Living Faith

It all comes down to ONE thing… Living Faith. What is it that you believe, and how far will you let your beliefs lead you? We all have to answer this question. All of our lives are racing towards one moment when we will all have to give an account for ourselves. What do you believe, and how has it led you?


I use the term “Living Faith” because it isn’t enough to simply say, “I believe in Jesus.” Scripture says in James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” I say “Living Faith” because your belief has to emanate through every part of your life. It isn’t possible to have a real encounter with Jesus, and walk away with an unchanged heart. This is where I come up with the idea of “Living Faith.” It is about going in a new direction, and putting your life under the leadership of Christ instead of following your own self guided inner compass. When your faith transforms the way you live, it affects the way you think, act, what clothes you wear, the types of movies you watch, the books you read, the places you go, the music you listen to, the words that come from your mouth, how you relate to others, and the way you spend your time when no one else is watching. When your faith changes, or affects the way you carry out your day-to-day activities, it becomes alive in you. In other words, your faith is not dead. It is apart of every fiber of your being. If you were to think about what is it exactly that makes you “tick” the answer should be Faith.

In my own mind I’ve wrestled with different ideas & theologies, but it all comes down to one thing… faith in Jesus. Whether He returns again for the second time before my life is over, or I have to face my mortality & die, the moment I see Him face to face the only thing that matters will be my faith. Just as a miner sifts through dust and rocks searching for one element of value, God is going to pour all of my life before Him & me to determine its worth. The only element of my life that holds any value to Him is the element of faith. Without faith all of my “good deeds” are just another piece of grit to be sifted through, but in the light of faith the things I do in this life suddenly take on far greater value because they were achieved through the Holy Spirit to bring glory to my Creator.

Through Christ we are empowered do things that go far beyond what we would ever be capable of doing on our own. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus told his disciples, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing with be impossible for you.” To the world, I’m just a 29-year-old housewife, but because of my faith, and the power that is in Christ I can do greater things than I can imagine.

At some point every believer’s faith will be tested. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” For some of us, the testing of our faith will be very drastic and obvious. Noah’s faith was tested when God asked him to build an ark, Abraham’s was tested when God asked him to sacrifice His son Isaac, Paul was put in prison, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses whose faith makes our own seem pale. For over 2000 years, the members of the Church have been persecuted, and martyred because of their faith. We live in an age where too much focus is given to what feels good, safe, and comfortable right here, right now, and without any thoughts given to the eternal consequences. Many people my age share the sentiment that they would never join the military and go to war because they don’t want to lose their life. I argue that some of the finest Christians have lost their lives on battlefields because they felt that what they believed in was worth sacrificing their life for. We should value our faith above our lives. The moment we accept Christ as the head of our life, it no longer becomes our own anyways. God wants our faith to be everything to us, and if our faith is that strong, nothing will cause us to let go or deny it. Recently in our Sunday school class we were talking about persecution, and one class member made the statement that if someone came into her home and threatened her family with death if she did not renounce her faith, she said she would do whatever they said out of fear, and hope that God would forgive her because she felt that her family was more important. This was very troublesome to me, and what made it even worse was that another member of the group who is quite a bit older, began to justify her feelings, and say that God won’t judge us because we succumb to fear. I couldn’t sit by quietly for this. I hope that none of my family is ever threatened to the point of death because of what I believe, but above my love for my child, my husband, my parents, or any other person on this earth, I am accountable to God, and my life would have no value if I sacrificed that belief. Jesus, who was without sin, died a miserable and humiliating death on a cross for me, so that I wouldn’t have to spend my life and my eternity separated from God. 1 John 2:22-23 goes a step farther talking about anyone that would deny Christ. “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” If everything in my life is preparing me for one moment when I have to choose, I’m prepared to lose everything, and everyone I have. Faith that is worth living for is worth dying for, because for me death is only the beginning.

Randomness

Somehow it's been over a month since I posted anything. We've been very busy lately, and I just haven't had time to sit down & write on my blog.

Last weekend we went to Charleston, SC to see my sister. It was the first time Jon has been since Jordan & Josh got married over 2 years ago, and when we went that time it was all work putting on the wedding, and we didn't get to do any sight seeing. My cousin Matthew goes to school at the Citadel there in Charleston, so we got to see him too. I thought this was a good picture of him by the Pineapple fountain. We decided to take a horse & carriage ride around downtown Charleston to really get to see the sights, and learn some of the local history. This is Matt, Josh, & Jon sitting on one of the rocking benches in front of Hyman's restaurant.I learned that one of the houses we'd gone by several times when we were downtown was where they shot part of the movie The Notebook. This is the house that they filmed as Allie's house in Charleston, it also belonged to the man that Margaret Mitchell based the character Rhett Butler on in her famous book Gone With the Wind. We also went to several of the places where they film Army Wives. For those of you who watch the show, the houses the characters live in are on an old shutdown naval base there in Charleston, and it is in the middle of a swamp! We got out & walked around Claudia Joy's house, and were almost carried away by mosquitoes, but you can't imagine how incredible all of the old oak trees around the place are in real life. It was late evening when we went by the Army Wives place, & my Mom's camera is a lot better in that sort of lighting, so I let her be the one to take pictures there.

Like many of you guys I've caught the Pinterest bug, and have been really inspired to try some of the crafts, recipes, and other tips. Our family has gotten quite large, but we still like to do some sort of gift exchange at Christmas, so this year we all decided that we'd buy for our immediate family, and everyone else would get something homemade as a family. I'm excited about this new idea, and think it may become a lasting tradition. I know I always appreciate homemade gifts, whether it be food, a blanket, a calendar, an ornament, or anything else I always think it's nice that the person took the time to make something instead of just picking up a tin of popcorn or something. My mom canned dill pickles, and spicy pickle relish this summer, so that will be her gift. I had thought about baking bread, but after a I discovered the wonder of Pinterest I fell in love with the idea of making homemade vanilla extract. Two weekends ago I had Jon help me cut vanilla beans, and pour the liquid into 15 bottles so it could begin its brewing process (it has to sit several months before it's ready to use). I opened my bottle last week just to check & see what kind of progress it's made already & it smells like heaven!

Sometime this month we plan on getting Wilson's room ready for him. I've got a couple of old Wilson tennis rackets up over the door to the room & to the closet. I've had these old rackets a long time, and I think it's pretty cool that they happen to have his name on them.I'm also very excited that I found my set of Pooh characters dressed up as The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts album cover. I found my Piglet & Tigger a couple of months ago over at Mom's house, and I knew if I kept searching I'd find Pooh & Eeyore, and finally today the search ended. I knew they were really rare, so I looked them up on eBay, and couldn't believe that one place was selling them for $60 each. I wouldn't sell mine because A. I love Pooh & The Beatles B. I've kept them over 15 years now C. They're perfect for Wilson's Pooh themed room, & D. Not everyone has a set of them.

Ok, that's all for now :)

Visions of Pooh Bear Dancing in my Head

I mentioned before that I've decided to go with a Winnie the Pooh theme for our baby boy's nursery, so I thougth I'd share some of the projects I've completed thus far...

So far I've finished 2 watercolor paintings for Wilson's nursery. I plan on doing at least 2 more because I want to include Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, & Roo. I named the top one "Hey there Long Ears!" & the bottom one "Silly 'O Bear!"

This morning I made the little man this night light (in between cleaning the back porch, vacuuming the house, & doing 2 loads of laundry).

A few weeks ago I drew Owl, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, & Piglet around this tree that I oil painted earlier this summer (oil paint takes an eternity to dry). I took the picture above just before I started mixing paint & got to work tonight. I was really in the mood to paint tonight, so I was able to do 2 characters (Pooh & Owl). They're going to need another layer of paint, but once again I'll have to wait at least a week for the first layer to dry. As you can see Owl is in the top of the tree & Pooh is floating by balloon up to the bee hive. You can't see my sketches, but Tigger is hopping down on the lower left side of the tree, Piglet is fretting on the right side looking up at Pooh, and Eeyore is sulking right beneath the center. So far the most difficult thing about this picture is dealing with the awkward size of the canvas. It's long & skinny, so it doesn't work well on an easel, and it hangs off the table. I'm constantly having to turn it a different direction to work on another spot (& most importantly keep my hand out of the wet paint). I can't wait to see how everything turns out when I finish, frame it, & actually get his room together ;)

This is What I painted last night

I worked for 4 hours last night painting the letters of his name on these cute little square canvases from Michael's. It was a lot of fun, and I'm going to tie black ribbons on each of them to hang them in his room. The really fun thing about each letter being on its own canvas is I'm not limited on how to hang them. I was playing around with them last night, and I like the way it looks doing them horizontal with one letter up, the next slightly down, then the next one back up. I also like the way it looks when I lined them up like stairs going downwards. One day when it cools off, we'll get to work on the nursery, but in the mean time I'm enjoying coming up with cute little ideas to do in there. Lots of people say it isn't as easy to come up with cute ideas for decorating a boys room, but I'm afraid I'm coming up with more ideas than I'll ever be able to use! Putting together a boy's room may require you to rid your mind of flowers, layers of frills, and massive quantities of the colors pastel pink & purple, but that doesn't even begin to get rid of 1/10th of all the decorating options that are still available!

Just 1 Question....

Who are these people & what are they doing living in our house? I forgot which baby product commercial it was, but the last line says, "Having a Baby changes Everything." Seriously, whoever said it was a total genius / prophet / must have gone through this whole crazy thing too. The above picture was taken a little less than a month ago when we went to Jon's brother's Texarkana wedding reception.

There have been a lot of little changes for us. This Dr. Pepper-aholic hasn't been able to stand the taste of anything but Yellow Gatorade for almost 4 months. We now have someone else to talk to, and talk about besides ourselves, the store, & our furry children. Every morning before Jon goes to work, he gives me a kiss & says he loves me like always, but now he also rubs my tummy & says, "I love you too Wilson." It always makes me smile, and I think Wilson likes it too ;) Most nights we go to bed earlier, and we both sleep a lot lighter. Jon is on constant alert mode, every time I wake up to use the restroom or throw up, he's wide awake to see if every thing's alright. When we go out to a store neither of us ever really wants to get anything for ourselves, instead we always end up in the baby section, and not just the baby section, but the Baby Boy section.

Another big change is that everything is measured in weeks. When I was younger it would drive me crazy when you'd ask a pregnant person or a new mom how far along they were or how old their baby was, and they'd spout off something like, "14 weeks." I would think "OK... Can you not use months anymore because now I'm having to divide this out!" Now I'm doing the same thing. For those of you who understand "Momspeak" I'm 9 days away from 20 weeks. For the rest of the normal population that means 9 days away from 4 1/2 months. I'm 9 days away from the official half way mark!

I still don't really look pregnant, I'm 10 pounds less than I was the day I found out I was expecting, and I'm still throwing up a lot. Jon has dark circles under his eyes, and I'm just hoping that before this is over Wilson & I won't give him any gray hairs! In spite of it all, you won't meet two happier people!

Wilson is doing great, and we're both very excited about our little man.

Something Old & Something Blue

No... I'm not talking about a wedding. I know Wilson isn't due for a while, but I'm so excited about the little outfit that he'll be coming home from the hospital in, so I just had to write a post about it.

Since we found out that we were having a baby, Jon and I both agreed that we want to use and hand down as much from our families, & our childhoods as possible. For someone that isn't even born yet, Wilson already has an impressive collection of Jon's & my favorite children's books. There's just something about being able to watch more than one generation get to use and enjoy the same thing that just makes me happy. Luckily both sets of our parents are the sentimental types that have saved a lot of our things. This brings me to the outfit we're bringing our little man home from the hospital in. If you've followed my blog, you've actually seen this outfit before in the post I wrote last year about Jon's adoption, you can view that post here http://bowiecountyhousewife.blogspot.com/2010/08/september-1-1982.html

One of the first things I thought of when it registered in my mind that we were having a boy, is he's got to have the outfit Jon wore the day his parents picked him up from Edna Gladney. Jon's parents had been on a couple of adoption agency waiting lists for almost 3 years when they got the call that they had a son, and they could come pick him up. They didn't have a single thing for him, so when they got to Fort Worth they stopped at a store, and picked up this outfit. When they got to Edna Gladney, the nurse took the outfit, and shortly afterwards returned with 14 day old Jon to meet his parents for the very first time.

I do realize that it is a summer outfit, and Wilson is going to be born in the middle of winter. I will simply bundle him up in the beautiful thick silk shawl that MayMay (my grandmother who is no longer with us) made for me to wear when I left the reception on the evening of mine & Jon's wedding. I remember when MayMay made it, she and my mom talked about how one day I could wrap my baby up in it when I brought him or her home from the hospital. Even now I can hardly think about it without getting a little teary eyed.

Critter - No More

The Big News in our part of the 100 acre wood is this... Our Little Critter is no longer just a Little Critter... We're having a BOY!!!
His name is Wilson Michael Trammell.
Jon is the one that came up with it. Although Wilson was my maiden name I had never really thought about using it for a first name, but one morning shortly after we found out about the Little Critter we were getting ready & Jon & I were tossing around different possible baby names, & he said, "I like the name Wilson for a boy.... Wilson Michael." I looked up at him, and just like on our first date it was one of those moments where we both just knew, "this is it."
Initially I thought I wanted a girl, but when I got over the initial shock that I'm actually having a BOY I'm 10,000 times more excited than I even thought possible. Jon & I both love Winnie the Pooh, our dog Winston is called Winnie most of the time, so we're going with a Winnie the Pooh nursery. My Mom, Sister Jordan, and I are already working on painting pictures for the wall.
Jon & I also plan on going to see the new Pooh movie with my mom & our friend Karen Reavis this evening! :) Silly O' Bear!!!

The Green-Eyed Monster

This post may seem a bit random, but it is something that is ever present in our world, and many times we don't even recognize the danger of it. "The Green-eyed Monster" is a phrase we use to describe jealousy. Jealousy is a nasty, sneaky little disease that creeps up on us when we stop being content with who we are, and what we have. While it is usually believed that women are more prone to jealousy, men are just as susceptible to it. The main difference in the jealousy that men experience that sets it apart from the more easily recognized material jealousy of women, is that men become jealous of each other's abilities. In teens you witness it in the weight room, where the 170 lb. boy is able to bench press 50 lbs. more than the 150 lb. boy. As adults weaker business negotiators will get together & try to ostracize or bring down the top salesman in the firm.

Many Christians & Jews alike overlook it, but the 10th commandment is "You shall not covet..." it then goes on to explain several examples of coveting. This commandment is another way of saying, "Don't be jealous!" If you go through the list of the 10 commandments, you'll discover that they were created with our interest in mind. When we murder, steal, disobey our parents, and or commit adultery we hurt others, and in turn increase the chances that someone is going to get back at us. The problem with being jealous of someone else is that it is so taxing of your time because it takes over so much of your thought process. In short it will eat you alive.

You should also be on your guard against other people who are jealous of you. I'd rather have 50 people that just simply didn't like me, than to have 1 person that was jealous of me. One jealous person has the potential to do more harm than you can imagine. My advice is this, when you see a jealous person coming, don't fall for being flattered that they wish they were you, or they wish they had what you have. Just turn and run (don't walk) the other direction. Your real friends will be happy for you, and not try to make you feel guilty when you succeed, or when great things happen in your life.

If you find yourself falling prey to envy, just remind yourself that what may appear grand on the outside isn't always what it's cracked up to be on the inside. People who live in enormous houses are also paying enormous utility bills. You may see a woman that you grew up with that looks like she should be in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, but what you don't see is that her husband has been cheating on her, and she's doing everything she can to try to find some level of worth in herself. I'm not saying this is always the case, I'm just saying that appearances are sometimes the only thing that people feel they have any control over. When people go on nice vacations, they've usually had to cut back in some other area in order to afford it. If they haven't made cutbacks to pay for things like vacations, then guess what, it gets added on top of any other debt they've accumulated, and at some point we all have to pay the piper. New cars are great, but on the flip side... 2 summers ago I got one, and guess what it's not so new anymore, and I've still got 3 more years left to pay on it. I remember growing up there were a lot of kids that would be jealous of me and my sister because my Dad is a doctor. What they don't know is that my Mom, sister, and I used to spend at least three to four nights a week alone without seeing Dad because he had to be on call so much, not until the past 5 years has it gotten to where he's only gone about 2 nights per week. He's almost 55, and still has to get up and leave the house anytime he gets a call. Instead of letting someone else's possessions, looks, or achievements bother you, just take time to reflect on the good things you have going on in your life. Chances are you have something that other people would give anything for, and you don't even know it!

Some Sort of an Update

I haven't really felt like doing much lately, other than laying down & praying I won't throw up anymore (trust me when it's a 3 to 15 time a day occurrence you'd be doing the same thing). Thanks to my really fun diet which consists mostly of pretzels, french fries with extra salt, & Yellow Gatorade, as of this morning I'm 13 pounds less than when we started this party. Somehow everything must be redistributing to my stomach because it has definitely gotten bigger. No worries when it comes to the Little Critter, as I've heard my Dad tell many patients through the years, babies are like parasites & will take what they need regardless of how you're doing.

We had all sorts of fun stuff planned for this summer, but so far I've not been able to go anywhere... except on an occasional trip to the laundry room to throw another load in the washer and dryer (at least I don't hate it as much as I used to- it's hard to hate one of your only forms of activity). I also go over to my parents house every few days for a change of scenery. June 17th & 18th Jon had to go solo to his brother's wedding in Dallas, which made me very sad because I really wanted to be there with him. We were going to be going to my sister's in Charleston, SC tomorrow, & then all of the family drive up to Wake Forest, NC for another family friend's wedding, but I'm just not going to be able to do it.

That's enough of the boring-depressing stuff. There have been some really good things happen too. Our Pastor Gene Huntzinger had to leave town for 4 weeks due to meetings and other speaking engagements, and he asked my Dad to fill in on Father's Day. He was nervous about it because he's never been asked to fill in & give a sermon before. Here is the Link if anyone is interested in hearing his sermon. http://tpctexarkana.org/sermons.htm Just hit the media player next to June 19 Dr. Tom Wilson. He doesn't like public speaking, but I thought he did a very good job, and was so proud of him.

Another exciting thing that has happened is my dear friend Jean Houghton Beatty sent the Little Critter a Paddington Bear that has been in her office helping her write books, & waiting for just the right person to give him to. She got him a couple years ago in England when she went to visit her brother in the Lake District. He looks just like the one below.Jean is from Liverpool, but now lives in Charlotte, NC. If you've followed my blog for very long you will remember that I've written about her books. She is such a great author, and has just had her second book made available on Amazon Kindle. Which is really exciting because up until now, I've had one of the few copies of it that she wrote in for me, so NO way Jose' was I going to let someone take it out of my house to borrow because I didn't want to risk not getting it back. Her two books are Stoney Beck & Different Drummers. She expects Different Drummers will be available in paperback sometime next year. I read both books in only 2 days each. They're so good you won't want to put them down.

I had the Big Book of Paddington, but was disappointed to discover that the stories weren't in it, so Mom got this collection of 38 Paddington Stories for me to read to the Little Critter when it gets big enough for story time (which was always mine & my sister Jordan's favorite time)!

My Sister crocheted Little Critter a beautiful baby afghan. I was so excited when the package arrived. She also got the baby a sleeveless shark shirt for him or her to wear next summer for Shark Week. If you know my sister, then you know that Shark Week is a big deal. She even wrote a funny e-mail a couple years ago to the whole family to remind us of the up coming event. In case you didn't know Shark Week is always in July, so no you haven't missed out on it this year. If you want to get in on the action, turn your TVs to the Discovery Channel in a few days.

The best news is that last Thursday I was feeling good enough to get out of the house, so Mom went with me to Wal-mart & TJmaxx because I needed to get my sister & cousin Morgan something for their birthday. Mom got to feeling hungry, so we went through Chick fil A, this made us decide on the spur of the moment to run by Jon's store to take him some lunch. On the way down 40th, which has become a terribly busy street since there is so much construction on the main roads, I spotted what looked like a kitten in the middle of our lane. Several cars had already driven right over it, & it was hugging the ground. We couldn't stop until right after we went over it & the two cars behind us did as well. Mom pulled over & I got out of the car & retrieved her. She was paralyzed with fear. From there we went straight to the vet because I didn't know if she'd been hit by a car, and I figured it would be more humane for them to do it if she needed to be put down than for her to be killed in traffic. Thankfully, she was alright. She favors her back right leg, but it is getting stronger everyday. She's almost 6 weeks old, and is the sweetest, most loving little thing you've ever met. She's my Mom's new baby, and she has named her June Bug Cleaver Wilson ;)Yesterday while the housekeeper was at Mom's, June Bug came over & played at my house all day. She helped me fold clothes, and then fell asleep in the pile of clean socks. I can't tell you how much she has cheered me up.

My animals are all behaving very well, except Zipper who has been permanently banished to the big screened in porch over a week ago due to his very unsavory habit of urinating "outside the box." With a baby coming that is one thing that we can't deal with. We still love him, and he can come in from time to time as long has he's under constant supervision. No need to worry about him, he's always preferred it out on the porch, & he's as happy as a lark out there.

Bark at the Park (Minus the Park)

In the words of John Lennon ~ "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." The past two weeks the Little Critter has had me on a very short leash, but I kept hoping that we would be able to go to the Ranger game today. I even bought Jon and myself new matching super soft Ranger T-shirts. We would have looked so cute walking our little Cookie around the ball field before the game, but it just wasn't meant to be. Before the game we put Cookie's little outfit on her & took some pictures, & like most siblings her little brother Winston decided it wasn't fair that he couldn't be part of the action. Instead of Bark at the Park, Jon & the rest of Team Trammell is going to Bark at the Flat Screen (as soon as these pictures post Little Grey cat Ralphie, Little Critter, and I are going to do what we do best - Bark at our eyelids!)

This is as fixed up as I get right now, I'm sure the pictures would have been better out in the front yard, but it's too hot out there. Yes Sir Winston is a Miniature Schnauzer. You might notice that he's missing his skirt. The poor little guy is so hot natured, schnauzers overheat very easily even if you only let them out for a few minutes. He went to the groomers this week and got what they call the "Schnauzer Strip" for summer. He's happy about it, and proud as a peacock of his little self, & I rather like it too.

Tests & Thankfulness

I've really been pondering the message our minister Gene Huntzinger shared with our church on Sunday.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you are truly a follower of God, this is the #1 thing you've got to get to the root of in your life. *Give thanks in All circumstances.

It isn't always easy to be thankful in all circumstances, because to be honest some circumstances are rotten, they hurt, and they aren't fair. I don't know about you, but when things go wrong I have the ability to throw a pity party for myself that would rival the size of the Royal Wedding! So, this is one of those verses that I've read before, and thought hmmm.... well that's nice, but I'd never really pondered it, or applied it to my life.

So we're clear, God doesn't do us harm. Satan is the one you can thank for all that. God allows us to go through tests in our life, but it is always His plan to bring you prosperity, and to make you better than you were in the first place. So, we're supposed to give Him thanks in everything. Gene shared with us that last week was a really difficult week for him, his garage caught on fire & burned down, someone vandalized his yard, and then someone working on something else struck the main water line in the yard, and water shot twenty feet in the air, & flooded the yard. He said that he told his wife, that they needed to pray, and be thankful in these circumstances. Everything we have is already His, so if He wants them to continue to be able to live on that property, then He'll have to take care of these problems that have arisen or lead them to another solution. Sunday night, I put this revolutionary way of thinking into practice, because of course it just so happened that morning sickness decided to go from bad to hideously ugly. As I lay on my bathroom floor I prayed, "God I give you praise in this situation. This body belongs to You, and if You want me to be able to use it to work and serve You, then I must have some healing because You know I can't even function like this, but if I can better complete Your plan for me by continuing to go through this, then show me how to do it with a graceful spirit and grateful heart." I'm so thankful we live in this age of medicine where there is so much that can be done to help eliminate or minimize our suffering. Compared to how I was feeling, I'm a different person, but I know the reason I'm better is because God has a job for me to do that requires me being up and about. It's a lot easier to thank Him now for making me so much better, the other night it wasn't as easy, however after I did it I felt a great sense of inner peace and strength.

Right now I have several friends that are going through really bad marriage trouble, and some have even had to go through divorce. It breaks my heart so much for them. I would love to be able to give them some truly comforting, sound, Biblical advice that would make it more bearable. I don't want anyone to misunderstand, I don't want people to think I want them to say things like, "Thank you for my divorce." God didn't create divorce, but He will see you through the storms of doubt and depression that it brings to your mind. He is the one that can heal you, and give you an endless capacity to love. Thank Him for never wavering, and for never leaving your side even when everyone else has.

Whatever test you may be going through, Give thanks. It may not change the circumstance you are going through, but it will change the way you feel about it!

150th Post

Well 150 is a pretty significant number of posts when it comes to blog world. I just wish I had some really awesome / significant stuff to report. At the moment I just have small random things worth mentioning.

Today Jon & I've been married 6 1/2 years.

We tried a new place for dinner tonight. It's called Sam's Shrimp & Seafood on Stateline across from Jon's store. I am not lying when I say the shrimp are the size of my fist! It was delicious, so we now know a great place to go eat shrimp (which is very important when you're this far from the gulf)! Any of you local friends that decide to try it, take my advice & share! We got 1 entree & 2 drinks, our total was $14.99 & we had a full container of leftovers to carry out.

I planted some okra that we started from seeds in our garden today. I'm really not sure what else we're going to plant, and I know we should have done it sooner, but Jon had to make some modifications to our large garden planter box.

Now that we're having a baby, we have a lot of work to do around the house. We have gotten rid of the carpet... except the front guest room. I hadn't really thought about it, but one of the 1st things I hear is, "Now that you're having a baby, we better get the carpet out of there." I'm not putting it at the top of my priority list. I'm going to "accept the things I can not change," and at the moment that is one of them. For starters, I can't exactly go move the furniture out of there, and I'm not the kind of person who can sit while someone else is working. I get a little overwhelmed when it comes to thinking about redoing stuff in the house, but I've decided to build "Rome" one small brick at a time as the mood strikes me. We've lived in our house over 5 years without a baby, so we did like most people & spread our stuff into all 3 bedrooms (and all of the closets). The red room (which is currently our study) is going to become the nursery, but it is going to take a lot of adjusting. Today I began transferring our stuff out of the study closet into the guest room closet. I got a lot done & transferred the Critter's stuff into some Rubbermaid drawers until we figure out what kind of furniture we're going to put in here to go with my old baby bed & changing table. I think we're going to take the glider that Jon's parents used to rock him in his nursery, so we'll have things from when both of us were babies.

Bark at the Park

We're all set to take our sweet dog Cookie to Bark at the Park on May 29th at Texas Ranger stadium. We've never done it before, but I think it will be fun. I made her a really Cute tutu to wear along with her other Ranger gear. I'll take pictures and share them after the game, but I'm kind of excited about taking our little 4 legged friend! We aren't taking the other two dogs. Sasha is not an outdoor kind of woman! She likes to be inside, just taking her out to do her business is sometimes a challenge. Winston has a real issue with wanting to bark & get irritable with other dogs even when he's on a leash. I think it's his short man syndrome (since he's a miniature schnauzer).

Seriously.... How could you say "No" to that face?!?!?!

Off to a Rotten Start!

Spoiled Rotten that is! Little Critter isn't much bigger than an English Pea, and is already creating quite a stir around the house! We've already got several little things to put in a book for him or her.
This is us the day we found out about the Little Critter. Somehow every time there is a big event in our life we end up on Mom & Dad's porch. It's where we had our 1st kiss, where Jon proposed, where I took a couple of my bridal pictures with our 1st dog Sasha, and now our 1st picture as expecting parents!

For Mother's Day Jon got me flowers!

And this cute little shirt :)

Look at the loot! OU Sooner baby bedding & mobile! OU booties & hat! Dallas Cowboy booties! Converse tennis shoe socks! Special bottles & dummies for breast fed babies. Jewel's Lullaby album! A Pooh photo album & keepsake box (Thank you Big Mama & Daddy Doc!) I got the onesie with his or her first Pooh (I love Pooh! & Little Critter does too ;) ) Jon got the book from our dear friend Ms. Diann Rankin (He's actually reading it!)

The books are a combination of mine & Jon's childhood collections that our parents have given us. Jon gave me the 3 Wonder Pets in my Easter basket because we're always singing the Wonder Pet song, and as he said, "It doesn't matter if we have a girl or boy because most kids love the Wonder Pets!"