Author / Bethe

by Bethe

I am thankful for days off with nothing to do

On day 25, I am thankful that I’m not out in the chaos of Black Friday shopping, but instead thankful that I was able to do a little bit of shopping online while sitting on the couch next to Mr. Right, sipping coffee in my pj’s. Today has been one of those beautiful, ideal days off from work – spending the day finishing a quilt, listening to books on tape (finished Millenials and now on to Charlie Wilson’s War) and enjoying some leftover Thanksgiving pecan pie. 
by Bethe

I am thankful for my sisters

Happy Thanksgiving! As I sit here in my sewing room typing away on the computer, Mr. Right is busy in the kitchen making us a gourmet breakfast (because we haven’t consumed quite enough calories yet) and prepping for our family dinner tonight. He asked me if my 30 Days of Thankfulness ends today… it doesn’t. I’m not sure if it’s good timing or bad, but I’m extending my thankfulness through the end of November. Besides, I still have several more big posts up my sleeve… I could be thankful until spring. But I’ll try to cap it on November 30.

Today I am thankful for my sisters. Growing up in a house full of girls was one of the biggest blessings God could have given me. My sisters are my best friends–not just because they have so much dirt on me that I’ll always have to stay on their good side. No, they are two of the coolest and strongest women I’ve ever met. I am so thankful for them.

You can imagine that we grew up with a lot of laughter in our house…

We have seen each other through weddings and major illnesses. Dozens of moves and dozens of boys (but praise Jesus we found our keepers). Breakup CDs and dance parties and High School Musical movie nights. We have cheered each other on at softball games and gymnastics meets and cheerleading competitions. I’ve watched them walk the stage at high school and college graduations. And soon, we’re going to cheer Sarah on as she has a BABY. (We’re pee-in-your-pants excited about that one.)
We have traveled the world together… from Italy and France to the White House and the mountains of Colorado. I have shared a bed with them (they’ll tell you I hog the sheets… they’re lying) and tiny back seats with them (with our running joke that I need more room because of my LONG legs).  
(In Venice… part of a two-week European trip without hair dryers or straighteners… talk about roughing it and BAD hair days.)

Not only are my sisters fun, but they’re also super talented. Sarah is the most fabulous interior designer I know (call her!) and she has helped me refinish furniture and figure out how to make my house look like something that could be on Pinterest. Lindsay is nurse in the neuro ICU at one of the biggest hospitals in town and is always available to answer those pressing medical self-diagnosis questions (can I mix Benadryl with this flu medication?), and who’s the only one in the family not worried about being puked on (she’s pulled hospital family puking duty on two different occasions).

Our sisterhood is authentic… while we were all Thetas at Baylor, we opted to start our own sorority… Beta Sigma Lambda for LIFE. We eventually let the husbands join.

So to Sarah and Lindsay… I am so very thankful for you. And Happy Thanksgiving!
by Bethe

It’s my birthday

Happy birthday to me. How do we celebrate birthdays around here?
With cake balls from the same lady who made our wedding cake. You haven’t lived until you’ve had Colleen’s strawberry cake balls dipped in white chocolate. Oh my word.
We bought two dozen, so it will be my birthday for a very long time. Don’t worry, I’m choosing to share with Mr. Right and with various family members who ask nicely.
I also celebrated with a special birthday breakfast cooked by my chef husband. A bagel, egg, and bacon with homemade plum preserves. It was amazing. 
Speaking of food, I also celebrated with a birthday lunch with a few of my closest girlfriends… and a pedicure. Because nothing says happy 31st birthday to me like pretty toenails and a foot massage. And a strawberry cake (do you see a pattern here?).
I had a birthday dinner with my side of the family… and more food. My mama is an amazing cook… and then we ate more cake balls.
Tomorrow night I’m having Mr. Right’s side of the family over for a joint birthday dinner (my father-in-law has a birthday two days after mine) and Mr Right is making homemade chicken fried steak. I’m sure it’s the low-fat version.
And then I get two Thanksgivings. And I heard a rumor we may go to Joe T. Garcia’s sometime this weekend.
Someone sign me up for a 10K before I double in size! Hurry!
I bet you’re wondering what Mr. Right got me for my birthday. He’s going to turn this…
Into this…
That’s right, he’s framing our master bathroom mirror. Ours will look a lot like this, but he painted it black. It’s currently lying on the garage floor, ready to be installed. I just love being married to man who knows how to turn my wild hairs into reality.

Speaking of wild hairs… on a whim I decided to sew ruffles for my Christmas tree. It’s the absolute best sewing project ever because (1) you don’t have to iron your fabric, (2) you don’t have to cut a straight line, and (3) you don’t have to sew a straight line. It’s like magic, I tell you.

Since this is Thankfulness month on my little blog, and since I’m three days behind (but it’s my birthday… so I get a pass, right?), I thought I’d just list a few more things I’m thankful for, which can count for #20, 21 and 22:
I am thankful for strawberry birthday cake and girlfriends who love pedicures as much as me and family who calls and sings happy birthday and coffee being brought to me in bed and birthday breakfasts and getting birthday cards in the mail.
I’m also thankful for this blog, which started four years ago on my 27th birthday. 

Do you want to know how YOU can absolutely make my day on my birthday? Leave me a comment on my blog– it would make me feel all sparkly and distract me from thinking about how I’m now 31.  I know you’re out there – somehow I watched my visits quadruple this month. I’m sure 80% of those readers are related to me (hi mom, Mr. Right, and to my mother-in-law), but that still leaves a few friends and strangers out there reading, and it would just make my birthday if you would say hello. Won’t you?

Speaking of 31, I’ll leave you with a list of other famous people who are 31. It’s kind of an awesome-not-at-all-old-at-least-that’s-what-I-will-remind-myself club.

Venus Williams
Ben Savage – Boy Meets World
Michelle Williams
The oldest Hanson
Kristen Bell
Channing Tatum
I guess this means I’m joining the cool kids club. I hope that oldest Hanson saved me a seat.
by Bethe

I am thankful for our ESL class

On Day 19, I am thankful for my ESL class. In particular, I am thankful for:

Donje (Congo) and Afiwa (Togo). Missing from this picture are my other favorite Africans – Cecille and Kate (Ivory Coast), Lucienne (Berundi), and sweet Manga (Egypt) along with all of her adorable (and talkative) kids.
I am thankful for Rosie, a spirited woman who joined our class about 10 days after she moved here from Colombia and literally spoke about two sentences of English. But lucky for her (except I know God knew exactly what he was doing) we had two of the nicest students from Colombia (all from the same city – Bogota) already in our class, and they immediately became best friends. All three are now going to our church’s Spanish Sunday school class, and because we offer translation via headphones of the main worship service, they have sat with us in church. My heart did a back flip that Sunday with excitement. 

I am thankful for Christina (Mexico) and also for her father-in-law Leonardo (Venezuela), who was one of our most faithful students in our beginner class. We ended up befriending this entire family – they are particularly special to us. (I’m also thankful for my co-teacher, mix-tape making friend and bridesmaid Katie.)

I am thankful for Carolina (Mexico), Kati (Colombia), her mother Hermalina (Colombia) and Rosie (Colombia). These ladies helped translate for each other, allowed Mr. Right to practice his Spanish, and were such fun students to teach. 

I am thankful for all of the countries represented in this picture. And I am most thankful that as the semester came to a close, I can proudly say that our church now has attendees from Syria, Colombia (3), Mexico (2), and hopefully soon a new visitor from Congo. Please join me in praying for these sweet students, that God would protect them and provide them community during our two-month class break, and that he would help them find their way back next semester. It’s a scary place out there when you don’t speak the language or understand our crazy culture. Please pray that God would continue to make them brave, and to make them hungry for his love.
Please also join me in praying that we will find more teachers who want to love on these students, as I expect our numbers will increase even more in January. I promise that they will get a much bigger blessing than what they put in. 
by Bethe

I am thankful for my in-laws

Today, on Day 17, I am thankful for my in-laws. 
When it comes to marrying into a family, I feel like I hit the jackpot. It’s probably no coincidence that I started praying that God would bring me a Mr. Right who had a good family back when I was 22. I had dated someone whose mother I didn’t get along with, and from that day forward I prayed that God would bless me with good in-laws. 
My prayers sure were answered. 
My in-laws are wonderful. They are supportive and encouraging and generous, and they love their family. They raised Mr. Right to be independent and self-sufficient (and his mom taught him to cook like a rockstar). They strike that perfect balance of wanting to be involved in their children’s lives while letting them make their own decisions. They are peacemakers.
They are incredibly interesting people. My father-in-law is a team roper who competes in local rodeos and who has a passion for horses. He is also a church planter who helped launch their latest church a few years back and has built a large men’s ministry reaching out to cowboys who never felt at home in a church setting. My mother-in-law is a BSF leader and accomplished golfer–she could smoke me on the golf course with both her eyes closed. She is an incredible cook.

They’re also adoring grandparents to our niece Ella. I am thankful that someday when we have kids of our own, that they’ll make great babysitters, and their house out in the country with horses and cows will make for some really wonderful childhood memories.

They’re there. Whether it’s meeting Mr. Right for lunch or coming out to my work events to support me, or coming up to meet our ESL students (which my mother-in-law is doing tonight), they do a great job of showing their support by just being there. 
When we had to fix up Mr. Right’s house to get it ready to go on the market, my in-laws spent days helping us – my father-in-law did a ton of manual labor outside in the blazing heat, and my mother-in-law cleaned like a banshee. When our house got broken into, they came and sat outside with us in lawn chairs while we waited for the police to arrive. 

On a side note – I was on Facebook pulling pictures for this post, and I came across these wedding photos. When I’ve talked in the past about marrying into a big family, I’m not sure if you really understand how big I’m talking about. So here’s proof – these are just the relatives who made the drive in from Oklahoma and elsewhere to cheer us on at our wedding.

But back to my in-laws… they have worked so hard to make me feel welcome in their family. Thanks Audie and Ann for all you do for us. I am so blessed to be your daughter-in-law.

by Bethe

I’m tired but thankful

I’m due for a few more mushy posts on my thankfulness journey, but today I’m too tired. I had to LEAVE my house at 6:00 this morning to go put on a breakfast event for work. Since it takes me about 12 hours to get ready for work in the morning (what will I do when have children?), this means I’m working on very little sleep and too much caffeine. I’m about 10 minutes from downing two Benadryl and calling it a night.

I am happy to report, however, that my parents cried when they read yesterday’s post. That made my whole day. Why wait until something bad happens to tell someone you love them? I’m a big fan of telling people over and over and over. You’re probably next, so watch out.

But back to my long day. After my crack-of-dawn breakfast event, I brought all of my leftover food back to the office for my coworkers to enjoy. I was walking across the parking lot, carefully balancing a large box of pastries, a carton of orange juice a bag of cream cheese and silverware and my 50-pound purse… when the handles on my giant pastry box ripped, and the box came this close to hitting the ground and scattering Panera Bread cinnamon crunch bagels all over the parking lot. It was a total Charlie Brown moment.

Thankfully, I pulled a slow-motion Mission Impossible move and saved the pastries. I have quick reflexes when it comes to cinnamon crunch bagels.

I also got fitted for my Mrs. Santa Claus costume, because in two weeks I will be spreading Christmas cheer to hundreds of little boys and girls up at my hospital. When I first told Mr. Right that I was playing Mrs. Santa Claus, he worriedly looked at me and asked, “You’re not going to wear one of those sexy Mrs. Santa costumes, are you?”

No, Mr. Right. I can assure you that I will be sporting the frumpy, matronly, extremely conservative Mrs. Santa suit, along with a gray wig, round spectacles and an apron. I can’t wait to hear what all those kiddos tell us what they want for Christmas.  I can see it now…

Johnny: Santa, I want a puppy for Christmas.
Me: Sure, no problem!

Sally: Santa, I want a Barbie Princess Dreamhouse Laptop!
Me: I’ll bring you two!

This may be my one and only year to play Mrs. Santa. We’ll see how it goes.

But on to today’s thankfulness. Besides being thankful that I have a job that allows me to do some wonderfully random things, I am thankful for some other wonderfully random things today.

Today, on Day 16, I am thankful for:

-Pinterest wreaths. Last night I finished this Christmas wreath, made from clearance rack red felt, a box of straight pins and a $5 styrofoam wreath. No hot glue gun required. Maybe the easiest craft I’ve made in years.

I’m not sure if it’s going on my front door or my mantle… I may just have to make another one so I don’t have to choose (my next one will be white). If it goes on my door, it will replace my fall Pinterest wreath.

I’m tempted to take those rosettes off and repurpose them as a pin to wear on my brown cardigan. I even snuck a few yo-yo’s, which are one of my favorite things on the planet. I hope there aren’t any weird germs from them hanging up outside for two months.

-I’m thankful for an impromptu dinner date with my mom tonight.

-I am thankful that patterned tights are in style AGAIN this year. I wore some for the first time today, and I had forgotten just how comfortable they are (and how much they cover your pale white legs after your husband made you promise not to go to a tanning bed ever again and you’re too lazy to put on any self-tanner, and besides it smells bad). I especially like how all the fashion experts talk about how “in” patterned tights are this season. I guess they forgot that they were “in” last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. I’m pretty sure today’s tights were circa 2008.

Or maybe I’m just progressive.

-I am thankful for Hulu because our Tivo was broken for a month and didn’t record any of our favorite TV shows. It’s obvious that we don’t watch much TV since it took us three weeks to notice the Tivo wasn’t working and another week to figure out how to fix it (um… you unplug it and plug it back in… it’s like magic). But the past few nights I’ve been watching my shows on my laptop while piecing the last of my black and white quilt. Sure makes the time go by faster.

-I am thankful for an early bedtime after an early wake-up call. Time to take those two Benadryl.

by Bethe

I am thankful for my parents

It took me 15 days to get to a serious topic–probably because the little things in life are so much easier to verbalize than people who have truly changed your life. So today I will be brave, and begin at the beginning.

Today, on Day 15, I am thankful for my parents.

It’s so funny to look back at my baby picture and see my parents when they were younger than me. They were (and still are) such a handsome couple. Who knew that these sweet people would one day scare away high school boyfriends with the threat of guns and knives? Surely not these people…

My parents have forever been my biggest supporters. My encouragement. My protectors. My inspiration. My dad taught me at a young age that in order to be the best, you don’t have to have the most talent, you just have to work harder than everybody else–a lesson he taught me when I didn’t make the softball all star team. After a full year of working harder than anybody else, I made the team and had the highest batting average of anybody on there, not because I was big or strong or even particularly good, but because my dad taught me to play a position nobody else wanted to play, and taught me that consistent singles are much better than the occasional home run. On those teams my dad taught me how to lose with dignity, and how to play as a team. 
My mom taught me to love books. As kids we weren’t allowed to watch much TV but we had unending access to library books. As a trained reading specialist, she taught me to read at a very young age, and even though I could read long books on my own, each night before she put me to bed she would read novels to me–The Little Princess. Little House on the Prairie.  Those are some of my sweetest childhood memories. 
As an adult, I still take most of my book recommendations from her, because I know if she likes it, I probably will too.

My parents fell in love at Baylor, and they brainwashed taught me to bleed green and gold like them.  All of their children followed in their footsteps by going there. (But I did rebel and marry an Aggie.)
They raised us going to Rangers games, and it was a sweet moment to go with them to the World Series in 2010. 
My parents taught me to be a life-long learner, modeling the way through attaining advanced degrees and winning prestigious awards, while never becoming elitist or proud. My father has been an accomplished CEO and graduate professor, and my mother has received too many teaching awards to count, including being named Reading Teacher of the Year for all of Dallas-Fort Worth and having her school yearbook dedicated in her honor. I am so very proud of my parents.
Because of the way they raised me, I never even considered not going to college – I just assumed that was what everybody did. When it came time to go back for my master’s degree, it was my parents who continually encouraged me not to quit on those dark nights when I felt swamped with assignments and tempted to throw in the towel. When it came time, three-and-a-half years later, to walk the stage for what should have been a two-year degree, my parents were there to help me celebrate.
They were also there when I snuck out early from the graduation ceremony to go eat Mexican food. My family loves to eat.
My parents taught me some valuable life lessons – including how to handle money. In my sweet ignorance I didn’t realize you could charge things to a credit card and not pay them off every month until I was already out of college. I just had no idea that debt was even an option – because it was something that our family never used. It saved me from a lot of problems.
My parents were there for me during the long post-college years when I waited, and waited, and waited to meet Mr. Right. They comforted me during breakups and helped my times of being alone to feel anything but lonely. They have a wicked sense of humor that can make anybody laugh until they hyperventilate (or in my case, an asthma attack), and I treasure the many weekly dinners at Corner Bakery and Spring Creek.

Now that I’m a married woman, I am thankful that they have set a healthy example of marriage for me to model. After 36 years of marriage they’re still best friends and make a fantastic team.

I am most thankful for the truths they taught me about the Bible, about how much my Jesus loves me, and how a life lived with purpose is so much better than a life lived for yourself. Thank you for teaching me Bible verses as a young child, for training me at home and setting me out on a life-long journey of faith.

So to my mom and dad… I am so very thankful for you.

by Bethe

Three more days of thankful

I have been trying to eat from the salad bar at work every day, and it has helped me to lose five pounds. (insert back flip here) Of course, I have gained and lost those five pounds several times over the last few months, but I’m hoping that my diligence in eating a healthy lunch every single day can help make that move permanent.

Then again, week-after-next I’m going to have a birthday date, a birthday girlfriend lunch, two family birthday dinners, and two Thanksgiving celebrations in a seven-day period (not to mention we bought 2-dozen cake balls from the lady who did our wedding cake!). I’m going to assume those five extra pounds will find their way back to me by the end of that week, but maybe my salad-eating ways will help chase them away the following week. I’m thinking optimistically.

Instead of opting for one of the high-calorie salad dressings from our salad bar, I bought my own bottles of own olive oil and basalmic vinegar and keep them stashed in one of my cabinets at work. Every day at noon I go to pull out these two glass bottles and something inside me feels a little naughty – like I’m really pulling out a bottle of gin for an afternoon happy hour at my desk, like they do in the movies… or Mad Men. At least, I think they do that on Mad Men… I’ve never actually seen the show. But that’s what I would suspect, based off what I’ve read about it in US Weekly.

Confession… I ended my 10-year US Weekly subscription right before Mr. Right and I got married because it seemed like a frivolous spend during a time when we were pinching every penny. But I did download the App on my iPhone, so I’m still in the know.

Yes, that’s a bottle of Lysol wipes and a hammer next to my oil and vinegar. There would be more randoms in there, but I’m about to move my office (temporarily) and so the rest of my junk is already packed… these are the only essentials that remain. 
So that brings me to what I’m thankful for:

Day 12 – I am thankful for those random moments in every day that delight me, entertain me, or bring an unexpected treat. Whether it’s a sweet comment from a coworker or getting hopelessly tickled over something that nobody else will ever understand, I am thankful for the little things that bring me unexpected joy.

Day 13 – I am thankful for late night walks around the lake with Mr. Right. We took one last night–it was unseasonably warm and provided such a calming end to our weekend–watching as the light danced off the lake and taking in the sound of… quiet.

Day 14 – I am thankful for my old Sunday School class. I dearly miss them, and they have been nice enough to let me visit them for the past few weeks as my own class covers something I’ve already studied twice this year. I am thankful for Katie and Amy and the sacrifices they make to teach us every week, and to the other girls who pray for each other (and for me). It’s a good reminder, over and over and over, that I’m not alone

by Bethe

I am thankful for my daily Bible study

On Day 11, I am thankful for my daily Bible study. 
Mr. Right and my in-laws gave me this gorgeous chaise lounge for my birthday last year, and it has become my very favorite Bible study spot in the mornings. Imagine me sitting on this, curled up in a blanket sipping my first cup of coffee of the day, with my Bible open and my pen ready. This is my spot.
For the record, I don’t particularly like the term quiet time. It sounds a lot like time out. I guess I can just call it my daily Bible study, but even that sounds so academic. It’s my time to curl up with my savior, to pour out my heart and to fill my mind with truth so it can weed out all the gunk and insecurities that have crept in from the day before. Maybe I could call it my Mornings With Jesus? It sounds so much more brighter.
Right out of college I was mentored by a Sunday school teacher, and one of the first things I asked her was, “What does your daily Bible study time look like?” I asked everybody I looked up to, because I wondered what “magic” thing they did that made them crave their Bible. I learned that there’s no magic way, and that everybody’s looks a little different.
In case you’re wondering, here’s what I do… for now. It changes occasionally. For instance, before I got married, I used to do my Bible study in the quiet of the evening, before I went to bed. Or, if I knew I would have a conflict, I’d do it on my lunch break at work, or after work, but before I left the office. But when I got married, my schedule was turned upside down and I had trouble juggling time with my husband, my workout, housecleaning, grocery shopping, time for projects I want to do, hanging out with friends… and my Bible study.
And so with the encouragement from Mr. Right, I moved to the early morning Bible study, because then I never have a conflict (except for two morning meetings a month). My alarm now goes off at 5:30 a.m. (gulp) and I’m out of bed with coffee made by 5:45. I curl up in my reading nook and start with a short prayer, and then I read a daily devotional from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest – this is new, I just started that part last week. It’s a quick one-page read, and then I start on whatever I want to study in my Bible. 
I find that I need to have a plan before I start – otherwise I tend to fumble along and lose motivation. I’m easily distracted, so having a plan works for me – it’s not for everybody. For the past few months I used a workbook on the life of Paul by Beth Moore to guide my daily devotional. Now that I’m finished, I am working my way chronologically through the New Testament with this guide. (You can even sign up for a daily email update with the day’s reading–let technology work for you.)
After I do the day’s reading (sometimes I do two days’ worth if it’s short) then I do a longer time of prayer. I keep a prayer journal where I write down all the things I want to pray for, and that helps me keep a record. It’s so encouraging to look back on what I’ve been praying for and see all the places God has answered my prayers. I also write things I learned in my daily reading, including verses I want to memorize or things I want to study further. I have a whole slew of old journals that are so sweet to look back on.
Girlfriend, learn from my mistake: I keep a separate prayer journal for home and I do NOT take it with me to church. Because sometimes I write very personal prayers in my journal, and one time I lost my journal at church. I won’t lie, I almost peed in my pants. More so, because my husband works at the church and I was terrified a coworker might find it and read through it. That’s a mistake you don’t make twice.
How long does all this take? About 45 minutes to an hour. There’s no magic time limit, but it’s what seems to be working for me… for now. Let me encourage you that I am NOT an early morning person and that for the first few weeks it was tough to focus when I wasn’t all the way awake. But like anything, you get used to it, and now I’ve come to look forward to those early morning times of peace before the chaos of life starts raining down. 
So that’s my way of doing things. Not the only way, but if you’re trying to get motivated to start reading the Bible every day, maybe it can be a jumping off point for you. And, if you have another way of doing things, I would love to hear from you – I am always up for new ideas.
“Sanctify them with truth; your Word is truth.” -John 17:17