The Lord's Day

Today has been a very hectic day. Scott and I had both the 3 year old and the 4 year old classes and we had 17 kids in Sunday School. You can imagine how frazzled I was by the time I got to choir. (Although watching Scott interact with those little kids does put sunshine in my heart - he is so good with them).
So it was off to put on my choir robe and run through our songs a couple of times and then sit in the choir loft. We had a great service and I had to leave the choir early so I could get out of my robe and race to the foyer and put on my "welcome committee" badge and help people find Sunday School Classes. Then it was off to our second Sunday School Class.
And when that was over - we raced to the youth building for a meeting about DNOW. Scott and I will have 5-10 teenage girls in our house this coming weekend and one college girl. Please pray for us. :-) Guy and Julie are our support home so it should be a lot of fun.
After the meeting we went to lunch with Guy and Julie which was great because we were all famished. I've had a few hours to relax and now it's time to get ready for church again. I love Sundays and I love all the things I am involved in because I feel like I just can't serve God enough but today I just had to stop and pray these verses...........because I am someone who needs to say these daily. And this is what God desires from me even more than my running around trying to please Him.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him Psalm 37:7
Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

The Wests

Scott and I in our pre-game "blackout" outfits

Me and Kandi

Scott and I at the game

Annie - she's 3 and has the wildest hair I've ever seen - she is so cute!

Lowrey is 4 and she loves pink. She is ALL girl!

Kandi and Lance - I love them!

We had a special treat today because my friends Kandi and Lance and their girls and Kandi's parents came to town today to go to the game. So we got to meet up with them for lunch and then we spent a few hours at the promenade. Scott and Lance let the girls play on the playground while Kandi and I shopped and then we just sat outside and visited for a while.
Kandi was my roommate at OBU for three years and then she graduated a year early and married Lance. She was my matron of honor and has always been one of my best friends since we lived together when I was 17. She actually used to live down the street from my grandparents when we were younger so I used to play with her and her sister when I was there for visits. I have a picture of her at my 6 year old birthday party one year! Lance is one of my favorite people ever too and he especially asked for a "shout out" on my blog so I want to make sure he got one! This game was much better but of course we weren't playing anyone but the hogs did look much better. We were really tired so we left very early and came home. We have a busy day at church tomorrow.

RRS

We finally got our picture of Razorback stadium framed and hung above Scott's desk last night. It adds to his razorback themed room. This picture isn't too hot because the flash kept bouncing off the picture but I thought it turned out really good!

My Man

My new bloggy friend Tiffani tagged me with this!

The Game of Tag about your MAN:

1. Who is your man? Scott

2. How long have you been together? A little over seven wonderful years

3. How long did you date? We dated for 3 years and then were engaged for 5 months and we have been married for almost 4 years

4. How old is your man? He's 31 - I'm a cradle robber (I'm 2 1/2 yrs older)

5. Who eats more? I think I can safely say Scott does :-)

6. Who said "I love you" first? I did. I waited and waited for him to say it but I finally couldn't hold it in any longer.

7. Who is taller? Scott is - he's about 6 inches taller.

8. Who sings better? Even though I'm now a proud member of the choir - I would say based on car singing only - it has to be Scott.

9. Who is smarter? I would say Scott

10. Whose temper is worse? Ummm.......probably Scott

11. Who does the laundry? That would be me.

12. Who takes out the garbage? Whoever remembers first.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me and Dawson. :-) Dawson sleeps in the middle but he seems to wind up on my side most of the time.

14. Who pays the bills? That would be me too. Hey - I was a finance major.

15. Who is better with the computer? Well - seeing how Scott is a computer nerd as a profession - I will give it to him for sure.

16. Who mows the lawn? Thank goodness Scott does. I tried to once this summer and that was enough for a lifetime for me.

17. Who cooks dinner? Me - always me!

18. Who drives when you are together? Scott - he thinks I can't drive

19. Who pays when you go out? Whoever pulls out their wallet first.

20. Who is most stubborn? I would say Scott - he would probably say me!

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I'm thinking me. I don't like fighting so I always apologize first.

22. Whose parents do you see the most? My family is closer and comes here for football games or for other reasons so we get to see them more often. But we try to see Scott's family as often as we can.

23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me!

24. Who asked who out? We were fixed up on a blind date. But he did call and ask me on that second date!

25. Who proposed? Of course Scott did!

26. Who is more sensitive? Definitely ME!

27. Who has more friends? Me - but don't girls usually have more friends?

28. Who has more siblings? Me! Scott is an only child - I have a brother.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? I like to think that maybe I do - but I'm really working on being the good submissive wife I should be.

I tag...Julie, Jessica, Jamie, Jennie, Katie and Rachel! and my Mom!

Dawson loves to get up as high in the house as he can. He loves to sit on our couches right on the edge and "perch". His other favorite spot is on our bed on top of all of our pillows. That is where he sits every morning while I get ready. We have a little routine. He lays there the whole time I'm in the bathroom getting ready and then he knows as soon as he hears me spraying hair spray and then I shut the bathroom door to check myself out in the full view mirror that it's time to go. He hops down and stands in the doorway and waits for me to say "Let's go". He stays in the kitchen/den during the day. He's so funny how he knows us and our routines so well. We are all creatures of habit.

Big Tex

It's the that time again - a new season of "The Bachelor" has begun! And so far - we really like this bachelor. He's VERY cute and a Texan so he has a great accent.
I got together with four girls last night to eat and talk and watch! I've watched the last few seasons with them and it just makes makes it more fun to make a girls night out of it. So I'll be looking forward to Monday nights this fall.

Sore Loser

Scott and I got to meet up with mom and dad before the game and visit with them so that was fun. I won't discuss the game because it's just too painful and I really only have 2 words to say : Fire Nutt.
The one highlight I have is that as I was getting my bag checked before we went in - I have a bottle of vitamins in my purse and the lady checking me said "Make sure you take those vitamins during finals week". She thought I was in college. Nothing like telling an almost 34 year old that she looks like she's 20ish to make her walk on air! :-)

Megs!

Me, Megan, Emily, Hillary and Laurie

Megan, Emily and Hillary

Laurie and Me

Me and Megs!

One of my best friends Megan is in town this weekend from North Carolina. She came to visit and go to the KY game. I am so glad to see her. I have only seen her once in the last two years. She flew in last night and is staying with my friend Hillary. We picked her up from the airport and then this morning we met for breakfast. It was so fun to be all together again.

New Rug

I finally got a new rug for our living room! Yeay!

Sooner Shower

The guest of honor, Jessica, and Lindsay

Michelle and Haley

Elizabeth's turn at the game

The food

Is it possible to have a shower without petit fours - I think not! (we won't even discuss how many I ate - but the sports balls were SO cute)

Julie, Kacy and Leah

Elizabeth and Berkli

Laurie and Amy

Tonight we had a shower for our friend Jessica who is expecting Parker in November. Jessica's husband is a HUGE Oklahoma fan and they are doing Parker's room in a sports theme - so we had a sports themed shower. We had it at my friend Julie's house. It was a lot of fun. Kacy came up with a shower game where we put sports stickers on a board that determined where little Parker would one day play football - OU or AR! Obviously the hogs won out! We had a lot of good food and enjoyed visiting and Parker got a lot of cute stuff!

Hair

So I got my hair colored tonight and my hair stylist decided to do my hair in a little "Farrah" action. You can see I took this picture right before I headed into TJ Maxx. ha! It was a little different looking than I'm used to but my checkout girl at Wal-Mart liked it. She said "my hair looked great tonight". As opposed to all the other times she has seen my hair (which are none). Then she proceeded to tell me how her grandma did her hair for prom. She said it was "SO beautiful" but it started with cornrows all across the front that ended in a bun and had curly hair coming out the bottom and the image I had in my head was anything but beautiful.

Quit Playing Games with my Heart

For the last few weeks - I've been having off and on again chest pains (mostly brought on my stress and anxiety). I'm just a high strung person and it doesn't take much to cause me stress.
But last night and this morning - the chest pains seemed pretty bad and my left arm started hurting so I was convinced (especially after inputting my symptons into web md) that I was having a heart attack.
I started telling Scott last night that if I had a heart attack and died I wanted him to get re-married. You just never know. So finally after work today - I was still having pains so I decided to go to this clinic we have in town. They are open late and take my insurance and it's not like going to the emergency room.
The doctor was super nice and he asked me where I was from and knew several people that were in my high school class. He went to med school with my junior year prom date. He reassured me that it was SUPER rare for a healthy young woman to have a heart attack. I had an issue a couple of years ago and had to take Nexium for a while and he had me do a test or two and decided it was probably the same issue just triggered by stress.
So I"m going to try to work on relaxing and I guess Scott won't need to find a new wife. :-)

P.S. Don't use web md if you can avoid it - you will be convinced you are dying before you are done.

Hometown Memories

http://levismommy.blogspot.com/2007/09/ode-to-kelly.html

You need to go and check out this post on my friend Amy's blog! :-)

Once you go Mac..........You'll never go Back

After MONTHS of researching, looking, shopping, debating and deciding........Scott finally bought a new computer - a Mac. And it came today. He was so excited. I don't get too excited about technology - but I have to admit it's pretty cool.
And of course - I love the photo feature - you can see we have already been trying it out. I'm sure it will bring me hours of entertainment. :-)

Salsa Queen

Steve went to the Bama game this weekend with a group of guys so after church today - Laurie and Emily ate lunch with us at Chili's. Emily loves salsa as much as her mother does. She also loves her Aunt Kelly and Uncle "Ska".

Bammered

I just can't talk about it.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain - but a woman who fears the Lord - she shall be praised.

Our woman's retreat was probably the best thing I've ever been to. I absolutely loved it. I'm so sad because I charged up my camera and then didn't take any pictures except this one dark, fuzzy one when the staff wives were singing. (Which I was amazed to find they could all sing. Some I had no idea have BEAUTIFUL voices).
Each of our six staff wives gave their testimonies and told of their childhood, meeting their husbands, their children, struggles in their lives and of course their salvation. They showed pictures of their weddings and childhood. It was so fun and interesting. I don't know which I did more of - crying or laughing but I did a lot of both. Each of the six wives had such different testimonies and I'm pretty sure every woman in the room could identify with at least one of the struggles the women have had. From infertility to eating disorders to a hard childhood to feelings of insecurity to struggles in the ministry to changing from career to ministry late in life - they had so much to share. I feel like I know these wonderful women so much better now and as great as I think our church staff is - I dare say the women behind them are greater.

Storage Rooms, Testimonies and Roll Tide

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I am SO ready for the weekend. Tomorrow at work we are having "clean the storage buildings out" day. Fun. So I get to spend most of the day lugging around tools and boxes. Yippee!

But then I really am excited because tomorrow night and Saturday morning my church is having a women's retreat. All of the staff wives (the six lovely ladies pictured above) are each sharing their testimonies. I think that is such a neat idea because I don't know any of them very well and I'm excited to hear what they will share and to learn more about who they are. I know it is not always easy to be a minister's wife (just ask my mom) but they are all a blessing.

And then of course - the hogs take on Bama Saturday night. I'm very nervous about this game. It will be a big one. We are picked as the underdog on the national level. I sure hope we can prove them wrong.

Happy Weekend (early!)

Biggest Loser

I LOVE Fall. I love the weather. I love the leaves changing colors. I love football. I love fall candles. I love mums. I love fall decorations. I love new school supplies (even if I don't buy them - I just love seeing them in the stores). I love fall clothes. I love pumpkins and hayrides and bonfires. I love everything about fall - which is one of the reasons I had a fall wedding. And one of my other favorite things about fall - new fall TV shows!
And one of my newer favorite TV shows is the Biggest Loser. I think I like it because first of all I'm a little chubby and it motivates me. I mean if these people can lose 200 pounds - surely I could lose 10-15. And also because it is one reality show that actually changes people's lives. It is amazing to see these people come in who weigh 400 pounds and can't play with their children or barely walk and are so sad for the way the look and then at the end of their show - they are thin and healthy and have a new lease on life. It's amazing. I also just L-O-V-E Bob Harper the trainer. He is so kind and motivating. I wish he could come train me.
So I was so glad a new series started last night. I couldn't believe it when a 62 yr old man lost THIRTY ONE pounds the first week!!!! Others lost 25 or 20. Can you imagine? ONE WEEK! Maybe I could cut out a sonic drink or two and lose a few.

Ode to the Church Directory

I've always had a weird secret love for church directories. I remember when I was younger and would stay with my grandparents - one of my favorite things to do was to get out all of their church directories from over the years and compare families and how they changed.

So you can imagine my excitement when three years ago - a month after we joined our church - they announced it was church directory time! That directory has been my ultimate treasure over the last three years. I could win a contest if we had one over who has looked at it the most. I have made it my mission to learn who everyone in the church is by looking at that directory. Everytime we get an e-mail about someone who is sick or has had a family member die or has had a baby - I get out the handy dandy directory and figure out who they are (if I don't already know).

And I'm not alone. Laurie loves that thing more than me. She missed out on the last one because they joined a few months after we did. So every time she came to my house she would ask to look at. On her birthday this year - I decided to suprise her and get her her own copy. You would have thought I had handed her the keys to a new car she was so excited.

Well, we were both thrilled to find out that once again it is church directory time! We had our pictures made a few weeks ago and our lone 8x12 arrived in the mail yesterday (at the prices they had -it's all we could (or wanted to) afford)! I can't wait to get that new directory in my chubby little hands - you can bet I will be studying every church member!

(this is a picture of a picture because I couldn't get the scanner to work)

Locked OUT

After church today (which by the way- choir went GREAT!), Scott and I ate lunch at chili's (our favorite Sunday lunch spot) and then came home - hoping to change clothes and take Dawson to the park.
Except for the fact that we couldn't get in our house. Apparently half of our town was out of power and unfortunately we only had the garage door opener which operates on electricity and no key. So we sat for a while until our neighbor told us the power had been out already for almost 2 hours. So we drove and went to Andy's so Scott could get some ice cream and I went to Sonic and got a diet coke and then we came home and finally our power was restored.
So we are going to just rest and read the Sunday paper and maybe fit in a lifetime movie (well, that's what I will be doing - Scott will be watching the opening Sunday of NFL) until church tonight.

Sing your praise to the Lord

Last night and this morning, I attended a choir retreat at the church. We had a potluck dinner last night and then practiced several songs. This morning we had more practice. It was good for me since I am trying to learn so many songs and learning to sing in parts. Luckily there are a lot of talented people who sit around me and sing with great pitch loudly so I can blend in. I'm really enjoying it and afterwards I got fitted for my choir robe so I can officially sing in the morning! So exciting!
We even started to practice for Christmas - and because it is cool and raining - it really feels like a fall day which means Christmas IS just around the corner!

Let it Rain

This week will probably not go on record as the best week that Scott and I have ever had. It started with the phone call we got Sunday that his grandmother passed. Then yesterday morning - Scott realized his car was dead. So last night we got one problem fixed and this morning - there was another issue with his car. And we have a window in our house that leaks when it rains and it had been fixed but this morning - there it was leaking again. And then today my mom let me know that my grandfather, who recently found out he has leukemia, is not doing well.

One thing I constantly say to Scott as we hear of other people's misfortunes is "why not us?" Why do we seem to have it so good? And even though this has been a tough week and doesn't seem to be getting any better - in the grand scheme of things we are still so blessed and I have to just keep thanking God for all that He has done for us. I think because it is a dark, rainy Friday - I just keep singing this Mercy Me song in my head and it pretty much sums up my feelings. Especially these two verses.

I can count a million times

People asking me how

I Can praise You with all that I've gone through

The question just amazes me

Can circumstances possibly

Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed

Long before these rainy days

It's never really ever crossed my mind

To turn my back on you, oh Lord

My only shelter from the storm

But instead I draw closer through these times

LET IT RAIN

O-U-A-C-H-I-T-A

The service for Scott's grandmother was really nice. We enjoyed being with Scott's family and as is the custom in the south - people brought TONS of food to their house so we ate and ate and ate some more. Scott's grandmother will be very missed - especially by Scott's mom - but we know she is in a MUCH better place.
We came home today and I talked Scott into taking a drive around OBU since we were going through Arkadelphia. I haven't been there in probably 8 years and Scott has never seen it. I wanted him to see where I went to school and where our kids will (hopefully) one day go. It has changed SO much since I was there but some things were the same. I took a picture of the dorm I lived in my junior and senior years. It is SO old - but it was so much fun living there.
Our pastor went to OBU and talks about it all the time (which I LOVE) so Scott wanted to see the famous bridge he talks about a lot (where he heard about the 59/29 plan). I took a picture. He also wanted to see the lamp post that he walked into when he was looking at a pretty girl in college but it was raining and we would have had to get out of the car.
It really made me sad to drive through OBU because that was such a wonderful time in my life that I can never get back but I'm grateful that my parents let me go there and that I had the opportunity to attend school at such a wonderful college.

Sadly - Scott's sweet grandmother, Ruby Hudson, passed away this morning in her sleep. Please be in prayer for Scott's family. We are heading down to Magnolia in a little bit and will be there for the next few days.
We are thankful that she didn't have to suffer and that she is in heaven today with her husband and she doesn't need Oxygen to breathe - she can dance and run! What a great day she must be having!

#21 Razorbacks 1-0

We beat Troy 46-26. It wasn't pretty but a win is a win.
And we have a kicker.
And DMAC is still the man.

Dawson has three words for you -

GAME DAY BABY!!!!