Another Night At Mimi's

Just wanted to add some new pictures from Sunday night at Mimi's. Dont ya just love my new flower!??!?! Here's my dear friends Amy and Anya and Issac and myself!

Home Missions Service

So I just got home a couple of minutes ago from a Home Missions Service in Phoenix. Bro Carlton Coons preached and our choir did an amazing job! We had a blast in the van and here are a couple of pictures from the restaurant.

first one is of : Aimee, Me, Sarah Pierce, and Ben
second one if of me and DeOnna
third one is of Jovi and Sarah Strong
fourth one is of Ben and Isaac
fifth one is of Bethany and I

Spanish Ministries!

So one day I happen to go into our Sunday morning Spanish service because the preacher that was preaching in the English service was extremely long winded. That sadly is the honest truth. (okay so I'm a heathen! lol) What I didn't expect was for me to actually like it and to want to come back the next Sunday but I did. For the last couple of weeks I have continued to go to the Spanish services and I have been so blessed. God had started to give me such a burden for Spanish ministries. I was never really a fan of Spanish music either but one of the Brothers in our church gave me this CD of Marcela Gandara and Jesus Adrian Romero and I am hooked! I found myself almost crying in my car the first time I heard it because God was ministering to me through that music. So next Sunday I am going to sing in the Spanish service! I'm really excited about what God is going to do! Ohh and our Spanish choir just got asked to sing at the Spanish General Conference in Denver, Colorado in June! I have never been to Colorado or to a Spanish conference like this so I am totally psyched!! God is soo Good!

Thankful for God's Protection

So tonight on my way home from shopping at Kohl's I had a tire blow out. I was on the I-10 and if you don't live in Tucson you probably don't know that there is a stretch of freeway that is under construction where you are not able to get off. There are about 6 exits that are closed and sadly I was in the middle of them. I was in the right lane when I heard something pop. I didn't pay much attention to it until I felt the right back tire dragging. I knew it had blown but there was nothing I could do but keep driving. After almost 11 years of having my car I don't think I have ever had to use the emergency lights so I had no clue where they were. I slowed down a bit as cars and semi's drove pasted me. I finally got off the 1-19 exit and pulled over. After calling my mom I realized that no one would be able to get to me unless they went all the way around the freeway. The closet exit was Ajo Way and since I had already driven my car with my tire practically gone I figured I could keep going. I pulled into the nearest gas station remembering that my cousin Yvonne lived in the area. My mom was coming to pick me up because my brother and dad were at play practice at the church across town. I was alone and it was already dark. It wasn't the nicest place in town to be so I called my cousin to see if I could leave my car at her house. She said it was fine so I tried to make my way back on to the road. The only thing was I got lost trying to find the house. I had been there times before but I was in such a panic I had to call her again to ask for directions. My mom beat me to her house and said she could hear the loud clunking noise from down the street. After getting off the car I went around and was shocked to see I had been driving on my rim. After getting in my mom's car and feeling safe again I knew that it was by the Grace of God that nothing happened to me. I was on the freeway with no way out. I could have lost controlled and killed myself or someone else. I got home safe and even though its going to hurt my wallet to get it fixed, everything will be fine!

Remembering David

Sunday March 10th, 1996 was the day that my 19 year old cousin was suddenly taken from the world. I was 15 years old and up until that point no one close to me had ever died. His death involved a gunshot and a drug deal gone bad. The entire ordeal took place blocks from my house and after that our lives were never the same. I loved him just like any girl would love her older cousin and although it has been 13 years since that day, I still can't help but wonder what his life could have been. Our lives are only but a vapor!

I Thank You Lord

You are the reason why I wake up every morning.
You are the reason that I can carry on.
Because without your love and mercy
There is no hope in this life for me.
That's why I'm thankful
Thankful that you died for me

You are the reason why I can walk calmly through the valley.
The reason that I can sleep at night
For without your hand holding mine
I would have no peace of mind
Thats why I'm thankful.
Thankful that you love me.

I thank you Lord
I thank you Lord.
There arent enough words to say
How great you are
Or how much I appreciate
That you would go so far
To die on Calvary
Just for me
Just for me
I thank you Lord

"Grease" continued....

The pictures is hard to see. Its of us inside the theater with our programs in hand.

Grease is the Word!


Soo... I picked up Yvonne a little after 6:40pm. As she was sitting in my passenger side I kept waiting for her to put on her seat belt. I hesitated but finally asked her to put it on. She had no problem with it. She told me her husband David tells her to put in on all the time. Then we get off the frontage road and before we get to 22nd the traffic is crazy. I brake and almost hit the person in front of me, But the person behind me didnt brake and rammed into me! ughh..it scared us half to death! But we pulled over and there wasnt but a scratch on my car thankfully and none of us were hurt so we just exchanged information and rode on our way.

We got to the ticket booth and then I decided I was thirsty so I bought a Sierra Mist. The sad part was the soda was $4.25!!! ohhh..I got ripped off! oh well. I skipped any souveniers after that! lol Our seats were in the front row and I noticed two reporter guys Dan Marries and some other guy that works with him. Cant remember his name. They were sitting in our same row.

There was kinda this pre-show deal where the big wig deejay at the High School dance off Vince Vauntine came out and sang a little and tried to get the audience going. I was like...whatever! Start the show! The beginning was really dramatic with Frankie Valli's "Grease" song and the number the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies did.

Danny and Sandy were not so attractive or as good of singers at Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. Yvonne was impressed with the girl that played Rizzo. I was a bit disappointed because the scenes were different, some of the songs had changed, and at times things were completely out of order from the original Grease.

I was very excited to see Taylor Hicks as the Teen Angel. If he had been on American Idol that night he would have still won because he really was the best vocals of the night. He wasnt bad looking either. I was kind of shocked at myself for even thinking that. LOL At the very end Taylor Hicks came out and did one of his songs on his latest album. Yvonne and I laughed and called him DenJuan. That was our thing because he looks like a cross between Dennis Uecker and our cousin Juan "Johnny" Garcia. We were joking about waiting until he came out to try and get his autography then yell out "DenJuan"!!!! It would of been hysterical! Yes, we are a little crazy!

So, anyhow... although I am not 100% sure it was worth my $67 Yvonne and I still had an amazing night!

I'm Going to see the Broadway Show Grease!!!

Tonight My dear cousin Yvonne and I will be in our front row seats seeing the very popular broadway show Grease!

Walk By Faith, Not By Sight

I saw my mother walk into my hospital room one night. It was dark but I could see it was her. She didn't even look at me. She just marched on through to the next bed behind the curtain to my right. She stayed there for quite a while and so i figured perhaps she was tired and decided to take a nap in that empty Intensive Care Unit bed. It was so unlike my mother to ignore me in that manner. Here I was her only daughter who had just endured three back surgeries within the past week and she didn't act like she cared. After what seemed like an hour I became concerned. I started to yell, "Mom, Mom!" There was no answer. I kept screaming for her in hopes of waking her out of whatever deep sleep she was in. There was still no reply. I began to panic. Maybe she had gotten up and left without me even noticing. Could it be possible that even with my eyes wide open I missed her? I can't even describe the deep loneliness I felt that night with machines monitoring my every heart beat and I.V.'s running through both arms and my neck. The tears started streaming as I realized something was wrong. My mind just couldn't pull itself together to figure it out.

Days later when the heavy medication had wore off and I had caught up on the three nights of sleep i had missed, I realized I had been hallucinating. My mother didn't walk through my room that night. Yes my eyes were wide open but there was no curtain or even a bed on the other side. I was in a room all to myself. My brain had just been so diluted with pain medication and my body broken from fighting for its life that I was seeing things. Everything looked so real and even today I can remember what I saw that night in detail. The truth was my mother loved me and she would never ignore me. She knew how much I needed her at that moment and she would never intentionally hurt me that way.

Sometimes when we are going through a dark place in our lives the enemy will try and make us believe that God doesn't care. We call out to the Lord in prayer but we don't hear an answer. Our emotions can overcome us and we start to believe that God is ignoring us. How could He leave us all alone? Our minds are so diluted with the cares of this life that we start to think things that aren't true. Often it isn't until we come out of a trial that we can see that His word hasn't changed. "He will never leave you nor forsake you"... When morning breaks we then see that the one set of footprints in the sand where when God carried us. Just like my mother would never act like she didn't know me, I know my heavenly Father would never wouldn't pass me by either. We can't panic when things aren't going our way. When we can't see God working in our situations we still have to just trust Him! His promises do not change no matter what we may see with our mortal eyes. "We walk by faith and not by sight"...

Soo..all this talk about being single..has me thinking!

I went to Mimi's with a young couple after church tonight. We always have interesting conversations. It usually involves the latest of who is interested in who and what couple is finally dating. I of course at this moment am as single as a dollar bill and it doesnt help right now that my heart was crushed recently. Still, I have always felt like if I just trust God and wait on Him that He will bring the right person into my life. Well, I have my thoughts that you should marry the person that God wants for you because if you don't you could really mess things up. I don't believe a minister can just marry anyone or at least I don't think a minister should. My friends are of the opinion that no matter if you make a mistake and marry someone out of the will of God that somehow He can fix it and it can be just fine. I understand that and I believe that God can correct our mistakes but if that is necessarily true does that mean I can just marry anyone and it will be okay? What is the point of waiting on God for the right one? Have I just wasted my time? I don't know. It just throws my brain in complete overload. I suppose that's why God wrote in Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts neither are our ways His ways. Soo..I've heard people with different opinions and still may never make sense of it all. But if you think you might have a good explanation please enlighten me!