Texas will never be the same...

This past weekend Kelley and I took a little trip to get some rest and spend some time focusing on God. We went to Dallas, Texas and it was a great time.

Sunday we attended the church where Dr. Tony Evans is the pastor.

Kelley has heard him teach on the radio before and highly recommended him, but I have never listened to him before so we were both pretty excited to get the opportunity to hear him in person. Here is Kelley with Dr. Evans.AWESOME is such an understatement. It was a message I so needed to hear. I love when God does that...you're struggling with something and He sends you a message that you know is just straight from Him to you.
Love love love that.

There were a few other highlights of the trip I'd like to share with you.

First one was meeting Liz on Friday night. Oh my, she must think I'm a complete psycho. While waiting for her to get off work I received the worst headache. You know the type that is right in the eyes and any light makes it worse. Yep, got one of those. So needless to say I was far from being myself.

I kept trying to get Kelley to tell Liz that I was not myself, but she was more concerned with shopping and finding some cowboy boots for herself.

Not sure if it was being surrounded by men in Wranglers with cowboy hats or store clerks with their Texas accents, but Kelley was determined to become a cowgirl before the weekend was over. She was on a mission to buy her some cowboy boots and wear them.
In Kansas City.

Thinking of Kelley's fashion conscience girls back home, Lauren & Lilly, I pictured the horrified looks on their faces walking alongside their boot scootin' mother in KC. So I firmly said, "No Kelley...no boots" and encouraged her to start with these shoe-boots...

but she really wanted something like these...

I was counting on Liz to back me up in telling Cowgirl Kelley to stick with her running shoes, but saw that I was clearly outnumbered by western

wanna-be's when I looked to see Liz trying on something like this but in purple...

For a second I found myself agreeing how good it looked on her against her pretty red hair when the fringe swayed as she modeled the jacket and well...I gave up and went to look at jewelery.


Let's just say my headache worsened at the thought of walking around the streets of Dallas with Liz and Kelley.

Thankfully we left the store empty handed, went back to the hotel for a few hours so I could get rid of my headache and then we hit the town with Lelia as herself, Kelley in stylish black boots and Liz in a jacket with no fringe.

After driving in circles, we collectively decided to go to Nick and Sam's restaurant in Uptown that according to a text Kelley sent to hubby John who was back home, it was "the best dining experience of my life".


I'd have to agree with her but not so much because of the food but what happened before we even sat down. As we walked into the restaurant there he was.

The Dancing with the Stars champ Emmitt Smith and his beautiful wife right in front of us!Oh my...this would be my husband Gene's ALL time favorite Dallas Cowboy. If you have been with me for awhile you know that Gene is a die hard Cowboy fan. If they lose I'm instructed to tell his friends that call him to give him a hard time that he is not home. And of all players to see it was the one that Gene has said in the past "has so much integrity".

Now. I could care less about football, but I do love my husband so this was especially thrilling for me. I personally am more impressed with these types of moves... instead of these types of his more well-known moves...
Just so happened that Liz knew his wife from high school in Virginia and while she was talking to and hugging her, there was Emmitt. Alone at the hostess stand.

So I moved in..."Excuse me, are you Emmitt Smith?"

"Yes." He quietly and humbly answered.

"Oh. My husband is a huge Cowboys fan. Can I get my picture taken with you for him?"

"Yes." He said again.

For some reason, I wasn't completely convinced that I was actually standing next to this legend so I asked him again..."Are you sure you're Emmitt Smith?"

"Yes."

And again as Kelley had the camera in ready position and I was in posing position.

"You're sure...you're Emmitt Smith?"

How insulting...like the man doesn't know his own self. I'm surprised looking back that I didn't ask him for some form of picture ID. While the manager recognized him and was scrambling to seat this high profile celebrity, I was concerned I was getting my picture taken with a Emmitt impostor. Oh dear....I'm surprised he didn't just walk away.

But thankfully he stayed put long enough for this...After dinner him and his wife stopped at our table and talked with us for about 5 minutes. Such a nice down to earth couple.

Anyway...it was an awesome weekend of seeking God and well needed rest.

Which was so great to read chapter 9 of the book Self Talk, Soul Talk by Jennifer Rothschild about rest.

So here I was going to post all about how incredible this chapter was and...I have no book. It's at home. On my couch.

So, can we post on Friday...is that okay?

I tell ya, please don't be discouraged I really have the best intentions of posting on time, but without a computer I am at the mercy of borrowed time on someone else's laptop. So...please come back on Friday so we can discuss what we learned in this chapter.

In the meantime I'm going to see if Gene can dance like Emmitt...

~Many Blessings~

LELIA