Easter Weekend

My family and I went to Glenn's house for Easter weekend this year. I was off work on Friday so we drove to Rockwall after work on Thursday. My dad, Ross, and Glenn played golf on Friday and my friend Carrie came over to visit. It was so good to see her!

Carrie, Me, Stephanie



Ross and Stephanie drove in on Thursday night and Ross had to leave on Saturday to get back for Easter Sunday at his church. Stephanie's had a doctors appointment in Dallas on Monday so her mother-in-law drove her back home after her appointment.

Glenn's birthday is in July but we celebrated his birthday early because we weren't
sure if we would all be together in July. Mom has this hat she likes to make us wear on our birthdays....Glenn is a good sport :)

On Saturday we had planned to go to the lake and ride Glenn's new jet ski's but the water was too cold and one of the jet ski's wasn't running right so we barbecued hamburgers and played washers outside in Glenn's backyard instead.

Stephanie, Ross, and I bought Glenn this clock for his birthday. He never really liked the clock that we helped him pick out originally for above the fireplace and I found this one and knew he would love it. It has Texas license plates all around it...it is a clock made for Glenn and would make any Texas boy proud!

I think it looks great above the fireplace.

Mom, Stephanie, and I also helped Glenn put together his Astros themed room.

I love this picture of the Astros stadium he found at Target. It goes perfect with the green walls my dad and Glenn painted.

The bat underneath the picture is a bat that some of the actual Astros players use and a friend of Glenn's knows a guy who works for the people who make them and got Glenn a personalized one.

On Easter morning mom gave us a chocolate cross and a Christian music CD with songs that have to do with the cross.

Easter morning before church

One of my favorite things about Glenn's house is that there is a small lake in his neighborhood with walking trails all around it. If I lived in his neighbourhood I would love go walking there everyday.

A family fishing on the lake

The wildflowers were so pretty

After church we went out to the lake to take some more family pictures

The only problem was it was so windy and bright that it was hard to get any good pictures

I am so thankful that all my family was able to get together for Easter this year and celebrate the day Jesus rose from the grave. I am glad that the cross wasn't the end of the story..can you imagine what the Pharisees thought when they found out the tomb was empty. Or can you imagine what the devil thought when Jesus rose from the grave because he thought he had won.

I always think about this song I heard a long time ago when I see a picture of Jesus on a cross...it's a country song about this little girl that lives in an abusive home and her parents end up getting into a fight and her dad shots her mother and then himself. The little girl is taken into foster care and her foster parents take her to church for the first time. She sees a cross with Jesus on it and says, "I don't know who that man is on that cross but I know he got off because he was there right beside me as I hid behind the couch the night my parents died." I am so thankful He is not on the cross anymore and that He is alive!

Happy Easter!!

My journey...

As you can see there have been a few changes to my blog thanks to Leslie at Sweetie Baby's Custom Blog Design! I had the idea of changing my blog title to "Michelle's Journey" because I love the analogy of life being a journey (hence the dirt road pic) full of mountain tops, valleys, turns, bends in the road, crossroads, stop signs, dirt roads, nice paved roads, bumpy roads, smooth roads, beautiful scenery, not so beautiful scenery and surprises along the way.

Don't worry...I am still abandoned to Him (Jesus) but this title describes why I started my blog in the first place. I wanted to write down for myself (and anyone else who is interested) my life's journey so I can look back one day and remember it all. It has definitely been an amazing journey so far and I look forward to the road ahead!

"The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way" Psalm 37:23

Spring has sprung!

Last weekend Mom and I went to Grammy's to visit her and we stayed the night on Saturday night. It is nice because she lives two minutes from our church so we got to sleep in a little on Sunday morning. I love going out to her house and spending the night...it reminds me of when I was little and she would take me for the weekend. She still lives in the same house and there is just something about being at your Grandmother's house that makes you feel good and relax. Mom told me that when I was little I had a suitcase that said "Going to Grandma's" on it and when I would get mad I would pack my suitcase with my dolls, a coloring book, and my toothbrush and tell Mom I was running away to Grammy's...I always loved going to her house :)

As an early Mother's day gift my mom painted Grammy's back porch for her. My dad built it for her years ago and painted it white. It needed to be cleaned and painted badly. I like the green color Grammy choose and I think it turned out really nice.

Grammy loves roses and she has a green thumb when it comes to growing them....maybe it's because her name is Rose?? She has grown roses my whole life and I always love seeing and smelling all the different color roses when I visit. She always sends us home with plenty too! Grammy and her pink roses After visiting Grammy and seeing all her beautiful flowers I was inspired to get in the "Spring" mood and do something with this space in the backyard. I planted a vegetable garden here two years ago and last year it sat empty. I have been thinking about doing a vegetable garden again, but I decided to make it simple this year.

I love blackberries so I bought two blackberry plants. I have never grown blackberries before but I am told that they grow anywhere and are very easy to take care of. They grow in the wild and the man at the garden center told me that after you plant them they are hard to get rid of...that is my kind of plant! I decided to just buy two and see how it goes this year. Hopefully, I will be making blackberry cobbler sometime this summer :)

I also bought some flowers and planted them in pots to put on the front porch.

I love when the two trees in the front yard start to bloom. I have written about these trees before...they are the first ones to loose their leaves in the Fall and the last ones to bloom in Spring but when they do they are so pretty.

Mom and Hallie

Today, Mom and I got to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather at our church link sale. It was hot outside but really windy. It reminded me of being at the beach...which is the one place I have to visit this summer. Can you tell I am a little anxious for summer to get here...only 33 more school days left but whose counting :)

I love the kids at my church so much! They are the sweetest kids and the best helpers. This is Eli holding the link sale sign.

All the kids in our children's ministry got together and made jewelry, pillows, and birdhouses to sell at the link sale for missions. This is Vanessa and Eaton showing me the jewelry they made...you can see the pillows and birdhouses on the table behind them. They did such a great job!

Next to the link sale a couple was selling baby chicks, bunnies, and cocker spaniel puppies. I almost left with a puppy they were so cute! It was like a mini petting zoo for the kids and they loved holding the baby chicks. The chicks and puppies were well loved on today :) It was a great day..I always love spending time with my church family and the link sale was a success.

What's been going on?

The past few months have been so busy that I haven't been blogging a lot lately so this is a quick post of very random things that have been going on in my life the past few weeks.....

My 2010 blog book came in the mail a few months ago and I love how it turned out.

2010 blog book

I love blogging for so many reasons but most of all I love that I can print my blog each year into a book. I try and blog as much as I can and take as many pictures as I can because I love looking back at last years book and I am so glad I blogged all those memories. I look at it as my online scrapbook. One day I will be able to sit down and look at many many years of my life in blog books.

2009 and 2010 blog books....looks like I blogged more in 2010

The Southeast Texas State Fair was in town last week and so was my dad! My dad has been working out in Midland and I don't get to see him that much so I was excited to see him and get to spend some time with him for a few days before he headed back to work. It's a crazy situation with Dad working so far away but my Mom and Dad both know it is just a season!

Deep fried mashed potatoes??? How do they do that??

Mom, Dad and their lemonade!

Me, Dad,and my corn dog!!

This year was the first time I went to the Fair and didn't run into tons of people I went to high school with. It was really weird...in fact I didn't see anyone I even knew except my cousin. It was really strange...you never go to the Fair and not run into people you know. Very, very strange..

Harold and Maud Weitsz from South Africa came and spoke at our church last weekend. I had never heard of them before but I found out that they are very well known all over the world for their ministry work, Harold's books, and their church in Johannesburg, South Africa called Little Falls Church. I really enjoyed hearing Harold preach! I was so impressed that they flew all the way from their 10,000 member church to speak at my little church in Vidor, TX to just a few people. My pastor was thanking them for coming all this way and Harold said something that I will never forget...he said that he doesn't look at the size of a church by it's numbers but by the size of Jesus in the people!! I love that they are willing to listen and go wherever God tells them to....big or small!

Harold and Maud Weitsz

We had a luncheon for Harold and Maud and their friends Ralph and Ruth Neighbour (also ministers from the Houston area) last Saturday to welcome them to Texas...Texas style! We had the luncheon at the Beaumont visitors center in front of Ford Park. I had never been in there before and it is really, really nice.

Kathy and Meredith (my Pastor's wife and daughter)

Linda and Linda getting everything ready

Yellow Rose of Texas

Kathy always does such an amazing job decorating

Interesting tid bit...these boots were the actual boots Mr. Milt from church got married in....they are made of some special skin like ostrich or something and he only wore them once for his wedding. He was kind enough to let Kathy use them to decorate.

Y'all know what a picture person I am...Harold took this picture himself and showed it to us on Sunday morning. I happened to have my camera in my purse and got a picture of the picture : ) He printed these out and framed them and gave them to my Pastor as a gift...they are so beautiful and these pictures of the pictures don't do them justice. They live close to a nature preserve in Africa so on his time off he likes to go there and take pictures. The lion in this picture was just a few feet in front of his car when he took this picture....I think I would have ran but he got a BEAUTIFUL picture.

This one is my favorite!! He named it David and Goliath...can you see the little turtle in the bottom right hand corner of the picture looking up at the giraffe looking at him? I have always wanted to go to Africa and go on a safari....both are on my bucket list and I hope I get to do that someday. Until then I will have to settle with going to the Houston Zoo...which I really want to do this summer.