Chritmas Party

The Women's Ministry at my church is called, Joy Ladies, and we had our Christmas party last night. I enjoy hanging out with these ladies so much and we had the best time.

My Pastor's wife, Kathy, is the one with patch on her eye. She poked herself in the eye with her mascara brush and ended up having to go to the eye doctor and found out that she had a bristle from the brush stuck in her cornea....bless her heart!

This is me and baby Sam, who I am just in love with. That look on his face is priceless..he had just woke up and wasn't quite sure what was going on yet. His mom, Stacy, is on our worship team at church and I am usually the one that gets to hold him on Sundays. We have this sweet bond now. Literally every Sunday, I get him and he lays his head on my shoulder and falls asleep during the entire worship. Stacy said that he only does that with me...awww!

Linda, the hostess, has dress up clothes for her grandchildren and we had fun putting wigs on Samuel. He was so cute because we all cheered and clapped when he came out with the wig and he loved all the attention. Don't you think he makes a pretty girl :)

....and here's Tina. This is my favorite one! He was so funny waving at everyone and clapping with us.

We also ate good food, played games, and had a kitchen towel and Christmas sock exchange.

Monday, we are off to PA. Please pray for good weather and safety as we travel. I turned on the t.v. today and saw the headline "2009 Blizzard in the Northeast" and called dad. He said that we should be fine, that the part of PA we are headed to is not being affected by the worst of storm and the weather will be sunny on Monday through Wednesday. Of course we will be watching the weather closely and taking our time.

Women's Worship Weekend

This weekend a group of ladies from my church were invited to go to the Abiding Place in Centerville for a women's worship weekend. Bob and Teresa Nix are close friends with my pastor and his wife and they have come to our church and ministered to us several times. They have a beautiful home out in the country called the, Abiding Place, where they hold retreats and conferences throughout the year. The last time Teresa came to Joy Church she felt that the Lord told her to invite us to the Abiding Place and have a women's worship weekend. 14 ladies came from my church, including my sister Stephanie, and we had a wonderful time.

Joy Ladies

I am so thankful that Stephanie got to come. We had so much fun together and it was a great mother-daughter-sister bonding time!

Me and Sara

Sara and her sister Cecilia are on the worship team at my church and they did the worship all weekend. They write most of their own songs and they are so anointed and gifted in what they do. Hopefully, this year they will be recording a worship CD with their own songs on it and I can't wait to get it!

The Abiding Place

The Abiding place is literally out in the middle of nowhere off country, dirt roads. Stephanie had the address and put it in her GPS so she thought she would be able to find it without any problem. The GPS lead her to an old, abandoned house off this dark, dirt road. We laughed about it later because she was thinking, "What kind of place is this?" Mom and I got lost too, but we eventually all got there safe and sound.

The pond in the backyard

We woke up Saturday morning to this view, coffee and stuffed french toast! I was a very happy lady :) Teresa spoiled us this weekend with delicious food and desserts.

I just got a new camera and I enjoyed taking pictures of the house.

Birdhouses on the front porch.

Every room in the house is named after a fruit of the spirit and the pillow cases and towel sets are monogrammed with that name on it. We slept in kindness! The bedrooms are decorated so cute. I love how she decorates...it is so cozy,warm and inviting.

Front door

I feel so refreshed after this weekend and everybody kept saying how much they needed a weekend like this. We talked, worshiped, shared our hearts, relaxed, ate lost of really great food, cried, laughed, and got to know each other better. I am so thankful for my church family. I feel so blessed to know each one of these women and they have really become like family to me.

Let is Snow!

Yes, you are seeing snow in Southeast Texas! This makes the second year in a row and I am loving it. I went to work this morning and all everyone was talking about was the possibility of snow today. Finally, around 3:00 one of my students came in the room and told us it was snowing! I took my class outside and let them watch it fall on the playground. I was just as excited as they were. What a perfect start to December! Mom talked to dad and Glenn today and they were shocked that we got snow before they did (they are in Pennsylvania). Who would have guessed?

This was the view from the front door when I got home from work.



The snow just starting to come down!


As it got later, the snow really started to fall.

Mom's birthday is this Sunday and she loved her early birthday present :)

I love love love this picture with the snow and the Christmas tree in the window. The snow started to accumulate on the ground and the roof and it was so beautiful!

Snow falling in the night sky

This just makes me happy!

View from the front porch at night.

This was such a wonderful surprise! I hope this continues every year. I already love this time of year and this just put the icing on the cake. After standing in the cold taking tons of pictures we went inside and ate a hot bowl of chili. We don't get to experience this often so I hope you enjoyed the snow today as much as I did!

A letter for You!

I was reading a blog that I came across from a link on another blog and found this letter from God to us. I think it is beautiful and I just had to share it.

To My precious child...

I wish you could see things the way that I see them. I wish you knew how tightly I truly hold you in My hands. I really have you on the forefront of My mind. I have sent My Spirit to be with you in time of crisis, and in time of desperation. I saw you cry. So badly I wanted to wrap My arms around you and wipe every tear from your eyes. I was with you, I am with you.

I know you struggle with the circumstances of life. Trust me, this is not how I wanted your life to go. But, I will fulfill My promise; you will have life, and life to the fullest. You will soar, and you will have victory. When I created you, I created you with a purpose. I can't wait for you to see what I have for you, I just can't wait!

I see you struggling, I see you trying to create an end to the madness. But don't be afraid for I am with you. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. You can trust me with your life. I created you, I will protect you. If you could only see the process, and see the outcome you wouldn't give up. Not yet. You're so close, you're so close.

Satan wants nothing less than for you to hate Me. Don't forget that. He hates everything that is good. I am turning what he intended for evil into something greater than you could ever imagine. That's why you can't see the outcome of this, because it isn't fathomable. It's really that great! I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to give you a HOPE and FUTURE! Plans to prosper you, not to harm you.

I would never harm you. You are too precious to me! This is only a season of your life. This isn't going to define your life, this is only going to be the beginning of what is truly life. Oh the plans I have in store for those who love Me.

Seek Me with your whole heart. I have not hidden Myself from you. I am always here, and I have been with you from the beginning. Oh My precious child, how much I love you. I got this. Rest in My arms, I am worthy to be trusted. I know you're tired, just lean up against Me and breathe...take a moment and breathe. Feel My love for you.

I haven't forgotten you. I will fulfill the promises for your life. Greater things are still to come. Love, your Heavenly Father.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving at my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Mark's house in Sour Lake. It was different this year because the whole family was not here. Dad and Glenn are in Pennsylvania, Stephanie and Ross couldn't come in because she had to get her wisdom teeth out and the only date her dentist could do it was this Tuesday ( I really hope she was able to eat some turkey today :). Also, my Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Randy went to Florida to visit family and some of my cousins had to work or went to their in-laws, so we had less people than normal.

The preparation started yesterday. Grammy came over and with direction from her I made the gravy, her famous cornbread dressing, and cooked the turkey. It hit me today that the torch might have been passed on to me without me even realizing it.....for the past 3 years Grammy has come over before Thanksgiving and slowly, but surely she has been teaching me how to make her gravy, dressing, and cook the turkey like she has always done. I think I overheard a comment about me bringing the turkey and gravy next year. Of course, I really don't mind :) I enjoy cooking and would love to do this every year.

Uncle Mark carving the turkey

Mom and Aunt Sandy

Grammy

My favorite part!!!

You would never have known that everyone was not there if you looked at all the food we had. We will be eating turkey and left overs for a week or two :)

After we ate, all the ladies went for a walk. They live out in the country and it was such a pretty day...plus I think we were trying to walk off all that food!

I love Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given me. I don't ever want to take them for granted and forget the true meaning behind this holiday...a time to refelct and give thanks to God for all the blessings in our lives!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We Are Blessed!

The message this Sunday at church was simple....we are blessed! If we live in America, we are blessed! In our world everyday we are told that we need bigger, better, and more and it's easy to get caught up in it all and get dissatisfied with what we have if we're not careful. We have to constantly fight this world's way of thinking.

Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind~Romans 12:2

We watched this video at church by Rob Bell and I hope it speaks to you like it did me.I posted two of the videos because I couldn't find a full-length one, so this is just part of the video we saw at church. If you like the videos you can watch more by him on You Tube or order them from Nooma.com. I really like the way he teaches the Word and makes it very practical and easy to understand.

Like Rob said in the video, God wants us to be blessed! We should not feel guilty or bad for having stuff and wanting nice things, but we should also have a thankful heart and know that we are blessed to be a blessing!

Joyce Weekend

This weekend Joyce Meyer came to Houston and mom and I went to see her. We have been able to go for the past 5 years and it has become something I look so forward to each year in November. We stayed at the Westin Galleria this year and it was really nice...keyword Galleria!The conference started on Thursday night, Friday night, and ended this morning. I took off work Thursday and Friday and it was such a relaxing and refreshing weekend both spiritually and physically.

Mom and I at the Joyce Meyer Conference

Hillsong Worship Team

The conference was held at Lakewood Church. The Hillsong Worship team did all the worship at the conference. It is so awesome to be a part of praise and worship with thousands of chrsitians in one place.

Sometimes you just need to get away for a few days and treat yourself a little. We definitely treated ourselves this weekend.....we ate at my favorite restaurant,The Cheesecake Factory, went shopping, ate chocolate mouse cheesecake, got Starbucks coffee, ate tomato basil soup at La Madeline's (another one of my favorite places), relaxed, and heard great teaching from the Word. It was a great weekend!!

On our way home today we happened to find this great barbecue place called, Goode's Barbecue, to stop and eat lunch. It is off 59 on Kirby and it was the best barbecue I have ever eaten. Mom's favorite food is barbecue brisket so she was in heaven and she loved it as much as I did. It was a great way to end our trip.