Friday, July 25, 2008

Congratulations Damaris!!

Well, as of today, Damaris has officially completed the 3rd grade!!!!! WAHOO!!!!! She ended up with high A's in all six of her classes - Bible, History & Geography, Math, Language Arts, Science, & Spanish.

We celebrated with her this evening. We ate her favorite food for dinner - Sweet & Sour Chicken and Fried Rice. Then we had a huge chocolate chip cookie that says "Congrats Damaris". Her fortune cookie said "You are heading in the right direction." And mine, well, it's simply so profound I almost can't believe it, "Beware of cookies bearing fortunes." We finished up the evening watching her new favorite tv show, Seaquest DSV.


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Package Arrived

As I announced about a week and a half ago, Alisa was the winner of my 100 Days of Blogging Contest.

Here is a picture of what was in the package:


Here is the hysterical e-mail from Alisa that the package arrived:
Hello C.C.!!!

I received the package today! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the blanket! Those are my colors! It is beautiful! Did you make it? I also love the stationery and stickers.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Love in Christ,
Alisa

P.S. My husband says this may be proof that my imaginary computer friends may, just may, be real. :) He really likes the blanket as well!

To answer her questions, yes, I knit the blanket that I sent her. I'm so glad she enjoyed it and the "imaginary computer friends" comment just totally made my day since my hubby Russ is the same way! LOL!! Thanks again to everyone who entered my contest!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Give My Husband a New Wife

Lord, help me to be a good wife. I fully realize that I don't have what it takes to be one without Your help.

Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things.

Take my old emotional habits, mindsets, automatic reactions, rude assumptions, and self-protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.

Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me Your love, peace, and joy (Galatians 5:22,23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment. Only You can transform me.

Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband. I confess the times I've been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward him.

Help me to put aside any hurt, anger, or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do---totally and completely, no looking back.

Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage. Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the threshold of separation where the realities of divorce begin.

Make me my husband's helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support. Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for him to come home to. Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to him. Grow me into a creative and confident woman who is rich in mind, soul, and spirit. Make me the kind of woman he can be proud to say is his wife.

I lay all my expectations at Your cross. I release my husband from the burden of fulfilling me in areas where I should be looking to You.

Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him. I realize that in some ways he may never change, but at the same time, I release him to change in ways I never thought he could. I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fully accepting that neither of us is perfect and never will be. Only You, Lord, are perfect and I look to You to perfect us.

Teach me how to pray for my husband and make my prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love between us.

Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way he can clearly perceive. Bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3:3).

May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5). Make us a team, not pursuing separate, competitive, or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each other's faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage.

Help us to pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Romans 14:19). May we be "perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10).

I pray that commitment to You and to one another will grow stronger and more passionate every day. Enable him to be the head of the home as You made him to be, and show me how to support and respect him as he rises to that place of leadership.

Help me to understand his dreams and see things from his perspective. Reveal to me what he wants and needs and show me potential problems before the arise. Breathe Your life into this marriage.

Make me a new person, Lord. Give me a fresh perspective, a positive outlook, and a renewed relationship with the man You've given me.

Help me see him with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion, and new acceptance. Give my husband a new wife, and let it be me.

WOW! Very powerful!!! From MyChickenSoup.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Winner of 100 Days of Blogging Contest

OK readers, I just utilized this Customer Random Number Generator and we have a winner of the 100 Days of Blogging Contest.

She said:
My favorite day is 100! Because you are giving something away!! Ok, Ok, I really liked day 96 because my family and I are big 4th of July and Muppet fans and the mini video was hilarious!


And the winner is:
ALISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats Alisa! I'll contact you for your address and send your prize out next week. I'll take a picture of it here and once Alisa lets me know she received it, I'll post a picture of what the prize was.

Thanks everyone who journeyed with me during these 100 days! Keep on reading because I'll definitely keep on blogging.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

DAY 100 OF 100 DAYS OF BLOGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WE MADE IT!!!! TODAY IS DAY 100 OF 100 DAYS OF BLOGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I give a shout out to JEN who got me started on this journey and to REBEKAH who journeyed along with me.

I told yall that I had a special way to celebrate today and here it is. I have a beautiful gift to give to someone who visits my blog. Here is how you can be that special someone. Comment on this blog entry with your answers to the following questions:
*What has been your favorite entry of my 100 days of blogging?
*Why is that entry your favorite?

Today is Tuesday, July 8th. You will have until Thursday, July 10th at midnight CST to respond to these questions. I will then pick a winner on Friday, July 11th. The winner will be picked randomly from those who commented with answers to the two above questions. Make sure and put your e-mail address or blog website address in the respective boxes when you comment so I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

Thanks for making my 100 DAYS OF BLOGGING so much fun! I promise that I'm not going to stop blogging. It just may not be a daily occurrence from here on out. So, put on those thinking caps and respond to this blog and you might be the winner of a beautiful prize!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Day 99 of 100 Days of Blogging

Make sure and come visit tomorrow when I'll be announcing a cool way to celebrate the conclusion of 100 days of blogging!!!!!

Got this from her

You are most like:

You are Blue

You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people percieve, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with.


 
Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Day 98 of 100 Days of Blogging

So, I'm really missing being able to run. I only did it for about a year, but once I blew my knee out, that went bye-bye for me. I'm still having lots of back pain which limits exercising, but I need to do something as all those pounds I lost are starting to creep back on. I'm already doing yoga twice a week for an hour each time, but that's not enough. So, I bought a pedometer a few days ago. Today is day 4 of wearing it. The first day, I did 2500 steps. Second day, I increased by 250 to 2750 steps. Third day, I increased by another 250 to 3000 steps. Today, I wasn't sure if I was going to attempt to increase or not because my back is really hurting today. However, between walking around at church and going grocery shopping, I was already to 3250 steps by the time we got home. So, I'm slowly increasing and hope to be at 10000 steps by early August. I also ordered Russ & Damaris pedometers yesterday and we're going to work together as a family to increase our steps and become more healthy. I'm logging my steps walked at WalkerTracker Here's the link to my recorded steps: http://walkertracker.com/lorelaicc If you check it and decide to join there, let me know so we can be comrades. LOL! I plan to get Russ & Damaris on the website too so that we can all track our steps daily.

water bottle pinkI also got a new water bottle with a straw (and it's pink of course) that holds 24 ounces of water and have drank 96 ounces of water daily for the last 3 days and today is day 4 and I've done 24 ounces so far.

What healthy things are you doing?

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Day 97 of 100 Days of Blogging

Had several questions posted in the comments over the last few days, so thought I'd respond to them here.
Samantha - July 4, 2008 - I can’t escape them!! :) My daughter Blinn is obsessed with The Muppets (so’s my husband, I think he’s brainwashing her. I like them too, just not as religiously). Anyways, I don’t know how many times we’ve watched The Muppets Season One the last few days. As soon as it’s done Blinn is going “More Muppets! More Muppets!” I think I’m going to go get Season Two just for some new material! :)

I used to love the Muppets. I had no idea they were available on DVD. Might have to try to rent them. I don't think Damaris has seen very many of them since they aren't on tv that often.

Elyse - July 4, 2008 - Will you still blog everyday once your 100 days are over? Just curious. Hope you enjoyed the fireworks and the 4th! Have an awesome weekend!

I'll definitely continue blogging, but not sure if it will be a daily occurence simply because it's been a struggle these last few weeks to come up with stuff everyday. I foresee at least 3 to 4 times a week, maybe more, more less, just depends on the week.

Lori - July 4, 2008 - How come you were having such a bad afternoon?

UGH, I had just gotten a phone call that my chaplaincy residency interview has been postponed until August. This is the 3rd date change so far. It's just so frustrating!

Crystal Renaud - July 5, 2008 - i sincerely hope you are feeling better. and good thing you are a hottie and don’t actually LOOK like that picture when you feel that way.

Awww, you're so sweet Crystal! Thanks sweetie!

OK, I think that's all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday weekend!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Day 96 of 100 Days of Blogging

In honor of today being America's birthday, I wish yall a Happy 4th of July and I present to you the Muppets version of Stars and Stripes Forever. LOL!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Day 94 of 100 Days of Blogging

Back about 13 years ago, before Russ & I had even started dating, we made some wonderful friends with a great guy named Brad and a great girl named Nadia. Fast forward 13 years, Russ & I and Brad & Nadia have been married over 10 years each and we have an 8 year old and they have two little boys.

How surprised was I this morning to have an e-mail from Brad & Nadia saying they would be in Abilene this evening and wondering if we wanted to get together. Of course we said yes! I had been almost 7 years since we had seen them. Last time they saw Damaris, she was about 18 months old and we had never even met their Benjamin & Ethan.

We met up at Zookini's for dinner and then headed to the mall so the kids could play and we could continue to catch up. Here's some pics from our fun evening!
lamberts 1
lamberts 2
lamberts 3
lamberts 4
lamberts 5
lamberts 6
lamberts 7
lamberts 8
lamberts 9

And just for kicks, here's a photo from our wedding (Nadia is third from the left on the back row and Brad is on the far right on the back row):
wedding

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Day 93 of 100 Days of Blogging

My yoga instructor Penny has entered a fitness training competition. If she wins, she'll get a $1000 prize plus get to have her own fitness DVD produced. I'm posting this blog to ask yall to go vote for her. You have to register at the site and then you can vote up to 15 times daily. She's in 6th place right now. Come on friends, help Penny out. Here's where you vote for her -http://www.projectbreakout.com/fitness1/mediapage/26