Thankful Thursday

This week, I am dedicating my Thankful Thursday post to my friend, Holly. She is going to be in Tulsa this weekend visiting some family and booked a flight to Dallas for a couple days to see me! She will arrive on Sunday morning and leave Monday night, so it's a short visit, but I couldn't be more excited to see her!

I met her through a CedarCreek home group back in 2005 when I was going through my divorce. She was the first person who really gave me hope that there was life after a divorce - I was surprised to find out that she herself had gone through that mess.

We became good friends and she was such a good sounding board, encourager, source of hope and a fantastic friend through the darkest time of my life. She never told me what to do, but just gave advice when I asked it of her. She didn't judge me and was always there when I needed her.

It's crazy how life has changed since we met. Obviously I moved away to Texas and started a new job in a new stage of my life. Since I left Ohio, she has had 2 babies with her husband Michael and I get to meet her daughter for the first time when she comes to visit - she will only be about 2 months old! I met her son, Isaac, last summer when I was back in Ohio for a visit.

I don't even care if we just sit in my house the whole 2 days she is here - I'm just so thrilled to see her again and catch up face-to-face like we used to do. I am so thankful for her friendship, even though we don't talk as often as we used to. :)

Here's a group of us girls last summer in Ohio - Holly is next to me in the back. Her son is the baby in front.

Wedding Bells in Cowtown

My first thought for a title of this blog post was "Another One Bites The Dust, " but I decided against it. Mayce got married last Saturday in Fort Worth and had a small ceremony that was very pretty.

While her and Todd were in Fort Worth staying in a hotel for a couple days, I dog-sat for Percy (the white maltese - Mayce's dog) and Foster (the heeler - Todd's dog). The three of them were a riot! Usually Percy is drumming up some drama, but this time it was Maggie and Foster!

Here are the 3 Musketeers:

And of course, here are Percy and Foster laying down at my feet like good dogs, minding their own business and Miss Maggie strolling by to cause trouble and rile up the whole bunch. She is SUCH the instigator......

Anyway, back to the event at hand.....Mayce's wedding! I didn't get any good pictures because I was sitting at a very awkward location in the church, but here is one of Todd and Mayce walking out after the ceremony!

They had a small dinner gathering at a Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth afterward and here is Miss Cindy!

Todd & Mayce making their speech....(and yes, that's a different dress she's wearing - I have only seen people have the separate outfit for after the wedding in the movies!)

Here's Mayce and I right before we left - I look like a drowned rat because it was very hot up in that room - the 2nd floor of a restaurant. It was also 97 degrees outside - that didn't help. Oh well!

And here's Mayce & Cindy!

Restless and Agitated

OK, this post is dedicated to just 'being real' and venting about my life lately. I talked to my friend Beth recently and she said "enough of the cute dog pictures - tell us what you really think." OK!

I haven't done many posts in the past few months that are like this - just straight 'telling my mind,' so here goes.......

To be quite honest, I have felt very agitated, restless, irritated and spiritually empty lately. A lot of it comes from the fact that finding a mate has become quite elusive and it really bugs me that others are getting exactly what I want and not even realizing what a precious gift it really is. It irritates me that some people seem to float through life and get everything they want - in the timing that they want. I almost feel like I must be being punished for something I did, and like a parent disciplines their child, God is disciplining me. I just wish I knew what it was that I did and I'll stop doing it!

I have a lot to be thankful for in my life - a great job, a fabulous dog, my own house, wonderful friends, a fantastic childhood/upbringing, etc. The list goes on as far as blessings go, but yet I'm still feeling a huge void in my heart - a void that even friends and a dog cannot fill.....and that void is a mate.

I have just been feeling on-edge a lot lately.......and I am watching a good friend go through a very difficult divorce right now and that just brings back some very sad and angry feelings from when I was navigating my way through that stage of my life. It's just so life-changing and devastating - I just am losing faith in men and people when I keep seeing them act cruel and heartless.

Anyway, I think I need to just hit the floor and start praying like crazy - pray for inner peace, pray for contentment with exactly what I have and exactly where I am, pray for gratitude and a change of attitude, pray for patience, pray for insight, pray for tears if that's what I need to do, pray for answers, etc. The list goes on and on......I better go get started........

Martha Stewart of Flower Mound

Recently, I was able to cross an item off of my 33-list at Cindy's house in Flower Mound (geez - I wish she lived closer! She lives like 15 miles north of work and I live 20 miles south of work). We (well, SHE) made homemade ice cream! She couldn't believe I had never had it before, so she said that she would show me how great it was.

But FIRST, we had to make a homemade (from scratch) german chocolate cake for our friend Ryan's 30th birthday. Here is a picture of Miss Cindy working her magic!

She is serious about cooking - everything has to be from scratch and she has a Kitchen Aid mixer and everything.....

Here she is melting the chocolate!

And the finished product (of which I only helped by separating 2 eggs)! And that's my travel gnome, Paco next to the cake. Since Cindy lives so far away, it qualifies as 'travel' to go to her house, so he had to be in the picture. haha

OK, on to the homemade ice cream........She put all of the ingredients together the night before, so I didn't see that part, but then she got out the ice cream machine and filled the outer edge with ice and fired it up.......

I had no idea that there were modern machines that do this!

When it's done, it's a little bit runny, so you put it in the freezer and then we got to eat it.....

Here I am enjoying the vanilla goodness! I have to admit - it was pretty great! Thanks, Cindy!

Gotta Love The Pups

I know some of you think I'm crazy for loving animal pictures as much as I do, but they make me happy and I always melt at the cute dog ones. So in this world of chaos, if animal pictures give me warm fuzzies, I'm stickin' with 'em (even if they involve cats)!

I think Maggie would jump through the window if she saw a doggie ice cream cone like this!

Wow - those are some serious jowels!

Very sweet buddies!

Wow - now that's ambition!

Teamwork at its finest!

Even cuter teamwork!

Wow - how's that for color matching?!

I wish Maggie were a water dog! So cute!

Ummmmm....not even sure what to say about this one. I guess the K-9 units are friendly to wildlife?!

Sibling rivalry at its finest!

I see you!

Ummmm...I don't think you're going to get a good tan.........

Contortionist extraordinaire!

What a sweet buddy!

Wow - now THAT'S some destruction!

Thankful Thursday

This edition of Thankful Thursday is going to look a little different. Last week, I didn't even do Thankful Thursday due to the fact that I was in kind of a funk and a crabby mood and I didn't feel very thankful about anything.

Well, this week I decided to post a picture that I took a couple weeks ago up in Lewisville - a double rainbow! I have been struggling with restlessness and agitation lately and I have quite honestly felt spiritually empty for about a month now. I'm not sure why, but I am aware of it and want this drought to come to an end.

Well, when I was up in Lewisville, there was an absolute DOWNPOUR of epic proportions and then when it was over, I saw this absolutely spectacular rainbow. It was the brightest, biggest rainbow I have ever seen in my life (the picture doesn't come close to doing it justice). And it was a full rainbow - end to end......and if you look closely, it's also a DOUBLE rainbow!

Anyway, I thought that maybe it was a sign from God that He IS still out there and that He still cares about my desires, my worries, my sorrows and my joys......it was amazing - and both ends of the full, complete rainbow were churches! The 2 'pots of gold' at the ends fell right into 2 churches! WOW - what a sign that God is still in control and unfolding His plan. It was such an amazing sight.....I hope that realization helps pull me out of this spiritual funk.....

Cowboys and Cowgirls

So after Cooper's with April and her friend, we HAD to go to the rodeo!

See - I've got my boots on and I'm ready for the rodeo!

I love going to the Stockyards and the rodeo is so cool. It's the country's first indoor rodeo and has a lot of historical significance. Also the first radio broadcast of a rodeo was done from inside the Cowtown Coliseum. Cool!

My favorite part - the national anthem girl!

The girl and that horse looked so regal - I just love it.

And right before the national anthem, they always play Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" and she races around the perimeter of the rodeo ring with that flag flying - amazing. I would go to the rodeo just for that!

Alright, bring on the bull action! Look at all of those hats - all in one picture!

All of the cowboys are looking for 8 seconds on that bull!

Gettin' the rider ready for the next bull. Sometimes the bull will just sit down and not cooperate!

And here we go!

But my favorite event at the rodeo is the barrel racing by the girl riders. It's so pretty to see those horses in action.

Holy Meat!

About a week ago, April had a friend in town from Kansas (where she's from) and that friend wanted to do the whole rodeo/Billy Bob's routine. Well, of course I was in! Any excuse to go to the stockyards and wear my cowboy boots!

Before we went to the rodeo, we tried a new barbecue place across the street from Billy Bob's. We had heard a lot about it, so we gave it a whirl. It's called Cooper's.

I must say, though, that Hard 8 is WAY better. Same concept, but just WAY better food. Oh well - we tried it!

I thought this was a cute touch, though - different 'brands' that were imprinted in the cement of the sidewalk out front!

The outside area of Cooper's was pretty neat, though - live music and you could take your food out there and listen to the music while you ate.

Look at this menu - do you think it's vegetarian friendly?? I think not! The meat was excellent, though. I had the chopped beef sandwich - very good.

April got the chicken - and it was FREAKING HUGE!

Overall, we had a great time there, but I still think Hard 8 is better. So that's where I'm going to continue to take my out-of-town guests!