On Friends

Five minute Friday~

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him

that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."

Ecclesiastes 4:6

it started with kindergarten

playground dates,

to Sunday School girls,

to youth group sisters,

to junior high (dateless) dances,

to high school, to Friday night slumber parties,

 to college dorm girls,

to girl's bible study,

to bridesmaids,

to mommies, to women's bible studies,

to coffee dates and girl's night out....

(and more) 

With each season of my life,

I can see God orchestrating

sweet blessings of girlfriends in my life

Remember these?

I've shared countless BFF necklaces..

with many sistas~

Weekends~

A few weeks ago we celebrated one

of my dear BFF, ROBIN's, bday!

We hit up Portland and made our

first stop at the Melting Pot!

I love me some fondue!

We made sure to get there during happy

hour and the prices were very afordable!

I could eat this kind of food every day!

Then our super friendly and patient

waiter gave us some suggestions on

what to do the rest of the evening

We moved onto  Departure

A cool, modern Asian restaurant/lounge!

Departure~

This weekend, Haley and I went to

The Revolve Tour. I took Molly a

 few years ago and have been looking so

forward to taking for years!

I knew she would love the speakers and

especially the concerts. Hawk Nelson

was by far the FAVE of the weekend!

If you have teenage daughters or preteens

in your life, get them to this concert!!

Me, with my cute Haley!

These little teeny boppers have

been best friends since they were 2!

Such sweet friends!

BLESSED!

 

8 til the Big 41~



Love this blurry pic of my amazing friend Robin



My other amazing friend Laurie!

MY 3 WONDERFUL BFF'S

An early celebration with my girls
in the city!

~8 til the BIG 41~

Why am I feeling strange and old....

I never thought I would feel like this turning a young 41!

I loved turning 40! I loved my party!

(I don't think I ever blogged about it last year)



My kids leading me into my party~



 It was perfect.... so me and everything I wanted plus two surprises! (my brother and best friend flew to see me) 40 feels good! I feel "smarter" I mean wise! Wisdom comes with age, right? I felt mature! Alot happened my 40th year...my son graduated, my youngest left elementary school, I got a new job, I stopped teaching elementary kids (that I loved) I saw my childhood best friend, took two road trips to California, moved my son to college, my first daughter turned 16, I got an international daughter, my cousin and daughter came to visit us for the first time,  a college student moved into my sons room, I'm now a counselor, my husband's job description changed, again and again....sooooo why does 41 seem different? Other people turn 41. Not me, I'm the young mom, the youth pastor's wife, the one that has energy and spunk and is crazy...those kind of people don't turn 41...haha! I have never dreaded age..I truly believe it's all in our perspective and we need to embrace where we are..make the best of it and wear it proud! So, WELCOME 41, HERE WE GO, SHOW ME WHAT YA GOT! ha :)

40, 50, 60~

A few weeks ago, I headed to Bend, OR with a group

of fun, crazy ladies! Such a unique group of girlfriends, all

different ages...3 of us had hit milestone bdays this year!

 40, 50, & 60! (the 60 yr old, is my RAD mom)

 We were going to celebrate our friends 50th! 

 We stayed in a beautiful, huge house,

 with an amazing backyard!

We stayed up late, talked in the jacuzzi for hours, ate good food,

went to fun restaurants, marked a few things off our "bucket list" ; )

and ended our weekend with worship and praying for eachother!

Such a blessing

to have strong, godly women in my life of all ages

that love Jesus so much!

Prayer~

81 degrees at 9:30am!!! Am I really in the NW!? I've already been to the store to buy a slip-n-slide, popsicles and some squirt guns for the hot day! I'm excited! I love sweat! Well, I love to be hot..not just sweat in general..but that hot summer day feeling! Love, love it! Yes, I can't believe I live in OR! I was made for hotness! ha! We had a great 4th of July camping and just living a weekend of thankfulness after Tim's accident last Thursday! We literally prayed, gave thanks together about a dozen times! ("Thank-you, Jesus" just seems so inadequate!) But camping was relaxing and much needed! We swam, rode bikes, hiked, read and did nothing. Perfect!~

Making 4th of July shirts!

My cute, (very serious) husband :)

Hours of Biking some sweet trails!

MT. HOOD

ON ANOTHER NOTE:

My heart has been so focused on PRAYER lately! It always should be, right? But it's not! I have had some crazy, Jesus loving, women come into my life and literally, all they want to do is pray! They want to meet at the church and pray, they want to meet at the high school and pray, they want to meet for coffee and then go on a prayer walk and pray for the community! AWESOME...I know! At first I was a bit overwhelmed...I'm not sure why. I think it had to do with "time" and my selfishnesss with MY TIME! It's my summer...I love no schedule...(I feel ridiculous even admitting that) but once I spent a few days with these friends...I was on FIRE!! I came home and could not stop talking about our prayer time together, God was giving me scripture to pray and we began seeing prayer answered like crazy!! I sound like the concept of prayer is new to me...but it's just a new freshness and annointing that HE has given me recently and I just had to share!! Really, prayer and the Word.....THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!!

 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:7-8


So, all that to say.........I would love to pray for you! How can I pray for you? You can email me or comment and just know...I will be praying!! BLESSINGS!

Lessons Learned and Turning 40!

I turned the big 4-0 in November and never did blog about it. I wasn't on my big blogging frenzy then. I came across something that I wrote right around my birthday.  "Things I've Learned"  How do you really sum up 40 years of learning. My 30's contained 20 years of learning alone, I feel like. Did a lot of growing up that decade! Don't ya really start feeling like a grown up around 38ish?? Maybe I was a late bloomer..ha! I still don't feel 40 until I look in the mirror and when I try to put on the same size jeans I wore 5 years ago. So here are some of my thoughts.......

 Laugh, laugh, laugh…. things are funny!

Love without abandon because of 1 John 3:1

 Self confidence produces fine results

Being wrong is ok…room for improvement

 I am perfectly capable

Be honest all good lies come to an end

 Someday I will definitely die

Regrets keep me from moving on,

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,

HE is merciful and gracious! Psalm 111:3-4

 Wishing is not doing

 I have often had to eat my words…a large humble pie please!

 Love is a gift, I am loaded!

 Don’t be afraid to ask for help

 Simplicity…keep me far from complexity

 Live life to the fullest takes effort and purpose on my part

 To be interesting, be interested

 Doing things just for fun is fun

 Don’t judge Matthew 7:1-5

Think before the mouth starts running

 Don’t take things for granted

It doesn’t matter what one says, it what one does

 There is more than one right answer

Keep your friends close..no matter the miles

 Nobody can LIVE without somebody

 Ecc. 7:10 For I was made for such a time as this!

 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage.

Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Phil. 4:4-8

God’s Word does not return “empty handed” Is. 55:11

 Always be eager to practice generousity Rom 12:9

 Extravagant dimensions of christ’s love Eph. 3:19

 The light at the end of the tunnel is not always a train.

 I’ve seen HIS light blaze in the darkness! John 1:5

The more I learn the less I know

Children keep you young

Think BIG (abundantly more)

Power (endless)

Life is a mountain (but Someone can move them)

There is always HOPE

Words are powerful

Lifelong friends are PRICELESS
Children are the world's greatest gift!

Lead by example

Be passionate about something

My birthday was the best! My husband did good..very impressive! He threw me an 80's party (with help from many wonderful friends) During the party, my best friend since 4th grade, surprised me! We had 4 sweet, lazy days together catching up! A sweet memory and definite highlight of 2009!

The kids got so INTO dressing up and

 were as excited as I was for my bday!

Friends for 30 years!!

I like being 40

It's the new 30!!

Weekend Recap #2

I packed alot of fun stuff into this 3 day weekend, even some good sleep! I slept in, celebrated 3 birthdays, saw Valentines Day, (loved it) got a pedi with some girlfriends, baked with my youngest and started a week long birthday celebration for my man! Tonight, we had some dessert and junk food after dinner and opened a few presents. Haley, my creative girl, decorated and made signs for her dad all over the house. She put a sign on the door, "Club 41" (his age) Her creativeness never ceases to amaze me!  She brought some of her little lamps from her room out to the livingroom and had mood lighting..ha! Darren's bday is Wednesday, youth group night and I'm sure we will get very little partying in. Tomorrow night we have a frozen yogurt date planned. The cutest, funnest little yogurt shop opened up by the college campus in town. So cute, self-serve and delish!

Tim and Molly doing a little late night line dancing ; )

I read this tonight:  Approach your day with the awareness of who is BOSS. As you make plans for your day, remember that it is I who orchestrates the events of your life. I know the plans I have for you and they are good!

Crawling in my warm bed, with clean sheets and fresh pj's (aka sweatshirt) thanking God for the reminder that every breath I take is a gift from HIM and looking forward to a new week to watch HIM do HIS work through me!