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Friday, December 30, 2011

Watch out world!!



We finally did it...
After telling her over and over how she would love getting texts from her grand daughters and pictures instantly (cuz this woman likes to be "in the know")....
We finally convinced my momma to get an iPhone!

Here she is getting  "lessons".



She had to take Phone 101 several times...lol!
(She had no idea I was making this face!)...love you mom!

Watch out world!
Maw Maw Loni is armed and dangerous!


Stephanie :)
ps. I"ll be back soon. .. Just enjoying my family while they are visiting from out of town.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful last few days of 2011!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

What I Love Wednesday...


This picture.

My beautiful daughter and sweet grandson playing Mary and Jesus.
It may be my favorite picture of 2011.
Defitinely in the top 5.

And this song....
It's sung from Mary's perspective.
"You're Here"
This video will bless you.  I promise.

Merry Christmas Y'all.
He is here!
Hallelujah!

Stephanie :)

lollipops

Monday, December 19, 2011

mushy gushy

Just in case your white chocolate peppermint macchiato (or whatever yumminess you may be sipping on) ain't sweet enough for you, 
I thought I'd give you a little extra super sweet mushy gushiness 
on this lovely Monday morning... 
But be forewarned. 
 I told you it was mushy.


We were 15 when we first fell "in love".
Got married at the ripe old age of 17.
Had a baby a few weeks later.
Statistically, our marriage shouldn't have made it.
 BUT our God ain't in the statistics business!  Nope.
He takes the most unlikely situation and people
and He does miraculous things so that He can be glorified!
 I love this man more today than I did 25 years ago.
No, let me rephrase that...I'm in love with this man more today than I was 25 years ago.
God did that!

 He is my best friend. 
He is always my first choice to do stuff with.
I mean, I love and treasure my female best friends and I always have a ton of fun when we get together but I never feel the need to "get with my girls" and have girls nights and stuff.
I'm just gonna say it...I told you this was mushy..
He is enough.
He completes me.
I have the most fun when I'm with him.
He makes me a better person.
He makes me want to love Jesus more.

 He overlooks my many faults.
He loves me when I'm overweight and tells me on a daily basis how beautiful he thinks I am.
He never pressures me to look a certain way or be something I'm not.
He just loves me for me.
He could only do that with a transformed heart because I have some very unlovable qualities. 
He loves me like Jesus does.


In the season we are in at the moment,  I get to be with my husband 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We go everywhere together. 
Except when he goes hunting. I don't hunt.

I got this text last week when he went hunting.
He had only been gone about an hour.
(the white convo is him)

Yeah, I'm one blessed woman.
I know it.
I'm thankful for it.
I ain't ashamed to tell it....
I'm in love!!


Stephanie:)

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Miscellany Monday @ lowercase letters

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Fa la la la laaa

Last week at this time I was gathered up with this wonderful group of people
 about to go do our annual Christmas Caroling.

I love them and I love caroling.

This is a two day event for us. We make a few visits on Wednesday night and then the rest on Saturday. 

There was lots of smiling and occasional giggling going on.

Lots of hugging happening all over the place...

And lots of "'Catching up Conversation" going on!

One of our many stops of the day is Silverleaf , where two of our lovely senior adult ladies now live. They are always so gracious and excited to see us.



Lydia and Marcus joined us!  Silverleaf is where she works keeping all the precious ladies there beautiful and their hair gorgeous. She is the resident "Beauty Operator" and she loves it!

We even had Miss Laura Michal  join us!  She is so busy these days...between homecoming court, beauty reviews, and modeling for magazines and stuff...we were thrilled she had time to join us!! :)

The wonderful day coming to a close as we visit one of our last houses....

to then gather together in this warm inviting house...


 ..where we warm up with a plethora of soups and desserts galore to recap all the fun we had and reminisce about all the wonderful visits with all the sweet people.

And I then I get one last look at this quirky little caroler "Aunt Faye" has in her house that I always look forward to admiring each year.  Ain't she the cutest!!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
goodwill toward men!"
Luke 2:14

Stephanie :)

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Party of the Year

Y'all know I love a party!
If you know me personally or been following my blog for any amount of time, then you know we throw parties around here for just about anything. I don't know if it's my Louisiana roots or what...but I don't need much of an excuse to whoooop it up big time!

But this past Tuesday, I hosted my favorite party.  I look forward to it all year!
I call it my "Keepin Jesus the Reason for the Season" Party.

The Lord birthed it in my heart many years ago when my husband was pastoring our first church. I was working in a friends boutique a couple days of week to help her during the holiday season. Her store was a-maz-ing. It was one of the very first of its kind and it was filled from floor to ceiling with quirky, trendy, one of a kind, amazing GORGEOUSNESS!!  I mean everything in there sparkled and glittered  and it all screamed.."you know you want me...you gotta have me...you know you can't live without me" in every corner you turned in this shop!

Well, don't get me wrong...I don't think there is a thing wrong with sparkly, pretty things....but as I was surrounded by it..saturated with it..  seeing the hunger of the people each day wanting MORE and spending SO much money to get it...well the Lord began to work in my heart that year about reminding me of getting back to the basics of Christmas...
back to the TRUTH of Christmas...
HIM!
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So... I threw my first "Keepin Jesus the Reason for the Season Party" that year.
I invited all the ladies and asked them to bring a simple gift that represented their walk with the Lord during the year...something that would reflect what He was doing in their lives and how He was at work in their hearts.   Well, let me tell you...that night rocked my world!!  
What a blessing to hear testimony after testimony of what the Lord had been doing!


As the ladies came in with their gifts, I would put a sticker with a number on it and put it under the tree. 
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After we ate and fellowshipped awhile, I  have each lady draw a number from a bag (one number for however many gifts were brought).  The lady who drew #1 would then open it and then the lady who had brought that gift would then share the meaning behind it and why she chose it.   We do this until each gift has been opened and all the ladies have shared.

The creativity of the ladies was incredible!  
One of my best friends, who is like a tenacious little bulldog when it comes to her boldness for the Lord, ...well, she brought a turtle one year (not a real one!) and it represented how the Lord was teaching her how important consistency was in her walk..to be slow and steady like the tortoise and not to be super fast and burn out while serving Him. 
 Consistency....
to finish her race WELL.
I now can't see a turtle and not think of her and that spiritual nugget of wisdom!

I could go on and on with examples of the creativity over the years but it would take forever, so I am gonna take you to my party this Tuesday...

**************

Did you read the letter I wrote to myself?
Well, you can {here} if  you want to..
Ironically, my cake DID flop! lol
But, it didn't matter...I knew the night wasn't about my baking skills (or lack of them).
I stayed true to the talk I had with myself and kept it on track with WHO it was about...

When my 3 layered cake began to slide....
I just made it into a "dump cake".
As my husband and daughter were witnessing the whole thing,  I said, "No problem..we will just have what classy people call a "Trifle dish" and then Lydia said, "well, what do WE call them?"  Then my husband said "Dump cakes"....  we got a good giggle. 
Guess we are more Country than Classy :)


I kept the menu super simple...homemade potato soup out of Styrofoam bowls...

..a few chicken salad sandwiches with chips and dip and we were all set and ready to get on with the GOOD STUFF!!...


There were thirteen ladies so I can't share all of the awesome and creative gifts that were brought. 
 But I will share what I received.

 This was from last year but I have it sitting out and I love and treasure it.
It was from Ms Pat.. she shared that she wanted to desire more and more of Lord..to pant for Him as the deer pants at the water brooks as Psalm 42 says.

She made it herself and I love the vintagey feel of it.
It's a such a great reminder to me as to what I am desiring most...


 This year, I received this...

 A planner from Janet. She told us she almost brought a plate to represent that how "full her plate" is but went with the planner cuz the Lord is teaching her about prioritizing her time...only saying yes to things HE has designed for her...learning its OK to say no if she hasn't heard from Him on a matter...and desiring to fill her calender with things that have eternal value.

Well, the Lord in His sovereignty made sure the planner AND the meaning behind it ended up with me!  As I dive into this new year..I want the same thing! To quit wasting time on what He hasn't ordained for me and do what will last throughout eternity!!
(Plus, I have a wedding to plan..my daughter has chosen APRIL.
 Yes I know that is only 4 months. sigh.)


It was a wonderful night. A refreshing night.
We shed tears...lots of them.
We laughed....really hard.
And we cried some more.
We ended the night in prayer, thanking Him for transforming our lives and that He would choose to come to this world so many years ago and humble Himself so that we can experience the freedom and joy of salvation in Him.
  WOWZA! How incredible.

As I said,  this is THE party of the year for me.  
I love hearing how great our God is and how He is at work. 
 Seeing the ladies growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord  is the best gift ever.
(2 Peter 3:18)

Stephanie :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dear Stephanie

 Hey Girl!
I know you have a super busy day and that all the ladies from church are coming over tonight for a Christmas party.  Just wanted to remind you  that when you are up to your eyeballs with cooking and cleaning and wrapping today, to remember to not get all crazy and stuff.  Don't miss out on the blessing of getting to use your home tonight to fellowship with those who have loved and encouraged and supported you this year...your friends.  You know they don't care if the new cake recipe you're about to attempt turns out to be a flop.  And I hope you realize they aren't coming over to see if your house is clean.  No.  They will have all had busy days too with work and stuff and they are coming to be refreshed..to enjoy each others company...to just relax and be amongst friends as y'all talk about what Jesus has been up to in each other's lives this year.  So  remember that OK?
Ok.  Glad we had this talk.
Stephanie



Monday, December 12, 2011

I. LOVE. MAIL.

 Can I just say that one of the high lights of my day is checking the mail!
I mean..I LOVE it!  I love getting magazines, I love catalogs, I even love junk mail!
But when something unexpected comes in the mail with your name on it...
it's just pure joy for me!

And this box of goodness came last week.
In my excitement, I ripped off the label and stuff before I took a picture,
but this was the box it was mailed in!

Inside was pure Christmas cheer!!
 Casey, one of my dearest friends I made during our Navy years sent this to me!
 My heart did a flip when I lifted the lid of this box and discovered this....
BUTTONS!!  I. LOVE. THEM.

And my favorite is this ornament..
Honey :)
 She has written in the inside, the names of the first two previous owners!
I am owner #3!!  I LOVE it.
 Thank you Casey for surprising me and blessing my socks off!



My sweet little grand-daughter  had a birthday last week.
I was perusing Twitter a couple of weeks ago and came across this picture in a tweet.
HIS GIRL - Hand Stamped Copper and Sterling Necklace with crown
It was handmade with love and prayers by the lovely Lora.
She has a beautiful Etsy shop and encouraging blog called { eager hands}.
I have ordered several pieces from Lora and I can honestly say her heart is as beautiful as her jewelry is that she makes.
eager hands
When I saw the "His Girl" necklace, I KNEW I wanted to give that to my granddaughter to remind her of who she is because of Jesus. Lora went above and beyond to make the package special and pretty and mailed it directly to Rosalyn to receive on her birthday from her Honey and Paw Paw.

The incredible thing is the testimony that Lora shared telling me of the anointing she felt from the Lord as she sat down to make the  necklace.  She shared how she heard the Lord clearly speak the phrase "His Girl" to her heart and she KNEW there was a special person the Lord had led her to make it for that day!
What a blessing! I pray each day for my grand kids that the Lord will use them to impact His Kingdom  while they are here on this earth!  I know He is going to use this little lady in a powerful way!


Here she is after getting her package from the mailbox!
...I think from the look on her face  I've passed my "mail-love" down to her ;)
Here she is wearing it! ~love~
Her momma shared with her the meaning behind the necklace.  I wanted her to have a keepsake for years to come and being that she is only three, I tried to keep it at her level...so  I had written in the card, "As much as Honey and Paw Paw love you, always remember that Jesus loves you more! You are a princess of the King of Kings!"
My daughter said Rosalyn showed everyone, everywhere she went that day and told them all the necklace  said she was  Paw Paw's girl and Jesus's Princess! !
Yes...that she is for sure!! lol
Thank you Lora for making something so special!!
Y'all please do yourself a favor and go check out {Lora's shop} right now!


And the last thing I want to share with y'all about my "mail-love" is this ....
I won the best giveaway and got THIS in the mail!

The amazingly talented Kellie, of Nest of Posies, specially designed this tote to match my blog!!
~Squeal!!!  I LOVE it!!

And today is THE LAST DAY to order any of her ready-to-ship posie pins!!
She will be closing her shop until January after today so HURRY!!
Her flowers are gorgeous and she is offering a 15% discount today!
Just click this picture to go to her blog or shop!


Well, I hope y,all have a lovely Monday!
Go check out Lora and Kellie's shops today.. You will be blessed.
I've got to get busy now finishing up a few custom orders I have to make.
But first....I think I'm gonna go check my mail!!!
Woo Hoo!!!

Stephanie :)

PhotobucketMiscellany Monday @ lowercase letters

Friday, December 9, 2011

Guest Postin.....again :)

Happy Friday Y'all!


Today I am honored and thrilled to be a guest over at Hannah's place,  Happy Days.
If ya'll haven't met Hannah yet then let me be the first to tell you...YOU ARE MISSING OUT!
She is such an encourager and a blessing.
 AND...she is hosting a fun a inspiring series on Christmas..

I'm sharing about one particular Christmas back in 1991.
Come check it out!

Stephanie :)
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