Family Night Out

Our plans for the evening were to go out for dinner and go watch "Courageous" as a family. We had the dinner part covered, then we drove around to kill some time. We got to the theatre just in time to get our tickets, only to find out that it was "sold out". What a bummer. I guess we will try again tomorrow night.

Feeling Loved

What an awesome day! 

The morning started with a gift of a new Votivo Red Current Candle that smells really fresh, yet smells like winter.

At noon, I joined others at the PEP Talks (Parents Encouraging Parents) group for our Tuesday morning session. These meetings have been ongoing for about five weeks. The sessions are once a week and last about an hour and a half. I highly-highly recommend these sessions to any parent that is having trouble "understanding" their child and why your child does not have the same personality as you.
By the afternoon, another friend showed up with a bag of awesome jewelry that she wanted me to have. She even threw in a loaf of homemade bread. By this time, I was feeling really loved.
This evening, the family and I had planned to attend "Heaven's Gates/Hell's Flames" which is an awesome illustration of realty. The devil tried his best to knock us out of going, but was defeated. A large number of individuals gave their life to Christ tonight. I can almost hear the angels rejoicing from here. On the way home, my family discussed what we witnessed tonight and some of the words that my children spoke literally brought tears to my eyes. To know that they love God with their whole hearts completes who I am. It was even mentioned in one of the skits tonight how much getting your life right with God brings such an immence feeling of relief and overwhelming joy. I agree to that completely.
Every step that I take in building a closer relationship with God makes me feel...well closer; in turn, it also breaks the grasp that the devil continues to try to hold on me. Breaking free from the devil is a battle each and everyone of us face.
Of course I have known God all my life. I knew right from wrong, I prayed to God, my mom took me to church when I was a child, I asked Christ into my heart in 1999 and even attended church occassionally with my husband and children, but with every step that I take in getting my life right with God brings more and more freedom to my existence.
Hhhhmmmm....my pastor has been teaching "Freedom for Gods People" for months. I just realized how free I am. Thank you Jesus.

About a decade ago my husband and I decided that cursing should not be a part of who we are. It's kind of like the saying goes "WWJD". Well, he sure wouldn't use that language. Altering some of our vocabulary was a small step, nonetheless it was a step in the right direction.
Along that same time, the weight of "living in sin" was really setting in close to my heart. I never thought I would trust any man enough to say "I Do". I guess that was partially due to my mom and dads "I DO" not lasting. After contemplating on what I believe, right from wrong, and how strong our relationship was I decided that there was nothing left to do but say "I Do".  That moment changed us both. Of course we came home and lived the same lives that we had been living for the two years prior, yet it was soooo different. We spent our honeymoon discussing how different we felt inside and how right we felt to be living by the Bible.
Fast forward six years and tons of lottery tickets later. I used to joke that we would have to win at least a million to break even. We used to never miss a Powerball drawing, until out of the blue I came to the conclusion that I am far too blessed to play around with that mess. So, here we are, two years later...and haven't bought a lottery ticket since.

This year, Brookelynn began asking when were we going to start going to church? Thank you Jesus for that. We had taught our children right from wrong, we had told them about God and we had even visited church a handful of times.  I realize that wasn't enough. Devin is fifteen, Brookelynn is nine; my time to lead them in the right direction is now and I am so grateful that we began attending church six months ago, both my kids gave their lives to Christ and that we will spend eternity together as a family. One thing is for sure, I am loved...and so are you.

Game Day

What a busy and tiring 3 days we have had. I cant believe tomorrow will be Monday already.
Friday...Stroker and I went to Lebanon to get the roof vent fixed on the trailer since our last attempt to do it ourselves didn't work out. It was supposed to cost us a lot to have it worked on, but we were blessed with a bill of only $16. While the trailer was in the shop, Stroker and I went to Mt. Juliet to kill some time and eat lunch.  We got back to Cookeville just in time to pick up the kids from school. We got tables, chairs and a bounce house loaded up and headed to Dash's very 1st birthday party...sorry, I didn't take my camera.  We brought our the fire pit there too and had hot dogs and smores. It was around 11pm when we got home...What a day.
Saturday was the last cheer practice for Brookelynn. I went to White County to pick up Katlin and she went with us. While the girls practiced, Erin, Katlin and I ate a quick bite at Neeley's BBQ and took in a few sites. On our way home, Katlin had a wisdom tooth to start hurting her a bit. She thought she could tough it out at first, but later decided she needed something to help. We ended up making a run for pain reliever and orajel. We got home around 7:30, but the guys were gone to the TTU game and didn't get home till after 10pm. Tech won, so Devin was pumped up.
Sunday morning we were early to rise. We hit the Interstate at 7am. We got the girls dropped off at LP Field at 8:30,  forked over $20 to park and joined a tail gate party till time to head to our seats. It was a great game. TITANS WON. Katlin joined us for the game today too. She has luck like mine. As we were tailgating, her flip flop broke.
Again, we were blessed...it just so happened that Brandon had a pair of tennis shoes back at the car.

 

Resting Up

We have kind of kept to ourselves this week. We went out to dinner a few nights (Logan's, El Tap, & Olive Garden) by ourselves. We hung around the house most of the evenings, except for Wednesday when we went to church. It has been a pretty peaceful week. Getting ready for a busy weekend I guess.

The New Facebook

Um...is it just me, or did facebook just turn into a blog today?
I'm waiting for Mark Zuckerberg to "invent" the "facebook to print" just like "blog to print".  Hhhhmmm. he's pretty good at inventing stuff from other peoples inventions... or maybe he is just a better salesman.
I like one person's response to the "new" facebook. He posted "Funny how the more Facebook "improves" the less I use it".



Worn out from the Weekend

This past weekend was go-go-go. After we finally made it to bed Friday night at 1am, we didn't get up Saturday until 9:30. We had a couple of errands to run and I stopped by TJ Maxx for a quick run through before heading out to Nashville for another round of cheer practice. While Brooke and Ansley practiced, Erin and I went for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. After managing to getting through the traffic at Green Hills Mall and in to the Cheese Cake Factory, we found that the wait was about an hour. So, we scrapped that plan and headed to Noodles and Company. Either it is pretty good stuff or we were just really hungry.

 We got back to practice just in time to pick up uniforms and our game tickets. When we got back to Cookeville, We met up with Gary, Darlene, Stacia, Jett and Dash for dinner at Cheddars.

Sunday, was church and a trip to White County to visit with mom. We ended the day with a trip to El Tapatio.