Archive for the 'Thursday Thirteen' Category

July 13, 2006 @ 12:10 am | Filed under: Family,Thursday Thirteen

Tomorrow is Mike’s birthday so here’s thirteen things you may or may not know about the history behind the man.

You already know he loves ice cream. V-a-n-i-l-l-a ice cream, that is. Just to prove that point, check out this picture. He’s passing on his vast knowledge to future generations of ice cream connoisseurs!

1. Mike’s mom was a pastry chef for DISD while he was growing up. She used to make up to 36 double-crust pies by 11:00 a.m. each morning. Mike developed a real love and true appreciation for sweets at a young age. I don’t know if that’s the reason why, but …
2. He makes a mean apple pie from scratch, including the crust. He’s very handy with a vacuum cleaner too, but don’t let this and the fact that he’s secure enough in his masculinity to wear a light pink shirt confuse you. He’s a man’s man, for sure, and can hunt and fish with the best of them, if he chose to do so. But hey, if he wants to stay home and make us apple pies, you won’t find me complaining!
3. He played defensive lineman for the Baylor Bears on a full football scholarship from 1969 – 1972. He suffered a severe broken leg during Spring Training in 1970 and spent a year in a cast. After a long recovery, he returned to the field in August of 1971.
4. He majored in education, but never taught a day in his life.
5. He rode horses as a volunteer with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office for eight years. He participated in crowd control for large events, searches for lost people, parades, and patrolled the woods surrounding Tinker Air Force Base whenever the President came to Oklahoma City.
6. Besides his apple pie, Mike is known among our friends as the king of guacamole. It’s so good. I love it. And him. And the guac. But him more. Yeah…definitely him more.
7. He spent several weeks in Southeast Asia in 1986, selling and arranging for oilfield equipment shipments. While there he went up the KB River from Brunei where the world-record 32-foot Python was captured just months before.
8. He went back to Baylor in 1998 and earned his MBA. This made him very, very smart. At the end of the two years the class traveled to Europe to fulfill the international business requirements. It seemed to him like a good time to marry me. This made him even smarter.
9. We spent a week in Paris for our honeymoon and then met up with the rest of the EMBA class for another week in Vienna and Prague.
10. Mike has an avid interest in sign language, piano, and guitar. He’s taken lessons in all three as an adult and is actually quite proficient at…one of the three. No, wait, make that two of the three. No, no. Just one.
11. He gets seasick on the ocean. But he’s working really hard to overcome this so he can take his wife on a cruise for her fortieth. Patches all the way, baby!
12. Mike has been to 32 of the 50 United States and has visited 13 foreign countries. Yet he saw the Grand Canyon for the very first time this summer.
13. Mike logged 30+ hours toward his private pilot’s license back years ago. I gave him an hour of airtime for Christmas last year and the "bug" bit again. So…for this birthday I’m finally swallowing my own trepidation and giving the gift he’s really been wanting and waiting for: my blessing. On July 22nd he’ll begin to log the final 10-15 hours in the air and will go through ground school. Prayers are welcome. For us both.

Happy 55th birthday, honey! I love the way you love me, the way you love our children, and the way you love our family and friends. But most of all, I love the way you love Jesus.

July 6, 2006 @ 7:49 pm | Filed under: Thursday Thirteen

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir people’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work. Remember that your children and grandchildren are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."  —Daniel H. Burnham, 1910

Remember that expression, "I’ve got too many balls up in the air"?

Some days I feel like I’m keeping the Post-it company in business with all the little reminders and notes I have plastered around. But even as I added yet another "to-do" to my list today, I couldn’t help but think, balls are rubber, right?

If I do drop one (or two or three…or more) they’ll merely bounce and I can catch them on the rebound (or the bounce after that or the bounce after that.)

The important thing is to live life fully. Do your best. Love deeply. Play fairly. Pray hard.

Dates are just numbers on a calendar. It’s the moments that fill our days that really count.

1. July 9th. Our first Open House. Hopefully we’ll have several interested buyers.
2. July 9th – 13th. Wendy (my agent) is in Denver this week for ICRS. She’ll be pitching Melrose Miracle and just say no! to various editors. Really, I especially covet your prayers during these days, and I know Wendy does as well.
3. July 14th. Mike’s birthday! (Is my husband looking young, or what? Honest-to-goodness, I think the man has tapped into the fountain of youth, or something!)
4. July 29th & 30th. Carter and Kendall are staying the weekend with us. We haven’t done this in a while so Pops and Nana are looking forward to it! We get to bring them to church with us on that Sunday and that’s always fun and adventurous!
5. August 2nd. Nate’s tuition payment to SHSU is due. Yowsa! Writing the big checks kind of makes his college career very real!
6. August 6th. Saving Grace goes to press!
7. August 9th – 11th. I’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky, for NALC (North American Ladies Conference). Saving Grace will be making its public debut here. Very exciting! But you know me, my knees are already knocking!
8. August 16th. We move Nate into his dorm at SHSU. (Send tissues, please, I’ll need them.)
9. August 21st. Nate’s first ever day of college classes. Jordan also starts his senior year at Rockwall today. I’m so proud!
10. August 30th. My first day of <big gulp> college classes. I’m so…scared.
11. September 8th – 10th. Fredericksburg with friends!
12. September 15th. This is my target date for completing the first draft of The Revival. This is the first book in The Closer Walk series and it’s very important to me. Very close to my heart.
13. September 21st – 24th. ACFW’s fifth annual conference will be in Dallas this year! Normally I look forward Denver or Nashville each fall for this writer’s get-away but, since I’ll have just returned from Louisville, it works out well all the way around. Plus I get to share the sights and sounds of Dallas with my out-of-town friends.

June 29, 2006 @ 7:15 pm | Filed under: Thursday Thirteen

I could list all the expected things: family, friends, health, etc… And I am very thankful for all those things. But I thought maybe I’d share some things I’m thankful for…specifically today.

1. Thursdays. Because on Thursdays you can see two things – the accomplishments of the four previous days and the possibilities of the upcoming weekend.
2. Wireless High Speed Internet. Are you glad to be living in this day and age, or what? I still marvel that I can have a "traveling office" if and when I want. So cool. (And I received galley proofs for Saving Grace via email today. These make it real for me!)
3. Cell phones. I’ve talked to my Mike and Nate (who are in San Antonio all this week) four times so far today. If not for cell phones, we’d probably just call in the evenings to say good-night.
4. Air conditioning. It’s heating up here in Texas and all it takes is a few scant minutes outdoors for me to utter a brief (but heartfelt!) prayer of thanksgiving for a nice, cool home.
5. The camping is behind me. Make no mistake about it – I loved every minute of our vacation because we were together and making memories and all that good stuff. But am I glad to be clean again? Oh yeah…
6. Shutterfly. If you aren’t using this great service yet, then you need to! I love it that I can upload all my photos, crop and organize them, and then order prints – all on-line. The orders generally arrive within three to four days. My vacation prints came today. I’m a huge fan.
7. Diet Coke. But not from a can and not out of 2-liter bottle. From a fountain. And only with crushed ice. And a straw. Every birthday and holiday I ask Mike for a fountain drink machine, but so far…nothing. Is this unreasonable, I ask you?
8. Grandkids. Carter just called me to say "happy holiday" (July 4th!). Moments like that are priceless! I’m too young yet to be a Nana by blood, but my love for Carter and Kendall proves that blood is just an element – not a requirement!
9. Golf Digest for Women. Seriously. While it’s my drive that needs major work, I have to say I’m intrigued with an article by Annika Sorenstam in this month’s issue. Win With Your Wedges, How to Hone Your Game From Inside 100 Yards. Hmm…
10. Sonic. It’s just 1.1 miles from my house. That close proximity allowed me to just make a speedy dinner run for Jorge (who’s due at work in thirty minutes). Plus, you gotta love a place that’ll serve you breakfast burritos at ten o’clock at night!
11. People who put together exercise machines for a living. Okay, to get the scoop on this you’ll have to check out a future blog. That’s a story for another day…!
12. Working the information booth at church. (Cheryl, pick yo-self up off of that there floor, girl!) Because it forces me outside of my comfort zone and helps me to initiate conversation with folks I might not speak to otherwise. People always seemed shocked to find out that I’m an introvert at heart. Really. Things like working the booth help counteract the shyness.
13. Lunch with friends. Rochelle and I had lots of conversation and laughs at Chili’s today. Friends are the best, aren’t they?