Hotel Bridges

Brook is a party planner.  Wonder where she gets that from??

She got a sleepover idea book & read through it while we were in Belgium.  So for 2 months, she has been planning a sleepover for a few church friends with a hotel theme.  Friday night, we hosted a hotel sleepover at Hotel Bridges.

Important features...knowing where the restrooms are located inside the "hotel"

Our check in desk

Brook even made a credit card slider (the white box with the black line down the middle).

A little color for dinner.  I was the hotel chef!

Every guest got a parting gift of some hotel samples :)

The next day, one of our guests had late check-out :).

Maylen & Brook had fun dancing & playing on Saturday.

I took these pretty girls to get yogurt...

and to Hobby Lobby.  After all, it was national support Hobby Lobby Day!

By 7pm, this was my hotel girl....exhausted!

Homeschool Conference 2014

This is my 6th year in a row to attend a homeschool conference  When I was asked if I wanted to go to this one, my first thought was, I really don't need that many new books.  But immediately, my next thought was, it is not about the books!  It is all about spending time with friends, being encouraged, laughing, and then learning about new products is always fun too!  Two of these years, the conference was in Memphis, but we still made a weekend out of it & got hotels in town.  This year, I traveled to Nashville with 6 other ladies. Three of these ladies I know well & have traveled with each of the other years.

First stop was my recently new favorite Mexican restaurant, Chuys.  They have locations in Austin, Atlanta, & in Nashville.  I'm sure they have other locations as well.  It is an excellent choice if you are ever near one.  I had my picture taken in front of the Elvis shrine!

We stayed at the beautiful Opryland Hotel, which is where the conference took place.  

Throughout the conference, I was able to purchase the majority of the girls school books for this upcoming year.  I love how the Lord provided a new bible curriculum for Isabella, which is the one missing piece I was lacking by the end of the conference.  On the drive home, I had so much fun laughing with 3 of the other ladies & ending our trip in prayer together.  I am thankful for these friends, a girls get-away & the freedom to homeschool.

Crowns

Not all crowns are about royalty.  Around our house, it seems like we have a gift of relating all things back to British Royalty, namely, William & Kate.  Today, I received 2 crowns.  Yes, the kind you get at the dentist. The kind where I am thankful for the invention of headphones so I could listen to music & reduce the sounds of drilling!  The numbness wore off as the evening approached, & the pain came.

As I took Tylenol PM when I laid down in bed, I thought about the pain of the crown.  Then, I thought about the pain my Jesus took when He wore a crown of thorns for me & was mocked.  It took the focus off my temporary pain to be thankful for the sacrifice Jesus made because He loves you & me so much.

"And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe."  John 19:2

This is the book I am reading right now.  It is called "Get Real:  Sharing Your Everyday Faith Every Day" by John Leonard.  We met John & heard him speak while we were in Brussels.  His talk was one of the highlights of our training time.  It is a great book & I encourage you to read it too.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  I know it is Thursday, but I won't be posting tomorrow.  And, fun for me, I get to go back to dentist next week for a 3rd crown!

Week in Review

Happy Monday!  Here is a look at last week in review......

The girls had a great time with cousins at my brother & sister-in-law's house.  Avery & I had a fun night with friends while they were gone & I got some cleaning done around here.

The next day after the girls got home, we took a road trip to Atlanta.  No road trip is complete without a little Huey Lewis music!

As we came into town, we met up with our teammate, Angela Floyd, for dinner (her husband couldn't join us).  Angela & Ross are also moving to Bogota & we look forward to having them join us this fall.

It was tempting to go on to Greenville to see the Greens, but our schedule was busy.   We are looking forward to seeing them in Memphis though!  It is always customary for me to take pictures of signs for Greenville though!

Thursday morning, we arrived at the Colombian Consulate in Atlanta.

After a 3 hour wait & a stack of papers, we got our visas!

Friday morning, we went to the MTW office.  The office had an office-wide prayer time for us as we get ready to depart.  It was a sweet time & good to see people we have met along the way.  We are grateful for this organization who is on our side & is a praying group of people.  Our dear mentor, Bruce, joined us Friday to pray for us.  We met Bruce back in September.  He & his wife, Susan, spent the whole month with us in Brussels.  We did go over to their house Thursday afternoon to visit with both of them, but Susan wasn't able to be there Friday due to recovering from a recent surgery.  We are excited we will see them this fall.  They are a valuable resource to us as they have "been there, done that" on the mission field.

We have been super blessed to have an excellent resource rep, Jessica. with MTW.   She has helped us so much, encouraged us, & most important, prayed for us & with us.  We were able to have dinner with her Thursday night & we spent Friday morning with her as well.  After our visit at MTW, we saw some of Avery's family.  His parents, & brother & his family came to Atlanta to see us, but I didn't get any pictures.

Our family has been blessed to have several young people who really mean so much to us & have become like family...most recently, our sweet Leah who met in Brussels.

Leah with the girls in Paris

Leah sent us all the sweetest notes in the mail this week.  This one was for Avery & I :)

And we got to Skype with our "oldest daughter" from our trip in Brussels, Lauren.  It was just like being back in Brussels, sitting on the bed, talking with Lauren, like we did so many times.  

We also got some good news this week from Rachelle.  She is engaged!  This is a picture of Rachelle with the girls from last summer when she was here for a wedding.  We met Rachelle about 7 years ago when she lived in Memphis.  She lives in Kansas City now, but we have kept in touch & are thrilled for her.

And lastly, our precious Kaitlyn & her husband are expecting a baby this year!  We met Kaitlyn almost 8 years ago.  She & her husband are dear friends & we super excited for them.  

We love these ladies & consider them all family.  We are truly blessed & our girls have some amazing role models in their lives.

Week in Review

Here are some highlights from our past week:

Schools were out Monday-Wednesday last week due to winter weather.  We met friends at the mall. Pray for Brook's friends, Maylen, Adaline, & their baby brother & their sweet momma.  It was a year ago last weekend that their daddy went to Heaven.

Riding the roller coaster ride in the mall

Guess what Brook & I did?  We got yogurt of course!

Isabella had spent the day with her grandmother :)

Brook took her rapelling skills to the tree in our front yard.

Isabella's last visit to the orthodontist!  

She got her braces off!!

I met my brother & dropped off the girls with him for the weekend.  I wanted to make sure I got a goodbye hug from my brother.  We are 11 months apart & have always been close.  

Avery & I went to see the movie Monuments Men this weekend.  It was interesting to see some buildings from places we had just visited in January while in Belgium.  Sadly, we didn't see inside these buildings, but I looked back through my pictures & had taken a picture of the Church of our Lady cathedral in Bruge, Belgium.  It houses the Madoona of Bruge by Michelangelo.   

This is the picture I took.

This is the picture I found on Wikipedia.

Happy Monday to you!

March Snow

Before I get to the Memphis March snow, let me first wish my parents a happy anniversary!

They have been married 48 years today!

Thanks Mom & Dad!

It seems like you can count on snow in Memphis every year the first weekend of March.  I think it has happened the last several years anyway.  Today we got the only snow that we've seen this year (we missed seeing a few coverings of snow while we were in Europe). It was beautiful watching it fall & the dusting on the ground.

Our church in the background

Brook wrote on our car (this is the van we are borrowing).

Isabella collected snow to make snow ice cream.

I may or may not have just changed from one pair of pajamas to the next.  It was a good day!

So true & funny!

The girls spent the afternoon practicing their rock climbing skills...inside!

It was a new way to have fun with their Papa.

This is what I found hanging from the doorways inside....

and outside!

Another highlight of our day was our family was able to Skype with our dear Iranian friend in Brussels.  We spent about an hour catching up with him.  It was great & such an honor that he considers us like family. Keep praying for him & for positive results from his interview.  We look forward to one day having him come visit us in the US & introducing him to many who have prayed for him. We also were able to connect via social media with our dear friends in Thailand.  We love connecting with our brothers & sisters in Christ around the world!  What a sweet glimpse of what heaven will be like!