Two months later...

Memphis and Liam Cruz

These are my 'lil cousins. I love these sweet little boys so much. We took these back in July and well I'm just now getting around to putting them on here. :-)

It's been awhile...

I know for the four or five people who are so obsessed with reading the brilliance that is this blog, I've let you down. (Please note sarcasm) I humbly and regrettably apologize.

What's up with the fam? Other than Brad working three jobs, Lily going to kindy, and me overextended (as always) not a thing has changed.

I will say that I'm blessed beyond measure and that I'm reminded daily that I do not deserve it.

Since I don't have any original offerings of insight to share with you, I'll give you a few of my faves from some other, more well known, peeps.

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. "~ Mary Pickford

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."~ Japanese Proverb

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place."~ Unknown

Just living the life of a princess

I have no photography skills whatsoever. These pictures were more imitation than imagination. I have a horribly cheap camera, and edited these pictures with Picasa. But, all in all, I'm very happy with the finished product. I took these about three weeks ago and wanted to share.

Here are a few pics from our recent trip to Myrtle Beach. In the pics with Lily is her best friend Hannah.

The World's Greatest!

Last Thursday was graduation at Mother's Day Out. Let me start by saying that the MDO program at Second Baptist Church in Clinton is incredible. It's an awesome program with wonderful people. I can't say enough good things about it. Lily has learned so much this year. The kids learn the normal pre-k stuff. Counting, ABC's, colors, shapes, how to write their name, their phone number and address. They also learn some spanish, and they even learned all of the US presidents. (I got to learn these too) In addition to all this they also were taught bible verses and bible stories. I can't believe these wonderful ladies were able to fit all of this in just two days a week. The kids were constantly involved in some activities, many of which was community service type stuff. I feel very fortunate to have had this experience and I know that this program has helped to shape Lily and the person she will become.

Graduation was bittersweet. On one hand I was so proud of Lily, she really had come so far. It's amazing how much a child can mature in a few months. On the other hand tough I was so sad to see that she's growing up. The three graduating classes did individual programs and then a collective group program. They sang songs and said their bible verses. All of the kids were just so cute. The last song they sung was "World's Greatest" by RKelly. I teared up just watching Lily sing every word. I know she's the world's greatest!!!! Everything about her is beautiful. Before I tear up again, I better share some pictures.



After getting her diploma from Ms. Carol







Lily with Ava and Ethan, her best friends.



Diploma

Psalms 139 1-16

I thought I would share some of my favorite scripture. Sometimes we ask ourselves what is it that we can offer the rest of the world. How can I be an instrument for God? I don't really know how to seek out opportunities to witness or present God to someone who may not know him. I hope that my life is a light to others with whom I encounter everyday, but I fear that I am a poor and pitiful excuse for a Christian. Not worthy to even consider myself Christ-like. So as I was thinking about all this, I thought from time to time, I could share somethings on my blog. I don't have too many people that read this, but you never know, where the words may go.

Anyway I wanted to share one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. This scripture helped me through an incredible journey in my life. Through a dark and scary time.

Psalms 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvellous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.

139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret , [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.

So powerful the thought of human existence. To know that our life inside the womb is covered in God's presence. His spirit is abiding with us. To be fearfully and wonderfully made... the concise and complex makeup of ourselves is miraculous, is fantastic, is wonderful. And yet compared to God's love, Christ's love, it is utterly unimaginable. God's love for us individually is so strong, he loved us from the beginning, before our formation. And then so much more once we were made, covered by his grace, and spirit. To my readers, if any readers, I pray peace be on you and that if you have not found this love, you soon will.

~C

Thirty, quickly approaching, slowly driving me mad

So... I hit the big 30 in roughly five months. I really thought I'd handle dirty-thirty well, I've never really been a vain person, and age is how you feel, not an actual number. I assumed being thirty was much like being twenty or twenty-five. For the last ten weeks or so, I've come to realize that dirty-thirty is going to be horrible, and any attempt to help me preserve me youth will fail miserably.

What led me to this assumption?

1.) The magnetic force that has somehow not only stopped my metabolism, but has allowed it to work in reverse. I'm never going to be a size 6 again, those 8's aren't looking too hopeful either. Yesterday my diet consisted of one lone lettuce leaf, a piece of extra gum, and licking the condensation from a coke can, automatically gained six pounds. You can't blame "bloating" forever so I'm coming to terms with it, through a twelve-step program called Belly-Bulgers anonymous.

2.) After two wonderful trips to the tanning bed I have a great connect the freckles game displayed on my back, arms, and shoulders. I've never been a freckle person, so I think these may be age spots. As if lying in your own sweat in a 115 degree coffin for twenty minutes wasn't bad enough punishment for a golden glow, I now can provide entertainment on long distance road trips.

3.) My vision, without glasses or contacts (my preferred weapon of choice) has dismally left occupancy, and is never coming back. Without the aforementioned re-enforcements, I couldn't see Santa dance with bigfoot on yacht in the middle of the day.

4.) Forgetfulness is a constant companion, a few things I've lost... keys, debit card, cell phone, my ability to jump on a trampoline (TMI).

5.) My body, well where to start? Pregnancy five years ago was the predecessor to the enormous hips, thighs, stomach and pretty much everything else that embodies the real me today. Parts that should be directionally up are slowly giving in to the Law of Gravity, despite all the Victoria's Secret and Spanx in the world. Of course pregnancy is no excuse for letting your body go, I just happen to let my body go to Hoskin's Drug Store a few too many times for gravy and biscuits while I was pregnant. There is no forgiveness to indulgence, people remember that!

6.) Crow's feet, or as I like to call them, "Memoirs of happier times, and smiles of the tight-skinned face".

7.) My need to indulge in youthful escapades.

For example, my love for all things "Twilight."No doubt strategically marketed to teens and early 20 somethings, I'm obsessed! Something about forbidden teenage love with a vampire, or werewolf is more than appealing to me.

Instead of wanting to buy clothes for a woman of my age, I find myself secretly longing to shop at places targeted for teens and college kids. When there isn't room for a stroller to fit between the stack of skinny jeans and the shirtless, guns-a-blazin, cologne inducing adonis of a sales associate, it's time to start shopping somewhere else.

I'm sure thrity is much worse in my mind than actual reality. Or maybe it will get worse as the next five months progress onward. In the meantime I'll hold on to my last seconds of 29, and hope to find something that will eventually secure youth within me.

~C

8 Things

My friend Tiff tagged me, so I'm playing along. :)
Here's how 8 THINGS works:- Mention the person that tagged you.- Complete the lists of 8's.- Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.- Go tell them you tagged them!

8 Things I look forward to:
*Myrtle Beach
*Shopping for Myrtle Beach
*Mother's Day Out Graduation
*Lily getting better
*Sleeping in tomorrow
*Taking my dogs to the lake
* Lily's 5th party (see also Myrtle Beach)
* New Moon to come out (November)

8 Things I did yesterday:
*Went to work
*Took Lily to MDO
*Took a nap
*Found a condo in Myrtle Beach
*Planted some flowers
*Watched Grey's Anatomy and cried
*Gave Casey a bath
*Cleaned Lily's room (this required outside reenforcement, thanks MOM!)

8 Things I wish I could do:
*Not have to work :) (But thankful I do)
*Travel to Africa
*Finish writing a book
*Cure autism
*Play the fiddle
*Lose weight
*Remodel an old farmhouse
*Help every hurting child in the world, feel loved and wanted.

8 Shows I watch:
*Desperate Housewives
*Grey's anatomy
*The Dog Whisperer
*Dancing with the stars
*Hannah Montana (not really by choice)
*George Lopez
*That 70s show
*Big Love
By the way this list could go on and on and on and on..............

8 Bloggers tagged: ( I don't have 8 bloggers )
*Tiff
*Joey
*Curtis
*Becky

One Sentence Story

So I happened upon this site a few weeks back and sent in a submission, a couple of days later I was notified that my entry was approved. How cool! I'm like a published writer! Well not really. Check it out and rate it if you want to.

http://onesentence.org/stories/2990/

We're #1

Well we survived our first cheerleading competition. I'm so proud of all the girls, we took home first place in our division. Lily and Hannah were the smallest and youngest kids there, but they were all heart and my favorites of course.










Cheer shirts were made by Becky at polkadaisies.com

Opry time

Finally home! Our overnight trip to Nashville was fun, busy and tiring. Lily and I both are sick with allergies so we both felt bad the entire trip. It was so cold and gloomy, I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. This was our first time to the Opry, and we were not disappointed. Of course the house was packed, not even standing room. All kinds of little girls waiting to see TAYLOR SWIFT, and boy could they scream. I'm glad to be home and even happier to be in warm pjs with my quilt. Here's a few pics, I have a ton more and may post some of them later.







Trace Adkins

Keith Anderson

Jimmy Wayne


Gloriana

Do the dye

Happy Easter and Invitation

Wanted to send out Easter greetings to all. I will be very busy the next four days, and I didn't want to forget!

I also want to invite everyone to our Good Friday Church Service at church. It's is at New Freedom Community Baptist Church in Duff. Service is Friday at 7 pm. We are having a variety program, with a skit from our children's sunday school class, a white-glove presentation by "Silent Inspiration", our church's white-glove team, and choir singing and a regular church service. Refreshments after the program. We've worked hard on this for months and it is sure to be an awesome service. If you need directions, comment here, or email me. Saturday is our egg hunt, and it starts at 2:00, we always have a good time, play games, treats for all the kids, face painting, etc.

Try not to get caught up in all the Easter activities and really appreciate the reason why we're celebrating. The hope that we have in our risen savior.

Blessings to you all!

~C

God's here...

As most of you know (the five or six people who actually read my blog) I lost my cousin Steven last week, unexpectedly. Needless to say his family, my family, have been devastated. Steven was one of the greatest hearts on this planet. He was funny and kind, and a good friend. He will be sadly missed by many. Throughout this tragedy, I myself along with so many others had a hard time dissecting this. Human nature demands answers, reasons, rationalizations. Who else can we question, other than God? I debated on doing this blog, as it's somewhat personal, more personal than I would normally share with close family and friends, let alone the whole world wide web. But I hope through my writing someone may be helped, because I know that just by writing this, I will have been helped. So after much type:delete, type:delete, I've decided to post my thoughts on things.

First of all I do not believe God is responsible for all the bad in the world, for any of it. He’s not responsible for the death, destruction, fear and hate, that we see everyday. Our comprehension of God is impossible to it’s fullest capability. Our thoughts and God’s plan are not parallel, we will never understand it fully in this life. God’s plan, his will for you is that you decide your fate, your destiny He made the plan, by giving us life through Christ, salvation.

In the beginning, God made a perfect world, provision for everything. The only mistake (if you will) is that he made man to be able to choose. He gave the choice. Most of the time, we choose the wrong thing. Who knows how long Adam and Eve enjoyed life in the garden before the temptation was too much, and the wrong choice was made which catapulted everything wrong with the world today. (Really think about that.) We want to blame God for the things that happen that are bad or don’t seem fair but we are in charge of our course, of our path. If we get detoured, then that's not really God's fault. God does not control that, we do. God gives us choices, and then we have the results after that.

God’s plan is perfect, if in fact we choose him. Each day is like choosing a pathway, you can always change course, for the good or the bad, but it's your choice. I do think that God may intercede throughout and deal with you accordingly, especially with prayers being lifted on your behalf.

I'm not sure that I would believe that there is an underlying reason behind everything that happens, that Steven didn't die to teach us all some valuable lesson. I believe that he died because of a medical problem, a human defect (we all have them), but through his death, if we open our hearts, our minds, our souls, we may gain something in return. Then and only then, would his death not be in vain. One event can set so many others in motion, but it is our choice to respond to that event. (I really hope this makes sense). That's the good of all of it, there's good that can come from a tragedy, there are lessons that can be learned from a tragedy, but those are not always the reasons for the tragedy. Those lessons, that goodness, is just an extension of God's mercy into our otherwise pitiful existence. I don't believe in coincidences; I don't believe that things randomly happen, but I think the reasons behind them are more concise than we allow. We accept divinity on some levels and then other levels we do not. So when you see something that reminds you of Steven, when you have a dream that brings something back to memory of that person you'r missing, it's not coincidence, or subconcious, it's an extension of God's grace, his mercy.

(I know I'm not explaining this well as I wish I could).

It's through our weakness that God is made strong, it's through our suffering that we find our source of strength. Sometimes I think the goal is not to conquer the mountain but to absorb the strength for the climb. To maybe realize you need the strength in the first place. Do we blame Henry Ford everytime there's a car wreck, or Benjamin Franklin everytime we lose electricity? NO. We do not. Is blaming God any different?

I guess in summation of all this what I'm trying to say is no matter what choice you make, what path you choose, God is there, working incessantly, to show his works through you or to you, whatever you need at the time. His plan is perfect in that, whatever choice you make, if you seek him, if you know him, you'll find comfort, solace,  and mercy. We're not here to merely exist, but to overcome, to continue to show the world that God is good.

Squad 51 to Rampart

Lily has a new favorite show on the "I absolutely cannot positively will not miss" list. This show isn't on Disney, or Nickelodeon, Noggin or Boomerang. It comes on WMAKD channel 7. The show is none other than EMERGENCY. Now its obvious that Lily would be interested in fireman, as her daddy is a fireman. She thinks it's the greatest thing that her daddy saves lives. So her natural curiosity of fireman has intensified since Emergency. Now for those of you not familiar with EMERGENCY, let me give you some background. Emergency originally aired on tv from 1972 - 1977. It was a one-hour show centered around two paramedic fireman named Johnny Gage and Roy Desoto. I'm certain that this show was a forerunner to the medical shows we enjoy today, if you take away the intense drama and raunchy love stuff. So the DVR is set for everyday at 3pm so she can enjoy her new program. She also thinks that Johnny Gage is "hansum". Boy do I have my work cut out for me.

20 Things that I know!

I know....


1. I know that hugs are never inappropriate.

2. I know how it feels to be in the presence of a holy God.

3. I know that massages, candles, books, and lip gloss make me feel happy.

4. I know that my little girl sees her daddy as a hero. An unfaltering, larger than life, hero. I hold him in high esteem as well.

5. I know that making mistakes is part of experience and wisdom.

6. I know that laughter through the mist of pain is what sets us apart from the other species on this planet. It's what keeps us from extinction.

7. I know that mothers are most certainly the hardest working, most loyal, over-extended, dedicated employees in the business. All without raises, fringe benefits, time off, or vacations. But all that pales in comparison to having little arms wrapped around you at night.

8. I know that perfection is very boring. If perfection were a color it would most definitely be gray.

9. I know the significance of a front porch, sweet tea, and a hot August day in Tennessee.

10. I know that I have a favorite spot at Norris Dam, that I just like to go lie down in the grass and look at the sky. I had the pleasure of sharing this spot with Lily, she thinks it's really cool to look at the sky.

11. I know that I miss having my "papaw" around to talk to. To tell my hopes and dreams to, because if the rest of the world knew that I was going to fail, he would believe in me.

12. I know that I genuinely like Taylor Swift songs.

13. I know that I will cry every time I watch My Girl, Steel Magnolias and A Walk to Remember.

14. I know that I will never forget every moment that I spent of September 11th, 2001.

15. I know that weakness, temptation, desperation, and grief, all can be conquered. Because I'm a survivor of all these things.

16. I know that having a child is the greatest accomplishment of my life. I also know that I will say that when I'm 85.

17. I know how it feels to be invincible, on top of the world, I also know how it feels to be the one under the bus.

18. I know the mixed emotions of hopelessness, senselessness, wonder, pride and gratitude while watching a soldier's funeral procession down Main Street.

19. I know the turmoil that comes with having a life inside you and then it's gone, without a proper goodbye.

20. I know that my faith is restored in humanity because of my friends Chris and Charity, their kindness, selflessness, goodness, meekness... it gives me hope.

Reading...

I love to read, really I do. But it seems like I never get time. My friends at work are always reading new books and I really want to join in the discussions. I usually read two books per year, one on the drive to the beach and one on the drive back to the beach. I read a great book a month or so ago by Khalid Hosseini, very good read, the story is about women in Afghanistan. So now I'm starting Twilight. Everybody I know has read these books and talks about them constantly. I also ordered a new book (new to me) today "How could a loving God" by Ken Ham. I'm very excited to read this. I'm a huge admirer of Ham and love "Answers in Genesis". He is a great Christian man and scientist. He has many childrens books that approach science from a biblical standpoint. A friend of mine has a little boy that recently has shown an interest in dinosaurs, she expressed to me her mixed emotions about the books she had checked out at the library. So our quest to give him bible based scientific informaiton led us to http://answersingenesis.org/ . I was somewhat familiar with Ham, as I've read many articles, excerpts that he has written. So I thought I'd try a book on for size.

I stand strong on my views about evolution, creation and many other scientific beliefs and it's good to find authoritive resources that will back up your beliefs. As parents it's our responsibilty to ensure that our children follow the proper path. That path can often be misguided by many things, so it's important to create as little distraction as possible. Don't misunderstand were I'm coming from. I'm not closeminded, and have read many things on evolution, Darwinism, etc. I find science and it's many theories more than intersting. I love that Darwin was inspired by the Galapagos, I too am inspired by them, inspired to believe that God created a world of wonder, and provision. That is the second place on this planet I want to see in my lifetime, the first being Africa.

Back to the topic at hand, if anyone has book suggestions, please by all means, I'm open. Suggest.

Lily's shirt made by Becky! Isn't it great?

The Prodigal Blog!

I've been a terrible blogger, so my apologies. I know it's been awhile, but our life is pretty low-key so no interesting happenings in the last three months. We recently got a new dog, I know another one... She's a Boston Terrier named Casey. I've also taken on a part time job at the Department of Finance so I'm working a few evenings a week. In addition to all that, I'm directing our church's white glove performance on Good Friday. Did I say life was low-key? Seems pretty busy. I'm very much ready for spring and can't wait to enjoy some time outdoors.

Lily came to me the other and asked me for $19.95, apparently she is in desperate need of a Snuggie. The power of suggestion is so strong on TV, that even a four year old feels the urge to need the most asinine invention. It's a robe turned backward. She was able to repeat the entire infomercial verbatim, and finished with "It's the blanket that has sleeves, don't you want me to have it?" First Aquadots, then bendaroos, now the snuggie. If she asks for a Bowflex, I'm donating out tvs to Goodwill.

I had the privilege to meet a fellow blogger, Becky at polkadaisies.com made a shirt for Lily. Her work is very impressive and she is incredibly sweet. Thanks again, it was a pleasure to meet you. I'll post a picture of Lily when she wears it.