First Dentist Appointment

Benjamin had his first dental check-up and cleaning a couple of weeks ago. I'm really proud of the little guy. He actually let the dentist clean his teeth! It was a slow process but he got it done. Now when it came to X-rays, that's a different story. Hmmmm, well, we decided to wait until next year on that one. Oh, and NO cavaties!

I "heart" Baylor....Sic 'em Bears

My favorite (and only) mother-in-law has this in her home. I love it. Had to post it, especially for all of my Baylor peeps! Can't believe I just said "peeps". That word annoys me to no end.....

GONNA BE A BEAR
In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d
like to come back as a bear. When you’re a
bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing
but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.
Before you hibernate, you’re supposed to eat
yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When you’re a girl bear, you birth your
children (who are the size of walnuts) while
you’re sleeping and wake to partially grown,
cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with
that.

If you’re mama bear, everyone knows you
mean business. You swat anyone who
bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of
line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you’re a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to
wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you
will have hairy legs and excess body fat.
Yup, gonna be a bear!

Indigo Girls Part 5 and the Baylor Bears

Last week I joined David on a business trip to Pennsylvania. Why? Well it just so happened that the Indigo Girls were playing close to where his meeting was. This is the 5th time I've seen them in about 6 months. Okay, yes...I guess I'm a groupie? It was the best venue I've ever seen them in. We thought we got really bad seats by looking at the seating chart but when we got there, much to our surprise, we were actually on the stage! They played at the Penn State-York Performing Arts Theater. It was amazing. Truly amazing.

On an even brighter note, the Baylor Bears won their game this weekend at Homecoming. I must say it will be a game I will remember for the rest of my life? Why? Because after just 2 minutes of the game starting, they delayed it due to inclement weather, told everyone to leave the stands, and 2 hours later the game started again. We got soaked from the rain (thankfully I smuggled an umbrella in so it helped some). Then it turned cold....cold + wet = MISERABLE! But it was totally worth it. Sic 'em Bears!

My Girls...













On our way to the Baylor parade.

Who Fixes You?

The other day Benjamin was going through my make-up box. He was asking what every thing was one by one. Finally, I just tried to summarize it for him and said "all this stuff fixes me". He corrected me and said "No momma, God fixes you". Sounds like this kids knows more than me!

Some Comfort for my Confusion

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Laura, who's wisdom is astounding, I have some verses to go to for answers to my questions from my previous post about my feelings on Christianity. (Wow, was that a run-on sentence, ok, sorry, I digress). I want to share them. It has given me some peace. First, the one that has stuck out the most is Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings". As she states "He does hide His truths to be discovered, and somehow that is part of His glory. He doesn't just lay it out there for everyone to see and know easily. The answers may not come right away, but they will come if you ask. The key is knowing the Bible! It is through the Bible primarily that God talks and explains things. Please don't just decide that it's too difficult to know or just can't be known, and give up. It's not just a research project, either. You can study the Bible all day long and still not "get it" unless God shows it to you. His Spirit has to guide your thinking, so ask Him!" Beautifully said my sista!

Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." It is comforting to know that faith is what pleases him because faith is what I got! Yet, I still feel like doing good and loving others pleases him just as much, but really I guess it doesn't, it definitely pleases him but faith is the most important to him. It's not about works, but I feel if you sincerely have faith you'll do the "works" because you WANT to do all the other good stuff to honor HIS HOLY NAME! Right?

I could talk about this stuff all day. If I'm amongst a group of people and one person brings up anything to do with Christianity and their faith, I'm completely drawn to that person. I can't get enough. All day I tell you...ALL DAY I could talk about it! I find it fascinating and contrary to my previous post, it is comforting.

P.S. I "heart" Jesus!

School Pics

Benjamin

















Savannah

The Heard Museum

Last week my mom and I took the kids to the Heard Museum in McKinney so Benjamin could see some life-size dinosaurs. He was super excited until one actually roared at him and moved! The look on his face below is priceless. The excitement quickly turned to fear. He eventually got over it though and is still talking about his trip to see the dinosaurs!

Here's the look on his face when he approached the first "live" dinosaur. He didn't move a muscle for the longest time and he kept that same look on his face. Poor guy.

















Mom with one of the dinosaurs. Benjamin wouldn't even get close.












You guys gonna catch up?

















Still scared.












I just love this picture of her. Had to post it.

Frustration and A LOT of Confusion

Christianity. How does it make me feel? Honestly, sometimes frustrated and confused.

First let me start off with a couple of things that I'm grateful about. First, my mother. Because of her, she planted that seed of Christ in my heart when I was a small child. Because of her faithfulness to Christ, her constant volunteering at our church, and her dedication to making sure I knew that God loves me no matter what, that little seed she planted has grown into something much bigger. She's taught me love. But she also taught me love along with boundaries. I can sometimes be an enabler to others because I feel saying no doesn't display love. But my mother has shown and taught me that love doesn't always mean saying "yes". Sometimes saying "no" is the loving to do. Long story on that one that I won't go into.

Secondly, I have the best in-laws a person could ask for. Joe, Nancy, Abraham, and Laura, their faith and love for Christ is addicting and inspiring. Unconditional love, patience, wisdom, the list goes on and on. I've learned so much from them and am looking forward to learning so much more. Because of them, that seed my mom planted has really grown - BIG TIME!

Now on to my "frustration" point. Some people say they are Christians. Yet, you see them being greedy, vain, selfish, rude, jealous, judgemental, and even truly unhappy. I see so many Christians taking the Lord's name in vain, I see their greed of wanting more and more, I hear them gossip, I hear them laugh at someone who's not like them, they're unkind to others. I find it frustrating. I was recently trying to witness to someone who doesn't believe in God. He would just roll his eyes. No wonder. So many Christians are the exact opposite of what the Bible calls us to be. We're hypocrites. Plain and simple. Or is it something else...

We're sinners. All of us. Not a single one of us is perfect. We're all going to do, say, think something that is sinful. But when someone accepts Jesus into his heart, his life will definitely change. God opens his eyes to his sin so he can repent. So you see these people honestly trying to change...sometimes it's one step forward and two steps back but the dedication and sincerity is there. It's obvious that the Holy Spirit is living in him, changing him.

So is there such a thing as "casual" Christians? Are those the ones I see who claim to be Christians but live a life totally opposite of what the Bible says? Hmm. What's God's thoughts on "casual" Christians? Or is there even such a thing...casual Christian? You're either a Christian or you're not? Right? So why is there such a difference between strong Christians and casual Christians? Are the two considered the same in God's eyes? Did I just negate my previous paragraph? Ugh. Confused.

Speaking of confused, now on to my "confused" part. First Corinthians 5:11 reads "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat". How can that be? Too not eat with someone who is greedy? Really? I know greed is bad, but to not associate with these people? Is that displaying love?

I'm starting to confuse myself again. I think in circles, I negate myself, at one point I think I have it figured out and then realize everything I'm saying and thinking just doesn't make sense. I just want God to be proud of me. I just want to be a good person. I want to not judge, I want to be selfless, I want to honestly, sincerely, and deeply love others. I want people to seek Jesus, allow him in their hearts. I want them to feel their eyes swell with tears of joy when singing Amazing Grace or Silent Night. His love is great. The word "love", just typing the word made me smile and gave me warm fuzzies. I think I drank my iced coffee too fast. My mind is racing and it hurts my head to try to figure this out. So, off I go to mop the kitchen floor.

Date with Abby

Yesterday I had a date with my niece Abby. Our first stop was manicures! Second stop, shopping at Michael's (she's a crafty girl and that's her favorite store). We had such a good time. She's probably the most polite little girl you'll ever meet. Pretty too. :)

So Benjamin is having a hard time deciding what he wants to be for Halloween. Surprisingly, some days he wants to be a Blue Man from the Blue Man group (ok, how messy would that be? ugh!) and other days it's a dinosaur (which I keep trying to talk him out of because that's what he was last year), and other days it's a skeleton. Decisions, decisions.....

Andrew and Abby