“Life gives us brief moments with another…but sometimes in those brief moments we get memories that last a lifetime.”

2010 was chock full of those type of moments.

Brief  little pockets of time that swept down, wrapped us all in their warm grasp, and then left us changed for a lifetime.

We celebrated with MJ’s mom as she turned 90 years old. 

We hosted a Mystery Dinner Party and laughed until the tears rolled.

We spent lots of time doing fun things with the little people that make our life so GRAND!

We celebrated the major milestones…

and the tiny sliver of moments that took our breath away.

We welcomed new family members with joy, and we said good-bye to others who left  footprints on the pathways of our hearts.

We enjoyed time with friends, drinking in all the joys that come with these type of friendships.

We cruised the deep, blue sea…

and enjoyed road trips with our nearest and dearest.

We had epic sleep-overs, complete with McDonalds, popcorn, and movies, with all the littles in our life.

We took in Game 5 of the World Series…and had so much fun that we didn’t even mourn when the Rangers lost that night.

Most of all, we lived a year full of loving this family. The family that God has so mightily blessed us with.

2010 was an amazing year, filled to the brim with amazing people, amazing events, and amazing moments.

Moments that have left us forever changed. And forever grateful that lived them.

Held at Waring General Store, in Waring, Texas, we gathered around outdoor picnic tables in the most unique setting ever.

The sun was just dipping behind the burnt orange tips of the trees as the band took to the outdoor stage and we began to enjoy homemade quesadillas, gorditas, salsas and spinach dip that was so good there are just no words.

And that was just the appetizers.

The main course followed: Juicy ribeye steaks, potatoes, salad, NOT to be outdone by the generous helpings of peach cobbler and rich hazlenut coffee.

I sat next to Mike, wearing my “corporate wife” hat, enjoying the company of new friends and realizing just how blessed our life is. The weekend of tasty travels was off to a very, very promising start…

MJ’s appointment for the next morning fell through. I would say that he was bitter and full of disappointment…but that would just be a LIE! We made the most of it, loading up the van early and taking all the back roads to Austin. When we cruised through Comfort, Texas, along about 11:00, we pulled into High’s Cafe & Store.

If you’ve not been to Comfort, Texas – you need to go. And if you do go there – put High’s on your list of MUST SEE. After perusing the store, chatting with the owner, and generally just killing time, we ordered two of the largest sandwiches known to man.

We waved our good-byes, promised to visit again real soon, and took our sandwiches on down the road a bit. Where we detoured to find the most beautiful spot for a picnic for two. Sitting side-by-side, no need for words, we lunched on sandwiches and bottled water.

The picnic fed our bodies, the scenery fed our spirits.

Then – the big arrival into Austin for the wedding.

We were among the first to arrive, so we had a day to explore and do whatever. I pulled out my handy-dandy iPhone with the Flavortown App. Casino El Camino on 6th Street had the Foodnetwork & Guy Fieri stamp of approval, so we made that our lunch destination for Friday.

It did NOT disappoint. MJ had the Amarillo Burger while I had the Pitts Burger. We even shared a basket of Chili-Cheese Fries. If you’ve not discerned it by now, we exceeded our WW points…uh, like, TWO DAYS AGO. By now it’s clear that I will be running for two straight weeks in order to run off the delicious calories this Fall Break gave me.

Every bite was SO worth it though!

And if that wasn’t culinararily exquisite enough, we stopped in at Perla’s on South Congress for Sunday brunch on our way out of town. Again, I just can’t say enough for the best outdoor patio seating, homemade baskets of complimentary hushpuppies, and the BEST  Breakfast Crabcake and Brioche French Toast with Berries.

I am fairly certain that I just gained another five pounds for merely writing all this down. But do yourself a favor and, if you’re in the Austin/San Antonio area anytime soon, give one of these places a try. It may take you off the beaten path…

But oftentimes that is where the REAL treasure is!

I met Thomas this weekend, and I feel just that way about him. I’m telling you, he is a young man to watch; He’s on to something, and will go far in this big, blue world!

We strolled the Natchitoches Farmer’s Market along the Cane River, perusing the booths, sampling the salsas, stopping every now and then to snap a few photos.

And then we came upon Thomas’ booth and I was instantly drawn to him. Besides the fact that he had a large inviting basket of homemade bread and invited us to step inside and sample a bite, he had that special little something that you can’t quite put a name to. But you know it’s the “it” factor, and you know it will take him far.

And then I tasted the tiny, mini-muffin style piece of bread and I. Was. In. Instant. Love. This bread was the best I’ve ever had, I kid you not!

“It’s all natural,” Thomas insisted, pointing to his signage. “All you add to the mix is 12 ounces of carbonated beverage.”

Carbonated beverage? Like…Coke? Diet 7-Up? Sprite?

Turns out that ginger ale and Diet 7-Up makes the BEST bread! Who knew? At this point I could no longer resist the jarred bread mix, the samples, OR the cute little dark-headed boy selling me on the product.

It was a package deal and it totally sold.

Thomas doesn’t yet have a website, but I told him he’d soon be on my blog and that I was going to tell ALL my friends about his great bread mix and that he’d better prepare for the onslaught of business.

Be on the lookout for Thomas, folks! And watch out, Mrs. Bairds…there’s a new cowboy in the bread world today!

I thought about all that information yesterday morning as the choir began to sing “America,” and the congregation rose up as one, crossed our hands over our hearts, and wiped tears from our eyes as we celebrated freedom, our great country, and the men and women who made this freedom real for us.

I thought about my grandfather’s role in World War II, and then I thought about the many times our special speaker looked death right in the eye – all in the name of America and her inhabitants – and I felt an overwhelming surge of love for both of these men and the many just like them that were ready to give it all so we can have it all.

North Cities - as always – brought it this July 4th. After the special celebratory service, a wonderful lunch under the big tent was served, and then an amazing afternoon of volleyball tournaments, lazer tag, a fire engine, board games, and lots of fun, fellowship and laughter.

It was a day that just made you proud to be an American!

Then the day took a little bit of a turn, and we ended up spending the better part of the afternoon in my grandfather’s living room, taking turns looking after him and waiting for a nurse to come and check his vitals and his status. We made the most of it though and enjoyed the time together.

We wrapped up the day with great friends at the Rough Rider baseball game.

Once again – just as I had experienced that morning in church – I felt my heart beat just a bit harder as the old, familiar patriotic songs pierced the air in the stadium.

Just as we had in the morning’s service, we stood to clap and honor the men and women who’d served our country in the armed forces.  Fireworks rounded out the evening, punctuated by the sound of a friend’s laughter and shared fellowship.

It was a day that just made you glad to be an American!

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low’r'd upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

-Shakespeare

“The way we live our lives is a measure of our contentment toward God.” – borrowed from Jody @ Nitty Gritty

It was twenty years ago when a couple of friends and I attended our very first weekend ladies retreat. We packed our overnight bags, left our small children in capable, caring hands, and hit the highway for what we felt was some long-overdue, much-needed TLC for over-worked, under-paid, and (only slightly) out-dated moms.

The next three days were full of laughter, good food, new friends…I’m sure. But – to be honest – those are not the memories that have hung around the halls of my mind all these years.

Instead it is the resonating trills of one lone message that has withstood the test of time. Circumstances have changed. The toddlers of twenty years ago are now young men and women with lives of their own, and yet this message is one that shifts with changing times.

BE YE CONTENT.

Over and over and over, throughout this sermon, the message was clear. God’s plan for our lives is for us to find ourselves in Him, not wrapped up in things, or even in people. It is only in the shelter of His great arms and in the presence of His mighty strength that we are at our best.

BE YE CONTENT.

I remember the three of us chafing a bit as we squirmed in our seats and finally gave in to the tears that stung the back of our eyelids. We reached for wadded up Kleenex and dabbed at our eyes, realizing that our weekend was taking an unexpected turn.

We’d come for consolation, but were met face-to-face with conviction. It turned out to be a defining moment in each of our lives; one that changed each of us forever.

It seems like there’s a lot of talk these days about contentment. If there’s any good that has come, or will come, from the state of the economy, I believe it’s causing us to truly examine our priorities and values.

I’m finding that most folks are discovering the same thing that I am: I already have all that I need to live a rich and productive and fulfilling life.

What about you?

Are you finding this to be the winter of YOUR contentment?

“Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost.”
—W.S. Anglin

THANK. YOU, Mr. Anglin.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

For me math is, at best, a grand test of patience, endurance, and that gnarly feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know (you just…know) that things are about to get very, very bad.

Math and I go way back. All the way back to first grade, in fact.

The relationship started off well, with grainy, purple-ish mimeographed pages (remember these predecessors of color copies and laser-printed sheets?) of neatly printed addition and subtraction problems.

“Staci, meet the plus sign. Plus would like to add two apples to your pile of four oranges. How many pieces of fruit do you have now?”

As long as I could equate math with fruit or cookies, or even pencils or pennies, it was all good. Dare I say, even a tad bit…fun?

It all began to go awry mid-semester of my freshman year in high school. One word says it all, seven little letters. A-L-G-E-B-R-A.

I went into the class a little cocky (because I’d never had to work very hard to make good grades before) and more than a little naive (who knew that polynomials and variables could BE so obstinate?)

By the time I’d managed to crawl through Algebra I by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I walked into Mrs. Payne’s sophomore geometry class with my tail tucked between my legs.

I was cautiously hopeful that isosceles triangles and terms like area, volume, and perimeter would be kinder and gentler in nature – but I was not holding my breath.

Good thing.

It became a joke in the class that I would treat myself to a banana split at Braums if somehow – by the grace of God or osmosis or whatever worked – I managed to pass the increasingly difficult tests.

Mrs. Payne had the very annoying habit of reading the test grades aloud before handing them back. As if the humilation of a failing grade wasn’t enough on its own, now we had the added bonus of wanting to crawl beneath our desks whenever our name was called.

“Rogers,” she would peer over her half-rimmed, silver reading glasses and make direct eye contact.

With bated breath, I would wait like a defendant on trial to hear my fate.

“Looks like you’re going to Braums today,” she’d nod and give me the barest of grins. “You got a C.”

I still remember the cheers of my classmates and that afternoon, about four o’clock, found a large group of my friends and fellow geometry cellmates clustered around a white Formica table at our local neighborhood Braums.

Some things in life just need to be celebrated, you know?

When (NOT if) I manage to bag the three credit hours of college Algebra that I need in my degree plan, I will celebrate large!

Anybody want in?
___________________________
TODAY – February 2009
___________________________

Staci

TEN MORE WEEKS and math will FOREVER be behind me. It’s been three semesters of pure and total torture but, thanks to some friends who are truly gifted in math and who truly love my mathless goofy self, I’m beginning to see the light at the end of this tunnel.

And there WILL be an ice cream party when we emerge from this tunnel. Just wanted to let you know so you can get your spoons ready.

TEN MORE WEEKS!

We met Mandy and David at the game tonight. Since it was the July 4th game, the entire ballpark was a sea of red, white, and blue. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Each of the armed forces was recognized and properly commended. It was touching to see the amount of game attendees that had either served our country in the past, or are serving now.

Hearing the national anthem always gets to me, but on this night – as thousands of fellow Americans joined in together – it was a moment I’ll remember for quite a while.

This is a photo of the guys posing with The New Andrews Sisters. They were the night’s entertainment. An acapella group, they were AMAZING! They were dressed in wartime 1940s dress and were absolutely beautiful. It was a great night!

These are our wonderful friends with whom we share Rough Rider half-season tickets. On this night, we had traded in our normal seats for the chance to have four tickets together. It was a great game (I’m pretty sure) but the best part was having Mandy to chat with for two whole hours!

still totally rocks!

Thank you, Rochelle, for remembering your diet Coke-lovin’ friend in your travels!

You brought me several really cool things, but this – THIS is my favorite! My Israeli diet Coke now holds a place of prominence in my office – right next to my Moroccan diet Coke!

Could you maybe go to Italy and Japan next…?

I have taken on an incredible challenge. On November 7th – 9th I’ll be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men taking this journey with me.

It’s for an event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Every advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Komen for the Cure grant. They are working hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I plan on raising $2200 to help bring us closer to that goal.

Please consider making a donation to this great cause. If you can’t give a certain amount all at once, you can spread it out over four months, using the payment plan option, if you donate online at http://www.the3day.org/. Please also ask your employer if they will double your donation with a matching gift.

This year I am walking in honor of the women in my own life who have battled breast cancer and have lived to celebrate beyond it. For those of you who know me well, you know that raising breast cancer awareness is one of the passions that I’ve taken into my heart.

Finding Faith is my novel set to release the end of this year and it chronicles one woman’s journey through this difficult and  – too often – deadly disease. But there IS hope. There IS help. There IS healing. I am honored and excited to be taking part in this amazing walk for life.

Without a cure, one in eight women in the U.S. will continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s why I’m walking in the 3-Day. Because everyone deserves a lifetime.

To make a donation, go to http://www.the3day.org/. Click on Donate Now and search for my personal fundraising page. If you don’t want to donate online, please fill out the enclosed donation form and mail it to the address on the form. Or you can call 800.996.3DAY to donate over the phone. I would like to reach my fundraising goal by October 1st so please don’t delay!