Yikes! Christmas is just 20 minutes away!

I can't believe how behind I am this year and how much I have to do yet. I just got done finding all of Cody and Trent's presents. That's the problem with shopping early, you hide the presents and then you're not sure where you put them! I would have this stuff done already, but I have made a vow that I would not stress or obsess over Christmas, that I would live in the moment, enjoy the people around me and take time to spend with people that I love. That's why all my stuff isn't done yet!

We've had a great time the past couple of days with all of our pre-Christmas activities:

• Friday I let Cody stay home from school (I know, I'm a bad Mom) and we went to the mall with my niece who's 1 1/2, my Mom and my brother Allen to "Build a Bear". The we had a nice lunch at the food court where I lost a race to get a table for us. Luckily I was in the Christmas spirit and didn't do anything mean.
• Friday afternoon we had Trent's shop Christmas party with Tailgate BBQ and cheesecake for dessert - YUM!
• Friday night I picked my niece and nephew, Josh and Kayle, up from school and they came over to spend the night. We made chocolate dipped candy canes and homemade hot cocoa in my new kitchen gadget, the "Cocoa Latte" machine while watching "Christmas Vacation" - the best Christmas show ever.
• Then we took the kids, along with Cody's friend Chris to the Candlelight service @ GCC. If any of you were there, Chris was the last one to blow his candle out in the 9:00 service. The service was awesome and my Christmas is never complete without it!
• Saturday a.m. we had Trent's family over for presents and brunch. Uncle Jeff taught Cody how to make home made biscuits and gravy and it was sooooo good - yum! We got lots of cool stuf and had a blast!
• Saturday afternoon we cleaned up and took a 2 1/2 hour nap - now that was really nice!
• Saturday evening our friends Tristan, Ameila and Karissa came over and hot cholate with us - yes, from the new Cocoa Latte machine.
• Then we went to our neighbors, The Warner, house (Chris's parents) and joined in their family celebration, which is always fun!
• Then we went to our good friends the Mann's house to hang out with Merri and Aaron, John and Ang, Elizabeth, and Kevin. Debbie had lots of good food and we just had fun, relaxed and laughed a lot!

So now I'm sitting here typing on my blog and it's only 5 minutes until Christmas now. I can't believe how relaxed I am about being behind. I must be mellowing out in my old age! The older I get the more I realize that Christmas isn't about all the extra stuff you do, or about having a Martha Stewart holiday or a Better Homes and Gardens house - the only thing that matters is loving the people around you the way the Christ loved us. I love celebrating the day that He cam to the earth to teach us how to live and to give his life for us so that we could live forever with Him. What's more important than that?

Christmas Past!

Since I still haven't had time to figure out how to get my pictures out of my new digital camera, I was browsing and thought I'd share some highlights from last year's Christmas, in order to get in the spirit of things.

One of the traditions that we have is that Trent's family gets together the night before Christmas Eve, we eat junk and watch Christmas Vacation, and then everyone stays the night at our house (used to be Grandma's house so when we bought the house the holiday traditions stayed with the house). In the morning we get up and open presents and have brunch.

Last year we decided we wanted to do something different other than just hang around the house, so we went bowling at OC Lanes. There were some interesting characters there that night!

Here's my family:
Top row (l to r): Trent, Shaun, Mom, Hank, Emma, Dad
Bottow (l to r): Me, Kayle, Cody, Josh not pictured: my brother Allen.

A picture for Trent's office of "Damage" our Silver Lake beater. Thanks Jeff Peterson - great shot!

I had waited YEARS to get a clapper - I'd sung the song at least a million time (clap on . . . clap off . . . you know the rest) - and finally I got it! We hooked it up to the light by my bed but it would go crazy at every little sound and would turn on in the middle of the night. I had to take my long awaited Clapper back to Osco's. Sad.

Cody and Mom on Christmas morning. Yeah - I know I'm a dork for wearing a Santa hat, but I love them! I have a leopard print one for this year.

That's it - I'm too pooped to party any more!

I'm Back!

Oh My Gosh - I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted - that will never happen again! My problem is that I got a new camera, which isn't really a problem except that I can't get the pictures OUT of my camera so that I can post them on my blog. I'll work on it this weekend and I'll have a ton of stuff to catch you up on.

I'm off to Woodfield Mall and Ikea with my Mom and my Aunt today. We're having lunch at PF Changs and then dinner at The Cheesecake Factory or the Weber Grill restaurant. Can't wait!!

Chick Nite - Shopping in Chicago!

I had the BEST time last weekend - 3 of my friends and I (Rachel, Lisa and Debbie) got to take 14 girls on an overnight trip shopping at Woodfield Mall in Chicago. It was so much fun and the girls were AWESOME - I enjoyed getting to know every single one of them!

We set out around 9:30 a.m., went straight to the mall and shopped for about 7 hours, then we went to our hotel, ate Hacienda chips and Chicago style stuffed pizza from Pizzeria Uno, played Guesstures, went swimming and soaked in the hot tub, slept in the next day, ate a big ol' breakfast buffet, did a little more shopping and then headed home so we could make it back for Lifeline - WHEW! We had a blast!! The best part was that us "older" folks wore out the younger ones!

Can you believe I get to do this? How lucky am I to have a job that I get to hang out with AWESOME girls, shop, eat AND get paid for it?! Wow, God is so good!

Silly girls!

Lindsay and her new friend Buddy

Lisa, Debbie and Lanette having lunch at P.F. Changs - YUMMY! thanks for the lettuce wraps Deb!

Lindsay, Elena, Hailey, Anne Marie, Jessica and Shawna

I'm thankful for . . .

• Jesus - He's my prince, my saviour, my father, my friend and so many other things. I'm so thankful that no matter what I've done or where I've been, He chases after me and loves me unconditionally.
• A husband that loves me so much he puts an extra blanket on the bed for me every night before I come to bed - plus he lets me put my cold feet on him.
• An adorable son who still lets his Mom tuck him in at night and doesn't let me leave his room until we've prayed together and I've kissed him at least a dozen times.
• My Mom who still wants me to call her when I get in from being out of town and my Dad who says the goofiest things that make me laugh (I'm usually the only one laughing -we have the same sense of humor).
• A Mother-in-law who has never interfered in our marriage and loves me as much (if not more ;0) than her own son. She's also the one who took me to my first tennis lesson.
• My nieces and newphews - Airianna, Kayle, Josh and Shaun - they all have a very special place in my heart and I love them as if they were my own.
• My extended family - as dysfunctional as we all are, we love each other a lot and have a great time when we get together!
• My good friends who are always there for me to make me laugh and smile: Beth, Ann, Debbie, Corey, Brenda, Todd, Giddy Bob and Denise.
• My dog CJ who actually smiles and says "Momma".
• My cat Teddy who hides under the bed and attacks us as we walk by.
• My bed & pillow - it's the best, warmest, softest, cuddliest bed - it's my most favorite spot in the whole world!
• My house - Trent's Dad built it and I swear there are times when you can just feel him all over the house. With the water all around us, all the natural sunlight, and the family history this house has, it has given us a huge amount of healing and peace over the last 3 years.
• My job/ministry working with teenagers. There is no where else I'd rather be and I am so incredibly blessed to be doing what I love and what God has wired me for. I love those kids!
• My church, GCC - Without GCC I might still be lost, broken and hurting. It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of churches, and I think this is probably the only one that could have gotten me back on the right path.
• My staff family at GCC. It's the only time I've ever worked a job where they get mad at you if you don't take a day off to spend with your sick kid - it's awesome!
• That God restored our marriage 6 years ago and is better than ever. Also that Cody, Trent and I are still a family and will always be together!
• Random stuff like: the sun, beaches, vacations, nature, mountains, avocados, almond joy candy bars, Christmas, tennis, Starbucks, my lighthouse, our shack at Silver Lake, Cody's birthmother, surprise gifts that you don't expect, teenagers that "get it", lazy days when you don't have to get out of your pajamas, Diet Coke with lime, Hacienda, Seashells, Swans that come to my house to be fed, electric bed warmers . . . ok, I better stop now or I could go on all day.

I AM SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED - THANK YOU JESUS, I KNOW IT ALL COMES FROM YOU!

Adorable Mayan kids

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my passion for the people of the Yucatan Peninsula. Well, today while I was looking for a picture to go with a post I was going to do, I came across this one and it brought back such great memories I decided to post this instead.

In May of 2004, Trent and I went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and on this particular day we were just cruising around in the rental car, going exploring (which is our favorite thing to do). We saw a bunch of people gathered around at the beach, so we decided to stop and see what was going on. It was a fishing contest and it was full of locals, I think we were about the only white people there and we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb! The Mayan people were so kind to us and they liked us being there. They tried to include us in conversation, (which was hard because at the time I didn't know any Spanish at all) and they wanted to show us their fish they caught.

I noticed these CUTE kids swimming, laughing and playing in the water, so I went over to take their picture and play with them a little bit. I have no idea what their names are, but just look at them - they are SO beautiful. I remembered that in my purse I had brought some little tiny toys to give to kids that I came in contact with (a BIG deal to them, since they don't have hardly any toys at all), so I had Trent hold the camera, dug in the bottom of my purse, and fished out little plastic frogs and tiny cross rings to give them. They loved them, but there soon became a little problem. I didn't anticipate all of the other kids on the beach noticing this white lady passing out treats from her purse. They mobbed me! At first they were all reaching at me and kind of going crazy, but somehow I got them to form a line and I passed out every little toy in my purse. When I didn't have any toys left, all I had was Altoids, so I passed those out and they were happy with the Altoids - the poor kids!

It was an amazing day that God blessed me with and I just wanted to share the memory with you. Everywhere you go, open your eyes and be aware of all the divine appointments that God may have for you. You never know what kind of blessing he might have if you pay attention!

Trent with a REAL Barracuda!

Here's a picture of Trent the day we wandered into the fishing tournament in Puerto Morelos. This Mayan guy had caught it and was bringing it to be weighed.

Look at Trent, he is a GIANT compared to them! That's why we aren't afraid to go exploring while in Mexico!

Mayan Grandma - Isn't she beautiful?!

An Incredible, Amazing Love

Today Corey and Judy gave a workshop on student ministry. During their presentations they used all kinds of pictures of our students for their power points. Every time a new picture came up and I knew the student, I would have this rush of emotion - mostly which was an overwhelming sense of love for that particular kid.

As the day went on, the emotions got more intense and when Corey played a video of some of our core students from last year, I got extremely emotional, fighting back the tears - I LOVE THESE KIDS SO MUCH! Every one of them has something unique about them that I adore. Being a Mom of just one child I was never quite sure how you loved more than 1 kid in your family, but now I understand. God gives you a love that is deep and endless. I really think that if I was lucky enough to have 1000 Lifeline kids in my life, that God would give me a love for each and every one of them.

• Do my students have any idea how much I love them, care for them and want the best for them?
• Do they have any idea how much my own family sacrifices in many ways for them?
• Do they have any idea that I don't care what they've done in the past or how they screw up, I will love them the same?
• Do they have any idea that the horrible, bad things that have happened in my life are all worth it when just one of them listens and learns from my mistakes?
• Do they have any idea that I would gladly, without hesitation, take a bullet for them?

This then is salvation . . . when we marvel at the beauty of created things and praise their beautiful Creator. -Meister Eckart

This is one of my students, Jim Ralstin

This is Jim Ralstin, one of my superstar students at Lifeline. Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a ceremony where he was honored as an Eagle Scout. Now, before attending this ceremony, I had no idea what an Eagle Scout was, but it was REALLY cool. Jim has worked for 7 years to achieve this and only 2% of scouts ever get this far.

The really great part was listening to several people talk about Jim and tell stories. (Corey, great job!) It was very refreshing to hear that Jim is really who he professes to be and his faith, character and integrity go with him everywhere he goes. I am so proud of Jim and I can't wait to see what his future holds. I love this kid! If I had a teenage daughter, I'd be talking to his parents about the possibility of an arranged marriage!

Did a hurricane hit in Osceola?

Even though it looks like a hurricane developed on the St. Joe river and made landfall at our house, that's not what's going on here. This is our "little" remodeling project and this is what my house has looked like for the last month or more. YIKES! As bad as it looks, it is very exciting planning the new famlily room and I can't wait to have room to have friends over more.

1st Picture - This picture shows the room that we added on to the back of the garage.

2nd Picture - This shows the inside looking toward the kitchen. In January the blue wall will come out and we will enlarge and remodel the kitchen. Can't WAIT!

3rd Picture - This is the end of the family room where the fireplace will be - this is my favorite part of the room!

Loneliness - Part 2

I'm better now. Sometimes when I get to feeling so lonely like I had been for the past cople of days, I think it is God tapping me on the shoulder and saying "Hey - here I am - rely on me, not people, to make you happy".

One of my favorite worship songs is "More than enough" - part of it goes "and all of you is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need. You satisfy me with your love and all I have in you is more than enough." I WANT to mean that song when I sing it - but I'm letting down my "fig leaf" right now and am admitting that I really don't understand how to do that completely yet. I am a very relational person and I KNOW that one of my traits of desiring deep, true relationships with people is a good thing most of the time, but can be a bad thing at times when I strive and worry about it too much - when people don't respond the way I wish they would.

I will keep praying for God to teach me how to make him more than enough, and I will keep looking to him to fill me up instead of relying on people to do that.

Do you ever feel surrounded by people, but feel incredibly alone? I struggle with this sometimes and it really bothers me. I know that God is there - I'm not questioning that at all - but it's strange how you can have all these people around you, but yet you feel like no one really sees you for who you really are, they only see you for what you can do for them. (Maybe I need to re-read my post on magnifying) :0)

It makes no sense to me - does this happen to anyone else?

Applesauce!

Yesterday Cody was home sick from school, he felt really bad in the morning, but by afternoon he had a "miraculous recovery" - which usually happens. Since I was going to be home from work all day, I figured I'd get something off of my to do list. Last Saturday I went to Farmer's Market and bought about a bajillion pounds of apples to make applesauce, so I figured I better get busy. The bonus was that I had someone home to help me.

The first picture is Cody all excited to help with the applesauce. He was happy because he got to use the Pampered Chef gadget that cuts, peels and cores the apple all at the same time (it is a pretty cool gadget).

The second picture shows how excited he is after peeling about 100 apples. Do you think he'll think twice about staying home from school next time?

What will you magnify?

Every moment of every day has good and bad in it - every person we meet has strengths and weaknesses - every situation has pros and cons. Every event contains both the handiwork of God and the counterattack of the enemy.

The question is: What will you choose to magnify?

Whatever you focus your magnifying glass on will appear larger than everything else. When we choose to magnify the bad, it appears larger than it really is. But when we choose to magnify God, we begin to get a clearer picture of reality.

You can focus on what's wrong with your life and be miserable, or you can focus on what's good in your life and be joyful. The choice is yours!

Affirmation to Recite: I am a blessing to God when I choose to be grateful and hopeful, no matter how difficult my circumstances. Based on Luke 1:46-52.

Challenge: Think of 5 things you are grateful for, write them down and CHOOSE to focus on them today.

From the book "Becoming the Woman I Want to Be" by Donna Paltrow

My friend, mentor and hero - Beth Madigan

Did you ever have one of those friends that you could seriously talk to for days and days at a time and you'd never run out of things to talk about - AND you could tell them ANYTHING? That's my friend Beth Madigan and I when we get together!

Beth was in town for a few days - she just moved to Phoenix, AZ in July, but is in Chicago for a few months helping her daughter and family while Shannon's on bedrest in the hospital waiting to deliver twin baby girls. I had the incredible privilege of getting to see her 3 times and it was so nice!

On Friday we got to play tennis with our tennis buddies Denise and Kathleen - that's us in the picture - then we went to Starbucks and talked for a couple of hours.

On Sunday Beth showed up and hung out with us at Lifeline - it was so great to see her back and the kids were so happy to see her.

On Monday, Beth took me out to a WONDERFUL lunch at Tippecanoe Place, then we came back to my house for tea and conversation. Before we knew it, Beth was out of time and had to go - we had talked for 3 1/2 hours and hadn't even begun to catch up on everthing!

Beth's the best friend I've ever had and I am so blessed to have her in my life - I want to be just like her when I grow up! She's also the best counselor-turned-life coach there is. She has a heart and a passion for helping people become all that God created them to be and she is a genius at that. Check out her website @ http://www.livewithintention.org/

Thanks Beth - I had a blast while you were home and I love you so much!

You won't believe what Trent did to his hair . . .

Early Friday morning, before Trent had to go to work and I had to meet Debbie and Merri for breakfast, Trent decides he's going to give himself a "trim". I told him, don't do it, wait and make an appointment at Debbies, but does he listen? NO! He gets out the cheap trimmers that I bought at Aldi's 4 years ago and proceeds to do a small "trim". I kept griping at him and he totally ignores me, so I leave the bathroom and continue with whatever I was doing.

I go back in the bathroom for something a few minutes later and I can hear the trimmers bogging down in his thick hair. He says to me "Man, these trimmers aren't working very well". Just then I make eye contact with him and I just about have a heart attack. I said "OH MY WORD - YOU TOOK A BIG HUNK OUT OF YOUR HEAD"! He says "No I didn't" and I said "Oh yes you did, look"! He looks and then he just about has a heart attack, then he starts laughing. I was seriously mad (mad really isn't the word for it, but I run a clean blog here).

Then he tells me I have to shave his head - WHAT?! After arguing about it for a few minutes, I finally had to see the humor in it and realize it's only hair and it will grow back. I have never seen him without his beautiful curls and as they were coming off and his scalp was appearing, we just laughed and laughed.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

After I got the top shaved off, I tried to talk him into keeping this sweet mullet, but he wouldn't do it.

This is Trent when it all was finally shaved off. It took us 40 minutes to get it all off - it was like shearing a sheep his hair is so thick and curly. He's trying to look mean here, but I don't think he looks mean - he just looks funny! Oh well, it's only hair and he's still cute!

Thank you for praying - it's working!

Our friend Todd is doing much better - he's still got a long road to recovery, but he is progressing really well. On Friday Trent and I drove up to Grand Rapids to see him. We went into his room and were pleased to see that he was off of life support and breathing on his own. He also was conscious, but he wasn't "all there". His wife Brenda told him who we were and he just looked and looked at us, like he was trying to hard to place us, but he didn't know us. He was so confused couldn't really talk - he would just nod his head and say maybe one word in a whisper. He had no idea what was going on and why he was in the hospital.

As we visited with Brenda, Todd just kept looking at the wires on his arm, and the light (for pulse) on the end of his finger - then he would look at us. Brenda would ask him, "do you know who I am?" and he would nod his head yes, but when she would try to get him to say her name, he couldn't remember it. It was really scary, and Brenda was pretty much freaking out inside.

She told us the entire story which in a nutshell was that Todd went into cardiac arrest, fell face down on the pavement and no one has any idea how long he was without oxygen. His 12 year old son found him, got Brenda and Brenda sent the neighbor kid over for help from his parents (our friends Sherry and Dan). Sherry came over and gave Todd CPR until the paramedics got there. They used the paddles on him several times but it wasn't working - one of the EMT's told Brenda he was gone - they tried again and they got him back. WOW - Todd was actually dead for awhile and he came back. (I've got to pick his brain on that one when he recovers and see if he remembers anything about that experience). Then he got airlifted to Grand Rapids. They have no idea what kind of damage was done to his brain since they don't know how long he was without oxygen.

The good news is that he is progressing much faster than he should be and there's been a huge difference just since we were there Friday night. Yesterday he got out of bed and sat up in the recliner and at soup and jello. He remembered Brenda and he remembered his kids. Today, Trent called and Todd answered the phone in his room - he knew who Trent was and he knew that we have the shack at Silver Lake - so that's INCREDIBLE news.

Our neighbor Wayne is an EMT and he told us that people who go into cardiac arrest only have a 20% chance of being resucitated - so Todd is extremely fortunate. Hopefully it won't be too long before he's back to normal, picking on me, Trent and fixing us a huge dinner around his campfire at Silver Lake.

Please pray for our good friends Todd and Brenda Gilliland. They are GREAT friends of ours from Fremont, MI and we spend most of our summers with them up at Silver Lake - we've known them now for about 10 years.

Last night Todd's 12 year old son, Aaron, found him face down and not breathing. Their neighbor Sherry gave Todd CPR while waiting for the helicopter and he was flown to Grand Rapids. Todd went into cardiac arrest sometime and they don't know how long he was without oxygen. Right now he is hooked up to life support and is not conscious. Needless to say, Brenda, his wife is a mess. We are leaving this morning to go up and be with her.

Todd, Brenda, Nicole and Aaron are amazing people - we have so much fun with them in the summer! Todd is incredibly generous - his favorite thing is to cook a ton of food (at Silver Lake every weekend) and feed about 40 people. Even though he comes off as a big, gruff kind of guy, he's really a big teddy bear inside - he would give you the shirt off his back.

Last weekend was our last at Silver Lake for the year, and we didn't get to see them. They were busy and couldn't come to Silver Lake and we were too busy to go to Fremont and see them. How I wish we had that weekend to do over again and we would have made the time. It's just another reminder of how precious life is and how you MUST make time to enjoy and spend time with the people that you love. You never know when it may be the last time that you see them.

I love you Todd, Brenda, Nicole and Aaron - you are a HUGE part of our lives my life is better for having you guys in it.

I once was lost, but now am found . . .

Teddy, my 4 month old baby cat (he's not a kitten anymore, but he's not a full grown cat either) decided to follow Trent and CJ (the dog) on their morning walk at 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Now understand, my husband doesn't go on little "jaunts" - he covers several miles every day. You also have to understand that Trent doesn't exactly love my cat - he just tolerates him because he loves me. So when he realized that Teddy was following him, he tried to catch him, but Teddy would run from him and hide - and after awhile Trent gave up trying to catch the cat. So about a mile into the walk, the cat has a stare down with some labs down the street - ON VISTULA (YIKES - a very busy road). Teddy won't come, so Trent leaves him, on Vistula. That was the last he saw of him.

Trent comes home, and very matter of factly says " you better go look for your stupid cat - he followed me and then he got lost". WHAT??!! Well, needless to say, Trent is in the doghouse - BIGTIME - and I went out driving in the dark, in my pajamas and slippers looking for my cat.

So this afternoon, I get home from my Dr. appointment and Teddy still isn't home - I'm so afraid that he is smashed on Vistula. So I take off walking calling his name over and over all around the neighborhoods - no luck - I'm so sad - my kitty is lost forever. I was getting closer to home and was already planning his little kitty funeral in my head when I look over and he's playing in someone's yard. He looks at me, mosey's over and let's me pick him up - completely oblivious that he's been lost for almost 8 hours!

Now he's back home and safe for the time being and I am very happy and relieved. This cat is giving me more gray hairs than I already have - Trent is still in the doghouse for leaving him - and I'm very thankful that God loves me enough to care about taking care of my little cat while he was lost.

What the heck is "Yucatec"?

I'm so excited!!! No - it's not Mel Gibsons new "look" that I'm excited about (in fact, that kind of scares me) - it's his new movie that I just learned about from Corey's blog (thanks Corey!). It's called "Apocolypto" and it is being filmed in the original Mayan language (Yucatec). Click HERE for the link.

You're probably asking yourself "Why would Lanette be so excited about a movie that is in some obscure tribal language - Yuc-ah-whatever" . . . Well, it's because my dream/goal is to live in the Yucatan Peninsula at some point in my life and be totally immersed in the Mayan culture for a length of time. Here's what I want to do:

• Be involved in missions work (not sure what, God hasn't revealed that part yet)
• Study the Spanish language at an immersion school that is 3 blocks from the beach and pairs you up with host families. You live in their home, go to school and go to the beach! Click HERE if you want to see it. (I'm taking Spanish now at IUSB)
• After learning Spanish, I want to learn some of the native tongue - Yucatec. That is the true language of the Mayans and I will need that to go into the villages and communicate. The restaurant people in Playa del Carmen tell me that they usually have to learn Yucatec because most of their cooks still speak only that language, not Spanish.
• I'd like to visit all of the mayan ruins around the Yucatan. I've seen 2 small ones and saw the ruins of Tulum from a distance. Their religion fascinates me - they believe in all of the gods of nature, but then when the Spanish came, they brought Catholicism with them. So when you go into a gift shop, you'll see lots of little statues of gods, and then right next to it you'll see Jesus on the cross - HMMMMM?!
• I'd love to study Mayan history in the Yucatan to help me understand the people and because it's very fascinating. It's very hard around here to find books that are really helpful, so that's why it's amazing that Mel's making this movie.
• I want to snorkel or scuba dive every chance I get. The water, the reefs, and the cenotes are the most beautiful of anywhere in the world (in my opinion). If you've never heard of a cenote, they are AMAZING! Click HERE for more info.
• I just want to hang out with the Mayan people - they are so COOL! I'd love to get to know them and find out why they are so happy all the time. Even though they live very simply, they are always happy, smiling and so incredibly kind. Even though they live in Mexico, they are not Mexican, they are Mayan. (It's kind of like our American Indians living here in the United States). They are much smaller than a typical Mexican - we took Cody to the Yucatan when he was 10 and he was the size of most of the Grandmas there.
• And, of course, I want to spend as much time on the beautiful, amazing beaches of the Yucatan coast as possible! Click HERE for some pictures.

Last week when Hurricane Wilma was over the Yucatan just swirling and swirling, I was a mess from worrying. I was on line every hour researching what was going on. I have no idea if I will ever get to fulfill this dream, but I know that God has put a love and passion in my heart for this area of Mexico and the Mayan people for some reason, and I'm ready to JUMP through that door and go if it ever opens!

The Boys

This is Cody, Kyle and Chris (from left to right). My son is the one on the left with the hair over his gorgeous eyes (he tells me the girls love it).

Chris and Kyle are my 2 other "adopted" boys - the live on our street and these three are constantly together. They are so much fun to have around!

Kyle is 13, in 8th grade, and is a joy to be around, he's so easy going. This kid is always smiling and he loves my cooking. He challenges Cody to be more kind and more respectful to him Mom - I love this kid!

Chris is very cute and funny. He is 12 and in the 7th grade at Grissom. He is very smart and loves to carry on a deep conversation about finances or politics, but then will turn around and say something hilarious - he has a great sense of humor.

Every Tuesday and Friday they get together at 7 a.m. before the bus comes and they skateboard and play guitar together before their school day starts.

I am so thankful that Cody has GREAT friends - and I love spending time with them all!

I think I'm a grown up now . . .

Last week I think I officially grew up and turned into my Mother (which isn't a bad thing Mom ;0) First of all there was my first mammogram, and the VERY NEXT DAY I canned soup for the first time - WHAT THE HECK?!

When I was a kid my Mom canned all the time - with help from my brother and I - and we HATED IT WITH A PASSION! We didn't understand why we couldn't just buy beans or tomato sauce from the store like "normal" families. Well, now that I am older and on a quest to be as healthy as possible, I got the "itch".

I called my Mom after I did it and told her "Now I know why you used to get excited to hear all those can thingy's popping" (which means that your soup is sealed up and will be preserved). She was sad that I didn't call her to help, but I told her there was a certain satisfaction in doing it all by myself, like a real grown up!

So there it is, 2 days of work, but it's 100% all natural, good for you and good tastin' vegetable beef soup with fresh ingredients right out of the field - YUM! It took awhile for me to catch on, but I guess you taught me well Mom!

Yesterday Lifeline was invited to come down and help at Feed The Children in loading up boxes for the annual GCC food drop in January. My friend Ted Bryant went early to take the first shift to lead our Lifeline kids, and I was to take the second shift.

When I got there, my friend Johnny Keim was there working really hard and with a smile on his face (as usual - he's always happy!). I looked around for familiar faces of my students and at first didn't see any - then I saw one I recognized - it was Randall! Him and his sister, Michelle, came down to help. There they are in the picture to the left.

At first I was sad (and frankly, a little embarassed) that there weren't more of our students there, but then I got over that and was just really proud of Randall and Michelle for showing up and wanting to help make a difference.

God works in such funny ways - and I was so thankful for yesterday - Here's why:

1. Randall and Michelle's Mom was just a tad late so that gave John and I an excellent opportunity to talk to each of them. I had a GREAT conversation with Michelle, who has gone to Lifeline all year so far and I've never gotten to meet her or talk to her before. I really enjoyed getting to know her and was really glad her Mom was running behind.

2. I worked beside a high school kid named Tim and when we were leaving I asked him and his Dad if he'd ever been to Lifeline. Come to find out, his Dad Max had talked to me last year about Tim coming to Lifeline and getting hooked up with a mentor. Tim has been coming to Lifeline, but hasn't really connected. Now, since I was at FTC, I know who Tim is and we're going to work on getting him plugged in a little more. (Side note - I went to school with his Dad and it's the first I've seen him since he graduated).

3. Towards the end we ran out of boxes and I got to work right next to Cindy Shuder (who just hosted us last week for Chick Nite - scroll down). It was a great opportunity to get to know Cindy a little more and hear some of her story.

So all in all, even though the morning didn't go as expected - God totally turned it around and redeemed it. I LOVE watching him do that! I'm so excited to get to be a part of this big adventure that He has going! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Indescribable - Uncontainable . . .

He placed the stars in the sky and he calls them by name!


Last night my friend and Boss, Corey Mann, took my husband and I to Grand Rapids to see Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio. IT WAS AMAZING! Louie talked about how a hobby of his is astronomy and he shared all kinds of pictures from the hubble telescope site.

As he took us through each one - how far the stars and the galaxies are, how big they are, how long it would take to travel there - he kept reminding of us of how BIG God is and small we are, but yet this BIG, HUGE, POWERFUL, AMAZING ARTIST called GOD knows every single thing about us and longs for us to have a relationship with Him - to know Him. WOW!

I couldn't even wrap my brain around the magnificence of the heavens and the galaxies that He has created. What really struck me though is that He didn't create those stars, planets, and galaxies for us (which is what I always think when I star gaze). NO! - He created them to show his glory and his power! The bible says that he holds the galaxies in his hands - can you even imagine how BIG God is? If that is just a glimpse of how BIG our God is and how amazing He is - I am completely blown away by Him again! So you think following God is boring - are you crazy - just look at the things He created around us and you'll see that a life with a personal one on one relationship with the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE is anything but boring!

The above picture is a picture of The Whirlpool Galaxy and the last pic the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Do you see what the telescope picked up at the very core of the galaxy - A CROSS!

An interesting beginning to my day . . .

Okay ladies, how come nobody told me what a mammogram was really like?! YIKES! I began my day being a responsible adult female and finally getting my first mammogram. I was a little nervous last night, but not too bad - so when I got there today I didn't think it was any big deal. (The biggest deal was that between my physical for my CDL license and the x-ray, I had to don the gorgeous hospital gown TWICE in one hour - now that's traumatic!)

So I go into the little office and was greeted by a wonderful and perky x-ray technician who was very kind, sweet and helpful. She even was nice enough to put a brand new sticky backed soft pad on the machine for me. I am not going to go into any kind of explicit detail (that's just for you Kevin), but WOW - that was much different than I expected. Let's just say that I'm glad I don't have to have that done for another year!

After leaving the office, I did feel really good about taking care of that. My Mother-in-law, Emma, had breast cancer the year that Trent and I got married (16 years ago). She has been cancer free for 15 years and the reason she was able to beat it was because of early detection with a mammogram - it saved her life.

So all my lady friends out there 35 and over, if you haven't done it yet, or you're behind schedule, get up and make an appointment right now! It may not be the most fun part of being a girl, but we are very fortunate to have that technology available and we should use it to our advantage. I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I'm here as long as possible to do what God has planned for me - I'm not letting the enemy take me out early!

Chick Nite - WOW, what a blast!

Horseback Riding, Bonfire, Donkey Races, Hammers, Safety Glasses and Suncatchers

In my previous post a couple of days ago I was frustrated because there is so much swirling around in my head and I can't get it out. Well, Friday night I had the incredible opportunity to speak to a group of about 40 girls at a thing we do at Lifeline called Chick Nite, and I was able to get a few things out of my head and into their hearts - and I think it made sense to them - yeah God!

This was the first one of the season and we went all out - I'll let the pictures do the talking!


This is my friend Jen - she's one of my leaders on the Lifeline Leadership Team, she's GREAT!

This is Cindy Shuder - our amazing hostess for the evening. She owns Crooked Creek Horse Ranch and she let us come, hang out and use all of her stuff for free! The best part was that she played with us the whole time. Thanks Cindy - you made a HUGE difference in the lives of a bunch of great girls!

Elena made some cuddly new friends!

Go Team! Win one for the donkey!

Donkey Races - Hilarious!!

This is Rachel and her little donkey during the donkey races. This was hysterical and we laughed until we almost peed our pants!

This is Hilary and Kasie - two of Lifeline's most awesome girls. This was when we were having s'more around the bonfire.

This is Amanda and Lindsay - aren't they beautiful!

We had an AWESOME chat around the bonfire. We talked about how we all are in a larger story - that there is more than just the "Lanette" story or the "Amanda" story going on - that way before we were here and way after we're gone there is a larger story - and that is God's story. We also talked about how we each have an irreplacable role to play in the story and we need to accept the story that we've been born into. We also talked about how there's an enemy (Satan) who hates God and us so much that he wants to do anything he can to take us out - he's afraid of what we can be and the good that we can do - so he feeds us lies about ourselves (we called them agreements). I challenged them to break every agreement they've ever made with the enemy and to not make any more.

Debbie with her safety glasses

After our talk we had everyone wrtie down on a sheet of paper the wounds that they have received in life so far and the lies that they have believed about themselves because of the wound (i.e., "parents divorce - that means that they didn't love me enough to stay together" - OR- "My boyfriend cheated on me and dumped for another girl - that means I'm fat, ugly and that no one will ever love me", etc.)

The girls brought the paper up to Debbie and Jen - they laid a piece of glass over the list of wounds and lies (of course they all put safety glasses on) and then the girl's "broke" the agreements that they have made with the enemy about the lies they've listened to.

Here's Kasie BREAKING all of the lies of the enemy and making a commitment to not listen to them any longer!

Suncatchers

When the girls were all done smashing the glass (the lies about themselves), I gave them all a beautiful suncatcher and let them know that when we are crushed and broken Jesus takes the broken pieces and puts them back together. When He's done, the broken pieces becomes something even more beautiful than before, and that's what Jesus does with us. I also let them know how beautiful, valuable and irreplacable they are - that they are Princesses in a larger story who are worth being rescued by our hero and Lord and Savior, Jesus!

My Amazing Team!

This is my amazing ladies team that I get to do ministry with. They are all wonderful role models for our students and they are sooooo much fun. We're missing my friend Lisa because she was out on a coffee run.

Side note - I was a little freaked out being that close to the horse, plus he kept breathing on me so hard it was blowing my hair!

Too much stuff in my head

Did you ever have so much to say that you don't even know how to put it into words or how to say it? Well, that's where I'm at right now. There's so much God is showing me, but yet it's still foggy. At the most random times the fog will fade for a second and then things are clear, but I fail at writing them down and they lose their intensity. I try to talk to my husband or a few of my close friends about it, but it just doesn't come out right and frankly it all seems CRAZY, but yet I know deep down inside that it's not crazy, but very real.

This year has been an amazing year - not easy at all - but the work that God is doing in and around me is incredible. It's very hard to keep up - to try to wrap my brain around it.

One of these days I'd like to be able to find the words to get some of this stuff out of my head and in writing. It all makes sense in my head, but I just can't seem to articulate it.

Does anyone out there identify with this?

A Romantic Weekend at Silver Lake

This past weekend I got to spend an entire two days with my hubby - ALONE! None of our friends were up at the lake, Cody was camping with his cousins and the weather was beautiful (a little chilly, but perfect fall weather). We slept in, went to Manistee looking at art galleries and antiquing ( I found a perfect piece for our new room - an antique life preserver that says "Tiny Bubbles" on it), we ate out every meal, went to look at the sunsets, and sat out by the fire. I really didn't want to come home! This is Little Point Sable, the tallest light house on Lake Michigan and absolutely my favorite place in the whole world. Every time I go here, I meet and see God - it is an amazing, magical place. I am so lucky because it is only 5 minutes from our trailer.
Here's me standing by the base of the lighthouse at sunset.
This is the pier head in Manistee - the first time I've ever been there even though we're only about 40 minutes away.
Here's the love of my life, my hubby Trent! Isn't he CUTE!? Sorry ladies, he's already taken!