How True!

"In the middle of my mess I forget how much I am blessed"

Random

Is a word that I often hear my just turned 12 year old use. Everything is "random" or "randomness"in her world........ so it got me to thinking why does she love this word so much?

Random means: having no definite aim or purpose. Hmmmm.......so what a better way to start back into my blogging world than with a bunch of "randomness".

Lauren, I dedicate this random post to you my sweet girl!

~Today is day 1 for me with this new diet. It is called The 17 Day Diet. I saw Dr. Mike Moreno on tv during the holidays and it really caught my interest. It seems to be about detoxing your body, reset your metabolism, eating healthy, and loosing the holiday pounds. Yes, that would be me.......I gained 8 pounds since Thanksgiving. I took FULL advantage of relaxing and time off during the holidays. See why I haven't blogged? ha, jk. Soooo, today is day 1 for me. So far so good. I haven't had a Dr. Pepper all day and everyone is still alive at my house!! haha.

~I hate cold weather! Enough said.

~So many of my close friends are going though a lot in their lives. Sometimes I feel like God has called me to be a prayer warrior for them. I am not one of those people who say, "Oh, I'll keep you in my prayers" and don't. I take my friends personal struggles to heart. One of my 2011 goals was to start a prayer journal to help me stay accountable. So far it really has helped........now if I can only truly lay those prayers at my Father's feet after I pray. This is a struggle for me. I often have a heavy heart the rest of the day which affects my attitude, being a mom, and a wife. Not the way God would want me to do. I am working on this:)

~Speaking of my baby girl, yes I know a 12 year old isn't much of a baby:) She is really growing up. Not just physically but she is showing me so much of who she is everyday. I like what I am seeing:) The way she cares for her friends, watches out for her brothers, the way she wants to learn how to do her mascara, the way she comes back into my room to tell me one more time good night (even after I have already kissed and hugged her in bed), the way she smiles at me or rolls her eyes at me when I try to sing along to Pink in the car............Oh, I could go on. It really is amazing how one day she is my little girl and then the next I feel like she is my young lady. I pray over her all the time. Who she will be, who she will marry, her dreams, her health, her happiness, and above all her personal relationship with our Father. Right before Christmas something truly out of the blue amazing happened.........I had tucked her in bed and told her good night. At 11pm my heart was heavy out of the blue. I turned off the tv and just listened to the silence in the house. My hubby came around the corner to tell me he thought Lauren's light was still on. I went to check on her and found her in tears. She was bawling. It just so wasn't like her. I saw the bible beside her in bed and asked what was wrong? She finally stopped and said "God came into my heart, mom" She had asked for forgiveness of all of her sins and asked for him to be her Lord and Savior.........Wow, talk about out of the blue..........the glorious, joyful blue!!! That night we both prayed together as Christians:)

This was my early and BEST Christmas gift I got.

Well, I think that is enough randomness for tonight. Wow, that was kinda like therapy! haha.

Maybe I will do more postings like this...........thanks Lauren.

I'm thinking about it!!

Yes, it has been WAY too long since I posted on my blog. Life just got busy and I just got lazy at this:) So, I am making my way back. Even though I am a little overwhelmed as to where to start? ha! I have missed this. I do enjoy blogging about the 3L's and our world over here. Yep, that is it.........I'm coming back!

2010 Annual Spring Valley Pumpkin Contest

Yes, it is that time of year! Time to get our pumpkins decorated and entered in the annual school pumpkin contest. The pumpkins have to be based on a story book character. Luke went with "Charlotte's Web" and Landry chose "Horton Hears A Who"

We will find out soon if they placed!

The boys had fun (and momma too) working on these characters.

Happy Halloween!

The Clowns you will see at Wal-Mart!

One of my many nursing jobs is that I give Flu shots for a company at retail stores for a couple of months. Recently I was at Wal-Mart giving shots when somebody tapped me on my shoulder to ask if this is where they are giving flu shots. You can imagine my face as I turned to see a clown asking me this! I didn't know what to say seeing this sweet little lady all dressed up. I told her yes and that I would be happy to give here a shot. As I was getting things ready I asked her was there a carnival going on at Wal-Mart today? Why was she dressed up as a clown? Her reply was that she has been at a VA Hospital early this morning for kids. I smiled......and then it hit me! Wait, it is 3:00pm now and you are walking around like this at Wal-mart? Ha! Bless her sweet heart, I guess she just wanted some attention and kept her clown suit on as she went to go pick up her cat food and get a flu shot.

Oh, the Clowns you will see at Wal-Mart!

Chili Peppers....Oh my!!

My Father-in-Law gave us a HUGE feed sack of these beautiful chili peppers. I think he was secretly wanting to get them out of his house. ha! Casey and I decided we would roast them on the grill and then freeze them to use in recipes later.

Wow! What a chore this was.

The red ones are not used much for chili relleno recipes so we had to throw them away.

Kind of sad because they were so beautiful.

So, one night while the kids were getting in their last summer night swim I grilled all these beautiful guys. (Never again! They produce a smoke that makes your eyes water AND I got several fire ant bites while doing this. I had no idea there was an ant bed near the grill. OUCH!)

Oh, I shouldn't complain.......they will be well worth it as I taste their goodness in my yummy recipes!

I even baked several cakes for the school Fall Festival that night too! Just call me Betty Crocker....please, don't!

Leave it to my silly husband to make me feel better after all that cooking and a swollen foot from ant bites. Love you, hun!

Beach and Best of Friends

(I am back! Sorry to be away so long. If you follow my best gals blog, Trendy Mindy and Her Loves, then you know about Travis. Let's keep praying for him. God is sooo good and is hearing our prayers!!!)

Back to my previous post, we went with some wonderful friends from our NeighborHOOD. The kids had a ball and it was so fun to relax in the sun (when it wasn't raining) with our fun friends!

So THANKFUL for GOOD Friends to share family vacations with!

The Reeds in Galveston, Texas

Our super fun vacation at the Beach!

Stayed tuned to see who went with us!