Novemberlicious

While I'm not nearly as ambitious as my friend Kasey who's determined to blog every single day in November, I decided I'd try for at least one post this month! For some reason, it's like I've jarred my brain in such a way by trying to post that alas, I cannot think of even one thing to say...well, at least not at least one thing that has any smidgen of significance. So yep, I'm resorting to the picture post with a few pics from my trip to Israel in July...so I'm a just a little late!

Craziness - The youth staff at Tell Dan, our very first day of touring in Israel...not sure, but I'm guessing Jerome just said something about not wanting to take his picture with me or something!

Here's Shirley (one of my favorite people) and I on a boat out on the Sea of Galilee.

Okay, so I feel like this is kind of a nerdy picture of me, but I'm standing in the Sea of Galilee which is really super cool if you think about it!

This is my Jerusalem team (AKA "My Little Chickens") standing in front of the Eastern Gate of the old city wall around Jerusalem...One day Jesus is coming through there!!!

My favorite picture from the trip...Jerome explaining the site of the Temple Mount. Wow, what a journey it was to get to this point of bringing our students to be a blessing to Jerusalem.

Every Tribe & Tongue Night

Last night was so much fun! First of all, three foreign exchange students came with their friends - from China, Norway, and Germany - and they each read John 3:16 in their language. :) Throughout the night we watched a Botswanan gospel rap video, worshipped in English, heard prayer in Spanish, enjoyed Scripture read in German, Norwegian, Chinese, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Latin and Piglatin, saw Scripture in sign language, and I spoke a bit in Turkish! And on top of all that, I got to share the gospel. How fun is that?! What a beautiful night!

Please pray!

Tonight at Impact, our high school Bible study, we are having "Every Tribe & Tongue Night!" I would love, love, love it if all of you would pray for a few things:
1) Pray that our students would invite their friends, especially those that speak other languages and are from different cultures.
2) Pray that students would come who need to hear the gospel and that their hearts would be open to receive and respond to truth.
3) Pray that our students reading Scripture, our student led worship band, and me as I teach would all point people to Jesus!
4) Pray that students would respond to God in belief and in capturing his heart for all peoples to know Him!

Thanks so much!

I'm going to Israel!

In fact, I'm leaving in about an hour...leaving for the airport that is and then I'll be flying, along with a whole crew of high school students and adults to Tel Aviv, Israel! Yipppeee! I've been looking forward to this day for months and months and finally it's here. We will be touring the Holy Land for 4 days and then we will split up into 5 teams going to Haifa, Ashdod, Nazareth, Galilee, and Jerusalem and volunteering with different organizations doing tons of different things. My team will be in Jerusalem and we will be working with Shevet Achim, a ministry that loves of Kurdish children coming to Israel for life-saving heart surgeries, and also with the International Prayer Center. I absolutely cannot wait! I would love your prayers on our behalf and especially on behalf of the all of the different people we will meet - Jews, Palestinians, Kurds...and whoever else!

You can read our updates at www.tallohoodtoday.com and see prayer guides at www.worshipinaction.net. Thanks so much and I'll let you know how things go when I get back!

You should read this blog...and no, I don't mean mine!

My life is crazy getting ready for Camp, Senior Boat Trip, mini-mission to South Texas Children's Home and our high school trip to Israel and lots of stuff in between! I am trying to trust God's provision for daily manna and not completely panic. Honestly, most days I fail to trust and have been a been panicky when I look to tomorrow instead of living in the moment. Each day has enough trouble of it's own and God has been gracious each day. My goal and vision for the summer has been to merely survive. I know that's not God's best for me though! Just today, I purposed in my heart, if nothing else, to know Him better and to see Him bigger by the end of the summer. In all of my weakness, I have little doubt that He can reveal Himself to me in ways that I need. Yet another trail of life's journey that will lead me to deeper places of trust. I become less that He may become greater. Pray that I will keep this heart as I plow through the busyness and stress. Pray that I will rest in Him and continually seek his face in all things.

But alas, I really am posting because I just read this incredible story on a blog. It's really cool and I think you should check it out. Only takes a minute...LOVE146

Happy Mother's Day and Why I Love My Mama!

Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”

Proverbs 31:28-29

I know that lots of Hallmark greeting cards say something like, "To the World's Best Mom," but here's the truth - and I don't say that word "truth" lightly - my mama is the world's best. I'm 35 years old and I've met and heard about a lot of other mothers. Mothers who win gold medals in the Olympics, mothers who are successful businesswomen, mothers who homeschool and sew all their children's clothes, mothers who are gourmet chefs, Martha Stewart mothers who keep an immaculate house, mothers who always look "together," mothers who have an amazing teaching ministry, mothers who travel the world, and sadly, I've heard of lots of mothers who don't really mother at all. But then, there's my mama. Nobody is better at mothering than she is. Really, nobody. She has three children who still adore her and don't have any "mother issues" as grown adults. :) Seriously, that's a rarity these days!

My mom is so good at mothering and nurturing and loving people that she loves on lots of other children, young people, and adults who need a little extra mothering. I couldn't begin to list all the people that call my mama, "Mom." All kinds of people. "Fixed" people and broken people. Big black men (my mom is smiling right now because she knows exactly who I'm talking about!) and petite white ladies. People who are making right choices and people making hurtful choices. Loveable and unlovable people. You see my mama is just good at loving. Not that it's easy for her to love so much, sometimes it's very hard and sometimes hurtful. Sometimes, we live up to her hopes for us and sometimes we don't. Sometimes she doesn't see the "payoff" of so much investing. But! She keeps loving anyway. And that makes her amazing.

Sometimes I wonder how my mom can love so much. I think it's because she's been loved by God so much. She knows the incredible difference that God's love made in her own life. And she wants other people to know that too. She continues to be the godliest woman I know. I also think she's good at loving because she had a mom and dad that loved her very much.

I also think she's good at loving because she had a mom and dad that loved her very much. So today, I'm thankful for them too because even though they died when I was really young, so much of who I am is because of who they were. If they hadn't loved my mama so, I'm pretty sure it would be harder for her to love me the way she does.

Here are just a few of the ways my mama loves me so well...

• On any given day, whether I was 5 years old or 35 years old, she will always give me the last bite of her cookie.
• When I go home to visit, she still comes into my room to say goodnight and “tuck me in.”
• She fights in prayer for me and my joy and purpose at times when I can’t fight for myself.
• When she had to face breast cancer, she was concerned about how the news would affect me.
• When I was a teenager she would take me bargain shopping at Foley’s Red Apple sales so that I could look cooler than we could actually afford. ;)
• She does little things to make me feel special like putting a miniature rose in a vase by my bed and pulling back my covers.
• She thinks everything I write is just wonderful.
• She saw what God could do through me when other people didn’t see it yet.
• She graciously supported me whenever I’ve gone on a mission trip or even when I moved to Turkey even though it was really difficult to let me go. She and my dad were even brave enough to travel for their very first time over the ocean to come visit me!
• When I was little and would get sick in the night and would walk to her bedroom, she would immediately wake up and say, “What’s the matter Baby?” as soon as my little foot stepped inside the room.
• No matter my age or stage in life, she still thinks I’m the neatest thing since sliced bread.
• She went back to work as a kindergarten teacher when I was in junior high so that she could pay for my sister and brother and I to get braces and go to college!
• Last year she flew to Houston just to be at my birthday party that my sister planned for me – my sister, Kate, is really good at nurturing and loving too!
• She drove Kate and I to hundreds and hundreds of dance classes growing up – not to mention coming to – and actually loving – all of our recitals. (I guess the greater miracle is that my sweet dad came to all of those recitals too!)
• She taught me about Jesus and of God’s great faithfulness…so many times I think of how she made us read our Bibles 10 minutes every day.

In a million teensy ways (many that I’ve never even seen) and lots of huge life-changing ways, my mama has loved me well and I’m so very grateful.

So, Mama, thank you. Thank you for loving me the way that you do. Thank you for so much willing sacrifice for me. Thank you for making me a mostly well-adjusted happy person! J I know God loves me because of you. I love God because of you. The way you mothered me, the way you love on so many people, matters. It makes a difference, an eternal difference. Thank you. I love you so very much.

What was I thinking?

I don't know what I was thinking saying I was going to post soon! Did I actually think my life was going to slow down at all? Admittedly, part of the problem is the fact that I don't have a laptop/internet at mi casa and let's just say that while amazing in its own right, my blackberry is not exactly conducive to blogging. And well, when I'm at work I actually try and do real work most of the time. :) And when I'm done working, I don't really want to stick around the office. Do you see my dilemma? Ergggg, even now I'm trying to focus on this, but feeling guilty because my pup is at home crossing her legs and anxiously awaiting my arrival. I know, I know, I'm being a drama queen, right? How is it that some people do this posting thing multiple times a day - especially people with jobs! I guess if I had to choose between a rich and full real life and a rich and full blogging life, I'd choose real life any day. And...apparently that's what I'm going to keep doing. Starting now. I'm still planning to post soon, just not when I'd rather be going home and taking a nice, long walk with the pooch. And then I plan to sit on my loveseat w/a tasty basic sandwich and read my Israel travel book (I'm going there with our high school students this summer!). And then I plan on doing a bit of laundry and perhaps adding the final touches to the desk I repainted a week or so ago. And who knows, maybe I'll even do a little straightening. Wow, sounds exciting, doesn't it? Try to curb your jealousy of my "real" life. :) Actually, on this Tuesday evening with absolutely nowhere to be, a boring night at home sounds absolutely amazing! Hope you get to live life to its fullest and have your own incredibly dull evening at home soon. Shalom.

Coming soon!

Okay, so don't have a heart attack, but guess what?!? I'm still alive and I'll post something soon, I promise...my life has been a bit on the crazy side with lots of stuff to tell, but the ironic thing is that when I've actually got stuff going on to talk about I'm so busy I don't have the time to blog about it. So, in lieu of just burying my blog in the abyss of the dead I've decided to try and revive it! But alas, I'm currently at work and so you'll just have to wait a bit longer. I know, I know, I'm killing all 3 of my adoring fans (once upon a time, there were 6 of you, but apparently my absence hasn't made your hearts grow fonder), but I don't want to overdo it my first time back on the saddle. However, just to reward you for still checking this thing, here's a couple pics from my recent road trip with the youth staff and crew to make some final plans for Camp Tallowood!

Yes, we are ridiculous...this was like an old school family vacation except none of us are actually related. We ate lunch here in Lampasas after we picked up a hundred cedar posts. And yes, we ate fried porkchops, mash potatoes, green beans w/bacon, and chocolate cake and drank sweet tea! We passed on the daily special of rocky mountain oysters...and no, I'm not kidding.

Okay, so not the most exciting pic at the cedar yard, but it's the only pic that has my good friend, Kay, in it as she was our resident photographer!

The bossman and I enjoying some amazing icecream fountain drinks in Uvalde at the local drugstore soda fountain. This was just moments before Jerome tried to pawn me off on some creepy old married man who walked in and wanted to put his arm around me for the picture and said he wished he was still single. Gee Jerome, thanks for having such high standards for me.