Merry Christmas from the Nixons!!

Merry Ho Ho Everyone!!!!

I just wanted to send out our Christmas card electronically as well as paper in case I missed someone. First, though, the family made a little video for you. :)  From all of us to all of you, Merry Merry.

Click Here

And Here's the Xmas card!

Clipped the side part on the back because I didn't want to put our address on the world wide internetssssss.

So thankful for this season this year, and yet very aware that this time of year brings a lot of pain, whether from loss, tragedy (as we have recently heard so much about), or tension between in family. So fitting that the enemy would seek to 'steal, kill and destroy' (John 10:10) the abundant life God has for us. Praying this season that we all surround ourselves with the truth of the Gospel, and that come glory or pain, trial or blessing, you would relish in the gift God so freely gave us - His Son. May His life be enough for ours!

Merry Christmas! 

Arise Africa Christmas Catalog! *Link Fixed

Hey Gang,

I am super privileged to serve on a Board of a Ministry called Arise Africa.  Arise is run by a close friend of mine, Alissa Hollimon. She is an uber-talented, uber-passionate woman who fell in love with Africa and is passionate about feeding and educating its orphaned youth.  We do a Christmas Catalog every year, and this years' is truly incredible. Need a gift idea for someone you love? Why not buy some text books for a child in their name?  Click on the box below to check out our catalog!! :) Merry Merry!

UPDATE: I FIXED THE LINK!!! CHECK IT OUT!

Check out our Christmas Catalog!

Well Hello, Little Blog. Meet Evie Leigh.

Hello There.

My name is Callie, and I have a blog. Kind of. Brief Hiatus was had. The LONG kind of brief. However, in that time, MANY things have happened and I'm excited to hopefully dust off this sweet little vessel for keeping friends and family near and far away (and interested...) on the goings-on of the Nixon Household.

Couple 'o bullet points:
* I got pregnant.
* We moved to Richardson.
* We had an A/C bust and water leaks and moved back in with my sweet parental units for 8 weeks.
* We remodeled our kitchen. (Go Summey Industries)
* I'm still pregnant.
* We move back in.
* I complete certification to be a Bradley Certified Childbirth Educator. {call me}.
* I sing in about 14 weddings.
* I have a baby! August 16, 2012. Sweet Evie Leigh.


I think about covers the basic gist.  Anyhoo, Fall in our house has included the "Newborn Vortex."
I think that I'm beginning to exit the whirling cycle of crazy that is newborns. Almost 3 months. Hello again, world.  So, that being said, prayerfully this blog will once again come alive with colorful pictures of giggling babies.

To start things of right, here's a picture book of our Fall.
Welcome back to Blog Land, Nixons.

Manhattan Defends Freedom of Insurance Coverage

Got this in my mailbox today. It's heart breaking but stirring at the same time. Half a million people have already signed! Please help and join in!


Take Action to Defend Religious Liberty


Dear Manhattan Declaration Signer,

We have arrived at the crisis point we knew would come. Our religious liberties are in the greatest peril and we need you to act immediately and sign this petition.  

Our federal government, charged under the Constitution not only to respect, but to protect and defend, our most fundamental freedoms, has now imposed upon people of all faiths a mandate that their institutions provide insurance to their employees to pay for abortion inducing drugs, surgical sterilizations, and contraceptives. There is, for all intents and purposes, no recognition of the rights of conscience for those Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or other faith-based employers to be free of this imposition.

The Catholic Church, as the largest provider of faith-based education, health care, and social services for the poor, is on the front lines of the struggle, but because of the required abortion drug coverage and the violation of religious freedom at the heart of the mandate, it is a struggle that implicates all believers. If the mandate is rammed down the throats of Catholics, no people of faith will be safe.

The Catholic bishops of the United States, dozens of whom are signers of the Manhattan Declaration, have made clear that they cannot and will not bend to the mandate. If forced to choose between the law of Christ and the edict of Caesar, they have no doubt about which master they will serve. If necessary, they are prepared to close institutions, and even go to jail, rather than comply with a human dictate in violation of what they believe, in conscience, to be the will of God.

All of us pledged such fidelity in the Manhattan Declaration. We saw this day coming, though few of us realized it would come so soon. Now we face the test: Will we, as we promised to do, “ungrudgingly give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but under no circumstances give to Caesar what belongs to God”?

For our part, we renew our pledge to each other and to each of you. We ask you to do the same. Let us not scatter in fear or yield our precious spiritual and constitutional rights. Let us stand with the Catholic bishops and with those of every faith who will stand with us in the defense of religious liberty and the rights of conscience.

We ask you to do two things:
First, we posted on the Manhattan Declaration website a petition to President Obama prepared by the Becket Fund, which we’re asking everyone to sign. Please let your friends know about this petition. Get 10 others to come to the ManhattanDeclaration.org website to sign it, and at the same time ask them to sign the Manhattan Declaration itself if they haven’t already. Please encourage all of your friends, family, and colleagues to sign it today! Those who would deny our liberties need to know millions of Christians are standing together to oppose them.

Second, we are also raising funds to hire a full-time helper with the Manhattan Declaration enterprise. The list of Manhattan Declaration signers could now double, and there will be significant grass roots activity that we want to encourage.  Up until now, three of the sponsoring ministries have provided funding and part-time staff support. To get the job done we must have a separate staff dedicated to the work of the Manhattan Declaration movement. We haven’t had staff enough to answer all the correspondence let alone do some events. 

If you can make a donation to help with this, please do so, but not at the expense of your church or other Christian organizations. We are asking you to contribute only if you can make an extra, sacrificial gift above and beyond your regular donations. Only twice have we asked the Manhattan Declaration signers to make a gift and you responded.  However, if there is a moment for sacrifice, the moment is now.

Like no other time in recent American history we must stand together no matter the consequences. May God use our strong alliance to prevent this outrageous attack on our most fundamental civil liberty.

Sincerely,

Chuck Colson
Robert George
Timothy George


The Manhattan Declaration is a non-partisan statement of conscience in defense of human life, traditional marriage and religious freedom.


Visit us online at www.manhattandeclaration.org

Watermark Gots a Facelift.

I go to Watermark Community Church. They got themselves a new SMASHING website.
Best part? You can listen to services live streaming! Hot ma zing!
I took a screen shot. Looks like this.

Now you can watch in your jammies with your coffee and not worry about who all is going to see your praise dance while you are worshipping!

Wahooey!

Pedastals

One thing I totally respect about Larry King - he is fearless.  I found this clip with Jennifer Knapp regarding her sexuality and a pastor from a church really interesting (and disheartening).  I didn't walk away encouraged by either one of them. Oh Lord we try to draw lines in shades of gray when you have made them much darker. We also try to darken lines you have made light. 



also an interesting interview in Christianity Today.

LIFE | There's Not an Ap For That.

My brother in law passed along this incredible few words on the reality of Steve Jobs passing. I loved it. I have heard/read so many pithy, quick witted, "Steve Jobs was successful on earth but not in Heaven"-type twitter posts that I kind of had to surpress my gag reflex.  Christians, are we that calloused that we comment on someone's eternity in 160 words or less? I don't know Ryan Bricker, but I'm thankful for his words.

From: Ryan xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
Date: October 6, 2011 11:16:44 AM CDT

Subject: LIFE
'There not an Ap for that'

I feel compelled to share some thoughts in light of Steve Jobs passing. Thoughts that may be very hard for us to accept and to proclaim to a lost world. Without question, I can offer up my utmost respect and dignified remorse to Steve’s family, his friends and his fans for their loss. And all of them are fully deserved of their own loss and grief. And while I fully understand the need to reflect on all his accomplishments and his undeniable success, even still I have been utterly blown away by the responses I have seen and read in the media.
But it’s at this very moment in time at this unique juxtaposition of life, death, wealth and success that we can see all that Solomon spoke of in Ecclesiastics, ”….meaningless..meaningless “

The morning news shows are filled with stories of how he “changed the world!”, and “changed our lives” and interviews with Apple executives and devoted followers leaving flower shrines at Apple stores and how their lives we ever changed by Apple. Facebook and Twitter posts are going rampant on with adorations, and condolences at the world’s great loss.

All of Apple’s influence and accomplishments is last week’s news. Today’s news is about coming to the end of your life. And if there is anything to see here, it’s that 7 billion dollars can’t save your life or even sustain your life for one more day. It’s that technology will not save us, and that all our empires mean nothing when we leave the earth. Eventually, all the ipods and all the Macs in the world (even mine) will return back to the silicon from which they came.

The continual notion that He or apple has “changed our lives”, should make us ask ourselves, “What is life about?”. Apple is not life (ironically is brought death in the Garden), the things of this world are not life. Jesus alone came that we would have life and have it to the fullest. And even so you and I and the world fill our lives over and over again with more and more crap hoping that this trip to the well will be the last.

All the “i-world” has exposed is our ever quenching thirst for “ i ”, (ourselves) to be entertained and to be distracted. For us, life is found in our entertainment, in any way we can fill the silence and interrupt any stillness that may cause us to “really feel” or “really hear”.

I’ve watched people camp out for weeks in the heat of a Texas summer to be the first in line to get a new version of a phone they already have, and that will be available to everyone that same day. It looks like Zaccaeus climbing up a tree, or friends of a leper on the roof lowering their friend down to get the new Ipad at times in these stores. The same zeal for the search of life, but that well will not bring life, you’ll need to keep going back to draw water. (by design). If your life has been changed by instant access to your entire music collection, or a computer that fits in your purse or by Angry Birds, then where was your life to begin with?

I will never forget the time I was at the Grand Canyon watching an amazing sunset. I couldn’t help but to notice one girl amongst the entire crowd. Hers was the only head not peering out into the vast canyon. No hers was bowed down deep into her lap doing something else, something very intently. And then she shrugged to the side, seemingly annoyed by everyone else in the isles and I could see what it was that she was so reverently connected to, a Nintendo gameboy. I sat in amazement as the sun was setting and noticed she had never lifted her head, not even for a moment. Never did she even glance at one of the most beautiful places on earth. Eventually the crowd at the canyon’s edge were too distracting, so she actually turned her back to the canyon and the crowd, perhaps to get a better shadow and contrast on her 3 inch game screen. And as sad as I became to see a generation that seemed so lost that they could not disconnect for one moment of man-made entertainment, I was even sadder to think that they could not even recognize anything that wasn’t.
So when I reflect on Steve Jobs I ask the question that Jesus asked.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” – Jesus
I did not know Steve nor do I know what his last moments entailed (I am not his judge), but by all accounts he was an eastern religion spiritualist or Buddhist. At the moment of our death nothing done in our life will matter, no greatness we leave behind will mean anything. We will be face to face with the God of the universe who will look for our name in the book of life written in blood red ink from Jesus alone, the author of life.

There’s not an ‘Ap’ for that.
Glory to the King of Kings alone!

-Ryan (Even so I would like an Ipad for Christmas)

The Day I Got Scared.

Yesterday my little girl blacked out. We're talking eyes roll back, slump over in my arms kind of black out.

I've heard this can happen.
But it does NOT prepare you for when it does.

My little pumpkin has a tendency to cry...rather, well.... passionately. (No clue where she gets it.)
You know the hard kind of cry that gets really quiet? That's the scary one. She came around after a few seconds, and of COURSE I did every wrong thing in the book. I shook her, kept saying her name over and over, and was otherwise pretty much paralyzed in my fear.  So of course when I stopped bawling/freaking out/having a crying fit of my own, we went home and like any good mom I promptly 'researched.' (aka 'googled') the symptoms.  I found some other moms in an old forum who had exprierenced the same thing.  They had better terminology so I looked up more on it here.  Davey didn't so much 'hold' her breath as just not really 'take' a breath. :)  Pretty amazing that passing out is God's way of helping the kiddo out. Once they pass out they start breathing - then come around. Wallah. So much easier said than experienced.

Moral of the story: He has numbered my days. He has numbered the days of my child. My husband. My parents. My friends.  Life is but a breath, and thank you Lord for using this small little thing to remind me that every moment is a gift.  So many times our attitudes reflect 'God, why is this happening to me?' Oh He is so full of grace that we get any moments at all!

Life in every breath.

"So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Next Steps - Part 2

Silly friends!
NO I'M NOT PREGNANT. If THAT was how I set up a pregnancy announcement I would be:
A) Not good at surprises.
B) Not good at hints.
C) Just a plain 'ole silly pants.

Now, when I said that babies are in my future, I wasn't kidding.  The thing is, they just won't necessarily be MY babies.  Sooo. There ya go.

Friends, you may, when you read the words below, think that I am entering into the unique world of Birkenstocks, long broom skirts, incense braided hair and tevas with socks. But I'm not (well who am I kidding I do love incense). I'm just going to be a doula.  This is the question I most frequently get asked after making the previous statement:

"A doo-lah?!? What in dee sam heyul is a doo-lah?"

Well, kinds sirs and ma'ams, I'll tell ya.  Read this from the DONA website - I think it words it pretty well.

"The word "doula" comes from the ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves" and is now used to refer to a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; or who provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeed more easily." (emphasis mine)


Basically in short - a doula is a labor coach.  After coming up for air after my birth experience (you can re-live it here and here), I really continued to stay interested/passionate/excited about the whole labor and delivery experience.  I have battled those feelings that inevitably come when you feel a calling to do something 'out of the ordinarily accepted path.'  People literally look at me like a crazy goob when I even mention natural childbirth.  The reality people is that people don't choose natural childbirth because they WANT to experience an inordinate amount of pain. C'mon. We are daughters of Eve after all; completely averse in our nature to doing anything contrary to what we WANT to do. No, people choose natural childbirth becuase they want to have some say in what they want their birth to look like. They choose to because they consider birth to be natural and safe until proven otherwise, not the other way around (as most of our many people [but NOT all] in the medical profession would have you know).


Didn't mean for that to become a soapbox. :)


So, to prepare for certification, right now I'm reading or re-reading up on the following books:

• Husband-Coached Childbirth
• Natural Childbirth the Bradley^® Way 
• Children at Birth 
• Assistant Coach's Manual 
• Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

 Are you jealous yet? I know, you can totes borrow my bfeeding book later (to see how I feel about bfeeding, watch the video from this entry).


Anyhoo, I just wanted to share how excited I am about where life finds me right now, and the direction I feel God moving me in.  So, in light of that, along with allowing friends to keep up to date on the life of the mac-freakin' cutest babby EVER, i'll also share tidbits from time to time on clients and resources and good thoughts about natural childbirth.  So that you won't block me out forever, I'll make sure to be more concentrated on the cute baby side. :)


Go Go NCB. Over n' out.

Next Steps - Part 1

So last week my dad...er..boss :) wrote this email out to our company employees:

All,
I knew this day was coming but I have to admit I am still in denial :)
I wanted to email you all and let you know that Callie is going to be transitioning her role at Macfarlan. Being a mom and adding to her covey has won out over her commitments to MCP. AND RIGHTLY SO…I NEED MORE GRANDBABIES! While she will be phasing out of consistent office hours, we look forward to engaging her particular gifts on special projects that will arise from time to time. Going forward she will likely be retained on a project by project consulting relationship with MCP & TMR. We are still in the process of brainstorming all of the areas where she might be deployed, but I wanted to let you all know so that if you have needs that would fit her skill set, don’t hesitate to let me, Todd, Greg or Mac know. Callie will continue to come into the office on Thursdays throughout October as we complete the development and migration of the website, and from there will contribute on an as needed basis to special projects as the arise. She will also be around to help finalize the transition of her current responsibilities.
We are thankful for her time here as a full-time and part-time employee, and are excited to continue that relationship in this new role.
Dean

In the back and forth-ness of email writing preparing to send out the above, through the coarse I wrote this to him:

Dad,
Yours is so much better. :) I love u dad. It has been one of the great privileges of my life to watch you 'discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness' in nearly every facet of your life: as a husband, a father, brother, son, elder, and boss. You remain consistent and steadfast amidst each one. Would that every daughter would get the privilege to work for a man and dad like you.


I'm sad but excited about this new phase of life. Glad you'll still be a huge part of it.


Callie

The reason for re-living this is two fold:
ONE - to honor a particularly increidble man who I have gotten to watch live life particulary well. My dad has been the champion of our family. Few women get to see their parental units live so victoriously in so many areas of life.
TWO - To self-disclose the ending of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. Hint - it has to do with babies. I'll update the rest in Part 2!

Perky Goes Foxy-Style

Ya'll. SOOO Proud of my friend Patrick Ryan Clark. He was featured on Good Day Fox this morning playing his new single, "What Was I Fighting For." Check it out below and way to go Perky!!! Jeremy and Phil, mad props to you too - you both rocked it.

Patrick Ryan Clark Plays Good Day: MyFoxDFW.com

1. Buy this homie's CD. It's truly awesome.
2. Come to the CD Release Party Tuesday nigh, 7pm, watermark. Git on iiyut.

Like Heaven.

Oh. My. Gosh.

A friend at work showed me this the other day. I it's from like a kid talent show on a hispanic channel. It gave me goosebumps. What presence and apparent love for Jesus this kid has! Watch and get goosey.

Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is quite possibly the most astounding and fantastically convicting book I have ever read. I beautiful portrayal of a war that infected not just a few years of soldiers' lives, but entire lifetimes. Laura Hilldebrand's ability to plant the reader in the middle of the action, I believe, is unparalleled. Amidst the pages I was brought to tears, disgusted, despondent, convicted and surprised with joy. I have been changed by this book.



View all my reviews

Bella Cita.

In May we got to go to Italy. With our child. And I died for a minute and visited heaven. The only word I can use to describe how I felt that trip was: Full. Just, full. Throw in an "Are you kidding me?" and "Is this really happening?" and you get the trip. Oh plus over 24 hours in a plane with a 9 mo and 15 mo old. Want to know what jet lag does to an infant? Call me. But that part was WORTH IT.

Anyhoo, I just want to share a few pictures from the trip.


The view over Rome from our hotel. It was the final stop on our trip.

Lunch w/the Fam at San Gimingnano. Home of bella ceramica. :)



Smiley pants.
Views from our 5 yr. Anniversary Dinner in San Gimingnano.
Pretty much just unforgettable.

Below: The Colleseum in Rome

Love the ruins and how they just keep digging deeper to find more cities.

We took a day trip to Florence. This experience might have been the most surreal. You know when you just get really overwhelmed at all the roads the Lord has taken you down, and where you end up? Like for me, I got to study here as a college student, and figure out what kind of woman I was becoming. Then I returned while Ryan and I were dating, to determine what kind of man I might marry. After we were married, we came for our 1 year anniversary, and I showed him the places I prayed for him and the places I found myself. Now, 4 years later, we bring our daughter - walking around the museums and seeing tapestries of God's handiwork, I'm anxious and prayerful about the journey He has planned for her. How quickly does everything seem to come full cirlce!

We stayed at Castello di Casole, a place that is equal to perfection.

The view from Mom and Dad's porch.

I love my brother and his wife. This is where she told us she was pregnant with Mac Baby #2!

Above - Ryan and Dad having 'man time.' :)

Prende un cafe on Piazza della Uffizi Nacionale

Mac's thinking spot.



Mac's other thinking spot. :)

Daddy - Davey time in Piazza della Republica

Lunch at Hotel Savoy. Cool Italian High chairs!

The fam.

Daddy needed some new italian shoes-DC was happy to assist. :)

on the ponte vecchio

An amazing trip that will never be forgotten.

Bad Momma. And a recap.

OOoooooh heavy sigh.

I look around blog-land for the first time in MONTHS and I just....feel....whatevs. So behind. A horses' patoot. As my giggly little NINE MONTH OLD crawls around on the floor beneath me, I realize it's been a solid 4 months since I have had time to dedicate to this blog.

Culprit #1 - WORK. It's picked up, and as much as I would love to only fill my days with Arboretum and Acquarium visits, work just kinda took over.

Culprit #2 - Performance anxiety. Even tho' the purpose of this blog is to keep family and friends updated as well as make up for what is best described as a horrid lack of scrapbooking skills, I still felt like I was letting 'someone' down. The further I got away, the harder it got. Who is the someone you ask? The proverbial 'world wide web'? Who the stink even knows. However, beauteous pics are loaded, my heart is ready and 'update' I shall.

Some cute pics from Davey at 2 months old. Love her chub face. These actually ARE from the arboretum, but hey, I was still on maternity leave. :)
Some Thanksgiving 4 month pics. Had a little photo shoot at the Nixons.

Fuzzy 5 mo. Christmas pic. I love having kiddies in late summer because their monthly milestones are on and around fun holidays.

5 months. Maybe one of my most delightfully favorite baby Davey pics.

6 month non-profesh pic.
6 month profesh pic. Amazing sweet and talented Matt Norine. Check out his photo blog.
8 month pic. How could this little pumpkin ever get in trouble? Woo meee? :)
9 Month pic. This one just so happens to be standing in front of a vineyard on the Tuscan countryside. Like the real one. We're not talking Olive Garden here, folks. :) You might think I'm crazy to put an 8 1/2 month old on an airplane for over 10 hours. I would actually tend to agree with you. Hee. But you tell me. If given the opportunity to go to God's chosen country, would you move mountains to make that happen? Uh huh. Thought so. Me too. So we did, and it was so worth it! Me thinks that is going to be the next post. Who knows, I could totally get on a role with this again. That is my hopeyest hope.

Thanks for the 'couragement. More to come. 9 months will not be caught up on, but little tidbits would just be wrong to not be recounted.

I will wait for you.

If you have ever worked in youth ministry, which I have for many moons now, you encounter the phenomenon known as the high school female. If you encounter high school girls, you just....really don't ever know what you are going to get. One day you are BESTIES forevs, the next she wishes she never laid eyes on you and you are either a) extremely uncool or b) ruining her life. (Insert plea to the Lord to freeze Davey Cate all together or just simply skip over pre-teen years.)


Anyhoo, one thing that is inherent not just to females in exponentially hormonal years (aka teens) but all ages is: the desire to be loved. To find the one. To be known, and pursued, cared for and treasured. At times the struggle of the female, be it highschool or otherwise, is to settle. To gratify the desires of the flesh for fear that God isn't really the best author of their lovestory.


I found something amazing. Better believe DCN and I will be sitting down to watch this during those years of, "God - are you out there? Is HE out there?" He is, and he is. My prayer today is if you are in a similar situation, that you trust the first, and wait patiently for the second.

Great Grandmas.

They are just the absolute best. Different in every way, but delightful both the same.

Mia bella Nonna - Grandma.
My dad's mom. She is spunky, full of more zest in life then you can shake a stick at, still does water aerobics religiously, and is full of PASSION - for food, family, friends, and great-grans. :) She is my Italian side through and through.
Mamaw - Momo.
My mom's mom. I just absolutely decree you are not going to find a more beautiful gentlewoman on the planet. She is well-loved and respected by any person she comes across. She and Papaw have the longest list of friends I know, and I'm convinced you won't find a more regal woman on the planet.

Love you ladies.