The Miracle at Lake Wells

Sunday I tagged along with Jeremie, David, and Ron for an afternoon of fishing. I would brag about the 7 fish I caught, or the 3.5 pounders that David & Ron caught. But Jeremie really stole the show when he got out of the boat and stood on an underwater log to hand grab the fish he caught that was tangled up in the log. We realized it eerily appeared like Jeremie was walking on water.  (What a show off.)  David The Photographer caught the moment, and thought of the appropriate verse from Matthew for a little biblical fun.  

Nicaragua or Bust!

It's finally here! Jeremie and I are leaving for our big adventure to Leon, Nicaragua on Friday! Believe it or not, I have fit ALL my luggage needed for one week into a carry on! (See gray bag in front.) And to top it off, I believe Jeremie has actually packed more than me.  Our check in baggage is being used for bibles, crafts, sports equipment, and 499 Dum Dums. (Jeremie at 1 at the packing party at the church last night.) 

I was taking a picture of our luggage and look what black & tan piece thinks he's going.

We are traveling with a team of 8 from our church, but meeting up with another team from a church in Gainesville, FL when we get there.  We will be staying with a missionary, Oscar Correa, and his family who live in Leon permanently. We are getting very excited and look forward to spreading the gospel to a place that needs a lot of hope and love right now.  

Leon is the second largest city in Nicaragua, but stricken with poverty and need hope and God's provision in their lives.  Many of the people we will be visiting live in plastic or cardboard homes, and we will even be visiting a city dump where over 250 families actually make their home.  There, we will be helping with a feeding program and working with the children.  We will likely be coming across about 1,500 children (no, that is not a typo) through  VBS activities, school assemblies, and sports camps, which we hear are VERY effective in getting the kids involved as a way to share the gospel.  There have been many other activities mentioned, but from what we hear, we'll probably be "winging it" a lot of the time with what our next task is!  

These New Testaments have English on one side and Spanish on the other!  Below that is a "story rug" with a picture squares that take you through the Bible.  It is actually very fun trying to match the pictures with the stories.  Jeremie really wants to come up with a Twister version using this rug.  Right hand: Moses. Left foot: Samuel. I can see it now.

Anyway, if you'd like to see more about Nicaragua & Oscar's work there visit:  www.internationalimpactministries.com and click on Nicaragua.  

Specific Prayer Requests for our Trip; 

• Please be in prayer for the people that we will "clearly" proclaim the gospel, "make the most of every opportunity" and our conversations be "full of grace".  (Colossians 4:3-6) 
• Safe travels there and back.  (We will return Friday, August 5.)  
• That God will work through language barriers & literacy so we may reach the Nicaraguans for Christ
• That God will be glorified on this trip and our pride/human nature will not get in the way!
• Pray that the people will come across will have open hearts-many have probably "heard of God" but do not understand what it truly means to have a personal relationship with him and that "by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:8)

Thank you all-we are blessed to have friends and family that we know will be covering us in prayer while we are gone. If anything, I KNOW that the entire community of Indian Springs, MS is praying God's ear off!   .  

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should"  Ephesians 6:21

"...that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation amount all nations."  Psalm 66:2 

I Heart Saturdays......

This morning we hit up the Dog Park with friends David & Melissa and their pups, Lexie & Stewart.  Then they all got baths at the Humane Society Dog Wash.  A nap on the couch just made sense...............

Florida Fun......In the Sun...

Summer is here and Jeremie and I have been spending much time in the Florida sun.  Memorial Day was complete with a new kiddie pool.  Intended for Manny, but I think J and I enjoyed it more.  I spent most of the afternoon laying in it and reading a book. 

The sun AND the Bulldogs were HOT HOT HOT at the Super Regional game in Gainesville.  We attended Game 2, which was going pretty rough for the Dawgs, but in the bottom of the 9th, Vick Vickerson hit a home run for the win.  Sad Gators everywhere. As we all know though, we were beat out in Game 3 and the Gators went on to the World Series.  Still proud of our Dawgs for fighting hard.  

Happy, but dying from heat exhaustion.  At least we got a seat though. The last Super Regional we attended  (hosted in Starkville was so crowded I had to stand on an ice chest for 4 hours.  Totally worth though-we made it to the World Serious that year.....

ALWAYS take a picture of the scoreboard.....

Cowbells were NOT allowed in Gainesville....for good reason...FEAR THE BELL!

Last weekend for my birthday we headed to Daytona Beach for a much needed getaway.  I had won a silent auction several months ago for a two night stay, so we decided to cash in on it.  We arrived Friday night and had a birthday dinner on the balcony which consisted of appetizers from Bonefish and cheese that J had picked up at the cheese shop in Thomasville.  (Yes, we are officially cheese followers.) It was great to spend some quality time with my hubby and as always, he made sure to make my b-day very special. 

Saturday was spent laying out on the beach followed by another fantastic meal at The Chart House.  Everything was incredible, but the award goes to the Chocolate Lava cake which is hands down the best dessert I've ever had.  They tell you to order it early, as it takes 30 minutes to prepare.  Too bad it only took 90 seconds to eat.  I would attach a pic, but it went so fast, there was not time for pictures.  I. LOVE. CHOCOLATE. 

On the way home, J even took me to the outlet malls in St. Augustine for a little shopping.  A man after my own heart:  Beach, chocolate and shopping. 

Another year older....looking forward to what God has in store this year......

Run for the Roses!

I'm backing up to a few weekends ago to our trip to Thomasville for the Rose Show.  Thomasville apparently is the Rose Capitol, so we figured we'd check it out.  There was also a car show, which Jeremie most enjoyed.  I went into the tent with that held the "rose contest".  There were so many beautiful flowers, but my favorite was a pink one, called "Hot Princess".  Imagine that.  : )  

Another recent "rose event"  was the Run for the Roses party our church had Mother's Day weekend. The Thursday before, Melissa, Patty & I had a "hat making party" at the house, which was so fun.  The dining room table was full of feathers, flowers, and rhinestones.  (Jeremie chose to be out of town that night.) 

Mom and Amy came that weekend, so it was a blast to get all dolled up.  I entered my Key Lime pie into the pie contest, and as delicious as it looks, I didn't go home with a ribbon.  : (  

All the ladies really got into it and there were so many pretty hats.....Mom actually got a few votes for her!  Next year I'm going to have to step it up.  

The Taylor Girls

Me, Patty, Melissa

  Katie Parrish, Me, Tiffany

Playing Catch Up....

Since my blog still has a Easter background, I figured it was time to update!  My friend, Melissa, and I were talking yesterday about when we were "little girls" keeping diaries, we'd always write:  "Dear Diary, SO SORRY it's been so long since I've written!"  This cracked us up, because, in essence, who were we really writing to???....but I'm glad to know there is someone with the same diary mentality as me. Maybe there's some "Diary Fairy" out there somewhere, just longing for us to update the little frilly notebooks we kept under our mattress.  (It's not there anymore, Mom...don't go looking.)

Anyway-so last weekend we traveled to Mississippi as Jeremie was serving as a groomsmen in Josh Jefcoat's wedding.  Jeremie and Josh met at Jones and have been great friends ever since.  The wedding was in Newton, about 20 minutes from Kelly, so we stayed with her and Keith for the weekend.  It was GREAT to spend some time with her and catch up.  In true Mississippi form, we hung out at the creek, and took the dogs, so Manny had his first creek experience & swimming lesson.  He LOVED it and was covered in sand, and proud of it.

The wedding was beautiful....I thought I was going to be a wallflower since I didn't know much of the wedding party, but I ended up seeing all kinds of people I knew.  I never get tired of going to weddings because I love to see all the different ways of decorating and such.  This tailgating spin of the Groom's Cake/area was ADORABLE.

The Dynamic Duo.....

I always think that going to weddings is going to make me jealous that mine has already taken place, but to the contrary-it just reminds me of how perfect our day was for us and how much I loved the little touches it had.  Okay-so maybe I'm a little jealous of wearing the pretty dress, but what girl wouldn't want to do that again?

The rest of the week was full of hard work as usual, but I had my eye on the prize for Thursday......the CHOCOLATE PARTY that I hosted at the house.  The Women's Ministry at our church has a group called "Cuisine Queens" and we alternate eating out and cooking at someone's house each month.  Whoever's home it's being held usually gets to picks the theme...we've done appetizer theme, soup theme, squash theme....well, it's no secret what my favorite food is, so I established a long time ago that chocolate would be the featured ingredient at my home! The party was a blast and we had soups with cocoa in them, cupcakes galore, and even a salad that was covered in CHOCOLATE balsamic vinegarette.  Now I could become a vegetarian for that!

This long weekend has beem long awaited and we have spent some good times with friends. Friday evening we took cheeseburgers to our friends Ben & Adriana, who was admitted into the hospital earlier this week with some complications to her pregnancy.  She was due in July, but ended up having to deliver the baby last night, but the good news is baby and mama are happy & healthy.  We can't wait to meet Baby Sofia.  And we are sure our cheeseburgers are the culprit......she's been in the hospital since Tuesday, we show up Friday with cheeseburgers and has the baby the next day.

Another incredible event happened yesterday...... wait for it.....I went to the NEW HOBBY LOBBY!  There are no words for how excited I was.  My scrapbooking obsession can now be fed.  While a few of us girls attended this grand event, the husbands went fishing, who regularly sent us photos and videos of the fish they were catching and their encounters with the alligators.  I wonder if they would care if we sent them photos of the scrapbook aisle and videos of the fabric department???

Church was great today, with an incredible message from John 12. Church was followed by a Sunday nap, Taylor family style:  get in bed and just hibernate.  I probably wasted a good part of the day, but it was worth it.  Mom, Dad, thank you for instilling the "Sunday Nap" gene in me.  If anything, it helps me to keep the Sabbath holy.  : )

Ode to the Mamas....

So Mother's Day was a couple Sundays ago and I've been meaning to salute the mothers in my life via blog. 

This Mother's Day, Mom & Amy visited Tally, which was really special.  It was great to spend some quality time with my mama! Doesn't matter how old I get, there's something about hugs from your mom that are like no other.  Thanks Mom, for always being there and putting our family's needs above yours.  

Below is my favorite pic of all time of me and Mom...doing our signature "Triple Kiss" on my wedding day.  (I can't tell  you what a triple kiss is....if I told you I'd have to kill you.) 

To my "Mother in Marriage":  

Jeremie's fabulous God-fearing mother who could pray up snow storm in the middle of July. If I told her every day what an incredible son she has raised, it still wouldn't be enough. Mama Cate has prayed us through all the seasons of our relationship and Jeremie values her advise so much.  He LOVES. HIS. MAMA.

More favorite pics below: Left: Our rehearsal dinner....Right: Groom & Mother of the Groom

The GRAND-MAMAS: And boy are they grand. We are blessed with such amazing grandmothers. From the Left: "Grammy", my mom's mom; "Grandma" my dad's mom, and "Grandmother", J's grandmother on his mom's side. 

When I was born, I looked so much like Grammy, I could've been her daughter.  She's a spunky Cajun lady who knows how to throw a party and cook the world's best gumbo.  Always there to provide the "magic pillows" for a great nap, or a shoulder to lean on, Grammy is a nurturer at heart. 

Grandma, my email partner, and one of my #1 Blog Followers,  was always the "Hider of the Eggs" on Easter and took me to choir practice every Wednesday! Watch out for her deviled eggs; they're the best.  She loves a "deal", so this is likely where I inherited my love of shopping. : )  

Grandmother Mathis refers to Jeremie as her "Sunshine", and there is one word to sum up how Jeremie & Grandmother feel about each other: Adoration.  Each thinks the other hung the moon. : ) All family events are held at Grandmother's house, who amidst the 50 family members present, always seems to cook each person their preference of eggs on Christmas morning. 

And to my "Honorary Mamas"  who have stepped in as mamas over the years when needed:  

Mrs. Alyce.  If you've met her, you know how special she is. Her and Mom are like sisters, and sometimes scare me when they get together. ALWAYS providing a good laugh, she's known me since I was born, and s treats me like one of her own.  She is the creativity behind the gorgeous wreaths at our wedding....

Mrs. Carol Trussell:  Neighbor and mama alike. Always there to keep me on my toes, she put up with all the practical jokes me and her son played on each other, which oftentimes included ran-sacking her house or front yard. She's another prayer warrior who I'm glad is on my side. : ) 

To wrap up my Belated Mother's Day Salute, below is the poem that I wrote for my mom and gave to her the day before our wedding.  It's hard to express how special my mom is to me, but I found it easier to do when rhyming!  It's pretty amateur, but I figured I'd post it anyway! 

Mother of the Bride

Not often I’m lost for words,

And don’t know what to say,

But how do you thank your mother enough

On your wedding day?

“Mother of the Bride”,

Is the title you will be,

But what it actually means,

No one will ever see.

You tucked me into bed

With a triple kiss each night,

And worked on all my costumes

Until you got them just right.

If I had a bad dream,

In my bed you would stay.

And at every piano recital

You held your breath while I’d play.

For all my school projects

You came up with a scheme.

And at every birthday party,

There was always a theme.

It’s our annual Piccadilly trip

After camp on the way back.

It’s making sure at recess

I always had a good snack.

You hung all our stockings

Each year in their special place

You held me as I cried

With tears running down my face.

All the times we’ve prayed,

About God doing His will.

And your very wise words:

“Sometimes He just wants you to be still”

So the title “Mother of the Bride”

Comes with no fortune or fame,

But today it is the title

That only you can claim.

Because it’s more than dressing up

To say you give me away,

It’s your unfailing love you give me

Each and every day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!