Great News!

How blessed we are in our family! We found out this week that Tim and Christy are going to have a girl. After 2 boys, a girl is a welcome addition! Now we have 5 grand boys and 3 grand girls. The girls are catching up, slowly but surely. Grayson called Grandpa to tell him that they were having a girrrrl. That is how he pronounces it. Now we play the waiting game until November when we can hold that new precious little girl.

Right now, I am actually in the waiting room while Glenn gets surgery on his wrist. We were so impressed with the anesthesia doctor. He had prayer with us before they took Glenn back to the surgery. What a tremendous testimony this Doctor is giving by praying with everyone before they go back.

What a great time we had on Sunday. I really need to post some pictures but just don't take the time to download them. Jaime and Jay will be leaving on their cruise the middle of July and Shannon and her family will be on vacation the end of July. Not really sure what everyone else has planned.

Not much news besides the new baby, just working and living, I guess. Allie called yesterday and we got to go and watch Brady at the water park in White Oak. What fun we had. He did great in the water until he discovered they had a slide next to the water. He would rather slide than do anything else, I think.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Prayer

Because of God's grace, we can pray the prayer of salvation. All we have to do is to ask God to come into our heart and be Lord of our heart. God's grace is for those who live in His kingdom and whose kingdom lives in them. We can't receive His grace unless we receive Him. It's a gift that is from Him, in His hand. Grace happens when God refrains from punishing a person who is guilty. Mercy is God's compassion for our misery beyond what may be expected. Both is what all of us need.

Some people believe that because they grew up in a Christian family that they are saved. If you haven't prayed that prayer of salvation, then you aren't a part of God's kingdom. You can't inherit salvation. My mom used to say "you can't get to Heaven on my apron strings". A gift is simple, you just have to receive what someone is giving you. God's gift is the same, all you have to do is acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God and believe that He laid down his life to save you from all of your sins so that you can have life eternal. Ask His forgiveness for not living your life the way that He wants you to live. Ask that He will come into your heart and fill it with the Holy Spirit. Once you have prayed the prayer of salvation, your future is secure. Heaven bound!

Jesus said to him, " I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

The prayer of salvation brings forgiveness and freedom from guilt. No one who tells you "Don't worry about it" or "it wasn't your fault" never gets rid of that guilt from you. Only God's forgiveness can give you that freedom. When we pray the prayer of salvation, for the first time we are free from having to face the failure of our past. It also brings you peace. For the first time, your live has purpose and you know exactly where you will be going when you die.

"Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day" John 6:40

He is the only one who can give us life before death as well as life hereafter. With Him as our Savior we become more and more alive.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God sent by Jesus to give us comfort, to build us up, to guide us in all truth, bring us spiritual gifts, to help us pray more effectively, and to give us wisdom and revelation. We have to be willing to be used of God, where and how He wants to use us.

Have a great day! Be used of God today!

Praying

I have been reading a book called "7 Prayers". In this book it talks about how prayer is not just about asking for things, though that is part of it, but basically just talking to God. It's getting closer and spending time with someone that you love. In Luke 1:37 "With God nothing is impossible". The more that you pray, the more that you will find to pray about, and the more you'll be led to pray for others. Without prayer, the full purpose that God has for you can't happen.

The first prayer that this book talks about, is the prayer of confession and repentance. When sin is left unconfessed, a wall goes up between you and God. This sin will drag you down.

"When I kept silent, my bones grew old

Through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to You,

And my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"

And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32 3-5

Often we fail to see ourselves as responsible for certain actions. You may feel justified in your anger or bitterness, but you must still confess it because it misses the mark of what God has for you. The weight of this sin will eventually crush you if not confessed. For confession to work, repentance must go along with it. Repentance means a change of mind. Being repentant doesn't necessarily mean you will never do it again, but it does mean that you don't intend to do it again. Ask God to bring to light sins that you are not aware of so they can be confessed, repented of, and forgiven. In Psalms 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Confession is really a way of life. Sin leads to death; repentance leads to life. Always keep in mind that God's ways are for your benefit. Confession is not for him to find out something, God already knows. Confession is for you to be made whole. People who confess find mercy and God's unlimited power.

As I continue to read through this book, I will put on my blog, more things and prayers that I am learning.

Next half of NYC :)

Okay, after having to split up in a taxi (they wouldn't let 5 ride), we decided we were going to just have to break down and learn how to ride the subway! It was alot easier than we thought and by the second ride, we were sliding our metro cards with ease. Here are 3 of us on the subway. It was sorta like I thought, no one looked you in the eye and most of the time it was crowded but different also. It felt safer than I thought it would. Grand Central Station was beautiful. Here I am on the subway, no seats on that ride, so I'm hanging on! We usually rode to Times Square, that is where we got on the tour bus. We decided since we had a limited time, we would ride a tour bus and see as much as we could while we were there. The first day, weather was great but as you can see by our pictures, wind, rain and cold came driving in the second day!

Chinatown was our next adventure! You need to go to Shannon's blog to read about that. It was exciting and weird at the same time but I got 2 great looking purses. The airplane ride back was a great flight but we were all ready to get home to our families. Hopefully, I can go back to see the rest of NYC!

New York City!! :) :)

Where to start??? Ok, I guess at the beginning. Here are the girls the first night at the hotel in Dallas. Our flight was at 6:15 am! I think we were all so excited that none of us slept very good that night. We left the hotel around 4:30 am and headed to the shuttle to take us to the airport.

Here are the girls at the airport before our flight. For those of you who don't know Jaime, she is terrified of flying but she did really great. This was Taylor's first flight, but she ended up loving it. At first she didn't want to sit by the window but by the end of the flight she was saying, "I want to sit by the window and look out on the way home." Our flight was a little rough on the way out but no real problems. Once we landed we got our shuttle and headed to the hotel. We got to New York around 10:30 so our hotel was not ready for us to check in but they let us leave our luggage. Off we went to eat. Shannon found us great places to eat that were definitely New York places. Our first place to eat was up the block from our hotel, Patsy's Pizza. Then back to the hotel to check in and get ready for Bobby Flay's Restaurant Mesa Grill. Shannon got us our reservations ahead of time. Here are the girls at the restaurant. People couldn't keep their eyes off of these beautiful East Texas Girls!

Next we had to get ready for our appearance on TV. We got confirmation that we were going to be in the Good Morning America studio audience. Here we are in the line at 6:15 in the morning waiting to go in.

It's still hard for us to believe but when the weather lady came out and visited with everyone, she asked if anyone was having a birthday. Taylor and another guy raised their hands and she brought them up front and Taylor was actually on TV with the weather lady announcing her birthday and saying "here is Taylor from East Texas with a birthday". We were so excited and surprised. Here's a picture of Taylor on TV.

This was only the first day and half and everything after that was just as exciting!! New York City, I will come and see you again. I will post more later about our wonderful trip. I wonder what the guys will say if we tell them our trips may become "annual". I guess we will wait a little to talk about that!

Countdown!

Instead of playing on the computer, I really should be in the bedroom going thru my closet. Do I have enough clothes for Wed, Thurs, Fri and Saturday in New York City? Why would I think I wouldn't have? I make it all week long with the clothes I have. It's weird, isn't it. My regular clothes would be fine, no one really knows me in NYC. They won't know if I have new or old clothes. But, I'm still concerned. I went and had my nails done and a pedicure. What the heck is happening to me?! Am I excited or what? I think I am more excited to just get away with the girls. We are really going to have a blast. Shannon has gotten confirmation that we will be in the studio audience for Good Morning America on Thursday morning. Everyone needs to get up and watch us. We have reservations for Bobby Flay's restaurant, among other things. Oops, gotta go, I really need to look at that closet.

Lazy Vacation Day

Well, I am sitting outside by the playhouse while Glenn puts the ramp under the front door of the playhouse. How come things are much harder than when we were younger. Glenn is complaining that he should have already finished 10 ramps by the this time. If it can go wrong, it has. Monday, I decided that I would clean out my closet. It only took me most of the day, I really thought it would take 2 days! Somewhere in the cleaning, I have managed to lose my brown sandals that I wear to work continually. I have called the kids and they remember me wearing them Sunday at lunch but they are nowhere to be found. Glenn and I have spent Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night and all of today taking the house apart and looking. I realize that one of the kids is going to walk into the house and say, "Why did you put your sandals there?" If so, I wish they would come on and do that. I guess I will be going to town tomorrow and buying new brown sandals. Oh well, not that I am not willing to buy new shoes, it just seems a waste when somewhere those shoes are just waiting for me to pick them up. Brady just called and said his entire ABC's. Can you believe that at 2 yrs? Collin has a speaking part in a program on Friday that Grandpa & I are going to and Katie graduates from Preschool on Thursday night. A lot of learning going on in these families. Grayson called me the other night to tell me about a tick that he had on his leg. I could still hear the tears in his voice. When his Dad saw the tick, he told Mom to go get the matches. I think Grayson must have thought they were going to burn his leg off but they got the tick and he was thrilled about that. We went to Jay & Jaime's Sunday night to just visit and looking at Zach makes me realize that it won't be long before there will be girlfriends, first dates, driving, etc. He is so tall and good looking. Taylor is really excited like I am about the New York trip. The other girls are excited but I think Taylor and I are the most excited. Can't wait! Can't wait!

See ya!