Bye Bye........BIG BOOTY JUDY!!

Bye Bye big booty Judy........I have a 24 Hour Fitness membership! BJ was able to sell his weight set and pay cash for our gym memberships. YIPEEEE!!!!!

Come on...we ALL know the Winter couple needs it :) All these home cooked meals are killin' us (maybe some other bad choices too :P)

Weekly Early Education (W.E.E.) Program

I'm officially a non-certified teacher! I am teaching 4 year olds at a local church in Spring. I am extremely excited. My co-teacher has been teaching pre-school for 10 years, so there should be lots of learning on my part too. I am looking forward to seeing the children grow and learn this year.
This little girl could have been my twin when I was her age. Big brown eyes and auburn hair. I can tell we are going to be best buds!

Starfall.com

Wouldn't you know Country Girl has all the answers!!! She told me about this website for pre-schoolers and it is so cool. (you may all know about it, but I didn't) way fun!

Computer

Ok.....so do you think I spend too much time blogging!!??? As soon as I got up from my chair this is where I found Landon -- ha!
So.......I thought his own computer was a good idea.....(we splurged for a toy) It is a vtech, tote & go laptop......verdict is --- it is sooooo going back to Target. I can barely understand what you're supposed to do much less my 3 year old! It definately gets the thumbs down from me. It should have better verbal directions!!

"I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul"

Have you ever heard the lyrics to Toby Mac's "Lose My Soul"? If you've never heard this song...you must! The lyrics are GREAT....I never want to have "it all" and lose God, salvation, wisdom...the world has A LOT to offer, but it will lead to destruction and will not make you happy. The only happiness is in Christ. He paid the price for your sins by dying on the cross. Surrender your life today!

These are some of the lyrics.....
"Lose My Soul"

Man I wanna tell you all something, Man.
Man I'm not gonna let these material thing's, get in my way, you all.
I'm trying to get somewhere.
I'm trying to get somewhere,
Thats real and pure and true and eternal.

Father God, I am clay in your hands,
Help me to stay that way through all life's demands,
'Cause they chip and they nag and they pull at me,
And every little thing I make up my mind to be,
Like I'm gonna be a daddy whose in the mix,
And I'm gonna be a husband who stays legit,
And I pray that I'm an artist who rises above,
The road that is wide and filled with self love,
Everything that I see draws me,
Though it's only in You that I can truly see that its a feast for the eyes- a low blow to purpose.
And I'm a little kid at a three ring circus.

I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
Don't wanna walk away, let me hear the people say.
I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
Don't wanna walk away, let me hear the people say.

The paparazzi flashes, and that they think that it's you,
But they don't know that who you are is not what you do,
True, we get it twisted when we peak at the charts,
Yo before we part from the start,
Where's your heart?
You a pimp, hustler?
Tell me what's your title,
America has no more stars, now we call them idols,
You sit idle, While we teach prosperity,
The first thing to prosper should be inside of me.
We're free...
Not because of 22's on the range,
But Christ came in range, we said yes now we changed,
Not the same, even though I made a fall,
Since I got that call, no more Saul, now I'm Paul.
(YEP!)

How do I sense the tide that's rising?
De-sensitizing me from living in light of eternity,
How do I sense the tide that's rising?
It's hypnotizing me from living in light of eternity,
How do I sense the tide that's rising?
De-sensitizing me from living in light of eternity.

(Lord what we gonna do,We're relying on you,
all eyes are on you Lord,
all eyes are on you, all eyes are on you Jesus.)

Lord forgive us when we get consumed by the things of this world,
That fight for our love, and our passion,
As our eyes are open wide and on you.
Grant us the privilege of your world view,
And may your kingdom be, what wakes us up, and lays us down.

Awesome God Teen Ministries

A few weeks ago the church I grew up at had a "youth group" 10 year reunion. Wow! Am I that old!!!?? It makes my heart skip a beat remembering the old days. We had a wonderful youth pastor who implemented many great things to attract teens. I believe many teens in need of hearing God's Word (including me) did so because of this great ministry at Spring Memorial Baptist Church. I KNOW God used Donnie Anthony to draw me to the Lord. Donnie and our church were a huge part of me having a Bible base in my life. I think this is why I have such a heart for teens. There are so many kids with no hope because they don't know God. I thank God for the blessing Donnie and his family were/are to me.
Their beautiful family. His wife, Trinetta, is hilarious. She is so cool. She is also a fabulous artist - very talented. His oldest son is in his second year of college. His middle son (the tallest) is going to try out for basketball (he's starting 9th grade). And last, but not least, his youngest loves doing mission work in China! Isn't that cool. Donnie was over missions at his church in San Antonio and has traveled to Sri Lanka, China, and other places. I love these guys!
Us entering the party :)
Donnie is such a talented man. He works with silver and one of his signatures was to make silver crosses for all the graduating seniors. What a great keep sake! The other thing he did for our group was have James Avery make charms to represent us. He had one left and made it into a ring. Isn't it cool!
This car was a rusty frame when I was a teen. Her name is Nadine. As a matter of fact BJ helped Donnie pick this car (frame) up from the "car lot" (??). Donnie completely restored it. There are many memories of this car.....it was in sermons, the kids helped with it, etc.

Congratulations Jeremy!

Jeremy (BJ's second to youngest brother) has offically graduated Houston fire school!!! Now we have 2 firemen in the family. Jeremy asked BJ to "pin" him on stage with his fireman badge. What an honor...it was a great moment. Two Winters in fire uniform :) We are VERY proud of him. Way to go Jeremy!!

Bunko!!!

I'm not sure if bunko is spelled with a "c" or a "k", but I like the way it looks with a "k" ;)

Bunko was last night at Lacy's. As always I had a great time! Lacy had wonderful summer salads and fruit (which I helped cut and display -- can you tell I'm proud!!??). There also was a fabulous butterfinger pie which Jill is responsible for --- (Jill I must have that receipe and the layer salad you did :) You are one fine cook!!)

Are these girls not the most beautiful!!?? It was great seeing them all. I love catching up with them. And guess what.......I actually had a clue what was going on in their lives thanks to blogging :)

(Leslie...I had to crop you out because I accidently "red eye reduced" your mouth and now it's black! -- oops)

Chinese Menu

Ok -- if you like Chinese food here is a top secret........
We use these little packets to make our broccoli beef or General Tso's all the time! They are so good. All you have to do is add chicken or beef. General Tso's asks for flour, sugar, and soy sauce but I always have those on hand. If you haven't tried these they are in the Asian section at the grocery stores. I have never found them at Super Wal-Mart, but have at Brookshire Brothers and Krogers so I'm assuming you can get them at general supermarkets. Enjoy!

Who has Woody?

My mom house sat for us while we were at the river and go figure........she bought Landon a gift! I should have been the one buying her a gift!

As you can tell, he loves his new Woody doll. The new one has a string (so he talks), sleeping bag (which turns into a backpack), and camping lantern! How fun...anyone else out there have Woody?

P.S. Grammy also bought him a fireman rescue hero -- I love those -- so cute. Thank you Grammy -- you are going to spoil him!

Frio River Fun

We just got back from Garner! It was our 3rd annual trip and it was a blast. The river was quite low, but it made for perfect fun for the little kids. We were there for hours at a time....swimming, fishing (with nets), floating, chatting, napping, eating.......etc. We enjoyed every minute. As always there were a few "eventful" moments. One being the morning I decided to sit on the bench at the kitchen table with my coffee. I sat too close to the end and away I went right onto the floor. OOPS!! Yes -- the coffee did spill. Luckily I had it in a sippy cup :) Unfortunately no pictures to share.




Can you see the baby fish???

Ring around the Rosies with Uncle Doc (aka Uncle Richard)

Thank you Denise

Look how cute this is.....Denise got the idea at Canton and re-created it! Isn't it so cute. I have it hanging in Landon's bathroom. xoxxoxo

Where's the beef?

Here it is! We buy a quarter of a cow each year (this is actually only our 2nd time) from BJ's fire buddy. His family has a farm in Nebraska and they slaughter them there and drive them down each year. When BJ encouraged us to do this I was a little skeptical. I mean do we really need a quarter of a cow!!?? But honestly it's been great. I never have to buy meat at the store (we still have meat left from last year!) and we're getting home grown, no steroid cow. Plus - without this cow we would probably not ever have steaks. Now we do and they are FABULOUS! Who needs Becks Prime, Outback, or Leona Steakhouse??!! (OK, maybe we still need Leona :P)

Happy Birthday Cassidy!

Landon's cousin, Cassidy, celebrated her 9th birthday today. It was so fun. They had one of those huge water slides. Landon loved it, but couldn't understand why he couldn't hang out and swim at the bottom. All the kids were super sweet with him, but a swift wack from a kid coming down that slide could do some serious damage!

You should have seen their backyard -- it was flooded! The kids were playing on it from about 2pm and were still doing it at 7pm when I left! Tons of fun -- Happy Birthday Cassidy!!!xoxoxo

Watch out Lance Armstrong!

Landon found dad's biking helmet so we are going to get started early on Tour de France training. I mean -- the earlier we get those legs conditioned the better, right?!! We'll have to start on the tricycle though -- he IS only 2. I'll go easy on the training schedule. Maybe just 30 minutes a day for now. HA - yeah right! I end up carrying his tricycle back from the mailbox. He wants to ride it down and then is too tired to ride it back!! Maybe we should start at 10 minutes a day :)

I'm here!

I am still alive! Just haven't had anything exciting to post. We are going to Garner next week so stay tuned :)

Back to M'ville

I finally made it back to Madisonville after about 7 weeks. I had been missing the 'ole town and all the wonderful people. I got there Wednesday night. Landon was in heaven with "CodyTyler". They did a lot of swimming and loving on each other.

Then the tide turned.....around bath time, Denise decided to "draw me a bath" complete with candles and everything! I was a little taken off guard and nervous at first. After all my own husband has never drawn me a bath! But then I realized her intentions were because I had been allergy sick all week and she had this wonderful Eucalyptus bath salt that would make me feel better. Shooo -- I didn't have to worry! I am not exactly a bath person, but I have to say I enjoyed it. It definitely cleared up my sinuses!

The next day we decided to go to Fort Boggy. Such a cute park. The boys totally enjoyed 2 hours of swim time in the lake. It was great! Denise and I got sunburned under the tree (how does that happen???). And as you can tell -- the boys (at least 2) were tuckered out by the end of the day.


Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of my other beautiful friends in M'ville because my time was cut short. Tyler woke up Friday morning throwing up! I literally made a mad dash out of town at 8:30 in the morning in hopes of avoiding further spread. We thought it might have to do with the lake water, but it didn't. He only had a few episodes and is all better. It must have been a bug. As for Landon -- we are in the clear so far :)