Carnival comes to town...woo hoo???

What beautiful weather we have had this weekend! Friday night, J's best buddy "J-Dude", we'll call him (and you see why in a few sentences), spent the night with us. J has been looking forward to this for weeks, as it had to be postponed for Ike, etc...! They are the funniest two little boys I know and when they are together, they just continually crack me up. Atleast every other sentence or remark begins with or contains "Dude"..."Hey dude"..."aw, dude!"..."check this out dude". I kid you not, this is the word of the day when they are together...and I catch myself using it more than usual. My friend Batgirl called and I heard myself saying "hey, dude" as I picked up the phone! Wonder where J gets it? ;)

The two "Dudes" (wearing their uniforms for the forest festival)

We all woke up Saturday to head to the Forest Festival, an annual event in Lufkin that boasts concerts, cheer & dance fun, lumberjack competitions, a petting zoo, as well as a plethora of other fun and educational events. The Cub Scouts are able to go on Sat. mornings and earn several beltloops to add to their growing collections. Well...if you get there on time, you can earn around 6...J & J-dude earned one each this year, ha! Does that tell you anything?

While the scouting part is fun, J & J-dude preferred to build something at the Home Depot table and then head to the carnival (after T & I made them sit through a really cool "living history" demonstration of Texas settlers...it really was very interesting!). Yes, you read that right...the carnival...not a Six Flags theme park, but one of those travelling carnivals that make this mom very nervous. The rides that are simply sitting on an asphalt parking lot, rides that make me want to throw up by just watching them turn around & around in nauseating circles..yep, that kind of carnival. And yes...you can call me a bad mom, but I have never taken J to one of these carnivals. He rode The Rattler at Fiesta Texas this past summer, so it's not that I'm scared of him riding big roller coasters, ferris wheels, etc...it's the means in which they are presented that make me a bit leary. I know, we used to go to these as kids, but I don't recall riding many of the actual larger twisting-turning you upside down-till you throw up-rides. I'm pretty sure my mom was not a fan of these either!

J & his pals staring in wonder at the carnival that awaited them....

Anyway, the boys rode a few of the rides...T & I both rode one w/J-dude that J didn't want to ride (he wasn't feeling well that afternoon). Needless to say, after riding The Scrambler and The Wipeout, both of us were a little off balance and not incredibly hungry for lunch, ha! Age...it's a wonderful thing. The boys were no worse for wear, they were tired from staying up Fri. night but were not the carnival weenies we adults were! We easily swayed them over to the games area, where both won 2 prizes each, then headed out for lunch.

The Scrambler (before it began & T's faced turned pale...)

J & J-Dude's first ride...an easy one but they lived it up...lots of "woo-hoo" 's

You know T loved helping w/this game!

I may appear to be as cool as a cucumber...but the belly started to churn about 1/2way into this one! It was meant to move like a boat on the waves...that moves in continuous circles....I gotta quit thinking about it!

All in all, it was a beautiful day for a family outting. The inevitable dust from the ground and the logs being cut, etc...did conjur up quite a bit of sneezing for J & I but we had a great time. Until 6:15pm on Sat. night...when I had to sit and watch my Frogs get penalty after penalty and lose to Oklahoma. That was a heartbreaker. After seeing USC, Florida and many other top teams go down this weekend, my hopes were high, I even put on my "lucky" TCU shirt after the 1st quarter to improve my attitude. Aw well, they're my team and I love 'em....no fair weather fan here, just an aggravated one sometimes :) It did give me a good 2 hours to play with my digital scrapbook program!

Back to normal...

It was wonderful being back in church this morning, worshipping & enjoying time with friends who have had a few crazy weeks. The message was wonderful, focusing on John 17 (our pastor goes through a book at a time, scripture to scripture, it's a perfect teaching method for me, you find all kinds of wonderful passages you either forgot or didn't know were there!). And a disclaimer before you read any further...I am NO great theologian or debator...so I won't be able to (& don't want to) argue anything, I just sometimes hear a great message and want to pass it on!

The passage that stood out most to me today was John 17:15 "I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one." Jesus said this about the 11 (this was after Judas had left to betray him) and about us. He knows it's hard, he knows it's crazy out in the world, but he never asked God to take us out of it, just to keep us safe. We have to serve in difficult places sometimes, we have to walk through difficult circumstances, we have to be a light in the dark so often and it's hard...but it's what we are purposed to do. We are hated because of our beliefs, but we have to remember, we are in the world...not of it...we are protected from the evil one because of our beliefs.

Going back to Matt 5:14...you are the light of the world...we are not to be hidden away, but showing others THE WAY. This is way out of my comfort zone, but I am praying that God will start breaking down that zone for me.

Jesus goes on in John 17 to say he is praying for all who will ever believe in God through hearing the message...that they (we) will be one with eachother (& w/God) so the world will believe God sent Jesus to us. And I have to add that I loved what our pastor said...if you have a choice between a Christian work out center and a secular work out center...go to the secular...be the light. If a store won't use the word Christmas in their advertising, don't avoid going there...shop there and say Merry Christmas to those you meet...show love. Be the light where there is dark. We are the aliens in this world, we are the different ones, not them...our purpose is not to conform to the world, but to share God's love, to love on others, help others...not condemn...I gotta get out of that comfort zone! yikes!

Last night I was also working on the new bible study I've joined (Annointed, Transformed, Redeemed) and the prayer at the end was to ask God to heighten my spiritual sensitivities to notice His activity around, through, & to me...that God's presence would become more evident to me each day, that I make less of a fool of myself daily w/my natural tendencies and become more aware of Him.

We are all in different seasons in our lives and my season right now is busy...with home, J, T, Cubs, band, worship, walking, etc...but I can still ask God to make his presence known to me during the day, even if I don't have a quiet time for a week or more (usually on the "more" end!). I can send up small prayers, talk to Him while I walk, so many things I can do that will help to open my eyes to what He is doing in my life, the lives of my family and the lives of those around me. And I pray I will become more sensitive to where & when He wants me to serve or not serve, where to take His light. Satan can mess with our minds, helping us feel guilty for not serving in certain areas or feeling like all we do is serve in others (through family, church, school, etc...anywhere really)...when it's most likely we haven't talked to God about any of it. We try to live up to what others expect and it's exhausting. I've gone through both sides of this several times over the last couple of years and it's difficult (can you tell it's been on my mind the last few days? arghhhh!) ...mainly b/c I try to do it w/out talking it over completely with God. I leave Him out so often, it amazes me once I realize it...as many believers tend to do, I reach out to Him in hard times more than just the sort of "difficult" times...not a good habit. I've got to pray to be more aware of His presence and be thankful that even though I am in the world and dealing the it's craziness, I am protected from the evil one.

Well, I didn't mean for this evening's post to be so long! I'm not even sure it all made sense...I was so excited about these studies and lessons I wanted to pass some of it on :)

On a different note...I have to add this quote from my friend Escilito...it has NOTHING to do with anything written above, but cracks me up still.

Yesterday, while watching their new favorite show about Redneck weddings and laughing at the escapades in it (you HAVE to catch just one episode of this, it really is crazy!), Escilito, in all seriousness, looks at his wife Bling and myself and says: "You know, in the end, even though they are crazy, you can really tell they love eachother. You just can't hate on true love".

If I typed it correctly, you would actually HEAR:

"You just cain't hate on true luv".

Of course, after coming home and telling T about this, he said he's going to talk to Escilito & beg him not to introduce me to any more nutty tv shows, ha!

I hope everyone has a great week!

A blog...& Ike

Well, in an attempt to keep up w/my computer savvy pals, I am venturing into the blogging world. 90% of me wonders what is so interesting about my life that I should do this. The scrapbooker in me (especially the new found love of digital scrapping), however, is intrigued with the possibilities this opens up even if I'm the only one who reads it! Rather than hearing something funny J or T might say or fun, crazy, rough things we might go through and trying to remind myself I should write it down...then forgetting...I can hopefully type it into the blog to keep a sort of digital scrapbook resource for myself :) Seeing as how I'm on the computer much more these days, it seems a natural direction to head. We'll see how it goes! If I write about other family and friends, nicknames will be given to protect their privacy.


Now, on to some actual news for my first blog entry! Ike...oh Ike...it's been not such a treat meeting you! Friday, we were watching him arrive on The Weather Channel...early Saturday he had arrived in Lufkin. Power was out by 6:45am and winds were blowing (my attempt at photographing the east winds towards the early part of the storm in pic below).
J was "hunkered down" (a now very familiar yet still very funny term!) in the video closet under the stairs w/his battery powered DVD player, T was sitting in the hall by the closet to keep J company and I was on the porch snapping photos!
yes, I did sit in the closet a few times b/c the wind was a bit scary, but we made it just fine. We had a lot of small branches down, but no trees thankfully. Many of our friends in town did not fare so well, trees were down in yards, on houses, across streets, power lines down and power out all over. This pic is during the earlier part of the storm...pine tree across the street.


T helped our friend Escilito w/downed trees and branches in their yard Sunday afternoon, while J enjoyed their generator-run playstation w/his pal Indiana D at their home, this was the highlight of his weekend! Boys and their toys...no matter the age!
All in all it was quite an eventful, although dark, weekend...our power was finally restored late yesterday afternoon so we are excited. School is out through Monday, however, b/c of power, some still used as shelters, etc... so the kids are loving it! My friend in Ohio called Sunday reporting she was getting 50mph gusts of wind and had no power b/c of Ike...how crazy is that?!


We are thinking about & praying for our friends who are still not able to go home in other parts of Texas and for our friends in Lufkin & other areas who have damage to their homes. Call us if you are around town and need help cutting up trees, T is ready to help again this weekend.