It's so hard to believe that Bekah is now 12.  She is certainly a lovely young lady and I'm so blessed to be her mom.  The morning of her birthday she and Sam both had soccer practice.  We told her she had the option of skipping practice since it was her birthday but NO WAY.   She wanted to practice.  :-) 

Bekah was so excited because this year her two cousins from Texas were able to be here for her birthday.  What a special treat this is.  We usually get to see them once a year but they are rarely here for Bekah's birthday.  They had a wonderful time.  They played from about 2:00 pm until 7:00 pm.  They were all dirty and tired but had a great time.  It's such a joy to see them all playing and enjoying one another. 

Here is Bekah with Morgan (far left) and Taylor (middle).  She was very excited and happy about the gift they gave her.... a new Webkinz!

Grandma gave her a beautiful bracelet that Bekah had picked out.  I'll have to get a picture of that later.

From us she received a new bike:

some new movies and new music CDs.  We got her two Stephen Curtis Chapman CDs and Cindy Morgan's newest CD.  This CD is Cindy's best, IMO.  If you haven't done so, check it out. 

We also told her that the next night we would be taking her to a Cindy Morgan concert.  So last night we all went to hear Cindy Morgan.  My friend, Val, is good friends with Cindy and told Cindy we would be coming.  I had seen Cindy recently at Val's 40th Birthday surprise party.  It worked out that Bekah and I sat with Cindy and her family that night .  Anyway, Cindy told Val that she would sing Happy Birthday to Bekah at the concert!  I did not tell Bekah about this.  Last night at the concert, Cindy did sing Happy Birthday to Bekah.  Bekah was sooooooo surprised and she handled it wonderfully.  I was so proud of her.  She was totally caught off-guard and she handled it lovely.  She stood right up, answered the questions and enjoyed being sung to. 

Here is Cindy singing:

A wonderful surprise was that Ginny Owens was there last night and ended up singing a song.  Here's a picture of Ginny singing.

And then a picture of Bekah and Cindy.

Bekah has told us many times "thank you for a wonderful birthday".  She is a precious young lady that is living for the Lord more and more each day.  We are so blessed!!!!!

I'm so proud of Brooks.  Yesterday he recv'd Outstanding Hotel & Lodging Employee of the Year for the State of TN in the large property division.  He now goes on to compete for Employee of the Year for the Nation.  We don't have any details on that yet. 

Bethany Grace had decided she wanted to give her hair to Locks of Love, so yesterday was the big day.  Here she is before we left:

Off it comes:

And back home with the final pictures:

I recv'd this e-mail a few weeks ago and keep forgetting to share it here.   The next book in the Sunrise series is supposed to be out 9/23.  And read about the next series!  Whoo hooo!!!!!

Sunset Coming September 23
Just a reminder that Sunset, the final book in the Baxter series, will be in stores September 23! This last installment of the Baxter family drama will culminate fourteen books in total, covering the Redemption series then the Firstborn series, and the Sunrise series. Look for a Baxter trivia contest coming next month with the release of Sunset.  By the way, I’ve been hearing your heartfelt feedback on my decision to end the Baxter series. For that reason, you can look for a surprise announcement at the back of Sunset!

For the past year I’ve been listening to God’s leading about a new series. I am excited to announce that Above the Line , my new blockbuster series, will debut in spring with Above the Line – Take One. The four books in this series will bring you some of the strongest story lines I’ve ever written. The series will follow two independent producers, their wives and families and the people who love them. These men represent the best in the business – godly guys with great talent and a heart for people. They want to help save the world through the power of film, but they must be careful not to lose themselves and their faith in the process.

Let me give you a hint – the first book will be partially set in Bloomington, Indiana.

Today my wonderful hubby and I celebrate 16 years of marriage.  I can't believe it's been 16 years already!  I'm so thankful for this amazing husband. 

Each year I always share the same wedding picture so this year I decided to dig through and find a different picture.  This picture is from our honeymoon. 

I'm sure many of you have seen this already but I have been laughing so hard at this this morning .  Tim Hawkins on Bible Verse.

No, I don't have any pictures.    Last night I had a meeting for a homeschool group that I'm a part of.  I invited Bethany Grace to go along with me and we stopped for dinner on our way.  It was a wonderfully special time for the two of us.  While we were on our way home, the cell phone rang.  It was Bekah and she was so excited to tell me that at her scrimmage tonight she scored a goal and was very close to scoring two others. 

I told her "this is the stinky-est and best news all rolled into one"  She laughed at me.  She knew exactly what I meant.  I can't believe I missed her first goal.  I've seen everyone's first goal.   She didn't really care that I missed it.  She was sooooo happy to have made a goal and her daddy was there to see it. 

I did tell her that she has to score more goals so that *I* can see them.  She said she would try her best.  I'm so happy for her.  She's really kept a good attitude while her siblings have all scored goals and she has continued to try hard.  We are VERY pleased with her coach this season.  God is so good.  He has given each child the exact coach they have needed in each season. 

Go Bekah Go!!! 

Here is a YUMMY YUMMY recipe I got from a friend at church. ( Becky) The receipe calls for beef ravioli.  I use cheese and it tastes great.  My friend has used both and even at times done half beef and half cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 (24 ounce) package frozen beef ravioli
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 lb mushroom, sliced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced mild tomatoes and green chilies, drained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Prepare ravioli in a large Dutch oven according to package directions; drain and keep warm.
2. Melt 2 T. butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and next 3 ingredients; saute over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Stir in diced tomatoes and green chiles, basil, and cream; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Stir in Parmesan cheese; add salt. Stir in ravioli, tossing to coat.

Here is a conversation I had with Mark on Wednesday afternoon.

Mark:  (comes to me w/ head hanging down) I'm having a rough day.

Me:  You are?  What's wrong, buddy?

Mark:  It's a rough day.

Me:  Is your toe still hurting where you stubbed it earlier?

Mark:  Well, that is another thing.

Me:  What is wrong?

Mark:  (looking down) This morning I hit Bethany (then he would look up at me briefly)

Me:  Okay.

Mark:  And, you know, it's John 1 1 9.

Me:  (racking my brain trying to remember what John 11:9 says)  What else is wrong?

Mark:  I took a drink of milk without asking.

Me:  Okay.

Mark:  And, you know, John 1 1 9 and I have to be clean. 

Me:  Oh, 1 John 1:9?

Mark:  Yes, John 1 1 9.

Me:  We can take care of that right now. 

And so we did.  I had no idea that Mark understood this scripture so well.  He can't quote it but he understands it.  I think I'll be very happy with understanding it over quoting it.  :-)

Last night at soccer practice, Bethany came over to me on a water break and told me that a certain girl was "still" being rude/mean to her.  The "still" is because this girl was on an opposing team last season and she is very competitve.  I didn't think much of it last season.  Well, I thought it was a bit over the top and needed to be reigned in LOL but I didn't think much beyond that.  I guess what I'm saying is that I didn't view it as a personal grudge or issue with Bethany Grace.  I viewed it as a team vs. team issue with this girl.  I told Bethany to do her best, let her light shine and we could talk about it later.  The next water break she tells me that ANOTHER girl is being mean to her.  I again encouraged her to let her light shine.  I told her perhaps these girls don't know Jesus and you have the opportunity to show His love.  Then next water break came with a report of yet another girl being rude and Bethany told me the conversation.  I again encoruaged her to do her best, pay attention to the coach and enjoy her practice.  I then began praying (duh!) and asked God for wisdom on how to handle this.  I will say that my flesh wanted to walk out there and yank some little 9yo by the hair and find out what her problem was.  Thankfully! I prayed instead.  :-) 

The Lord reminded me of one of the key note addresses that Gary gave at the GFI Conference.  It was about perspective.  Ah, yes, the Lord is soooo good.  This could be all about perspective.  Bethany is filtering everything that is said through her perspective that this girl (girls) are mean (the other two are mean by association I guess)  After practice, one of the "mean girls" was over at a soccer goal that was not being used.  I talked to Bethany and encouraged her to go over and ask the girl if she would like to kick the ball around together.  We talked about how she would handle it if the girl was rude to her but we also talked about what if she isn't rude.  Bethany went over to "Sally" and asked her if she would like to kick the ball around together.  "Sally" said, "yes" and they spent the next 15 minutes kicking the ball around.    Afterwards Bethany and I had a wonderful conversation about all of it.  Sally was very nice while they played.  I asked Bethany if she was glad she put aside what she thought was going on and made another effort and, of course, she was.  The conversation came up again today as I was telling Bethany I was proud of her for being willing to make another effort with it all and how God honored her viewing Sally with a different perspective.  Bekah was involved in the conversation and shared that maybe Sally was having a rough day (you know it was their first day back to school yesterday) . 

My lesson in all of this is to PRAY PRAY AND PRAY some more.  God has a plan.  None of this took Him by surprise.  If I had reacted in my flesh, the situation could have been horrible and made a horrible soccer season for Bethany (and she loves soccer)   Praise the Lord, I sought Him for wisdom and it ended up being a wonderful learning tool and opportunity!!! 

Every year our orthodontist has a "back to school" bowling party.  It is something the children look forward to each year.  This year it was even more fun because two families from church use this same orthodontist.  We were able to get lanes beside one another and had a great time. 

Bekah gets her phase 2 of braces on Tuesday. 

I so enjoy these daily e-mails I receive from Elisabeth Elliot's, A Lamp for My Feet.

Scripture Reference: Psalm 86:11 

First Be Quiet

Our hectic lives involve many changes, and changes require decisions, and decisions must often be made in the midst of a multitude of confusions. We run here and there asking advice. Often we make decisions without sufficient deliberation because we simply haven't time--or so we tell ourselves.

There is a marvelously helpful practice that we usually overlook. It is quietness. Notice how often in the gospels we find Jesus going away alone, even when people needed Him. He deliberately chose solitude. The more hectic our lives become, the more necessary is this quietness. When it is impossible to break away physically to a place of solitude for a day or so in order to think and pray over a hard decision, there is one thing which I think helps--do not speak about the decision to anyone but God for forty-eight hours at least. Just hold it before Him alone. Keep your mouth shut for two days. Pray. Listen. Seek his counsel.

Try this, too--sit before Him for fifteen consecutive minutes in silence, focusing your mind on the words of Psalm 86:11 (NEB), "Guide me, O Lord, that I may be true to thee and follow thy path."

I don't know how I missed this in yesterday's entry, but here is another of Mark's favorite things....

I can't believe our "baby" is now 5.  These 5 years have flown by.  On Monday evening, Mark had a little friend, David, over.  They had so much fun.  It was a fun "pre-birthday" celebration evening.  Brooks took them on a bike ride, they played soccer and went to Sonic for ice cream cones. 

On Tuesday morning, Mark opened one of his gifts.  This is our tradition.  On the morning of the birthday, you get to open one gift.  The other gifts wait until Daddy is home.  Mark opened a 900 piece lego race car and truck set.  Guess who spent the next bit of time putting it together?  :-)  Mark and I enjoyed that time together very much and he was so thrilled when it was all together. 

Once Daddy was home, he opened his other presents and we had cake and ice cream.  He wanted a "soccer cake" so here is his cake:

He loved having his soccer team on his cake.  He enjoyed all of his presents.

He recv'd another lego set, a sleeping bag and a Diego canteen. 

A funny from Mark:

He was talking about him being a good organizer (helping me organize something)  He said, "I'm a good organzier, ant I"  Sam used to say "amn't I" instead of aren't I he made a contraction out of am and not for amn't.  :-)  Mark did the same thing but with a different word and it came out sounding like anti.  Well after he said that he laughed and said "Hey, like anti-itching cream"  This child is a hoot.  You can tell we've been dealing with mosquito bites and using anti-itch cream in our home.

A recent sweet picture of Mark asleep in the van:

Give him his blankie, thumb and MP3 player and he is happy as can be. 

Some of Mark's current favorite things:

Pizza

Lauri peel and stick mosaic.  He will sit and do this for an hour at a time.

Peelerbeads -- bead mania.  He loves this as well and has made MANY MANY creations with these beads.  In fact, I currently have three waiting for me to iron for him.

Legos -- He's loved Duplo size legos for a while but he is starting to enjoy the smaller ones.  I think he still prefers the Duplo size but he is wanting to be like big brother too. 

He is so excited about fall soccer starting.  He can't wait to meet his new team.  He has evaluations on Saturday morning. 

Mark is such a joy to be around and I'm so thankful he is part of our family. 

This is one of my favorite things from the Growing Kids God's Way parenting curriculum.  I remember the first time Brooks and I heard this (Bekah was 12 months old) and it was major for us.  We both were very good at saying "I'm sorry" when we wronged one another but there is something very different when you repent (I was wrong when I ____) and then asking forgiveness for that (will you please forgive me for ___) and getting that forgiveness.  It was a major thing for us and one that I'm so thankful God used GKGW to reveal to us. 

Recently when at the GFI National Conference I realized that we were "missing the boat" on the restoration portion of this process.  We have been very good about walking this through with our children both when we have wronged them and when they have wronged each other.  We are all characterized by the first two parts but the restoring is where we were dropping the ball.  I have been allowing a hug to act as the restoration but a hug is not full restoration.  For the last two weeks we have been actively working on this and it is really making a difference.  An example:

The other day "Susie" said to "Johnny" "I don't want to play a game with you"  Now this sentence by itself is fine.  It is perfectly fine to not want to play a game.  The problem was with Susie's tone and that's something you can't hear in reading this.  The tone from Susie was not one of love.  After I spoke with "Susie" about her wrong tone, she made things right w/ "Johnny" but we made sure to complete it with the restoration item.  I asked Susie, "how do you think you could restore your realtionship with Johnny?"  Susie thought for a moment and then replied "I could play a game with Johnny with a happy heart and showing him love"  YES, I think that would be an excellent idea. 

I'm so glad we've fixed this missing piece to our R/F/R process.  The fruit we are seeing is so worth the extra time it is taking!!!!!!

Our sweet precious Bekah has to have two more teeth pulled today.  :-(  She has really "been through it" in this department.  She's a trooper though.  These are her final two baby teeth.  Her teeth do not come out on their own and the orthodontist is concerned that if we leave them in, that her secondary teeth will push through in other areas.  She could have it done at the dentist's office but she has been through so much already that we have opted to use the oral surgeon so she can be sedated.  She was soooo happy that Brooks said we could do it this way.  We really like this oral surgeon.  In fact, he's the oral surgeon that cut out my wisdom teeth about 15 years ago. 

I'm reading Effective Parenting in a Defective World by Chip Ingram.  I have only just begun the book but I wanted to share a quote from the book.  This is from Page 5.

It's really hard to resist this current of our culture; resistance requires an intentional and persistent effort, especially when your kids try to convince you that you're persecuting them by going against the grain.  But if we don't, the culture, not God, will bear its own fruit in our kids.

He is referring to the keep-them-happy approach to parenting that our culture has ingrained in so many of us.  

I was able to attend the GFI National Conference in KY this past weekend.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and teaching.  I'm sooooo glad I was able to go.  I was encouraged and challenged. 

One of the workshop sessions I went to was on building character in our children.  I'll share some highlights from that session. 

Of course, it always starts with us, the parents.  We must know the truth.  If we don't know God's Word, we can't teach it to our children.  Not only must we know but we must be imitators of it.  It does no good if we know it and teach it and then never actually do it.  The children pick up on that very quickly. 

I was reminded how easy it is to let attitude go when the child does what has been asked.  You know how it goes.  You ask a child to put away a laundry basket.  They do it but they either stomp their feet, sigh, roll their eyes, bang it on something as they carry it etc......  We often don't take on this attitude but we really must take on the attitude.  Attitude reflects the condition of the heart.  Why don't we take it on?  There are many reasons but just a few are because the job got done. 

The job did get done so why bother dealing with the attitude.   The laundry basket IS now where it belongs so why deal with the attitude?

We don't want to deal with it.  Yep, that's a big one.  We know it will take time to deal with it and we don't want to take that time right now so we put it off and it ends up never happening.

We make excuses.  The child is tired or hungry or young ... and the list can go on and on and on.  Hmmm I wonder how their bosses will react if they yell and scream about doing their job?  Will their employer say "John must be tired today"?  

We must train the virtue.  It's not any fun always being told what not to do.  We want and need to be told what to do.  Be pro-active -- have a plan.  Character training isn't going to just happen.  Sure we might get in something here and there w/out planning but it's not of lasting value.  We must make a plan and carry out that plan.  Work on one thing at a time.  We don't want to overwhelm our children with a list of character traits/issues that need to be worked on.  Work on one thing at a time and be certain to praise them when they are doing well in that area. 

Having a plan means planning a time in your day for character instruction.  The speakers of this workshop recommended one hour per child per week (depending on the child's age)   Planning the time that this will be worked on brings up outside activities.  We need to evaluate our activities out of the home.  There are countless good activities... countless.  In fact, we could be gone all day most every day with good activities.  Good isn't good enough.  We need to save our outside activities for best.   What are the best activities for our child in this season of his/her life?  This will look different in every family and often for each child.  The bottom line is that we can't train character if we aren't home to work on it. 

The Links have a great CD set titled Understanding Character Training.  One of my favorite resources is For Instruction in Righteousness.  I use this book ALL THE TIME.   It is a must in every home, in my opinion.  :-) 

We also want to be careful of what we are putting in our children by what they read and watch.  We don't want what they read and watch to go against the very virtues we are trying to instill. 

My husband was awarded employee of the year for the Greater Nashville area for the Lodging Association.  I'm so proud of him.  He will now be up for the whole state.  We don't yet know when that will be. 

I'm so proud of my man!

In this day and time (YIKES, I sound like my parents) LOL it's hard to find a company that gives such excellent customer service.  Back when cell phones first came out, we purchased through Verizon.  We were Verizon customers for 11 years.  I had gotten an offer from AT&T and I called Verizon to see if they could match the offer or give me something very close.  Their response was "no".  They offered NOTHING.  I told them that we would likely change providers and they said 'okay, do you want me to cancel your account now"?  :-0  I could not believe their horrible attitude.  And we were good customers for those 11 years.  It's not like we didn't pay our bills etc...  LOL  Needless to say, we left Verizon and have never looked back.

We have been very happy with AT&T.  They changed over to Cingular and now back to AT&T while we've been a customer.  We have only noticed things improving.   Over the past month, we have noticed my husband's phone dropping calls a lot.  It has gotten worse and worse so on Monday I called AT&T.  They were super nice.  She asked lots of questions and tried a few things.  She told me they would do a follow-up call the next day to see how things were going.  Then, suddenly, my phone started dropping calls.  ARGHHH  They did call back yesterday and while talking to the rep. my phone dropped the call.  PERFECT timing, huh?  She was very nice and ended up transferring me to tech. support.  Tech support asked more questions so on and so forth and ended up saying that they think it must be our phones as opposed to a network problem.  They did an override early exception to an upgraded phone.  So now Brooks and I just need to go into a store to choose our new phones.

I give AT&T a 100% A+++++ on customer service.  Each rep. that I spoke with was very professional, polite and extremely helpful!  I must say that I was shocked.  I really expected them to say 'we don't see what the problem could be.  Too bad."  We will certainly be staying w/ AT&T.  Not to mention I LOVE my rollover minutes!