*UPDATE* The ticket giveaway is now closed. Special thanks to my co-workers for helping out with this!

Buenos dias, Siestas! We are giving away ten tickets to the Living Proof Live  – Grand Rapids, MI event, which is this weekend. If you would like to attend the conference but the ticket cost has been prohibitive, please give Kimberly Meyer or Susan Kirby a call at our LPM office today or tomorrow. (FYI, tickets are still available for purchase.) I will update this post when I get word that all the tickets have been spoken for.

If you haven’t already read our Siesta Summer Bible Study III announcement, please don’t miss it.  We’re really excited about our summer plans.

Thanks, ladies! Have a great day!

Some very exciting items are beginning to accumulate in my dining room. There are travel hair appliances, a travel bag, a neck pillow, a name tag, luggage tags, and an itinerary.

Did you spy the LPM logo? Our whole LPM crew and lots of our volunteers are taking a journey together in a couple of weeks. Wanna guess where we’re going?

The Holy Land!

My passport’s a little rusty, but it still works!

When I was 17 years old I had the amazing blessing of going to Israel with my mom. I found that old photo album this morning. Pardon the unfortunate quality of these pictures. I don’t have a scanner and rather than drag my babies up to the office to use theirs, I just took pictures of my pictures. I’m a skilled blogger, y’all!  Melissa and I are going to blog from Israel and I don’t want to steal our future thunder, so these will be pretty random.

Here I am in the airport with my friend Debbie.

Here’s Mom in a funny hat on our 12 hour layover in London. I fell in love with England that day.

This is Mom with Mary Helen Davis, whom our resource center is named after. We love her so much.

This is something that will never happen again as long as I live – a mother-daughter overalls picture. Wrong…very, very wrong.

Here’s the wonderful Nancy Mattingly in the airport on our way home. I’m sure she was calling her family to say she would see them soon. Her youngest, Sara, would have been 5 years old at the time. Sara is now my kids’ babysitter and her graduation announcement is sitting on my counter. Time? It is a’flyin’!

Have you ever been to the Holy Land? If so, what is one of your favorite memories of being there? If you’ve never made the pilgrimage but hope to one day, what do you look forward to experiencing?

At fifteen months old, Annabeth…

Loves her baby dolls.

Has hair that can be experimented with.

Is adorable in her summer shorts.

Is trying to get the hang of sippy cups.

Loves this enormous book about animals. Sometimes we hide it from her because she also gets mad at it.

Is ready for the pool!

Finds the trampoline electrifying.

Likes to scribble on the magnadoodle.

Went on a mother-daughter lunch date at a tea room.

Took a walk with Pappaw.

Learned to say “Bibby” only moments before this picture was taken.

Took a wild ride with her brother pushing the stroller…and loved it.

Tried using a spoon (that was too long). She stabbed the cheerios with it and then used her fingers.

Loves being outside. (But it’s only May.)

Is highly entertained by this water table.

Check back this weekend for a Mother’s Day video and greeting from Beth!

PS – Please pray for Siesta Mama as she films five segments for Life Today tonight and tomorrow. Ask Him to give her anointing, strength, endurance, a great connection with the audience, and for Jesus to be magnified through His Word. Thank you so much!

Siestas, today is the National Day of Prayer.  Let’s take time to focus our attention on praying for our nation. It thrills us that many of you are in other nations besides the U.S.A., and we welcome you to join in with prayers for your country.

If you’d like to, use the comment box to post a brief prayer. (That obviously doesn’t need to limit how much you actually pray, but it helps us as we moderate if the comments are not too long.) I’m going to let my words be few so that we can get to praying!

Hi ladies! This week’s most frequently asked question has been whether we will make a DVD available of Beth’s teaching from the So Long Insecurity Simulcast. I finally have an answer for you!

There will be a DVD and the planned release date is July 1.

We have also been asked about The Promise of Security, which is a 40-page booklet of Scriptures that pairs nicely with SLI. It is sold out, but I’ve been told that the publisher, Tyndale, expects to have more of them in early May. They will be available in many bookstores and in our online store for $1.

In other news, I finished Francine Rivers’ Her Mother’s Hope this week and I’m already dying for the next one! Her Daughter’s Dream looks to be coming out in the fall. I just went to her web site to look for that release date and look what I came across! Ha!

This was taken at a book signing that Mom and Mrs. Rivers did together here in Houston.

And, because this post needs yet another topic in it, I want to thank you for praying for my family since Curtis had his surgery 12 days ago. He is doing much better and life is feeling a lot more normal. Sometimes Curtis and I get bored of “normal” but I can assure you we are more grateful for it now.

Have a great weekend, Siestas!

PS – There is a little present at the top of our sidebar for everyone who has asked me how to have the blog posts emailed to them over the last three years. Woo hoo!

Three weekends ago, Mom, Melissa, Annabeth and I headed north to Dallas-Fort Worth. Our co-worker’s son was getting married and we were excited to make  a girls weekend out of it. I realize the relevance of this post has now dwindled, but it’s been sitting in the draft folder for a couple of weeks and I would hate to waste it.

As always, we had many “That’s going on the blog!” moments, some of which I will document for you.

The first was when we passed the giant statue of Sam Houston just outside of Huntsville on I-45. If you’ve heard Beth tell about the night she thought she saw our Lord on the highway, you will appreciate this. At night Sam is lit up against the pitch black background of pine trees.

Too many hours later (Mom was behind the wheel and she drives like a granny), we finally arrived in the Metroplex. We went through Irving and got one last look at Texas Stadium. It was already very stripped down in preparation for Sunday morning’s implosion.

After a much needed stop at Starbucks, we stayed the course of our long journey until we arrived at the perfect Moore Girls Weekend destination – a hotel at Southlake Town Square. Praise the Lord and amen.

In this spot, please imagine a picture of Melissa and me unloading our overpacked bags and toddler paraphernalia out of the car while Mom visited with two really cute ladies who seemed a little surprised to be seeing her.

Right here, please imagine a picture of my mom’s face when they told her that their church was hosting a women’s retreat at that very hotel and – you’ll never believe this – Mom was the retreat speaker! Yes, you read that right. They were using the Revelation DVD’s for their women’s retreat. Isn’t that ironic/hilarious/crazy?

We didn’t waste much time unpacking. There was eating and shopping to do before bedtime!

We had a great time exploring Southlake and just being together. We met lots of really neat ladies and even a few Siestas!

Our time flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the Mattingly/Simpson wedding. We all got dressed up. Mom wore the gold dress that she’s worn to almost every wedding in the last 8 years. I wore a “new again” black dress that hadn’t fit since Annabeth was born. I also wore a brand new pair of heels that quickly became my nemesis. Melissa took a fashion risk and wore something less conventional. Halfway through the night, she saw a picture of herself and suddenly there was no convincing her that she didn’t look exactly like the wedding cake in her voluminous, tiered white blouse. She said she feared people would begin approaching her with their cake plates. I believe this was Melissa’s first time to experience fashion remorse. Unfortunately, all pictures of it have been destroyed. (I thought she looked beautiful!) Annabeth wore a sweet little dress that had pink tulips on it. Unfortunately, a toddler really limits one’s participation in a wedding celebration. Annabeth and I just walked up and down the halls of the church during the ceremony. Our time at the reception ended up being short and sweet, seeing as how my daughter was two hours past her bedtime and nothing could make her happy. At least she was cute!

The Lord allowed us to have a couple of unexpected moments with Adam and Laura, the beautiful bride and handsome groom, on our way out.

There happened to have been some red and pink tulips nearby that matched Annabeth’s dress. What a great photographic opportunity, right? Annabeth did not agree.

The next hour held one mishap after another. I got us terribly lost, Melissa dropped a room service tray on the floor and broke some plates, and Mom and I accidentally ate  her dinner while she was cleaning it up. (We thought it was an appetizer for all of us.) Bless her heart.

Soon we called it a night. Early the next morning I woke up to a rumbling sound. I glanced at the clock and realized it must have been the stadium coming down. You can see a video of the implosion here. People cheer at the end but I thought it was pretty sad to watch! (I used to live by this stadium and even though it was u-g-l-y, I felt sorry for it.)

We dropped Melissa off at DFW airport so that she could fly home to Atlanta. Then Mom, Annabeth and I made our way toward the stadium so we could see the pile of rubble. It was so freaky! It looked like there had been an earthquake. I tried to imagine how horrifying Port Au Prince must be with most of the buildings looking like that. Awful.

A highlight on the way home was stopping for lunch at the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana. One word – YUM! There was a big field of bluebonnets (our celebrated state flower) next to the parking lot, so we did what every self-respecting mother and grandmother in Texas would do. We plopped ourselves and our baby down in the middle of it and took some pictures!  Ideally, these would not have been taken with an iPhone and Annabeth would have been wearing a cute summer dress. We also had to hurry because we could tell the church crowd was about to arrive at the restaurant.

And this concludes the semi-annual Moore Girls Weekend recap.  Our DFW trip was a great success. Thank you, Adam and Laura Mattingly for getting married and giving us a great reason to get away. We love you guys!

He was one of the “ones” at the SLI simulcast last weekend.

Siesta Lavonda says, “Melana sent Moose with Adrienne to the simulcast, and during the lunch break, we took this picture of him (with the cup holder that makes him feel more secure about his hair.)”

You can check out one of his previous adventures here.

Hi ladies! Mom just sent me the commissioning statement to post on the blog. She also wanted me to tell you that you’re the teachers pets. We love you! -Amanda

My Dear Sister

If Christ is Your Savior

You are the dwelling place

Of His own Spirit

You have it IN YOU

to be secure.

Every day of your life

You have a choice to make

You can live in your old defeat

Or you can turn from your unbelief

And choose life

Make up your mind

To put off the old you

And put on the new you.

Never, ever, ever forget

That the Lord is your security.

He will keep your foot

From being caught in a trap.

He will take care of you

To your very last breath.

Now, leave this place

And go out into the world

And act like a person

Who knows she’s dearly loved.

You were born to be exceptional.

So, Girlfriend, go forth

And walk worthy of your calling.

You are clothed in strength and dignity!

Now unto Him

Who can keep you from falling

Be glory and majesty

Power and authority

Through Jesus Christ our Lord

Now and forever more

Amen.

So Long, Insecurity!