"Do little girls have to grow up?"

Well it's that time of year when we have to go shopping for new summer clothes, so Joslyn and I went shopping. We set out to find a cute summer outfit that would be fun to wear. As we shopped, Joslyn (My sweet six-and-a-half year old, she always reminds me about the half), began to tell me about how her friends at school are wearing "sports bras", as she calls them. I asked, "Do your friends show you their bras?" and she giggled and said, "yes." I said, "where?" and she told me, "when we go to the bathroom and we show our cute panties too!" Well, I laughed, sounds like typical girl behavior. Then I asked her, "Do you think you need to wear a bra?" She giggled with embarrassment and said, "I don't know, I guess so." I proceeded to tell her that bras were very uncomfortable and not fun to wear, but she didn't buy it. She decided she needed to wear a bra. So, I thought about it for a minute and figured, what can it hurt. A little training bra, something modest and simple. So we head towards the little girls section and begin looking at bras. Of course, Joslyn has a totally different bra in mind than I do. She immediately goes for the fully-shaping demi bra that looks like it already has breasts in it, and they actually have them in little bitty sizes, to my surprise. I show her a little sports bra and say,"this one is cute and pink, let's get this one." But, she grabs the tiny demi bra and says, "I like this one." I begin to explain to her that she does not actually have any little breasts to fit into that bra, so it will not work for her. Well, I turn away and begin looking some more, then she holds up the demi bra and says, "look mom now I can wear it!" She smashed the little demi bra where the breasts would go and made the bra flat! I laughed, and laughed, but she was so serious. Of course I had to tell her that it was not going to work, so we ended up with a little Hannah Montana sports bra. Joslyn was feeling all grown up. Then we headed towards the swimming suits, and as we were looking she makes the comment, "Mom, I need to get all of the things women wear because I am growing up." At this moment, I laughed and said, "not yet little miss thing?" But later, it made me so sad. She is growing up so fast. On another occassion Joslyn made a comment, "I remember when I was six I.....". I said, " you are still six." And she looked at me like I was dumb and said, "Mom, I'm six-and-a-half!" She can hardly wait to be older, but what she doesn't know is that as we get older, we would give anything to be younger. Oh, to be a little girl again! Hopefully I can instill in my precious little girl that she needs to be young while she can, because youth never comes your way again and the only true beauty comes from within and from an understanding of who God is in her life. Why do little girls have to grow up so fast?!! (sorry if the word breasts offends!)

bla! Jason

I am board so I thought i would make a little reading post blog thingy! ha ha! There has been Lot's of drama at school this week! make ups break ups the usual junior high junk! In school they have been preparing the 7Th grade for leadership. This school only goes to 8Th grade and next year we will be leader's!!! That really excites me! Lately I have not been acting different at school then at home and I have actually talked to people more and made a few more friends. It has been a normal and a little extra good week for me. Having dad home all week was even better. On Wednesday Josh, dad, and I went fishing. We had a great time and I cannot wait till we go again. It sometimes drives me crazy because the fish jump out of the water and taunt you. I can just hear their little voices saying " I'm over here!!" and " NO I'M OVER HERE NOW HAHAHAHAHHA YOU CAN'T GET ME!!!!". It is just plain rude! ha ha. I also got some good news about my talents ( if you will) I am on the worship team at my church now! I am so excited! Also at school the teacher gave me a part to sing on the song by Carrie Underwood called " Jesus take the wheel". I am so excited!!! Well i gtg ( got to go)!!! Josh is not willing to share his computer!!! ha ha bye!!!

Hurricane, Or Not?!

Well, I decided I'd better post something or my kids are going to take over my blog. They really seem to enjoy it. It's interesting how you can get to know your kids by reading their blogs. Anyway, it's been a crazy year for us. We have left our home, our church, our friends, and our family. We know God has brought us to this place and we find peace in that, but it has not been an easy journey. The first week here we nearly filled our new house up with tears, really, it's true. We all wanted to turn around and go back. The day we left Nick had to pry Missy and I apart and he kept telling us "five more minutes will not make it any easier." We laugh about it now, but it was hard. Leaving Nick's parents was heart wrenching. But the hardest part was watching my kids break down. The only peace I had was knowing that God was in this and I had to keep focusing on the big picture, what big plans does God have for us now? After about a week of trying to adjust and getting the kids in school we had to go through a hurricane, well almost a hurricane. I have a whole new found appreciation for people living on the Gulf. I can't even believe they live with this every year. It is so stressful when a hurricane is coming and you watch the weather channel all day wondering if it's coming your way. Then you hear it's coming straight for us, we're in the cone of possibility, as they call it, prepare, get ready, get water, get canned food!!!! And the grocery stores are packed with people pushing, and grabbing, and it's just insane. Then you have to decide do I evacuate, wait it's not coming our way, so I'll stay, oh but wait, it is coming our way, get a reservation or all the rooms in San Antonio will be gone....but wait it's going the other way now, good, we can rest, but wait!!! here it comes so we bettere get out!! OH MY GOSH! It's the most awful experience, especially when you have no idea what you are doing. In addition to that you have to cover all of your windows with boards. Nick had to climb a 30 foot laddar, carry very heavy boards up to the second story windows, drill holes in the brick, while somehow holding the very heavy boards, and cover all of our 20 windows. It was 100 degrees with 100% humidity. It was so hot it just drained you of all of your energy, and Nick and Josh were putting the boards up with sweat dripping off of them....it took about eight hours to get it done and they literally had to take breaks to keep from passing out. When they finished that Nick had to go to work and take care of evacuation plans at Walmart. The kids and I packed and got ready to evacuate. The news announced that all roads coming into Corpus were going to be closed so that all North and South bounds lanes on the interstate could be used to drive North. It was expected to be mass chaos, but everyone I talked to was getting out, so I thought I'd better go. Nick had to stay behind with the store because Walmart did not shut down his store. I packed my bags grabbed all of our photos (and my coach purse) and prepard for the worse. So, the next morning the kids and I get up, got on the road expecting thick traffic, but to our surprise the highway is quite clear, they've cancelled the evacuation, the storm has gone the other way and is now headed for Galveston!!! But we already have paid for hotel through priceline, no chance of a refund, so we go anyway. Corpus did not even get one ounce of rain from that storm. I am thankful that we did not have a hurricane, but for all of our trouble we could have at least gotten some rain!!! Oh my gosh, I am not looking forward to hurricane season. From now on I will not make reservations through priceline and we will hire someone to cover our windows. In the meantime, we are doing so much better, God is so good. We still have not sold our house in Lubbock, so we covet your prayers for that. We miss you all so much! God Bless!

The Hallucenogen -Josh

Like a Trance or Something...

It was a regular day at Guitar Center... or so I thought... I was sitting jamming with a Marcus Miller Jazz Bass, my dream bass customized by one of my favorite jazz artists, and I looked up and saw the most UGLY telecaster I've ever laid my eyes on... the Joe Strummer Telecaster (I don't know what the deal is about the "Artist series" guitars that draw my attention, but it must be a strong attraction because they're so expensive) and as ugly as it was, it was beautiful to me. So I put up the slick and glossy bass to pick up the the old dirty guitar and get acquainted with it. So worn-out and used-looking, but it was the most dashing guitar I've seen in a while... I began my examination. First thing was it's vintage style outward appearance. The rusted magnets on the pickups, the horrible paint-job, but I've been told the inside is what really matters. The second thing I noticed was the tag said "single-coil pickups"... Praise God... I love the way those single-coil pickups sound... If you really want to hear them, check out the All of the Above version of Break Free and indulge in the opening line and bridge... Then the third thing that stuck out was it's over-all trance that drew me in... dare I say it, like a moth to the flame... I plugged it into a Line 6 amplifier to see if what my heart was telling me was true. I set everything up- distortion, tuning, volume- and then (the moment of fate) I strummed an Am... and it was nothing short of fireworks. I began playing all of those songs with single-coil pickup guitars on that thing and I think I fell in love... It sounded amazing... The second I got home I rushed to the Fender website and checked all the specs... Perfect, just perfect... God had been looking out for me... I knew if I waited He would bring the perfect guitar for me... Osm, God! Now for the girl! (Just kidding, Ally)

But that was a long time ago and I haven't seen it around lately. (How can you have such a magical moment like that and then disappear??) I decided to google it and see what it had been up to. I found out that there was a dramatic price drop and she was available... But it's not like I can pull $950 out of my face... So, again, I'll have to wait, but I'm perfectly fine with it. I'll live these next few years without it and enjoy the single-guitar life. :)

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The Real Version of You...

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Valentines day...

I don't know what the big deal is about it. It's just a big marketing scam! Did you know that Valentines day brings in about $14 billion in the US alone? And I' m not saying that it's wrong to celebrate Love or whatever... It's just that love has lost enough value to where it's used to just pull in cash and a prayer for a fat flying baby that likes to shoot at you... (Don't worry, I'm getting somewhere with this...) Maybe there is something more to it than that?

Let's get real...

I'm reading this book called "Crazy Love" by a guy named Francis Chan. He's just some pastor at a huge church in California that founded a college called Eternity Bible College... Oh yeah, he sits on the board of directors of Children's Hunger Fund and World Impact... yep, just some guy... and he's got some pretty interesting perspectives. He says, you love your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend and you don't forget it... You just don't. I'm pretty sure my Mom isn't sitting around one day and goes, "Oh, yeah! I've fallen madly in love with Nick! Silly me, I forgot!" Dumb right? Not really, because we do that with God ALL THE TIME. I am a master. I can go worship Him on Sunday and forget Him the next morning... guilty as charged... More specifically after a camp or something, once I get off the high or the "hang-over" of a camp experience, I tend to go back to my normal life unchanged... The thing is, when you're insanely, purely, and honestly IN LOVE with someone, you, subconsciously, leave no room for apathy. As human beings, we were created by God to fall wildly in love with Him, but since we are not perfect, we tend to give our God-given love to other things. Money? Drugs? Boys/Girls (If you know what I mean)? Maybe even "less horrible" things. Music? Other people? Happiness? Whatever it is, we worship it and love it unconditionally... But what about God? Have you ever been in a situation where you met a guy/girl and just loved him/her. You just fell for them and passionately and purely pursued them and prayed for them and gave your heart to them, but they spat in your face? Or (even worse in my opinion) they said, "Yeah, I like you, let's go out, You're an amazing person!", then they don't commit themselves to you, blow off dates, treat you like you don't really mean anything to them? IT'LL TEAR YOU APART! It hurts, don't it? What if you sacrificed your son just save your relationship with your spouse and then it still wasn't working out?

God did... And we forget about our deep personal love affair with Him? Some love affair...

James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you..." I think God was saying that we should take the first step in this relationship. He desperately wants us. He knows it, we know it. The real question is, Do we want it?

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Let's start a revolution, shall we??

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-God bless

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"When city's fall, they build them up, much taller than they ever were..." :)

Jason's blog!!! life...

My life has sped by so fast. it seems like yesterday that i was holding my new little baby sister. now we are already dealing with boys and what to bring for show and tell. it seems like i was just doing that but i am dealing with middle school. there is gossip, Lot's of drama, the occasional trouble maker in your class! I remember when i was little i would watch television shows about junior high. It was always crazy and stuff. I never thought that it was really like that. stuff that you see on the shows really happens! On the other side of life, the good one(ha ha!),me and dad go fishing every Sunday! it is really fun. we go to this spot that is on the Beach and we fish off of that. It is fun to look around and see jellyfish and find little strange creatures that i have never seen before. Speaking of creatures!!! the Roaches here are unbearably large!!! on our first night here we went to our parents bedroom and there were like 3 or 4 big roaches!!!! And one time my mom went to her room to put on her pajamas and when she came out she was picking up some of Joslyn's toy's and she stepped on something, thought it was a toy, picked it up, and realized it was squirming!!!!! then she saw the tail of the lizard on the floor, and the lizard body in her hand!!!! she screamed and jumped on the bed! we all rushed in and it was camouflaged into the carpet and we found it. We put it in a cup and set it out free in the backyard. That also reminds me of when our computer teacher was trying to print something in her printer and it wasn't working and she reached her hand in and pulled out a chopped up lizard! YUCK!
Any way's ( sorry i got really sidetracked for a while) every day i think about something that we did in Lubbock. it seems like the other day we were just there drying off from swimming in the pool and watching TV in the living room. sometimes if i think about it to much it brings me to tears. sometimes i wake up and before i open my eyes I hope and pray that i will be in my room in Lubbock and that it was all just a bad dream. but it never is. =( but God's word says to consider it pure joy when you go through trials. so i guess it's a good thing that we moved?.?.? Well i have to go. Thanks for reading blogger people!!!!!! have a wonderful and blessed day! BYE!!!!

Blood, Sweat, and No Tears- Josh

The Lock-In at Bay Area Fellowship

As some of you know, I've been playing at a large church called Bay Area Fellowship and it's been amazing. I actually kinda stumbled into their worship team at Element Student Church (they didn't want to call it a "youth group" but an actual "church for students"). Their worship team is definitely pretty big. We've been asked for autographs and pictures like we're rock stars. It's pretty weird. What's also new to me is that these people have some serious chemistry between each other, which I found to be pretty helpful when working together, not that we didn't have that at our last church or anything, but it's just that we're all pretty close to each others age (ranging from like 16-19) and we all hang out and joke about the same stuff.
Anyway, just recently, I played at my first major youth event... CoreWeekend... That was insane... over 250 people and we did nearly 20 songs and played up until like 1 in the morning. The set list had a lot of Hillsong United stuff and Planetshakers (love the Stand bass solo...) and New Life Fellowship, the church that had the pastoral drug and prostitute conspiracy in 06' (Their story was really interesting to me) and most of their songs are products of their suffering, which made for really moving peices... I was very excited to see what God was gonna do, but I honestly believe that there needs a worship revolution in that church. They have tons of mission trips, outreaches, and, if you've seen the place and the production they have, you would think that they probably have a good heart for tithing. This church is AMAZINGLY blessed, it's just that everybody comes for a concert. At Coreweekend, when we started playing the faster songs, they jumped and got crazy, some people crowd-surfed (I just thought they might've been lifting him up to God or something), but I was too busy swinging around my Vintage 70's Fender Jazz Bass while Eric, Cory, and I did synchronized jumping and barely sticking the landing to notice that a giant duck floaty and a beach ball were being tossed around the room (which I occasionally had keep from tripping over when they flew onto the stage). I can understand praise being radical and all, so as odd as these things seemed to me in a worship envirnment, I was cool with it. It was when we started doing the slower songs when things got a tad frustrating. They did the cellphone thing... where you wave your cellphone around in the air because you're too young to carry around a lighter. Joe, our main youth worship leader, actually had us hold the song for a second and said, "If some of you guys have cellphones out, we really want you to focus on God right now, so, uh, could you just, um... put them away for a minute?" NO ONE DID ANYTHING. HEAVEN FORBID. I tried to focus on worshipping and all, but I almost blew a fuse when I saw this girl holding one hand up to God and the other texting away... and her friend, who had both hands raised, was trying to read it... I heard the cell beep, they huddled to the phone and they looked at eachother and said, "AW! He's so sweet!" THEY BETTER BE TALKING ABOUT GOD... But surprise, surprise, they weren't. Then, for some insane reason, I decided to pan the room for more texters. I saw people sitting down at the tables and talking, TONS of people texting, a couple guys were in the back joking around, there was a whole cult of Jr High girls trying to take my picture and to top that, we were playing an amazingly emotional New Life Worship song and no one was listening!!! Then I caught myself not getting into the worship either! When we got off that stage, I was mad... it seemed like they didn't care... Then Jason, our youth pastor, wanted us to do a 45 min prayer and devotional time. He was pretty He got up and said, "We're going to have a prayer time for the next 30 or 45 min or so, so just find a place away from other people and just let the Holy Spirit take control." We got into our places and after about 10 min, people started talking, then Jason got up again and said, "If you don't want to engage in this, please just go in the atrium right outside the Element Room." Within say, 20 min, half the room was gone... you could hear the people talking outside of the room, and then the worship team tried to start a Holy Spirit-driven worship set and it was hard to do with 50 people out of 250, so Joe ended it after two songs... It broke my heart.... No spiritual movement, not a tear. Not even from me! My point is Jesus sweat blood for us and took OUR PLACE on the altar, the least we can do is awknowledge it. Although we'll probably never be able to fully give back what Christ gave to us, it's the heart that counts.... We're not perfect.... no one is... but I'm pretty sure that blackberry was not genetically embedded in that girl's hand.

God bless...

"Keep it simple, some people just aren't as quick as you..." :)

New to the Blogging Scene

I've often wondered...why do people type about their lives online? Why not just pick up the phone and let people know how you're doing, but then I moved away from my home of 20 years (give or take a few) and realized, if I tried to call all of my friends and tell them everything it would take forever...so, I have become a blogger. Only for the sake of keeping in touch with everyone, of course. In any case, I hope you will enjoy my blog and keeping up with the Salazars. I know I so enjoy the blogs of my friends...it's nice to feel a part of their everyday lives even when I'm so far away. I'll be blogging more, soon...and I'll always be bragging on the wonderful weather down here in the South, while my friends in the North freeze their booties off!!! LOL