UNANSWERED PRAYERS FOLLOWED BY A GIFT

I've been humming the Garth Brooks song "Unanswered Prayers" since the end of last week. Darren and I have been praying pretty diligently about something for the past two months and we found out Friday it wasn't going to happen. I cried, Darren took it in stride, as he always does. Now, because Darren is so private, I can't share the details of our prayers, but will say it's something we both wanted and asked God for. He says to ask, right? Of course, we also prayed for His will in our lives, whatever that is - but then I'd end my prayer with, "but what I want is..." So I told the Lord over the weekend I was kind of mad at him. Do you think that's okay?? I told him to let me be mad for a day and then I'll 'get over it.' I know God is in control and I want him to be in control, but I was disappointed and quite honestly a little mad that our prayers were unanswered - or at least not answered in the way we had hoped. I don't know why I keep sing the Garth Brooks song because it's nothing like the lyrics - not pining over an old flame at a football game!!

So I've been feeling pretty blue for the last few days. Simon, my cat, must have sensed something because this morning he brought me a gift.







A little bird. He was standing on the front porch meowing like crazy. I thought he was hurt, so I open the door and he comes right in, marches to the door of my office and plops down. I still don't notice my gift. I sit back down and he starts meowing again, loud. I spin around in my chair and there he is, with his dead bird. I turned back around at my desk to finish a job I was working on and he just kept meowing. I guess I wasn't acknowledging the gift like I was supposed to. I went over and pet him and he pushed the bird toward me. Okay, it's gross, I know, and I hate that he kills things - I keep telling him he's a lover and not a killer, although I took away his love at six months old!! Anyway, I thought it was so sweet. I picked it up and threw it in our back yard and he goes back out, picks it up and brings it back in and puts it by my chair. I thanked him, asked him to please take it outside, which he did and proceeded to eat it.

For those of you who aren't animals lovers will think I'm completely twisted to love my gift from my pet. For those of you who do love animals, hopefully you'll get it and won't think I'm a loon!!

ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Friday night was putz around the house night. We actually had a date night on Thursday...finally got to see Made of Honor - predictable, but cute. Saturday morning we had rehearsal and cast party for the Father's Day play at church. Saturday afternoon I worked some and then Saturday night was BRAD PAISLEY!!! We went with Dave and Wendy Smith and enjoyed dinner together first at the Irvine Spectrum, then over to the Verizon Theater for a real treat. He was awesome, quite the entertainer. Man can that guy play guitar. I think he was having more fun doing the instrumentals than singing. He had a great stage set up that had something to go along with every song he did. He was very entertaining and engaged the crowd throughout the night. He is someone I would pay to see again and again. I liked it most when they put his head on the big screens...he has the most beautiful eyes. Wendy and I were caught gazing at him a few times!! :o)

I kind of felt like I was back at the state fair back home. Country music certainly brings out the beer drinkers, big hat, boot wearing, huge belt buckle guys. You know the type, their noise level goes up a notch with every beer!!! Actually the crowd was pretty tame compared those midwestern concert goers!!

 

 

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Then Sunday morning was the big production. Our church only had one service that for Father's Day and Marcus, our music pastor, put together and directed a great play by the kids, "Father Knows Best." The kids did so great. Sonya and I was the comedy relief team. We were joggers going through the park (the location of the play!) who did nothing but talk about food. Wasn't much of a stretch for us. We padded ourselves so that we had huge honkin boodies!! or is it booties?! Here we are with our 'energy drink' - Starbucks Frappicino, Vanilla flavored!

 

 

Darren played Mr. Adams, the Park Ranger. Here he is singing..wish I had a video of this because I love to hear me some Darren singing!! The picture below is Mr. Adams leading Kalena to Jesus. It was precious.

 

Here the joggers are eating from the forbidden fruit tree. The kids were singing their big finale song and we were posing for a picture! :o) You'd think the play was all about us!! Such the divas!

 

This picture here is of Simon..just for fun. I took this today. He was sleeping so weird, his bottom half on the lower fence, his middle section draped over the block fence - which is several inches above the wooden fence - and then his head and front paws hanging over the block fence. It was so funny looking, but of course I woke him when I opened the side door. He's a huge cat with lots of fat and fur, but so pretty!

 

 

Check out my new Longaberger basket! This has now become my special basket. The kids play was all about apples in the park...stay away from the apples. So they filled a bunch of baskets with apples that some ladies in our church prepared by poking holes in them and inserting gummy bear worms. So cute. So people brought baskets from home to use for the play as the kids distributed apples throughout the congregation during a song. As we were cleaning up the sanctuary this lone basket was not claimed and one of the ladies knowing I collect and love Longaberger thought it might be mine. It wasn't, it actually belonged to Marcus and Shauna, our music pastor and his wife. They told me just to take it home. I kept telling them it's $140 basket, "do you know this is a Longaberger basket...do you know this sells for $140..." Then I said, "do you know this is a special basket." And Shauna said to me, "But you are more special and we want you to know that, so take that basket home as a reminder that we think you are special." I cried. She said it a little more eloquently than I am putting here, it was very sweet what she said. I felt so silly taking it home, but they insisted. Then Marcus said, "It's been sitting up on a shelf forever...we have like two or three more packed away somewhere." Suddenly that guilt went away and I thought I should just take the other ones too! :o) Okay, not really. Anyway...what a blessing they were to me!

 

I felt loved and I did feel special Sunday afternoon! I need to do more things like that - a surprise blessing to someone. I just hope Jesus never lays it on my heart to give away any of my baskets or over priced Coach, Dooney, Prada and Kate Spade purses I have in my closet. :o) haha!!

MY DATE WITH ACTOR COLIN FIRTH



Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that you couldn't shake it?? The other night I had a dream about Colin Firth - I love this guy. I saw one of those enormous life size stand ups of him at the movies the other night advertising Mama Mia, so I guess that's why I dreamt of him.

In my dream I still lived at home and after the date he came into the house. After my parents went to bed we snuck into my bedroom. Now, all we did was kiss, seriously. I guess my dream skipped a little, because the next thing that happened was we woke up and he was in his underwear. My mom got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and that's when I woke up from the dream. But my heart was racing, I was sooooo nervous and even though I was awake, I was laying there trying to figure out how I was going to get Colin out of the house without getting caught. My parents driveway goes from the side of the house around to the back, which is where their bedroom is. I'm seriously laying there thinking how they will hear his car leave. Again, I'm awake, but it felt so real and I was all anxious. Then I rolled over and there was Darren with his back to me and I thought it was still Colin, so I sat up really fast to get him out of my bed. It was so strange.

Then I started laughing hysterically at myself once I came to my senses.

Ever have that happen to you???

SUNDAY FUN DAY!!

Before I get into my Sunday...take a look at these pictures of Darren golfing, in Palos Verdes at the Trump Golf Course. These were taken last week. PLEASE - next time he talks about his stressful job, or how busy he is, ask him how the view of the Pacific Ocean was from the golf course!! :o)

 

Tough day at the office!!

 

Yesterday was the first Sunday that Darren and I didn't have any responsibilities at church - it was wonderful!! We actually got to ride together, attend together, leave together - quite a treat for us since we both are involved in different ministries. Of course, that didn't keep one of our pastor's calling at 9am needing help with the projector. I guess they looked for him at church, didn't seem, so called. Apparently Darren is the only one who can fix things??!! I don't think so, but I'll let this one go......

We decided to visit another church and went to Mariner's Church in Irvine/Newport Beach. Below is their 'courtyard.' They have a big campus with lots going on. It really was electrifying. Darren always invisioned LC doing something like this, an outside courtyard type behind the church, but all his hard work was poo-poo'd. But I'll let this one go...... Anyway, it looked big and a bit overwhelming at first, but once we got down the stairs and started looking around, it's clear that even though it's a big church, there are plenty of relationships and it felt very personal.

 

Darren took some pictures of inside the sanctuary. This is the choir and they were awesome. I liked that they not only sang with the congregation during the praise and worship, but they really had a presence and helped lead it in a way I haven't really experienced it before. It was beautiful.

 

Here is their Praise and Worship Team - did an awesome job.

 

Then Darren and I went out for lunch in Newport Beach - sat in an open courtyard area. It was really a beautiful day and we enjoyed lunching outside.

Then home for a nice Sunday afternoon nap and on to California Adventure. Daniel, Rhonda (Cherryholmes) new husband debuted last night as Prince Charming in the Electrical Parade. So we went to watch. Daniel didn't want us cheering for him or whistling, or clapping...he was so nervous and he didn't want us messing him up. That was very difficult for me - he totally took away my fun!! :o) As we saw Cinderella coming around the corner Pam told me to refrain myself! Darn it!! Here we are front and center on the front line - not letting anyone get by us!!

 

It's kind of hard to see Daniel - but he's the Prince there at the front of the float.

 

Another pic...not so great, but now you know who to look for when you are there. He works Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

 

So that was our Sunday. It's been a while since I've had a Sunday so relaxing and good like that. I thoroughly enjoyed my day and being with Darren, no responsibilities!!! Hmmmmm, maybe we should rethink this whole being involved in church thing!! :o) Hope you all had a nice weekend!!

CATCH UP TIME!!!

Okay so I've got a couple months of catch up to do. It's amazing how blogs keep you connected. I was getting phone calls and e-mails wondering if everything was okay because I hadn't blogged. Last night my friend Donna Gisbert calls to remind me that I have one!! So here I am....

Some of these pics are from March, but I have been requested by a few people to please post some pics of a wedding I went to, so I am. I had planned to put a lot more pics up on each of these topics, but in separate posts. But since I'm doing this all at once, things are kind of abbreviated.

So here goes..........Starting now and going backwards.....



Here is Little Emma Platt opening her present from me and Darren. I went to Gymboree and roamed that store for over an hour. Oh my gosh that place has cute clothes. Even for one year old's, matching purses, hair things, socks, shoes, bracelets, so fun. I finally ended up with this, a cute pair of denim shorts and a pink top. Of course Emma preferred the bow that was on the box, but me and Jenny had fun with the outfit!



This was at Emma's one year birthday party and Glenn and Robin Garvin dedicated her. Robin brought Georgie and explained why we dedicate babies and then Glenn talked a few minutes and prayed over the family. I was honored to be a part of this. Glenn was so right when he said that when Jenny and Darrenn welcomed Emma into their family, we all felt like she was our baby too. We all had been praying for a long time for this to happen, so it seemed a little extra special celebrating her.



Here is the Platt Family again during the dedication. I'm not sure what Emma is saying here...Please don't take me tall man!! :o) Anyway, it was a great day and as always Jenny planned the perfect fun filled party!



Ooops...this is out of order...anyway....the next weekend was Mother's Day weekend and that meant the Pan Am Fiesta in Lakewood. Our church hosted a booth again this year and I was in charge of it, with the help of Holly and Mark Deojay it was a great success. I was really proud of our booth! We didn't win first place for the best decorated booth, the Girl Scouts did, undeservedly so might I add...but I'm not bitter, I'm just not buying anymore of their cookies!! ;o)

This is Cooper, our mascot. God Bless all those who wore him that weekend. Our music pastor, Marcus, was a great sport and wore it the last two hours of the weekend, after several people had sweated inside it...totally gross. We had a polaroid camera and took instant shots and kids and families with Cooper. That is a huge draw to our booth and we get to send them home with a great picture and memory from our church!






This year we did a backyard theme...basically trying to let people know that Life Center is in their backyard. So we made our booth a backyard. Darren built the fence that we placed inside the booth and instead of having kids do a craft this year, I had them put their handprints up on the fence and it was so cool. We have complete families who put their prints up there. The kids loved it.

We displayed the booth in our church foyer for the two weeks following and we actually some families visit our church because of the booth! How cool is that. I started crying when I saw two little girls showing their parents where their handprints were, this was a visiting family, and when they walked in and saw the display they got all excited.



I think this pic is funny...Dan and Mark came to help Darren set everything up and they were being neighborly!!



Here we are early Saturday morning...my birthday, May 10th!! I spent the entire weekend from early morning Saturday to about 7pm Sunday doing the Pan Am thing, so I kind of missed my birthday. Darren did go get dinner from Lucille's about 8:30 or 9:00p.m. Saturday, but I was so stinkin' pooped, I barely had the energy to eat. I did, of course, then headed off to bed. Anyway....the booth is cool, huh! We had a corner booth this year so we spread out as far as we could. We figured we just keep going until the city peeps told us not to. They never did!!!



Okay, so a couple weeks before that, April 20th, it was Darren's 39th birthday. His birthday fell on a Sunday, so we all went out to Roundtable for lunch after church and celebrated. He got gift cards to where else, Best Buy, so he was happy. I made cupcakes, so we had pizza and cupcakes! Then that night I fixed dinner for everybody who comes to our home fellowship and we had another birthday dinner for him. Next year is the big 4-0, so I must start saving for the party now because he wants me to either rent out a Best Buy or Fry's or he wants his party on top of an aircraft carrier!!



Darren took me to the Griffith Observatory a few weeks ago to watch the sunset and then hang out to see all the city lights of L.A. I love that place, it's so beautiful. I want to go back and hike around there. This is Darren getting a close up shot of the moon from the massive telescope.



Then we participated in Lakewood Volunteer Day. I was a site captain and got to wear an incredibly bright green shirt and give everybody orders..I LOVED IT!! It became the joke of the day..."The Green Shirt Has Spoken." We cleaned an older lady's home who does not have the finances or the physical ability herself to do it. She doesn't have family either, so we became her family for a day. This is the before shot of her back yard.



This is the group shot before we started working. Notice how clean we are now! We were pretty gross when it was done. But it was really great to be there helping her.



An after shot...we totally cleared out her backyard.



After working all morning, we went to a rec center, "the Airplane Park" on Woodruff and the city served everyone lunch and had raffles, gave our prizes and stuff. It was fun. I won a five pound bag of Starbucks coffee. I'm not a big Starbucks fan and I drink one cup a day..that's going to last me some time. I even gave a couple pounds away. Then I got some coupons to It's a Grind! Yes, now we are talking! That's my coffee of choice!!



Here are some pics from the wedding of March 8th. This is the bride and groom, Rhonda and Daniel. Darren and I were in charge of getting some things from the church to the reception as well as taking Rhonda and Daniel's things to their room at the hotel (where the reception was held). I'm sure the Cherryholmes will never give Darren the keys to anything again...later in the evening Darren and Dan ran some flowers and things to the couple's room and short sheeted their bed. I'm surprised they didn't do more.



This is the church. It's beautiful, isn't it. It sits on a bluff right on the water and it was so clear that day. Perfect day for a wedding. We all kept commenting about how in the world do people listen to their pastor, you just want to gaze out the huge picture windows.



Some of our fellow table dwellers!! Lori and Alvin!



I love this picture of Dan and Terri.



Me and Darren - Darren did something he's never done before..at least not with me. He danced. That good ole Assembly of God boy danced. The song he chose to dance to was a song sort of like Shout, where basically everybody was just jumping up and down. I guess he figured he could handle that!! It was cute, and felt really foreign considering Darren and I have never danced together. We have slow danced a couple of times, but that's it. I love to dance, so this was a real treat for me! :o)



Michelle and Tim - we had fun taking pictures of them because Darren was trying to get it right because of the lighting, flash, low flash, all that and Michelle kept posing for us!! I'm totally not making fun of you Michelle - it was cute!! :o)



The table...they had beautiful table settings.

Okay, so there you go. For those of you who have been nagging, now STOP IT!!! :o)

Until next time...