Walk with me as I "Follow the Fish"...JESUS!!!

This past weekend we (my daughter and I) spent the weekend in Greenwood, AR with some very dear friends who went to the Girl Within conference with Vicki Courtney . We left on Friday around 9am to pick up my friend Sherry and her daughter. Unfortunately, we hit some road construction down Hwy 44 and spent an hour in traffic before leaving Union, MO. It was ok though...we had a good time visiting with one another. We stopped for lunch at none other than... The girls had a great time shopping and playing checkers (oh, ok...pretending to play checkers for the picture...we had to get on the road!!! LOL) All the construction and my weak bladder potty stops put us so close on time...thankfully we arrived at our Hampton Inn in Fort Smith, AR at 5:30pm. This was one of the nicest Hampton Inn's I have ever seen...so clean and very friendly. The rooms were GREAT and breakfast was SUPER yummy!!! We went to the 6:30 1st session of the "Girl Within" conference. M...

We just spent a week volunteering our time out at the Strong Tower Ranch in Wright City ministering the gospel to children in the area. Our camp week had 98 kids that attended and there were several that gave their lives to Christ. I oversaw the crafts and it was alot of fun. Here are some pictures from the week: This is the activity of "choice" for ALL the kids that attend...swimming in the pond! A little boating... What camp week would be complete without holding a snake??? Getting ready for the pig catch...is this Ham or Bacon??? LOL My beautiful girl... Us... Wish we would have gotten a full group shot of our new friends from Marysville, Kansas. They all did an AWESOME job being counselors and helpers. These are the Roper girl leaders Ms. Kassie, Ms. Robin, Ms. Elainey.

I think you'd have to be living under a rock or have your head buried in some oily sand to live in the St. Louis area and not hear about JOY FM 97.7/94.1's purchase of KFOU's 99.1 classical radio station. While there is MUCH debate going on in our city over it...I wanted to take a moment and tell you WHY JOY FM and Christian radio mean so much to me. You see, the world looks at christians and think we accept Jesus and then we're now suppose to be these "perfect" people...YES, as Christians we should strive for right living and holiness but we are NOT perfect...we're JUST forgiven! Back in 1992/93 I was "hooked" on Christian music, Christian radio (WCBW :) and thankfully following after GOD himself. My husband at the time and I had suffered MORE than our fair share of obstacles as a young married couple and I could see the hand of God working in the midst of our marriage. But everyday we make choices in this life, choices that bring us closer...

I'm a bit late in my post but about 2 weeks ago my sister and I embarked on the 2nd Annual JOY FM (97.7fm) Joy Ride for Women 18 and over. We along with 40 women on our nice chartered bus with Bob the bus driver. We left on Thursday around 3pm and headed to Nashville, TN. We stayed at the Embassy Suite hotel in Vanderbilt...it was SUPERB! Friday morning we went to a 9am mini concert with Brandon Heath (who's real last name is Knell - future trivia answer :). He was really nice - here are some pics Then we had lunch at the Loveless Cafe...what a cute and fun place. The food was SUPER yummy!!! Here's Jesus watching over me while we're eating...I SO appreciate that!!! :) Then we headed to Steven Curtis Chapman's foundation "Show Hope". It was really nice to hear all the good things going on for them with Maria's Big House. Thank you JOY FM & Show Hope for the Free T-shirts...AWESOME! After some fun shopping at the Factory where Show Hope is located w...

I really had a good time reading Marybeth Whalen's "The Mailbox" . Since I used to read Nicholas Sparks books, it did remind me of the way that he writes...which might be why I liked it so much. I appreciated the Christian aspect of it and really liked the interesting "twist" in it. I actually cried when one of the main characters was reminiscing his daughters life...made me realize they do just grow up WAY too fast! I would HIGHLY recommend "The Mailbox" and thought it was a great read! Thanks Marybeth!!!

I'm SO excited - I'm a faithful follower of SEVERAL really good and fun blogs with one of them being Marybeth Whalen's "Cheaper by the Half Dozen" blog. She and her husband Curt from Learning to Live Financially Free have been such an encouragement to me to personally get our finances in order. They have such an awesome family and I have been blessed by the Proverbs 31 ministry that Marybeth is involved in. I was on Marybeth's site one day and she was having a giveaway of her new novel "The Mailbox" - I entered and I won...WOO HOO!!! Thank you Marybeth - I'm so excited to have the novel and am looking SO forward to reading it!!!