I just got tagged!

I just got tagged by my friend Lori.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people (I won't be able to do this since I don't know many who are bloggers)

Well, the closest book to me is called Perfect Weight America by Jordan Rubin but when I turned to page 123 there was a chart on the page and only 2 or 3 sentences. So, I decided to reach for another book called The Power of a Praying Parent. I had pulled this out when I had been up several times a night praying for our little ones. Last week, we all came down with the flu and it killed me to see Roman struggling with such a high fever for several days. Unfortunately, we all got the flu and it was the most difficult 3 - 4 days trying to take care of 2 kids and also trying to heal ourselves. Thankfully, the MOPS group I belong to at Dallas First Church pitched in and delivered dinner 2 nights. What a tremendous blessing that was for our family. But, with God's strength and healing we made it through and we are all doing great!

Ok, so here goes:

This comes from chapter 17 titled, Staying Attracted to Holiness and Purity

"This doesn't just happen. It must be taught. And although we can do much to teach our children about living purely in the ways of the Lord and model this to the best of our ability, the real teacher is the Holy Spirit. Holiness begins with a love for Him. "Keep yourself pure" (1 Timothy 5:22), the Bible instructs us. That's a hard assignment for anyone, but especially for a child. It can only be accomplished by total submission to God and His law and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit."

These few sentences really made me think about my teenage years. I didn't know the Lord back then and, boy, was it so easy to be distracted or enticed to do things that were so unpleasing to God. I realize how important it is to pray for our children at such a young age and to hopefully lay a Godly foundation for them so when they are older and are enticed with life's temptations, they will want to reject it.

I love this prayer at the end of the chapter:
Lord, I pray that you would fill Roman and Ethan with a love for you that surpasses their love for anything or anyone else. Help them to respect and revere Your laws and understand that they are there for their benefit. Hide your Word in their heart so that there is no attraction to sin. I pray they will run from evil, from impurity, from unholy thoughts, words and deeds, and that they will be drawn toward whatever is pure and holy. In Jesus name, Amen!

The GDiaper !!

Over the past several months, I have been struggling with using disposable diapers for my kiddos. Every time I watch my DH empty out the Diaper Champ, I'd think to myself...wow, that huge bag of dirty diapers is never going to biodegrade in the landfill. Ok, never might be too strong of word but did you know that the conventional disposable diaper will take 500 years to biodegrade? And they are the 3rd largest contributors to landfills around the world. Yikes...hello...is anybody getting this...500 years? I know what you're thinking...does it really matter? It really started bugging me so I made a decision to go with cloth diapers and was going to use my last disposable and then make the switch. I headed to Target one Saturday afternoon as I was on my weekly shopping venture and made my way over to the cloth diaper area. For some reason Pampers and Huggies started calling out my name or at least that's what I thought I heard. So sure enough, I broke down and bought more disposable diapers because I could justify it with the fact they were on sale and I had coupons...yippee!! So, I ended up at square one...watching my hubby emptying the Diaper Champ the next day and feeling terrible that I could have joined the Green band wagon a little sooner.

But, lo and behold, one late night, my SIL Dawn sent me this link to a company called GDiapers. I'd never heard of these diapers before. So I checked out their website and I was pretty impressed with how these worked. What's really cool is they have videos that show real people putting them on their child or flushing the dirty diaper down the toilet. If you think about it, we really only have 2 options - cloth or disposable. I am so thankful that I have a 3rd option to consider now. Anyways, I think I am going to try these out and will come back and share my experience. I hope these eco-friendly diapers are an answer to prayer. Thank you, Dawn, for sharing this bit of info!

Heavenly Cupcakes!!

For my 40 something birthday (hee hee), my DH surprised me with cupcakes from this wonderful place called Sprinkles http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com/. I'm sure many of you have heard of them because they have been featured on so many programs like Oprah, Good Morning America, Dr Phil, The Today Show, etc. etc. etc. Plus, you'll catch so many celebreties raving about them. Yes, they are the most overpriced cupcake I have ever tasted but OMG they were worth every single penny.

So, Ladies, if you are looking to get your favorite man a wonderful treat for Valentine's Day, surprise him with their red velvet or a belgian dark chocolate cupcake. There is a location in North Dallas in the Plaza at Preston Center. Of course, if you don't live near one, they do happen to deliver by mail. If there are cupcakes in heaven I hope they are Sprinkles! Thank you, honey, for making my birthday extra special.

Special Moments!

We've had such a wonderful time these past two weeks with friends and family visiting. First, we dedicated Ethan at our church, High Point in Arlington, TX http://www.churchunusual.com/ this morning. It was such a beautiful service where Pastor Gary Simons laid hands on each child while April prayed a special prayer. We were so blessed to have my sister, Sondra and my BIL Mazen (from McAllen, TX) and Ethan's Godparents Jim and Tina Smith with us at the service . Jim and Tina have been such a blessing and through their testimonies have made such an impact in our lives. We know that they will be a wonderful spiritual covering and encouragement in Ethan's life. After the church service, everyone came to our home for lunch and dessert. Ethan's grandmother prepared an awesome lasagne (will have to post the recipe) with all the great side fixin'. Grandpa helped so much too! Tina's parents (The Blacks) also joined us since they were also visiting. Here are a few pictures:

My good friend Suzy Moravick, from upstate New York, was also visiting during the past two weeks attending courses for her residency as she is pursuing her PHd in clinical psychology. We met back in 1995 while I was living in West Lafayette, IN working for State Farm and she was completing her undergraduate degree at Purdue University. We met each other at Silver Mountain Coffee shop while we were both working there part-time. Before we knew it we were best of friends. Well, I relocated to Dallas, TX in 1997 and she went on to New York to work on her Masters. We stayed in contact throughout the past 10 yrs but our paths never really crossed again until recently. It was such a blessing to see her. I didn't realize how much I missed our friendship and the times we use to share. Although, it has been 10 years, I felt like we had not missed a beat. Suzy is such a sweet and beautiful person with a passion for Jesus. I know that God is going to use her in a special way to touch the lives of many hurting people and be instrumental in bringing them into the kingdom of heaven. She will be back in Jan 2009 and we can't wait to see her then!!

I have been so touched these past two weeks with past relationships being rekindled and new relationships being birthed. God is so awesome in how he knows exactly how and when to surround us with those who can encourage and speak life in to our souls. There was something that Mr. Black (Tina's father) shared today that I thought was worth posting. He said..."it takes a little man to make you feel little but it takes a big man to make you feel big." It is so important to surround yourself with people who can encourage you and build you up because in life there always seems to be things around us that can makes us feel so insignificant.

Stayed blessed everyone....with lots of love from Texas!!!