Opportunity Knocked

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-07T15:33:00.001-06:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

A Rant On Truth

2011-11-02T13:39:00.002-05:00

About 1 year into our relationship, Brent had a divine revelation when it comes to arguing: most people are either a Truth person or a Peace person. Brent is peace. I am truth. Basically when we have a disagreement about something, my purpose is for the truth to be revealed while he is more concerned about getting it settled (peace) and moving on.

I've had several posts on here in which I started with full disclosure that the topic came as a result of someone's post on facebook. Well, today is no different. I actually read a comment yesterday and for the first time on this person's wall almost commented. why? Because she blatantly did not tell the truth about this topic. It involves two things I'm pretty passionate about: Dave Ramsey and Christians and our finances.

Because I wouldn't want this person to be offended at anything I say, I won't post ver batum what she posted as her comment, but she basically said that Dave Ramsey would tell you not to adopt if you can't afford it.

This really got me alllll riled up for several reasons:

1. This person - we'll call her Hollie - emailed me last year and specifically asked what Financial Peace University would teach, how it would help and what was the end goal. I explained to her the basic principles and that ultimately it is to be debt free so that we as Christians can do more for the Kingdom of God.

2. FPU's final lesson is ALL about what can be done when we are debt free. The lesson BEGINS with a couple sharing their story that they wanted to adopt, but felt lead to be debt free prior to their adoption. They shared that story with a couple in their church who proceeded to pay off this couple's debt AND also pay for a part of their adoption!!! incredible story. I even googled Dave Ramsey, adoption to see if I could find something specifically where he would even suggest not to adopt. The first result popped up where he had a guest on his show who had adopted children and then wrote a book on how to do it without going into debt. (getting grants, fundraising, etc.). As a man who proclaims Jesus Christ as the only true way to Heaven EVERY single DAY on his Nationally Syndicated talk show, I can't imagine him EVER saying not to adopt (we're commanded to take care of the orphans and widows in the Bible in case you weren't aware)

So why is Hollie slandering this man? I can't figure it out and I think what fires me up more than anything is that in the 143 subsequent comments made on this status update, she continues to out and out lie about DR. I've decided so much of it has to do with her own personal beliefs and feelings towards DR's public stance in politics (she doesn't agree that someone in his position should ever endorse a presidential candidate) and his political beliefs are way more right than hers.

I am saddened by Hollie because she has such a great testimony. Her and her husband have adopted a LOT of children. They've shown these children God's ultimate story of grace and redemption and for that, I know they are truly blessed.

She is constantly criticizing Christians for slandering other Christians, yet she does it consistently on her own platform.

She stated multiple times complete falsehoods and even when commentors would state the truth, Hollie would proceed to attack them and gang up against these people.

Hollie continues to say that Dave teaches to live on your own provisions, not God's, but that is not accurate at all. The Bible clearly commands us as Christians to not be servant to the lender (ie: stay out of debt) Prov 22:7. In fact, visit DaveRamsey.com where he has over 800 scriptures listed in regards to money.

Romans 13:8 - "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

Proverbs 28:20 "A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished."

I could on and on, but seriously, visit his site if you want to read more. Or better yet, look it up in your own Bible.

Hollie continues on to bash Dave stating she doesn't believe we should store up so much treasure here on Earth. Well duh, Hollie, Dave will tell you the same. He will tell you though to be prepared. Be smart and that even God commands us to be good stewards with our money. 1 Tim 5:8: "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Dave teaches that we should prepare for the future. Do the best with what He blesses us with and the ultimate goal of Financial Peace is to get to Baby step 7: (straight from his website)

Baby Step 7 Build wealth and give!

It’s time to build wealth and give like never before. Leave an inheritance for future generations, and bless others now with your excess. It's really the only way to live!

Golda Meir says, “You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” Vow to never hold your money so tightly that you never give any away. Hoarding money is not the way to wealth. Save for yourself, save for your family’s future, and be gracious enough to bless others. You can do all three at the same time.

To say things like this man is out to build wealth and man-made riches is completely false. Is Dave Ramsey a wealthy man? Yes. He has a multi-million dollar home that he PAID for IN CASH because he WORKED for it.
Will Dave tell you to get out of debt before you make ANY decision? Yes. You can even hear a live phone call in which a woman asks specifically if she and her husband should adopt with XX amount of debt. He advises her to pay it off first, then proceed.
If you listen to Dave, you know he does not believe in debt. He will 99% of the time tell you to avoid debt at all costs. He will tell you to pay it off before moving on.

And Hollie, if you really cared what Dave Ramsey thought and you really knew what he said on adoption, you would know this is the premise to him ever telling someone to wait to adopt. It's not because he thinks you should build up your wealth. It's not because he wants you to gain all you can in the American dream. In fact, if you listen to his show for 1 week, you'll likely hear one of his many rants to a wife whose husband has toys - boats, atvs, etc - while their family is in debt up to their eyeballs or to the wife who keeps running up the credit card bill because she keeps shopping. Just listen and you'll realize you are WAY off when it comes to DR's teachings, his motives and how he wants us as Christians to live.
Dave is a Christian. One that loves God. One that is a successful business owner that has somehow figured out how to mesh being a Christian business owner and success into the mainstream world. Don't start picking on someone and stating false statements if you've never taken their classes, read their material or consistently learned about what they truly teach. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Don't talk about people being unintelligent on certain topics, when you yourself will attack someone's teachings before even knowing truth.

I'm done ranting about Hollie. We clearly do not see eye to eye and I will likely never post my opinion directly on her FB wall because while I enjoy a good debate, I won't partake with someone who cannot respect an opinion if it doesn't line up with her own. That's all...I'm done for now :)

I really love this video if you have a few minutes if you have never heard of Dave Ramsey other than my blog.

Gabbie's Fun Life

2011-10-20T08:34:00.008-05:00

Yesterday Gabbie and I were at home and I was watching her play independently in our living room when I realized she has changed so much in just a few short weeks/months. I wanted to blog about it not only to share with everyone else, but also because I'm realizing how quickly her little life is changing!

So here's what she's up to these days...

Her favorite thing to do is to play with babies. She has a baby doll that Aunt Jennifer gave her for her birthday that is inflatable so it feels more life-like ? maybe. Not sure, but it's definitely the biggest baby she has, so I think Gabbie feels as though it's more life-like. Yesterday I caught her on video as she was rocking and singing to her baby. Prior to breaking out the camera, she had covered up her baby with a blanket and kept coming to me saying "shhh" and I asked if she was sleeping, Gabbie said "yesss." It was too sweet. When I got out the camera, she got a little camera shy, but I finally convinced her to go back to her sweet ways with her baby. She proceeded to rock the baby, sing to her (which is actually a compilation of Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me and the ABC's which is hilarious.) The video's a little long, but super cute if you have a few minutes.

The other new thing she's up to these days is "Mama, Look. Mama. Mama, Look" It's so fun and yes, some days I hear it over 100 times. The car is the best/worst - if I don't turn around and look at her in the back seat, she will continue to say "mama. Maaaamma LOOK" and usually it's just her showing off a "new" skill such as being able to put both of her feet on the backs of the front seats. If Brent's with me, the conversation typically goes like this, "Mama, Look. Mamma. Maaama." and if I don't respond, it becomes, "Brent. Look." Yes, she calls him Brent occasionally. It is hilarious. She's definitely called me by my first name a few times, but for the most part it's Mama because I correct her when she calls me anything else.

Gabbie's vocabulary has definitely exploded. She's definitely not a big talker, but she's coming a long way on putting words together, learning certain phrases. I've really been working with her on colors and letters, she's getting there and on a regular basis can recognize pink and yellow and can draw a circle on her chalkboard on most days. This all just started in the past 2-3 weeks.

We've had such beautiful weather in the afternoons these past few weeks that we spend most of our afternoons outside in the street playing with all the other neighbors. Gabbie's the youngest by at least 18 months, but I think that's what she loves about it so much - they all fawn over her and love all her toys. I love this age because she can hold her own with everyone, but she's still young enough that most of the girls love treating her like a baby. It's really fun and reminds me so much of growing up in a neighborhood where all the kids came outside and played together. Most of the time when we're outside, Gabbie attempts to ride her tricycle while the other kids ride their bikes. She also loves to play with bubbles and chalk which leads for some interesting artwork on the street in front of our house and on Gabbie herself (most of the time, we end up with more chalk on Gabbie than on the street).

Going out in public is always fun too - she is quite the social butterfly and typically waves and says hieee to people we interact with at the store. She seems to eat up the attention most of the time. She gets stickers from the grocery store people and loves it. She typically responds with "Thank you" which of course melts my heart that she's already working on her manners.

She loves going to church and squeals with delight when we pull into the parking lot. We're working on her getting excited to learn about Jesus and the Bible instead of her friends (typically she says, "MAYME!" when we pull in, but we're working on it. :) Hey, at least she loves going. She normally waits patiently while we check her in and print off her name tag, turns around so we can put it on her back, then takes off to her room, literally running through the door. {Do YOU get that excited about going to church?} ha

This is such a fun age and I know anyone with a 2 year old will probably tell you so. They are little learning machines, soaking up as much as possible, coming to me with whatever she discovers to show me, loving me and wanting all my attention. It's so fun to sit back and just watch her learn on her own - touching a grasshopper and watching it as it hops out of sight. Interacting with Fletcher and learning that if you throw the toy, he'll chase it and bring it back then laughing in delight over the entire transaction. She's also still a great eater - on most days she eats whatever I put in front of her, but still her favorites include sweet potatoes, milk, yogurt, cheese (all time favorite), and fruit - especially grapes right now. She also looooves raisins which comes out kind of like "rai-sens" which is a top request at snack time.

Most days when I get her out of bed she is practicing getting into a nudist colony and informs me very quickly, "dia-perr" because it's usually on the floor outside of her crib along with her pajamas.

We love this little girl. She brings so much joy and happiness to our lives and to others she interacts with.

Send a Friend to Guatemala

2011-09-21T11:07:00.004-05:00

Do you remember back in March when I blogged all about my trip to Guatemala? This was definitely a life-changing trip for me. I made such great friends and connections, I had experiences I'll never forget and it definitely changed me and my outlook on God's love, grace and mercy.

In just 2 weeks, a really great friend of Brent and mine is moving to Guatemala to live for at least the next year. He will be working with the same organization we did back in March, Engadi Ministries.

I believe because of Eric's willingness to give up his comfortable life here in the U.S. and move to Guatemala that God is going to provide all that he needs for this year long journey.

Today Eric is doing a Facebook campaign to raise as much money as possible (his goal is $3,000 but he actually needs $8,000 total to meet his goal of $15,000 for the year). Would you be willing to visit his page and give a donation? Even just $25 or whatever your budget will allow.

I posted more than 9 different entries in regards to my trip earlier this year. If you want to look over the pictures or my journaling about the experience, visit this page.

The Mouses Next Door

2011-09-08T09:44:00.002-05:00

My neighbor's dog has killed 4 "mouses" in their backyard over the past few days (as told me to by their kindergartner). This morning she called me over to help her figure out for sure what is this rodent running in her yard. As we both hover over this 2 1/2 inch long, lifeless, furry animal, fear rose up from our feet to our heads as we explored the possibility that this animal would come alive and attack us all. Yeah right. At one moment, I even commented on how silly it was that here we were two grown women frozen in fear over a 2 1/2 inch long furry, lifeless animal. We didn't know what it was capable of doing. We didn't know if it were to come alive which way it would run - up our pants leg like some cartoon we'd likely both seen in our lifetime. Or would it suddenly grow fangs and inject rabies in our blood?

Ok, so I can have a pretty vivid imagination. What can I say?

But what is it in your life that you fear because you don't know what it is capable of doing? Which direction it will take? Or what attack it will use?

What's so ironic about this scenario this morning is that it literally came minutes after closing up a chapter of a very solid book I've started reading in the mornings: What Women Fear - Angie Smith. I can't say I am someone who is overcome with fear on a regular basis not like some of my dearest friends who have shared their fears. So many moms deal with the fear that something will happen to their children or their families. And while I definitely have had those thoughts, I have to say I am not someone who lets it consume me.

I do however deal greatly with the fear that I won't be accepted. Yep. I'm pretty open and vulnerable, I get that, but after reading something this morning in my time that just hit the nail on the head for me, I have decided that being open and vulnerable is the only way any of us will ever grow.

I get to start back up in a women's Bible study next week - the one I've spoken about quite frequently here over the past 2 years. That first year, this group of women was so refreshing to me. I had a small group of very open and honest women. We had a leader who was very in-tune to what our group needed on a weekly basis and it didn't always involve following that day's line up of questions. I got so much out of this group that I joined again last year. But we all know that different stages of our lives call for different ministries and last year, I didn't get quite the same warm cozy feeling. I started blaming other people until today when I read this:

"We can become so caught up in what we think people are seeing in us that we lose sight of who we are. As a result, we may begin to shut down socially and decide that building walls makes more sense than a broken heart. As a result, many of us talk about the weather at Bible study instead of the fight we had with our teenage daughter the night before knowing that we might be labeled as an overprotective parent or the one who can't control their children. And long after the issue is resolved, we will still be seen as the one who messed up. The labels we create (and dwell on) for each other are killing our chances for genuine community and we are missing the best part of each other."

wow. I don't even know where to start on this excerpt, except it hits so many different scenarios for me: family, some of my closest friends are not transparent with me and vice versa, going to my women's study each week and not feeling connected, and even the community group we were a part of for a while - it always seems in every situation that time goes on (years!) and you realize you don't really know someone. When I think about this commentary and the whole "we don't share what's really going on because we're too afraid of the label that will be attached to us from that point forward" I just think that hits the nail on the head.

But what about the flip side of that: are you just as guilty of labeling someone based on something they share? As much as I don't want to admit it, I know I am guilty. I'm sorry. So many people need grace and wisdom when they become vulnerable, not labels and judgement.

One of the most successful community groups from our church (and success to me is measured by the number of people who are doing anything they can to be a part of it) has great leaders. I've spoken with the wife about why it is so successful and she thinks it is because from day one of each new year, her and her husband are brutally honest with everyone in their group and challenges its members to do the same. She has said that she tells them if you are not open and transparent here and tell us about what is going on in your lives, how can we truly be a community group? Sharing life and praying for you, standing beside you through all of life's journey. THAT my friend is what a community group is all about. Or any group. A group of friends. A group of bible study. Hey, even your FAMILY should operate this way, but we all know they don't always.

I'm not sure I have a great wrap up point here, but I had to get my thoughts on the blog this morning. I've sent an email to two different people discussing this same topic because I was so on fire about it when I first read it this morning.

What is it that you are afraid of? What is it that's keeping you from fulfilling what God has called you to do and to be?

You are created in the image of God gifted with His love and desire to use you. Do you wear that proudly or have you stuffed it in a drawer in favor of something you think is better?

Gabbie's 2 City Tour

2011-08-25T12:53:00.006-05:00

Well the Two City Tour has come and gone. For some crazy reason we decided it would be a great idea to have a birthday party in two locations for Gabbie's second birthday this year. Of course the initial intentions were that each would be low key - nothing like last year's big par-tay.

So Sunday night we had a few friends over to the house and had Gabbie's Fiesta of a party. With 2 of Gabbie's closest buddies and 2 other families, it was a much more intimate affair which was perfect for this age group. Not too overwhelming and just enough time together they weren't overly exhausted. We had chicken quesadillas, the girls made some elmo puppets, played in the backyard (because it was unseasonably cool yet again for a summer birthday party at the Whitakers this summer), did some coloring, ate plenty of cake and ice cream and just had a flat out great time. I think the biggest gift hit by far was the bubbles that the Sapps gave her. She FLIPPED out squeeling in delight when she spotted them in the bag. It was too funny because I have a closet full of bubbles I had forgotten about - they've definitely become a fan favorite and we've spent almost every afternoon in the backyard with bubbles ever since. {Annnd the batteries were dead in my camera so zero pictures to be posted from Sunday night. I have a good friend who thankfully had a camera, so I did get a few shots, just don't have them yet....I'll post them when they get to me!}

A few days later, we packed up the tour and headed to Chattanooga for the second stop in our 2 city tour event. This time we held it outside at a playground close to my parent's house. We have been having really nice afternoons/evenings, with cooler temperatures, so I hoping and praying the weather would behave. Welll the good thing is that it didn't rain and instead was about 95 degrees even at 6:30 p.m. We made the most of it and served up our ice cream pretty early into the party. With every topping imaginable for your ice cream sundae, all of Gabbie's guests got packed full of sugar, then hit the playground. All of Gabbie's bestest little buddies in Chattanooga {Read: Brent & my friends and their kiddos} came out for the evening along with most of our family that lives in Chattanooga as well. It really was so much fun and of course, like all fun things, the time FLEW. Before I knew it, it was 8:30 and most of our guests were heading home. Gabbie walked away with a plethora of gifts but I think her favorite by far was the baby and baby bed my sister passed down (it was ours when we were little). The baby that came along with it was Brittany's and Gabbie loves it. I think mainly because it's more life-size than her others. 1 week later and she's still loving that baby and baby bed (that my grandfather made by the way).

Mi Padres: trying to stay cool...

UTC girls catching up
Jen & I: servers extraordinaire.
Ada love eating some pizza donated by the party next to us.

cutie pie Nolan chowing down on ice cream!

Hey Jack, when will we get some ice cream? - Everest

Gabbie thoroughly enjoying her birthday ice cream cone - a big treat for this kiddo!

Happy Jack!!
Brittany & Gabbie swinging - G's favorite playground activity.

Gabbie trying out her new ride from Mammaw & Pappaw

and I have a LOT more pictures from the party but Blogger is acting up and I can't get any more photos to upload right now....boo

The Two Year Old Post

2011-08-16T13:09:00.011-05:00

Two. Dos. One + One. Yep. It's here: TWO. My Gabbie girl went from being a baby to a full-grown toddler. And while it seems as though it happened over night, it really hasn't. She's been developing into this beautiful little person.
I was flipping through pictures from this entire year and it's amazing just how much she has changed & grown.
Right now I have so many favorite things about Gabbie I'm not sure where to even start. A few weeks ago she started saying, "Baby, uh-oh" just out of no where. Brent and I couldn't stop laughing the night she was doing it - it literally came out of no where. It kind of sounds like a song - who knows, maybe one day it will be a #1 hit.
She's always loved Fletcher and Fiona, but lately she's really loved them. She chases them with her baby stroller or tries to brush them with a normal hairbrush or randomly walks up to Fletcher to give him a kiss on his back. She really loves them. I guess they're the closest thing she has to a brother and sister for now - HA.

She's still a great eater and I'm not sure she has something that's more of a favorite food than any other thing but some of her favorite things (read: things I give her to eat ALL. THE. TIME.) include Waffles (which she says, "Waa-ful") , smoothies, she LOVES milk - especially in this new frozen cup I bought her, all types of fruit, she loves all Mexican food (we actually served Chicken Quesadillas at her birthday dinner because she loves it so much), and occasionally, she gets a special treat of Sweet CeCe's frozen yogurt. She LOVES it (even though she hasn't figured out that I usually just do mostly fruit and don't give her much of the frozen yogurt yet).

We have a nightly routine where we give her a bath and then I stand her up on my dresser to dry her hair. She's become so girly while doing this and always looks through my jewelry box, holds up earrings to ears and recently has started trying to put on my deodorant. It's too cute.

She LOVES technology too - I know it's just the whole button pushing & seeing immediate results but it's hilarious. I love this picture because this is SOOO her right now - she will hold up the camera to herself and say, "cheeese." Even if I hold up the cell phone camera she does that too. It's hilarious - going back to the whole turning into a little adult lately.

The name of the game lately is just PLAY. She loves the playground across the street, she loves the slide in her playroom, she loves the playhouse and she absolutely adores our neighbor's kids. They play with Gabbie like she's a baby doll, but Gabbie loves it. Earlier this summer she got invited to their backyard to play on their slip n slide and Gabbie loved every minute. Yesterday she was playing in the playroom and squealed with delight when she saw the neighbors were outside playing. We immediately charged out the door to catch some play time with them. It's so funny to watch Gabbie - she tries to act like a big kid right along with them.

She also LOVES her BFF Mayme. I mean LOVES this girl. When we pull into the church parking lot on Sundays, she usually starts saying, Mayme Mayme. She loves her so much she always wants to hold her hand - like this time when she grabbed Mayme's hand who was so excited about it as you can see...

This year, we also did WAY more traveling: San Francisco, St Augustine, Orlando, and Kentucky. She became a GREAT little flyer and I'm sure it had so much to do with us getting used to flying with a toddler {do you ever get used to flying with a toddler?}

Most recently Moncrief Photography did an incredible session for Gabbie's second birthday. It was posted on Facebook and received RAVE reviews, but I think it's only appropriate to include it in this 2 year old post. It really documents sooo well what our family looks like right now with a two year old who is full of life and love. We love our Gabbie girl so much - this upcoming year has so many exciting things in store, starting with her first days at preschool in September. I know she will become this little adult over night.

My big girl on her birthday: I love you Gabbie girl!!

End of July Already?

2011-08-10T08:36:00.003-05:00

wow can summer really be coming to an end? Someone said yesterday that Christmas is just four months away. WHOAH. Is that possible? I was just counting down the days for the pool to open and applying sunscreen so we wouldn't get scorched. Now, I deal with the comments on my "coppertone baby" and marvel at how her skin color makes her look more like one of those beautiful Guatemalan children I saw back in March rather than my own Caucasian bambino. ha
We've had such a great summer and this morning while I read over the literal hundreds of Facebook updates on sending kids off to their first day of school, it really is amazing how quickly life is passing by. Don't get me wrong, we love every minute of our life, but we also stay so busy I sometimes wonder just how bad this whole "blink and they will be off to college" thing will happen. I know it's coming, I don't need additional comments. It also helps with the whole keeping it in perspective to just enjoy every minute of every day with my family that I get.

This summer has been so great - I just wrapped up a weekly Bible study with a group of women that has been fantastic. We studied the book of Revelation which I had never really done. It was Beth Moore's lecture series on the chapter and was super. It was no where near as in depth as it could have been and she constantly stated that truth, but I did learn sooo much. Much more than I could ever really mention in a simple blog post.
I definitely am learning to keep things in perspective. To continue walking the straight line, glorifying God in all of my actions and thoughts and words. That walking in the light reveals all just how dirty things really are. Reminding me that God has called us to be overcomers, but we have to overcome stuff in order to become overcomers. WOW Isn't that so great?
That He is so many things (Sovereign, Majestic, Holy, King of Kinds and Lord of Lords) but He is also a Romantic. He is in love with us and says he "betroths us to Himself" not "this is the old woman" but "this is my Bride. I love her." He loves us in that stage of romance called attachment - remember when you were dating or first married and that stage where you didn't think you could survive unless you were with your spouse? That you wanted every single moment to be with your spouse. THAT is how God feels about us.
Yep. Those are my summaries of my Revelation study. Not quite what you think would come from a study on Revelation. "The book of end times" is how we typically see it, but honestly it's really all about Jesus.

We've also had a wonderful person living with us this summer and it has been so fantastic. She has been such a huge help with Gabbie (she watches her for me while I work a few hours each week) and of course gave Brent and I a few date nights throughout the summer. In return, we enjoyed her company and just loved having her with us. She's moving out this Friday because it's time for her to go back to school too. We got to meet her family, spend a weekend at their lakehouse this summer and just overall enjoy her here. I keep telling her how sad I am about her not being around after this Friday - I think she thinks I'm just being nice, but really - Gabbie asks for her the second she gets up every morning, has this whole good bye in the morning routine with her and just overall enjoys her company as well. Needless to say, our family will miss having her here 24/7.

Here's G & I on a boat ride at the lake...

We've done some other fun activities over the summer that I haven't blogged about: The Williamson County fair this past weekend, a weekend in Chattanooga that included Gabbie's first time fishing off the dock at Chester Frost, meeting my parent's new dog, Duke, attempting for a second year to grow a garden (while fighting off the craziest looking creatures from destroying all my work) and MANY hours spent at the pool.

fishing off the dock at Chester Frost Park.

Meeting Duke - my parent's new black miniature schnauzer. He loooved Gabbie (and the feelings were reciprocated each time he licked her face)

My friend Anne & I did a Paint Your Own piece kind of thing one night for a girl's night. It was really fun and we walked away with a few masterpieces...

My niece and nephews came for their annual week-long visits over the summer which was awesome. They are all starting big days at school this year: The oldest starting his senior year, the middle one starting his last year in middle school and the youngest starting her first day in middle school. They're all looking very grown up these days and it's just unbelievable still.

So my next post will likely be about my baby turning TWO in just a few days. This second year of her life has been phenomenal, but it deserves an entire separate post of its own full of all the things we love about her and how just wonderful she is. So stay tuned....

June: Fast & Furious

2011-07-01T18:45:00.012-05:00

{you can see ALL the pictures from ALL of these events by clicking on this link and visiting the album on Picasa Web Albums.}
The month of June is coming to an end and here I sit again wondering where did it go? We have had SUCH a great first month to summer. Seriously. Brent and I were just saying last night that we "thrive" in the summer months. We have had a lot going on with every single event being just as fun as the previous.

We started off the month with being in Lexington, KY with the best travel friends anyone could ask for. We decided to spend Memorial Day doing something fun but of course had to limit it to a quick drive - Lexington was a perfect fit!
We stayed with Brittany's sister and had SUCH a great time doing a variety of fun things including a tour of the Woodford Reserve - the premier bourbon distillery in the U.S. It was interesting, just probably not the most family-friendly setting with 2 toddlers and a newborn while going through a walking, talking tour. Let's just say the tour guide stopped what she was saying on multiple occasions to get onto our girls: both of which are really well-behaved children. We just laughed about it and realized it was way more fun to make light of the situation than to get frustrated. The rest of the weekend was spent with our BFF's having fun adult time (we hired sitters that Brittany's sister knew really well) and then having a HUGE get together with a friend of Britt's sister - he has a HUGE Italian family and I think we all became envious of their camaraderie. It was so fun!

Two weeks after Lexington we attended the Annual CMA Fest at LP Field. It's hard to believe this is our third year attending - our first time was right after we had moved to Nashville and we lucked up on tickets. {and I thought I had blogged about it back then, but I guess not} Now it's become a tradition with each year growing with the number of friends attending with us and making more memories! This year our friends the Parsons and Moncriefs were not able to attend, which was really strange - they were "original" members of our CMA crew. This one's from last year where we snuck in some cupcakes to celebrate Brent's 29th' birthday and Gabbie was sound asleep in the bathroom the whole time. HA
But this year, we had the biggest group yet - Brent and I relished the various friendships represented in the room. Not to mention, the incredible performances on stage!
CMA Fest was an even bigger deal this year because it was in integral part of a HUGE surprise party I threw for Brent the following weekend. I had planned the party for over a month, with a lot of different moving parts. I had told Brent that I had a big surprise but really didn't want to tell him. Finally, he convinced me to tell him so I did: I had set up a golf game for him and a few of his friends (really true) and then we were all going to go to Margaritaville in downtown Nashville (not real) once they got home. He was PUMPED. Of course, then I started getting nervous that he was going to be disappointed that we didn't actually go to Margaritaville - ha.
Anyway, while he is out playing golf on Saturday, pretty much 45 of our closest friends showed up at our house, parked in the back of our neighborhood and were shuttled to our house.

They were THE biggest troopers as most of them had arrived over 1 hour before Brent finally arrived (because of the rain that day, it took longer for them to wrap up their golf game). Before Brent left, I asked that he give me a call so that I could have some snacks and food ready for us to munch on before we headed downtown {wink wink}. I had so much fun getting this party together. The overall theme was all about Brent - keeping it simple from the entertainment {I got him an iPod Touch as his gift and had it loaded up ready to go with party attendees adding their favorite songs to the play lists}, to the food {hot dogs and chips}, dessert {red velvet cupcakes & snow cones} and games {a 2 man team tournament of ladder golf, corn hole and home run derby}. We really had such a great time and the weather was nothing less than perfect. Because of the storms earlier in the day (threatening to sabotage the entire day), the evening was unseasonably cool - with temps in the high 80s and zero humidity. {score!}
By far, though, the best part of the entire event was the look on Brent's face when he walked through the patio door, and all 40 of our friends yelled "SURPRISE!" He looked at me and mouthed, "I had no idea." It was sooo cool and such a feeling of accomplishment that I had managed to pull of such a big surprise. So. Much. Fun.
Needless to say he had a great time, with so many friends making the trek up from Chattanooga as well as all our friends locally - we are so thankful for each and every one of them that came.

Next up was a beach trip with my parents. A few months ago my mom called and was so excited she had booked a condo for her and my dad in St Augustine. After explaining that she had asked everyone if they could come, she said she had given up and they were just going to enjoy it to themselves - possibly taking my niece. Well, being the good daughter I am, I invited ourselves to go along! We had so much fun doing all those fun things you do on a beach vacation: sleep in, pack up everything you own for a morning on the beach, picnic lunches on the beach, afternoon naps during afternoon storms, afternoons spent by the pool and then of course yummy seafood dinners. Brent and I went to St Augustine years ago before we were married and my entire extended family went for a week. This time around was way different, but I have decided the secret to a trip with a toddler is to take along grandparents: one of them will always be on the same nap schedule as your toddler. {ha} While Gabbie had been to the ocean at the first of the year in San Francisco, you might remember we looked a lot more like we worked for the Weather Channel than we looked like beach-goers. So actually this was her first true beach trip. I was anxious to see how she handled the whole sand on my hands, dirty, thing, but she loved it. I mean LOVED it. She couldn't get enough of running back and forth between the sand and the water especially playing with my niece.

She also really loved chasing all the seagulls and other birds. She even loved walking into the water, waves splashing and everything. She does not however like going under the water (she's that way even in the pool) but as long as she was attached to Brent or me, she was good. Crazy story: one day we were sitting out on this sand bar literally 40 feet from the shore line. Brent and I had closed our eyes and were relaxing then out of no where I hear, "HOLY COW!" from Brent. A small shark had swam up beside us while we were in our chairs. It was so crazy!
Overall we had a great time in St. Augustine. We had to get back on Wednesday because I had a wedding order for the 4th of July weekend, but we had a good, solid 5 days with my parents and niece. There's not much better in life than a fabulous beach vacation that involves relaxation and good memories.
Once we got back to Nashville, it was 4th of July weekend and I had a big wedding cake order. I had to miss out on the annual Whitaker family gathering at the lakehouse, but Brent and Gabbie hit the road and represented the Little Whitakers. There are several pictures from that weekend as well.
Oh and here are some pictures from the wedding order I had as well: 350 chocolate chip cookies, 6 strawberry cakes, 3 pecan pies and 3 blueberry pies. They were all a huge hit and I was extremely flattered at the numerous compliments from all the desserts. I also thought this was such a neat idea on an alternative to the traditional wedding cake especially when the Bride and or groom don't care for cake!

Wow ok that was a LOT. I started writing this blog post on July 1st - 11 days ago. Seriously? WoW. We've already experienced even more to blog about, but that will come later or maybe not at all.
Let's just say we've experienced a U2 concert, an incredible trip to an incredible Lakehouse and even more. I'm even crazy and thinking of embarking on a potty training adventure in the next 24 hours: YIKES.
Stay tuned opp knockers and thanks for your patience while I try to get back in to a better blogging schedule!

whew

2011-06-06T10:27:00.014-05:00

Well it's been a while since I've done an update on what's been going on with the Whitaker household. We have been busy as usual! I was just uploading pictures realizing JUST how busy we have been.
Let's see, where do we start....

Did I seriously not blog about Easter? wow
So Easter, I guess is where we'll start. I won't bore you with details, especially since it was so long ago - just know it was fun. Gabbie got way too much candy. Was extremely overwhelmed by our church's Easter egg hunt. We had a great lunch with friends (second annual) then hosted dinner that evening at our house where we sat outside enjoyed the beautiful Spring weather and had our own adult egg hunt with over 120 eggs! wow

Zoo: our good friends have a zoo membership so we tag along with them on occasion. Here's yet another zoo trip....

I planted another garden this year and Gabbie was completely fascinated with the entire process. She kept wanting to put on my gloves:

I can't believe it, but my niece "graduated" from 5th grade at the end of May. Gabbie and I surprised her by making a trip to Chattanooga just for the day to celebrate with her and be in complete shock that she's old enough to go to middle school. Unbelievable!!

Gabbie was thoroughly entertained by Britt's BFF Anna. Funny how much Anna and Britt look alike - I think that's why Gabbie was so instantly in love with her.
This is how you keep a 22 month old entertained during a 1 1/2 hr graduation ceremony:

The big moment: walking by and of course the one pic I get of her graduation walk is fuzzy. Lovely, huh?

I love all the parents standing up getting pictures of the students as the principal "presented" them as 6th graders.
Proud mama and papa after the ceremony at Panera:

So in case you don't live in or around the Nashville area, you may not be aware that we're dealing with the 13 year return of the Cicada which is a locust that burrows itself in the ground and comes out every 13 years. These things are insanely loud - louder than you would think. They don't bite or sting, the just make this really loud cricket-like sound and are more of an annoyance than anything else. They appeared at the first of May and should be around for 6 weeks or so. I noticed today that they are definitely dying down. We shot a little video so you could hear just how loud they are - we're trying not to let Gabbie be afraid of them, Brent goes so far as to let her hold one at one point. She's still not really sure about it though. {YUCK} After they literally attacked me while mowing the grass last week, plus watching the lifeguards literally pile them up on the sides of the pool, I am over them. However, I feel as though every other insect doesn't seem as bad because these guys have taken their place.

Oh yeah and back towards the beginning of May, Brent and I took a little trip by ourselves to Orlando. Yes, we were at Disney and yes, we left our child in Chattanooga. Bad parents? I don't think so - we enjoyed the few days we had to ourselves and at her age, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have understood why in the world we were lugging her around looking at characters she likely would have been terrified of (not to mention wouldn't have even recognized). Soo instead, she stayed at Camp Pop Pop and Ti Ti then Camp Mammaw and Pappaw and had a blast.

Crazy Love

2011-06-06T09:53:00.003-05:00

I finished reading one of two books last night that I've been working on for a few weeks. It was Crazy Love by Frances Chan. I am notorious for not necessarily being on the "cutting edge" of stuff when the hype is high, but I tend to let everyone else try it out then I buy it or try it out after it's not as popular. Enter Crazy Love. It was definitely one of those books a lot of people have been talking about. I actually bought it before we went to Orlando a few weeks ago, then quickly realized it's not really a vacation read. It's more of a "read for your morning quiet time" kind of book.
I am not really sure how to describe it other than it's one of those books you read that makes you think about your personal relationship and walk with the Lord. What am I doing to further His kingdom? What am I doing to be radical for Jesus?
The last chapter of the book provides several short stories of Christians who are either still living or have gone to be with Jesus - they lived/live radical lives. Like Rich Mullins. I didn't know his "story" - he was a great song writer (he wrote "Awesome God") and many main-stream Christian artists have covered his songs. He would perform concerts and made NUMEROUS albums, but never knew how much money he made off of them because all the money went straight to his church who paid Rich a small salary then give the rest of it away. Rich lived with a Navajo tribe spreading the Gospel and showing them God's love. One night on his way to a concert with a friend, their Jeep flipped and Rich was thrown from the car. A semi tried to avoid the Jeep and inadvertently ran over Rich killing him instantly.
There's a Third Day song where they mention "the late, great Rich Mullins" but I never knew that he did so much for the Kingdom.

So this book has challenged me. In all that I do. All I say is to further the kingdom. Perspective. That's probably the one word that I would use to sum up the book.
He talks about this one family who on Christmas morning wakes up, makes pancakes and coffee, loads it up in a wagon and the entire family hits the streets early in the morning to pass out a warm, filling breakfast to all those homeless and on the streets. Think about how much more that represents what Christmas is really all about. The day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the love and hope that He has for everyone. wow. I loved that and it definitely challenged me to pass that same love and passion on to Gabbie.
So I would definitely recommend Crazy Love. It will likely leave you in the same state as it did me: contemplative.

Historic Day {and it doesn't involve fancy hats}

2011-05-01T22:38:00.004-05:00

wow. I have literally written and erased at least 10 FB updates, none of which are short or really get my point across so thank you blog, I'm coming to release all these thoughts.

I have such mixed emotions about this day in U.S. history...
Frustrated that Obama is taking credit for this action - granted he is in charge right now and I respect him. However, what about all those times you said we should pull out of the Middle East? Being extremely disrespectful to our previous president, George W. Bush, even though it was under his leadership that U.S. Troops entered the Middle East. This wouldn't even be happening if we didn't have troops there.

As a Christian, should we/can we really rejoice over the fact that Bin Laden was a lost soul? He is facing God's wrath and eternal damnation for the Bible clearly says, "For the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23. I am certain Bin Laden was given plenty of opportunities to turn from his evil and chose otherwise.
It is times like these that I am so thankful that I am not God having to judge these people.
But I am also so thankful for sacrifice. I think about that word: our Heavenly Father made the ultimate Sacrifice by sending his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. We just have to accept that gift, turn from our evil and we will have eternal life. Wow. It's that simple!
I think of the sacrifice of all those U.S. troops that have fought for our freedom here in the U.S. Fought to keep us safe and fought to find Bin Laden. Thank you seems insignificant but the best way we can show our appreciation.

Anxious to see what unfolds over the coming days/weeks/months. I pray that there are no people in the Middle East that feel the need to "fill the shoes" of Bin Laden. Praying for protection and wisdom for our leadership for our country.

Rainy Risco

2011-04-11T22:15:00.020-05:00

So now that the Guatemala story is over {still a little sad about that}, I thought I'd move on to what's been going on post-Central America. A few weeks after Guatie, we made a major trip to the west coast with Brent's family. His parents invited us to come along for a few days to San Francisco. We packed up and flew across the country to hang out to "The City by the Bay" Or "Fog City" or "Rainy Rancisco" {I created that one on my own}.
When thinking back on this trip, this best depicts how it went down:

I literally just have to laugh when I think about it: the day before we left Middle TN, it was 79 degrees, beautiful, sunny. Awesome.
The day we arrived in San Fran, the rain came too: most every day it was 50 degrees and literally raining the entire time - thankfully it wasn't pouring all the time, but definitely the majority of our days were spent under umbrellas and rain jackets.
Getting to the West Coast is quite the adventure when traveling with a toddler. Brent and I say that you can't truly appreciate how simple life is without a child until you have a child. We love her, but gone are the days of 2 carry on bags and boarding at the last minute. Flying looks like this these days:
Gabbie did so great flying. She had her own seat on all but one of our flights which meant she could sit in her car seat and actually napped most of the time.
When we arrived in SF, Brent's sister and her family had been there for a few days and would be leaving the day after we arrived. We spent their last evening doing a few activities that they had not gotten around to enjoying, including the infamous Lombard Street and Ghiradelli square!

Notice the lovely rain gear that we're already donning on night one.

After partaking in entirely too much chocolate and ice cream, we made the trek back to our hotel to turn in on our first night in the big city.
Our first day, we took a 3 hour drive to Monterrey and Carmel By the Sea. When we first arrived, it was rather yucky, rainy, San Fran weather. Thankfully as the day progressed it became an absolutely beautiful day. Still rather chilly, but at least the sun was shining and GASP - no rain!
This was Gabbie's very first time at the ocean. I would have loved for her to have actually gotten to get in the ocean, but it was freezing. Brent carried her out to the waves, but she wasn't a huge fan once they started rolling in.

I can't say I've spent much time at the beach in as much clothing as I had on this trip. Usually I'm in a bathing suit and soaking up the sun. I'm pretty sure I've never worn a toboggan on the beach. wow.

Brent's dad's plan was to find where Clint Eastwood lived in Monterrey. We were walking on the beach when out of no where this guy appears with his two beautiful golden retrievers

We might not have seen the actual Clint Eastwood, but this guy was a close second. We got up the nerve to ask if he could tell us where Clint lived. The closest he could us was to Clint's restaurant and country club. We definitely hopped in the car and made our way to find this spot - I've definitely decided that Brent gets his "Star Watch" love from his parents.

We hoped to get to eat at the restaurant, but it was closed for a private party. Here's Brent in front of the sign:

We left the beach and ate a quick lunch at this incredible Italian restaurant. One of those great Hole in the wall kind of places that was true, authentic Italian. YUMM-O food.

From there, we drove to participate in the 17-mile drive which boasts the most beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we truly got to witness some incredible views. Here are a few shots (I took ohhh about 50 - literally)

And this is Brent's crazy dad. This squirrel was hanging out on the rocks on one of our stops - he was trying to "feed" his car key to him.

Another one of our stops had this sign posted - this is a tad scary given the tsunami that had just occurred a few weeks prior in Japan.
The waves at this point were literally crashing in two different directions - hard to explain in words, but we all stood for a few minutes watching the scene.

Annnd then right as I'm about to take another picture - a 4 legged friend wanted to get in my picture:
After the 17 mile drive, we kind of "happened" upon Cannery Row. This was a really great little spot with a lot of shopping and restaurants - definitely a big touristy spot, but we had a great time.

We ate an incredible meal on the water {pictures from the restaurant are above on the bottom right - Gabbie with the birds in the background and then a group shot of us at the table}

This was the view walking away from the restaurant where we ate. Absolutely beautiful and the food was awesome!

We headed back to San Francisco and wrapped up a packed-full touristing day.
The next day was raining - of course - but we made the most of it and hopped the Muni {public transportation} and headed to Chinatown. When Brent and I were in SF a few years ago, we spent about 2 hours in Chinatown so we were looking forward to spending more time shopping and enjoying this very unique spot.
Of course it rained LITERALLY the entire time we were there and we just had to continue laughing at the terrible weather. Here's a few shots from the day -
Top Left: Brent and Gabbie in her rain-proof (almost) stroller set up
Top Middle: I found it so interesting - this shop owner unloading their inventory then storing it under the sidewalk.

That night, Brent surprised me for our 6 year anniversary and took me out to dinner. I was so pleasantly surprised that he had made reservations at this SUPER awesome restaurant. Of course, he led me to believe we were eating at this mediocre place and that he hadn't made arrangements, but instead we walked out onto the pier and hopped onto a boat that took us to a floating restaurant. It was such a unique experience and the food was INCREDIBLE!
Here are a few shots from our awesome celebration:

We got some incredible pictures from the top of the light house overlooking the bay.
Surprisingly, we even got pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge which never happens because of all the fog.

The next day, we got to meet up an old friend, Stephanie, who lives in SF and who is actually who we stayed with three years ago during our first visit. She works at the University of San Francisco so we met up with her there then headed out for lunch. The campus is BEAUTIFUL - here are a few pics from our date with Stephanie.

So no trip to SF is complete with a ride on the trolley. On our last day, we were able to catch the trolley back to our hotel and it was such a fun experience. Gabbie is quite the social butterfly, so she enjoyed waving to everyone that we rode past. This time around on the trolley was quite different from our first trip when we were able to just hop on and off - a little different this time with a toddler in tow.

Last night in SF looking at the walruses on Pier 29 making "barking" noises.

It was finally time to travel back home. We packed up with Pop Pop and Ti Ti and headed to the airport. We were able to take a different flight so that we could get on a flight where Gabbie would have her own seat again.
Just a few more minutes left with Pop Pop and Ti Ti at the airport....

and of course we made a friend - these two had fun looking at all the planes and sights to be seen outside:
It was such a great trip - bad weather and all, but we made fun memories of course!
Now it's back into our own time zone, getting settled back in to life as we know it...hopefully.

So Long, Farewell. I'll see you .....

2011-04-07T09:25:00.009-05:00

ok seriously - I never intended for this whole Guatemala blogging dealio to take me so long to wrap up. Today is the last entry from my journal. I love that I've forever mortalized my trip via this blog and love even more all the emails and conversations from so many of you that have shared how much you have enjoyed reading about my experience. Thank you for your support- I hope if nothing else that by re-telling my experience, it makes you think about what you can do or where God will one day send you in your journey.

Day - 8: Friday/Saturday our last full days in Guatemala.
Last full day - while we spent the day as a "fun" day, it was bittersweet for me. I'm trying to figure out what my role is from this point forward. Last night it hit me what I'm to do! I've felt very heavy-hearted about getting resources to Nathan. I asked him several days ago what their greatest need is currently and he said a backhoe. The issue of course is finances. A brand new one will cost upwards of $150,000. In the U.S., he could potentially purchase one at a government auction for about $50,000 then have it shipped to Guatemala.
Something else I found out was that Nathan and Claudia don't have health insurance. I had this lightbulb go off like "oh yeah, DUH. They don't really have an employer to provide benefits - duh. So they want to have more children, but really cannot afford it without insurance. People support their ministry, Engadi, and send financial support for that, but not necessarily personal support for the Hardemans. I can tell other people in our group are feeling the same way - just about what do we do now or what's next. In talking with Matt tonight I can tell he's feeling the same way and has some great ideas on how our team will hopefully get together when we return and pull resources together to help however we can.
I also know my passion for networking has to come in play in regards to that back hoe. I am one of those people that hears a need and immediately starts thinking of someone I know that might know the resource.
On Friday, Nathan took us to the newest property that will be Engadi Ranch. WE are the first team to step foot on that property. As we walked the perimeters, then eventually to the center of the land, Nathan again turned into an artist beautifully painting the imagery of what will be the Engadi Ranch one day: Blue Roman Horses galloping on the flattest part of the land, multiple homes with boys and house parents like the Refuge, and the admin/team buildings. I am such a visual person, so maybe that's why this has been such an effective way for me to see all that God will do here. I definitely "got" it.

The land was given to Engadi by a man who lived as a troubled boy with a bad home life - much like the majority of males in Guatemala - specifically those Nathan hopes to reach.
To think he just broke that cycle by providing this land for so many boys to come. Now that shows the power & glory of the God that we serve!

As we ate our final dinner last night at the Hotel Antigua, Nathan continued to share his heart and vision including wanting to possibly start a school close to the Ranch because of its rural location and lack of access to good quality education for the boys who will come to the Ranch. Thinking about all that entails is a bit overwhelming so I pray that God provides all the resources so that is not an issue for him.

Picture from driving to the lake on Friday - a typical scenery from the van during one of our many drives throughout the area.

I don't know when I'll be back, but I feel as though I'm not done here. I know I forever have a responsibility to this place and specifically to Engadi ministries. It's not as thought I have some strong desire to help these boys, it's more like here is a family who has dedicated their lives to this ministry - they need help and resources, why not me?
I know i am forever connected. I feel as though Brent will serve here as well as Gabbie one day. (I already told Nathan I'd send her eventually - when she was in college. He said "why not sooner?" and I said " heck no" ha!)

One of the many beautiful buildings around Antigua.

As we head home today, I know this is bittersweet. I am changed: I feel as though my purpose for this trip was to learn about and have a vested interest in Guatemala. Go back home and help in the ways I can: prayer, word of mouth (tell everyone I can about Engadi) and of course networking to get them the right resources. Because with God ALL things are possible.
Guatever.

This is a VERY common sight when driving around the area - most women always have multiple children and are usually carrying something REALLY large on their head.

On Friday, we spent the day at "The Lake."
Isn't it beautiful? Yeah, gorgeous except you don't actually get in the water, you just look at it. Oh well, I still got a new bathing suit pre-trip because I thought we were spending a day at "the lake." We were - we did, just not how I thought. It was more like zip lines, shopping and eating.

Here I am "practicing" before the big ride. The only problem is that I didn't really practice well enough, I guess. I failed MISERABLY on our first few runs - causing quite some pain the next few days. You had to use a gloved hand to actually stop yourself as your body went FLYING across these HUGE raveens overlooking the lake. It was beautiful, but when you aren't sure if you will be able to stop at the end of the "ride," it's not really that enjoyable. Thankfully I made it and tried my hardest to enjoy the ride vs count down the routes before we were done. Such a different mindset for me who is usually the adventure-seeker (ie: sky diving, bungee jumping - I've done them both!)

After our ziplining, we had another opportunity to have "fun." This was a walk-way/bridge thingy where the steps were loose and you had to use pretty much every muscle and bone in your body to make your way across. You can see how graceful and attractive I was in getting across. In case you can't tell, that's me in the back on the right.

After our ziplining adventure, we headed into Chimaltenago to eat amazing pizza at Circus Pizza, then did some shopping. (LOVED both of these events). Afterwards, we made the 3 hour drive back to Common Hope.

Maybe just because we were hungry, but this pizza ROCKED:

Daniel and Rebecca shopping in Chimal:

This is Jeimy - she helped make dinner every night, but also made these beautiful purses that Nicole and I bought. love it and love that I brought home a little memory:

So farewell for now, Guatemala and Engadi ministries. Even today, three weeks later, I am still reminded of all that will be done through this ministry. I love that I can follow the progress on Facebook. In fact, Nathan just posted a picture of the first wall that's gone up this week on the guard shack. Such a timely accomplishment as the rainy season is about to come pouring in and all the work for the road and digging could have potentially been washed away (literally). We're already on countdown for Spring Break 2012 in which one Whitaker family member will hopefully be in attendance as the RHCC College Ministry hits ground running to help any way we can in Guatemala with Engadi Ministries.

Published!

2011-04-04T10:12:00.002-05:00

Shameless plug for a blog that I've started contributing to as a writer. Thought I'd send you guys over there to check out my latest article, "That's Not Good Enough!"

(hopefully it will also explain my lack of consistent blogging about Guatemala as well...stay tuned, though. I have one more post about my trip to wrap it all up.)

Day 7: Boooring

2011-03-31T10:23:00.003-05:00

Girl Power: such amazing girls to have spent this entire week with. We all got a little closer and learned a little more about each other. These girls welcomed me in as though I was one of their roomies. I'm so excited to see where God takes each of these women over the years.

Day 7
It's our second to last day today. I just started my morning as I have since we got here: wake at 6:30, get coffee, read today's devotional and letter, then enjoy about 20 minutes of quiet time before everyone (other than Matt) wakes up.

It's a great way to start the day here mainly because it's beautiful in the morning here - the sun is rising, revealing the most beautiful peak to the volcano we can see from the house, as well as the birds are all chirping. I always hear random footsteps around as people who work at the school or in the admin offices here at Common Hope start to arrive. There's always a smell of stuff burning in the distance (not like the building's on fire, more like when you're camping and you always smell a fire), then in the quiet I usually hear a backfire of a car passing by.
It's so quiet and peaceful. I think about back home what my mornings look like: usually waking a few minutes before Gabbie and rushing around to get things done. No quiet time. Definitely no time to read God's word or reflect on the day before and the day ahead. I'd like to keep up this new habit {and feeling uber convicted that as I re-type this journal entry, remembering those sweet times and that I've already slipped back into my busy life}. Doesn't it seem like the perfect way to start a perfect day?

I was going up the hill yesterday for about the 30th time (I tried to keep count again) and realized what a boring , mundane task we had been doing. I realized how physically challenging our work had been, especially given that I never do this kind of stuff at home. {feel free to chime in and tell me if you spend your days hauling dirt by wheelbarrow to help build a road}. I was thankful for a strong work ethic. Proud of pushing myself through these days and thinking it must be all that experience from playing sports, pushing myself in practice or during a tournament when we were on our 5th game for the day when it was 110 degrees on the field.
It wasn't until this morning that I realized how self-centered that thought process was and how much it is like so many other times when we think we're giving God the glory, looking to Him for our strength but in all actuality we have those little thoughts that we did it on our own accord. It's not until we stop and look back on what was accomplished that we realize it was God's power THROUGH us.

Think about how much power that is!! WOW It's enough power to bring you to your knees with hands rands high in utter surrender to our powerful God.
We limit the possibilities of God's power because we limit what we think God is capable of doing through us.
In us.
By us.
My prayer today is that I can continually be aware of God's power and presence in my life to do exceeding, abundantly, above all else. (Eph 3:20)

side note: ironically this morning we saw black puffs of smoke come out of the top of the volcano outside of our house (you can kind of see it in a few of the above pictures. We haven't seen any activity throughout the whole week. This is the same day that the terrible tragedy happened in Japan. None of us became aware of the Japan tragedy until later in the day on Friday when we stopped in a restaurant to use their restrooms and saw the messages come across the TV. Not sure if it was related, but hard to think it wasn't. Thankfully we were never in danger of the earthquake/tsunami affects while in Guatemala.

Day 6: Nathan the Artist

2011-03-27T15:51:00.010-05:00

Matt's Breakfast today

Day 6
Last day of construction. I definitely had this strange sense of needing to accomplish our task today. we got a later start this morning but it was nice to have time around the house before getting to the work site.
Today on site we finished digging out all of the trenches as well as hauling away all of the dirt that accompanies that digging. The road we were building with all that dirt has turned out to be incredible. Definitely worthy of car traffic very soon!

A few of us ate lunch down the hill on the road we'd been working on all week. Here's a self portrait...

Here are a few pictures of the road we worked on - it's tough to tell the progress, but trust me, it was great and made us all appreciate concrete and machinery that can do this SO much better.

This afternoon we finished hauling away all of the dirt and got reassigned a new task: start clearing land that will soon become the administrative building.

As the day wrapped up, Nathan called us all together and told us to follow him. We went back down the same hill we'd been walking all week - this time without wheelbarrows (all of us commenting on how weird that felt).
Nathan led us to the very edge of the property - specifically where one day he and Claudia will build their own house. He began to paint a very specific, detailed picture for us as we looked out of the property and a beautiful ridge. Outlining where the first four homes will be placed for the boys.

Living with houseparents who are the best parents they have ever known - showing them love and what love really means. They come home from school to warm pie on the table and a fun tree house in this one specific tree on the property. There's a huge rock that he hopes to have the playground centered around so boys can be boys and throw stuff and just have fun. be full of joy.

These boys will grow up learning to love God and become "Oaks of Righteousness." Learning to be the fathers and husbands and men God intends for them to be.
He asked us to split up over the property and pray. It was such a powerful time - just thinking of all those boys whose lives will forever be changed by this one property. That my three days of construction - helping with the foundation of a guard shack, as menial as it may seem now - will have a forever hand print on the boys whose lives will be changed by this property.

Here's our view from the top of the property - absolutely stunning!

"Here I am. Humbled by the Love that You Give."

Forever changed by this week....

Here are some other pictures from the day:

Love this one: Remiggio and demonstrating their machete sharpening skills. I have a video also, but this one cracks me up because Remiggio is standing perfectly still while I take the picture. This sharpener is used by turning a handle to make the wheel spin, not an electric sharpener at all.
A group shot of the guys who worked in the trenches most of the week - picking and shoveling dirt.

Day 5: You Make Beautiful Things

2011-03-27T15:22:00.015-05:00

Sorry for the brief hiatus from posting about Guatemala - we just returned from a quick trip to the West Coast (I will post/blog about it later).

So here we are, picking back up with Wednesday - Day 5....

Sweet children. Kind. Polite.
Those were my first thoughts today after visiting a school and playing with the kids. I sat down with my group of kids as did the others on our team, only to realize very quickly that I needed help and fast. Remember: I really don't speak Spanish. At all. I'm not even one of those that attempts to do it at the Mexican Restaurant only because I am pretty sure my Southern accent butchers a beautiful language.
I took this shot while standing on the open play area for the school - this shows you the perimeter of the school - surrounded by homes and a really busy street.

Thankfully Mitchell - one of our 2 resident translators - was wandering around for a group, I nabbed him and we worked together with a group of about 5 kids. These guys were sooo incredibly proud of their work. We were making name plates and I had laid out an example to help teach them what we were doing. What's so funny is that they wanted to make it precisely like the example even though Mitchel kept saying "make it uniquely yours." Again, another characteristic that transcends all cultures.

Each RHCC team member split up with a group of students - we spread out all over the playground area and got to work...

Can you tell how proud they are of their name plates?

Love this one: this little guy did this all by himself -

After team time tonight and hearing everyone's thoughts on the day, it is becoming much more apparant that we all know this ia a special place forever engrained in our hearts and a marker in our walk as Christians. From each smiling face proudly showing us their foam sticker name plates or the teachers so excitedly helping us as we struggled with our Spanish, the pure joy of those kids' faces as they played with us was priceless.

These guys LOVED Eric. I'm sure it had a lot to do with him being a male and getting his attention. He's trying to get a shot of his group and their name plates, but they won't back up far enough so he keeps having to back up away from them, then they follow. It was quite the scene:

Incredible experience. Bottom line.
These kids were definitely a little better off as far as physical living conditions, but only in comparison to here in Guatemala. They definitely were cleaner and overall happier than the Paradise Kids. I'm sure a lot had to do with us being at a school vs a neighborhood on the weekend.

The 1 hour drive to Palina (Pa-leyna) not like Sarah Palin was another crazy TINA trip. The include driving anywhere here is really crazy and hard to describe until you experience it.
After playing with the kids, we headed to Pacaya the volcano (I blogged about it right before I actually left for my trip. We started at an elevation of 1200 meters and hiked up to about 2500 meters - the actual crater of the volcano is at 2800 meters. It erupted in May of 2010 so we saw of lot of the remnants from vegetation not yet growing back, etc.

This is from the perimeter of the school - one of the houses that was hit by lava from the eruption:

We had a sweet Guatemala lady, Violet, as our tour guide. She literally wore KEDS shoes, a cotton skirt to her knees (and a slip nonetheless), a guide vest and her hair pulled back. Her front teeth had two holes where her teeth were rotting.

The hike itself was a once in a lifetime experience and I say that because I had to keep reminding myself as I huffed and puffed my way up the incredible include. It was yet another physically demanding and difficult task for this trip. To say we had a day "off" was not quite accurate.

Made it to the "beach of Pacaya" and took a group shot:

If you have ever traveled outside of the U.S., you can probably appreciate this shot: just how tasty and refreshing a good, bottled coke is. Even if you don't typically drink coke: man oh man, it's the best.

I've decided for sure that this trip is all about pushing myself to the most physical and mental limits. Today's devotional to start the day was based on putting our faith through the fire (ironic since we were headed to the volcano = fire). The trials we experience as Christians only make us stronger in our walk. Just like pushing 50+ loads of 40 pounds worth of dirt, carrying 100+ pounds of reebar, shoveling dirt, or climbing the crazy incline of Pacaya - it's hard. But when we're reminded of how easy our life really is once we return to the U.S. in our comfy homes - after driving past a family of 6 hauling wood on their backs as they hike yet another mountainside to make it home (one so steep our van crawls to 15 mph because it's such a strain on the engine). Playing with those kids today was so simple. We didn't do anything special, but people noticed.

The park ranger for the volcano let our entire group in for free as a thank you for stopping by the school for a few hours. Just when we think people don't notice.
And what was that about how dangerous Guatemala is?
I thought about how unique Nathan's ministry is here. I mean really: here's a guy whose dad was called to be a missionary in Guatemala when he (dad) was only 13 years old. After marrying, Nathan's parents moved to Guatemala and dedicate their lives to working with a very small Myan tribe in Guatemala - all because God called him and he answered. Nathan is born in the U.S. (So he can keep his citizenship) but is raised in Guatemala. So he looks like a normal white guy from the U.S. He understands U.S. culture for the most part, but is Guatemalan. He speaks perfect English AND perfect Spanish. He looks like a Gringo but can knows the culture so well he fits right in. When we go around these kids, they all respect him and love him. They stand still and listen when he speaks. They have a respect for him and he commands their attention without really demanding it. He does such an incredible job of tying in all of our crafts to using it as a tool to share God's love to these kids. (ie: the Name Plates: "The only name that matters is the Name Above All Names.")
Amazing. Really. They get it and in a great way. Then to see his wife Claudia who cooks these incredible meals and loves every minute of it. She complements the ministry so well. Only a God who has His mighty hand on every detail of our lives could orchestrate something so beautiful.
As we head into our last day of construction, I was just telling Eric that while I really miss Gabbie and Brent (of course) I am really relishing my time here. I know that my life will quickly slip back into a norm of every day life. I just pray that I can stay in this state of mind where my eyes and heart are open to so much.
Since we left the airport in Dallas, I have had the song in my head that says, "Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see, Everything that I keep missing, give me your love for humanity...."
And Matt's been singing, "You Make Beautiful. You make Beautiful things out of us."
I just want those as my prayer for a few days and wait to see what God does with/through me.

Today funny stuff happened: Looking to the back of the van as Nathan (driving) yelled "BUMP!" only to see Eric literally FLYING off the back seat and his entire body slamming into the ceiling of the van.
TINA: A man standing on a wooden wagon being pulled by two bulls on the same road we were driving on. Wish I'd had my camera out - it was priceless.

Day 4: Bomb Making, but Not Like You Think

2011-03-20T15:21:00.005-05:00

Tuesday - March 8
Another day of construction/dirt moving. To say my body is tired and sore is an understatement. Most definitely very difficult. Today the sun shone its beauty most all day making us all aware that we had been blessed with an incredibly overcast day on Monday. One guy on our team, Daniel, counted 72 trips to haul dirt. WOW

I was up to 33 until lunch then I hopped in the trenches to help shovel and lost count. We also hauled more rebar today - have I mentioned how heavy that stuff is?! wow. Between Monday and Tuesday we carried 174 pieces of rebar. Insanely heavy. In fact, it took all 4 of us girls to carry 3 pieces down the hill. Today I was the only female available to help and let me tell you - I want to brag about that. Not to say the other girls weren't also working hard, but geez. Ridiculous. What's more insane is that the delivery guy AND Nathan were able to carry their own loads - all by themselves. Our guys were partnering up to get the pieces down the hill.

Last night during team time we played "What's your favorite Spanish word" using our lips to point to each other after we said our word. Have I mentioned how terrible I am at speaking Spanish? I laugh about it, but it's actually quite frustrating. I am very very thankful for Nicole and Mitchell who each speak rather fluently. Today Rebecca and Alana were in charge of making cement bombs. She kept asking Remigio for more concrete in Spanish saying "Mas Muerto" which actually translates to "more death." VERY FUNNY!

By the way, check out this video on Rebecca and Alana making cement bombs.

While I was a tad jealous that they got to sit and make these, I quickly realized they were in a tough spot: directly in the hottest part of the land, feeling as though they weren't being used as much as the rest of us. Check out Alana's recount of her day.

A little self portrait in the van this morning:

Day 3: Let's Get Dirrrrty

2011-03-19T22:07:00.008-05:00

Monday, March 7th
Up this morning at 7:00 (me at 6:30 to give me time to drink coffee, quiet time, etc)
Breakfast of champions: cheerios and peanut butter/strawberry toast.
Arrive at "Refuge" to start work: digging out trenches for a foundation to the guard shack and hauling that dirt away using wheelbarrows PLUS pushing the van that got stuck PLUS hauling reebar about 1/4 mile to the job site (all because the city employees decided to dig a trench in the middle of the road to bury the electrical cables - it was supposed to have been completed the previous week, but for whatever reason it didn't work that way.)

We all gathered together before working for the day and prayed together then got started. To say it was the most physically demanding thing I have done in a long time is probably an understatement. It was hard work - the closest I can compare my level of tiredness and physical utility would be when I was in high school and went to basketball camp at the Univ of TN for 1 week under Pat Summit. Pretty much similar level of exhaustion.

We were digging trenches that have to be 32" wide, approximately 4 feet deep and about 15-20' long. It requires one person with a pick ax breaking up the dirt and the second using a shovel to throw dirt on a huge pile above us which is then shoveled into wheel barrows and hauled down a crazy long hill about 300 feet (maybe?)

Here's a video of one trip up and down the hill with a load of dirt.

Here's Kory (The Intern and our 11th team member) along with Matt (our college pastor and fearless leader)

The dirt's being used to fill in a gap for when the road gets completed. There are three guys on the job site that are overseeing it all: the Foreman - , the Brick Mason - Remigio and the Brick Mason Assistant - Hugo (pronounced OO-Go).

Here are some photos from working on the first day:

I couldn't help to think that while I respect their method of clearing dirt, I sure appreciate that I can go to Home Depot back home and rent equipment that would have made it not only easier but more efficient and faster. We worked 9-5pm today. It was tough. I was starving and completely out of fuel only to find out it was just 10:30 - 1 1/2 hours until lunch. Ahh. Wow.

Then we found out that Nathan had gotten the van stuck - several of our guys trekked up the hill to help only to come back and recruit the rest of the guys THEN back again to recruit EVERYONE. WOW. Imagine a 15 passenger van hanging on the side of a little hill - stuck on a cliff. It's hard to describe but definitely a crazy site to top the hill and see the van pointing down off the side of the cliff. Sooo all the girls were asked to hop inside and the guys pushed us back into a safe zone.

So we get the van unstuck and we're back to work - I'm not sure which job was more physically grueling: wheel barrowing or shoveling/pick axing but I know we were all equally exhausted tonight. I am certain that my body will remind me in the morning that I am not 22 years old like my team mates :)

So a few fun sayings we started:
TINA = This Is Not America. Basically we said this anytime we passed something you wouldn't see in the U.S. A lot of things like this: (Those are LIVE chickens in the back of that truck. LIVE - as in living.)
Seriously tonight I had a nose full of dirt. Literally. Black. Maybe that's too much information, but really. wayy too much dirt.

These 2 pictures sums up the way all of us had to deal with the dirt at the end of the day - the first one, Eric dumping dirt from his shoe and the second is Mitchell after receiving literally a shovel-full of dirt to the face...fierce!

I know my strength throughout the rest of the week will be those visual images of those kids running around chasing the bubbles we were blowing and those helicopters we were flying - imagine those kinds running throughout the property where the Refuge will be built. While we just see dirt roads and woods, one day very soon there will be houses and life and so much activity.

Day 2 : Paradise

2011-03-17T10:57:00.011-05:00

Nathan had warned us of how dangerous an area Paradise was going to be. "Don't wear anything flashy." Needless to say the wedding ring set and earrings stayed at the house the entire trip :)
We were definitely going to stick out {and we did of course} so we didn't need anything else bringing attention our way.
This neighborhood - one of many located in the Zone 18 area - was nothing as the name suggested. We literally parked on the side of a road and came upon a soccer field full of activity.
The field and surrounding stadiums, stairs, etc. were built by an Anderson, SC team many years ago. Nathan uses it today for a lot of outreach and a place to do activities/meeting spot. We all walked in along the top of the stadium looking down on the field while a game was taking place. I can definitely speak for our entire team when I say we felt the eyes of many Guatemalans looking at us "gringos" as we followed like little ducklings behind Nathan, winding our way down to the field.

We continued following Nathan as he led us down a narrow walkway literally surrounded by sheet metal, doorways to "homes," and sidewalks. Definitely like nothing we have in the U.S. nothing.
These homes are literally hanging on the side of mountains with retaining walls for foundation and lots of prayer. The first home we entered was an older man with only one arm. His name was "Grandpa" who has a daughter named Reina, who has a daughter - Blanca. Blanca has three boys - Noe, Richard and Julio. Those three boys live with Grandpa in the house and were there for us to meet. They were super nice and courteous and definitely compared to the other kids we would meet as the day progressed, these boys were clean and seemed well taken care of.
Grandpa is a big victory story and testament to the work Nathan has been doing - Engadi paid for their house to be "renovated." They built them the house with concrete added on a few bedrooms and a bathroom which is huge for that area. This house was eyeopening for me because it was our first house we actually got to go inside. This was such a personal experience. I mean think about it: would you just let a group of 10 people wandering your sidewalks just come into your home? Probably not.
Right away, Nathan's passion for these people shone through (he tries to come across as some big tough guy, but we all saw a different side to him as we spoke with these families.) He spoke with each of the three boys asking about how school was going, and the other events in their lives. {I must clarify - I don't speak Spanish, so any time I reference Nathan talking to any Guatemalan, more than likely I don't know what he said unless he told us afterwards.} Encouraging them, etc (it was all in Spanish which I quickly realized my two years in high school did me NO good). Anyway, we prayed for the entire family before leaving then said our goodbyes.

Our entire group walked out of this house and went a few steps before entering another home. For some reason, I was the last person to enter and didn't hear the story of the family prior to entering. All I know is the second I stepped into the house, I immediately felt this intense heat as though I was in a furnace - literally. It was really difficult to see around this home because it was on the interior part of the neighborhood with little natural sunlight and not "hanging off" the cliff as the previous home. I quickly found a spot to stand among my other team members then started surveying the room for the heat. Suddenly I saw a fire and quickly realized the two ladies were making tortillas! {yum} WOW

I was standing beside an older gentleman thinking he was part of this household, but as Nathan explained, the two women {a mother/daughter duo} had lost their husband/father and needed a way to support their household. So this man was actually a customer, waiting on a hot, fresh off the grill stack of tortillas. {All I could think about was waiting back at home at Chuy's for those little ladies behind the glass making tortillas too}. There were probably 5 children under the age of 6 running through the house, so these ladies were making and selling tortillas to bring in income. Once the customer's stack was ready to go, the tortilla-making daughter grabbed a cloth from the gentleman (that had been hanging on his shoulder) wrapped up the stack and he was on his way.

I watched the two females as they meticulously scooped out the tortilla batter, smacking it back and forth between their hands, then placing them on the grill to toast. I noticed the water bowl they were using as part of the process and how you couldn't really see through it (aka dirty water). The two women looked exhausted. Literally. Their faces were glistening from the intense heat as they stood over that hot fire never pausing from their labor even while Nathan continued to talk to them. I could only imagine what tough work this had to be for them and I could only compare it to the hours I spend standing to make a cake, but in my climate-controlled house, wearing supportive shoes using clean water - really no comparison actually. It's hard to realize the magnitude of this situation unless you're there - the room we were standing in was the main front room of the home. It was maybe 150 square feet opening up to 2 other rooms that looked like their laundry was drying.

I couldn't help but notice the littlest bambino - pictured above. He was about 7-8 months old and looked absolutely miserable. He had a look of utter discontent even though he was barely dressed - with just socks and an unbuttoned onesie - he was being passed among his siblings who each were no more than 6 or 7 years old. An observation someone made later was that while it was sad to see this little one being passed around, it's not something you would necessarily see here: the other siblings taking care of the baby. Again, we prayed for this home and left giving each member either a Guatemalan handshake or hug before exiting.

We then made our way back through the neighborhood winding through the sharp twists and turns back to the soccer field we first stepped on when we entered Paradise. By this time we had a little crowd of about 40 kids - many following us after passing by their home, some hearing we were around and just showing up to see what was going on.

This is the basketball court that sits beside the soccer field where we played with the kids. It's amazing the background for all these pictures - look at the houses lining the back! Think about sending your kids to play here - with the old cars and stacked houses lining the "playground."

We brought lots of fun things to do with the kids - starting with a craft involving popsicle sticks and stickers. A little improv on our part {we kind of forgot the glue} but we made it work! Thank you craftiness!! What mattered was that the kids absolutely loved it. Immediately the language barrier can be so frustrating. You want to talk to these kids but you don't understand each other. Sign language doesn't really work because they actually do SPEAK just not your language. {Thankfully we have Mitchell and Nicole who will become life savers for our entire group throughout the course of the week}. Besides, it's incredible how a smile transcends language barriers. I only hoped that my love and kindness showed by helping them with their craft and constantly encouraging them with "Muay Bueno" or "Muay Bonito" - my token phrases: Very Good or Very Pretty!

Bubbles, helicopters and soccer for 2 hours and we definitely had a full day! Nathan is one guy with a lot of favor with these people - they light up when they see him and have so much respect for him. He's told us so many stories of gang leaders and drug dealers turning their life around or helping him with his ministry - guns in hand walking through the streets.

We passed out candy to this particular group of kids - you would think we were passing out gold as excited as they were. It doesn't hit me for a few days, but it just shows you the magnitude of the poverty here. I mean we were handing out 5 cent pieces of candy. Candy. And even the adults were lined up asking for handfuls. Something so simple, but taken as a treat to these people because they don't get it that often.
Once the candy was gone, we made our way back up the stairs to the road level. We had to leave before 4 because even the police do no enter Paradise after 4pm. We were headed back to the van...or so we thought...

We all quickly recognized we were taking a very different route back to the van. Before we knew it, we were on a 45 degree incline of cobblestone walking through more homes with people's heads popping out windows and doors, curious about this big group of "Gringos."

We stepped into a home, greeted with full-on hugs from this petite Guatemalan Grandma, Olivia.

Her sweet smile showed us her welcome. We quickly learned she lived with her 2 sons (Doctor/Manuel) and Geovanni, as well as her daughters - Iris (4 kids of her own living there too) and Martha (2 kids of her own living there too). Olivia had a total of 10 kids - all of them adults now but 4 of them still lived in the same household. Olivia was so incredibly happy to see us and thanked us for making the trip down the hill to see her and her family. She got rather emotional in thanking us (through Nathan's translation). We left her with a large bag of hotel shampoo and soap and handfuls of candy for each member of the household.

Side stories on Olivia's kids: Geovanni (he was our guide throughout the day in Paradise), Doc/Manuel - this guy told Nathan several years ago that when he grew up he wanted to be a doctor. From that day forward, Nathan calls him Doc as a reminder of the hope and dream to continue to become a doctor. Martha and Iris who I already mentioned. Then there's Christian - a deaf mute who was playing soccer that day on the field, Josue - serving in the military, Marlon - he was shot in the face after a group of gang members approached him on the road trying to recruit him. When he told him the only gang he would be a part of was team Jesus, they shot him point blank. Incredible family and incredible stories of their faith.

The sidewalk back up to street level leaving Olivia's house.

We left Olivia's house walking back to the van. Traffic was still crazy so it took us at least two hours to get back, but not before stopped at one last home. Getting to this house was insanity at is finest. The road wasn't really a road. Literally just dirt but the incline, again, was intense.

We arrived to another village with hundreds of homes - these seemed a little better than Paradise, but still not at all like anything in the U.S. We went into a home and met several beautiful females - Reyna and Herlinda - sisters who had just lost their mother within the past year. She ran their household, so these daughters were picking up the pieces making life work - or at least try to make it work and struggling emotionally along the way. The dad used to come and go and he he's trying to get legal rights to the house which the daughters are fighting against as best they can. I was impressed when hearing that they each had pretty solid jobs: Reyna works at a doctors office as a receptionist and Herlinda does something similar at a professional office. Reyna is also a black belt with the karate studio that Nathan and Claudia run - we actually got to see videos of her later in the week She is one tough cookie!
Reyna and Herlinda looked as though they were about 25-30 years old. They didn't have any children (VERY rare) but their brother and his wife along with their two kids lived with them too. Nathan talked with this group for a while - consoling them and sharing hope yet again. We said our goodbyes and were on our way.

The view outside of Reyna's house.

On our way back to the house, we pulled into Pollo Campero. Translated it means "Country Chicken." it's hard to describe what it was because the menu had fried chicken, hamburgers, pizza and sandwiches. We ended up eating fried chicken and fries and it was pretty solid!

Definitely different than our KFC or Mrs Winners in the U.S.
Back to the house to wrap up the day with showers, team time then bed time. WOW What a full day!

Guat:: Day 2, Part 2

2011-03-16T23:02:00.000-05:00

Sunday Nite - March 6
wow. Today was incredible. We went to so many places as I've kind of already mentioned. So many that it feels like most of it happened days ago.
Church in another language is an experience. None of the worship was translation to English but feeling God's presence without knowing the exact words just spoken is incredible. Eating lunch at the compound was awesome. Nathan's wife, Claudia, made us carne asada, tortillas, rice, guacamole, pico de gallo - YUMMO. Definitely the best food we've all had. EVER. {it probably helped that we were all starving. We had cornflakes/cheerios, toast with peanut butter and coffee for breakfast.}

Here's some photos from many of our amazing meals around the house. You can see the one plate of food, that's from our Carne Asade night - I wish I had taken pictures of every meal because they all looked equally delicious!
Alana is on there twice with ice cream cones because on this trip she had her FIRST ice cream cones EVER. WOW. I'll talk more about Pollo Camero (top left). The bottom center pizza picture is from Circus Pizza on our last day in Chimaltenago.
(Click on the collage to make it bigger, just FYI)

After lunch and before we hit the streets, Nathan gave us a little culture lesson for Guatemala. Here he's using Eric as his example talking about personal space - that Guatemalans don't really know what that means. They like to be up close and personal. We also learned that you don't point with your fingers, but use your lips instead. We definitely made a really fun game of this one night, playing "what's your favorite Spanish word" pointing to each other with our lips. It was great. When Guatemalans greet each other, they typically "kiss" cheek to cheek. They also greet every single person in the group when they enter a room (we definitely encountered this every time we met new people. I personally like this particular cultural habit - I think we should all do this one). We also had some rules as far as food: Don't eat fruit if you can't peel it and never eat any salad/cabbage, etc.

L to R: Eric (RHCC Intern), Ben (RHCC student), Caleb and Levi (Nathan's sons) and Nathan

Driving to Guatemala City from the compound we're staying in takes about what seems like an eternity. {We're staying at a place called Common Hope. It seems like it is set up for missionaries coming to Guat for any amount of time to do mission work in a variety of places. The property is very secure - we're behind very large cinder block walls with barbed wire across the top. The rooms are set up like suites so all 4 of us girls are together with a living room area that we share. Then as an entire group,we have a much large common area where we're do team time. I have a video that pans around the property to give you a better idea of what the layout was like.}

There are 14.5 million people that live in Guatemala. 7.5 mill people live in Guatemala City alone. I'm pretty sure every one of them was on the road today at the same time. I've been in several other countries and know that driving in another country is insanity. However, this was more than insane. It's also sooo very interesting to get to people watch. I couldn't help but notice the plethora of women and children that clutter the streets but then also can't help but feel sooo appreciative that I serve a God who allowed me to be born in the U.S. To have my own child who has more than she'll ever need.

I love this picture: not only the way the women carry everything on their heads (SOOO efficient by the way) but also that we came across a Chinese restaurant in the middle of Guatemala. Hmm...wonder what they serve? ha

I love this picture - it shows one of the many wildly decorated public transportation buses available on the streets. If you look close, you'll see that it says "Sexy Girls" across the front windshield. Yes. Sexy Girls. Also on the side driver's window it says "Special" then there's a place to put your face so you can look like Jesus. Hard to describe, but quite comical to see in person. These buses would be literally packed with people - they would use the back door or what we use as just the Emergency Exit here as a main exit to get off the bus. There's also a ladder going up the side so that you can store any luggage on top. What's crazy is that there will be a boy who will go up and down that ladder while the bus is still flying down the road. We saw it once but I didn't have my camera out to record the moment.

We passed plenty of motorcycles that were male-child-female in seating order and were flying through the streets, weaving in and out of traffic as if they weren't carrying the most precious cargo. One of the motorcycles (not carrying a child thankfully) actually tapped us in the van - he was trying to squeeze in between us and a HUGE semi that was right beside it. I snagged a picture...

The green is the semi. You can see a little hint of red - that's the motorcycle. This is taken from the back of the van out of the window - sorry for the glare.

We drove past an incredible number of slums once we reached Guat City. One is called Zone 3 and it is literally on a peak in the middle of a valley. The houses stacked one on top of the other. I couldn't help but thing about Nathan waning us of tremors that we would feel while here from all of the 13 active volcanoes. It wouldn't even take that strong of a tremor to take down Zone 3: the drug zone. It is the number one source of drugs that flow in to and out of Guat. Because of its location on the peak, it is completely un-penetratable by the police. WOW

This picture doesn't do it justice. You can't tell how steep the hill is because you can't see that the valley drops off the side of the street.
Trust me. It was crazy.

Guatemala: Day 2

2011-03-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

Sunday - March 6th
Today Nathan (direction of Engadi Ministries) took us to the property for Engadi Refuge. He shared his vision and background for Engadi. These are just the notes I took from that message...

Isaiah 61: 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me,
for the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed.*
2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the LORD's favor has come,*
and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.
3 To all who mourn in Israel,*
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the LORD has planted for his own glory.

The 18th street gang/MS13 Gang is one of the most notorious gangs in Guat. They are mainly comprised of exports from Los Angeles - they entered the U.S. illegally, were caught and sent back to Guat.
Nathan has his black belt in Karate and uses it as a way to get into the prison and do demonstrations to get their attention, but then share the Gospel with them as well. Before these guys get to prison, they have to hear the message of hope and a future.
The Rat's Nest is the poorest part of Guatemala City. Paradise also located in Guat City is where we'll be serving today.
Nathan shared the stories of several of the people he has encountered and has been lead to Jesus through Engadi. He used Isa 61 as his foundation for the mission and vision:
1. You have to go in and share the gospel
2. You have to Bind Up the Brokenhearted
5 out of 10 girls in Guatemala are sexually assaulted by the time they are 15 years old. They have their first time by the time they are 18 and have 4-5 kids with 2-3 different fathers by the time they are 25. It's referred to as the "Leigha Syndrome" {in the Bible, Leigha's father is willing to sell her to the highest bidder. He only cares about the gold bracelets that come calling, not Leigha. She then goes on to have several children, but it isn't until her 4th child that the declares she will glorify the Lord in all she does.}
The average household in Paradise has 7-8 kids. What happens is that the "new dad" comes in to take care of his own child, but doesn't care for the other kids already living there. More than likely those other kids get abused, tossed around, or even kicked out so that the mom doesn't lose the new daddy. The child gets kicked out and coined a "Zone 18 Kid" - a very negative connotation on the streets.

3. Proclamation of Freedom - The boys are bound up by so much from drugs, to oppression, depression, etc. Engadi is there to help them be released from that bondage.

4. Release from Darkness and HOPE for a better future
We have to see things not necessarily how they are, but how they should be.
Share the message that you can be so much more - instead of aspiring to be just the block mason, look to be the architect.

5. Turning sad things into beauty and praise.
"They will be known as oaks of righteousness."

Engadi Refuge is actually located in Antigua which is one of the most expensive places to live in Guatemala. The property is there to give those boys a hope. A future that life is better than Zone 18 and the slums of Guat City.

This is where we all sat while listening to Nathan this first day on the property...

And this is what we were looking at while he was talking...

Guatemala: Day 1

2011-03-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

Hey there party people. I am getting around to typing out my journal pages from my trip to Guatemala. Keep in mind, I never really wrote any of this to necessarily publish on the WWW. I hope it gives you a raw, description of my time in Guatemala....

Saturday - March 5
Our plan to Guatie was about 1 hour delayed for security problems. Funny because I didn't even realize we were so far behind until someone mentioned it. My original seat had me placed between two students - 1 from Hershey, PA, a medical student traveling to Guatemala City to work with a medical team at an orphanage there. The other student was traveling with a group from Massachusetts to an organic farming experience in Guat City's Farmer's Markets. The group they're working with is teaching children how to farm and have jobs once they finish school. I ended up moving seats to nab an aisle seat and be closer to the rest of my team only to learn that my new fellow passengers were part of a grandmother-daughter-sister-aunt team working with SafePassage also in Guat City. Specifically with women and children.
I just read my first of 7 letters from Brent and Gabbie which was so incredibly encouraging to me but of course makes me miss this like crazy. Driving into the airport already proved to be emotionally tough as I realized not only was I leaving the two people I love the most but also that neither would be with me to share all that God has in store for me and our group this week. Big question still to be answered: Why am I supposed to be on this trip? I don't know the answer but I know that God plans to reveal that to me as the week progresses.

I can only imagine what transformation will occur as I sit here in our comfy seats, reading overpriced books we all just bought in the airport, sipping diet coke, snacking on gummy bears with bellies already stuffed from a $22 lunch all the while discussing what purpose our group has in Guatemala.
WOW
I know a culture shock is in store. I know that there is no way I'll be able to pass by the 100's of kids on streets or in dumps without showing compassion on them.
I also know satan has already tried to rear his ugly head in the form of fear. I know it is a lie because God has a purpose for all of us and will protect us. Even on this bumpy plane ride - definitely through the streets of Guatemala and beyond.
Psalm 23: "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for though art with me. Thy road and thy staff they comfort me."

Guatever

2011-03-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

After an amazing trip like what I just experienced, it's amazing how memories are created through so many things: songs {JUMP}, seeing people that remind of of everyone from your trip, realizing our lives are so different here, etc etc
I hope to blog all of my experiences from last week via my journal pages from my time. So stay tuned...I have a TON of pictures to go through and re-type all my journaling. This week is crazy busy, but I'm going to try to get it all up soon!

Thank you all for praying for our team and keeping up with us while we were in Guatemala.

Rare Update...

2011-03-08T18:59:00.005-06:00

Well day 3 in Guatemala and it's amazing. I won't go into detail here, just wanted to post a few pictures that I've taken these past few days. We have a team blog that we're updating every day - literally each of us have been assigned a day and we blog. My day is on Thursday with Mitchell so I'm looking forward to sharing what's happening so far.

In short, it's been incredible. I can't wait to re-type all of my journal entries to share all the details of the trip.

Anyway, I thought you all would enjoy some photos all the way from Guatemala!!

This is where we're staying - well looking out from our "patio"/"porch" to one of the other housing units. We're surrounded by a 20 foot concrete wall with barbed wire along the top - aka, we're really safe :)

Another one of our beautiful views from the house - in the distance is one of 13 volcanoes here. We wake up in the morning and there's a perpetual smell of something burning - it's the volcano :) Oh and we've been warned we might feel tremors. YIKES

This is walking back up a sidewalk when we met Olivia. Hopefully you can tell the incline from this pic.

This was us as a group playing with kids in "Paradise" - one of many neighborhoods within Zone 18 of Guatemala City (The worst slum in the area). These kids just gradually started following us as we walked around through the houses. We eventually had about 50 kids.

We had bubbles and plastic helicopter toys and popsicle stick frames to make with the kiddos. I will write WAY more about this later...

Here we are within the heart of Paradise walking down to another house but they weren't home. These are literally houses on the side of the mountain, built directly on top of each other.

Guatemala Team Blog - Follow Along!

2011-03-04T07:52:00.001-06:00

Our team will be keeping up with a blog while we're in Guatemala and we will be sharing computer time, so I won't be updating Opportunity Knocked.
Be sure to check out our team blog here.

Guatemala!!!

2011-03-02T15:24:00.003-06:00

In less than 72 hours I'll be on a plane flying to a far away land in Guatemala. I've been in denial about it until today when the emails from my fellow team members started coming in about packing lists, our schedule of activities and all the other flurry of excitement.
I've been away for a few days helping out my greatest friend with the newest member of their family. It has been such a joy to see my little lamb play and be full of delight around her "big sister" Ada. They love each other so much and I can't wait to watch them grow up and show them all the fun times they have had over their little lifetimes.
So I haven't really said much about my trip to Guatemala, not because I'm not excited, just that I have been so extremely busy for a few weeks that time has FLOWN and it seems as though it has slipped up on me.
Last week I was finally able to attend one of our team meetings and it was a good one to be in attendance! We were able to hear a LOT about what to expect with the culture, climate, what to wear, what we'll be doing, the really cool sites we're visiting, and other good stuff. We are working with Engadi Ministries and beginning construction on one of their first orphanages in Antigua. We just received our schedule for the week and it looks like we're doing construction 4 days of the 7 that we're there, then serving food to several villages, as well as getting to visit one of the top 10 most beautiful lakes in the WORLD and the Picaya Volcano - an active volcano with most recent activity in May 2010.
I'm not 100% sure what I expect from this trip other than I know it will be life-changing. I'm sure it will be emotional to be away from not only Gabbie, but Brent as well. I know many of you will be praying for us and I really appreciate it! Pray for protection for our team - traveling as well as while we are in Guatemala working and touring that all of our group stays safe. Pray for direction once we arrive in what we are specifically supposed to be doing. Also pray for Brent and Gabbie of course - that everything goes smoothly for them back here at home.
Looking forward to my next post which will be post-Guatemala!

Friday Funnies

2011-02-18T13:02:00.003-06:00

This is Amazing!!
Until now I never fully understood how to tell the difference between male and female birds. I always thought it had to be determined surgically - until now.

Below are 2 birds. Study them closely and see if you can spot which of the two is the female bird.

It can be done. Even by one with limited bird watching skills - try it.

And I'll give you one guess which of the Opp Knocker contributors provided this little diddy...

zooooooo

2011-02-17T14:56:00.006-06:00

Today we got invited to go to the zoo with our good friends. It was supposed to be a beautiful day - 71 degrees and a "little windy." Yeah, unfortunately the weather people got the "little windy" part wrong. It was REALLY windy. To the point it felt like it was going to rain at any second - definitely not 71 degrees, but definitely not 30 degrees. At any rate, we had such a great time! Gabbie loved all the animals, did a great job hanging out in her stroller looking at all the animals.
We had our friend Penelope go along with us as well who was such a huge help and LOVED the Meerkats.
Such a great time - definitely many more days to come at the zoo!

We definitely felt a little like the stroller brigade with 5 strollers and one walker. The good thing was that we were in good company. Because the weather forecast was supposed to be so great, I think every other mom in Nashville thought it was a good day to see the animals. (You can click on each of the collages to make it bigger so you can see the pictures better)

All the animals were out and active today - including the beautiful giraffes. I love these animals - they are absolutely beautiful and so fun to watch! They have recently added a little bambino to their clan - you can see him off in the distance.

The flamingos were very active today to say the least. I wish I had broken out the video camera way before I did because of course I didn't actually catch all the action. They kept "running" across the water right in front of us which was a little intimidating. My favorite part is how Gabbie imitates the noise that the flamingos are making - or as she calls them "brrrd."

This video is Gabbie laughing at the donkey. She calls it a brrd of course, but still funny. She really loved being so up close and personal with the animals in the petting area. I, however, decided you have to just get over the germ thing really quick especially after she petted the goat then immediately put her thumb in her mouth. YUCK. Can we stop the thumb thing now, please?

Happy Heart Day!

2011-02-17T14:54:00.001-06:00

So what if we're 5 days post-Valentine's Day. I still wanted to post a few pictures of Gabbie in her V-Day outfit. It was just too darn cute not to do a post....

Veggie Beef Soup & Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

2011-02-11T10:40:00.002-06:00

Ok this was a pretty simple recipe. Most of you probably have a recipe for Vegetable Beef soup that you go to regularly, but I am notorious for never using the same recipe twice.
Last night I made this Vegetable Beef Stew from the Lady & Sons (aka Paula Dean and her two good-looking sons). (I do wish I had taken a picture because my soup doesn't really look like her picture on the site.) It definitely got the seal of approval both from Gabbie and Brent - Gabbie even had a second bowl!
It was SO yummy and VERY flavorful.
I had a few tweaks just based on the availability of my vegetables in my freezer. First, I sauteed a little garlic in the pan before browning my meat. I also only had a bag of vegetable soup mix so instead of chopping up all those carrots and celery and okra, I just dumped a bag into the pot. I then added black eyed peas and lima beans.
I've never had this with macaroni, but I did it last night and it really added a night element of texture to the soup.

Finally, I found this recipe for Red Lobster's Cheddar Garlic Biscuits - they were FANTASTIC. If you have ever tried to make these based on a whim, you may have been disappointed (speaking from experience). These were so fantastic. I think the key to it was using cold butter cut into the bisquick vs some recipes that call for shortening. o.m.g. they were amazing.

Busy Week!

2011-02-11T09:42:00.004-06:00

I was doing so well at updating the blog regularly, don't you think? I was really proud of myself then last week came and it was one of those weeks where you need one more day.
We kicked off our second semester of Financial Peace University at our church. We are so excited to get to lead another group, but there is a lot going into this class mainly because we have 32 people participating. THIRTY-TWO! wowsers. Plus we advertised that we would offer childcare, so I've been coordinating that for about 12 kids. Honestly that has been the most work - arranging to have childcare workers there each week, having the right number of people helping each week, getting payment from each set of parents, paying the workers, and getting the reimbursement set up with our church. whew. Just trying to explain it all again makes me realize how much work is involved.
However, this past week we had our second class and after all the emails and returning families showing their appreciation, it is completely worth every second of the planning.
We have a great group for FPU - very diverse and everyone already seems extremely enthusiastic about the class. Even more exciting is that we are coordinating a second class that starts this week - wow!
On top of all the FPU craziness, I had to squeeze in work hours. I have been very fortunate that I got approved to work my second day at home now so I'm only having to go into the office once a week - so I work about 7 hours in the office and anywhere between 3-4 hours at home. It's been great so far, but makes for a busy week trying to squeeze in those hours in between everything else going on.
I also had two cake orders that were due by Thursday - I think they turned out really great. I was really proud of them - especially the R2D2 cake because it was a really awesome 3-D cake, standing about 1 foot tall and the family who ordered it loved it.

So after staying up until about 4am Thursday morning, I got the cakes delivered, then headed home to pack for our family trip to Gatlinburg. We gave my parents a weekend stay in Gatlinburg for Christmas and our entire family tagged along (sister and her family). Brent and I decided to head over on Thursday so we could see our good friends Chad and Gena in Knoxville. Ari and Gabbie are about 3 months apart in age and every time we visit, it seems like their age difference is becoming less and less. They had a great time playing with each other Friday morning before we headed to the 'Burg.
I'm not sure why I don't have any better pictures than this one, but it's still cute. Gabbie loved Ari's little chair.

The rest of the weekend was spent in the beautiful metropolis of Gatlinburg. The weekend involved shopping, eating, walking, eating, napping, eating, games, sleeping, eating, Titanic and sleeping. That pretty much sums up the weekend. HA

We did tour the Titanic Museum before leaving Gatlinburg on Sunday. And while you may be with me and think that is the epitome of redneck: a Titanic museum in Gatlinburg, it actually was very interesting. They did a great job of setting up the whole scene: before boarding the ship, you received a boarding pass that assigned you as an actual passenger that had been on the Titanic. Then you spent the entirety of the tour looking for artifacts and information about your character down to the last stop where all of the passengers were listed and whether they survived.

We headed back home early Sunday because we have an almost 4 hour drive back home. We had to make it time for the big Super Bowl game and literally we rolled in about 20 minutes before kickoff. We spent the game at Brad and Casey's watching with a lot of other friends - we had a great time, playing Minute to Win It games which was a blast!
So whew....that week was packed full of fun and busy-ness to say the least.

Heart Healthy Crock Pot Meals!

2011-01-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Remember a few days ago when I posted about my love for my crockpot? Well imagine my delite when I saw this post today on Spry's FB page - check out this article for some awesome ideas on cooking healthier with your crockpot.

What's your favorite crock pot meal? {and it cannot be "roast"}

A little ranting

2011-01-20T10:13:00.004-06:00

I just read this article that had been posted on Facebook. I thought it would be interesting, but instead I think I got a little irritated at the entire topic.
First, after moving to our little area of Nashville I've stopped frequenting Walmart so much. Mainly because we don't have one really that close to us, but also my eyes have been opened to a better way to shop which is couponing and "regular" grocery stores. It seems like the last few times I've bought produce at Walmart it goes bad in just a few days which is very frustrating. I won't even discuss their meat....I haven't seen Food Inc in its entirety, but I know enough...yuck.

So after reading this article touting Walmart and our First Lady on their hard work to reduce all the bad stuff in Walmart's store brand, I got a little frustrated. Walmart is set to take over the world (ha) why do they get more media attention just because they're doing something they should have done from the very beginning: make their food to the standard we should all be abiding by AND their produce affordable. (side note: their produce is pretty affordable mainly because they select bottom of the barrel produce so they can "pass on their savings to their consumers.")
It's kind of like when you see your favorite food that says "now healthier" or "now made without trans fat." Soooo why didn't you just make it that way originally?

Thank you for letting me rant. Have a nice day.

Bourbon Chicken and Roasted Winter Vegetables

2011-01-12T10:52:00.001-06:00

I'm realizing a lot of what I cook is a combination of multiple recipes and because of that, I'm not sure I have good solid name for them.
This one's called Bourbon Chicken and Roasted Vegetables.
The chicken doesn't have bourbon, but after the cooking process Brent says it tasted just like the chicken from the mall chinese place.

I kind of used this idea for cooking the chicken in Italian dressing. I'd never heard of doing it this way, so I tried it and MAN it was incredible and SO easy. I've been trying to find more recipes cooking chicken and other meat without using oil but still giving it an amazing flavor.

So I started with a pack of chicken tenderloins and added about 1/4 cup of Italian dressing into a skillet. I brought it to a simmer and covered it with a lid and let it cook like crazy for about 20 minutes. Eventually the dressing evaporated so the chicken started getting this yummy "crust." Once it started doing this, I realized we were in for some really scrumptious chicken.

Our side dish was Roasted Winter Vegetables - butternut squash, red and green peppers and asparagus. I chopped them up in uniform size, drizzled a little EVOO and roasted those bad boys at 350 for about 35 minutes or until they were soft. I know it sounds like a strange combination, but trust me - that butternut squash and asparagus was a FANTASTIC combo! I have some leftover and Gabbie and I ate them for lunch the next day - YUMMO.

Here's a pic of dinner - like I already mentioned, not the most photogenic picture, but trust me - it was soooo pretty and sooo yummy. I served some rice with it which rounded out this super yummy meal.

Gabbie was funny to watch eating this dinner - she used her little fingers to pick out all of the squash which has always been one of her favorites. She even stole a few pieces from Brent's plate which was so funny!

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers and Chicken

2011-01-12T10:42:00.005-06:00

I get emails from Tastefully Simple which is a food magazine that my mom used to give me as a gift subscription every year until they just stopped sending them even after she paid for it (arggh). Anyway, I'm still on the email list and occasionally save recipes that they send me.
This week I received one for Slow Cooker Stuffed Bell Peppers. I remember eating these growing up, but I'd never made them for Brent and I (mainly because Brent doesn't like peppers). Every time I used my crock pot, I'm reminded how amazing it is. I mean really, is there is a better meal that you just put everything in a big pot and leave it alone. 8 hours later, it's ready to eat? Seriously brilliant.
I also had read about a chicken tortilla soup recipe from the Pioneer Woman and how she cooked the chicken for it. Again, a new way for me to cook and it sounded as though the flavors would be incredible. The peppers definitely had a tex-mex flare to them, so I wanted the chicken to have a similar taste.
So I took the chicken legs I had, combined a little cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and a pinch of salt. I drizzled a little EVOO over the chicken, then coated the chicken in the spice mixture and baked them on 375 for about 40 minutes. It took a little longer than usual because I only had chicken legs vs breasts or tenders. I would definitely do this one again using chicken breasts or tenders.
When it came out of the oven it looked a lot like this
{I know you're amazed at my photography skilllz. Too bad this isn't my pic - thank you PioneerWoman for being an incredible photographer and letting me borrow your pic}

I didn't take a picture of our entire dinner, mainly because it didn't don on me to do it until after we had polished it off. Let's just say, Mr Whitaker who says he doesn't like peppers polished every bite off his plate as did Gabbie. (and me)

I also discovered that his favorite food is chicken legs. {yuck} We had a deep intellectual conversation over dinner on our favorite "bad" food.
His is KFC's Chicken Legs
Mine is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. (to which Brent said that's not really a meal - I disagreed and explained I could absolutely make it a meal...)
Neither of which have graced our lips in quite a while, just fyi.
What's your favorite "bad" food?

Not a Food Blog...Promise!

2011-01-12T09:07:00.006-06:00

I have always loved to cook. If you have been around me in the past few years (especially since moving to Nashville) you probably know this. Yes, I own a cake business and yes I obviously bake a lot but I am one of those rare people who like both baking and cooking. A lot of people (like Martha Stewart and Paula Dean) like one or the other. Not me, I like them both.

I have started reading ThePioneerWoman blog a lot more lately - thank you Melody - after realizing she has some AHHHMAZING recipes as well as just funny content. She is fantastic. I've added her blog to the right under "Blogs I Follow." Check it out - I have to say, it is a little tricky to navigate and figure out where her new content is, but it's worth your time. It's also inspired me to involve more of that on my blog - it's a big part of who I am, so why not include it here? I promise I won't turn this into a cooking/recipe blog, but I also use my blog for my own point of reference sometimes - tagging my posts so I can easily go back and find different things I've posted about. {I'm also a little bit of a nerd when it comes to organization. I used to organize my Halloween candy as a child and I even organize my friend groups on Facebook. Wow. Not sure why I just shared that....}

All of our New Year's Eve party food that I prepared was chosen from her blog. I made French Onion Soup Stuff Mushrooms, Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Mushroom and Swiss Sliders with Fry Sauce. OMG they were all INCREDIBLE! I really should have taken pictures, but if you follow each of those links you will see the amazing photography of Ree - she does an exponentially better job than me at food photography anyway.

I also LOVE using recipes from Faithful Provisions. She sends emails and Facebook updates on coupons and deals, but she also has a great section called her recipe box where she has created yummy recipes based around commons ingredients that are on sale. She does try to make an effort to make them healthy as well. I've talked a lot about her blog over the years - I went to one of her grocery shopping workshops right before I had Gabbie and helped me sooo much. For a while, I was really really good at couponing a little and stockpiling. You may remember a few posts I did bragging about my savings - I still looove to do that, but I'm not as good as taking pictures and posting about it.

So all that to explain a few of my upcoming posts about food.
I've made some super yummy recipes lately and wanted to share them mainly because they all turned out to be super simple and SOO delicious-o. Even Brent, the quirky eater of a husband I have enjoyed them all.

My first one turned out to be such a pretty dinner that I had to post pictures. I wish I had taken a better picture of it because now it's not looking as appetizing as it did when I made it, but I'll work on my photography. I just read a post yesterday from Pioneer Woman about tips she's learned from photographing food....hmm I guess I should re-read that one.

Snow Day...Again!

2011-01-10T16:25:00.004-06:00

It snowed here today...again! WOW
I was so excited to see the beautiful blanket of snow outside our windows this morning, then even more excited when news came that the hubs would be off work too - they officially closed the office {major WHOAH}.
We had a great snow day other than Brent finishing off the hot chocolate last night and only informing me today as we were outside playing in the snow. sheesh.
We keep telling ourselves we need to buy a sled and today was definitely one of those days we wish we had our own!

Gabbie's becoming a pro at this whole snow thing - this is her third big snow in the past three months. The first few times, she didn't quite understand the importance of all those layers and gloves and hat. It only took once or twice taking them off that she realized how vital they are in the game of snow playing!

Here are some fun pictures and a few videos of playing with our neighbors today. The girls love Gabbie - they fought over who got to sled with Gabbie next. I think Gabbie fully understood it and reveled in the attention.

Brent took a stab at sledding except it was really just a plastic sheet-type sled our neighbors had. AKA it was WAY too small for an adult.

And finally I took a stab at the sledding - LOVE it and Gabbie did too!

When Happens When Men Decorate Cookies

2011-01-07T07:17:00.000-06:00

Many people ask me about Brent helping with A Cake Boutique. He does help a LOT - contributing awesome ideas, giving me encouragement when I need it, watching Gabbie...you know that kind of help.
He does not, however help when it comes to baking. He sent me this today and it explains EXACTLY why he doesn't help in the kitchen when it comes to baking.

Life as a 16 month old

2011-01-05T10:17:00.005-06:00

So now that I've gotten all of you here to read my blog via invitation, I have put this immense amount of pressure on myself to blog more regularly.
I'm still amazed at how many people want to read my blog - I mean it's not that interesting. Really it's just about our life as a little family of 3 + 2 crazy dogs.
I try to keep it interesting and not all about Gabbie all the time because while I think she's the greatest thing on this earth, I know it's a fast track to losing all of our followers if I bore with her cuteness....like this:

I was thinking about what to blog about today when I just emailed Brent to rub it in that our day started at 9:05. Yep. That's NINE O FIVE. It was awesome and completely guilt-free. People say all the time what a great little sleeper I have, but I read the other day in American Baby Magazine that your little ones really do inherit a lot of the same characteristics from their parents including facial expressions and sleep patterns. I also attribute a LOT of it to Babywise.

Wednesdays are a great day in our household because we have nothing to do. I've usually worked the previous 2 days at the real estate company, we have Financial Peace on Tuesday nights, then I have Wednesday - the day before I get into crunch time for the cake biz. This week I have three orders to complete and for some reason this rainy weather has put me into procrastination mode (thus the blog entry vs getting started on baking).

Wouldn't it be great if we could live life as a 16 month old where our only concerns included:

Contacting all of our friends via text messaging for a group playdate...

Unraveling anything and everything possible just because we want to and then say "no" right afterwards...

Helping mom with dinner...

Going "Krogering" (that's what the sticker says from Kroger on my shirt)...

And finally, always being dressed and ready to go out the door for any fabulous event:

Bring it On 2011!

2011-01-01T16:13:00.002-06:00

I was just perusing through all the Facebook status updated from New Year's last night - it's amazing how many people wish Happy New Year via FB or Twitter. Not to mention all those people who send out mass texts with "Happy New Year." I say it too - maybe not via a mass text or FB or Twitter, but have you stopped to think about what that really means?
Would you ever wish someone a Un-Happy New Year?
Brent started the morning off with his million dollar question, "What are your goals for 2011, Becca?" We have Tre, Brittany and Bronson with us for a few days, so of course he challenged them to make goals for 2011 as well. I just read my post from 2010 about goal planning - I didn't write out specific goals on our blog, but it did remind me that I accomplished a HUGE personal goal in 2010. One that's been on my goal list for about 2-3 years: I am really proud of my goal of completing a half marathon this year. I know you all are probably sick of hearing about it - it was just 13.1 miles, but it was more than just the 13.1 miles for me - it was about the journey to get there...here. (and I am not looking for anyone to say "I am so proud of you") And the opportunities that have come from being in better physical condition not just for me, but for my entire family.

So as I look to 2011, the Whitakers have some big things in store. We will both be 30 this year (yes, I am already 30 - Brent turns 30 in June) and we both had things we wanted to accomplish by now - we'll get there.
We have another round (or two) of Financial Peace University that we're leading beginning in February. We feel so strongly that this is our primary purpose for being at the church we are, that we are hoping to be able to coordinate multiple classes this spring.
We have a baby girl who is growing before our eyes and we want to make it a goal to enjoy every minute of her life. I truly feel God telling me to enjoy every minute of our lives instead of wondering what is to come.
Brent's job has been great, but I know God has so much in store for him - he is too much of a "big thinker" to stay inside a box. I know he will be challenged this year to do some really BIG things.
I have really enjoyed exploring the opportunities of A Cake Boutique - it has been great dipping my toe in to entrepreneurship. I am proud of the business I have built and I am anxious to continue to explore additional opportunities.
I cannot believe in three months I will embark on my first mission trip to Guatemala. I know it will be life changing and will definitely set a different tone for 2011.

What's in store for you all in 2011? Have you stopped to think about it and pray for God's direction before you set sail vs praying for protection after you've set sail?

Happy New Year Opp Knockers. Thank you all for being a part of our lives - even if it is only through "joining" our blog and being a private reader.

We had a little gathering of some good friends at our house for New Year's Eve - here are a few pictures from the night. It was so much fun to eat WAY too much food, play some REALLY fun games and hang out with great friends.

We got to play Bunco for the first time - MAN it is awesome!! Seriously, we are addicted and may actually start a little regular game night now.

My Aunt Sally got all of us "original" grand kids fireworks for Christmas so we got to shoot those off as well. We had 30+ mph winds last night, so it made things rather interesting when shooting these.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

2010-12-29T11:04:00.005-06:00

Well our tree and decorations are still up, but I guess officially Christmas is over. I might be in denial (I never take down my stuff before New Year's), but until next year the fun and anticipation of Christmas is over for now.
Christmas was a lot of fun with Gabbie this year. Being mobile made a huge difference in how much she understood what was going on. I taught her to say "ho ho ho" a few days before Christmas and I caught her saying it over and over. When she "met" Santa on Christmas eve, she was NOT a happy camper. Today, however when I was uploading the pictures she saw him and just pointed and started saying "ho ho ho" over and over.

Hopefully next year she'll be a little more fond of him and maybe we'll get a smiling Santa picture - ha.

We started our Christmas festivities by opening presents here at our house on Thursday morning with just Brent, Gabbie, Fletcher, Fiona and me. I don't think she really understood what was going on, but I think it was a good way to start the crazy four day period so by Christmas day she finally understood she got to open presents and play with toys.
We kept our Christmas pretty simple - I posted earlier about using the "Something you want, Something you need, something to wear and something to read" and I kind of used that this year with keeping it simple. We got her Christmas pajamas when we were in Gatlinburg with our friends back in November, she got a few books and a girl doctor set. Brent and I bought each other Garth Brooks tickets and a new radiator for our car :) I think we both would have rather had a doctor set and books and new pajamas vs the radiator.

We headed to Chattanooga Thursday, stayed with Brent's parents, then headed to my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve for the annual Thornton extravaganza. (read:: crazy)
We got to meet the newest member of our family, Hunter, who Gabbie was intrigued with. She did such a good job not poking his eyes out or petting him too hard.

We took a really funny picture of all the girls in their robes that my grandfather gave us - last year, he gave all the guys robes and we took a funny group shot of them,

this year it was the girls' turn...

Next up was Christmas morning with my parents. This is what it's all about: waking up on Christmas morning, having had Santa come the night before and get to open your stockings and presents with your family. We had an extra special gift for us on Christmas morning: SNOW!! And I'm not talking just a light dusting, it was a serious, 4-5" worth of snow. WOW it was beautiful.

Gabbie opened presents from my parents and she loved every minute of it - of course! She got a lot of fun things, but I think her favorite might be the little people doll house, the sit and spin and a little monkey finger puppet. She loved it and just giggled the entire time she played with it. Check out the video to see the puppet in full action (thank you to my hilarious husband).

The Pelfrey gang came over a little later in the morning, we opened more presents and enjoyed a special family poem written by very talented, very funny husband. Gabbie got even more gifts including some adorable outfits, pajamas and books.

HILARIOUS video....

We had originally planned to head back to Brent's parents house that night, but the snow and 26 degree temps were not conducive to us making the drive up to their house.
We finally made it to their house on Sunday and rounded out our trip with a final Christmas celebration with the entire Whitaker/Jackson clan - complete with a meal at El Meson and presents back at the Whitaker's.
Gabbie got more clothes, PJs, toys including a creepy baby doll that she LOVES and an adorable singing bear.
Another successful Christmas - hopefully you all had an equally wonderful Christmas!

A Christmas Diddy

2010-12-22T09:13:00.005-06:00

This year for Christmas shopping has been a little different. It all started when my mom decided to go to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, thus throwing a kink in our tradition of shopping together on Black Friday in Chattanooga. So I felt a discombobulated going into Thanksgiving.
Then, I got to spend Turkey Day with Brent's family, trotting back and forth to the restroom and ultimately upchucking multiple times before night's end.
So when 4am on Black Friday rolled around, I was no where near appropriate condition to hit the stores for amazing deals. I slept in. First time in several years and it felt so strange. So strange in fact, I managed to peel myself out of bed around 8:15 and hit a few stores close to our house. I felt like a zombie so I headed back home and slept.
Needless to say, I got zero Christmas shopping done which is completely out of the ordinary for me - in years past, I pride myself in getting all of my shopping wrapped up (no pun intended) on Black Friday.
So this meant I had to venture out throughout the month of December to finish shopping. And for the first time in history, Brent went with me. On a Saturday. What was I thinking?
We ventured out to the mall area last weekend and ever since he has said nothing but how terrible it was. Granted, it was busy. Packed. Crazy. Full of people. However, I always judge how bad it is based on parking availability and we got a parking spot about 10 from the front. That's fantastic! Better than in the off season.
When we were on our way home, however, the traffic was horrendous! Cars were at a standstill on the ramps off the interstate and when we looked back over the parking lot, cars were snaking through the spots, no availability.
Note to self: Don't get food poisoning on Thanksgiving again. Don't miss the opportunity to finish all shopping on the first official day of Christmas shopping. Don't take husband and child together to the mall on the last weekend before Christmas.
So...moving on....
I was wrapping all of our gifts last night and started thinking about what it's going to be like with Gabbie this year. This is going to be a fun Christmas with Gabbie - she might not quite understand, but she is going to love opening gifts on Christmas morning. We've been determined not to overwhelm her with gifts - especially having a conversation with our neighbor's kids a few weeks ago. I asked them what Santa was bringing them and they really didn't have an answer. These guys are preschool, 1st grade and 2nd grade - old enough to fully understand what is to come, yet they didn't really see the value in all the stuff that is Christmas. Wow. I would love to think Gabbie will be the same way and have been looking for ideas for keep Christ in Christmas and simple - focusing on Jesus' birthday versus the over-commercialization of the holiday. Don't we all want to do that?
So last night on Facebook, our Family Pastor from church posted this little poem their family uses to keep Christmas simple, "Something you want, Something you need; Something to wear and something to read." WOW that was perfect.
We pretty much followed this for Gabbie this year, but what a great standard to establish for years to come. Love it.
I wrote this entire blog post just so next year I can hopefully come back and read this and remember our new little poem....
I hope you enjoy and hopefully this little poem will help you and your family as you establish traditions in your household for Christmas!

One More Christmas

2010-12-16T23:10:00.002-06:00

I know I already posted about St. Jude and my marathon, but I don't know I truly put into words how impactful it was on me to participate in this race. Sure, I completed 13.1 miles. So what.
All I could truly think about was how much fighting and physical pain so many children have had to experience in fighting cancer.
This video is so extremely powerful - as I worry about whose present I haven't purchased yet, or making sure I got enough for Gabbie, I realize how different my Christmas would be if I was spending it at St Jude. I can't help but be so overwhelmed with emotions as I think about how gracious our God is to give us the gift of a child, but also the gift of a child who is healthy.

If you have never given to St. Jude, maybe this year you'll give in honor of your own child. They don't ask for much, but they do provide the world to so many families. Of course my own sister and nephew spent his first two years of his life at St Jude. And what's amazing: they didn't (nor have they ever) paid a dime for Tre's treatment! wow.

So watch this video....Break out the kleenex and consider giving in honor of your children or family members who are healthy this Christmas. That don't have to worry about if they will get to see another Christmas.

30 Years of Wisdom

2010-12-14T23:17:00.001-06:00

Yep, I'm 30. I'm ok with it. I feel as though I need to share my 30 Years of Wisdom. Ready? Here it is...it's pretty life changing (I have a friend who was speechless after I told him...)

30 years: Life is a book. God writes every chapter very carefully for us. Don't rush through each chapter, skimming over each line. Instead, cherish every chapter because you're going to want to go back and take your time.

So soak that in....see how it affects your life and how you live it. Then stop and realize to cherish every minute of your life NOW. Don't worry about what is to come or where you're supposed to be in the future. Be where you are now.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-13T23:13:00.000-06:00

Gifted Tag Christmas

Personalize the christmas season with Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I Did It! St. Jude Half Marathon

2010-12-05T09:42:00.001-06:00

I did it! I completed the St. Jude Memphis half marathon AND I could still walk the next day- woo hoo.
My mom, and nephews, Tre and Bronson, all ran the 5K that was occurring on the same morning of the marathon/half marathon, so we all packed up and got them started on their race.

Then, Brent walked with me to the start for my half marathon - it was there that it started to sink in what I was about to do. I've decided that's just emotionally how I operate: I am ok with everything emotionally leading up to an event, then right before I usually get bombarded with emotions
(ie: wedding day - fine until the doors opened and I cried the entire time down the aisle; moving to Nashville - fine until the day I left TVFCU and cried when I said goodbye to everyone; race day - fine until I was waiting around for the start (i didn't cry, it just sank in what I was about to do - and then I was like holy cow!).
So as we're standing around waiting for the start, we just happen to run into our friends the Meriwethers who were also running in the race. It was great to have some people to chat with for the 30 minutes leading up to the race.
So I got in line to start (it's a wave start, meaning they release a group of people every 2 minutes - there were 8,000 people in the half marathon and 5,000 people in the full marathon = a ton of people!)
Brent was so great - he was walking along the side taking pictures and cheering me on. I guess it definitely helps to know what a runner needs once you've done it yourself - he completed the Music City Half Marathon when I was pregnant with Gabbie back in 2009.
Anyway, I felt so great for the first 5 or 6 miles - I felt like I was going to definitely blow my goal of finishing under 3 hours out of the water. That is, until "it" hit me and unfortunately I had to make a pit stop in one of the hundreds of portable toilets along the course. UGH. YUCK.
I emerged from the nastiness a little lighter and ready to hit the ground running - literally.
I was still feeling great - we ran through the hospital property which was lined with all the nurses, doctors, a few patients and TONS of other supporters. It was quite emotional, but I did everything I could to fight back tears knowing I could potentially hyperventilate if I got too upset. I was determined to run as much as possible, including the 1 mile path through the hospital property.
From there, my body started telling me it was feeling the pounding pavement.
By mile 9 I started having a few physical pains - my thighs were starting to cramp. Feeling as though they were about to charley horse - I had to pull over twice to stretch to prevent from cramping. Then, my Achilles tendon started SCREAMING to stop. It was pretty painful even thought I tried pushing through the pain. I came to a tough realization if I didn't stop running, I might not be able to finish. So I walked mile 10, which of course really hurt my time.
By the time I reached mile 11, I was so excited that I was just 2 miles from the finish - WOW.
I didn't have a watch, but at every mile there was a clock with the race time. Because of the wave finish, we started 23 minutes into the race start time, so not only was I running, drinking water, pacing myself, I was doing math at every mile to figure out my current time so I could make sure I finished under 3 miles.
Around mile 11.5, I passed a couple talking about the time and that we had 9 minutes to make it to the finish line before the 3 hour mark. Suddenly, I decided to push through the pain, and get to my finish line in my goal.
The race finished inside AutoZone park in Memphis, which was so cool. I crossed the finish line and ran right past all of my family and best friend.

It was such a neat experience and so very surreal. I had just finished 13.1 miles and while I know there are SOOO many bigger races that require MUCH more physical endurance (ie: JimmyMoncrief and Ironman Louisville), this was a huge accomplishment for me. A top 10 bucket list for my life and I had just completed it. Even through the crazy pain in my legs, I knew that this would not be my last race. I believe it's safe to say I have "the bug" to run again.

I took a quick pic with Elvis (gotta love Memphis), then hiked up the stairs to grab some food and drinks. While I thought eating would not sound good post-race, I was completely wrong. I immediately scarfed down a slice of pizza, some yummy soup and the best cup of beer I've had in my life followed up by chocolate milk. All of that sounds disgusting (especially the beer), but man it was amazing. I finally got to meet up with my fans: Brent, Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Tre, Brittany, Bronson, Brian, David, Uncle John, Casey, Brad, Brittany & Ada. They were such good sports to wait on me and watch for me for the entire race time. It was incredible to have such great support. I have to say, if you ever have someone competing in something like this you really should go support them. Even if you only see them once or twice along the course, having support there to cheer you on, is absolutely incredible and exactly what you need to get through such a physical competition.

I really appreciate everyone who came - I really appreciate my husband forcing me to take an ice bath. And yes, it was as terrible as it sounds. T E R R I B L E. I sat in a bath tub with ice for about 6 minutes. Jimmy tells me next time it has to be 15 minutes - YIKES.
However, I got through it by knowing immediately following I would be able to take a hot shower AND the next day, I knew I'd be able to walk. And you know - I was right! woo hoo

So looking back on the race, it really went well. I am really proud of my time of 2:52:40. I made it under 3 hours which was my goal. I ran a great pace and the few problems I did have are nothing in comparison with what could have potentially happened. I know what I need to do for training for my next race and I am pumped to get back out there and run again.
Running truly is just as much a physical event as it is mental. I knew that going into it and remembered it consistently throughout the course.
Thank you all for your support - kind words and donations to meet my goal to be a St Jude Hero. The race raised over $2.8 million for St Jude Children's Research Hospital! WOW. Incredible.
SUCH an inspirational race and one with a great cause. I was so proud of my family for not only being there, but running the 5k. I know it was super special for Tre - a 12 1/2 year survivor and St Jude patient. Amazing.

Thank you all again!

Bring it, 30.

Here's a link to some pictures and a video of me crossing the finish line.

Financial Peace

2010-12-02T10:26:00.003-06:00

"Financial Peace. Two words that don't go together. Kind of like "customer service." - Dave Ramsey

$18,900 in Savings
$26,000 paid off in Debt
Amazing, huh? Those are the stats for our first Financial Peace University class that just wrapped up this week. That's just 9 households in just 13 weeks! Incredible.
I've had a lot of people ask me about FPU - in fact, I had a person contact me via facebook as soon as I posted asking about FPU, what it's all about and what it teaches.
It is so tough to explain FPU in a nutshell because there are so many working parts to FPU - if you want to learn how to get out of debt, it's for you.
If you want to learn how to build wealth and save for retirement, it's for you.
If you want to learn how to manage your daily expenses, it's for you.

We had such a variety of people in our class this time - from single, 20-somethings, to young married couples, to couples who have been together for a while, someone looking for college planning for her teenagers to even someone looking into the world of retirement. Each one of them got something completely different from the 13 week course as evident by the comments at the end of the class.

My favorite participate was a 20+ single female. On her first day of the class, she emailed me to tell me how badly she needed FPU because she had just made a really big purchase that she could not afford. We came to learn that she had purchased an $1,100 electric piano - $1,100 she didn't have and had just asked her parents the week before for help paying bills.

Over the course of the class, we got to learn more about building an emergency fund, paying off our debt, negotiating good deals, and more. This young lady did so great in that she immediately put her piano up for sell - knowing she couldn't afford it, nor really needed it (need vs want).

Within just a few weeks of the end of the class, she proudly announced she had sold the piano on craiglist for just a few hundred short of what she paid for it. She was so proud.
I know this class was impacting on her because she wrote me an email to tell me this:
"I honestly have a sense of peace in regards to finances. That doesn't mean I've
got this down perfect...I'm far from it. But by saving and paying off some debt
I feel like I have the ability to make smart decisions. I don't feel like my financial
future is hopeless! And I look forward to being debt free!"

And THAT people, is why Brent and I volunteer our time to teach this amazing class.

Random Things Running Through My Head

2010-11-19T16:09:00.007-06:00

I have a million things I'd love to post about but not a clue where to start...
1. I think Joy Behar is mad about Bristol Palin still being on Dancing with the Stars because she's afraid it might just mean that {GASP} her mother might have a chance come presidential race 2012.

2. I saw on FB today where a couple created a website to ask for votes on whether they should have an abortion. I didn't comment on the post and honestly I didn't think I should give it a second thought here, but wow. Really? What have we come to? How sad is that. Not to mention heartbreaking.

3. I would love to be on Oprah's favorite things show - the people in the audience today looked like they would EXPLODE with excitement.

4. I have a co-worker who is uncomfortable with the word "naked" - I think that's so hilarious that I've been thinking of every possible way to use it and it not be inappropriate. (ie: Naked Pita Chips)

5. People have been asking how my half marathon training is coming. Well, it's great. If you consider that my body SCREAMS at me throughout most of the run, yeah. It's just great. Fabulous. I have always known running is the best way for my own body to get in shape. The proof is in the pudding, as they say - I am in the best shape I've been in over 2 years (thank you foot surgery + pregnancy). (pics from a 5k at our church recently...)

6. Can Thanksgiving REALLY be next week? I mean really. What happened to October? I would love to host Thanksgiving at my house one year - hopefully one day that will happen especially now that I have a beaaaautiful dining room set thanks to my grandparents.

7. Gabbie is a toddler. We went away for a few days last week and she stayed in Chattanooga for 2 nights - when we returned she was full-blown walking. She has THE funniest personality. I love this stage. I was recently looking through all my pictures from Moncrief Photography from this first year - I cannot believe how much she has changed. From looking kind of like an Asian baby in those first few days, to being bald and beautiful, to my one front tooth pirate, to now - just full of happiness and joy and so dang funny! Have I mentioned that I love her so much?! I do.

8. I am excited to do Elf on a Shelf with Gabbie this year. Sure she won't get it, but I will and it will be fun. My aunt bought her one for her birthday - complete with a little skirt. Does anyone do this? Any tips?

9. I am currently uploading all the pictures from my camera and just got overwhelmed...again...at everything I've missed blogging about:

I hosted a playdate at my house for our preschool group from church. 25 People. Crazy
I participated in a Holiday Dinner at our church where I was a table host and had to decorate a table. Brent's Aunt Cyndi was AWESOME - she helped me SO much and now I've been asked (along with a few others) to help decorate our church. WOW. I am honored.

We went on a mini vacation last week to Gatlinburg. It was fabulous - especially having friends with us that have girls the same age as Gabbie. AND going with someone who had never been!

Brent and I left Gabbie in Chattanooga for the first time overnight - we hit up Atlanta thanks to our friends who gave us a 2 night stay for free at a Marriott. {while we were there, we had a crazy experience! We arrived back at our hotel at 1:30 am after seeing a late movie to find the hotel swarming with police cars and CSI vehicles and tape. We found out that someone had been shot in the parking lot and died on the front steps of hotel check in. We immediately requested to be moved and they were so very accommodating. needless to say, we solidified our desire NOT to live in Atlanta - we were even in Buckhead! crazy. Thankfully our second day was awesome and we got moved to a great hotel.

10. Finally - one of many things on my mind: I turn 30 in less than 30 days. Thirty. wow. No comments on that one, thanks! *and yes, I know. It's not a big deal. I know that. I have no problems turning 30 - birthdays don't depress me or get me feeling down or anything, it's just another milestone birthday to me. Bring it.

Quick Update

2010-09-29T09:03:00.005-05:00

wow has it really been one month since I last posted? Sorry.
Hopefully by way of creative posting, you will get the picture of not only what you have missed out on in our lives, but also why I haven't been able to post.

A few weeks ago, I was offered a very part-time j.o.b. with a local real estate company. It's a really long story, but basically a few months ago this offer came in the form of a more full time/80 hours a week kind of marketing director position that I was not interested in. This time around, it was a little more attractive with loads of flexibility and not permanent (read: still get to stay at home with Gabbie and do my primary job = be a mommy!). I took it and for three weeks now I've been working on Mondays and Tuesdays for a few hours while Gabbie stays with our good friends who happen to live right across the street from the office. Pretty sure it couldn't have worked out any better.
The problem with this is that since I started this job, my cake orders have been FLYING in. I am sooo happy about it, but it's made for an extremely busy few weeks. I had my very first wedding cake order on the exact same weekend as we had two house guests AND it was my first week at work.
Then the next week, I had FOUR more order and had to turn down two phone calls for additional work. wow. Really? This week is another busy week with a HUGE first birthday order (cake, smash cake, sugar cookies, rice krispy treats and chocolate suckers) and I thought I went overboard...yikes. No complaints though. Really. If nothing else, working in a "traditional" office has allowed me to appreciate having my own business and working for myself. Love it. When something goes wrong, it's only my fault. period. Here is a picture of one of my favorite cakes I did this past weekend for Gabbie's best buddy, Mayme:

Check out my fan page on Facebook or my website acakeboutique.com for more pictures!

On the same week I started the job, Mom to Mom also started back up! You may remember many of my posts last year on various studies we did and activities - I loved mom to mom last year. It was so very timely for me with a newborn and the shock that settled in after a few weeks of being without regular adult conversation. I used to think these types of "mommy groups" would never be my thing, but man I love it. This year we're doing "Heart talk" and with all new small groups, it's sure to mean all new relationships. Looking forward to seeing how the year will evolve....

We have stayed busy with our regularly scheduled weekend activities. If you have been a reader for a while, you know we're not the type to sit on the couch on the weekends and do nothing (not to say we don't do that, but normally it's after we've been out and about doing something else - ha!) I have a TRUCK LOAD of pictures:: literally:: to post and share of all the million activities we've had.

We had the pleasure of going to the Brooks and Dunn Final Rodeo concert a few weeks ago. For those who may not know, Brooks and Dunn is breaking up. It's a sad time in our history, but as they explained at their concert - nothing's wrong, but all good things must come to an end. While I have at least 50 more photos from the night and about 10 videos, here's a concise collage of the night. Brent's night was made when his favorite red head made an appearance to sing her line to "Cowgirl Don't Cry." It was a phenomenal concert! Definitely a little emotional on their part, but wow - phenomenal! (click on the collage to make it bigger on your screen)

As I previously mentioned, our good friend Jeremy came in for a very last minute trip a few weeks ago. Brent scored tickets to the Titans/Steelers game and at the mention of having another ticket, Jeremy dropped everything and made the 9 hour drive on Friday night. We had a blast. The last time we saw him was almost 2 years ago when we made the trek over Valentine's Day weekend to attend his wedding.
Again, another collage - click to make it bigger. All the pictures along the right side of the collage are from our private tour of Titan's Owner Bud Adam's suite. Our neighbor was able to get us a behind the scenes look at Mr Adam's suite! It was a sweet experience - no pun intended. It was neat to see that every one has an assigned seat in the suite and there are small tv's in front of each chair. Not to mention, as it should be, this one has THE best view ever!

So of course I have plenty to talk about with Gabbie - there is so much she's doing these days, but I want to save that for a separate post...stay tuned and I'll try to get some pictures and videos uploaded over the next few days in between decorating cakes and making mickey mouse cookies, rice krispy treats and chocolate suckers! yikes

Funny YouTube Videos!

2010-09-15T21:46:00.003-05:00

What Have I done?

2010-09-01T08:45:00.002-05:00

I did it. I signed up and PAID to run. How crazy, right?
I've been thinking about doing a half marathon for a few years now. I would have done it before this year, but I had a few things get in the way. The biggest was this little thing I had happen about 2 years ago. Remember this? Then I recovered from that, only to announce this.
So after all the events of the past two years, I am finally in a place to train and prepare for the 13.1 mile journey of a half marathon. I hope one day to do a full, but my goal is to get this under my belt and then look at something longer
I chose to do the St. Jude Memphis Marathon for a lot of reasons: 1. It is exactly 10 days before my 30th birthday. I couldn't think of a better way to ring in a new century than to show I can run an insane distance, be in shape and be healthy. I really hope to be an inspiration to a lot of people, especially my little lamb - I want her to grow up and see a healthy mom. They truly walk in our footsteps - I'd love for her to one day run with me in a race like this one. Wouldn't that be neat?
2. Obviously I have the best nephew ever who is a St. Jude patient.

After being diagnosed with Leukemia when he was a mere three months old, he spent the better part of his first two years of his precious life at St. Jude receiving treatments and waiting for a bone marrow transplant. Thankfully he was able to receive the transplant and was on his way to remission. Now he's 13 years old and doing wonderful. You would never guess he had been sick or battled for his own life at just 6 months old. (he was so stinkin' cute! and still is)

So I signed up not only to participate, but to be a St. Jude Hero. I have agreed to raise at least $500 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. $500 - a mere dent in the expenses that accumulate while being a patient at the hospital. What many people do not realize is that not one single child will be turned away from the hospital for their inability to pay. I'm not sure what my sister would have done had she had to pay for Tre's expenses. I remember that St Jud did send her bills periodically on what she would have had to pay - I know the totals were ridiculous, with some of the bills being over $20,000 EACH.
So in the grand scheme of things, $500 is a drop in the bucket. Nothing.
I will be posting my fundraising website information very soon to start receiving donations. I have a goal: not only to complete the race, but to make my fundraising goal before November 1st. I know I will make it.

Thank you all for your support ahead of time.
It will be a great event: my mom is participating in the race as well, running the 5K with my nephews Tre' and Bronson.

1 year already

2010-08-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

Leading up to Gabbie's first birthday, I started thinking about this time last year. The week leading up to her big day I couldn't help but think about how different my life was twelve months ago. I was sitting in a horribly drabby cubicle, working in the not-so creative world of Medicare, counting the days until our little bundle of joy was to arrive. I think about what was to become my very last day at that place and have such a feeling of relief and joy and appreciation that I don't have to go back. I'm not sure anyone from that company reads this blog, I'm not so vain to think this blog is important enough to demand their attention, but hopefully my previous statement does not offend anyone. I know most people who worked closely with me knew that it wasn't the right fit for me. I had several people ask me why I worked there and not in some other area requiring more creative, out of the box thinking.
Now, 9 months after officially submitting my resignation, my only explanation for me working there was so that I could be here: having the best, most rewarding full time job on the planet. You see, I think if I had been at a job that I loved and enjoyed going to every day, it would be have been even more difficult for me to make the decision to stay at home. There are jobs I have had that I have missed and if I had been in any one of those, I probably would have really struggled with the decision. It is a constant reminder that God always knows what's coming in the next chapter of your life. Always. Don't doubt it.

So on to the big birthday. I really tried hard not to have a huge blowout party. Really. I tried. I re-did our guest list about 5 times before narrowing it down and trying to keep it to our closest family and friends. Soooo 30 invites later, we had a great turnout of our close friends and family at our house. I always envisioned it as a big cookout/get together with a few things to do for the kids, but nothing crazy. I know the years are coming when we'll have the huge inflatables in the backyard, the creepy clown (NOT), balloon animals, petting zoo, tranquilizers....oh wait - sorry, that's a movie. But seriously, I think birthdays are very special. I grew up in a family who made birthdays special and as someone who has a birthday 11 days before Christmas, I like to make people feel special on their birthday. It's the one day of the year that you can be the center of attention and not feel selfish. I want to do the same thing for my children and my husband. The great thing is my husband loves it too, especially when it's his birthday. (He gets the whole month usually, but that's another post) So what if I threw a crazy big birthday party for a one year old who had no idea what was going on. So what. She's my only child right now and I want her to feel as special as she is. So THERE :)

We had such a great time with all of our friends and family coming over. We even had the pleasure of having several house guests for the weekend, which was SOOOO incredibly wonderful because it translated to extra help getting ready.

Thursday before the party, my bff from Chattanooga and her little lamb came up and were a HUGE help. We stayed up until about 3am making a lot of the decorations - the pinwheels, a polka dot table topper thing that I invented, and other fun stuff for the party. Friday my parents came up and we spent another night up late finishing up the last minute details. Saturday was the big day. After a crazy lightning storm on Friday night, our air conditioner was not acting right. As in it wasn't working. It was 105 degrees Saturday morning and about 85 degrees inside our house. After a quick visit from our handy dandy HVAC guy, we cooled down to a balmy 80 degrees inside. Yuck. It was hot and sticky needless to say, especially with about 30 people cuddling inside.
As more and more people started to arrive, I quickly realized just how blessed we are to have so many people love us and love our child enough to come on a Saturday afternoon to celebrate her birthday. (either that, or they smelled the amazing ribs and chicken that my dad cooked for all of us)

After chowing down on all the yummy food, we gathered around to watch Gabbie literally destroy her birthday cake. I was so proud of her - check out this video to watch her. Believe me, it's worth your time. She at one point, laid her face down into the cake. So funny.

Afterwards, the adults got to enjoy the delicious cake my mom and sister created for Gabbie. This cake was ADORABLE! I asked them to create her cake with little to no direction. They kept it a huge surprise for me and I wasn't able to see it until right before party started. So stinkin' cute. I especially loved the monkey on top who's now sitting on my microwave. I don't have the heart to throw her away just yet. She's so cute and hopefully by hanging on to her, my little one won't get any older. (because that is the crazy reasoning we develop as moms I guess...)

Gabbie had her one year old check up on Monday after her birthday. She's weighing in at a hefty 19 lbs 4 ounces and is 28 inches tall - both hitting the 25th percentile. We also did more blood work after her doctor is still not pleased with our little "episode" back in July - thankfully, the results all came back just fine and we're still not 100% sure what caused our ordeal. (I'm ok with that....I guess)
She's crawling everywhere and everyone comments on how efficient she is. This week, she's also started "cruising" along the couch and coffee table, which only means she's on her way to taking those first few steps all by herself. She's pulling up on everything, and just a few days ago starting standing up on her own - like at the back doors, she'll put her hands on the glass to steady herself and stand up. She's also really into getting a book and jabbering - it's really cute, as if she's reading to herself or to us. I think in her little head, she's just repeating how Brent and I sound when we read to her. I laugh to think she's interpreting us as just jabbering, especially if you've ever been around when Brent reads to her (it's quite comical and even Gabbie has been known to chuckle at him).
Food is a great adventure too - she loves to eat. Loves it. I think her favorite foods right now are bananas, cheese and turkey. I never have a problem getting her to eat any of that. I did try to give her cut up prunes recently and she literally picked each one up and slowly dropped them in the floor as a "treat" for Fletcher. Fletcher has become her new BFF as he patiently sits at her feet waiting for any food she's willing to give up. I have to push him down as he tries to eat the food out of her chair that fell from her little hand.
I look at amazement of her as I think just 12 months ago she was completely helpless, depending on me for everything: food, sleep, comfort, mobility, entertainment, love. I know she'll need me for all of those for the rest of her life (well, maybe not sleep) but she'll realize more and more each year that she can do it on her own. I know the next 17 years are going to fly, so I try not to think about it or let it make me sad. Instead, I think of the amazing woman I will be helping mold. Of what she will do with her life. How she will be able to serve the Lord with all her heart, mind and soul. The lives she'll be able to touch.
But until then, I'm going to enjoy helping her learn to walk. Rocking her a few minutes longer each night before bedtime. And reading her Wynken, Blinken and Nod for the 100th time in my British accent.
So, until next year - Happy Birthday, Gabriella Paige. You truly show me every day God's Strength through your tiny little body.

Hot Hot Hot

2010-08-04T08:37:00.007-05:00

We're on our third day of an "Excessive Heat Warning" here in Nashville. Unbelievable - it's so hot that they're warning us about it.
I've been thinking a lot about this time last year and how much my life has changed in just 11 short months. Let's take a look at all those differences...
This time last year, I was working 7:30am-4:30 p.m. I thought that was tough to work 40+ hours a week at a desk job, scheduling meetings, making deadlines, dealing with the frustrations of corporate America and meeting a $1 million print budget. This year, I work more than 40 hours a week. Most days, I sit down long enough to check an email, I am busy making appointments for lunch dates with other friends, and being creative with a $100 weekly grocery budget. My boss is less than 2 feet tall and can't stand for me to leave the room, but she pays me with the biggest smiles and giggles when I enter the room.
A few weeks ago, I came across an old business card folder that I used to use to organize all the business cards I would collect through networking. My first thought was, "WOW that is the perfect organizer for coupons!" then as I pulled out each business card and replaced it with my coupons, I just had to pause and think about how much my life has changed. I have gotten more comments on that folder and all I can do is laugh about its original purpose.
This time last year, I remember being at our pool on the weekends with Brent enjoying long Saturdays spent lying by the pool literally All. Day. Long. This year, as I strategically plan our pool days 1 1/2 hours at a time (in between naps), get the bag ready with sunscreen, swim diapers, hat, change of clothes, float, pool toys, snack and sippy cup, I realize that I never fully appreciated the simplicity of our life when it was just Brent and I but cannot imagine ever going back to just the two of us.
We've had such a busy summer, enjoying these sultry hot days. We have a good 1 1/2 hours a day that we can enjoy at our pool across the street. If I had a dollar for every time someone has commented on how tan my child is, I'd be one wealthy little gal. I promise, I put 55 SPF on her every time we hit up the pool and honestly we're only there 1 1/2 hours at a time.
Last week, my niece Brittany stayed with us and had such a great time! I definitely lived vicariously through her remembering how much fun summer is when you're 10 years old, without a care in the world other than getting through your summer reading list. Each night, she and Brent attempted to build the greatest and biggest fort in history. During the day, she had a blast playing with Gabbie and playing at the pool.
The last four days she was here, it was vacation Bible school time at our church! I was talking to a few adult friends and we all agreed, VBS was the pinnacle of summer time when we were growing up. I have very vivid memories of VBS and so does Brent (he has a funny story about snack time - he would get in the front of the line, get his drink and Little Debbie, then run to the end of the line and go through again.) Watching Brittany during VBS brought back all those memories of VBS: making new friends, doing such fun crafts every night, singing silly songs, dressing up, and of course being constantly reminded of God's love for His children.
I'm 2 week away from Gabbie's first birthday. It has been such an amazing year and so much fun watching her grow and develop into such a fun, sweet little girl. It's incredible how fast their little lives go by, I just hope I can remember to stop and cherish every moment I have with her.

Here are some fun pictures from this past few weeks...

VBS:

Vegas Baby

2010-07-13T13:02:00.016-05:00

That's right - we went to Vegas. With a baby.
We had a great time in sin city and I have to say, my impression of Vegas (this was my first time to go) was definitely learning exactly where it gets its name: Sin City.
But let me back up and share the exciting day of departure....
We were up and running and actually about 1 hour ahead of schedule, just passing time at the house before leaving to meet a friend who was taking us to the airport. About 10 minutes from our meeting spot, Gabbie threw up everywhere in the car. I'm not talking spit up - I'm talking throw up. She lost everything she'd had for breakfast. We pulled over to call the pediatrician's office to find out if there was something we could give her. It was during that phone call that we realized something was definitely going on with Gabbie. Her skin color changed completely - almost to a complete pale, pukey color and her lips lost all of their pink. They weren't blue, but definitely not the color they should be. I hopped in the backseat of the car and we decided to head to her pediatrician's office since we were just a few minutes away. During that 5 minute ride, I watched her change pretty drastically and act as though she was extremely lethargic, having a hard time holding up her head, she wasn't sucking her thumb and her skin color still looked off. I am a pretty laid back mom when it comes to emergencies (or so I thought) until I had to sit pretty helpless while Brent drove safely to the office. We walked in and they immediately took us to the back, starting doing tests on her to make sure her oxygen levels were ok, etc. It was definitely the scariest moments in her little life. They did some blood work which came back with extremely high white blood count. As in 32,000 when it should just be about 10,000. They tested it again and when it came back the same number, they sent us to Vanderbilt Children's hospital.
By now, however she was definitely starting to look and act more like herself. She was hungry again which was a good sign. We were so disappointed to find out we were actually heading to the ER not just to a clinic for additional blood work (minor breakdown in communication with our pediatrician...ugh). So VERY long story short, after 4 hours in the ER and missing our flight, they did a urine analysis that came back "perfect" and another round of blood work. This time, they let us leave to make our rescheduled flight and called us with the results - her white count had gone down and they felt comfortable that nothing serious was wrong. whew.
But why did she get so sick?? Our pediatrician sent the original blood work off for allergy testing as I had given her eggs the morning she got so sick. We got the results back on Wednesday and thankfully she is not allergic to eggs. Whew. We went in for another round of blood work and her white counts were back to normal. They can't explain exactly what happened other than you aren't supposed to give a baby under 1 year eggs...oops.

Soooo we finally make it to Vegas on Friday night late after everyone else had arrived. We checked into the beautiful Venetian hotel and started a great trip. Here are a few pictures from the weekend along with commentary. Hopefully you won't get bored...

We did quite a bit of walking, but it was great. And while people complain about 110 degrees in Vegas, they have nothing on our humidity. The heat there was fabulous. Sounds crazy, I know, but it was just different. You don't realize how hot it is - it's as if you've stepped into a heater. Fabulous hair and all. ha ha One good part is that Gabbie finally mastered drinking from a sippy cup - I guess she finally got thirsty enough she had to figure it out. Yay

We stayed at the Venetian hotel which was fabulous to say the least. The hotel was built to resemble Italy, complete with paintings on the ceilings reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel, a river complete with gondola rides and singing gondoliers.

There are sooooooooo many hotels on the strip, so we spent a lot of our time exploring those...
The beautiful Bellaggio
This is all glass hanging from the ceiling the lobby. Hard to tell what it is in this pic...but it was gorgeous in person!
There was a beautiful giant garden display inside the Bellaggio. It reminded us of Bug's Life
This picture would be a little more realistic if Gabbie didn't have this "What's going on?" look on her face

This is outside the newest hotel - Aria. It was beautiful! (notice the little people in the background....cute)
I had to get a picture of our Walgreens - it was right outside the hotel which was so convenient. The first night, Brent hauled back 2 cases of water and snacks for our visit. It turned out to be the best $15 we spent the entire time and we downed that water in less than 3 days.

Along the way, there are a LOT of things/people to entertain you -

M&M's world - SOOO neat! Four levels of M&M's and any promotional item you could ever dream of with M&Ms on it...

not just the street performers, but the other people walking, the buildings, and sadly - the people handing out porn...I mean, invitations to have girls to your room in 20 minutes. This was by far the craziest thing I've ever seen! Not only do males do this job, but I saw plenty of little old hispanic grandmas dressed in long denim skirts and "Girls Girls Girls" t-shirts. One day, I left Brent, Grandma and Ed at a bus stop and decided Gabbie and I would just hoof it to the hotel. As I walked by him overhead, I said "Girls in your room in 20 minutes" it was funny and all those passerby laughed along with us too.

They're the ones in the orange shirts..not a great pic - sorry
Here's another one - most of the time they stand in "teams"

We headed to MGM Grand where they actually have REAL LIVE lions inside on display! It is an incredible site (obviously since Gabbie won't turn to face the camera)...

On Saturday night, Ti Ti offered to watch all the grandkids while we went to a show. Brent and I chose to see Mystere, which was a Cirque de Soleil show and was phenomenal to say the least! Of course the storyline was a little bizarre, but honestly the talent is unbelievable! Here's a pic from our night out - sorry for the crazy lighting, it was taken inside Ti Ti and Pop Pop's hotel room...

We stayed out pretty late on date night and got to explore several of the hotels and their casinos all by ourselves which was so fun. This is the part that we would have been to do more of if we didn't have Gabinator with us. However, we made the best of the trip!

The next day, we met up for breakfast with most of the family then headed to a really really great outlet mall. The biggest challenge in navigating Vegas is that the traffic was horrendous! We decided to purchase bus/shuttle tickets which allowed us to hop on and off the bus that ran the length of the strip. Given that it was 110 degrees most days, it was a really nice break from the heat, but it did provide quite a bit of entertainment for us as we hopped on and off, literally rubbing shoulders with the many interesting people who were vacationing beside us in Vegas. One night, this lady went on a rant to Brent and I regarding her 1 hour trip - she had spent 1 hour on the bus and still wasn't to her hotel, then proceeded to ask me, "Why in the world would you EVER travel with a stroller like that? How terrible! You really should have brought an umbrella stroller..." I was so taken aback that it took me a second to know what to say to her other than my child can lay down in this stroller and it really wasn't that bad. It wasn't until we exited the bus that I discovered that she had the exact same conversation with Brent while I had been on the upper level riding. Wow. Can we say bitter old woman? But how can you be mean with a cutie pie face like this? (Not mine, Gabbie's)

Once we arrived in Vegas, we found out there was a HUGE UFC fight on Saturday night. We thought there were so many people just because it was the 4th of July, then we found out not only was it a holiday it was also one of the biggest fights in UFC world. Ugh. That meant the sidewalks were PACKED. JAMMED PACKED. Crazy.

The night of the 4th ended up being one of our most comical evenings. When you have 11 people trying to walk together, stay together and decide on a restaurant it typically does not end well. Our night was no different. We set out to find a place for dinner ending up at the farthest point of the strip: the Stratosphere, which has a fabulous restaurant 800 feet above the strip. Of course by the time we arrived, it was full and only taking reservations (which of course, we did not have). So we finally settled on a buffet. Definitely one of the worst any of us had ever eaten (is there really ever a time you've left a fine dining experience at a buffet and thought, "that was a good decision"?) At this point, however it's almost 10:00 at night, we've missed all of the fireworks, people are getting tired (Gabbie actually slept through dinner) and all we can do is just laugh. The night wrapped up by JJ, Joel and Brent riding this crazy ride on top of the Stratosphere. It's a rough picture, but you can see what this is all about - this picture is actually the guys....
The above picture is from the observation deck (where I took the picture of the guys' ride). The pole is holding the cords for the bungee jumpers that jumped off the stratosphere. It's also a really neat view of the Vegas strip.

Here's a picture of us waiting at a bus stop, but also of the Stratosphere so you can see just how ENORMOUS it is

We did find out that the monorail was free and while we had bus tickets, it typically would take almost 30 minutes to go less than 3 blocks because of the number of stops to pick up and drop off passengers. The monorail was great - literally 10 minutes and we were at our destination! woo hoo

Hanging out at the food court chowing down on some black beans...she spent more time in the stroller than she has in her entire life! Loved this thing (even if we did get grief for taking it on the bus)

Pasta Pirate - doesn't that name just scream pasta? Yep, but surprisingly it wasn't all pasta and was in fact the best meal we had on our entire trip. It was delicious-o.

On our last night, we visited the downtown part of Vegas (who knew?) on Fremont Street and had a great time. This is an older part of Vegas, which we discovered also meant more affordable. Finally! We were sad that we couldn't have spent more time in this little gem of a find, but we made the most of our time nonetheless.

It was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed spending the days with the Whitaker family! We especially loved so much great time with Brent's grandmother and Ed. His grandmother made the trip possible for all of us and of course we greatly appreciated her generosity.
Vegas Baby = Vegas, with a baby.

Hot Spot

2010-07-08T22:22:00.000-05:00

I was on the eternal black hole called Facebook last night when I came across a status update by someone I barely know that struck a nerve. A big one. One so big that I haven't stopped thinking about it since I read it last night. I almost stayed up late to blog about it but decided I was tired, so I hopped off my soapbox for the night.
I am pretty sure some of our readers will agree with me, while others will strongly disagree and then again a few others will just be in the middle. Whichever side you're on, just know the point of this post isn't to start a riot or lose our readers, it's really just a way for me to write about something that I am realizing I am passionate about. Also be warned this will probably be all over the place...

Recently, I feel as if God is showing me that we cannot live a comfortable Christian life. What do I mean by that? We can't live life "lukewarm" - heck the Bible even tells us that he will vomit us from his mouth if we live lukewarm, "But since you are like lukewarm water - neither hot nor cold - I would rather spit you out of my mouth." Rev 3:16
We are attending a church that Brent and I both enjoy. We're making great friends. We're having a good time. But is that all that's it's about? Probably not. I remember a few years ago a pastor in Chattanooga talking to his congregation about attending their church. He challenged his members to ask if they were attending church for a country club or to be challenged as a christian? wow. That was so great and for whatever reason is what I keep hearing over and over along with a few other lessons I've heard...
I told Brent that every church we have attended since moving to Nashville has been so great as far as the fellowship part goes. People are laid back, not so legalistic - but when he responded, "I think that means lukewarm..." I stopped my train of thought and haven't gotten that out of my head since. That is exactly what's going on. I've known this for a while. At least the past year and it's actually why we stopped attending this one church for a while - because we realized that the leadership wasn't challenging its members to live a life truly for God - outside the standards of this world.
Last night on Facebook, I stumbled upon a conversation that struck a nerve. As I started to truly think about why it bothered me so, I realized it all led back to this one message that I feel God is trying to teach me: be on fire for God. Truly on fire. Not lukewarm. Not cold. On fire. Don't let your feet touch dirty things (awesome message by Jentzen Franklin years ago regarding the Dove that Noah sent out from the Ark...look it up - it's awesome). Our culture tells us otherwise. We're in a huge governor race for the state of TN. There are fantastic candidates - I'm talking stellar, that are running for governor. It's a pretty tight race and I heard tonight that it's pretty split with voters: 30% all three ways. Pretty crazy.
There are so many influential Christian leaders in our area - especially in Nashville. You all know that Brent and I are big Dave Ramsey fans, I am a fan of Christian music and Brent loves him some country music. This is a recent commercial in which Ricky Skaggs, Dave Ramsey, and Michael W. Smith are all endorsing Zach Wamp. The debate enters here: is it appropriate for influential Christians such as Dave Ramsey and Michael W. Smith to use their "power" and influence in the political realm?
This one conversation on facebook regarding this very topic has now gotten such a firestorm of response - more than 55 comments regarding this issue going back and forth, throwing out plenty of theological debate and opinions. Several "Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat" and "it's just another example of the church prostituting itself" and "you cannot serve two masters - the world and the kingdom." All of which I thought I had something to say about.
Pretty sure I was one-sided in my opinion on this topic, but I definitely can start to see where this argument could go. I understand where it might be confusing to a nonbeliever to see a candidate say they are a Christian and they belong to X party then conclude that must be "the Christian party." I guess I get that, but honestly it's exhausting. My original argument is that as a Christian in our 21st century culture, I believe you should absolutely stand up and be able to voice your opinion.
It's offensive to me that just because we live in the Bible belt (belt buckle actually) you would say I'm only so influenced by these people's opinions because I live in the South and I am ignorant in some way? That's just ridiculous and extremely offensive. That is like me saying that if Babe Ruth were still alive and he were to say every New Yorker to smoke cigars they would do it just because they live in New York and respect Babe Ruth as a public figure of influence. What's the difference? there isn't.

See I warned you - this post is all over the place....

At any rate, I would like to challenge you as a Christian to continue to stand up and speak out for what you believe in. Politics are frustrating - especially as a Christian. Sometimes it seems as if we can't win for losing. I don't understand our current political system and all of its crooked ways. I don't understand Christians who can vote for a candidate who believes in abortion, but I do have an open mind to understand there are other issues to vote on. I don't believe the Republican party is the "christian party" as so many assume, but I do believe it aligns more closely with my own personal beliefs and wishes for our country. Just because I am a Republican does not mean I don't want to help the poor or homeless or orphans. I have a heart for them, but I also have a heart for the amazing free enterprise system in this fabulous country we live in. I have a heart for hard working Americans. Small business owners. People who have made money and deserve to get to keep it because - THEY WORKED for it. As Christians we are called to give and serve, but we are not called to be poor and a slave to debt.

It is true - many times there are topics that hit hot spots, most of the time Christianity and politics are my hot spots. I hope I haven't offended any of you in this post, but rather challenge you to think about what you believe and why you believe it. Who cares which candidate you'll vote for.