Living proof live simulcast

Church bulletins can be useful or contain way more information than you need to know.  Ours is generally is packed full with events happening anywhere from that night to a month down the road.  About a month ago I was browsing through our church bulletin towards the end of the service and read that our church would be broadcasting a Beth Moore simulcast.  It caught my eye immediately, and I purchased a ticket as soon as they became available.  The ticket sat in my wallet for a couple weeks and I asked many of my friends if they were going to go.  I mentioned how it would only cost $15, which included lunch and childcare from 8-3, but no one seemed the least bit interested.

Friday night Philip and I stayed up late watching the Baylor game and then I couldn't sleep well at all due to allergies that came along with the cold front.  My misfit watch says I got 2 hrs and 20 minutes of restful sleep Friday night.  

During the night I started thinking of how there was no way I would be able to get up and out of the house by 7:30 to be at the church around 8. I even started making up excuses in my head to convince myself of why it was okay if I didn't go.  After a couple of hours of sleep Raegan decided it was time to get up and woke me up.  My face was in so much pain I asked Philip if it looked like my nose was broken, because it felt that bad.  Like maybe this is how it would feel if someone had punched me in the face multiple times.  I kept looking in the mirror but my face looked normal.  I showered and dryed off in the sauna, drank some coffee and took some sudafed while my sweet husband helped get the kiddos dressed and their sack lunches packed.  We left the house about an hour later than we should have, but hey better late than never right!

I actually walked in right before Beth Moore started to teach so all I missed was a little praise and worship singing, which they had at the beginning and end of each of our sessions throughout the day.

There weren't as many people there as I expected there would be, but I found two ladies I knew and sat by them.  I knew during that first session that I was suppose to be there that the devil had done everything he could to try and prevent me from going.  

I was happy that I didn't take time that morning to put makeup on or contacts because I was in tears within the first hour.  I took away many tidbits of advice and encouragement but most the time I was thinking about my female family and friends and how I wished so bad that they could be there to experience and hear the message.

The seminar was very inspirational and also such a great time to just sit, listen, and reflect without any interruptions.  The theme was 'Being woman well' which is very hard to explain, but basically we were encouraged through learning about women in the Bible. Beth Moore is an entertaining and motivating speaker.  She can make you laugh and may even make you cry.  We read this identity declaration and even sang a song with these words.  This picture/document is from her ministry's blog at www.blog.lproof.org if you'd like to print it for your bathroom mirror or to keep as a book marker you can download it there. 

The last 5 words there "blessed is she who believed" is found in Luke 1:45 where Elizabeth is speaking to Mary. I am studying Luke in my new study on Wednesday mornings and had just read this verse the day before. 

She also read this to us it's called, 'What does a woman of God look like'

http://blog.lproof.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/identity_text94.pdf

I just wanted to share these thoughts and her blog with you and hope you find some inspiration in them as well. 

Our sweet children

Quick tidbits on this silly girl

And this handsome fella

Raegan:

- she has the most amazing memory! The other day (I can't even remember what day it was) she was telling someone about how she got a toy from our Christmas white elephant gift exchange because they said it was number 7's turn and she had number 7 (that was at least 8 months ago).  Also at school they use an app called 'near pod' and the teacher had told them what 5 digit pin to type in their iPad to participate in a session.  Raegan got Philips phone at home that afternoon got on his nearpod app and typed in the pin from class that she just remembered.  It was something like JFK53. 

- she's a wonderful swimmer, underwater diver, and cannon ball maker!

- she's super proud of her new earrings and the widely known fact that she didn't even cry.

- she loves retelling Bible stories from school and is serious about following the three points of the school's honor theme (treat others as special, do more than what's expected, have a good attitude). Which is awesome to see play out in her actions, such as cleaning up a mess she didn't make without having to be told, or sharing with her brother, and seeing what I need help with without me having to even ask her.  So glad we have invested in private school as I can see it shaping her character already.

- she loves the new rainbow loom bracelet making kit Grammee and Papa brought her last week. 

Mr. C

- he's a climber! He can go up and down our stairs without anyone's help.  One morning around 3am Raegan was calling out for me so I went upstairs and found Cameron hiding under a pillow next to Raegan on her bed; when I lifted up the pillow he started giggling! She said, "he's just getting too big, he just crawled up here and pushed me over!" So now we are letting him sleep on her trundle bed in her room and so far it's working out pretty well.  Guess it's time to find a fun Pinterest project for our crib, since we won't be needing it anymore!

- he likes to sing and dance but hates when we sing the abc's to him, he will scream/holler till we stop! 

- he says words when he wants to, not when anyone tries to make him say them.  His favorites are probably mom, bug, yuck, more and boat. 

- if you give him a cup of milk he will go to the refrigerator and ask you for chocolate syrup, because we've spoiled him on chocolate milk!

- he's getting so tall, he's up to Raegan's neck maybe chin and his feet seem to grow overnight! I have such a hard time figuring out what size shoes he will need for winter.

- his favorite show is Mickey Mouse clubhouse and he sometimes gets very upset if another cartoon is on besides Mickey Mouse. 

- and he LOVES babies (and pretty much thinks that anyone under 3 is a baby). He loves to tickle their toes.  Always always holds out his arms to hold them and we often have to unpry his arms to take a baby out of his lap.  He also likes rocking baby dolls, patting their backs, and giving them bottles.  It's pretty sweet.  

Labor Day weekend

Saturday Philip's parents came in town and we swam and cooked out fajitas.  They stayed the night so that Philip and I could leave for Waco the next morning.

We got to Waco by lunch time and are at Food for Thought (one of my favorites during my college years).  It took over 30 minutes to get our food but once we did it was delicious and totally worth the wait!

After lunch we walked to the Baylor bookstore along with at least a hundred other people as it made for a great place to run into old friends under air conditioning!  After shopping we walked over to common grounds for our favorite frozen Snickers coffee treat! Here's a pic from the porch swing at common grounds:

And turn the camera around:

I've seen many pictures of the new stadium, but it truly was awesome to see it in person!  This pic was before we crossed over the bridge:

We were there early enough to watch the unveiling of the RGIII statue! RGIII was everywhere at this game, he have a speech here before the game, ran out before the football players through the Baylor line, led the stadium in an opening prayer, and "directed" the band at half time.

Here's a cool photo I found that shows Philip at the game.  It must have been taken when I was stranding in line for at least 45 minutes for food. 

The first quarter of the game was awesome, I missed most of the 2nd, and then the second half of the game was just really sad because I felt sorry for SMU.  I remember Baylor's football team while I was in school, pretty pitiful to be honest.  So it doesn't really feel like it could be real that our team appears to be so good and our fans so hyped and our stadium so very nice!

We had a great time and I'm glad Philip talked me into attending the very first Baylor game at McLane stadium!

Raegan got her ears pierced!

We went to Payless to pick up a pair of ballet shoes last week and Raegan found so many sparkly earrings she wanted, but couldn't have because she didn't have her ears pierced.  Despite my cautioning of how bad it may hurt, she convinced me she was ready to get her ears pierced and that daddy could come too to hold my hand (not hers).  

We went up to Claire's and she picked out tourmaline (pink) gemstone studs, well that's not completely true, she first wanted these little rainbow flower ones but I kinda talked her out of them into something more simple for her first pair!  

She was so tough and didn't even flinch when the lady pierced either of her ears, just giggled a little!  I was super proud of her and she's been doing a fabulous job at cleaning them multiple times a day.  I guess she really was ready! 

She is also very proud of them and shows nearly anyone she sees, even strangers occasionally!  She gets to change her earrings out around my birthday and we already bought a pack of 12 rose shaped different colored studs she picked out that day.  She's excited for that day! 

Kindergarten

Raegan was so excited about kindergarten finally starting this week! Seriously she was running around and acting super goofy last night just at the mention of getting to be part of K5!  

On the playground last year the teachers would announce "K4 line up"or "K5 line up" when it was time to go back inside; so getting to be part of K5 seems like a big deal for her this year.  Funny how recess is such a big deal at this age.  Raegan chose to wear tennis shoes to school today solely for the fact that they make her run faster and she will be able to catch the boys (namely Kyle and Caul) at recess.  She talked about it the whole way to school!  Already so boy crazy!  The other day when she was talking about marrying Kyle, I said, "but I thought Kyle didn't want to marry you?" To which she quickly replied, "he'll change his mind!"  Lord, help us! 

Anyways back to school...

I asked Raegan what she was most excited about and she said, "learning" so that's a good sign.  We took her school supplies for orientation Monday night.  She went right in her class and found her desk and her cubby like a pro.  She is in the back row next to Rogan.  She sat next to Rogan at the beginning of prek last year too.  We listened to Mrs Mays tell us about her take home folder, classroom rules, and emphasize that 'this is kindergarten now' hinting that things the students may have gotten away with in preK weren't going to fly in her classroom.  Philip, Cameron and I went on with the rest of the parents to parent orientation and Raegan and her classmates made a craft and got a tour of where her elective classes (art, Spanish, and music) will be held.  For this first week Raegan will be at the back of the line when the class leaves their room.  The person at the back of the line is suppose to turn off the lights and shut the door when they leave.  Poor Raegan couldn't reach the light switch to turn it off so Mrs Mays said she would get a step stool for her :) 

Okay without further ado here are her 1st day of kindergarten pictures:

The hands on the hips were her idea, so sassy.

Big Cheese!

Mrs Mays

First task = coloring (her fave!)

Wild to look at how much she has changed in just one year! (1st day of prek on left) That is the same size 4 uniform skirt in both pictures.   She's growing up fast, but it's not something that tears me up.  In fact, we celebrate these monumental days. I know she is in a wonderful environment with teachers who will love on her and challenge her to do her very best!  She will come home and tell us all about what she learned and the friendships she is building.  

Can't wait to see where this next school year takes us!

Home away from home

Raegan and Cameron spent a whole week with Papa and Grammee in Tyler.  Raegan loves riding Papa's horses, but Cameron is okay with just petting them.  Here is a picture of the kids with their Papa Ron and Babe

I love this early morning shot of them petting the horses.

Sitting on pickle buckets on the front porch.

They also went to the zoo with Grammee, Aunt Karen, and their cousins: Asa, Scarlett and Brooklyn. 

The kids made homemade lunchables with Grammee! 

Raegan completed another week of swimming lessons with Ms Debbie and is swimming like a fish! Here's a picture of them at the splash pad:

They also got to visit grandmother and take pictures with her. 

I'm glad they got to spend such a great week with relatives.  We picked them up on Saturday and Raegan was excited to see us but I think Cameron had forgotten who we were! 

Can't believe it's already mid August! School days are just right around the corner!

Painting

When Philip gets his mind set on a project there's no stopping him.  So one day he decided to "touch up" a few places around the house with paint he found in the garage, unfortunately it was flat paint for the ceilings and made the touch up spots more noticeable.  So we decided we would have to paint basically the whole downstairs to fix it!  

Colors, colors, colors why are there so many color options for paint. We had at least 20 different sample jars/cans of paint to test out before I could make up my mind.  

Picking up a couple of Benjamin Moore paint samples:

Testing samples on our wall speckled with drywall splattering a from a ceiling patch we've had retouched up 4 times (not exaggerating).

Valspar's purple basil is the color I ended up going with for one wall in my master bath it's bold and dark but I figured my master bath is one place I could go with something like that!  Benjamin Moore's grape juice was too maroon for me. 

Then a crew of three painters came out for two days and went to work. We chose Sherwin Williams Barcelona beige as our main neutral throughout the downstairs. 

In the entry way here it doesn't look much darker than our original paint but in the hallways it looks quite a bit darker than before. 

We went with Sherwin Williams restrained gold for our game room and a half bathroom.  I think the light gold looks good with our Baylor decor. 

We also added a new sectional, rug, projector/screen, and skii ball machine to the game room so that room is coming together nicely! 

We changed out the mirror in this half bath after painting and I like the way it turned out! 

While all this chaos I mean progress was going on, we sent the kiddos to Philips parents house for the week.  I'll post photos from their week soon!