Deanna Doss Shrodes

For sentiment sake, I'm writing a post about my birthday because I'll read it in a few months or years and look back on it fondly. Bloggers love reading our own stuff whether other people do or not. We're actually obsessed with our own words. We love seeing ourselves write as much as some people love hearing themselves talk.  It's the thrill of the post. I woke up and got a cup of coffee and read some of Isaiah as well as I Samuel, and some teaching on leadership by John Maxwell. (In my house I have a painting of Jesus on one wall and John Maxwell on the other.)  While I was reading my husband brought me breakfast in bed. He's awesome like that. I try to reciprocate in ways that make him happy. After savoring the breakfast I didn't have to cook, I began checking out the information from the first day of Revelation Wellness . It's a new program I'm trying at the invitation of my friend, Jodi Garvin. I started doing this partly because I believed ...

I've been concentrating on these the past five months or so: 1) Limiting "work on me" to one big thing at a time. I used to try to work on everything about myself at once that needed an overhaul, and it didn't go so well. I'm learning the value of one-thing-at-a-time. There are issues in my life that need major work that I haven't even started on yet. The past five months have been an invaluable lesson I will never forget, most of it focused on one area. When mastered it will hopefully be something retained for life. I get to choose who I'm going to be. How great is that? 2) Being kind to me as work on me. Every day I notice the parts of me that still need work. I don't like those things about myself. But I know they didn't get that way overnight and they aren't going to change overnight. I could hate myself. Talk trash to myself. But what good does it do? It just makes it worse. I'm a human being, with faults and f...

I can hardly believe my baby turns sixteen years old tomorrow. Her birthday is April 21 but we had her party this evening. I always wanted a daughter. And nothing compares to the blessing of her. So grateful for sixteen years, with Savanna Rose... Yeah, so...I'm a princess. My brother STILL enjoys making faces behind me when I'm taking a picture... Cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes Friends of all ages came to celebrate  Ready to serenade me? Hanging out on the patio Yeah, so we had a few cupcakes. Alexa, Cheyenne and George stopped in to give their love and well wishes! Chillin...  Once it got dark Savanna and her friends gathered around a fire on the patio. Part time princess, part time ballerina...Multi-tasker Beautiful girl...we love you

Let's dream together... What if we all managed to show our husband or wife in just one way, every day, how much we love them? It wouldn't always have to be something big or dramatic. Although on occasion, big and dramatic is good. On most days, it could be as simple as bringing them a cup of coffee in bed, or warming up the car before they get in it (or cooling it down if you live in Florida). Perhaps it would mean taking initiative to do a chore for them that they absolutely hate to do. Or maybe making time to join them in the shower before work? Just imagine...what if? What if we all did at least one thing each day? The awesome thing is, we don't have to stop at dreaming...this can be our reality.  Recently I blogged about how to get through to your spouse when nothing else is working. I shared about appealing to their five senses in communicating.  A reader mentioned the book The Five Love Languages in the comments of the post. I love the book and highly rec...

Where to begin? Yesterday there was a surprise for my birthday at church .  When Larry started preaching, he announced that  his message was called, "Life of the Party" and he said it was a day for special Celebration.  At that moment a bunch of ladies came through the back doors of the church with trays of cupcakes and they passed them out to everybody in the church in honor of my birthday.  They were told they could eat them right then, as it was a special treat that went along with the message.  Then the children from KidZone came down the aisles carrying balloons and a giant pink card they had constructed with roses on it, and then sang Happy Birthday to me, and presented me with the card and balloons.  It was just precious.  After the service was over they gave me a basket of cards people had collected for me, and a some people presented me with gifts that were just delightful.  One was a scrapbook Susan made for me of special occasions at...

So thankful that I had the forethought to make the cake the night before instead of waiting til' the day of!  (I was caught up with the eye ordeal all day and by the time I got home the girls were all there with the party in full swing.)  Also so thankful that Larry sprang into action and came home early to finish cleaning and make the tacos for the party.  And, very thankful that Becca agreed to come all night and stay up with them to supervise while I slept.  Everything worked out perfectly for Savanna's special night.  She wanted tacos, skittles, popcorn and yellow birthday cake with buttercream icing....and FRIENDS!  Savanna and the friends that were here for the night.  (A few of her closest friends also had prior family obligations and couldn't be there.  And, I did limit the guest list so as to not be too overwhelmed.  You know, things can just get insane with girls...lol) I can't believe the baby is 13.  I think I'm ...

Here's a photo of us last night at the Olive Garden where we celebrated Savanna's birthday as a family.  I didn't realize the photo was blurry until we actually downloaded it this morning.  (Ugh!  I hate when that happens!  It didn't look that blurry when we checked it in the little window in the camera after the server took it. )  We normally go to Kobe for Japanese on family birthday celebrations, or we stay home if the birthday person requests me to make a special dinner.  However, Savanna said she's tired of the chefs at Kobe asking her why she's not eating all her food!  :::chuckles:::   She is a healthy eater, but not a real  big eater and they give so much food at a Japanese restaurant.  She usually boxes most of it to take home and eat later.  She feels awkward when they ask her every time  if there is something wrong with her food because she has only eated a few little bites of each thing....

Savanna Rose is 13 today. Where did the time go?   Everyone told me this would happen, I just didn't want to believe them.  I feel like my life didn't really start until my daughter was born.  I wanted a girl so much .  We waited six years after Jordan was born to try for a girl.  We kept saying we were going to wait for Jordan to "get under control."  Finally after six years I said, "honey we have tried our best but I don't know that he is ever going to get under control, and I really want a girl."   There were no guarantees in the land of X's and Y's, but at least we could try. It's a good thing we just went ahead and got pregnant because Jordan is 19 and still not under control.  But, we have our girl.   By the way, in 34 days Jordan leaves for boot camp and the Air Force is going to take a crack at getting him under control.  :)  But back to our Savvy girl... I wanted so badly to have a girl...Lar...