Another time waster...

As if I needed something else to keep me from being productive... I found Pinterest.

I love it b/c its essentially scrap booking all your favorite recipes, decorative ideas, etc. and then you have the ability to constantly find new ones. Ok so people use it for other reasons but mine are obviously for the recipes and decorative ideas.

So thank you Rhonda and Brandy for introducing me to this terribly awesome thing called Pinterest.

Try It Tuesday

I found my new favorite milkshake... yes of course it's ww friendly (cough.) Ok, so thats a total lie. However, this milkshake is to die for!

A friend of mine told me about it and she doesn't even like peaches... which is weird b/c it def. tastes like peaches. Regardless, its worth trying, but I'm warning you now... you're going to fall in love.

*If you're curious how healthy it is... a large one of these bad boys is 19 points. I only get 29 points a day.*

Settle for a small so you get the splurge but don't look like an obese cow... although its well worth it. Let 'em judge.

Weekend Fun

My weekend started off by going to a sweet friend's wedding Friday night. Lauren was gorgeous. Too bad I forgot to actually take a picture of her instead of just the front of Hillwood!

It was great to see a couple of old friends and catch up.

Saturday morning came bright and early as I went and ran in a 5k for LeBonheur. It was held over by First Evan... the course was fun and the weather couldn't have been any better! Here's me and allie before....

...and here we are 34 minutes later.

I know, I know I am a slow runner... I'm working on it! We're preparing for our "graduation 5k" that will be held in a couple of weeks. We heard about this and thought why not!


I spent the rest of the morning laying by the pool. I can't remember the last time I had that kind of opportunity. It was wonderful. D had to mow his parents house so I thought I'd join him there and relax while he worked. :)

Later that afternoon we met up with a student and went to Jerry's... I found a great combo for all of you Jerry's fans.... raspberry and pineapple. Delicious!

Before we knew it, it time to head to Somerville for our softball games. These guys games are crazy! The teams out there take softball way to seriously. It's hilarious to watch... great, free entertainment if you're bored one Saturday night. The games were behind so his 9:00 ballgame became a 10:00 one. So we finally left the ball fields at 11:30p.m.! You can imagine how fun it was to try and get up Sunday morning.

I was only able to attend our youth small group time.... d speaks and then we break up into small groups: our version of SS school. Then I had to head to Macon Road's church service where they recognize all the staff. Back in the day if you taught at MRBS you had to attend church there. Now we are only "made" to attend one Sunday a year and that's Back to School Sunday which was yesterday. It's always fun to get to see my friends who work at the other campuses as well as see some of my students who also were invited. The only problem is the service is normally long and we had to head to MS to eat at grandmomma's for lunch...

You know what that means don't you?

Weight Watchers what??!!!

Yea, you can forget about counting points when you eat at grandmomma's. The food is too good to say no and you want seconds anyway so you might as well call it a lost cause. I had more food than I'd care to admit. But I was one happy girl and slept all the way home.... I even got to snuggle with this little guy for a little bit.

Is it just me or does it seem that you blink on Friday and before you know it it's Sunday night? Ready or not...hello new week.

Slip N Slide

One youth adventure that D was dying to do was create a slip n slide into a lake.

He got his adventure.

We all met for lazer tag which our kids love more than anything... its so weird to me, but they love it so whatever. Then the guys went and spent the night at the LaGrone's (thank you Rhonda for taking care of our boys!) and the girls spent the night at the Cotners'. The next morning the guys met us over at the Cotner's. They have a great set up for youth events...lots of land, pool, lake.... perfect for a slip n slide. :)

I think D and I had just as much fun as they did! The combination of baby shampoo and baby oil made the slip n slide the perfect amount of slippery... plus we smelled amazing.

This is def. at the top of my favorite things we've ever done in youth ministry list!

Waiting on the boys...

Not only did we have a sprinkler hooked up but Mr. Cotner had a high powered hose!

Happt Birthday, Hallie Claire!

Today we celebrate our sweet Halsie! I can't believe you're already 2! We've learned you like to be independent and do things yourself, but love doing whatever your sisters are doing. You don't like being left out.You, just like your sisters, called me Kacie for the longest time. I sure love the sweet smile and, "Hi Candace" when you see me now. I always respond, "Hi Baby." You're not a baby though. You are big stuff. There's no doubt about it though... you love your D. I love the sweet relationship you 2 have. I guess since its him I don't mind taking a backseat... although you be sure and remind your mom and dad that it was him who taught you bad things like how to stick your tongue out and blow. Not aunt candy.

You're sweet, but most def. silly. You add so much joy and laughter to our lives!
We love you so much Hallie Claire!!!

How Great is Your Faithfulness

I heard this song earlier today and fell in love. It's by Matt Redman. If you've never heard of him then you've 1. been living under a rock or 2. never heard good, Christian music.

I love this song because its' so relevant to our lives whether life is wonderful or we're going through a difficult time. He is faithful.

"How Great Is Your Faithfulness"


Now unto the king who reigns over all,
and never changes or turns
Unfailing justice, unfading grace,
Whose promises remain,
Yes, Your promises remain.

[Chorus]
The heavens ring, the saints all sing,
Great is your faithfulness
From age to age we will proclaim
Great is your faithfulness,
How great is your faithfulness. Yes


Everything changes, but your stay the same;
your word and kingdom endure
we lean on the promise of all that you are,
and trust forevermore
we will trust forevermore


From generation to generation
you never fail us oh God
Yesterday and today and tomorrow
until the day you return


How great is your faithfulness

Forgiveness

Forgive
1.To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.

2. To renounce anger or resentment against.

3. To absolve from payment of (a debt, for example).

I am finishing up Susan Hunt's book, Spiritual Mothering. I'm in the chapter on forgiveness...

One of many things I'm learning about forgiveness is how greatly it affects our lives. Susan says, "many believers are blocked from experiencing the joy of their salvation and from being encouragers to others because of an unforgiving spirit." I'd be willing to be bet there are more of use walking around like this than we'd dare admit.

One lady shared her story about forgiving her abusive father.... "My healing came when I finally understood the price, extent, and power of God's forgiveness. No matter what my daddy did to me, it was not as offensive nor did it cost as much as my sin offended and cost my heavenly father."

Stephen is another great example of forgiveness. As he was being dragged out of the city and stoned to death....he cried out for the Lord to forgive the men.

What?!

I can not even imagine!


"Stephen's ability to forgive was the direct result of his glimpse of the glory of God. His view of his offenders was obliterated by his view of God's glory."

Wonder why you're not growing spiritually when you're doing everything right? "Nothing will strifle spiritual growth and development more than an unforgiving spirit... Forgiveness means releasing- giving up- turning loose, but forgiveness has a positive pay-back; unforgiveness keeps on costing."

I literally got chills when I read this next story. I'm sure many have heard it before. Its when Corrie ten Boom saw the former guard from her concentration camp. The one who mocked them and made life miserable for her, her sister Bessie (who ended up dying there) and others. She was face to face with him after a church service she had just spoken at. He was blown away that Christ could wash his sin away. He reached out his hand to shake hers. She couldn't do it. She couldn't shake his hand and forgive him. As she stood there, she saw his sin. She realized that Christ had died for even his sins. She prayed for God to help her forgive, yet she still couldn't raise her hand to grab his. Again she silently prayed. She said a current passed from her shoulder down her arm and into her hand and then into his. Not only could she shake his hand, but love for the man sprang in her heart. She said, " And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His."

"Forgiveness is more of a lifestyle of grace than a one time act." We are stupid if we think that our hurts can be healed overnight. That's an unreal expectation we've placed on ourselves! It will take time. It will take daily choosing to offer grace... maybe minute by minute depending on the depth of your hurt. So now what do we do with our hurts? We have 2 options...

1. allow them to immobilize us
2. turn them into valuable resources to encourage and equip others to forgive

So... what's your choice?

And the walls came tumbling down...

Today begins the construction of our new youth room. We've outgrown our old one so we are knocking out 2 walls on the other side of the hall and creating one large room. D sent me this picture just a few minutes ago.

With the help of ole Ben Cole we've got some great design ideas. Until being apart of our own ministry, I had no idea how crucial having a place for teenagers to call their own was. Now, it doesn't have to be big or fancy... just theirs. We're so looking forward to how God will use this for His glory. I realize its just a thing and can and will burn up, but for now its exciting that God had led us to this and is giving us the opportunity to expand and grow.

Haiti

Since it seems I get lost in the abyss that is summer I should fill you in on some of our summer adventures. My leading summer adventure for the 2011 summer would most definitely be our trip to Haiti. I knew this would be life changing, but I had no idea how it would bring me to a new level of compassion, love, and motivation to help another precious group of people.

We (most of our group) met at the church so early I can't even remember... I'm thinking it was around 3:00a.m. on Sunday, July 17th. We drove from there to Nashville where the rest of our group had opted to just drive up and spend the night on their own. Well, we had an awesome dad drive us while most of us slept. Shockingly, I wasn't one of them. Trust me I tried, but sleep wouldn't come.

We met up with our group and flew from Nashville to Miami. Then from Miami we flew to Porto Prince, Haiti. Flying into Haiti was humbling. We came from a big fancy, air conditioned airport to people asking for money/food as we left the Haitian air port. Praise Jesus all our luggage arrived! Even the 12 bags that had all our food in them. (We brought food and there was a lady there that fixed it all.)

After about a 30 minute drive, we pulled up here. This is where the thousands of bodies were buried after the earthquake.

The drive from the air port to our compound was tear jerking. To see the poverty, kids with partial or no clothing, mom's washing their dishes and children in the same stream of water... I wasn't sure I was going to make it through this trip dry eyed.

Then after another 30 minutes of driving we arrived at our compound. Our compound consists of a large concrete fence built around a large home that sleeps 40, a church, basketball court, and soccer field.

I knew from the front end there would be no hot water, air conditioning and not many places to plug up anything so I knew it would be a week of roughing it. However, I loved every minute. It wasn't bad at all. Now don't get me wrong it was hot! But we were a 100 yards from the caribbean sea so there was a nice breeze so it was def. do-able. We worked with a team called SMI Haiti. We worked with one of the head guys, Frank Williams, and then his partner met us down there at the end of our week. They take turns being down there with the teams that come to work. Both of these men obviously love the Lord and have a heart and genuine love for the Haitian people. One of the guys that Frank calls his body guard made sure we knew how much he loved Frank and that he'd lay down his life for him. These men have such sweet relationships with the people down there because they have invested their lives working with them and helping them... SMI was there even before the earthquake.


Here is a picture of Frank and Sammy. Sammy was at his home watching a movie with his family on a portable dvd player when he received phone call on his cell . He stepped outside to take the call. The earthquake happened. His whole family was killed. Frank has taken him under his wing and now Sammy calls him dad and works for SMI Haiti.

Our time down there we did everything from street witnessing, painting, leveling ground, built a wall, cleared a field, took food/clothing to a tent city... you name it we did it. Our main focus was trying to help them get their school completed for the kids to start this September. This is a Christian school built by SMI Haiti for the children in this area.

Fixing bags of rice to take to one of the tent cities.


Delivering food and clothes at the tent city


Working at the school






He was nice enough to share his sweat after a hard morning of work.

Here was what our week looked like:

6:40 group devotion time on patio
breakfast
8-12 work
12:00-2:00 lunch/rest
2-5 work
6:00 dinner
8:00 group recap on day out on patio, worship
Bed soon after :)

Ms. Phyllis is a lady who loves the Lord. I believe it was 30 years ago she felt Him calling her to leave everything she owned and move to Haiti. She has just about single handedly started over 200 churches in Haiti now. Talk about obedience! She helped Frank start SMI. One of the things she insists on is the last afternoon every group gets a visit to Wahoo Bay. This is a very nice tourist spot. She explained this special afternoon is important because if we had visitiors come to our cities we wouldn't just take them to the slums, we would want them to see the very best our city had to offer. This is Wahoo Bay. We snorkeled, played in the water, played beach volleyball, bought souvenirs.... we had a great time enjoying this beautiful place for sure!

Then the fun part began... please sense my sarcasm... we began our trek home. It is Friday morning, July, 22. We left Porto Prince and flew to Miami... no problem. Then we land in the U.S. and the craziness begins. There was bad weather on the east coast so our pilot who was to fly us from Miami to Chicago was late boarding our plane... we were there and ready he was not. By the time he got there and got us to Chicago, we had missed our flight home. There wasn't another flight leaving that night that could get us all on so we opted to spend the night with American Airlines paying for our hotel rooms and dinner. :) That night Chicago got record breaking rain and as we were almost to the airport they finally updated the flight plans saying that our flight had been cancelled. We get to the airport along with the thousands of others trying to fly out. D is upstairs working out all the details while I take the rest of the crew down to a quiet place to chill. Most slept.

Just a side not... my husband was amazing during this time. He was wheelin' and dealin' calmly and with determination to get us home. Not that I needed any more proof, but my level of respect for him grew 100 times more.

After realizing there would be no other way to fly home that day which is now Saturday... we looked at several different options, took a vote and decided to stay another night on American Airlines dollar. We spent the afternoon and evening living up Chicago. We rode the train and had an awesome time at Navy Pier. We forgot for a little while about the craziness of not having a flight and enjoyed a fun night in Chicago with one another.

Sunday morning we get to the airport with vouchers from american airlines for breakfast. We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Still there's no way we could use all that money and it was only good at that airport so we stood at Duncan Donuts and began buying everyone who came through's breakfast. It was fun to see the look on the faces when we said, " it's taken care of. Have a great day."

So we now have 2 flights out of Chicago into Dallas. The first flight makes it out of Chicago. Then we are boarding the 2nd flight and there is bad weather approaching. After and hour and a half delay... we finally take off. Both groups arrive in Dallas safely. Then minutes from boarding our flight from Dallas to Memphis they tell us our flight has been cancelled. We seriously busted out laughing... so much so the lady at the desk tells us to quiet down. D was able to get us home later that day on 2 different flights... first flight 2:30... 2nd flight 8:00. We tried working it so our students and older adults could get home first. However they wouldn't let us b/c the plane was overbooked by 14 people!!! D somehow manged to get at least him switched so he could stay with the later group.

Stuck once again

I know there really is no other explanation, but God because the lady D was working with literally had him come stand behind the counter and push a button at the same time she did something else to make sure he could get switched. On top of that our youngest student who we really wanted to hurry and get home (she was ok, but we know here momma wanted her home!) was suppose to be on the later flight. I'm standing at the plane door checking to see who all was on my flight and here the flight attendant comes with our student to board her even without a boarding pass! What in the world?!

The first flight landed at 5:35p.m. we had an entourage of people waiting. It was a sweet welcome home. Then I (along with my trooper of a sister) went back and picked up the 2nd group whose flight was delayed a couple of times... finally they returned at 12:09a.m. Monday morning.

I mean I can't make this stuff up... its so crazy. It felt as crazy as it sounds, but we had a ball. Such unforgettable memories. Seeing our students work their butts off, love on the Haitian people... I just can not adequately put into words how incredible this trip was. On top of that, we had an open spot and my dad was able to go with us. His first plane ride, trip out of the country... and he got all of this! And still wants to go back! So glad he got to come and experience all this with us.

God showed me so many things during this week. I don't even think I could write all of them down. The biggest being... this life is not about me. I was put here for a purpose... to be a vessel... to be used however He sees fit. Its not about my comfort or happiness, but about pointing people to Jesus.

Running Club

One of my favorite times of year... despite the heat... is now. Now it doesn't compare to fall or Christmas which are really my favs, but I love this time of year because I discovered Memphis Runners .... Women's Walk/Run program. Every Monday night we meet and run together based on our level of fitness. You choose your group. Run on Monday nights together and then run at least 2 other times during the week based on the running schedule they give you. Obviously your time and mileage increase as you train. Our goal is a "graduation 5k" in September. I love the accountability of this group. I also love working towards a goal. So You can count on July-September me sweating my butt off for "my running club."

If you're getting into running, this is a great way to start. They closed registration for this year but definitely look for it next year!

Trainer

Weight Watchers has inspired me to continue with a healthy lifestyle... and by that I mean stay on the skinny side... not necessarily giving up good food! So with that in mind, I got to talking to a friend of ours at church who is a body builder. He's really into fitness, nutrition, etc. I knew he trained people for fun so I started talking to him and before long he was officially training me.

So we gave in and joined a gym. Best decision. I told Jason he wasn't allowed to actually come to my gym because he's so hard core I thought he'd make me cry, but that if if he gave me a schedule and the specifics of each workout I would complete them. Well, we are officially training. Yes, I suckered Allie into doing these workouts with me. Never in my life have I had muscles ache like this. It's do-able but I have definitely been sore. Sore is an understatement... to which he replies, "Good, you're on track. "

I never would've thought I would enjoy working out so much a couple of years ago. Now I can't get enough... well, that's a lie because I am a huge wimp and I get tired.... but I really do love it. Plus the doctors scale says I'm 10 lbs lighter than my home scale and since doctor's scales are always right I'm sticking to those numbers... which means since May I've lost 10 more lbs.... now where can I buy one of those for my house! :)

First Day of School

Well, my summer is officially over... which means regular blog entries will resume!

Today was our first day of school. I love first days of school! New faces, new school supplies... fresh starts... I just love it! However, I never sleep well the night before. I know what to expect... I've done this 5 times now yet still the excitement can't be contained. Last night was no different though.... even with a benedryl I felt wired.

The day has been as smooth as I could have hoped. I had sweet parents bring me first day happies... and we all know happies make every day better..... especially if they include sugar or are monogrammed!

I also have a very sweet class which I am very grateful for! So happy first day to me. Here's a picture McKenna's mom sent me....

Love it!

Heaven

A friend posted this on facebook and I just about died! Take 3 of my favorite things and put them together. Holy. cow. And I haven't even tried it yet!!! She found the idea at pinterest.

Will

Our family got a new addition today... baby Will. William Howell Foreman was born at 9:00a.m. weighing 7 lbs. 3 oz and was 18.5 in long. Out with the pink, frilly baby things... in with the blue. There's no doubt he's a Foreman though... he is as cute as his sisters. Poor kid doesn't stand a chance with 4 mommies at home!