Happy Belated Birthday, Rachelle!

Yesterday was Rachelle's birthday and I wanted to pay tribute to a wonderful daughter-in-law. Rachelle's been a Burleson for almost 25 years. That means I've been her mother-in-law over half of her life. So, I know her pretty well.

Rachelle not only has beauty on the outside, but she does also on the inside. 

She not only has beauty, but she also has brains.

Rachelle not only is a great Mom, but she stays connected to the bigger family.

She not only runs her household well, she also handles a career.

Rachelle not only is a great pastor's wife, she's a great wife!

She manages to be involved in the church, and she accompanies Wade on many of his trips.

I could go on and on. I'll suffice it to say, we are very lucky as a family and extremely grateful to have Rachelle in our family.

Rachelle, we hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday. I know Wade left early on a trip. Hope you guys were able to celebrate on your recent trip.

Love you, and Happy Birthday!

Mom B.

A Milestone Birthday

Today, January 24, is my oldest sibling's 70th birthday. 

I have ten brothers and sisters, nine still living. We gathered last night to have supper together and to celebrate (or to grieve, JK) the oldest of us reaching this milestone. My youngest sibling turns 52 this year.

The gathering last night was fun. There were eight of us siblings, along with seven of our mates there along with our 90-year-old mother for a total of sixteen.

We had fun giving funny and serious cards to our sister, eating good food, and reminiscing about some of the good old days, and actually about some of the not-so-good old days. We laughed a lot and checked with each other about how we're all feeling. Report was good.

Starley, my birthday sibling, and her husband, Ralph, have ten children, 50 grandchildren with two more on the way. Unbelievable! There's always something going on at their house or with their family. The card we bought her said on the front, "I thought about running away to join the circus." You open it up and it said, "But I thought that would be redundant." We thought that was an apropos card for her. Then we wished her a very happy 70th birthday.

Today is Starley's actual birthday although we celebrated last evening, so I want to wish her a very Happy Birthday today and hope that she has many more as she leads the pack into the next generation. She's a young looking pack leader, isn't she?

MB

Congratulations, Mel!

Melody Lenox, our third child, was honored at a new company launch last night, and we were privileged to attend.

The new company is Lead Self-Lead Others Foundation and was founded by Dr. Nathan Baxter. www.leadselfleadothers.com 

Mel is one of four newly certified counselors who are now qualified to lead growth groups.

On their brochure is the following: 

The starting place for leadership development always begins with the leadership of self. We help women grow by training them to lead themselves in five important areas of their lives: habits, health, relationships, time, and money.

We are extremely proud of Melody, and we enjoyed seeing and hearing and sharing in the exciting launch of this new endeavor. I think it's a much needed concept and it will be an exciting adventure to watch the birth and development of this foundation.

Our congratulations to Melody, to Nathan, and to the other three counselors! May God richly bless this new organization and each of you and your work.

MB