HORSES, HATS & HAPPINESS

I decided that my blog has been sort of serious and heavy for the past week and a half so, it's time to add some fun stuff! At the beginning of June, I loaded up a van with five other women and we began a 12 hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky for the last Deeper Still conference with Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and Priscilla Shirer. We had the best time and made so many memories...and even a few new friends. Here are just a few snapshots taken by my friend, Jaye Bice and myself. (Mine are the really blurry ones :))

This is me and Jaye, our pastor's wife. Jaye and I first met at the wedding of Johnny & Jill Schroeder, where I was the wedding planner. Little did I know then that her husband, Tim, had been praying about asking me to come on staff at Greenbriar Church. She later told me that she was watching me like a hawk to see if I was someone she could do life with...as we all know, when you are in ministry with a group of people, you see them a lot more than you see your own family! A few months after the wedding it was Jaye who called me to ask us over for dinner. The rest is history. I came on staff...and in the process I gained this wonderful woman as a best friend. She supports me in every area of my ministries at Greenbriar. She loves my family...especially my children. She intercedes for us. She allows me (expects me) to be 100% myself. We laugh together (a lot)...we cry together. We get along tremendously well on trips (even when our husbands come along). I've said it before but she's the friend that feels like she's been in my life since birth but in reality it's only been a few months short of two years. Anyway, sorry to ramble...I just wanted gab a little about her!

These are the brave women who made the trip. We overcame a hotel with no air, 2 bugs in our bed, a sack full of vendor hotdogs, one bathroom/one sink for all us, a flat tire on the way home and when we all were starving and tried to find food, the only exit available was one where everything had been taken out by a tornado. (THAT scenario made us think twice about complaining!) In spite of all the minor irritations...we had a BLAST!

I realize something is a little *ahem*...off...in this picture. Jaye is always behind the camera (even though this was my camera) so I had to superimpose her...rather sloppily, I might add. This was our dinner on the Ohio River at a place called "Rocky's". It was better during my first trip to Louisville but after 12 hours of drive time I think we were all just ready for bed!

We had a little time to kill on Friday morning so we headed to Churchill Downs! The store manager was gracious enough to let us use some official hats to record a welcome video to send back home for church that Sunday. I LOVED THE HATS! I thought about buying mine but with a price tag of $550.00, I decided to put it back! The pic of me hugging that sweet girl is Ivy...she glows. Literally, she does. She loves Jesus and helps the needy. That is her in a nutshell.

The pink hat is Katy, the person I mentor. I LOVE this hat on her...it was perfect! I think her picture should be on a Kentucky Derby ad! The other lovely lady is Sharon. I think she and Katy called ahead about hat colors because they matched their outfits! So cute!

This is us (minus our photographer). I love this picture because of Katy.

She's going to kill me. :)

This first picture is from Deeper Still December 2010. At first glance, it appears that I am choking my dear friend, but if you look closer you will see that she has a complex about her neck being too skinny (is there really such a thing?) and asked me to use the scarf to cover it up. This picture perpetuated the false assumption that I am aggressive...so in keeping with Deeper Still trips I decided to choke Ivy in front of the Actors Theatre! As you can tell though, I actually love her to pieces!

And at the end of the last day, we gained two new friends from the conference. The had flown in from Panama City Beach and needed a ride to dinner. So, our 6 turned into 8! We loved meeting them and still keep up with them on Twitter!

I cannot wait for the next trip! Girls trips are so much fun...I think boys miss out on so much! I'm not sure when the next road trip will be but I sure hope you are part of it! Until next time....

***Will post more about the content of the Deeper Still Conference in a few days! It's GREAT stuff! So thankful for these women of God who bring the WORD without apology!