Life...

1. Please be praying for my friend Jenny and her husband Brad. I know Jenny through Amber D. I was trying to explain to Tony how I knew her and realized it was through Amber's baby showers, Amber's Mary Kay parties, when Jenny visits Amber, etc...All this to say thanks Amber for your friendship and the gift of other great friends through you...Jenny is someone you meet and feel like you have known forever. I find these days she is my constant companion in thought. I am longing for she and Brad to see the Lord's healing...Read more here: www.thewims.blogspot.com Please pray for this precious family.

2. I leave next week for Canada. I will be gone for 11 days. Tony and the boys will do great I know. I am traveling with an organization called Come Before Winter. This team of ladies travel encouraging those who are serving the Lord around the world. I am excited to be a part of it. I will be working with the prayer team. My mom will be on the trip as well...so seriously, Tony is on his own. He's up to it, though he is needing a daily pep talk.

3. The other day Tony and I were standing in the laundry room talking. The boys bathroom was across the hall. We saw Payton stumble in there early in the morning, turn on the lights, look in the mirror and say, "Payton this is going to be a great day, you slept good, your body feels rested, you are going to see your friends, this may be the best day of your life." Then he went to the restroom. Tony and I just shook our heads. Seriously where does the kid come up with this stuff? We think he may grow up to be a motivational speaker...He is a lot more positive with himself than I am first thing in the morning.

4. Payton asked the other day why we call that bird with a long skinny neck, a fat feathery body, and long skinny legs a sausage? Took us a while to figure out he meant an ostrich.

5. The retreat last weekend was so encouraging. The message that was conveyed through the dramas, the praise, everything was that the Lord loves you, enjoys you and would choose you again in a heartbeat...in the midst of it all...Your sin, your struggles, your pain as well as your joy. I realized last week again that it is never a bad time to hear that the Lord loves you...I really needed that message. I don't guess a day goes by when I don't. The ladies that attended blessed me richly. I left feeling like I had just made a new group of friends.

6. Some of you may not know, Benjamin was our pickiest of picky eaters who also had a texture issue. These days he is still not a huge eater...but we are seeing huge strides. Today he ate 4 chicken minis for breakfast (did anyone else get the coupon for free breakfast today?), 2 eggs for lunch, the other day he ate a good amount of steak, he will eat green beans...not huge for the average 3 year old...but its something we are so thankful for.

7. We are big bottled water drinkers. I cannot stand when they are left lying around half full. I usually gather them and drink them all before I put them in the recycle bin. The other day I took a big drink out of one and told Tony..."this water smells like a dead animal." Then I looked at it closer and saw half of a chewed up pork chop floating around at the bottom along with some green beans. I am assumin g this was one of the boys water bottles. I knew we had not had pork chops in several days. Nice. I gagged.

8.The boys made the mistake a couple of weeks ago of showing me they know how to clean...not just wipe dust, I mean put things back in the exact right place, wipe baseboards, use the dust buster on the wood floors, etc (they are their father's sons)...Now they are daily workers. The other day I told them it was time for our cleaning to begin and Benjamin said, "I can't do this anymore, every day I clean, and the next day the house is dirty again. I am tired." It was a great time for a quick lesson on how to love and appreciate their mom.

9. The other day I got the boys the movie Aristicats to watch...telling them, "this was one of mom's favorite movies when she was little." I left to go fold laundry in the other room. When I walked back in they had turned it off. I asked what happened and Benjamin said, "we really are not cat people." Payton shook his head with a look of disgust...like I said, they are their father's sons.

10. The other day at lunch Tony asked who wants to pray for us and Benjamin raised his hand. As if we are were in a room with hundreds Payton said, "Look dad, a volunteer."