MARY MARY - The Sound

My current fav CD has got to be the newest Mary Mary project. This CD is so different from other gospel works I've heard recently. I enjoy all genres of gospel. This project delivers ALL sorts of "flavors" of gospel music. It's got the traditional stuff and some contemporary stuff. It's got some old school flavor as well. The most important thing, the message of the CD, is loud and clear. The good news. Since the message must be spread far and wide it may as well have a beat you can move to.... right!?!?! It hits home for lots of folks I'm sure. My favorite song on the CD right now is "The God in Me" I love the message in that song. It says to me that God' s people do not have to look solemn and homeless. God would that His people prosper and be in good health. As a representative of the kingdom one should look the part. You should look like royalty AND must understand from where those blessings flow.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all! May we never forget the true meaning of this season.
This day is a bittersweet one for my family. My little sister, Shaundrea, was born on Christmas day. She would be 28 this year. She passed away in 2004 September. Each year life gets easier, but things will never be the same. We have new traditions for this day since she left. In stead of sitting and waiting FOREVER for her to open her birthday gifts, we go to the cemetery to visit her grave site. We listen to a poem that Sharla writes each year to celebrate our sister. We each take a moment to talk about what we are thankful for. My mother won't ever forget the daughter she lost and on her birthday it's just a bit more difficult. The day is happier since Taylour joined our lives and each year it's easier and easier to deal with the reality we've been dealt. I miss my sister very much. I am thankful that she was in our family for the brief time she was with us.

It's Our Anniversary

Well, not today. On Dec 21 we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. We went to Austin for the weekend to celebrate. It was wonderful. We had such a good time together. We didn't do anything specific. We shopped, loafed, ate, and above all relaxed. It's so nice to be able to spend time with one another. He continually shows me just how much he loves me. I know it's cliche, but I truly do love him more today than the day we married. Our relationship has grown (so have we unfortunately) and we endured so much together. I am so glad he made that detour spring break of 1999.
I Love you and Happy Anniversary

Christmas Banquet 2008

Anthony and I attended our church's Christmas Banquet on Friday Night. It was so beautiful! The food was delicious, the fellowship was wonderful, and we walked away with some sweet gifts.

The menu and selection were great.

I had the fish. I believe it was red snapper. Anthony had the chicken. He said it was delish!

We had the chocolate cake for dessert. It was so rich and yummy.

My family....whom I'll introduce you to soon!

Everyone was beautiful.

Sharla and Cherrell

The "Older" girls

Shay and Mike

Mom and Dad

It was a wonderful time!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Everywhere you go! Lights, garland, trees, snowmen, the manger scene.. It's all beautiful. I love this season.

It truly is the most beautiful time of year and I am thankful that I understand that JESUS is the real reason for the season. I've put up a few decorations in the house. My sister helped decorate our tree..well, no she did it all herself. She is the BEST at tree decorating. Thanks Shy!!! All of this just seems to make the season more "real". I've added a few pics of the house decorations.

Foyer Table Top

Our sweet deer guarding the front door!

Don't know what's up with some of these pics, but this is the mantel top.

Our current table top decor.

I love this season!

I'm BACK!

.....And ready to blog! It's been a while since I've been on, but life has just been so very busy lately. I have actually been trying to wait and add pictures for a specific post that I want to do. I promise (right hand up in the air) that I will be a better blogger. This past weekend I went up with my family to visit my grandmother. She was very ill and things did not look very good. All of my father's family came together. We prayed and believed and as of this morning things seem to be turning around! (Praise God) I am thankful to still have both maternal and paternal grandmothers around and I pray that they both stay here on this earth for even longer.


Don't think I told this story yet. So Taylour, my sweet niece, was looking at photo's of my sisters and I. We had a singing engagement a while back and there were candid photo's taken. So my sister and I were looking at the photo's and commenting on how good they looked. Taylour crawled up in my sister's lap and began to look at the photo's with us. She was looking and SHE started commenting as well. This was her personal evaluation, "Auntie Shy, you little. Auntie Peach, you little, Auntie Vee (that's me) you big with Mommy!!!!! OMGoodness!!!! No she didn't! What could I say though. Children are just honest. She wasn't being mean or ugly, she was just commenting on what she saw. THAT was just the motivation I needed. I'm not planning to diet, but I do plan to drop a substantial amount of weight in the coming weeks/months. I just want to be healthy and stay around for a long while.

Sunday Ramblings

My vacation week is nearing an end. I can't say that I'm enthused to go back to "reality", but since I don't have much choice... onward and upward. My family came to S.A. to visit this week. My maternal grandmother, aunt, uncles, and cousins were in town to celebrate the holiday. I am thankful that they were able to make it down.

This week of thanks was marked with sadness. A dear, dear friend of the family passed away on Saturday. Elder J. W. Denny went on to be with the Lord after a brief second battle with cancer. He will be dearly missed, but I know he is in a much better place. I pray for his family that they may find strength in this time of bereavement.

I will continue with my quest to drop the pounds. I purchased a new supplement, it's an Acai pill. I heard about the Oprah and Rachel Ray "diet". Acai in combination with Colon Cleanse is supposed to cleanse your body and increase metabolism. I am going to continue to workout and monitor my eating closely, but I do hope that this will help. My goal is to not only drop the weight, but to begin to live a healthy lifestyle.

Black Friday shopping was WONDERFUL! I got lots of deals and tons of great buys. Anthony and I along with several of my sisters hit a few stores and then had breakfast.(I was able to get some Christmas shopping done that morning.) We took a nap and then I went back out for a second helping of shopping! Fun stuff. Anthony bought a new toy for himself. A new XBOX 360.... another game system to add to his collection:-) I can't wait to play him in PAC-Man!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! There are so many things that I am thankful for this year. God has blessed me to see another year that was not promised to me. In this economy where financial institutions are going under every other week, I still have my job. There have been numerous layoffs, but I am still employed. I have my health and strength. I could be in my sick bed, but I am up an able. I am thankful for my family and friends. I am thanking God in advance for several petitions I've placed before him. I thank the Lord that I am learning to praise him in spite of conditions and situations. I'm thankful for all that I've gone through this year of new beginnings and am looking forward to a new year of promise and possibilities. This is a new beginning for me in one particular area. I have about 30 pounds that I would like to lose and I'm starting now. I am starting to exercise and to monitor the food I eat. Today is a new day and for that I am thankful!

Is There a Fire At my House?

I was on my way home from work a few days ago. Anthony was probably about five minutes behind me. So I pull up into my garage and let the door down. I unlock the door to the house and begin to disarm my alarm. My hand slips and I accidentally hit the fire button. I immediately cancel it and finish disarming the alarm. I call Anthony and say, "Hey I hit the fire button but canceled it. Everything should be OK....right" He says yeah, but I'll call the alarm company to verify. Thirty seconds later he calls back and says that all is well..he's also driving into the driveway by this time. He said that the fire signal did reach the alarm company and they were in process of dispatching a fire engine. All is well now. It's been a total of three to four minutes by now. We both begin to walk in the house and settle down to watch the evening news. The news starts, but in the distance we begin to hear the unmistakable whir of a FIRE TRUCK. We open the front door and what do we find. A big, shiny, red fire truck sitting out front. Apparently they got the cancellation signal just as they drove up! We weren't billed for this because it was our first "offense." So I'll have to be more careful!!

Prayer Request / New Cell Phone

We visited my grandmother this weekend. She seems to be doing better now. She's been moved from the hospital to another short term care facility to begin to recover. Please say a prayer that her recovery is swift and complete.

Please also say a prayer for Bishop J. W. Denny. He's a leader in my church and has always been a friend to our family. The doctors have said they have done all they can do, but I know that God can do the impossible.

I'm just not a person who's into much technology. I have to have a cell phone, but only for making phone calls. I don't require that it do a bunch of tricks or play games or what not. I just need a dependable phone that can make calls. That being said, I got a new phone today. It's an Upstage and I LOVE it. My old phone really was ready for the junk heap. It's been dropped so many times and really looked horrid. This new phone is really cute AND it actually does quite a few tricks. First off it's RED (which is becoming one of my favorite colors). It takes pictures, it's blue tooth capable, and it is an MP3 player!! How cool is that? My first phone with toys. And it's so tiny. I love it!

Anthony on the other hand must have a toy...that also happens to take and place phone calls. He is a technology junkie. His current phone is a Treo 800wx palm pilot that does a bunch of stuff. And guess what, he already wants a new one!!!

Road Tripping

We are traveling today. I enjoy road tripping....to a point. The point where I begin to get sleepy. Most times it's just me and Anthony in the car and I can't leave him "alone". So I end up staying awake the entire time with him. It's a good time though. We do a lot of good communicating on the road and we always have fun together. We went to Kileen and did some shopping. We are getting closer and closer to the Christmas holiday. We want to get our shopping done before the seasonal "rush" starts. By the end of the day we were in Dallas. We are here visiting my paternal grandmother. She had a recent health scare so we just wanted to come and check up on her. I'll update with pictures when we return to SA.

Taylour

I haven't yet introduced y'all to my babydoll. This is Taylour (think TAYLOR..different spelling) She is my one and only niece and I love her to death. You will see lots of pictures of her on this blog.


Isn't she precious!!!

The Story of US

I never get tired of telling this story. Anthony and I met in March of 1999. He lived in Corpus Christie at the time. It was the week of spring break. He was passing through San Antonio on his way to Mexico to meet a girl. He stopped by church Sunday morning to visit his cousin. After service was over he approached me, asked my name, and asked for my phone number. I decided to give him my information. Long story short, he never made it to Mexico. He stayed in San Antonio that week. We went out every single night. By the end of the week I think we both knew that we had deep feelings for one another. We were engaged in February 2001 and were married in December 2002.
We have a beautiful relationship now, but you wouldn't have guessed it by the turmoil we created for our courtship years. Anthony and I would fight about everything and nothing. We disagreed on most everything. He talked too much, I talked too much. He said black, I said white. He said up and I said down. There was so much disagreement that we probably should have broken up. We stuck together and began to develop a deeper relationship with God. This is why I KNOW that with God NOTHING shall be impossible. The day we married everything just changed for the better (and I'm not exaggerating). I think that God helped us to realize when and how to talk and when and how to listen.
The 21st of December this year will mark 6 blessed years.
We never get tired of being together and enjoy each moment! I love him, he loves me and I couldn't imagine spending forever with anyone else.

And the Journey Begins

Hello and welcome to our blog. This will be an insightful look into the wonderful world of Shavonne and Anthony. I hope that you will enjoy taking a peek into our lives. This is the beginning of our blogging journey, but we know that the best is yet to come!