A Giveaway - You're Gonna Love This One!

Ooooh, I'm so excited! I'm doing my very first giveaway here on my blog, and it's a fabulous, FUN, exciting fundraiser for my mission trip to Uganda (in SIX and a half weeks!!!!)

If this is your first time to stop by my little corner of the world, Welcome! I'm so glad you're here! To catch you up to speed....I will be going on my very first mission trip this summer. From June 1-12 I'll be traveling to Uganda, Africa, with a team of 31 other people (of whom, I know NO ONE!) through a Christian ministry called Visiting Orphans. I am completely amazed and in awe that God is allowing me to have this opportunity, and I know I will be changed forever.

The total cost of my trip is $3,200, plus incidentals. To help raise the money for my travel expenses, I'm selling hand-made Ugandan necklaces (see link at the top of this page), and tote bags, and now....

(drum roll, please)

I'm giving away a NEW AMAZON KINDLE 3G!!

That's right - you have a chance to win your very own new Kindle for only $10!! To enter the drawing, just click the Paypal donation button at the top of my left-hand side bar and make a donation of $10. Or you can get 5 entries for a donation of $45. And you don't even have to have a Paypal account to donate. That's it! Easy peasy, right?

There's also a way you can earn additional entries. Here's the scoop:

• First, make a donation using the Paypal button in my sidebar. One entry for EACH $10 donation, or FIVE entries for a $45 donation!! Please be sure to come back here and leave a comment on this post letting me know you entered, so I can be sure I have received all the info from Paypal.
• Receive one additional entry for posting about the giveaway on your blog and linking back to this post. Be sure to come back and leave a comment with your email address and the link to your post. Blogger doesn't automatically give me your email address, so be sure you include it in your comment!
• Receive another additional entry for tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter and linking back to this post. Again, be sure to come back here and leave a comment with your email address and the link to your tweet.
• Receive another additional entry if you post about the giveaway on Facebook and link back to this post (and, you know...the whole comment thing with your email address and link to your Facebook).
• To be fair to everyone, all additional entries will be verified. :)
• After you have made a donation for the giveaway, I will automatically have your information for the drawing from Paypal. But for any additional entries, please leave a comment here on this blog post telling me where you posted. Here's an example of what your comment might look like:

"Hello! I would love to win the Kindle and help send you on your mission trip! I made a donation! I also posted your link on my FB, on my blog, and on Twitter! That's 3 additional entries for me!" MyEmailAddress@email.com

The drawing will be held on Sunday, May 1, 2011, at 3:00 p.m. CST, and the winner will be posted on my blog later that day. I will also contact the winner via the email address provided in their Paypal donation and/or blog comments. The winner will have three days to contact me with their shipping information. If I haven't heard from you within 3 days, an alternate winner will be drawn.

YAY! I'm so excited about this awesome giveaway! I can't wait for one of you to WIN a new Kindle! Thanks for entering!!

Mean People

Warning: Ranting ahead.

In the “about me” section of her blog, my friend Jenifer has a statement that says, “I don’t like....mean people.”

Me either.

What is it with mean people? Why do people feel the need to be mean, especially to someone they’ve never met before and who has never done anything to them?

Ahh, PTA. It’s the perfect opportunity to meet all the mean people you never wanted to. (haha - that sounds bad. I mean the general school populace, not other PTA members. *smile*) Being in PTA is like working retail – you get to deal with the public at its finest.

We’re wrapping up our spring fundraiser and the order was delivered to the school yesterday. We asked parents to PLEASE come get their orders ASAP, as frozen foods were involved. Whoo, boy, let me just tell you. Heaven forbid that you ever ask 150 parents to do anything ASAP. I have been griped at, chewed out, argued with, and hung up on. Really? Really? Because of a fundraiser?

I know the old saying, “Hurt people hurt people.” I tell my kids, “People are mean because someone’s been mean to them.” But where does it stop? When does someone step up and say, Yes, I’ve had a bad day or a bad week or maybe even a hard life. But that’s not your fault and I don’t have to take it out on you.

I mean come on, people. Let’s all just be nice!

Even if you have to wait in line for a while.
Even if there’s not an appointment available when you want it.
Even if they messed up your order.
Even if no one told you before you got there that they only take cash. (grrr)
Even if YOU helped your child sell 57 frozen food items in the PTA fund raiser and someone from the school asks you to come pick them up before they ruin, but no, they’re not going to stay at the school until 6:00 waiting only for you.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~ unknown

Disturb Us, Lord

Disclaimer: Blogger's spacing problems are about to drive me out of my little mind. I could probably fix all the spacing weirdness, but it would take forever and I'm not really in the mood right now. :) I can't figure out why none of the blogs I read seem to be having this problem? Maybe they're just better people than I am and take the time to fix it! Sorry - hope you can bear with me!

I saw this poem on Beth Moore's blog a couple of years ago. It really struck a chord with me at the time, and even more so now with my upcoming trip to Uganda.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when,

With the abundance of things we possess

we have lost our thirst for the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

we have ceased to dream of eternity,

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

where storms will show Your mastery;

Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

[Sir Francis Drake]

Seems everywhere I turn lately, God is compelling me to make the decision to go deeper with Him. Further. To make a choice. A deliberate choice. A hard choice. Not one I want to make flippantly or half-heartedly.

I'm not talking about spending more time in Bible study, at church, or necessarily even in serving or in prayer. I'm talking about the kind of decision that makes my heart start to pound. I'm talking about the "I will follow You anywhere, no matter what" prayer. Have you ever prayed the "no matter what" prayer? Really no matter what? Not me. It scares me. It scares the bejeebers out of me.

I want to do a much better job of living my faith, not just proclaiming it. To love with my actions, not just my words. God is stirring in me a yearning to be the body of Christ - His hands and feet. Jesus doesn't have a physical body on earth anymore. But when His Spirit lives inside us, WE become His physical body. So if He were physically on the earth today, would He be spending time in church? Sure. Some. On a committee? Um, well. Going to Bible study? Perhaps. But where did we mostly see Him when He was on earth? Spending time with His Father and serving others.

So if we are His physical body now - if I am part of His physical body now - where do I need to be spending my time? Where HE would. I am HIS body. I should be spending time with His/my Father, and serving the least of these.

Man, as I get closer and closer to Uganda, this scripture is becoming louder and louder in my spirit:

And the king will reply, "I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did for me." Matt 25:40

What do I do with that? Do I hand Jesus a $5 bill at the stop light? Do I give Him a sackful of my children's too-small and worn-out clothes? Do I send Him a "one-time gift" through some charitable organization and feel like I've done my part? Or do I give Him my all? My kids' best, cutest clothes? Or maybe the money I was saving for a new TV or a vacation for my family? Do I invite Him over for supper? Do I go out of my way to help or offer assistance when it doesn't fit into my schedule, or when my kids are tired and cranky and I'm tired and frustrated and I just don't want to? No. I don't. I don't.

And how can I be the body of Christ if I don't?

I'm not sure where this post is going. Maybe nowhere - just my random thoughts swirling around looking for some sense and order. Just some things I've been mulling over and pondering lately in regards to my own claims of Christianity. I'm starting to think that being the body of Christ looks far different than what I want it to. Than what I'm used to. Than what most (?) people are used to.

Beth says God never allows us to be sifted unless there is something in us that NEEDS sifting. I know there is MUCH in me that needs to be sifted. I'm hoping (dare I say praying?) some things will be sifted out of me in Uganda. (Oh Lord, please sift gently!) Tomorrow Soon, hopefully, I want to show you something that has blown a hole in my nice, neat little picture of the Ugandan adventure I'm about to go on. It is shaking me to the core -- sifting, perhaps? And I'm disturbed and grateful all at the same time.

The Other Post That Almost Was.

Jacob's birthday.

My baby turned 8 last month. (Oops, I forgot it's April already! His birthday was in February.) Eight. How does that happen? With every birthday I think, "Oh my goodness, how can he possibly be this old? Shouldn't he be turning 4?" It's such a cliche....and so true: it goes by so very fast. We were at my cousin's wedding shower yesterday, and my other cousin's 3-year-old little boy was running around acting silly and entertaining everyone, and I thought, "I don't even remember Jacob at 3." *sigh*

And I know the story's going to go something like, "You were such a sweet baby, and then you started Kindergarten, and then you got your driver's license, and then you graduated from college, and oh how I miss picking up your dirty socks! Please come home and visit!"

But for a few more days he's 8. And I'm so glad.

He had a "space" birthday, and I had lots of fun making the solar system for his cake(s).

This is our sweet friend K. Don't she and Kloe look alike? People ask them all the time if they're sisters. :)

Kloe and Daddy playing giant chess at the Science Museum where we had Jacob's party.

The rest of the party was inside the space bubble (like a portable planetarium) so there aren't any pictures, but it was really cool. All the kids had a great time. Afterward, Jacob said he was sad about his party because not very many friends came. Poor sweet boy....but who else gets to explore the galaxy for their birthday? :)

Happy birthday, my big man.

And next week I'll be doing the Iron Man

This is what I looked like today after approximately 2 1/2 minutes of playing basketball with Jacob.

Out of shape much?

The Post that Almost Was.

March 2 was Texas Independence Day, a celebration of the day Texas declared its independence from Mexico, creating the Republic of Texas. I almost wrote a post telling you how we celebrated with Texas Family Night. I had it all planned in my head. I took lots of pictures. And then...well, somehow I just never got it written. But I almost did.

In the almost-post, I would have told you how we started out with chili (no pics) for dinner, because that's the state "dish" of Texas - with iced tea, of course. And we finished off with pecan pie, because pecan is the state tree of Texas. (And yes, that's a pecan pie in a box. Because, you know, I'm so Betty Crocker-y and all. You didn't think I'd actually bake a pecan pie, did you? No, I didn't think so. They really were pretty good.)

The almost-post would have said that during dinner we played a little Texas trivia, and then after dinner I gave everyone the choice of making a Texas flag or a tissue-paper bluebonnet (Texas' state flower). Everyone except me chose the flag. (But Jacob did decide to paint a bluebonnet after he finished painting his flag.) :)

Someone obviously missed out on Texas history class. Um, the star goes on the other side, Honey.

Happy (almost) Texas Day!

P.S. The spacing problem with Blogger isn't fixed. I found some online forums that indicated lots of people are having the same problem I have been. I tried dozens several of their different suggestions for working around the problem until Blogger gets it fixed, and finally, FINALLY found one that works! It's a pain, but patches the problem for now. Hoping Blogger gets it fixed fast!

Dear bloggy friends using Blogger....

Are you about ready to break up with Blogger too? It is On. My. Nerves. I've been one of the die-hards holding out and still using the old editor. The last couple of days when I've been working on a new post (gasp!), it keeps deleting all my line breaks! My whole post, pictures and all, is squished up into one big blob (case in point - this post). If I create the entire post in "compose", it's fine, but if I move into "edit html" to move around a picture or add some code or whatever - ZAP! There go all my line breaks. I read in Blogger help that moving to the new editor would fix this problem. I've tried moving to the new editor in the past, and I hate it. I can't resize my pictures, and drag and drop will never put them where I want them. But out of desperation I switched again today. It seemed to fix the disappearing line breaks problem, but there was the same old issue with not being able to get pictures to go where I want them. Text on the SIDE of pictures, instead of above or below, and when I tried to drag and drop, my picture DISAPPEARED! I switched back to the old editor and ZAP! There went all the line breaks again. Hate. Hate. Any of you Blogger users have any advice? I'm about ready to pay someone all the money I have saved for my mission trip a hefty hunka change to move my blog to another platform.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Last night we were at Wal*Mart buying a few things. We were on the aisle with the air fresheners and Jacob said, "Oh, look, there's one of those automatic sprayer things. We have to get one of those! It just smells the stink, and then it sprays - it's so cool!" :)

For more Tiny Talk Tuesday, visit Mary at Not Before 7.

From my bookshelf

It's been a really long time since I posted about anything I've been reading. When we were on the cruise I felt like a freak, having never read a single Karen Kingsbury book. I'm telling you, it was like a Karen Kinsgbury groupie fest on that ship! In fact, I kind of think I had intentionally never read any of her books, just because of all the hoopla about her. I'm a little stubborn that way. Well, after I actually met Karen on the cruise, she was so warm and friendly and down-to-earth and wonderful that just being around her made me want to read her books.

So when we got home, I buckled down and forced myself to finish up this book, even though it was eating my lunch:



and after I made it through that, I was in serious need of some lighter fiction fare. Perfect time to try out Karen's books. On the cruise, she gave everyone a copy of Book 4 in her Above the Line series (great marketing strategy, huh?), so of course - just like she planned - I had to go out and buy books 1 through 3, right? Luckily I found all of them on the bargain table at Mardel. :)



Well, let me just say, after book one in that series I was almost ready to join the groupie club myself. Almost. I slurped up all four books in the series, and then my mom gave me the 4-book series that came before Above the Line. I read the first one of those, but then decided I wanted to start at the very beginning of the Baxter tales, which includes something like 22 books. So, to pass the time while I'm trying to locate the very first book in the very first 5-book group of the series, I'm reading this as a little easy-reading passtime:



HA! Just kidding. :) I'm actually reading this....



while I'm scouring PaperBackSwap for Karen's early books.

What are you reading these days?

Hello friends.

Not feeling very bloggy lately. Not sure why. There's so much going on, but none of it really blog-worthy. Thought I would pop in here anyway and give you a little update of what's been going on in our neck of the woods.

* We had our first Uganda fundraiser garage sale a couple of weekends ago. We made over $500!! I was so surprised! We still have tons of stuff left, and three more people have told me they have things to donate, so we'll be having another one in the next few weeks. I am so not looking forward to that. Garage sales are so. much. work. But I am SO very thankful for everyone who has made donations - what a huge blessing!

* Speaking of Uganda, can you believe it's only 2 1/2 months until I leave? Exactly 80 days. Oh my goodness. Kari, my team leader, told me it would get easier as we got closer to the trip. I'm thinking I don't agree. I'm getting more and more nervous the closer it gets. Like, knots in my stomach nervous. A friend asked me just yesterday if I'm excited. And after so many years of longing to go, of praying and wishing and dreaming....I was shocked when I heard myself say "no".

Oh, I do want to go. It has been my dream for almost 8 years. But really, I'm a home-body. Actually, not so much a home-body as a family-body. I like to travel, but I like to do it with my family. Twelve days away is a long time. And I'm not even sure how much contact we'll be able to have while I'm gone. It's not like going to another state where you can call every day. I don't know what cell or internet service will be like there. It's certainly going to be an interesting two weeks!

* Last Wednesday I took our sweet Annie in to have her eye surgery. About an hour after I dropped her off, the vet called to tell me that Annie's liver enzymes were off the chart, and we would have to postpone the surgery because she wouldn't live through it. The vet wanted to do an ultrasound and a biopsy - which would cost over $500 - to rule out a tumor. I just broke down in tears right there in my office. This is SO hard! I don't feel like it's fair to Annie for us to just do nothing, but on the other hand she is 14 1/2 years old. How do you know what is right? *sigh * I asked the vet if there were any other options, and she said we could try medication for 30 days to see if that would heal Annie's liver and make her well enough to endure surgery. So that's what we're doing. If the medication doesn't work, that will most likely mean she has a tumor and, well, I don't know what we'll do then.

* The kids are out of school for spring break this week. I'm so sad that we won't be going anywhere this year, since I'm trying to save both money and vacation days for Uganda. We're thinking about just taking a little one-day trip to somewhere close by, just so the kids can get out of town and don't have to spend their entire break stuck at home. I hate that they're out of school for a whole week and will have to spend every day with the babysitter since The Mister and I will both be working the whole time. Hate it.

* Kloe was nominated to participate in the Lone Star Leadership Academy this summer! It's a week-long camp-type thing in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We're so excited for her to have this opportunity! She doesn't really want to go (seems we're all kind of family-bodies around here - I think it comes from The Mister being gone so much for work) but we're making her. ;) I think it's going to be such a great time.

* I signed up for another year of torture fun with PTA. :) Looks like I will be the secretary next year. I really do enjoy being on the board. I love being involved at my kids' school - I love being able to get to know all the teachers and staff so much more than I would otherwise - but man, is it ever a lot of work. Whoever said PTA is a social club obviously hasn't been part of OUR school's PTA. ;)

Wow, I just realized what a downer of a post this is. Sorry about that. Guess I have been leaning a bit toward the melancholy lately. Just the ups and downs of life, I suppose. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all we've got going on - feeling like a single mom with the Mister out of town so much, Uganda on the horizon, mounds of fundraising yet to do, Kloe gearing up for middle school, Annie's health issues.... I'm a "shut down" kind of person, rather than the "charge forward" type when life gets overwhelming. Not good when there's so much to do!