Celebrating 5 years in the making

We've been out of town since last Thursday, so I've been out of the blogging world. But after spending an amazing weekend with friends at the lake, M to the Izz-A and I went out for our little anniversary date...just the two of us. After catching a movie, we had a delicious meal at The Conch House, situated right on the water.

I love you Matt! Thanks for being the amazing husband that you are!

I never liked tight Wranglers until you!

Wordless Wednesday

Takin' care of biznaz

Let's just resort to bullets, shall we?

• I finally added an email address to my sidebar and profile. I've been meaning to do that for quite a while now and just got around to it. Drop me a line!

• Several of you have asked what kind of camera I use. It's a Nikon D40 SLR, along with this high power zoom lens. Believe me when I say that it is very user-friendly and perfect for everyday folks like myself.

• Someone asked me the other day why I never posted my pic from the Gate River Run 15K, which I said I would post back in March. I actually forgot about it, but here ya go...

Brightroom Photography

Mr. Bib#13683 behind me seems to have gotten some inside info on where the photographers were gonna be located. Guy's looking directly at the camera, grinning, ready for his close-up. Guess ol' Sunglasses Joe and I missed that memo.

But who am I to make fun? I'm the one running in 2009 WITHOUT an iPod! Seriously, who still runs with a radio strapped to their arm?!

4th of July - Good times

M to the Izz-A had last Thursday and Friday off, so we started our holiday weekend early and spent both days at the beach.

The first two pics for this post are probably my favorite.

I remember going fishing with my dad as a little girl and eating the mess out of some Vienna sausages. They make me gag just thinking about them now, but back then, I thought they were the best part of the fishing trip.

Whose mama is obsessed with SPF???

On Friday, we were happy to have Kasey, Brandon, Hayley and Leighton join us. The girls played so hard and had a great time watching Matt and Brandon try their hardest to make sandcastles. Sorry to report that they never quite succeeded.

The rest of the weekend is a fun-filled blur of sweat, diet coke, ribs, desserts, citronella candles, fireworks, and more sweat. I am so exhausted today from all of the festivities that I actually prayed that it would rain this afternoon so that I could stay inside in my pj's all day long without feeling guilty!

The best weekends always leave you the most tired. And I love it.

Of course I took plenty of pics of Saturday and Sunday,too. Seriously ya'll, did you expect anything different?

The 4th of July has always been a big deal with my family. My grandfather was the mayor of our town for many years, so he was the one who put the town's July 4th celebrations together. And now my uncle, Ben's dad, is the mayor. So it's like a no-brainer that we'll all be celebrating and watching fireworks together in our small town, instead of heading into nearby cities to watch theirs. There's just something about being from a small town...it makes me smile.

If I could add a song to this post it'd be John Mellencamp's 'Small Town'. I absolutely adore that song.

My cousin Ben's birthday is on July 4th, so we always celebrate our country's independence - and his weirdness.

I baked the cake with a little help from my friend Duncan Hines, and since we didn't have any birthday candles, we just plopped a tea light on top.

If you don't have time to make your cake homemade, or if you have all the time in the world and just don't feel like it, I've found that if you add a little more vegetable oil than the box directions say, along with a drop or two of vanilla extract, it makes it tastes very close to homemade. It's a trick I learned simply by hanging out with people smarter than myself. Go ahead, add it into your mix of tricks.

Thanks to Kristin for emailing me this pic. At this point the fireworks were in full swing, I was over the whole taking pictures thing and super sweaty. But Kate managed to put a smile on my face by singing Barney's "I love you" song and giving us a 'great big hug'. I'm not a big fan of Barney or that song, but when I hear it sung in her sweet little voice, it becomes an automatic fave. She sang it throughout most of the fireworks show.

The only thing that made me smile bigger than that was when the Elvis impersonator finally got off stage and stopped his gyrating.

And what's a Fourth of July without some sparklers?

My Own Personal Betsey Johnson

I don't know what I love more - that crazy head of hair, or the fact that she's wearing mason jar rings as some blingin' gold bracelets.

This girl knows what she likes.

Being Intentional With Our Thoughts

Sometimes I'm not very good at putting my thoughts to words in a cohesive, readabable format. I get writer's block with the very first sentence. This usually happens when I'm writing about something that's more on the serious side and less on the humorous. But I decided I'm not going to let that discourage me from sharing a couple verses that have really helped me lately and have given me a peaceful feeling that only the Lord can give.

With our study on marriage in Sunday school winding down and the past LNO sessions (which I've shared about in previous posts) I've attended, I feel like I've learned a lot about not only being a wife and mother, but also being a child of God.

My thinking needs to be intentional.

Being intentional with your thinking has a big impact on your mood, your tone, and the way you view life in general. Last Sunday, one of my Sunday school teachers asked, "What do you think about in your free time, the few times in the day when you can just sit and think, like when you're driving, waiting in line somewhere, showering, etc.?"

She asked us if we thought about negative things, such as what you should have said to that certain someone who made you angry, or things you wish you were better at, or items you wished you owned, or people that irritate you?

Or do you think of the positives, the blessings in your life, the people who love you for who you are, the things you are good at, etc?

It seems that a lot of times our brain naturally goes to the negative. But the Word of God actually tells us to do just the opposite. The Lord wants us to be happy, to succeed, to find the joy in our lives that He's provided.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
-Philippians 4:8


And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:7


I know I don't have as much scripture memorized and hidden in my heart as I should, but being able to think and repeat these verses to myself during the day has made an impact in my life the past week or two.

The Lord wants only great things for us. We just have to trust in Him.


And that's basically it.

Like I said, I knew this post wouldn't really flow. I knew it would start off kind of weird and end abruptly. But that's okay.

And because it's late and Matt keeps asking when I'll be finished with the computer, I'll leave it at that.

Have a great tomorrow, ya'll!

The Story Behind the Honking

Saturday night was Mom's Night Out. We try and plan a day or night for all of us to go out and spend girl time together at least once a month. We've found that it really helps out in the sanity department.

We all met at Ben and Kristin's house and the husbands stayed back with the kids while we headed out for dinner in none other than The Mini (Kristen's mini-van). It's become one of our favorite ways to travel. We always laugh about it as we pile in, but then somehow find ourselves wanting to take it every time we go somewhere.

As we were driving, we stopped at a red light and couldn't figure out why a few people seemed to be very impatient with us and were honking their horns, even when the light was red.
We didn't think too much about it other than, "What's the deal people?! Chill out!"

We had a great time at dinner and the food was delicious. I had the crab cakes! Mmmmmm!

As we were leaving, Kristin went to put her leftovers in the back of her van and found this:

The funniest part - we didn't even take it off for the ride home.

The mind behind this madness??

This cat right here:

My cousin Ben, Kristin's husband

I've mentioned in the past what a complete nut he is.

Apparently his sweet little acts of cranking the car and backing it into the carport for us had an ulterior motive.

And I'm not so sure these guys didn't have a lil' something to do with it:

Clay (Jobeth's husband) and my hubs (And seriously if he wears that faded-out black T-shirt one more day I'm gonna scream. I bet it could walk by itself at this point. Tomorrow it just may go mysteriously missing.)

Their plan of putting the kids to bed right after we left apparently didn't work out too well.

Sunday after church Ben and his fam came over for lunch.

The cheese puffs in this pic were not part of the menu, although I wouldn't have objected.

Sara Gale

Kristin and her girls, Anna and Sara Gale

And of course after night services we had our weekly hotdog roast, only this week it was wings. We really should look into changing the name of our little gathering because we've been straying from the ol' hotdog for quite a while now.

The girls had a night of dress-up.

Leighton, Anna, Hayley, and Kate

I always enjoy spending time with my friend Kasey .

And before I go, Jobeth made an incredibly delicious key lime pie last night that she will be posting the recipe to on her blog. Make sure you you drop by and check it out!