I'm such a follower

I've always been a follower...as far back as I can remember I've been a follower. That can be a good thing AND a bad thing. But, we won't go there, will we?

So...this past week, there has been much discussion on twitter about "Shred." Not to be ugly, but I call it stupid Shred. Don't ask.

So...do you know what Shred is?? Apparently the villain on The Biggest Loser has some trainer chick that can kick your tail when it comes to working out. I don't watch the show, but I've heard of her.

Jillian.

Does she even have a last name?? I'm thinking she is like Mr. T.

Apparently Jillian is hard core, but people love her because she gets the job done.

Shred will get that job done for us in only 20 minutes. The catcher??? It's for 30 days. That doesn't sound long at first thought, but when you look at a calendar.....30 days is FOREVAH!

I'm heading to Target today to pick up my copy. My bloggy and twitter buddy Gayle and I said that we were gonna be unrecognizable when the 30 days was up! HOW FUNNY ARE WE??

We are serious though. ;)

So...I think its time to get serious about this body that houses the Holy Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Wish me luck. Wish US luck. I believe now is a good time to be a follower. Wanna get in on it?

BURNED!!!

Ok...a couple of things to spit out of this brain of mine...I'm in a fog today.

We had a baseball tourney in Memphis this weekend and let's just say this momma got BURNED! Burned as in sunburned. You know how it goes...the first beautiful weekend at the fields and we just had to lay there and get our lily white selves some sun. And, boy did we.
I could feel the cookin' taking place and put some sunscreen on after about an hour. Yes, AFTER an hour.

Needless to say...as I drove home Saturday night, I could still feel me getting cooked. I could feel it. I was so hot sleeping that night that I felt like I was at the beach. You know that feeling. I can just hear my mom and everyone saying..."You know you should have put sunscreen on!"

I know it. I didn't want to.

Sunday afternoon rolls around and I'm right back at the ball field, but this time I'm in the shade. No sun. I was hurting. I couldn't move well. Shoulders were achy. Ankles were burned. It was ugly. Plus, my energy level had apparently been zapped. I had none. A sunburn will do that to you and I had forgotten that as well. ;)

Honestly, I knew better on Saturday, but I kept on torturing myself anyway. Isn't that what we do?

We know better, but we do it anyway.

I just came out of another kind of "burn." This past fall and early winter was a terrible burnout season for me in my job at church. I all but begged God to move me, take me, let me go. It was so painful, hard, hurtful, paralyzing. Just like that dang sunburn. I couldn't sleep at night. I was all wrapped up in this burnout that was happening in my life. And, it would not go away. Honestly...can I just say it....it sucked.

However, in the flash of a moment, God set me in the shade. And, that is where I still am. I'm sitting in His shade. I am truly sitting under His wing. He is truly carrying me and allowing the burn to heal. It is taking some time.

Right now I look at the shade as more than a way to avoid the sun. It's actually a great place to see the SON.

I hope if you are tired, worn out, burned out....you'll find yourself some rest in the shade. I don't think I want to come back out and get burned again. I'm praying for the strength and courage to only do what I can do and not spin out of control......no matter how exciting it seems out there.

So, get yourself in the shade. And.....it might not be a bad idea to keep sunscreen with you too. ;)

Love y'all....thanks for being the best friends ever!!!

Spring Confessional

Y'all, I'm terrible at flowers. TERRIBLE.

I have no idea what is what and where they go and what you should do and the names....oh, the names kill me. I CANNOT REMEMBER THEM.

So...I go and pick them out...because I'm really good at that part...and then my hubs plants them.

Yep.

We are a good team like that.

You got anything you need to confess?? I could go on and on, but I want you to still like me and think I'm half way intelligent. *ahem*

I did buy some new pillows for our outdoor furniture today. I can do that really well. It's just the whole flower thing that drives me nuts.

Oh, well. I'll be ok.

I love y'all.

Come on...confess away! :)

Summer, please come quickly

I'm getting a little bit antsy for Summer. It's my most favorite time of the year. And, yes...it's 210 degrees here in the humid South, but I LOVE IT!!!

I'm looking forward to...

1. No schedules
2. Sleeping in
3. Swimming
4. Lots of baseball
5. Late nights
6. Yard work
7. Smells of Summer
8. Vacation
9. Fun with friends
10.Anything else????

What are you looking forward to the most this Summer????

Come on...let's live vicariously through you!

Blessings~

I knew I was a dead woman

Y'all...the craziest thing happened to me Saturday.

On the highway.

The interstate to be exact.

Interstate 40 on my way to Nashville to be even more exact.

Just 30 minutes away from Nashville.

And....I was all by my poor little lonesome.

Here we go....the tragedy that almost was on I-40 and how God chose to reveal His sweet self.

Saturday was a gloomy kind of day here in West TN and I was scheduled to travel to Nashville to help celebrate THE ONLY GIRL IN THE FAMILY 1st birthday. This is my brothers very first child and he is the lovely age of 43. Don't you love that? Of course I'll be there.

So...I'm boppin' along and life is great. I stop in Dickson to get gas at a lovely (ahem) gas station whose bathrooms were "temporarily" out of order and then I was back on my way.

As soon as I got back on the interstate, my tire pressure light came on and then the screen where it shows all the tire pressure numbers came on. I didn't really panic until I saw the back left tire numbers.

The other tires are in the high 30's and this back left tire started off at 20, then 16, then 11, and then 6 and then I'm pulling over.

My first thought was (and being a bit dramatic in my mind) SHE'S GONNA BLOW AND I'M GONNA FLIP!!!! GET THE CAR OVER BEFORE I FLIP! FLIP FLIP FLIP!!!!!

So, I pull over, open the door, and just stick my head out to look at the dang tire. FLAT AS A PANCAKE.

Big dang.

Ummm, excuse me, but I had no idea what to do next without my husband. Oh, maybe I'll call him and see what I should do. Good idea. Thank you Lord for cell phones.

He doesn't answer. Oh, yeah, he's coaching a baseball game. That's why I'm going alone. He is not answering.

Next, I will call my brother and other family members and tell him what's going on. I'm still calm. More ticked than anything. But, I'm ok.

Finally, hubs calls back and he gives me the number to Verizon roadside service and that's when I noticed my hands starting to shake a little. Maybe in the back of my head I begin thinking about the I-40 strangler that sees me from the trees and is about to come kill me.

I get the dumbest woman alive on the planet who helped me. I couldn't have been more clear with her on where I was. I imagined her to be in South Dakota so I gave her every last detail under the sun. She asked me if I was past Briley Parkway and I know I screamed "THAT IS IN NASHVILLE WOMAN!" That's probably when she decided not to help the poor stranded woman on the side of I-40.

After 20 dreadfully long minutes, she came back on the line and told me that a wrecker/towing service would be there to help me in an hour and a half. EXCUSE ME ??????!!!!! I'm sorry, I thought you said you'd be here to help me in 90 minutes???

Ok, that is when I'm certain my first near panic attack began to show itself. From this point on it got really ugly. And, I mean emotionally ugly. My cute little birthday outfit wearing self was sweating, bawling, and trying to be nice to people on the phone. It's not so cute any more.

When the wrecker service lady called me, I bawled and squalled to her and told her that I couldn't possibly wait that long, she felt a tiny bit sorry for me. I might have told her that I was certain that I read about the I-40 strangler in the paper that morning. She called me back later to tell me that they would be there in 20 minutes. I think I was trying to catch my breath and act like I had it all together and that surely I could wait 20 minutes.

I somehow managed to find the Tennessee Highway Patrol number via google via my cell phone and that would be *847 and I HIGHLY SUGGEST EVERYONE PUT THAT IN YOUR PHONE.
They sent a state trooper about the same time the tow trucker wrecker guy showed up.

Could he be the I-40 strangler that I'm thinking about??? I'm seriously checking him out.

Let's just say that when I saw a woman sitting in the front seat of his truck I almost ran out and gave her the biggest hug possible. Because I knew she would be safe and they couldn't be the I-40 couple stranglers. They had to be safe. HAD TO BE.

As a matter of fact, did you know that you can stay inside the car while they change your tire? And, the sweet woman in the truck was the one I talked to on the phone. She was the precious lady who listened to me lose it.

So, they fix me up after a whopping 5 minutes and I'm on way. I'm driving 60mph on this full-sized spare. I don't care. I'm scared. Let's just driving 60mph takes you a little longer to get home too.

I happen to be behind the state trooper who casually waves "crazy woman" as he speeds away and then I'm behind wrecker truck guy and family and I know I'm waving like crazy and mouthing "thank you thank you thank you thank you" as they skidaddle away.

I get right behind them as I get off the interstate to turn around and head home. I almost died and am beyond wiped out so the birthday party is going to have to carry on without me. And, I'm certain my head will split open at any time. So, I'm behind wrecker dude and his wife and guess what sticker is on the back of their truck??

Got Jesus???

OH I PRAISED HIM RIGHT THERE IN MY CAR!!!!! I've never cried so hard in my life.

Yes, I got Jesus. And, yes, He sent some precious family to take care of my whacked out self on the side of the road.

God provides for us all day long. Sometimes we can see it clearly, but sometimes we can't.

My prayer is that you look closely for Him. Thank Him. Praise Him. You never know how God is going to show Himself to you. You never know how He'll reveal Himself to you.

Thank you Pruitt wrecking service in Dickson TN for being there for me. Thank you God for them. I saw Jesus through them. They were beautiful.

Love you all!!!

Some playground fun!

The other day, some of us were laughing and talking on twitter about playground fun that we had as kids. Some of the things that came up were these....

1. hopscotch
2. four square!!! Y'ALL I WAS THE QUEEN OF FOUR SQUARE!!!
3. swings
4. chalk

I know we talked about more, but I want to hear your favorite elementary memories on the playground.

I have a couple that stand out....

I was swinging and my BFF walked in front of me and I nailed her. Gave her a concussion. I'm still not over it. It was awful. She's ok and is still one of my BFF's. :)

The other memory would be playing red rover. Oh I can hear them now...."Red rover, red rover, send Fran right over!" I loved that game. I would run soooooo fast and bust through every time. And, noone, and I mean noone, would get through my arms when they tried to come bustin' through!!!

And, I remember playing some serious kick ball.

I was competitive back then and still am. Some things start on the playground and hang with us for a very long time, huh?!

I'm glad we didn't have all that fancy playground equipment either.....I can still see all the monkey bars and swings like it was yesterday.

Aaaaaahhhhh....the good ole days.

So, tell me your favorite memories of the playground. Maybe this could be "flashback Friday."

Happy Friday y'all!

Short, sweet, to the point.....and ouch!

This could definitely be the shortest blog post ever for me....heck, maybe for anyone. I'm in the silence of my room simply thinking and listening to God today and.......

Here's what we concluded together at this very moment of time:

I need a big dose of humility.

Yep. Humility in a large dose please.

I'm praying for us all girls.

"Thank you Jesus for the love, grace, mercy and do-overs you give us."

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. - Proverbs 11:2

It's ok. We can be honest here. What do you need a big dose of?

Love you all~

Me and my "testy's" aren't getting along

Well, being the lame parent that I am, I have not one picture to show you from Easter. NOT ONE. I leave early to go to church+ kids and hubs leave church to head before I do=NO PICTURE!!

I'm sorry. I know you are sad. ;)

Anyway, all I can say is WHOA from yesterday. Our early service was unstinkinbelievable. I've never, in all my 9 yrs of being there, seen a service overflow like that one. I really thought my heart would explode at some point over the weekend. I fell in love with Jesus all over again.

And, can we all try to hang onto that Easter spirit for the next 364 days?? Please??? Because that kind of feeling is fabulous and not one I want to lose.

As I sit here in my post-Easter hangover, I want to share a smidget of something I'm learning.

It's all about love. And, I think it's very appropriate coming off our Easter high.

It's about "loving well." And, I think I stink in an area or four.

1 John 4:7-21 has been my focus. And, did you know.....

1. People will know us by how we love others. If we are growing in Christ, then we are growing in love.

2. We have no higher calling than to love. God measures maturity on how we love.

3. God manifests himself within us more than any other way when we are loving beyond our human abilities.

4. Is our love wide, but not deep?? God must love on us before we can truly love others.

5. Each one of us has these types of people in our life that we are called to love. Joy....Testy....Foe.....Far.

How are you doing in the love department??? It's easy to love the "joys" in our life. But, those dang "testy's??" Those are the ones who are in our path all the time and we want to choke. This is where I need some serious help.

Think about it, too. Who do you need to love better? Don't you want to see God do something through you that can only be Him? Don't you want to be mature in Christ? Don't you want to see relationships transform??

I do.

I'm going to go let God tend to me for awhile so I can love those people who drive me crazy.

I love you all. God loves us more than we could ever imagine. We realized that this past weekend.

Hugs and blessings~

Pure bliss indeed...

Happy Easter sweet friends. What a gift we have been given. I hope you celebrate Easter weekend with an overflowing heart of love for Christ.

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2009/04/thinking-about-death-and-healing.html

See you on Monday! Sunday is coming.....praise God; He is risen.

Blessings~

The dress

I absolutely ADORE Carrie Underwood!! ADORE HER. Could she be any cuter?? Could she please stay grounded and unaffected by crazy Hollywood, too?? She has a voice that is killer. Oh, and have you seen her flawless skin?? Stunning. I secretly wanna be her. ;)

BUT....the dress already. Please Carrie and Mrs. Stylist.....let's find something a little bit, oh I don't know, less large. MY WORD DID YOU SEE THE THING???? Why of course you did. It takes up half the photo!!! The CMA's were super despite the dress.

She's still super and I love her tremendously. Do you think she'll be wearing this thing for Easter morning to church? Could you just imagine the stares as she entered into church? I hope she can go to church somewhere. I bet she does. She's a God fan. Reason #357 on why I love her.

So, do you "do the dress" on Easter morning?? Does "the dress" stress you out?? What's your Easter outfit look like? Have you even thought about it?

I'll be cute and casual Sunday morning. I like to be able to pick up kids, sit on the floor with them, and let them crawl on me if they want and I can't let "the dress" hinder them. Or me! :)

Would love to hear about your Easter dress!!

Love y'all....

These two are apprently growing up

This isn't going to be some deep spiritual post because my Momma's heart has had a little eye opening in the last few days and I really just want to spit it out to my amazing bloggy friends who will definitely encourage us!

I need to let you know I just came out of a weekend completely realizing that my kids are growing up......especially these older two boys. Clay will be 13 this Summer (can't stand it) and Tyler is 11 (can't stand that either).

This Tuesday, their dad is going to the first of four classes called "Straight Talk for Guys" and then the boys go with him for the next 3 weeks. I think I just got sick thinking about it. I won't go into great detail because I don't think I need to explain....thank goodness because I just couldn't go into guy talk (if you get my drift) for the sake of this being a family blog.

My babies are about to learn things I don't want them to learn. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a sheltering fool or anything, but I just am kind of in a semi state of shock that they are about to learn all about things. This is an excellent program that they are ready for and we need to conquer on the front end and not the back end. I'm just finding it hard to swallow that my kids are finally old enough to be told certain things.

I will be ok. I will. Right?

I really just wish I could drop all things and spend the next several years totally pouring out my heart and self to these kids. They won't be with me forever. WAIT??? THEY WON'T???!!!!!!

I'm feeling sick again.

So, let's claim to be the best momma's and daddy's we can be. If you need to let go of some things in order to do that, I'm praying that we can all do that.

We have one shot to raise this generation to make an impact for the Kingdom of God. ONE SHOT. That's it.

When God commanded us to love Him with everything we had, he also asked us to......

"teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Let's do this parenting this with everything we have. We have one shot at it.

They grow up.

Love y'all!!

The dog did it...

I had this up on twitter and maybe even facebook yesterday but in case you missed it....how about a little sympathy, humor, and prayer.....

Because.....

My dog ate my Bible and my Esther workbook and all my journals.

Yes, she did.

I cried.

We won't need to talk about "how" it happened. I'm over it.

I'm thinking that the Bible can be saved with some kind of Bible surgery. I'll probably always be missing pieces of Genesis, but I've got others that I can go to when I need that one. I do need a new leather binder. Apparently puppies love to chew up leather covers on Bibles. Guess they think it's a shoe.

Anyway, you get the idea. It wasn't pretty. And, no, I didn't take a picture. I was way too ticked and sad all at the same time.

So, there you have it. Make sure you put your precious things WAY UP HIGH so cute little puppies can't get them!

Love y'all. Happy weekend!

Concerts

It has been forever and a day that I've been to a concert. FOREVAH. But, my precious 12 1/2 yr old, who still loves me, went to see Chris Tomlin last night. His very first concert. And, it was a Christian guy who happens to be cool with a guitar.

Me? My first concert was Lionel Richie and Tina Turner. Yeah baby! I thought she was sooo cool. I was probably 12, too, and stared at her legs and only imagined......"one day, maybe one day."

Never happened.

In June I'm going to see the beautiful Keith Urban and Sugarland. PRAISE GOD HALLELUJAH that will be one fabulous show.

I'd love to know what your first concert was and are you going to hear anybody cool sometime soon???

Concerts make me anxious for Summer. Have no idea why.

Love y'all.....