Thankful Thursday – Houston Day 1

May 31, 2012
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This Thankful Thursday I am thankful for my longtime friend Jessica! We met when we were 13 and although we haven’t lived in the same town since we were 15, we have stayed in touch and friends all these years. For that special friendship I am so grateful.

So when Jessica sent me a message saying she was going to be in Houston for a conference in May, my first thought was “WOO HOO!” Once she got the details, I planned to take the girls down to Houston to see her since she had never met Amelie and it had been 2 years since Nadia and I had seen her. I was literally counting the days for this visit! Thursday morning swim lessons were canceled due to a big storm and so the girls and I left town about an hour earlier than we planned. The girls did so well on the drive down that we only had to stop once! It was amazing! We picked Jessica up at her hotel and headed over the Houston Aquarium since they have a little outside area. We planned to have dinner, but the girls really needed to burn off some energy. We walked around the open areas inside the building including a restaurant where you can dine while looking at the big fish tanks.

May 31, 2012

May 31, 2012

This photo does not do justice to how very BIG this type of fish was and how many there were.

May 31, 2012

May 31, 2012

Jess got the girls tickets to ride the carousel (notice it’s all water animals – so cute) and here is Nadia pretending to be a croc.

May 31, 2012

Amelie rockin’ the shades.

May 31, 2012

May 31, 2012

After the aquarium we headed over to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. On a side note, their kids meal is a super value and a very kid friendly place. Once dinner was over we called my dad to see if we could swing by there since it was too early to take Jess back to the hotel and his place has a super cool roof view of Houston.

May 31, 2012

Jessica and Amelie.

After a little more visiting and catching up we took Jess back to the hotel since she had early meetings in the morning and I put my very tired children to bed at Papa and Grandma Brooke’s. I was a blessing to see you Jess! Hugs and love from Texas!

Thankful Thursday – Walk for Life

I can’t stand the abortion “discussion” in America.  It’s filled with euphemisms and justifications – terms like unwanted, unplanned, and inconvenient are tossed around to describe human life and pregnancy is treated like a disease. I have watched friend after friend in the last 3 years miscarry their babies and some were VERY far along. I have friends who delivered babies that they knew would not live and they held them in their arms as they died in the hospital. And even knowing the possible outcome they didn’t choose to abort the babies. There are people I know who are doing everything in their power to save their newborn babies and the pain they are facing everyday seems unbearable. The depth of their heartache is overwhelming to me when I hear from the flip side that you are “showing your power as a woman by aborting your baby.”

But I am also a person who believes that those of us who are against abortion should walk the walk. I think we should support women who are lost and confused and not sure what they are going to do. I think we should offer them a REAL choice, not just a choice to end a life and have them carry that scar around with them for the rest of their lives. I think that teen girls should be taught that they are valuable and worthy and it’s really okay if you wait! I think that we should support our local crisis pregnancy centers and encourage people to adopt babies. I think we should LOVE women no matter how they got pregnant.

All of that to say I am Thankful that once again my family and I took part in the Walk For Life last weekend. Our sponsors gave us $810 this year to support real options for women.

Walk For Life 2012
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Walk for Life 2012

Nadia was triking in the middle of the parking lot while I walked.

Walk for Life 2012

Amelie made two loops with me before joining Mike and Nadia in the middle.

Walk for Life 2012

Amelie’s favorite part? Her and Nadia got snacks at the end.

Walk for Life 2012

THANK YOU to all of our sponsors this year! God Bless you for your faithfulness and putting your money where your beliefs are.

Thankful Thursday

  • I am thankful for BOOKS! I love books!!!!
  • Thankful I can read.
  • Thankful I have money to buy books.
  • Thankful for free books on my Kindle.
  • Thankful for our AMAZING library system.
  • Thankful for BOOKS!!

Do you love books?