It Is Finished!!

(Click on any of the images below to make them larger.)

Day 1 at the International Bridge on the Mexican border.

Days 1 & 2 while I was with the ride down south.

The welcome committee in Ft. Worth on day 8.

Heading out on day 9 (the last day)!

The Hinojosa and Plemons kids joined in the fun.

It is Finished at the Red River!

I finally have pics to show you of the GREAT Ride. It has been an incredible adventure, and one that the Plemon's family will never forget! We are so very proud of the guys for what they set out to do and accomplish, but we are particularly proud of our Darrell! There are a bunch of detailed stories that can be told, but who has time for that on this blog. If you want to get a glimpse into each day, go to the GREAT Ride blog at http://www.thegreatride07.blogspot.com/ Ron did a great job of catching the highlights and keeping them journaled.

I couldn't be any more proud!

Days 1, 2, and 3 of the Great Ride

(Warning: I don't have pics up yet...they are stuck on Darrell's computer. Hope to have them soon.)
We headed south on Friday and had a nice, long, 10 HOUR trip. We got settled into our hotel rooms in anticipation of the Ride finally being here. Ron Holland said he felt like a kid on Christmas Eve and could hardly sleep!
The guys started their day at the bridge at the Mexican border at 8:50 and pedaled all day until 2:30 for some, and 3:30 for others. They had a few breaks along the way and stopped for lunch.
The thing that was kicking them on this "short" 53 mile day, was the North wind that was supposed to be coming from the South and pushing them. The wind has not let up and we are praying hard for the wind to either stop or turn 180 degrees.
Day 2 started good with the guys pedaling by 7:40. It was cold and windy and the winds were still out of the North. They were a little discouraged to wake up to the flags pointing due South! Regardless they finished strong by taking advantage of some drafting techniques, not only with their bikes, but with the SAG vehicle as well. This day was finished with 80 more miles under their belt and a comfortable home to land in for the evening. (Mike Bell has relatives in Bishop, TX...where they stopped at the end of this day.)
My day ended on a sad note as I had to leave the bikers and head north to Ft. Worth. I have really made mayself a part of that team, and it was hard not to finish what I started. But Brigitte Little will be taking over my duties and making the trip as easy for the bikers as possilbe. Philip Shero will also join the ride for days 3 and 4 and then return to Ft. Worth.
(This just in...Brigitte won't be able to drive the SAG vehicle after all...she woke the guys up last night because she was having some heart rhythm issues. Mike Bell and Darrell Crow took her to the hospital and they admitted her for atleast 24 hours. Philip has graciously offered to SAG for these two days until they can come up with plan B.)
Be praying for the guys that they don't get "beat up" mentally by the wind and little set backs. Pray that they will have the confidence and endurance to finish strong!

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THE SCHEDULE:
Day One - Brownsville to Raymondsville - 51.4 miles
Day Two - Raymondsville to Bishop - 82.3 miles
Day Three - Bishop to Vidaurri - 75.7 miles
Day Four - Vidaurri to Hallettesville - 70 miles
Day Five - Halletesville to Rockdale - 88.7 miles
Day Six - Rockdale to Rosenthal - 58.7 miles
Day Seven - Rosenthal to Alvarado - 74.5 miles
Day Eight - Alvarado to Denton - 67.4 miles
Day Nine - Denton to the Red River - 34.1 miles
(A few of these days could get longer or shorter depending on how they feel.)

Before/During/After

Before....


The day is finally here that we head south in order for the guys to start pedalling north! Darrell has been swamped at work this month and has only had time to get on his bike twice, but I know the Lord will sustain the training he has done and make his body fresh and new for this journey!

Some of you may know that they are "biking for bikes" to send to Sri Lanka. Bread for a Hungry World printed an incredible brochure that tells about the ride and the village that will benefit from this ride. (I will make a post about how to donate if you are interested in doing so.)

Well....my husband had been talkin' smack for some time about how he was going to shave his head Thurs. before the ride. I kept trying to change his mind and convince him that he would look better with hair. The day came and almost went when I saw Darrell appear with buzzers in hand and headed out the backdoor!

Here are the results:

During.....

After......

I still think he is the cutest thing ever! Anytime that you think about a bike, Darrell, our family, or anything that is related to us, please send up a prayer for protection and strength as these guys pedal themselves across the state of TEXAS!!!

Pink Cars & Pumpkins

October hasn't started off any slower than any other month! The kids are doing great with football and cheerleading...we only have 3 weeks left! I can't believe how fast time is flying. Even Cal said the other day that he couldn't believe that Christmas was so close! Are we just so busy that our lives are flashing before us? Whew!

We started the month off with Cameryn having transportation week at school. That meant she needed to make a cardboard car for transportation day and it was also the week that Darrell was out of town. Now, I'll claim a little creativity in my little finger, but not that much...so I had to call on some help from my little brother, Uncle Ken! He was excited and willing to take on this task (which went to prove that his boy's school projects will not be out done!). We ended up with a cute, pink VW complete with flower-power! (NOTE: Ken did the body and Cam and I did the painting and details.) Thanks Uncle Ken for making us a great car!

I have been promising the kids (mine, Tammy's and the Shelfer's) that we would make a trip out to the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. Since we had the day off from school on Monday I thought that would be the perfect day....except we didn't have Abby and Dusty. So we waited to go after school on Tues. It actually turned out to be the best time to go because it wasn't very crowded and the weather was beautiful! This is really a great gift to the community that this family offers through the Pumpkin Patch! Here are a few pics from our little "field trip".

The GREAT Ride is only 2 1/2 weeks away and we are really getting anxious for it. Darrell has had a really busy month and has had to cut back on his training. We are praying that God will sustain what he has done and what he is able to do when he has a break in his schedule! We are claiming Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.

Football & Cheerleading

This last weekend was a busy one with Sat. morning starting with football and cheerleading and then heading towards Hillsboro to meet up with the bikers that I mentioned in my last post. Here are a few pics of Cal and Cameryn at their first game of the season. Cal's team name is the Lobos and Cameryn's cheer squad is the Angel's. (As I am typing that I question what word to use.... should I use "is" or "are" when naming the teams? It's only one team, so that tells me "is", but there are many on the team, so that tells me "are"...an English major I am not!)

Even though it's a busy time of the year, we always enjoy watching our kids compete and learn new skills. It's a fun time of cheering for our kids!

Be blessed today!

Covington2Mexia&Back

This weekend was an adventure for our family and the ones that we spent time with. As I've mentioned in a previous post, Darrell is training for a 600 mile ride in Oct and this weekend was a "test ride" of ONLY 120 miles. Ron Holland, Darrell Crow (DC), Mike Bell and my Darrell (DP) started Sat morning around 9:00 in Covington and headed toward Mexia! The kids and I met up with them around noon at the DQ in Hubbard (30+ miles into the ride). The rest of the day was busy with big hills, flat tires, leg cramps, over heating, andl being just plain tired. It sounds like it was a rough afternoon, but actually they finished the day strong! We landed in Mexia around 5:00-5:30 and decided on the Triangle Motel (a step up from the Economy Inn)! That's another post!
Here are a few pics that I will try to put captions with, but if no captions, just make up your own story!

This is a combination of day one and two....I'll let you decide which pics go with each day! (Sorry about the dupes in the collages....technical difficulty!)

Can you find Mike Bell's biggest fan!?

These were all their spare tires!

This was my favorite view of all!

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!

I'm so proud of these guys and especially DP! He is very determined to accomplish this goal and we are trying everything we can to support him!

Time with Family!

The kids spent the night with Aunt GiGi, Uncle Josh and Beckham last night and had a full schedule. They did everything from getting teeth sealed (Aunt Gigi is a dental hygenist) to going to Peter Piper Pizza to having a photo shoot at the park.
Aunt Gigi and Uncle Josh have little Beckham who is just 8 months old, and then they had 3 extra for about 24 hours....I haven't talked with them to find out if the kid's visit was a good form of birth control or if it encouraged them to be "fruitful and multiply"!! Time will tell....
Last week we were able to spend time with our other cousin, Marin! Aunt Jacque took me and the kids out for a day of fun....kids choice of whatever they wanted to do! The kids were beside themselves with excitement on the wide array of choices. We finally decided to do a "one-stop-shop" and we went to Celebration Station for arcade, laser tag, bumper boats, golf, and pizza. After that we topped it off with an "emotional" time of skating. The wheels were falling off (no pum intended) because everyone was sooooo tired.
We had a great time spending some time over the last couple of weeks with our Dallas cousins! We love our family and love spending time with all of them!
The pictures above are ones that Aunt Gigi took this morning. Check out her blog at www.angelafarisphotography.blogspot.com Enjoy!

Darrell & "The Great Ride"

We are in the middle of training! Darrell is preparing to ride from the Rio Grande all the way up to the Red River! Along with Ron Holland, Darrell Crow, Mike Bell, & Hector Hinojosa, Darrell will be riding his bike anwhere from 60-90 miles a day for 9-10 days. The guys are really getting excited and Darrell is pumped about accomplishing this goal! The kids and I are trying to support him in every way from encouraging good eating habits for all of us to understanding why he is on his bike any and every free moment he has. We just figured out today that he has about 12 1/2 weeks to get ready! Keep these guys in your prayers as they prepare for this "Great Ride", they are also raising money for Sri Lanka relief. They want to purchase some bikes for transportation in Sri Lanka as well as try to get some electricity to a certain area that is without. If you are interested in supporting this cause, let us know and Darrell can give you all the details!

(This picture is from the tour de Goatneck ride few of them just did in Cleburne.)

Happy Birthday to our Sweet, Smilin' Cannon!

I have no idea how to make pictures go where I want them...nor do I know how to do those cool picture collages. SO, I'm just going to put a few pics out here and tell you what they are as I can find a place to type it.

"Christmas in July" Birthday Party!

I'm going to try once again to join the living in Blogworld! We just had a blast of a party for Cannon and I can't let this one pass without posting a few pics. This little guy has wanted a Christmas birthday party since December. I was passing it off as just a "tis the season" phase, but every month when I would ask what kind of birthday party he wanted, he was quick to say "Christmas"!

So, I decorated the house with as many of my decorations as I could without looking too much like the Griswalds, and still leaving room for a house full of guests. Our sweet friend Aidan McCall (Colin and Christi's oldest) came over and did the face painting. We had "Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree" and "Pin the Nose on Rudolph"...the kids decorated foam picture frames to put a very special picture in....and we also had Santa Clause!!! The kids couldn't believe that Santa would show up in the Summer time. We took the kids pix with Santa and printed them out for everyone to put in their frames. We were so excited to have some of our friends and family celebrate this great day with us!

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For some reason my previous post didn't have a place for comments...let's see if this one does.

An Attempt to Update My Blog....FINALLY!

I am horrible at working these pics into my blog entry...so until I learn, there will be no rhyme or reason to how they go in...how do I get my words to be next to the picture that I want them to be by?

So for now just be thankful that I have began updating my blog....yippee!







It has obviously been a long time since I posted new "stuff" on my blog...a few of you have tried to kindly nudge me along, but to no avail! Sorry for not being more on top of it ~ I have just been busy reading other blogs and not updating my own....;-)

There is no way anyone will read this one entry long enough for me to post everything that has happened in the last 2 months, so I'll post a few pics and a few updates a little at a time.

The biggest news is that I went to Africa the first week of May and was truly blessed by who I traveled with and by the friends we went to see. I traveled with Kelly Christian (left) and visited Kelly Vaughn and her family (middle). We had a week that was full of laughter, tears, fun, exercise, eating, more laughing, sweating (is it tears or sweat?), hugging, meeting new friends, experiencing a life other than what I know, learning that "life hurts" aren't just American...Satan attacks all nationalities, loving the rain, and even feeling a bit adventurous when the power went out (try making homemade pizza in the dark and 4 little angels being excited, hungry and wanting to be a part of the fun all at the same time...nonetheless pizza was on the table and everyone eating by the time Randy (KV's husband) got home!), being surprised by lizzards at every turn...in Benin they run around like squirrels...except we don't get squirrels in the house.

There are so many stories and I am going to do my best to tell as many as I can, but for now, I'll just post a few pics and make a plan for my future posts.

Blessings to all 4 of you who read my "Praises"!

Easter Fun

Here are a few pics of the kids at Easter...we had a weekend full of fun with family and celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus! We started it off with an afternoon at Nana & PawPaw's house hunting eggs, eating dinner and having our annual kid's tea party. Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed watching Cal play in a soccer game and then headed to Dallas to Grandma & Papa Roy's house. There we loved being with our cousins and hunting more eggs and eating a great meal with the family. We also celebrated April birthdays and I got a wonderful frame full of pics of my kids that sis-in-law Angie took (she's a great photographer if you need some family pics!). Then Sunday morning we woke up to the baskets that the Easter Bunny left and headed off to church for a great time of worship. "Sr. Bunny" (Darrell) has wanted the kids to have cross necklaces for a long time...and this year was the year. If you can see them in the pics, the boys have leather necklaces with a silver cross and Cameryn has a silver and crystal cross...they were well received! We hope to keep the cross as a reminder of our redemption and salvation vs. a piece of jewelry that is hung around their necks.
"Thank you, Jesus for your death, burial, and resurrection that gives us a reason to live each day worshipping you!"

3 Reasons to Worship!

These are 3 of my reasons to worship and praise God! Cal, Cameryn, and Cannon bring such joy and delight to my life! While I'm sitting here quietly thanking God for these kids, Darrell, my home, our car, all the extras that we don't need, it's hard to justify the "rough" morning that I've had with "middle C" and "little C" while "big C" has been in school. I pray daily that I will keep things in perspective and discipline and correct wisely and patiently.

Mt. Sinai...what an experience!

What an incredible experience we had last night at The Summit (RHCC's Wed service)! Billy Gurley and Ryan Christian are walking us through several events leading up to Easter. Last night we were at the base of Mt. Sinai with Moses (Billy) calling us to be real with our God and experience his Holiness in a real way. The front of the auditorium was transfigured into Mt. Sinai with the peak being on the "big screen". The dry ice simulated the clouds and the room was dark with small candle lights spread throughout. When we were in the presence of God the room roared with thunder and lightening was flashing all around. The top of the mountain had a ball of fire and it stayed a blaze for as long as God was there.
The congregation was invited to the base of the mountain to worship in whatever way we felt moved to worship...we were in the presence of God! I pray that it was a night that changed the way we worship God in all His Holiness!
If the assembly was video'd (how do you spell that?!), then hopefully it will be on the church's website...be looking for it!

How many of us REALLY have it together?

Ok...so it has been a while since I have posted anything....I haven't felt like there was much to share with the blog world, so I'll just start rambling and see if there is anything that any of you relate to.

1. My hard working husband has been traveling way too much lately and the kids and I are missing him incredibly! We all have been in a funk and really can't explain it, other than we don't have everybody all together on a regular basis, and we are realizing how much we miss our family unit as a whole.

2. I'm struggling with my place in ministry...am I supposed to stay plugged into the Women's Ministry like I am or lay low and let someone else fill my roll? I have been throwing this around since before the first of the year and I don't know how long I'm supposed to hold out to know if it's just me or if the Lord is prompting me to move on.

3. There is a member of my family who is struggling and I can't do anything about it...I can throw my suggestions and "you otta's" around all day long, but it's not my life and I can't live it for them. I just pray for God to give them wisdom in all the decisions they make on a daily (minute by minute) basis. God is a bigger God than this problem and I need to let Him control it and not let it control me.

4. Raising my kids to be godly, respectful, polite, courteous, gentle, kind, loving, self-controlled, joyful, good, peaceful and patient (fruits of the Spirit with a few extra characteristics) is the hardest job I have ever had. There are days when I fail miserably because I do not portray a single one of the attributes listed and I'm "barking" at my kids to be respectful and obedient...hmm, let's see do you think that makes them want to have a good attitude. "God, please help me on a daily basis to be to my children what they need in order to be the Christian servants that you desire for them to be."

5. My good friend Kellye Stone just said goodbye to her mom, as she went to meet our Lord, Monday morning. What a bitter-sweet experience it was this week to know that Jan's body is restored to it's purest health, while she leaves behind a wonderful family full of grandkids and one on the way. I was talking with another friend of mine, Andrea White and we absolutely do not want to experience this pain...when I told my mom this, she replied, "Neither did I".
I'm thankful that God doesn't take our grief personally, and that he understands our pain and desires to comfort us with His love.

Ok...these are by no means profound thoughts or words to ponder, but I have been silent for most of February and I wanted to lay out there what I'm thinking about and struggling through. I guess I always want to portray an "I've always got it together" ideal, but this is more my reality at the moment. Owning up to these struggles could possibly say "I'm trying to get it together!"

I hope to post a few pics the next time...

RHCC....here's to many more great Anniversaries!

25 Years ago my parents decided that Tammy, Kenneth and I needed to be in a church where we would be fed spiritually and have programs to help us in our Christian walk. That decision led our family to Richland Hills Church of Christ and becoming a part of one of the greatest gathering of believers in the world!
This weekend we were able to celebrate RHCC's 50th Anniversary and what a joy it was to claim membership of such an incredible body. I was proud of the heritage that we were reminded of and I was challenged to not let the foundations of RHCC die. It was so sweet to see so many of the charter members and the original congregation gather together and still be so supportive of where we are today. Too often the groups that start a good work don't like where the later generations have taken it...but with this family of believers we have stayed true to our calling and have continued to do all we can to glorify our Lord.
Thank you to the past, present and future leaders of this church for knowing our God and desiring His will to be our will. May we all live like leaders and be examples of our brother, Jesus Christ.
P.S. Hats off to Jenni New and her planning committee for creating such a memorable event and for letting everyone take home a little bit of grace!

7 Years with Darrell Plemons

I'm a couple of days late in posting this, but it's been a busy 7 years! On Monday, January 16th we celebrated our wedding anniversary and I want to let you know what about this incredible man!
I married way over my head and I've been trying to catch up ever since...Darrell has showered me with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and (alot of) self-control. He is filled with the fruits of the Spirit and I couldn't have asked for more. He is an incredible Daddy and often goes over and beyond when it comes to watching kids. Darrell is the love of my life and I'm blessed in ways that I never knew to pray for....more times than not, he is giving in to the desires of someone other than himself when it comes to things around the house (ie..kids climbing all over him when he is physically and mentally spent; me wanting to watch "girley" movies; eating simple with the kids rather than the delicacies that he enjoys).
This man is the husband that I always dreamed of.
Thank you, God for bringing me this wonderful partner and thank you for the example he is to me and our kids on how to be more like your son.
"My prayer for you, Darrell is that you will continue to seek the will of God and that you will keep your heart soft for the passions of Jesus. I love you FOREVER!"

Cannon Jeffrey Plemons

Our smiling ray of sunshine....it is a rare moment that Cannon isn't flashing those pearly whites and making us all smile. I jokingly say he's running for office, because he doesn't let anyone get by without them seeing his smiling face.
Cannon is 2 1/2 years old and loves Cal and Cameryn incredibly. He has followed in Cal's footsteps by loving super heroes and running around like he is saving the world. And yet, can run into Cameryn's room and pick up a baby doll and be as gentle and sweet as she is with her "little family". I love this young man, and Darrell and I were blessed with this third little miracle.
"Cannon, may your love for Jesus be as bright as the smile on your face...and we pray that not one person can get by you without knowing that Jesus is the Light behind the smile. We love you!"