SOPHOMORE!!!!!!

Your big litle brother

is now a SOPHOMORE....

school's out!!!!!!!

Here we are on Mother's Day in Plano

@ Shelby & Toni's....

Britt gave me a card that said that I was

"a great role model that he could look up to & follow God." That's amazing since I have felt at times like such a failure this year.

I was reading today a book called

How Children Raise Parents by Dan Allender and he said it this way..."a leader lives not on success but on the inevitability that I must strike out and pick up the bat and take another swing."

In spite of our sin,

GRACE ABOUNDS and we are called to marvel at His grace which leads to gratitude and grace-filled parenting...GRACE UPON GRACE---i love that verse!

I am amazed tonight @ II Cor. 12: 9,10 as we end this freshman school year that God's grace has been so sufficient for my troubles, tears, and trials.

This week, Bob prayed for me in the middle of the night as I was awakened by a haunting dream...Bob prayed that I would be ready like Zaccheus and come down for He is coming to our house today. He is always inviting us to His party. He's here, gotta go...

One more thing for Brookie Two Shoes...our next stop is College Station...

P.S. Yes, my hair shrunk cause it was dyed 6 times in one day!

Forever Friends!

Special Friends A Chapter Closed...

Special Friends

A Chapter Closed...

And God knows the plans

He has for each of you...

Prov. 29:11

And He wants each of you

to not only hear Him but

also to see Him

Job 42:5

Blair's Roommates...

Blair's

Sweet Roommates...

friends who stick close. Prov 18:24

because each of you

are called

God's Friend James 2:23...

you have been

such great friends to Blair...

A friend loves

at all times .....Prov.17:17

Thanks for loving

my daughter so well!

Blair & Jenna

Graduation Day

May 13, 2007

Forever Friends...

An Aggie Grad

Brookie & The Six Chicks

it has been one year

since these six special friends

graduated from Texas A&M...

where are they this very day???

They are all in the hands of their God!

Last year it was an Aggie Graduation...

This year it is a Sooner Graduation...

Congratulations Sweet Blair

Blair graduated from the University of Oklahoma on May 12, 2007. Congratulations my dear girl! You are such a hard worker juggling a full-time job and full-time school graduating in four years!

If we ever want to meet anyone, just get right behind Blair and she will make it happen. You are one of the most gregarious girls I know. I love your heart for others. Even when you were in grade school, you would be willing to help a fellow student with their classwork before you did your own. Brookie (and the rest of the world) said to me when she was seven..."if I ever want to meet anyone, I can just go stand right behind Blair." You have brought so much life to our family.

I love your tenacity, faithfulness, LOYALTY, INITIATIVE,DILIGENCE, but most of all.... I love your heart for God and for others. I love your passion to want to do His will...there isn't anything else worth living for. And, you have found that inner drive to make a difference in this world starting with you. Your dad and I are so grateful to God for your precious life. Thank you for working so hard to make this graduate moment happen. And we say thank you to our great God who makes all things happen for us. For if we have done anything, it is because He has helped us get there...."not to us, O Lord, but to your Name be the glory because of Your Love, Your Faithfulness...

Orange Hair for Graduation

Barrett called from California---yes, I do have that right that he is in California...but he called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and tell me that he did not really graduate on Saturday. Okay, where have I been? Actually, Blair did graduate from college on Saturday but she only "walked" and starts class on Monday to finish up a class or two. So, she's graduated and still in college. Walking is very new to me....Barrett could have "walked" at Nebraska or from Nebraska or whatever you say---but decided to take his last graduate class this summer. So Barrett didn't "walk" only Blair "walked." I knew Barrett wouldn't be there for his "walk" cause of his "race." However, somewhere in the "walking" conversations, I thought it had happened and he had to miss "walking" at his own graduation to go to California for an important race...ssssoooooooo...we are still very proud of you Barrett for almost graduating or walking and look forward to graduation with no "walk" in August with an MBA in hand! Just wanted to clear that up cause I have confused a few people including myself!

I'll post the story of Blair's awesome graduation soon.... but I can tell you this. I went to get my hair highlighted on Friday for the big day and uh! oh!....I should have had my digital camera with me so you could have witnessed the debaucle....the girl put my hair under the dryer with Paul Mitchell product and that evidently doesn't work. No heat on Paul Mitchell!!!! She had me tilt my head to get the last part of the highlights baking well...oh no!!! Paul Mitchell ran down the whole left side of my head. When the foil came off...I had ORANGE HAIR FOR THE OU GRADUATION and that's not their color either...and it was only on one side kind of random in no specific order. The more people that gathered around my salon chair gave me a clue that it looked hideous from several angles. It looked horrific...THEY ended up trying five more times to color it---first lowlight brown, then bleached again, then toner, then stronger toner, then bleached again and the 6th try worked. I was starving sitting in the chair for 7 1/2 hours straight. And my scalp really hurt from 6 washings and pullings and I was so grateful to be highlighted blonde again. I had to do business with God in that salon chair and make peace that I might have to go to the OU graduation with bright orange TEXAS HAIR but just on one side. Here's a sweet pic of my precious graduate with her mommy who was so proud to be there with normal hair for my sweet Blair. I would have come with orange hair, Blair!

Turn back the clock to 1987...

Barrett's Kindergarten Graduation...

Here are the three musketeers waiting

to attend Barrett's graduation...

Going to Barrett's Graduation

congratulations barrett!!!!!!!!

Barrett graduated Saturday from The University of Nebraska.

Training 3 sports every day while working and doing graduate school

was hard work.

Congratulations on receiving your MBA!

Barrett couldn't attend graduation because

of a conflict with racing in California on the same day..

We love the man you have grown to be---

courageous, committed, curious, charming

loving, loyal, tenacious, thoughtful,

diligent, dependable, faithful, and full of passion!

from Waco to OKC

WACO...His goal was to run a sub-five minute mile. He missed it by the blink of his eye. Britt placed 6th in the state at the TAPPS State Championships in Waco on Saturday, May 5th running the 1600m in 5:00.84. He told us we should have screamed at him to run a fraction faster...now do you think his coach dad was screaming at him GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...he was. Great finish for this freshman to qualify and make it to the State Championships in four different sports this year: cross country, swimming, basketball, and track.

OKC...Can you find your brother in the photo??? We jumped in the car after the state track champs to make an AAU Basketball Tournament in Oklahoma City where Britt played three games. Here is his Team Texas Swoosh playing for the championship against an Oklahoma team. Lost by four points. Is this all about winning? I actually really enjoyed every minute of the games and track meet but I don't like to lose. Why? What do you REALLY think when you walk away runner-up? How we process these things REALLY does matter.

Our passions reveal our thirst for Life or life. “Most of us escape so much by being less than fully alive” Frederick Buechner wrote. Buechner said that most of the time we are little more than half alive; the rest of the time we are dazed, dreaming, or detached. The dead sparrow, the woman touching the hem of his garment as he passes by, the disciples shooing away the children, Zaccheus in a tree to see him come through town----God seems to escape nothing. He seems to be vulnerable to the pain of the crippled and bereaved and pain of being human. I love reading Buechner in terms of processing the thoughts of my heart.

Beth Moore Live

Two adorable West Texas girls with Beth...

I was so touched by my God today...It was 11 am and I was on my way to my own Beth Moore bible study "Beloved Disciple" when the call came that there was one extra ticket to Beth's live taping of the James Robison show. I had one hour to get there. Because I was by myself, they put me right in the front next to the ladies who had been there in line since 8:45 am. I so enjoyed every word as they taped four days of interviews between James Robison & Beth Moore. Here are some snippets where Beth brought God to me today and made me want to jump out of my skin:

She talked about longing for a place she never dreamed she would be living after being more messed up than most and having experienced sexual abuse. She talked about how Satan wants to bury us alive in an early grave. He desires to cover us so our light won't shine for he is the Destroyer. He knows he can't have us for eternity but our enemy has a tremendous investment to convince us to stay in the darkness, stay in your pit. God's agenda is to make you miserable in your pit. She shared Job 33: 29, 30:

"God does all these things to a man twice, even three times---to turn back his soul from the pit that the Light of Life may shine on him."

And when she talked about Silas in Acts 16: 26 and how that suddenly there was an earthquake---Truth settled in as it says in Psalm 51:6 that it's those cataclysmic events that God allows to happen in our lives and our chains drop off, she exclaimed..."Everybody's chains came loose!" Jesus is inviting us to come be free! Oh! Oh! And James Robinson so humbly replied back to her about his own personal defeat---the misery of missing his Jesus during a season of despair in his life. He shared about how in his relationship with Jesus Christ He had missed the presence of God for a time. He shared Matthew 11: 28:

God is saying Come to Me all you who are weary & burdened & I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you & learn from Me...my yoke is easy, your load will be light.

Tears flowed as they both talked about the despair they have known in their lives. Beth said God is interested in a relationship with us, no formulas. He is after Sufficiency---live off Him and He will reform our habits to a constant awareness of His Presence & His Power. James talked about walking with a limp every day, suiting up his armor, and he shared a vision of having braces on and being underwater with no oxygen---He is our life and we can't live without His oxygen---reminded me of the verse in Psalm that His word is like oxygen to us. And Beth replied with II Cor. 4:7---

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God & not from us...perplexed but no despair.

Beth asked: why is it so easy to believe God can do it for you but what about for me? She ended the last interview talking about:

CRY OUT: You have His power...He wants to renew your mind.

CONFESSION: Are you upset with Him? Are your feelings hurt? Have you been abused? Open your mouth & pour out your heart. You are safe with Him.

CONSENT: Consent to what God already wants for you and your life. God never meant for you to be content in your pit. I AM is able to make you stand.

The four live interviews were over...

And then a moment came that I will hold in my heart for the next three years as I see my youngest son through high school....James Robison asked if he could say a personal word to us about our boys and he talked about the war we are in for our young men. He said they needed to be covered and not exposed and I can't tell you what welled up in my heart that moment for my boys. He asked if he could pray for us. A few months ago God brought to my mind that someday James Robison would pray for me---I have never met the man ever--- and here it was, then...Just yesterday in my QT as I was reading and praying and struggling and crying out to my God, God gave me Genesis 9: 22, 23---verses I had really never thought about and here God is speaking that same word to James Robison for us and our boys and I came unglued in my heart and my mind that my God did that for me. James prayed first for those who were in a pit...then he prayed for those who were hurting and asked us to raise a hand---my hand was up so fast. God's power and presence was so evident in his prayer. I Cor. 2: 3, 4. You could hear weeping all over the studio and in my own soul for it was one of those God-moments. God showed up! And He is covering me and my boys---I'm not ashamed. I believe God did Psalm 107:20 today--- God spoke through Beth & James and sent His Word to heal us.

From Footed PJ's to the First Formal

Freshman & the Formal

Just stuff your size 13 foot into that size 12 shoe while I run back to the tuxedo place to order the right pants that really match the jacket....no 13 shoes are available...and no, the wrist corsage is supposed to be all white sweetheart roses and how did hot pink flowers jump in there? And back to the tuxedo place for the 4th time... It was a fun hectic day. First formal. Joe T. Garcia's. Bass Hall---a room adjacent. Dancing. $40 Desserts. Downtown. I remember when Britt was in footed pajamas and now the foot is squeezed into tuxedo shoes and a tear drops from my eye. We are raising them to be independent one day and that day is dawning in a few short years as we close the chapter on our first year of high school for the little big one. How I long to be there for my children. I want to know from my God what real love really looks like....because I really want to love my husband, love my children, love my world. How I loved Britt in those footed pajamas. How I love him in his freshman world!