Christmas Fun

Unknown Plans

The other day I commented to Melissa about how God brings people in and out of our lives. Everyone knows this. But isn't it neat to look back and see the reason for it? Sometimes we can actually see how God's plan unfolded. Sometimes we still have absolutely no idea what His plan was. But we know He brings people in and out of our lives for a reason.
Several weeks ago Josh and the kids and I were in Crackle Barrel. We ran into some of Josh's friends from about 20 years ago!! It is a couple that rented the upstairs apartment in the house Josh grew up in. (Josh lived with his dad and grandmother in a large house that had a separate living area upstairs.) This couple lived there for several years, and Josh became very close to them. He was only about 7 when they moved in, and they were very young newlyweds. They were there when Josh's grandmother passed away. He was only eight.
I'm not sure how old he was when they moved out, but they remained friends for years. Then they moved to Georgia. Josh talked about them a lot, but I had never met them. They tried to come to our wedding, but we got married on a Friday night..........I know, WHO gets married on Friday night??? Anyway, they came from Georgia to Birmingham on the SATURDAY night after our wedding. (They actually went to the Caraway-Davie House and walked in on another wedding!!) So, I had yet to met them. Everyone had gotten busy with their own lives and time flew by. Now nine years later, we run into them in Leeds. They were visiting someone and heading back to Georgia. Of course we only talked for a few minutes. Josh has been emailing them since, and they are coming to our house this Friday night! Josh is excited about seeing them, and I can't wait to get to know them. I have found out that Gina went to Jacksonville State, like me. I was in the same sorority that she was in. She majored in education. She taught school for several years. She homeschooled her two children (boy and girl, three years apart) for several years, and now they have started there own private school. We have a lot of similarities. I can't wait to see God's reason for bringing them back into our lives.

Bad Habits are Hard to Break

I had absolutely no intention of taking Carson's paci away any time soon. Yea, I'd talk about it some, knowing the time was drawing near. But I, selfishly, just didn't feel like dealing with that battle right now. So, I actually surprised myself last night. I couldn't find his paci, and I just told him his paci was for babies, and he couldn't have it anymore. I told him we could go do something really fun today if he'd try to sleep without it. So, as I put him to bed he asked for it and then said, "pweese don't say no". But I asked him to try to go to sleep with out it. AND HE DID! He woke up twice and whimpered a little. But I was very excited. So, today I took the kids on a "no paci party". We went to Recreation Station (which is kind of like Pump it Up). I let them gamble a little. Well, not real gambling, but the kid form of gambling. You know, the machines that take tokens and give you tickets if you hit the Jackpot! They acquired about 75 tickets. Which cost me about seven bucks and all they were able to get was a Blow pop. Anyway, all day I kept telling Carson what a big boy he is for not having a paci. He asked for it once on the way home, and then went to sleep. OK ........now the real problem. Reality has set it. He woke up ill when we got home. And he's been screaming for his paci. What do I do?? He's been almost 24 hours without it now. Is he just having normal withdrawals? I can't turn back now........can I??
Now I feel like I'm just giving him anything he wants to try to keep his mind off the paci. We are going to Zoo Light Safari tonight and I keep bribing him with that, but he just told me he didn't want to go. He just wants his paci. Oh well. I'm not turning back now, I'm tougher than this! I can handle a crying two year old. But I feel sorry fro him. AHHHHH!!!!!

See "Progressive Dinner" Post below

Progressive Dinner

I had to miss the cookie swap Saturday night. I was disappointed about it, but I was able to do something that turned out really fun. Have you ever heard of or been involved in a progressive dinner? Well, I would definitely recommend being part of one, but maybe not planning one! I was only remotely involved with the planning. One of my neighbors was the coordinator of it all, and I believe it was a lot of work. I really appreciate all she did! We began at my house at 4 pm for the meet and greet. I literally had about 50 people in my house and had never met over half of them. The ones I had met, I didn't know very well. From my house we went to 4 other "host" houses. The first was appetizers, then soup and salad, next was the main course, and finally, the dessert house! This was a great opportunity for me to meet my neighbors that I probably wouldn't meet otherwise. I met a couple of ladies that I would really like to get to know better. I ate entirely too much, but we all justified it because we were "walking" from house to house. Which means my feet were in agonizing pain by the end of the night.........the end of the long night............it was 4:00 when we started and 9:00 when we got back home. Santa came to the last house and didn't show up until almost 8:00!!! ( Ho Ho....humbug!) But it really was a lot of fun. For 5 years now, I have had conflicting plans on the night of the cookie swap. Next year I want to plan for it to be at my house........then I'll have to be there!!!!

Belly Laugh!

I haven't had such a hard belly laugh in a long time! You've got to check out Ginger's blog. TOO FUNNY! And, of course, I had to do this my elfin' self! Check it out. It only takes a few minutes. I must see everyone as an elf!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9565442762

Ghost Busters

Last week I was in Chick-Fil-A eating dinner with Carson. I noticed, actually Carson noticed, a man that had a t-shirt with a big ghost on the back. He so innocently says, "Look dat gos, Mama!" Hummm, the ghost got me a little curious, so I'm trying to read the back of the guy's shirt. He's sitting to the side of me, so it's a little hard to read. I finally see the top of the shirt that says, "We Confront Your Fears". Hummm, a little more curious now. What kind of fears are they going to confront? I'm thinking, maybe it's a job placement agency, maybe a dating service, or if it's my darkest fear, a personal cleaning and organizing team to come tackle my closet. I finally read the whole T-shirt when three more people with the same shirts came to sit with him. CENTRAL ALABAMA'S PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS. Wow. These are real life ghost busters. Right here in Moody. Weird. Do people really think they have ghosts in their houses? I'm sure we could hear some freaky stories from these people. Weird, weird, weird.
Burt, you can bring anything back to the gospel. How about this one? Jesus, the real ghost buster!

Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels

Today I received my first email scam letter. Have y'all had any of these! The nerve of people! I could honestly see how some people that are obviously not as intelligent as I , could fall prey to this. I was dumb enough to open the email, which I never should have done. It seems that I am the "next of kin" of someone worth about 18 million dollars that was killed in a plane crash, and they want to transfer the money to my account. Of course they did add that they would be donating 10% to the tsunami victims (where did that come from?????? That was a few years ago wasn't it!) Such big hearted scam artists they are!
Anyway, guess I'm not gonna be a millionaire after all....................rats.

God's Floorboard

Last night I getting out of my car and glanced up into the beautiful night sky. The sky was perfectly clear and the stars were incredible. I guess it is kind of like looking at my children, I always notice the beautiful stars and look up every time I'm outside and think "wow". But there are times I sit and stare in adoration, in amazement, in worship to the creator. "Wow" doesn't seem appropriate, not adequate for such beauty.

I once heard the story of a young boy who adored his grandmother. He described the feeling of visiting her house. The warmth, the wonderful smells, the incredible feeling of home, the peace of being held by someone you know loves you so deeply.............all of this awaiting him every time he visited his grandmother.

Like most houses build without a basement, there was a crawl space under his grandmother' s house. She stored a lot of things there, and once asked her grandson to get something from under the house for her. He crawled under. It was a dark, cold, damp place. Bugs, rats,and spiders were many. As he was there he could hear his grandmother's footsteps above. He took a minute to lie down and look up at the floorboard of her house. "How could it be so miserable down here, and yet so perfect on the other side of this floorboard?", he thought.

Take a minute to look up and gaze at the incredible beauty of the stars tonight............If that is God's floorboard, imagine what awaits us on the other side.

I don't have much to write about today. Just another "Day of our Uninteresting Lives". But I feel the pressure to blog. I'm just trying to get rid of the "Monday Morning Blues". Coming down off of my weekend high. We had a great weekend. Not too much to do. We stayed around the house Saturday morning, and then headed to the Octoberfest Sat. afternoon. Saw friends from church, but came away with a looming guilt for not helping at the church's booth. No one intentionally made me feel guilty. This is just the way I am. I hate it when I feel like I'm not doing something I should do. I'm sure no one else thought much about it, but I go away thinking I'm a horrible friend for not helping! Then I have to defend myself...........oh, it's a cycle I need to break......I know!!

Anyway, we did have fun at the Octoberfest and the carnival. It's one of the neat things about living in a small town.

Sunday was near perfect. We all slept until 7:30. And we were able to leave for church on time, with no screaming, yelling, crying, etc.......

Perfect weather, so we took the kids to the new park at the Leeds walking track. (#1 by the way) Huge play set, 6 big slides, rock wall, swings....the kids had a blast. Then off to Mickey D's for an ice cream and by the movie store to rent a movie for the kids. Which means, after we ate yummy hamburgers, Josh and the kids watch a movie and I take a long, hot bath and retire a little early! Now you see why I'm having the Monday morning blues!!

Is there a way to delete a post?

fun under the stars

Fun under the stars!

YEAH!!! It worked! Now I'm ready for all those comments! :)

Read posts below...................

I have somehow messed up and can no longer accept comments on my blog. I checked the settings, and they are all showing that I allow comments. I am going to see if this post will allow comments. If not .......I need help!!! (because I must have comments, right?)
email me at joshandpaige@windstream.net THANKS!

Oh, how I love rainy mornings when I have nowhere to go. I love lying in bed and listening to the rain patter outside the window. I even enjoyed the storm last night. It woke Landy up, and she climbed in bed with us. We usually do not allow her to sleep with us, so I secretly love stormy nights when she can cuddle up with me all night. We were, however, awakened by a loud thump very early this morning. Yep, the bed is a little high, and the floor is a lot hard.......ouch! Poor thing. She shook it off and climbed right back in bed. Never even really waking up.

I had a few minutes to myself, so I read some blogs that friends had posted about our women's retreat this past weekend. I love listening to the insight that they have. I am not a person of deep thought. I wish I was. But that's why God gave me friends like KimHill, who can tell you deep thoughts she has about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Not always very useful, but always very entertaining! Kim's past post however (like most) I did find very encouraging.

I had such a great time at the retreat. I appreciate Crissy and Mona so much and the time they put into coordinating and preparing for the weekend. The study was something I feel was very much needed within our church. I realize how much I need the guidance and encouragement of someone more spiritually mature than myself. I also realize that although I feel totally and completely inadequate, God can use me to nurture others as well.

Thanks to all who had any part of the retreat! Remember, same place, same time next weekend right? Oh, I forgot to tell my husband that part!

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I am commissioning Crissy to write a book. You know she can do it! I am convinced it will be a best seller. The title will be When God Freed me from Make Up and Pantyhose! Look for it in........hummmm.............Fall 2009. Alright Crissy, put down Lord of the Rings and get busy. You have people waiting on you!

OK so I just learned to put a slide show on my blog....can you tell??? Of course the first is from our beach trip last month. The next is from our newest tradition started by Kim. I call it "An afternoon with the Gingerbread Man!". It was lots of fun. It was interesting to see the kid's creativity in their own gingerbread man. Of course, Laura did an excellent job with the reading, and Kim lead the troops on a wild goose chase across the street when the gingerbread man escaped from our oven! Too bad there's no picture of the ladies huffing and puffing and sweating after the chase. Luckily Kim managed to kick off her 4 inch heels as she was running out the door! Great fun!

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Quote

I read my email from Quin and felt I needed to add this quote to my earlier post.

"Blessings at times come to us through our labors and at times without our labors, but never because of our labors. For God always gives them because of His undeserved mercy." -Martin Luther

5 year old and faith

I was sitting with Landy yesterday while she was diligently cutting and gluing, obviously in deep thought(she sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating really hard), when she asked me another question about heaven. She asks questions about God and heaven ALL the time! I guess most kids are very inquisitive at this age. So I ask her the question I have asked many times, "How do we get to heaven?", and she said, "By being good".

AAAAAAAA!!!!!! "No, no, no, no, no NO!", I said a bit frustrated with a hint of HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS! So, again I explained to her that it was by faith alone. As I was talking to her I was thinking about our Sunday School class this week. Our class full of adults was being reminded of this same thing. Of how we are saved by the gospel, and then we somehow think that the law is something that we must uphold daily to keep our salvation.

I have felt that many times God is saying to me, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS!". Why can't I get it? He has not only attained our perfection but atoned for our imperfection. I need to remind myself of this more. It seems that the past few months God has been teaching this to me repetitively. As I need to with Landy.

I am thankful she has a slight grasp on it. I was able to use something she said as an example for her yesterday. Last week Carson had gotten her scissors and was cutting in one of her school books. I ran in very frustrated and took the scissors away. Landy looked at him and said, "Carson, Mama should spank you right now, but I think she's gonna have mercy on you!". Hallelujah! She is learning something! Maybe I'll learn from her!

Whew! I had a yard sale today. For some reason, I enjoy having yard sales. Although after about an hour of it, I'm ready to be done! I vowed today...no more yard sales for at least 2 years! I have had two in the last 6 months. So that should satisfy my yard sale obsession for a while. We've been in our new house since January, and we just finished unpacking everything in the basement. How does one acquire so much stuff? It is really unbelievable. I really enjoy shopping yard sales too. Which is probably the answer to how I acquire so much stuff.
Landy had a lemonade stand along with my sale. You all know Landy so you can image who was actually selling the lemonade. ME! Anyway, she thinks she did it. She did mange to tell a few people thank you.
I did find lots and lots of t-shirts and sweatshirts left over from my monogramming shop. So I'm trying to think of something neat to have monogrammed on them and sell them at our Christmas Bazaar as a fund raiser for the Women's and Children's ministries! I'm excited about what Crissy is planning! She has lots of great ideas.
Well, this was just one of the "Days of our Uninteresting Lives".
It was fun and somewhat productive, which makes for a good Saturday!

My seven

My Seven

1) I love thrift stores and yard sales and would shop there even if I had a million dollars!

2) I was in lots of skits in college and would love to be in local theater.

3) I was obsessed with Michael Jackson as a young girl and cried when his hair caught on fire in the taping of the Coke commercial.

4) I am a distant cousin to Jim Nabors ( GOMER PYLE ) "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!"

5) Josh and I went to kindergarten together and didn't know it until we met again when we were 17 and ran across an old newspaper article with our picture in it.

6) I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, I'm not much in to yoga, I am in to champagne..............(not gonna comment on the rest) My brain chooses to remember the words to many, many, many songs. But I have a horrible, horrible memory when it comes to anything else!!

7) I was engaged to someone else in college, and honestly, the first thought that I had after putting the ring on my finger was, " Oh, poor Josh. This is going to hurt him really bad." Needless to say, that engagement didn't last! Thank God for that one!!

I'm so glad to be back in Wed. night class. I taking "Disciplining by Grace" ....again. The homework for this week is to completely, 100%, TRY not to 1) boast about anything 2) defend or excuse yourself NO matter what 3) gossip or run someone down, not even a little bit.
You know, it is easy to think, " Well, I don't go around bragging, or talking about other people! This can't be that hard." Wow. I actually caught myself on the phone, on the way home from class, biting my tongue! I don't intentionally boast, but I was totally about to say something that would have made me sound "good" for saying it! I'm sure the person I was talking to would never have thought of it as boasting, however, I know my own heart. YUCK! Thank God for His grace!! That is why I love this class. It has taught me so much about grace. I remember being involved with a certain group in college. It is a good organization, but for me, at that time, it did nothing but leave me with a constant guilt of not being good enough! We didn't talk a whole lot about grace then. It was more just watching how you "behaved" in front of others at parties, etc. That was a lot of pressure. I eventually said, "Forget it. I can never be as good as all these other people!". I am so thankful to be in my church. To have people who know the grace of God is real, and we are nothing but filthy sinners. It definitely takes the pressure off. And the more I see of my sin. The more I appreciate the cross!
(I also had to stop myself from typing a sentence in this blog! I was going to give an excuse for why I am taking this class ....again! Uh huh, this is going to be a tough week for me!!)
But I am definitely glad to get back in the swing of the Fall schedule. Although it isn't quite Fall yet, school is going much better than I could have anticipated, Auburn football begins Saturday, and it has actually cooled down to below 100 degrees! Yea!!

I've attending two funerals this week. Funerals are no fun. One of Josh's bosses died over the weekend. He was 80. I didn't know him that well, but still funerals are sad. He was Greek Orthodox. Don't know too much about their beliefs, but I know from attending the wake, they are very ritualistic. They seem to do a lot to "honor" the dead. Which isn't altogether a bad thing, but.........as cold as it sounds..........they are dead. The second funeral was for my mother's cousin, whom I knew a little better. He was 81. He was a believer. He was diagnosed with lung cancer about 6 wks ago. He was still in relatively good health for having lung cancer, but the chemo wasn't doing what they had hoped. He told his daughter Monday that he was ready to die. He passed away Monday night. Peacefully. Ready to go "home". His funeral was a worship ceremony. But his poor wife, who has alzheimer's was so sad. She can't remember that he has died and relived the initial pain several times. Now she is just being told that he has "gone to run errands and will be back soon". It makes me long for heaven! When there will be no more sadness like we experience in this fallen world! Landy asks me all the time..."Mama, will we bleed in heaven?....Mama, what if I hit my head in heaven, will it hurt?.......Mama, will I need bandaids in heaven?" As I explain to her what heaven will be like, she has a look of awe on her face. "Wow!! That's gonna be neat". You know, it is gonna be neat. I don't long for heaven like I should. I don't long for my savior like I should. That is my prayer today!

Noticing a new talent

I have realized that I think my life may be even more uninteresting than I previously thought. Or maybe it is just that I lack the ability to make everyday life seem interesting. That's why I love hanging out with my friends and listening to their funny stories. Although they are just everyday life stories, some have this "talent" that they like to refer to as "verbal diareah". I have to say, I don't see this as being the horrible disease they see it as. It truly is a talent! OK so maybe you say some things you might regret sometimes....you are the life of the party!
I had so much fun hanging out at Jessica's house last week. Having time to just talk to other women is so important. I think women need this way more than men. (Why is that??? What do men really talk about when they get together? It CAN'T be the same things we talk about.)
I absolutly love hearing all the funny stories and learning more about my friends. I'm glad Kim and Crissy have verbal diareah. (I would love to start a tally on how many times that phrase is used!!!) I'm glad we all feel so comfortable around each other that we share stories the way we do. (notice I say "we" although ya'll didn't come away with too much dirt on me) Maybe I didn't eat enough chocolate to loosen my tongue. Well, I'm pretty sure I did. I think I just don't have the God given talent of "verbal diareah". From now on....I do not want anyone to refer to this as a disease.......how could I be jeolous of someone with a disease.....it is definitly a talent, and sometimes, a lot of times, I wish I had more of it!

I DID IT!

OK, I guess I finally decided to bite the bullet and create a blog. Although the name of my blog says it all, I'll try to make my life seem somewhat interesting to those of you who would actually take the time to read it! Thanks for the encouragement Kim, but now you know the pressure is on you to actually read this boring stuff! I guess I don't have a lot to say right now.............I feel pressure to perform. I'm gonna have to think about this for a while! Until next time...........