An Easter Blessing

So, I failed to mention a few things when I posted about Easter the other day.  I just couldn't stop talking about how amazing God was that I forgot to mention the TREMENDOUS blessing that He provided us with on Easter Sunday!  Of all the days too...it just couldn't have been a more perfect time or a more perfect day for His gift.  I talked in one of other posts about how Cody had been working a hail storm in Hamilton and how much of a blessing and gift from God that was.  However, I failed to mention that it really stinks when he's away like that!  It's hard being home at night by myself.  I miss him, our babies miss him, and it's just something that you just never really get used to no matter how short or long the duration of a storm lasts.  But...I say all that without complaints because in the end it is always worth it and it has made our marriage even stronger!  Plus, it's how Cody provides for our family and he'll gladly go wherever God calls him to go!  BUT...we got a HUGE hail storm in Abilene on Easter Sunday!!!  Now he gets to stay in Abilene and they will have plenty of work for the next several months!  God is SO good!!!  We also got to celebrate with family on Easter Sunday...before and after the hail storm.  My parents and little brother came to church with us...which I already said in the last post was AMAZING!  Then, we went to eat lunch at Szechuan with Cody's sister, her hubby, and their three kiddos.  It's been awhile since we've seen them (they live in Del Rio) so it was great to catch-up and spend some time with them before they had to get on the road and head home.  Then, we headed home so that I could get started on cooking Easter dinner for both sets of parents.  I cooked a brown sugar/pinapple glazed ham, french toast bake with blueberries, monkey bread, scrambled eggs, a fruit salad, and lemon bars for dessert (pictures of the spread are in the last post!)  I'm drooling thinking about all this food...especially the yummy, gooey, caramely, monkey bread!  I'm going to the store to buy more stuff to make it...I think I might be becmoing a monkey bread addict!  We did have some sad news though.  Because of the stormy weather, Cody's parents weren't able to drive across town to our house.  My parents did come over though since they live so close...like across the street close!  Which we love...don't judge :-)  We definitely ate and talked and praised God for the hail storm that He sent us on such a wonderful Easter Sunday.  Thankfully, the weather cleared up around 8:00 and we were able to take some of the food to Cody's mom and dad so that they could have some Easter dinner.  We definitely missed them being there, but we were happy that we wound up getting to see them later on in the evening!  Overall, our Easter Sunday was filled with lots of family, amazing blessings, praise, and love!  I don't think that it gets much better than that!

HE is Risen...HE is Risen Indeed!!!

"Peace be with you! Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.  Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:26-27 & John 20:29

Easter Sunday is so much more than new, pretty, bright clothes, and Easter egg hunts.  It is about a perfect, sinless man giving His life on the Cross so that we may be saved and have an eternal life with Him in Heaven.  It's about celebrating His resurrection and thanking Him for this life He has given us.  It's about spending time with family and celebrating the fact that we are forgiven because Jesus was scorned, beaten, and put to death in the most gruesome and humiliating death.  I think about all this and it truly blows me away.  I have a hard time sometimes wrapping my head around the fact that I am loved by my Father in Heaven unconditionally that He would send His Son to die on the Cross for me.  But, He didn't just die for me.  He died for all of us.  He wants us to come to Him, accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and follow Him.  While sitting at church on Sunday, they re-enacted the scene where Judas betrays Jesus and the Roman soldiers come to capture Him to be taken to the high priest.  The high priest's servant, Malchus, was the one that was sent to convince Judas to betray Jesus.  When the Roman soldiers come to capture Him, one of the disciples cuts off Malchus's ear.  Jesus, knowing that Malchus was behind all of this, reached out to him, touches him, and re-attaches his ear.  He knows what Malchus has done, and yet He still showed him love.  Later on during the service, they re-enacted Jesus carrying the Cross on His back and He was beaten and bloody and struggling to carry the Cross.  All the while the Roman soldiers are mocking Him.  Then, in the background, they began hammering the nails.  All you could hear was the hammer beating down on the nails, going into Jesus's hands and feet, and then into the wood.  I just sat there in tears listening.  I don't know about you, but I can't believe that someone did that for me.  An imperfect human and a sinner.  He has shown me so much love, grace, kindness, and forgiveness.  Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  We are all weary and burdened.  Life throws us through all kinds of loops.  But, I know one thing is for sure, and that's that there is no way that I can get through this crazy life on my own!  I need Jesus to take my hand and lead me and I need to follow Him.  All he wants is for us to follow Him, for us to live a life that is filled with His light and bring people closer to Him.  He died on the Cross and then He rose from the grave...for all of us.  That's what Easter is all about. I want nothing more than to live my life so that is pleasing to Him.  If He could die on the Cross for me, I think that I can do nothing more than to live my life for Him.  I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter!   "Oh How He Loves Us!"

Me and Cody in front of my parent's house after church on Easter Sunday

LOVE this man!!!

Me and my little brother...couldn't ask for a better brother...who is also my BFF!!!

Airicka, Me, Aaron, Cody, and Eli...our niece and nephews...love our sweet family :-)

The Easter dinner that I cooked.  I decided to do the traditional ham...but then make the sides be breakfast foods!  We are a breakfast loving family...so why not have it for dinner?!?!?

And again...the ham, fruit salad, eggs, blueberry french toast, and monkey bread!  Oh...and I made lemon bars for dessert...YUMMO!!!

A Family of Friends

I can honestly say that we have some of the BEST friends in the entire world!  God has truly blessed us with friends that we can literally call family!  They are always there for us, we laugh and cry with them, we celebrate with them, and we love them...dearly!  On Friday, April 22nd, one of our closest friends graduated from the Abilene Fire Department.  This has been a along process for Brent, and I know he's so glad to finally be apart of the AFD.  A little over two years ago, he and his wife, Bria moved to California from Hurst, Texas.  He started Fire Fighter and EMT school there and it took him about a year to finish.  When they decided to move back to Texas (almost a year ago), they decided to come back to Abilene, with a little convincing from us :-)  They are both from the DFW area, came to college at ACU and then went back to the DFW area after graduation and didn't ever think they would move back to Abilene.  However, my husband has this amazing gift of bringing people back here!  We are so glad they are back though...it's hard to be that far away from family!  When they came back from Cali, they lived with us for a couple of months before they found a house to buy.  So, we got to spend a lot of time catching up.  We also got to see first hand how hard Brent has worked to be  hired on with the AFD.  We are all so very proud of him and we all got together for dinner to celebrate before his graduation at Brick Oven Pizza.  Then, we were off to watch him graduate.  Bria pinned his Maltese Cross pin on his shirt and then he was sworn in to become an AFD Fire Fighter.  It was very cool and I'm so glad that we were there to celebrate with them!  After graduation, everyone came over to our house and we just spent the rest of the night hanging out, laughing, and talking together.  It's amazing to have such wonderful friends...we love you all so very much!!!

Brent being sworn in and Bria pinning on his cross
Dallas, Britain, Bria, Brent, Me, Cody, Leah, Sydney, and Jacob at Brent's Graduation
Brent and Bria
Tony and Brent

Dallas, Cody, Brent, and Josh being "classy!"  Love these boys!
Me and all my sweet girls!!!  Love them so very much!

Trip to See Mimi

These past couple of weeks have been CRAZY!!!  Cody has been working out of town in Hamilton for the past few weeks, so it's been an adjustment trying to get used to him being away during the week.  But, the blessing is that it has been an answered prayer and a gift from God for the reason he has been working there.  Hamilton got hit with a hail storm the second weekend in April.  I know most people are a little scared of hail and typically don't want hail to come anywhere near them.  And I completely understand, because I used to feel the same way.  But, Cody owns part of a roofing company, and if we don't get any hail storms here in Abilene, or in a surrounding town, it could be bad news for us.  Not only was this hail storm a tremendous gift and blessing, but it has worked out perfectly that it happend in Hamilton because that's where my Mimi lives.  It really is amazing to step back and look at the way that God works and to see how His plan is always perfect.  We had been praying for a hail storm, and even though it happened out of town, he's been able to stay with my sweet Mimi and not have to worry about doubling our living expenses.  I know she has loved it too.  She's been making him breakfast before he heads out in the morning and dinner when he gets home at night.  My Grandaddy passed away when I was 4, so he's been gone almost 22 years.  So, my Mimi is usually home by herselft in the evenings.  Unless she has some function, event, or party to go to.  Which, she does quite frequently!  But, I know that it has been nice for her to have Cody there.  I think he's liked it too.  On Thursday, before he left to come home, he surprised her with a beautiful bouquet of Easter flowers!  Anyways, last weekend mom and I had planned to go down to Hamilton and help her do some things around the house...and of course we were going to bring Faith!  It turned out that Cody needed to go back to Hamilton on Saturday and meet with some home owners about their new roofs and so we all just made the trip up there together.  We had a lot of fun visiting, playing fetch with Faith out in the field behind her house, eating, and just spending time together.  Faith loves my Mimi...and Mimi loves my little Faithy girl!  Every time we go down to Hamilton, I always ask Faith if she's ready to go see Mimi and she starts jumping up and down and rus to the backdoor.  So, it was fun getting to take her on a little road trip and it was fun getting to spend the day with my Mimi.  We are so very blessed and I'm trying to remember to thank God for the little things.  Those are what truly matter in this life!

My little Faithy girl and my sweet Mimi!  I love these two girls so very much!

Prom

Yes...you read correctly...the title says prom!  Now, I've been out of high school for almost 8 years (that sounds very weird) and have not been to a prom since my senior year, which was in 2003!  I had fun at the proms I attended when I was in high school...all the dresses, hair, mani's and pedi's, and make-up...it was fun.  It was a way for us high school girls to get all dressed up and look like movie stars for one night while our dates were in tuxes.  Bless their hearts...they never enjoyed prom as much as we did!  Boys just don't even know what they are getting themselves into when it comes to us girls...we all just want to be real-life princesses!  Prom wasn't about just getting all dressed up, although that's what girls look forward to the most! But, it was also about going out to eat at a fancy dinner with a bunch of other couples and then getting to prom and dancing the night away.  So anyways, I'm 25 now and the thought of prom has long escaped my mind.  But, the school that I teach at had prom a couple of weeks ago for our juniors and seniors.  The entire faculty/staff is invited to attend, but I have never gone in my previous two years of being here. This is my third year, and all my students always ask if Cody and I are going to go, and my answer has always been no.  But, not this year!  Cody and I and another couple that teaches at Blackwell with me all decided to go.  My friend Carrie is the 4th, 5th, and 6th reading/ELA teacher and her husband is the elementary principal.  When we decided to go, Carrie and I decided that if we were gonna go to prom, we were also gonna get our hair and make-up done.  We figured...why not?!?!  Might as well be pampered for the day if we're gonna get dressed up and attend a dinner and dance later on in the evening.  So, Cody stayed home and did yard work all day and Jason (Carrie's husband) took one of his daughters to get their show pigs for next year's stock shows.  They did productive work all day while Carrie and I had lunch, got pampered, and did a little shopping...what more could a girl ask for?!?!  By the time we were done, it was time to change clothes and head over to where prom was held this year.  It's nice that it was in Abilene so we could just drive a few minutes down the road!  The juniors put the prom on for the seniors and they always provide a very nice meal at prom and this year they even hired a live band to come and perform instead of hiring a DJ.  It was almost like a concert!  We all had a lot of fun and it was fun to see all the kids dressed up and see all the girls in the beautiful gowns!

Carrie and me at Prom

Carrie and me again...we had to get a full length so you could get the full effect of our dresses and shoes :-)

Me and my handsome hubby!

Big Game Hunt

Well...we had an exciting weekend last weekend in the Seidensticker/Kelley household!  My dad was fortunate enough to go to the Texas Hill Country and hunt on a high-fenced big game ranch.  We are big hunters and my family actually has a ranch that is located in Comfort, TX.  So, we absolutely love the Texas Hill Country!  The story behind our ranch is very special.  My great-grandparent's immigrated here from Germany in the late 1800's, bought the land and it has been in our family ever since.  The land is on the Guadalupe River and the house that was built on the property was built from the rock query that is on the place.  We go down there often and can even hunt all year round!  There are white tail deer, of course, but we also have Axis deer on our place.  The Axis deer are exotic, imported from India, so we are able to hunt them all year around.  They are beautiful animals and it is amazing to watch them interact with one another.  They are much bigger than white tail deer and much more exciting to see and to hunt!  Over the years, my husband, daddy, and brother have hunted them and have snagged some pretty nice trophy Axis bucks.  They still hunt them and all keep wishing that they will be the one to get the next big buck, but they have been itching to kill something different.  The boys in my family have decided that it would be a dream come true to kill a Black Buck.  My dad got invited to go to this Big Game Ranch with his boss last weekend, and let me just tell you that my husband and brother were very jealous!  We were all nervous and hoping that he would call us with some exciting news.  I was sitting at our bar in our kitchen eating breakfast on Saturday morning (4-9-11) and my text message notification went off on my phone.  I go to look at it and I ran outside as quickly as I could to show Cody the picture that my dad had just sent me.  He had already gotten the big trophy Black Buck that he had been wishing he would see and get to kill!  We were all so excited and happy for him!  The guides on the ranch said it's one of the bigger ones that they've seen killed out there.  He was so relieved that he had gotten a big trophy Black Buck and could just sit back and relax and enjoy the beauty of the other animals and enjoy the ranch life for the rest of the weekend.  He had so much fun and we were all so very happy for him!  The boys are planning a trip to go back to this ranch in February.  I know they are all so very excited for the opportunity to go down there and see all the different kinds of animals that are on this place!

This is my daddy and the beautiful Black Buck that he killed!

Happy Birthday Momma!!!

Yesterday, April 4th, was my beautiful momma's birthday!!!  I thought about singing happy birthday to her when I called at 7:45 in the morning...but I decided that might be a little too early for her to have to tolerate my "lovely" singing voice!  I talked to her a lot through out the day, which I do every day, but she was quite busy yesterday.  She's the Administrative Coordinator for the Sociology and Family Studies Department at ACU...needless to say she wears many hats!  But she was busy yesterday with a mixture of meetings and helping students with their schedules and people coming in to wish her a happy birthday!  She got cards from her office workers, the Dean of the department and the other professors brought her a birthday cake, two of her student workers took her out to lunch...she got spoiled!  She works with amazing Christian men and women and is very fortunate to work in an environment that is much like a second family.  When she got home, my little brother and I took her out to eat for dinner at Red Robin.  It was a lot of fun and the food was so, so good!  My dad had to work...tax season...boo :-(  And Cody had a meeting at our church, so he couldn't go either.  But, it was nice taking her out, just her and her two kids!  I told our waiter it was her birthday hoping that he would embarrass her and bring the rest of the crew out to sing...but she ducked out after we paid the check.  I'll get her next year...or just stand up and sing myself!  I love you momma...thank you for being such an amazing example!!!