And she wants a Hello Kitty birthday cake, please.

It's Julie's birthday!!!

My friend Julie and her family live in Okinawa, Japan. And while it hurts my heart to think of how far away that is, I know it's not forever. (Right, Julie?)

Anyway it's her birthday today. Well, in the US it is anyway. Right now as I type it is tomorrow in Japan where she is, so it's not her birthday anymore. This time difference thing is killing me. They are 11 hours ahead of us (or is it 12?). I can't keep up. I just know I have to call either late at night or early in the morning.




Julie is a fun girl and I really love her to death, so I will not be posting her age. ha! She has a great contagious laugh and it has been way too long since I've heard it. She has 3 fantastic kids and an ok husband (just kidding!) He slipped a few notches when he took them half way across the world.


I totally think Julie should start a blog. Think of the cool stuff she could write about! The food alone would give her loads of blog material! Come on Jules! (Apply some peer pressure, peeps!)


Love you, friend!!

Extreme Makeover---Homeward Bound Edition

Hey! Look what we did!

And by "we" I mean Daniel and our friend Chad. I pretty much tried to stay out of the way and not say helpful things like, "are you sure that goes there" and "is that really going to work" and "is the wall supposed to have a hole right there?" I am very supportive that way. (Sorry I didn't get a picture of Chad!)

We're making the room an office and for some reason we have it in our heads that an office needs a door. Not that either of us work from home. Well, you know. Work that needs an actual office. Although now Daniel might be able to work from home.

Wouldn't that be interesting? Wonder if we could handle that?

Here's where Daniel stepped in a tray of paint today. It flipped up on his leg and splattered everywhere, including the back of his shorts which we didn't realize until he sat on the ottoman. Nice.

And there was a wee bit of panic as (long story short) this was ALL the paint we had to cover the new part of the wall. As in if that little bit of paint didn't work we'd have to repaint the whole foyer, stairway, and upstairs hall. Praise God, it all worked out.

Daddy's little helper (notice the very fashionable tool belt)

Anyway, we're bringing the desk and files and office-y stuff down from the bonus/school/guest room and making it a little more kid-friendly. More school/play room with a sofa bed for guests. Anybody need a double bed?

Faith and I painted the inside last week. It's a great chocolate brown. I LOVE the color. Now I have to find some cute fabric to make curtains. I found a cool stripe yesterday that I think we'll go with. Now I have to find the motivation to actually make the curtains.

Anyone know where I can get that?

I'll post updates as we get more finished. I decided to go ahead and post this much because

1) I didn't have anything else to talk about and,

2) um, I didn't have anything else to talk about.

Hey! Speaking of Extreme Makeover, they are in our city this week! My friend Nicki's husband is one of the electricians for the project. Isn't that so cool!!

A Fun Weekend or Pickin' and Grinnin'

Ok, so the title, it leaves you at least wondering, no? Oh yeah. We had some fun this weekend.


We started out early Friday for Asheville to see Daniel's family. We hadn't all been there together since Christmas so we were really looking forward to the trip. They have a pool so of course the kids were in heaven!

Jack-knife!

Mom, I'm too busy for pictures!


Snack time

And maybe Daniel was enjoying himself as well. Showing off his back flip--- er, re-living his childhood. Same thing.

Friday night D and I went to the movies with his brother and his wife. They wanted to see Mama Mia! Now I wanted to see it too but I was surprised when Daniel said yes pretty quickly. It was only after we were sitting in the theater that he said, "This movie doesn't have singing in it, does it?" After all the laughing, we settled in for the show. And aside from the obvious questionable morality issues, it was a very entertaining flick! I have never seen the Broadway show but I knew the basic story. Even Daniel liked it! So a good time was had by all.

Our Saturday night date is where the REAL fun begins. And by that I mean the real BLOGGIN' fun. Oh my.

So we start out our date with a little Thai food. Admittedly my first time and I really liked it! Although we were practically sitting on top of the people at the next table and apparently it was their first date. AWKWARD! (Faith, you would have SO loved it! I kept thinking of you when I was listening to their conversation! Yes, Faith and I are Nosy Nellies!) Sad that we'll never know how their potential love story turns out.

Next, we head to a little thing called.....wait for it.....it's really good.....Shindig on the Green. I KNOW! Is that the best name you've ever heard or what? Now, I'm not making fun of Asheville or bluegrass or shindigs because goodness knows I have no room to talk. (Me, from the county where Skoal dipping is a SPORT) But y'all. The first thing I saw when we walked onto the green was this:

I'm pretty sure I squealed. And you know I whipped out my camera (oh who am I kidding, it was already out!) and said something like ohmywordthisissogoingontheblog.

The pickers:

Daniel was totally feeding my potential blogging frenzy by pointing out this:

And this:

And this, my friends is what they call a "sit-down square dance." Swear.

And can I just say that when I heard these words coming out of my sweetie's mouth I knew I was in blogging heaven: "Hey, I used to clog to this song!" That's right folks. My sweet civil engineer used to CLOG!

And while I'll probably NEVER get video evidence of it here or anywhere else, here's an example of the type of clogging he used to do. Enjoy! (Keep watching and listening until the end to hear those special words for yourself!)

Now imagine white jeans and red and white checkered (think table cloth) shirts. On the boys. And if he doesn't figure out a way to delete this post, I'll be a very happy girl.

You're welcome, friends of my husband. You're SO welcome.

And you don't look a day over 36!

Today is my husband's birthday! I'm not telling how old he is (37!). Or what he's getting (really NOT telling that yet!).

This picture cracks me up! (haha! It's his birthday, but it's MY blog!)

He took it of himself in FL and sent it to me to show me his new sunglasses right after LASIK.

Here are my 3 favorite people.

See that fun sand castle up there? That's just one example of him being a great dad. He's pretty much a kid himself, so he's always playing and wrestling and being silly with the kids.

Daniel's a magnificent husband, fun dad, loyal friend, loving son, cool brother, hard worker, and above all a godly man. (I wonder how many more adjectives I could come up with?) I'm blessed beyond words to have him as my husband.

I love doing life with you, D! It's always an adventure! (whether I like it or not! ha!)

Happy Birthday!!

Beijing Baby!

I'll admit it.

I love the Olympics. I mean, LOVE them. I'm pretty sure I always have. From the Opening Ceremonies to the Closing Ceremonies, I watch it all.

And I don't discriminate either. I love the summer AND winter Olympics equally. Swimming to ice skating. Gymnastics to skiing. LOOOOOVVVVVE it all.

The stories behind the athletes inspire me and make me cry. There's always some precious young person with a tear-jerker of a story to touch your heart.

News people travel to the city for the duration and report on customs and cultures of the host country. Everyone is so excited and proud for the Olympics to be in their country. I still could kick myself for not going to Atlanta in '96 to try to see SOMETHING. I have a friend from high school who went to Atlanta that summer and volunteered! Wow! Why didn't I know you could even do that?

So guess what I'll be doing on 8-8-08? Yep, my TV will be stuck on NBC for weeks and I'll be introducing my children to my joy that is the Olympic Games. Yippee!!

*After I wrote this I got an email from AFA and Voice of the Martyrs. They are offering free prayer bracelets to help you remember to pray for persecuted Christians in China, especially during the Olympics. Because there are most definitely persecuted Christians there. Here in the land of the free and home of the brave, we sometimes forget that our fellow Christians in other countries don't have the very freedoms that we take for granted every day. I ordered a bracelet and plan to wear it along side my Brazil bracelet to remind me daily to pray for others.

Want to join me?

Mission Trip video

Check out these videos about our trip!

Happy Cow Appreciation Day

Probably weekly my family can be found eating at Chick-fil-A. It is by far my favorite fast food dining establishment. It's not the cheapest, but you know, you get what you pay for.

Our usual is : 4 piece nugget kid's meals with fruit and milk for the kids and a #1 with extra pickles and a Dr. Pepper for me. (And yes, I do get fries. No healthy fruit for me.) And that is $12.78 at our favorite local Chick-a-lay, as Becca called it when she was little.

So when I got an email about Cow Appreciation Day I knew we had to go. You basically dress up like a cow and get free food. And Becca's old Halloween costume has just been waiting for such a time as this.

Becca 3 1/2 yrs old Halloween 2004

I emailed my friend Katie and made plans to meet up. She brought Josh and along with all the kids in the 3 surrounding counties, we hit the Chick-fil-A.

Josh, Hayes, Becca

There were a zillion people there and about 1/2 were dressed in some sort of cow attire. It was just a little crazy, but fun to hang out with friends. They even had a big cake to celebrate Cow Day.

Just another reason to love the Christian Chicken.

In Portuguese, that's Atos 2:42

On Day 4 of our Brazil trip (the day I started getting sick), we went to a town called Ingazeria. We spent some time there in October so it was familiar territory. In October, we stayed in the actual town and did ministry. This time we hopped on this:

...and took off for a more rural area outside of town. It was basically about 16 houses like the ones below on a one-lane road (and I use the word "road" loosely).

On the way into the area, we passed this couple. There is water in those barrels and I guess they were taking it to all the houses. I never really got the details on that.





We divided up into teams and went out to the houses. There were five on my team, including our translator. We ended up at the house of the couple from the water cart! The husband was not there so we talked with the wife, Glesiane. She was very interested in hearing about how to have relationship with God. She had a book of the Psalms and she had been reading it and was just hungry for more! We shared the plan of salvation with her and she prayed to receive Christ as her Savior! Praise God! We also gave her a Portuguese Bible and she immediately started reading it.

Of course we were bummed we had missed her husband, so we asked her if she had ever talked to him about Jesus or if she would. She said, "No, he's not interested. He would never believe." After encouraging her to pray about it and to share with him, we left to visit other houses.

A while later when we joined up with the rest of the team, we found out that not only had another team met Glesiane's husband at another house, but they witnessed to him AND he accepted Christ too! How awesome is God! Wouldn't you have liked to have been a fly on the wall of that house when he got home? What neat things they both had to share with each other!!

Here's our team with Glesiane in her house (minus the one taking the picture).




And here are DeLynn and me with Glesiane and her son at the church in Ingazeria. She brought him to the kids thing we had (face painting, clown, balloon animals).

I can't wait to go back and see her again. Hopefully they are going to church and developing a personal relationship with Christ. Discipling and encouraging is often left to the local churches and in this town that's pretty much one pastor and a small group of believers.

Join me, if you'd like, in praying for this couple's new lives in Christ. And for the pastor (Carlos)to be encouraged and strengthened daily as he seeks to do God's work in the outback.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:42

Uninteresting with a side of bor-ring

This week we have done nothing. Well we haven't actually done 'nothing' (pretty sure that was a double negative), but I guess it gets my point across. Because if we haven't done nothing, then we have done something. Right?

Ok, even MY eyes are rolling now. Anyway. I guess I should say we haven't done exciting, blogable (new word? I think so!) things this week.

Sure, we've gone to the pool. Twice. Now that's fun stuff people. Actually on Monday I swear there were 2, count 'em, 2 babies in the pool without swim diapers on. WITHOUT a diaper. In the pool. I saw those mamas put those babies in those little float things and I'm telling you, those little bottoms in those little bathing suits DID NOT have a diaper on them. I kept thinking, surely, SURELY, there is a diaper on that hiney.

And I just sat there. On the side of the pool. With my legs in the water. Letting my children swim in that pool. Cause I was in DENIAL. And really. Whenever you go to a public pool, aren't you always in denial? Otherwise you'd never leave your house.

So we've gone to the pool. And I've cooked every night. Which is a big thing for me. And I know it's only Wednesday, BUT STILL. And I totally count hot dogs on the grill as cooking. If it's food from my house and it involves some kind of appliance or heating-up-device, it's totally cooking. Sandwich. Not cooking. Nachos. Cooking. (you have to melt the cheese!). Cereal. Not cooking. Oatmeal. Cooking. See?

I'm thinking "Denial" might be a theme here.

Back to my nothing week. Gym twice. Wal-Mart once. Lifeway once. Oh, my new accountability group is starting a new devotion book this week. But we haven't started it yet, so I can't talk about that. Met with my new accountability group. Old friends, new level in our friendships. I'm excited. I need someone to be all up in my business, asking me if I've had my quiet time, what I'm learning, what I'm struggling with.

So that's pretty much my week so far. There are fireworks and parades in our near future, so the week only gets better from here.

And to reward you for making it all the way to the end, here's some cuteness just for you.