Posted in Uncategorized on November 27, 2007| 5 Comments »
here is a new find that jonah and sydney really enjoyed. it is really just one of those cheap little pizzas (like jeno’s or totinos), but it is the shape of mickey mouse! it is made by disney and we found it at wal-mart… nutrition scale- probably 0. however, it was fun! (i had them eat a banana along with it to ease my guilt).
Posted in Uncategorized on November 26, 2007| 4 Comments »
i know i am technically writing a thanksgiving post about 3 days late… this is usually how my life goes. i am trying to be better about my ‘tardiness’, but once again i am late. great!
i wanted to take a few minutes and actually type out a list of some of the reasons why i am thankful. i have so many reasons to be.
* i serve The Lord. He is so good. He is real. i have a relationship with Him just as i have a relationship with my friends and my family. if that seems strange to you, if you are intrigued, or if you would like to know more about that, PLEASE ask me. i would love the chance to hang out and talk about it with you.
* God has given me a great husband. kenny is perfect for me. he is exactly what i need. he is crazy, admittedly cheap, goes a little over-the-top at times (don pardo… you know what i mean), and he claps WAY too loud. but he genuinely loves people like we are supposed to love them, he makes me laugh a lot, he plays with our sweet kids in such fun ways, he brags about me and the kids in public, he loves the Lord, he loved my mom and misses her like i do, he is really good at his job, he is the greatest gift-giver, and he just really wants to enjoy life and make sure the kids and i do, too.
* my sweet jonah. my big boy reminds me of myself when i was little. he is the calm one, nervous around lots of people, doesn’t really like attention brought to him, he is compassionate, and he makes sure the people around him are okay. i love seeing him change into the boy God is having him be. i am thankful God chose us as his parents.
* sydney kate. she is my fireball. my little curly-headed, strong-willed, genuinely funny, people LOVING, baby girl. people always told me i would have a girl one day and she would be just like her daddy. they were right. sydney and kenny are 2 peas in a pod. jonah & i love seeing them dance together and be silly. i can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for her life… it is going to be big i just know it. thanks, God, for letting me be her “momma.”
* my baby boy… my sweet baby ian. he is a dream. he is so cuddly and loveable and is really pretty calm (unless he is either hungry or in is carrier, he is the antithesis of calm in these states). he is on his way to having red hair we think. he has these blue eyes that can bring me to tears when i stare into them. i would hold him all day if my life would allow it. i am so thankful for my third child.
* i have the greatest friends in the world. we laugh and say ‘our friends are the family we got to pick.’ i have sharla that has been my best friend since the 8th grade. it is crazy the things we have been through. i am so thankful that she has seen it all and still calls me her best friend. i am also thankful that her hubby, steven, is as cool as he is. and i have ‘the fellowship’. the dufilos, the bowlings, and the thomases. i am realizing that not all people have a ‘fellowship’ of their own. we have been through crazy times together (please see dufilho blog at right for more info). it is hard to explain, but they really are like family to us. i have many other really great friends, too. i am thankful for them all…
*darci… “sister.” mom was crazy to have us less than 1 year apart, but i am so glad she did. we are very close. we talk on the phone about 6 times a day probably. she is a rock. she is a fabulous mom, an amazing helpmate to her minister (and super sweet) husband, stephen, and she is also an entrepreneur! she gives great advice. i miss her. i am praying earnestly that the Lord would allow us to live in the same city one day. i am so thankful for her.
* i love my church. some people think first baptist-lubbock is too big. i think they are crazy. if one would just come and get involved s/he would see that it really feels small. it has great leadership who is really focussed on the right things. you should come and check it out.
*my family– rik, mikah, j-dub, bevin, stephen, darci, titus, molly, thomas, and my nana. they are so great. i love them. i wish we could be together more. i have been so blessed by them and am so thankful for each one of them.
* my mom. i can’t believe it will be 2 yrs ago this december 5 since she died. i miss her so much sometimes it is like i can’t take a completely full breath… like my lungs can’t quite fill up with enough air to be satisfied. she was amazing. she was the mom that all of my friends confided in. she always cooked for us and made sure we ate at the table together. she made sure we kids were in church. she prayed for us. sharing the ways God had blessed her was way more important to her than sharing the suffering ovarian cancer put her through. she would laugh and do the silliest things wit my kenny. she really did love him dearly and was so glad i picked him to marry. she loved my babies and i am so thankful jonah and sydney got to meet her. i had a very sweet friend die this summer quite suddenly. prior to wendy’s death, all i could concentrate on was the fact that so many people have their mom’s until they are like 90 yrs old. all i could do was be sad when i thought about the fact that my mom died. she was 51 yrs old and i was only 29. there was so much she would miss. there was so much i would miss. there was so much my kids would miss. after wendy’s death, i realized that her sweet lauren only got 4 years with her mom, and baby mason only got 2 weeks. i had 29 great years with my mom. and while i wish it was so much more than that, i am thankful for those 29 years.
* the beach, the hope of one day visiting the beach again soon, new java chillers from sonic, our college students we work with in challenge, great books i have read this year, blogs, my digital camera, my video camera, our great house, my mom’s house slippers i wear way too much, the mccones, my great in-laws that love our kids so much, unlimited long distance on our phone, the fact that 3 car seats can fit in the explorer, the pacifier pod (give one of these to any mom of infants you know), parents day out, my kiddos’ great teachers at school, the isoms, the shroyers, the hawkins, the duflihos (matt’s parents), and email. thank you, God for each of these…
so, there is my list. i know i am forgetting some things.
God is good…
Posted in Uncategorized on November 15, 2007| 5 Comments »
i know in the preivous post i was very intentional on letting all readers know that i, in no way was trying to persuade anyone to do anything. well, that is not the case in this post. i think everyone should do what ken and i are doing. so, what are we doing you ask…
our church, first baptist- lubbock has a great college department. it is lead by, well… the lord first. but He has called a man named bruce venable to help Him. bruce is a great minister to our college students. ken and i were so excited when we got an opportunity to work with him. we have started working with a program called challenge. 8 super-star college students come and hang out at our house on wednesday nights. we eat fun snacks, laugh a lot, recite scripture we are learning, and discuss a book called missing the point (discusses 2 men’s view on current social issues). we talk about what the lord has been teaching us and we pray, too. it has just been so good. i feel like ken and i have kind of found our place to serve for now in the church and it is exciting! it is fun because now the students will come over to just hang out or watch a game or something of the sort on tv. we just have a blast! we love them and jonah, sydney, and ian love them, too. they are so much smarter about spiritual things than i ever was in college and they have such sincere hearts about wanting to do and be what the lord wants them to. it is great to see. i even have the opportunity to disciple one of the girls.
this is the first time that kenny and i have really served side-by-side like this and it has been really good. i love seeing him love the students and share what the lord is teaching him through this book. plus, it gives him one more avenue to share his antics with others!
getting involved in challenge has already blessed us beyond measure. i was a little stressed at first because ian was only about 6 weeks old at the time this started plus we have jonah and sydney, but it has not been an issue. wednesday nights have become a favorite night of mine. i really look forward to them.
so, i encourage you to get involved in your own church. don’t be intimidated by anything. god will help you with the details. He just wants a willing heart to use!
for all of you folks that go to first baptist with us… go talk with bruce about getting involved with the college department! you can do challenge next year, or he has many students that would LOVE to be discipled right now! don’t think ‘that is for someone else to do.’ YOU are the someone else! just be willing.
if any of our students are reading this, we love you and are so thankful for you! you make us laugh, make us think, make us proud, and make us so hopeful for the future. we love y’all!
Posted in Uncategorized on November 9, 2007| 1 Comment »
so, i was in wal-mart the other day (a necessary ‘evil’ in my life), wondering the frozen foods section. i was trying to come up with new and brilliant dinner ideas to cook for my family. i am kinda’ tired of my little repetoire of meals. i thought i might find a muse in the frozen foods (plus, i was hot, so i like to open up the big freezer doors and stand there like i am trying to make a decision about what i see, although i really don’t care about the not-so-good frozen sausages on a stick wrapped in a pancake, i am just using the nice, free cold air). anyway, i didn’t come up with anything brilliant, but i did find a fun little product i have to share with my friends. while i am a bit embarassed by it, i have included a picture. it is called steamfresh fresh frozen vegetables by birdseye. i got 2 packs, corn and peas. they are so great! they were less than a dollar each (which i know makes my sweet kenny smile, the cheap guy that he is… admittedly), and all you do is take them from the freezer and pop them in them microwave. the bag puffs up like popcorn as it steams the vegetables inside. they are very tasty and easy, too. i highly recomend them. so, go buy your family a bag and let me know what you think.
*i promise i don’t work for the company and no person in my family does either. i just like to share when i find something good.
Posted in Uncategorized on November 7, 2007| 7 Comments »
okay, so this post is in NO WAY intended to pressure ANYONE into feeling like they need to have 3 kids. 2 kids are great, but i must share my absolute LOVE of having the third.
this is my sweet baby ian picus. having him has been a dream. now please don’t think the words ‘dream’ and ‘easy’ are interchangeble in that sentence. having 3 kiddos has not been ‘easy’, but it has been great. there is just something about the third. my friends emily and leslie as well as my sister, darci, all told me this, but i didn’t understand until i had ian. he just kinda’ fits right into the family. i would hold him all day if i could. he seems to fit in that crook in my neck better than any of my others (all you moms know exactly what i am talking about). i feel much more relaxed with him than i did with jonah or sydney. jonah is our is our mellow, shy (i know, taboo word to use around the kid, but he can’t read yet, so no worries) child. sydney is our strong-willed, independent, outgoing child. ian, thus far, is definitely the baby. i can see how, if i am not careful, i would want to do everything for him. he has this expression where he looks right into my eyes and smiles this oh-so-precious grin… i could eat him up.
so, if you are pregnant with your third, get excited! you will absolutely LOVE what is ahead. and if you are contemplating a third… well, i think you now know where i stand. THIRD KIDS FOR ALL!!!!
* disclaimer- i realize that this post and many to come, will not be gramatically correct. my punctuation will be off, i will start sentences with the words but & and. however, this is MY blog and there is something so freeing about not being confined by the silly rules! thanks for understanding. i feel like such a rebel!!!!
Posted in Uncategorized on November 5, 2007| 8 Comments »
So, I know I am way behind in the trend of blogging… what can I say, I have been busy having a baby. umm… I mean having 3 babies in about 3 years. I love them with all of me, but cool things like blogging have gone to the wayside and replaced with things like diaper changes and read alouds. I feel I might be ready now to reenter the real world. However, please be patient if days go by with no post. Please keep your standards low.
I am excited! My hope is that I will be able to use this blog to keep my sweet family and friends informed of the crazy days in the lives of the G-crew. Here we go…
A Closer Look... 
