Beth Moore Hits Boise!

So, this weekend was our Living Proof Live Event with none other than Beth Moore, and Travis Cottrell (who looks like Travis Tindall!) and his praise team. WOW. That's pretty much all I can say! She is so anointed by the Lord that you just want some of her vapor to land on you so that you might feel a little of that freedom she has. It's so cool when the Lord puts events together in our lives that reflect our current situations, struggles, triumphs... And then winds it all together like an orchestra would with the slow beginning which is quiet and peaceful. Then moving into a crescendo of our daily lives, ebbing and flowing together in the craziness of it all. Then to take us down from the mountain top with Him leading us as we begin to take in our surroundings-realizing that this world is a beautiful place, and that even though we are a temporary part of this world, we help to make the beauty that encompasses Christ that which other people see everyday. I just feel like the Lord is beginning to take the blindfold of my past insecurities, doubts, and fears off of my eyes so that I can begin to see the woman that He has always seen in me. Believe me, though, it is a daily reminder to myself to become filled up with Him first, and then go about my day - because I'm beginning to realize that without Him first to fill me up, I am nothing but an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the craziness of this world and all it has to offer. The other cool thing about the Lord, is that when we begin to get glimpses of His sovereignty and power worked out in our everyday lives, we begin to care differently for people who have not yet discovered the power of His grace. And compassion begins to fill our hearts, and also an urgency to reach out to those people in seeing that they are right where you were just a moment ago. The main message of Beth Moore this weekend to me was discovering God's gift for me and beginning to use it-instead of wasting this life, waiting for my A-HA moments to come on wings of flying pigs.... Why not just go, every new morning and take each day with the power that rose God's son from the dead? That same power that made the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the ugly to feel beautiful again? We can have access to that same power everyday if only we ask, seek, and find it through Him. I challenge you to seek all that He has for you today. And because I just think this is so cool, here is a link to Beth Moore's blog with a video clip of our weekend. Just copy and past it into your browser and away you go! Enjoy...

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/05/lpl-boise-recap.html

Happy Birthday Baby!

Yesterday was our Big boy's 3rd birthday. I can't believe he is getting SO OLD!! So, for the last few weeks, without really talking about his upcoming birthday, he started telling me about this "blue happy birthday cake" that he wanted. "With airplanes" he would often add. "Oh, and happy birthday presents!" Somehow, a little bird started to whisper these things in his ear, and soon all I would hear about was this "blue happy birthday cake with airplanes" that he wanted. NO PRESSURE!! Up until now, I could rest assured that our boys wouldn't have a clue what day it was on their birthday, therefore no pressure on having to come up with some fabulous cake to meet a 3yr old's expectations :) Okay, so I didn't stress out too awful much about it...So yesturday, as I'm beginning to feel the deadline of our 5:30 party for our little guy, and it was 1:00-boys were down for their nap-I finally have some free time to think.....I found this cool little cake idea online , and thought to myself "hey I can do that!" Quite like people often say about Jackson Pollock's art pieces-"hey I can do that, with my eyes closed even!" And much like every single person who's ever said that about a very famous artist-I found myself frantically saying as that 5:30 deadline approached "WHAT WAS I THINKIN???" But, all that mattered in the end was that my special little boy had a blue birthday cake, with some odd resemblance of an airplane on it! You can be the judge and honestly tell me if you think that this cake looks like it has an airplane on top (BE HONEST!) Anyways, it was a fun day filled with good food, good family, and lots of love. Big boy loved getting birthday cards in the mail from his great grandma Buela, and great aunt Jeannette. I had painted up a car piggy bank at our local ceramic place and gave it to him yesturday (to go with the new "car" and "airplane" theme in his new big boy room-pictures coming soon!) and coincidentally enough, in great grandma Buela's card, she sent Big boy some quarters that made that sweet clanging sound in his empty bank. Needless to say, he immediately wanted the quarters back-and that is just a whole other story in itself!! Well, that's about it for now on my home front! Less than 2 weeks and we'll be in Kauai!! (Let's just say I had a very small piece of b-day cake last night! Got to fit into my ever shrinking swimsuit, right??)
The infamous blue airplane happy birthday cake!
Big boy couldn't take his eyes off of the silly thing!
Hang on one second grandma, I think I hear singing!!
Birthday candles...
Our once a year family portrait with at least one person not looking! My adorable niece big Mak, with her cute parents Scott & Corine

We Are Two Wild And Crazy Guys!

Okay, so I'm not exactly sure if I quoted that line correctly-but I know Steve Martin won't mind...So here are the pics I promised from Marie's graduation weekend. We have been having some awesome weather occasionally, and the pictures we took that particular day were set in warm weather. So-just to check in with you all, keeping myself accountable with-well, myself (ya know my whole DIET thing???) So far so good! We don't have a scale (for good reason!) so I'm having to estimate by just how I look-and how my clothes are fitting, but I think I may have shed a few lbs! Another week and a half to go before we're off to sunny Kauai, so I may have to stock up on some more veggies :) I bought some of those diet crazy cow (?) ice cream sandwiches the other day-as a reward for husband and I for eating better, and yup-he definitely asked me last night after he finished his sandwich if he could eat mine too! Tsk, tsk...So, hopefully we're not fighting over the last carrot by the end of this thing! Diets can do crazy things to normally sane people. Okay-that's it for now, I'm off to catch up on my sleep since my lovely almost 3 yr old decided to get up at 4:30 this morning......Oh happy day!
Big boy and his chocolate-stache
Peanut (minus the glasses-"why" you ask? Well, they don't fit so well when you try to tear them off of your face and then twist them in half...)
And last but not least, the kiddy posse-aka future couples-the Tindall girls and our two squirts (check out Big boy's face!)

Oh Happy Day! A day of new beginnings...

Well, over the course of the weekend and yesterday, there has been some new changes going on! So, I thought that I might just fill you all in on those dandy changes-or "new beginnings" because they always seem a little inspiring (at least to me!)

1. My sister-in-law, Marie has graduated from NNU, and her and my brother Shawn are now in the process of moving to Marysville, WA where they will become full-time washingtonians?? (just go with it :) Good luck you guys! Hope to see ya soon.

2. I have made it very apparent to myself, and to husband that we officially have less than 3 weeks before we head our white Idaho bodies over to the sunny beaches of Kauai. Problem is, I realized that I still have those 10 lbs I want to lose in order to feel decently appropriate in my string bikini--I mean full wet suit...Okay, I'm probably going to wear a tankini, but you catch my drift. I'm a little sheepish about my figure, and as of yesturday-I headed to the store, loaded up on lots and lots of veggies, fruits, and some more veggies and fruits. I even upped my exercise routine a bit to where I was doing walking lunges while pushing the boys on our walk yesterday (they kept looking back at me with worried looks on their faces like "mom, are you okay?") And I am okay! I actually feel great today-when every other diet I've done makes me feel drained and miserable, I actually feel good for a change hooray! I'll keep you posted on my very own "biggest looser challenge" (I'm afraid there will be NO pictures!)

3. My best friend Candice Blenker just called me this morning to tell me that she and her husband Shawn now have a 9 lb 2 oz baby boy named Nolan-Yeah!! We were all pulling for a boy-Congrats you guys! I can't wait to meet him.

Okay, that's it for now I'll post some pics soon...

Back From Vegas!

We have officially "Left Las Vegas!" And now the wind down begins... So, to give you a brief run-down of our trip here is a quick review of our 5 days on the go:

Day one-

Feeling like we have packed our house in preparation for the show, we fill every last square inch of our car, and head down the road in the direction of Vegas. Aunt Korri is hanging out with the boys until husband's folks flew in that evening to watch them for the next few days (thanks Jerry and Judy!!)

In expectation of our long road trip, I made a special purchase at the store of a 4-disc, "Best of the 80's" music tribute. I was SO EXCITED because I got it for so cheap! That excitement wore off later that night when we started jamming to the music only to realize that I got the poor imitation version-not the real thing! It was one of those too-good-to-be-true moments, and believe me husban is never going to let me live that one down!

Day two-

5 1/2 hours to go, but my heart has been racing in excitement of the day. We arrived at the convention center to start a long day of unpacking our stuff. The hardest part of this day, for me, was the realization that I was in the midst of very talented artists-and at one point I became overwhelmed with comparing myself to them all, that I almost shut-down. I had to have husband stop and pray with me right then and there because I felt fear would overtake me. It's an overwhelming feeling to for the first time, put your "baby" on display for critique, criticism, and review. I experienced a little bit of that in college when we would critique our work, but this was real-life. Husband and I loved the fact that our hotel was 200 yards from the convention center-and a "smoke-free, casino-free" hotel. After about 6 hours of moving stuff in and setting up, we were off to find food, and a Home Depot!

Day three-

The show started at 10 everyday, which was great for allowing us to sleep-in, and have a casual breakfast. I can't remember the last time that I had a 8 hr night's rest with no little kiddos waking me up! I sure missed them though... We headed over to the convention hall hearts racing in anticipation for the "big day" that I had been preparing months for. Today was the first day that I got to get to know our fellow artist neighbors-and that was a bit of a culture-shock for me! Let's just say there were two sets of "alternate lifestyle choices" on either side of us-but they were all very nice. This was probably our busiest day. Tonight we went to a sushi place that husband said "was the best he's ever had..." I think he's finally been converted!

Day four-

A bit of a slow morning, but as the day progressed things picked up and we got another 2 orders today!! I'm pretty sure that the expected 3,000 buyers ended up being more like 1,000-so that has really effected how people are viewing the show-and how well it went. We are feeling like our products might do better at a "gift show" than at this particular type of show-and we've also had alot of other vendors asking why we haven't tried any retail shows.....So I'm thinking about trying out the Eagle Farmer's Market this summer! Tonight we walked down to the strip, went to PF Changs, and did one of our favorites-saw the fountains at the Bellagio, and went and checked out their atrium display (see pics).

Day five-

We are really beginning to miss our boys, and today is the slowest day yet-being the last day of the show. We wrapped everything up at 4-tore everything down by 5 and were out the door headed to our half-way mark in Salt Lake. Let's just say next time I think we'll be flying!!

Day six-

Get home to our two awesome boys! What a great trip of experience, newly found customers, and alone time spent with my wonderful husband. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers as we journeyed on this adventure! We are definitely letting it all "marinate" for a bit, but we feel encouraged by the response and connectivity with other artists, and buyers. Whew! Thanks again family members for supporting us in watching our 2 prized possessions (aka Big boy and Peanut). We love ya!
Our poor car filled with most of my possessions!
What we awoke to the 2nd morning-beautiful Utah!
Husband taking our picture on the road-while driving-he's a multitasker!
Husband fixing the lights on our booth-it's almost go-time on our first day!
The cheesy self-picture of me in our booth with my big-hair! Hey, you have to catch attention somehow, right?
A glimpse of the convention floor from the entrance-their were over 800 vendor/artist there!
This is Husband and I on our night on the town!
AAHHH...The fountains at Bellagio. I love this part!
One of the flower sculptures at the Bellagio Atrium display
On the road again...Our view of the mountains heading home.