I love my Red Raiders!

Go Tech Go!

-gasp-

I want to talk about something.

But I don't know if I should.

It might not be blog-appropriate.

And I really don't know if my husband would

 be okay with me talking about it.

Oh gosh.

What to do, what to do.

I mean, well, I am married.

I do have two kids.

It's obvious that it is a part of my life and most likely, yours.

Ahhhhhh.

I just don't know.

Okay, okay. 

It's sex.

There.

I said it.

Brad is going to make me delete this as soon as he reads it, I know it.

Have you read this book? I went to a discussion group tonight with a bunch of gals from church. It was so fun. We brought sensual desserts, had feminine drinks and chatted. About sex. Why is it so taboo to say that word? Sex is good. It makes for happy marriages. 

Actually there is nothing I wish to disclose here on the world wide web, but I did think that the manor in which our discussion group was handled was honorable to the Lord. One woman, encouraging a group of women in ways to love their mate. This would be a great book for a women's group or group of  friends to discuss. 

 I will leave you with this: you should go buy this book yesterday tomorrow. It will serve you well. Promise.

Vegas Las Viva!

Ahhh, Vacation! We are home from our lil' trip; we had such a wonderful time. The best part of a getaway like this is having my husband ALL to myself. I didn't have to share him with anyone or anything. Not the kids, not work, not friends, not television (except for the Cowboys game), not even his cell phone! He left his phone in the hotel room every single day. This is big! (I'm not sure if he even realizes that I noticed. I did. Thanks Babe!) 

 He was ALL mine! 

We did a wholelotta whatever-the-heck-we-wanted. Sounds great doesn't it? We  had no agenda and we loved it that way. We shopped, walked, ate, slept, relaxed, lost a little mula, and a lot more. I will spare you the majority of the photos and only give you a peek into how we spent a lil' bit of our time.

One of my favorite things was the romantic gondola ride through the Venetian.

With a real, live Italian host. Oh wait, I mean...she had a beautiful voice.

By this point, we had walked about a million miles on this hot Las Vegas day. Thus, the fresh-from-the-shower look.

Awaiting the Belagio water show on our way to a Cirq du Sole show. 

Not posed. Promise. :)

And Brad's not-posed picture. He DESPISES having his picture made. Which is all the more reason for loving to have him 'make like a tourist' and smile.

And we relaxed by the pool. (This is the only pale, white bathing suite shot YOU will see.)

I had to show Brad how I could tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue ;-)

The Monte Carlo treated us right!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Do you see the hand coming out of my arm pit? Kind of weird, hugh?

We were SO anxious to see our kids.  Kayt, Noah and the nice shiner on his eye greeted us at the front door.  We spent the evening kissing their faces off. Gosh, I missed those sweet kisses. 

To remind me of our lovely time, all I have to do at this point is turn my head and inhale deeply to smell my hair. I am still reminded of the cigarette smoke that spells Vegas. My body is still on Vegas time, making me think the night is young, but my mind knows that I am back in the real world. With that, I think I will shower and head to bed. 

Thank you to my sweet spouse for treating me to such a wonderful birthday getaway. You're good to me! I love you!

tExAs tEcH

Noah is going to dress up as a Texas Tech football player for halloween. We have the jersey, pants and pads, but we CANNOT find a helmet.

Does anyone own a child's Texas Tech helmet or know someone who does? Where did you get it? We would even settle for a solid red, white or black, but cannot find any of them. I am running out of time. He just needs a kids play helmet, not a real one. He is only two and I need him to be able to hold his head up for the night!

If you have any suggestions, please help me out.

Speaking of our beloved Texas Tech, Fight Raiders Fight! The game against Kansas will be on ESPN at 11 today. We will catch some of it before we board the plane. Have a great weekend!

They Picked ME Up

I have been a little annoyed with Me this week. It has just been one of those weeks where  I have made mistake after mistake. Everything I touch, I seem to mess up or knock off the shelf. I have hit my head, oh, say fifty times. I backed into the column on our front porch with my car. I've had very little patience. All week I have just felt frazzled. When I need to be in a hurry, I can't get it together. Do you ever have weeks like that?

It hasn't been a bad week, nothing traumatic or terrible has happened. It had just been an off week. And I am the one that is off. 

I am not complaining. Really, I'm not. I hope you don't hear it as that. I have no reason to complain. I just have not been able to get my act together this week and frankly, I am bothering myself. 

My annoyances would not even be worth mentioning if it were not for these:

A note from a new friend

And a gift in the mail from a bloggy friend.

These two, seemingly small acts of kindness were so special to me on this particular week. The Lord knew I would be off-kilter, and he used two thoughtful people to encourage me. 

I have been reminded how much a simple gesture can mean to a person. And how the Lord desires to use us, his peeps, to encourage other believers, even when we don't realize what they need. 

This morning, I was able to spend some time at a friends house catching up. For lunch, my sister-in-law and I had a date. It was so much fun to have time alone with Tara. We rarely have the opportunity to have girl-time; she is one of my favorite people to be around. And to top off my afternoon, I curled up in a chair at Barns and Noble with hot tea and a new book for over an hour before I picked the kids up from MDO. I told you I have no reason to complain. It was such a refreshing day. 

And then I smashed my hand in the door. 

Okay, I wandering now.

So, go. Put a note in the mail to a friend, just because. Buy him or her the coffee mug or the pair of stripped socks or whatever it is that makes you think of them next time you are at the store. You never know who needs a pick-me-up at that very moment. Because we all have off weeks sometimes.

Oh, and I am going to Vegas in just over 24 hours. That's helped too!!!

Small Group with BIG Personality

We have such a wonderful small group from our church. Over the past year, we met every Tuesday night, rotating from one home to another. On the week that group was at your home, you provided dinner for everyone; I loved eating together! After dinner, we pressed hard into the Lord and had so many life changing evenings. We grew to cherish each person in the group. Isn't it amazing how a group of strangers with many different personalities and interests can grow to be so close and have so much in common? Recently, our group  decided to multiply and start several new groups. Since that time, we have not been meeting together, and until tonight, I didn't realize how much I missed having weekly time with our great friends. 

Tiffney's birthday is tomorrow and her husband, Bradey, gathered everyone for a surprise dinner for her. As soon as we entered the restaurant, I realized how much I miss seeing everyone. 

I'm not sure if Tiffney was eating the taco or if the taco was eating her, but either way she is a cute birthday girl!

See, don't they just look like fun people?

Don't tell the others, but this was the 'cool' end of the table. Shhhh...

And the best part of the night was when the boys all went back to the Murphree's house to play poker and the girls went to Starbucks. It was so fun to sip our warm drinks outside laughing, catching up, talking about t.v. show gossip, reminiscing over NKOTB crushes and discussing our latest, greatest bra findings. 

Thank you Jesus for wonderful friends!

Pink, Blue, blah blah blah

I was uploading pictures from my camera and I found these two pictures taken on the same day. Notice anything wrong with the two pictures? 

Noah must have put the bib on himself. He always wants to do everything just like his "little one".  I'm not sure that small bib will give you much protection against your big, bad yogurt, Bubba!

Decisions, Decisions

I have less than 2 hours before I pick my kids up from MDO. I am contemplating between mopping the kitchen floor and cleaning the bathrooms or going shopping with some of my birthday money.

 

Hmmmm....

Peace out.

These are few of his fav-orite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens....

Kidding.

My husbands favorite things (according to me). I've even supplied a visual stimulant for my reading impaired friends.

• Coffee. No question about this. Black and strong. Just like... I'll stop there.

• Dudes and Donuts. Every Saturday, Noah and Brad head to the Donut Stop for dudes and donuts. They eat breakfast and watch the *ucks pass by. They both love Dudes and Donuts. In fact, a few weeks ago, I got up and got ready thinking Kayt and I might just join them for breakfast. Noah said, "where you goin' mom?" I told him that today it was going to be Dudes, Dudettes and Donuts. He said, "No it's not. It's just for the boys. You and Kayt need to stay here. We'll bring you one." He shut that idea down.

• Candy. Sweetarts, skittles, Sprees, Sour Worms, anything fruity or sour. On road trips, we will barely get out of town before we make our first candy stop. He's a sucker (no pun intended) for a good convenience store. 

• Coke with lime. Not the canned stuff. A real Coke with a real lime.

• His grandpa. He admires him so much.

• Jody. They are weirdly crazy about each other. I don't even ask anymore. 

• Friends. He loves to spend time with friends whenever he can. He has a lot of them.

• College Game Day on ESPN. I happen to be a huge fan also.

• Texas Tech. Get your guns up!

• Cowboys. Yep.
  

• Mavericks. Double Yep.

• Golfing. He loves it. I, on the other hand, think it takes entirely too long. We compromise.

• Poppyseed Chicken and Angel Pie. Or anything his mom cooks. 
  

• Jesus. And all that encompasses. His job. His ministry. His calling.
  

no visual here :)

• His offsprings. He totally digs his kiddos; he is a great daddy!

• Me. Obviously. For reasons too numerous to list. Kidding.

I tag:

Anyone who wants to participate. It was kind of fun to think of all my spouse enjoys.

p.s. Thanks for tagging me Magen! And thank you for the lovely birthday card.

The floods came up

It has rained all day.. We awoke to a soaking downpour and have splashed in the puddles forming. I love rainy days. But I don't know that I would enjoy living in an area that consisted mainly of rainy, dreary days. I cannot deny that sunshine does my soul well. 

What are your favorite days?

sunny.  rainy.  cloudy.  hot.  snowy. 

What type of weather makes you smile most?

Birthday Surprise...

My husband is wonderful! He woke me this morning to this lovely breakfast spread for the two of us. Lil' dude watched Barney and lil' dudette entertained herself in her bed while we enjoyed breakfast burritos and apple turnovers. He even had my coffee creamed to perfection!

Next to my plate were two sweet, sweet notes and a candle. I thought this was my gift and was so pleased with it. And then...

I found out we are going to Las Vegas in two weeks. He surprised me with this getaway. I can hardly wait!!!

Later, my mother-in-law brought this over. Lovely.

What a wonderful, relaxing birthday!

God of the Roach

I am heading out for the retreat.

I wanted to post something before I left, but at this very moment I am still not quite sure what I will post about.

How about this...

For the past month or so, over the course of my day, I will think this phrase: "I am God of the roach."  That is God speaking, not me. 

I didn't know why the Lord keeps saying this phrase to me, but what I had originally gathered was that he was telling  me that he is not just God of the glorious or the pleasant or the desirable, but he is also God of the small, the pesky and the seemingly unnecessary. 

The first time the Lord spoke this phrase in my mind, I was driving with my children and I was taking in the beautiful evening. The colors of the sky, the rays streaming from the sunset, and the calm evening were captivating me. In that beauty, he spoke the phrase.

I am God of the roach.

At that moment, I redirected my thoughts from the beauty and began to think of those nasty insects. Cockroaches are pests. They are of no advantage and from the research I have done they appear on most all continents. They are most always considered pests.

But since the Lord continued to speak this to me, I researched further.

I have also learned that researchers have found a balance of cooperation and competition that exist with roaches. What I am saying is that when they placed cockroaches in multiple groups, the groups all joined together, forming one group.

Also, cockroaches run from light and desire dark places. Researchers believe that only two pieces of information are used when roaches make a decision: how

 dark it is and how many of their friends are there. 

So, in all of my silly research of cockroaches, I have concluded that roaches represent sin. This goes against my initial thinking that they may be a picture of small and unwanted issues. I believe this represents larger issues, consistent, addictive sin. 

People mirror roaches more than I had previously thought. When in sin, we flee from light. We run from those who are living in freedom, we avoid any person, place or thing that represents holiness and we desire to stay in darkness. In our disobedience, we look for friends; anyone who will approve of how we are living, anyone that will join us in our darkness. We, like roaches, have two factors in our mind when dealing with sin; how dark is it and how many of our friends are there. Those living in blatant disobedience work to stay there and over time their eyes become so accustomed to living in darkness that any ounce of light makes them turn their head and hide their eyes to protect them from light.

For the person living in sin, remaining in the dark, looking for anyone who will accept the choices you are making, He is God of the roach. I believe that my God wants to remind us that, in this dark world, full of sin and people who claim to know the truth but deny any form of Godliness, he is still the Lord. He is still the Alpha and the Omega. He alone is righteous and pure.  

In our roach-like behavior and our roach-like lifestyles, he still trumps. Ashamedly I have seen someone so entangled in sin that I don't ever consider that person coming to know the Lord. I feel they are too far gone. But he is God of the roach. He is still Lord of the one person or persons in your life that you have lost hope in. For you, have hope, take heart, and keep praying. He can restore and change. In Bible study on Tuesday, we read Saul's conversion to Paul. If Paul, who persecuted Christians, can be saved and dramatically changed, so can the roach you know.

When things seem downcast for you and when evil seems to prevail, remember he is God of the roach. He hasn't lost control. This world has not run ahead of the Lord, he is worthy of our honor.

He is God of the roach.

I am not completely sure why this odd phrase keeps going through my mind, but I know the Lord will show me in time. 

The Dump Truck was Mowing!

At the request of my husband...

Noah has cracked us up for months with his excitement over trucks. Only, he cannot say -tr-. Several weeks ago, our friends Chris and Amy were over and everyone was encouraging Noah to talk about all types of trucks. 

You can hear everyone laughing in the background and at one point Chris (Happy Birthday yesterday Chris!) fell out of the chair because he was laughing so hard. 

I know it is inappropriate and immature of us, but you know you would do it too...

My Birthday Week and My Wonderful Gift

It is my birthday week. 

For me, it has always been that the week(s) leading up to my birthday were fair game for being celebrated. Brad jokes about this because I like to start celebrating a week or two early and then often carry the celebration on after the actual date of my birth passes. He would rather no one even know it is his birthday. 

Since we have had kids, my birthday importance has slipped through the cracks. A lot of things have slipped through the cracks. Or gained cracks, physically speaking. Last year I had a 2 week old on my birthday. The last thing my flabby self wanted to do was go out in public. The thing is, I'm now okay with my once "important" day being overlooked. It actually pails in comparison to my family. It is amazing how your perspective changes after  these little, all-consuming people enter into your world. 

Thursday morning I am leaving for the Women's Retreat at our church. Brad will have the kids all by his lonesome until Sunday evening. I think that is better than any gift he could give me, don't you? The few times I have gone away without Brad and the kids I look forward to it, but I also carry a sense of guilt about leaving. Partially because it always seems like a good idea in theory and then when the time gets closer, I don't want to leave my family. And partially because I always feel bad leaving Brad with the kids. He is wonderful with them and can 'hold down the fort'(probably better than me), but that is a lot of responsibility to place on him. 

Before Brad popped into my life, I  knew that I wanted to marry a man that would be there when we had children.  Not just there physically. Not just at the sporting events or school functions, but that was as much a parent to his children as I would be. I had seen all too many marriages where the mother had to leave a list of instructions for the father, just to be gone for an hour. I grew up knowing women who trusted babysitters with their children more than they did their own husbands. I never wanted that. I wanted to be able to leave the house and be confident that my husband knew the drill, had the schedules down, and could handle the children. The Lord has answered my prayers one hundred fold. 

Though I feel guilty leaving my family for days at a time, in the end, I know it is good for everyone. My times away always make me feel more appreciated and loved, as well as refreshed and encouraged. 

I am looking forward to my 'retreat' and time of connection. But, as I leave, I know that it is not without the sacrifice of someone else. Thank you babe...my heart if overflowing with love for you!

Great memory + Star Struck

Two posts in one day. Wow. Brad is not home yet and I have nothing better to do. Actually, scratch that. I have better things to do, but nothing that I feel like doing.

Noah is the type of child that overhears an adult say something and then two weeks later throws that name or word or location into causal conversation. He has a stellar memory.  

During the Olympics, all he could talk about was Michael Phelps. It was Michael Phelps this and Michael Phelps that. 

Several weeks ago we were driving and a country song came on the radio. He asked me if it was Allan Jackson singing. 

Later that week, he asked me if I had seen The Beatles on TV. He went on to say that he watched them play two songs and really liked them. 

On Wednesday, Sarah called to see if the kids and I wanted to join her and the girls for dinner. After I got off the phone, Noah asked who I had been talking to; I told him it was Sarah. "Oh, Sarah Palin?" he asked. Ummm, no. It was actually Sarah Wilson. From what I can recall, Sarah Palin didn't call me on Wednesday.

Today we were leaving Texas Roadhouse from having dinner with my dad. As we passed McDonalds, he and my dad had this conversation:

N: "Hey Pappy, I think we should go to a birthday party at Old McDongals" (he doesn't grasp the difference between the  restaurant  eating joint and the song)

Pappy: "You do? Who's birthday party would you like to go to?"

N: "How bout' John McCains" 

Pappy: "Well, I guess if John McCain has a birthday party at McDonald's then we could probably make that happen."

Later in the evening, Noah asked this: "Does Obama like change?" 

Whatthaheck?

Speaking of what the heck, I've heard that phrase come out of Noah's little mouth on more than one occasion. A few days ago, he was going to share a piece of his cereal bar with Kayt. He gave her a rather large piece expecting her to take a bite and give him the remainder. Of course, she shoved the entire thing in her mouth. He said "Whatthaheck! She ate my biggest piece!"

Crazy kid. 

I think I need to watch what I say, don't you?