Another one...there are just too many to narrow it down!

I'm in Love...

With my little baby niece Marlie! I didn't really expect to love her this much...if that makes any sense. I mean, I knew I would love her but there is something about a baby that is part of your flesh and blood that just makes that love so much stronger! I feel like I've been able to experience a small piece of what it's like to be a mother all though I know that my sister loves Marlie on a whole other level. Here are some pics of "little one" as I have come to call her:) She is just over a month old now!

I don't know if you can see it very well in this pic, but Marlie's hair is always sticking straight up and to the middle, almost in a "faux-hawk". Love it!

Beautiful mama (my sis Kingsley) and baby girl

Cute little yawn!


Uncle Michael:)

She was only 1 day old!

Look at that precious little face!!

Tagged!

Ok, the 4th picture in my 4th folder was this! This is the night of Kelee's going away party when she was leaving for South Africa almost 2 years ago now! Wow! I can't believe it's been that long. Me, Alyson and Robin gave her that watch for her going away present. Kelee was very happy about her present...but we used the opportunity to over dramatize the happiness...shocker! Miss and love you Kelee!!

Baby Marlie is Here!!!

Marlie Jade

January 22, 2009

7 lbs 13oz, 20 1/2 in.

Mommy is doing great!! She is the most precious baby ever...more pics to come!!

A Very EVENTFUL Christmas break!

Well I did a horrible job of taking pictures over Christmas, but I did take a few so I will have to add those later. Here's a brief overview of our Christmas and New Year:

We left on Christmas Eve morning to go to Spokane, WA where Michael's mom's side of the family lives, I experienced my FIRST white Christmas (with 5 feet of snow!!), went skiing and Michael snowboarded, played lots of games, ate a ton of food and watched lots of movies. We had a GREAT time!! I have never in my life experienced that much SNOW!

Now on to the drama...the night before Michael and I left WA to come home on 1/3, I started to get a terrible stomach ache. I wasn't nauseous at all, but had just horrible abdominal pain with no relief. Couldn't sleep the whole night. The next day, on our way home, we got suck in Vegas on a delayed flight for 3 hours (we were already going to be getting home after midnight) and by this time it was about 6pm and I had still not been able to eat anything all day. At about 7 I tried to eat a sandwich from Subway and IMMEDIATELY regretted it!! We finally get home to Nashville at about 3am, and at this point it had been more than 24 hours that I had been suffering with this terrible abdominal pain. So, we decided to go ahead and go to the ER. I was afraid whatever was wrong with me was causing damage to my body, and plus I'd had ENOUGH of the pain! So we arrive at the ER and they take me to a room to have my blood pressure taken, etc.

While we were sitting in the room, we can hear this woman moaning and yelling like crazy due to the fact that, we soon found out, she was in labor. The yelling gets closer and closer and soon the woman, sitting in a wheel chair, is stopped right in front of the door to our room. So we have a CLEAR view of everything going on. All of a sudden we here her say, "The baby's coming! I see his head!!" we look over and see her husband and 2 nurses crouched down under her and within about 5 seconds the baby was out and crying!!! What the heck! We just witnessed the birth of a baby!! Michael and I just looked at each other and said, "did that just happen?!" HA!

So the next 5 hours, I was taken to a room, given an IV, blood taken, given all kinds of medication, including Morphine (that didn't even make a dent in my pain), had to drink this awful stuff so they could put die in my stomach to see what was wrong, and at the end of it all, it was a virus attacking my digestive system that I basically couldn't do anything about. By the time I left, the pain was FINALLY subsiding. I'm just so thankful nothing terrible was wrong with me!! I never want to go through that kind of pain EVER again. And after witnessing that woman giving birth...there is NO question whether or not I will have an epidural when I give birth...YES PLEASE!!! Poor Michael was sick with a terrible cold too, but he stuck by me through it all. He was amazing. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year, minus any major drama!!

The JELL-O Generation!!

Ok, I have a fun task for each of you...

Next time you are at your mother's/grandmother's house, take a look in her pantry. How many boxes of JELL-O does she have??! I bet you will be SHOCKED!! And then ask the question..."what are you planning to DO with all that JELL-O, Mom?!" My mom and I have a theory as to why this generation feels the need to stock up on JELL-O, but I will reveal that later.

Please report back with your findings...:) HA!

God has a Plan and Purpose for ALL

I certainly don't mean to stir up any more negative feelings about our new president (even though this probably will, sorry) and there are a lot of things I do like about Obama....this however, is something I strongly disagree with.

I know this woman personally...she lives in Nashville and has an AMAZING story of how she was aborted and SURVIVED!! If this doesn't make a case for everyone having the right to life...even unborn babies, then God help us.

If I were you...

I would think twice about becoming a Starbucks Gold Member!

Ok so it sounds great at first...pay just $25 a year to get this special card, and each purchase thereafter is 10% off, plus one free drink on your birthday and one free drink the day you sign up.

So I thought...great! I go to Starbucks quite a bit, so this will DEFINITELY be worth it and save me a ton of money. But just in case, I decided to do the math because I'm a math genius (enter laughter).

Let's say you buy a drink for $4.50 once a week for an entire year (54 weeks). That comes out to: $234 a year.

With the Starbucks gold card you get 10% off so doing that same equation, it now comes to $210.60 a year.

That comes out to a savings of $32.40, but then it costs $25 to become a member in the beginning.

Even factoring in 2 free drinks at $4.50, the TOTAL savings for an entire YEAR is only $7.40, and that's if you remember to go to Starbucks on your birthday.

Is that bizaar to anyone else??! I just thought for SURE I would save at least liek 20 bucks a year becoming a "Gold" member. Geez, Starbucks...I feel like you have betrayed my trust in trying to trick me like this. Very dissappointing.

Kingsley's Baby Shower

We had Kingsley's first baby shower for Marlie Jade (baby girl's name!) at my house this weekend. It was wonderful. Here are the pics!

Mom, Kingsley and me

My aunt Beverly, Kyndall(soon to be added to the family, marrying my cousin Grant in March! and her soon to be mother-in-love Renee)

I was so happy Ashley got to come and bring her precious little girl, Milan!

Trying out Marlie's new bows!

Baby Bedding

Aunt Lanie, mom, Kings, me and Jody (my grandmother)

We had a great time and are so excited to meet Miss Marlie Jade sometime in January!!

Finding my Strengths

I took the Strengths Finder 2.0 test awhile back for my job at Mercy, and I have to say the results were very interesting! I'll give you my results, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Some say that others can clearly see your strengths while it's hard to see your own. So tell me my friends,  are these really me?

1. Strategic: (this one was a shocker to me) the ability to sort through the clutter to find the best route. You see patterns where others see complexity. You play out alternative scenarious in your head in order to decide the best path to take.

2. Developer: finding potential in others, helping to stretch and grow them in their gifts. These signs of growth inothers are your fuel and many will seek you out for help and encouragement because they know your helpfullness is genuine.

3. Woo: (stands for Winning Over Others) You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are energizing and you are drawn to them. You love to "break the ice" and make connections with people. In your world, there are no strangers, just friends you haven't met yet :) 

4. Includer: "Stretch the circle wider" is your philosophy. You want to include people and make them feel part of the group. You hate the sight of someone on the outside looking in. You always want to draw them in so they can enjoy the group. You are an instinctively accepting person. 

5. Positivity: You are generous with praise, quick to smile and always on the lookout for the positive in the situation. People want to be around you. Their world looks better because your enthusiasm is contagious. You inject drama in every project (for sure!!) You find ways to find everything more exciting.

I definitely see a lot of 3-5 in me initially. Very interesting. I would encourage everyone to go out and get this book, you can find it at any major bookstore, or here.

Mercy Ministries

I just have to share about what a priveledge it is to work for an organization that is truly changing lives...and I am seeing it first hand! If you are ever in the area you should schedule a time for a tour of the home to see first hand the unconditional love, exceptional living conditions and life changing power of Christ when you walk through those doors. One of the greatest things about this program is...it's completely free of charge!! I have not found another residential counseling program that is free of charge. This is just one of the many reasons why it WORKS! We want the girls to know that we are not trying to make money on their problems and our love is unconditional...just like God's love.

Our founder, Nancy Alcorn has an amazing story of how God led her to start Mercy Ministries 25 years ago. I cannot tell you how REAL and straighforward Nancy is about these issues and getting free from them. She has never let anything persuade her to waiver on any of the principals God gave her to begin this amazing ministry, and so He continues to bless it! Read about Nancy Alcorn and the beginning of Mercy Ministries here.

We rely SOLEY on private donations (through individuals, churches and business) so we can have the freedom to share Christ...the only TRUE live changer. Without that, the program would not be as successful as it is today. There has been an abundance of graduates writing in to tell us how they are doing and just to testify that God has changed lives for the better! You can read those letters here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this...if you have any questions about getting involved with Mercy through either volunteering, donating, or raising awareness among your community or with your church, please contact me!

New Hair!!

Thanks to my brilliant sister who is the best hair person in the world! I'm convinced...

Coolest Feature Ever!!

Ok thanks to the wonderful Anna Morrow:) I have discovered something new about blogger that will change all of our blogging lives forever!! If you will look to the right...you will see that I am adding all of the blogs I read in a new way that will constantly be updated if that person makes a new post! So much time is now saved! Much thanks to Anna for that revelation.

All you have to do is go to LAYOUT and "add a gadget" and I believe it's the first item on the list...add a blog list. SO great!! Enjoy!

P.S. I am not done updating this section so don't be mad at me if you don't see your blog there yet. :)

Our new house, finally!!!

Here's a sneak peak...we have a LOT of unpacking and organizing to do so please disregard the mess! I'm currently taking a break from the madness to do some posting...:)






I love these windows!






My favorite part...the back deck with an amazing view! There is actually a guy who lives behind our trees that has a big pond with a waterfall that he turns on at night...it is SO nice!!



I'll post again once everything is done:) We LOVE our new house!!

Baby Shower for Annie

Last Sunday we had a baby shower for Annie for baby girl #2! She will be named Katie Charlotte, of course after our dear sweet Katie, Annie's sister. 

Annie with her daughter Maggie on the right and Katie's little girl Merriwether on the left.

The hostesses and Annie (Jesse, Me, Annie, Bethany)

Me and Ashley, one of my very best friends from home. I miss her!

Beautiful Merriwether

It was so great to see everyone!

I have 2 new posts below...trying to catch up! So just keep scrolling! :)

Love is in the air!!!

I don't know what it is...but 4 of our best couple friends got engaged within like 2 weeks of eachother and they are all getting married within the next year. It's crazy! Love is definitely in the air. We hosted a fabulous "double engagement party" for 2 of the couples--Clay and Hannah and Mike and Jenny. We had it at Ombi restaurant off of Elliston place, and I would recommend this place to anyone wanting to do a private party! It was fabulous!

The hostesses with one of the guests of honor. (Me, Ty, Hannah and Alyson)

Clay and Hannah, getting married November 14th

Some of our guests enjoying the fantastic food and ambiance:)

Mike and Jenny, getting married October 4th Cheers to the happy couples!


We are so happy for you all!

Trip to Ft. Collins, CO

Over the 4th of July weekend, Michael, Robin and I went to visit our long lost friends, Eryn and David:) It was a fabulous trip and Robin and I soaked up every last second with Eryn:( Miss you! Here are some pics from the trip:

Absolutely breathtaking views! We went to Rocky Mountain National Park


We went to this big open field to watch fireworks with the cute little Ft. Collins community! Here's Eryn and David:

I told Michael that I was just a little bit mad at him for overshadowing me in this picture by being so stinking HOT! I mean really...

Good friends back together again. Nothing has changed when we see each other even though we live far away from Eryn. I love these girls.

Praise the Lord...

We are finally closing on our new house!!! It's set for Monday and I can't believe it's finally here!!! If I have to live in this house for the rest of my life, I would rather do that than have to work with another lender like this again. :)

I'll post pics of the new house soon!! Yay!

My lack of posts...

Is because of one thing...my new job!! I am loving every minute of it, but it is seriously a non-stop all day long series of events and by the time I get home every night it is all I can do to have enough energy to do anything but sit on the couch and rest my weary brain:) Hopefully as I get in the groove of my day to day activities I will not be so drained every day.



Here is a list of updates:



1. My little sister is pregnant!! She is due January 12th (she's about 14 weeks right now) and although things didn't happen in the, shall we say "normal" order...we are all very excited and covering mom and baby in prayer every day. Her name is Kingsley and if you would like to add her to your prayers we would so appreciate it! She will be a great mom:)

2. Still waiting to close on our new house. Hopefully it will be some time around Aug. 15th!

3. Over the July 4th weekend we went to visit our great friends Eryn and David in Colorado. We had the BEST time!! Saw gorgeous breath-taking mountains and had some great quality time spent with some truly special friends that I thank God for. Eryn has posted pics from our trip on her page. I haven't had a chance to post pics so you can look at hers.

4. Michael's birthday was July 11th. He is now 28...and I am so blessed every day more and more to be married to him!!

5. Kelee has a BLOG!!! YAY!! Be sure and show her some love:)



Ok that's all I can think of for now...I will try to do better about posting updates!