Our Friend Ben

The students at our church always say that Andrew and I know SOOO MANY PEOPLE. We do know alot of people who do a lot of extraordinary things. We believe that we just surround ourselves with passionate people and we invest our lives in our friends so that no matter where we all live, we are still close and in touch with each other. Today I am bragging on our friend Ben. This is Ben Cox and he is a favorite. He and Andrew met one day at River Bluff (our old church in Springfield) because they were wearing almost the same outfit. Andrew and I were leading the college ministry there and Ben just happend to be in college. He got invloved with us and then...duh du du! he introduced us to LOST and we watched the first 2 seasons together. Well, we moved to Liberty and Ben moved to LA to go to school at Chapman for directing. Here is a snipbit of an e-mail he sent a few weeks ago.

"I was a finalist in a contest. Basically I sent in my film that had Grant in it, and they selected me to be one of 9 people to direct a commercial/trailer for a teen book. So I got the book in, and it was the girliest teen book I've ever seen. I read through the 350 pages and wrote up a quick script. Then I got a crew together and filmed it. They gave us a nice budget , so I was able to get some decent equipment/locations. Then I sent all the footage to Doug, and he did my visual effects. We sent in the videos and I'm a finalist! Which means my commercial automatically represents my book, and the 2 other books are what I'm competing against now. The winner gets $1000. Plus, they are flying me out to New York for this screening of all the videos. So that's pretty nice. I might go a few days early just to see New York."

So he went and he won!! YEAH FOR BEN!!! This is such a great stepping stone for your carreer!

Click here to see the winning video...Parties and Potions

We love you Ben...We are so proud of you!

OHHH, I have to brag on Doug too. This is Doug Johnston and he did all the digital effects of the video! YEAH FOR YOU TO!!!
We really are proud!

the men in my life

First of all, yes, these are the shoes. My bro found them in Texas at Tylers...which is where I first saw them. This was the last pair and a half size smaller than I would have asked for, but they fit and they are Awesome!!!

I ran to my families house last week, Wednesday morning through Thursday morning and I did it for 1 reason. The men in my life. (this photo is of the fam.) Grandma, Linda, Mom, Dad, Fred and Josh.I have to start by saying that the men in my life consist of 4 people. First and foremost, my daddy! He is the kindest man I know and if there is one thing I will take forever with me is how to treat people.

So I went home, but Andrew didn't get to go. He is the second and current most important man in my life. Andrew is just as my dad, kind as can be. He sees the best in everyone and is quick to encourage and listen and slow to speak and become angry, in fact, I have never seen him angry, even though he used to have severe anger problems. Andrew is the best Husband ever. I have never felt "not good enough" with him. He is safe and he still takes risk...I love this man with all my life and will serve beside him for as long as we live...and he is really cute. The next man is my Brother, Josh. He and I didn't get along when we were kids, but when we hit the upper teens, we just clicked. I love my brother. We don't see eye to eye on everything, like music and movies and some other weird things, but when we are together we talk and laugh and really just enjoy the company of each other! And this brings me to the most recent addition to the men in my life. FRED! I love this little man. It is almost weird to me how much I love him. I am not sure if it is because I have no kids of my own, but I love him more than I thought it was possible. So I got to spend a short few hours with him, but it was worth the 8 hours of driving. Here are so photos that I can use to brag on just how dang cute he is.

just a little note

Hey there, just wanted you to know that I am finally feeling better. My throat is still sore, and the viral infection is gone. I am still not feeling 100%, although I am close. It seems my stomach is having a few problems adjusting to the normal life, so I am trying to be so normal today to see if it will help. I will be driving to St. Louis for 24 hours tomorrow morning early, so please say a prayer of safe travels. I am visiting my family because Josh and Fred (my brother and nephew) are flying in for a few days. I can hardly stand how excited I am to see them. So for now I leave you with one of my new favorite things that was introduced to me and Andrew by some of our friends, Katie and Evan. Thank you Katie and Evan for giving me something to laugh at. This show puts the fun in dysfunctional. If you have never seen it, you may as well just go out and buy it, cause it's that good.

Baby shower...like in March...oops

*health update at the bottom.

Thanks so much for telling me who you are. I was so excited to check out some new blogs and the ones that my Aunt Linda recommended (tramfrau) are soooo funny, So I hope that you check them out too! And Aaron, I didn't know you read and now I am a subscriber to you, it will be so good to keep up!

NOW ON WITH THE SHOW!

So, the besites (this is a modern teenage word for best friends), Matt and Jodi, had John quite a while ago but I have not shown anyone the photos from the shower we threw. Jessica, LaTisha and I threw a shower in Springfield. We had it at brunch so we kept the menu light. We decided that since none of us ever really get to see each other, we wouldn't spend any time playing the games that are so traditional. The result was a beautiful early afternoon filled with friends, great conversation and a wonderful celebration. So here are a few of the photographs. I decided to decorate with things that are useful and naturally beautiful. So mangoes and flowers were the perfect choice.
LaTisha made this beautiful diaper cake
We ended up using these outside..


Like I said, they didn't know the sex, so Jessica came up with this hilarious idea. Funny story though, from far away you couldn't see the marker, so when Jodi's mom walked in, she stopped in her tracks and screams "is there something I need to know?!" It was really funny.
This is Jodi and Her momma Leanne. (correct me if I spelled it wrong) Opening gifts...I didn't realize it then, but this is a ton of tissue paper.
Bridget made these for little John. They are so sweet.

This is a photo of the final layout. The Book on the box is a baby name book because we didn't know what the sex of the baby was, so it was fun for conversation, and the box is was full of well wishing cards for the hospital Matt and Jodi.

After the shower we met some of the college friends for an early dinner. This is who we hung out with in college.

Karnell, LaTisha (married) Matt, Jodi (married) Andy, Jessica, John (married) Andrew, Mike (in case you didn't know Mike has been living with us since July.) Andrew, Andy, Matt and John were roomies in College.

*So as for me, I woke up yesterday with my skin so sore to the touch all over that sitting down hurts. I started running a fever at lunch time and then I slept it off. I woke up and did some LUMY stuff. I woke up through the night, every time I moved I woke up because my skin is so sore. I woke up with a fever, then I took my last dose of Roxicet (tear) and then called my Doc. When he called back he told me that he believes that I have a viral infection. So, the solution is to let the thing run its course and to be still. So after the roxicet set in I was good for a few hours, but now, as the day goes on, the fever goes up! yeah! So now I rest. The sucky thing is that Jessie Rochat (Stough) was going to visit and we were going to paint the town this weekend. But I felt like it was the best idea to call her and cancel. Which totally sucks cause this was the first time we would have gotten together and actually had a chance to talk for as long as I can remember, but I know that it is best for me to do nothing but rest. So...keep praying please cause I feel like crap.

Flowers and blogs

First I want to tell you that I officially love to blog. I don't know why, but I guess It leaves me thinking creatively. I not only love to blog, but I like to keep up with people, I love to read what others are up to. I love getting on line and opening up my spot and seeing that I have comments, it is so fun. So, I thought, I don't really know who is really reading this... so my plea today with this blog is to ask you to take a second and comment on my blog so that I can see who is keeping up with me, and leave your blog information so that I can come and visit you!!

Second, I want to talk about FLOWERS. this Flower post is two part. I wanted to share this with you all. I was doing some research on material the other day and I ran across this site called Spoon Flower. This has nothing to do with Flowers, but it has flower in the name!

This is a place where you can actally design your own fabric and they will print it. It is a little pricey, but if you can't find what you are looking for on the market it is pretty awesome. I linked you to thier blog. The blog is really great, and thier flicker is really inpiring too. So here is the Link to thier home page.

Now on to real flowers, I love flowers, but not in the traditional sense.I am not a fan of roses and if there is something I don't like at all it is babies breath. I actually think I like roses, but I see them so much with babies breath that it makes me want to stay away from them. I have a friend who had surgery yesterday and I wanted to send her flowers, so I went to Flowers.com and while they are all too expensive for me to send, I fell in love with like 20 of the boquets. They are art! They truly are. So I decided to post the photos of my favorites, and I have been inspired to make my own boquet for my friend, (Target always has really great flowers) and I will post pictures of what I come up with as soon as I do it and take photos.

Energy employed

It seem like I always have these "really great ideas" and then I let them slide. The main reason is that I have no really great space to work on my "great ideas" and by the time get my stuff out, I am exhausted, and I am almost out of time.

This is my workspace, and it is new! the bench on the Left is the place where I hide all of my supplies, so when I get them all out and lay them out, it is pretty much amazing that they all fit into that secret little hiding spot. Well I had this one Scrap Book page that I did that I thought Margie and Linda would like, and I forgot I had done it, but then my mom saw it yesterday and we decided that I should post it. I took the photos really late last night, so the light isn't exactly desirable, but you should be able to get the idea.

So, anyway, "great ideas". My mom and I were chatting about music. My mom is a self-proclaimed music hater, but she loves good worship. So, she was telling me that there were some songs from Bigsuf (church camp that mom helped sponsor) that she loved and she even remembered the words. So I told her I would put together some CD's. As I was grabbing the blank CD's, I realized I had no CD cases...which led to my brilliance. I thought, "I will just make a cd case. So once I had the ultimate list of songs, which include selections from Shane and Shane, Waterdeep, steve Fee, Leeland, Starfield, Hillsong United, Bigstuf Hope CD, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder and Derek Webb to name a few, I realized I had like 57 songs. So I named the collection, The "Not Your Mama's Worship Mix" mix. And here are the images of what I made. (if I made it again, I would make some changes, but its not so bad for off the cuff! I used all Love, Elsie stuff, Which is my friend Elsie's line. (which will be discontinued before long) and lots of felt and thread!

What are some Ideas that you have that you haven't Employed yet?