Yeeeeeeeeehaw!

Yep, a week ago the three cowgirls - Kasey, Janelle and moi - headed out for our third annual trip to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo! Such a great time, such beautiful weather, such fun animals, such cute bull riders, such great food, such a rich cultural experience, and such a great excuse to wear the cowboy boots and hat!

Getting out of the city and getting my rodeo on...about 5 seconds earlier I said, "Man, I can hardly see with this hat on!" Now we know why.

I cannot even begin to explain how big he was - I think his name was Peter the Great!

City Slicker goes country!

"Come on little buddy, if I can do it you can too!"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is a look of sheer joy...the deep-friend-oreo and I meet again!

And yet, just in case you missed it the first time, here's a closeup of just how happy I am!

When you see the next picture of happily fed piglets,
you'll realize why she has that look on her face!

Indescribably cute.

You've heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing, but what about a sheep in leopard's clothing?

John Deere never looked so good.

"She's a loooooong taaaaaaaaal Texan and wears a ten gallon hat..."

His love never quits

This morning on the way to work I was listening to David Crowder...”Joy and pain, sun and rain, You’re the same, Oh You never let go.” Last night in our youth leaders meeting Chuck shared with us from Psalm 136. We read it out loud responsively from The Message. I’d encourage you to read it out loud yourself. This morning as I was writing my mom back in response to an update she sent, this is what came to mind...What a gracious God we have who grips us with his steadfast, covenant-deep, lovingkindness. His love never never quits.

When things are going well

His love never quits

When my mom had her biopsy

His love never quits

When she believed for God to heal her

His love never quits

When she talked to the doctor and found out she had breast cancer

His love never quits

During Christmas when I was there

His love never quits

When we had to learn to use words like cancer, chemo, radiation, oncology...

His love never quits

When we all had meltdowns

His love never quits

When she was encouraged

His love never quits

When we all cried

His love never quits

When we couldn’t sleep

His love never quits

When she agonized over her decision

His love never quits

When people continued to ask how my mom was doing

His love never quits

When we were so afraid

His love never quits

When I bought a plane ticket

His love never quits

When I saw the sunrise from my window seat on the plane

His love never quits

When my mom had the lumpectomy

His love never quits

When people prayed for her and for me

His love never quits

When my mom was so chatty after surgery

His love never quits

When I had to say goodbye

His love never quits

When she was brave for the radiation

His love never quits

When Kate went to see her

His love never quits

When we all waited and waited and waited

His love never quits

When I had to teach Deuteronomy 7

His love never quits

When God met with me on the Katy Freeway

His love never quits

When his Word didn’t seem to true to my eyes

His love never quits

When I crawled into his lap and looked into his face

His love never quits

When we heard 9% chance of it coming back

His love never quits

When we realized that meant 91% chance it WON’T

His love never quits

When my mom waits again to talk about chemo

His love never quits

When Kate and Zach did a little devotional last night

His love never quits

This morning

His love never quits

Only toe deep

Well, I can't quite explain what is compelling me to write this, because honestly I don't really have much to blog about. I wouldn't say life has been boring at all, but I guess I just haven't been inspired. But, here's the thing...it seems like the last several posts have been a bit heavy. Kind of deep, and honestly pretty sad. I just hate for all 3 of you to be faced with seeing that "sad news" every time you come visit. It was and continues to be sad news, and although I am so grateful for your prayers for Cyd's family and also for my mom, I feel like we could all use something a little less deep for a change. Of course, this is where I got my lame attempt at being clever in my title, "Only toe deep." When I come up with stuff like that I'm amazed that I can ever talk about more than poptarts or something else as base. What am I saying? I'm not sure. How about this joke I heard on Prarie Home Companion today...

What happened when the butcher backed into his meat grinder?
















(wait for it, wait for it...)

He got a little behind in his work!

Oh my goodness, how sad is it that I find that absolutely funny! I can hear some of you saying, ewwwww and a few more of you just moaning because it's so corny. Man, how I love corny.

Sad news

I am sad to say that I found out today that my friend Cyd and her driver who were kidnapped in Afghanistan on January 26 are believed to be dead. I had been checking the updates every couple days or so, but just found out this news in an e-mail from another friend of mine living there. I know many of us are sad today, but please keep praying for the expat and Afghan women and men who are grieving in a much more personal way. Cyd had such a beautiful heart that never failed to give life and hope to those around her. She will be missed by so many people, but we can rejoice today that she is now celebrating with her Father! :)

Here's some of the news...

ARLDF site

Fox News report

to do list

Here's my list of accomplishments today...

1. got out of bed after 10:30 AM
2. ate 2 pieces of sourdough toast with jam
3. watched some tv
4. brushed teeth...mine
5. put on clean if just a bit wrinkled t-shirt that says "Princess" and sort of clean cozy pants
6. went on a leisurely, meandering walk in my new Chaco's
7. sat under a tree for almost an hour
8. spotted a bluejay
9. prayed for a redbird
10. spotted a redbird :)
11. started to walk home
12. stepped in mud
13. scraped off mud
14. watched 7-8 turtles slide into pond, albeit man made...pond, not turtles
15. rinsed more mud off shoes by stepping in puddles
16. completed cleaned Chaco's with garden hose to preserve their sweet and shiny newness a bit longer
17. propped Chaco's in rungs of picket fence to dry in sun
18. ate pimento cheese sandwich
19. drank water
20. changed facebook status
21. watched too many design shows
22. got back in bed
23. lay there
24. read some Romans
25. talked on phone
26. ate southwest chargrilled chicken salad which my sister brought me from Chick-Fil-A
27. ate 4 girlscoutthinmints and put rest in freezer
28. watched more design shows
29. guzzled some cold milk with even colder thin mints
30. web-surfed like crazy till I developed a bad case of mouse wrist

No wonder I'm getting tired. I'm going to bed.

P.S. It didn't rain. :) Me of little faith.

Where's Elijah when you need him?

James 5:17 "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years."

Okay, so I have a need. I need you to pray. (First of all thanks for praying for my mom! She's doing great...at least I think so. She got a balloon inserted yesterday which they will use Monday - Friday next week for her twice a day radiation treatments. Keep praying please!) Okay, but back to the immediate need today. Spark is today. Spark is where over 230 students come to a kick-off tonight and then spend the weekend in 31 different homes with 31 different leaders. Thing is, it's "supposed" to rain and storm this afternoon and evening like crazy. However, this will make it quite sketchy for our leaders driving and flying in and for well over 230 students, parents, and host families trying coming this evening. So, if you could pray that the rain holds off...until Monday would be great - If God can handle 3 years, I'm pretty sure 3 days isn't a problem for Him! :) And why you're at it, could you also pray that the ice storm coming to Louisville in a few hours will hold off until Will & Kristi can get on their already delayed plane to come here? Gee, thanks!

Okay, so mostly, will you just pray that Jesus reveals Himself in a life-changing way to our students this weekend. We need Him, oh so desperately.

p.s. Who knew Elijah was a blonde? No wonder I like that guy.

Something I love

Okay so I admit that sometimes my family drives me crazy. Sometimes it's really easy just to shut myself in my room and enjoy the peace and quiet. I mean when my sister comes down with strep throat and my brother-in-law's captured the entire living room and kitchen cuz he's laying on the couch watching TV, and my nephew's playing outside, what else is there to do? So yeah, I took a nap. And don't get me wrong I do love naps, but let's be honest, that's not worth blogging about. But this is...my sister comes in my room, climbs into my twin bed with me, all three dogs parade in with incessant barking because they all want on the bed too. That moment was not full of happy thoughts for me, not yet.

But then I get up to send the animals outside and we all hang out in the living room watching design shows. Meanwhile, I'm sitting far across the room from my sis so I don't breathe in any of those germs...let me just say, I CANNOT GET SICK this week. Not an option. So anyway, I eat some cornflakes w/chocolate bits in it - typical healthy Sunday night dinner while my sister pitifully eats some ramen noodles, gives up on that, and then goes for some cereal which she also shuns. Nothing tastes good when you're sick. And then, it comes to our attention that my nephew hasn't eaten yet. Alas, the often helpful brother-in-law is nowhere to be seen at the moment so I start to rummage around thinking what I can make for him that we actually have the ingredients for and that he'll actually eat, and even eat without complaining. A tough order to be sure. Eureka! Inspiration strikes. A breakfast taco with scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon. I'm guessing you're not mesmerized by such a thought, but my nephew was estatic so I went to work. I was beginning to think I'd almost forgotten how to make scrambled eggs for some reason because the last two times I've made it have not been stellar...the eggs getting all stuck on the pan and such. Anywho, I pushed through the doubts. (Can you hear the dramatic music in the background yet?) I even tried out the new secret new tip I learned to add just a bit of cream cheese to the eggs right before they're finished cooking to make them extra light and fluffy. Try not to mention that to my nephew please. So I served him up his breakfast taco which he gobbled down. Not a crumb left. And my sad puny sister was so jealous that I served her up what was left - just enough for a mini-bite size taco. She acted like it was the best thing she'd ever eaten. "Now, that actually tastes good to me!" she says. :)

Then I'm finishing up washing the stuck-on eggy mess frying pan when my nephew says, "Can I have another one?" "No, you can't!" I sweetly say, more because of the thought of rewashing the pan more than anything else! "But...I'll make you something else if you're still hungry." So in a few minutes after my sis tells him it's time to go take a bath, he pipes in with "I don't mean to be rude, but can I have that snack?" Guffaws all around. "Well, okay Pooh, but I need some inspiration." At this point I do a little hip hop moves to get the blood pumping. (We were currently watching some dance crew competition show on TV.) Apparently, I wasn't too impressive because the dogs immediately started howling, either that or they're baptists and just won't tolerate my gyrations. :) So yeah, I get inspired to make some sweet treats out of tortilla strips with sugar and cinnamon, toast them and serve with some nutella, sprinkle some powdered sugar over top and drizzle some chocolate sauce, and add just a smidge of chocolate sprinkles. BTW, I totally burnt the first batch and set the smoke alarm off! But finally, the secret desert was ready for my sis and my nephew and they were mesmerized. My nephew even spent about 5 minutes licking his plate when he was done. Thing is, I didn't even make myself a taco or a plate of sweet tortilla thingamabobs, but I was so happy. Just the little simple thing of feeding my family is something that I really love. Gives me endorphins. Just makes me feel good. Was my cooking a work of culinary genius? Doubtful. But, my family didn't care and neither did I. I may not have a husband and my own kids, but I do have a family. And serving them and making them happy makes me happy. And that's something I really really love. And that my friends is worth blogging about.