Friend is an Author 11-02-24

Rose Jordan and I have been friends for many years. 

She started a ministry geared mostly toward women called "Beneath the Fig Tree". I was one of her "beta members". I have watched her grow by leaps and bounds since we first met. 

She launched a podcast last year. 

Her first published book is a collaboration of authors called Journey to Joy: A Collection of Stories on Resilience, Gratitude, and Faith.

She had a book signing November 2nd. Doyle and I went to show our support and get our book signed.

All of this she has accomplished while being the "Director of Tourism" for our local Chamber of Commerce!

Rose and her husband Brandon are members of our church as well.

She is also extremely creative. The board you see behind us is a "fig tree". The leaves have the names of each member of the "figs community". 

Here is the whole tree.

Can you find my name? 😉 I'm in the middle of the bottom swirl.

Rose is currently working on getting her first solo book published.

I am so proud of her and thrilled to be counted as one of her friends.

Have a good one!

Addison's Baby Shower 12-07-2024

Addison and Jerry in their new home about to unwrap gifts. Mother and Wayne are sitting to the right. It was in the 50's that day but they had the windows open so that is why Mother has a blank on her legs.

Sherri (Addison's mother) with husband Carl sitting in front of the bar. Behind Carl is Ryan, Destiny's husband. The little girl is Scarlett, Taylor's little girl. Taylor is standing behind the bar in a green shirt and his wife Whitney is in the white sweater. Korin and Vanessa.

Jerry's family. Next to me is Jerry's son, his brother, his mother, Aunt, step-mother and Dad

I met them for the first time at the shower.

Mom and Wayne.

We played a game to guess the baby's name.

Her name is Eviryn Addison Stephens-Jones.

Jerry and Addison

Addison and Destiny

Sherri (Addison's mom)

Taylor and Addison

Wayne (Addison's dad) and Kai

Kelley (Wayne's wife)

me and Mom with Addison

Destiny, Addison and Taylor

L to R Scarlett, Aubrey,  Taylor, Whitney Kai, Addison and Jerry.

It was great to see Wayne and family and meet Jerry.

Have a good one!

I Am Well Able 103124

Joy is One Third of the Kingdom 103024

I Have Favor 102924

I am a holy temple 102824

I Let Holy Spirit Control My Mind 102324

Without a Single Fault 102224

No Matter What Happens 102124

People's responses to me 101824

I am God's Ambassador of Heaven 101724

Missouri Trip 10.5 thru 10.10

Vanessa, Mom, Korin and I made the trip to Missouri to see family. In the early planning stages, all of Vanessa's family was coming. The closer to time it got they began bailing one by one. In all fairness, Keannon had a great excuse. He was called to Oklahoma City to write claims for hail damage.

Vanessa picked the date as Kennedy would be on fall break from school. The other two are homeschooled. Then she learned that even though school wouldn't be in session, sporting games and practices would still continue. After Kennedy's shoulder injury, Vanessa was going to  make her come. Then a new friend Kennedy made at school was having a birthday party during the time we were going to be gone. The mother even offered to let Kennedy stay with them while we were gone. Vanessa was going to hold her ground but Kashton had a (according to him) super important football game and baseball game. His dad said he could stay home. Vanessa knew if Kennedy learned that Kashton was staying home she wouldn't have a leg to stand on! So....our group of 7 dwindled down to 4. 

We left Saturday morning October 5th driving straight through to my Aunt Sandy's.  Her granddaughter (Katie) and 2 children are living in the lower level of her house. Katie's daughter (MacKenna) made a welcome sign for us. She and Korin made fast friends! 

Auntie fixed us a bite to eat. We visited a bit then headed to Barbara's (my step-mother) another hour North leaving Mom to visit with her sister. 

October 6th Sunday morning, I went to church with Barbara. Sunday late afternoon we went to the 60th
Wedding anniversary of my Aunt Sharon (my Dad's sister) and Uncle Jimmy. They had a big celebration 10 years prior we attended. There weren't as many family members there this year but it was still good to see the ones who came.

The lovely couple. I swear Jimmy has not aged in 20 years! He is 80!

Everyone who was there!

L to R (white shirt with glasses) Michael Hughes (my cousin Deborah's husband) behind him is Karen Shonk (Barbara's daughter), Ann (Gray) Underwood (my dad's cousin), Mary Ann (in striped shirt), Philip is behind her, Barbara is next to her, Jimmy, Sharon, Kevin (Jim & Sharon's son), Vanessa, Korin, me, Lyndie Alan, Aaron holding his son Nolan and his daughter Vera standing next to him. 

Kneeling L to R Deborah (Jim & Sharon's daughter), her son Josiah (12), Kyla (14), Elli Jane (9) Jules - 9 (Kevin and Kelly's daughter) Kelly behind her and Isabella 17 (Kevin & Kelly's other daughter).

Jim and Sharon children, spouses and kids

Josiah, Michael, Kyla, Deborah, Jim, Sharon, Kevin, Kelly, Elli Jane, Jules and Isabella (Kevin and Kelly have 5 sons who were not there).

The Stephens siblings and spouses.

L to R Mary Ann, Philip, Barbara, Jim, Sharon Alan and Lyndie.

October 7th Monday. My Uncle Philip and Aunt Mary Ann stayed over with my Uncle Alan and Lyndie who live 7 miles from Barbara. We went there for lunch and visited most of the afternoon. Alan and his son Aaron were harvesting corn. Korin got to ride in the combine with Aaron. She thought that was pretty cool!

Alan and Philip supervising the corn loading into the grain bin. Brought back memories on the farm!

Short video clip of the process.

While we were visiting Philip and Mary Ann's son David called. He, his wife Jenny and 2 small sons live in Fort Myers which was the portion of Florida that was in the path of Hurricane Milton. They did not evacuate. I did learn later that everyone was okay. 

Tuesday October 8th my Uncle Bob (mom's brother) and Aunt Cindy drive to my Aunt Sandy's from Wichita Kansas to visit Mom. We came to have dinner with everyone and visit. I failed to get pictures of us with them! Aunt Sandy made sure she got pictures the next morning with her and Mom before they left.

Wednesday October 9th. We made plans to visit more with Michael, Deborah, Jim and Sharon. We
decided since we were leaving Thursday evening for home we would spend Wednesday night at Aunt Sandy's. We left Barbara's around noon. It was hard to leave. This was the first trip we made since Dad passed and our first picture without him.

It was a shorter trip than we usually take this time but it was good and got to visit lots of folks!

Have a good one!

I Hide Your Word in My Heart 101624

All Things are Possible 101524

My Words are Encouraging 101424

Forget Not God's Benefits 100424

Only Jesus Can Satisfy Me 100324

I Am God's Masterpiece 100224

Overwhelming Victory 100124

I Have Everything 092724

Celebrating Vanessa and Korin's Birthdays

 Vanessa's birthday was September 25th. She had already planned a family birthday dinner for Korin's
birthday September 26th. I wanted to be sure Vanessa got celebrated so Doyle and I took her and Keannon to lunch on the 25th. I later made her a cake. All the kids request my cake which I always make from scratch. 

I took the cake to her house later that day. No one was home. Knowing her family like I do I put a note on the cake.  You can click on the picture to see it bigger but the note reads "This is Mom's cake! No one gets a piece until Mom gets hers! Savtah

It made Vanessa laugh. And to make this funnier, Vanessa didn't eat a piece until the next day! 😊

September 26th is Korin's birthday. Family celebrated her with pizza, a few gifts and may famous homemade cake. (yes I made two!)

Vanessa put Korin's birthday on the Ritz sign.

Reading the card I made her.  

Korin loves snow leopards so I made her card with a picture of a snow leopard.

Her gift was a t-shirt with a snow leopard on it and a stuff snow leopard.

Then Vanessa's Facebook post about Korin turning 10.

Have a good one!

Kashton Football 091424

 Kashton is playing football. It's his first year. His team is in the black and red uniforms and he is umber 20. 

Korin is a cheerleader for Kashton's team.

Have a good one!

Barn Cats

 I've told you about my barn cat I call Casper. She was born in the barn.  She was the only one who didn't "disappear".  She became quite affectionate even though as a kitten she was the last to warm up to me.

It took her so long to get pregnant that I was convinced she couldn't have kittens. Then her tummy begin to grow then the morning of  April 3, 2023. She was thin! I knew there were babies somewhere! She had 4 kittens. Every single one of those kittens did not reach maturity. 

She didn't have another litter until March 20, 2024. She had 3 kittens. Those kittens are still around. Two are male that their markings are identical. They are dark gray with swirls. The only way I can tell them apart is how they respond to me. One is overly affectionate! I call them the Dooby Brothers one and two 😏! There is one female that is lighter gray and I call her Molly.

Casper had another litter of kittens August 12, 2024. She had 5 this time. All gray. The dad is a black cat which explains the coloring. I had hoped she would have at least one kitten that was colored like herself but so far no.

She is a good momma. (Taken 9-5)

(picture taken 9-10)

This just made me giggle. The babies have learned to climb the pallets to start eating solid food. They are 7 weeks old as of today (10-2). This one would rather nurse standing up while momma eats.

This is dad of the kittens. He is very wild. It has taken me over a year to be able to get this close to him without him running off. I call him Noir (French for black).

Here is a short video of the babies playing and the older babies 

Have a good one!

As A Child of God 092624

Doyle Officiates a Wedding 08.24.24

With the passing of our pastor, Doyle and I have had increased responsibilities with the church.  Well, Doyle more so than me. He is handling the day to day operations of the church. The congregation is being cared for by the Elders (and wives) and pastor's wife Karen. 

We have a couple in our church that Doyle and I had been working with for a couple of years. After seven

years he finally asked her to marry him! They asked Doyle to officiate. This was Doyle's first wedding to officiate and he did a great job!

This is the view from the spot where the wedding was held. It overlooks the Brazos River on private property that are clients of the bride (she is a massage therapist).

As you can see the wedding took place farther back to be in the shade. The temperature that day was 101 with heat index of 108! The shad was extremely helpful!

Meagon is the young woman that I had been mentoring and went with us to the church conference at Bethel in Redding, California. She is like a daughter to us.

I have known Shane since he was a child. He and Vanessa grew up together in church and at the Christian School she went to through the  8th grade. We have been friends with his parents for decades. It was his dad that passed away from cancer a year ago 10 days before my Dad. He was an Elder at our church.

In this picture Meagon had given Doyle a beautiful card with money as a thank you for officiating the wedding.

Waiting for the bride.

Bride and her dad.

Mr. and Mrs. Shae Lemons entering the reception.

We are so happy for them and happy to be part of their journey!

Have a good one!