Ladies Day Out in Edmond, OK

A few weeks ago I invited all of the church ladies to go on a trip to Edmond, OK.  The plan was to eat at Inspirations Tea Room and shop at "The Market" (west of Quail Springs Mall).  Counting me, eight ladies were able to attend the fun event.  We left out bright and early this morning, pleased with the cooler day and the overcast skies, but also pleased to be spending a day together as Christian sisters.  We decided it would be fun to wear hats for the lunch.

If you ever visit Edmond, Inspirations Tea Room is a must.  The meal begins with scones served with lemon curd.  Delicious!

 This is my plate.  I ordered what they call a "trio".  It included a sandwich, a salad, and a cup of soup.  The plate is beautiful, as you can see!  It comes with a fresh flower and a scripture.  Mine said:  "A friend loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17.  What a fitting scripture for our day out together!  We all had different scriptures and took the time to read them out loud one at a time.

Hot tea is a specialty at the tea room.  There must be at least 30 flavors to choose from.  I chose caramel creme brulee'.  Yum!  I also chose a flavored vanilla iced tea.  It was great, too!

My choice for dessert was coconut cake. Everything is pleasing to the eye and to the taste buds!

Others got chocolate cake.....

....and an interesting dessert I'd never heard of:  Pineapple Banana Cobbler.  They said it was good, but very rich!

This is me outside on the patio of the tea room.  The overcast skies made a perfect day for pictures.  My eyes are open!  That's a rare thing!

 Another beautiful picture of the patio.  A bed & breakfast called Two Hearts Inn is connected to the back of the tea room.

Geneva, Lois, and Anita pose for a picture.

We decided Sarah looked like she should have attended the royal wedding!  Her hat looked great on her!

Sisters Erma and Sue posing for a picture.

Laura smiling pretty for the camera!

Outside of "The Market" after shopping.

After the special day, we've decided that this trip should become an annual event - or maybe even more often.  It's great to be able to get together as friends.  It's great to be able to slow down a bit and not rush, rush, rush!  It's a blessing to spend time with Christian sisters.

You Color Our World!

This week the Tipton PTO is celebrating "Teacher Appreciation Week" by treating the teachers and faculty of Tipton Public Schools to meals and snacks.  (In case you're wondering, we usually celebrate it a week later than it's "officially" scheduled due to conflicts.) 

(Crayon crowns for the elementary teachers & staff)

Although our PTO is primarily an elementary organization, our school is small and everyone helps everyone, so all of the schools gets this special treat.

The only difference in the special celebration is that the elementary workroom gets decorated for the week or few days.  This year's theme is:  You Color Our World!.  It's a school/crayon theme and most of the items were purchased online from Oriental Trading.

Because I like to decorate and rent/loan some of my decorations, I buy them myself.  It's not with PTO money.  I say that not to brag, but so everyone knows.  I certainly don't think it's right for anyone to help fund my "obsession" with decorating!  It's my thing so I take care of it.  The only one that I usually get approval from is my husband!  He's so good to let me rent a storage building for my many, many totes!  He was also kind enough to help me decorate at the school late last night and go early to get donuts for the teachers for this mornings' breakfast!  Thanks, Joe :).

On this GRATITUESDAY, I am grateful for our teachers and all of the staff of our school.  They work hard to teach our children what they need to know to be successful in life, but the also care about each of them as individuals. Thank you for what you do for our children and for all of us!

Join us for GRATITUESDAY at Heavenly Homemakers!

Natural Instinct

This is one of our goat dogs.  I'm not sure if he has a name.  He's happy and content laying around on our lush green grass - right by the road that's on the side of our house.  I'm sure people wonder why he is there - in fact we wonder why he stays there.  He's actually supposed to be "in" the goat pen with the goats, but many months ago - last summer, actually - my husband moved some of the goats from the small field to another field near by.  When he went back to get the dog, he was gone.  He had left trying to go where he was supposed to be.  That natural God-given instinct kicked in and the dog knew he had to leave his regular pen and care for the goats in another pen, too.

Time went on and July 4th came around.  The dog had been going back and forth between the two fields of goats - one across the street and a little ways north.  The other behind our house. The celebration fireworks scared the dog and he ended up getting back in his original pen - at least for a while. A storm came and he jumped back out!

During this whole time my husband has tried to catch the dog, but he wouldn't come to him or anyone (and still doesn't), except one neighbor lady.  She can talk to him and even pet him, but he doesn't stay there long, either.  It's like he knows if he stays anywhere, he'll be caught. My husband had a few others try to catch him and one guy did, eventually, but the dog jumped the fence (a high fence) and got out.  It's just that natural instinct that tells him he's got to be with those goats - and all of them in two different pens!

The dog looks thin and malnourished.  I know people wonder about him.  We put food out.  He has access to water in the goat pens and when we water the grass (which is daily).  He probably scares people that walk down that road, though they would scare him more!  He'll bark occasionally, but not too much.  He's a goat guard dog.  That's his job.  He's doing just what he is supposed to be doing - just in his own unique way!

Think about your own life.....
What are you doing?  What kind of natural instinct do you have?  We were all created in the image of God, so our natural instinct should be to love Him and to serve Him, but the world sometimes gets in the way and our instinct gets skewed.  As a mom, I have a natural instinct to care for my family.  It's an instinct given by God, but if I'm not careful the world can mess that up, too.  The world will tell me my life is all about what I want and not about serving others - even my family. The world will tell me I must have "me" time - time for entertainment and pleasure at the expense of my husband and children.  Is that what God wants from His children - His creation?

Our goat dog amazes me, really!  I watch him move from our yard, to the back field, then to the further field.  Watching, checking, guarding, protecting.  Kind of sounds like God, doesn't it?  Except on a much higher scale and with a whole world of people?  God is there watching us, checking on us, guarding us, and protecting us.  I like that natural instinct, don't you?

(Note:  With goat dogs, supposedly the owner isn't supposed to "make friends" or they won't be good goat dogs.  But, since this situation - where my husband can't get near the dog - he's decided to make friends with the new puppy we have that will be another goat dog...for another field.  Right now he's  living in the back yard with our family dog and happy as can be! :)

Oklahoma FFA State Convention 2011

I didn't mean to go on a blog-writing hiatus, but it just happened that way!  For the past three days, I've been a chaperone at the Oklahoma FFA State Convention with about 25 Tipton FFA members and three other adults.  We had a great time, arriving back home between 12:45 and 1:15 a.m. this morning!  During the convention, it's hard to do anything else except be at the convention and blogging from a cell phone doesn't appeal to me....and neither did blogging from the hotel room at midnight.  So, yes, it was an unplanned hiatus, but I'm back.

So here I am, Thursday morning, sitting at home blogging, while the FFA members had to go to school this morning.  The men sponsors had to go to work this morning.  The other female sponsor had to go to an appointment.  I'm home :). I feel guilty!  Really! (Thankful, but still guilty! :)  I know the rest of them are worn smooooooooothhhhhhh out!

A great part of the trip, for me, was getting to be there with my two oldest children.  I had been when Lauren was an 8th grader and this time got to experience it with Zachary as an 8th grader.  He and I ate together twice during the trip.  Others went different directions and it just ended up being the two of us, so that was really nice and fun (for me, anyway!).  I think he enjoyed it, too!

Guess who got to be on the video board during the Redhawks game?  Me!  See my beautiful cowboy hat?  I was selected to play "Country or Crock".  I had to guess if song lyrics were "country" or "crock" (not real).  Since I don't listen to country, I didn't know any of the answers! The Redhawks announcer standing by me helped me out some, but even he got one wrong!

The FFA has a wonderful chorus for the state convention.  One of Tipton's own FFA members, Mikayla Balderas, was chosen to be part of the chorus.  Mikayla was also selected to perform a solo at the opening ceremony, as well as a solo part in one of the songs at a few other sessions.  Great job, Mikayla!  (Note:  To read more about Mikayla, visit her website at http://www.mikaylajo.com/.)

The Tipton FFA won several chapter awards.  Here, daughter Lauren, is receiving one of them.  Several members also received awards for different areas:  Speeches, Proficiency, and State Farmer. 

We heard great speakers during the convention. One was Dave Dravecky, former Major League Baseball player who had his left arm and shoulder amputated due to cancer.

The other was Josh Sundquist who had his left leg amputated because of cancer at the age of nine.  Both men talked about how their disabilities became blessings.  The speeches were inspirational and challenged the youth (and adults) in many ways.  They both believe that because of what has happened to them, they have been able to live a life that they wouldn't have had the opportunity to live otherwise.  (Josh's website is http://www.joshsundquist.com/.)

The final part of the convention is the officer ceremony.  The 2010-2011 officers made a grand entrance, rising up from the bottom of this black, foggy box.  The electric light show and music is a highlight of all convention sessions.

Oklahoma FFA State Convention 2011 is the end of lots of hard work for FFA members and their advisors.  Congratulations to all of you!  FFA is still one of my very favorite organizations!

(Note:  If you don't know about FFA and think it is all "Future Farmers of America", visit the website.  While it used to be mostly all "farm", it no longer is and is no longer known as the "Future Farmers of America".  It's just simply FFA.  Check it out!  There are great opportunities for growth and leadership for your children and grandchildren!)

The Chronicles of Biscuit - "Get a Gun!"

The Chronicles of Biscuit:  Stories about our youngest son, Tyler, whose nickname is Biscuit

Last week I went to get the mail.  When I came back in the door, Biscuit was standing there.  Here's the conversation that followed:
Biscuit:  "What's that bug?" 
Me:  "It's a wasp." 
Biscuit: "Do you have a gun?" 
Me (shocked and amused): "We don't need a gun for a wasp."
Me (looking for the wasp):  "Where did it go?"
Biscuit: "Up there!"
Me (with my wad of junk mail): SWWWAAATTT!  (wasp is dead)
Biscuit:  "AWWWWW!!!!" (Biscuit impressed with my wasp-killing ninja skills!)

It was funny that Biscuit thought we needed a gun to kill a wasp.  In his 8-year-old mind, he was thinking that the wasp was going to sting him - hurt him....and all he knew was that he wanted it DEAD.  He wanted to use a big, powerful object to squash a little, tiny problem.  A wasp can sting and hurt, but in reality it's a small problem.

How many times do we do the same thing Biscuit did?  How many times do you and I find ourselves with a tiny, little problem, but in our human minds we blow it up to some big, bad threat?  Sometimes we worry and "stew" about the small stuff so much that it just keeps getting bigger and bigger in our minds.  But, just like the small amount of junk mail killed the little wasp, our little problems can usually be handled with very little effort.  How?  By prayer and by thinking things through.  If we will pray to God for wisdom and think about our problems realistically, we will usually find that there is a simple solution that is easily fixed - or something that we can totally let go.

Today, on this first day of the week, and as we look to the rest of this brand new week, let's look at our problems as small and strive to keep them that way....just tiny little "bugs" that prayer can help us overcome.  Let's try not to let the small inconveniences worry our minds and make us feel like we need to break out the military warfare.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Psalm 28:7