short post about silly things...to come.

My nieces are here for a visit.



Yep. Those nieces.

My brother's daughters, Anna Woods - 4, and Mary Neal - almost 2, who, have a funny way of crawling right.

into.

your heart.

They're here while their Mama and Daddy are in Mobile, AL playing in a tennis tournament. And I know my mother is just OVER the moon with excitement that her grandbabies get to stay with her for at least, 3 whole days. :)



A-dub (what I sometimes call Anna Woods) told me last night that she was going to 'make' me something with Hadley's play kitchen. So...she made me Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the stove. While 'making' the cereal, which involved 'heating' a plate on the stove and then pouring the contents in a bowl, she said "I've never had Cinnamon Toast Crunch before, but I've heard it's really yum." Hysterical!



She also told us that she has to wake up in the mornings to eat because she's "HONGRY!" Yes...hon-gry. Which, I equate to being really hungry. :)

Oh, and I almost forgot that the cereal-making above, was done in pajamas and plastic dress-up heels that made her look ADORABLE. Even more so than she already is. She also sat down across from me in a little red plastic chair (you know what I'm talking about, those kind at every church and nursey and daycare the world over) and crossed her legs like she was a little lady. I guess it was hysterical to me because she had those heels on.



Meanwhile, Mary Neal is just hanging out in the background. She's a girl of few words (probably because she can't get any in edgewise with AW around).



She does like to put people's shoes back on them, as she tried to do with me. We'll see if I can get her to talk a little bit over the next few days.



And just so Hadley won't feel left out, I included this picture of her and MN (who is evidently breaking it down). I don't love Hadley less, but I do get to see her almost every day. So...as a disclaimer, Hadley is just as cute as the other nieces, I just get to hear it all the time with her (She's started saying 'Hey baby' recently and it cracks me up.). Oh, and I'll also point out that Mary Neal (on the right in the picture) is a month YOUNGER than Hadley.

I'll also point out that all three of my nieces have double-names (Anna Woods, Mary Neal, Hadley Grace). So, it's a DN party.

I'll stop pointing things out now.

This post was just to whet your appetite of the funny (and silly) things and cute pictures I'll have to post about next week. Aren't you looking forward to it? I mean...really, who doesn't love a post about cute kids and crazy things they say? :)

Until next week!

P.S. All these pictures are from Thanksgiving 2009. All 3 of my neices are even cuter now!! :)

P.P.S. I think being an aunt is one of the greatest things on the planet. :D

birthdays, microwaves, etc.

It's my sister's birthday today!! She's the big 22! I thought about it this morning and it made me feel OLD. She also had her 'last first day of a college semester' today. She'll be graduating in May and I CAN'T believe it. Really...it hasn't sunk in yet. :( But I hope she had a GREAT day! One of her really good friends threw her a celebratory dinner tonight and I'm sad I couldn't make it up to Conway for it. You see, Sarah knew they were having a dinner but she didn't know that guests were supposed to go to the Goodwill store and get a tacky shirt and wear it to the dinner! It all stemmed from the purchase of the shirt she has on in the picture below. She got that...shirt, from the Goodwill and wears it ALL THE TIME. She's quite proud of it. Toya and I (and just about everyone else in our family) find the shirt atrocious. But...Sarah likes it so, I guess it's okay.



This picture was taken while Toya and Sarah were out shopping one day. It's also Sarah's Facebook profile picture. We hate it...even though my sister is so cute that she even looks cute in ugly clothes. You know those people? She's one of them.



Sarah and I on New Year's Eve! We're so sweet. :)

TOMORROW (the 15th) is one of my best friend's birthdays. Margaret will be 23!!!! OH MY GOSH. Margaret, if you're reading this, you're 23!! That's crazy too. Margaret and I go way back. You see, she used to be one of Sarah's best friends but then I stole her and made her my friend. We even lived together for a summer during college. She always talks about how she's sure she was a bad roommate, but she wasn't :) Margaret and I MIGHT be living together again soon! We don't know yet. We'll see. But I know it'd be so much fun :)



This picture is from when Margaret and Emily (another one of Sarah's friends that I kind of made into one of my friends) visited me in Dallas last March. We were sitting on 635 in Dallas at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon and the traffic was gridlocked. Don't ask me how...I always thought 635 was more of a parking lot than a freeway, but, anyway, Margaret opens up my sunroof and takes a picture (you can see me in the background laughing. She is crazy!! :)



This picture is from February of 2007 when Margaret and I went up to Conway to see Building429 in concert at Sarah and Em's school. Evidently I thought it was a goofy picture and she was serious, for once. See, Margaret likes to act crazy in pictures. I don't know why. She also likes to jump into pictures. She's a camera hog I guess! :) Hog or not, I love her!! Happy birthday Marge!!

Last, but not least, I finally have a MICROWAVE!! I've been without a microwave since moving back to Mississippi and, while I haven't used it yet, I know it's going to make life easier. Some of the teenage girls from church had a slumber party at my house back in November and when I told them I didn't have a microwave, they didn't know how to react. They asked how I cooked anything. I thought it was quite funny. But, this couple that I go to church with (who's (step)son and daughter-in-law are some of my best friends and new neighbors) got rid of there's and bought a new one. Molly (the daughter-in-law) knew I didn't have a microwave so she called me up and asked if I still needed one! SO...there's a new addition to the kitchen. I hear it has a mind of it's own and that I'll probably become frustrated with it quite easily, but hey, a finnicky microwave is better than no microwave at all, right? :)



My 'new-to-me' microwave! Thanks Ms. Pam and Mr. Tracy! :)

I apologize for the 'look' of this post. Blogger is being crazy and I can't center and format things. Craziness. Enjoy anyway! :)

P.S. There seem to be a lot of :) in this post. I guess talking about birthdays and free microwaves makes me happy! :)

just DANCE.

So, as you can see we now have a different blog background! I think it's SO hip and retro. Everybody clap for the pretty stripes!! It's very...80's I feel. And I should know the 80's because I was born then. Anyway...I've also added some 'blinkies' and one of them is what inspired this post. It is not, however, inspired by Lady Gaga. Or maybe it is. I don't know.

If you scroll down below 'My Favorites', there's a blinky that says, "Life isn't about waiting for the storms to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." I saw it when I was scouring the internet for something to make my blog pretty and fun because it was getting quite boring. Well, when I saw it, I kept thinking, "Boy, I sure have been seeing a lot of things about dancing."

No lie.

Last Friday I stumbled upon 'Stuff Christians Like'. And somehow got to read this post about wishing there was a Christian version of Lady Gaga. Well, I thought it was hysterical, because it's exactly right. Lady Gaga is, as Sarah says, scandalous!! I don't care how catchy her tunes are, (and believe me, they're catchy), her lyrics are quite scandalous. Sarah had never heard of her (have I mentioned that my sister is quite...ummm...sheltered? In a good way though). I sang the chorus of 'Just Dance!' to her and I was completely into it and moving my head and once I finished, she simply said, "Nope, never heard it." So, this is not my point...bear with me.

Today, I was reading something over at The Gypsy Mama and it linked to another one of her posts which linked to something ELSE on SCL. And I read it and thought.

He's exactly right.

If you haven't gone and read the 'else' link above, go read it now before reading the rest of this.

I've turned God into a God associated with sadness, hard times in the valleys and everything else that Jon said way better. I don't think I've ever danced wildy with Him.

For Him.

At something He's done.

Sure, I was happy when He blessed me way beyond what I could ever imagine. But did I dance?

No way.

Maybe because Baptists aren't supposed to dance. (I'm only kidding).

I don't really know why, but, it's true.

The first thing that came to mind was the song 'Dancing Generation'. I love the song but at youth camps or during Souled Out, I never jump up and down when everyone else is singing. I love these lyrics from that song:

It's the overflow of a forgiven soul
and now we've seen You God.
Our hearts cannot stay silent!

The picture at the top shows Aaron Carter and his dancing partner, Karina Smirnoff, from the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars. I had never watched the show before this fall, but when I moved home, my mom and sister got me hooked. One reason that I didn't particularly like Aaron is because he always seemed so spastic in his dancing! I mean, that guy never appeared to really be in control of his body. Seriously...if you don't believe me, scroll back up and look at that picture.

Well, as much as I didn't like him then, I want to be like him dancing before the Lord.

All spastic and out of control with joy and love for Him.

Even in the storms of life.

That being said, don't expect me to dance (literally) anytime the Lord blesses me. But I want my soul to dance.

Father, help me to be like David, dancing before you in praise.

"David...danced with great abandon before GOD."
- II Samuel 6:14, The Message

So maybe we should listen to Lady Gaga this one time.

And just dance.

**UPDATE : I published this post as I was walking out the door leaving work. The FIRST thing I heard when I got in my car was Hillsong United's 'Break Free'. Go and watch the video. Is that not crazy? I'm telling you. God wants me to dance!!

P.S. Darlene Zschezch is DANCING ain't she?! :)

i love the snow. even if it's cold.

It snowed in Mississippi yesterday!! Yes...it actually really snowed. Big, fat, falling from the sky snowflakes made their way to the ground and what's even more...they stuck!! You don't know how excited I was about the snow.

You see, for at least the past 2 1/2 years, whenever I've lived someplace, it would always snow when I wasn't there. When I lived in Dallas it would snow there, while I was working for the week in Albuquerque. When it would snow in Albuquerque, I'd be in Dallas (umm...hello...I was in Albuquerque for 2 1/2 months of WINTER last year...and it didn't snow). THEN, once I moved to Mississippi, it snowed in Dallas...like...three times. So, you can see how I'd be STOKED over it snowing in Mississippi. It was only an inch, inch and a half, but it was plenty to have fun in! See the pictures below! :)

This is what I got to walk out my front door to see!! AHHH!!!!

My house in the pretty snow! Have I mentioned before that I love my house?? (Yes...I know I have..that was a rhetorical question.) I had a dream the other night that the lady I was renting it from sold it out from under me and I could only live there 2 more months. It was a sad dream!

I don't know why, but I really like this picture of a tree. Yes...a tree. it's just, very symmetrical to me, it seems.

Looking down my road towards the church. Love it!

Don't really know why I love this pic, but I do. It reminds me of something I've seen before, but I can't figure out what.

I went over to Mama and Daddy's and Scott entertained us by throwing snowballs at the big picture window. Hadley was like, OH MY GOSH (of course she didn't say that, she's doesn't know those words yet), but, to me, that's what it looks like she saying in this picture :)

Sarah and Scott took a break from getting pummeled by snowballs (by me) to pose for a picture. Can I just ask what my sister has on? I mean...really. I think what's even sadder is that I kind of like it...don't judge me. Judge her! ;)

Favorite picture of the day!! I really like this pic. So much so that I made it my Facebook profile picture. I'm in the plaid boots, Sarah's in the polka dots, and Scott's in the...other ones. I have a funny (read...sad) story about rain boots. I'll have to share it sometime.

Scott wrote on Daddy's car. I love this pic of him. He looks so happy. Maybe that's why I like snow...it seems to make people happy :) Also, Scott was eating some of the snow and I told him not to eat the yellow snow...he looked at me and asked what that meant. Ha! :)

One of my other favorite pictures from the day. Isn't is pretty? This is the storage shed out at my parent's house. I think the colors are really pretty in this one.

On a non-snow note, please say a prayer for the Austin Davis family. This is a family at church that I've known for a long time and Austin passed away yesterday after battling cancer. What is even sadder is that he'd only known about the cancer since about late October/early November and they thought they were going to be able to beat it but it had spread to his brain. He was only 29 (perhaps 30) years old and leaves behind a wife and son. Please pray that God's peace and comfort be with them!

On another non-snow note, Sarah leaves to head back to school tomorrow :(
Her last semester of college.
Color me depressed.

Happy Friday everybody!!! Yay for Fridays!!

what's in a name?

I was asked by my sweet sister the other day why my blog address was reb2911. And, I figured some of you might be wondering the same thing (or not, but, just appease me on this one, k?). I'm not the most creative person, although I try, but...it's just not there like some people have it. I've always been jealous of those types (you know, the ones who take some paint, popsicle sticks and tape and make something gorgeous?!? we all know them, my friend Adrienne, is just one of the many that come to mind.) Well..yeah, I'm not one of them. And I'm okay with that! Really!

Anyway, I've gotten off topic, well, being my non-creative self, I shortened Rebekah (reb) and thought of one of my favorite verses (Jeremiah 29:11). So...there you have it - reb2911. The 'reb' part is easy, but accepting the truth of that verse is a lot harder.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

It's a struggle every day to remember that God has plans for me...and they are way better than the plans I have for myself. It's coming to the end of myself every day and choosing to accept God's way rather than my own. I'm imperfect and mostly, fail miserably, but I try anyway. God's really shown me that the past couple of days, how I just need to take hold of His hand and follow Him every day, surrendering myself to His plans and His hope for me. I'm trying harder now than I've ever tried before and trying, not in my own strength, but His.

Because He's better than I could ever hope or dream to be.