Ask A Way Wednesday: "I want to know about Texas."

Rose left a comment two weeks ago on my post "Ask A Way Wednesday." She wanted to know a little about the great state of TEXAS

Hope you enjoy!!!A Little History:
“During the period of 1519 to 1865, parts of Texas were claimed by six countries: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of america. Texian settlers launched the Texas Revolution in October 1835. The Alamo is located in San Antonio. It is where Texas defenders fell to Mexican General Santa Anna and the phrase "Remember the Alamo" originated. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and the state's most popular historic site.

The Revolution ended in April 1836, when Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was captured after the Battle of San Jacinto. For the next nine years, Texas governed itself as an independent country, the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas was annexed to the United States, becoming the 28th state."

Fun Facts About Texas:
1. Captital: Austin
2. Nickname: Lone Star State
3. Motto: Friendship-The Word “Texas” comes from a word used by the Caddo Indians meaning "friends". It is friendly here...we wave, we hug, we look you straight in the eye and say, "Hi!"
4. State Flower: Bluebonnet

5. State Animal: Armadillo
6. The King Ranch in Texas is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
7. Austin is considered the live music capital of the world.
8. Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The Dublin Dr Pepper, 85 miles west of Waco, still uses pure imperial cane sugar in its product. There is no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper.
9. The worst natural disaster in United States history was caused by a hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. Over 8000 deaths were recorded.
10. Texas possesses three of the top ten most populous cities in the United States. These towns are Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.
11. El Paso is closer to Needles, California than it is to Dallas.
12. More land is farmed in Texas than in any other state.
13. More species of bats live in Texas than in any other part of the United States.
14. Texas is the nation's leading producer of oil, natural gas, beef, sheep, goats, wool, cotton, rice...and, oh yes, watermelons.
15. Today, approximately 20 million people live in Texas, only slightly outnumbering its 16 million cattle. Texas today is also home for about 2.5 million deer and 200,000 alligators.
16. The land area of Texas is larger than all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois combined. Texas is 7.4% of the nation's total area. It extends 801 miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west.

More on where I live in Texas coming soon!!!

***It is not too late to get your ???'s in for "Ask A Way Wednesday" where the readers get to decide what we talk about every Wednesday. You can ask about anything and everything. Check back here next Wednesday to get an answer to Paige's question.

Come on, come on..leave me a comment.

Please!!!

You know you want to. Ha!!!

I just love comments...it's almost as exciting as getting a letter in the mail!!!

Biggest Loser - One more week!!!

This is the LAST WEEK OF THE BIGGEST LOSER CHALLENGE - BLOGGIN' STYLE!!!

Psalm 37:23-24 NLT

"The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He DELIGHTS IN EVERY DETAIL OF THEIR LIVES. Though they stumble, the will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."

I just thought this verse was extremely encouraging. There is NO DETAIL of my life that God does not care about...not even one!!!

WOW!!!

To know the Creator of the Earth, ELOHIM, loves me that much cause a flood of peace to just wash over me!!!

It's That Time:

Name: Dawn

Weight +/- : Lost 3 pounds =)

Goal for the last week (let's all finish STRONG):

I want to try and do the "30 Day Shred by Jillian" every day and drink at least 80 oz. of water a day!

Prayer Request: Ronnie and I are looking for a church home. Sundays are VERY hard for me because I miss my old "church family". God has been directing our steps, and it was His will that we leave our old church. However, I am ready to get "planted" somewhere SOON!!!

Your Turn:

Did You Hear That?

Did you hear the roaring of the engines at your house? You should have...my ears are still ringing. SURPRISINGLY, I loved it; I REALLY LOVED WATCHING THE BOYS FACES DURING THE RALLY. We went to the Monster Truck Rally in Lubbock last night.

This truck was the best, but had a mechanical problem after the first round. Ronnie and Jim discussed the "problem" last night, but my knowledge of monster trucks, engines, and suspension is extremely limited, so I am going with the broad term "mechanical problem" Ha!
(Yes, the truck's name is "Nasty Boy". I told Drew they probably named the truck "Nasty Boy" because it was so dirty. =)

The blue/pink one was Ronnie's pick from the start, and it ended up doing the best after the blue truck bowed out. Kade picked the red truck because Red is his favorite, and Drew picked the green truck (bottom pic) because he loves John Deere.
Kade, Drew, and Haydn (Amanda and Jim's son) watching the trucks. They played in the dirt most of the night with their own toy monster trucks. Ronnie, Jim, Amanda and I enjoyed "people watching" as much as we enjoyed watching the trucks. It definitely was entertaining.
Loud engines, smashing cars, near crashes/roll overs, and wheelies made for one awesome night.
I have a feeling this will be the first of many truck rallies for me.
I LOVE IT!!!

***If anyone has the following books feel free to send them to me: Monster Trucks for Dummies, Engines for Dummies, Hunting for Dummies, Guns for Dummies, etc. I have a feeling this "Mama of two boys" is going to need to get "educated" on these subjects. =)

Just a little craft project...

I just finished a project for the Walk to Emmaus coming up in November.

Each of the seven tables with participants will have an assigned name in the conference room. These sign's will help the participants (a.k.a. pilgrims) find their table.

Poor Holly suffered some serious burns from the hot glue gun this morning while she was wrapping the vases. I think even with our small budget these signs turned out pretty stinkin' cute.

Drew said, "Mom, I like your belly buttons."
(He was referring to the marbles in the middle of the bow.)
Ha!!! Ha!!!

I am praying the extra "bling-bling" will put a sparkle in each pilgrim's eyes, and that they know how special they are to God.

He knows their name.

He counts each hair on their head.

He is MIGHTY TO SAVE each one.

I know I might be "over-estimating" the power of a little "bling", but God can use ANYTHING to woo his children into a closer relationship with Him.

Speaking of "little things"...
I forgot to mention last Friday the boys and I headed over to Brownfield to help with the Rudd Unit's Kairos. Kairos is a like a Walk to Emmaus, but held inside the prison walls for the "men in white". I spent most of the day helping get the enchiladas ready for dinner (a.k.a burning the tortillas, burning the velveeta cheese, and making a huge mess =), but I think Kade had more of an impact for God's Kingdom than my cooking did. Jana called me Sunday to tell me about how Kade touched the life of a man named Anthony. You see every time the men eat they receive a paper place mat with their meal. The place mats are decorated with verses, pictures colored by children, and hand prints. Kade's hand print touched this man because he had a 2-year old son named Kade as well. He hasn't been able to see his son for a long, long time; Kade's hand print finally broke down walls surrounding this man's heart. He was ministered to that evening. During the open-mike portion of the Kairos' closing on Sunday, Anthony stood-up and talked about my little Kader Tater, and how God used Kade's hand print as a sign of hope and love from his own son. He said it was "God's way to show me my son was waving at me."

My God is SOOOOOO COOL!!!

Puddles

Yesterday we had over 2 inches of rain in west Texas.

Rain + bikes + big puddles =

two happy little boys It was still sprinkling a little when they went riding bikes which made the "ride" even better.
I think they would have stayed out there for hours if it wasn't dinner time.
Monday we bought school supplies for Drew.

Kade said, "Me, me backpack too. Red backpack."

He and the backpack are inseparable...he carries his baby puppy, his truck and trailer, his train, etc. with him everywhere.

That is just one of the many things I love about Kade...he loves to keep all of his stuff close at hand. He gives his truck/trailer a bath every night, AND they "sleep" under his pillow each night. One night I thought I could take them out when he fell asleep, but he woke-up in the middle of the night and asked me to go get his 'rucks'!!!


Last Sunday he went down for the children's sermon, and in the middle of the message he started to yell, "Mama, 'ruck'. Mama, 'ruck'. MAMA, RUCK!!!"

The whole time I was doing the mom head shake thing...you know the one where you have "mean mom eyes" and are shaking your head firmly back and forth.

Well, Kade didn't understand, and got-up in the middle of everything, made his way back to our pew, and said again, "MAMA 'RUCK'!!!"

He wanted to take them back down front, but was denied. He started to cry, so I made my way out of the sanctuary and he said, "Oh, man!!!"

I just love that kid.

I love his independence.

I love his broken language: like when he says, "Back HOE", "Me, Me, do", and shrugs his shoulders to say, "Daddy is?"

I love it when he says, "Mama love you big fish" (a.k.a. Mama, I love you more than a big fish.")

I love it when he does his "happy dance"!!!

I love to hear him yell, "Cannon ball!" right before he jumps into the pool.

I love it when he grunts in frustration.

I love it that he is my little happy jack!

I JUST LOVE THAT KID.

Ask A Way Wednesday - Question #1

Shannon wanted to this recipe:

(caution...you can't eat just one slice =)

Mama's Pound Cake

Paula Deen

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)

1/2 cup Crisco shortening

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and shortening. Add sugar, a little at a time while blending. Add eggs, one at at time, beating after each. Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture alternately with milk, starting with flour and ending with flour (very important). Add vanilla. Pour into a greased and flour tube pan and bake for 90 minutes.

Serve with homemade whipping cream and strawberries.

***It is STILL NOT TO LATE to get in your QUESTION for "ASK A WAY WEDNESDAYS" Wednesday are the days where YOU GET TO DECIDE WHAT WE TALK ABOUT on this blog. (SEE LAST WEDNESDAY'S POST). Leave me a COMMENT, and I will do my best to answer!

Biggest Loser - Two Weeks Left

Psalm 145:16-19

"You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them."

Two weeks left!!!

Here we go!!!

Name: Dawn

Gain/Loss: no gain/no loss

Prayer Request: I just need to completely surrender to God and let HIM satisfy my every desire!

Your Turn:

Ask Away Wednesday

I stole this idea from my friend Belinda at eddins4.blogspot.com.

It is your turn to decide what we "talk" about on this blog.

What do you want to discuss?

Enter your question(s) about me, my family, my marriage, God, parenting, Texas, my testimony etc. in the comment section below.

I will do my best to answer ALL of them in the weeks to come!

Put on your creative thinking caps.

I think this is going to be CRAZY fun!!!

Look back here next Wednesday to see if your question is featured.

If you...

Ronnie: "Kade, if you poo-poo in the potty I will buy you a bike."

Kade: "A bike? Big bike? Okay!"

It worked!!!

Biggest Loser - 3 Weeks Left

"Free people see people. Bound people only see themselves!"

Ms. Vaughn Brown

2 Corin 3:17 "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is,

THERE IS FREEDOM."

Freedom from temptation.

Freedom from gluttony

Freedom from discouragement.

Freedom from unrealistic goals.

Freedom from defeat.

Freedom to hope.

Freedom to soar like an eagle.

Freedom to declare our victory.

Freedom to run the race without any sin or weight holding us back.

Freedom!

"Not by might nor by power, but by MY SPIRIT..." Zech 4:6

Your turn:

Name

gain/loss

what you want freedom from

and you want freedom to do this week with God's help!

P...P...P...Party!!!

Friends...and fun... in the sun!!!
We had a pool party today at our house

(we borrowed our neighbor's pool - Thanks Boyce!!!)

I think I counted 22 people; 106 degree temperature can't hold us down!!!

Ha!!!

Can't wait to do it again!!!

You Aren't Going To Believe This...

This picturewas published in this magazine.
Mom submitted it a couple of months ago.
My boys are SUPER STARS!!! =)
HA!!! HA!!!

Two Posts In One Day: Vacation...Take Two

Thursday we spent half the day in the water park section of Sea World. That night we went to the River Walk.

Kade at the Alamo.

We stopped by the Rain Forest Cafe, but decided to eat Mexican food on the river.

Dinner was amazing as we were serenaded by a mariachi band.

After dinner we took the river walk boat road. We ran into some old friends from Seminole, Josh and Amanda Elder, in line to ride the boats. It was so good to see them and their two precious kids. Friday morning we went to the San Antonio Zoo.

Kade was so tired by Friday; he couldn't walk one more step. I have this same picture of Drew when we went to the Zoo two years ago (wish I could find it =)
The park train took us on a two-mile journey. The boys loved it...especially the part where we went over the bridge. In the picture below they are saying, "Choo-choo!"

Kade feeding nectar to the birds.

Ray and Susan met us at the zoo with Reagan and Hannah. Drew told Reagan she could ride on his lap.

The boys looking at the fish.

The San Antonio Zoo has a "beach" area where the kiddos cooled off.

After the zoo we headed for Levelland. The boys were happy during the entire trip. It was amazing; I didn't give any spankings the whole time we were gone (and if you know the Jenkins' boys, you know that is a miracle.) Ha!! Ha!!

On our way home we went through Sonora. The boys really enjoyed the caverns they have there. The picture below is a pool of water in bottom of the cave. The caves were found in the early 1900's by a rancher. We climbed 150 feet below ground level...it was really cool.
Drew thought everything looked like ice cream.

This formation looks like a butterfly. The caves were vandalized a few years ago so the top portion of the "wing" on the right hand side is missing.