Fun fun fun weekend!

My weekend was great, my beautiful friend, Marianne and I headed up to Dallas to visit our mutual and equally as beautiful friend Sadie. (fun bit of background here - I met Marianne while working at Sam's, and she knew Sadie from College - I spent the summer living with Sadie when I lived in Hong Kong)
We girls laid out in the morning/early afternoon on Saturday. Then Sadie went to get her hair done and Marianne colored mine. It is my natural color, it just evens it all out.

Then away we went to "praisefest." I wanted to go because my friend Stan Whitmire, who is a professional pianist, was in town with a group called Greater Vision. Southern Gospel. It is what I was raised on, and though I LOVE contemporary Christian music, southern gospel moves me in a way nothing else does.

Dennis Swanburg a Christian comedian was also performing that night.
So...we get there...WE ARE THE YOUNGEST PEOPLE THERE BY 70 YEARS!! (with the exception of the artists, of course) Ha! HA! HA! We LOVED it! There were a couple of "acts" that were, well....a blessing to someone I am sure! But it was fun, we just laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Leave it to Amanda to drag us all to a geriatric convention!"

Chad Kennedy, my pastor's son from Abilene, drove up for the weekend as well. He met us there and couldn't stop laughing! It was so funny!

We had a great time, two MK's (missionary kids) and two PK's (pastor's kids) with a lot of history together, and we just laughed and laughed and laughed!
There is power in laughing you know....

Got home and am continuing to pack in preparation for where ever God is going to lead me! :)

Amazing Elephant Story

This is truly an amazing story...
A young man was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. While he was walking through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so the man approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot. There was a large thorn deeply embedded in the bottom of the foot. As carefully and as gently as he could, he worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For a good ten minutes the man stood frozen -- thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. The man never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later the man was walking through the zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to where they were standing at the rail. The large bull elephant stared at him and lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times, all the while staring at the man. The man couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. After a while it trumpeted loudly; then it continued to stare at him.

The man summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, severely injuring him.

Probably wasn't the same elephant. ha ha ha ha ha