Small Group Christmas Fun

We had our small group over Saturday night for a fellowship/welcome Brandon home from Iraq/potluck dinner. It was so much fun to get together with everybody and also added a few "new" friends to our small group.

We will be starting a new study in January based on the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas. Under the title it has written: "What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"

Hmmm. Very interesting.  How many times do I want to be happy and holiness is the furthest thing on my mind or it may be on my mind, but it sure is not in my actions?

A quote from the book: "Sacred Marriage doesn't tell how to build a better marriage--it shows how your marriage can help you deepen your relationship with God...everything about your marriage is filled with the potential for discovering and revealing Christ's character."

Hmmm. Very interesting.  I get lots of opportunity to discover and to reveal Christ's character, but a lot of times I fail miserably and have to humble myself and keep on learning and growing.  I love this book and highly recommend it and cannot wait for our small group to start discussing it.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of all of the fun we had. Or of all of the kids that were here. Or of all of the food that was brought over. Or the overwhelmed kitten who found great comfort in Crystal's arms.

Here is a picture of the new kitty "Snickers" in the Christmas tree.

She discovered she could climb.
 
She discovered that she can play with ornaments from inside the tree.

She didn't know she could do this the first week the tree was up, so I thought (rather naively I suppose) that maybe she didn't like trees inside the house and would not really take any interest in it.


Will the Christmas tree survive this season?

Song for Christmas: A Baby Changes Everything

Today at church Rachel, Heartsong and the praise team sang this Faith Hill song. It was beautiful. So we came home and I found the video they showed at church. This has a fellow singing it. But the meaning is all the same. Jesus came as a baby and changed everything.
Thank you Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)

Fun at Seaworld

We went to Seaworld over the Thanksgiving break to see the decorations and let Mike, Lisa and Katie ride a few rides.



You cannot really see--but that is Mike and Katie finishing on the Great White. I am not a roller coaster fan and Lisa was not a fan of this ride. It has a pretty steep drop--it gives me palpitations just looking at it. Lisa did ride the Steel Eel with Mike and Katie and LOVED it. Again--I am not a fan of leaving the perfectly fine ground and twirling around on a piece of metal that has the potential to at the very least leave me dizzy for the rest of the week and at the most die:-)

4-D Polar Express

This is more my style!

Thanksgiving 2010

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34


Dad went up to D'Hanis and got Grandmother Wells on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday morning Mike put the turkey in the smoker and all of the cooking started. We went to church at 10:00 and came home to continue cooking and preparing for the carbohydate festival that was to ensue.


All of the work--cooking, cleaning--it is all fun, then we sit at the table, pray and in 15 minutes it is over. I wanted to say "Everybody sit. Stay."


These are the beautiful flowers that Cindy sent me this year. It made a lovely centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table.

Dad, Brian, Cindy, Mike, Grandmother, Katie and Lisa. Later Javier and his son, Christian, came over. The football games were on, Cindy and I walked 3 miles and Lisa and Katie were playing with the new addition to our home: Snickers.


I really need to get a better picture of this little kitten. She is cute and quiet. At night we put her in the bathroom and she does not meow at all.
The girls absolutely adore her.

On Friday I drove Grandmother back home. No black Friday shopping here. We got our tree down and started decoratating. The weather turned cooler too, which really helps to get one in the Christmas spirit.

Learning

This really spoke to me today.

This is the first time in my nursing career that I have no idea what I will be doing next. It is a little scary.

I have been learning to trust in God. To trust that He is in control and that He knows what my next job is.

I have been learning that my identity is not in my career or my marriage or my parenting, but my identity is in Christ.

I have been learning that taking a break from work can open up emotions that need to be dealt with. Namely, I have a great fear of getting dementia and dying at a young age like my mom did. I went to the doctor yesterday and he drew a whole bunch of labs and started me on a super B complex vitamin and Lexapro. I feel like I have been losing my memory lately and have been so tired, but not depressed. With all that said, my doctor thinks that it is "readjustment disorder." A normal time someone goes through after losing a loved one. Mine has just taken a year to get to me. It takes from 1-5 years, so the doctor says.

I have been learning...and will keep learning and praying and trusting.

*The Lexapro did not work for me.  So I am going the natural route with amino acids and vitamins.  I think that it is working.  Of course lots of prayer and memorizing scripture and trusting God.

Race Day

Cindy and I did the relay and it was so much fun. I enjoyed this so much.
I did the first leg which was 7.7 miles. Mile one had a 6 minute "break" for a passing train. There were some very unhappy runners. I left in coral 3 which are the fast runners. They are seriously into running. That being said, I ran my first mile in 9 minutes 30 seconds. So I had to s-l-o-w down. A good mile run for me is a pace of 10:30.

I ran it in 1 hour 25 minutes without any bathroom breaks. That is really good for me AND...I am not wiped out right now.

Cindy ran 5.4 miles in a little over an hour and did a great job. Brian dropped us off and picked us up without any difficulties.

The shirts we chose to wear for the race are from a group called Team 413 with the bible verse from Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

Day before race day

Today Cindy and I took the girls and headed to the Alamodome to get our race packs for tomorrow's race. We are running the relay. I was so thrilled to get the packet and the cute little baton which is actually a drum stick. It is light and can fit down the back of your sports bra if you are so inclined to put it there. I may. Or I may not.

I will take the first leg of the race and to tell the truth, I do not feel ready. I am bloated and do not feel energetic. The last part could be because I sat in the hot tub with Mike and have taken a melatonin to get a good nights sleep.

While at the expo, Cindy and I got a chance to shop a little and to laugh a lot. At one point I am on my cell phone with Melody and Cindy is mouthing to me "What did I do with my phone?" I look to make sure I am not using her phone and see that she has something that looks suspiciously like a cell phone in her hand, her cell phone. Yes, she was holding it asking where it was. We laughed so hard. It is typical what happens to us at least one time when we are together. :-)

Lisa and Katie were very playful with each other today (to the point of picking on each other) and this evening Lisa came up and said, "Katie is really getting on top of my fingernails today." I am pretty sure she meant that Katie was getting under her skin today. :-)

Yesterday the girls were playing outside and Katie went to rest. Lisa said "Katie come back and play." Katie replied, "I have some bodily aches right now Lisa." :-)

Cindy, Melody, Lisa and Katie