How to Stay Young

1. Try everything twice.
On one woman's tombstone she said she wanted this epitaph: "Tried everything twice - Loved it both times!"

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. (Keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches!)

3. Keep learning: Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever... Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' (And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!)

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots oftime with him/her.

6. The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Live while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance.

12. Remember - that God is with us always. He knows us inside and out and loves us. We can turn to Him in good times and bad.

Remember! Lost time can never be found.
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

***So a friend of mine sent this to me today, and I absolutely love it. It so reminds me of exactly where my heart is.

Forget San Francisco...I left my heart in Georgia. Currently, the biggest pull in my heart is the pull to get back home. I totally understand why God brought me here, and I totally appreciate all that I have learned and come to understand in my time here. I enjoy every moment I have gotten to spend with the two precious children that have so overtaken every breath of my life here. And this, of course, is where the biggest problem lies...

For me to be back home means that these children, that hold whatever part of my heart wasn't left in Georgia, will no longer be in close range. They will no longer be a part of my every day life. I will no longer be able to be a part of their important moments, and I will not get to share in all the ups and downs of their day to day lives. And that, of course, tears me up as much as being so far away from home and everything I've always known and love so very much.

I went home last weekend for my sister's wedding. (She was an absolutely beautiful bride, by the way :) ) And while there, even though it was just for a very short while, I got to taste, once again, everything that I left behind. And it broke my heart. I barely got there before I was turning around to come right back here...blah. I need to stop :)

It's just that sometimes I get to REALLY missing home. This has been one of those weeks. So, I ask that you not feel sorry for me, or think that I'm sitting here in utter devastation, but instead, I ask that you pray that God will show Himself completely and totally present in every single second in the days, weeks, months and years to come. That He will make the path that He has for me well lit so I am able to see it clearly. There are many things that I long for, but I don't want any of them if they aren't what He has marked for me.

On a lighter note, our entire family now has Skype, and we've put it to very good use in the past week. Papa and Nanny had a talking cat in place of their own faces on video for a while, but they finally got it all fixed and taken care of, and now they have a hot pink beret attached to a lovely head of black hair, and beautiful bright silver, multi-colored lens sunglasses head thing that covers up the head of whomever is speaking on the video - Papa was absolutely stunning in his hat and shades! :)

Hope you all had an awesome week, and are looking forward to an even better weekend! :)

Love you all!
~Vanessa

Samantha's Baptism - 5/3/09

The girl is Meghan - she was Samantha's first LifeGroup leader this year (she moved to Dallas in January after graduating from Baylor, and Samantha was devastated).

And of course, the little man on the right is my baby Davis! :)

I love the intense look of concentration on Davis' face! :)


Beautiful moment!

And precious Davis praying over his sister! AWESOME!!!

The way baptism works at Antioch is pretty awesome in my book. We go off of the charge of the Great Commission out of Matthew 28:19

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

In fully believing that, we believe that everyone that has been saved becomes a disciple of Christ, and therefore we have all been given the charge to make disciples of others (lead them to Jesus), and to baptize them.

So, it is very special to watch baptisms here, because the people baptizing and praying over the person being baptized have had significant impact on the person's life.

So when you decide to be baptized, you have to decide who is going to baptize you and who is going to pray over you!

Davis was soooooo super excited when Samantha asked him if he would pray over her after she was baptized! And his prayer was one that shook the church! That boy has It! And he uses It!!!

GODBUMPS!!! :D

David's Baptism - 5/3/09

The guy with the microphone is Shoan - the leader of Elevate.

The other guy is Chris - a fellow Elevate student, and a great friend of David's.

I know this one is very, very fuzzy (give me a break, cause I was squatting in front of the baptismal pool, trying to watch everything, take pictures, and see through my happy tears! :) ), but I absolutely LOVE David's face in this one! Awesome moment! :)

So sorry for the silence!

I am very tired at the moment, so this probably won't be very long... :)

But I would like to apologize for the lack of communication and information here lately. Life has been pretty crazy around this place - work has kept me quite busy in all the hours that I'm not sleeping or taking care of my babies, and when I would have a few minutes of time where I did have the chance to write a sentence or two, my computer decided to revolt against me, and I could not get it to allow me to get on my blog page! :P So alas...it has taken me a while to get here.

Anyway, please know that lots of great things have been happening here lately! :) Namely, God has been writing my book with me again - lots of brainstorming and late night typing has been happening here lately! :) And it is EXCITING!!! :D So far, I have the title of the book, 15 chapter titles, and the general idea of all 15 chapters - along with a life story for each chapter, and lots of good thoughts, quotes and ideas colliding! :) Yay! :)

I have pictures from Samantha and David's baptism last Sunday, but I won't be putting them up tonight. I really must be making my way to bed soon... :)

Alrighty then. I thank you for putting up with me even when I am not writing or saying very much...or anything at all really... :) And thank you for always loving and encouraging me!

Love you all dearly!
Have an awesome rest of the week! :)

The Birthday Celebration! :)

The weekend of Samantha's 13th birthday brought a ton of fun our (Samantha, Davis and I) way! Sharon and David were gone from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, being part of a poverty simulation for their Elevate class. We made the most of our weekend! :)

We started out with pedicures! Wonderful fun! :) We thoroughly enjoyed our pampering! :)

Here's a picture of Samantha enjoying every single second! :)









Davis enjoyed it as much as we did! :) He absolutely loved the massage chair! We were there for a little over an hour, and the people taking care of us never let them stop massaging! It was wonderful!
















Here are all of our lovely toes! :)

Samantha and I have flowers and jewels! :)

















Then we headed to Target to shop for all of our weekend treats and goodies! :)

We came home and made dinner, and then started on Samantha's Sunshine Coconut Cake! :)

Here is the batter, split and ready to go into the oven! :)







And here are the finished layers!


















And here are the layers with the lemon filling spread between them.

(I'm sorry Marcia - I just couldn't figure out how to successfully split all of the layers to make 6...I'm sorry! :( )









And here it is with the HARD AS A ROCK icing on it, and the clumped up coconut clumped up ALL OVER it! :P












And here are my little loves posing with the beautiful cake! Lol

Yes...we do only have one candle in it! We were a little afraid that if we put all 13 that the cake would crumble and be completely inedible! :P Lol

However, both the kids loved the cake, even in all of the icky glory...and in the end...that's all that really matters anyway... :)









BLOW! :)



















And here it is after the cut was made! :)

















And here is Spooky - a puppy that thoroughly enjoyed all of his fun with us that weekend! And enjoyed sleeping right in the middle of us both nights! :)

Yes...he is just a tad bit spoiled! And that is just fine! :)







We cleaned their rooms on Saturday, because it poured down rain all Friday night and all day Saturday. They went through all of their stuff and made piles of what they wanted to keep, and what could go in the "Yard Sale for Thailand" pile. We then rearranged both of their rooms, and did a thorough cleaning job! :)
We cooked lunch and dinner, and then settled in for a viewing of High School Musical 3 :)

Sunday, we went to church, and then headed to Olive Garden (thank you Mama for treating us!) for lunch. After that we went and hung out in a deserted corner of the Lowe's parking lot and played a game that Samantha and Davis had learned at LifeGroup the week before! :) We had a BLAST!!! :D