A Season Finale: JV Style

Before Carter's season began, FHU's JV season had ended.  Carter asked to go to the last game early so he could warm up with the team.  The boys were so good to include him. . . 

The boys are always so good to talk "ball" with him . . .

and include them in all they do.

He has become the one who leads the cheer at the beginning of the game.

He still enjoys cheering them on to victory.

and even LB joins in the cheering from the stands with the 

girlfriends.

The game ends, but a bat boy's job is not done.

He takes this job very seriously as well.

Making sure the mound is just right for the next game.

It was a great season, but they all must come to an end at some point.  Thanks, FHU Lions for making this boy feel like one of you!

Time to Shine

We are getting ready for Lads to Leaders in our house and at church we had a chance to SHOW and SHINE what we had been working on for the past year.  Carter gave his speech to the crowd and Laura Beth showed her scrapbook that she had created for this past year.

 showing her scrapbook to her friends

LeighAnne and Laura Beth show their scrapbooks.  They worked so hard on these and can't wait to have them judged!!

We are ready for convention!!!

Good luck to all participants!

Happy Birthday, Gray Sisters!!!!

We love our extended family of college students and are so happy to celebrate with them no matter what the occasion!  We were thrilled to celebrate 2 special birthdays - Emily and Claire!!!  They requested my Mexican Chicken Stuff for their lunch along with Red Velvet and Funfetti cake - which we made into cupcakes!! We had a great time celebrating with them!

 Emily

 Claire

 The whole gang!!!!

Being Bat Boy . . . .

is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

 

It's not all glitz and glamour.

The bats have to be in a certain order.

 You have to lug bats back and forth that are

half your size many, many times.

 It's your job to lead the procession to home plate when someone hits 

a homerun.

 One even has to take care of the umpires . . .

who knew?

 You also have to keep the guys on the bench loose while your team

is on the field.

That is a ROUGH job!

 As bat boy, you are a BIG encourager.

You must lead the procession out to third base when all the fielders

come in from playing in the field to bat.

 and you HAVE to keep the pitchers in line - 

THAT is almost impossible!

 Yep, being a bat boy is a tough job . . .

but SOMEONE has to do it!

I am so glad it is me!!!!!!

JOYfilled Life - "J" is for Jesus

I always tell my children that when they want to have JOY in their lives they need to think about what Jesus would do in that situation.  For their minds at this time, that works.  However, as we get older, we are able to find joy IN Jesus through many different things.

WE HAVE JOY IN HIS WORD

Your word I have hidden in my heart,

That I might not sin against You.

Psalm 119:11

How do we know His word unless we read it?  How else are we going to develop an intimate relationship with God if we don't spend time with Him?  David found joy in God's word and he hid it in his heart so it would always be with him.  When we are in His word we find out what He wants us to do, so we can live a life pleasing to Him.

WE HAVE JOY IN SALVATION

From finding joy in His word, we learn what we must do to gain salvation as well as forgiveness.

Make me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Psalm 51:8, 12

Because of God's willingness to cleanse us from our sins - not just once, but daily, should give us great joy!

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk 3:18

We should work in gaining complete confidence in God and it will continue to grow as our relationship with Him deepens - just like Habakkuk.  We can have the same confidence he had in our "God of (our) salvation."

WE HAVE JOY IN HIS PRESENCE

For You have made him most blessed forever;

You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.

Psalm 21:6

Just being in God's presence gave David joy.  How are we in His presence?  Do we find joy in going and being there?  Do we look forward to it?  Do we seem glad when we are there singing praises to Him?  It's during this time that we are able to find a few things only found in Christ.

You have put joy in my heart . . . .

Psalm 4:7

And I will go to the altar of God,

To God my exceeding joy;

Psalm 43:4

We realize that our hearts can be full of His joy and that we aren't able to live without Him.  He and He alone is our exceeding joy.

The joy of the Lord is your strength . . .

Nehemiah 8:10b

We also realize when we are with God that He becomes our strength to overcome anything that comes our way.  What a joy to know that we can be "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) because of Him.  

JOYfilled Life

Recently, I was asked to give a devotional to the PKA girls on campus.  They have been studying the fruits of the spirit and my fruit was joy.  I was first relieved because usually I get the outrageous topics and really struggle, myself, with what I am going to say to them.  However, with this one I knew exactly what I was going to say.

What is joy?  It is one of those words that you define using the word itself.  There are two definitions:

1. Earthly - emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; fleeting; will disappear eventually
2. Spiritual - result of faith and obedience to God.  The amount of joy you have is in direct proportion to how close you are to God as well as how steadfast your walk with Him is; this can endure; sin can make our joy diminish but we can always be restored to our complete joy.

We want the kind of joy that has the potential to last.  It is the TRUE JOY!!!  We are going to use the word JOY to help us learn and, hopefully, remember how to have this true joy in our lives each day.

Come back tomorrow to see the "J" in joy.

Book Review: Pujols: More Than the Game

My husband, Damon, has always loved a good sports book to read, so I recently signed him up to receive and review Pujols: More Than the Game from Thomas Nelson Publishing.  We have always liked the Cardinals (if they weren't playing the Braves) and have appreciated Albert Pujols for the way he has always conducted himself on and off the field.  So, Damon was excited to get this book to read.  He was very impressed with Pujols on a whole different level after reading this book.  Pujols speaks very openly about his faith in God and how he tries very hard to ACT upon that faith.  Brought to God by his wife, he is now an active participant in medical mission trips back to his homeland of the Dominican Republic.  On this trips he gets right in there to do the work for the people.  He is very generous with his time as well as his money - buying supplies from the people in the Dominican such as beds and other supplies that he passes out to poorer parts of this area.  He is also very active in the work around St. Louis helping special needs children - as he has one of his own.  Pujols is living the line - "Don't just talk the talk - walk the walk."  In a world where we here mainly the bad of what is happening in sports and with other high profiled people.  This is a breath of fresh air.  Any one who is a sports fan - whether a Cardinals fan or not - will appreciate this book and the man it is about! Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for this complimentary copy!!!

Book Review: Deeper into the Word: New Testament

Recently, Bethany House sent me the book Deeper into the Word: New Testament by Keri Wyatt Kent to read and review.  I was very interested in this book because, as I study, I like to know the original Greek words that were used, as well as what they mean.  I think it is also important to know about the culture of the Bible times because in many instances that helps us understand what God is trying to tell the people.  This book was a great help in that regard.  Kent takes 100 words that are found over and over in the New Testament and gives a simple, yet beneficial, description of them.  Words such as covenant, grace, harvest, inheritance, Pharisee, vineyard and yoke are broken down for us in the 21st century so we can better understand what our God is trying to tell us in His word.  I would highly recommend this book to any student of God's word who is trying to get more out of their personal study.  As with anything done by man, you must be careful and always look back to the Bible as a final guide, but this book is a wonderful helper to your study.  Thank you, Bethany House, for providing a copy of this book for me to review!

A Human Highlight Reel

As part of our Christmas, dear friends of ours, gave us a Grizzlies fan package.  In this package, was 4 free tickets to a Grizzlies game.  We were pumped!! A perfect gift for our family!!  We choose a game during Spring Break and took off for Memphis yesterday afternoon.  We parked at the FedEx Forum and  took a little walk around downtown Memphis.  We stopped in front of the forum to nab some pictures.

 LB believes she is getting too old for my CONSTANT picture taking - oh well, dear! You will have your picture taken continually for a long time!!!

Walking through downtown, we ran into AutoZone Park, home of the Memphis RedBirds (Cardinals AAA team).  This is a beautiful park and we already have plans to go there this summer (Thank you, Groupon!!!).  Of course we had to stop.  Carter really wanted to go in, but the Memphis Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels were about to play a game.  He is ready to go back - NOW!

You can see his little self under the sign.  

 From there, we went to Huey's for supper.  This place has been known for having the best hamburgers in Memphis for YEARS now!!  They were amazing - as well as the cheese sticks!  The highlight of the meal, though, was trying to get the toothpicks that came with our hamburgers stuck in the ceiling.  This proved to be MUCH tougher than it looked.

Carter just could not get it done

Damon and I both had problems as well. Damon DID come close though.

LB managed to get hers on the tv stand that was in the corner of the wall!!

 After supper, we walked back to the forum and got ready for the game.  The Grizzlies were playing the Clippers.  Carter was cheering for the Grizzlies - sportin' his Shane Battier jersey, but was really excited to see the ultimate Human Highlight Reel himself - Blake Griffin!!!  Sorry my pictures are from so far away - note to self and all who may go to a Grizzlies or NBA game - YOU CANNOT TAKE YOUR BIG ZOOM or BIG CAMERA to the games.  I was lucky and got my camera in, but the big zoom spent the game with security!  Like I look like a maniac who is going to take out the teams as well as all around me!! Oh well!  At least I got to take my camera and did not have to use my camera phone!  We enjoyed watching shoot around and warm ups.

Carter and Blake - Blake is in the red warm up pants right beside center court.

 I was ready to see my Duke boy Shane Battier.  With them growing playoff beards, it made it a little difficult to find him, but I did!!!  I admit, I screamed a little and during the game, when he was not in, I screamed, "Put in Shane!" every now and then.  LB declared it "embarassing."  I guess we have reached that point.  I did calm it down a bit because I don't want to be one of THOSE mothers.

Shane is in the paint on the yellow!!! YAY, Shane!!!!

We had a great time despite a HORRIBLE ending to the game!!! The poor Grizzlies lost by 1, but they are still playoff bound!!!! Thank you, Steeles, for a wonderful evening!!!

A "Great" Game

If there is a baseball game in town, we are there! Saturday was the PERFECT day for baseball in Tennessee, and we were able to see some of our favorites.

our favorite college baseball team

our favorite pitcher

our favorite little 2 year old boy cousin

our favorite 89 year old great grandfather

We met up with RoRo, Bub, Andrew, and Papa at FHU's baseball game Saturday.  I felt like I had stepped back in time about 5 years.  Andrew was in LOVE with the baseball team, game, field, etc. - just like Carter had been at that age.  It was so much fun to watch!

Andrew catching a baseball game like McCann

 Here is Great Papa Whittle with 3 of his 6 great grandkids.  Papa loves baseball just as much as Carter and Andrew do, so it was so special to see them all together enjoying the game together!

Carter, Papa, Andrew, LB take in the FHU baseball game.

Well, Makin' Music's Here . . . .

and it's one of our favorite times of year!!!

Our family, especially Laura Beth and I, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Makin' Music.  There is just nothing like it.  

Friends - from all parts of our lives - who share the same love of FHU,

music, and just being together.

Me and, my buddy, Melissa - Thanks, Tuck!

Future Makin' Music cast members/student producers - LB and Evan

Carter, Nicole (my other child), and Laura Beth

These two - what can you say about them?
They LOVE some Makin' Music!!

This Grecian Goddess was our flower girl!!!  We had to get a picture with her just like she use to get pictures with us when we were in the show.

Here Anna Catherine is with the kids!

Such talented students who bring so much to life on stage after working for a year!

This was one of the AHHH moments of the year - Theta Nu made this elephant to help save their tree!

Phi Kappa did a great job with their knights, princesses, and jesters!

 The talented students continue with 6 amazing host and hostesses who stole our hearts

and took our breath away . . ..

Our Victoria singing Gravity - it was gorgeous!!!

Those are just some of the reasons we love Makin' Music and can't wait for it to come back around next year!!!!