Girls weekend ~ here I come!

Tomorrow I will be heading to Breckenridge for a womens retreat. I can't wait for some girl time and some rest. I had these big ideas of all the things I wanted to do on my girls weekend, but at this point I am just looking forward to sleeping all night...maybe a little late in the morning...getting some time with my Bible...laughing with the girls...and not taking care of anyone but me. We all need that from time to time and us moms often feel guilty for saying it. But let's just say it...no, let's shout it! I need some "me" time! So I hope you get a little "me" time in the days to come even if it's just an hour or two. It can make a huge difference!

And thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes my way. It was a wonderful day and I felt very loved!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today I turned 34. I tried to spend time reflecting on my life today but, to be honest, I didn't get far. It was a great day though, so I will recap the highlights.

Emma was so excited when she woke up. She came running into my bedroom with a card that she had written her name on all by herself. Then she sang Happy Birthday to me on her microphone. It was adorable.

We opened presents before breakfast because we were all in a hurry to get out the door. Yes ~ my hair was still wet. Tim and Emma got me some great gifts! And Emma did an awesome job of wrapping all the gifts on her own.



Then it was off to breakfast with some girlfriends from Young Life. Emma and I had an omelet with roasted potatoes and toast. YUM! On our way out Emma suggested we buy three different desserts from the bakery for my birthday. I thought that was a great idea so I obliged. I got my very favorite dessert in all the world ~ creme brulee. I let Emma pick out a slice of mint chocolate cake and we got a slice of fruit torte.

The mail brought more surprises ~ cards from friends and family who live far away. That brought me such happiness reading those cards! Thank you! After school and swim lessons, Emma and I did a little shopping. I had a BOGO coupon for Yankee Candle and as luck would have it ~ one of their new scents is creme brulee. Love it!

After a quick birthday dinner we dove into our desserts. The creme brulee was some of the best I have ever had. And Emma nearly devoured the entire piece of mint chocolate cake. She would have finished it off if I had let her. But I tried to show some good judgement and said we should save the rest for tomorrow.



Those beautiful flowers in the background are from my Dad. He left them on my doorstep last night when we were out for an early birthday dinner. We went to Casa Bonita in Denver where they have cliff divers and much more. Emma loved it!


www.casabonitadenver.com

Then Mommy got to pick the activity for the evening so we did puzzles as a family. I love puzzles and I rarely get to do them. Tonight we did Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Hello Kitty. Hey ~ they all had 100 pieces so it was a bit of a challenge. OK ~ well getting them sorted was the challenging part but I loved it just the same.

But seriously, I do have to say how blessed I feel to have an awesome Godly husband who is my best friend and a beautiful, healthy daughter who brings so much joy into my life. I have wonderful family and friends ~ old and new ~ and the daily provisions of a God who loves me more than I can imagine.

I am grateful to be here at 34, and I'm anticipating BIG things from God in the year ahead.

Catching Up

Ok ~ this post is to catch you up on some things that have been going on here. My sister-in-law, Bonnie, had her baby last week ~ her third boy! They planned a home birth and as it happened, her husband Paul delivered the baby because the midwife hadn't made it there yet. I was so proud of them both. Their new little boy is Ewan James. He is such a doll. Yes, that's Tim giving Ewan his first adjustment.

I've been busy making cards again. Here are some samples for my card loving friends. By the way, wait till you see the adorable cards I am making for my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary celebration! I will be posting them next week.

This past Saturday night we took Tim's office staff and their families to the Flying W Ranch ~ a chuck wagon dinner show. It was lots of fun! The "big Kid" in the 4th picture is Ben ~ the associate Dr. that Tim and Jack hired last spring. He's single if you have any eligible friends. :)

They're back!!!! The bucks get very aggressive this time of year and act like they own the place. This is my neighbor's backyard.

I guess that's it ~ so bye for now.

I'm SO Asher!

What can I say?! Seeing Beth Moore live was simply amazing! She is so enthusiastic and funny and in love with God. And she's humble. Every time Beth prayed she got on her knees before us, and she made it so clear that she's just like the rest of us. She's not above struggles and sins and warfare.

Beth taught us to pray a prayer based on Deuteronomy 33 ~ and the Hebrew word "asher" which means "happy." She taught us there is such a thing as biblical happiness - not just joy - but happiness. This word happiness is circumstantial ~ but we all have reason to be happy because God has intervened in our circumstances! We should take time to be happy because God has been good to us. Amen!

I wish I could share in more detail but that would take a whole day and you'd get tired of reading this blog before the end. The cool thing is they were taping yesterday, so it will be available on DVD. I will let you know how to get it when I find out more.

Thanks to my peppie, morning mother...we were on the third row of the concourse level. :) As you can see from the pictures we had really great seats.




They are dark because I had flash problems. If you click on them for a larger image, you can see them better. By the way, I pulled out my camera to take my first picture and my batteries were dead! Ironically, the girl sitting next to me had the exact same camera so she let me borrow her battery. Whew...that was close!

Here's me and my mom. It was so special to share this day with her. She gave me a new journal to take notes in and boy did I. We were writing as fast as we could.


I just have to say for the record ~ I'm not the kind of person who is really star struck. I don't follow their lives and I don't dream of meeting any of them. However, I had the opportunity to go to the Oprah show about 9 years ago and I felt in awe when I saw her. I actually got tears in my eyes. Seeing Beth Moore was just like that experience. I was so in awe seeing her in person. I didn't cry but the excitement in me was bubbling over. Also ~ seeing Beth was way better than seeing Oprah because Beth is a spiritual mentor and I've been over Oprah for years. :)

One more thing ~ and this is the last one I promise! But something happened to me at Beth Moore that has never happened to me. This lady was talking to my mom and asked if I was a beautician?! My mom said no and the lady said "well her hair is just so beautiful." I guess I was having a very good hair day. :) And Beth was too. She said she loved CO because you can have such good hair here due to the lack of humidity. Amen to that, too!

Two Saints in One Week

Tim loves Hank Hannegraff a.k.a. the Bible Answer Man. He is an expert apologist for the Christian faith and has a nightly radio show. Well last night we had the opportunity to see Hank in person. It was so awesome! The man knows the Bible like no one I have ever seen. He quoted entire chapters of Scripture all the while teaching us about "always having an answer" for our faith "with gentleness and respect." It was a very cool night, and I was glad Tim got to see him.

Tomorrow I get to see Beth Moore in person! I can not wait! I have been a student of her Bible studies for 4 years now and think it will be so cool to sit under her teaching in person. I'm looking forward to soaking up as much as I can, getting an autograph on my Praying God's Word book, and hopefully a picture for my blog.

And since I haven't posted any cards in a while ~ This is a card I made for my sister-in-law, Bonnie, who just had her 3rd baby boy yesterday. I saw this card challenge on another blog and thought I would try it. It's called a double pocket card and as you can see the card comes out and I added a gift card. I thought it came out so cute, which isn't always the case when I am attempting to mimic someone else's design.

Blessings and Rest

It was a really fun Blessings Unlimited gathering that I had Saturday. I've never had a show like that. We spent time encouraging one another, connecting and talking about God. It was really cool. Then we got to shop for inspiring things from the catalog. So fun!

Then the three of us in my little family spent the rest of the weekend feeling under the weather with sore throats, coughs, drainage...you know the bit. Not sure we are any better today, but there are things to be done so we forge ahead.

And this was the highlight of my weekend ~ getting this picture in email. This is my dearest friend in all the world with her two little ones. They moved out of state last year, and it has been almost a year since we have seen them. I miss them so much!

Yes, it can get worse...

So as I was saying, yesterday was a tough day. But I thought things were turning around ~ mostly because I watched a funny youtube video (yes, I can be that simple). As it turned out ~ things did get worse. A close family member went "missing" for about 7 hours yesterday. In the end (which was around midnight) she turned up unharmed and bewildered at our concern. Apparently it was all a misunderstanding. I wonder how the sheriff's offices in three counties felt about that since we had them all on alert for her?!

I spent countless hours in prayer yesterday. That's never a bad thing. But in my desperation for peace, for answers, for guidance - I found myself at the feet of Jesus (a place I should find myself more often).

I didn't get much sleep last night. My eyes are glazed today ~ my head is foggy ~ my body is weak ~ but my heart is clear. This is I know ~ God is sovereign ALL the time. He is in control and we have to trust Him. Sometimes those lessons are hard but they are worth the bumps and bruises.

Ever Have a Day????

I really didn't know what to title this post. Here are some ideas I had: "Bludgeoned" - "Hung out to Dry" - "Ripped" - "I'd rather have a sharp stick in the eye." Those all seemed a little extreme - even for the day I had - so I decided to ask a simple question: "Have you ever had a day...." A day where you just feel attacked? A day where everything is heavy on your shoulders? A day where things just keep coming at you?

I was feeling like it was all of the above by 9 am this morning. I will purposely leave out the details in order to protect all who were involved in traumatizing my day (although I'd rather rat them out). But the grace shown me (by a loving God) requires that I extend the same kind of grace to those who are not as loving.

So where is all this going? I guess I just wanted you to know that I, too, have bad days. But I have an awesome sister-in-law who listened to my woes and cheered me up with lots of laughs (thanks Bonnie!) and the following video gave me a great laugh! (thanks Amy!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

You have to take 4 minutes out of your day to watch this video. It is so funny and EVERY single parent on the planet will identify!

Sweetness

This past weekend Tim was pretty sick, so we had some friends come by and pray with us. I just have to share this sweet prayer that was said by their two-year-old son. He is so precious and it reminded me of how the faith of a child is so tender and dear to Christ. The conversation went like this:

Mom: Mr. Tim is very sick so we are gonna pray for him.
Boy: Where's his medicine?
Mom: He doesn't have any medicine. We are gonna ask Jesus to heal him.
Boy: Ok ~ Dear Jesus, please touch Tim to feel better...and make him...make
him...make him BETTER. Amen Jesus. Daddy, Jesus cry....
Dad: Yes Jesus cried.

The story behind that is that when this little boy's own Mom was sick in the hospital he saw a statue of Jesus and he had a tear on his face. The Daddy explained that Jesus cries when we are sick. YES ~ Jesus feels our pain and he shares in our sorrow and pain.

Thankfully, Tim is doing much better now and we know it's because of God's healing touch. He carried Tim in the palm of his hand each day last week when he felt so bad. PRAYER my friends ~ is an amazing thing.

It's Official

After four weeks of school, I finally got Emma's "school room" set up. She had so much fun doing this, and now school is even more fun! We put our weekly Bible verses on the bulletin board, but I didn't get them up till after this picture.



We always have piano homework with our school time. Emma is learning quarter note, half note, whole note and finding all the C's on the keyboard.

Some things to make you smile

I finished my next set of cards ~ bridal shower cards for my friend Janel who I also made the wedding invitations for. The black part lifts up to reveal the shower details. These are never as cute in a picture as they are in person, but I wanted to share them with you. Can you see the faint teapots on the black cardstock?


So as I was working on these cards, I looked out the window of my craft room and saw this. Every time I see deer like this it just makes me laugh. They act like they own the place.


And this made me laugh ~ I told Emma to get dressed this morning so we could have school, and this is what she chose to wear.


I hope these pictures brought you as many smiles as they did me.

Back in Action!

We just got back from 5 days at Blue Mesa with my parents, Tim's parents, and our friends the Rudys. It was an awesome last summer trip. I didn't get very many pictures with my camera ~ Stacie got lots though so I will get some from her to post. Here is a sampling of our fun.