Dear....

Dear House,
Magically clean yourself.

Dear Taxes,
Magically prepare yourself and locate all your documents.

Dear Body,
Magically exercise and make right choices today.

Dear Self- don't expect Magic to do what you CAN do. There are so many things you are able to do. Focus on your abilities and allow God to do what you can't. Laying down all day doing nothing will result in just that: NOTHING.
Turn off your computer and get something finished.
Love, me.

That Moment...

Nothing like that moment when you are writing a check and realize it's your last... unless it's the moment where you realize that your house payment is due in a few days! Yikes! So I'm off to buy a money order (gggrrrr) and I just clicked PURCHASE on my new Lucy Checks- and had them rushed (double GRRRRR) But it's done and now I can rest better. I've just been so busy these last few days that It didn't even register that it was the END of the MONTH!

Time keeps on slipping....

I have good intentions to blog, I even take certain photos for the blog, and then never sit down to actually blog! Even now, my kitchen sink has dirty dishes in it, my floors desperately need to be mopped and the laundry basket is calling my name. I choose to blog. I choose to so that a year from now, or ten years from now when I can't remember what we did, I can look it up! Or even better years from now my children can look back and not just have a memory or a photo but a blog of their life! So here's to blogging (raise your glass) now on with it.

Saturday I was asked to speak at our first Women's Ministry Event for the year. We hosted a Tea. It was a lot of fun. My favorite food was the cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese and fresh dill. yum. Makes me ready to plant our garden! We are going to try to do a small garden this summer. Maybe even one of the gutter gardens that I've seen on pinterest (using housing gutters)
We had a great turnout at the tea, right at 20 ladies. I had ladies that aged from 18 up through their 70's. I spoke on SHOES (what women doesn't like or own a pair of them!) I had a whole bag full of different kinds of shoes. From bedroom slippers to high heels, and everything in between. I spoke on how we all have our comfortable shoes that we like and we like going places in those shoes- but God may be asking us to try on a different pair of shoes and reach out of our comfort zone and do something for him, that will require HIM because you know if it was your choice you'd rather be doing something else! The ladies received it well. Then I had them all fill out a form that will help me get to know them better and what they enjoy doing. I hope we have many more events to come! Including Craft night! Fun. I pray that this group will grow so that we have to eat in the fellowship hall and then move to the sanctuary for the rest!

I left right at 12:15 and we rushed to Gulfport to see our niece Kristen play soccer against Bekah and Kaitlin in our youth group. They played the other night, but it was hard to take photos, so I wanted to go when it was daylight! Our niece will be 18 this next week, hard to believe. I met her when she was just 5 years old- my time goes by SO FAST!

 Then Sunday we had church, Chris preached (and did good considering he woke up sick as a dog and spent the first two hours of his morning in the bathroom) After that we left and went home then headed to a birthday party for one of the girls from church.

 They have two dogs that had puppies within 2 weeks of each other- so all together they had 19 puppies! I told them they needed to name them all the names of the Duggers babies! They could be the Doggers. Yes I'm that whitty. Chloe has her pooch picked already. I'm not so ready for a dog. We have a cat and that is working out nice, but a dog requires more attention. And when we travel we have to have someone come care for the animals and that is a burden to people.

After the party we had to go to the church and load up a group of teens and head to Biloxi for a Speed the Light Youth service. We took 5 teens with us. It was nice because 4 of them had never been to a STL service so it was good to get them educated on the matter.

Monday the kids had school and Chris and I just worked around the house a bit. I went back to sleep after the little ones went to school and slept until 10 am! It was A-A-A-mazing! I rarely get to fall into a deep sleep after 6 am, so it's nice! That evening I surprised Chris and took him out for his birthday. His special day was Wednesday, but with church I knew we wouldn't get to do much. So we celebrated all week long! That is how I was raised!

Our first stop was this store

(Can't rotate these photos like I could in live writer- any suggestions?)

We left there and headed to Chirs' favorite place to eat (we haven't been there in yearrs!) Someone from our church gave us a $50 gift card for Christmas!!! I saved it for this night!

 We went to Dick's sporting goods after that and found these great softball shoes for cheap cheap! They are normally over $50 and we got them for.... $6.23 So cool.

Chris also got two shirts, one was an Ole Miss shirt for $3 and the Reebok one was $2. What a deal!

These are Chris' new running shoes! They are super neon orange. He likes them. He went for a run as soon as we got home.

Tuesday is a blurr, I can't remember much of anything from that day! Oh yeah I did get an amazing gift from Leland in Alabama!

And Wednesday I took Eli to Walmart early while the little ones were in school. Then Chris took all three kids to the circus while I worked at the church! I taught the Faith Kids Club upstairs and Chris preached for the adult class. Then gave Chris a surprise party after church! Sadly Chris didn't remember to take the camera to the circus and so he didn't bring it to church either. But I did grab a few photos with my camera phone- the quality is poor because I have a cover on it... didn't have time to take it off and clean it before snapping this photo:

Well it's taken me forever to complete this- I've rescued Eli from the swingset, wiped a bottom, picked up a few things from the floor, and closed the door about 3 times! But it is finally FINISHED!!! Time to keep moving! Today is Thursday and I have a concert to take the youth to, so I need to get the house picked up and get my shower and pay a few bills! Not sure what Friday and Saturday have in store! Sunday will we say goodbye to our Pastor and his wife- and Monday starts a new adventure for us as we wait to see who will become the new pastor!

Happy Birthday Husband!!!!

Hard to buy for...

Is there person if your family that is hard to by for? My paw paw was like that, I'm guessing most paw paw's are! He enjoyed the outdoors, so if he were still living today, I might look into buying insulated overalls!!! My father in law might enjoy a pair- though he wears coverall's not overalls. He is still waiting for his Christmas gift from this year! Chris found something at Lowe's that he wanted to buy him, and so when we got back from our Christmas vacation in North Carolina, the store had sold out of them! So we have to order it online now. I am also the person that likes to give gifts all year long. I buy things for people as I find them. I don't like going shopping for a person. I'm not likely to find what I want at the price I want it for if I'm under pressure.

Shopping

There are a few things I do when I'm upset.... one is eat and the other shop! Neither of these are good for the situation, they just are coping skills that hold me over! I will at random get coupons in the mail for a store that I frequent and if it's been a stressful or sad day for me, I'm likely to jump in the van and hit the mall! I don't always buy something but I enjoy looking! I don't ever get old navy coupons in the mail- though it would be nice since there is a store right by my mother in law's house. We go there every Sunday so it would be easy to run over there. I don't ever find anything for myself there- unless it's a scarf or something like that, but I do find things for my hubby or my children. My sister shops there too so I could always shop for her. I use to LOVE Old Navy when I could fit into their clothes! LOL. I was a fan from the start. I still would be if they would carry my size in the store (they do online, but they should know that a girl that is "plus" can't just pick a size and it fit) Some stores use to carry it in stores but they pulled it out a few years ago- maybe it was bad for business. Who knows. Either way just talking about it on here makes me want to do some online shopping therapy!

Love

There is to much strife in this world for Christians to not love one another...we should be leading by example.

All or none...

The All or NONE mentality is not helpful. Balance is good. I must find this.

Celebrating Eleven Years....

We didn’t have any real plans for our anniversary this year, but once Monday rolled around Chris said he was excited about our anniversary. He asked me if I wanted to know where we were going and I said NO! I wanted to be surprised. I had a few ideas of what he might do, but didn’t  think of Flint Creek until he started packing up our sheets and bedspread! He said I could go casual, but I didn’t know how casual, he said around the house casual. So I was confused, until we headed that way. I’m so thankful that my mother in law kept all three kids for us to go.

The view from our deck

The other view

Our cabin #

The back of the cabin

Loved these chairs

Chris wanted to fish before it was too dark, so we did that before going out to eat.

I even casted a line- too bad I didn’t catch anything but seaweed!

Chris caught one little fishy

Then he took me to a unique place… the Whistle Stop Cafe! He knows how much I adore the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, so this was PERFECT for our dinner date! I’m so proud of him! We had our share of fried green tomatoes and all you can eat catfish and boiled shrimp. I felt like we would both POP before we made it home! I have never tasted catfish so good! The shrimp was just right too- not to spicy but just enough.

We got home and watched a little TV (Chris flipped through the channels mostly!) I read on my Kindle Fire (Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapmen) I know it sounds silly to just sit and do nothing, but we rarely do sit down together on the couch, and do nothing- so that was a nice change for us! Plus it was so quiet, I could read and just enjoy my time.
Then we had a toast!

Celebrating ELEVEN YEARS!!! God is good!

This was late last night- we were about to go to bed…

Chris went fishing in the early morning around 6:30 and I slept in until 8, then had my leftover fish for breakfast!

I loved the view from the kitchen of the cabin. The cabin was really old, but it was lovely. A perfect little getaway for us!

After breakfast we drove around the park to see what had changed. It has been since 1999 since either of us had gone out there. So it was good to see what all they offered. We will probably take the teens from church this summer to go enjoy a day up there, or do a camp for the kids that can’t afford camp.

Then Chris found this trail that had a map of downtown Wiggins on it. I was sitting the van waiting and then he smiled, and held up one finger and took off running- I was laughing and wondering what he was doing. He said he wanted to see where the path went before he parked the van… I was afraid of him not coming back!


But he did, and so we parked and walked into town together. It was a nice mile walk to town. We talked a long the way and took a few photos…



Once we got back from our walk, we had our geese visitors back… I laughed because there were 2 males and 1 female- so it was like Chloe, Jack and Eli had come to see us. They were at our cabin when we arrived last night. It was ironic that there were three of them. They were LOUD and hissed at each other and of course HONKED. It was fun though- we missed our little ones… even if they do act like these geese!

We had to check out by noon, so we enjoyed our time together and then Chris packed up everything while I took my shower. The poor cabin shower needed a door, but they had a flimsy curtain instead. It kept wanting to touch me, so I finally flung it out and let it just run water into the floor… They had ceramic tile, but I felt bad, of course they had no towels or anything down on the floor to help, so I guess they expect it. Chris fished a little longer while I finished getting ready and then we took this picture together on the deck. (My favorite part of the cabin was the deck!)

 
As we were leaving to go eat lunch I grabbed a picture of the old Depot building, I thought it was cool.
 
Then we stopped at another little hole in the wall type place, and enjoyed some great food and time together.
  
Chris and I challenged each other on a skee ball game on my Kindle… I lost.


Chris had crab cakes and I had a seafood loaded baked potato…

I loved their Mardi Gras tree! I though it was super cool.
 
We got into town about an hour ago and ran into Office Max and Ross to pick a few things. Chris bought me a new pair of shoes for summer (it will be here soon!) and a set of Lucy glasses (one of mine from my birthday was ruined when our dishwasher ran all night) and I found some ribbon for a gift that I need to make. We just got to my in laws house a few minutes ago and I thought I better post all this now, because once I get home I have a lot to do! I hope you enjoyed seeing our photos!!! I sure do love my husband! This is the first time in eleven years that we’ve gone anywhere over night for our anniversary! Very special… thanks hon.