Daily Bread

I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually.” (NIV)

Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express.” (NIV)

Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (NIV)

When your running on empty...

Make Jesus Lord of your life. He is Truth and the truth will set you free. His righteousness will cover you. Read your Bible it is your sword of the Spirit, it is your weapon against the enemy. Your faith in Jesus will shield you and you will be given peace. We need to remember to pray because God is just waiting to answer us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

To the man I love with my whole heart. You are the most incredible father to our children, the best husband any woman could dream of, and a very hard working provider for our family. Babe, I love you & I hope your day is filled with happiness. Happy Birthday!!!

J-O-Y

S0rry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been pretty busy. I've have added curtains to 3 rooms in my house, painted my front door, painted another wall in my kitchen, cleaned out kids rooms & clothes, picked out paint for my bedroom, etc. We have been blessed to be able to add a few enhancements to our beautiful home. I thank God everyday for my wonderful husband who helps make our home beautiful and who allows me to buy all these extra enhancements. He is truly amazing. He brings alot of JOY to our home. So speaking of JOY....I got preached to this morning. We have an evangelist Todd Jenkins in service with us this weekend and a statement he made hit home with me. Actually, it took me a minute to get it....but when I finally got it.....it hit home. He said.....that if you do not let ANYTHING, NOTHING, ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, get in between Jesus and you, you will have all the JOY you want in your life. Okay, so here is where the analogy is.......J - O - Y. So there's Jesus O You. The "O" in the middle of JOY is zero....you will have joy if zero is in between Jesus and you. Sorry I had to spell that out like that....it took me a second to figure it out so I thought it would take you a second too. lol :) I just thought of how much JOY I would have if I wouldn't allow others, distractions, pressures, stress, hobbies, THINGS, problems...and the list could go on and on....get between Jesus and I. WOW!!!! If I allow all these things to distract me from my main focus, I will be missing out on JOY, PEACE, HAPPINESS, LOVE, and the list could go on and on. I hope there's noting between Jesus and you to steal your JOY.

Took Advice...

This has been a long, wonderful weekend.....I have been off since Friday. We've had so much going on of late, this was a huge need....a couple of days off to rejuvenate. So, I took Sis. Smith's advice (you can see it on Tracie's Thoughts) and turned STRESSED into DESSERTS.

Friday, I spent the day with the girls while daddy worked. We made a trip to downtown Houston on the hunt for window treatments. I forgot my directions at the house so I basically did it by memory. That's pretty scary. We found what I thought I needed and wanted at Glicks. We then decided to go to High Fashion Home to see if I needed anything from there....well, it may not have been what I needed but it sure was what I wanted. That place is amazing. If you are ever in that part of town you will want to stop by. It is worth it. I loved it. After we left there we headed to the mall, where I found a couple of valances for my kitchen windows. I love them....they added so much to my dining room. Then the girls and I got a dessert, well actually a strawberry/bananna smoothie.....I consider that a dessert don't you. We watched the carousel ride and drank our smoothies. The girls couldn't watch any longer they had to ride....so we choose which animal we wanted to ride on and waited for the bell to sound. Soon after we started Ashlynn began her Miss America wave. She waved and blew kisses to everyone she saw, she was soooo cute. We finished the ride and headed over to the pet store. Ashlynn went crazy, hitting the glass trying to wake the puppies, she would make her tweet, tweet sounds to get the attention of the birds, and meow to the kittens. Then we headed over to the playground in the middle of the mall where we would stay until daddy arrived. We were there about 20 or so minutes and we got the call that daddy was near by and to meet him at the resturant. We loaded up and headed to PF Chang's for a nice dinner. My stomach has been upset for the past several days and I hadn't been able to eat well up until this meal. I sooooo enjoyed it. It is by far one of my favorite meals. After eating we decided to go for a walk on the waterway next to the mall. We found ducks, turtles, fish and even a nuetra rat. (see pics) YUCK!! We walked all around the entire waterway and ended at a waterfall display. We had no clue it was even there nor did we have a clue they were doing a patriotic display. We literatlly walked up and it started....the music was playing loud "I'm Proud to be an American". The water fall/fountain were timed with the music and were red, white & blue. That was a beautiful ending for a beautiful day.

Saturday, we decided to do a few things around the house and then headed back to Glick to buy more panels for my windows. After leaving there we spotted the Aquarium Carousel from the freeway...hey, that looks fun...let's stop....we could ride that and take some pictures....my oldest daughter said MOM.....why do we always have to take pictures....well soon did we find out that mom left her camera card in her computer when she downloaded her pictures from Friday night. Bummer said mom....YES, said Brooklyn & her dad. I was so sad we could not capture our moments on Saturday. Well, while in the carousel we decided we were all hungry so why not eat at the Aquarium. Well, this was another reason I was sad...I could not take pics of the girls reaction to all the BIG fish. We even got to see a diver in the aquarium. It was cool. After we left the aquarium we headed back towards the Woodlands on the hunt for hardware for my window treatments......no luck...after 4 different stores....we did not find anything we liked. BUT we did find one for the dining room so we got them hung. I love being productive while having fun or having fun while being productive......which ever sounds better....hahaha!!!

Sunday, church time!!! Our pastor decided to let us come patriotic casual to church. It was so pretty to see all the red, white and blue. We had a beautiful service. Flag display, tapps presentation, beautiful instrumental of Glory, Glory Hallelujah and to top it off Bro. Smith preached a beautiful sermon and we had 2 visitors in altar. After church we had a recreation/watermelon social....it was a great time....HOT but fun.

Today.....we slept in.....yeah!!!! 9:30 is when I finally rolled out of bed....yeah! Rest...just what I needed. We ate breakfast and got ready....we are headed over to the in-laws house. We are going to have BBQ and head back over to the waterfall display this evening.

I hope each of you have enjoyed a wonderful weekend as I have......if not take Sis. Smith's advice and turn STRESSED into DESSERTS....to me it doesn't necessarily have to be something sweet, it could just be sweet times, sweet memories, sweet things to do....etc....FIND SOME DESSERTS...it's worth it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Today is a very special day for me. Today I have been married to the most wonderful man I know for 8 years. He is so caring, supportative, providing, loving and the most awesomest DADDY a kid would want. He is all about making memories for our family. He works hard to provide for us. I appreciate him today and love him with all my heart. I can't wait for the next 8 years. I can't believe I caught someone like you.

I love our lift together...as parents and partners, we share everything-each joy and challenge that a family can bring. As partners we live and we love side by side, and as parents we give with our hearts opened wide...and that's why there's nothing that I'd rather do , than to spend my forever together with you.

Happy Anniversary babe...all my love always.

Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love,

and they blossom when we love the ones we marry. -Tom Mullen

Another big, special event is happening today.....Brooklyn is graduating Kindergarten today. WOW!!!! is all I can say. I can't believe this day is here already. I will be crying tears of joy today as I celebrate this special day....with my daughter & with my husband. Last night while I stood in the kitchen putting away groceries I watched as Brooklyn sat in her daddy's lap reading her practice sheets that she will be reading today at graduation and I thought to myself....what a priviledge we have as parents to train, teach, love & care for our children. I want to give the best that I can as a parent...I want my kids to have what I didn't have growing up as a child....no, I am not talking about material things.....I want her to have a daddy's lap to sit in....I want her to have a good education, I want her to have that quality time with us....because QUALITY time does not come without QUANTITY time. I look at it this way....investing is simple, but not easy because good children don't just happen because they are raised in Godly homes. We must invest everything we have in them.

Anyway.....thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble....

WILD LIFE PICTURES

Let's Go Feed The Ducks...

Our day was pretty much spent completing tasks around the house. Mowing, cleaning, laundry...etc...you know the not so fun stuff.....Well we got finished with a little bit of extra time on our hands so we said let's go feed the ducks...

But before we go feed the ducks let's go feed the kids...so we stopped and had some katfish....yummy....then we headed to the corner store to buy a loaf of bread and went to feed the ducks

So when we got there we couldn't find a duck in site. Usually there are about 30 ducks out there. We got to our normal feeding spot and waited for the ducks to notice we were there. But it wasn't too long before the birds noticed. So we started to feed the birds....then here come the ducks.....then the ugly ducks....and NOW the huge catfish....the catfish so all the bread the ducks were leaving so every once in a while the catfish will jump up out of the water and grab the bread. This was sooooo exciting for the kids....not to mention mommy with the camera.....snap, snap, snap.....finally got the fish coming out of the water.....COOL!!!!

Then we headed over to the inlaws house to help move a piece of furniture and on the way over there saw a unique bird with a mohawk, a squirrel posing for a picture on a tree trunk. After leaving the inlaws we spot an owl in the tree of their backyard. Cool picture....

We went to prayer meeting at the church and then after that headed home...while driving home we decided to stop by a friends house who say deer are always in their yard at night....and sure enough they were there.

This was a cool day for all kinds of wild life pictures....ENJOY!!!