Gateway -- how refreshing!

I set aside all of my premeditated ideas of what the whole experience was goign to be and made a promise to myself to make the most out of this visit to Gateway. We arrived and there was parking (being a Guest has its benefit!) My friend Brad and his wife Melissa were there. He pre-registered my kids for me as guests so that we had an easy entrance. We got Drew checked in.... we went upstairs and the area for kids where Josh was... was... AMAZING! They had a live worship for them as well. I know he enjoyed that. I wish he had a friend there but I know that he will make some! :) We did a small tour, took our seats and the service began.

The worship was ... AMAZING! I LOVED IT! It was so refreshing...it didn't feel overdone. It was brilliantly done. I loved it. LOVED IT!

Then they had the pastor up on the screen (it was filmed earlier in the day)... and honestly, it wasn't weird at all. It was warm and meaningful and I really liked it. He did a brief interview with Vernon Wells.... some baseball player... about his testimony. It was really nice. He gave a message to take away ... and then it was over. It felt like it lasted about 10 minutes. I could have sat there and listened to that man for hours! HOW REFRESHING!

Both of the boys had a great time...

AND.... on my way out, a woman was like "OH MY GOSH you look great" and told me you cant even tell I'm pregnant from the back... it's all just in the belly. How cute!

I know it's really early to say this but... I think we may have found a new church home! For that, I thank God for giving me a chance to open my eyes and my heart to the possibility that he wants us to find a place to plug into. :) Thank you Jesus for giving me the friendship of the Conlons and for them to have the heart to make us feel welcome...

Weekend recap

My father came over Friday night to spend some time with the boys. That was nice. I picked Josh up from sculpture class and we made it home and within about 20 minutes, Dad was here. He got to watch Drew master the Legos Star Wars game... share some pizza with us...snuggle in and have a good night's sleep.

I will say that I almost didn't recognize him. He has his hair VERY, VERY long (like... circa 1970's kind of cut for grown up men) and he has grown a somewhat of a handlebar moustache. It's all very weird. LOL. I love him but prefer the short "do" to the present. I find peace in knowing that he never leaves it any which way for too long.

We woke up Saturday morning. I made a hearty breakfast for the crew and then off to grass drills for Josh to do his best for his placement in the tackle football draft. This will be his first year to play tackle. We shall see how it goes. It was in the 30s this morning. I sat in my car with Drew. Andy and Dad went with Josh to do the sign up/registration and watch him. Dad got a little cold and since it was mostly waiting at each of the stations, he went ahead and went home.

I could tell Drew was a little stir crazy so I texted Greg and had him come over with Evan. He hung out for a while... then left and came back a little later. Drew and Evan play SO WELL together! When Greg got here it was just after hide-and-seek time and in the middle of "superheroes" skits. I love how much fun they have together and how they are great at working out compromises when they both want to do different things. Good, good friendship. I hope they're lifelong friends.

I sat in bed last night and started piecing together my plan for my once a month cooking session -- even though NONE OF MY BOOKS MADE IT IN THE MAIL! WAAHH freakin WAAAHHH. Once I have my books, I know it'll be much less painful but when I have that plan ... I will post it for all to see!

Today, we're going to try out a new church called Gateway. I want a church that is like Irving Bible Church but that is closer to home. I LOVE Irving Bible Church. It makes me whole, fills me up and since I was plugged in there from the beginning, it was really easy for me to feel that it wasn't as big as it really was. So trying to now plug into a church that is big...and I'm a newbie coming into it... I really am intimidated. Plus, when you compare everything TO Irving Bible Church (or IBC), its hard to be impressed with anything -- the ministry, people, music, children's programs because IBC is just a perfect fit for me. Then why not stay? Yeah, I keep asking myself that but if I want my boys to have any sort of involvement with the church during the week, I will HAVE to find a church closer to home because if we do anything at IBC during the week, we have to be in traffic for about an hour to go less than 20 minutes away. It's really pathetic and very much a deterrent. I'm not 100% sure that we're going to leave IBC but we are at least going to a new church today to just see what it's all about.

My thing is that ... and I know this is VERY presumptious of me... it's a Southlake church in Southlake. Southlake is VERY "uppity"... not that uppity people aren't Christ followers...and who am I to judge them... but they tend to look down on people that aren't uppity like them ... and I'm not sure there's an uppity bone in my body. I'm just me... I'm real... there's nothing fake about me. I don't tan. I don't have plastic surgery. I don't wax my brows. I don't have my teeth whitened. I don't have gobs of jewelry. I don't wear trendy clothes. I don't drive a Lexus, Benz or Lincoln Navigator. I don't get my hair done every 4 weeks. I don't shop for fun. I don't keep an immaculate house that has been done over by an interior decorator. My children don't wear $75 shoes, brand labels or care if their hair is gelled and spiked up. So, it almost feels as if I'm headed into the "lion's den" -- which means that I'm entering THEIR church with preconceived notions about who they are and what they represent -- wrong, yes...but it's been my experience with all things Southlake that ... that's just how it is.

I hope I'm proven wrong...and I don't think that this is a glass-half-empty view of the situation... I'm just trying to be a realist who will (hopefully) be pleasantly surprised. :)

Oh yeah, and there's this little thing called the Superbowl today. Still on the fence if I want to watch it. LOL...

Friday Fill-Ins

1. I know that during this time in my children's lives, it doesn't matter that I keep a spotless house or that we have gourmet meals -- but that we spent lots of quality time together is what really matters.
2. The ninth month of pregnancy is the longest month.
3. You can't help but wonder where our country will be after Obama has his way with ruining it and putting us so far deep into debt that our children's children's children won't even be done paying off the debt.
4. Superbowl Sunday; bring it on!
5. Where have you looked to find your piece of sunshine today?
6. Mommy has showered, eaten breakfast, used the bathroom in peace and is now available.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working on my once a month cooking menu plan, tomorrow my plans include taking Josh to grass drills in the morning for his first year of tackle football and then perhaps a trip to the grocery store and Sunday, I want to experience a new church -- yes, we are trying out a NEW CHURCH that is closer to home!

I'm linked to: Friday Fill-Ins #162

A Watched Pot Never Boils

Yeah, I've heard that before but I'm SO ANXIOUSLY AWAITING MY BOOKS I CAN'T STAND IT!

I'm been saving and cataloging all the information I'm receiving on the freezer cooking I can but I'm waiting on my four resources that I recently purchased and WHY ARENT THEY HERE YET DAG NABBIT?!

I'll share my anticipated goodies with you anyhow.

The first book is called "Sleep On It" and features meals that you mostly prepare ahead of time and then have minimal (if any) prep work to do the next day when it's time to eat so you can actually enjoy your family/company/guests.



The second book is called Fix Freeze Feast and is all about bulk cooking. I have heard GREAT things about this one and really look forward into adding some of the recipes (over 125) to my menu rotation! WOO HOO!

The third book is called Dream Dinners. It was actually a book that was recommended by a blogger that I love and respect who is also a once a month cooker! There used to be a franchise around where you could go and prepare your own meals to take home and freeze called Dream Dinners -- I'm sure it's the same founders! Hopefully they'll share some of their delicious meals with me in this! I can't wait to devour every page!

And then, there's Don't Panic -- Dinner's in the Freezer! I've been coveting this book so long it's like... stupid that I never bought it before now! And, of course, there's a sequel to this one but since I don't even have the first in the series, I'll wait on the sequel (perhaps) but not too long!

And lastly, there's the Once A Month Cooking book. Again, another book that was recommended and taht I'd heard great things about but never purchased. Why? I don't know but I just know that I NEED it now! Ha ha!

So, between THIS, the blogs I'm frequently lurking about on and my ridiculous, anal-retentativeness with planning and organization, I should have myself all set up and ready to go for March's cooking fiesta!

I can't wait! Stay tuned because I will CERTAINLY be sure to review and share the recipes that I try.

Decorative Bedding!

WOO HOO.. I finally did it. I made a freakin decision! I feel so proud. Since I'm in the mode of nesting, decorating, purging, I've been looking for some bedding for my bedroom. My room has FAR too much brown in it. The bedding has ALWAYS been brown (except for the one time I purchased something with some red/navy blue in it. It was nice but still TOO dark!) The walls are taupe with white trim and crown molding. The carpet was taupe (notice I saw WAS because I ripped it up and now it's bare concrete.) The curtains.... yeah, you guessed it - taupe. The furniture, dark cherry wood. It's FAR too much brown and lacking in any sort of color. So instead of painting the walls (which I secretely wanted to do a bluish-grey) I opted to change out the bedding and I LOVE THE LOOK OF WHAT I GOT! I couldn't be happier!

Since my bathroom is completely void of color, too, I'm painting the cabinets black. With the contrasting white flooring, white/light taupe wallpaper and white countertop I think this will all just blend together beautifully! Now to figure out how to add a few pops of color here and there...any ideas? I'm just so excited!!!

Thankful Thursdays

It's that time of the week again, Thankful Thursday! Today's letter is "D"..

• Drew (my son)
• Dad (he's my hero)
• Dogs (they are just the highlight of my bad days... unconditional love)
• Daisies (they remind me of my mom -- they're her favorite flower)
• Daylight (because the sunshine can make anyone feel better)
• Dumdums (they're just the right amount of sweet and small enough to not give me guilt)
• DVD players (because sometimes moms need a break!)
• Delivery! (because sometimes you just don't want to cook)
• Donuts (because sometimes you don't want to make breakfast on a weekend -- Drew lives for Donut day)
• Dreams (because without them, what daily purpose do we have? We should always seek to reach our dreams)
• Diamonds (because I really miss mine... :( regardless of how materialistic it is to covet another one, I do... I miss my beautiful symbol)
• Diet Big Red (because that's my morning caffiene fix and I LOVE IT!)
• Drummers (because where would bands like Motley Crue, The Eagles and Def Leppard be without amazing drummers!)

So what are you thankful for?

The North Face

One of my favorite blogs that I look forward to getting in my in box is this fun little blog called The Mommy Files. She's got a GREAT giveaway goign on right now where you can win a handsome jacket from The North Face. Read about it HERE. I hope you enter! I just think it's a good thing or I certainly wouldn't waste my blog space for it! Good luck!