2010 Beth Moore Simulcast

Join us at FBC Rockwall for the live simulcast of Living Proof Live featuring Beth Moore and music by Travis Cottrell. It will Saturday, Sept 18 and I have been the past 2 years and loved it! It is a great time of worship and enjoying the teaching of Beth. You can find more information and can register online here.

I hope to see you there!

Mamaw's 80th Birthday

First of all, I am alive - sorry I've been a bad blogger. My life has been work, work and more work and I hope to be able to find a good work/life balance. My first event in Dallas went great and now I'm working on my others. Good times!

Now, back to what the post is about - my grandmother's 80th birthday party. I took a 6am flight Sunday morning back from Omaha so I could get home, change and go with Brian to Lindale to celebrate my grandmother. I was so excited to see all my family and for my grandmother to feel how loved she truly is!

It was my grandmother's birthday and there were many pictures out - especially the bridal pictures my grandmother's 3 daughters - my 2 aunts and my mom. I love them!

The birthday girl!

Mamaw and her daughters

Mamaw with her two great-granddaughters - Kayden & Kiersi

Mamaw's birthday cake made my Melody

Blowing out her candles

Mamaw with me and my two brothers



Our whole family

It was a great day being able to celebrate my grandmother. She is so loved and there were so many people there showing their love for her. I'm so glad all our family was able to come and we were able to get a family shot. It's so hard to get everybody together now but we all knew we needed to be there for this day. I have tried to keep all of the cards my grandmother has sent me because she always writes the sweetest notes. I do love her and cherish each day we have with her!

Omaha 2010

It's my last night in Omaha and I wanted to share the picture above of downtown Omaha I took Thursday night. I thought it turned out really well. The first Imagine event for the late summer and fall season is a wrap. It was an amazing event with Mary Mary coming on for the first time and we had a surprise mini-concert by Selah. I also got to meet one of Selah's singer's wives - Angie Smith. Many of you may know her from her blog: Bring the Rain. She is an amazing woman of God. My friend, Shannon, texted me on Thursday to tell me she saw that Angie was going to be in Omaha for WoF and so I set out to find her at the event. I got to talk to her, told her that Shannon said she was her BFF and that we loved her blog. She was sweet and Selah was wonderful!

Angie & I

Now that Omaha's a wrap, I'm headed to bed because I have to get up early to catch my flight in the morning. Next stop for the Imagine tour: Dallas, TX. God moved big time in Omaha and I can't wait to worship Him in the American Airlines Center next weekend with thousands of ladies!

Packed and Ready to go

Time to get back on the road...Omaha, Nebraska here I come as we start the beginning of our Women of Faith season. This year I will be visiting not only Dallas, TX but Anaheim, CA, Denver, CO, Rochester, NY, Ft. Lauderdale, FL and Greensboro, NC.

I will miss Brian but am so thankful everyday he supports me and my job. He'll be traveling some too so we'll see each other in passing. The Estes' will be racking up the frequent flier miles. So here's to another great Women of Faith season - I'm ready to see the women transformed by God's love.

Beavers Bend, Part 2

So most of the weekend we played games, ate and hung out. Saturday, we did get up and head to the river to kayak. I had been looking forward to it since they told us we were going to do it. Unfortunately, I have no photos to prove that I did it but I have eye witnesses. I didn't take my camera because it was not water-proof and my kayak filled with water a couple of times :) I did pretty good but my kayak seemed to me attracted to the rocks and I would get stuck. Thankfully my kayaking team was there to help me out. We kayaked for 4 miles and my arms have been sore the past couple of days. Now, I can say that I've done that!

We played many games such as Spoons, Pool, etc... Let's just say we have many competitive people in our class and their competitive spirits came through. The below photo shows it all:

This is Shannon, Brian, Katie and I playing spoons - I was trying to get a spoon and knocked Shannon off of the bench. Thankfully she was not hurt, haha - sorry Shannon!

Here we are playing a more peaceful game of Apples to Apples

Most of the boys just stuck with playing pool

We had the most wonderful food all weekend, thanks to Mrs. Mary Meek. She, Sarah and Jennifer helped make our meals and we did not go hungry. Friday night it was shrimp, chicken and potatoes. Saturday morning was breakfast tacos and Saturday night was burgers and hot dogs. Sunday morning, she made amazing pancakes! Thanks Mother Mary for keeping us fed!

Mary Meek aka Betty Crocker

Friday Dinner

And as fun weekends go, there are always the out of the ordinary things that happen such as below:

We went out to find Doug who drove up after work and Josh and Matt decided to play with the light sabers on their phones

And for some reason Bradley and Josh decided to leg wrestle

Strange that these two strange incidents both involve Josh Gillespie...hmmm

Me with my friends, The Meeks

All of us at Sunday breakfast

And here is Nicole and Bradley doing the awkward prom photo

Beware of Bears - Shannon and Nicole are afraid!

I'm not sure why this happened

Our last day - sad that it was over

I've said it once and I'll say it again, we are so grateful God brought us to this Sunday School class. Our teacher, Phil, taught us a great lesson Saturday night and Brian was able to give his testimony. I'm so proud of my husband and it was so neat to see how far he's come in his life and his walk with God. He did a great job!

It's so nice to have friends to know you can call on for anything and we can all pray for each other! I'm ready for next year's trip today!

Beavers Bend, Part 1

Friday morning, we pulled out with 7 other couples from our Sunday School class, including our teacher Phil and his wife, Sarah and we headed to Beavers Bend, OK. I've been looking forward to hanging out with our friends and was happy to hit the road.

All of us in the van - too bad you can't see Jennifer behind me.

Brian was our trusty driver for some of the way, Bradley took over halfway there

I was excited because we stopped close to my hometown, Mt. Pleasant, and ate lunch at Bodacious BBQ.

And the cameras came out and we took many pictures

When we got to Beavers Bend we drove around for a while and it was really pretty. I had never been so I was looking forward to seeing the pretty scenery

We stopped and got out to look around and sometimes you just have to pose - right Nicole?

Then, we pulled up to our lodge - it was very nice!

Our room we shared with the Spivy's - there was a trundle bed under the twin bed so they didn't have to share the twin bed (for those who were concerned)

The back porch

Brian looking out and thinking - I don't know what about

We were excited to make it to our lodge on Friday. We had a lot of things planned this weekend and we were happy to to start it. We all found our rooms (or couches for some) and got settled in. The boys started playing pool and Mary and Jennifer worked hard to get dinner started. The next day included kayaking (yes I survived), games and just relaxing with friends. More to come...

Trying Something New

This weekend I will be trying something new, Kayaking. In my mind I'm thinking of roaring rapids and me trying to stay above the water but I've been reassured that the river we are kayaking in will not be very treacherous. I really am looking forward to it and will be able to say - I've done that before! I hope to tell more about it when I return. Have a fabulous weekend!

Organizing & Prioritizing

Sorry the poor blog has not been my top priority lately. But I have been learning how to organize and prioritize. I am learning many new things in my new position and being very organized is going to be the key to my success. There will always be the surprises that happen two days or one day before the event but the hard work I put in on the front end will show on when it's time. Keeping things organized by email folders, regular folders, binders, will help me in the long run. It's just hard on those days when things are going a million miles a minute and there are 30 papers thrown across my desk and I am just trying to figure out what day it is. Even it the chaos - it is still fun. I know I can do this and I just need to learn what works for me.

I'm also having to learn what is priority and what isn't. I'm the person that as soon as I get an email, I respond right away. I do that because it bothers me SO MUCH when people do not respond to my emails within a certain amount of time. God is teaching me patience and showing me just because they don't respond right when I want them to, that they will respond and everything will be taken care of in time. Easier said than done - can I get an AMEN??

So I guess this post is just to say I'm learning and I know I have a long way to go but I'm enjoying the journey. I'm about to be on the road so that will throw another kink into the organization but it can be done. If anybody has any organizational ideas - please send them my way!