Rock and Worship Road Show

Tonight was the Rock and Worship Road Show at the VBC. I've just recently really fallen in love with The Afters and they were one of the bands performing tonight and I was so looking foward to hearing them. I wasn't disappointed - they were awesome! Thousand Foot Krutch, Jars of Clay and Mercy Me, along with Matt Maher, also performed. There was definitely something for everyone tonight. :) One minute we were rocking out with fists pumping, and the next minute we were singing worship songs with hands raised all around... There were prayers and moments of total silence - confetti and streamers - strobe lights and screaming guitars. And all of it was offered in worship and to give glory to God. :)

I'll be honest and say that I didn't expect to enjoy Mercy Me as much as I did - but they were wonderful and one of their songs tonight really moved me so I thought I'd post it here before I head off to bed for the night:



Beautiful

Days will come when you don't have the strength
And all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart
They'd see too much

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

Praying that you have the heart to fight
Cuz you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
But they are nothing in the shadow of the cross

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skies above
You're the one He madly loves
Enough to die!

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
In His eyes

You're beautiful!
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful!
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful!
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful!
You are treasured
You are sacred
You are His

The New Year (so far) in pictures

It's been a busy 2 or 3 weeks since the start of the New Year... just thought I'd run it down in pictures...

I left town on Jan 6th for South Carolina to spend a week with my sister. I had no idea at the time that I'd get snowed in with them! While I was there, I got to be my sister's "business associate" when she unexpectedly got a call from the largest local TV station to come and be interviewed about her business, Simply Organized. We got to do an "office desk makeover" for one of the news anchors for "Organize Your Office Desk Day." That's him in the picture... Stuart Moore. I got his autograph! ;-) Anyways, it was quite an experience and was a lot of fun. :) Unfortunately, with all the snow going on for a week, it hasn't aired yet, but when it does, I hope I can put it up on here. :)

I got to go to one of Shelby's basketball games - I guess I was a little bit of bad luck for them since they had won all of their games until I showed up - oops! But it was fun to see her in action!

I also got to see Nathan play in one of his games - and they won, so maybe I redeemed myself. ;-)

As you can see in the picture below, middle school boys come in all shapes and sizes. I just had to put this picture in here because I think it's funny how tall Nathan is!! Obviously, my sister's kids got blessed with some height from their dad's side of the family! Nathan is 6 weeks YOUNGER than Anna and is 6'1" tall... yikes! ;-)

And this is me, my sister and Shelby after the Nathan's game.

And Huntsville wasn't the only place that got snow - we got a bunch in South Carolina, too. Nathan and Shelby were up and out early to go find friends to sled with.

After about 3 hours of snowball fights and sledding, it was time for a hot chocolate break.

Meanwhile, back at home, "Snowmaggedon 2011" was in full swing and Jack and the girls spent an entire afternoon building an igloo. :) The sad part of this was that it got destroyed overnight by some not very nice people who I'm sure thought they were having lots of fun messing other people's stuff up... :( I still think Jack is holding a grudge about that! ;-)

And I guess maybe I need to leave for a week more often, because I came home to the girls being most of the way finished with painting and redecorating their bathroom... and they really did it all by themselves! It came out great! :)

So I got home on Friday and Anna's birthday was Saturday - and we went very quickly from NO plans to sleepovers on Saturday AND Sunday nights with good friends. :)

Below: Anna, Leah, Leanna, and Belle being silly...

And dinner at Red Robin with Mackenzie, Natalie, Olivia and Kerry:

***The Birthday Girl***

And finally, the snow melted, MLK day came and went, kids went back to school and things were JUST getting back to normal... and tomorrow we leave for Disney. ha. This is Anna's BIG travel gymnastics meet for the year and we're pretty excited about the trip - this is the first time we've been there! :) So as I sit here tonight, we're pretty much packed up and ready to go as the sleet and snow begins to fall again - and I just hope and pray that it thaws out and goes away before our flight tomorrow afternoon... :)

A New Favorite Band

I 'discovered' a band this week that has become one of my new favorites - The Afters. I guess they're best known for "Never Going Back to OK" and "Light Up the Sky" which is the song that really got me wanting to hear more from them. I had about a 7 hour drive to my sister's house this last week and ended up listening over and over to their latest CD and it really ministered to my heart. Just thought I'd share one of my favorite songs off the CD, "You Lift Me Up":




And my new 'blinkie' button is in honor of the upcoming "Blizzard of 2011" that is supposed to be hitting Huntsville tomorrow - I can't believe that I'm going to miss it! Well, MAYBE some of the snow will make it over here to Columbia, but there's not near as much hysteria about it here as I've heard there is back at home... apparently Jack and Mackenzie even stopped at Walmart tonight to look for a sled - that's saying a lot. haha.