Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible

WOW how eye opening is this???!!!

Because I am practical

I will share with you my FAVORITE gift!!

Yeah I am that girl...I am the one that will do a happy dance for a vacuum cleaner! I am the person who will spend Christmas Eve day helping clean someones house because I enjoy it!

This morning has been such a blessing to me and not because of the things we got but because what today is about...today we celebrate the birth of MY Savior:-) Is there really a better gift??

I also got to watch my children open gifts that they picked up for each other. Honestly I hadn't even seen them till this morning!! My dear friend that LOVES shopping (thank you Cheryl!!) wanted to take my kids one on one to the store to shop. She spent an ENTIRE Saturday doing it! I am not kidding!! She was gone almost 11 hrs on a Saturday with an air cast!!! I only gave her $200 to shop with and I am pretty sure she blew that budget!! If you are reading...we need to talk;-)The coolest thing is they picked out gifts for each other and for me! And they are just such thoughtful gifts!! They were hugging every time...oh I think I have pics!! Anyway, they had the best time!! In a couple of years they won't remember the gifts they received but they will remember the shopping and wrapping and the time spent with our "family"...we have already done Christmas twice and we still have one more place to go for dinner. I am so blessed and so thankful that God is the center of our home. I am so thankful for my children and their attitude of gratitude. They know God has provided us with every thing we have and they are as thankful as I am...THAT is a gift!

Christmas Came Early!!

OMWORD my kids are so excited and SO AM I!!
Look what my friends bought my kids for Christmas!!!

First aren't my babies cute??

They have no clue what they are fixing to open

Its a Wii!!! If you don't know my daughter that look on her face is her planning...what is probably going through her head is where the Wii will be located and what the playing schedule will be!!

Ok so I knew about their surprise so I was just thrilled to see their faces...BUT here is MY surprise!! I had NO CLUE about this one!!

Here I am opening my gift totally cracking up because her husband was telling me it was a Christmas sweater with reindeer and stuff on it. Goofy man!! I told him it was too heavy but I still had NO CLUE!!

This is what it was!! Omword I have wanted one of these!!!

I think I am more excited than the kids...ok maybe not because I am on here blogging and they are hooking it up to play lol I can't wait to try it!!!

YAY!!

I won something!!

Oh my! I don't even know what to say...I would like to thank my friends and all the people that made this possible...nah I can't even think to even play around lol I was totally in shock when the lovely Dana at Are We There Yet? gave me this award:-) I am humbled that she sees those things in me!! You can all be jealous because we have met IRL!! Ain't I blessed?? (Yeah I said ain't)We have had dinner and coffee AND she has been to my house...actually it was when I lived in my apartment and I have moved since then...Hey Dana we need to get together again!!

Anyway, I am not sure the rules for this but I guess I pass it along to someone I think has a brilliant blog......sooooo the choice was EASY and I am gonna say Jesica because she IS brilliant!! She is one of the most courageous people I know. She is fighting ovarian cancer and WILL WIN because I SAID SO and that makes it law...just ask my kids;-) She is down to earth and real and I love her with all my heart! So go see her and tell her Barbie said HI! Thanks again Dana..I think you are pretty kind too!

Pics

I am still waiting on the pics from my birthday but I thought I would share this one. This is from church last night but *I* have a camera now so I can take some pics!! YAY!! I don't know what happened to MY camera but it keeps saying the batteries are dead and then TODAY I was surprised with a new one!! I have NO IDEA who to thank because the card was TYPED (someone knows me!!) and it was left at the church so I HAVE NO CLUE!! It's killing me but I am beginning to think God is trying to teach me something!! I am a giver so all this receiving stuff is HARD!! Those who know my heart know that too! Still this picture makes me smile because of who is in it:-) This is Cheryl...or as I call her my Wonder Woman lol

Where HAVE I been??!!!

Oh dear it has been over a month! I didn't plan to take a bloggy break but there it was lol I don't even know where to begin to tell you what is going on in my heart or what has all happened. My heart is just so full and overwhelmed with the future that I don't know how to express it all...I guess I can try but first I want highlight a couple of cool things that happened that I just HAVE to share:-) My birthday was on Saturday! I am 39 for those wondering;-) A very YOUNG 39! Seriously age does NOT bother me and I am counting the days till I am 40! I swear I have lived a lot for my short 39 yrs that some days I feel much older! I had the most AMAZING birthday because I truly have the most amazing friends. My dear friend, Cheryl, who can be seen here picked me up Saturday and we spent the afternoon together. THAT is ALWAYS fun! She dropped me off at my house and then her and a couple of friends stopped by with gifts and to pick me back up for dinner! The best part of the gifts is that they KNOW me! It wasn't WHAT they bought that touched me as much as how much they knew ME...They knew what would make me smile:-) Then we all went to my favorite restaurant Carrabbas and I ate a TON!! Someone took pictures so if I get them I will post them. I have beautiful friends! Misty even made a mocha cake with chocolate covered coffee beans (I have a new coffee obsession!) that was to die for!! We ate and laughed and shared...it was amazing! Then we went to a place to eat gelatos and stayed till the place closed. I can't describe what happened next but I can say the presence of God was there and the anointing was just flowing off of Cheryl..I think at one point she was preaching lol I would say that the ladies that came all know ME but they didn't really KNOW each other...till now! They knew Cheryl but she works at the church so that is a given..they just didn't all know each other lol They are a select group of women and God put all of them in my life for a purpose. They figured out that they have a LOT more in common than they knew and I believe even our gifts compliment each other! It is just SO God!! And I believe God is going to use all of us together in ways we can't even imagine. That night will be the first of many! I sat there that night feeling SO blessed because I never knew this was possible. When I moved here 2yrs ago my heart was so badly hurt that I didn't think I would ever let down the walls I had up! I have been hurt so much in my life by people that were supposed to love me that I didn't think I would get to this point. My connection with Cheryl was almost immediate. She is the Pastors assistant so we met right after I moved here. I didn't let down my walls right away but I found myself unable to hide ANYTHING with her. I would just open my mouth and out would come things I never shared with ANYone! I know it is the anointing that she has on her and one of the reasons I allowed her to counsel me..this was before we became close friends and now the counseling is a thing of the past... BUT she is still a mentor and someone I would accept advice from in a heartbeat. She is a sister and our relationship isn't even one I can explain to anyone. She knows how I will react to things before they happen and I know how she is feeling when she isn't even around. It is totally a God thing and I KNOW our friendship was God ordained from the beginning. Somewhere in the beginning of her counsel she taught me how to open up my heart and let down walls...then came in the other women that were there that night. When I let down my walls something wonderful happened and I was able to form some healthy friendships with some AMAZING women. I consider some of them family and that isn't something I take lightly! I have been through some horrible things this year but not one time was I alone. Not one time! I have learned some valuable things from these ladies and I hope that they can say the same about me. I just know that when God orchestrates friendships they are beyond anything I could have ever imagined!! I am so blessed!! Ok that ended up being longer than I expected so I will share ONE more thing and then I will have to post another day about what is on my heart..it's heavy for sure but I don't know what to do with it! Anyway, another post for another day. Soooo the last thing I will share is I was "jingled" yesterday and I have never even heard of it!!! I came home to my entire yard decorated in lights!! Some little elves came over and put lights and bows around my garage and in my crepe myrtle tree. There are candy canes that are lit up in the walk and a wreath with lights on the brick next to my front door!! It was the coolest thing!! They left a note that said "you have been jingled...the elves...hahaha" lol Isn't that cute??!! I am so afraid of heights so that would not have happened otherwise lol I am just so blessed and I have no idea why! God is good ALL the time...even in the bad He is still God and still there...THAT I HAVE learned this year:-)