Lent for an Evangelical?

I was not raised in a church denomination that celebrated the act of observing Lent. However, over the past few years I have known others I go to church with who "give up" something for the 40 days of the Season of Lent. It wasn't until the year 2001 that I even knew actual ashes were spread on people's foreheads on Ash Wednesday, because I taught Kindergarten at an Episcopal school. Go figure...I guess that's what the name is for. LOL!

As a non-liturgical, Protestant follower of Jesus Christ, I don't believe there is anything special or holy about rubbing ashes on your forehead in the shape of a cross nor does it do God any good to "give up" something for the sake of giving it up. It's a heart issue, not a works issue. Jesus lived, died and lives now so that we aren't bound by "works" to make God happy. God seeing me clothed in the righteousness of His Son Jesus is what makes me able to stand before Him as His beloved child. I do believe that I can give up something for a 40 day period in order to focus on God and slow down my crazy rushed life.

That being said, I am "giving up" blogging until the Monday after Palm Sunday. I will be back then and will look forward to catching up with friends and filling y'all in on what goes on with the PandaFamily.

Blessings to you!

Daddy-Daughter Dates

These are the sweetest pictures to me. PandaGirl has been going on "dates" with her Daddy since she was 17 months old. They are very close, love each other dearly and that's the way it should be. A couple of weeks ago they went to the Father-Daughter Night at our church right before Valentine's. They had a lovely dinner and were taught how to waltz. So precious!


My brother and his daughter went on a special date as well recently. I LOVE seeing my brother do this!! He even wrote a special letter to her telling her of all the things he loves about her. Wow---powerful to a tender little heart!!!


Both PandaPop and my brother are blessing their daughter more than she can even imagine. The foundation setting right now in her heart about how her earthly father views her is in direct relation to how she will perceive the way her heavenly Father views her. Doesn't matter how right or wrong those views are....it's what is set in her heart about how she will relate to God later on in life.

Thank you, Lord for two Godly men setting examples of your unconditional love.

My Disco Darling!

Friday and Saturday night my sweet and honkin' FUNNY PandaPop co-hosted with our pastor our church's dinner theater which is used to raise money for our youth choir tour/mission trip in the summer. The theme moved along the different styles of music through the decades. In between each decade PP would change clothes to match the fashion of the era for 50's-90's. He is sooooo funny and I adore watching him on stage!

PandaGirl ended up staying with me at the back table instead of going into childcare since she is still recovering from that nasty old flu bug. I popped in Mulan II in a mini-DVD player with headphones and she was happy as a lark.

Our sweet friend snapped our new pic below and I LOVE IT!!

We also had a fabulous day in worship this morning with the addition of our new Worship Minister. He is just the right fit for our church and I couldn't be any more excited about him and his family joining us!!! Lots of awesome God-things to come, I'm sure!

In 24 Little Ol' Hours

Yep. She's got it. The icky FLU! Poor baby woke up at FIVE AM yesterday morning and it was clear to me that she either had strep or the flu. The flu won.

Here's an abbreviated run-down of my very weird 24 hour experience:

Wednesday, February 18th
5:00AM - I woke up an hour earlier than the clock was set WIDE-AWAKE. I'll make the most of it. Just about to get on the treadmill when I hear footsteps upstairs. My thought, "What the heck is she doing up at 5?!!!!" "Mommy, my head hurts and I'm hot."

Uh-oh.

No treadmill. Instead, get PandaGirl all set up on the couch with gobs of stuff to do while PandaPop was preparing to stay home and take her to the doctor. Wednesdays are big for him and the Children's Ministry. Pump PG with Gatorade and Tylenol and all of two Cheerios.

6:00AM - Still moving around making sure the day is set. Spraying Lysol all over the house. Pray with PP because to NOT get sick since he is the co-host for our church's dinner theater Friday and Saturday night. SICKNESS GO AWAY!!!

7:00AM - Eat breakfast while standing at the kitchen island trying to make some sort of grocery list. Being distracted by sick PG. Kiss PP and lovingly motion to my PG that I love her and will see her later. Blow kisses....from afar. Rub Germ-X all over myself in the car.

8:00AM - Check emails at work. Get on the system to log in an absence for Thursday since I'll be home with PG then. Go get first student for speech therapy session. This middle schooler cried the entire 30 min. WHAT THE HECK??? Use some Germ-X.

9:00AM - Trying to figure out what was wrong with the student whom I've had great rapport with. Next group: 3 kids, one is Autistic. She doesn't like speech today. CRIES the whole time. WHAT? Do I stink today or something? Spray Lysol over the table and door knob. Slather on Germ-X.

10:00AM - Next student: Selective Mute...doesn't speak while at school. That session is always interesting. Germ-X. Hmmm...my hands feel kinda funny.

11:00AM - Fly to the post office to mail an over-sized envelope to my mom. It cost $1.00. I hand over my debit card. The man hands it back. Ding-dong. I realize I just put a dollar on the card when I had a one dollar bill in my pocket. Whatever. More Germ-X. Swing by Sonic for the worst food for me, but dang, it was good. Check more emails, call PP to check on PG and find out she has the flu, get ready for afternoon sessions, finish grocery list. Slurp my vanilla Dr. Pepper. Mmm.

12:00PM-4:00 - Finish sessions, school work, drive paperwork by supervisor's school. I'm beginning to ooze Germ-X from my pores.

4:00PM - Step into Wal-Mart for groceries. SLATHER Germ-X all over the buggy handle!!!! I'm feeling a bit OCD-ish. Four thousand other people getting groceries, too.

5:00PM - Unload groceries with PP who is VERY tired from being up at 3:15 the night before and 5:00 this morning. Love on PandaGirl. Spray Lysol around the stale house. Slather...Hear about the day. Learn that our insurance covered a tiny bit of the meds that cost us $200. Doc prescribed inhalers for PP and I as well so we don't get the flu. PP shows me how to do the inhaler thingy with powder flying in my lungs like Pixie Stix only not so tasty.

6:00PM - Throw pizza in the oven. Make ramen noodles for PG. Check personal emails. Hear more about the day. Pet the dog. Tell PP about my crazy random day.

7:00PM - Go to farmer's market for the produce. It's worth it. Germ-X.

8:00PM-11:00PM - Give meds to PG with MUCH DRAMA!!!, get on computer, SPRAY with Lysol everywhere again, pull futon mattress from upstairs to living room so PG can sleep there and I can get to her if needed. PP gets things ready to leave the house Thursday morning by 5:00AM to get to a funeral in our home town a couple of hours away. Has to leave so early due to massive rush hour traffic. Didn't get to watch LOST since PG was in living room. Pooh. Pray over PG and read story, kiss, wash, spray, slather. Get myself into bed. PP & I pray for PG again, kiss, sleep.

12:14AM - Bark.
12:15AM - Bark. Bark.
12:17AM - Barkity-bark-bark-bark!!!
12:30AM - Bark-bark-baaaaaaark---PP stomps out of bed, knowing he has to get up at 4:30, looks for missing shock collar. Finds collar, puts it on dog. Phew.

1:26AM - Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Who the heck is calling at this time **@!!#*?
1:30AM - You mean THAT couldn't wait until D-A-Y-L-I-G-H-T???????? GRRRRR!

3:00AM - I'm so hot in my winter PJs that I fumble in the dark to find cooler ones. Worrying that PP is not getting good sleep again.

4:30AM - Alarm clock. Ugh.

5:00AM - PP kisses me bye to leave for the funeral. PG awakens to potty. I lovingly scooch PG back into her futon bed in living room. I snooze a bit longer.

That about sums it up. ; )

Our Little Valentine

Let the spoiling continue...when there's just ONE to lavish on----she gets it ALL from us! We are so blessed to have our one. Thank You, Lord.

PandaPop and I were able to steal away from work and visit PandaGirl's kindergarten class Valentine's party on Friday.

OHHHH!!! Even when I get upset with this little toot, I could STILL just eat her up because she's so darn CUTE!! Yep, I just said that about my own kid.

She's CUTE!

These are the goodies we all gave each other. I LOVE my gift from PandaPop: a super-duper zoom stabilizer lens for my Rebel!! I had no idea about it and he was so proud of himself for keeping it a secret. Now I just need to find the time to actually learn all the gadgets and gizmos on my fancy camera so that I can use it for more than just an expensive "point & shoot". ; )

My Valentine

I've had the blessing to have been with my sweet Valentine for over 17 years. Mere words cannot even begin to express my love for him. God's gracious plan to bring us together is such a gift. PandaPop and I are very best friends. We laugh together all the time. We dream of things to come. We cry over things not understood. We bicker. We make up. We play, work, struggle, question this weird world in which we live. We long for our eternal home. We pray together. We love planning for our Disney trip. We work really well as a team on ministry events. We LOVE watching our favorite shows together. We quote movie lines constantly. We love old music. WE LOVE JEEPIN'!!! We just absolutely LOVE being each other's mate. Honestly, there are some days I just can't get enough of my man.

Don't be fooled. None of this came without hard work from the very beginning.

No magic love-potion.

I love my man and I know he cherishes me. I also know he loves God more than me. He proves it everyday. That's the way it should be. I want to be the kind of wife that loves God more than she loves her husband or child. The kind of wife that brings her man great pleasure and whom he is glad to present to the world as his Love.

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Proverbs 31:10

Thank you, my sweet PandaPop for being my husband.

What In the World?

UPDATE: Click here to read the story that ended our adoption journey. If the link doesn't work then just go to November 30, 2009.

Yes. It's true.

I'm crazy. I'm fickle. I have many blonde moments throughout the day. I don't know which end is up. I've lost my mind and...I've come up with yet another blog.

For three months I tried to be Miss Scarlett on Kaleidoscope. I had the hardest time typing Rainbow Brite instead of PandaGirl and Mister Green just sounds silly. The whole reason for making that blog was due to our pursuing an adoption from Haiti, thus a blog about colors coming together in beauty. Now that THAT door has been closed I just feel weird still hanging out over there. I have missed typing PandaMom. That's WHO I am in The Blogosphere. But, we don't know what the Lord is going to do about adoption. Will we be a family of three or is another child waiting for us somewhere? Hence, the reason for merging the two.

Pandapalooza plus Kaleidoscope.

Panda-leidoscope.

Pandaleidoscope.

Cute, confusing, certainly unique.

Thanks for following along...and for changing your link to us!!! ; )

Here is a little something I came up with to describe my family...




Once upon a time there was a cute couple in love.
They married in '92 with Blessing from above.

Setting out to capture their young love dreams
they discovered life is not what it seems.

The plans they'd secured in their joyful heart
slowly began falling apart.

Not with each other--for their love was strong,
but they noticed some things were terribly wrong.

Their eyes were opened to the dark skies they were under
and quickly sought shelter from the lightning and thunder.

The Lord had different plans than they'd made.
His were the best and theirs had to fade.

Part of the journey God knew from the start
would eventually take a piece of their heart.

For a baby to love was part of their plans;
they had no idea what was waiting in His hands.

Their dream of a baby to have and to hold
would not come true--or so they were told.

So many questions tossed to and fro--
Why would this happen? They wanted to know.

Lots of frustration and buckets of tears
were shed by both for more than eight years.

Then one day the Lord's plan He revealed
and all of a sudden it was all so surreal.

'Cross the ocean they soared on a plane contemplating
while in a far eastern town their daughter was waiting

To join the couple who'd prayed for her--
their long curious wait now just a blur.

Suddenly now the two became three
and all were ready for this new journey.

The bride and the groom and the baby so sweet
flew from China to Texas and now were complete.

Their home, of course, has bits of strife
and joys galore: all part of this life.

God has faithfully blessed this family so deep--
but is there more room in their little black Jeep?

For one more child to call their own,
they seek the Lord's heart at the foot of His throne.

No matter the answer He chooses to give,
this family of three has a great life to live.

The most prominent sound from them is laughter.
For they know they will live happily ever after.