Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Where Two or Three are Gathered...

Now, that Cole....  


He's a six-year-old.  Well, okay....six-and-three-quarters-year-old.  And THEN some.  And so many times he acts like a true six-year-old would act.  And should act.  But then there are times like tonight.


As I was tucking Cole in, we were talking about...well, I don't even remember.  I was tired and just ready to get in bed.  Then he started talking.  Initially, very nonchalantly.  About at school one day how he "helped Carlos Alexander Torres pray to ask Jesus into his heart."  (That part woke me up).  Cole started smiling and getting excited.  I was asking open-ended questions, not wanting to encourage him to exaggerate the facts.  He shared with me the words he prayed...


Cole:  "Then Carlos followed me."


Me:     "Like, repeated you?"


Cole:   "Yes!!"  (cool snicker).
           "Like, 'Dear Jesus...thank You for this day.  Please help me to become a Christian.  Please keep    
            everybody safe.  Please come into my heart.'  Then I said, 'You're a Christian!!'  And he was  
            really excited.  (cool snicker)  He probably told his mom and dad."


Me:    (heart melting)


Only God knows what happened on that playground.  But I can only hope and pray for Carlos Alexander Torres and his family.  That maybe...just maybe...if nothing else, that there was a seed planted in that little boy's heart.


"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

Friday, November 18, 2011

It is not happy people who are thankful; It is thankful people who are happy.

Sadly, I think I was in my thirties before I learned what it really means to be thankful.  Really thankful.  And I honestly feel that I still have a lot to learn about being thankful.  But I do know that there is One whom we are to be thankful to.  Even though sometimes it is hard to see, there is always, always, always something to be thankful for.  The thing that gets me, is scripture says that we are to be thankful in all circumstances.  All???  All.  I don't have to like a circumstance or be happy about it, or agree with it, but I know that I can be thankful for it, because although I may not know at the time (or ever), God has a purpose for this, and He will see that something good comes out of it. (Romans 8:28).


The boys and I made a thankful tree.  Every day, or however often we feel led, our family thinks about what/who we are thankful for.  We then pray, thanking God for what it is on our hearts.  I love this idea, and it is my prayer that thankfulness, in any situation, will become second nature to all of us.


After the fall, we plan to use snowflakes to hang on the tree.  Then hearts (Valentine's Day)...then shamrocks...then raindrops...then....  (you get it....giving thanks is not limited to Thanksgiving time.)  When I collect the cards off the tree, I'm going to date and store them.  :)



"Be joyful always; pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thes 5:16-18.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

A Day to Remember!!!


This is a pic from my first 5k EVER!!  Been running with Dana Tollison and Cessily Azbill for five weeks, and April Wade invited us to try this run with her.  It was a GREAT day for a "race."  I'm still a pretty slow runner at 11:12 min./mile, but I never walked, and I felt great the whole time, so I'm pretty proud.  It was 40 degrees.  Took my jacket off about 2.5 miles.  (I'm merely adding the weather for later when I am out of my running habit and I can remember that there was a time that I didn't care about the cold) :0)   Then after my run, I went straight to Cole's football game....


And WHAT A GAME!!!  We played Tuttle for the second time this season, but at BC today.  Our boys did GREAT!!!!  Cole was QB on offense all game and safety on D all game.  He made three 2-point conversions, and picked up a kick-off and ran it for a 50-yard touchdown.  SO SO SO SO proud of him!!!!  Tuttle got us though at 38-42.  Next week we play at Lindsay.


We stayed and watch Cole's (well, all of our's) buddies play the 8&U game.  After that, the boys and I came home and took a THREE AND A HALF HR. nap!!  It was HEAVENLY!!!


A wonderful, beautiful day all around.  So, so, so, so blessed!!


"...Let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us."  Hebrews 12:1.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Confessions of a Rodeo mom

I'm not one to care about what others think about me, or the decisions I make as a parent.  Now, of course, I LOVE people, and I'm careful to show respect and grace and patience, and all those things.  But at the end of the day, I only have One person to please, and He is sure to show me loud and clear when I've done something outside His will.

All that to say...I still can't help but notice the look (or comments) I get when it sinks in with some folks that my six-year-old is a bull rider.  They're mainly looks of astonishment.  Shock.  Interest.  Curiosity.  Now, I'm human, and I'm halfway intelligent, and I've seen 8 Seconds (hehe), and I've seen major injuries occur right in front of me.  I know what can happen.

When Cole was two years old and told me he wanted to ride bulls when he grows up, I just brushed it off.  When he was four, he wanted to ride a sheep in the Tuttle rodeo, so we let him.  It was fun to him, but it shook his world a little, and the next night we went, he backed out in the chute.  The whole next year, he couldn't wait until that next rodeo, to get back up there and not back out.  So when he was five, he cowboy'ed up and went and won himself a belt buckle.  1st place at Tuttle rodeo, 2010....





....and he was HOOKED.

Since then, he's ridden sheep, calves, and mini bulls.  As a mom, it's still pretty easy to watch him because the stock for his age group aren't that rank yet.  And when I think about how crazy those animals can be down the road, I have to let it go. (Philippians 4:6)  Cole loves everything.  Baseball, basketball, football, music, painting, reading, swimming, exercising...I could go on and on and on.  But there is something different about rodeo.  Shane and I weren't in the rodeo and didn't even grow up around livestock or horses.  It's not something we've forced him into.  Cole knows more about rodeo than we do.  I struggle to explain the happiness I see in him when he knows there's a rodeo tonight...or next week, the happiness I see in him when he's there.



It's important to him to pray about his rides.  So many times we've bowed our heads together right behind the chutes, immediately before his rides.  (Now, you know this mama's praying for protection.)  But one night even the calves seemed like they were a little 'off' to me, and I was feeling a little uneasy about his ride.  Low and behold, I forgot to pray.  I was up in the press box with the video recorder in hand when I saw Cole hit a knee and pray right then and there.  Right around all the other lil cowpokes.  Wasn't quick either.  I've since wondered if in that prayer he was showing God he can count to 100.  :) On the way to a minibull event in Amarillo this past Saturday, we were driving through Elk City and I heard his DSi hit the floorboard and he said, "I'm gonna pray."  Then he proceeded to pray about the ride he would take that evening.

Not that he really has to ask before we tell him, but Cole NEVER fails to ask Shane and me at least a million times "Was that a good ride??"  I tell him every now and then that any ride that he can stand back up unassisted is a great ride in my book.  He didn't make the short-go that night in Amarillo.  But that ride was sacred.  Blessed.  Set apart.  Holy.  For His Glory.  Protected.

I know, at the very core of my existence, that God has wonderful plans for Cole.  And whether rodeo will be for just a few years, or a few decades, if He wants to use the rodeo to help Cole carry out the plans He has...who am I to try and stop Him?

Amarillo, June 25, 2011


"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all he has done.  If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:6, 7.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

It's all a POUT...

This is Lane five minutes after I asked him to stop roping my purple fountain grass.  
He was NOT very happy with Mommy.  :)


Friday, June 3, 2011

Born Yesterday...today, a 1st Grader!! (Almost)

I truly remember when Cole was three months old, someone said, "Don't blink...they grow up before you know it."  I had heard that before, but it had never registered until then.  Even at that time I couldn't believe how fast three months had gone by.  Now I'm writing about his kindergarten graduation.  I seriously have to sit and ponder all the memories, just to realize that it actually has been that long.

Cole is my pistol.  He came out of the womb ready to take life by the horns.  (Like that?? ;)  He has NEVER liked to sleep, and it took me until his sleep-loving brother came along for me to realize it wasn't me; it was just Cole's personality.  Another thing I heard way back when was that kids who fight sleep are smarter and feel like they need to be accomplishing something and don't have time to sleep.  Of course I didn't buy it.  Not then; not now.  But there may be more truth there than not.  I'm going somewhere with this....hhhmmmmmm.....(Dori moment....pardon me.....)

First came his first day care.  A home-based center that lasted a couple months with us because they let him leave with Shane without ID-ing him (whom they'd never met before), all because "You can tell it's his dad just by looking at him."  Ummmm....NO.  Then a wonderful child care center that he was at for a few years that we LOVED, but had to move him because it was out of our school district.  Then one more center in our district.  Point is, by the time he started pre-k, I knew a good teacher when I saw her.  And on Meet the Teacher night, I was very pleased and comfortable to leave him for his first day of preK with Mrs Hodges.  The whole school year that year confirmed my impressions of her.  So kindergarten was a BREEZE!!  Now I have two months or so to get used to the fact that I have a first-grader.  One which goes to school all day, no nap, then to football practice for two hours.  (I'm feeling a little nauseous.)

I couldn't be more proud.  Here are a few pics of his big day.


With Randy.


Mrs. Hodges, prek teacher.


Mrs. Carothers, Kindergarten teacher

Papa and Nana

Papa

Daddy

Mom


Sierra