Odds & Ends

Just some fun pictures from this last week.  I got James out of the car at Wal-Mart and saw that he had this on.  HAHA.  It cracks me up.  The last three Sundays he has not fought me at all as far as what I wanted him to wear - yay!  Making progress!!  However, he does still go to Wal-Mart dressed as Woody :)

I am pretty much obsessed with birthday cake pops from Starbucks.  If the Starbucks I am at doesn't have them, I literally have driven to the next closest one to see if they have them.  I had to trade in my white chocolate mocha for a mocha Frappuccino now that it's hot outside...

We had the sweetest family over the other night for dinner.  You know how they say when you are operating within your strengths that you know it because you feel like you have energy and could do whatever you are doing for hours and not even realize it?  (this is something I learned at work from Marcus Buckingham)  This is how I feel when we have families over that we want to get to know better.  We don't do it often enough, but this family on Wednesday night is just PRECIOUS, and although we have known them fairly well for quite awhile, I am praying God is going to grow our friendship more and more - Jeremy and Heather have two children, a boy around James' age, Jackson, and a little girl, Emma, who is about to start kindergarten in the fall.  God has blessed us with some incredible young families at Bethabra - so much potential for His Kingdom!!!

 And you know, some of our very favorite friends are the Wakeman's.  I don't think there's a family that is just closer to our heart here than they are!  I don't know what it is...I mean, I can think of many reasons, but regardless, they are just a great blessing and encouragement to us.  I LOVE THEM (if you couldn't tell).  They are about to go see Jeanette's parents for a while, and so we went over on Friday night to celebrate Addie's 1st birthday.  Look at that sweet, sweet girl!

 AND, my porch furniture saga continues.  Carolyn offered to make the cushions for me, so I decided to take her up on it (since if I bought them cushions and had them made it was going to cost between $400 and $500.  Seriously.  That's what happens when you don't have a standard size couch.  Yikes.  Anyway, we picked out the cutest material in Hobby Lobby and got everything CAROLYN needs :) to make the cushions!  I am so excited.  Now I've got to finish chipping the rest of the paint off.  My goal was going to be to have that finished at the end of this past week, but it didn't happen.  I guess I will give myself until the end of this next week as a new goal - yuck. 

I am so privileged to serve alongside Landon at Bethabra.  It is such a blessing to be on the platform with him some Sunday mornings while I play and he preaches, or like today, plays the guitar.  I shake my head in amazement at the plan God had for my life...and wonder what else He has up His sleeve!!?  It can be a challenge many times, but I am so thankful for sweet times that the Father encourages me and gives me such contentment and excitement about serving.  We are a good balance.  We were driving down the road today, and I have gotten my feelings hurt because of something that's happened, and I was trying to tell Landon that I needed to message that person and basically, back them in a corner so that they would have to at least face us to talk to us (I know, I'm not always the nicest person...).  I aways can respect people if they at least hurt you to your face...that behind the back stuff is bad news to me.  Landon talked me off the ledge - and helped me see that hurting them back or trying to get more answers from them would only hurt us more.  God sees.  He knows.  He's sufficient to take care of us.  He is so good to me.   

AND, thankful for my parents today. They are celebrating 39 years of marriage.  They still gross me out sometimes when Mom sits on Dad's lap...yikes.  However, as I get older, I am SO THANKFUL for the example they've been to me.  They have sure given me a wonderful example of a godly marriage - shown me what it's all about to support your spouse, get through hard stuff, and be intentional about pouring into each other.  LOVE YOU BOTH!!!