGGY FRIENDS

In the past two years, my Valentine's Day has actually taken on new meaning. In 1997, I took a little part time job with Hallmark Cards. You're probably thinking, "oh she worked in a Hallmark store". Nope, worked inside Wally World in their greeting card department. I will spare you the details of working there. Some of you may love to go there and I'd hate to spoil your high opinion (totally tongue in cheek here). Within one year, I was promoted to a manager's position and the company kicked off a whole new procedure for staffing their department. Instead of WM associates doing the stocking, my company was responsible for it. I remember the first person I hired. It was terrible. She lasted about one week. The second lady stayed and became someone very dear to me. Years passed and God blessed my "work" and brought many Godly women to me. Then I moved to Houston. End of "nice job", beginning of, well you can fill in the blanks however you'd like.

In 2006, God opened my eyes and I walked away from my job. Physically, I was exhausted, needed knee surgery and some "female" surgery. Mentally, I was completely wiped out. Spiritually, I was empty as far as my job went. I continued working on a part-time basis as needed. In 2008, I hadn't worked in four months and fell out of the payroll system. Shortly after that, I received my paperwork reguarding my retirement benefits. I filled out the paperwork, mailed them back in and don't imagine I'll think about it again for 20 more years.

So this brings me to 2009. Happy Valentine's Day friends. If you haven't bought your cards yet, shame on you....they've been on the shelf since the first of January. Now you'll have to deal with the wacko's out there.

WEDDING WEEKEND NUMBER ONE

Sorry I've been away from blogging this week. Not much blog worthiness and it seemed like I had errands to run every day this week. One entire day was devoted to shopping for an outfit for Megan's wedding. Gag me with a spoon! It was awful. The only dresses I found were designed for teenagers, size 2! Our church is very informal and in choir, we usually wear jeans or black slacks and whatever color solid shirt that will match the screen backdrop (usually black, gray or white). So, I'm really in the poor farm when it comes to dressing up (can I get an amen, Bev?). Anyway, I found a bright pink/black blouse that I wore with a pair of dressy black capris with pink beads on the hem. I looked okay. I have another wedding in March that will require a lot nicer outfit. I have four weeks to find it. It might take all 28 days too.



The wedding Saturday was at a bed and breakfast in San Marcos, Texas. Actually, it was outside and the reception was in a huge tent. When my friend Kim told me they had booked this b & b AND it was going to be outside AND on Feb. 7th, I thought she'd lost her mind. But, it turned out to be the most beautiful day so far this year. It was probably 75 degrees all day and in the upper 60's for the wedding. I didn't want to take many pictures during the ceremony because I was afraid it was distracting. But I could not resist getting this shot

They are washing each other's feet! I've never seen that done at a wedding before and even though I knew it was coming, I shed a few tears. Before that, her sister began the ceremony singing "Revelation Song". For a moment, I felt the urge to stand, raise my hands and worship but then remembered I was at a wedding. Tears then too.


The seating was L shaped. We chose to sit on the groom's side since Clint was with us and he graduated with the groom. We also figured there would be more people on the Bride's side, so we tried to even it out. I'm so glad we sat where we did because this gave me a chance to see not only the bride, but also her parents. Kim and I made eye contact once and I gave her a wink. Remember the blog from last month about this beautiful girl that got hit with the brick while driving home? http://sooneraggiemom.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html well, what I didn't tell you in that blog is that the wedding location they had chosen, had paid a deposit and had started planning back in the fall, WENT OUT OF BUSINESS AND TOOK THEIR MONEY!! They filed chapter 7 which means people will never get their money back. So then, Megan had to start looking for another location along with hundreds of other brides. Rachel Ray heard about it and threw a huge wedding for 40 couples at Minute Maid park in September. Megan said as much as she loves the Astros, she didn't want to be married there. They had quite a time finding a place. They didn't get married at our church because that it was going to cost a huge fortune just for the location. It didn't include a wedding consultant or anything. So the "great wedding search" began for them. It was beautiful and we got a weekend out of town too.


They are singing "Summer Nights" from Grease. Too funny. Here's J and I having a little dance.

And if you want to spice up your wedding reception without alcohol, invite teenagers. Megan and Frank, as well as her parents all work with the youth at church so there were plenty of them there. Watching them dance was hilarious!

To change the subject....please pray for my hubby. He is in a high pressure job that is really getting to him. It seems like something major happens everyday that is his responsibility to manage. Everytime he thinks he has his ducks in a row, a couple of them get out of line!

Happy Monday everyone!

Laura

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 65 TIMES

My in-laws celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary over the weekend. We drove up to Tulsa Friday, arriving at midnight. I'm one of the luckiest/blessed people in the world to be apart of this family. I've never, in 27 years of marriage, had a cross word with either of them. They are Godly, unselfish people with old fashioned values. My father in law has had many health issues and we always thought he'd be the one to have problems. But about five or six years ago, my mil, began having weird problems with her legs. It started out as "restless leg syndrome" and escalated through the years until they diagnosed her with Neuropathy. This amazing lady gets around with a walker if she's going to church or just out a little bit but most of the time, she uses her scooter. To watch her not be able to care for us the way she wants (cooking til she's blue in the face) has been heartbreaking. She's in alot of pain, yet she never complains. They moved away from our hometown three years ago to be near their daughter. This has added two more hours onto our long drive home, so it's really a big deal if we go without a three day weekend. Here they are feeding each other cake

Aren't they sweet?

It was also my fil's 84th birthday. He had his own cake with cupcakes (didn't want him to be left out)

This bizarre pic is of D & his bro. They are 19 months apart and when the two of them get together, they are nuts. I think there was something about the vulcan mind grip or something here. Either that, or they are just really weird......
This is my niece, Brooke. She and Jordan are a two years apart and are two peas in a pod. They crack each other up and talk to each other quite a bit. They live in Arkansas. We think she and J look more alike than any other two in the family.
Are you still reading? Here's a pic from 1981 just for you LR.

I remember when the photographer took this pic that I was hoping my hair wasn't messed up...it was. Our football team went to the state finals that year. We lost, but it was fun to go and play in the big stadium in Tulsa.

Happy Monday everyone.