Sunday Funday

We had a wonderful evening with our friends Jill and John.  Of course Caroline and Tyler had a blast as well!  He had all things boy and my girl loved it!  It was fun to catch up with our sweet friends, as these dates don't happen too often anymore...guess that is what happens when you have kids!

 learning about the Nerf gun

 being wizards

 sweet Nori, reminds me of my sweet Caroline when she was this age

 such sweetness

Popsicle Sale

Last Sunday the children at church received a small fish bank.  They were asked to try to collect a few coins to fill their bank.  The money they collected would be used to help provide meals for children who are unable to have a regular meal.  Each meal cost just 22 cents.  On Monday, I got an email from a "mom's blog" I followed that suggested having a lemonade stand as part of your summer fun.  I began to put the two items together.  What if we had a lemonade stand to raise money for our fish bank...the more I thought about it, the more excited I got!  Then I thought, maybe I should be something like popsicles since they are prepackaged and all...and that is what we did. 

We sent out an email telling our friends and family about it as well as our church family.  We made a few decorations for the table and bought some popsicles.  (Very cost efficient by the way!  100 popsicles for $3.25 with a mail in rebate of $1.50.)  She couldn't wait!!  When she woke up this morning, she was ready to sell.  But let me just pause here for a minute...this fun happy day didn't have a fun  happy start.  Within the first hour after she woke up, we had several melt downs.  And honestly, had we not invited friends and family, we most likely would have cancelled the event.  But thankfully a rough start had a wonderful ending!

Jack and Grace were our first customers

 Jack and Grace made some cute signs to hold up and "advertise."  Jack was quite the salesman and Caroline didn't mind bossing the poor guy around.  Several times, she said things like "Hold your sign up higher, they can't see."  She saw a car coming and said "Look there's a car, customer alert, customer alert!"  We laughed and laughed at those two!

 It got to the point she didn't even wait for the customers to come to her, she met them in the drive way!

 Aunt Doe Doe

 Mrs. Kim trying to decide which color she wants

 Jay and Ansley Kate stopped by for a cool treat as well

 Pop and Peep too!

 the kids in their "crazy cool" sunglasses!! :-)

 the last customer of the day

We had a wonderful day!  We were to thankful for everyone who came by to support us.  We purchased 200 popsicles and hoped to make around $50.  But guess what, once again the Lord blessed us beyond measure.  We have about 125 popsicles left and made a whopping.......$110.00!!!!!!!!!!!  That equals 500 meals for children in need!!  We are so proud of our girl and so thankful that we will be able to bless others because of our sweet friends blessing us!!

Sunday UPDATE: Someone was SUPER excited to turn in her fish bank this morning.  Our sweet pastor acknowledged what she had done and thanked her for her generosity.  She was SMILING from ear to ear!!  Of all the things that I pray for my sweet girl, I pray that she will always have a generous, compassionate and tender heart when it comes to serving others..

After 5

We were so excited that we were actually able to make this month's after 5 celebration.  For various reasons we have either been out of town or had other plans for the last two events.  Due to all of our downtown renovations, the celebration was moved a little further down the street.  It's a little more crammed but being between a tall building and an open area help.  The building provides shade while the other side still allows a great breeze.  We had a great evening catching up with friends.  Needless to say, Caroline was asleep within 5 minutes of getting in her bed.

 

Caroline and Wells warming up

 Caroline trying a little ballet out there

 gotta love a cold Rita's ice treat

 Wells and Kate getting a game plan together while Caroline runs around like a crazy person!

Navigating a Life Interupted

A few weeks ago my Thursday morning Ladies group began a study on Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted.  The study sounded wonderful but I wasn't sure about the leader.  I had done a study or two of Priscilla Shirer that just didn't do anything for me.  However, this study was highly recommended and I thought "why not?"  Can I just tell you that we have had 3 video sessions and I have been in TEARS every single time!!!!! 

We all know the story of Jonah.  It was a cute bible story that many of us learned in Sunday School.  And even if we didn't go to church regularly, we heard songs about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish.  Sadly, I thought, how much more can Priscilla tell me about Jonah...but what I am learning is that there is SO MUCH MORE to the story of Jonah than just being swallowed by a big fish!  God was calling Jonah out of his comfort zone and Jonah didn't want to go...So instead of being obedient to God, Jonah began to run.  He tried to run as far away from God as he possible could.  Literally!  God called Jonah to go to Nineveh but instead Jonah chose to go clear across the Mediterranean Sea to Tarshish.  He spent a lot of time and money to run away from the Lord...but we know that we can't truly run away from the Lord.  He is all knowing and always present, there isn't anywhere that we can go that He can't find us!

As we look at how Jonah responded to God's calling, Priscilla asked us to think about how we respond when we see the Lord's plan is going in the OPPOSITE directions of our plans?  How do we view and handle the "interruptions" in our lives?  She challenged us to think of the following equation "significant person + significant task = divine intervention."  WOW, I had to sit with that one a minute...do I really consider myself significant?  Do I really ever stop to really think about the task at hand?  And if so, do I remember that it is DIVINE INTERVENTION???

In week two, she challenged us with this thought "Do we really believe that God will change our hearts and desires?  Or do we just stay where we are because we know that God MUST have made a mistake?"  Change is hard, it's something that I struggle with greatly!  I like things to stay the way they are  UNLESS it's MY idea to change them. :-)  Often times I like where God has me because it's familiar, it might not be easy but it's what I know.  So what happens when God calls me to do something really difficult?  Something that I don't want to do?  Do I compare my "significant task" to others?  Do I question God "Why can't I get pregnant, why is adoption my only choice?"  Because when I began that talk, it leads down a long, dark and ugly road...one that Satan LOVES.  Or do I realize that in my utter and total weakness God is strong.  He will equip me for the challenge and He will prepare my heart for it as well!  And 5 years later I get to look back on that time and see HIS hand all OVER us and the beauty of the journey!!!

In week 3 we discussed the mess that Jonah made and yet God made something beautiful out of it.  But we have to be willing to put our mess in his hands.  Jonah ran, he boarded a boat with other sailors.  When the storm came, they prayed to their "gods" of the sea.  When this didn't help, they awoke Jonah from the bottom of the boat and asked him to pray to his God.  Those men saw his God in action and were amazed!  While Jonah most likely did not want to be swallowed by a fish, it was THAT fish of grace that kept him from drowning.  Priscilla reminded us that "God isn't out to hurt you; He is out to help you." 

There is so much more to share...a preschool story that takes on a whole new meaning as an adult.  If you are currently looking for a new woman's study, check this one out.  I highly recommend it!!!

Stayed tuned as I am sure there will be MORE to come!!! 

Cleaning days...

I love to do just about anything around my house-yard work, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, etc-except real deal cleaning.  Hello!  Anybody else out there agree with me????  But I was challenged earlier this week in a blog that I read about being joyful in the little things.  Well today I am JOYFUL and THANKFUL that I only have 2 bathrooms to clean cause lawd knows I don't think I could muster up enough effort to do another toilet! :0)

Hear the Bells, Hear His Call

Our good friend Chris has started a new ministry at church called "Hear the Bells, Hear His Call."  Every day Monday-Friday the bells at our church ring at 12 pm and 5 pm.  We have notified the members of our community of our ministry.  Our goal is to remind others to stop and pray when they hear the bells.  It's a way to realign our day and focus on Him.  Our family has had the opportunity to experience ringing the bells several times since the ministry started.  It's a wonderful way for our family to spend the afternoon and remember the goodness of our Lord.

Weekend fun with friends and family

Lots and lots of fun events this weekend in addition to our anniversary celebration!  Caroline's neighborhood friend Truett turned 3.  We celebrated his special day with a "Radiator Springs" birthday party and a fun jumping castle!  The kids had a blast as you can see from the picture!!

After the birthday party, we came home to find Emma and Granny at our house.  Caroline and Emma had so much fun, dressing up, playing with her doll house, etc.  Not to mention that they had Granny doing any and everything they wanted.  

Since Andy has to go to church about 45 minutes ahead of time, Granny decided to treat the girls to Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  They loved every single minute of it!!

Thankful that we live very close to family and get to enjoy fun weekends like this!

Small Group Social

Throughout the last year, Andy has felt the Lord calling us to step out of our comfort zone and lead a small group.  I wasn't hearing the Lord call at all so I kept thinking of reasons why it wouldn't work.  After a year, I began to see that the Lord wasn't changing Andy's vision and maybe just maybe, I was a little too scared of change.  So we continued to pray about it and the Lord began to open doors, lots of doors!  I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where the Lord was calling us at this season in our lives...So fast forward almost 6 months later and here we are, our first small group social after completing our first official study.  I am so thankful for the 7 families that the Lord has placed in our group.  The kids get along really well and I am loving getting to know more families in our church.

Caroline and Ella playing in the sprinkler

More sprinkler fun

Caroline and Kate on the roof-Caroline's a cat who is stuck on the roof while Kate is the rescuer!  Charley is wondering what in the world these girls are doing to his stuff!

10 year Anniversary

then

What a milestone...10 whole years together!  Oh how I wish I could say it has been one big fairy tale but it hasn't! I was speaking with our associate pastor Chris and his wife Dottie about our premarital counseling days...we didn't have a CLUE what we were getting into!!  HAHA  But I can honesty say that I love my hubby MORE today than the day I married him!  We have both grown a lot and the Lord has taught us so much about what it means to truly love one another as Christ loves us.  I know that no matter what, I can ALWAYS count on Andy to be my number one fan!  

As all couples do, we had big plans of what our 10 year anniversary would look like...maybe a trip back to our honeymoon spot, na, maybe a weekend away, na, maybe a night away, na.  So we settled for a night on the town.  We enjoyed dinner AND a movie!!!!  What a treat!  We had big plans of enjoying dessert but sadly our stomachs were too full from dinner.  We did manage a few shopping stops along the way and grabbed a milkshake for the ride home.  It was a wonderful evening!  So thankful for my sweet mom who came up for the afternoon to watch Caroline.

now

So thankful for the last 10 years and look forward to many more!!

VBS 2013

We had a wonderful week at VBS this year!  We studied the book of Genesis.  I love that our bible school isn't all frills and such but just straight up Biblical Truth!  I am amazed at what our children know and I am so thankful that they are learning these truth's at such an early age.  Tonight we had our closing program and the kids same some of the songs that they had learned throughout the week.  It was such a fun evening!

The best group shot I could get.  We had almost 80 preschool and elementary kids attend

Caroline enjoying the motions with the songs

cheezing for the camera

Sleep over Fun

Monday night we got to enjoy having our sweet friend Catherine over to spend the night.  After having a "true" sleepover with Lalla this past weekend, Caroline wanted Catherine to spend the night in her room. The girls were so excited to get to sleep in the same room and actually did pretty well going to sleep.  To make the night even better, they had matching pj's! :-)

Somewhere over the rainbow

We have had a rainy spring.  After many of our rain showers, I have gone outside eagerly looking for a rainbow.  As crazy as it may sound, I have even prayed asked Jesus for a rainbow...something about the beauty and symbolization of a rainbow.  We have dear friends who have found great comfort in the rainbow as they have experienced trials in their life.  Not that I am currently in a trial but for some strange reason I have desperately been on the search for a rainbow and today MY GOD provided!  It was a faint rainbow yet it was beautiful.  We walked out the door for a quick bike ride with Caroline and there it was!!!  I ran back inside and got my camera.  By the time we finished Caroline's ride, it was gone.  So thankful for the little things in life!

Thinking of George

Today I decided to steam some squash and zucchini from our garden.  I was thinking about how I would fix it and decided to fix it like my dad always did.  1 onion, 2 squash and 1 zucchini, a little olive oil and a black cast iron skillet.  It was amazing, just like I remember it.  I see more of this in my future this summer!

A little something special

My sweet friend Lori gave me this great idea!  You pick up 2 wooden letters from Hobby Lobby or somewhere like that (D and A) and grab your camera.  (Or get lucky like me and share the letters with a friend)  We went to our church for pictures.  I found this frame at WalMart.  Next year my only expense will be the 64 cents or so it cost to develop my pictures!  Love simple stuff!!!

So long Facebook...at least for a little while

So while on maternity leave with Caroline, I decided to join Facebook.  I loved it!!  I loved connecting with people, I loved seeing where life had taken many of my high school friends, what their families looked like, etc.  It was a good thing...really!  Over the course of the last 4 1/2  years a good thing has turned into a not so good thing.  It consumes way too much of my time.  It's very easy for me (someone who isn't very disciplined) to get caught up in "checking FB" and end up spending 30 minutes in one sitting.  I shutter to think how much time I actually spend on it throughout the day...5 minutes here and there add up to a lot of my time throughout the course of the day.  I thought maybe if I narrow down my friend list.  So I went through my friend list of over 500 people and decided to delete a few "acquaintances."  Still it sucked me in...I deleted a few more...still not too much help.

Besides the time issue, I also struggle with holidays on FB leaving me feeling empty...someone got better gift, gave a better gift, maybe their kids had a bigger Christmas than Caroline, etc.  Then I see pictures of anniversary trips, date nights, new cars, etc. and envy begins to rise within me...instead of being excited for them, I begin to covet what they have and begin to fill as if I don't have enough.  Why can't I have those things?  Why is my car 10 years old?  When the truth is I have been blessed in MANY WAYS and honestly I do love my little life.

Not all of FB makes me sad...on no when I sit down to check in and notifications are blowing up my page I get so giddy!!!!! Why...because my recent status or picture upload is getting LOTS of attention.  Comments like "beautiful little girl, precious family, etc."  Instant gratification!!  Love it!  But do I really need to seek approval from others?  Do I need to find my worth in a simple comment from someone?  Of course not!  I am a child of God and that is enough!!

Now before you think I am being a hypocrite, know that I don't think FB is all bad...I think it's a good thing that I have turned into a not so good thing because of my lack of discipline.  Does it mean I will never check my FB account again?  NO.  It just means I need to take a break from it and figure out what I really want out of it?  Can I check in every so often and see what my friends are up to without being jealous?  Can I sit for a few minutes without being sucked in for an hour or more through out the day?  Can I simple enjoy it for what it was created for, a way to check in with friends and family?? 

Wish me luck!! :0)

Happy Fathers Day Mr. Andy

 Once we got back into town, we went over to celebrate with Mr. Andy.  Sweet family picture of Mr. Andy with his children and grandchildren! :-)

Fathers Day Weekend Fun with Friends

We decided while on our New Years trip that we wanted to designate a weekend to head out of town to see our sweet friends Wes and Sage and their kiddos.  We have been trying honestly since March to make it happen.  We thought we had a weekend narrowed down in May but sadly it didn't work out.  As we looked at our calendars this weekend seemed to work for both of us.  The more we started talking, the more we decided that we wanted to honor our boys in a special way.  So we decided to give them a little cash and send them on their way.  They got the entire Saturday to themselves to do whatever they wanted to do.  That meant we had the kiddos and we also had the entire day to catch up ourselves!  When the guys opened the card and realized what they were given, they were PUMPED to say the least!!  I think it took them an entire 10 minutes to change clothes and pull out the drive way.  They came home with 2 or 3 minutes to spare!!  They loved their time together and that was the best gift ever...seeing the excitement on their faces as they told us about their day!!!

 

So back up a little, we got into town about 5:30 on Friday evening.  The kids had a blast playing outside while we unloaded the car and got dinner together.  The kids declared Friday as "dress your pet" day as well as dress yourself! haha

 

Caroline loved being a LION!



 sweet Walker pulling the girls in the wagon

 poor Brighty being dressed as a pirate

 After dinner, we sat on the front porch and watched the kids play.  We noticed a ridiculous amount of fire flies out and decided to catch a few.

 not sure who was having more fun, the big kids or the little kids???

 hard to see but I bet we had at least 20 or 30 fire flies in there

the boys used them as a night light in their room

 The boys enjoyed the NASCAR Hall of Fame, a tour of a local Brewing Company and a few other stops along the way

Walkers "pirate" face

 the princesses and the warriors in the backyard

 after lunch, we went to the pool with the kids

snack time is always a favorite

 came home and enjoyed a yummy, juicy watermelon

 movie before dinner, they were WIPED out

 we got to enjoy a night on the town thanks to two young ladies in Wes' youth group.  we enjoy a fabulous burger bar, a walk through the art district and then dessert at a yummy French bakery. 

 our beautiful mermaid at 6:30 in the am

 On the way to dinner, there was a turtle in the road.  Wes, of course, stopped to move the turtle.  But instead of putting it back on the side of the road, he put it in the car for the boys.  You can imagine their excitement this morning when they discovered their new pet!!!

 this picture sums up these sweet kids...Wyatt with his turtle and Walker with his frog while the girls look with utter excitement!!

What a wonderful way to spend this weekend.  Honoring our sweet husbands who work so hard to provide for us...love us and take care of us!  Thankful for sweet friends who encourage us in so many ways.  So thankful that the Lord allowed our paths to cross some 8 years ago...who knew the impact the "new youth minister" and his wife would have on our family!  love you guys!!