Marathon weekend

Well....we completed the halp marathon and survived the cold. We had so much fun eating with everyone (all 18 of us) at Spaghetti Warehouse (forgot my camera). It was so special to have my parents there with Bryant waiting at the finish line. My cousin Jay Baker ran it also and his wife, Rebecca took pictures for us, so when she emails them to me, I'll post them. We all improved since Nashville and I just have to thank my guardian angel, Christy Burchfield, for encouraging me along the way. I ran with what I think may be Bronchitis and felt like a monkey sitting on my chest. We stuck together the whole 2 hours and ran the whole thing. She even brought me soup last night!! (Mary Grace is sick too) Anyway, we headed back Saturday at noon after the race and attended 2 parties~ in heels! (crazy, I know!) The first one was Ken Bailey's SURPRISE 40th Birthday Bash and the 2nd was for my precious friend Stacey Neubauer Kitchens. She was my 1st friend at Ole Miss.Ken had been hunting all day and came in to a house FULL of guests to celebrate his 40th! Melissa did a great job of keeping it a secret and the food was Awesome!!
Here is the next party when we first arrived ~~ Me and Nea Nea.

Becky Bates, me, and Amy Bates.
Stacey and Jimmy Kitchens~ precious newlyweds!! We are all so happy for her! She deserves all the joy and happiness!!

Memphis Half-Marathon

Race Day in two more days....Heading to Memphis for the Half Marathon! Bryant will go with us and my parents will meet us there. I'll post pics after the race.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Our Thanksgiving in New Albany......

The kids LOVED being with Parker! They can't give him enough kisses! Below is David and Mary Grace eating ALL the suckers my uncle Pat brought her. She actually didn't eat them....she just liked to unwrap them all and take one lick....
The poor tootsie roll never had a chance...

When we go to NA for Thanksgiving, we have a little tradition of heading to Tupelo to ride the Carousel and see Santa. Such a fun time!

Happy Thanksgiving

What I'm thankful for:

My God, My Rock, My Redeemer
Amazing Grace
My Man ~ the love of my life

a man who loves his family in an incredible way....(dancing with Mary Grace)

My precious gifts from God......Simplicity of life (our PJ day with playdough)
Bryant blooming into the young man God is growing him to be!
(He was a Pilgrim for his Thanksgiving play and boy, did he do GREAT!) Big improvement from last year ~he hid his face the whole time last year and cried on stage! He had a speaking part and we were SO Proud of him!!

I'm also thankful for my church, my precious friends, my family, etc.....

How blessed we are!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a thought......

Whewwwwww.....is all I can say. These last three weeks have been something! I awoke this morning pretty exhausted, and I informed God that I needed a day off. I explained to him that 3 weeks ago I was getting everything organized for the merchant drop-off at Mistletoe, 2 weeks ago I was in Mexico pulling teeth and sharing His love, and last week I was in charge of Operation Christmas Child (which we collected over 2,500 boxes) ~ I needed a break and today was my day off.....
I began reading Colossians 3:23-24 and he started the process of changing my heart.
So my precious kiddos and I have stayed in PJs today, played with playdough, and played on the swing set, (yes in PJs), and I even practiced with Bryant trying to tie his shoes. So along came storytime and we all three laid on Bryant's bed and began reading books.....(and of course not by chance) we began reading "I have a Job to do", which is about this little girl who has a "job to do" by telling others about Christ : the Great Commission. Bryant began asking all kinds of questions and it hit me like a lightning bolt~~~We are ALL called to do Something! Maybe not go to Mexico, maybe not to live in a hut, but Something! I was reminded of when I was teaching in a public school(many, many years ago) and on my board I had: "Make a Difference", just now I would add, "Make a Difference for Christ!"
Just thought I would share.......

Operation Christmas Child

Tomorrow is the Day! We (Pinelake) have been collecting shoeboxes all week and tomorrow is the final day. I went to the school on Wednesday to collect theirs and they doubled their numbers from last year. Our PODs are full already and I am excited to see God at work tomorrow. This is such a wonderful organization and anyone can get involved to make a difference in the life of a child. What a blessing it is to serve such a wonderful Almighty God!

Mexico Mission Trip

We are back and getting settled in! What a blessing the week in Mexico was! Instead of me going on and on about it, here are my pics with captions below. There are quite a few, so sit back and start reading~

Here we are in the Dental Clinic. I think I missed my calling, (just kidding)
Lee Gary and David were our Dentists. Leigh Lee and I assisted them and boy, did I learn alot.Here I am pulling my first ever tooth! What an expression, huh? Thank you David for capturing the moment behind the camera.
Here we are ~ what a team! It was such a blessing working with him! My love tank was so full all week! I love that MAN of God!! What a precious bed side manner he has! I know I'm partial, but he is soooo awesome!

Here are a few stories that touched my heart this week - where I felt God nudging me as I continually prayed for "God eyes". He is so faithful!

These were some of our little patients in the Dental clinic. The little boy was 4 and the girl was about 1 1/2. Almost the ages of mine and the same sexes! The little girl was malnurished and her hair was balding in spots. No smiles, no joy, no hope. My heart just couldn't take it....I began to cry and couldn't stop. I thought of my sweet babies at home~ fed, happy, surrounded by love. Wow, we have much to be thankful for!
This was Monday and some little girls began following me and I couldn't speak a lick of Spanish, so I grabbed a bible tried reading Juan(John) 3:16. They all giggled at this Southern "Gringo" trying to read Spanish, quite a hoot. Anyway, I challenged them to learn the verse and keep it in their hearts. (I can play some charades!) Notice the little girl leaning over my shoulder~
Here she is on Thursday, our last day. She had a Salvation bracelet from VBS on and I grabbed Jay ( my sweet translator/guardian angel) to ask her is she had accepted Christ. She answered that she had indeed asked Him to be her Lord and Saviour. I told him to tell her that we are now Sisters in Christ, but the concept was unfamiliar to her. So I just used my charades to tell her that I will see her again...one day in Heaven!! Jay then translated it and tears filled all of our eyes!!

Rusty (aka "ROOOSTEE") handing out bibles for the first time to these kids.
VBS....no espanol, a smile can fool them all.
Sweet little friends from VBS

Our whole team: consisting of some from Texas, Pinelake in MS, and the others were from Hidalgo, Mexico (the host church)
Our Dental Team: Lee Gary (a dentist in Brandon), Leigh Lee, myself, David, and Jay. I kept asking Jay Bird where his wings were...he was our enterpreter for our "clinic" and he never failed to be available and always wherever and Whenever I needed him to witness to someone. He was my guardian angel for the week! He was such a blessing to me during the whole week.
" The Boys" on our trip. The two men on the right came from Victoria & Edna, TX and were truly a blessing for us. The other 5 were Pinelakers.

Just a few of my favorite pics from the week. Such precious memories.....

off to Mexico

Off we go....thank you all for your sweet messages. I'll post when we return next Saturday!

Jango Fet and Fairy Princess

My sweet babies all dressed up. Yes, that is Bryant under there....can you guess what his favorite ride was at DisneyWorld??? None other than "Star Wars"! I had never even heard of Jango Fet before, but oh, do I now know who that is!
The boys in my life! Two peas in a POD!

halloween

My little fairy princess loved Bryant's sword better than her wand!
Jango Fet and SuperWoman
Sarah Grace and Mary Grace - best buddies

Nea Nea's birthday

We celebrated Nea Nea's birthday at PF Chang's last Monday night and it was such a fun girl's night out. Many, many laughs..... so who's birthday is next?

Boys

This is what I found when I picked Bryant up from his buddy, Ethan's house.
Both boys rolling in the grass....Boys will be Boys!

Reunion

Mary Grace enjoyn' her some playtime out at Reunion last SaturdayMary Grace loves her some Gina, Lee, and Anna Claire. They were so sweet to let her play while I worked a table for the Children's Museum.

It is well with my Soul

Some may run to get exercise, some run so they can eat that dessert, some run to be competitive, some run to impress others,.....I have to say, I run to be with God! I sometimes feel like it is the ONLY way I can get away from the phone, household chores, children who need me!!!, emails, errands, etc. I had a great run yesterday afternoon when David came home and I want to share it with you.
I just felt I needed time with the Lord. Have you ever felt that nudging? I've been struggling with something and I felt as if he wanted me to get away.....and run with him for a while, so I did. I had my praise music going and I began running. All of a sudden I realized David had downloaded all these great hymns for me on the shuffle! It was great! Anway, I began praying for our Mexico trip a week from today and tears started flooding down my cheeks. I have really had trouble realizing my "purpose" for going on this mission trip. I've always held down the fort and prayed for David as he goes and I've never had the desire to go. About 8 months ago, David started encouraging me to go with him in November And I thought No way and I going. I have 2 babies who need me and that is around Operation Christmas Child time at our church. So God began stepping in and nudging me for months. I knew I needed to go, but I thought I just couldn't.....Then my mother encouraged me and said she and my sister would help with the kids and things began falling into place. I decided to surrender to obedience(not out of wanting to go) and go. When your man and Your Heavenly Man says go....I thought I better go. But I still didn't have a purpose. After all, I hate blood and I don't speak Spanish!!!
Anyway, on my run, I realized God has called us all to obedience~it just looks different to each one. For me, he said,"I love your children WAY more than you do....lay them down at my feet!" So I began praying that God would make it well with my Soul and guess what.....he has! I still don't know what he is up to with me going, but I AM GOING!
PLease pray for us as we travel to a remote village in the mountains of Mexico to give medical care to the tribes and share the Good News of Jesus. Pray God would start a revival in this area and that we would all be use for HIS GLORY ALONE! PLease pray for our babies and for their health and well being, for my sister who will be here with them for the first few days by herself(Parker too).
It is well with our Soul!