Yay for Harper!!

We have been praying for this little girl along with thousands of other people from across the country...we are so glad she is doing well!!

Her Mommy was finally able to hold her today!! God is so good.

She is precious. To God be the glory.

Calling all my Betty Crocker Chicks!!

HELP! Seriously, help me. Can you guys direct me to a place, a book, a person maybe who can help me with my meals? I am so tired of cooking the same old thing.. I need meals I can rotate around from week to week..

Any ideas??

My husband is somewhat picky and really only loves ground beef or chicken of some sort. He's not making my job any easier!!

I'd also love to keep my grocery list as minimal as possible. I hate having to go to the store for all the different spices and parsley and this and that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

UGH.

I picked my son up from the breakfast table when he was finished and gave him a big hug. He smelled like poop. I put him down to go get diapers and wipes and discovered a glop of poop on my arm and hand.

I turn around to discover the poop has exploded out of his diaper up his back, on his shirt and coming out the bottom of his pants.

This is how my day started.

Hoping to return later with a better attitude.

Anybody know where I can find a...

COW?!

Seriously, I just bought one of these yesterday...



We bought a gallon yesterday. And it's already gone!

I'm seriously thinking about buying one of these and milking it myself.



Surely within a few months it would pay for itself! Sheesh.

On a happier note, let's give "snaps" to me for jogging THREE MILES tonight! Ok, I didn't actually jog the entire three miles but I did jog alot of it! If I wasn't jogging I was walking fast!! Yay for me!! Hopefully I can keep at it.

I love the Lord's Day

There is just something about the Lord's Day. I love Sunday. I love the worship time, the gathering of fellow christians to worship, I love to dig into the word and learn. I love the overall feeling of that day.

Today was another great Sunday. I can say that today I felt the Spirit. We've all had those days when Satan has a "hay-day" in our minds and we just didn't quite get out of the message what we should have. Well today was an awesome service! Our pastor has been doing a series on prayer. I am so loving it. It's got me really thinking about my prayer life--or, the lack thereof. I often times feel so overwhelmed by my prayers. It's kind of like a long to-do list at the end of the day. Tonight I really learned that prayer shouldn't be a to-do list. I should throw all my requests at God at the same time. I need to take the time to get away in my prayer closet, in the quiet, and really and truly realize who God is. I need to relish in the spirit of God.

I think I'm going to try and focus on that. Really getting to know prayer and how it should be. Today was just an amazing day. The worship service was awesome. God's spirit was there!

Anyhow, maybe another day I can do a post on the verses we learned about prayer.. but tonight I think I'll stick to more simple things.



This is a picture of my friend Amanda and I this morning at church. She is my BFF! We call her my "Jewelry Making Friend" if you remember. Well now I am giving her a new name: My Jewelry Making, Zebra print loving, sista from another mother! So from now on we will know her as that (she and I decided tonight that that would be her new name since we both LOVE zebra and somehow always end up with the same zebra things.. today it was a zebra purse). She is no doubt my sister from another mother.. hah! We joked tonight about how we just can't understand why God didn't give us the same shoe size so that we could share.. I wear a 9 and she wears a 7ish I belive. We both always love each other's shoes yet cannot share..what a pitty. ;)

Here are a few more of Amanda and I and also my husband and my handsome little boy!






I think the men in my life are so gorgeous!

And one more picture of my husband "sporting" a Jack and Cole Designs diaper bag!!



Oh and last but not least, I had to show my cute leopard resale shop shoes that I got for $10!!



Also please keep praying for little Abby Grace. They are going to do a sleep study on her as soon as they can get her in. Amanda in the pictures above is her mom. She's dealing with alot right now and prayers would be so appreciated!! Thank you.

Blessings!
Rachel

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GOTCHA!!!!
No I am not pregnant!! Oh that was fun.. had you all thinking I had a bun on the oven huh? No no it isn't me. But I am so super excited because my sweet dear childhood sister Annie is pregnant! I've been wanting to tell for weeks but I couldn't because her family didn't know yet. She is my life-long best friend. I have 4 girlfriends that I would call my BFF's and she is definately one of them. We met in 9th grade. And have been so close ever since. She was my maid of honor in my wedding. She's thrown all my showers and I am so excited to throw her a baby shower!!! I can go to her for anything--and she can go to me. It is so precious to have a friend like that.

I knew they were trying so the anticipation was high! She called me one night and said she had taken a test and wasn't sure if it was right. I laughed so hard because she told me there was only a "faint line." I told her that it didn't matter how faint the line..she was prego! She wasn't convinced. I think the excitement was too much. She had to E-MAIL ME THE PICTURE OF THE TEST! I was cracking up I almost wet my pants. I saw the picture while on the phone with her and I just started crying.. this child will be my neice/nephew! That is how close we are.

We have celebrated all of life's greatest and saddest moments together. We will always be there for one another.

So, as a celebration, I took Annie to lunch last week and we went baby boutique shopping!! I know.. I have a boutique but I'm still a boutique junkie and wanted to show her the best of the best! She was so excited! I picked her up and gave her a gift--a card, the infamous "what to expect when you're expecting" book and a pregnancy journal!! Here is a picture of her reading her card..




We stopped into one of my favorite maternity boutiques to buy some cute tops for her.. we found this cute little one that said, "Not plump, with bump." LOL. So cute.. I need one that says the opposite! ;) Here is a picture of her mini-bump and then one of her wearing the "fake bump" so she could see what she will look like..




Could there really be a cuter prego girl?!

We had such a great time going from shop to shop.. we bought some cute unisex things for baby! We can't wait to know what you will be little one! Auntie Rachel is going to go crazy buying you things!! We ended our day with a wonderful, delicious lunch at Carabas. If you have never been there, YOU MUST GO. It is my favorite restaurant. It will blow Olive Garden out of the water!



I have another friend who is expecting but hasn't yet gone public so her name will not be mentioned. Please be in prayer for these precious little ones who are not yet born. We can't wait to meet them!
Ann, I love you dearly and know you will be an amazing mother! God is good..

What does your money say??

Today I was sitting with this handsome man...



Listening to this awesome man..



...cracking up and having a blast! If you don't know this man above, you NEED to know him!! This is Dave Ramsey! I seriously encourage you to visit his website to learn more about him. He is a godly, christian man who has spent a great deal of his life helping others understand their money from a biblical standpoint. I'll be the first to say that I did not want to attend his class because I was afraid I'd be told I couldn't shop anymore, or go out to eat anymore..boy was I wrong! It was the best thing we've ever done!!

We attended his 13 week class back in the summer called Financial Peace University. It. was. amazing. Totally life-changing. I learned so much about money and what God has to say about His money that He gives us. Please, please consider taking one of his classes. Go HERE to his website, type in your zip code and they will show you the nearest place for one of his classes. GO TO THIS CLASS!!

Anyhow, he came to town so we could hear him speak LIVE. He was a self-made millionaire who lost it all and built it back up.

I've read his book and I highly recommend it!



Go to his website, check out his class...give it a chance! His class isn't just meant to help people get out of debt. He teaches so many great things. Retirement, Roth IRA's, mortgages, Investing and much more!

A Girls Night Out and a prayer request

**UPDATE ON ABBY: Surgery went well. She is home now with Amanda. They are going for a sleep study at Texas Children's Hospital and the doctors are going to go ahead an issue a sleep alarm that Abby will sleep on. It will go off when she stops breathing.. please be in prayer. If you'd like to leave kind words and thoughts here for Amanda, please do and I will forward them to her. You never know what an uplifting word can do.

First before I begin telling you all about the fabulous evening I had last night I want to ask for prayer for a special little girl. You all remember Miss Abby Grace right? She is the 2 year old daughter of my dearest friend Amanda over at Something Sassy Designs.
She was scheduled for surgery this morning to have tubes put back in her ears. As I've mentioned before they have seen a specialist and are trying to determine why she is having breathing problems that cause her to stop breathing in her sleep. Imagine being her mother, my dear friend, who cannot sleep a wink at night because she is watching her daughter breathe. I am asking you all to pray that God will totally heal this baby girl and that there would be no problem that can be found. The doctor who did the surgery this morning came out and told Amanda that there is definately a breathing issue and he ordered a sleep study right away. Those of you who are mother's can imagine what she is going through. If you would just be in prayer for this little princess we would greatly appreciate it. Here is a little picture of Abby Grace to keep in your mind. She is on the homepage of our website...she's our little model! ;)



Ok so last night me and my sweet friend Heather went to Proverbs 31 Ministires "A Girls Night Out." It was....AWESOME!



We were so excited to hear Kate Gosselin speak but the other speakers were so awesome as well. If you have a chance, you should check out the website. It's Proverbs 31 Ministries and it's geared totally toward women. It's a great resource. You might also check out other dates--Girls Night Out might be coming to your city!!

So the evening started out with Heather picking me up and we grabbed a bite to eat. It was so nice to sit at dinner and not have little ones crying, pulling at your shirt or throwing food on the floor! Can I get an "Amen" for girls night out?!? If you guys could have seen the two of us trying to get to this event you would have cracked up. Heather and I are ALOT alike. She and I had both been talking about this and both saying to each other, "I hope you know how to get there." She ended up driving.. she map quested the directions for TO and FROM. This event was ONE HOUR AWAY. We didn't realize just how far we were going..

She had me reading the directions which I was pretty nervous about. Don't get me wrong, I have a pretty good sense of direction. I mean, I could drive you to the mall with my eyes closed! But, I had never even been to this AREA of town before. So several times on the way we thought we were lost. At one point we were scared for our lives..she'll tell ya, we were in the GHETTO. And I do mean, ghetto. We're talking bars on all the windows type of town. So here we are, two little christian ladies, trying to find this HUGE church in the middle of gang-ville. Needless to say we did have a little prayer time in the car! I can't tell you how many times Heather or I one checked to see if the doors were locked.

So we made it there and we had a blast! Ayiesha Woods brought down the hizzy (this is my ghetto term for "house"). If you guys don't know her, check out her my space page Her voice is killer. She got is in the worship mood. Then there were two really amazing women who spoke. Their personal stories touched my heart. You can read more about them at the Proverbs 31 website listed above.

And then this man walks out on stage and the whole room gets silent. And you can see the looks on the ladies faces like, "What is HE doing here?" It was hiliarious. He said, "Ok, I know I'm totally outnumbered here; and before you all eat me let me just say that women rule the world." The whole room cheered and we loved him. Hah! He sang an amazing song by the group Selah called, "You raise me up" which is actually mine and my husband's wedding song. The main reason I am posting about him is because he said some really profound words before he left the stage. He said, "Ladies, you are each one special and beautiful in God's eyes..walk in the beauty of the Lord and be confident..for there is nothing more appealing than that to a man." So, needless to say, we loved him. ;)

And finally Kate came out! The room was cheering and standing and screaming! She is so beautiful but was even cuter in person. She was stylish and put together well. She had stilettos on which I was personally loving. She spoke well. We laughed, we cried. It was so neat to see her in person and hear her story. So many people say that she is too harsh or too crabby. I know that she can snip at her husband and be controlling but, if you had 8 kids how would you be?! She gave her husband alot of praise last night. It was overall a great time.

After it was over we ran to jump in line to have her sign our book. Heather just wanted a picture with her. I think we stood in line for an hour. As we were getting closer we kept hearing workers say, "Have your zoom ready." Finally as we approached the table there was this woman standing there yelling, "There will be no posing--we will take the picture as she signs your book!" She must have repeated herself 100 times and I'll be really honest and say that she was totally on my nerves. I watched as annoying lady snapped pictures when Kate wasn't even looking and handed the camera back and yelled, "Next!" I was totally annoyed. I know Kate was tired and had alot of people to see; but goodness, we drove an hour and we wanted a decent picture! So I chose to give up having her sign my book so I could get a picture while she was actually looking at the camera. Turns out that "annoying, yelling camera-holding lady" thought she would maximize time and let Kate sign someone elses book while she took my picture...but the other lady was kind enough to wait.



Here is a picture of me and Heather..


And No I did not know these two ladies but they sat behind us and the one on the right is the Mommy of these beautiful twin girls! They were so precious I had to take their picture! She is nursing twins..can you imagine? Did I really gripe about nursing ONE baby? And, they are four weeks old and she's already out and about! You go Girl!


And here is the line for the book signing..it was looooong. You probably can't see all of it.. but we were at the end and it was still long.



And finally, I took some pictures of Kate when she wasn't looking..WHAT? You would have so done it too! I took a picture of her shoes because they were cute. Sorry these pictures are kinda crummy.






And because I love conferences and am a total junkie for their t-shirts and books (which I do read by the way!), here is a picture of my shirt and my new books that I am totally pumped to read!





It was a really fun night..thanks Heather for the invite!! If you've never checked out the Gosselins website, you can do so HERE.

Take the girls you love.

If you've never heard about the Revolve Tour, you need to check out the website. www.therevolvetour.com Take a few moments to read the info below and watch the video. It's an awesome conference for pre-teen and teen girls. It's so worth the money.

Here is some info on the tour for parents and group leaders:

You may be wondering about a few things . . . like, what exactly is the point of The Revolve Tour? Our primary purpose is to communicate to teen girls that God loves them, just as they are, and to draw them into a life-changing relationship with Him. Beyond that, our purpose is to encourage girls to build healthy relationships with adults and their peers.

We do that by creating an event that demonstrates how people can have a life-changing relationship with God and to model that relationship to the audience. We work toward creating a sense of community and a warm, encouraging environment where each girl is understood and cared for.

Our dream is that every girl who comes to a Revolve Tour event takes away an understanding that God loves her, He is there for her, He is able to meet her needs, and He desires a relationship with her. Ideally, the Tour would lead to each girl beginning or deepening her relationship with God.

And since we know you’re concerned about these things (and rightfully so) you should know that all topics are tackled in a manner that is appropriate for both junior and senior high students. The use of analogy, rather than graphic detail, ensures that the message is delivered in a tasteful manner.

Although All Access is not specifically a parent-daughter event, we encourage parents to come along. We require one adult sponsor for every ten teens and this is a great way to see for yourself what The Revolve Tour is all about.

We’re thrilled that since The Revolve Tour began in 2005, more than 15,000 girls have indicated they made first-time decisions for Christ at our events. It’s a great start! Won’t you help us continue this work by bringing as many girls as possible to an All Access event near you?

The Revolve Tour

A Man's Heaven

I wanted share pictures with you guys of this really cool place we went to in San Marcos while visiting my husband's sister. It's called Cabella's. Now, I have no interest in hunting, fishing, camping or anything of the sort. But it was a really neat place! It's filled with all this "man stuff" and has these amazing exhibits of animals! It was like going to the zoo. It was disturbing to think that someone killed all those animals. I am a huge animal lover. But it was very neat to get as close as we did to some of them.

Then on Sunday, we went to a place here close by here called Outdoor World. We went there to celebrate my brother's birthday. It's very similar to Cabella's but with a really nice restaurant inside! We had a private room, with a HUGE fish tank in it.. it was so beautiful! Enjoy the pictures! I think the funiest one is of my mother at the shooting range!























more pictures to come later!