Tuesdays top 10

one ~ Jesus L♥VES you...This I know!

two~ My DH is gone this week *sniff sniff*

three~ I won't have Rylee today :( I have to wait til Friday! My DH ~ her papa didn't want to miss her since he is gone but will be home then so she will be here on Friday....I can't wait :) double to look forward too!!

four ~ I only have 2 more weeks of Physical Therapy....I will miss those girls sooo much! They have become more than just therapists! They are friends and Prayer Warriors!

five ~ It is amazing how much energy I have getting up @ 6am to workout but boy I was ready for bed by 7:30 LOL

six ~ Cannot wait to share my next book review with you guys....This book is a MUST READ!!! SERIOUSLY!

seven ~ making fresh green beans and new potatoes in the crock pot today! YUM plus they are low in calories! :) double winner

eight ~ It is a rainy week this week and we had lots of storms last night....No tornadoes here, Praise the Lord! There was 5 deaths in Oklahoma City and around Norman ~ pray for those families! I can't even imagine what they must be going through.

nine ~ Sunday (Mothers Day) would have been my Dads birthday....I miss him so very much. Normally my brother and I would have spent the week in Florida and attended the TPC Sawgrass Golf Tournament with Daddy. We haven't been home for mothers day in quite a few years. Some days are just really hard! Today while I was at Sams I ran into an old friend who is now a Nurse for Cancer Treatment Centers of America. She knew I had lost Dad and she just listened to me as I shared his final days. She shared some things that really helped me and gave me a peace about those final days and hours. It was truly a Divine appointment! Thank you Lord for allowing me that opportunity! I LOVE how you LOVE ME!

ten ~ Here are some pics my daughter took of the stormy sky last night! She is AWESOME! This was a wicked sky because it was really dark....but look at the color of the sky! WOW!









Love to you all!

Mothers Day and the Shred Begins!

I pray everyone had a blessed Mothers Day! I had such a wonderful day. We went out together with my Mom and Stepdad and my Brother and his girls as well.

My Beautiful Momma



Jen, Me and Mom


My brother, Mom and I


The clan


The OH SO SILLY clan :)


later Krista, Casey and Rylee came over to spend the afternoon with us



My kids made me rocks to go in my garden that they decorated and then I got a coffee mug from Rylee with pictures of all of us and her all over it! I love everything Thank you KIDS! My husband sent me Saturday to get my hair done. I got it cut and colored...Rachel spent 3 hours with me and I love my new hair cut and the color looks great! Thank you Honey ♥

My Mom got me some new work out clothes as tomorrow I begin the 30 Day Shred with all my Shred Sisters! We have started a new blog so you can follow our journey if you would like! Go here to follow us and encourage us if you will! I am so excited/scared to begin this! We have a GREAT GROUP OF WOMEN doing this Shred together and I am blessed to be a part of it!

Here is my before Pic....I have 35 lbs. to lose!


Happy Monday everyone

Happy Mothers Day!

I saw this and just HAD to share it here with you all!


I pray everyone has a blessed Mothers Day weekend....I know some don't have their Mothers' with them and miss them very much. Some still long to be a Mother, while others that time has passed. I pray for each and every one of you ~ May you find Comfort in the LORD and experience HIS Presence anew!

Please visit Spiritual Sundays here. Thank you Charlotte and Ginger for being beautiful women of God and leading this each and every week! You inspire me always!

Love and Blessings to you all!

TGIF ~ Mothers Day Fun

So glad it is Friday....I can tell by everyones post what a busy week it has been and no doubt the weekend will prove to be even busier! I pray you have a blessed weekend, and a Beautiful Mothers Day! Won't you come join us over @ Kim's for Friday Funnies!

Funny quotes for MOthers Day.... enjoy :)

My Mother taught me about 'anticipation.'
"Just wait until your father gets home."

My Mother taught me to 'meet a challenge.'
"What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you! Don't talk back to me!"

My Mother taught me 'logic.'
"If you fall out off that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
You spend a half hour searching for your sunglasses only to have your teenager say, "Mom, why don't you wear the ones you pushed up on your head?"
You hear a baby cry in the grocery store, and you start to gently sway back and forth, back and forth. However, your children are at school!

My mother taught me about 'hypocrisy.'
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

My mother taught me the 'circle of Life.'
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

My mother taught me about 'behavior modification.'
"Stop acting like your father!"

A new spin on Thanks ;)

Well if your came here looking for "THANKS" you may find it in a whole new form. I am joining KMama @ the Daily Dribbles for Thankyou Very Much Thursdays....a form of "Therapy" for some ;)


Thankyou very much to the young woman who checked me in at the Doctors' office yesterday. I arrived 10 min. early since I had such a tight schedule and wanted to make sure it all worked out in time but YOU, yes YOU checked in the person below me and person after person went into their scheduled appt's while I sat there not understanding why after 1 hour I had not been in to see the Doctor!! Oh Yes, thankyou very much!

Thankyou very much MAGGIE for being outside on your leash that you HATE and coming inside after 4 hours only to go potty causing my DH to become VERY UPSET and have to clean up your incredibly Large MESS! Oh ya...thank you very much!



Thank you Gina Holmes the author of the new book I am reviewing for writing such an amazing book Crossing Oceans ~ so amazing in Fact that I could NOT put it down for the 2nd night in a row and only getting a few hours of sleep ~ Yes thankyou very much!



And finally thankyou Biggest Loser videos~ for being such a great way to break in to doing the 30 Day Shred....I am so sore now it hurts to walk....Whatever will I be when I start that? Yes~ thank you all so very much for breaking me in and making ever so sore!

Happy Thank you very much Thursday everyone ;)

Call Me Crazy

About 13 years ago I was a young mom who was overweight and had gone through some medical stuff a few years prior. In 1997 I gave birth to my Son Jantzen in February. But two months prior to his birth I was put on complete and total bedrest due to early labor. I could only lay on my left side and get up to shower and use the restroom. It.was.not.fun. BUT I knew I had to do this to make sure my sweet boy didn't come early. He arrived right on time and I was so happy to be among the living :) Then I had to have a hysterectomy a couple of months later due to some female issues. Then, In June, I was diagnosed with meningitis and was in the hospital for a week receiving antibiotics and pain meds....That was awful! But during that stay my doctor asked my husband if he knew I had a Heart Murmur. He said yes but we have never done anything about it so she told him she wanted to look into it. Come to find out I had a WHOLE in my heart from birth that was now the size of a half dollar (which is really big considering the size of your heart) Since I had this whole for 31 years it also causeD my mitral valve to leak. The doctor told my husband that I would need Open Heart Surgery and that they would have to repair my valve while doing the procedure. All of this was a bit much for my DH to take. He had spent the last few months being EVERYTHING...I MEAN EVERYTHING and now we were looking at Open Heart Surgery???? Really?? I made it through and felt better than I did EVER IN MY LIFE! The doctors told both of us that they truly did not understand how I hadn't had a stroke while giving birth or how I had survived with a whole that big..... The Lord had plans ~ Still does too :)

Anyway a few years later I met with my best friends early in the morning and we began to walk/run and I lost an unbelievable amount of weight. I got down to 117 and felt great! I kept that weight off until about three years ago I was diagnosed with Lupus and the rheumatologist put me on Prednisone. She told me I would most likely gain weight and also that it would be very hard to take it off. She was right. I gained 40 lbs and I HATE IT!

I am so ashamed of how I look. Well, my friend Kim has a group of women who have decided to join her in a weight loss blog and we have all committed to doing Jillian Micheals 30 day shred. We will begin when Kim gets her video. I am so excited yet I am scared to death. I have been very sedentary this past year with everything. Being at my Dads during his cancer treatment and then losing him in December and then you add in my surgery on my shoulder I haven't done much working out. So to say I am going in full force is RIGHT ON! I decided I would start with the Biggest Loser beginner videos while waiting on Kim's video to arrive and have done better than I expected!

If anyone wants to join us Please go visit Kim HERE She will be creating a blog just for this group and we will be contributing and sharing our experiences. Or even if you just want to follow along on this new blog you can do this ~ She is asking for suggestions to name this blog if you have any ideas...

Call me crazy but I am in! better yet ~ just pray for me because the Lord knows I can only do this THROUGH HIM!!

Tuesdays top 10

one ~ Jesus L♥VES You....this I know!

two ~ I think I have gone INSANE! I accepted a challenge from my friend KIM over @ Homesteaders Heart. We will begin doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred in a few days! If you interested in joining go here I am feeling somewhat better since I was able to get through a complete workout today...Biggest Loser and then I stuck in the Dancing with the Stars video and did a bit more :) PHEW!

three ~ My dog Maggie has begun running off from our backyard just this past week! It is causing quite alot of strife.....My other dog Tyson is always on a leash but she has always been sooo good!! There was NEVER a need to leash her....Hope she learns quickly as we will begin the training ASAP!

four ~ Our air conditioner went out on Saturday and Praise the Lord the weather has been in the 70's but still was warm inside this afternoon when I got home. My Sweet and OH SO HANDY Honey was able to replace the compressor and viola' the air conditioner is fixed!! HE is such a blessing! The man can fix ANYTHING!!

five ~ Have you seen "Date night??" with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey. OMG SOOO FUNNY! definitely PG13 though!

six ~ Jenna and I took Rylee on a walk last night and had the best talk.... then came home and she took a bubble bath. Jenna played with her all night and then rocked her to sleep ♥ It is so precious to see them together!

seven ~ Can't wait to see what my good friend Lori has to say about American Idol tonight!! She nails it every week!

eight~ Thanks for all the sweet comments on my new blog look! The credit
goes to Heather at Leelou blogs! She is amazing and has sooo many free templates or you can also choose some of her custom work for as little as 10$!!! She is sooo wonderful to work with! Go over and check her out ....tell her I sent ya :)

nine ~ going to lunch with my childhood Friend Angel on Wednesday! We haven't seen each other in years and reconnected via Facebook a few months ago and are finally going to get together! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE HER in person! :) If you haven't found her blog go over and meet her! You will love her!!

ten ~ Looking forward to spending time today with my Rylee girl. It is suppose to be warm....I think we will plant a few flowers, take a walk, swing, read some books..I just Love my Tuesdays with Rylee♥

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

This weekend I guess I could say the "Spring cleaning bug" officially HIT!!! Can I get an "Amen ~Halleluah!!" or maybe I should get a "It's about time girl!!" LOL

Oh man....As I type I am thinking to myself...."Loren, you know better, you are a blogger and you should have taken before and after pics for your blog!" DRATS! I didn't do it :(


I cleaned out my pantry....IT.WAS.DREADFUL

I cleaned out my fridge....IT.WAS.EMBARASSING

I cleaned out my mud room.....IT.WAS.THE.EASIEST :)

I changed out my closet from Winter to Summer along with my dresser drawers.....I.DREADED.IT.MOST!

THANK YOU Lord for my Sweet Husband who came in just when I was about to give up and helped me finish :) I ADORE THAT MAN OF MINE!!!

For today my clothes hang in the closet all color coordinated AND the clothes in the drawers are folded neatly and IT.FEELS.GOOD!!

We had a good ole Redneck Friday night that I am trying to load the video onto my computer for a later post but it was so much fun....My son, his friend and my DH along with Jenna's boyfriend blew up a giant stuffed horse....IT.WAS.HILARIOUS!

What did you all do this weekend?? Do share and know I love you all!



Happy Monday :)

Spiritual Sundays

I received this in the form of an email this week and wanted to share it with you all here @ Spiritual Sundays. Please join in or head over to read other posts here. You will be blessed more than you know!!

P.S. I am so sorry Clif ~ it is longer than you like ;) Have a blessed weekend everyone!!



You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD..
If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it will just be nice to pass it on to a friend....just like I have done.
God's Blessings

TGIF

While this might not be FUNNY ~ it is ADORABLE and I am pretty sure you will be saying AWWW

Please join Kim here and Happy Friday Everyone