I'm back!

Ok- So I've been gone for a while, but now I'm ready to post again. Here is a picture of the kids from Easter. We had a glorious Easter week this year. I really think it was the best ever.

A new Pastor at Last!

Many of you know that for the past 20 months our church, First Baptist Euless, has been without a pastor. We got the much anticipated news this past Sunday from our Pastor Search Committee that they believe they have found God's man for our church. His name is John Meador, and he currently pastors at Woodland Park BC in Chattanooga, TN. He and his wife Kim have 6 children...I'm impressed already! Robert and I haven't met him yet, but we have heard such wonderful things about him, and he seems to be a great fit for our church. He'll preach "in-view-of-a-call" at our church on July 9. There's a short bio about him on the FBCE website (discoverfirst.org) or you can visit his current church website (woodlandpark.org). Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Father's Day

I know it's supposed to be all about Daddy, but it was all about Jack this year. His bottom two front teeth had been loose for about a week, and in Sunday School that morning Jack decided to set one of them free! He pulled it himself! I'm so thankful my friend Brooke, Jack's art teacher and possible future mother-in-law(that's another story), was there to wrap it in a napkin and stuff it in his shirt pocket. It made it home safely. Later that afternoon, I went out to Target for about 30 minutes, and when I got home, he had pulled the other one! Pretty surprising since he won't be 6 until November, and those 2 teeth didn't come in until he was almost 12 months old. Robert and I are suspicious that they may have been knocked a little loose during his Saturday morning soccer game the week before. Anyway...the tooth fairy made her first visit, and in spite of all the warnings I got about inflation and that the tooth fairy pays $10 a tooth (I'm not joking), our tooth fairy brought $1 per tooth. It was all very exciting...and Jack is cuter than ever! Don't you agree?

Square Dancin'!
Friday night, the worship ministry at FBCE had a BBQ and square dance. It was the most fun we have ever had as a ministry! Here are a few pics. For more, check out the FBCE website: discoverfirst.org and go to the worship page.

My Life as A Pharmacist
This is from my sweet friend Jennifer Knight, she and I have been friends since our seminary days. She and her husband, Greg and 2 beautiful kids live in El Paso, where she's a pharmacist. A few days ago, she sent me this short little story about her life as a pharmacist. I asked if I could post it on my blog. Enjoy!

You know, there is a reason that I am a pharmacist and not a nurse. I wanted to be a nurse, but I found out when I fainted in the hallway during my clinical rotation as I rounded with the doctors that I had made the right choice with pharmacy. I definitely wasn't cut out for the actual hands-on aspect of healthcare. The guy that caused me to faint had gout. He said, “ow ow” and I slid down the wall outside his room. So, being the wimp that I am, I made the choice for the "clean" branch of healthcare, after all, what is more sterile than pills? At least that is what I thought I was getting into....
Now, after almost 9 years of retail pharmacy, I realize that I will never stop being surprised at what people say, do, and show you.
There was the day I got to be the one who found lice in the hair of an 8 year old-they look different on the head than they do in a textbook. There is a never ending stream of people who come in and say, "Does this look infected to you?" I know if they start looking around for nearby customers that they are about to pull up or pull down an item of clothing to show me something that I don't want to see. I'll never forget the day I talked to a woman on the phone for 45 minutes about her latest BM. She had seen 43 doctors, 13 gastro specialists, and spent a week in the hospital, and she thought that I would be able to tell her something new just by a phone description. Early in my career I worked at the State Board of pharmacy taking calls regarding pharmacy complaints. My most memorable call was from a woman who had received Phenergan tablets for nausea, but the pharmacy accidentally put the directions “insert one rectally” as if she had received the suppositories. Well, her mother obviously had taught her to follow directions well so she did as the label said. Her words to me were, “it to’ me up! Now my docta wanta go in there with a light and I’m scared!” Another memorable event involved a regular customer that stopped by very frequently for his Cialis (the new Viagra). One day he stops by to say that his wife had a stroke and just got out of the hospital. About one sentence later in the conversation he asks for a Cialis refill. What is wrong with this picture??? (What was wrong was that he was having an affair with a 20 year old. That story broke a few weeks later.)
As a pharmacist, many of my customers become a part of my life. And sometimes, I become a part of theirs whether I am ready for it or not. The comments that people feel free to make are never ending. When I was pregnant with Marisa, I had a new customer come in one day and she began asking me every question in the world about my pregnancy. All was normal until she asked, "Are you rubbing your nipples with a towel?" That was where I said in my mind, "What was your name again?" Another customer wasn't happy with how long it was taking me to fill his prescriptions (I was pregnant again) and he told me, "I swear, the bigger you get, the slower you get." That is not a good thing to tell a pregnant woman who is filling your prescription. Ever heard of a misfill? One of my favorite customers was a gentleman that forced our relationship to the next level rather quickly when a week after we met, he brings in the pictures from his colonoscopy (which he carries in his wallet) to show me his polyps. We were best friends from that point on. I mean, after you have seen a man’s colon polyps, there is really nothing that you can’t talk about.

This past weekend at work, I had a new occurance that got started on this trip down memory lane. A man came up and asked in Spanish where the foot powder was. I should have just pointed and stayed where I was, but NO, I had to go show him. He was 5 foot 6 and almost 400 pounds. He began telling me his problem in half English, half Spanish. "Mija, I sweat a lot, mija. Mija, I'm a truck driver, I take showers in the public showers and I have bad fungus on my feet mija. I sweat a lot and my shoes, they stink bad mija." ( I think he was trying to flirt with me-haha) Foot fungus, I can handle, but then he began another sentence in broken English/Spanish and I picked up the Spanish word for hernia.... I should have braced myself at that point but thought that since I was in a public place and had just met this man 1 minute ago that I would be spared. I wasn't spared. He lifted his shirt and showed me a huge hernia bulging out of his bellybutton. Now, no offense to anyone out there that has ever had a hernia, the condition itself is not shameful in any way, but it is not what I expected to see in the middle of the footcare aisle in Kmart! All I could think was "Did he really just do that?" So much for the sterile field of healthcare.

So the moral of the story is-be prepared for anything, always show compassion to everyone no matter how funny their predicament may seem at the time, and NEVER take a shower at a truck stop bathroom.
By Jennifer Knight

Dancin' Man
Hey friends- I got this link as a forward, and I show it to everyone who comes to my house for a visit. So, I decided to share it with all my cyber guests as well. It's really more fun to watch with friends. Jenny Whit...ice ice baby is for you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ByVSY3hrg&feature=Views&page=1&t=t&f=b
Somebody let me know if the link works!

Easter Bunnies (the date on the picture is wrong)

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a song in my head called "End of the Beginning". The kids were sitting at the table eating their cereal, and I was singing as I was doing stuff around the kitchen. All of a sudden, all 3 of the kids stopped eating, put down their spoons and just stared at me. As soon as I noticed them, I started laughing...it was like they were entranced with the song! So I said, "Wow, you guys must really like that song!" Audrey said, "No mom, I don't like it, I never heard it before!" and then Jack piped up and said, "I don't like the song mom, I just like you!" It was so sweet, I had to post it!

Have you ever had one of those moments? You know the kind where you're just doing your normal thing, like driving down the road, or listening to a song, or having a conversation with a friend, and all of a sudden you realize...this is a special moment. Really, the word special doesn't describe it...profound, extraordinary, surreal. These words get close... let me set up my moment for you.
I grew up singing in church in the mid-eighties. Now, every other female in her mid-thirties that grew up singing in church can identify with what I'm about to say. There were really only 2 choices for my repertoire...Amy Grant or Sandi Patti (Patty). Of course, I'm not a stratospheric soprano, so the choice was easy for me. Amy, all the way. In fact the first song I ever sang as a real "solo" in church was "Father's Eyes". And that began my life long love affair with Amy Grant. I mean it in the purest sense. But I do love her, not just her music. I love her as a person. I know she took a lot of criticism a few years back, but I am not the person to argue with about that. Anyway, I'm getting to my point.

Some dear friends from church, Maria and Julie, gave myself and Lainie tickets to see Amy last week for our birthdays. It was an absolute blast. Amy sang some of her old favs and some new ones, but my moment came when she sang a song called "I Will Remember You". Another important twist in the story is that one of my closest, and lifelong friends, Sheila Davis Curtis, is now traveling with Amy as her make-up artist, and she had emailed me that she would be in town and wanted to get together after the concert. Of course we made plans, and then I called some favorite friends who are like family, Randy and Melissa Chunn, to come meet up with us after the concert. SO I was eagerly looking forward to seeing all my friends after the concert. And as Amy sang "I Will Remember You", a song about old friendships, I thought about funny memories in college with Sheila, Randy and Melissa and I just started laughing out loud...Without really even realizing it until Lainie looked at me and said, "what are you smiling about"? and I said, "just Sheila."
So that was the moment, 2 dear, new friends, Julie and Maria, sat to my left, Lainie, my oldest and dearest friend since the 5th grade, sat to my right, and Amy Grant my earliest inspiration for singing was singing a song about her make-up artist! Of course she didn't write the song about Sheila, but in my interpretation it was about Sheila and Randy and Melissa and Mary and Jennifer and Melissa Beutler and Heather and David Skinner and Brian Denker and Brett Smith and all of those wonderful friends that make up my past and my memories. It was just a moment, what else can I say?

Restaurant Review-Bucca Di Beppo

OK- So last Saturday night Robert and I went on a triple date with some friends- the Thomases and the Wests. We decided we were all up for trying something new, so we went to a place called Buca Di Beppo (it's Italian for Joe's Basement). It was amazing. From the minute we walked in we loved the place. The decor was fun, interesting and made us laugh. The hostess took us on a tour of the restaurant and we walked right through the kitchen. They even have a table for 6 in the kitchen that can be reserved if you call ahead. The cool thing about this restaurant, is all the food is served family style, so we had to form a strategy for ordering our food. We ordered chicken saltimboca, veal Parmesan and the Large fettuccine alfredo, which Bradley dubbed the "tub of fettuccine". The bowl the noodles were served in was literally big enough to bathe my 17 month old in. Now that's a mental picture. SO to sum it up, we loved it and will definitely go back. Here are some tips if you're thinking of trying it:
1. Go with friends. I'm sure it's not as fun sharing ALL the food if there aren't very many to share with.
2. Order the garlic cheese bread as your appetizer. It was amazing.
3. Order the small, not the large, unless there are more than 10 people in your party.
If you've tried this eatery, let me know what you thought. Did you like it?

Heather Paul's Link
I wanted to post the link to Heather Paul's caring bridge page.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heatherpaul
This is a great way for you to check on her updates and post her a message. I have cried reading all the wonderful prayers of our family all over the world. We are all family! Also note, I've added a couple more of my favorite blogs to my list! Enjoy!

Hey friends- There are a few things on my heart today I'd like to share and ask you to pray for as the Lord brings them to mind.
1. Our friends Lainie & Bradley Thomas have dear friends in Knoxville that were in a terrible car wreck last night as they were leaving a restaurant after church. Their names are Tim and Melissa Paul. Their 4-year-old daughter Kaitlin, was also in the car with them. Tim and Kaitlin are fine, but Melissa had not yet put on her seatbelt and was T-boned as they pulled out of the parking lot on her side of the car. She is in very critical condition, with hemorrhaging on both sides of her brain. Also, and of very great concern, is the bruising on her lungs. The doctors are concerned she will not be able to maintain breathing on her own. She is still in a coma and has not been awake since the accident. They were hit by 3 teenagers. One was thrown from the car and killed immediately. The driver made it and is being charged with vehicular homicide. There was drug paraphernalia found all inside the car. This couple is in their 30's and they have lots of support from their church. Tim is the worship associate (instrumental) at FBC Concord. Lainie said the next 72 hours are very important for Melissa...please pray.

2. The youth pastor at Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth was killed in a car wreck yesterday morning. We don't know him personally,but have friends that attend that church, and I believe he is the same young man that our interim pastor mentioned last night in our service. His in-laws are members of our church and long-time friends of Bro. Bill.

3. My dear sweet friend Karen May. Today is her birthday! She underwent a double mastectomy a few weeks ago and began chemo last Tuesday. Her older daughter, Katie, told me yesterday morning that Karen has been extremely sick this week and has barely been out of bed. Last night in the evening service, Bro Bill (our interim pastor and Karen's father) told us that several years ago Karen had a dream that something terrible was going to happen to her . She had no idea what it meant so she asked the Lord about it. The Lord made it clear to her that something terrible was going to happen to her and it would NOT be from Him. Bro. Bill used this illustration in the context of our testing. Karen feels this cancer is NOT from the Lord, but she has told me that she has a peace that she will be ok when it's all over.

In light of all these requests, I feel the enemy is at work! Let's pray fervently as the Lord leads us against the powers of darkness. Yesterday morning we sang, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". These words seem very appropriate now..."The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure...one little word shall fell him!" That word is the name of JESUS! Let's pray in the power of that name that Satan will be defeated in these circumstances.
Thanks for listening!

10 years ago today
10 years ago today it was a Saturday. I remember I got up and went to my friend Kristie Harrick's apartment to borrow an outfit for my date that night. That afternoon I went back to my little seminary apartment and worked for a couple of hours on my scrapbook. Robert and I had been dating for 4 months and I hadn't put anything in my book in a couple of months, so I wanted to get caught up (life before kids). I spent some time doing my hair and getting dressed and then Robert picked me up around 6:00. He said he had to go to a practice room to pick up his keyboard before the music building closed and asked if I cared to go with him. Of course I didn't care, I would do anything to be with Robert! When we walked into the practice room (the same room he had initially asked me out in for our first date) he had decorated with heart shaped lights, flowers and had music playing. It was in that spot he asked me to be his wife! I, of course, said yes and we began our journey.

The past 10 years a been a true trip together. Both graduating seminary, taking our first church together (FBCE), the death of Robert's granny, buying our first home, church shooting at Wedgwood (our seminary church home), the birth of 3 children, Robert seeing his dream of becoming a published arranger and orchestrator come to fruition, and now the leading of the worship ministry at FBCE. Robert is still the love of my life and I'm so grateful God brought us together. His laid-back easy goingness is a perfect compliment to my impatient, questioning of the future.

Can't wait to see what trip God has planned for the next 10 years. And I'm so glad Robert is the one I'll be traveling with!

A week in the life of...
I was just thinking how crazy my life is...don't get me wrong...crazy but fun! Since last Wednesday, a week ago today, I've done the following:
1. Made 9 trips to church
2. Made 5 dinners
3. Had a double date with our best friends, Bradley and Lainie
4. Went to a superbowl party
5. recorded a kids Praise & Worship CD in the studio (at least 1/2, we'll finish it this coming Sat.)
6. Sang a solo in church (you will soon be able to watch FBCE's services live on the internet)
7. Had a minor (but traumatic) accident with Audrey that sent both of us tumbling to the concrete. She got a bump on her head and a shiner! Mom was just rattled!
8. A trip to the ENT with Foster. (we're putting in tubes on Feb. 24)
9. Taught preschool choir
10. Had Praise team rehearsal and sang on Praise team Sunday night.
11. Had a meeting with my preschool choir team
12. Attended part of the SBTC at FBCE
13. Made 4 trips to Starbuck's (2 of them were yesterday)
14. Babysat for a friend
15. Celebrated Dudley's birthday with the family! Dudley is one of our closest family friends!
16. Gone to bed after 1 am twice
Can't wait to see what next week holds!

My Favorite Things:
1. Starbuck's-I love the way it looks, smells and the cool pink thermos they have for sale right now. And of course, Grande Extra Hot Soy Chai Latte!
2. TIVO
3. South Beach Peanut Butter Bars...with a cup of coffee...even better
4. Lunch with Pam Hill...did that today and it was so sweet! I'm so thankful for longtime friends.
5. Robert Elkins...the most patient, loving man on the planet...and he's mine!
6. Wednesday morning Bible Study-after I drop off the kids...it's worship and study. I love it!
7. Flavored creamer in my coffee.
8. Doing Audrey's hair. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and I always wanted to "Fix" my doll's hair. She's my little "dolly".
9.Checking my email...and getting email.
10. Stops at Quick Trip for a Vanilla Diet Coke.
11. Monday night Little Levite Leadership Meetings...at Starbuck's-where else?
12. green apples and caramel...yummy
13. Sunday mornings in the choir loft...one of my favorite moments of the week!
14. Easter Sunday morning...In fact I've got this Easter all planned, hope Robert takes some of my suggestions...hee hee!
15. Oprah...ok I admit it. I know she's seriously messed up spiritually, but I love watching her show!
16. Having parties at my house...anytime, for any reason, for anybody and everybody that wants to come!
17. Looking at church websites. I know it sounds weird, but I just love life in the ministry!
18. My kid's naptime, I love 'em and all, but I need a break!
19. Taking funny pictures of my kids.
20. My IPOD.

"This ringbearer thing is a breeze!" (Jack's third time as a ring bearer) September 2005

Elaine Gore Thomas and Angie at the February Ladies Dinner at FBCE 2005

Old Friends are the best! Angie and Jenny Whit catch up at Krispy Kreme before Mary's wedding September 2005

summer fun in Texas July 2005

Attack of David Gentiles (friend and collegue), August 2005

Dad and Foster bear, November 2005