Deeper Still, Oh Yes Ma'am!

It's Sunday night, and I am upstairs in the guest room of Amanda's adorable house and my mind is realing from this weekend. I may have to take a Tylenol PM to settle my mind down a bit.

This weekend was everything I imagined and MORE. I'm not going to go into details right now, but it was GOOD. The WORD was preached and people were changed, myself hugely included. And it was packed with fun, much fun!

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was meeting, talking, sitting next to and worshipping with BooMama and Big Mama!! I had been looking forward to meeting them for a few months waiting for this weekend to get here and it was wonderful. They are just as bit as sweet and funny as their blogs portray! We had a blast.


Photo by Rich

My favorite part was this:


Hearing from Mrs. Priscilla, Mrs. Kay and Mrs. Beth! I can not tell you how amazing their message was and how much my life was impacted! I think I might type up my notes for y'all. I am so grateful!

And look how close we were sitting!!! Seriously, it can't get better than that.

More to come...

Somebody Pinch Me!

I think I am dreaming because in 24 hours I will be sitting at the DEEPER STILL conference. My sweet, sweet, sweet friend Amanda asked me several months ago if I would like to join her in June at the conference and I didn't even have to think longer about it than the time it took the word "YES" to come out of my month. Since then, I've been counting down the days and it's hard to believe the weekend is HERE! It's HERE!

This afternoon I will drive to Houston and get to spend some time with Curtis, Amanda and JACKSON! I can not wait to see that little mister! Then Friday morning, Amanda, Beth and I fly to Atanta where we are meeting up with BooMama and Big Mama! It really is the ultimate girls' weekend and I'm so thankful and in awe that I get to do this. I can't wait to soak up the teachings of Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and Priscilla Shirer! I have such a deep love for the teachings of Kay and Beth. My life has been impacted and changed so many times over the years by learning from the WORD that they bring. I am expecting big things this weekend.

Thanks Amanda!!!

Toby's B-day Party

Toby's 4th birthday party was Ella's first time at a sprinkler park. I was determined to get Ella to at least try the sprinkler area even though her most hated thing in life up to this point (I'm bracing myself that this could turn to be me in 12 to 15 years), is water being splashed in her face.

At first she was perfectly content to swing in the park next to the sprinkler area and just watch the kids have fun, but this mama was not so much enjoying pushing a toddler in 100 degree weather while others cooled off just feet away from us. So after an hour, I finally was able to convince her to try it and can you guess what...she actually enjoyed herself. Even though she did stick mainly to the edges, she still was okay with getting a little water on her sweet, precious, delicate face.









Ella & the birthday boy!


Melissa, Toby's mom, did a morning b-day party, so the food was donuts and sausage kolaches! Yum! Toby's "cake" was a sprinkle donut with a candle in it. It was very cute!

The Faces of San Jose, Honduras

Last Wednesday night was our Honduras team's night to speak to our church family about our trip and what God did that week. My job was to plan the logistics of the evening and one part of that was to put together a slide show of our trip. I went through hundreds of pictures trying to pick out the perfect ones to show the church. In doing so, all the emotions of our trip came flooding back through my mind. So I thought I would share some of my favorites with y'all because I am missing these faces like crazy all over again.
















































My friend, Kristin, so sweetly made 27 lollipops for me to take with me to hand out to the kids. It was a blessing to see the joy on their faces as I was able to give them something so fun and so different for them. Candy certainly is not a luxury they get to enjoy often.




While looking at these precious faces, I can't help but wonder what they are doing right now, or how their sick brother, mother or grandma is, or if their dad made enough money to buy them water today, or how badly I just want to hold those precious babies again. It's with me constantly. Once again, I am soliciting your prayers for the people of San Jose, Honduras.

Happy Birthday/Father's Day to a Wonderful Man

The incredible bond between Ella and her Daddy started at first sight 28 months ago to the day. Heath was the first person Ella ever laid eyes on and I can still tell that special bond everytime she lays eyes on him today. There is such a spark in her eye when he walks in the room. Oh, it is the greatest blessing to see how much Ella loves her Daddy and her Daddy loves her! One of Ella's first sentences to say months ago was "Dada silly!" This stems from how he never ceases to have fun with her. It is the greatest feeling to watch!

We had a wonderful day yesterday! Not only did we get to celebrate Heath as a father but we also got to celebrate his BIRTHDAY!!

His mom (who is in town this week) and Heath's 2 sisters and my dad (we missed my mom who is in Kansas helping her mom who just had knee surgery) all came over to celebrate.

We fit a lot of activities in this one day:

Church






Ella Wishing Dada a Happy Birthday 6-15-08 from Janelle on Vimeo.

Much food! The before picture:


13 lb brisket


The during:










The after: Comatose state


We also did a lot of this:






The gifts:

Thank you Curtis for this fabulous gift I was able to give to Heath! We are so proud of you and I know Heath is excited to start this devotional.


I was so excited to give this to Heath because he loves this movie. What I didn't really think about was how he will never get to play it because I know nothing about the movie. I am now in search of a fellow fan to come play with Heath. Anybody?


Ella loved helping Grandad open his presents! Happy Father's Day Dad!!!


Happy Father's Day and Happy 29th Birthday Heath!!