My Fair Lady Spring Soiree!

How sad to think that this is my last party in this house(Lord willing). It was inspired by the movie My Fair Lady and her big hat! So all the women were supposed to wear a hat that best described them, we had food, Karoake and a classical guitarist. Unfortunately, it was a very chilly spring day so our outdoor garden party was brought inside. But a little bad weather can't stop me from having a party so we continued and our guest arrived in their fun hats! Here's Aiden ready for the hat party! Fun times, great friends!
Unfortunately, I got distracted and didn't get pictures of the rest of the fun hats! Okay Gretchen and Carrie your going to kill me for putting this on but it was sooo much fun! You guys need to go on the road, Carrie you got moves, girl!

need a laugh! read this -THIEVES!

You've heard about people who have been abducted and had
their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves. Well,
this kind of cruel theft is happening with other body parts
as well!

My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years
ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs.
The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Those
thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the
entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and
angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.

And then the thieves struck again. My rear end was next. I
knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match
my new rear end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier.
But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than
my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in
favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One
morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the
flesh of my upper arms swing to and fro with the motion of
the hair brush. This was really getting scary - my body was
being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to
me next?

When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with
a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the
world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic'
surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts - stolen from
you and me!
The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look
again - was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX. This is happening to women everywhere
every night. WARN YOUR FRIENDS!


P.S.
Last year I thought someone had stolen my breasts. I was
lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of
bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in
my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my
waistband.

They are 41!

They are holding a # for their age but it looks like 41 oops.

He got to be a Easter baby, it won't happen again in his lifetime.

A Runner in the making

Today was such a beautiful day! It kept calling us out to come and play. So what we did instead was go for a run. Usually I run and the boys are in the double stroller but today 1/2 way through my run Ethan asked me if he could run. I was so impressed he ran close to 1/2 a mile with out stopping and it wasn't a flat area. He could of kept running but we got home and I was ready to stop. I told him that he was a good runner when he first got started. The rest of the way he kept reminding himself I am a good runner, I am a good runner (very cute). Maybe we can start training him and he can be the first 4yr old marathon runner. (just kidding)

He teaches me through my children!

I have learned so many spiritual lessons through the mouth and actions of these little ones God has given me.
Aiden our 1yr old decided a couple of months ago that he is much too mature and independent to need mommy or daddy to feed him. So meals for him usually look like this he's a total mess, the floors a total mess and he pretty much didn't eat anything. So once I put him down b/c he thinks he's done he begins to crawl around the kitchen floor looking for food, crumbs anything he can get in his mouth.
As I watched Aiden hungrily seeking those crumbs it made me mad and sad. It made me angry because I just spent 30min trying to feed him myself, then letting him feed himself because he was fighting me and finally just letting him be done. It made me sad because it was such a vivid picture of how we are with God at times. He is feeding us from His feast at the table and we reject it and want to do it ourselves. But when we do it ourselves we only get little tid bits in our mouth not ever reaching full satisfaction so we begin searching for those crumbs on the floor. Yet at the top is a table laid out with a feast for us.

His imaginary world comes alive!

When Ethan plays with his trains he enters into this whole make believe world that he has created in his little precious mind. I love to hear his little made up dialogues that his trains and Little People are having. He has Little People who he has named: Jonah, Mommy, Jesus and the Policeman. I am glad I made the cut into his make believe world. These 4 Little People ride his trains and trucks on a daily basis and do all sort of interesting and funny things. Of all his little trains he absolutely loves Thomas the Train! When he watches the videos he is enthralled and listening to every word that is being spoken so that he can later replay it with his trains. Here is Ethan wearing his little Thomas the Train Conductor outfit minus the hat!
Yesterday, Thomas the Train came to Texas! and he got to ride it with some of his favorite men: PawPaw, Daddy and Aiden while the girls went shopping at Grapevine Mills. The whole way there he kept making sure that we were still heading towards Grapevine to see Thomas the Train.

Prayer does it really make a difference?

There are three things in my life that I wish I had the time to read and learn about: Prayer, Holy Spirit and the Enemy. Something tells me the subjects I have chosen are ones that I will be learning about for the rest of my life. I picked up the book by one of my favorite authors Phillip Yancey Prayer Does it make any difference?
Funny thing I picked up the book the week that we were having a brokers opening for our house that's up for sale. Prior to this opening we had been praying for a good turn out and we had requested specific prayer on this. We weren't present for the opening so we later called our realtor to find out how it went. He said no one came. I was a bit disappointed.
Our backyard is a little haven for me to think on nice cool evenings after the kids have gone to bed. I sat outside alone with God and the first thing that popped in my mind was "but I prayed God". I prayed faithfully and still no one came. (This didn't rock my faith it was just a simple reminder from God telling me to Believe, Trust.) As I continued to pray something else popped in my head "why do you pray, Mari?". I stopped and thought for a moment and the only thing I could utter "was because I can't help myself, it is my sustenance". I know my motives in praying aren't always pure but He the lover of my soul knows it and has grace and mercy and meets me in the garden to walk with me and listen to my aching heart, my joyful heart, my disappointed heart... And sometimes I can't utter anything and he walks with me and listens to my quiet heart. How sweet it is to have a Father like Him!

Here are some of Yancey's insightful comments on prayer:
-"Be still and know that I am God". The Latin imperative for "be still" is vacate. God invited us to take a holiday(vacation), to stop being God for a while, and let him be God.
-Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God's point of view.
-Only he who is helpless can truly pray. "Apart from me you can do nothing" says Jesus
-Humility in His presence "means, that in the presence of God I gain a glimpse of my true state in the universe, which exposes my smallness at the same time it reveals God's greatness.