The Finest Cowboy in the Land!

Would you guess me for a country fan?  Well, I am not really but I grew up around country music with my dad playing drums in a country band his whole life- he even played the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville with Dave Dudley- and my sister Jamie is the biggest country fan in the world.  Because of these things I can appreciate me some good, old style country.  My favorite country singer (and the only one on my ipod besides Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and my dad) is the king of country, George Strait.  

Last night Jamie and I drove 210 miles down to Des Moines, Iowa to see him.  This is the third time I have seen him in concert now. Jamie is in his fan club so she was able to get us fifth row seats!  Martina McBride opened and though I am not a fan of hers she was enjoyable to watch as she has quite a voice.  She sang an hour and then George came on with his famous eleven piece "Ace in Hole" band. They rocked the stage with their  honky tonk and western swing for 2 hours.  And George, with his sideways smile, twinkling eyes, and rich country voice delivered an amazing show as usual!  I was really excited to hear him sing one of my favorite songs live.  Here is the video...

Monday Night Dinner Study

One of the things I will miss the most when I move back to Tucson some day is Monday nights with my good friends Katie and Joy.  We get together every other Monday night for dinner and to discuss a book of the Bible we have all been reading together during the week.  We have been alternating between each others houses, taking turns cooking and eating some good food!  This has been a huge blessing in my life as these ladies love the Lord, love His word and are so encouraging.  Thank you Katie and Joy for helping me to fight the good fight! 

* Update to this post: The Sunday after the ladies and I met to discuss the book of Ruth, Jerram Bars from Covenant Seminary was a guest preacher at our church and he preached on Ruth 3.  It was an awesome sermon and so helpful to hear after just studying the book ourselves- God is so good!  You can hear his sermon here.

Ron Paul in Minnesota!

Its been a couple of exciting days here in Minnesota as Ron Paul was in town!  I found out Friday that Paul was going to be here Saturday speaking at Mayo High School and thankfully Matt and I were both off so we could go.  We showed up and hour and half early and got front row seats.  The auditorium was packed by the time Paul came out and the crowd was excited to see him.  He spoke for over a half an hour on his usual topics- liberty, the constitution, the fed, ending the wars and nation building and restoring America.  It was awesome.  Afterwards he hung around a bit and signed autographs.  We got his autograph as well as a number of great pieces of Ron Paul flare.  My favorite is a bracelet which says "I (heart) Ron Paul" and "Champion of the Constitution" as well as Ron Paul family cookbook!

Tuesday night was caucus night in Minnesota.  Matt and I went out and caucused for the first time ever.  It was kind of fun and reminded me of being in high school civics class.  Ron Paul won our precint straw poll and Matt, after giving a great speech, was one of eight elected to be a delegate for our precint.

May God be merciful to America and give us Ron Paul for President!

Recent Night of Visiting

Matt and I headed up to the cities Tuesday afternoon to do some visiting. After making a pit stop at our favorite wine store- Costco- where we bought a couple of fantastic Bordeauxs- we then headed over to see my favorite baby nephew, the Jax man.  I haven't seen him since New Year's day so it felt like an eternity in Auntie time.  He is growing in leaps and bounds and cuter than ever.  Matt and I got to babysit him for about an hour while my sister was gone.  He was sleeping at first but after being there about 5 minutes I couldn't wait any longer to hold him so I woke him up.  We played for a while and then my fear came true, he had a little crying melt down and I didn't know what to do with him!  I tried all the things I know he likes, holding him up high, putting him in his car, putting him in his vibrating chair but to no avail- the crying and big sad lips just grew worse.  I had to contact my sister for further instructions.  Luckily she knew what to do!  

After a yummalicious dinner made by my sister accompanied by some delicious wines we got to see Jax eat some new foods- sweet potatoes, dill pickles and bananas.   This was quite fun to watch- especially the pickle which proved to be a love hate relationship.

After dinner we headed into Minneapolis to meet Pastor Phil who was in town for the Desiring God Pastor's Conference.  It was sooo good to see him!   Matt saw him in Tucson last November but I haven't seen him since we moved up here.  We took him out for a pint and spent a few hours catching up.  It was a lot of fun.  We hope to be moving back to Arizona soon and are anxious to return to our home church there in Tucson.