You can Fly !!!

Ten years ago today my husband and I stood and made a commitment to each other before God, the Creator of the universe and Savior of our souls, to love and honor each other; to be there for each other in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. It is a promise that we hold dear every day God gives us together, and one that cements us to the truth of God's Word in us: "let him leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one."

My husband gave me a nickname many years ago, before we were even married. He called me Petrii. At first I just thought it was cute, but didn't really understand the significance of it and wouldn't really for many years.

You see when my husband found me I was a broken down, mistake ridden, sin-clad woman. I had made many mistakes in my life and had let many things lead me to a path of discouragement and distrust for everyone. I literally trusted no one on this planet. But then this sweet man started opening up the truth in the Word to me. I had always known a drawing in my life. I'd known that God was wanting me to be 100% on board with Him. Dick helped me find my way back to God. He says that he saw something in me.

Well, one day I asked him why he called me Petrii and so he sat me down and showed me a movie, a cartoon "Land Before Time". In this movie there is a bird named, Petrii. This bird, is for one thing, hilarious. But this bird was flawed, or so he thought. This bird couldn't fly. Dick says I was a lot like this bird. All the potential for flying was in there, but it hadn't come out yet. Petrii was scared; and so was I. Well, if you know the movie, then you know that at one point in the movie Petrii goes off of a cliff, it's very sad, you think it's the end of Petrii, because you see P can't fly, but wait. Petrii figures out through this that he can fly, and fly indeed he does. "You see," Dick told me, "you don't think you can fly, but you can." So he called me Petrii, he knew one day I'd fly. He saw the potential God had placed in me. I have an amazing man.

Well, here sometime back (a year or more ~~ probably more) I noticed that Dick didn't really call me Petrii anymore, so I asked him about it. And he said I was flying now and the nickname no longer fit. Can I just say, this man is so incredible!!

We are getting ready to leave for Mayo tomorrow. And he is right there by my side every step of this journey. He has counseled me, loved on me, set me straight when fear has tried to sideline me and he is my biggest fan. Honey you are my best friend and my love.

So I wanted to share a few pics of my man and me on this our 10th (count 'em 10) year anniversary!!

This is us a couple of years ago on my 40th birthday.

Dakota was taking the picture all the while going "oh mom!!"

I love this one; I had it redone in sepia tones ~~ love it!!
Okay and yeah here is the way we really are. Him jumping on me, me squeezing tight, him doing the ta-da move with his arm!! Yep that is my man!!!!!!!!!!
I love you my kind, sweet gentle lion-hearted man. You are a leader, a STRONG man with a gentle heart, you are quiet and reserved, but you love me and our family with tenacity and passion, but most of all we share a passion and love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that keeps our marriage strong and our hearts bound together. Thank you for showing me The Way back to Him all those years ago, and I'm so excited to be your wife.

Last night was so fun. I had lots of company, people just wanting to love on us and take care of us. It was so kind. Thank you my friends.

We have another very busy day, and then we leave in the morning around 6:00 am. Please pray for safe travel and also that my knees can be comfortable for the long journey to relief!! I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers and support.

I will try to give updates as the week progresses.

Lovin' on ya,

Dawn

Soar, Run, Walk . . .

Well, we had a very busy and fun weekend around here, even though I wasn't feeling well through most of it. . . that's okay . . . it was still so fun. I'll get to some pics in a minute!!

I wanted to share with you the verses that our CYC (Clever Youth for Christ) group will be praying over us while we are in MN.

It is Isaiah 40:28-29, 31:

"Do you not know? have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. . . 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."

They are just the best group of young people. They love us so much and just can't wait to see "the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!!" (Ps 27:14) They were so encouraging and sweet. So if you'd like to join with them, this is what our prayer will be while we're gone. And as you've probably figured out, I'm feeling a little weary, but God has given me peace. He is in control, so I have NOTHING to worry about. But wow am I ever ready to soar, run and walk. . . I am sooooooooo ready!!

Okay, so now I'd like to share with you some pics from our very busy weekend.

First off, we had our SWCL conference meet in CC this weekend.

Here are the boys getting ready. . . yep that is Dak with his head down . . . his head was down in all the pics I took at the starting line . . . he's getting ready!!

I thought I'd throw a pic of our coach in the mix today.

He is a very Godly man with such a lovely family.

Go on Coach M with your bad self :O)

Oh yes, we do run in a hay field . . . ummmm what can I say, it is the mid-west!!
So just thought I'd give ya a little pic of what I do during the races this year . . . here I am talking with coach's wife ~~ lovely woman, inside and out ~~ yep me and my additional legs. Dak says I should be able to run faster than him since I have four legs right now ~~ hahahahaha ~~ real funny son :O) Hopefully I will be shedding these babies soon!!!!!
Okay so I was in charge of pics (Dick had the video camera) . . . not good. . . I didn't get close enough to the runners, but anyway here's Dak . . . run baby run!!!!! He had a GREAT meet!!!!! We're ssssssssssssso proud of him!!!!!
And here is our team . . . We took second this year in conference ~~ WAY TO GO KIDS!!!!!
And then when we got home, Dick went and got this . . . it's okay sweetie, Papa and Grammy are here . . .

And then my two fav "Little" guys . . . look how slight my son is looking these days . . . yep that CC always drops the weight !!
My fav Big guy with little guy ~~~~ AHHHH Be still my heart!!!!!!!!!
SO STINKIN' CUTE~~~~~~~ STOP IT ~~ STOP IT ~~ STOP IT!!!!!


This is his "guess what I'm doin'?" smirk!! Can you guess?

It was such a fun-filled weekend!! But today is marathon Monday for us. I have not packed a thing ~~ suitcases still in attic as we blog. Am I crazy? Nah just busy (maybe a little crazy :0)

So I'll be REALLY busy getting everything ready today. I really need to have us ready to go today, because tomorrow is Bible study Tuesday and Dak has a meet about an hour from here. So let the busyness keep on a goin'!!

Thank you all for praying.

Have a Blessed week, Dawn

Keeping it Extremely Real!!!

I FEEL IT IS QUITE NECESSARY TO POST THE FOLLOWING WARNING:

So in the spirit of randomness and fun I thought I'd let you take a look at my kitchen right now as we speak, uhhh blog, uhhhh you know what I mean ~~

Please note: This is the "extremely real" part of this post :O)

Yes it is a "REAL" mess!!

Here is the stove at current moment . . . is that an ice tea pitcher on your burner?

And I hate to point this out . . . but is that a (gasp) hair holder back thingy on your stove?

Yes people to both of those questions?
Yeah I don't know why ~~ moving on . . .

Do you see the hand-held cheese grater in the lid? Yep that is nice touch I think :-)
Oh and the Christmas glass . . . again nice touch!!

Oh and speaking of nice touches . . . this is the tape that we use to tape my knee cap in place everyday . . . yep fun times :0) and yes it is by the microwave and no it doesn't belong there!!!

But through it all this is our sentiment . . . really and truly . . . we are thankful.

We are thankful for this season, because we have learned so much and are still learning so much. Our neighbors got this for us as a gift . . . thanks L & J. . . . oh and the yellow and pink flowers you see there are from our garden . . . their strawflowers. They dry beautifully!! Love them!!

I picked this up today. My friend K and I will be finishing up the Bible Study we are currently doing (see next pic ~~ my chronological arranging needs some help ;o) so we decided to do the follow-up for our next study. We will start that next Wednesday.

Notice the title ~~ yep very fitting for this season!!

This is current Bible Study . . . Again the title ~~
Oh yes and this is the book I got at the library . . . It is really good. It's different than what I usually read, but I'm enjoying it. . . I'll be letting ya know about that one.
Then this is my mail find for the day . . . . ahhhhh I love this kind of mail. In the last week I've gotten MSL, Cottage Living and this one . . . and just in time for our road trip ~~ yeah!!!!
Okay and now for the self portait. I felt it was necessary to document in pics the present time for me. . . look at the eyes people, the eyes (and not the eye brows) yes I am extremely tired ~~ But I'm hangin' in because

"I know whom I have believed and am persauded that He is able to keep that which I've commited unto Him against that day!!"

Thank you so much for your prayers and all of your sweet comments. I hope you all have a restful and fun weekend. Tomorrow we are off to Dak's SWCL conference meet this weekend about an hour and a half or so from here and then we're going to go get baby Sky ~~ WOOHOO!!!

Blessings to you, Dawn

Boy am I proud of you . . . and where there's a will there's a way . . .

So let me start by reading you (blog-style :0) the letter that Dak handed me last night . . . (This letter sent out to parents) It reads, and I quote:

Dear Parents, I just wanted to keep you informed of our happenings in the Clever Choir. This past Saturday, seven of our freshmen and sophomores auditioned for the SCMMEA 9-10 honor choir. Hundreds of students audition and only the top 100 are selected. Our very own Dakota (last name here) was selected, so a very big congratulations to him!


Oh I was sooooooo excited ~~ Yes I know as I said yesterday, but then . . . Oh boy this is the same kind of problem with scheduling we had last year. He made this choir last year as a bass ~~ this year he made it as a tenor ~~ ummmmm okay ~~ and he couldn't attend because his team made it to state in Cross Country, so this year state is a week later, but that means that districts are the SAME DAY as the choir ~~ OH MY STARS YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!!??!! Nope not even kidding. And districts in CC this year is an hour and a half a way, so Dak's going to see if he works really hard on the music if they will let him participate in the last half of the day and the concert that afternoon. We think we can get him there by lunch and their concert is at 4:00 pm I think, so we will see. Boy I hope he can do both ~~ he really wants to participate this year and it is such a cool thing for our school to have a representative from our school at this honor's choir. So send some good thoughts and prayers young ones way if ya think of it!! :0)


Okay so I also have pics to post of CC. I'll just give ya a couple (okay it ended up being three :0), but they are having a good year. Our fastest runner graduated last year, but we have 2 seniors this year, 3 juniors and 2 sophomores and a freshman or two so we have a good group. The first five times place for the team so it is really important that Dak does his best at each meet. He's on varisty and has been placing in the top five ~~ generally about 3rd for our team. So he is improving and having a lot of fun on race days. I think fun at practice is wwwwwwwway optional :0) hahahahaha

Okay so you can't see Dakota in this pic, but I wanted to show you the start of one of these races and then in this particular race they take off like you see here and then go around a tree ~~ yeah not even kidding ~~ all these runners bunched up just like this go around a tree ~~ that's some treacherous running I tell ya!!

Here he is same meet workin' hard ~~ run baby run!!!!!! Yo mama loves ya ;o)
Here is his next to maroon guy just behind one of our seniors (other kid in blue just in front of Dak) ~~

Run on with your bad self son!!!!!

So let me just for a moment address the randomness in my posts over the last several days. Because it seems the randomness just keeps happening and I do apologize. You see I guess I'm getting a case of the nerves. I don't know why, I truly believe that we are to go to Mayo I really do, but now that it is getting closer my little heart wants to beat a little faster and my head wants to try to hurt a little more. I guess it is just the anticipation. I so hope they can help us. I want to get back to being the active wife and mama and fun one that I am. Right now I am so slow, but it's okay really . . . I think it's just the anticipation . . . just so ready to get something done for the poor babies. So maybe when it calms down a little I'll get back to less random more focus ~~ but uhhhhhhh, yeah we'll see.

So now to the where there's a will part ~~ yep I told ya, the randomness just continues :0)

You will notice at the bottom of this post a Smilebox (by the way I heart Smilebox!!) On it is some pics from fall decor (a lot of which I've posted already) and some spring centerpieces that I never did get posted, but the bigger picture here is the background music, yes that's right I figured out a way to get a little of the piano that so soothes my soul onto the blog well kinda. I played, recorded in on my MP3 player, downloaded it into my music file on my hard drive, and then uploaded it to my Smilebox, but the only problem is it sounds like a bad recording of a toy piano, but it does have a certain charm, so I decided I'd go ahead and post it. The recording on my player sounds fine, but when it gets here something get's lost in translation, but anyway.

So the song is Jesus, Jesus How I love Thee (yeah I don't think that is the actual name but I can't think of it) it is a fav of my friend G's. But I change it completely up, play it in a minor key, don't play with music, play it as I go and will probably never play it exactly this particular way again ~~ yep I don't know, it's just kinda the way my brain works. :0) Note: You will need to pause the background music before you play ~~

Make a Smilebox scrapbook Have a Blessed and wonderful afternoon, Dawn

SYATP . . . and Specifics

Today was See You at the Pole day and WOW!!!! GOD IS AWESOME!! At last count we had 57 (mostly) students and teachers!! It was sooooooooooo great!! There is just something about students praying and seeking God that causes my heart to pause and cry out in Thanksgiving to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Superintendent was there this year and share some verses out of Jude and prayed as well ~~ Oh Yeah JESUS ROCKS ~~ OH YES HE DOES!!


Well there are lots of things to be specific about these days . . . . so I'd like to share a few of the specifics of our lives right now.

First off ~~ CONGRATULATIONS DAKOTA!!! ~~ He made All Districts Honors Choir for the second year in a row !! ~~ WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU SON!!! ~~ He was the only one from our school to make it and we just are so excited for him!! He was so PUMPED yesterday about it!!

#1. Our trip to Mayo - Can you believe we leave a week from today?!!!! I am really excited ~~ yes excited to go to the doctor ~~ I know very weird ~~ but we are so ready to get something done with these knees of mine, or at least hear what the doc has to say about the poor babies.

Okay so let me be specific: we leave Oct 1 (next Wednesday) - probably early, me man's idea is to arrive approx 6:00 pm (I wish him all the best with that ~~ because after all he is traveling with me ~~ the stopping queen with these knees and it is an appox 10 hour drive :0) He says we're not stopping (hahahaha heeheeheeheehee that man cracks me up !! :0) Okay getting back to the specifics: we have our motel booked and we were able to get a room at a motel on campus and hooked to the pedestrian subway, and they even said they'd have a wheel chair waiting on me if I needed it. How sweet ~~ ughhh yes I get quite frustrated with myself. I drive myself crazy most days!!!! But none the less, I'm so very thankful that God has provided us with a room on campus, free parking, pedestrian subway, a wheel chair (if needed) and a Caribou Coffee House just next door ~~ STOP IT!! Yep I know, not even kiddin' :0) Okay on to specific:


#2). Our first (don't you love it how I drag my man right on into every thing I do ~~ I so dig that about him ~~ his willingness to be dragged right along with me :0) test is scheduled on Thursday, October 2nd at 3:15 it is an MRI. On to specific:

#3). We have (again with the we/our :0) two x-rays on Friday morning, October 3rd starting at 7:45 am, one is a knee x-ray, and the other is a lower extremity x-ray. And then "we" see the doc at 9:00 am. (I called a couple of weeks ago and asked if there was any chance we would be staying for any procedures, surgery etc and the lady told "us" that any procedures they would schedule at a later time.) And then we plan on traveling back home on Saturday, October 4th.


So there are the specifics for our trip ~~ in true Petrii style. (Petrii is my nickname ~~ another story for another day people ~~ but one I so want to tell !!!)

Now onto a few more specifics. So I've told you that I'm doing a Bible Study with my neighbor K on Tuesdays, and let me just say I love K and her insight and her joy. It is so much fun studying with someone who is hungry for the Word of God !! I LOVE IT!! and I love you K.

This past week our study focused on the effects of stress on our lives and our walk, yeah there's ya some fat to chew on, and on day 4 the title was "Clean before God" with a paragraph titled: "Difficulty Accepting God's Forgiveness" this whole section was so very good.

"If you are a child of God you are righteous. You have invited Jesus into your heart and because of that, you are in right standing with God. Your position in Him has nothing to do with effort. It's all about the price Jesus paid for your sin. You are righteous not because of who you are but because of who He is!" Amen and Amen!!!

PTL that it is not because of who I am, because let's just face it, that would be a disaster!! Read that last sentence again and let that soak in a minute ~~~~ not because of me, but because of Him ~~ it's all Him!! He loves, He draws, He calls, He is the I AM!! No one is righteous on their own ~~ NO NOT ONE!! ~~ the Word tells us. Even on our best day in our best dress, yes with our best hair WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH IN OURSELVES!!!!! BUT GOD ~~ don't you love that about Him, He sent Christ for us, for me, Oh the grace!! When He hung on the cross He saw the broken girl I would be, He saw the pain, the sin, the defeat and He died for me. I believe if I'd have been the only sinner He would have died. If you had been the only sinner He would have died. He loves us that much. He gave it all, so we wouldn't have to. Sin has to be dealt with dear one. Either we lay our lives at the cross and receive forgiveness and let Christ bear our sin and then choose to live for Him, or we decide to take it on ourselves, and that is devastating for all ternity. If this is not a choice you have ever made or you find yourself today away from God, please choose Christ today ~~ don't wait, we are not guaranteed tomorrow!!

This is not the way this post was going to go, so I believe that there is someone reading this right now today that needs our Jesus. If you are that person please e-mail me. I will pray for you, with you, whatever you need. I believe in the power of prayer. And if you are a follower of our precious Lord (which I know many of you are) pray right now for the lost souls that are touching your lives in this season. Pray for God's drawing and pulling, pray that they will recognize His beautiful conviction, although it feels so painful, and pray that God will use you to be a catalyst to bring that person to Christ.

If you went to SYATP with one of your youngin's or you helped to support a school with SYATP, please let me know how it went!! God is so at work dear ones ~~ HE IS DOING A WORK!!

Love and squeezes,

Dawn

Shall we compose?

One Sunday afternoon after church when I was but a wee tike of four, my mama heard music coming from our music room, so she stepped in to see what was going on, and there I was on my tippy toes playing a song I'd heard at church that morning. My mom recognized that there was something going on in that four year old and took to letting her learn piano. You see my mom was a concert pianist in high school and wanted one of her five children to be musical so she named my middle name Melody and hoped for the best.



Well my heavenly Father heard my mama's prayer and put a love for music in my heart. There is something that happens in my heart when I sit down at a piano. Now mind you I am not a "real" pianist. I have only had about a year and maybe a half of formal training in all my years, but the Lord has given me a musicians ear and heart . . . so formal training is something that I've struggled with because I play anywhere but inside the box :0)

Composing is the part of being a musician that I LOVE!! Because this really is all in the interpretation. I generally do not play anything the way you've heard it before; not because it isn't good in its original form, but because I guess I just hear something different ~~ God's so cool to let me hear more in a song than just notes!!

So lately, I've had such a desire to compose more. I hear a song at church and then can't get it out of my mind, so then I know I must re-compose it into a different arrangement one to suite my heart at the time.

So why all this about composing? Well, I firmly believe that the Father is composing a beautiful symphony in each one of our lives. Now sometimes it is different than at other times. I am currently "re"composing a song I took and recomposed several years ago, and I believe that God does that with me. I am currently in such a season.

If there is something I have struggled with in my life it is change, and why? There has been so much of it for me, but it has not been easy. I wrote a couple of posts ago about being root bound and how sometimes God has to break our stubborn pots to get us to be open to change, because those roots HAVE to breathe. Well, I have felt the winds of change blowing in for me in the area of ministry. Oh how I wish I could say that I knew EXACTLY what it was God was wanting me to do next and had it all figured out and ready to go; but alas that is not the case!!!!!!!!! I sit here this morning wondering about the path God is leading me down now and how this will affect the future of the dreams He has put in my heart. But if I know anything about my God it is that He is able!!!!!!!!!!! The dream that He birthed in me years ago is starting to take shape; ever so slowly, and I must be ready.

So I am currently breathing in and letting the roots of the Holy Spirit have air. It is not an easy process and I've had to die to self so much that I wonder who self is right now :0) But this much I know, He who began a good work in me will complete it in Christ Jesus ~~ Hallelujah!!!!! So I'm just hangin' on and praying hard!!!!! He has a plan ~~ OH YES HE DOES!!! ~~ and He will reveal it at the proper time.

I also enjoy composing my own original songs. Now up until this summer I couldn't explain this to you, but I read a book that so helped me to understand the process that was going on in me, it was pretty cool. The book was a fiction novel by Robert Whitlow ~~ it's a series "Life Support" and "Life Everlasting" ~~ these were really good books. In these books there is a music minister who goes into this little chapel where he works and when no ones there starts playing what is on his heart, you know how he's feeling. And through the book he starts realizing the healing properties of his music. He doesn't really understand how it happens, only that it does. He starts thinking about something or a verse or a particular feeling and something just comes out onto the keys ~~ That is kind of the way it is for me. God comes out in music for me. He teaches me so much through this art form.

So do you all have a song you'd like me to recompose? I'd love to have ideas and songs I can work on. Sometimes I seem to get into a composing rut and for all the songs out there, I cannot think of one to compose; so can you help a sista' out? Any Christain song idea would be great ~~ I'd love to have ideas to work from. Currently I'm working on yet another composition of "Mary did You Know" (my 2nd or 3rd now ~~ but oh how I love this song). And this morning God laid on my heart "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" so I'm also currently giving that one a go!! I've also done hymns and current praise worship. One of the latest is "Hear Us from Heaven".

I'm trying to figure out how to put "orginal" mp3 audios (ya know from my hard drive) on the blog ~~ but have not figured it out yet. But if I do I'd love to post some of my orginal and recomposed works. Music is breathe to me. It so revitalizes me and refreshes me. I'd love to hear what you think.

Well, today is a busy day ~~ its Bible study day with my friend Kim ~~ YEAH!! (I love Bible Study Tuesday's with Kim) and then Dakota has a CC meet this afternoon. I'll try to get some pics up from that and the meet he had last Tuesday. He's having a really good season ~~ I'm just so proud of him.

I'll also have more news about our up coming trip to Mayo. Can you believe we leave next week? There are just some things on my heart and it so helps to get it out here.

Thank you for reading and for all your comments ~~ I truly do cherish each one!!

Love and Blessings to you,
Dawn

~~ From this Moment ~~

Megan has a great linky going . . . wedding pics. Well, this girl loves this idea because I LOVE WEDDINGS!! I really wanted to be a wedding coordinator at one time, I thought that would be the perfect job!! So since I've been looking at all the GREAT wedding pics, I decided I'd join in and post ours.

So let me just start by saying that there are a lot of pics in this post . . . I LOVED our wedding, but as you will see it was anything but conventional . . . and given the bride, well seriously would you have thought any different? :0)

So what makes our wedding so unconventional? Ummm let's see, we got engaged on my birthday in 1998 (August 26 to be exact), but didn't set a wedding date. We kicked around the whole idea of what kind of wedding we might want and decided to . . . . ELOPE!!!

He came to me on Monday the 28th of September and we decided to get married on Wednesday the 30th of September, yep not even kidding ~~ IT WAS GREAT!!!

I already had my dress, I started looking right after our engagement, because I knew we'd probably elope and I wanted to be ready when that happened. Again GREAT!!!! So I looked and looked and couldn't find what I wanted until I was going through Dillard's and saw a clearance rack of formal (prom-type) dresses and there it was; beautiful ivory, elegant in form, and $55.00 ~~ get out of town girl ~~ really $55.00 ~~ again GREAT!!!!! Yes it is simple, but for me the back said it all. It has a chiffon scarf that hangs from the shoulders to the floor ~~ Yep again BEAUTIFUL!!! Seriously the most beautiful and special dress I have EVER owned!!

So let's begin shall we . . .

Here is a pic of the inside of the little chapel. It is in Eureka Springs, AR and it was just beautiful!! Simple and sweet . . . . LOVED it!!

And here is the happy couple . . . easy on the hair people. Yes it really was that short . . .


Here we are . . . easy on the glasses people . . . yep this was waaaaaayyyyyy before eye surgery :0)


I'm telling ya that man of mine is the cutest thing I have EVER laid eyes on . . .
And this . . . the best kiss pic EVER . . . I just love the way she captured it with our little camera . . . PRICELESS~~~
Mr. and Mrs. Winslow ~~ and the preacher!!!
Here we are in the gardens just out side the chapel . . .

And again . . .

And then my man . . . baby you still stop me in my tracks!!!!
I love this pic of our hands . . . . see my long piano fingers :0)
The happy couple in the gazebo . . .
And then this is the last pic for this marathon session of The Wedding Couple . . .

We will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary the day before we leave for Mayo and I have more pics of the reception that my dear friend and cousin threw for us, complete with cute little Dakota pics and also a more recent pic of me in my wedding dress (with longer hair :0) that I had taken a couple years ago. So hopefully I can get these scanned and in my computer and can

show more around that time.

Honestly this was such a beautiful day for us. My man and I felt so Blessed by God to have each other and still feel that way today. He is so the best ~~~~~~~ Thank you for sharing in our special day!!!

Dawn

Prayers Availing Much!!

Thank you so much for praying for mom and our family over the last several days. There have been some anxious moments and bumpy roads to traverse, but she is better today. She did get to go home today, and we are so thankful.

The doc came in last night and said that she had some trouble during the operation with her breathing that caused the pneumonia like symptoms later. So she didn't actually have pneumona ~~ Thank you Jesus!! And she is doing better today.

She still has to be really careful of course and take it easy until she sees the doc in three weeks, but all-in-all she is much better.

Thank you so much for your prayers. God has so blessed me to be able to "stumble" onto this thing known as the blog world!! Your kindnesses have been so uplifting to me during this time.

Blessings to each and every one of you and much much love . . . Dawn

Please Please Pray . . .

Well, I just got home and wanted to update. Mom is having a REALLY hard time right now. We thought she might get to go home today, but then her fever started going up and she started feeling pretty bad. Well the nurse came in at shift change (about 3:00 pm) and said that the chest x-ray results were back and showed that her left lung is not expanding properly; this could be a sign of pneumonia.

The doc will be addressing this issue when he comes in. He had not come in yet when I left; I felt so bad to leave, but my older sis was on her way and my baby sis had clocked in (she is a RN at that hospital), so I went ahead and went home. Pray for my sis' this is so hard on us. We love her so much and seeing her so sick, well it's just hard, and its hard to know what to do. I'm just leaving her in God's hands.

Thank you SO much for your prayers. I've been calling everyone I know who prays. Prayer changes things OH YES IT DOES!! And as I said in an earlier post HE IS ABLE!!!!!!!

I have so much more to tell you; things like my guys hearing the car door close and coming out to the car to meet me and help me in ~~ so sweet they are :0) The lady at the cafeteria yesterday helping me to the table with my tray and even my mustard, and then the cashier giving me an employee discount because the lady that helped me worked for the hospital ~~ and then the lady that helped me take my tray back ~~~~ There has been so many kindnesses shown to our family over the past 3 days ~~~ so amazing!!!!!

The knees are bad I won't be kidding about that, but I'm hangin' in, because that's just the kind of girl I am :0)

I love you all so much ~~ I'll update again soon, Dawn

Please Pray

Please pray for mom ~~ she is not doing well. She was not able to go home yesterday because, she spiked a fever and they are trying to figure out why. Also her oxygen level is not coming up to a safe level for her to be on room air. Please pray that the docs will figure out what's going on and that mom will hang in there. Please pray for her healing!! I so believe in the healing power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. HE IS ABLE TO KEEP THAT WHICH I'VE COMMITED UNTO HIM AGAINST THAT DAY!! HE IS ABLE!!!!!!!! HE IS ABLE!!!!!!!!! HE IS ABLE!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for praying, Dawn

Update

First of all ~~ Thank you so much for praying for mom ~~

Yesterday was a VERY long day. We got to the hospital just before 7:30 am and she didn't actually get to surgery until 4:00 pm, yes lonnnnnnnnnnnng day. But the surgery went well. Her doc said that the space was very large, but he was able to get the plate in there and put 4 screws in to hold it in place. The x-rays are crazy by my non-medical mind, but even in crazy I AM SO THANKFUL!!!! The technology just astounds me.

We just really pull together "in times like these" ~~ I love my sis's so much. I can't imagine going through something like this without us all three hanging in together. We seem to all have our roles in each situation and just act accordingly ~~ it is a beautiful thing.

My sis D stayed with mom at the hospital last night, and then I'm heading up this morning to relieve her, so she can go get some rest. Hopefully, mom will still be able to go home later today. She has a drain in her neck, but that should come out this morning.

Again, Thank you for your prayers. We are all so exhausted and it isn't done yet, recovery has just begun, but I know that the Father will give us all strength.


Have a Blessed day, Dawn

Cadet Sisters - In Times Like These

This song is what the Lord has put on my heart this morning. As I was looking up the lyrics I found this on youtube. You sing it ladies ~~ Thank you for your prayers. I'm a little emotional this morning, but I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED AND AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP THAT WHICH I'VE COMMITTED UNTO HIM AGAINST THAT DAY!!!!!!! I love you so much!!

We have to be at the hospital at 7:30 am, she is the second surgery of the day.

Dawn

The beauty of the broken pot . . .

I must admit lately it has been harder to get into that secret quiet place to pray and talk with God . . . close. Do you know what I mean? I'm not talking just about intercessory prayer, but really talking with God about the deep hidden things in my heart. Hurry is the enemy of the soul ~~ oh yes it is!!


Yesterday I went to the mailbox and had a new magazine; those are just the best mail days ~~ something a little extra special you aren't expecting. I love that kind of mail. It makes me want to subscribe to more magazines (ok not really, but. . .) so anyway, as I sat on my chair outside, in the 65 degree weather (yes that's right. . . ahhhh) I started looking around ~~ paying attention to my surroundings ~~ my neighbor's flag ~~ I could hear my neighbor's son who is about 21 months old jibbering to his mama through the open window of their house ~~ I saw the high school in the distance where my son was currently at, and then my thoughts turned to you, my blog community friends. And in that moment, I thought, "I wish I could take a picture of my soul right now." Now let me just say, THAT IS NOT NORMALLY THE CASE!!!!! (pant, pant) Because generally I would want you anywhere but in there poking around, but I can truly say that yesterday my soul was enjoying the surroundings in that deep, quiet place. It was as if God was showing me things, for a moment, in a new light. Yes I'd seen it all before, of course, but somehow it looked different.



You see Ike, (EEK) hit our little MO town on Saturday and it was not pretty. Although, for us, we really didn't get any damage just a lot of wind and rain.

Dak walked out the front door on Sunday to get ready to go to the car for church and he said "mom, you'd better come here. . ." Okay now that CAN'T be good. And sure enough I went out the front door and saw a mess!!


Now as you all know ~~ I love my plants!!!!! Well, Ike had done a number on them. My big 'ole Swedish Ivy was toppled over onto my dancing frog (yes you heard that right:0) And my beautiful tropical tree thing (yeah I don't know) had fallen off of it's stand and broke, and on the way down had knocked over one of my sweet little garden buddies ~~ oh it was not pretty. Well, I did what any plant lovin' mama does, picked 'em up and loved on 'em, and talked to 'em telling them it would be alright :-)

So yesterday I sat amongst this: My broken pot. And got to thinking, how reminiscent of my own life at times . . . broken . . . crooked . . . amongst other beauties, but me . . . broken . . .

I thought about the many times the dirt in my pot had been tossed to the side by the wind. . . dirt in the pot is very significant to the plant, although you may not even give it a lot of thought most days . . . but so important to the life of the plant . . . what about the dirt in my pot?
Oh and then there's this . . . the plant pulling away from the broken pot, exposing it's roots, coming out of it's comfortable, safe surroundings . . . oh yes to take a picture of our souls in those moments . . .
This broken pot has been significant in my life. I have thought much about it sitting out there . . . me needing to repair the plant and yes, put it in another pot. Sometimes we grow beyond the comfortable surroundings we are in, or we are forced out and must leave the comfortable pot we are in . . . sometimes God just won't let us stay in that thing, so He breaks it. Most of the time it's because I just won't leave on my own.

Do you know what I found when I looked at the plant inside this broken pot? It was root bound. It so needed a new surrounding anyway. It needed to move on from that place. How long do we sit in the broken pots of our lives? The places we need to move on from? It can take the form of many things.

For us a few years ago it was a church we loved. God was moving us on, but we didn't want to go, so we stayed, root bound, needing oxygen to our roots and not even realizing it. We loved the people we did life with, but God had said "it's time to move on" I resisted and hard at first, and then the wind came and the pot broke and we knew ~~ we had to move on.

Since that time, God has blessed us so abundantly in the church we are in today. We love Him for revealing Himself to us in ways that we couldn't have seen had we stayed in a root bound pot.

It was in the brokenness we saw The Faithful. . . in the brokenness we found The Peace . . . in the brokenness we learned to trust . . . We had to get out of the broken pot and move on ~~

What broken pot are you sitting in today? What has God called you onward in Christ Jesus to do? Are you currently in a root bound pot and you know that you need to move on, but you feel stuck . . . it can happen dear one, but it's okay. God loves you so much, start moving and breaking those roots free so you can move on . . . you don't have to wait for the pot to break before you move those roots to the fresh soil of what God has for you. I encourage you to move before the breaking of the pot . . . it's just easier that way.

We so often view change as bad. It is difficult yes, but not always bad. It has it's own beauty most of the time, but usually it takes a while to see. When I get this beauty plant re-potted it will take it awhile to get adjusted . . . it may even start wilting a bit, but then it will take off once again. Loving the new soil that is nourishing it's beautiful green stems. . . loving the new pot that it can stretch it's gorgeous roots in . . . and yes, it will in time get root bound as it grows and will have to be re-potted again, but it will be so much more rooted by that point and ready for the next stage.

So much like me . . . Change is difficult and most of the time I RESIST!!!!!!!!! But God ALWAYS lovingly reminds me of the necessity of it and that being root bound just keeps you stuck. I love it that He loves me so much He won't allow me to stay stuck.

So today I encourage you to take a look inside . . . do a check . . . is there something in your heart . . . a root bound section that needs to be re-potted. Allow Him in His wisdom and love for you to unstick the stuck roots and let the oxygen start flowing once again. . . You CAN trust Him!!

Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. Moms surgery is tomorrow. Unless something changes, we have to be at the hospital at 6:00 AM. I will keep you updated as best I can.

Love to you dear ones, Dawn

That's a Rap !!

Okay so as I type this I am seriously tired ~~ I mean seriously!!! But boy have we had an exciting weekend!!

Friday evening we got a call from Chase asking us if we could watch the little guy ~~ are you kidding me? Bring on the little guy!! So he brought him over and we had sooooo much fun. This being a grandparent thing ~~ TOTALLY ROCKS!!!!

Saturday morning though, Dak and I had to be up early!! Dak had his first CC meet and had to be at school at 6:30 am. Well, we live like 1 min from school, and left like 10 mins early. We got there and they were having the MS bike ride starting at our school. We didn't know this, and man there was a lot of people. So finally got Dak dropped off and got back home and was on the road to the Meet myself. . . when Ike hit MO!! It started raining. Now for those of you who don't know, they run CC in everything but lightening. So those poor kids had to run in the rain, but it just wasn't too bad really. It let up and even stopped by the time Dak was running.

Now another bad part was that I had to brave the conditions by myself. Dick had to stay with Sky, so I braved the rain, I-44 (story in itself :o) and my crutch to get there, but when I did get there, crutch in tow, I couldn't bring my camera out of the car because of the rain, so alas no pics from the first CC meet of the '08 season ~~ what?!? ~~ I know bummed me out too. But never fear we have our next meet (like the we? like I run with 'em and all :0) tomorrow afternoon at a really cool place ~~ tough run, but a cool place. So don't worry I'll have some pics from that one ~~

So speaking of pics (like the segway :0) I have some from the weekend . . .

WARNING: Dirty house alert. . . the following is a real life depiction of the Winslow household weekend style ~~ The names have not been changed to protect the innocent. . . because let's face it this is just the way we roll :0)

The MOST adorablest Grandchild . . . With the cutest binkey ~~ you can stick your finger in that hole . . . he loves to chew on your finger when stuck in that thing . . . cracks me up ~~ hahaha

Now yes I know lots of light streaming in, but I LOVE this pic. . .

my man with the Grandboy . . . no not staged, he really was doing just this

on a Friday evening. . . you just gotta love that . . .

You rock my sweet man . . . be still my heart, be still . . .

Dicks grandfather passed away one year ago Sept 12th (Friday).

It was sudden and VERY sad, we loved Pa so. . . this is his wife Huba with baby Sky. . .so precious ~~ we love you Huba!!

Okay so this is my F-I-L ~~ and yes he is as great as he looks here with Sky. He is so excited to be a Great-pa-pa and Great you are ~~ we love you too :0)

Okay so here I am with Sky-guy and yes I am looking so . . . TIRED!!!!

But he is so stinkin' cute it doesn't even matter . . . right? :-)

I really like this one . . . because it doesn't show off bags under my eyes or goofy look on my face ~~ LOL ~~
Dak and A Sunday afternoon after church . . . too cute ~~ playin' with the little one ~~ they are the sweetest ~~ yes I know Dak, Just Friends ;)

And then let me just end the weekend with this . . . Our adorable adopted frog child . . . He is so cute ~~ he hangs out on our light, the chair (which is especially cute) and the siding. . . He's been around all summer . . . we wish he could stay. . . Dak has named him Fred the Frog . . .

I love that kid!!!

So I hope ya'll have had a blessed and happy weekend. As you get ready to start yet another week I challenge you to be mindful of the all the little things God does in your everyday . . . I'm challenging myself with this very thing. We don't know what this week holds, but we do know who holds it . . . Praise His Name!!

Love you much,

Dawn

PS That is seriously a rap on this weekend ~~ whew I need a nap !!!!!!!!