Monday

Trip to see my Daddy!!

We just had the most fabulous time in New Mexico visiting my dad! Hope you enjoy the pics..

rye and her sock monkeys!


me & my dad


papa's breakfast of champions!! COOKIES!


papa and the grandkids


SISTERS! Madison and Mariah


Brent and Dad



Brent and Mikey


Building Forts


Dad giving some pointers...


Rye~ breaking off a chunk of her fort trying to get a huge snowball to throw at Mikey.


Papa & Lissa in a serious game of darts.
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Hunting and a new poocher

Well, we have had an exciting few weeks in the Eckley household!! From a trip to Topeka, Kansas over thanksgiving and coming home to get a new pooch and the boys taking off to go hunting for their first time together...and the arrival of the annual Christmas tree...it has been a whirlwind of excitement here these last few days!

First, let me begin with telling you about the new puppy in our lives. His name is Morgan. As it turned out, Brent has been wanting a lab for a long time, but it just never seemed like a good time to get one and frankly, I was not sure that I wanted to have another pooch in the house. BUT, that being said~ I finally broke down and decided that we would get one. After sometime trying to locate one I ran across an ad on craigslist that a lady had put on there saying that she had found 3 abandoned lab puppies and she could not keep them...but did not want them to go to the humane society either. (I don't blame her!!) So, off to Gholson the girls and I went. For those who do not know~ Gholson is a three horse town in the middle of no-where about 25 or 30 minutes from here. We finally found the house, and there they were...the puppies. As is my habit, I prayed about it and asked God to lead me to dog. And did He. Morgan is the cutest, naughtiest little sweet lab I have ever seen. He wants so badly to play with Max~ but Max is not having any of that. So, Morgan fills his days with confescating people's things like...shoes, pants, socks, lissa's bra...does not matter. He will take whatever he can get his little teeth on and he drags it all to his bed. He;s like a little pirate collecting his treasures! LOL And when he is not doing that, he gets himself into trouble pulling lights off the Christmas tree!! (Hence the naughty reference.)





This year being so full of everything else that is going on, I ended up having to go and pick out a tree by myself!! Far gone are the days when the boys would trek up into the Colorado mountains to search out the perfect family Christmas tree. We have now been reduced to a trip to home depot to check out the trees that have been trucked in from who-knows-where... But~ I met the most awesome man at home depot~ his name was Shawn~ and he helped me get the perfect tree. And for a 4 minute drive and $24.00, I found us this beauty...



To round out the story telling for the day~ we have a hunting trip! This was the first time that Brent and Mike have gone hunting together. Mike got his first gun just a couple of weeks ago. My 13 year old is now the proud owner of a Remington 770 .243. Not sure what all that means, other than I know it meant 400 bucks at the cash register! :) After weeks of trips back and forth to the store to find the right gun, and blind and camo gear and all the odds and ends that you could possibly need, my men were off and running Saturday morning for the most fun weekend ever... Or that is what I am calling it. They were all dressed out in their camo gear, walked about 10 miles a day and slept in 25 degree weather!! Made me real glad that I was at home asleep in my own bed with the heat on!! They did not get a deer this time~ but they did have one heck of a father-son weekend...and that is what is most important!



Thanksgiving in Topeka!

We just got back from an awesome trip to see one set of Brent's parents for Thanksgiving! We drove up to Topeka on Wednesday afternoon/ evening. Thursday was so much fun!! The girls and I helped Grandma prepare the turkey and get all the food together so we could have a fabulous meal with our family.

One would think that things were going on all smooth until 2am Friday morning when a fire broke out in a space heater!! But then again we had quite a time when Andrea and I went out shopping at 4am!! She got woke up to me telling her that there had been a fire~ but that everyone was OK. We were so lucky~ neither the carpet or the wall caught on fire...just the heater!

When we were out and about we got to see people acting not so joyful. Andrea thought that she was going to get beat down by some people in line for a tv and I got rammed in the bum by a lady who was trying to get to a portable dvd player! That is right...rammed over a 50 dollar dvd player...not hardly worth it if you ask me.

We did get some great stuff and had an awesome time running around together. After a little breakfast we went back to the house to open presents with Lissa for her birthday. MY BABY is now in double digits! That's right...the little one is 10 years old. Happy Birthday to you~ Lissi Loo!!

(We also celebrated another birthday this week~ our poocher Max turned 6!)

The girls and I had a most incredible experience with their grandma while we were in Topeka also. We had a tea party with her. All of us got dressed up and drank out of fine china. Grandma had purchased several teas we could try and some yummy special cookies. It was really incredible, and to top it off we read the first chapter of the book Hinds Feet on High Places. It is a shaping up to be an amazing book, and the girls and I are going to finish it at home.

Other than that, the kids got a special treat because it snowed Saturday before we left! How awesome is that?? The kids really wanted to see some snow, and they got to go out and play in it before we left.

We took lots of great pics while we were there~ although I noticed when we got back that there weren't any of Mike...How do these things happen??? Sorry dude!


A near miss with the car slash mailbox!


Notice all the backed up traffic on the other side of the street...we were so glad to be going the other way!


The girls looking dazed and confused in the truck~ only 2 hours into a 10 hour drive!


Even Maxie got to go to Topeka!


My bro-in-law Al in his stylin' work uniform.


Daddy and Daughter.


So many tea cups


How can I possibly choose?


Pretty Ladies!


One of my Gram's cups.




A little light reading...



Early Christmas presents.


Lights!

Tuesday

Good Friends

Since we moved here to the great state of Texas we are now 9 hours from our closest relatives and 14-18 hours from the rest of them. But as I sat at a Thanksgiving dinner tonight with my bible study group, I realized once again how much I appreciate my "family" that I have here. Since moving here, Brent and I have both met certain people that we would consider to be our best friends. We have been surrounded by people that love us and care for us, that love our kids and walk beside us through all of lifes ups and downs. It has been amazing to see God fill in the gaps for us. Even as far as to give us lots of friends with little kids. I have felt such a deep loss with not being able to be there for my nieces and nephews~ but I have become rather close with some of my friend's children...and they just warm my heart. God is just really good to us. Even when we do not see what He is doing!!

Folding for Justice...

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart...

In the last 9 months or so I have had the indescribably privilege of walking through my friend's journey of seeing her dream realized. This past January at world mandate, my friend started feeling something stirring in her heart~ and what that turned out to be was a desire to adopt a child. As she sat in my driveway one February evening telling me about what she was thinking and hearing from the Lord, I just knew that she was on the mark. She was right on. And I have been believing with her ever since. Several of us have had distinct feelings about who this little person is and have been able to share with our friend and pray with her.

But now comes a whole nother level~ God is providing a way for my friend to earn some of the money that they are going to need to go and get their daughter from half way across the world... and I am getting to be a small part of helping in her endeavors..

we are taking lots and lots of these...

and tearing out the pages and folding them into these...
so she can make and sell these...

so she can go here...

and bring home one of these...
The more and more that we look at the pictures of the babies from Uganda and the more that we work on this project and the more that I pray for them, the more real it all becomes. My friend has a daughter out there, somewhere. And she is waiting for her new mommy to come and get her and bring her home. And her name is Justice.

Thursday

The Women's Conference, Grandma Appel, Aunt Renee' & a Little Visit to Texas

We have had a jam packed weekend! Lots of time last week was spent getting ready for the Women's Conference at our church. It was an amazing conference. I was the lead person for the bookstore~ so I got to coordinate workers, copy 85 cd sets during the conference and make sure that everything that had to do with books came off without a hitch. It went great thanks to my incredible friend Lee Anne! She is the perfect person to have in your corner when you need to get a big job done in a hurry!

THEN~ Saturday afternoon while I was at the conference, Brent was on his way up to Dallas to pick up his mom and sister who were coming in for a little visit. Renee' had not been to the great state of Texas before, and it had been 3 years since Pam had been here. We had such a good time with them. We hung out, did a little sight seeing, a little shopping, and a whole lot of catching up! It was a perfect weekend with some of our favorite people!


Renee', Pam and the kiddos
Rye taking Max on an adventure
The Twin Bridges
Rye, Mike & Lissa
Renee', Brent and their mom admiring a boat on the lake
Mike and Lis
Maxie making a friend at the park...
Brent and his sis.

Monday

Cowboys Game Time

Brad, Jim, Mikey & Brent at the Cowboys game!
(Mikey's first time to a pro football game!)