2010 In Pictures

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Afternoon, folks!

As I have been going about my day I have been thinking about something profound to write about on this last day of 2010. 

I thought about it during my 7 mile run this morning,

                                       while I was reading blogs,

during my nap,

and while we were taking down the Christmas tree.

After much thinking, I decided that I would do a year in pictures.  Enjoy!

January – BRAYDEN was born!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February – I celebrated my 32nd birthday and my hubby got me my Garmin and roses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March – We went to Disney World and I ran my second Half-Marathon, The Disney Princess Half!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April – The Lending A Hand 1st Annual River Run 5K!

May – My first TV interview and we had a Salutatorian in the house!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June – KOMEN!

  SURVIVOR!

July – The river, hot baseball games, and more river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August – Zachary became a TEENAGER!, it was back to school time again, and we celebrated a good mammogram!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September – Tyler turned 15 and Tiffany and I shared a special night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October – We burned the lights BRIGHT PINK for BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH and I ran MY FIRST MARATHON!!!  And Tyler and my sister Layne ran their first half-marathon!

 

November – While my guys got their hunt on in Colorado, us girls went shopping!  A good checkup and Katie’s 7th birthday rounded out the month.

December – Tyler’s first year of High School basketball started and family time was cherished at Christmas.

It’s funny, I actually thought this post would be rather quick to write…just going back and picking and choosing a few pictures to represent each month.  Ha!  It has turned out to be anything OTHER than quick!  Every time I opened a new file of pics I found myself browsing through them and reminiscing with whoever was standing closest to me as I was writing.  Sheesh…it has taken forever!  So I hope you’re REALLLLYYYY enjoying this!  Heehee, it has been made with love.

Oh!  And to our family and friends, you just read our Christmas letter! LOL I didn’t send out cards or letters this year because I just couldn’t find the time, but here you go, this sums 2010 up perfectly for us!

As for this last day of 2010, we are laying low this evening.  Zachary is going to a lock in for the church, Katie is playing at a friend’s house for the evening, and Tyler is hanging with us ol’ parents and ordering pizza.  You know you’re crossing over when your kids have a more active social life than you do! 

But seriously, I am LOVING having busy, healthy, active kids and being a busy, HEALTHY, active mom to do it all. This is the first new year’s eve in awhile that I am not recovering from something…2008 was spent at Barnes-Jewish in STL because Tiff and I were having chemo together, and 2009 I was recovering from my hysterectomy.  This year is much better!  We are going to keep this going!

May God richly bless and keep you and your family in 2011!

Blessings!

xoxo

Onward and UPWARD!

“Don’t focus on the seen but the unseen.  The seen is temporary but the unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

I have had such a productive day! 

You can’t really tell by looking at the house right now, but seriously…despite

the Build-A-Bear cheerleader that is still sitting on the barstool in the kitchen,

the dirty socks in the living room floor,

the various shoes laying strewn around,

the half-undecorated Christmas tree (told you I can’t focus),

and the papers scattered all over the kitchen table (gosh I wish my hubby could read this before he came home so he would be prepared!)

it has been a VERY GOOD WORKING DAY.  I honestly feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my Upward shoulders!

Amy and I sat down with rosters, calendars, schedules, lists, scratch paper, and phones in hand this morning and got down to business of matching up cheerleaders and basketball games for our upcoming Upward season.  I have been procrastinating doing this for awhile now because just the thought overwhelmed me…remember, I told you about that.  You wouldn’t normally think that this would be such a mountainous task, but when you have multiple parents, who have multiple kids on different teams and/or squads, combined with the fact that we were trying to accommodate kids/parents from out of town…whoa.  Back it up.  Yeah, it got a little crazy in here! 

A good kind of crazy…but crazy nonetheless.

After about the tenth time of pouring over the schedule, we officially proclaimed that we were finished!  Now we were not able to make EVERYBODY happy ALL the time, but we were able to make MOST people happy MUCH of the time.  Mission accomplished. 

We also had some roster switches and adjusting of teams, but after that was done and phone calls were made to all the coaches we sat back and sighed…

Ahhhhhhhhh………..

So after she left, I kept on with the busy streak – I was afraid to stop at this point for fear I would lose all train of thought completely – and got all my practices scheduled and printed on a calendar as well as my squad’s games, then also typed my newsletter and addressed every envelope with CHEER and a PRAYER. 

But I think the best moment came when I went to the post office and mailed the packets to all my little sweethearts.   I’m so excited to give my little girls their Uniforms and teach them about two of my very favorite things: JESUS and CHEERLEADING! 

Lord, please bless this season.

Yep, it has been a good day.  Hope yours has been just as good.

xoxo

Sometimes It’s Not The Bold Message…

Obvious, right?  I would hope.

And an interesting way to start off a post, no doubt. 

But it’s not the bold message that grabbed my attention when I went to…well, ya know.  It was what was written on the pieces of tape along the top and bottom of this sign that made me smile.  And apparently break out a camera right in the middle of sit-down mode!

Take a closer look:

 

 

 

 

 

“Jesus Loves You!”

“Yes He Does!”

“Come to Link Church off of AB Highway.”

“It doesn’t matter what you do God loves you. Just ask for forgiveness.”

“He died on the cross and rose again.”

“Jesus loves all!”

Instead of the usual “so-and-so is a tramp, or call 555-5555 for a good time, or Susie loves Billy forever”, here were some pretty special words…in one of the least likes places you would expect to find a testimony.  I’ll admit, it made me smile.  

And for some reason, I thought I’d share with you.

The location of said bathroom was at the basketball tournament that I had mentioned earlier this week.  The boys lost last night – when Katie and I couldn’t go because we were getting over the stomach bug – but today they WON!  It’s a double elimination tournament so we play again tomorrow!  Yay!! Going to this tournament is a Christmas vacation tradition, so it’s so great when we win so we can keep going!

Warm-Ups:

Game action:

Gather ‘round:

Katie and I feeling MUCH better and taking time to pose:

And a BULLDOG WIN!!

Ok, so it’s goodnight for me guys.  I’m going to finish my green monster and enjoy relaxing for the rest of the evening.  I have to get up earlyyyyy in the morning for my run because we have to leave for the game by 10…yikes!

Enjoy your evening!

xoxo