Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

Okay, well that's not totally true but folks, after a long, good week, 3 suitcases later, and a very tired 20 something, the packing is done and I am ready to roll! Praise the Lord! (And I mean it was a job, y'all!) (Oh, and no, the 3 suitcases are not all personal, they are the supply suitcases for all the crafts and stuff we're doing!) I am leavin' on a jet plane, however, I do know when I'll be back again, God willing...and I can't wait to tell y'all all about it!

I'm about to lay my head down so I'll be alert when my alarm goes off tomorrow morning, but just needed to tell you all to have a wonderful Thanksgiving one last time. (As if you wouldn't have a good one if I didn't tell you that!)

I hope you all have a wonderful day, wherever you may be, whatever your circumstances may be or however you're feeling. It will be my first Thanksgiving traveling all day and without my family, but hey, there's a first for everything, right? It will be fun, though, and I know I've got some good laughs ahead of me, which thrills me to no end.

So, have a glorious Thanksgiving, sweet friends. Enjoy the day! Remember the Lord and thank Him for what He has done and is doing in your life. I can't believe where I am even a year later! To think this is the road I would have ever taken or planned for my life! Crazy! The Lord sure is a fun ride, isn't He?!

Love you all dearly...now I'm sending a big hug to you!

P.S. I have to take my computer with me for various reasons, so who know's, maybe I'll be able to update while I'm there! I think that would be fun!

P.S.S. Okay, I'm really going to bed now! Happy Turkey Day!

Mom's Birthday and Mexico

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday, so we celebrated last night in Uptown at one of our good friend's home. He lives in a high rise near the Galleria so that view was just awesome. Our goal of taking pictures near the window (besides the precious 'Happy Birthday' sign) was so that you could see the view in the background, however, at night it's hard to see!

We were joined by my parent's small group (of like 53 years) and ate some amazingly good fajitas! That group is so far from dull, so we had an absolute blast. They love each other so much. However, as they kept stating all night long, this group is not a "group for the needy!" They are low on compassion. I'm totally kidding, they are really a fabulous, tight knit group that has lasted for years, but they also know how to have a great time! Of course, my brother and I were the youngest one's there, but I was okay with that!

We missed our little brother (who is on his way home from school as I type this!), but at least we get him home soon! Since I am the only child at home for the time being, I love when they come home! We have so much fun together.

Our fam, minus Kev!

Meet our pastor, Mr. Dave Gibson! ;) Can you sense the love in this picture?!

Me and my precious Mom!

The Birthday Girl had to wear Lynda's glasses all night to read everything...

Meet Lynda and Cheryl...the owner's of the precious glasses.

Gift #1: The Yellow Snowman (I'll let you guess what this does.)

Gift #2: The Golden (Bowling Ball) Turkey. How festive!

Anyway, as you can see, she received some very interesting gifts, but we had a grand ole' time. I'll have you know, before you go on worrying that my mother got nothing good, I promise you she did. I just didn't take pictures of the "good stuff!" :) (But, beaware, you never know what might be a "re-gift!")

Since the fun is now over, I am now in pure Mexico mode. On Thursday morning I leave pretty early to go with 11 other people from church to serve some missionaries down in Mexico! Every year they put on a conference for them during thanksgiving to provide, hopefully, some rest and rejuvenation, and this year I will be leading the Elementary kids while their parents have their own conference. Up until about 2 hours ago I was completely stressed about it. We have the kids for about 5 hours a day and even though I am doing a VBS type curriculum with them, I was so worried I wouldn't have enough crafts and games to do after that, but alas, I have worked on it now all week, and I think I am good to go. I have a plan and hopefully, all will be well and go as planned! :)

We come next Tuesday, so it's only a 6 day trip, but I am excited! If you would pray for our team I know we would all so greatly appreciate it.

A few specifics are:

1) That our travels on Thursday would be smooth, and that we would make the first bus round once we get to Mexico to our city. If we don't make the first bus, we would have to wait a good 5 hours in the airport, then travel another 3-4 to our city, getting us to our destination very late. So, hopefully, once we get to Mexico everything will be smooth so we can make the first bus!

2) That we all stay healthy! Every year, so I hear, a stomach bug floats around. Y'all, do you know my fear of stomach bugs?? It is real. So, just pray that the Lord would keep us healthy and strong so we can better serve the missionaries. One of our ladies is very sick right now with the Croup, so we have been praying for a quick healing for her.

3) That we would be able to serve these missionaries and their families in a way that does give them rest! That they would leave rejuvenated, and so would we!

4) That the Lord would fill all of our time and that I wouldn't be anxious about what we are going to do for 5 hours!

5) And lastly, that all of our finances would come in. We are believing God to provide every penny needed, even in such a strained economic world right now!

Well, folks, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Remember what the Lord has done for you, and given you, and thank Him for it! He is so worthy to receive all of our gratitude!

And please, oh please, eat such a good thanksgiving meal on my behalf! I will be missing the goodness that is Turkey, Ham, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole and whatever pie you can think of, but I know y'all won't fail me. In this case, Christmas can't come soon enough!

So much love to you and know that I am so thankful for you!

Oh, The Weekend!

I am a lover of weekends, and this one happened to be a great one!

Friday night Claire and I headed down to HFBC for a night of worship with Roger Cullins! It was great, and now I am a proud owner of his CD. The Lord has given him a great gift and he is using it to lead people to the throne and glorify our sweet Jesus! We had a wonderful time.

Russell, Claire's hubby, was out of town this weekend so we decided to have a sleepover. However, we got home and went straight to bed! Of course we chatted for a bit in bed, but we were both pooped! I feel like we are getting so old. ;)

Saturday, our good friend Ashley got married, and y'all, she was beaming. She looked absolutely gorgeous and it was such a sweet wedding! I am so happy for her and Aaron and so glad they finally tied the knot! I don't know if y'all do, but I love, love, love weddings. I always have since I was a little girl and I think I always will! I guess that's a good thing since it could truly be a hobby of mine. But, oh, how I love them. To me they are just refreshing and so much fun! And really, we can't leave out the glorious wedding cake, folks, because yes, it is glorious!

After the wedding I had a "packing party" for my trip to Mexico! I leave on Thursday and am thrilled, but am definitely not ready. This week is going to be a bit crazy, so your prayers are definitely appreciated. Of course, more details to come on this whole Mexico trip, I promise to sit down and write out the details about it before I go!

This morning I had church, then ate some wonderful Chinese food with my parents, had my 2:42 small group (I love my girls, y'all!), and then headed back to HFBC for church! Of course I got to see my sweet Nancy and since bible study is over I won't get to hug her on Tuesday, but that's okay, because I got to hug her tonight! And I got to introduce her to Maddie. She loved her, too! :)

Well, folks, I hope your weekend was great and filled with much joy! And since we can't enjoy a piece of wedding cake over the computer, enjoy some pictures of the wedding! :)

My "tall" girls! (Especially in our boots!)

Y'all, how cute are they?!

They had the dance down! It was precious!

The glorious cake!

Off they go...

Meet Madeline

Madeline and I bonded at the Coach Factory Outlet store this afternoon. That store is a scary place to be and is way to close for a girl like me who knows no self-control upon entering any type of Coach store. Yes, scary, I know.

You see, all summer long, Madeline (we'll call her Maddie for short) sat on the sweet shelves of the CFO (not to be mistaken for the CFO of a company) at a bold price of $428. To think I would ever spend that much money on a purse is absurd. Absolutely absurd.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I entered the store this afternoon to find this purse to be alarmingly cheap.

Enter Lindsee: frugal girl at it's best. Yes, I love to shop. Yes, yes, yes, but y'all, I am a bargain shopper. I try to stay below the $10 mark if at all possible and most times I succeed. (This takes patience, folks, not only do you have to wait for a certain item to go on sale, but you also have to be a digger. My mom and I are queen diggers. Hence why we shop so well together.)

As you've probably guessed, there was a toss up in the middle of CFO.

I have loved this purse for months, but would never spend that much money on it. And to be completely honest, who wants to spend a big chunk of their own money anyway? However, I was going to buy one for myself after graduation with some of the money I got, but I never got around to doing it. What to do?

And, I think I forgot to mention that normally I skip right over this store. It's not good for my soul to be so tempted, but tonight I couldn't resist.

So, after some numerous phone calls to friends and family, some photo texts to the BFF, the nice worker lady who was so very honest with me about every purse I picked up, and a new BFF that I met at the store because she and Maddie bonded also...

Maddie and I became one, on a complete whim, and I have never been so satisfied with a decision.

For your peace of mind, please know that I paid so much less that $428. So much less it's not even funny.

For your other peace of mind, please know that I had my mother's blessing, as she told me probably the 397th time I called her.

Please also note my major co-dependency issues, as I could not for the life of me make this decision alone. I had to rally in the troops.

So, in the spirit of Christmas...

Merry Christmas to me. From me and for me!

What Would JennyHope Do?

Hey friends! I am waiting on the pictures of the actual retreat. I didn't take ONE picture during the retreat, but one of the ladies was handy with her camera the whole time, so she is getting them to me sometime this week!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our Mexican dinner pictures, and our jumping skills.

We want to be just like JennyHope when we grow up, so we started by practicing our jumping skills late Saturday night. I'd say we're on the right track so far! Enjoy!

It's Been Real

Well folks, it’s all been said and done. And it was real. (No pun intended.) I dropped the girls off at the airport this morning and slowly drifted back into “normal” life, whatever that may be.

It was seriously, in my biased opinion, an awesome weekend. I honestly feel like it’s going to take weeks to process, because even now 24 hours out, it is the only thing I can think about. I keep replaying everything over in my head, from the time I picked up the girls to the airport, to the time I dropped them off. It happened. It’s a done deal. And the Lord totally pulled it off, and He and He alone know’s what He’s up to. (I kinda feel like that’s how it is when you get married. Not that I have experienced that, but you plan for so long and then it’s just over and that’s all you can think about. Somebody help a sister out, is that so true?!)

Y’all, we had 80 girls. We got to serve stinkin’ 80 teenage girls this weekend and I am in awe. I know for some of you 80 might not seem like a big deal, however, I wasn’t even believing God for 50 girls. He way surpassed my expectations, and every single one of them was just darling.

A few highlights were Abby’s way awesome, beautiful singing voice (I mean really y’all, homegirl has got it goin’ for her!), Shelly’s love for the Word and the way she spoke truth into those girls lives and how they responded to it, Lindsee’s Favorite Things (based off of Oprah’s Favorite Things!), Jazzercise, The Cha Cha Slide, the Q&A where the girls had some seriously funny questions and some seriously serious questions, the food (I mean, who could leave out junk food time?!), Chick fil A, Cupcakes, the oh so cute brown and pink t-shirts (that the girls looked precious in!), extremely fun giveaways, harmonizing with Abby, calling ahead to call ahead, and SO much more.

But, more than the highlights and the fun things, y’all, I serve with some seriously amazing women on a weekly basis. Had it not been for the lady volunteers this weekend, the retreat (and myself) would have been a complete hot mess. I truly have never been so grateful for these ladies. Y’all, they did anything and everything and they didn’t even have to. Definitely true, true servants and I am forever thankful and so very blessed. I know because of them, I got to enjoy the weekend so much more and just stop for a minute and take it all in. And, to top it all off, the retreat ended at 4:00 on Saturday and we were gone by 5:00 with EVERYTHING done. I was shocked. THAT’S how much help I had.

And, need I even mention Shelly and Abby?! Serving with them was a complete honor and joy. Truly delightful. Our motto all weekend went like this, “Y’all, we met on a blog!” I think it is so surreal that our whole lives I have only actually seen/met these girls twice, but I feel like I’ve know them for years on end. The Lord, I believe, has totally taken something that has become so evil (the internet) and turned it around to be used for His good pleasure. Only He could fashion such a divine appointment such as this one.

All I know, is that for this retreat, we have done what we can do. I just hope and pray that girls took something home with them. That something sparked in their hearts to love Jesus more. That they understand better who they are in Christ and what He has called them. The Lord is faithful, and His word does not return void, and boy oh boy does He finish what He stated, and I believe Him to do all these things. My prayer all weekend was that we cannot change hearts, only Jesus can, and I pray that hearts were changed.

As much as we all loved this weekend, I think we were all happy it was o-v-e-r. Exhaustion doesn’t even begin to explain how we felt afterwards. Seriously, worn out to the max. Once we pulled out of the driveway Saturday evening from church, all adrenaline was lost.

However, that did not stop us from scarfing down some Mexican that night. Oh y’all, we went all out at Pappasito’s, and it was delicious. Abby had eaten there once, and Shelly never had, and Pappasito’s is like the Mother of all Mexican restaurants in Houston, so off we went. (Yes, there are plenty of good ones here, but this ranks very high in most every Houstonians book.) Shelly’s one request while in Houston was to eat Mexican food. A pretty easy request to fulfill if you ask me. Since Abby’s birthday is this week, we even had them sing happy birthday to her. Yes, embarrassing, but yes, SO fun. And really, if you’re in Houston, going all out Mexican, why wouldn’t you celebrate your birthday if it was coming up?! It was perfect. Free items for the night: Queso (a.k.a. Cheese, because it was Shelly’s first time there) and Ice Cream, because of Abby’s birthday. I’d say we scored.

Amanda joined us for dinner that night, too, which was most definitely a fun little blessing! We all had a great time chatting, laughing and getting to know each other better and I honestly don’t think I know anyone sweeter than her. Honestly, though, if it weren’t for her starting the LPM blog, I am pretty sure the retreat would have looked way different. I’m not sure I would have ever met Shelly and Abby. So, thank you, Amanda, for all your hard work. The three of us, and of course thousands of other ladies, are forever thankful!

After our stomachs could have busted, the three of us went back to the hotel and, of course, goofed off. Over exhaustion had taken over and we were in rare form. We lasted till about 1 a.m. and crashed. What were we doing, you ask? Oh, just waking up the whole Courtyard Marriott from jumping on beds and floors, and folks, that’s not even a joke. We’re not in our 20’s or anything.

Today I dropped them on the curbside (of the airport that is) and off I went, with my mind still going ninety to nothin’, simply amazed at how the Lord worked all this out, and so smoothly and perfectly. Only, Him, y’all, only Him!

And YOU, sweet friends, thank you SO much for praying for us. I know we definitely felt them. Y’all’s comments were all so sweet and encouraging. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. Wow, I am indebted to so many people for the love, support, and prayers that were poured out this weekend.

Well, pretty people, I am out like a light. I did have a two hour nap this afternoon, but my bed is beckoning me.

Pictures coming soon…

REAL

Well, sweet peeps, it's getting to be that time. That crunch time where everything for the girls retreat needs to be done in less than 48 hours. I could not be more excited. But, at the same time, could not be more anxious. Thankfully, I have a handful of ladies who have helped me tremendously and I am forever indebted to them. Without them, I would be the most frazzled chicken with a head cut off you've ever seen.

I am completely overwhelmed by what the Lord has already done and provided for this retreat, and I can't wait to just watch it all play out. I have never felt more privileged to serve such a huge and faithful God. And y'all, He is faithful. And He is good. He has answered prayers far beyond what I have ever prayed or what I have believed for this retreat. However, I AM believing God. I just have to keep reminding myself, "Lindsee, believe Him!"

Would you please pray for us this weekend?! I promise you that your prayers will not be wasted. We (as in everyone involved, especially Shelly and Abby) would be forever truly grateful. Because without Him this weekend, the retreat will mean nothing. Only HE can change hearts. And oh, I pray that HE would. I have been praying the enemy away in Jesus name all week, because we all know he is wants to get a hold of us so very bad. But, ultimately my prayer is that Jesus would be glorified. And that HE would be the ONLY one Glorified. Because He is the only one worthy of our Praise. Amen?!

1 Thessalonians 2:1-6 has been so very dear to me this week, and has been a prayer of mine too. It says:

"You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else..."

We are simply human beings who have been approved by God to preach the Gospel. We are not approved by God because of what we do, but because of who we are in Him. We are not trying to please men, nor are we looking for approval from them, we are only trying to please God. And boy oh boy has that been the cry of my heart. Far be it from me to say I did anything for this retreat, without my Jesus none of this would be happening. Paul's idea of success was that he preached the gospel because that is what he was told to do. Paul's idea of success wasn't who like him, or accepted him, or what not, he was completely content being approved by God, and that being IT. I pray this in my life, too. I pray that for this retreat, too.

Oh, that the girls would walk away with a better understanding of Jesus, who they are in Him, how much He loves them, and how He longs to have a relationship with Him. That each and every girl in there would come to realized their own need for a Savior.

Thank you so much for your prayers, friends. I'm sure I'll be forever indebted to y'all, too! :)

In t-minus 22 hours, I'll have both Abby and Shelly in Houston and heaven knows we'll be goin' ninety to nothin'. Well, hopefully not because I do want them to get some rest, but I am thrilled they'll be here so we can really get the ball rollin'!

Hope y'all have a great weekend! I'll be checkin' in when it's all been said and done!

Oh, Lord, be exalted and have thine own way.