Kate's on house arrest

Not really.

But she likes wearing my running watch around her ankle. At first glance, heck even at second or third glance, it looks like an ankle bracelet used for electronic monitoring. What's her crime you ask? Apparently dirty toenails and chipped polish.




Moving on....

A month or so ago Kate and I attended a Tippy Toes party. They use your child's handprints, fingerprints, footprints, etc (and by etc I mean, a newborn's bum cheeks to form a big pumpkin on a serving bowl) to make pictures on pottery.

We finally got ours back a couple of weeks ago, and boy do we love it! We want more!!

Handprints make the flowers

Footprint made the gator

You can't see it very well in this picture but her fingerprints made the cheerleaders super sculpted biceps.

Is this stuff precious or what?

Oh, and here's some pics from the weekend. We attended Sara Gale's first birthday party and spent a lot of time hanging out with friends and fam. You know, the usual.

Tip: I cut the feet out of all of Kate's cute tights from last year that were too small (and some from two years ago) and voilà! Now she's using them for leggings! Talk about getting your money's worth. She had so many striped, polka dot, and other crazy patterned ones that I just wasn't ready to see the adorable lil' things headed to the storage bin. We're getting at least one more year out of 'em!

My favorite pic of the weekend.

Kate was working the camera

Kate had her two year pictures (is that how you say it? or two years old pictures?) taken yesterday evening.

We had a ball! Thanks for the great time Kari! (And I'm still amazed at your patience!)


Check out her sneak peek here!

When I saw some of the photos last night, I couldn't believe how much she's changed since her one year pictures (pre-blog). What a difference a year makes! She's growin' like a weed! A cute weed at that!


Dang, I use parentheses like it's my job! 3 times in such a short post?! Oh well.

Have a great weekend!

God saved me a seat

We've started a new women's book study group on Wednesday nights at church and while I usually just go with the open bible study because there is less commitment involved (I know, that's horrible, but I'm just being honest), this time I decided to sign up for the book study. I made my decision to take the class the last week of sign-ups and went ahead and told myself that the class may already be full. Well, it wasn't. There was still room at the inn. So I showed up the first night and purchased my book. And this isn't just a book, we're talking workbook, emphasis on work. That's right, Mama's gonna have homework. I haven't had to deal with homework since grad school, which was close to seven years ago. Not to mention that in college, homework was my only responsibility, no husband, no child, no real job. So I've had to make quite the adjustment (even if I did have to mesh two nights worth of lessons into one), but it's been totally worthy it.



We're using Beth Moore's book, Living Beyond Yourself. I felt like God really wanted me to take this class. I've always liked Beth Moore and I know that my mom absolutely loves her. Although we're only in week 2, I'm learning and growing in ways I didn't know I could. I also had to check my pride when I realized that I didn't know the Bible as good as I thought I did. Actually, as embarrassing as it is, I feel like I don't know near as much as I should, considering my age and the fact that I grew up in church and was there every time the doors were open. I mean, I know the most popular stories in the Bible, and a few verses that have helped me in difficult times, but I really feel a little insecure about my Bible knowledge. I just feel like I 'should' know more. And I'm at a point in my life where I 'want' to know more. It's all pretty exciting, to have God speak to you through scripture.


There was a time in my life when I felt like the Bible was too deep for me, like only preachers and Sunday school teachers had the ability to just sit down and read it and truly understand all of it. I felt like only those types of people could actually hear God speaking to them. Boy was I wrong...completely, 110% WRONG!



God has opened my eyes to a whole new view of the Bible. It's almost supernatural the way He has given me a thirst to learn more about Him through his Word. I'm not saying that it's an easy read, but I am finding more and more ways to apply it to my daily living. I'm continually amazed at the grace that God has given to us.



However, I don't know how many of you can agree, but it seems that when I make an effort to draw nearer to the Lord, Satan tries to jump all over me, throwing things at me from every angle. All he wants is for me to just give up and give in. It's like I leave the bible study feeling like I've got life by the reins, and then the next day (or sometimes just in the next hour) I get slapped in the face with real life and don't always respond the way I should. Sometimes I'm very thankful that my thoughts are not displayed on a billboard across my forehead. I would surely be ashamed. But God understands. He doesn't expect perfection, and on the flip side, neither should we. Just because you're a child of God doesn't mean your life will be perfect. You'll still face hardships, and you'll sometimes handle them in less than perfect ways. The good news is that through God we can be filled with a joy that cannot be affected by our outside circumstances (and we all know how unstable those can be, great one day, horrible the next).


God is still God. Beth Moore explains it well when she says, "He never asks anything of us to make Himself look better....We cannot make Him any more God than He already is. He would be no less Lord of lords if no one believed."


So don't let Satan try and tell you that you're not 'good' enough for the love of God or that you don't 'know' enough. That's where God's grace comes in.



And His grace is sufficient for me.


Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
-2 Corinthians 3:5

It's a labor of love and Wesson Oil

Wow, what a long weekend! I enjoyed the extra day and we were able to spend time with family and friends. On Saturday we decided to take a little road trip to M to the Izz-A's mom's house.



Along the way, we stopped off at the mall so that M to the Izz-A could purchase himself a new Gator hat or two, while I entertained Kate by pushing her around Dick's Sporting Goods on one of the display bicycles with off-balanced training wheels. I managed to work up a few sweat beads on my forehead and just kept looking at the employees, giving them a please-ask-me-to-stop-doing-this look. Unfortunately they just waved and smiled as I made my laps. Kate just kept yelling, "Faster, faster Mommy!" So there, I did actually 'labor' on this wonderful holiday weekend.
Slave driver.


Matt's brother, Josh, and his wife, Lynne, were also in town for a visit and we were lucky enough to spend some time with the family's newest addition, cousin Kassidy.




Check out that big jug of Wesson Oil. You know something got deep fried, right? In the words of Truett Cathy, "Food is essential to life. Therefore, make it good." And in the south, make it good = deep fry 'til your heart's content.

Kate wanted to help out all day long. She was such a good little helper.

Cousin Luke

Seeing if I still got it...

Yep. Still got it.

Granny Mac

Mimi and Papa Dan with all of the grandchildren (This was the best one out of about 137 attemps)

On a side note, who's sportin' a super goofy grin right now thinking that tomorrow is already Wednesday?! This girl right here. That's all I need. Something so simple sets my week off to a positive start. Who says being simple minded can't work in your favor?

As if the words Southern Hospitality didn't already conjure up sweet thoughts in your head

I'm not even gonna talk about it, because in my opinion, putting words to something this good is just wrong.

So just take a bite, close your eyes, and breathe a big sigh of "Where've you been all of my life?"

Wordless Wednesday

At what point should I admit that I have a problem?

On any given day, at any given time, if you were to come into my home, you may very well hear

my magazine holder crying....

...crying for help that is.

It's become pretty clear to me as of late that I am indeed an Obsessive Catalog/Magazine Subscriber (OCMS). That's right, I have more subscriptions to magazines and children's clothing catalogs than my grandma does arthritis meds.

My living room could make any doctor's office around the country have a small subscription complex. They don't have anything on my stash of periodicals.

This is just some of my problem. The ones shown above are part of my newest stack collected over the past month or so, of which only about 1/4 have been touched.

If I find a company's website that has decent looking kid's clothing (they don't even have to be super-duper cute, just decent, and they've got me) I immediately find the link at the top right corner (or sometimes bottom center, believe me I know) of their site for the 'request catalog' form and off I go entering in all of my mailing info.

It's a sickness, it is, really.

Phone rings: "Oh, you say you're giving a year's subscription to the magazine of my choice at a discounted rate? And it will benefit which organization? Sounds great, sign me up!"

In my defense however, my magazine choices have changed, as have my roles in life. But that's not to say that I don't devour the really juicy ones while waiting in the cashier's line at the grocery store.

"Oh you only have two items, sir? You can go ahead of me."

Because I may or may not have just found a really interesting article on Brangelina, with tons of pics to boot! Or maybe I'm getting educated on how celebs are 'just like US'.

So now I'm finding myself swimming drowning in an ocean of unread mags, and catalogs with the sticker across the front that reads: This is the last issue you will receive if no order is placed by...
Basically they're starting to pick up on the fact that I am an OCMS and I usually have no intention of placing an order and well, they're beginning to take it personal.

Can't a girl order a catalog and look at it at her own leisure (and as I typed that word 'leisure' I pronounced it with a short e sound, not a long e, because that's how they say in on news programs now and I think it's a hoot)?! And so what if I'm making Fall recipes involving pumpkin spice next summer? In the words of my man Bobby Brown, "It's my prerogative." No?

Anyone else fall into this category with me?