My Heart's Desire

For the love of LIFE

2010-02-02T19:51:00.006-06:00

A girl I went to college with and who attended the same church I did while I was in college, recently posted this on her blog. It brought anger to my heart over abortion in this country and brought me to tears as I watched the desire of a father to bring home his son.

There are a thousand reasons why the Ivey's story beats at the doors of my heart, but for now, I will let it beat at the doors of your heart.

From the Wetherell's Blog

My friend Amber wrote a post {read here} last Friday, January 22nd,

about the 37th anniversary of the passing of Roe vs Wade.

Watch this John Piper video:

And then watch this video of this family {family blog here and here} who waited 2.5 years to bring their baby home from Haiti, which finally happened this week. Praise Jesus in the midst of a storm.

Amos' Story here:

what an absolutely heart breaking thing that people are fighting for their babies when there are others not even willing to give them life at all.

Please Pray for our president

Please pray for our country

Please pray for the heart of pregnant woman

Please pray for Haiti

Please pray for Loss and Life.

Please pray for the joy of families getting their children after so long.

Please pray for Salvation.

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families; he leads the prisoners forth with singing."

(Ps. 68:5-6a)

Life Happens

2010-01-20T22:13:00.002-06:00

It's been over a year since I updated the blog. Honestly, life for the past year and a half has been a crazy adventure; a beautiful, hard, blessed, tumultuous, redeeming year and a half.

Here's some things that happened between the last time I updated and now:

moved from Sunnyvale to Fort Worth to serve as the Girls Minister at Glenview Baptist Church
started my first year of teaching at Dunbar Middle School in FWISD teaching 7th grade English
went from a youth ministry staff of 4 (a student pastor, high school pastor, middle school pastor and girls minister) to 1 (a girls minister) within 3 weeks
walked through life with some amazing students
almost quit teaching but persevered through the biggest trials and spiritual warfare that I've ever experienced
got to go back to doing just girls ministry when GBC hired Geoff and Steven
started an small business, Lady Lulu's Boutique
took a much needed vacation, a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso
took a job at Kirkpatrick Elementary teaching 4th grade writing
cooked for lots of teenagers on mission trips
moved into a new classroom and did a SERIOUS total classroom makeover
got Swine Flu
enjoyed family and friends over the holidays AND got to see the Aggies in a bowl game, even if we did lose
started a new decade with lots of hope and excitement for what the Lord has planned!

SO, that pretty much catches you up. As you can see, life was just happening all around me and it has really just been in the last month or so that I can say I am able to breath, sit, rest and not stress out about the 2 page to-do list. I know there are seasons of busyness and slowness. I'm just enjoying the slowness right now.

community

2008-06-24T01:30:00.002-05:00

So for the past 2 months I have been commuting from Mesquite to Ft. Worth 4 times a week for my new job. Although rising gas prices and the 2 hours wasted spent in the car driving back and forth have been annoying, the thing I've been most frustrated about is the lack of community I felt because I lived so far away. The inability to spontaneously join a group for dinner or to have people come over just to hang out has been exasperating.

Praise Jesus for the past two days though. In the past two days, I've been able to experience true community; true church. Not "church" in the sense of sing, pray, take an offering, sermon, invitation (did I nail that one on the head or what?!). No, church in the sense of believers, fellowshipping together, sharing their lives with one another, talking about real stuff, laughing together, praying together. How I long for church to look more life that.

I'm counting the hours till moving day arrives. I'm sad to leave this home that I have here at casa de new hope rd, so many monumental life changing things have happened while I have lived here. I made mistakes, I learned, I grew, I did life here. At the same time, I'm so excited about this new season of life. I'm excited about the relationships that are being cultivated at Glenview, I'm excited to be a teacher - to walk with and teach students, I'm excited to discover a new area.

I anxiously await planting my life fully in this new season that has come like crisp rain on a hot summer day. Come quickly July 1....come quickly :)

American Idol...uuuggghhh.

2008-05-20T23:09:00.002-05:00

I am so over this season.

Everything about tonight from what Ryan was saying to Clive Davis and Andrew Lloyd Webber, to the judges indicated that they clearly want David Archuletta to win.

I am becoming more and more convinced that the votes sent in do not count and that the judges make the decision.

In my opinion, David Cook will put out a much better record and is much more marketable, therefore will be around alot longer than Arch. David A might as well hook up with Clay Aiken and jump on that tour because that is the arena he sings to.

I just want this season to be over. I'll watch tomorrow night, but I'm glad it's the finale.

The Zacheus Project

2008-05-13T01:23:00.006-05:00

Last year I had the privilege of leading a team of students to Ghana, Africa to work with a partner of Lake Pointe Church. There are hundreds of stories from the week that I could share, but as the week went on our team got to know a man named Zacheus, and the Lord is continuing that work today.

Zacheus is a modest man who has a passionate desire to love and serve Christ more with each passing day. However, his desire to serve Christ does not come without cost. His wife's family is Muslim, but he and his wife are Christ-followers - his wife's family hates him and has shunned their daughter. In the community that he is living in there are many people that go without food everyday, most look to him to help their community survive. He carries a very heavy burden - but when you look at him you would never know this because he exudes the joy of the Lord like no person I have ever seen.

Throughout the course of the week we found out that he desired to go to driving school, if he was able to learn to drive he would be able to make money not only for his family but also for his community. Before knowing this our team had decided that they wanted to bless Zacheus, but when we found out about his desire to go to driving school we knew that was what God wanted us to do. It wasn’t until after we had taken up the financial gift for Zacheus that I found out how much driving school cost - wouldn’t you know that the team gave just over what was needed for school. God is so good and so faithful, He always knows the needs and the provision far before we ever begin to think about it.

Here is where you come in, last week I received an email from Zacheus and Francis, the ministry coordinator that I have worked with in Ghana. Zacheus has finished driving school and a spot in the Ghana Security Services has opened for him to join. This is a great opportunity because it will allow him to secure a stable job and continue to provide for his family and community. Unfortunately there is an admission fee to the Security Services Academy and Zacheus simply cannot afford it. The goal is to raise $1000 for Zacheus to enter into the Security Services Academy and complete the training needed. In addition, I encourage you to write Zacheus' name somewhere that you will see if everyday and be reminded to pray for him and the day to day life-ministry that he is doing.

If you would like to donate, simply click on the Donate icon which will take you to Paypal's website where you can donate by check, debit or credit card.

On behalf of Zacheus, I thank you in advance for the ministry that you are contributing to, many upon many lives will be changed because of your donation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at lajack@mac.com or ljackson@glenviewchurch.org.

Zacheus on our excursion day.
Zacheus with Courtney, Mallory and Hannah at ministry site.

Idol Live Blogging

2008-05-06T19:24:00.004-05:00

Ok, what is up with Randy and Simon tonight, they must have taken a bad mood pill....

Round 1

David Cook - I wasn't watching while he was singing, but I was listening and I didn't love it. He didn't do anything to make it unique or different like he usually does and I had never heard the song before. It was just 'aight for me.

Syesha - I love me some Tina Turner, however I think it was a bit overdone with the complete impersonation. I sort of felt like I was at a Las Vegas show or something. She definitely rocked the song and locked sensational.

Jason - I don't think it was as bad as the judges made it out to be. I think he looked more comfortable on stage tonight than he has ever looked before. You could tell he was really having fun. I'm hoping he pulls out all the stops on his second song.

David A - ugh. I'm so over it. Did he really just say that he sings "Stand By Me" by himself in his room to his dog?? Ok, that's just weird, no wonder no one wants to room with him. He only knows how to sing one type of song, if a song doesn't fit into that genre he has the band re-do the arrangement to work with old-lady music land.

Round 1 goes to Syesha!

Round 2 - Here we go....

David Cook - I think Simon said it well, Welcome Back. That was definitely better than the first performance. I really have grown to look forward to hearing him sing each week. I absolutely did not like him in the beginning, but I think he is very creative and wants to be a true musician and artist rather than just a singer. I look forward to seeing what kind of record he puts out.

Syesha - This is not the season finale, why did she just erupt into the ugly cry? Paula just stood up and said she wanted to hug her and started hugging herself.....I feel like I'm on a weirdo talk show......I agree with Randy, I wasn't crazy about it and I didn't like her dress, tuck those boobies back in.

Jason - oh bless your sweet heart. If I could reach through the tv and hug you I would, instead I stood up and hugged myself (just call me Paula)...so you forgot the words, must be in the water this season.....I still think that both performances were your most confident of the season. You certainly could have stopped and started over - thank you for not doing that! You've got my vote, plus a few :)

David A - You haven't sung yet, but I'm already dreading it....oh glory be he just said, "Love me Tender" and then he just said he hasn't sung a romantic love song yet....THAT"S ALL YOU SING!!! I'm done. GO HOME. GO HOME. GO HOME. Aren't you missing your prom or something?? I think you and Clay Aiken would be besties.

Randy just said he carressed each word. I can't take it anymore. I'm done.

Cat, Please Exit Bag

2008-05-05T19:26:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to pray for me. I appreciate so much all of the comments, emails and texts saying that you were praying for me even though most had no idea what was going on - that is the beauty of the body of Christ.

Well, today the cat can be let out of the bag. For the past two months I have been in the process of interviewing for a Girls Ministry Associate position at Glenview Baptist Church in Ft. Worth. Today I received the call that I got the job.

The Lord has been so good throughout the entire interview process, allowing me to meet with some absolutely incredible people and really take the time to pray through and examine if this is where to Lord wants for me to serve. I can say with absolute confidence that I have never felt such peace about where I am supposed to be.

Thank you again to all of those who have been praying for over the last several weeks, you mean so much to me, and to those who have been praying without knowing what you are praying for - your prayers are precious!

Down to 5.

2008-04-30T00:30:00.002-05:00

Before we get to the contestants, there are a few things that I really feel need to be said....

1. I'm SO over the mosh pit of teenage girls....this is not a concert, it's a competition...find a seat. Every time they start waving their hands back and forth I have a flash back to Michael W. Smith singing Friends are Friends Forever.

2. Paula Abdul has GOT to be the stupidist person on planet earth, and I have met alot of ignorant people. Anyone who watched tonight knows what I'm talking about.

3. I feel like the "mentors" they chose this season are really random. Not that I don't love me some Dolly Parton or some Broadway tunes, but they are just really random choices and many of them with older music that today's generation might not be familiar with....Neil Diamond, come on, was no one else available?

Ok, let's get to the breakdown....

1. Jason - I thought you were great, I think you have a uniqueness like no one else on the show. I'm glad that he went without the guitar for the second song. He has that cool Dave Barnes, Jack Johnson vibe and I just don't think the judges love that, but I certainly do.

2. David Cook - loved both performances, I don't think they were as great or creative as previous weeks but I think that it was by far the best of the night. You will be in the finals.

3. Brooke - Your first song sounded good but performances wise was awkward. I was too distracted by the performance to really listen to you. Your second song was great - this is where I love you, behind a piano belting it out.

4. David A - I felt like I was watching you sing on Kids Incorporated tonight. I know you have a beautiful and pure and great voice, but I need to hear you do something different and if you don't quit doing that weirdee hand thing you will only be popular among 12 and 60 year olds.

5. Syesha - I couldn't focus on anything you sang because you weren't wearing shoes and it's national television. You have a stylist, use her.

Going home - Syesha, since she should have gone home last week.

Please Lord...

2008-04-24T13:42:00.002-05:00

Please Lord, don't let this ever happen in my classroom....

Happy Birthday Baby Brother

2008-04-23T13:44:00.004-05:00

Today is my baby brother Bo's 18th birthday. He is officially 18 years old today. In a little over three months he is going to leave home for the very first time, move to College Station and start one of the greatest adventures he will ever have. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for this new season of life.

Here are 18 reasons why I love my brother...

1. You are one of the funniest people I know.
2. You are super huggable.
3. You have extreme dedication to whatever you do, whether it be football or relationships or school.
4. You are a great friend, loyal and always there when your friends need you.
5. The ability you have to eat large portions of food blows my mind.
6. Your new love for coffee - mocha to be specific.
7. Your extreme love for all things "old school" in the world of tv.
8. The way you tolerate me and mom being your paparazzi, it's only because we love you so much!
9. Your love for music and singing at the top of your lungs, even though you cannot listen to a whole song.
10. Power Rangers, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Pokemon, Etc. Etc - - nuff said.
11. Your desire to be a life-changer and impacter in student's lives the way your coaches have impacted your life.
12. Your love for Lulu :)
13. Your love for food....there's alot of love there.
14. Your intense desire to not compromise your beliefs, but at the same time not being judgemental towards others
15. The way you help out around the house, even though sometimes it cuts into the things you want to do.
16. The way you serve those around you.
17. The way you love traditions.
18. You are just the best brother ever!

LOVE YOU BROTHER!!

American Idol - Semi Live Top Six Blogging

2008-04-22T23:11:00.003-05:00

First I must say that I am a HUGE fan of the musical genre.....Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rogers and Hammerstein, even the fun new Broadway hits, I download them to my ipod and ROCK OUT in my car...I'm not ashamed.

Syesha - little miss hot stuff, loved everything about your performance - - every week I LOVE LOVE LOVE you more!

Jason - let's not disregard my love for you and your voice, but I knew that you were going to struggle this week. I have heard "Memory" many times but had no idea that it was from Cats, I think you did well for the theme, but it was definitely not your element. Brooke's screw up definitely saved you.

Brooke - Are you kidding me? You are so much better than that. I don't care if you can't remember the words to the song, make something up and sing along to the tune, but DO NOT stop on national television LIVE! I completely agree wholeheartedly with Paula (and I loathe you tonight Brooke for making me say that!)

David A- You can sing any song that a female sings and sing it well, however I felt that the arrangement was very Phantom of the Opera meets the Backstreet Boys - I was not a fan. Thank you for keeping your eyes open, now let's work on that weird hand thing you do - it looks like you are gesturing us toward the grand buffet. It's just weird.

Carly - Loved your performance. Loved your dress, thank you for not wearing black spandex pants and some black or red shirt. You looked like a star tonight.

David C - I was a a bit worried about what you were going to throw out tonight but you were PHENOM! I loved it. (If you can't tell I'm a huge Phantom fan!) I take back everything that I said about you at the beginning of the season, you have definitely grown into your element and your voice has really grown and matured. I look forward to hearing what you will sing each and every week.

Bottom Three: Brooke, Jason, Syesha

Going Home: Brooke

See ya tomorrow!

Prayers Appreciated

2008-04-15T20:23:00.002-05:00

I have something going on tomorrow that I would appreciate your prayers for. I can't get into details right now but just know that the Lord is up to some really great things. Please pray for wisdom and discernment and that the Holy Spirit would go before me and make His plan overwhelming clear.

Thank you so much brothers and sisters!

American Idol Live Blogging

2008-04-15T19:02:00.003-05:00

We all know Michael Johns went home last week, everyone has to go home sometime...it wasn't like he was going to win. Let's move on.

Mariah Cary...this should be interesting. Does she ever wear clothing that is not 2 sizes too small??

David A - Is he wearing leather pants? It was not his greatest performance, I sort of felt like it was the Aladdin song that they sing when they are floating on the magic carpet....the falsetto was NOT good, quite off key....not my fave from David.

Carly - LOVED the look tonight, you looked much more like a star.....however I think that you have syked yourself out since you have gotten some bad reviews by the judges for the past couple of weeks. When your strategy is to come and and sing like you are back home at the bar, the you are going to sound like you are back home at the bar - - aka CRAP.....you fulfilled your hope tonight.

Syesha - you seriously surprise me EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I really thought you would have gone home a LONG time ago, but you have grabbed hold and claimed your spot in this top 7. I had never heard the song you sang, but I loved it. I think your voice is so powerful but at the same time has all of these wonderful twists and turns that surprise me each week. In addition, I love every pair of earrings you wear - hook a sista up!

Brooke - I think we would be friends, your authenticity is priceless. I happen to be a huge fan of the singer/songwriter thing and a huge fan of yours! I loved it.

Kristy - ugh. I can't listen to you. How is it possible that you are still here?

David Cook - all I can say is WOW! While you were singing I had flashbacks to my 6th grade Christmas dance, but what you did with that song was brilliant....absolutely brilliant. You are the one to beat.

Jason - I'm not so sure what Randy was talking about with the luau, but I thought it was a brave move to go without the guitar and I thought it was a brilliant performance!

I'm going to have to say that I think it will be a girls bottom three week....seriously Kristy just turn in your mic and go home already!

Idol Gives Back

2008-04-08T22:11:00.007-05:00

I've sat down several times over the last few days to try to write the weekly post about American Idol and how everyone did but I just haven't been able to get the words to come out, this week it seemed so trivial.

My heart has been aching for Africa this week. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about Africa, see a picture that takes me back there, read or hear something that takes me back there, but this week has been intensely different. On Tuesday I was subbing at E high school for an ESL class (I found out that afternoon that I would be there all week!), however it was not your typical ESL classroom. The students spent the first 20 minutes or so of each class introducing themselves to me and telling me where they were from. The students are from all over the world, Iraq, Guatemala, Thailand, Burma, Mexico, Peru, but most of my students are from Africa, all over Africa. As I began to ask questions, I learned that many of them were born in one African country and moved to a refugee camp in another African country because of civil war, now they are here in the states. As I asked about their families, where they were, how big they were, over and over again the students would say, "my father is dead from the war" or "my mother died from tb (which means she hiv positive or had aids)." I left on Tuesday, got in my car, and wept.

Last night, I watched Idol Gives Back. It was hard to watch and not be moved, but for someone who has walked in the same streets as those orphaned children, seen the children dieing of malaria, wept with a mother who lost their child to HIV, and held hands with a woman who had full blown AIDS as she passed from this earth into the heavenlies, I was so grateful that a mainstream show like American Idol shared where and how you could help the least, the lost and the lonely.

I've read today that many (non-Christians and Christians alike) are up in arms about the closing song on Idol last night. It is undeniable, from a believers perspective, that the Holy Spirit was at work last night. He was at work through making people aware of how they can care for His people who are hurting and He was at work by putting it into someone in mainstream Hollywood's mind to sing a song all about SHOUTING to the LORD!

Praise Your name Jesus that You are and continue to be at work among Your people!

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27 (ESV)

SURPRISE!

2008-04-08T18:51:00.004-05:00

The most recent before picture I have is here.

And NOW.....
This is how much got cut off...9 inches total.....

Whirlwind

2008-04-02T22:20:00.002-05:00

I must apologize, I am a bit behind in the AI blogging this week....it feels like I am a bit behind in everything this week. I'm not going to comment on everything from last night, we've all seen it...I agree with everything he said here.

The only thing that I would like to add from last night is this...KRISTY where were your shoes?? Did you all of a sudden realize, "oh, it's my turn. I must run out there barefoot." Were there no shoes in all of American Idol land that matched your dress? Did the shoes that the stylist pick out hurt your feet so bad you couldn't suck it up and wear them on stage for a whole minute and a half? OR was that an actual conscious decision made to NOT WEAR SHOES! Somewhere in Hollywood last night (probably backstage at American Idol) there was a stylist that fainted at the horror of no-shoes-wearing-Kristy.

As far as tonight went, I'm pretty satisfied with Ramiele leaving. In a perfect world it would have been Kristy so that I don't have to listen to her sing off key without shoes on for one more week but we all know that she's going to be going home next week....then the real competition begins.

----------------------------

page break. new subject begins now....:)

So in the world of teaching things have been super crazy lately. Last week was the first week that I have taught for a whole week straight. Some of you might be thinking, hmmm what kind of glamorous life do you lead or what kind of lazy life do you lead? Well neither actually, my migraines are finally getting under control (Praise the Lord!), we seem to have finally found the right med combo. I haven't had a migraine in 20 days (as opposed to one everyday or every other day since about November)....please Lord let us keep this streak running. I've also fully recovered from the surgery I had in February. It took alot longer to recover from that than I thought it would, I'm in complete aww of women who have c-sections and then go home and care for a newborn baby. I didn't have a baby, but I needed someone to come care for me and my dog because I was in pretty rough shape. All that to say, it's been nice to have a sense of normalcy in my life the past few weeks.

I went to my first job fair on Saturday. This is the first of many that are on the calendar. Let me tell you - it was quite an experience. My friend Kat had told me about some that she had been to, but other than hearing about her experience, I didn't really know what to expect. When I drove up to the parking lot, it was completely full. I was lucky to find a parking spot from someone who was leaving. I stood in line for 2 hours and got to talk to one person. I didn't bring my purse in because I didn't think it was going to take that long, HA! Well, by the time I got to the interviewer I was so thirsty I could barely talk, but I was not leaving that line for fear that I would never get back into it. Next time I will know to bring an entire packed lunch in my purse - - sustenance is what gets you through...I will be bringing the big mama purse that houses all things. I will be prepared this weekend.

One last thing, I implore your prayers tonight for this family. I "stumbled" across this blog last week and have been following their story ever since. If you know me, you know that I don't believe that the Lord ever allows us to just by chance stumble across anything, but that it all has a purpose and a plan. I believe part of His plan is so that we can pray for them tonight. In short, Tricia has cystic fibrosis and has been awaiting a lung transplant for some time. Tonight they got the call that there was a set of lungs here in TX that was a match for her. As I type, she is undergoing this surgery. I love that as a blog community we can join together in prayer for one another, let's do that tonight for Tricia.

AI - Top Ten

2008-03-25T21:29:00.002-05:00

Although the 10 people that sang tonight made it into the top ten, they most certainly did not perform up to top ten standards.....but we are still going to talk about it.

First off, let's discuss Paula's outfit - - was she dressed for Halloween from the year she was born?? What the heck was up with the costume jewelry and the black gloves???

Alright, moving on...

Ramiele - much better than last week, she looked great...however, the last person who sang that song on Idol was Carrie Underwood. I can remember sitting in my college apartment with Jake Kelley watching her sing this huge song by Heart, we both looked at each other and said, "she just won." Well Rami, you did not win or really compare to Carrie's version, but it was better than last week.

Jason - I love that you went back to the guitar, but you seemed too comfortable...I need you to WOW us again.

Syesha - two weeks of wonderful in a row, I wish my hair had the kind of volume yours does.

Chikezie - boring....again....nothing new from you.

Brooke - I love the way you took the arrangement and made it your own, a beautiful song and perfect choice for you. On another note, has anyone else noticed how she looks at her husband for support and encouragement and strength? You can see the strength of their marriage and love for each other in their eyes....that's another reason I like her.

David - everything Simon said was right, you totally showed your age tonight, it sounded like a bad version of the Lion King on ice....it was just bad....

Michael - way to finally pick a PHENOM song and have an out of the park performance! I totally flashed back to the scene in Mighty Ducks 2 when they are all sitting around the camp fire singing We Are the Champions....

Carly - great song choice, stiff performance....we know you can sing, can you perform??? what are we going to see if we come to your concert..because if it's you rocking back and forth, no matter how good you sing, I'm not coming.

Kristy - great song on the 4th of July....on American Idol in MARCH really weird...

David C - another great performance, I certainly like this one more than the super rock band performances, just my personal taste...I definitely predict top 2-3....

Who's going home?? That's tough, basically you are asking who sucked the most this week, a week where sucking was at an all time high...I predict bottom three are Rami, Chik, and David A..

Going Home - - Chik...please??

Happy Easter...a little late

2008-03-25T20:30:00.004-05:00

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful, reflective and worshipful Easter weekend. I had a super fun weekend in Palestine with my family. On Friday mom and I went shopping around town. Before we could shop we had to get a bite to eat, neither of us was super hungry but definitely needed a sandwhich. We stopped in at this sweet little bakery next to the Church's chicken - we both had a chicken salad sandwhich and it was divine.

On Saturday, the annual Palestine Dogwood Festival was kicked off. This is a three week festival that is a really big deal in Palestine. Last year my brother's girlfriend, Brynne, was the Dogwood Queen, however she passed on her crown last week. So on Saturday afternoon mom and I headed off to downtown to the official arts and craft show of the Dogwood Festival. It was filled with your typical arts and craft junk which is another persons arts and craft treasure, but we did have a DIVINE funnel cake and glass of fresh squeezed lemonade.

On Sunday, I got up much earlier than I usually do to go to Sunday School with mom and my brother. Mom cooks waffles for the youth every Sunday with Melissa, but Melissa was out of town this weekend so I went with mom to help. What a wonderful day it was to worship our resurrected Lord. On Saturday evening I was reading through the crucifixion account in Luke, what defeat Mary and the disciples must have felt on that day in between.....their Lord, their friend had been so brutally murdered, did they cling to the promise that He would rise again? Thank you Jesus for being the Resurrected Lord.

I hope you were able to rejoice with your friends and family this Easter weekend.

Bye, Bye Miss American Idol...

2008-03-20T22:40:00.003-05:00

It's official, Amanda has left American Idol! Now I don't like hearing Kristy sing, I'm sure there was SOMEONE in America better than her, but I don't like hearing Amanda more than I don't like hearing Kristy AND if I had to choose one to hear over the other at the American Idol tour I would much rather it be Kristy.

If you followed all of that and are still with me, God bless you.

And then there were 11...

2008-03-18T20:40:00.003-05:00

I feel like there is this super secret conversation going on between Paula and Simon, and every once in a while Ryan catches on and calls them out on it and the whole show just becomes very awkward...anyone else with me here?? Ok, so moving onto the show tonight...

Amanda - everything that you since sounds like "ababadababadab." I can't understand a word you say. I laughed outloud when you started talking about you putting on the kind of show that people would buy a ticket to come and see....I'm sorry did she miss the part where the competition is still going on??

Kristy - how many times do I have to say this...WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?????.....

David A - princess precious, you are just so sweet....thank goodness you remembered all your words this week, you needed that boost of confidence....good job.

Michael - I'm not sure how much longer your Australian hotness is going to keep you in this competition, it was a pretty little song to listen to but it did not wow me....I need you to wow me again.

Brooke - ok, so it wasn't Let It Be, but I liked that it was fun and you were up walking around and interacting with the audience. Yes you were a little awkward, but who isn't? I LOVED IT!

David C - I liked that cool voice thing on the mic, I'm not a super fan of the rocker-guy style but I thought you were by far one of the better singers tonight.

Carly - You looked beautiful - I loved the top, I thought you were great, you always are.

Jason - You will remain my favorite, you are from Rockwall, I know you, I feel I must be loyal, plus you are great! However, I feel that you are at a pivotal point, you are very comfortable with the guitar and very uncomfortable without it. In order to do well from here on out I think you are going to have to choose REALLY great songs to play on the guitar, but it has to be a REALLY great song. Tonight was not really great, it was just great.

Syesha - Tonight was YOUR really great night. Yesterday is classic, it's one of my favorites and you looked BEAUTIFUL....where did you get your earrings, because I would like a pair - they were fabulous.

Chikezie - Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a Chikezie fan, however tonight I kind of dug the ballad, harmonica, fun song.

Ramiele - I thought it was kind of sweet, kind of fun, not going to win you the show but it was kind of fun and flirty...it was nice to see a different side of you than the serious ballad romance song.

So in conclusion, I think the consensus was that they should have ended the Beatles last week, no one chose a good song this week, and now let's move on to next week.

Bottom three - Ramiele, Kristy and Michael
Going home - KRISTY (Please Jesus, save my ears from listening to the torture next week!)

The Results and a BIG Glitter Mess

2008-03-12T23:42:00.003-05:00

So tonight was not David Hernandez's night...I personally thought that Kristy was going home but I have a feeling that the recent publicity that David H has received caused America to think twice about voting for this very excited, eye popping cabaret singer.

I do feel the need to point something out...something very interesting that DeeDee and I discussed last week. On elimination night it seems that the person going home sings better than they have ever sung in their entire life....just a thought.

My last thoughts on Idol for the week...PAULA - can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE learn how to speak in complete sentences, WITHOUT stuttering, stumbling and falling throw the words??? I have faith that you can do it.

On to other things...my college roommate Kat is getting married this summer. I am helping her plan her wedding (which is something I love to do!!). So, tonight we got together for a little check-in to see where we were on some things and a really funny event happened. Now, we had some really fun times together in college, but I will have to say this ranks up there with them. We are working on decorations, specifically centerpieces - so we headed out to the local Hobby Lobby to see if we could get some inspiration. Half of the tables at the reception are going to have floral centerpieces, but the other half we are decorating ourselves to help save a little money on flowers. We found these REALLY fun baskets at the HL and they became our inspiration. What could we do with these baskets?? The answer quickly found us..so we thought...balls. Picture it....round balls (kind of like a Christmas ornament) except sparkly and the colors of the wedding. We quickly gathered supplied....Styrofoam balls, the kind you use for your 6th grade science project of the solar system, spray adhesive, and glitter! When we got back to her house it became a kindergarten teacher's craft project nightmare....there was lots of spraying, lots of glittering, there was even a hand that got stuck to the newspaper.....what we did NOT have was a fabulous centerpiece. Instead we had a good laugh. The basket will remain our inspiration but big glittery ornamental balls will not be going inside this inspirational basket....SO, if you have any ideas send them the wedding planners way!

American Idol Live!

2008-03-11T20:05:00.003-05:00

The top 12 performed tonight and here is my take....

1. Praise the Lord that they have a stylist!!!
2. Was it just me or did it seem like Ryan Seacrest was on CRACK tonight?
3. Did anyone else feel like some contestants felt like this was their own personal rock concert?
4. Why can't Simon remember anyone's name?

Now that that's over, let's get to the performances...

Syesha - I think it was your best performance so far....you looked like you had SO much fun. I can't imagine being the first one to perform on top 12 night and you did great.

Chikezie - go home already. I think you might have gotten hold of whatever was in Ryan's drink. You are not my favorite although I will say it looked like you had fun tonight.

Ramiele - everything the judges said (each and everyone of them) was absolutely correct...BORING....you might be going home, if so you and Danny could watch the rest of the season together.

Jason - I love each and every time you sing, we always know it is going to be great. It was not as great as last week, I think you played it safe with the guitar...still love you though.

Carly - Amazing. You had fun, you looked beautiful and you were fabulous!

David Cook - this was not your personal rock concert, however it was good.

Brooke - I have a dream that one day I will play the piano and sing on a stage with the same passion and confidence that you did tonight. You were fantastic and by far the winner in my book tonight. Thank you for always being real.

David Hernandez - there are no words...except if you are reading my blog, which you are, and in that case you are not at the cabaret and this is not your personal rock concert, I have a feeling that you spent lots of hours in front of the mirror practicing this week...

Amanda - first I'm wondering how many weeks in a row we are going to see that scarf, I am pretty sure that you pulled a fast on on the stylists. second, could anyone understand what she was saying??

Michael - you Aussie, I think you are delicious - I love that song, I like that the song meant something to you, that it brought you through something in your life, it showed in your performance.

Kristy - Simon said it best when he said, "you sounded like Dolly Parton on helium, at the country fair with a couple of banjo players...." it was horrid and I think Kristy might be going home.

David Archuletta - WHAT HAPPENED? You forgot the words, you looked like an uncomfortable robot.....it was terrible, but you are precious so I don't think you will go home. I have a feeling that tonight you will be holed up in your room crying, hold onto your sweetness through the results tomorrow night...I predict you will see more weeks of the idol stage.

That's it for tonight my friends, I'll see you tomorrow when the results are in.

Randomness

2008-03-06T21:39:00.008-06:00

The Results are in, I was 2 for 4. Luke and Kady went home early, Danny and Asai'h at the end.....I'm not sure who cried more, Danny or Ramiele, either way I'm pretty happy with the top 12. David and Jason made it in which is really all that mattered to me - I've always wanted to see American Idol on tour, maybe this will be the year.

So what the heck is up with the weather?? I know it's Texas people but seriously. This weekend I wore short sleeves, two days ago it was snowing, yesterday I had my air conditioning on and tonight the streets are frozen over with ice.....only in Texas.

Moving on, yesterday (or maybe the night before) I'm really not sure, DeeDee and I had a really good laugh about Las Vegas. This time last year we were there having a fantastic time! You can read about that here. So, to get back to the story, her husband Jim was on a business trip this last week in Vegas, he had called her while in the airport however the Las Vegas airport is not so friendly to phone conversations. While talking DeeDee realized that he was in the same location as the famous incident occur ed while coming home last year. I will never forget being shushed by the very cranky woman whose flight had been delayed several times, then the entire waiting area applauding her feat. All we were doing was playing a lively game of Egyptian Rat Screw. This however set into motion a series of events that really need to be told in person due to the hysteria, they involve the couple on the plane sitting next to me making out, him popping her zits and her not knowing how to put her seat in the upright position in order to get ready for take off.....oh Las Vegas. I thought of all of this again tonight though because I saw here where the Whitaker family was enjoying some In-N-Out burgers, which we also enjoyed in Vegas after getting lost for nearly an hour....Lasmmmmm I could use one of those right now!

I'm done rambling, I'm off to pray that school will be cancelled tomorrow....but I want to know tonight so that I can sleep in....please decide tonight, preferably before 11:30....

Girls a Snooze and oolala Runway

2008-03-05T22:35:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure what was going on with the girls, the judges or the audience tonight but it was pretty insane. Let's start with Paula referring to the audience as "muts"....it all went downhill from there....anyways, here's the review of the girls and it ain't pretty.

Asia'h - Whitney sang it better obviously, but it was ok and those pants should have stayed in someone's imagination and never been made....what was wardrobe thinking tonight?

Kady - I feel as though you look like you want to kill the camerman when you sing.....did he do something to you? Bad song choice...you're going home.

Kristy - you still fail to impress, somehow you already had a record deal and it failed, go home and ride horses

Ramiele - you have a good voice but you remind me of Danny and that just oobers me out, however your outfit was one of the only good choices tonight....

Syesha - I'm still a fan, you'll make it into the top 12....you were by far one of the best tonight, but that's not saying much.

Amanda - I will never look at you without picturing you in white chaps singing, "daby-doo-daby-dah-i-forgot-the-words-and-i-can't-sing." Again you were awful tonight, it is apparant to me that everyone on the set has gone deaf - the only one whose opinion really counts is Simon's and he has obviously gone deaf from Paula's incessant clapping and yapping.

Carly - you were fab, you always will be because you are amazing....your outfit was not amazing.

Brooke - you were my favorite tonight, great choice on the arrangement, great choice sitting on the stage, all around GREAT!

SO - my predictions on who is going home tomorrow: Kady and Kristy, Chikezie and Luke

-------------

Tonight was also the much anticipated season finale of Project Runway. (I think I might watch too much tv). I became a fan of this show midway through last season and have been an avid watcher ever since....it is so fun. So, I was scheduled to have the Heart monitor people between 8 and 10 pm (my doctor wants me to wear a heart monitor for a month, just as a precotion)....of course they don't call until 9:15 while Project Runway was on, I was so happy though that they didn't call at like 9:50 when they were announcing the winner....ok so anyway, the winner was Christin - he is fierce and fabulous and can design a dress that any woman would want to wear. I mostly like him because he makes me laugh hysterically and bawl like a baby all at the same time....and yes I did cry when he won - he really deserved it!

This is why he makes me laugh, design something fabulous Christin, I'll wear it!

Correction

2008-03-05T15:18:00.011-06:00

So I have been corrected....ahh the internet....

I did a little more research into the song that Jason sang last night, my friend DeeDee asked where I got the lyrics, well, here ya go....

Apparently the song was first sung by Leonard Cohen, then by Jeff Buckley. A few years later K.D. Lang sang it, but changed a few of the words, that happened to be the version I stumbled upon. I also found some interesting facts about the song here.

So here are the original lyrics....what are your thoughts on the song?

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

The boys are back...

2008-03-05T02:13:00.004-06:00

The boys were back tonight for Idol and they rocked the house...for the most part.

So there are 8 guys left, 2 get voted off on Thursday night and the rest of them are in the top 12. This is a big deal because that means they get to be on the American Idol CD and they get to go on tour...I've always really wanted to see AI on tour, maybe this will be the year!

Luke - you are definitely in my bottom 2 for the evening, I thought your performance was boring.

Michael - you are Australian and have an amazing voice...tonight performance did not disappoint, just being Australian landed you a spot in the top 12.

David Hernandez- you do this weird thing with your eyes when you sing....stop that....however, your performance tonight was pretty good and I predict you will see next week.

David Cook - I'm not sure what the issue with the guitar was, but I feel that you should have lost the guitar completely - I feel the same way about you that I did about Taylor Hicks, you need to do something with the hair...he needed a box of hair color, you need rogaine. It's ok.

Danny - there are no words...actually there are, they just are not appropriate for me to say here. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??? The purple hair needs to go, and you are a guy - where GUY PANTS! Regarding your performance, I have trouble listening to it due to the fact that you have purple hair, are wearing girl pants and are doing the shimmy on American Idol.

Chikezie - you, like Luke, should have gone home several weeks ago and I predict that Thursday is your night.

David Archuletta - you were my second favorite of the night, I love a guy who can play the piano, loved the attitude you had when you got up from it to sing to all of America....I do however agree with Simon, we are gonna need to see some spunk, let's try a fun song next week :) you are still my top two!

Jason - oh Jason! first of all, one of my all time favorite songs, made popular by Jeff Buckley and more recently sung on the OC on a sundry of occasions, usually involving Ryan, Marissa and alot of drama - anyways.... second, you sang it with such confidence..such a hard song and you totally nailed it....you are in this competition for the long haul.....keep practicing those interview skills, you will get it :)

The song Jason sang was Hallelujah, the lyrics have always been quite interesting to me...I go back and forth as to what the spiritual application is or if there is one, what are your thoughts?

Hallelujah

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Tune in tomorrow for the girls, it's turning out to be a true competition here folks :)

America's Bad Decision

2008-02-28T20:51:00.003-06:00

For the most part I am thoroughly disappointed in America's voting.

Those that went home tonight on American Idol: Jason, Robbie, Alexandrea, and Alaina.

I am totally ok with the guys, except that we will have to watch Danny for another week, with his weirdee pants and "punk" bands.

AS FOR THE GIRLS!!!

1st elimination - It came down to Amanda and Alexandrea. OBVIOUS CHOICE AMERICA. However, America made the wrong choice and chose Alexandrea to go home and for another week we have to listen to freaky hair, weird chap pants Amanda sing from the back of her throat.

2nd elimination - It came down to Alaina and Kady, again another OBVIOUS CHOICE AMERICA...and it appeared to be an obvious choice to both of them...you could tell that they both thought that Kady was going home. The look of shear shock came across BOTH of their faces, and then came the tears...all the tears.

Are they all going to cry like that all season long?

Girls Night

2008-02-28T20:24:00.003-06:00

So there were good moments and bad moments...

Carly - You were great, you have nothing to worry about for a while.

Alaina - I loved the blue dress - you looked glam. There were definitly some pitchy problems, but nothing that can't be worked on.

Alexandrea - your performance was good - your outfit was not, what were you thinking letting people dress you in ankle boots and boy shorts?? Let's never see that happen again.

Amanda - where do I start? your hair - how do you make hair that big? those white chaps? oh my, I just don't think this is your venue.....hmmm.

Asia'h - you nailed it, especially the end....we'll see you next week.

Brooke - AMAZING! Great song choice, great move with the guitar, great outfit! GREAT EVERYTHING!! You were my favorite tonight, ever since you sang I cannot get the "How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days" version out of my head.

Ramiele - DeeDee and I were talking about there being some throwback to Sanjuya....I feel it....I feel that some how you will make it to the top 12, I'm not voting for you though - to me you always look like you are lip singing.

Syesha - I'm still a fan, not your best week but I'm still a fan.

Kristy Lee Cook - irridescent pants, no mam. you haven't found the right song yet, i'm waiting for it.

Kady - no, no, no. it was all bad, the dress, the song, all of it

An Assundry of Randomness

2008-02-26T23:16:00.003-06:00

FIRST, big apology for the massive influx of blog posts, my old blog had some serious technical issues but I did not want to lose all of my posts, so I spent some time tonight moving them over here.

Onto more important things - American Idol - Guys Night....
Michael Johns - Not your best performance, but I think your accent will move you through to next week.

Jason Castro - I don't agree with Paula very often, but I totally did tonight. I thought you were fabulous! I do however think that in order to stay in the competition you are going to have to get out from behind the guitar (even though you are fabulous on it!!) and show them that you can sing without it.

Luke - ehh. that's really all I have to say about you.

Jason Yeager - I'm just not a fan, I know you're from Texas....you went to DBU (however in my book that counts against you, I bet you were in Glowing Heart (anyone who knows me well knows why)) but I just think you are more cabaret, sing a solo in the Christmas Cantata than American Idol....plus you still have the weird hair thing going on....sing with an instrument maybe that will help

David Hernandez - you were great tonight. we'll see you next week. you have a cute face.

Danny Noriega - where do I begin...punk band in 9th grade? cut off plaid shirt in the punk band that you actually shared with everyone in the world? saying ISH to Simon? GO HOME!

David Cook - I have to confess that I did not see you sing because Idol was an hour and a half and cut into my One Tree Hill time....did I mention that I love watching tv? probably too much...so at this point I was flipping back and forth.

Chikezie - two polos??? NO sir! You did ok, not my fave, kinda pitchy. EHH.

David Archuletta - BE STILL MY HEART...first of all one of my favorite songs ever....second, please come live in my purse and sing to me every single time I open it. You will win the whole SheBang....it's true, I'm calling it now.

My votes for going home - Chikezie and Luke maybe?

MY WEEKEND
This weekend one of my favorite friends, Cindy Lou came to Dallas to celebrate her birthday. The one thing that she really wanted to do for her birthday was get a tattoo, so after the movie tavern (which is REALLY fun if you have never been), I took her to the local tattoo shop...here's the play-by-play.

Signing the Release.Getting ready to place the tattoo...Blake her tattoo artist was really nice, I highly recommend him if you are in the neighborhood for a tattoo.

Yes, that's my finger...I'm lucky I still have one.In all honesty the whole process took like 2 full minutes.So she was in a little pain...She did it....then we went to get ice cream at ColdStone!

Yesterday, my brother was in the Big Man on Campus contest at his high school. It's basically a beauty pageant like Miss America, but it's guys. His friends Kelsey and Shauna choreographed a dance for him for his talent...my favorite part was his interview. I'll try to get some of the video to put on her, for now though here are some pics....by the way, HE WON!

He's practicing his dance...the girls kept saying, "Come on, you are going on in like a minute - - do it like you want to win!" They were so funny!
In addition to all of the glam that he won (flowers, sash, and crown) he won a $100 bucks, his choreographers are taking a cut of it though :) - - it's apparantly a tough business!

Yeah.

I'm blogged out...until tomorrow when the girls sing.

Much Needed Update

2008-02-26T21:07:00.001-06:00

Ok, so it's been almost two months since I have posted. Let's just say that alot has happened, SO here we go...

1. I decided to enroll in a teacher certification program. I'm super excited about it. Basically, while I am substitute teaching this semester (which is crazy!) I also do the course work for the certification program. Right now I am about 1/3 of the way through the program. I have two major tests to take, and in May I will be a certified high school English teacher!

2. Christmas was great! Since the school districts in the Dallas area were on break, that means I was on break. I spent most of the break in Palestine, it was so nice to be around my family for almost two full weeks. There were some days that none of us got out of our pjs and it was so much fun!! Here are a few fun pics from the holidays:

The Family!

My fantastic hat that Brynne got for me.

Lulu trying to figure out her Christmas present.

Lulu loves her Mammy :).

Lulu with her Great-Grandparents.

3. Many of you have asked if we have figured out what is going on with my migraines. Well the answer is no, but we have some clues and are on our still on the hunt. Basically everything on the neurological end has turned up negative. Meaning that all of my MRI's, EEG's, CT's etc. have not shown anything which is super good. That being said, it seems that it is more hormonal related, so we are pursuing that route right now. Throughout this whole process I have really wished that all doctors specialized in everything - - it would be so much easier - - oh well.

That's about all that is going on in my world. I don't really do resolutions, I think that they are useless, but I do have some personal goals for the year and some things in the works - - as the time comes I will share them with you. I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and are getting ready for a wonderful week. I will resolve to update more often since this is a blog about all my heart desires.

One Thankful Week

2008-02-26T21:05:00.001-06:00

I know that I am a little late posting about Thanksgiving, but I still wanted to be able to share about my Thanksgiving week.

I was able to spend almost a full week at home with my family, we had so much fun together cooking, eating, watching movies, playing games and just hanging out! On Friday morning, mom and I got up at FOUR AM to start the shopping maddness. When we got into Wal-Mart, she went one way and I went the other, we each had our respective list of items we were after. About 30 minutes later we met up in the middle of the store, checked out and headed off to Tyler.

Two of my favorite times of year are the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas for many many reasons, here are there reasons that the week of Thanksgiving is one of my faves:

I get to decorate for Christmas! In college my roommates and I always decorated our apartment for Christmas before going home for the Thanksgiving holiday, since moving away and being on my own I have since carried on this lovely tradition. I love coming back to a Christmas tree and a wreath on the door!
Yummy, yummy food!
Football
Celebrating my dad's birthday - always on or right around Thanksgiving (the 25th to be exact!)
Thanksgiving Day movie
Day after Thanksgiving shopping, regardless of how early it is, with my mom!
Rest

I really hope that each of you had a blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

One Crazy Week

2008-02-26T21:04:00.001-06:00

This week has proven to be a CRAZY week!

My brother had his last high school football game on Friday, I don't have any pictures yet, but certainly will have some soon! I am so proud of the way that he leads those guys and has been an example and friend to them - even when he hasn't received the credit he deserves. He has become such a leader, I can't believe he's graduating from high school in 6 months!

On another note, my sweet friend Katy Lowe, now Katy Britton, got married on Saturday. She looked so beautiful. Here are a few pictures from the wedding :)
On Tuesday, I had my second substitute orientation. This one was with Dallas ISD - - it was LONG, but good! On Wednesday, I subbed at a Dallas MS, it was very interesting - I feel very enlightened after that experience :)

For those that don't know, I'm going back to school to get my teacher certification. Actually it's an alternative certification program that I'm going to be able to do online while subbing. I should have my certification by May and will be able to start teaching in August - - YAY!!

Back to School

2008-02-26T21:02:00.001-06:00

What a very fun and interesting day it has been. Today was my first day of substitute teaching since I was in college - - even then I only did it in Palestine for some people I knew so I didn't really feel like I was teaching. I taught at Sunnyvale Middle School today, subbing two different 5th grade classes.

This morning I had two different class of Language Arts/Reading. They were super easy, honestly a little boring just because they had two stories to read and questions to answer in order to get ready for the TAKS (what used to be known in my day as the TAAS Test) test.

This afternoon however has been really fun. I have re-learned how to do long-division. Apparently the way that they taught long division when I was in 5th grade 12 years ago (I can't believe I just admitted that) is no longer any good. There is this new thing called friendly numbers and estimating something - - I think that the old way is much much better, I understand why parents have so many problems trying to help their kids with their homework - - because they completely changed the way we do math!

All in all my first official day of subbing was very good, for the most part the kids were good. My mom had put this dreadful thought that they would all be horrible because of Halloween the night before, thankfully she was very wrong!

Good Friends

2008-02-26T21:00:00.001-06:00

I have some wonderful friends in my life - - three of my best friends are my college roommates. We have all been through alot of crazy stuff together, mainly living together for three years, but we are still great friends today. Today is one of the roommates birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT! To celebrate (and to meet the boyfriend...soon to be fiance) we all met at Dave and Busters in Frisco. We had so much fun! The four of us have not all been in the same room together since Lindsey's wedding, which was a little over a year ago. I'm not sure how the husbands and boyfriends put up with all of us because when we start talking and laughing, there is no stopping us!

From Left to Right: Kat, Me, Lindsey and Amanda!

I must say that these girls bring joy to my life and are true blessings!

distrubing

2008-02-26T20:59:00.001-06:00

The following message was sent to me from our partner pastor in Ghana, Africa. This is a disturbing and awakening message. If nothing else, it should open your eyes to the need for prayer in these regions.

This was found by a young boy in a photocopy shop in Accra It has a lot to tell us, and to prepare us for whatever test may come our way. It is scary, but Jehovah will give us victory.

"REMEMBER NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER IN JESUS NAME".

OUR 'AD ' 2007 - 2010 PROJECT FOR ALL SATANIST.
CODE NAMED, ASTRO - METAPHYSICAL OPERATION 999

Our first meeting and operation started in 9th October, 2006 and 400,000 people are to be initiated within this period. Among the 400,000 people 280,000 will come from the Schools and Universities. Take very note and carry this operation successfully especially the so-called Christians, the Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel.
1. Universities = 35,000 people
2. High School = 45,000 people
3. JSS & SSS = 130,000 people
4.Children below 8 years = 80,000 people

Remember the operation number is Code XXO - XVI - Starlight 666. Our biggest meeting will be held at Juaso Nkwanta September and November 2007 because of the elections and be chaired by Regional Commander Seth Kofi Manu. The meeting will attract important members all around the world.

Comrade St. Gopanatta - India
Comrade Kris Mc Anderson - USA
Comrade Uki Steward - Nigeria
Comrade Daniel Mokoena - South Africa
Comrade Mirza Ali Mohammed - Iran
Comrade Professor Kingsley Boison - Ghana
Hogo Mamfred - Spain

and both all the regional representatives, students leaders around the world. At our last meeting, we agreed upon to make the meeting a memorable one in our history so one million, one hundred and fifty-four souls would be needed through road accidents, rape, murder and armed robbery. This includes:

Ashanti Region - 722 Souls
Brong Ahafo Region - 103 Souls
Eastern Region - 119 Souls
Central Region - 134 Souls
Greater Accra Region - 76 Souls

Every means applied through dressing, planting of hair making items, friends and eating together, exchanging of clothes and shoes, through sex and abortion, through music both their so-called Christian songs, remember we have agents among them.

In the first quarter of our calendar year, we are to infect 110,000 people with HIV / AIDS both married and unmarried through sex. 4,000 people with Tuberculosis (TB) 6,000 people with High Blood Pressure (BP). 11,000 Pastors and Preachers will be destroyed 2,600 people with Blindness 46,000 Wombs to be destroyed thereby causing barrenness 20,000 marriages to be destroyed to bring hardship into the system to enable us win the so-called Christians into our kingdom through juju, mallam and secret societies like Later Day Saints,
Eckankar, Amorc etc.

Our second meting will take place in Ibadan, Nigeria on April 1, 2008 Code name Sanbra-333-000-4.

AGENDA:

To create instability and confusion and as much as we can bring civil war in Ghana and Nigeria as we did in Liberia, Sierra Leone Congo and Sudan.

Comrade Mirza Ali Mohammed will be honoured because of the great job he is doing in Iraq.

Where is their God or so-called Messiah? We are winning and must continue to win to attack them through their leaders. Remember we have lost Great Men like Iddi Amin , Adolph Hitler, Mobutu Sesaseko, Gnassingbe Iyadema, Nana Adjoa Serwaa, Christina Baaba Paintsil.

How to hinder their prayer life and succeed in retaining our position on each should be our hallmark.

Great grandfather lucifer.

As believers we should begin praying like we have never prayed before.

i love strippers

2008-02-26T20:58:00.001-06:00

I've been known to be a little out of the box sometimes. One of the things that I have grown to love doing here in the Dallas area is visiting strippers at several different strip clubs in Dallas. I started doing this last Christmas when a group of girls and I took Christmas candy and cards to the women during Christmas time. It was beautiful to see the bewildered looks on these precious women's faces. These women that are gawked at, oggled, and disrespected for a moment felt like they were people. Over the past 7 or 8 months I have had the opportunity to visit some of these women, it has been so great to get to know the people that they are - - to move past the stripper - - to get to know the beautiful moms that are struggling to put food on the table, the women that feel they have nothing more to offer the world than their bodies, the women that are in so much bondage from a past of emotional or physical abuse. These are the women that are referred to with that word..."stripper."

Why am I writing this? My friend DeeDee was at the mall and as she was walking by a store she saw a t-shirt in the window that said "I love stripper." Now, I know that most people that purchase this t-shirt will probably wear it because they are the ones that go to the strip clubs and are degrading to my friends...however DeeDee went in and asked for a t-shirt in a size Medium. The man selling the t-shirts looked at her a bit funny, and with that she was able to share with him a why I love strippers. Now, will I ever wear this shirt? Probably not, probably just to sleep in - but every time I see it I will be reminded of friends that are in need, people that I can pray for and a friend that loves me!

Today I'm Ashamed

2008-02-26T20:55:00.001-06:00

I'm ashamed to say that I forgot what today was until late this evening. I was in a scrapbook store this evening, looking for something useless and saw a wall full of patriotic scrapbook stuff, it dawned on me that today is 9/11. Then I realized that I went through the whole day, watched the news this morning, listened to the radio all throughout the day - - and never did I hear or see a remembrance of 9/11. I'm overcome with sadness because of this.

I started thinking back about where I was when I heard the news. I was in high school, it was still 1st period, Junior AP English. I had been in a car accident the day before the first day of school and missed the first three weeks of school because I had been in the hospital, I had just started coming back when it happened. The principal came over the intercom and said they were going to hold classes, no one knew why, so teachers started talking to each other and trying to figure out what was going on. I'm not sure who turned the TV on, but all we could figure out was chaos had come to the U.S. A teacher came to our door, her words were, "The pentagon has been hit, no one knows the extent of the damage." That was when we knew it was bad. About an hour later school was dismissed, we were told to go straight home. All we did was watch the TV for the rest of the afternoon, it was the first time I ever felt unsafe in the my own home.

This summer while I was visiting one of our mission teams in New York I had the opportunity to visit Ground Zero. While much of it is beginning to be rebuilt, there is still such a sense of sorrow and mourning. Amidst construction, there is silence so that there can be remembrance. As I walked the grounds, I wept over the horrible tragedy that happened there - - for those that passed away, for those that gave their lives for others, for those that lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives.

It is imperative that we as a nation, as humanity remember the tragedy that occurred on 9/11. I know that I will not forget, I hope the same is for you.

My Life this Summer

2008-02-26T20:53:00.000-06:00

Feeling Better

2008-02-26T20:52:00.001-06:00

Last time I wrote on here, I was feeling not so great! Good thing is that I'm feeling alot better now. The doctors figured out that I brought some kind of virus home from various parts of the world, the virus jacked up my blood sugar - - so i'm back to monitoring my sugar levels more frequently and paying more attention to my intake. Other than that they said I should be feeling pretty normal in about a week - which is tomorrow, and I am.

On Friday, Bo had his first football game - - he played awesome!! What was even better was that he was picked to be one of the captains (they weren't told till right before the game, so we didn't know who it was going to be)...we found out after the game that he was actually head captain because he is the one who talks to the refs and goes back out at half time!!! I'm so proud of him, he is such a leader on his team and an example for those guys that he plays with. I can't wait for every Friday night to watch him play - if you're in the Palestine area, you should come and watch him!

What a Week

2008-02-26T20:50:00.003-06:00

so apparently my body is done. i say this in a i am being forced to rest because otherwise i won't in hopes that we can figure out what is going on with my body.

let me back up a bit to say that i haven't really felt good since i've been back from Africa, but alot of that i usually just take in stride because of all of the travel and trying to get caught up at work. apparently that is not the case - since two weeks later i'm still not feeling so hot.

after a series of doctors appointments over the past week, lots of stealing my blood and tests that are taking way too long to come back (actually really they are taking the normal amount of time, i just don't do well with the waiting situation) - everything came to a crossroads this morning when i apparently had a delayed allergic reaction to one of the tests that they gave me on tuesday. after feeling like ants were crawling in my skin for several hours and benedryl only making me a bit incoherent, the doctor said that a steroid shot and 48 hours of isolation/bed rest is required to give my body a break. after that the coercing with the doctors will resume as my blood work should be back.

throughout this whole thing the Lord has really blessed me with some wonderful people in my life to come along side me and love on me. my very sweet friend deedee came to the doctor with me - - i have no idea how she actually arrived there since when she left her house she was still talking to me on her home phone, that's another story - - it was so comforting to have someone to talk to me, to ask the doctor questions (especially since i was benadryled out) and to just love on me. the Lord has also reminded me that He created my body and that He created it to be a very intricately working machine - He gives me signs when I need to slow down or stop and many times I chose to ignore them, which is probably part of why I am where I am. I desire to be more attentive to the creation that God has made - - it is His temple and I need to be attentive to it.

I covet your prayers over the next few days.

Going Home.

2008-02-26T20:48:00.001-06:00

I have been in Africa for 3 weeks, it feels so much like home. I continue to think and pray about what my life would look like if I were to live here long-term. My time here has been amazing, I cannot put into words everything that I have been able to experience and be part of. I was sad to see my team leave yesterday, we truly lived life together over the past week - laughs, tears and a plethora of experiences.

Over the course of the week, 52 people gave their lives to Christ for the first time, 25 of those were at the Medical Mission on Friday. At the Medical Mission we were able to see 153 patients in 5 hours, provide basic health counseling and help for medical needs such as malaria, malnourishment, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. The people that came were such an incredible blessing to be around. It was amazing to watch as our team counseled, fed, prayed, and loved on people that would not receive that kind of care anywhere else.

The youth conference turned out to be incredible - the Americans and the Ghanaians could not get enough of the small group time. I truly believe that is where real ministry happened - in the midst of those one on one conversations within the small groups. In the evening times, while we were going through the series on relationships there were so many hidden issues that were brought to light. I believe that this generation of Ghanaian youth will choose now to have Godly relationships, so that in the future they will be able to have Godly marriages.

Over the week, our team came to know a Ghanaian man named Zachius. He has a very difficult life - his wife’s family is muslim, but he and his wife are Christians - his wife’s family hates him. In the community that he is living in there are many people that go without food everyday, most look to him to help their community survive. He carries a very heavy burden - but when you look at him you would never know this because he exudes the joy of the Lord like no person I have ever seen. Throughout the course of the week we found out that he desired to go to driving school, if he is able to learn to drive he will be able to make money not only for his family but also for his community. Before knowing this our team had decided that they wanted to bless Zachius, but when we found out about his desire to go to driving school we knew that was what God wanted us to do. It wasn’t until after we had taken up the financial gift for Zachius that I found out how much driving school cost - wouldn’t you know that the team gave just over what was needed for school. God is so good and so faithful, He always knows the needs and the provision far before we ever begin to think about it.

Please continue to pray for Zachius and the many other Ghanaians that our team was able to share life with this week.

Leah and I will be traveling for the next 2 and a half days - please pray for safe travel, rest on the planes and that the Lord would continue to allow us to do ministry in whatever part of the world we are in over the next several days.

All my love.

Ghana - Midweek

2008-02-26T20:45:00.002-06:00

What a beautiful week of ministry it has been. We have reached Wednesday and things could not be better. For the past two mornings we have gone to a school in the neighborhood that we are staying in to share songs with them and to share bible stories. The children have been divided kindergarten-3 and 4-6, with about 150 students in each assembly. It has been so much fun getting to hear them sing about Jesus and listen so closely to His word.

We have also gone out into the neighborhoods to share the gospel with the people of South La (the area where the church is) and also Gbawe and Kinkawe. Yesterday, 13 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ as Lord!!!!

The morning discipleship time and the evening conference is going amazing. God is truly pouring His blessing out on the willing hearts here this week. During the morning our focus has been "What does discipleship look like," it has been a smaller time with the leaders of the youth ministries from the various churches. In the evening times our focus has been on "Godly Dating." I am amazed as I walk around the rooms during the small group times at the discussions that are being had. In a society where no one talks about what dating is or what the criteria is for a Godly relationship it is as if the floodgates have opened up for these students to be shared truth. The only complaint is that there is just not enough time to answer all of the questions. Praise the Lord!

Everyone's health has been good, other than being very tired, everyone is doing wonderfully - loving Africa, these beautiful people and their culture. I think that these students will look much more Ghanaian when they return home, than they do American :).

Please continue to pray for our team. On Friday we will be holding a Medical Mission at the main church for people to receive basic medical attention and medication for things like Malaria, Malnutrition, High Blood Pressure, etc. Our team will be used as counselors for the people who are waiting to be seen by the doctor, during that time we will have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. We will also be caring for the children of those that are receiving medical attention.

South Africa is still so ingrained in my heart. It has been much more difficult to come from the one area to this area...much more difficult than I thought that it would be. It is hard to talk about the moments in SA - unless you experience them you will never fully understand. I love both areas that I have been able to serve in, but with very different loves.

I continue to covet your prayers. I have felt them everytime I have spoke to the large groups or to the women or shared the gospel. EVERYTIME. The spiritual warfare is often intense, so please continue to lift our team up to the Father.

I love you and miss you.

South Africa to Ghana

2008-02-26T20:41:00.004-06:00

I cannot begin to describe, in a way that you will understand fully, the things that I have seen and been a part of over the last week, but I will try. We arrived in Port Shepstone, South Africa on Saturday night after 33 1/2 hours of traveling...needless to say we were a bit tired. The hotel we stayed in was wonderful - it reminded me of a tropical hut! I will try to go day by day, so you have an idea of what has been going on in the life and times of Laura's travels.

SUNDAY - On Sunday we attended church at Norwegian Settlers Church. It is mostly a white congregation but some of the black population has begun to come in - this is obviously a huge step in South Africa. During the church service the team helped in the children's program. Basically children are an after thought in this culture. We were able to sing songs, teach a lesson, have small group discussion and pray with the children. After church we went to Leopard's Rock for lunch. It is basically a rock that someone saw a leopard on at one point in time (hence the name!)....when you walk out onto the rock you are able to look out onto this beautiful gorge. However when you move off the rock, to the cliffs on the left of it you realize that it is not really a rock at all - rather a large over hanging that at anytime could break off and send you plummeting into the gorge (at least that's what went through my mind!). After the rock fun, we went to Merchison Hospital where we threw a part in the Children's Wing! It was so much fun to see the joy on the children's faces!! Most all of the children in the hospital have AIDS, it is typical for the mother to leave the child at the hospital until he/she is able to be released. Most times the mother is the sole breadwinner for the family, so if the mother doesn't work the family will starve. So, at the hospitals, the children have nurses and then they have GoGo's, which are like caregivers. All of the children from the TB ward were able to come over for the party as well. This was so huge because most of the time TB patients are too weak to get out of bed. What most people don't know is that those that have TB in Africa, also have AIDS - which means their immune system is very very weak. Overall this was a wonderful first full day in South Africa - a day that was able to bring alot of joy to children's lives.

MONDAY - This morning we went to the creche. A creche is similar to what we would call a pre-school, except that it has children from about 9 mos. to 6 years and is in a shack in the slums. The creche we went to had about 35 children, so we definitely had our hands full. We played soccer and bubbles (that was a HUGE hit!) and colored - all the normal pre-school stuff. There was one little girl that stood at my feet when we first got there. I picked her up and ended up holding her for the next two hours. I never could get her to speak, but I could tell she was very sick. She would just rest her head on my shoulder and her breathing was very slow. We cooked a hot stew for the children for lunch. For many of them it will be the only hot meal they will get all week - for many the only meal they get all week. We had so much left over that we were able to go door to door throughout the neighborhood and give out food to the women and children. After leaving the creche Leah and I had to eat lunch quickly because we were catching a flight to East London that afternoon and still needed to see the Care Center. The care center is what we would refer to as a hospice. It is a place for those with AIDS who have been told by the government hospital that there is nothing more that can be done for them to come and die with dignity, rather than in the streets. There are 20 beds for women and 20 beds for men and they are working on building a children's wing. After all of the children we had been around for the past few days - many of whom we knew would die because of the disease that they had - I have to say that the hospice center was the most difficult place to be. We spent the last little bit of time we had there going bed to bed to pray with patients, there was one lady in the corner of the room who was clearly very ill. As I prayed with her she looked straight into my eyes and moaned words that I could not understand, but you could see death in her eyes. I have never felt such a mixture of emotions in my life. I felt a mixture of devastation, mad, sadness, hope, frustration all at the same time - it's been a long time since I have broken down like that. Leah and I arrived in East London on Monday evening, we were able to eat dinner with the team there and get a good night sleep after two very long, emotional days.

TUESDAY - We were able to see most all of the ministry that First City Baptist Church is involved in today. It is very centrally located at the church, they have a clinic that people can come into for medical attention, a day care center and are trying to get funding for a hospice center. A wonderful man named BB took us out into the town to see the townships. These are the different "neighborhoods" that people live in. From what I observed, this city is very much still segregated, maybe not by law but by social class and standard. The townships range from rich-upper class white to rich-black to colored to squatters to the slums. I felt very much like I had stepped back in time to the days before integration and desegregation in America.

WEDNESDAY - Today was mostly spent traveling, Leah and I headed off to Ghana (HOME!) today!! We were so excited to finally get to Ghana. It was so good to be greeted at the church by Pastor Moses, Dora (my African mom) and Mickey, who is the youth president. I missed everyone here so much!

THURSDAY (TODAY!) - Today we spent the day with Pastor Moses at the church going over the plans for the week, exchanging money, getting supplies, etc. It's a bit crazy being here a few days before the team but I think it worked out really well because there is alot to think thru and to make sure we have everything together. The rest of the team is traveling now. Satan is definitely fighting against them, trying to keep them from getting to Ghana - please continue to join with us in praying for the remainder of their traveling. They barely made their flight to London, they should have just left Boston and be on their way to London as I type this to you.

I covet each of your prayers and encouragements!

With Love,
Laura

Getting Ready...

2008-02-26T20:39:00.004-06:00

I begin traveling this week..I can't wait! I leave I leave for Tampa Bay on Wednesday. I'll be there until Thursday evening, then fly to NYC!!!!!!!

I realized this afternoon that Leah and I leave 2 weeks from today for South Africa. I want to leave tomorrow, I think that we all do! I miss Africa. I'm ready to go.

Our Ghana team went to the Ghanaian Church in Arlington this past Sunday, it was beautiful. I truly felt like I had gone home. The team got to experience true Ghanaian culture – church, worship, fellowship, even an authentic lunch. I cannot wait to get to Ghana! I love it!!

Baking

2008-02-26T20:39:00.003-06:00

I finally got to layout this afternoon....it was glorious. We finagled our way into Leah's backyard so that the laying out process could happen. I fell asleep laying on my stomach in the pool and woke up an hour and a half later!

YAY for the sun!!!

Middle School...MMM

2008-02-26T20:31:00.001-06:00

So Middle School Camp was great. You never know how camp is going to go when you have 850 middle school students there but I can honestly say that it was really great! I love how innocent middle schoolers are - don't get me wrong there are some that know how to manipulate the system, but for the most part, they just don't have a clue! I love that about them because they are so moldible...it was great to walk by small groups throughout the week and hear the great conversations that our high school leaders and adults leaders were having with their groups.

Once again the Lord was just so beyond gracious. I just sit in aww of how good He is.

We got caught by the cops when I was in 7^th grade for toilet papering Nathan Royall’s yard….no cops tonight!

This is what happens when you put oil based; non-soluble paint in your hair….it does not come out.

Students donated over 400 towels to the homeless shelters in Austin.

Time at the Beach

2008-02-26T20:30:00.001-06:00

Alright, so I know that I have taken sort of a hiatus from Blog World….this is only due to the fact that my life has been filled with CRAZY!!! BUT, I am back! We had an incredible week at High School Camp in Gulf Shores, AL. Lives were changed for eternity because they heard from the living God. It was beautiful. I love sitting out on the beach at night listening to the beauty of the Lord’s creation.

On Wednesday night the girls and I went down the beach to take communion together. We had done this at Passion, I don’t think that we remember what the Lord did for us enough. It was a sweet time of worship with a group of girls that I have come to truly call friends.

Movie Night Crew!

My girls…My heart.

The beauty of the cross.

A very excited Taylor for High School Camp!

The Journey is About to Begin

2008-02-26T20:29:00.001-06:00

Thank you for being part of my support system and prayer network. The Lord has greatly blessed me with people like you who go before the throne of grace on my behalf while I am on the mission field. I’m excited to see what the Lord is going to do through in and through me this summer. Please partner with me in prayer for this summer of exciting ministry opportunities!

June 3-9: High School Camp, Gulf Shores, AL
June 18-22: Middle School Camp, Austin, TX
*First Summer to Incorporate Mission Projects into High School and Middle School Camps
July 11-14: Tampa Bay/New York City Mission Trip
July 20-26: Vision Trip to South Africa
July 26-August 5: Ghana, Africa Mission Trip

Insanity

2008-02-26T20:26:00.001-06:00

Insanity pretty much describes the last 96 hours of my life. In addition to completly forgetting about 2 meetings at work (which if you know me well, is just not really like me at all!) everything that could "come up" did...which in turn basically made it incredibly difficult for me to get ANYTHING accomplished. To top everything off, I took a lovely fall down my stairs this morning. Yep, that's right as I was taking Lulu out this morning she got all tangled up in my feet and the next thing I knew I very quickly had traveled all the way down the flight of stairs in a very painful way. Hopefully the weekend will bring some better luck!!

Last weekend was my girls Senior prom. I got to chaperone part of it, it was quite the experience! I worked the door helping check people in and escort them to their dinner table. All of my kids looked great; I was really really proud of the girls especially, their dresses were modest and they just looked beautiful! Here's a few pics:

Bodies, Bows and Prom

2008-02-26T20:16:00.003-06:00

If you haven't been to the Body Worlds exhibit in Dallas yet, you are missing out! Now, I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous when my friend from high school asked me to go see the bodies...however it not only made me wish I could go back to Mrs. Stroud's Biology class and listen a little more closely, but it really gave you an amazing picture of how the body works system by system. For those of you that think you aren't going to see real bodies - get over that right now - they are real, they are plastecised, but they are real. However, I would not have wanted it any other way. We were able to see the muscle systems, the nervous systems, the thoracic cavity, the body if it was only made up of blood vessels, etc., etc., etc., all in all it was AMAZING! There is also an IMAX show that you can go, it takes you through what the human body goes through in a normal day from waking up to going to sleep. It was crazy cool!

In other news, Lulu went to the salon (it sounds better than the Pet Groomer and since she is my little princess I feel that she went to the Salon!) this week. She's SO stinkin cute with her spring bows....and yes, they say HAPPY EASTER!

What's that over there?!

Mommy, I want to play!

And, if you didn't know it's prom season! My little brother is a junior in high school, he goes to the high school I graduated from. Funny enough prom has not changed in the least. It is quite a big deal in the little east Texas town of Palestine. Everyone in the town comes out for the coronation ceremony before prom, my little brother was in prom court - he was quite a stud! There is even the exchange of the dogwood chain from the senior class to the junior class - a little silly but a VERY big P-town tradition.

Bo and Brynne!

Bo and Chelsea, they were each other's escorts for Prom Court.

I'm Apalled

2008-02-26T20:15:00.001-06:00

So, I'm at Wal-Mart tonight - just picking up a few things (clorox disinfecting wipes, dr. pepper -- the norm) and my weekly magazines. I feel that it is very important to read what the different types of media write because it effects so much of our daily lives. It's important to know what Scripture says versus what media says and how to refute that. With that said, I pick up the norm (O Magazine, In Touch) and I start looking for Newsweek.....I'm appalled to find out that Wal-Mart is not carrying it anymore!!!!! How in the world can Wal-Mart carry EVERYTHING in the world, seriously everything, but not carry Newsweek.

Ok, I'm done.

Las Vegas

2008-02-26T20:12:00.002-06:00

Many of you have been asking about my trip to Vegas, it has taken me a few days to wrap my head around everything that happened. The Lord was incredibly faithful, as He always is. So, here is a rundown of the week.

Friday, March 9 - We flew out Friday night for Las Vegas. We got checked in very smoothly, however once we got inside the terminal we discovered that EVERYTHING was closed except for one little store that sold snacks. Therefore here is our dinner on Friday night:

Needless to say we were STARVING!! The flight in front of ours was cancelled therefore there were some very angry travelers, including one lady who was dragging her children around in their footsy pajamas like they were stuffed animals and was trying to get to Vegas for her brothers wedding. I tried to stay away from her. Luckily our plane was one time and very smooth, we got to Vegas on time, had a little trouble finding our hotel but other than that no travel problems!

Saturday, March 10 - The Grace Point team met us at our hotel bright and early on Saturday morning where IV (the Family/Outreach Pastor) and Ty (the Student Pastor) orientated us about our task for the week. Grace Point launched in January 2006, at that point they were averaging around 150 each week. They had been praying that by Easter they would double in size - Easter came and they had over 400 which is what they have been averaging since then. Our task for the week was to advertise for the upcoming Easter service in neighborhoods withing a 5 mile radius of the school that Grace Point meets in. The Grace Point teams goal for us was to pass out 2700 door hangers throughout the week. On day 1 of door hangers I walked about 8 miles, collectively we walked about 48 miles.

Sunday, March 11 - What a day!! I was awoken at about 1:30 AM with, "I think Makayla needs to go to the hoospital." Come to find out, one of our girls who had come on the trip with some chest congestion, had been up all night unable to breath really well. When I got up she was in the bathroom witht he shower running so that it would steam. SO we got everything together and went to the hospital. Can you imagine the things we saw in the Las Vegas hospital at 1:30 in the morning on a Saturday night!?! After waiting for about an hour they finally called our name and informed us that we were in Adult ER and needed to go to Children's ER - WHAT?! Who knew there was a difference?! So, we went to Children's ER, where there was NO wait....PTL! So after several hours of tests and waiting we discovered that Makayla had pneaumonia. There was lots of crying and wondering why this was happening, but after talking with the doctor and her parents the decision was made that Makayla needed to go home so that she could heal properly. Once released from the hospital we headed back to the hotel to get everything together - - amazingly she was able to get a flight out that afternoon. The rest of our team was at church, so I wasn't worried in the least about them - they were with family and being taken care of. After getting Makayla all checked in at the airport and making sure she was through security, I headed back to North Las Vegas to meet the team. They were at IV's house where is amazing wife Benet had made them stew, cornbread, apple cake and sweet tea for lunch. IV and Benet moved to Las Vegas from Alabama - so they are the definition of southern hospitality! When we left their house we went back to our hotel to change clothes and headed down to the strip to do some site seeing. We saw Ceaser's Palace, The Belagio, The Paris, and The Venecian - it was so fun and I was amazed at how clean it was. The Lord totally went before us and protected our eyes! We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - we had everything from Edamame to Guacomole! The table was COVERED with food! All in all, Sunday was exhausting but ended up being very fun. We were really sad that Makayla had to go home but wanted her to get better.

Monday, March 11 - After passing out doorhanger throughout the morning we met Ty so that we could go to the high school and the middle school to passout flyers about "Transparant" which is their student worship service. At the high school many of the students took them, many of them took them and ripped them up in our face, many of them cussed us out. At the middle school the students were much more relectant to take anything - they've been trained not to take anything from people because it is usually an advertisement for a stripper or nude nightclub - which just breaks my heart. Once some of them took the flyer and showed their friends that it wasn't a dirty flyer many many more took them. I heard some kids saying, "Isn't this that thing we were supposed to go to last week?!" I just prayed and prayed the the Lord would work in the lives of those impresionable middle school students. After finished up at the middle school we dropped Ty off and finished passing out door hangers till right before dark...So remember that goal of 2700 doorhangers to pass out for the week? We finished that today! Today I walked 6.13 miles, collectively we walked 30.65 miles!

Tuesday, March 12 - Today is the day that Grace Point has their student worship service. The student makeup out here is so completely different than what we know at Lake Pointe. The students here haven't been churched, they don't know the typical bible stories, the don't understand what worship is. It's a whole different world. We passed out doorhangers for most of the day, I walked 5. 71 miles, collectively we walked 28.55 miles. We met IV at his house about 4 so that we could go to Legacy High School, which is where they have Transparant. The church doesn't have a building to meet in so on Sunday mornings they meet at Brian Cram Middle School and on Tuesday nights they meeting at Legacy; they have a storage facility, a bread truck and a trailer that they carry everything around in. We met everyone at Legacy about 4:15 and helped them set up everything for Transparant. It was crazy to step back for a second and be so incredibly grateful for the building that Lake Pointe and our student ministry has, to be so incredibly grateful to not have to set up a stage or backdrop or chairs every single week but also to know how to pray for Grace Point as they endure through this season in their life as a church family. It was also insane to sit back and watch Grace Point's students as they went from not having a clue about what worship is to beginning to catch on as it was explained to them throughout the service. God is very cool as He takes us on this journey of faith.

Wednesday, March 14 - Today was a rather short day. We finished up two rather large sections that we hadn't gotten to on Tuesday. The Grace Point staff had offered to take us out to dinner downtown tonight, we they said that when we finished up what we didn't get to yesterday that we were done for the day. We went back to the hotel and had a rather relaxing afternoon. DeeDee's friend Chauney who lives in the Vegas area came to visit us. We played cards, took naps and just had a fun afternoon! Grace Point came to pick us up about 5:45 and we headed downtown to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had such a fun dinner, fellowshipping together. Unfourtunately the dinner was brought to a screaching hault with a second round of YMCA, a rather drunk man and us running out the door! I think I grew a new ab I was laughing so hard. On another note, I walked 2. 57 miles today, collectively we walked 12.85 miles.

Thursday, March 15 - Today was our last day in good ole' Vegas. We met at IV and Benet's this morning, to get a final door hanger assignment. Crazy enough, we were almost done with our second box of door hangers. Our goal today was to do IV and Benet's neighborhood and then we were done - so off we went!! We finished up around noon, with only about 100 door hangers left (that means that total for the week we did about 5300 door hangers!! YAY!!) and headed back to IV and Benet's to say our goodbye's. After hugs and tears we went back to the hotel to clean up and check out. Then we went down to the strip to do some souvenier shopping for a while. Around 6 we set off to the airport, ate dinner and settled in at our gate. While playing a rousing game of Egyptian Rat Screw a very rude woman came over to interrupt our game and corralled the rest of the airport to clap at her feat of asking us to play a bit quieter (we unfourtunatly were in our own little world and did not realize that we were being noisy!). Once boarding the plane we all settled into our seats, I next to the boyfriend who for most of the seat either couldn't decide if he wanted his tray up or down OR popped his girlfriends zits ( NO I'm not kidding!). Once arriving in Dallas at 2 AM we got our luggage and headed off to the church. I finally got home about 3:30 and got in bed about 5. YAY for my bed!

It was such an incredble trip! The Lord changed my heart towards the people of Las Vegas - I never could figure out why people would want to live in Las Vegas, unless they had somthing to do with the strip. Instead, the Lord showed me that there are people there that love the Lord and desperatly want everyone else to love Him too!! I love our Grace Point family, the Lord has given them great vision and I can't wait to see what He does in their lives.

Top Ten

2008-02-26T20:11:00.001-06:00

After my freshman year of college I spent 6 weeks in Taiwan. Amazing experience - if you ever get the chance to go there I highly recommend it. While there I became fairly close with several of the girls on my team. One girl, named Stacy was quite famous for her top ten lists. Now there are a couple of things that need to be stated about the top ten list....1.) people cannot be on the list 2.) the list can change at anytime that you want it to, but it has to be a significant change - for heaven's sake it's your top ten list!

So, without furthur adoue (is that how you spell that??) here is my top ten:
10. sleeping in on a cold rainy Saturday
9. REEF flip-flops
8. steamed dumpings in Taiwan
7. friday night football games
6. the smell of fresh cut grass
5. reading a book all snuggled up in my bed with my puppy in my lap
4. driving on a spring afternoon with my sunroof open
3. hanging out with my girls
2. Dr. Pepper
1. Africa

What's your top ten?

AUSTIN!

2008-02-26T20:08:00.001-06:00

Blast Austin traffic - wheh! Glad I got that off my chest, now I can talk ab out all the AMAZING funness of this weekend! SoI feel that there are times in my life, especially because of the nature of my occupation , that I will take a trip back in time to high school - this weekend was definitly one of them! Rockwall High School was in the high school girls state basketball championship this weekend in Austin, one of my fave girls ever (SAM SHAW!) was playing, so me and my girls loaded up the Cobalt, affectionately named Delilah, and hit the road. We had an absolute BLAST, from enjoying Austin life and random hippies on Friday night to doing some "touristy" stuff on Saturday, which includes checking out the Real World Austin house, the state capitol, and dining at Hula Hut. Saturday night was the big game and after I almost popped a blood vessell from being so excited - WE WON!!!! It was really fun to be apart of that with all my girls and to celebrate with Sam, it is something that she has worked so hard for.

My way fun guys!

We won!!

My WAY fun girls!!!

This morning we visited Austin Stone Community Church. The Lord blessed me with a beautiful worship experience this morning. The church meets in Austin High School, which gives it a different vibe. As I looked around during worship it became very clear to me that all the nations had gathered at the feet of Christ to worship Him this morning. Sitting on the row in front of me was an Asian man, praise God as if it were the last chance he would have to do it. A few rows down from us were a group of darker skinned men, I'm going to venture to say that they were Kurdish background. It was a beautiful picture of a group of men whose ancestors worshipped other gods, but instead they have said we are going to follow Christ, we are going to change the path for our culture and our generation. In the corner was a family; a mother, a father and an infant who was strapped onto daddy by the bjourn. I looked over during worship and the mother and father were both praise the Lord with all that they had and the small child was was just as happy and excited as ever - she knew that she was in the presence of the Lord!! It reminded me of John jumping in Elizabeth's tummy with excitement when Mary told her that she was with-child!

On a somewhat random note, two of my favorite people in the world (my old roommates Kat and Lindsey) called me tonight to ask what my plans were for tomorrow.....when I responded nothing after 8 they informed me that they have an extra ticket for the JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE concert!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going to lie, but I am TOTALLY stoked and was jumping with excitement in my car when they told me! Not only do I get to hang out with two of my best friends in the world, but who doesn't love an ex-N'SYNC'er!

Blessings

2008-02-26T20:07:00.001-06:00

It's been the craziest few weeks of my life! I feel like the past few weeks have been the longest ever and take the gammet for randomness!

We had Disciple Now the 9-11. I think I worked about 120 hours that week - but boy what a blessing that the weekend was! We had over 250 students sign up the week before, 687 total students on the weekend. Disciple Now might be one of my favorite events of the year - I always find myself anticipating the Friday afternoon when all of the leaders start arriving with such anxiousness. I love going around to all of the homes and visiting girls - I especially had a BLAST with the seniors. I had a slight breakdown during mission projects, thank the Lord that Bunch was there to hand my phone off to, I could not handle the ringing anymore!!! Overall though, I was absolutely blown away at how awesom the kids were, they absolutly poured their hearts out in service to the community. It was truly beautiful to see! At the end of the weekend 13 students made decisions to recieve Christ as Savior, and over 500 students made a decision to take a Next Step in their faith. God is soooo good!

On my way home from church that Sunday I gave mom a ring (it was crazy that I hadn't talked to her the normal 27 times that weekend!), she informed me that dad was in the hospital and I needed to come home. For those of you that don't know, my dad is a longtime heart disease sufferer and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure my senior year of high school. in January he developed a sinus infection, which developed into an upper resperitory infection, which apparantly spun into a viral infection. He had an incredible amount of fluid on his heart and lungs which they would drain over the next several days. Praise God that he is doing so much better today, however when I arrived to the ICU on Sunday afternoon it was the first time in a very long time that I did not think he was going to make it through the night. Over the next several days dad lost 2 gallons of fluid (that equals 12 pounds of weight, at least that how many pounds he lost in the hospital), dad got set up on a breathing treatment that he will be continuing at home to help keep all of the congestion broken up, and he got his lovely sense of humor back! He is truly doing so much better! He got to come home Saturday and has really been enjoying getting to have full nights of sleep.

So, after two weeks of sleepless nights, I have enjoyed having a few nights of full sleep! My desk at the office is INSANE - however I could not be happier to be back. It's so crazy how much I love my job and miss it and the people I work with when I'm not there!

Fun things happening this week: Waco for the girls basketball game, Beth Moore conference, lunch with my girls (always the highlight of my week!!!).

Thank the Lord for Sleeping Bags!

2008-02-26T20:03:00.001-06:00

I never really was a camper growing up...didn't really have the desire to set up tent in the backyard and sleep under the stars. I was more of the hair, makeup and high-heels kind of girl (surprise, surprise!). Therefore, it was a huge surprise to me when I found myself camping in my own home late last night....let me start at the beginning. I got a new puppy in November. Her name is Lulu and on most days she is precious as pie, last night however, she was a a 10 year old version of me as a puppy. How my parents lived through me from the ages of 10-15 I'm not sure, because those years were characterized by the simple word of defiance. Anyway, I was getting ready to go to bed, so Lulu ran up her doggie steps to get onto the bed like she normally does, but instead of snuggling into the corner she nudged my leg, looked and me and took a squat. That's right ladies and gentlemen - she tee-teed right there in my bed and stared at me the whole time. You can imagine the anger that I felt in those moments, my warm and comfortable bed - ruined by urine. After disciplining my precious pup, I stripped my bed of all its belongings, which now have to be taken to the dry cleaners and realized that I had no extra linens to fit my bed. So, I pulled out the trusty old sleeping bag! I jumped right inside, zipped it up and pulled a thin blanket over the top of me. Although there were no birds chirpping in my apartment or deer watering in the stream this morning when I awoke, I did take a moment to laugh at the situation. I'm sure there will be many more sleeping bag nights in my life (not because of me but probably because of Lulu - let's just hope it doesn't last another 5 years!)!

She typically is as sweet as she looks.

She is also incredible prissy...wonder where she gets that from!

Mondays

2008-02-26T20:00:00.002-06:00

I have a love/hate relationship for Mondays. I truly love my job and feel lucky to be able to say that - I know there are alot of people in the world that are stuck in dead end jobs that they hate. I however am not one of those people. One of my favorite things about Monday mornings is our staff meetings. I know that sounds crazy - who wants to sit through an hour long meeting every single week? But I love it!! I love hearing what is going on in each area of ministry or significant things that happened in students lives that our staff had the opportunity to be apart of. I love working with a staff that is so open about sharing that hurts and struggles and offering them to the Lord in prayer. After lunch we gather with all of the church staff for a 30 minute staff meeting to go over major events and make sure that we are all on the same page, usually after this meeting is when my hate relationship for Monday begins to manifest itself. Something happens in that 30 minutes that I am away from my desk that causes my phone to ring 87 times, 300 pieces of random papers to find a place on my desk and for my inbox to become full and I quickly find myself behind before the week has even begun. I was feeling that way when I returned from AllStaff meeting this afternoon as I sat down at my desk. By the end of the day I discovered that I had had lots of interruptions - fun phone calls from friends, a visit from my sweet girls, random chats with my co-workers - however not much paperwork got finished. As I was driving home though I was making yet another to-do list in my head and was just reminded that our lives aren't contingent upon all the items we get checked off the to-do list but instead how we live our lives. So, I'm really happy that I get to be in staff meeting every Monday and that I get to have random little interruptions every Monday afternoon.

Life With Laura

2008-02-26T19:56:00.002-06:00

I never really thought that I would be the kind of person to have a blog. I love myspace and facebook, but updated a blog seems like it takes so much time. Recently though I have come to truly appreciate the art of the "blog" and the ease that it allows family and friends to know what's going on in life. SO, here we go!

After a somewhat relaxing Christmas holiday, 2007 started fast and furiously! On New Year's Eve 5 of my high school senior girls and myself started off on a roadtrip to Passion 2007. We spent New Year's Eve in Jackson, MS and spent then spent the beginning of 2007 with 24,000 other college students and church leaders, worshipping the Lord in downtown Atlanta. It was a fabulous conference - I have to say that the Lord moved all of our hearts in a great way for the nations and seeing the Great Commission completed. There are many, many things that money was raised for while we were there, one of the coolest by far is that at the beginning of the week they set out to raise enough money to translate the New Testament for the Dela people - however at the end of the week the Lord provided above and beyond what we had all asked for. He provided enough money to translate the New Testament for 3 unreached people groups, the Dela, Rikou and Lola people. In addition He provided funds for three translations that were halfway finished to be completed. Praise the Lord!!

Me and my sweet, sweet girls!

Last weekend I was blessed to be apart of my very best friend's wedding. It was a surreal experience, I've been a part of many of my friends weddings before, but never someone that I am so close to. It was such a beautiful wedding and it was so fun to see so many of our friends from high school! I think the reason that this wedding was harder for me than most is because Colette and Nathan are leaving on February 12 for Hong Kong. They will be working at International Baptist Church there beginning a ministry for young adults. It's crazy to think that they will be there for 3 years - good thing that I am racking up the American Airlines points!

All the bridesmaids at the Bridal Luncheon.

FABULOUS Bridesmaid and FABULOUS Bride

We were pretty much inseperable in high school! It was so fun to be back together again!

Yes, I caught the bouquet.

Bye Bye Married Couple!

Today, my sweet friend Kristin and her husband Todd left for Taiwan. I can't believe it was 4 years ago that I first went to Taiwan and fell in love with the nations, Kristin was on my team. They are on their way there to meet their little girl. They have been waiting anxiously for so long, counting the weeks and days till they are able to meet sweet Laney Xiang-Ting Lewis. A few weeks ago, Kristin sent out an email saying they had bought their plane tickets and it was only 19 days - now it is hours and minutes!!! Please join me in praying this week for Kristin and Todd as they meet their little girl, finalize the adoption and bring her home. If you would like to read more about their adoption, check out their blog (http://www.youbelong.net/toddandkristin).

Here's Laney!

The Academy Awards

2008-02-25T00:20:00.002-06:00

I love awards shows...The Emmys, The Grammys, but especially the Oscars. Here is my official recap on the night!

Who ruled the Red Carpet: Jennifer Garner - she always looks glam, but this year she looked ultra GLAM, her hair was my favorite and her dress was beautiful! Nicole Kidman - she either makes it or breaks it, and this year she made it, even being prego. Renee Zellwegger - I'm usually not a big fan, but she was beautiful, I loved her gown and way to go with stay true to your natural blond hair, it freaks me out when she changes it up. Miley Cirus - you looked beautiful. Not too much, not too little! Just the right amount of glam! George Clooney - how you make my heart swoon, always will I have a feeling and you looked good doing it.
Now for the If-fys and the No-Mam's!
Diablo Cody - I personally really like the dress, however while she was walking up onto the stage to accept her Oscar, as very high slit was revealed which seemed to inhibit her ability to walk comfortably. I am a big believer in comfort even in a formal - no need not to be able to breath, sit or walk. I give it an "If-fy!" Jessica Alba - Yes your pregnant, but there MUST have been a more flattering dress than this one, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman were able to find them...ok maybe they got the last ones. Also, never wear your hair up again, it's just not flattering. I give it a "NO MAM!" Tilda Swinton - The Oscars are supposed to be a fun party and crushed velvet went out in like 1982....in fact it wasn't even cool to wear it then. "NO MAM! - not even to a funeral in the 80s." Amy Adams - I'm really on the fence here, I think Amy is absolutely beautiful and the color of this dress is beautiful. Not to mention she sounded AMAZING when she sang, so much so that it caused me to go onto iTunes and download the Enchanted soundtrack during the show. However, I have to admit, the top of this dress gives me a Madonna-Material Girl vibe. Anyone else with me? I give it an "If-fy." Johnny Depp - you are always weird, you always look freaky and I have a feeling that's never going to change. "No Mam!"Harrison Ford - So Harry is a classic, however can we talk about the earring he's wearing? Not to mention that he looked super stiff and uncomfortable. I say stick to the Indiana Jones set instead of the red carpet. I give it an "If-fy." Lastly Marion Cotillard - Tonight was not the premier of the Little Mermaid. Absolutely a "No-MAM!" As for the awards: The awards didn't go as I would have chosen, but the Academy tends to go for more "artsy, weird stuff" so I'm not super surprised.
MY picks would have been: Best Actor - Georgy Clooney Best Actress - Ellen Page Best Picture - Michael Clayton or Juno Best Supporting Actor - Casey Affleck Best Supporting Actress - Ruby Dee Best Director - Jason Reitman
ACTUAL picks were:
Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis
Best Actress - Marion Cotillard
Best Picture - No Country For Old Men
Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem
Best Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton
Best Director - Joel and Ethan Coen

As you can see none of my predictions were correct, I obviously should not place bets of any kind, no one should consider me their Lady Luck, especially in Vegas.

My last note on the Oscars is that since it was the 80th Academy Awards, they did lots of montages' of the last 80 years. The one I enjoyed the most was the previous 79 movies that had one Best Picture. I had not realized how many of those films I have not seen. So, I have decided that throughout the next year I would like to try to make through all 80 movies in order (with the exception of one - Silence of the Lambs, I tried watching it once in middle school and had nightmares for weeks. I don't like scary movies anyways, so I am not going to be watching that one!). For those wondering what those movies might be, here they are:

1927-28 - Wings
1928-29 - Broadway Melody
1929-30 - All Quiet on the Western Front
1930-31 - Cimarron
1931-32 - Grand Hotel
1932-33 - Cavalcade
1934 - It Happened One Night
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld
1937 - The Life of Emile Zola
1938--You Can't Take It With You (Frank Capra)
1939--Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming)
1940--Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
1941--How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
1942--Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler)
1943--Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
1944--Going My Way (Leo McCarey)
1945--The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder)
1946--The Best Years Of Our Lives (William Wyler)
1947--A Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan)
1948--Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
1949--All The King's Men (Robert Rossen)
1950--All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankewiecz)
1951--An American in Paris (Vincent Minnelli)
1952--The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecille B. DeMille))
1953--From Here to Eternity (Fred Zimmerman)
1954--On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
1955--Marty (Delbert Mann)
1956--The King and I (Walter Lang)
1957--Bridge Over The River Kwai (David Lean)
1958--Gigi (Vincent Minelli)
1959--Ben Hur (William Wyler)
1960--The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
1961--West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise)
1962--Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
1963--Tom Jones (Tony Richardson)
1964--My Fair Lady (George Cukor)
1965--The Sound of Music (Robert Wise)
1966--A Man For All Season (Fred Zimmerman)
1967--In The Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)
1968--Oliver (Sir Carol Reed)
1969--Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
1970--Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner)
1971--The French Connection (William Friedkin)
1972--The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
1973--The Sting (George Roy Hill)
1974--The Godfather Part 2 (Francis Ford Coppola)
1975--One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman)
1976--Rocky (John G. Avildsen)
1977--Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
1978--The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
1979--Kramer Vs. Kramer (Robert Benton)
1980--Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
1981--Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson)
1982--Gandhi (Sir Richard Attenborough)
1983--Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)
1984--Amadeus (Milos Forman)
1985--Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack)
1986--Platoon (Oliver Stone)
1987--The Last Emperor (Bernado Bertolucci)
1988--Rain Man (Barry Levinsen)
1989--Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford)
1990--Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)
1991--Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
1992--Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
1993--Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)
1994--Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis)
1995--Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
1996--The English Patience...oops..Patient (Anthony Minghalla)
1997--Titanic (James Cameron)
1998--Shakespeare in Love (John Madden)
1999--American Beauty (Sam Mendes)
2000--Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
2001--A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)
2002--Chicago (Rob Marshall)
2003--Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
2004--Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
2005--Crash (Paul Haggis)
2006--The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
2007-- No Country for Old Men

Taiwan Adoption Blog

2008-02-21T10:18:00.003-06:00

I found this from my friend Kristin's blog, Kristin and her husband Todd adopted sweet Laney last year from Taiwan. This is a woman who has found a new a fun way to help fundraise for her adoption from Taiwan. As many of you know Taiwan has a very special place in my heart. If you are looking for a blog makeover I'd encourage you to use her, since the money will go to a great cause. If you aren't looking for a blog makeover you can pray for Sarah and the thousands of families that are in the adoption process and the millions of children that are orphaned.

AI - Girls Night

2008-02-21T00:21:00.004-06:00

Oh my gracious, if I heard one more time about the girls being sick I might have thrown the remote at the tv....suck it up the guys didn't complain.

So, the girls were forgettable. There were only a few that I liked, so I'm only commenting on them.

Syesha - LOVE YOU, love your hair, I need you to sing some gospel because I know the heavens would be rejoicing!

Joanne - one, thank you for saying for saying on national television that you are a plus size model and that you are comfortable with your body type - I only hope that girls (and women) who look at themselves in the mirror everyday and wonder how they can lose those last 5 or 10 pounds by whatever means, heard you tonight and thought again, not only were you beautiful and confident but you rocked the stage!

Alaina - the Brittany Spears impressions are weird - stop that - but keep singing like you sang tonight and you will make it to the top 12.

Carly - dang it, if you only hadn't had a recording contract before...I have a feeling that I am going to end up cheering you on.

If it had been a guys v. girls week then the guys would have definitely won - we'll see what America says tomorrow!

AI - GUY Night

2008-02-19T20:57:00.001-06:00

I LOVE AMERICAN IDOL!!

That said, let's start talking about the guys.

Chikezie - I think he is precious, but that was not his best performance, I totally agree with Simon that he sounded like he was on a cruise ship.

Colton Berry - go home. I stick to my former statement that the curly hair guy that sang "The Prayer" should have gotten his spot!

Danny Noriega - you and your girl pants are definitly this seasons Sanjuya. I can't handle it, please don't make the top 6 guys.

David Archuleta - how many times can I say that I LOVE YOU!!! I think you are the most precious thing to walk across the American Idol stage!

David Cook - two words, hair plugs.

David Hernandez - mediocre performance, I think he might make it into the top 12, just because some of the others were so bad.

Garrett Haley - did Kenny G do your hair? where did you come from? I don't remember him on ANY of the pre top 24 shows!

Jason Castro - God Bless Texas, you have no reason to be nervous!! You were AMAZING!!!

Jason Yeager - I'm not really sure what the skunk-like blond highlight situation is in your hair, but your performance was less memorable.

Luke Menard - you'll make it to the top 6, I'm gonna need to hear you sing a little more though.

Michael Johns - anyone with an accent can win me over, but when you can sing too, oh bless the Lord! Top 12 here you come!

That's my assessment, tune in tomorrow for the girl assessment.

Galleria Men

2008-02-15T22:23:00.001-06:00

As I was driving back from the doctor today, I decided to make a very quick trip into the Old Navy at the Galleria. It took alot of self control to park on the top floor, to not venture beyond the third floor, specifically to the two floors below to Gap and Banana Republic; however, I was on my way to Palestine and already running late (as usual) so I only went into Old Navy.

ANYWAY - as I was waiting at the light to turn into the Galleria, I noticed the man standing in the middle of the parking lot was a man pointing to the left and right as people drove into the lot. Now one, it's FREEZING cold outside; two, everyone that drove in had their blinker on; three, there are only two ways to go unless you want to run into Sushi Samba. I don't know why the whole thing bothered me so much - - I guess I'm just wondering why the man was standing outside in the near 4 degree weather when I feel that he could have found something much better to do inside.

Let's Talk Idol...

2008-02-13T19:52:00.001-06:00

I'm so excited that the city to city search is over, Hollywood week has come to a close and that we have finally picked a top 24. I say "we" because throughout American Idol I feel that my opinions really do count and that the contestants really do listen to my opinions through the tv.

So, now that the top 24 are picked, here are my faves:

David - He's only 16, he's modest and I think he is the cutest thing in the world - - I can't wait till he sings next week.

Jason Castro - ok so shut up, he was one of my students at Lake Pointe! How crazy is that?

Joanna - She was the last one chosen tonight and I think she is absolutely fabulous!

Syesha - Bless her heart, she was horse through almost all of hollywood week but belted out a vocal like there was no tomorrow on her last chance in front of the - - looks like she's going to get her chance on the top 24 stage.

Carly - So I really liked her, until I found out that she has previously had a record deal. Am I the only one who didn't know that? Therefore I have decided that although I still like her - especially her accent, I am removing my "I want her to win devotion." I can't in good conscious want her to win, knowing that she's had the deal before.

As for those who did not make it:
Josiah - good bye, we will not miss you. He reminds me alot of Anthony from the season that Carrie Underwood. I feel like if he had made it into the top 24 we would have heard more about him living in his car than anyone singing, much like Anthony and his weird throat thing.... don't get me wrong I love the rags to riches story, but sometimes I just want to hear them sing.

Curly Hair Guy - unfourtunately I do not know his name, but he was the last one sent home. Simon made sure to let him know that he wanted him to go to the top 24 but obviously Paula and randy did not. I'm with Simon - - I liked him, I think the top 24 would have been much more entertaining with him, plus he sang the heck out of Josh Groban - - anyone who can do that wins a place in my heart.

So that's it for my opinions on American Idol this week, tune in next week - it's going to be an interesting season :)

2008-02-11T21:31:00.001-06:00

Last week my little brother found out that he got into TAMU! I'm so super excited for him - I know he is going to have an amazing time in college. I had some amazingly fun times in college - specifically with my roommates: thursday night tv dates, human bowling, steak and shake, election night, the many many wardrobe changes, watching lindsey make an asundry of random "pieces of art" for design or sculpture of whatever art class she as in that semester, and sooooo many more crazy moments.

Here's to college and roommates! Baby brother, I hope you have the time of your life in college!

Surgery Update

2008-02-03T22:20:00.001-06:00

The surgery went well on Friday, thank you for all of you who were praying and for those of you who have called and emailed. They did find some endometriosis, I'm not sure what the course of action is yet because of the migraine issue....we'll figure that out at the post-op appointment. For now, I'm just resting and trying to get over the stomach soreness. My poor pup thinks I've abandoned her since she has had to sleep in the living room the past few nights for fear that she would jump on my stomach. She has been really good today though, so I'm going to try letting her sleep in the bed again. We'll see how that goes. Well I think that the pain medicine is good and kicked in, because I am good and sleepy! Goodnight!

It's Official

2008-01-30T21:57:00.003-06:00

It's official. Oprah is the anti-Christ. Most of you know my stance on Oprah - I think she has way too much power and influence on people - I don't think anyone should have as much influence on anyone except for Christ. Not to mention her better life now, strive to attain the higher good theology. You may be asking why I watch Oprah if I feel the way I do about her, even though I don't agree with the craziness that she puts out there, but I think it's important to stay current with the things she says to help dispell lies with the truth.

So, what is it that has made it official that Oprah is the Anti-Christ? Oprah and Eckhart Tolle will be teaching a free online class over the book, "A New Earth, Awakening to your Life's Purpose." A book and online class, opened to the entire world wide web, devoted to helping people discover their "life's higher purpose."

Sweet Jesus, my prayer is for these people to have a personal encounter with you. To see who You are. To realize that their life's higher purpose is in You and You alone. Father, show them that the "new earth" they long for is coming when You return for us - - come sweet Jesus, come soon!