Deeper Still Conference

Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore

Priscilla and Beth doin' a little rappin'

I'm one of the 19,000 people you see here. See me?

Mandisa!

This weekend I was able to go to the Deeper Still Conference in Atlanta featuring Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, and Priscilla Shirer. I went with a big group of ladies from my church. I was a little hesitant about going, but I'm so glad I went. I have been involved in Bible studies written by each of these ladies, but I had never heard them in person. The praise and worship was absolutely amazing as well as all of the speaking by these 3 teachers of God. Mandisa was also there. It was so neat to hear each of these ladies speak who were at such different stages of their lives. Kay Arthur is 74 years old and is one of the best looking 74 year olds I've ever seen. She looks more like 54. When she speaks she is pretty intense about the Scriptures and just tells it like it is without a whole lot of humor mixed in. I was so amazed at all the Scripture she just had up in her head. Priscilla Shirer is a very gifted speaker as well, and she may have been my favorite speaker of the conferece. She and Beth Moore ran neck and neck as my favorites. Priscilla is 6 months pregnant with her 3rd child and I think is about 40 years old. She talked about God bringing you through your "wilderness", and how would you respond to the "wilderness" when you go through it. Beth Moore also expounded upon this a little more by saying "your gift in your wilderness is hearing from/meeting God." It is in these "wilderness" times that I really hear more clearly from God. God brings me/us there for a purpose.

Bowling

Last night our church hosted its Family Fun Night at the bowling alley. Free bowling and food for the whole family. The boys went bowling last year to this event and loved it, but we haven't been since last year. They were so looking forward to going bowling again this time. They both had such a blast this year again!!!

Anniversary Getaway

Our Hotel

The view from our room

For our anniversary yesterday, Shane surprised me by planning an overnight excursion for us to Atlanta. He arranged for his mom to keep the boys and we headed up there in the early afternoon. We arrived in time to check in at the Westin and head out to the Georgia Aquarium since we had never been. We were pretty late arriving. We only had a little over an hour before they closed, but you'd be surprised how fast you can go through the aquarium when you don't have kids along with you. After the aquarium, we had dinner at the Sundial restaurant on top of the Westin, the restaraunt that rotates. Delicious food. Excellent atmosphere. It was so great to get away and spend time together. I felt so special that Shane went out of his way to plan our little getaway. Isn't he great!?!

We saw Dory at the aquarium

Gill was there, too

Takin on the jellies

Sea lions, always a crowd pleaser

June 24, 2000

Today, Shane and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. It's been 8 great years and it seems like they've gone by pretty fast. I love being married to Shane, and I love our life together. God has incredibly blessed our lives so much, especially with our wonderful family. I love you sweetheart. I hope we have 50 more together. Happy Anniversary!!

Pool Party Fun

Dalton recently had his end of the year party with his T-ball team. They had a big pool party nearby. He had a blast jumping into the pool about 200 times into Shane's arms. He also was SOOO excited about his little trophy. It was his 1st trophy he's ever gotten. I thought he was going to try to sleep with it that night, but he didn't. Way to go, Big D!!!

Another Critter

Well, apparently, I forgot to mention another little critter in my previous post. Turtles. We found this little guy in our backyard yesterday. The boys had a big time nearly pestering it to death. It pretty much stayed in its shell the whole time. I'm not a big fan of turtles with their beady little eyes and sharp-looking mouths so we didn't keep him.

Trespassing

For the past 3 days around 9:30 in the morning we've been visited by this red fox. He/She is clearly trespassing. Uninvited. Scouring for rodents, grubs, or whatever foxes eat. (Hopefully he's eating our mole crickets. They're uninvited too, but that's another story.) I'm not sure how I feel about this uninvited guest. He's pretty skiddish so I guess I shouldn't be too worried about him attacking the kids if they're out playing in the backyard. I mean, you never hear about fox attacks in the news, right. Anyway, I guess this is just typical of wild critters you're bound to see in your yard if you live in the south. So far since we've moved to our new house a couple of years ago we've seen owls, hawks, deer, raccoons, rabbits, snakes, a fox, and lots of lizards. I'm probably leaving something out. Anyway, I guess if he keeps hanging around I may have to come up with a name for him.

Last T-Ball Game

Dalton had his last T-Ball game this afternoon. The league he was in was very easy-going and non-competitive which is what we were hoping for with T-Ball. I had heard lots of stories about some leagues where the parents can really be kind of mean. Dalton did really well with his hitting. The coaches throw the batters a few pitches and if the batter can't hit them, then the batter will hit the ball from the tee. There were only a few times all season where Dalton had to use a tee, which I think was pretty good for being his first time playing.


Here's a clip of Dalton hitting in his game this afternoon.

Here's a few more pics from his game.

Dalton throwing the ball in after make a great stop on the ball.

I would love to know what Dalton is explaining to the other little boy here.

Good Sportsmanship

Swim Lessons

Dalton began taking swimming lessons this week. He has been doing pretty well with it making improvements over how he was swimming last year, which was basically sinking like a flailing rock. We used to have a pool at our old house, but now we just don't have many opportunities to swim and have the boys get comfortable with a pool. I've been really missing a pool this week with how hot it's been. I want to just jump in with Dalton at his swim lessons. Good grief!! I can't believe it's already this hot in early June. Whew!! Looks like it's going to be a HOT summer!

Colby is too young to take swimming lessons at the place where Dalton takes his lessons. Here he is being a bit bored. He's laying on the picnic table while we wait on Dalton.

A work in progress

Pardon our progress while I try to make some adjustments to the blog. Nothing matches right now.