"...all the love!"

Well dear blogging friends, I will officially be on my Spring Break in about 15 minutes! I will be away from my computer till next Tuesday!

WOOOOHOOOO......

Before I go, I would like to share a short story with you....more a conversation between Timothy and I last night after church:

T - "Momma, look at the cross I colored"

M - "I see, it is really nice!"

T - "Tell me what it says on the top again."

M - "It says 'He is risen'."

T - "Momma, you know we celebrate Jesus TWO times. One at Christmas when He was born and the other at Easter when He died and was risen."

M - "I know, but you know we should celebrate Jesus every day right?"

T - "Yeah....we also have the Easter bunny for Easter."

M - "Well, the Easter bunny is just something we do for fun. You remember why we REALLY celebrate Easter don't you?"

T - "Yes 'mam....Cause Jesus died on the cross."

M - "Yes, what else?"

T - "He was put in the tomb."

M - "You're right, what else?"

T - "He rosed from the dead!" (with lots of excitement!)

M - "Why did He do that for us?"

T - "Because if He didn't we wouldn't have all the love!"


How sweet! I love that God's message to us is so simple that even a 5 year old can explain it! Didn't He die for us and rise again for the love? The love that He had for us. The love He wanted to show us. The love that He wants from us!

That conversation with Timothy will be one of those I will remember for the rest of my life........I am sure of it!

Because of all the love!

Happy Easter my dear friends!

Free IPod????

Head on over to Cooking By The Seat Of My Pants. You might could win one!

New Look!!!

So, what do you think??? Jenny at Pink Armchair Designs "pimped" my blog!

HeeHeeHee....that was SO not something that is usually in my vocabulary......hubby's YES....mine.....not so much. But I thought it was funny!!!! LOL I guess it is okay to laugh at myself!!!

Go on over to her site and check her out!

She is SO precious. I think it is pretty cool how her design fit my personality and she doesn't even know me! The only thing I gave her was a poorly drawn DimpleQueen done in paint and in black and white. She took it and ran with it! She was so kind and said she liked it.....it made me laugh!

Thank you so much Jenny!!!

Bible Giveaway

Hey, one of my new blogger friends Ashley is giving away this bible. Go on over to her place to check it out! All you have to do is leave a comment.....and post a link on your site if you want to be entered twice.

WFMW

Wow....I LOVE this stuff! I starch just about everything and I use to keep a small dry cloth close by so that I could rub off the flakes from the starch. Well, not anymore! Now that I have found this stuff, I will never need that cloth again.....as long as they keep making it! You know how that works....you get use to something then all of a sudden it is no longer available.......I hope that doesn't happen with this stuff. I have even used it on black and navy blue clothes and it didn't flake at all. I LOVE IT!!!

For more ideas head on over to Shannon's at Rocks in My Dryer.

CAMPING!!!!

We are going TENT camping for the first time as a family. We are all going! Does anyone have any tips ??????????????? We leave Saturday morning sometime and come back late Tuesday. We are going to Garner State Park in south Texas. Pray for us!!! :)

The Weight Thing and Other Stuff

Well, obviously from the ticker on my sidebar, you might have noticed that I have NOT lost any more weight since several weeks ago!!! Honestly, I haven't really tried much lately. I was doing really well, but then all of a sudden it was like I didn't care again, until yesterday.

For the past couple weeks I have been so BLAH!!! I have had two major headaches, migraine or cluster (not sure yet). I was suppose to go have the MRI, MRA and the EEG last week, but even though the Lord blessed us with the clergy discount at the Baptist hospital, I still couldn't afford to pay my part that day. The discount was very much appreciated. It knocked the amount I would owe down to less than a third of the entire bill. After insurance, the total bill was $4447.89! After the clergy discount it was only $789.84!!!!!!

Now tell me that isn't God working!

The only problem that morning was that they wanted me to have $500 of the money BEFORE I could have the tests done. Well, there was no way that was happening. I could barely afford to pay them $100 that day. I told the "financial counselor" that I had gotten paid that Monday, but didn't realize I would need that much money to have the tests done and that I thought I was going to be able to pay them out over time. My hubby had already written and mailed all the bills. I explained to her that I could bring another $150 on the 25th when I got paid again, then I could pay $100 out of every check (which is 2x's a month) till it was paid off.

She then explained to me that the amount I owed was because of my deductible and since it was going toward my deductible they would not let her take any less than $250 on that day. Then she started to explain to me that the MRI and MRA machines were down and that I would have to reschedule those tests. AND since those machines were down, the tests were being split up and the discount woudn't be as much.

After MUCH inner struggle, I told the woman, "Forget it! I will just deal with the headaches until I can get all the tests scheduled at the same time." I told her that I would work on setting aside the money needed for the tests and come back later.

There was actually much more said in that conversation....some of which I am embarrassed by, but in all the pain I had gone through over the past couple days prior to this, I didn't really care. I told my mother and my hubby and another friend that the pain I had in my head that day made me want to shoot my head off! I have NEVER felt that kind of pain before and I pray that none of you do EVER!!!!

There was NO sympathy coming from this woman. And it really frustrated me to no end. She had obviously never experienced such pain.

I just want to know what is causing the headaches. I want to get in to see the neurologist to discuss it all and get the medication I need to (hopefully) deter that kind of pain from ever rearing it's ugly head again! The pain for both only lasted approximately 45 minutes to an hour, but it was completely UNBEARABLE during that time, and for the next several days I had a constant headache.

Just pray for me in all this......I am sure it is nothing but Migraines or Cluster headaches, but I want to know and I want to get whatever medicine will work and I want it NOW!!!

The tests are rescheduled for May 1st and the neurologist appointment for May 9th.

Thanks friends!

Menu Plan

Notice I didn't lable this Menu Plan Monday.....well, it isn't Monday so I just didn't think it would be right! LOL

Tuesday: Smoked Sausage

Wednesday: Church/Sandwhiches

Thursday: Meat Loaf

Friday: Frito Salads

Saturday - Tuesday: Camping at Garner State Park in south Texas! Eating hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken! (that's what Timothy wanted!)

Recent pictures of the kids!

My momma will tell you that I am the WORST at sending out new pictures.....I still have pictures to send them that I MEANT to send at Christmas......ok...here is the promise I am making right now to my MOMMA....I WILL SEND THEM TOMORROW!!!!!!!! I PROMISE!!!

It's a good thing she loves me!!! Anyway, here are some pictures I took of the kids Sunday before church! They had fun....there were a couple others, but blogger was taking too long to load today! And there was one really cute one but kind of disturbing to Carlton....Timothy told Rachel..."OK...we have to take one kissing for Momma!" So they did....but the way the shot was taken it looked like they were kissing for their WEDDING!!!! YUK!!!! Not something I wanted to picture either.....

ULTIMATE BLOG PARTY '08

I am participant number 1058....it's not too late to join!!!!

Hey you all, the time has come to partay!!!!!! I've never been a part of hosting a party this big before! It is a bit intimidating.

I hope you all will join in too! Susan and Janice over at 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting another Ultimate Blog Party full of new sites to see and prizes galore! All you have to do is go there, click on one of the many bloggers listed in Mr. Linky and get to party hoppin'. There are also over a hundred prizes to choose from so check it out!

Here are a few of the prizes I like:

#45 Custom Blog Design by Summer
#123 Blog Makeover from Lady In Waiting Blog Design
#61 The Very Cool Lunchbox (this would be great for my Timothy since he starts K next year!)
There are also many others I liked such as #'s 11, 32, 34, 117, 142, 140, and 130


Here's about me:

I am Angela, also known as Dimple Queen. A name given by a dear friend in college (my Chickamay) that has stuck! I am married to a wonderful man who is a youth minister and we have two beautiful children, Timothy Scott and Rachel Elizabeth.

I currently teach Special Education in Texas and can't say that I love it as much as I use to......I LOVE the kids, but with all the new stuff going on, I have lost the love of TEACHING!!! HELP!!!

As for blogging, I have been blogging for little over a year and I LOVE IT! I have met many wonderful women while blogging. I wouldn't want to leave any out, so you can check out my side bar. Some of them are young mothers, some are adopting, some are other minister's wives and some are wise spirits that I have come to admire over this past year.

Some of my favorite posts are:
Timothy's Sweet Teacher
One on Rachel's birthday (I love the pictures of her!)
Consequences, and I didn't have any paper!
Who's the Daddy, God or Jesus?
and That's the girl I prayed for Momma!

You will see that my Timothy is a ver compassionate little man! God has blessed me with these two beautiful children. This blog is about me, them and our lives. It is about my struggles as a parent, a woman, and a wife in the ministry.

Please come back! Hope to hear from you!

What kind of shoe are you??

I saw this on the blog of Lisa Writes.......I went on over took my 5 question quizz and this is what it said about me.... (BTW, Lisa is a cowboy boot!!)

You Are Clogs

You are a solid and down to earth person. You seek – and almost always achieve – a really sound balance in your life. You are stylish yet comfortable. Mellow but driven. Excited yet calm. You are the perfect mesh of contradictions. No matter what happens, you have the ability to stay well grounded in your life. People know that they can truly depend on you. You should live: In Europe You should work: At a company dedicated to helping the world

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

You can follow that link above and find out what kind of shoe you are. Then come back here and let me know

I would like to know one thing.....how does it know I am a clog after just 5 questions??

And what kind of clog am I .... a GARDEN clog, a closed back clog, wooden clog, or a fancy

Professional Brocade clog.

I am not sure, but I will tell you the funniest thing about finding this out today is that I AM WEARING a pair of CLOGS!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL They are old and brown and well worn! And I love them.

My Heart is Aching!

You know I mentioned last week that my hubby had started this study on Wednesday nights titled Sex and Dating. Well, last night was so intense for some of the kids. There were two young girls at my table that are friends, but I noticed that one had called the other a wh.re! I had to get to the bottom of that so I told them both to come with me and we went into a different room to chat.

One of the girls had called the other such a terrible name...."out of love!" (not a term of endearment I would want to be called mind you!) She said she did it becasue she is tired of watching her friend make herself in to this kind of person. Both of these girls are/have been sexually active. Both of them have been raped. Both come from broken homes. Both feel worthless.

This breaks my heart for them. We talked for a long time. And I left them feeling like nothing had been accomplished. I mean, they are still friends and all, but will what happened last night change the way they act? Will it mean enough to them that when they find themselves in a situation that they don't want to be in/know they shouldn't be in they will call me. (I programmed my phone numbers in their phones.) (Instead of Ms. Angie....I almost put "Say No to Sex...but I didn't!)

I told both of them that there is nothing they could tell me that would shock me.......and honestly there isn't, not anymore anyway. I wish there was, but there isn't!

I truly love these girls and all the other ones that are in our group. I love all girls. I talk to the girls here at my school all the time about such topics. I spent about 45 minutes of the morning yesterday talking to one of our students that is 4 months pregnant in the 8th grade!!!!

She was very upset and needed to talk to someone, but those around her WOULD NOT LISTEN!!!!! Instead, they just kept fussing at her. By goodness, give her a little break. Besides, how did they expect her to take our state's exam and PASS or do well on it if she was so upset??? All she wanted is for someone to listen. She feels like she is diseased, used and all alone. We talked for a while, then we hugged for a while. Once she was calm, she took her test and actually told me that she felt pretty good about it as well.

Where am I going with all this.....

I don't really know....

I do know that God has allowed so many things to happen in my life. And I want to use those things to minister to young girls. I want to do more than I am doing now. But what???

My heart aches for them.

Pray for me on this......

Fears

This beautiful picture can be aquired over at Home Sanctuary. Rachel Anne is one talented lady! This is one of her "creations" and she posted this as part of her Small Things for today. I am "stealing it" today.

Do you have fears? Most people have some kind of fears, whether it be a fear of these adorable 8 legged creatures (NOT!), Or of this guy with a painted face, crazy colorful hair, a rubber nose, and clothes that are always way too big and never matched!!
Either way, there are many different fears out there. I checked out some at this web site. There were so many things listed. Here is just a very small sample of things listed on that site:

• flutes
• hands
• Northern lights
• missles or bullets (this would be me and most of us I think!)
• hair
• books
• clocks
• going to school (we know many kids with this one)
• blushing
• hearing good news ?????????

This list is forever long! Some of them are down right silly, but many of them are quite sad!

I went over to Rachel Anne's today. And her post was a reminder that God has not given us a spirit of FEAR! Go there and read the entire post. She ended with this......

Today, I want you to NAME YOUR FEAR. Tell your fear, This. Is. It. You can't mess with my mind anymore. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm going to believe in a Mighty God. I'm going to trust in a Faithful Friend. I'm going to stand up and walk in the spirit of power, and love and sound mind!

I LOVED IT! And I hope you do too!

Let's get over our fears!

An Unbalanced Life?

Wow, I just came from a friend's blog and she had a wonderful post on Friday that I totally missed. It was titled The Balance Between Me And Them and it was about the struggle to find some kind of balance between taking care of your family and taking care of yourself. I SO needed to read that today.

I have so many things off balance right now. I pray with my kids, but I find myself skipping out on my own prayer life quite a bit. I read what seems like TONS of blog posts a day, but find myself slacking when it comes time to read the Bible or do a Bible study. I spend time worrying about whether or not my kids and my husband are happy and have all they need, but when it comes to me, I don't even entertain the thought!

I don't want to become this selfish woman that demands there be a line in the budget for all the mani/pedi's a woman could want, a new outfit for every occasion or lunch dates with the friends several times a week. However, I do know that I need to take some time for myself. I need to think about me at least a teensy weensy bit. Shoot, my dear hubby just told me this very thing about a month ago. He sees it, so why can't I?

Thank you Liz and thank you dear Hubby for pointing this out to me!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, last weeks menu went out the door!!!! We had so much going on and things just kept changing around. I think I only made 2 meals at home this week!!!! TERRIBLE for the budget!!!

So, here is what was left from last week along with something extra:

Monday - Smoked Sausage

Tuesday - Fried Chicken Salads

Wednesday - Church

Thursday - Baked Potatoes

Friday - Taco Soup

I will have to shop for Saturday and Sunday......so I won't list that now!

For more menu ideas head on over to Laura's at I'm An Organizing Junkie!