picture catch up

Here are some pictures from last weekend: 

Saturday we went to pick my dad up from the airport.  It was Savannah's first time to the airport.  It's weird but I never thought about all the weird germs that were there until I saw my baby crawling on the floor. 

Here's my dad right after we brought him home.  It was snowing in Iowa, but since he gave away all his clothes (except the ones he had on), he had to wear dirty work shorts and a Hawiian shirt all the way home.  He was a little scruffy and tired. 

This is Travis and I at our Girls Formal Dinner.  I think this is the first picture of just US since last may.  

Here's our friends Clint and Miranda at the dinner.  I'll tell you their story one of these days.  I think God laughs a little when he thinks about it - I do.  
This is how we roll. You're never too young to start doing chores...without pants on. 
Savannah's FAVORITE thing right now is looking out the window.  One of my friends says she's learning how to act from the dog... window looking, begging for food and crawling.  

That's Amore'

Last night was our annual Girls Formal Dinner with Escape.  It was fantastic!  We had set places for 96 girls and 95 showed up.  I was talking with the cooks (an amazing couple at our church) before I left at 10:30 and they told me that they always just trust God when they buy food for things like this and they just hope it works out - When they were plating up the food someone came back and told them that everyone was served and when they looked down all that was left was 4 pieces of asparagus!  So numbers wise, God totally came through last night.  Reminds me of the stories in Matthew that we've been talking about at Cornerstone on the weekend.  

The decorations were stunning!  We had hung paper lanterns from the ceiling, cloth banners on the walls, candles and flowers on the tables, low lights, a place for taking pictures, menus, programs, ice sicle lights, and so much more.  The guys put on the entertainment, as usual.  Clint came up with a halarious musical about a guy who wants to be the best pasta cheff in the world.  High school boys are awful at acting, but that's what makes is even better! Then Mark Arant and Todd Wallace came out and talked about being a father and loving their daughters.  It was excactly what I was hoping for when I asked them to come!  They are both very tender hearted when it comes to that subject and I loved that in talking about the value of THEIR daughters, they made the girls there feel valuable to God.  After that Cody did a performance of a Taylor Swift song.  The girls did look a little frightend.  Then a couple high school boys did a dance to the song "Single Ladies".  To tell you the truth, they stole the show!  There's something about two guys putting themselves out there like that that just draws you in.  

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how the night turned out.  Really, we just had the perfect storm of all the best people in the best places!  Planning this event is always a little bit of a thorn in my side since I'm not really the "formal" type but this year really did go well, despite me.  Thanks to anyone who helped who reads this.  Until next year!  (pictures to come)

As seen on TV

It came to my attention today (randomly) that we own a lot of "as seen on tv" items.  I think we only bought one of them from TV.  Some good, some not so good.  Below are my reviews: 

Ped Egg - haven't used it a ton yet, but so far so good.  My summer feet will be the real test. 

Smooth Away - It's supposed to remove hair by messaging the hand held pad around in circles.  Not impressed.  I'm not sure it actually removed any hair at all.  Maybe thinned it if anything. 

Oxi Clean is a miracle worker!  I use it for everything!  I even have spray version.  It works on blood, red kool aid, and even Savannah's post blowout clothes.  

Sham Wow!  Pretty good.  The commercial claims that you'll save money because you'll never buy another roll of paper towels.  I'd have to have a lot of Sham Wows to be able to do that, but it does pick up a lot of liquid.  Good for spills and cleaning in general. 

Why would anyone not own Magic Bullet?  I pretty much just use it for smoothies and to make baby food.  I have used it in the past for chicken salad and salsa.  It doesn't work as well as they say it does, but it's good.  And so small!

The Xpress 101 was probably my biggest dissapointment.  After the initail "look, I can make brownies with carmel in the middle" wore off I realized that anything I could make in the xpress101, I could also make faster and better on the George Forman or in the oven or in a pan.  I think I threw it away before we moved.  Boo.  

I bet we have more things from TV, but I wont know until Travis reads this and corrects me. 

Good on Ya Dad!

My Dad left for Zambia, Africa today.  (He's the one on the left below)

If you know my dad at all then you know he was designed by God to help people in any way he can - especially by using the skills and talents that God has blessed him with.  God put a desire to do that inside him a long time ago, even before he was totally following Christ.  I saw that desire lived out all the time growing up watching his interaction with neighbors, employees and friends, but he could never go on missions trips to help the truly truly needy because of work and money. On a side note - I am so lucky that my dad is MY dad.  Not many people get to know the love and the care that I have always had in my dad - not to mention the hilarious sense of humor!  I'm so glad that today, my 50 year old dad finally got to leave for Africa to do JUST what he was designed to do!  As I prayed for him today I thought of Psalm 67 -  we used to say it every Sunday at our church growing up, well, the first part anyway. 

" May the Lord Bless him (my dad) and keep him.  May the Lord His face to shine upon him.  That Your ways would be known on earth, Your salvation among the nations!" 

The right response with the right motive.  Can't wait to hear about it Dad!

Love me a good list

A lot has happened in my little world since my last post so here are some things that I've learned in the last week due to all the events: 

1. I LOVE Cornerstone Church.  I would go as far as to say that I think it is the best church out there.  

1a. I am prideful about how great I think Cornerstone Church is.  Infact, the pride I have is far greater an offense to Jesus than the "problems" I find with other churches.  Must remedy soon. 

2. I am still glad to be doing my job with Savannah on my side, if for no other reason than to show the younger generation that ministry does not stop just because I have a baby. 

3. Submission is hard and could even mean activly suffering under someone elses leadership (not learning this first had thankfully). 

4. Not all men are sick pigs that want to look at us lustfully or have evil thoughts about all women.  Some men are choosing daily to pursue righteousness and having Victory in that choice. 

5. It is phsyically impossible for me to stay up to watch a movie past 10:30. 

6. I was supposed to be born somewhere warm.  I just LOVE warm weather.  It's so nice to walk out the front door and not feel angry instantly because of the chill!  Please oh Please let it stay warm Lord! 

Pictures of Savannah enjoying the weather 

the last few days: 

Books

A couple of books I have loved lately (and I'm not really a reader):
Lies Women Believe has been a very refreshing book for me. I got it with the intention to read it so that I would have a few extra "tid bits" to give to the girls when I'm counseling them on THEIR lives. Little did I know that I was unknowingly believing all kinds of lies that satan is telling me. I read this book a few months ago, but keep going back to reference certain parts. There is a section that addresses the lie "I can't control my emotions" - it's really good! I think all women should read it. It's broken up into really small parts so you really could just read it for 5 minutes a day. We all have that, right?


I have always had the inner urge to create things. Crafty Mama is perfect for someone like me who has no "real" artistic ability but really wants to make fun stuff. It has a bunch of cute projects for babies, toddlers, and yourself too. I'm currently working on a felt book for Savannah that has pictures of everyone in our family. I work on it during her afternoon nap some times. This one isn't as soulish as the other, but it does help me relax a little.

Enjoy!

Ridin the Nar..or not

(Ignor the title)
Travis and I went on a ski/shopping trip with some Escape students last weekend. It was our first whole weekend away from Savannah, but it went pretty well. See highlights below:

Me, Jacey, and Anna out on the slopes. I didn't acutally hit the slopes myself.

Travis and the mighty Jeff Dodge. He spent pretty much 48 straight hours with Jeff. Between the two of them the stories never end!

The girls outside of IKEA. You know this is my favorite place, right? We had the 1.99 breakfast and then I shopped till I dropped. I heard they just sat on some rugs in the store and waited. Then we all went to the mall. Good times.

This is a place in Clear lake that we ate at on the way up called The Barrell.. it's shadey.

Here's some of the snow boards lined up at the ski "shack" that we stayed in. 12 Freshman boys, 4 high school girls, 7 leaders, all day snowboarding, no showers taken. You do the math. We all slept in one room together and you had to go to another building to use the bath room.

IT was a good weekend.