I Am Having a . . .

Book.

Or should I say, Bible study.

Last week I signed the dotted line for my first-ever, royalty-paid project--co-authoring a Bible study with a good friend of mine.

I feel so honored to be able to work with my author pal, Mark. A few years back, when I donned the acquisitions editor desk at Randall House, his proposal crossed my path. I cheered its arrival because I felt the topic was timely and the idea unique. Now, as a freelancer, to be asked to join his ranks in making this manuscript a reality--I'm feeling so blessed.

Thus, between now and May 21 (the DEADLINE), I shall be working, working, working to write, alongside my buddy, the best Bible study you've ever seen. :-)

More info, such as title, synopsis, etc to come.

Oh, and if I'm a little tardy with the e-mails and Facebook . . . you know why!

Chimney Progress

After nearly two months of rain stalling our chimney remodel, the contractors finally made significant progress. With a new frame, new brick, and a new cricket (dormer), we are hoping to be free of rotting woods, leaks, and wasps! In a couple of weeks, the brick will be painted to match the house color and the cap will be placed. I'll post pics when it's all tah-dah finished. (By the way, when the contractors tore off the exterior wood, they found HUNDREDS of wasps nesting there!)

Tulips

When I walked into the house on Sunday--just home from the church's women's retreat--I happily discovered a beautiful bunch of tulips on the counter for me from my sweet, wonderful husband. What a special surprise! My heart swooned.

And yesterday, we celebrated four years of dating. We are going to relive the magic at Starbucks this week--our first date locale.

How blessed am I!?!?!?!

I'm Sorry, Derek

While I will not relent that his live concert was less-than-stellar, I will apologize to Derek Webb for my previous rash conclusions. I now own his newest, "explicit" CD and am loving it. Sorry, Derek.

Just figure out something for the concerts . . .

Snow Day!

And here's what you can do with a foot of snow . . . and should I say, what a foot of snow can do! These pics still don't even do it justice. (Our neighbor across the street lost significant branches, not good, not good.) We are so thankful the power lines did not snap!

The Snow of All Snows

At 10 p.m. on Wednesday evening, I stayed up to watch Pete on the news (he's the weather man). I'd heard a rumor from here and there that we might get some snow. Pete calmly stated we'd be looking at 1-3 inches. It was supposed to rain most of the morning, turning over to rain/ice by noon, and then all snow around 3 p.m. on Thursday.

But what really happened was . . . .

It started snowing at 2:15 a.m. on Thursday morning, and stopped around 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning. The official total from DFW airport at that time was 12.4 inches, shattering the record for the largest one-storm snowfall in DFW history (which previously was a bit over 7 inches).

This pictures are from my photo shoot around noon, and then again at 2 p.m. We only had around 4 and 6 inches, respectively at those times. And I thought I was in winter wonderland heaven.

Until . . . .

Earlier that morning, I had heard a terrible noise--easily identifiable as a tree crashing to the ground. Thankfully, it was not a whole tree, but a couple large branches from our neighbor's tree. And thankfully again, they did not damage anything, but landed nicely on the driveway. So, when I ventured out again at 2 p.m., I was terrified to see SEVERAL of our trees nearly touching the ground. In a panic, I started shaking snow off limbs like you've never seen. Of course, this mean I was getting pummeled by snow from on high. S-O-A-K-E-D. Not until I saw my neighbor doing such with a broom, that I grabbed a hoe and started shaking higher and heavier. While we only lost a handful of limbs, mostly minor, I'm not so sure how my shrubs are going to recover from this. They are very weighted down . . . .

So, these are my "yesterday" pictures, when the snowfall total was a mere 6 inches. I'll post the today pics, where my ruler indicated 9.5 by my office door. Lord knows it's more in the middle of the yard! I just won't venture out there!

We know someone who likes chocolate