Hula & Hooplah!

A little bit of HULA:

Sorry it's been so long since a post, but swamped this week with VBS along with several other things. Had a blast doing the crafts for 1st-6th grades and had lots of awesome helpers that made it all come together. I LOVE MY CHURCH!



A whole lot of HOOPLAH:

Late tomorrow afternoon I am actually going on a Girls Getaway Weekend!!!!! I have never really done one of these aside from Women's Retreats so I am soooooo pumped! Me and three of my college best friends are meeting up in Dallas at a hotel for the weekend. My sweets are treating me because they know the life of a minister's family doesn't just roll in the dough! LOL! We haven't all four been together since 1991. We have kept in touch sporadically over the years, so that means we have LOTS of talking to do! We are bringing pictures, snacks, our voice boxes and leaving the rest up in the air for whatever we want! Woohooooo! I can't wait to hug my girls!

Miracle of the Moment

Today we said "see ya later" to our dearest friends. Thank you for your prayers...I felt them. I didn't blubber cry, but there were several times of choking up and fighting back the tears. I don't think I can really wrap my mind around not seeing her for "three years". As Believers, we never have to say the "g-word".....we have eternity together, hallelujah! We just soaked up every moment we could over the last 18 hours. That's why the song playing is important. Steven Curtis Chapman says it perfectly in this song Miracle of the Moment...

"Breathe it in and breathe it out."

Live in every moment, it is a gift from the Giver of all good things.

We love them. We have so many memories over the past 11 1/2 years. Mostly laughing, but a few growing pains, too. They are about to embark on an amazing journey and I can't wait to see it unfold!!!

The big boys had to go run some errands in the Jeep looking oh-so-cute to me and RF!!!

Packing, re-arranging, packing, re-arranging...

And if I do say so myself...we had a scrumdillyumptious breakfast! I wanted to make our friends a made from scratch breakfast since they will be on the road for the next making the rounds of visiting friends and family before their departure. It got rave reviews and I was very satisfied with my efforts. Thank you, Lord for simple things.


Through the tears and the laughter my heart is full. I love my friend and she loves me. We are kindred spirits. We are the definition of Robin Jones Gunn's

Sisterchick: a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat.

Yehhhh-EEEEEE! (That's supposed to be the Cajun sounding hoot-n-hollar call)

One week ago tonight we went out with some great friends (Hi! I know you are reading! wink.) We went to Pappadeaux's Cajun Restaurant for some CHEAP boiled crawfish with the potatoes and corn with all the yummy cajun spices. We had a great time of fellowship and loved the food! Very fun atmosphere!

Wahlah! Let the party begin!

...and this is what we came for!--even though I didn't really have any. I opted for fried catfish fillets that cost FOUR times as much as their crawfish. Not too smart.

Somehow I don't think the crawfish is smiling as big as PandaPop.

Ewwwweeee! The aftermath of Cajun spices...

Oh--how fun! A wishing fountain!

Hmmm--I wonder what the water's like?

Nope-couldn't resist the temptation!

Nature of the Beast

This post is for our precious Spicy Family (under White Swan links as Hunan Spice). They are going through a very difficult time right now. We adore them. When God introduced us to them it was nothing short of a Divine appointment. I mean, we met in Home Depot for crying out loud and then went on to find out many things similar to the other. One of the things that is the same is that both PandaPop and DaddySpice are ministers....Children's Ministers to be exact. Yeah, I know, crazy. The road they got thrown onto last Friday is a road in which we have traveled as well. Yeah, I know, crazy. Part of being in the ministry means dealing with the decisions of other people. I know most jobs have this aspect, but there is a tremendous amount of emotional ties to being a vocational pastor and when those ties are stretched beyond what they can do...well, it makes for another valley. If you decide to go over and see what I am talking about then please know that being in vocational ministry has many blessings, but it also holds a side to it that most don't see. Being a minister's wife also carries MANY blessings, but having to watch your husband reap something negative from someone else is very depleting to the soul of a woman. PLEASE don't be disillusioned by God or his "church". God is good---all the time. People, however, well, people are humans and make terrible judgment calls from time to time. In this case the bad call effected our friends. When PandaPop and I were about to get our referral for PandaGirl (the pictures and paperwork to either accept or reject her) we found ourselves in the EXACT same position as the Spicy Family. We almost didn't get to go to China to get our baby. That is a whole post on its own. During that horrible valley we grew so much closer to the Lord and this song, "I Still Believe" by Jeremy Camp is one of the songs that carried us through. We knew God was in control and "had our back", but we still had to get THROUGH the valley to see some light. Praise God that we don't depend on human strength to get to heaven or to even experience joy here on earth. My dear friends, we love you and you know that. God is good---all the time. Much love. (Someone else made this video so don't be distracted by the iStock photo with the copywright on it...just listen to and read the words. They are the message to be conveyed.)

Look What "Wii" Did! (2nd post today!)

We had a BLAST at our Spicy Friend's house on Saturday. They have a fabulous new TV and a Wii system that really made my biceps HURT after kicking PandaPop's tail in boxing! LOL! ; )

BBQ & Blessings!

We were able to drive back to our old stompin' grounds and visit our beloved Spicy Family for a fun treat on Saturday. They blessed us with buying our BBQ meal at one of the great Mom & Pop shops that are one-of-a-kind sorta cookin' that makes you drool over the food. We were all excited to see each other!!! After lunch we spent some time at their house just chatting and catching up on summer happenings. We LOVE you guys so much! Thanks for a great time.

The next to last pic is of two bloggers in the making! LOL! (If you can't tell, SpicyGirl is taking a pic of the ever-posing PandaGirl).

MommySpice blessed me with a yummy Yankee Candle for my birthday....she knows my crazy love affair with autumn so she got me "Autumn Wreath" and of course, I LOVE it!

Forever Friend

Go here to see my best friend whom I posted the last entry for. She surprised me with a special post about...me! She and I met ten years ago (can it REALLY be 10?!). Our husbands served on staff together at a precious little church in Arlington, Texas. We have such sweet memories for that five year time period. She said at the time that she and her hubby had been praying for a "friend" for her and then I came along. It cracked me up that God used ME to answer someone else's prayer, but from the moment I met her I knew we'd be friends. Little did I know that we'd end up being BEST friends for this long. (God has blessed us both with other friends through the years, of course, but we have a very special bond that is well...you'll see).

We have been through cancer with her husband (praise GOD for healing and medicine!!!), watched her little boy of two years old grow to be a young man with a deep voice, watched her as she threw-up her guts the entire pregnancy of her daughter (well--we didn't actually SEE the throw up!), listened to her completely angelic musical voice while being moved to tears by her own sweet spirit while she sings the lyrics, collected massive charms bracelets together, are connected in our hearts for China for same and different reasons, planned a tea party together for six women JUST because we found scrapbook paper that we wanted to use for it, gone to a Jewish synagogue together and it just happened to be a Bar Mitzvah (LOL!), hugged her when one of her four brothers was killed in a motorcycle accident, disagreed with each other, laughed until we cried, cried until we laughed, shared secrets, rolled our eyes in disgust at the meaness exhibited by church members at times, rolled our eyes at each other, prayed over each other, interceeded for each other, hurt for each other, hurt each other, held each other, forgiven each other, driven really far to get to each other, cheered for each other...I think you get the picture of us.

We haven't lived close for six years, but keep in tune with the other one's life. We know we were divinely put together and are grateful for such a friendship. Thank you, Lord for my sweet friend...even though she is a teacher who can't spell...
S-O-C-C-O-R. LOLOLOL! ; )

Fun Treat...

We were able to spend a bit of time with our friends who came through town to pick up grandparents at the airport. We had a little mini-reunion with other friends who we all used to go to the same church several years ago, but have always stayed in contact. Funderstorm's husband was the music minister and PandaPop was the youth minister at the time. We always enjoy seeing this group of people when we can.