Lately.

I tend to get annoyed by blog posts that go on and on about why the blogger hasn't been blogging lately. So I'll be quick about it: It's not that I don't have time to get on the computer. It's that I don't have time to get on the computer and complete any kind of thought process. So let's catch up.

Here's a photo I forgot to share with you from my quick trip to Texas last month. One thing I've noticed about Arkansas is that you don't see humongous state flags flying all over the place. So it's something that stands out to me when I visit the Lone Star State. Here's a photo I took in Waco while driving AND trying to find a radio station that wasn't playing Tejano music. Am I talented or what.

We had Thanksgiving -- just the four of us -- right here at home. It was very nice to not have to go anywhere. The last time we had a just-us Thanksgiving at home was in 2003, when I miscarried the day before we supposed to leave to spend the holiday with Chad's people in Lubbock. I have a foggy memory of me wandering teary-eyed through the Baytown Wal-Mart to get stuff for a last-minute Thanksgiving for three at our house. Very depressing memory. So I was glad to replace it with a happy, stay-at-home Thanksgiving memory this year.

I went all out and freed the china and crystal from their prison in my china hutch. I mean, why not?






And what do the Nall girls wear to such a grand occasion?





Their jammies, of course.


The next day, we decked the halls for Christmas. You might notice Jenna is still wearing her jammies from the day before. That's how we roll in our house. The less laundry, the better.






Speaking of rolling, this is how a youth minister's family finds out last year's graduates are home from college:



"Great to see you guys! How long is your break? That long? ... Oh."

Now Christmas us almost upon us. Chad's mom has been with us since Dec. 1, and she'll go with us to Houston on the 23rd. For you Baytown folks, we plan to be at MoSt the Sunday morning after Christmas. Hope to see you then!

Back to Texas

This past Sunday, my BFF's mother-in-law Patsy passed away in Texas. (Patsy was also the mother of this guy.) Patsy and her husband Benny were all set to enjoy retirement, grandkids and a brand new house when she was diagnosed with a very advanced form of cancer this past June. She fought a brief and courageous battle with the disease and kept up an unbelievably positive attitude the whole way through. I'll be traveling to Austin this weekend for her memorial service. I hate the circumstances that resulted in my making this trip, but I am looking forward to seeing lots of old friends -- including Carol, who I haven't seen since we evacuated to their house during Hurricane Rita in 2005.

This also means I am leaving Chad alone with the girls for the weekend. So everyone please be extra nice to him.

True story

So last Thursday night we were all in this field and there was sin and filth and hatred and lies so we nailed it to the cross. We walked back down the hill and turned around to look and there in the vast West Texas sky, where nothing had been a moment before, was a gigantic, vibrant, both-ends-touching-the-earth rainbow curving high into the sky.

As my friend Bill Ehlig says, God showed up.

It was, after the births of our girls, the most amazing thing I've ever seen.