Women of Faith 2009

Rebekah and I had a wonderful time at Women of Faith this year! Once again, we were blessed to be able to sit in the box on the Platinum Level of the arena. This was perfect for having Rebekah with me, because we had an assortment of comfortable seating and floor space to lay out a pallet. I took 2 baby slings and the Bjorn and wore her about the conference, getting lots of smiles and "awwww"s and lots of older women saying, "I wish we had something like that when my babies were little!"

When asked what my favorite part of the weekend was, it was so hard to pick just one thing....

The concert by Steven Curtis Chapman rates HIGH on my list. He's my all time favorite artist ever and just keeps getting better. If I'm ever able to see him again, I'm there!

Marilyn Meberg told some hilarious jokes. The personal testimonies we heard were very encouraging. The music was amazing - the praise & worship, Mandisa, and of course, SCC. Getting away from most of the kids was refreshing, too. And then when I came home...

I came home to clean children, a clean kitchen, clean towels, a cleaned out garden, and

a new faucet so I don't have to drag a water hose across the front yard to water the garden & animals, AND

three new raised beds in the garden!!! So I can grow more stuff next year! My darling hubby was quite busy while I was gone, wasn't he?!?! He also added some bracing on this year's beds so that hopefully they'll last another year. All the beds are built with left over materials from the house construction and the 2 I built were just not that sturdy. He started filling them with dirt, too, but lost a tire on the little trailer & wasn't able to finish hauling it.

So, wow, I had a great weekend away and came home to a wonderful gift from my husband. Thank you and I love you, too!

Company Girl Coffee on the Road

I'll have a decaf white chocolate mocha to go this morning, 'cuz I'm on my way to

Yeah!!! I go every year with my mom & sister-in-law and this year Rebekah will take her turn to attend Women of Faith. Elizabeth went with me in 2007 and David went in 2004 before I became a blogger.

I am so excited that Steven Curtis Chapman will be there this year! I have ALWAYS wanted to see him in concert, but this will be my first chance. Stay tuned for pictures when I get home!

Garden Note - I started pulling up the tired plants this week. It was just time.

Going at Break Neck Speed!

OK, I know I am so behind! It will all make sense soon! Here's just a touch of what's gone on since I last blogged:

Finished the tile in the mech room, kids bathroom, and one of the closets. There's David checking out the bathroom tile.

We got the second half of the laminate flooring to the house & unloaded it. Picked out & ordered the wood burning stove. Picked out & had delivered the vanity cabinets, tops, and matching mirrors for both bathrooms. (and found them all on clearance, saving a TON of money!) We've been to lots of tile/flooring stores trying to agree on and get all the tile we need for the master bath floor & shower. And we purchased the remaining cattle troughs that we'll be using for the back retaining wall. Electricians got all the lights & fans up. The wood stove we went with didn't require as large a floor space as the first one, so Dad adjusted the hearth and designed a new floor. Refrigerator/freezer and range were delivered today and the cabinet man says one more week before the cabinets are ready... which will cause a delay on the flooring.

We did a lot of clean-up (because apparently nobody can clean up their own mess) and Grandpa has been helping with haul-off and dirt work outside the house. His tractor & Mr. Nick's trailer have been a great help for work on the retaining walls, dirt work and clean-up! Grandma's babysitting has been invaluable as well, freeing me up to work at the house in the mornings.

OK... now we'll backtrack to a couple of weekends ago... I forgot to post any photos from the carnival at the Old Settler's Reunion! So here are some of my favorite photos from that:

Of course, we had to have a funnel cake. David wouldn't even try it, but Elizabeth loved it! The white stuff on her face is powdered sugar from her first funnel cake! We wore out before the fiddle contest.

This past weekend Grandma & I took off to enjoy a wonderful weekend at the Women of Faith Conference! We had a great time at the conference, hotel and dining out! Here we are Saturday before we left the conference:

Sunday was promotion day at church & all of us had new classes to attend! David's class was HUGE, so I wonder if they're going to need to break his age into another class (there's already 2 classes of 4 yo's) and we stopped by Elizabeth's former class to let them know that she was walking! They were very excited to hear it & sad that she was promoting to the next class.

Women of Faith 2007

This weekend, I got to go on a refreshing getaway to the Women of Faith Conference in Dallas. I got to order food I wanted to eat, go to the bathroom by myself, and take a shower uninterrupted! : ) Oh, and the conference was good, too!

(above) Nichole Johnson performed some very deep & moving dramas.

Sheila Walsh was one of the speakers for the Friday pre-conference, speaking on God Has a Dream for Your Life. This year's theme conference theme was Amazing Freedom.

As always, we enjoyed some wonderful praise & worship times. The American Airlines Center was sold out to 16,000 women, and another 3,000 overflowed into Reunion Arena.

Elizabeth attended the conference with me. Here she is napping with Aunt Wee.

We were able to sit in a private box, thanks to someone's uncle's company owning the box & sharing the tickets with us. This gave us plenty of room to move around, stretch, and have some tummy time while we were there!

Luci Swindoll was the last speaker of the event. I think my favorite speaker or performer had to be Anita Renfroe, though. She was hilarious, taking topics that can make a woman's life everyday/boring and turning it into a joy! If you ever get to see her perform or see one of her DVD's, you'd better not miss it!!!

We took another picture without the windows behind us, but I still liked this one best! Don't we look like we've been having fun? Sometimes I think you just need to get away for a little bit. I think it makes me a better mom when I get back home.

Sling Me Some Advise!

I'm really not sure if I'm wearing this pouch sling correctly. Click on the LITTLE photo for the original version & a couple of other views of the sling. Can anyone give me some tips?

She likes to lean forward & it kept feeling like she was going to fall out when I tried it at the store tonight. So then I turned her around like the hip carry pictures I'd seen & I just couldn't get that one at all.

I really want to get this figured out before I go to Women of Faith later this month! Once I get the hang of how to wear it, I know I'm going to love this sling. It's so much more compact than the Bjorn and the Mei Tai that I have - perfect for our trip bag & crowded hallways at the conference.

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If you'd like to see more beautiful slings like this one, or get one for yourself, visit Beth at Drew Baby Designs! She's got a great selection of gorgeous fabric and very reasonable prices. Tell her onemotherslove sent you! : )

Photo Tag: Show Us Your Shoes

Who knew taking a picture of your feet could be so fun!!?

My all time favorite for any season has to be a cheap pair of Old Navy flip flops. I got these last summer during buy one, get one 1/2 price!

But when I know I'm going to need a little more support, I wear my Sketchers. These are the comfiest tennie shoes I've ever had! I got these when I was pregnant with Elizabeth, about to attend a Women of Faith Conference (lots of walking), and fixin' to start teaching at Mother's Day Out (7 hours on my feet). They're wonderful. The right one is loose now, though, because that foot got so swollen during pregnancy.

Every time I leaned over to take a picture of my feet, a cat seemed to think I was about to feed them or something!

See more Photo Tag at Adventures in Babywearing.