just mandyness

What Have I Been Up To???

2011-11-28T21:12:00.001-06:00

What have I NOT been up to – is the more appropriate question. The Deiterings have been SO busy, we have barely had time to say ‘Hey, do I know you? You’re living in my house…” hehehehee. I am still in the middle of a TON of things but, I wanted to give an update in pics! They are cute pics so it will be worth the scroll down….. :)

The week before Thanksgiving week we started decorating at CPC:Benton. This is Tree #1 – I didn’t get a pic of tree #2 or tree #3… weird. All of them are tall and big and they scratched up my arms… ugh.

Today we went to CPC:Conway and decorated the 9ft tree #4…..

After we got back from Conway, BFF Jess and I BEASTED the Christmas Tree #5 in the Kingdom Kids area. Literally we decorated it in 45 minutes….wow.

I made this tree skirt a couple of weeks ago for the tree – hoping and praying that it would look good with everything….

It is AMAZINGLY cute under the tree!!! I still have to put up my tree at home (#6) and I have to finish the one in KOT:Conway (#7)….. yeah… Hopefully I will finish before Christmas time… :)

This little guy was helping with the Christmas Décor at Benton, I had to catch him and let him go outside….

A couple of weeks ago Krystle and Josh were ready to take their engagement pics….. we had a plan, a day, a house to get ready in, a make-up/hair team, and a beautiful day. I can’t share them because they make me laugh SOOOOOO much. They were not your typical engagement pics, and I loved it.

I have been crafting A LOT in the past couple of weeks and I think my fat cat decided she had had enough and wanted some attention….

GOODWILL finds: My girls and I have had AMAZING luck at Goodwill recently. Look at this bedspread I found for under $20. (I can’t give you an exact amount, because I don’t remember, but I would not have paid more than $20)

All this fabric was $1 each … what??? yes!!!

We had a LOT of rain right before Thanksgiving…this is our backyard…it was a swamp. I always say I am going to go around and take pics of the flooding, because it is SO crazy, but I never do….one day, one day…..

November 20th was my little brothers birthday (and crazy uncle Eddie)!!!!! This was us in the Dominican.

I happened to look down at my phone at 11:20 on 11-20… hehehhehheee

I made a tree skirt for my tree at home…….It will look amazing once I get the tree up…… heheheheee

OOOOOOO – Hello Ladies made this AWESOME button picture frame, we are SO in love with it….AND it’s also for sale…..if interested……

Well there has been a whole lot more, but my eyes are crossing….. I promise more great PiC posts soon! :)

~mandy~

I have not forgotten……

2011-11-14T19:59:00.001-06:00

I promise I will be back ASAP!! We’ve hit the Christmas Decorating season at CPC and so I am trying to get that taken care of before I post all my goodies I have made for the Kingdom Kids tree! Great stuff!!!!! Stay with me and keep checking back! :)

~mandy~

Christmas Presents….

2011-11-04T07:28:00.001-05:00

A couple of years ago I decided to make Christmas Presents for my nieces and nephews on Brand’s side of the family. It was a crazy thought because at that point I owned a sewing machine, needle and thread, but I had not sewn anything more than a button on a shirt…… So I started out and my nephew wasn’t born yet so I set out to make 5 cats. I tried to find the pattern on Flickr, but alas I could not find it. ANYWHO…. I suffered through, the pattern didn’t tell me how to attach the head of the cat to the body, the pieces didn’t match up super well, but dad gum it, I made them and the kids LOVED them. The next year I designed cute little square guys with arms and legs and cute button eyes …. they were cute.

I don’t know why I stopped doing it, but I was recently told my one of my sisters’ in law that her daughter really liked when I made them and has both of her presents and keeps them safe in a box. SO that inspired me to start the tradition back up. The kiddos are a bit older, the new ones are in the 3 year range and the older ones are 16…. and I have to make a BUNCH! SO I looked on Etsy and Flickr to find a pattern to make. Here are the finalists…..Since this post I have made my choice, but see i f you can pick out which one I picked. :)

Singing Squirrel Pattern

Prince Charming Softie

Wish me Luck!

~mandy~

Exciting Christmas News!

2011-10-31T17:31:00.001-05:00

Today I stopped by Pastor Kathi’s office and asked her if I could decorate the Kingdom Kids (birth – 5years old) area this year for Christmas. She said “YES” and we spent the better part of an hour talking about neat ideas we had seen and cool craft projects we could make happen to keep the cost down. We were both on the same page about the theme!!! How awesome this that??? I don’t have the “full vision” yet, but here are some pics that are going up on my inspiration board at work this week……

How cute is this gonna be. I’ve also got to get some ideas for the children’s church in Conway!!! I will be decorating in like 5 places this year… YAY!!!

~mandy~

Getting a Special CPC post together…

2011-10-26T06:50:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago I posted a link to a new website called “Impress Your Kids”. This is the same website where I have been getting my CPC: CONWAY - ABC sermon ideas from. 25 days ago Amanda (the author) started this series called “31 Days to Impress Your Kids.” She shares some practical things to help you imprint the Word of God on your children’s heart forever. I have not had a chance to go through the days yet, but that is my plan this after noon and I am excited to share the post with you!!! As a step parent I am constantly trying to find ways to teach the girls about life and God on a level they can understand and they can remember, I believe I have found the website series to help me with that. SOOOOO, get ready, I am excited, you should get excited!

~mandy~

Secret Confession

2011-10-25T13:53:00.001-05:00

Why? Because I do.

Usually people need something RIGHT THEN and I am in the middle of 400 other things.

OR they want to ask a question that I am not a liberty to tell them the answer to.

OR it’s a problem that I have to fix when I don’t know how to fix it.

OR a teacher didn’t show up in the nursery.

OR it’s something that they ‘really’ don’t need to talk to me about.

OR I forgot to do something and it’s at panic stage now.

OR ……. well you get the point.

SO, if you ever come up and say “I need to talk to you” and I have a panicked look…. this is way.

Be kind to me. Please.

~mandy~

Vacation Pics….YUP

2011-10-16T21:36:00.001-05:00

You knew it was coming…. I did find out that I didn’t take nearly as many pics as I thought I did…. Oh well.

Literally 20 minutes after we got to our condo we were headed to the beach. This was my attempt to walk and take a pic of Jess and I . The bottom one - Brand took the camera to get our pic, but a bug decided to attack Jess at that time…. I was very concerned for her safety…as you can see.

Day 5 we went to Fort Morgan – further down the beach – to check out the area and see if we wanted to stay there on another vacation….

We decided that CenterPoint should buy this house and all the staff be able to use it….It was for sale…… just sayin. :)

Rain storm from the 16th floor – pretty neat.

Morning sky

Our CONDO!!!

Last Night

We had a great time!

~mandy~

CPC:Benton BIG DAY & CPC:Conway Update

2011-10-11T15:36:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday our church, CenterPoint Church, finished our 7 week series, the Magnificent Seven, with a BIG DAY!! We had a cookout and blowup games for the kids… a super great time. We also had a water baptism after service, but those pics are on my camera and I don’t have the cord at the moment.

Our BIG DAY in Conway is this Sunday!!!! We have been busy getting ready. Krystle and I have spent the last couple of Monday’s getting the nursery and children’s church areas spiffed up for the day….

We painted “popcorn box” party favors for the “baskets” of our hot air balloons.

Turned out super cute!

We then started a felt Autumn Garland……it turned out amazing!!!!

We have some soundproofing issues in the nursery, so Krystle and I are always looking for ways to work on that. This week Krystle had the amazing idea to “draw” a couple of trees with glue, let it dry, and then paint over it, for a fun texture. Behind the canvas we put some fabric behind it to absorb some sound.

I brought paintbrushes…..but they were all tiny brushes. I had the idea to “paint with napkins” ….. that should work, right???? Well……not really, but I came up with a really cool effect and SOOOOO we went with it.

Kinda cool…..They look better in person. So you should come and see them in person one day… just sayin’.

Got home from CPC:Conway around 8:00 and sat down to eat some yummy Slim Chicken’s, which I had brought back from Conway with me. :) There are several more things we have to complete, so I know we will have more pics to share……

~mandy~

Sneak Peak

2011-10-04T20:41:00.001-05:00

Change is in the air. Weather, life, seasons, work…everything is changing and becoming better and better. With that “change in the air” and because I know that the holiday season is crazy busy, I tried to do a little planning ahead. In the nursery/toddler/pre-school area at CPC:Benton (Kingdom Kids) I got the volunteer calendar for October pretty much squared away and when I pulled my November calendar out I was pleasantly surprised to see that I didn’t have to do much to it! It was already all filled in with happy volunteers…. YAY! They are SO awesome! After the calendars were hung in eyesight, I moved on to working on the November and December Lessons……it went so well that I got our lessons planned out till August of next year!!!! What???? I know.

(wall of inspiration….well black board)

I then moved to my favorite part of working in the Kingdom Kids area (other than the kiddos of course) is ….. CRAFTS!!!! You should have expected that one. :) Here is a sneak peak of a few crafts we will be pulling out in November…..

(made this today!)

(pretty excited about the Thankful Tree…..So gonna do this at home too)

Of course when you talk about Thanksgiving you automatically want to move to Christmas!!!!! There will be a party for the Kingdom Kids at church on Sunday the 18th, don’t know all the particulars, I DO know it will be a BLAST. We’ll have games, crafts, coloring sheets, candy and cute snacks…..sigh, I am a little sad it is only October. :) Here is a quick sneak peak of a few goodies we will be doing that day (IF all goes to plan).

How cute are these??? Really?

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I can’t show you anymore, the rest you will have to see in December. :)

I am also planning a Volunteer Appreciation Christmas Party for all my wonderful workers at my home sometime in December….. I am excited to be trying out a couple of recipes….. here is a sneak peak of those ….. get your taste buds ready……

Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

Chicken and Bean Soup

Monkey Bread Muffins (AMAZING)

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That’s all I can tell you, I am getting really hungry. :) It’s gonna be a great season, and I am excited to share it with friends and family and starting new traditions and reliving some old ones….. EEEEEEKKKKK It’s gonna be awesome!

~mandy~

CPC Nursery Update

2011-10-03T21:46:00.001-05:00

On the 16th of this month CPC:Conway will be having our first BIG DAY. We invite pretty much everyone and have a cookout and we have games for the kids … we just have a great time. With this being a a pretty big day, I have been working like crazy to try and get the nursery, toddler and children’s church rooms up to date and ready for the day! Today Krystle, my mom and I spent part of the day working on just that. I am all about “repurposing” things and these wire butterflies were from our Ladies Conference in Benton earlier this year. Krystle and I recovered them with tissue paper that better matched the room and then drug out the 10ft ladder to get them up. After quite a bit of time getting them level and making sure they wouldn’t fall or tip with the air kicked on…..we were done.

They turned out pretty great. I am happy about how they looked.

I bought a pattern for some huge bean bag chairs and I asked mom to read the pattern and make these things happen. Of course she was ON IT. She got the inside of one of these things done while we were in Conway.

My own little CPC:Conway Sweat Shop.

Cutest Chairs EVER!

I will come back with more vacation stories and pictures, but one story…. when I got home from vacation I found my 1,000 piece puzzle (almost completed) completely destroyed - and the cats of course knew NOTHING…. I’m sure.

~mandy~

Vacation day #….. ummm

2011-09-26T21:21:00.001-05:00

The days have all run together… which is great.

Yesterday we stayed on the beach for most of the day, and today I paid for it. I am quite crispy, but I will survive. :)

I started out the day waking up at 6:49!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!! I ate my breakfast and chatted with Jesus while everyone else got around to waking up. While the others ate breakfast I happened to glance out the windows and see a whole crew of dolphins swimming on our shoreline. There were a TON of them. Their little fins kept popping up all over the place.

Those two little black spots…..yup dolphins. They were sneaky and I couldn’t get much of a picture, this is with my good camera and a great zoom lens….. whatever, you get the point.

The guys didn’t stay too long at the beach, the waves were a little low…….they headed to the condo to play more Black Ops, it was double xp you know. :)

Quick video of the guys

This was our “cabana” for the day. Yes, it is a little ghetto…… but we loved it. :)

We had the seagulls join us for lunch, they had a great time snacking on bread crusts and potato chips.

We also had this visitor come and hang out right in-front of our cabana.

After the day at the beach we came back, got all cleaned up and then headed to our favorite pizza place --- the Mellow Mushroom!

YUMMMMMMMY

We then skirted off to The Trac. Which is a place with go-carts and bumper boats, putt-putt, and an arcade inside. Jess and I headed for the skee-ball area and cleaned up on tickets!!!

for 101 tickets Jess and I split them and got 10 “friendship bracelets”!!!! WOO! yeah….

We had a blast though.

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TODAY I slept in till a whopping 8:30!!! Whoo! No dolphins sightings this morning… :(

We finally got up and around and went to lunch at Ribs & Reds….

It was SOOOOOOO good!!! Although Jess and I ordered the Ribs and Reds lunch platter, which is ribs and shrimp…. we were both unaware that the shrimp came steamed with the heads on….. totally gross. I man-ed up and took care of my shrimp and Jessica’s shrimp because it was freaking her out. BUT all in all it was super amazing. Thanks to Craig Alberius for the recommendation.

When then headed to the mall and I picked up a few goodies for me and Hello Ladies…..

(my new computer tote)

Brand won me a SpongBob from the claw machine. :) He has such a talent for those things.

HAD A BLAST TODAY! Don’t have a clue what we are doing tomorrow, but it will be amazing. TAKE THAT BACK ….. Tomorrow we will be heading to our nearest music store and purchasing the NEW SWITCHFOOT album!!!! WHAT???? YES!!!!!

~mandy~

1st Full Day of Vacation!

2011-09-24T17:41:00.001-05:00

Last night we got out and went into town and decided we needed to take some cute pics in front of the palm trees on the boardwalk….

We then went to eat at a place we didn’t get to eat at last time, the Hangout! It was a really neat place, if you are in the Gulf Shores area, check it out. :)

The next morning, Brand and I “thought” we were sleeping in, but when we checked the clock it was 7:10…..ugh. I went ahead and got up, went out to the balcony and read my Bible. Something I LOVE to do when we are on vacation, especially here at these condos. The view is great, no one is up, there is just me, God and the ocean. Perfection.

After a bit, Brand got up and we took a walk on the beach and learned some interesting things about sea life….. Did you know that stingrays like to ride waves? Well the ones we saw on our walk did. Brand said they were hunting, but I think you can mix business and pleasure when you live in the ocean. It was pretty cool to spot out the stingrays in the water and then try and see where they went on their hunt. ALSO, fish like to ride the waves. As the clear waves were rolling in you could see schools of fish in the waves…..it was awesome. I got SO excited each time we saw it. Yes….I am a tourist. :)

After our walk we came back, bummed around for a little bit and then we went to a pretty good sized outlet mall near us. We shopped till we dropped. We had a great time. Below is a pic of my lunch… honey chicken from the food court, it was yummy. I’m sure you don’t care, but whatever…

We got done shopping and decided that we were all tired and didn’t want to get back out and eat later tonight, so we went to the grocery store and picked up some dinner to cook and that is where we are now. Jess and I are on the computers, Brand and Kevin are on BlackOps…… They have done some fancy rigging to get this set-up below…. hehehehheehe

As long as we are relaxing on vacation, I don’t care what we are doing….. :)

Jess snapped this pic of us last night when we were headed to dinner…. I love it. :)

Tomorrow is beach day! We are hopefully gonna spend the whole day soaking up the sun, playing in the water and relaxing. We figured that since Sunday’s are usually our busiest days of the week, we would make this one the most relaxing. I should have some hilarious pics of Brand and Kevin to show and tell…. check back!!!

~mandy~

We Made It!!!!

2011-09-23T17:04:00.001-05:00

We made it to Gulf Shores!!!! Our condo is super nice, with memory foam, king sized beds (yay) …. it was like coming home… or going to grandma’s house, the same warm feelings…..

Jessica and her new app….. it was hilarious!

Kevin is trying to sneak out of the pic… epic fail

The holy trinity of condiments! At Dairy Queen!

Directly out the condo! 16th floor

Our view to the right

Our view to the left

The guys trying to hook up the Xbox to the wireless internet for BlackOps later….

Guess What????

2011-09-19T21:25:00.001-05:00

We leave for vacation in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a little excited, sorry! :)

~mandy~

The War I’m In

2011-09-15T11:37:00.001-05:00

Odd title you might say….. everyday I think it is more and more accurate. This is a deep post for me, so if you are looking for happy-go-lucky today….skip this post. :)

Everyday I am in a war. Mostly an internal war, you know, keep my attitude correct, submitting and loving my hubby, walking in love to people I want to punch in the face, asking forgiveness for thinking about punching people in the face, keeping a balance in my home life and church life……..it’s a war. My current BIG war is over the children of the world (broad and wild war…I know.) In this post I will be quoting a lot of Ken Blount who if you don’t know was on the Gospel Bill Show back in the day, I said the prayer of salvation with Nickodemus when I was 7 or 8 years old. Needless to say that his ministry has a pretty big influence in my life.

(LOVE THEM!)

If you don’t know I am the Children’s Pastor at CPC:Conway (wooohooo) and I am also the Nursery/Pre-K Coordinator for CPC:Benton (yessssss) so at this point in my life, kids are one of my top priorities. Let me give you a little “Mandyness” background info. My childhood was VERY much involved in church. My parents were in the band and praise team, they led a small group, mom painted a huge mural in the children’s church wall ….. we were at church all the time, and … I …. loved …. it. The church was my second home, and even this day, church is still my second home, and I still love it. THANK YOU to my parents who instilled this love of God’s house in me and my brothers. That being said I want my kids to have that same absolute love for the church, and it’s a battle. “God likens kids to arrows. In order for an arrow to fly straight and true, it must be sharpened and aimed. The Jews of Jesus’ day had a saying: ‘If we do not indelibly imprint God’s Word onto the bones of our children, we are one generation from extinction.” – Ken Blount. We can't just sit by and let the world take over when it comes to training our kids. But a lot of parents do and then wonder why their kids life is completely screwed up or why they are not walking in the fullness of what God has for them. We can’t afford not to make an investment in our kids and their thought lives, because no investment at all in their spiritual lives still equals an investment.

When I started the Children’s Church in Conway and took over the Nursery Ministry in Benton, automatically I felt the war brewing. It was literally a mantle (if you will) that fell around me. Now that I was partly responsible for these kids growth and future….. I became keenly aware of the plots out there for our kids’ lives. Make no mistake, the devil is out for our kids. He doesn’t play fair and he is using every trick in the book. With the worlds population being one-third under the age of 15, the world has a greater pull on our kids than the Church – it’s our job, duty, and privilege to pull back and to win. We are standing up at CPC and refusing to let Satan win. Our CPC kids WILL grow up with the Word strong in them, and NO plot being formed for their life will come to pass. They are mighty, they will stay in church, they will stand up for what they believe in school, they will be a light to those around them and they will serve God all the days of their lives….This is our battle cry.

I am sending out a Teacher Letter this next week – encouraging them and ministering to them. We have the best teachers in the whole world, I am quite sure. They make me so proud to be leader over this team and a part of the bigger CPC team. SOOOO you are getting a sneak peak of that letter. (if you are a teacher and reading this….open the letter next week and act surprised for me…. lol)

1) See the importance of Children’s Ministry and how much Weight it holds. ----- Children must be brought to the Lord. Obviously brought by their parents, but we want the kids to know that this is a place for them, and that we love them and want to be in their world.

2) Touch them when they are Young. ---- The world has perverted all forms of touch to children. Rub their heads, give them hugs, high 5’s, low 5’s. Physical touch is SO important, the kids will attach themselves to you, be conscience of that.

3) Make CPC (or your church) FUN!!!!!! ----- Trick them into learning by having a blast at church! They will beg to come when their parents are waffling on if they are going to church or not. They will invite their friends because CPC (or your church) is so awesome! Fun, Fun, Fun, coupled with the Word – you can’t and won’t lose. If children are not having fun, they probably aren’t learning…….

4) Teach them to do Right. ---- “We are fighting for our basic belief’s … we can’t afford to water down the truth.” – Ken Blount. Remember we are saving a generation.

5) Have Peace – Teach Peace. ---- “Peace is the Presence of God on the scene.” – Ken Blount. Children need to see peace working in their lives. We need to display peace in our classrooms, we don’t know what kind of home-life these kids have, let us be a beacon of hope and peace to them.

6) The Power of God marks You. ---- This generation MUST see the power of God. Pray for their tummy aches, sick animals, relatives, friends, bad dreams …..the Power of God will show up and they will remember when you prayed for them.

YES, I agree, super deep, but this has been in my spirit for a good 2 or 3 weeks and I felt it needed to be shared. If you work in Children’s ministry yourself, be encouraged, we win the war. Don’t quit when it gets hard, let me share a secret, I’ve been at CPC for 12 years, it will get hard. Devote yourself to this ministry, don’t let it become a side note, we….are….in….a….war!!! Stay focused!!! Have I learned everything about children’s ministry (GOD LORD NO!) I am a baby when it comes to this. BUT, I care deeply for the lives of the kids, and their families, and that right there is pretty darn important. I don’t take what I do lightly and it seriously frustrated and angers me when I see people do (remember that working on my love walk thing….. yeah). We don’t have all the time in the world, let’s get focused, let’s prepared, let’s get serious, let’s get dangerous (darkwing duck fans….that was for you)…….let’s get it together and get things done.

Let’s March……

~mandy~

Put Your Love Glasses on!

2011-09-14T21:39:00.001-05:00

Walking in love….GOSH!!! It’s not the most popular or the easiest thing to do. I fail at it quite regularly, but the good thing is ….. I am working at getting better all the time. Thank GOD His mercies are new every morning, because I need it!!! There a song about putting your love glasses on, I will be keep those on my person at all times. :)

Wedding Bells

2011-09-13T20:23:00.001-05:00

With Krystle and Josh getting married next year, there is not a day that goes by where Krystle and I don’t chat about something wedding-ish. I love the wedding season and looking at wedding pics and figuring out cute wedding crafts….. sigh!!!! I love it. Here are a couple of amazing wedding ideas I pulled off Pinterest.

For our 10th Anniversary - my plan was Brand and I were gonna have a renewal ceremony somewhere…… it didn’t happen, but one can dream right??? :)

~mandy~

A Day to Remember

2011-09-11T22:10:00.001-05:00

I have been seeing people post what they were doing that Tuesday morning 10 years ago, so I will let you know what I was doing that day. I looked at a timeline of the events, and the morning that day was a bit fuzzy, but here is what I remember…….

I was late for work for some reason that morning, I was listening to Alice 107.7 and I heard them talking about a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. At that time they thought it was only a small plane and that it was an accident. When I got to work, everyone was working on getting our Dayschool ready to open in a few days, so no one knew about what was going on. I came in, told everyone what was going on and then we flipped on the TV. If you don’t know, I work at my Church so the only TV we had was in Pastor Pat’s office. He was there and the moment the TV was on, we sat and stared for the rest of the day. We all silently prayed for our country, our people, our president, we answered the phones, most calls were from members who were upset and wanting to know what to do. It was all very surreal, like a dream. We could not get away from the TV, I don’t think we went to lunch, I don’t think we took bathroom breaks, we just stayed put and watched every angle and every image that the News threw at us. I remember going home that night, placed a candle on my porch in memory, Brand came home and we just held each other on the couch and I cried. The loss of life hit me SO hard.

There are images that I will never forget, ever.

This pic haunt my dreams. I cannot even imagine….there are no words….

So where ever you were and whatever you were doing…..I think we all felt the same, and that brought us together as a country. Let’s not forget that either….

~mandy~

Verses of the Day

2011-09-07T22:01:00.001-05:00

I found a super neat website today with crafts that go along with scriptures. AND there is an Alphabet Scripture Memory tool…..I love it. We will probably be doing it at Kids on Track Conway!!!! Wanted to share a few of my favorite verses.

My First Football Game!!!

2011-09-04T22:45:00.001-05:00

Yes, I am sad to admit that I have never been to a live football game…. ever! Every year our two cities play against each other in what has become the biggest High School Football Game in the state…. they call it the SaltBowl….. For some reason I wanted to go this year, and Brand did too……so we got our tickets and away we went. When you buy your tickets, you are also purchasing a school shirt, so you have to pick which side you are on. I graduated from homeschooling, so I didn’t ‘really’ have a preference, but IF I would have gone to school here in Arkansas, I would have attended Bryant. Brand went to Benton…. I bought a blue shirt, he bought a maroon shirt. I was just going to sit on the maroon side with my blue shirt and be happy, but ……. NO. For my safety I was told to wear maroon….so one of my Benton friends let me borrow a shirt.

I had a GREAT time!!! We were surrounded by a ton of friends and the family of one of the players (who is also a member of our church and youth group). We cheered and cried and gasped and was disappointed when Benton didn’t win. It was an awesome game though.

This was our view all night…….Bryant Blue. They have awesome fans!

Scary Benton Panther Run Through Blow-Up thingy!!

One of our youth is on the Flag Team. :) Go Bekah!!!

Pastor Kevin did an amazing service the week before the SaltBowl on “Where our Heartbeat” was. I will blog more on that fun night when I get all the pics together!!!

I had a great time….don’t know if I would do it every Friday Night… but I had fun!!!

~mandy~

Our Special Night

2011-08-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

August 11th was our 10 year Anniversary!!! We’ve been SO busy, that we didn’t get to plan anything super elaborate, but we did get to go to a super nice dinner! I came home a little late to find that my sweetie pie husband had bought me “10” roses…. so sweet… I know…. He then took me to dinner and didn’t tell me where we were going (I hate to make dinner choices, I was SOOOOO glad we got in the car and he just drove.

He took me to Arthur’s Steakhouse…..Pretty fancy place. The kind of place where the waiter places the cloth napkin in your lap, and are nice enough to take away the dishes that you don’t need with your dinner. Brand ordered a steak and got to pick out his own steak knife from a selection of steak knives….weird. It was the kind of place I felt high powered business deals were done every day….

I ordered Alaskan Halibut, it was pretty good, I think an actual Alaskan could have cooked it better. Brand had a steak sampler, it looked good and he said it tasted really good.

When we walked in, they asked us if we were celebrating anything special, we of course said we were celebrating our anniversary….. at the end of dinner the staff surprised us with this amazing chocolate dessert! And a super sweet message……... I ALMOST shed a tear, almost, but I pulled it together.

We came home and ended the festivities in true “Deitering” fashion….. we played some BlackOps.

If you are in Little Rock, want to have a very fancy steak …. visit Arthurs Steakhouse!

~mandy~

Girls Night Out 2011

2011-08-29T19:41:00.001-05:00

This past Friday was our 9th Annual Girls Night Out! This event is for our teen girls 6th – 12th grade, we decorate the sanctuary and other parts of the building really neat-o and prepare a pretty amazing night for them. They show up for registration at about 7 pm and this year we ended at 2 am. In years past we have gone from 7 pm till 7 am….. that was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. We tried some new ideas on décor and they turned out really cool.

Yarn wrapped balloon pods – awesome idea….one of the most messiest crafts I have ever done….. GLUE everywhere!!!!!! Although it was AWESOME to let the glue dry and then peel it off like when we were kids.

We started the night with Dinner, then Praise and Worship, then Pastor Jessica spoke about having and being a voice in their generation. After she spoke we had Wild Drink Mix time. Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Coke mixed with any 2 flavors they wanted……we had mango, strawberry, blue raspberry, lemon, orange, cherry, and a whole bunch more. They girls loved it, and then had them name all their drinks. There were some great ones.

We also did a 90 minute workout with Richard Simmons (totally awesome) and then we decorated cupcakes, had some girl talk time, played some relay races and then we went home. It was a memorable event and I look forward to our 10th anniversary next year! If anyone wants any details on what we do, or how we pull these nights off, just send me an email. justmandy0811@yahoo.com.

~mandy~

Sweetest Gift Ever!!!

2011-08-27T02:30:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday Night I received the sweetest gift from the cutest kids ever! Quick back story: A the summer camp we had in June, Devyn brought a Perry the Platypus pillow and we had in depth conversations about our shared love of Perry…. it was good times.

WELL, last Wednesday I was at the front doors of the church – opening them for people, when Devyn comes up and hands me a Perry Bank….. I looked at it and told him how AWESOME it was and then tried to hand it back to him. He handed it back and told me he bought it for me! I had tears….real tears! PRECIOUS!!!

He even wrote me a cute little note on the bottom!!!!

Sigh, this is why I work with kiddos, they are SO special and I love them!!!!

~mandy~

- UMMMMMM – this will happen when I kids…… totally -

ugh….trying a new offline blog writer.

2011-08-23T21:27:00.001-05:00

the last one crapped out on me, so here I am trying a new one……

So Soon.......

2011-08-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

At the end of September me, my husband, my best friend and her husband are going to Gulf Shores for our annual vacation. We haven’t been in a while 2 years to be exact and we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to go. Here are a couple of various beach pics to make me feel worse that it is only August. :-)

So Soon, So Soon. These pics are all over my desktop.

~mandy~

10 Years, 10 Wonderful Years

2011-08-09T15:50:00.041-05:00

Today my husband and I celebrate 10 years of marriage! Wow, it seems like forever, but like it was only yesterday.

I remember it being such a crazy day....Not just the normal wedding craziness, just crazy life stuff. But, we had a really fun wedding, so all that craziness just went out the window.

It’s been a great and awesome time being married to Brand. People gave their opinions that the first couple of years would be the hardest years of your marriage.....none of them were hard years. Did we go through a few things, yes, but it was never hard because we were together, we worked it out together and we moved past it together.

Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love him!

Because I believe I have finally hit the ranks to where I feel comfortable giving marital advice, here are a few things that I have observed, been through, been told, or seen. Take them or leave them, but I feel our success has been because we have done these things.

Don’t Settle Because You Are Afraid of Being Alone - It breaks my heart to hear people give up and settle for what they think is the "only person" out there. DON’T SETTLE!!!! Wait for the one God has for you! WAIT! I was 20 when I got married, and people gave me mixed comments that I was too young and then others think I was the right age. I hear 21 year olds saying that they wished they were married, they’re sad, and think they will never find love...GAG, just wait. I came to this point in my life....I had to be happy with me and Jesus and if no one ever came into the picture...could I be happy? I decided that I could, then Brand came along a year later. Just Wait! It’s not always easy, and it’s not always fun. Don’t Settle.

The Hard Look - Forget everything you feel - all the ooey gooey, lovey dovey, and take a hard and realistic look at your relationship. Is it going to work?... honestly? Can you really see yourself with that person for the rest of your life? The good times, bad times, hard times, awesome times? Do you believe the same? (that’s a big one) Where are you gonna go to church? Does he want kids? Do you want kids? How are you gonna raise them? Does your family really like him? Do you really like his family? Can you live with the flaws in character? Really? This is SUCH a big deal, I can’t stress this enough, do an inventory, and if there are concerns....address them before you have fallen head over heals and then one day you realize that you can’t stand that he laughs a certain way, or acts like your father, or he spends too much money, or hates your friends, or makes you feel guilty when you want to hang out with your friends for an evening.... Be Honest with yourself. PLEASE!

Like Each Other - There comes a time were it’s just you and him, make sure that you don’t just love the looks, love them, and LIKE them. How many marriages end because they really never got the time to like and know each other?

Hangout With Friends - You can’t be around each other every second of everyday. Have friends that you can go out with as a couple. Or go have a girls day or guys day. People who encourage your life and marriage.

Honor Your Husband - Treat him with respect. Don’t tear him down in front of his friends and family. ALWAYS talk him up, even if he’s not at that level. I cringe every time I hear a wife yell how stupid her husband is in front of her friends while he is around. The male ego is a fragile thing. I have not mastered this by any stretch of the imagination, but I am working on it all the time.

Don’t Lose Yourself - No matter how long I’m married I still want to be me. I still have the same hopes and dreams I had before I married Brand. Some of them have changed to include him, but they never left. Before I met Brand my life was literally devoted to the church, to serving the people of the church, to seeing lives change when they come to church.......none of that changed when I got married. I didn’t spend as much time at the church, but Brand came along beside me and we serve together. He doesn’t get jealous when I am working at the church, he is proud of me. If you had a ministry that you have had in your heart since you were a child.....you better make sure the mate you pick has similar dreams. There will always be a part of you that will hate the fact that you compromised on what God called you to do.... Don’t do it. It’s shouldn’t be a fight, it should be pretty seemless. ALSO, don’t change your personality!!!!! If you say this..."I just don’t feel like I can be myself around him".....whoa.....Talk to a wide variety of friends, have you changed since dating or marrying? A lot of times you can’t see it, you’re in the love bubble, but your friends will be honest with you. AND if they aren’t, find some new ones. Have people around you that will tell you the truth in love.

There is my 2 cents, take it or leave, but I hope you take it, because we have 10 years under our belt and not once have we had a fight that we didn't take care of before we went to bed that night. He has never slept on the couch, I have never gone to my parents house to cool off and sleep the fight away. Do we have our problems......OF COURSE, do we let our problem rule our life.....never. We have so much to do in this life that we haven't even tapped into yet, and I refuse to let our lives be wasted with stupid fights and disagreements.

I honestly cannot imagine how it could get any better..... but I know it can. :)

Happy Anniversary Love!

~mandy~

Family News!!

2011-08-09T12:09:00.004-05:00

SOOOOOOOOO -- My baby brother went off and got himself engaged to one of my best friends 2 weeks ago! We are excited, but not entirely surprised.

Welcome to the Family! You’ve been dating Josh for 3 years, you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Love ya...

~mandy~

Summer Camp Wrap Up

2011-08-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am finally going to blog about the awesome summer camp that our church did at the last minute (3 weeks to plan). It was SOOOO much fun and turned out great. I was pleased with the turn out.

This was the sign that was the first thing the kids saw! Our secret name for camp was "Camp Awesome," because it was awesome and it pulled so many of my talented friends together.

I had the youth band come and do live praise and worship instead of DVD’s..... the kids LOVED it and we also used some of our youth in the band, so they were able to be rock stars for the evening.

We went to an Alligator Farm in Hot Springs....It was too cool! Look at all our awesome orange shirts!!!!! Anywho, the alligator farm was really neat, they had a petting zoo with goats and we got to go visit them. THEN we got to see and hold some alligators!!!

Yesssssss, it was a really cool experience.

After the Farm we too the whole crew (all 50 of us) to Magic Springs, which is our version of Six Flags. We didn’t lose anyone, no one got sunburnt, no kids got sick, and no fights broke out.....success!

Back at the church, we had a PhotoBooth set up...... and it’s needless to say that we got some spectacular photos of the kids. Anytime the Booth was open, there was always a line waiting for silly and crazy camp pics. Will do this again for sure.

We learned and plated the game of Poop Deck......Message me if you want the details, GREAT way to wear them out before movie and bed time. This is me explaining the rules.

The next morning, my hubby made us a slip ’n slide off the back of the church...... as you can see it was amazing. We added dish soap of course, for more "slideability"........ again, no one got hurt and no one was sunburnt!

This was the crew.......minus a few due to them cleaning or going home early. My leaders and jr. leaders were outstanding. I could not have pulled it off without them! Food was great (thanks Mrs. Liz)! Decor was SO fun (thanks Jordan, Josie, Matt, Alyssa, and Jessica). I hope we do another one, because I have lifelong memories of this one!

Will blog another time on all the decor pics, and photobooth ideas and props, it was a big project, but we pulled it off under budget.

Have a GREAT DAY!

~mandy~

Scrapbook Memory Game

2011-07-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

I’ve been working on a pretty amazing little game......scrapbook paper memory game..... here are some pics!

I am starting a new set and I will take better pics..... I promise!

Krystle is coming over tomorrow and we are working on some pretty cute things....super secret of couse, but still pretty amazing.

Still working out this new program, so .... bear with me.

~mandy~

Trying this again!

2011-07-14T11:35:00.000-05:00

Okay, new program, new picture hosting site...let’s see how this works.....

Testing, Testing 123

2011-07-13T14:09:00.001-05:00

Sooooooo, I am trying to get my blog set up to where I can write in Word and then publish to Blogger…. As you can see the writing part is great, but I am having some technical difficulties with the picture part…. Ugh….

I thought I was pretty smart with web and computer stuff, I may have met my match!

~mandy~

G is for Goals!

2011-06-10T11:19:00.000-05:00

Goals, Goals, Goals -- Yup, I've got them, but I've been to busy to write them down......

But this is where I change that!

Goal #1

CPC Kids Summer Camp! As Camp Director my goal is to make June 16 - 18 the BEST days of the kids summer! We've got a TON planned including an insane slip-n-slide that my husband made and my 2 girls LOVED (which I forgot to take pics of them on it.....epic fail), super messy games that the kids will remember forever, and some secret thoughts that only my team and I know about..... It's going to be awesome ... that's what we secretly call the camp anyway... Camp Awesome. BUT my goal is to have everything finished by Monday of next week! We shall see......

GIANT BUBBLES!!!! Must try this before camp next weekend...... must.

My inner child is begging with all it's heart! :)

Photobooth fun -- gonna blow this up REALLY BIG -- well technically I am having my BFF paint it on Super Large sheets of butcher paper, then cut out the windows and have the kids take their pics in the windows.... how cool it that? .... very....

Can't have a photobooth without these..... just sayin.

Yes..... happening

Some decor thoughts..... I love them

Our Camp shirt.... IN LOVE with the paprika ...

GOAL #2

Get the Hello Ladies world back in rotation. We've all been going full force with a

gazillion different projects, but hopefully SOON, we can get back to the swing of things.

There are SO many projects we want to accomplish!!

GOAL #3

Going on vacation with my husband and best friends in September..... YES!!!!! We didn't get to go last year, and the year before that we were in our vacation spot one day before we got news that one of our youth students at church (our best friends are the Youth Pastors) had been tragically killed in an accident. It was a solemn vacation and we cut it short to get back in time for the services. Needless to say, we are ready for a trip with laughter and reconnections.

Those are my goals for the ssssuuuummmmmmmmmeeerrr. Not much, but ... it's what I got.

Hope you have a great day!

~mandy~

Creativity

2011-05-25T11:26:00.000-05:00

I am admitting to you all here and now ... that I have been in a Creative Rut/BlackHole/MudPit since Christmas! I have not "really" crafted since November! GASP! I know! But things are turning around and I am getting back into the creative swing of things. Not only with the Hello Ladies Biz, but every part of my life. SO, here's a list of a few blogs/websites that have helped me get my creative mojo back. :)

A Beautiful Mess

I adore this site. I have been following this lady for about 7 years. She always has something going on that makes me smile and want to recreate!

Dan Scott Blog

Stumbled across this site several weeks back for a few children's church and nursery ideas ..... I love it. Very simple and very creative ways to get the message of Jesus to the kids on their level. I have been SUPER inspired by this site AND all the links to other sites he has on his page.

One Charming Party

Love, Love, Love this blog! It's a DIY children's party blog! They have THE best ideas and the best photos to help with the vision. If you have kids (or don't) and want to have a rockin' party.....check...them....out.

Oh Happy Day

Another party planning site, but it has some GREAT DIY's and awesome pics to keep you creative!

Love Made Visible

Ever since I saw the first Project Runway, I have been in love with Runway Fashion.....shocking I know. This is a pretty neat little site that shows all the latest fashions from the runway. Most of the time I giggle at some of the silly outfits, but it does help me creatively choose colors and all that jazz. :)

Flickr

If I need to come up with something cool and creative and have NO IDEA how to get it done.... Flickr saves my booty.

NOW -- on to Music.

Music can help creativity as well! I have several bands that help me either get in that mode OR keeps me in the mode.

Switchfoot

If I was stranded on a desert island with only one band to listen to for the rest of my days .... I would choose Switchfoot. Those of you who know me ... this is not a surprise. Check them out, I love them.

Little Big Town

Yes....they are a country band. Yes....their harmony is AMAZING!!! Yes .... I love to listen to them. :)

OneRepublic

Great Band! Enough Said!

Paramore

This is the band you can craft to and sing at the top of your lungs at the same time!

Great music!

Robert Randolph & the Family Band

Find Them .... Listen to Them

Well that wraps up my post on my Creative Process! Hope this help and if you have some suggestions of sites to look at .... send them my way. I am ALWAYS on the lookout.

~mandy~

FUN!!!!

2011-05-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

While looking through my Blog Roll (the latest updates of all the blogs that I follow) I found a few super cute ideas.....

Who else is IN LOVE with this measuring tape hair bow??????? If I had the time right now I would go and make one, but I don't.....So I added it to my 'when I get to it' list. Found on this blog......Simple Bettie.

I am also in love with fabric flowers....all of them. I have yet to make any of the DIY's I have posted on making fabric flowers, but...... one day. This was found here .... Going Sew Crazy.

I don't think I would EVER have the skill to make this quilt, but I LOVE the crazy different fabrics. It gives me hope that one day I will be able to use all those small pieces of fabric I have been squirreling away. :) Found here .....Flickr.

Have a super great day!!!

~mandy~

Summer Fun

2011-05-18T11:22:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again..... pool parties, cook outs, sun burns, bathing suits, bug bites, lake time .... and summer movies.

Went to see Thor -- not really a "Summer Movie" but I will call it that. I liked it. It was relatively clean, a little on the loud side (the theatres fault, not the movie), but I will buy it. It was visually -- a very neat movie.

I am looking forward to seeing the latest Pirates of the Caribbean Movie..... who isn't? It's gonna be great!

ALSO -- Cars 2!!!

AND, being an x-men fan from way back in the day.....

X-Men First Class

Captain America

I think it's going to be a good movie summer!

Note -- Parents if you are concerned with what your kids go to see this summer at the movies.... Here is a link to the BEST site I have come across for a christian movie review. Iphone users, there is an app also. I use it all the time!

Plugged in Online

Will be back tomorrow with some exciting news about a super secret project we are working on here at the church..... eeeeekkk! It's pretty amazing!

~mandy~

Hello There

2011-04-28T11:50:00.001-05:00

I think it might be officially spring.....maybe about to be summer....the weather can't make up it's mind here in Arkansas. BUT my rose bush is giving me a TON of the most beautiful roses this year, and they smell amazing also. I am pretty proud that I have not killed this plant....Brand has tried several times with the weed-eater, but it lives and it is beautiful.

My step-daughters aunt got married a couple of weeks ago and of course I could not help but take my camera and take some candid shots.

It was a super sweet and beautiful wedding. Congrats to Justin and Starla.

I am itching to do some DIY projects (don't know when I will have time)! Here are a few I am looking at....

Sunburst Pillows ----- LOVE.

Should someone decide they love me a WHOLE bunch and want to make me one.... Here is the LINK.

Another LOVELY item that should someone with sewing skills wants to make me one.....

Just sayin' :) here is the LINK

Mini Polaroid Magnets .... Hello Ladies needs to be ALL over this!

Here is the LINK

This will be a project for my BFF Jess...... I am NO good with sharpie....at all

here is the LINK

Did I mention that my birthday is not too far away???? June 5th ...... hint, hint..... :-)

Everything has been going really good around the homestead. Getting the house and yard ready for all the summer festivities that having a HUGE pool brings. :-) I did rescue about 2,000 tadpoles eggs from our pool before we put all the chemicals in it. We put them in a mini fish tank in the kitchen.....a good 600 have hatched and are growing into the cutest little things. Don't have any pics, but .... YAY they survived!

We have a pretty big event coming up next week at the Church, our 8th Annual Big Press. It's a weight lifting competition for all of our local jr and sr high students! We are expecting about 100 lifters and a TON of parents and friends coming out to support. We also have the amazing minister Chip Brim and as a special guest we got Peyton Hillis! Don't worry I didn't know who it was either, but he is pretty big and it is really bringing in the media and the people.... so yay. I will have TONS of pics to post about that, it is on Monday Night.

That's all I got for now, have a great day!

~mandy~

Getting Ready for Summer

2011-03-29T21:38:00.000-05:00

Arkansas has had some crazy weather these past couple of weeks! I am SOOOO ready for some consistant summer-like temps.

Have already started thinking about how amazing our vacation to Gulf Shores is gonna be in the fall!!!

I am determinded to have several cute summer dresses to wear to the River Market and other craft shows!!! I should start looking for patterns.......

In other news, I joined another penpal group!! I am SUPER excited! I sent out my first round of letters today! :-)

I am also SUPER excited about Easter!!!!

What are some things you've been working on?

~mandy~

Early in the morning, my song shall rise to Thee

2011-02-24T06:37:00.000-06:00

Pastor Pat had an amazing message last night about the Church as a whole not being hungry and thirsty for the things of God. He prayed for everyone last night and sure enough, I woke up at 5:30 (usually wake up an hour later) ready to start my day in the Word. I am now encouraged, charged up, focused and ready to start my day. :)

Most of the images came from this site. I do not suggest wandering around the Tumblr site too much.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!

~mandy~

snow days, valentines day, cooking fun

2011-02-21T21:08:00.000-06:00

So a couple of weeks back we had a couple of fun snow days! 7-8 inches! It was flat out beautiful.....I miss it. Right before the snow Brand and I got some supplies to make bacon wrapped japaleno cream cheese filled....yummy-mess. Drool at the pics below, they were amazing.

Thankfully right before the snow this movie came in! I absolutely LOVE Tammy and the Bachelor. I have not seen any of the other Tammy movies, I am looking forward to watching those.

OH! I also became a full fledged nerd and used the headset while playing Black Ops........I looked less like a nerd than I thought! Yay me! I think my husband was proud.

Here are a few pics of our snow day! It was some of the best days. I loved being snowed in, I could have been snowed in for a couple of more days, but alas.....it melted rather quickly. :(

Brand and Kayla played paintball on the Saturday before Valentines Day, so Gabby and I worked on our Valentine Cards, baked some cookies, and cleaned a bit.

It's tax time here at the Deiterings......ugh....

We had a special Valentines Dinner as a family. The girls helped set up the table isn't it adorable! We had a great time!

Right now we are still busy, busy, busy. Will get back with some fresh news super soon! :)

~mandy~

Happy LOVE Day

2011-02-14T10:44:00.000-06:00

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I am working on a super cute blog post, but just wanted to make you aware of an amazing give-away over at ....

-link-

You should swing by there and check it out!

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

~mandy~

Hello Crazy Weekend!

2011-02-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! Welcome to another crazy weekend here at the Deitering house! We have got all our tax stuff together and scheduled our date with the tax guy...... here is what my dining room table looks like.....

This past Sunday (SuperBowl Sunday, or course) our church had a SuperBowl Party.....I had a SuperCraft Night. Same place, two totally different worlds, but we had a BLAST! The ladies absolutely loved it, and everyone brought some AMAZING food, I am super excited about a new dish to try out realllllll soon. (will share when I do it)

We had a "snow day" on Friday which COMPLETELY ruined my weekend. The Hello Ladies were suppose to go to Eureka Springs and spend the weekend up there......too much ice and snow. So we changed our plans to try and go south.....snow and ice in Dallas and the surrounding areas. We then decided to go to HotSprings.....that happened on Saturday, which I didn't get to go. :( BUT I did get to play Call of Duty alot with Brand and some of the youth from church. :)

Look at my beautiful box of beads that I have organized.....sigh, I love!

Arkansas is expecting some major snow on Wednesday.....don't tell anyone, but I am pretty

exited about it. :) Gotta get to the store and get my bread, milk and random item.... will share about the random item later....

~mandy~

Dominican Republic - how i love thee

2011-02-01T16:21:00.000-06:00

These past couple of days I have really had the Dominican Republic on my heart. I think it was because a friend from church and I ended up talking about our missions trip last summer and how she was trying to decide whether she wanted to go or not. I just told her about the trip and then I have not been able to shake the images I saw, or the feelings I felt....so I thought I would do another Dominican picture post....

Our Childrens Crusade was AMAZING!! We had a sea of children before us, and though it was a bit crazy, (balloon issues, mobs of kids for candy, language barriers, and windy conditions) it was the highlight of my trip. I could spot in the crowd all the kids that we had been ministering to throughout the week and it was exciting that they came out.

Our nightly crusades were powerful and emotional. SOOOO many people and it was astounding to think that our little church from Benton Arkansas (centerpointfamily.org) pulled this together. 1/3 of the city came to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.... 1/3!!!!!!! that is mind boggling!!!

Our amazing team (except for Kevin Looney) who was in the back of the crowd. We had such a great team, we didn't have any fights, everyone worked together, we had a lot of laughs, a lot of fun, and we will remember this for the rest of our lives!

Such sweet and happy people.

If I could have brought Adella home with me...... I would have. She was precious, we got to minister to her side of town twice, and I had the pleasure of being on that team both times. She was healed of some shoulder problems I believe on the first stop, and then she just loved on us in the next stop. She invited us to come to her house and have lunch with her ..... just flat our precious.

Patrick praying for a baby with stomach problems....

Their lives in this little town. This was a common scene that we came across. They had nothing, lived WAY below our poverty level, didn't have good water.....and they were happy. It completely changed my whole thought process on life in general.

It was a life changing experience and I am SO glad I went. If you ever get a chance to go on a missions trip.... do it. You will never be the same again....

Have a great day, and be a blessing to someone.

~mandy~

My Wonderful Weekend

2011-01-31T10:55:00.000-06:00

After the horrific Thursday I had, my weekend completely made up for it! Friday morning I got a call and my parents wanted to go spend the glorious day out Flea Marketing in Conway. So I got ready and we headed out. I had a blast! We got to spend lunch time with Krystle at Slim Chickens (yummy-o) and then we went back out. I got some pretty spectacular deals, though I didn't get pics of everything ... :( but here are a few from my day.

I bought a TON of buttons, most of which were pretty unique, so I was happy!

I bought this super large pic for my office at CPC - only $30.00. what??? I know!!!

I found this pic amusing....

my dad and a stuffed .... something....

you find the craziest things while at flea markets - this is a drawing of the Clintons' cat Socks.... was $117.00..... no thank you.

cutest broccoli figurine EVER!!

I SOOOO wanted to buy this vintage dress..... but who would wear it??? no one. :)

fell in love with this tea set... who wouldn't

saw an antique switchboard! I had never seen one up close before, it was amazing.

heheheheee - i feel this way sometimes. :)

found the CUTEST blue hippo!!! Think I am going to use it in children's church to tell stories.

mom and dad - sorry mom, you moved....

bought a cute hat!

stayed clear of the jack in a box toy...... pure evil

was super tempted to add to my collection.... i have about 10 of these types of cups in different designs and colors... i heart them.

and a beautiful sunset followed us home.

I also had a movie night with the kids in Conway on Saturday, but I am going to do another post on that. It was a super great weekend and I had a blast. Thanks to my mom and dad for pulling me out of the house, I needed it. :)

be back with another post real soon!

~mandy~

Frazzled Day

2011-01-27T20:07:00.000-06:00

today was pretty much the most frazzled day i have had in a REALLLLLLLYYYY long time. It all started yesterday when I was stupid and accidently downloaded a virus on my work computer........ yeah ......... it took our computer guy 'Joe the Computer Hero', about 3 hours to get it to come back on and me be able to work. As soon as he left, I put all my documents, movie, and music on dvd's - well as many as I could - and then hopped on the internet for just a minute.... and the virus came back. I unplugged the internet, shut off the computer and went to church and then home. This morning I turned on the computer and ........ nothing. So I have been scrambling from computer to computer, and printer and printer, it's been a mess.

Here is the deadly virus, Joe was AMAZED at this thing! Whatever....

This was my office today. It is usually semi-clean, but not today. It was a super crazy day, I am glad I had Ladies Craft Night to go to tonight, or I might have gone home to cry, just from sheer frustration.

I got good news yesterday

I am SOOOOO excited! I will be bumming it up tomorrow and watching this!

Anyhoo I am hosting a Movie Night for the Children's Church in Conway on Saturday and we are watching Despicable Me..... Krystle and I are thinking of cute ways to make twinkies look like little minions from the movie...... I will post pics if we figure it out.

- pic here -

Did I mention I am in LOVE with this dress???? Because I am.

Have a great friday everyone!

~mandy~

My Cooking Saturday!

2011-01-24T20:50:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday I participated in the Dinner's On Connection Group at CenterPoint! I...had....the....best....time!!! We share a TON of laughes, we made about 5 tons of food and made some new friendships!

Noodles for the Chicken Spaghetti

Crystal W - keeping the kitchen clean

Melissa working on an egg wash for the Pork Chops....or the Cheese Stuffed Chicken.... not sure. :)

Finishing up one of the Chicken Pot Pies

Starting on my own personal chicken pot pie...... yumm-o

our 43 pounds of minced onions.....heheheee

Boiled chicken

Lisa - taking charge!

a word of prayer before we got started....thank goodness we started with that!

getting started

Savory Pork Chops

I am SOOOOO looking forward to next month!

k - bye!

~mandy~

It's just Ridiculous!!!

2011-01-21T15:00:00.000-06:00

It's just ridiculous..... that is my loveseat.... as of this morning

As of an hour ago ....... YAY!!!!

It's just ridiculous that the Christmas tree is STILL up in my dining room!!!!

As of this morning......

As of this afternoon ...... YAY!!!

It's just ridiculous that there is NOOOOOO SNOW on this front yard! Our weather people said 1 to 2 inches.... does this look like 1 to 2 inches?? Nope!

That's all I got for today.

~mandy~

Laws of Teamwork

2011-01-17T15:27:00.000-06:00

So as I have mentioned before our church has started a new campus in Conway, and we are super excited about this, but it has been a TON of work. Some of us are not only pulling double duty, we are pulling triple and quadruple duty! Last year during the summer I started and never finished the book "The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork" by John Maxwell. Our Pastor had gone through the book with the congregation on Wednesday Nights and I had always wanted to dig deeper in the book. This year I have picked up where I left off last year and am determined to finish and use the knowledge I learn in this book! I am on Law 13 and I have 7 pages of notes!!!! It has been the most enlightening book I have read in years! If you work with a team.........READ IT!

Some tidbits from the book:

"One is too small a number to achieve greatness"

"It takes a team to do anything of lasting value"

"The strength of a team is impacted by its weakest link"

"Winning teams have players who make things happen"

After I finish this book I will be moving on to this book:

On a completely different note ...... I think I may be addicted to Call Of Duty: Black Ops.....

I'm completely giving Brand all the blame!!!!

~mandy~

Dinner and a Movie Night

2011-01-14T19:53:00.000-06:00

Tonight after we picked up the girls, we decided to have some yummy Chinese Buffet!!! We always enjoy our fortune cookies, and they did not let us down tonight!

( i couldn't rotate the pic.... sorry)

After dinner we chose the movie Despicable Me, which the girls had not seen yet. Such a cute movie! This will be the first "KOT:Conway Movie Night"! We are pretty sure that the character Agnes is a spin off of Gabby.....

Watch it.... you'll see!

This pic is just for your viewing pleasure, this is Matt - one of my sound guys in Conway. I finished my lesson WAY too early, and the boys had a little tooooo much fun with the extra balloons. :-)

Tomorrow we are going to hang advertising door hangers for the church in Conway, it should be a great day!

~mandy~

2010 was amazing 2011 will be Spectacular!

2011-01-12T12:12:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone i hope you had the most amazing Christmas season you have ever had, I know mine was pretty special! AND it's already past the New Year, SOOOOO Happy New Year!

Let me just say 2011 is shaping up to be the most fantastic year of my life, and I am chomping at the bits to move ahead. Normally I stay pretty light-hearted on the blog, but I want you guys to connect with me though all areas of my life, so I will be sharing a bit more here and there.

I am excited that this year cute hubby Brand and I will be celebrating our 10th year of marriage!!!!! It's hard to believe! I love that man more and more each day!

I am trying to plan something special, maybe a rededication service or something..... I don't know, the wheels are turning. :)

I will also be turning the big 30 this year!!!!! That's REALLLLLLLY hard to believe! It was just yesterday I remember turning 16! Where does the time go? I feel like this year is going to be pretty much the best one ever! I don't know why, I just have a feeling!

This past Sunday .... it SNOWED in Arkansas!!! About 6 inches, it was magical and I loved every second of it .... from inside looking out the window. :) No, Brand got out the 4-wheeler and we went around the block and giggled a bit, but that was enough for me. I was kinda sad when I forgot to make a snowman, it is kind of a family tradition to make funny snowmen. Well though I didn't make one, my brother and parents did and they are super cute!

It was a royal mess here for a few days, but it was beautiful.

Have a great day everyone!!!!!!!!!!

~mandy~

Christmastime is here!!!

2010-12-21T11:54:00.000-06:00

FINALLY!!!! If you have been following this blog at all this year you already know how insane this year has been. I thought it might slow down during the holidays.....WRONG-O.

Conway Campus

It is finally coming together! It is so exciting to see all my ideas come to life! Krystle and I had a major issue with an orange color....ugh, had to paint it brown, but it is still cute. Still not sure how we are going to construct a huge hot air balloon in our 3,4 and 5 year old class....but our fabric selection is the cutest and it was on SALE!!! WOOHOO! I love finding good deals.

My best friends gave up their time and sleep to help me get these rooms semi-ready for our "rehearsal" services Dec 5th and 12th. I had 3 kids in the nursery the first service (one was mine, but it still counts).

Craft Shows

We participated in more craft shows than we could shake a stick at. Some better than others, but still had a great year. We've really settled into our own this year, finding what we are good at and what sales and what doesn't. Our newest item is crocheted headbands with flair!!! We are pretty excited about this newest addition, and even more excited that I can actually crochet this item.

Girls Night Out

Red Christmas

2010-12-17T13:29:00.000-06:00

Christmas is WAY toooooo close for comfort! So to calm my nerves at the fact that I still don't have all my Christmas gifts bought, I thought I would share some cute Christmas pics in the red color scheme! :)

love this bag!!!!

Cute wrapping job!

Fabric wrapped wreaths.....so love it!

Reindeer Pin - eeeeekkk the cuteness!

love, love, love this shirt!!!!

Button Wreath! be still my heart!!

ahhhh - i feel better already. may need to do this again tomorrow, bear with me. :)

hope your christmas season is treating you well!!!

~mandy~

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Movies

2010-12-17T00:01:00.003-06:00

I am a sucker for a great Christmas Movie, and I am super picky about which movies I like. They have to be upbeat, they have to be happy, and if they have singing .... major plus.

#5 - "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" - I love how whimisical this movie it. It oozes Dr. Suess! love! "6:00 dinner with me - I can't cancel again!!!!"

#4 - "The Preacher's Wife" - great singing, cute lead character!...... it's amazing!

#3 - "Elf" - one word - enough said. Plus I love Will Ferrell. :)

#2 - "Holiday Inn" - Great singer + Great dancer - spectacular movie.

Another movie that I can quote every line, every song, I can close my eyes and watch the entire movie in my head.

#1 - "White Christmas" - Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney ..... what more do you need?

From "The Best Things Happen While Your Dancing" to the great version of the boys singing "Sister, Sister", it is a non-stop awesome movie. I could literally quote the entire movie, and sing every song. We played the movie during one of our craft shows and Jess and I sat there and sang every song and laughed our butts off!

what are some of your favorite christmas movies??

~mandy~

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge

2010-12-13T09:34:00.000-06:00

If you want to get into the christmas spirit....you should head over to the Hello Ladies Blog and check out our 12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge. Each day we will post some activity for you to day and win a super fabulous prize!!!!!!

Will be back later today for some Christmas Posts of my own..... :)

~mandy~

What have I been up to?

2010-10-27T13:54:00.000-05:00

ALOT!!! :) But here are a few things that are getting my full attention!

CenterPoint Church: Conway!

We are starting a new campus in Conway and we are SUPER EXCITED about it. Here are a few nursery pics that I am totally in love with at the moment..... enjoy these!

I love!

Another thing - Hello Ladies Craft Show Season!!!! We have already been in 5 shows and have at least 3 more to go! busy, busy busy - here is a sneak peek of a few new things we are working on.....

(sorry for the quality) but we are movin' and a groovin' along.

Sad Note: My dearest Grandma Green went home to glory in September, it was a great great loss, but she is in Heaven livin it up and playing Sorry and Trouble till the wee hours!

I am so excited to be back! I've missed you!

~mandy~

Hello!!!

2010-07-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!!! How has your summer been? Mine: CRAZY!!! Did you know I was going to the Dominican Republic? I didn't until a week before I went! I didn't even have a passport! God worked a miracle and got me a passport in 4 business days! It was such an amazing trip. It was the first crusade that our church has ever completely financed and worked, over 9,600 people gave their lives to Christ and there were 175 documented miracles!!! Such a life changing trip AND i got to spend it with some of my amazing friends.

Here are some pics!

Hey .... I Remember You

2010-06-18T08:49:00.000-05:00

WOW .... it has been a crazy time in the Deitering world! Here are a little taste of what has been going on.....

Hello Ladies - if you don't know, my 4 best buds and I decided to start a biz last year, name : Hello Ladies. We've done a couple of craft fairs, been online ... nothing major. BBBBUUUUTTTTTT - June 5th (my bday) we went to our first Farmers Market down at the

Little Rock River Market...

Our friend that has been working the market for a while now, told us to be there early to get a good spot - we got there at 4:30 and got a pretty crappy spot, BUT we made some money, sweated away a couple of pounds, made some new friends and decided to get there earlier. You can hop on over to the HelloLadies Blog for more "Tales from the River Market" ..... We decided to try a Tuesday at the River Market (the Farmers Market is open on Saturday and Tuesday) we did SOOOO much better and we were under a pavillion with fans and SHADE! it was great and we were well received by the people of the community.

My B-day was June 5th - 29 big ones. I got a $97 iphone from Wal-Mart......yiipppeee and I ADORE it. I ordered a super cute cover online, but it hasn't got here yet.... :-( I am loving the camera on the iphone more than anything else at the moment. I am glad to finally have a good camera always on me, and I found a super cute app that takes poloroids.... like this one.

Our Youth at church also had our annual Variety Show. This years host was Sarah and my brother Josh - they dessed up like Katy Perry and Russell Brand, Josh even got the accent down perfectly. Here are a few fun pics.....

Josh - Russell

Josh & Sarah - Russell & Katy

Twins I tell ya.

Mom is so proud!

Even Fat Elvis showed up to the party~!

Command Central

My station

This was the "Dream Team" we handled the lights, computer, Dvd, camera, sound, background clapping and laughter, commentary....alll that and we were still gracious enough to take a pic. The guy in the middle is my BFF's husband and the HelloLadies Boss. :-)

Well - that doesn't sound like a lot.....but it was. Now that I have some of that finished with, I can get back to some regular blogging (YAYAYAYAAAA). BUT I have to get off here and do some crafting for tomorrow's River Market AND have to take sweet baby Dot to the Vet - she isn't feeling too well today...

Chat at ya later!

~mandy~

Cutest Wedding Ever ....

2010-06-02T10:19:00.000-05:00

Soooo, I didn't actually "go" to this wedding, but I bet it was a blast. I found these pics on a Flickr Friends' blog and I had to share. I am normally not a fan of purple, but it was just too cute not to love. Head over to her website to see a ton more pics of the wedding.....

I'm seriously thinking about having another "wedding" at our 10 year anniversary and renewing our vows .... that would be so great and I would have SO much more fun than I did the first wedding. (nerves) heheheee - who knows, I've got a year and a half. :)

(thought I had a pic of our wedding on file to add here....but I don't .... sorry)

have a great week!

~mandy~

Totally got my iPhone!!!!!

2010-05-29T22:24:00.001-05:00

So the day after I wrote my last post, the iPhones went on sale at walmart and I totally snatched one up. I am writing from it now....trying out a blogwriter app. If any of you know a good one, let me know.

Tomorrow we are having all the youth from the church come over and swim and eat.... I'm pretty excited about it. I spent the evening cutting up japaleno peppers for a super amazing recipe that I will share really soon.

Chat at ya soon!
-mandy-

just mandyness

What Have I Been Up To???

I have not forgotten……

Christmas Presents….

Exciting Christmas News!

Getting a Special CPC post together…

Secret Confession

Vacation Pics….YUP

CPC:Benton BIG DAY & CPC:Conway Update

Sneak Peak

CPC Nursery Update

Vacation day #….. ummm

1st Full Day of Vacation!

We Made It!!!!

Guess What????

The War I’m In

Put Your Love Glasses on!

Wedding Bells

A Day to Remember

Verses of the Day

My First Football Game!!!

Our Special Night

Girls Night Out 2011

Sweetest Gift Ever!!!

ugh….trying a new offline blog writer.

So Soon.......

10 Years, 10 Wonderful Years

Family News!!

Summer Camp Wrap Up

Scrapbook Memory Game

Trying this again!

Testing, Testing 123

G is for Goals!

Creativity

FUN!!!!

Summer Fun

***Hello There***

Getting Ready for Summer

Early in the morning, my song shall rise to Thee

snow days, valentines day, cooking fun

Happy LOVE Day

Hello Crazy Weekend!

Dominican Republic - how i love thee

My Wonderful Weekend

Frazzled Day

My Cooking Saturday!

It's just Ridiculous!!!

Laws of Teamwork

Dinner and a Movie Night

2010 was amazing 2011 will be Spectacular!

Christmastime is here!!!

Red Christmas

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Movies

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge

What have I been up to?

Hello!!!

Hey .... I Remember You

Cutest Wedding Ever ....

Totally got my iPhone!!!!!

Hello There