What if?

But what if the Earth's saddest day and gladdest days weren't three days apart?

#whatif @manleybaptist April 20 10:30

Super Bowl 48

Ok folks, it's the Monday after the Super Bowl and all I see on any news cast or media outlet it information and replay videos of the Super Bowl ads that came out last night during that (pitiful, am I right?) game.  There were obviously a few favorites:

As always the Budweiser commercials are a crowd-pleasing favorite.  This year two stood out with the sweet simplicity of puppy love and patriotism for our country and those who have served so unselfishly (Follow the links under the pictures to view the commercials).

 

Puppy Love

 

 Hero's Welcome 

What were your favorite commercials from last night?  What did you think of the game?

Were you embarrassed for Peyton?  Thrilled for the Seahawks?  Happy for Derrick Coleman who was told never to play because of his "disability?"  I would love to know your thoughts!

The Great Comeback Kid

Friends, it's been entirely too long!  As of today, January 22, 2014, I have decided, DECLARED, determined that I am going to be more DEDICATED to my blog this year!  It is my goal to post (AT LEAST) once a week this year and I need your help sticking to my goal (what's a goal without accountability right?)!  If I forget get too busy to post, please shoot me a message (You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram)!  I love accountability,  I need it, and I crave it!  Just like if you see me eating a Double Cheeseburger and Large Fries with a Warge Sweet Tea (right, Tracey Jones?), STOP ME! 

Please know that there is so much exciting stuff going on in our lives since my last post!  The kids are now in 3rd and 2nd grades at Alpha and doing A-MAZING (as in all As for all 3 kids) and I am working on my 3rd year at WVMS still teaching 6th grade reading and trying (praying) to figure out all things Common Core.  Chad is now teaching World History at the Jefferson County Freshman Academy and continues to coach football there.

We have started going to a new church and are really loving being involved.  For the past 7 months, we have been attending Manley Baptist in Morristown and felt lead there for several reasons:

 #1 our kids and I are in school here in Morristown and being with our peers JUST MAKES SENSE. 

#2 We were invited by our kids Upward Soccer Coaches!  These two sweet young men had encouraged Cooper and Brody to join them at church because they were helping lead the Kids Worship Program!

#3 Our dear friends, Kenny and Meghan Cobble had been going to MBC for about a year, had joined the church and were loving it!

The school bell is about to ring and I must go to bus duty (on one of the coldest days ever of course), then it's backpacks and dinner and Awanas!  More soon - I promise!

Be a blessing

When Chad and I pray with our kids at night before bed, one of the things we usually always mention is that we want God to help guide us to be a blessing to others.  Whether that's to give a smile to an elderly person in the grocery store (I always hope people were kind to my grandparents when they saw them in public), to pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, send food for a new mother in our church, help our teachers with a task at school, or whatever we can think of to be kind and thoughtful to other people.  The Lord never ceases to amaze me when I am trying to be a blessing to someone, I turn out being blessed in return!  IT NEVER FAILS!!

 

 

In thinking of our prayer lists lately, I was inclined yesterday to be a blessing to someone whom I will probably never meet this side of Heaven.  We have had several hectic days with end of the school year events including field days, awards days, speech writing, etc but I have tried very hard to remember a few individuals in my prayers each day.  The first I posted about last week, little Diva Delilah!  She is so tiny and such a miracle and I am so excited to be making my very first preemie dress at the request of her mother and I cannot wait to send it to her in Nashville and see that little precious thing in it!  The second is my sister Tracey's friend Tori.  She was diagnosed two weeks ago with leukemia and is in the Mayo clinic in Florida, already undergoing chemo therapy and will soon have a bone marrow transplant.  And last, we have 4 precious students moving from our middle school to the high school next year.  These kiddos are part of our special needs class and are truly a delight to my day at West View.  At Honors Day on Tuesday our entire student body and staff gave each of these precious kids a standing ovation as they went to the front to receive their awards.  Our lives have been so blessed by knowing them and watching them grow.  These precious people have been so heavy on my heart lately and reminding me (via my sister sometimes to eat my $11.50 staff breakfast and smile about it) that life is so incredibly short, we have no guarantees, we need to serve the Lord and be a complete and total blessing to others and quit being upset over things we cannot control! 

 

 

All that being said, yesterday I needed to do something.  I wanted to be a blessing!  I wanted to give back and I decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love.  You know, donating hair is such a very teeny, tiny, minuscule thing that I can do to give to someone that I don't even know!!  I had 12 inches cut off my hair and I am not going to lie but today I keep pulling on my hair and wondering where it has all gone! 

 

 

 

 

My hair will be sent to Locks of Love, added to other donations and created into a wig for a young child in need for whatever reason.  I am so glad to have been a blessing and I know that I will be blessed greatly in return!

 

 

Please remember my prayer list when you are praying.  Especially lift up baby Delilah, that she will grow healthy and strong and for Tori, that a bone marrow match will be found and her treatments will work soundly on her body.  Also, remember to be a blessing.  Always. 

Prayer Request

Dear Friends, I come to you today with a special prayer request.  A sweet friend of ours, Heather Watts (we went to CNC together and Chad taught with her at WVMS) has delivered a precious baby 3 months early and they are in need of your prayers!  Delilah Watts was born on April 25 weighing only 1 pound and 3 ounces and 11.5 inches long!  This new little family was sent to Vanderbilt where the doctors and nurses are taking good care of her and her parents have gotten into the Ronald McDonald house for the next month so they will not have to pay for hotel rooms - PRAISE GOD!

You can keep up with Diva Delilah on her Caring Bridge page.  Heather will post updates and hopefully pictures very soon of her sweet, miracle baby!  Please put Delilah and her family on your prayer list and let's lift them up to the Lord!

(Caring Bridge is totally run through donation only and you can make a donation on the site!  Please help this wonderful site stay open for families in need of contact with the outside world during their time of medical need. Also, please give to the Ronald McDonald house - we have seen several families have to use this wonderful program and we need to give back!)

2 posts in one day

Ok, so I know what you are thinking, 

"TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY???"

Yea, this was just too good not to share...I was looking at Yahoo on my planning and found this article.  Please click on the Yahoo link and watch.  I think we all need this burst of patriotism right about now after the Boston marathon bombings, the letters filled with poison sent various places, and the Texas explosion.  

Watch and be filled with pride in our country and as celebrity, Patton Oswald tweeted, 

"The good outnumber you, and we always will."

KLove

Do you listen to KLove?  Do you stream it in your office via the computer?  Do you listen during breaks at school when you need some peace and quiet?  Do you subscribe to their daily encouraging word?  It comes in your email and I check it daily because it always, always, always can be applied to something going on in my crazy world on any given day.  God's cool like that.  

Here is today's word: 

 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." ~John 15:5