Snapshots of our day

Going for a walk...





Trying on shoes...







And a chocolate milk with "my lolli"






What a great day!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Big News

I pretty much only titled it that because I wanted to see if anyone would think I was announcing a pregnancy or something.  I'm not- I just have something exciting I want to share.

On November 15th I will be leaving for Portugal for a week long mission trip.  I'm so excited about the opportunity and what we will be doing there. 

Let me tell you how it all started... if only I knew.  I was involved with a Bible study called One on One.  It's a wonderful study and God started showing me how to have a heart for the world.  It's easy to focus on what is going on directly around you and forget that there's a big world out there. 

So I began to pray about how I could have a world focus- for God to show me what my place was in the world and how I could be used to bring glory to His kingdom.

Michael and Cristi used to go to our church and are currently missionaries in Portugal.  I found out they wanted a team to come over in November to cook Thanksgiving dinners for the families and college students they are ministering to.  The people in Portugal don't celebrate Thanksgiving but due to American television, they are very curious about it. 

Well, God spoke to my heart about the trip and I started trying to work out a way to go- including finding a team to go with me.  For several weeks God continued to bring up Acts 1:8 -

"but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 

I continued to feel led to go on the trip yet still needed someone else to go.  I asked some friends to join me in praying for someone else to feel led to go.

Well, it took less than a week and God brought another person for the trip- and not just any person- a wonderful friend- Michelle Langley.

So began a week of planning, asking questions, and wondering if we were crazy to leave our 2 year olds across the world for a week. 

I can't wait to give you more details over the next few months about the trip, the people of Portugal and how cooking Thanksgiving dinner will be a ministry opportunity there. 

A couple of fun things-

- There isn't a lot of American food in portugal including (but not limited to) sweet potatoes, marshmallows, cranberries, canned pumpkin, pie crust.... I could go on.  We will have to carry all of those things over with us.  Thanksfully- they do have Turkey!

- We will be staying in Coimbra.

It's where the "A" is on the map. 

- As you can imagine.  Getting there does cost money.  I am asking people to pray about supporting me in my journey.  More on that later.  We will also need lots of food to go with us plus we will be buying what we can when we get there.  Don't worry, lots of menus and ingredient lists and substitutions coming soon!

Vacation- Part 2. Houston!

So after our night in Salado we headed to Houston to visit our friends Jay and Julie.  They live in Sugarland and promised to show us all the cool stuff.

One night we went to a french restaurant- Aria.  It was delicious!

Here are Jay and Julie.  Aren't they cute!

They have a son Cason's age.  They love to play together. 

We also went to the Childrens Museum.  The one in Houston is AWESOME.  It's less expensive than the one in Fort Worth and way bigger.  The kids loved it and they were exhausted when we left.  Two signs of a good day.

This is a pic of us driving to Houston.  It should be at the beginning of the blog but it isn't. 

He is holding a mini boogie board we found at Target.  He calls it his skateboard and loves throwing on the ground and standing on it.

Here are the boys playing at a mexican restaurant.  They were so silly. 

Soon I will post pictures from my high tea.  You don't want to miss those!

Picture Before and After

I needed a picture to go in my laundry room.  I had the perfect spot and a vision- just needed the picture. 

So I stuck Cason in the dryer for a photoshoot.  I took a bunch of pictures and only one was going to work.

I started with this picture.  I know it doesn't look professional but I'm okay with that.  I like having pictures around that are candid and show some of the facial expressions or actions that I see on a day to day basis.

I took the photoshop to edit it a bit before I sent it off to be put on a canvas. 

I had a look in mind that I was going for so I edited it a little more than I usually do.  The edges look a little funny because I needed some extra room to stretch around the canvas.  You can't see it at all in the final product. 

Check THIS POST to see where I used this awesome picture.

And check THIS LINK to see who put this picture on canvas for me.

Vacation Part 1- Salado

This is part 1 of probably 100 cause it takes a million years to load pictures and I have a million pictures. 

Summer is the busiest time of year for the youth (except for fall, winter and spring) so we don't get to take the usual summer vacation.  We try to get away sometime in September to recover and rejuvenate.  This year, we took an adventure to Salado, Houston and Galveston. 

First stop, Salado.  There's a "famous" little place called Stagecoach Inn on the highway that's been around forever.  We thought it would be fun to stop in for the night and break up the drive to Houston... well really just do something random.

Here is where we stayed.  These are the nice rooms- the ones with free wifi.  Let's just say, it wasn't the Ritz.  I didn't even take pictures of the inside.  I figured you could go to the web site and look for yourself.  It was fun and clean but don't expect fancy or romantic or hip or to find anyone under 70 staying here... or in the whole town of Salado. 

This was something fun we found.  A place called Roy T's that makes their own donuts and kolache.  Very yummy and Roy greeted us and told us all about his place.  Then visited with everyone else there (who he probably sees daily) and it was a lot of fun to get such great small town service.

We also ate dinner at the Stagecoach Inn.  I had been once before in college and remember it being a lot of fun.  It was just a normal dinner (a bit high for the quality of the food) but the appetizer, salad, hush puppies, entree and dessert are all included.  Now, by appetizer I mean canned fruit and by salad I mean lettuce but the dessert was good. 

Sorry there are not more pictures.  We went shopping the next day and purchased a whole lot of nothing.  It was a fun detour but I wouldn't plan on going for an extended period of time.... or with a 2 yr. old... or with a man.