ZUMBA!

So I started Zumba this last week. Zumba is an exercise class that includes Latin dancing. It was a blast but, wow am I uncoordinated! In my mind I am a hot sexy dancer that moves like Beyonce with her long beautiful legs. But, after this class I realize I am just as uncoordinated like Kate Gosslin on Dancing With the Stars and totally out of my league. But, it was fun and the time flew by. Unlike the time I tried a kick boxing class at the YMCA, where all I could do was watch the clock and wait for it to be over. This was a total body work out that I did not realize I had gotten until about an hour later. There were all shapes and sizes and ages of women. The instructor was not even a really skinny lady. I think that would make me even more insecure about this class. She is just an average size lady with a big huge smile that totally loves what she is doing. Her facial expressions as she did each dance move made me love the class even more. At first I could not get past how self conscious and uncoordinated I felt. It reminded me of the 1st days of drill team when I felt out of place and a step behind everyone else. The more nervous I was the further I fell behind. Finally the instructor yelled out over the great music to just feel it and go with the music. When I loosened up and just had fun it did get easier. I watch ladies stand at the door and watch as the class goes on with smiles but afraid to try. Several friends have said that they would love to try it but are afraid to do so. It is way out of their comfort zone. That is a sad statement for me. I don't want to let fear get in the way of what I think might be fun to try because I am too self conscious. I discovered after my third class that it is getting easier. It brings a smile to my face as I do it. As adults I think we have forgotten that life is supposed to be fun. You can bring fun to anything. Yes, be responsible and disciplined but smile and have fun. I am now a huge Zumba fan.

Walking on Water

I am so inspired right now. It is a wonderful feeling to be back in the zone and inspired again. It has been a long dry year but I feel like I am back! Last year at this time I was blowing and going in my Mary Kay. I earned my 1st free car and my team and I did over $10,000 in production in the month of April last year. We were on track to becoming our own unit and were tracking the next level car for directors. I earned my biggest commission check. I was kicking butt and taking names! It was awesome! Then the bottom began dropping out. The church could not afford to pay Darin his salary and we had to give up our house. We were renting at the time and decided to not resign our lease in June. July 1st we moved into our friends home to house sit for two months. We ended up living at my parent’s house until November. Darin since has totally stepped away from ministry and gone back to work for Whataburger. This is not a bad thing for us right now. He is taking a break and God has provided a wonderful opportunity for him in this job with a lot of potential for advancement. We have gone back to the established church and joined a Baptist church, which a year ago I said I would never do. Each of these things is a post or has been a post of their own for a later date. Today I am so excited because over the year slowly God has restored all that was lost in my business and we are submitting strong to become our own unit in Mary Kay. To all of you reading our there outside the pink bubble that means I will triple my income and can go on target for the Pink Cadillac! Being a director in Mary Kay is being in the top 3% of the company. You are given 4 months of qualification time but we are doing it in one month! That is we will be a ONE MONTH WONDER UNIT!!! The end of the Seminar year is June 30th and I want to be a director by then! I have been studying Excuses Be Gone. Wonderful book. But he talked about in the book each night feeding your dream. So many times we feed the fear and let our brains ponder the "ifs" and all the things that could go wrong. But what if we took the time to feed the dream and the "what ifs" that can be gained? It takes seeing it, tasting it and feeling it to keep you stepping out on faith. He suggested you take 30 minutes before you go to bed each night and dream and feed your brain all the good your goal will bring. See yourself doing it. Imagine it and then let it stew all night long for the time that you sleep. Imagine what you can unlock in your brain if you would just ponder the good and not the fear. Music has always been the water to my inner soul. So I got my Iphone and began playing the song, Time of my Life, by David Cook. Love that song. But my life song is by Set the World on Fire, Britt Nicole. LOVE HER! When I was flipping through YouTube I found her newest song. Walk on Water. I began to cry. My unit name is the W's which stands for Water Walkers. The story of Peter walking on water is my favorite story. After reading the book, If You want to Walk on Water you Have to Get Out of the Boat, I chose my future unit name from it. This song is too perfect! God is so good to show us things and encourage us when we seek Him!
Listen to this awesome song!

Top Two Tuesday.

Top 2 Tuesday! Favorite Things about Summer.

If you want to link up and play a long with the Taylor's top Two Tuesday click on her button above.  Her blog is a beautiful fun blog to check out.

My favorite two things about summer are....

In July I get to go to Mary Kay's Seminar.  It is why I joined the company and my absolute favorite thing about the company.  I love being around all the women and my girlfriends from other states.  I love the way we invade Dallas and being apart of the culture of Mary Kay in such a huge way.  But the best thing about is getting to dress up for awards night.  Last year was the best.  I got to be in the Queen's Court of Sales as part of the big awards night the company puts on.  It was like getting to be in a beauty pageant. 

My second part is getting to watch my kids learn how to swim and the ways we get to play during the summer. I love staying out late at night and not having to rush off the bed for bed times. Celebrating the 4th of July.  Then going to all of the great summer movies that come out for kids and the time they spend at grandma's house and Aunt Wee's house spending the night.

My mother is going to love that I put a picture of her in the pool on my blog. 

Getting to Know You Sunday Night

I am participating tonight with Keeley again with her Sunday Night Getting to Know You. It has been a crazy weekend. I had Dalton's 8th birthday party in the middle of a rainy weekend. I had to change locations from outside to inside at the last minute and change all that I had planned. Birthday parties are important and I will always have them for my kids but I wish they did not stress me out like they do. Thank goodness for my family that came to the party and helped me. Darin luckily has the day off for Dalton's party. There are not many Saturdays that we get to have him home. But, as we got ready for church this morning he was called into the store 4 hours early and the kids and I had to go to church on our own this morning. I am thankful that I go to church with my brothers and their wives. It makes the Sundays where I am a single mom much easier. After church I hosted a Scentsy party for my friend Heather, who just started her business. It made for a crazy weekend. This is welcomed fun post as I gear up for another busy week.
The questions..
1. Men’s chests..hairy or hairless?

Hairless. I like clean shaven, clean cut baby faced men. Just look at the picture of my preacher boy husband.

2. How often do you run red lights?

I try not to. But I am known to run many yellow ones.

3. If you could raid any celebrity's closet..whose would you raid?

Victoria Beckam's or Tori Spelling. I would also love to raid Tori Spelling's closet for my girls too.

4. Would you rather have more followers/friends on Facebook, Twitter, or your Blog?

It's a tossup between facebook and my blog. Facebook I prefer for it to be people that I have a personal relationship with or knew from my past history. On my blog I love expanding my circle to people who I have never met and inviting them into my world. (But only if they leave comments.) I hate writing a heartfelt piece on my blog and have no comments on it. To me it's like having a conversation with someone and it being one sided.

5. What makes you feel sexy?

1. A slammin sexy pair of higheals, a short business skirt with hose and well fitting jacket.

2. A great fitting pair of slim fit boot cut jeans, a great pair of boots

3. Moving from a size 14 jean to a size 8 and quickly moving to a size 6.



6. I get excited when...........?
A. I reach a goal that I set.
B. When I see the work of God and it is even more exciting when I get to be a part of it.
C. When I see my kids accomplish something they have set out to do.

7. Are you the "outdoorsy" type or more "indoorsy"?
I love being in the sunshine outside. I love moving the lawn and working in the yard. But I have never been camping nor desire too. I need running water for a shower every night and a soft bed to sleep in with a good fan or air conditioning.

8. Would you rather have your dream home or a million dollars?
That is a hard one to answer. I would love my dream home but not if I did not have the money to pay for it. Or you could have your dream home and not be able to afford anything else. So, I guess I would have to say a million dollars. Like the song, "If I had a million dollars (echo) If I had a million dollars....I'd be rich."

Feature Friday-My Grandparents

Today for my feature Friday I am featuring all four of my grandparents. Growing up I lived in the town beside all four of them. I also had three of my great grandparents until I was in College. Granny and Pa lived on a farm and we would go see them once a month. Grandmother lived in a retirement home in the same town as my grandparents. I would go and spend the night with her. She taught me to make chains with her yard and play dominoes. She thought Carol Burnet was tacky but would watch her Soaps.

First off I will tell you about Mom and Dad Helm, my dad’s parents. When my oldest cousin was born they thought they were too young to be called grandparent names so we called them Mom and Dad. It has been that way ever since. When I was a little girl I would call them on a Friday afternoon to inform them that when my daddy got home I was spending the night. My grandmother is from Puetrico and has lived in the states since she was in her 20's and has never lost her accent. She would scrub us down when we were little like we had not been bathed in a week. She would always tell me how pretty I was and as I got older it was followed by asking how much I weigh. She is a mess but we love her. It is funny to make her laugh because she has the best laugh that is full and uninhibited. Dad is the caretaker. But this sweet man who is so good hearted unless you put down his Texas Aggies or his Democrats. He has his doctorate from Texas A&M and we learned not to take him to a Tech game or a UT game. He almost got into a fist fight at Tech one year because one of the fans kept talking about stupid Aggies. Now that one of my cousins is a starter for Texas Tech they have changed their tune. He now has traded his maroon and white for the black and red. We don't talk politics at his house. I learned that the hard way when I talked about how much I loved George Bush. So we don't talk about our different opinions of Obama. My favorite memory is that he has pictures with all of his grandkids holding us above his head and kissing us when we were about two. He calls me Precious, or "Nokinoke" to this day. He loves to rock babies. When each of my kids were born mom would announce, "Awe they look like one of my kids. These are Helm babies." People will ask me who Dalton looks like and if you look at pictures of him and my grandmother you will see it. When we go see them my girls beg him to take them on a ride in his golf cart. I can always count on my birthday at around 9 pm that I will be getting a phone call with them singing "Happy Birthday" to me.

Nana & Granddad are my mother's parents. They were school teachers and retired to be farmers. They have always been very conservative, hard working staunch Church of Christ people of the great depression. They loved it when I married a Baptist minister. Nana can sew beautiful quilts and outfits. We just argue about the patterns. She does not understand that some of her patterns are out of style and has always told me, "That just does not matter." She is so practical. My mother said she always had shirts that matched the kitchen curtains growing up. You just have to check everything she has sewn for pins. She forgets and leaves them in everything. My wedding ring quilt she made me had all pieces from outfits she had made me growing up. She used to paint and write. I love to get emails from her. I saved most of the handwritten letters she wrote me. She loves to tell stories of her life growing up on the farm in the great depression. They are really neat to listen to how much life has changed. She loves to rock a baby to sleep. My kids call her "Little Nana" because my mom is Nonna too. Granddad has always taken care of things for us. I will never forget the Thanksgiving last year when he drove up in a White Explorer and Nana was driving his truck. He got out and asked me to get into the car with him. As we were driving he asked me if I liked it. I said yes and he told me, "Well it is yours. I think a Soccer Mom needs a good soccer mom car." His neighbor was going to sell it and he wanted something bigger for me to drive with my three babies. I was so excited! I love that car! He and Nana love their grandchildren and great grand children. My kids are so lucky to have all of their grandparents still living and 4 great-grandparents.

Top Two Tuesday

Top Two Tuesday

Top Two Beauty Secrets

I am excited to write about this topic.  I don't have any home made treatments.  But, being the Mary Kay lady on here I do have two favorite products. 

Mary Kay's Day and Night Solution

I love these two products.  The Night Solution goes into your skin and repairs the daily damage to your skin and restores it while you sleep.  It has pure vitamins you are putting into your skin as you sleep.

The day solution is my veil of defence throughout the day.  It has an SPF 25 and helps witn not only the cancer causing damage of the sun but the ageing damage that the sun does to my skin. 

Microdermabraision Set

This product I use twice a week.  It makes my face feel so fresh and soft.  I love how my makeup feels after I have done one of these treatments.  My skin just does not feel as clean if I don't keep up with this.

  
 

Wordless Wed. My 8 Year Old

I can't beleive I have an 8 Year old!  Time is moving so fast.  Dalton James Koenig entered our lives 8 years ago today and has entertained us ever since. 

On the day of his baptism. 

Oh what a day!

Today was a day that makes you want to start and start over! We had such an awesome Easter and wonderful church service only to wake up to a hard Monday. First, off Itoday was a day I was struggling with PMS so bad emotionally that it literally made me doubt my salvation. Yesterday, I could have charged hell with a water gun and today I am running for the hills and wanting to hide. (Not standing in the judgment seat against Elijah anymore.) Dalton has to go to the eye doctor again and I had to fork out another co pay of $70! For the third time in 2 weeks! (Not to mention the $40 eye medicine.) I am not complaining about having to take him I am complaining about having insurance and still having to pay that much. Plus, his birthday is Wednesday and it has kind of snuck up on us. I had to add that into the budget. This is after my husband stepped down from his second job because they could not afford to pay him anymore but would love for him to volunteer to do it for free. We lost $1,200 a month coming into our already stretched budget. After the doctor's appointment and grocery shopping I came home to a tired and cranky husband who was leaving for work in 30 minutes. But, on the bright side today was pay day at his job. So, I load all of the kids back into the car and go back into Austin to pick up his check from work so I can get it into the bank before 4:00 PM so nothing bounces. Then come home to pay bills. We have had an adjustment to his new job being paid every Monday instead of every two weeks. The learning curve on budgeting this way has been difficult. I was depressed after having to pick which bills would go late so we could cover the groceries that I had bought. Feeling the weight and strain pressing in on me, I was trying not to take a deep breath and put things in prospective. I tried to work on Mary Kay stuff and see what I could pay out of my account. Only to discover I have over $200 in outstanding orders those customers need to pay me for and have not. MORE stress! So I did the Scarlett O'Hara thing and pushed the money stress to the side and said to myself, "I will think about that tomorrow..." I started supper and tried to get baseball gear gathered for Dalton's game. The thought of dragging all three kids by myself to a 7:15 game was looming over me. Plus, it was my night to bring drinks. I gathered things and asked the kids to start picking up and Dalton called out to me. "Mom where's my glove?" Now this is a sore subject with me. Dalton would lose his head if it was not attached to him and he is notorious for throwing things everywhere. I have a bat bag for him to avoid this problem. All the baseball gear goes in the bat bag so that we don't forget things or lose them on game day. But, Dalton wanted to play catch outside and threw the glove somewhere. Dalton’s idea of searching and looking for something was totally different from mine. Finding it in the toy room floor behind the curtains was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I took a time out and hid in my bathroom and cried. I felt defeated, alone and hopeless. I had a good pity party going with deep thoughts of how life was not fair to me running through my head. I could not eat dinner I was so sick to my stomach and began to gather snacks for the girls to eat at the game and coloring books to keep them entertained. We began to load up things in the car and that is when it happened......

I saw a snake slithering up the side walk in front of my house. I HATE SNAKES! They terrify me and I wanted it nowhere near my house. Darin was not home. I wanted it dead. I ran next door to get my neighbor. I knew he had a garden hoe and I wanted him to kill it. He said, "I'll fight a grizzly bear for you, but I don't do snakes." He got the hoe out of his garage and came to investigate. The snake was gone. He combed the yard and it was no where. I had just relaxed a little and was putting kids in the car seats when he called out, "There it is! It's under your front tire!" I squealed and jumped back! My exposed feet and ankles tingling. I jumped into the front seat of my car and backed up so he could get to it. I watched him fight that little snake. It snapped its head up at him to strike and he came down on it killing it in two blows. Dalton thought it was the coolest thing ever. The look on my neighbors face was priceless. I don't know who was more shaken him or me. I told him he was my hero and the kids and I owed him something baked. I got to the baseball game, found a good parking spot only to realize in the excitement I had left the drinks for the team at home! At that point I just had to laugh. I dropped Dalton off with his coach and turned around for the drinks. On the drive home God revealed himself to me. Just like that little snake striking out was scary it was nothing compared to big garden hoe that struck its head off. Our problems seem so big but we have someone that is waiting to overcome them! They are small to God, like that snake was to my neighbor. 
Luke 10:19 says,
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."
My bills, my stress and yes even my PMS is as small in God's plan as that small snake. At that moment of realization I was empowered and strengthened again.

Your Beautiful

On Friday night I rented the Princess and the Frog for the kids and me to watch. Darin was working late and I wanted to do something fun with them. I had my reservations about the Princess and Frog but after watching it I really liked. I will leave my reviews for another post. As we watched the movie Madie ended up in the chair beside me. When it came to the end of the movie when the cute little firefly died, (sorry if that is a spoiler for anyone who has not seen it yet.) I heard this little sob leak from beside me. I looked down at her in the dark and she was crying. I cupped her little face in mine and asked her, "What's the matter? Did you get scared?" She looked up at me with big tears streaming down her cheeks and sobbed between big breaths, "Ray-mond! He died. Da shadow-man keelled h-h-him." Her mouth turned down in a terrible frown and has she cried. It broke my heart. She has never responded like this to movies. I was surprised that my two year old understood death. I could not explain that the little firefly becomes a star and gets to be with his true love forever in the end. She buried her head in my chest and was inconsolable even after the movie was over. It was kind of a sad passage that my baby was growing up. In that understanding her childlike innocence was slipping away and I could not always protect her from life's harsh realities. Death. Death is one of life's hard lessons that are difficult for even adults to handle. I still have all my grandparents still living and had three great grandparents until I was in college. Death is a reality that I have not had to face often and I try not to ponder very often. It scares me at times. It makes me feel vulnerable to think about losing someone I love. Life is hard and the separation and finality of death can be crushing. But, today on Easter Sunday we celebrate life, and the power of the resurrection of Jesus and his final defeat over the sting of death. At church today we closed with this song and it was beautiful. It was a new favorite of mine and new to people at church. One of the verses in the song says,


When we arrive at eternity’s shore

Where death is just a memory and tears are no more

\We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring

Your bride will come together and we’ll sing

Your Beautiful, Your Beautiful!

When it started people were sitting and listening. When it was over people were all standing worshiping and there was a holy reverence all over the church. It ended accapella with just the voices of the worshipers. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Death is not to be feared, with Jesus it is beautiful. There will come a day where there is not death and no more tears. There will be a day where the worship of our beautiful savior will be like none other that we have ever experienced in this life.

The Wonderful Cross

I love this song. On this Easter Season I had to make myself pause and ponder Easter. Our life has gotten really crazy lately. Darin is up for a promotion at his new job and he has had to work long hours to show that he is ready for it. I have been working long hours with my job trying to meet the qualifications to move up in my company and with three kids it has been CRAZY! With school, church and baseball season kicking off I feel pulled in so many different directions. Easter is more that dress shopping and shoe shopping and getting Easter baskets ready. I just had to stop and take a minute to breathe. Breathe in God's goodness and peace while pondering the reality of the cross.


What does it mean to me? A couple of years ago I was shopping in Fredericksburg with my sister-in-laws and one of our other friends. We were having a girl’s day. (Which reminds me. We need another one of those soon!) Let me explain the difference in my sister-in-laws and me for this story to make sense. I am a Texas gal. Big hair, bright clothes and I love BLING. I am a zebra print and hot pink kind of gal. My SILs are very Pottery Barn style. They are very elegant and minimal with their styles. Now we all love jewelry but our tasted are completely different. So we were in a jewelry story in Fredericksburg and I found some of the prettiest big crosses to wear on necklaces. They had all stones, all sizes and all colors. I was so excited and could not pick which one I liked the best. My SIL laughed and said, "Yes those are you. I just can't bring myself to wear the cross like that. It is beautiful on you but feel sacrilegious to me." She did not mean it judgmental and I did not take it that way. (It did make me stop and ponder because on my shopping list for the day was a shirt with a bedazzled cross on the front, like they sell in Fredrick berg.) It has been a joke between us since then. The next year for Christmas, she got me a gift card to my favorite store, Hannah D's. In honor of her I purchased a big teal and bling cross and a pink ball cap with a cross on the front in jewels. But I have thought about her statement since then. Why do I wear the cross and am I personally convicted that I wear it for fashion. I collect crosses too and have them in every room of the house. I am not debating whether we should wear the cross or not decorate our houses with it. But ponder what the cross means. I want my children to know what it means and what it means to me. "Oh the Wonderful, Cross. Oh the Wonderful Cross. Bids me come and die, and find that I might truly live. Oh the Wonderful, Cross. Oh the Wonderful Cross. All who gather here by grace draw near and bless your name." I am humbled by the sacrifice of the cross and am nothing apart from it. It is the visualization of the amount of love Jesus lavished upon me, paying my debts with his own life. It is power of his resurrection that flows through me to live a life above fear. I think that my personality is just bigger and the bigger the cross around my neck or in my house just is my way of expressing the love I have for my King in my own way.

Oh Jesus. Thank you for the Wonderful Cross. Thank you for enduring a shame that was never yours to carry. Let me live my life in a way that is worthy of that sacrifice and the love that you lavish upon me.