"Give and It Shall Be Given"

"Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." St. Luke 6:38. One of my favs in the Bible and I guess you can see why I title this blog as such. We've got so much to be thankful this year with Rhonda being transferred to another job, which she absolutely loves and also caters to her needs. God is great and greatly to be praised. I am so proud of my beautiful wife because she is such a great and giving person. She will give till there's no more and then she'll find a way. That's what I love about her most. She's so kind, gentle, humble and considerate of others' needs, it just amazes me the things she get accomplished. Last September of 2007, she started with the Student Achievement Iniative Program where she would mentor a student enrolled at WFISD. She easily connected to her mentee, Ashley and has absolutely loved every minute of it. She is really dedicated to the program and now she has three mentees and her other two are Erin and Kylie. Ashley attends McNiel Jr. High, while Erin and Kylie attend Kirby Jr. High. She was recently honored at a banquet where they bestowed upon her Outstanding Mentor with the Achievement Student Iniative Program, which is partnered with WFISD and SAFB. Hats off to Rhonda and the young people that she mentors. May God continue to bless and guide her as she relates to the young people in the school district.

With all the Christmas activities around, I couldn't pass the chance to show off some pics of Rhonda's office Christmas party. This year their party was held at the MSU's Clark Student Center. A great time was had by all and wow! the tables were so beautifully decorated. Each table was to represent a certain criteria of each department in the sqaudron where Rhonda works. Some of the tables represented their work, while others were just fabulous. We had a great time, with delicious food and laughter abound. As you can see where Rhonda was trying to draw a picture of a snowman on top of her head. (I'm so glad they didn't pick me) Oh, well, she lost; nevertheless, she had a great time performing for the gang. A lot of prizes were won and we really enjoyed the night. Capping off the night, we headed across the street to MSU Burns Fantasy of Lights. We hadn't had the opportunity to walk around the "Winter Wonderland" and since it was just a little nippy and we were already out in it, we decided to stroll through the fantasy land. The extravaganza has a lot more charisma up close. Afterwards, we headed to the house for some "Low-Fat Hot Chocolate." Yum Yum!

On Sunday, December 14, we attended "An Evening of Joy" performed by Life Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. Wow! It was phenomenal with several different recitations, along with a variety of duets and quartets, joined by the choir throughout the night of performance. I especially enjoyed the men's quartet. Special Kudos to Life Tab and all of their choir members.

This last Sunday, we visited our home church in Vernon. I really enjoyed providing Christmas music to our church and seeing all of our old friends and meeting new ones. Our church still carries on the timeless tradition of passing out fruit bags to everyone on Sunday before Christmas. I can remember as a child sorting the fruit and candy and sacking it up. When I was a kid, we used paper bags; however, now we just use Glad Baggies, which makes it more convenient. That was a nice memory to relive. Afterwards, Dad and LaRue followed us back to Wichita where we ate at Cotton Patch Cafe. Dad and LaRue hadn't ate there yet and was so anxious to try it out. I think they really enjoyed and can't wait to come back and taste the Blackberry Cobblar. Delicious. Thanks, Dad and LaRue and all of the church folks in Vernon for such a good time.

To cap our weekend off, we celebrated Christmas with our dear friends, Jane and Loyd Austin at Cheddars and afterwards went back to our townhome and enjoyed coffee, Low-Fat Hot Chocolate and Baklava. If you haven't tried Baklava, you need to step out in faith and give it a whirl. It's a greek pastry that is just heavenly and I believe it's low-fat also. LOL.

Well, as you can see we've had a busy month with two days left till Christmas. I can't wait. Rhonda's got my presents wrapped and I'm trying to figure out what they are. The anticipation drives me crazy. Since Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I'll try to keep the activities as full as I can, because once it's over, I'll have to wait till next year. Rhonda's already told me after the 1st, the tree comes down. Oh, well, I'll enjoy the festivities while they last! LOL

On another note, I talked with John today and he's doing great. It makes me feel a little better whenever I talk with him, knowing that he's doing good.