Siesta Scripture Celebration 2012

Y'all, last weekend I had the complete joy and pleasure to go to Houston for the SSMTC with my sweet friend, Nancy, and my baby girl, May May, who is no longer a baby girl.....she'll be 21 in 2 weeks!! WHOA! I signed up 2 years ago to do the Siesta Scripture Memory verses and never finished. This time around, I was determined to finish but didn't know if I would go to the celebration because I didn't know anyone and I know myself well enough to know that there is just no way I would have had the courage to go by myself. Well, one day last summer, my sister, Shanny and I were eating yogurt with our friend, Nancy, and she told us she was going and wanted us to all go together! I was SO excited! Shanny didn't end up coming because she had memorized Beth Moore's verses instead of her own and she is such a rule follower that she thought she would be breaking the rules if she came not memorizing her own verses. We told her it didn't matter but she said she just couldn't go knowing she hadn't done it exactly right. That's a firstborn achiever for ya! :) I don't think she's ever made a B in her life and I have never seen even a hint of dirt in her house. Her personality makes her a success in everything she does (she's a nurse practitioner and the best I've ever seen!).  She is also a people person and a great cheerleader and encourager! She's just awesome but she wouldn't come...she said she would for sure in 2 years. So, this summer while I was at the beach, Macy decided to come, too. I was excited because Macy and I have never been somewhere overnight just the 2 of us (Nancy had to leave on Saturday). We've had lots of family vacations but not just the two of us.  So, on Friday morning, Mar took us to the airport and we were off. :) 

We flew Southwest (my fave!) so we all got to sit together (Southwest always has 3 seats). We had a short layover in Dallas. When we landed in Houston, we headed to pick up our car and then decided to go to Pappasitos for lunch. We laughed so hard on our way there at the driving experience! :) Nancy knew Houston somewhat but I had never been.   She doesn't like to drive and I do so I drove and Nancy was my personal GPS. She was GREAT! We did make a few wrong turns but we did good considering it was Houston!

I saw on Twitter that the Siestas could meet at Pappasitos at 1:30 if they wanted. So, I told Nancy we should go. Someone on Twitter put the address on there so Nancy typed it into her phone GPS and we headed there. We parked and started walking in and all the sudden Nance says, "WAIT, this is NOT Pappasitos, it's Lupe's!" HAAAAAA!!! I don't think I would have ever even noticed until I saw the menu! SOOOO, we got back in the car and found the Pappasitos address and headed to the right place this time. We didn't eat with the Siestas because by the time we were there, they were all well into their lunch, but we did see a super long table filled with women that I'm sure were Siestas. We had fun people watching. We saw them all laugh, talk, and even pray at one point. I know it was them because I recognized some of them later at the celebration.

Okay, so PAPPASITOS!! WOW, I had heard great things but it was way better than my expectations! Nancy told me the chicken fajitas were great and I'm a chicken fajita kinda girl so I just ordered those and when they came out, I saw this wonderful yummy goodness in a little white cup that looked like BUTTER!!! I excitedly asked the waitress what it was and she explained to me that it was indeed BUTTER!!! OH MY GOODNESS, I never thought about putting butter on my fajitas but if something is good, it's going to be even better with butter so I poured that butter all over my fajitas!! FABULOUS!!! Macy got the cheese enchiladas with white sauce and that was terrific, too!!! We also ordered some delicious cheese dip that had all kinds of yummy stuff in it.....peppers, onions, chicken, etc. I am forever spoiled for all other Tex Mex.

After Pappasitos, we headed to check in at our hotel (the Omni) and rested for a few minutes before heading to First Baptist Houston for the celebration.

We walked in to the church and Macy was instantly in heaven because of the decor. I don't know exactly what it was for but it looked how our church did when we had missions week so it may have had to do something with that. Macy saw a picture of African kids and was right at home. 

We checked in and got these adorable bags all tied up with a pink bow, program for notes, and Living Proof pen. I noticed instantly how nice all the staff was at LPM. They were so smiley and just flat out nice and y'all, that makes a huge difference in life...just a smile or someone being nice. It can make a difference in someone's day. These people were NICE and went above and beyond to make us feel loved and welcome. 

Nancy got so many compliments on her boots all day!!! I think I need to start wearing my cowboy boots! :) The stewardess in the plane noticed them and that was funny because she told Nancy she was pronouncing the brand name wrong. I got a kick out of their conversation! So, why we were waiting in line to get in the doors, these precious women from Texas came up to us and told Nancy how much they loved her boots. They were all dressed SO cute in hot pink with cute ruffly scarves. Turns out they made those scarves from material at Hobby Lobby and they were only like $2 and the best part of all...there is NO SEWING involved!!!! They have all different colors, too. Macy said she was going to make some. I just noticed that a couple of these women have open toed shoes on. I kept telling Nancy that I should have brought open toed shoes. I knew it was going to be in the 70's in Houston but I wasn't prepared for how warm it actually felt. I guess it's the humidity (my hair wouldn't stay straight for the life of me!) but I kept wishing for my cute open toed summer shoes! :)  

While we were in line, we met this wonderful lady named Tracey. She came alone and saw Nancy and recognized her and said, "Are you the Nancy from Arkansas?" and then asked if she could sit with us. She was just a complete joy to be around! I loved her! She reminded me so much of my friend, Amy, that I felt like I knew her well instantly.  She works at OBU in Arkadelphia where so many of my family members go or have been. We ended up getting to sit in the 2nd row which was great! I'm a front row person whether it be in school, church, or wherever. I don't get distracted that way. When we lived in Monroe, we started sitting in the front row (or 2nd) at church and it changed the whole experience for us...for the better.  Since then, we always sit in the 2nd row at church. It's freezing there but it's worth it. 

While we were waiting for the celebration to start, Macy and I headed to go see the table where they sell stuff and saw this super fun Siesta Scripture Memory Wall where you could pick out one of your verses and write it. I thought it was so neat! Wouldn't it be fun to have a whole room like this with verses all over it? Or at least one wall. You'd literally be surrounded it God's Word. OOOOOH, I just got a great idea....we could totally do this in our exercise room upstairs! There is nothing on the back wall! I could have a party and have everyone bring their favorite verse and write in on the wall or I could just have people come write verses on that wall when they are at my house. I can keep paint pens! Oh I am SO going to do that!!!  I chose to write Ephesians 1:7 on the wall. I love that verse so much!!! Macy's verse was Philippians 2:5 (so glad I took pictures or I wouldn't have remembered that). 

After writing our verses, we came back to our seats and Beth Moore came out. She is just the most adorable thing!  She looked so cute, as always. I love the shirt she had on.....a pretty blue with ruffles and a bow!  Her personality is so much fun! She was so welcoming and so excited. I think one of the reasons that I love her so much is because she is SOOOOOO much like my sister, Marci. People who meet Marci never forget her. She is the most animated person anyone has ever met. She teaches Jazzercise, loves being a wife and mom to 4 girls more than anything, was always the lead in the play, and even does lyrical dance to Christian songs...oh, and she was a DJ for a Christian radio station in Siloam Springs in college...everyone loved her!  Her major was broadcasting and I always thought she'd be the next Catie Couric. She decided instead to be a stay at home mom and her kids have been so blessed! She is SUPER encouraging and always looks at the bright side of everything. She is also FUNNY and loyal like nobody else. Everyone knew not to mess with me growing up or they would have to deal with Marci defending me and nobody wanted that! :) I was very protected by her! She is 2 1/2 years older than I am. I grew up being called Marci my whole life because that's who people remember. I used to kind of roll my eyes but now I take is as a compliment! :) I remember once Marci was singing in the car (practicing for a song she had to sing in West Side Story) and I told her I would never have the nerve to sing in public and couldn't sing anyway and her reaction still makes me laugh to this day. She said, "Oh Heath, YES YOU CAN!!! All you have to do is sing as loud as you possibly can and then it will sound good, even if you can't sing!" HAAAAAA!!! :) 

After Beth welcomed us, Travis Cottrell  (I have been pronouncing his name wrong ever since I have known who he was) came out with his worship team. Of course, they were amazing, as always!! I loved the lady at the end!! She was SUPER fun to watch! They all were great! I recognized Travis Cottrell's wife from his picture with her on Twitter. She was just beautiful and had such a sweet smile. You know how you can sometimes tell when people love the Lord through their smile? That's how her smile was. After they sang, Beth Moore came back out and recited 2nd John from memory. I was amazed.  I looked at Macy and said, "I feel like I'm watching Marci in a play." When I was telling my parents about our trip last night, I said the same thing and then I laughed when I read the latest Siesta blog and saw that Lindsee said the same thing...watching her is liking watching someone in a Broadway play. I have never heard Scripture recited like that and it was WONDERFUL!!! Then she started her talk. It was really good on WALKING and not losing our ground. I took pictures of my notes. They are a few pictures down. 

After the session, we went to a room to wait to get our pictures made and there were the most amazing cookies (especially the sugar cookies) and even a hot chocolate bar with LOTS of marshmallows. There was also bottled water. We ate some cookies and then went and got our picture with Beth Moore with a few other states.

After getting our pictures, we left the church and went to the Cheesecake Factory. Our sweet new friend Tracey came with us. Their red velvet cheesecake is my FAVORITE!! I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!! We don't have a Cheesecake Factory here and let me tell ya, it's a good thing....if we did, I'd put on the pounds QUICK! I LOVE that place!!! Oh, and their macaroni and cheese balls...AMAZING!!!

While we were at the Cheesecake Factory, Mar called and I told him to send me a picture from Trey's phone (Lamar can't send pixs from his phone) because he was camping with Trey and had all the dogs with him. I wanted to see that sight! I told him I'd send a picture of me, too, and what I was doing. :) Here are our pictures. :) Poor Mar froze all night! It was really cold in LR that night and it was in the 70's in Houston. There was about a 40 degree difference in the temps.

After the Cheesecake Factory, we went back to our hotel and went to sleep. We were SO tired!!! I thought the traffic signs were so cool in Houston! They look like UFO's!!! :) Driving in Houston was quite the experience. But you know what is weird? I felt so much safer on the roads there. People actually follow the rules of the road there (at least from what I saw). People also have manners while they drive. I didn't see people run red lights or swerve off the road and I only saw one almost wreck. In Little Rock, every single day I either see a wreck or see someone almost wreck and I also see people running red lights at every stop light. You just know not to go until the light has been green for a few seconds here because if you go right when it turns green, you'll get hit. Also, people swerve in other lanes all the time. I red an article recently from one of our new sites here that said Little Rock has the 4th highest number of traffic fatalities in wrecks. I totally believe that! 

The next morning, sweet Tracey got there at 7:45 and saved us seats.  We got there around 8:00 and sat in the second row again. While we were waiting for Beth to start, Macy and I headed to get some breakfast and when we sat down, I told her that I would go ahead and tell her a few of my verses to get them out of the way where I could pay attention to the session. So, I started telling her. I didn't feel any pressure because I was just going to try to say what I could and I ended up saying all of them! Isn't God so good?! He helped me to remember all 24 of my verses! I would know them pretty well and then I would forget a part or the passage at times so I didn't know how I would do but I asked God to help me to remember and He did. I was so happy to have that part over with! I was a little nervous about it. It was so neat because while we were sitting there, a couple of women (who were sisters) came up to us and asked us if they could sit with us. It turned out that they were from Russellville and Benton and one lady knew a ton of Macy's friends...even her best friend, Taylor! Macy was even supposed to go to the lady's house at one point but ended up not going. SMALL WORLD!! And it gets even smaller...it turns out one of the women knows my dad! She's an OBGYN, too!!! And she practices with Dennis Rainey's son-in-law. She also knows one of my dad's partners, Kay. She was so sweet and had Macy put her phone number in her iPhone in case Macy ever needs anything in Russellville. Isn't God so much fun to do that?! I mean out of all the women there, the two women that came and sat with us happen to be from AR and know a lot of the people we know!!! After talking with them, I went to the desk to get my fun gift for saying all my Scriptures which just happens to be when Beth came to talk in Little Rock last April!!! Just one wink after another from God. :) 

So, then we went and listened to Beth Moore preach it! She is just so good! Look how cute her outfit is, too! Macy kept saying throughout the whole thing, "I just love her!". 

I love this picture....look what is says. :) COOKIES!! YAY!! I ate TWO sugar cookies during the break. This is when everyone was telling each other their verses. Macy and I were freezing so we went to the car and turned the heat on. I thought I brought my sweater but when I got it out to put it on, it was a scarf! :)

Here are my notes from the weekend. Please ignore typos or misspellings. It was a great talk!!! At the end, she said she wanted us to do the commission. She told us to get in pairs and we repeated her words to each other. At the part where she said, "And if I don't see you again until heaven..." she got choked up and said she just didn't want the celebration to be over. So sweet. A lot of people had tears in their eyes. It's really special to look someone straight in the eyes and speak words of truth to them. It's a vulnerable thing really. I can't remember her exact words but I saw on FB that this is what she had us say when we spoke words of truth to each other. I just copied and pasted it from there.

Five Statement pledge of faith from Believing God. 1) God is who He says He is. 2) God can do what He says He can do. 3) I am who God says I am. 4) I can do all things though Christ. 5) God's word is alive and active in me. Then it ends with "I'm believing God."

After we left the wonderful celebration, we met some of Nancy's friends that she went to seminary with and ate lunch with them at a place called Barnaby's. It was GREAT!! They had great sweet potato fries. I really liked that place because it's named after the owner's sheepdog. There were all kinds of dogs sitting outside. I even saw a beagle! :) Nancy's friends were great! They had their 5 year old daughter with them, too, and she was really sweet.

After Barnaby's, Nancy's sweet friends drove us to the Chocolate Bar and showed us a great place to park and then they left to take Nance to the airport which was a huge gift to me considering I wasn't going to have Nancy as my personal GPS anymore. I was a little nervous about that but it ended up being great with my Garmin. Macy and I didn't get anything at the Chocolate Bar because we were too full. We thought about shopping a little bit but we were both too exhausted so we went back to the hotel and took naps. We woke up about 7:00 pm! It was GREAT!! I didn't know how we were going to possibly sleep that night but it ended up not being a problem. I think all the traveling and driving on those roads wore me out. 

Macy had never been to the Melting Pot so I had told her we would try to go while we were in Houston. We got reservations for 9:00 pm...that's all they had which ended up working out great considering we slept until 7:00 pm. I LOVED the Melting Pot, as always, and so did May!! It was neat because our waiter asked us why we were in Houston and I told him we were there to hear Beth Moore. I was a little nervous to tell him exactly why because a lot of times when people who aren't Christians find out you are, they start acting different because they think you are judging them. I know that shouldn't stop me from telling people I am a Christian and it usually doesn't but I just wanted him to be comfortable....and when it comes down to it, I wanted to be comfortable. I know this life isn't all about comfort, though.  He had never heard of Beth Moore and asked more and more questions so I ended up telling him she was a Christian speaker and then he said that he wanted to write her name down because he was also a Christian. I thought that was really neat! I love it when God puts Christians together like that. Our dinner took us 3 hours, which I love because you are eating for 3 hours but you don't get too full because you have time for your food to settle between courses. Macy LOVED the food! The chocolate was AMAZING, as always, and the CHEESE...oh the CHEESE!!!!  When our waiter brought us our ticket, he remembered to write Beth Moore's name down. I told him to give her name to his fiance because I had overheard him say he was getting married. I told him that Beth More is a great woman's speaker. I hope he will! If not, I know that she can help men, too. My husband and I are doing her James study together right now and he loves it! 

After we got back, we got our dirt from the Omni grounds. Macy had a great idea to use the little water bottles that they had at the celebration to put our dirt in. We were laughing wondering what people were thinking about us getting dirt and putting it in a water bottle! There was some kind of formal going on so a few people saw us.  Macy said if anyone asked, she was going to say, "We're taking back our ground!!!" :) 

The whole weekend, I couldn't decide whether to go to Bayou City church or to Lakewood. I have always loved Joel Osteen, even though a lot of my friends don't like him because they think he preaches the prosperity gospel. I just love him! Macy kept saying she wanted to go to Bayou City church and I wanted to go there, too, but I just couldn't decide. We finally ended up deciding that we would just sleep and set our alarm for check out and if we woke up early, we would go to Lakewood because it started at 11:00 (Bayou City started at 10:00) so we would have more time to sleep. So, I ended up sleeping all night, which was amazing...that never happens...and woke up on my own at 9:45. I woke Macy up and said, "Let's go to Lakewood!" and I was so excited! So, we got ready, packed up our stuff, and checked out. I set my Garmin for Lakewood Church and it took us to some parking lot (I think it was the old location). I was so disappointed because when we got to the parking lot, it was 5 til 11:00. SO, I found the right address on my phone and we were 11 miles away. We decided to go anyway even though we'd be late. I am SOOOOOOO glad we did!!! It was such a blessing and while I already loved Joel Osteen, I like him even more now. His sermon was GREAT! He spoke lots of Scripture and talked about 3 different Bible stories (lots of people say he needs to speak more Scripture and preach more from the Bible). He talked about how important it is to listen to the Holy Sprit's voice when you are convicted and how much easier it is to listen to Him and OBEY the first time. At the end of his sermon, some people asked Jesus into their hearts. Joel also had a gift for everyone in his church!! He gave everyone a packet with CD's and a DVD in it and a little booklet with 30 days of blessings. AND, then he met the visitors after church! I got to meet him and shake his hand and tell him what a pleasure and blessing it was to listen to him speak. I saw him praying for people after he met them, too. I thought that was so neat! As huge as that church is, it felt very homey to me and personal. Also, everyone was REALLY nice!!! I got to see my dad's friend, Paul, praying for people on the screen a couple of times. I knew my dad would love that. That's another neat thing about that church....they have people in every section waiting to pray for you if you need it. Paul Osteen worked with my dad at Baptist when he lived in Little Rock. My dad noticed he was different right away and sure enough, he was a Christian. They became friends and I remember so well when I was working at my dad's office and him saying to me, "Ole Paul Osteen is leaving his practice to move to his dad's church....isn't that such a sacrifice?!" I had never even heard of that church so in my mind, I was just thinking of a small church. A lady I met at Lakewood told me that Paul just got back from spending 5 months in another country doing free surgeries for people. I think that is AWESOME and IS a sacrifice!!  

After we left Lakewood, we ate at Pappasitos again and then headed to the airport. The Garmin led me straight there and by the end of the trip, I told Macy that I could totally get used to the driving in Houston.  On our first flight to Dallas, we got above some storm clouds and look what was awaiting us!! I felt like it was such a gift from God because I normally sit on the other side of the plane but just "happened' to pick that side. I watched that sunset for about 15 minutes until it got dark. I had tears in my eyes at one point because I felt so loved by God. I thought about the verse that talks about creation singing His praises. Look how creation praises Him!!! There were tornadoes and lots of thunderstorms in Arkansas and we missed them by about an hour. I was really thankful! Lamar texted me and told me our electricity was out. On our flight back to Little Rock, I started to get nauseated so I prayed that God would take it away. I got some pretzels and sucked on them. Then I ordered a Sprite and when the lady gave me my Sprite it wasn't Sprite but Ginger Ale and I immediately remembered that ginger is good for nausea and smiled at God's goodness and how He is in the small things.  My nausea disappeared which was good because the flight got bumpy for a few minutes towards the end.  During that flight, we got to see a beautiful lightning storm off to our right. I loved seeing the gorgeous sunset and lightning! When we landed, Mar picked us up and we came home to no electricity and our dogs who were so happy to see us! Macy went ahead and went right back to Russellville. It was a GREAT weekend and I came back FULL...my cup was overflowing! It was a great blessing and I can't wait to go back in two years. I am hoping the next trip, Shanny and Ashley Fisher (my cousin) will get to go, too! It will be a bigger group...but to me, the more the merrier! I hope Tracey will come with us, too! :)  Can't wait!!! It was just an all around fabulous weekend that was a tremendous blessing!!!