Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Anyone want to lose weight???

As some of you readers may know (and some may not), I used to be overweight, and now I am NOT...All praise to GOD!! If anyone is wondering how have you done this? Well, it is a program called the Weigh Down Workshop, which basically teaches you to stop loving and worshipping food, and start loving and worshipping God!! Not only have I lost 45 pounds, I have kept it off for 5 years, and through three pregnancies, but I have also gained a beautiful relationship with God that I never had before!

SO...if anyone wants to lose a little weight and totally fall in love with God, check out the Weigh Down Workshop at http://www.weighdown.com/, AND...I am starting a new class next Tuesday, at 1:00 central time. It is an 8 week program, and I would LOVE to have you join. If you are interested, call Weigh Down at 1-800-844-5208, and tell them you want to join my class! Also, check out www.truereligionrecords.com for some amazing inspired music!

Below my before and after pictures, I am going to put my full testimony! My life is totally changed!


BEFORE



















AFTER (some of these are old, but I have found that since having three kids, there aren't very many pictures of me, especially they full body)




I was born and raised in a “Christian” home. From the time I was born, we were in church every Sunday, and there I was taught that I just needed to ask Jesus into my heart, and be saved. After growing up in church, I attended a “Christian” college, where I was filled with a lot of knowledge ABOUT the Bible, along with a lot of pride. However, it wasn’t until I was introduced to the Weigh Down Workshop, that my life truly began to change. It was through Weigh Down, not any church or school that showed me how to truly get rid of sin and self and have a relationship with God Almighty! Despite being in a church, my weight was something I had struggled with my entire life. As a child I was definitely a little chubby, and then as I got older, into my teenage years, I was somewhat able to control my weight with sports and exercise. However, I was still always heavier than I wanted to be or really should have been. The real weight problem came when I went off to college and instead of gaining the “freshman 5”, I gained the freshman 30. I was depressed and disgusted with myself and I was also out of control. I had no idea, but I had so much greed in my heart for food. I didn’t know what it was. No one had ever told me that my overweight and overeating were evidence of the greed in my heart. Since I had been somewhat chubby since childhood, and had many overweight relatives, the problem must have been genetic, so I thought. I had been told I would have to watch it my whole life. I would see other people who were thin seemingly eat so much great food, so then I would blame my problem on my metabolism....I just have a slow metabolism! ALL LIES! Praise God for His deliverance from all these lies! I was desperate to lose weight, I tried everything! I tried every diet from the cabbage soup diet to completely starving myself. I would exercise 3-4 hours a day, and when I got tired of that, I would just throw up my food. Praise God that in his mercy, none of these solutions worked. There were times when I would lose weight, but I could never keep it off. There was no permanent solution that I had found. In March of 1997 I began my journey with the Weigh Down Workshop. I started by reading “The Weigh Down Diet.” As soon as I heard Gwen’s teaching of hunger and fullness, I knew it was the truth and that it would work. I initially lost some weight using the Weigh Down principles, but I did not really understand that it was about so much more than food and weight! Therefore, Weigh Down became just another diet to me. I did not understand that it was all about obedience to God. When I would do Weigh Down (in other words, obey God), I would lose weight, but most of the time I was not obeying, and I was still bowing down to my false god of food. Greed still ruled in my heart. By the time I finished college, my weight had pretty much remained the same, and I had completely missed one of the basic principles of Weigh Down….that obedience was not something I could just do if I felt like it…but that obedience to God was the foundation of a relationship with him. In the fall of 2001, I started in Weigh Down Advanced. For four years I had toyed with the principles of the Weigh Down Workshop, but it was through this Weigh Down Advanced class, as well as hearing Gwen speak at a live event that completely turned my life around. We joined Remnant Fellowship and I started putting the principles of Weigh Down into practice. I finally was obeying God instead of the food, and not just for a day or a week. This was a permanent change. God took 40 pounds off my body, and I weigh less than I had weighed in junior high school! It was so amazing to me that I could be at this weight, and still eat all regular foods. No calorie counting, no exercising, no food exchange lists, no banned foods, no Styrofoam rice cakes—it was so wonderful! And while the weight loss was a huge blessing from God, it did not even compare with this new relationship with God Almighty! After joining Remnant, there have been so many other things in my life that have CHANGED! I have laid down the love of money and material things, which led to overspending and misuse of credit cards; I have laid down lying, praise of man, anger & rage, pride, love of self, gossip, stealing, arrogance, overdrinking, disrespect of authority, jealousy, and SO MUCH MORE!! My life went from being all about me to being all about God! I now LOVE to serve others when before I used to only serve myself. I praise GOD for this message of TRUTH that has completely changed my life. My life is now peaceful and blessed. I have a wonderful Godly marriage, sweet obedient children, and my relationships with my family are better than ever. There is truly no place better on earth!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Baby Dedication!

We recently had Claire's baby dedication at church. We celebrate Pentecost every year, 50 days after Passover, and each year that is the time for the babies to be dedicated. We also wear white on this day symbolizing purity! We are so thankful to be able to raise up a pure sweet little baby and be able to teach her to serve and obey only God her whole life! Somehow we got all these pictures, and none with Scott. Here is a picture of me and the girls. I thought this was a cute one of Audrey.
Here is sort of a goofy one!
This is my sister in law, Stacy (married to Corey) and their baby, Riley Kate. Eveyone says that Clare and Riley look like twins, which is really funny because most people probably know that Corey was adopted, so there is no blood line there. We think it is sweet that the cousins can look alike!
What do you think?? Twins??

The last of Florida pictures

Here is the last installation of Florida pics....I know, it was A LOT, but I just felt like we got a lot of great pictures. Here is Lilly, we are at a restaurant eating outside...that is one of our favorite things about Florida...eating out all the time and ESPECIALLY getting to eat outside!!

Girls playing at the pool
Claire in her high chair.
Audrey coloring, and holding Grampy's hand, adorable
I LOVE this picture, the girls walking down 5th ave with Grammy and Grampy. We loved having my parents come down for a few days, and having Scott's mom there too.
Audrey enjoying some chocolate ice cream.


Monday, June 23, 2008

Still more.....

Here are some more pictures from the pool....Audrey and Scott....so adorable!!! She really loved getting tossed, as long as you catch her.
Here is Lilly, in a picture Scott entitled "Committed"

Lilly and Claire were playing on a chair....Lilly could see through the chair, so it was sort of peek a boo.

More Florida Photos...

These are some pictures we took in Florida while swimming in the pool...we preferred to go to the pool over the beach because it was cleaner, and required a LOT less STUFF...when we went to the beach, we had to take chairs, towels, toys, buckets, ..... so all that to say...we LOVE the pool. Plus the girls really like to swim! Audrey was a LITTLE nervous about jumping off the side of the pool. Now that we are home and have been swimming a lot, she will go off the diving board, but then, she was a tad scared.
Drying off after a swim
Lillian in the pool
Audrey and Mary, Scott's mom, AKA Memaw. The girls LOVE their Memaw
Even baby Claire loved to swim!!!

Friday, June 6, 2008

The Beach

Here are some pictures from the beach...the girls had a great time playing in the sand and in the water. Scott and the girls....so cute.
Lillian and Audrey testing the waters.
They finally got brave enough to go in
Claire, surprisingly, loved the beach and the sand. She would sit there for an hour and just pick up the sand, and let it run through her tiny fingers.

FLORIDA!!!

Well, I figured I should finally post some pictures from our vacation, since it was like a month ago...we had a great time in Naples. Not only did our family get to go, Scott's mom was with us, and my parents came down for the last few days of our trip as well. We had so much fun, Scott is already talking about going back this fall.

Here is our condo....if you look REALLY close, you can see Audrey on the lanai. OK, maybe you can't really see her, but if the picture was bigger you could.

Here is Claire, right after we arrived at the airport. Scott, Mary (his mom) and Lillian & Audrey drove the 14 hours to get there, Claire and I lucked out and got to fly. She is not the best car traveller, and we didn't want to risk it.
Here is Claire checking out the view from our lanai.
This is a beautiful hibiscus...one of my favorite flowers.
These pictures are a little out of order, but here we come on our airplane.

I've been tagged...

I've Been Tagged...
Here are the rules - mention the rules on your blog. Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag six bloggers by linking them. (They shall be "it")...

It has taken me so long to do this because I had a hard time thinking of six unspectacular quirks, but here goes....

1. I am very competitive...(although less so as I have gotten older). I once passed out trying to beat my brother when we were seeing who could hold their breath longer.

2. I CAN NOT throw away plastic grocery bags. I have to recycle them. I do have the reusable bags, but at least half the time (probably more) I forget to take them. I'm not really a recycling or a green nazi, but I just can not bring myself to throw those silly bags away. If I see that someone else in my house has thrown them away....I have to dig them out of the trash so I can recycle them.

3. I am always cold. In the winter time, I have to wear like 100 layers, and in the summer I keep the thermostat at like 85....until Scott gets home and wants to die. (He is always hot). I have to take a sweater with me to restaurants, movies, etc, or I FREEZE.

4. I can hardly go a day without talking to my mother...even if we or they are out of town, we are always in touch. I have to "check in" as we say.

5. I will not let my girls leave the house without bows in their hair. It seems like it doesn't matter how dirty and stinky they are, if they have a bow, it looks like we have it all together. (Not that they are dirty or stinky usually, but every now and then....)

6. This last one isn't really a quirk, but an interesting tidbit that people usually say WHAT???? to. My mother in law lives with us. And I LOVE it. She is wonderful. I wouldn't change it if I could, and neither would she. (And my kids are CRAZY for meemaw).

So there you have it.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Family photos

Well, I have been going through and organizing all my pictures, and thought I would post some pictures of my family that we took last fall.... for those of you who don't know...I have a large family, there are six of us kids, and we all have kids, so here we go!


This is my sister Anique, and her husband David....they have four kids, but somehow the kids got out of having their picture taken.



Here is our family...Scott, Whitney, Lillian, Audrey, and baby Claire.







This is my brother Corey, and his wife, Stacy, and their two daughters Alex and Samantha. They have a third daughter Riley, who was born probably a few weeks after this picture was taken.




This is a picture of my mom and dad with my baby girl Claire.


Here they are again, with my ADORABLE nephew Pauly who just turned 9. He is the daughter of my brother Paul and his wife Heather.
Here are Paul and Heather with Pauly....If you think she looks familiar, maybe it is because you saw her on the cover of Good Housekeeping a couple months ago...she is gorgeous!
Here are two of my neices, Ivy Leaman, and Ellie Hamilton. Ellie is 14 and Ivy is 16.



This is my sister Ashley and her husband, Jason, and their three kids, Ellie, Gabe and Luke. Muffins.
Hope you like the pictures. We took a family vacation to Naples, Fl a couple weeks ago, so I am going to put up some of those pictures soon too!


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

PASSOVER 2008



PASSOVER 2008!! Here are some pictures of our Passover celebration this year! Praise God for allowing us to be a part of reinstituting the Festivals that HE said were to be a lasting ordinance! We absolutely LOVE celebrating how God has symbolically taken us out of Egypt, as well as celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, JESUS CHRIST!!




Audrey...above and below....doesn't every little girl LOVE a twirly dress?
Lillian...



The church





Here is Claire and me The whole family...I think the girls had no idea who to look at.
Grammy and Claire

Audrey was dancing and REALLY getting into it. She is so funny.