The Girls Are Back

And boy did we miss them!     How could you not miss these precious faces?

 

I don't know how excited my sister was, but we were thrilled that it was time for her to start teaching her class at the college again.    We were missing our weekly time with the sweet girls.      Both boys had bought things with their own money for the girls to play with while at our house.   They bought a little set of blocks they thought the girls would think was fun.    We pulled out spoons and bowls and showed the girls how to stir the blocks like soup.    The boys would build the blocks up into towers.    LK would knock it over, but MM would carefully remove each block one at a time.

 

MM loved this snowman painting in the window.    She would point to all the pieces and ask us to name, "nose, eyes, hands, buttons".   She kept giving it kisses.

LK is our girly girl.    She found my necklace on the luggage table and immediately said, "ooooh".    I let her wear it and she was grinning so big.   She kept picking it up to look at it.   

 

Oooh, these sweeties.    We could just eat them with a spoon!

 

Extraordinary

Have you ever gotten something to drink, but didn't realize just how thirsty you were until you started drinking? However, once you started drinking you couldn't stop drinking until the glass was empty? That is the way I felt about this weekend's Extraordinary Women's Conference. I knew I would enjoy it, but I just didn't realize how thirsty my soul was until I was actually there.

Here are some highlights from my experience at the "Extraordinary Women" weekend:

• After chatting on our blogs, Conservative Belle and I have been trying to find a time to get together and this was the perfect opportunity. We laughed and laughed Friday night at Chonda Pierce. We also had so much fun chatting and talking about just "stuff". Since we live so close to each other, I followed her home. When she says she has found her inner "Nascar"... she is NOT kidding!! hee hee
• Looking around the sanctuary at 3,000 other women who were laughing, giggling and taking some precious time to refuel.
• Listening to Karen Kingsbury. I love her books. Karen talked about how wrapped in the characters of her books she becomes. She became so wrapped up in one of her characters that she cried when it became time for that character to die. When her husband came in and found her crying he panicked and asked what was wrong. When he realized it was just a book character he said, "Well, you killed her!" Karen says that each of us have characters in the stories of our lives. Some are easy to love. Some aren't. Unfortunately though, we can't sit down at our laptop and rewrite their personalities or how they are going to act and react.
• "The last time that you catch a frog back in that old backyard pond. The last time that you run barefoot across the fresh cut lawn. Silly, scattered images will represent your past. I will keep on taking pictures never quite sure of your "lasts"...." Oh, yea, I was crying like a baby when Karen Kingsbury was reading her book "Let Me Hold You Longer".
• I could have listened to Angela Thomas all day long. Oh, and to have God tap me on the elbow and say, "You are beautiful." Ahhhhh....
• Thelma Wells is right. God is definitely not through with me yet. You go, girl!
• By far the highlight of the weekend for me was the Children of the World choir. This choir is made up of children who have lost their parents due to illness and death. Seeing these children completely and totally surrender themself in praise to their God was just totally a humbling experience for me. I found a clip on You Tube so you could see a little of them for yourselves. There is no wonder why Jesus said a little child shall lead them.

It's you I live for every day, Jesus!

Renew, Rejuvenate, Refresh

Don't be jealous, but I am going to be spending the weekend with Chonda Pierce, Avalon, Angela Thomas, Karen Kingsbury, Mark Schultz and several other famous people.       Well, me and several thousand other women who will be attending the Extraordinary Women's Conference.     

Thanks to K, we bought our tickets early so our seats are on the main floor.     Which is another great thing about this conference... I get to go to this amazing conference with K and Conservative Belle.     K and I go to church together, but we never really get to spend a lot of time together because she is busy using her amazing voice in the choir and I am busy with the middle school ministry.      Conservative Belle and I have been building a friendship over our blogs, but we have never actually met.   We are going to solve that tonight!

I was joking yesterday that this is my SURVIVOR weekend.     However, instead of "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast."   This weekend is for women who need to Renew.  Rejuvenate.   Refresh!

Ahhhhhh!     I can't wait!!