Dream BIG!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Dirk and I were reminded of a dream that we both had a few years ago. Strangely, as the Lord would have it, we were both reminded of this dream a week apart. In fact, the day that I was so focused and consumed with it, I couldn't wait to get home from work to share it with him. I must tell you that we closed the door on this dream almost five years ago because of the financial aspects as well as other responsibilities we had at the time. It's a long story that I hope to share with you all one day.

In any case, at that time (almost five years ago), we left this dream behind. In fact, neither one of us had ever talked about it again until a couple of weeks ago. As I was driving home this particular Friday, I was going over in my head how to bring this dream up to Dirk and trying to make sense out of why had this dream come to me again after all this time, right?

I could hardly let him put his stuff down from the office before I started in with what was on my mind. After getting just a couple of sentences out of what was on my mind, Dirk said, "It's funny that you are talking about this as I was just thinking about the same thing last week!" "WHAT!?!?!?!?" I asked. Yep, isn't this a trip?

Anyhow, I could go on and on, but there's much to tell and I will share the dream one day, but I could never do it in one post. So, in time...I'll share exactly what that dream is. It's BIG and will take the Lord to bring it to fruition.

I wasn't going to share any of this at all just yet, but tonight we were reading a devotional that was clearly meant for us and perhaps many of you. I won't share the whole devotion, but these three sentences spoke volumes to us tonight as to where we are with this dream that the Lord has so clearly reminded us of.

Here's goes:

"God is never intimidated by the size of the enemy or the complexity of a problem. With Him, there are always enough resources to resist the pressures and win your battles. If God has called you to action, then bravely commit what few resources you have to God and rely upon Him to give you the victory."

As I read the last sentence over and over and over, tears of joy flowed down my face. Try applying this to whatever you're going through right now or whatever dream you may have that seems SO BIG and you know that God has called you into action to take that step.

Pretty POWERFUL, huh?

Spring Break 2009...

We have really enjoyed our Spring Break of not doing much of anything.

If it weren't for the girls wanting to have a couple of days out of the house, we would have totally not gone anywhere.

I would like to share the outing we had yesterday, though. Unfortunately for me, my entire family LOVES Six Flags Over Texas. I am okay with it, but if we only visited the place every three years, I'd be happy. However, I am out voted on this place every time.

We found out very quickly that a LOT of people had the same idea in mind when we ventured out to Six Flags yesterday.

I do believe that they may have reached their capacity yesterday. There were people EVERYWHERE! Get this....they were so crowded that people could have easily gotten in for FREE. We purchased our tickets online to avoid standing in line when we got there. Just driving into the park and getting a parking spot was quite humorous. The main entrance was so backed up with cars coming in that they started redirecting cars to another entrance. I didn't even know that they had another entrance. LOL! Anyhow, when we got to this other entrance, they had many people (employees) out directing traffic, right? At first, we couldn't figure out how they were taking the money for parking until it got to be our turn. Ready??? The parking was free! Yep! We normally buy the season parking which is $45.00 or you pay $15 parking for one day. I wanted to know why the parking was free, right? The employee told us that it was so busy and they were just trying to accomodate the crowd of people and they had no way to take the credit card we offered them at the alternate entrance. Okay.....cool!

So, then we get everything packed up from the car to head inside the park. We're just casually walking along with another few hundred people. We were stopped by another employee standing outside a newly opened entrance to inside the park. The guy said that if we had purchased tickets online and had proof or if we had renewed season passes, then we could walk right inside at the new entrance. Okay, most of us have been to a park like Six Flags before, right? And if you have, you know that there's a process to finally get inside. From the way it looked, you could have shown them an old season pass from last year and/or a blank sheet of paper to get in yesterday. Seriously, it was a trip!

I was glad that they were able to still do a security check through the metal detectors, though. I so wanted to turn back around and come back home after seeing how busy and crowded the place was going to be.

Luckily, it turned out to be okay and not as painful as I thought. The girls had a blast. Jae was still able to ride many rides in the kiddie section and well....Morgan's boyfriend was also visiting Six Flags with his family. So needless to say, the crowd didn't seem to bother them at all!

We found out in advance that the park rents kennels, too. So, we took our Gucci with us.

Here's a few pictures to share with you. I won't bore you with posting pictures of roller coaster rides since I've shared them before. You can only take the same ole' roller coaster pictures so many times. lol!!!

Jae and Hawkgirl striking a pose together.

Jae and Mr. Six. The Six Flags' mascot!

Hmmm....looking at this last picture above, I look like I have just loved dogs my whole life. How about that!?!?!? Also notice how, Gooch has also gotten accustomed to taking photos in this family. He's sitting there like a pro. lol!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Vacation Bound Friends...

This week the girls are on Spring Break!

Dirk and I have taken the rest of the week off to spend some extra time with them. Well, as much as the teenager will allow. lol!

We just plan on staying in town. We have a couple of family days planned, but that's about it.....very low key. This is my kind of vacation baby! I am actually looking forward to NOT having a full schedule of soooooooooooooooo many things to do.

I feel like a silly teenager.....I CAN STAY UP AS LATE AS I WANNA! And I'm GONNA!

As I am typing, it is just after midnight. Here's what's going on at our house...three of us are chillin' in the gameroom.

One of us is playing NCAA football on Xbox. One of us is blogging. And the last little munchkin of this group is playing the piano at almost 12:30 in the morning. Oh! And the teenager????? She's in the office talking on the phone to her boyfriend! I am quite sure if you read my blog often enough, you have named each person and know exactly who is doing what.

I tell ya, we plan on ENJOYING this for a few days!

I know that many of you are out on Spring Break, too! I hope that you're enjoying your week as well.

Facing My Fears!

After reading this post, you may label me as the Worst Mom of the Year!

Let's proceed....

I was supposed to be waiting out by the curb for Jae to get off the bus yesterday. It was very cold and rainy! The time for the bus to come came so quickly that I had actually forgotten about it. As soon as I realized that I had missed the bus by a couple of minutes, I go racing out the door barefoot, like an idiot. As my bare feet hit the wet, cold concrete, I wanted to run back in as fast as I had run out. The concrete was so cold that my feet began to cramp up.

So, I had just missed the bus. Fortunately, my neighbor was nice enough to walk Jae across just as I was getting out there. Okay, so there are kiddos everywhere, right? Well, the kiddos weren't the only ones out! Most of you who read my blog know that I recently overcame my fear of dogs, right? Welllllllllllllllll, God does have a very humorous side, ya know? Lo and behold....the test came on so fast!

As I was standing there thanking my neighbor for walking Jae over, all of sudden another neighbor a couple doors down from us started yelling at the top of her lungs, "Come back here! No! Come back!" You've probably guessed by now what was going on.

Here's comes this ferocious little Yorkie, yapping all the way, charging full speed towards us! Okay folks, the first reaction I had was to run like nobody's business like I have done in the past. I must say that, since this was happening so fast, I had completely forgotten about Jae. As I turned to run, it was like the Spirit instantly reminded me, "I have delivered you from this!" So, I turned again to face this ferocious little beast. As I turned around, I was also reminded that I was about to run off and leave my baby girl. Jae was just standing there looking at me. lol! Still with me? Anyhow, as I turned back around to face him and stood still, he immediately stopped running, but was still heading our way at a walk. We have large lots between us. So even though this was all happening so fast, it still took this little monster (oops! sorry!) some time to make it to us.

Anyhoo...when he finally reached us, I was totally okay and just stood there as he walked around us, sniffing the whole time. I calmly asked my neighbor to take him back to his owner.

Geez! With all the excitement, I had completely forgotten about me being barefoot!

As we turned to walk back into the house, Jae was laughing uncontrollably. She said, "Mom, I am proud of you. You didn't run away." lol! Pretty sad for my seven year old to use a parent's comforting words, huh?

The only thing missing from this post and to sum it all up is a video! LOL!

Yep, this laugh was on me....

I hope that you're enjoying your weekend so far!

Do You Prefer Paper or The Real Thing????

Okay, so my title may have thrown you a bit. lol!

As I was preparing my dinner this evening, I was bummed out that we only had two paper plates left to place on the table. This would mean two family members having paper and the other two having actual real plates to eat off of tonight. Not that we were having company or anything, but I wasn't about to mismatch my dinner table with two different kinds of plates. Soooooooooo, we all had real plates. Imagine that?

Unless we're having company or it's a holiday....it's paper plates allllllllllll the way at our house. Get this......we use paper plates at every meal with CLOTH napkins. Go figure! Weird, huh? Dirk's grandmother (who is now deceased) made us several dozen cloth napkins over the years. We have used cloth napkins for the last 15 years at almost every meal. As I type this, I realize how weird this really is!

And since this really does sound weird, I hesitated taking a picture of what a normal place setting looks like at our house each evening. Oh, well! Since I'm still confident in myself....hehehe...I'm gonna share it anyhow!



It's not like it would take a whole lot of extra time to wash real plates, right? We're already washing the rest of our place setting anyhow. Okay....I'll sign off now before I confuse you more about the (ab)normalacy of our family. LOL!

So, please share, do you use paper plates at your house regularly? You can be honest - it's just us girls here.

I Have Found My Miracle Shower Cleaner!!!

Thank you all for giving such GREAT advice and suggestions on helping me find my miracle cleaner.

I actually tried several of your suggestions and a couple of them worked....but for my stubborn shower, I was still needing that miracle cleaner. So, I made a trip to the store and just started staring and studying all the products on the cleaning aisle that I had never purchased before. To be quite honest, I thought that I had actually purchased everything that was already out there!

However, I came across a product that I'd never heard of or seen before. It's called Bar Keeper's Friend! Yep! Apparently, this product has been out since 1882. WHAT???? I know, right? Ooops! I just sounded like my teenager. lol!

Anyhow, this stuff is absolutely amazing, friends! I was thinking that it would probably work okay for the most part, but it probably wouldn't be "my miracle cleaner", ya know? I was so wrong!

I sure wish that I would have tried this wayyyyyyyyyyyyy before now!

Bar Keeper's Friend claims that it can remove rust, clean and polish items that are stainless steel, fiberglass, porcelain, glass cook tops, copper, tile, and brass.

Here's the directions from the back of the can: Sprinkle BKF on a thoroughly wet cloth and rub gently. If applying BFK directly to metal, porcelain or plastic, make certain surface is wet-then rub gently until rust or discoloration disappears. Rinse. For difficult stains, rust spots, tarnished surfaces.. make a paste by adding a few drops of water to BFK. Let paste remain on stain no longer than one minute before rubbing. Rinse immediately.

I am telling you that this product left my shower floor spotless. I am AMAZED!!!

Another thing that I tried was a different cleaning brush. It's big, with stiff bristles, which worked great, too. The brush was able to get into the grooves in the "pebbled" surface of the shower floor.

So, for all of you who need a miracle cleaning job done in your shower, too, run out and get a can of this stuff!!! You won't be disappointed. I purchased mine at our local Wal-Mart store.

I hope that you are having a great weekend so far! I am! Praise the Lord!!!!

Update on Gucci!

I've had some of you comment or send emails asking for an update on Gucc. He's doing very well! He weighs 13 pounds now. He shouldn't get too much bigger than 15 pounds unless he starts to get fat. He is such a cutie! He's a really good puppy, ya know?

He eats very well. He's 95% house trained. Ready for this? I truly can't imagine our home without having him here now. Isn't that something? For someone who was deathly afraid of animals, I've come a longggggggggggggggggggggg way baby!

Isn't he CUTE???

The girls don't like to hear me say this, but..... I believe that I am his favorite.