A friend in need...

I know some of you don't like blogs with a lot of writing, but please don't skip this one! Our friends need your help!
On Tuesday evening, we helped our sweet and dear friends, Nick and Lindsey, pack up a 27 foot moving truck and their little Sion with everything they own, to head for their new home in California. Even though we packed in the rain, we still had fun and enjoyed the little time we had left together! (Especially Tyler!)
(For those of you who don't know Nick and Lindsey, Nick was on staff with Lamar as our High School Youth Pastor at Riverbend Church, and they are our best friends.)




As sad as we have been to see them go, we know that God has amazing things in store for them! And apparently, Satan knows that God is going to be using them as well, because he has certainly been attacking them since the moment they left.
At 4am Wednesday morning, Nick, Lindsey and Lindsey's Dad, hopped in the U-Haul and the Sion and headed for California. The trip started smoothly and they made it all the way to Tuscon, Arizona. They ended up stopping at a hotel to stay the night, parked the U-Haul in front of the Lobby and headed off to get some rest. At 3am, Lindsey's Dad went outside to get the truck ready to get back on the road, and discovered the unthinkable.....the U-Haul was gone. After grabbing Nick and Lindsey and explaining that this was no joke, they called the police to file a theft report and watched a surveilance camera in the lobby office. They watched as two men pulled up in a car across the street, one jumped out, ran to the truck, and within a matter of seconds, broke in the U-Haul and drove off in it. In just a matter of seconds, everything Nick and Lindsey owned was gone.

After filing the report they stuck around in Tuscon to see if the police would get any leads on the truck. After hearing nothing, they decided to hop in the Sion and head to California. Once they reached the California state line, they got a call from the police that the truck had been found, but they weren't sure what was left inside. So, they turned the car around, drove all the way BACK to Arizona and met with the police to sort everything out. When they looked in the completely destroyed U-Haul, they found only a love seat, one crate of shoes, a quilt Lindsey had made for Nick, a few photo albums and a couple odds and ends. Everything else, their furniture, clothes, kitchen stuff, appliances, bedding, jewelry, books, pictures, their lockbox with passports, credit reports, social security cards, EVERYTHING had been stolen or destroyed.

After realizing there was nothing else that could be done, they reloaded the stuff that was left into a new, much smaller, U-Haul and drove outside of Tuscon to the stay the night. The next morning they drove all the way BACK to California and reached their final destination, Lindsey's parents house, at about 7:00 this evening.

The most amazing thing about this entire story, is their attitudes. Everytime I spoke with Lindsey, they all sounded upbeat and positive. Lindsey said the most amazing thing to me today. She said, "It's good that our identity is not in our stuff! It doesn't make us who we are, and we know that now more than ever." They are completely and totally trusting that God is going to take care of them. And trust they should!!!!

God has told us to love our neighbors as ourselves! Yes, I agree, it is not about "the stuff", but imagine yourself in their shoes, losing everything you own, and knowing that soon, you will have to replace it. Overwhelming huh! But that's where we come in. We can help them.

When it comes time to replace furniture, clothes and kitchen supplies, wouldn't it be nice to be able to pull out a gift card and not have to pay for it all by themselves.

If you would like to help Nick and Lindsey out, you can send a gift card, a thoughtful note, words of encouragement, a check, whatever you feel God wants you to give... to us and we will make sure to get it to them! If you send it to me soon, I will mail it to them. Otherwise, Lamar and I are going to see them in July and I will bring it to them then.

Since anyone in the world can read this blog, I don't want to put my home address on it. So please mail whatever you want them to receive to:

Riverbend Church
Attention: Lamar Stockton
4214 capital of texas hwy n.
Austin, TX 78746

If you have any questions you can email me at
jillstockton@gmail.com

Thank you for your help. May God bless you for your thoughtfulness!

My little cutie with a bootie.

Question:
What's the best way to dry off a baby after swimming in a kiddie pool at playgroup?



Answer:
Let them air dry!

Mother's Little Helper!

When I was little I loved helping my mom and my Memaw in the kitchen. I wore my special apron, pulled up my little stool and learned how to make manicotti, lasagna, pizza, rombliadu and all sorts of Italian treats. It really instilled within me a love for cooking. Well Tyler recently found my apron, and loves for me to put it on him. Now I have my own little helper in the kitchen. (Too bad his idea of "helping" is running his tractor into my heels as I cook, and pulling everything he can get his hands on out of the bottom cabinets.)


And after a hard day of cooking and helping mom in the kitchen, Tyler likes to bring his tractor to his daddy and take a nice little nap on the couch......while I get stuck cleaning up.

My Chapstick Chums!

Saturday morning was LynnAnn's Bridal Lunch at the Tea Room. Can I just say YUMMY IN MY TUMMY! There was so much good food and even better company. I love my friends! I really do! When I think about my amazing friends, I realize that I have truly been blessed by God to have such great people in my life. Even though we are not all living in the same zip code any more, every time we get together feels like we never even left! I love you girls!

Friday Festivities!

Friday morning we met Mande and Ty at Cracker Barrel for a nice little brunch. Oh wait, nothing is "little" at Cracker Barrel. The rocking chairs are huge, the checkers are huge, toy selection is huge, the candy selection is huge, the food portions are huge, and when you leave there, you FEEL HUGE!
Anyways...Lamar was getting his hair cut, so Tyler rocked in the rocking chair and played checkers with his Uncle Ty while we waited.



When Lamar finally got there, we ate more than our fill of food, said our sad goodbyes to Mande and Ty, and headed home for nap time. It was sooo good to spend a little time with them. Tyler loves his Aunt and Uncle!
Oh - and Lamar's hair looks great.

Friday evening, the whole Stockton crew got ready to go have dinner at Prespa's. Tyler tried to wear his Uncle Topher's shoes....but as you can see....they were a little too big!



Once we got to Prespa's, we realized very quickly that they had no working air conditioner. No bueno! But, we made the best of our time and the kids behaved very well, considering we were all sweating like little piggies.
Tyler and Drew found ways to entertain themselves.


My sweet little family, sweating it out at Prespa's.

Topher, Leya and Drew, sweating it out at Prespa's.


Okay, so this isn't really about Tyler, but I can talk about me for a minute....can't I?
Immediately after dinner, the boys took the babies home for bedtime and Leya and I left for our friend LynnAnn's lengerie and dessert shower.
Me and sweet Lynnie, the beautiful bride-to-be.

We had chocalte fountain with all kinds of goodies to dip into it, brownies with peanut butter cups baked inside, chocoate chip pie, red velvet cake and cappucino ice cream punch. Can you say "fatty fatty two by four"? I think I might have eaten myself into a coma.

Suzy, Leya, me and LynnAnn

Some of the girls at the party.

I love sitting at talking with my friend Kristin. We talk about our kiddos, her twins to come, and all sorts of random things that make us laugh hysterically.


Just us girls....hanging out way past our bedtime!

Lamar turned 29!

Since some of you have been complaining about people "writing" too much on their blogs......I will try to keep the chit chat to a minimum and the pictures to a maximum!
Lamar's Birthday celebration with friends and family in Arlington at Red Hot and Blue.
We were so excited that Topher, Leya and baby Drew were all in town to celebrate with us! I know Lamar loved seeing his brother and it was so great to see Tyler and Drew playing together.

Sweet Sweet Cousins!



Tyler loved playing on the high chair! I think this might have been the high-light of his night.

Kristin, Todd and Laney all came to hang out too. Tyler always loves playing with Laney! They thought the record-shaped menus were so funny and they had a blast playing peek-a-boo with them.



It looks like they are on their first little date. So precious!

We were so happy that Jared and Jill got to come celebrate with us as well. They both love seeing Tyler and they are wonderful with him. (Now we just have to wait until they move to Austin and we can hang out all the time!)

To top the evening off, the waiter brought Lamar the most fabulous dessert of all times....pecan cobbler with ice cream! Yummo! Of course, it also came with tons of spoons so we all made sure to eat our share!

Happy Birthday Baby!

My Little Skateboard Model!!!

Thanks sister for the amazing pictures!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

I am now a Cypress Cheetah! I will be teaching first grade at a very well respected school in the Leander District, Cypress Elementary, this next school year. Although I am very excited about this new job, I am very sad to not be with Tyler as much. So be praying for us!
Check out my new school at http://cypress.leanderisd.org/
(Make sure you scroll down, because there are a lot of new pictures and posts.)

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day today! I have such an amazing husband, that I love and adore, who made sure it was very special. First of all, when I woke up this morning, Tyler had left me some beautiful flowers and a precious card. (It's amazing how well he can spell even at only 15 months of age.) I love my precious little boy!

Then we went to church to see daddy. Lamar sang a beautiful song about moms, and how we are changing the world "one little heartbeat at a time". If you know me at all, then you know I take every opportunity possible to take sweet pictures of my family, and this was no different. I love my boys!



After church we all went to lunch, me, Lamar, Tyler, Chase, Nick and Lindsey. They took me to Macaroni Grill because it's one of my favorites, and we had such a fun time. We had a long wait since it was Mother's Day, but waiting was half the fun. The boys all hung out, reading Tyler books and telling funny stories. I'm not really sure who enjoyed the books more though, Tyler or the big kids. Aren't they cute!




And Lindsey and I just chit chatted and laughed at the boys. (And made funny faces for pictures of course.)



Here is our crew! (Lamar hates when I ask strangers to take pictures for us.)

Tyler's favorite part, and probably the only thing he ate, was the bread. But who doesn't love Macaroni Grill's bread? It's delicious!

And to top it all off, when I got home today I had a surprise waiting in the mailbox. It was a voucher for the Lake Austin Spa and Resort. Lamar bought me a half day at the Lake Austin Spa and Resort ya'll! I get to pick any two 50 minute spa treatments that I want, and I get a spa lunch and a gift. What a sweet husband I have! He knows exactly how to melt my heart and make me smile. Massage, body wrap and facial, here I come!

Mother's Day isn't always the best day for me because it makes me miss my mom so much. But this year was wonderful! This morning in church, Pastor Dave talked about a mother's greatest fear...."being forgotten". He talked about how important memories are because every mother wants to be remembered. It made me start thinking about my mom and all the good times we had. I started thinking about the way she danced, the way she laughed, the way she looked at me when she was angry, the way she blew her nose while she was driving in the car, the way she laid down with me in bed before I went to sleep....and it made me realize....I only had 14 years with my mom and I remember almost everything! I plan on being with Tyler alot longer than that, so I know I will not be forgotten! And that is a great feeling. Not only will I always have my memories of my mom, but I get to pass down all the wonderful things that she taught me to Tyler, her grandson. So no fear! I will always have my memories of my mom because no one can ever take that away.....and I can continue making beautiful memories for Tyler as long as I am alive. Besides my family....those are the greatest blessings God could ever give me!