Birthday Party Update

We’ve got the invitations (see below) and I’ve started addressing those. Apparently I need to send them out about 2 weeks earlier than I had planned.

Today I went by and ordered the cake. I’ve used Gretchen ABS Cakes for Brady’s first two birthdays and they’ve done such an amazing job that I couldn’t think of using anyone else. Here's his John Deer cake from last year. I found a great jungle cake in their book and with a few tweaks, it’s going to closely resemble the invitations.

Now on to the goody bags. I didn’t grow up getting goody bags at birthday parties, but apparently they’re the thing to do now. I’m thinking some animal cookies and some animal stickers. Or maybe getting one of those huge bags of plastic jungle animals and dropping a few in each bag. Any suggestions?

I also need to look for paper goods. Pump It Up supplies paper goods, but since I’m going with the whole jungle animal theme, I want something that will halfway coordinate. I found these at Celebrate Express:



I was thinking about doing these for the kids and supplementing with coordinating solid colors for the adults. How many adults care if there’s an elephant on their plate??

So we're moving right along!

A promise

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,because he trusts in You."

Isaiah 26:3

Thank You, Uncle Sam

Well, I had written this nice little post about how our tax rebate was going to hit this week and we’ll be able to put a good bit back for our trip to Boston in August. Then last night the car started making a strange noise, so now the rebate will either go to car repairs or a new car in general. Oh well. At least the timing was good.

What are you doing with your tax rebate?

Monday, Monday

Good morning and Happy Monday!

It’s raining cats and dogs here this morning. I’m thankful for the rain, but not so happy about getting soaked trying to get in the door.

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend. Saturday morning we took Brady to the zoo, where he ran around to his heart’s content. DH helped out at a VBS workshop that afternoon and I cleaned patio furniture and the grill while Brady napped. Sunday was church and then I took a nap after a trip to the grocery store. It was gray and rainy, so perfect napping weather!

We did watch “Fever Pitch” with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore this weekend. Such a cute movie and even better if you’re a Red Sox fan, which we are. Of course!

Another movie I really want to see is Maid of Honor with Patrick Dempsey. It comes out in the theaters in a few weeks. Who doesn’t love Patrick Dempsey???


Have a great day!

A Moody Day

I’m in a mood today. Just one of those moods.

Until this cloud lifts, here are some encouraging words:

From Lamentations 3:22-24:

The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Thy faithfulness!
"The Lord is my portion", says my soul
"Therefore I have hope in HIM".

Jungle Jumping Party

A Jungle Jumping Party


Brady’s birthday is coming up in June and like any good mother, I started planning the day after Christmas. Heehee Just kidding. It was more like the week after Christmas.

Anyway, we’re having his party at Pump It Up and I’m doing a jungle/zoo animal theme. He loves the zoo and zoo animals, especially elephants and monkeys, so I decided to use those for the invitations and the cake and the goodie bags.

I was perusing some blogs a few months ago and found Hillary Jordan. She and her friend have a stationary business, Address to Impress. She’s from Hernando, MS, which is very close to where I went to high school (Southaven, MS), so we’re fellow Mississippi Girls. I emailed her about designing an invitation for Brady’s party and here is what they came up with:



Isn’t thst the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen? I showed it to Brady and he immediately said “Elephants! Monkeys! Alligators!” The invitations arrived earlier this week and the quality is top-notch. Hillary was such a pleasure to work with and was so patient as I kept changing things. I’m definitely planning on using Address to Impress in the future. I highly recommend them!

Jon and Kate Recap

Thanks so much for the sweet birthday wishes! It was a great day. My dear friend (she and I have the same birthday) sent me flowers yesterday afternoon. She turned 30 yesterday. Happy Birthday Rachel!

Sorry to be so long on the Jon and Kate recap. It was a really fun event (both nights) that went a lot smoother than I had anticipated.

Friday night we had 940 people. Saturday night we had 800. I worked the door, taking tickets. These people were so excited to be attending and everyone seemed to have a great time. They were only a few little problems and we got those smoothed out pretty quickly. Thankfully there were more than enough volunteers to keep everything moving. Kate even said that this was the most organized event they had been to and how they felt the most safe as well. Apparently they’ve had some crazy people come through!

They are so nice and their program was so good. I have a newfound respect for them after this weekend after hearing what they went through during the pregnancy of the six – Jon lost his job twice, bedrest starting at 7 weeks, absolutely no money. It shows you that God truly does provide.

Funny things that happened:
- When Jon and Kate arrived Friday night, our security wouldn’t let them in the parking lot. Kate finally said “It’s us! The speakers!” We had some tough security. Haha!
- People started lining up at 2:45pm Friday afternoon. The doors didn’t open until 6pm!
- I got to escort Kate back from the bathroom to keep her from being mobbed by fans.
- We had people in the front row who were literally hopping up and down in their seats when they walked out. Strange people!

And Kate is so skinny in person! She really looks amazing to have had 8 kids.

So it was fun. We all survived and although we were exhausted by the end, it was worth it. MOPS and our church were blessed with a huge opportunity to reach out to people who would have never darkened the doors otherwise. I hope someone was touched by Jon and Kate’s story.

28

Yes, I turn 28 today. Two years away from the big 3-0.

I’m not sure how I pictured 28 in my mind when I was younger. I remember having a youth pastor at one point who was 28 and thinking how old that was. I think I was about 12 then.

So here I am at 28. Married for almost 7 years, mommy of an almost-3 year old little boy, living in South Carolina, working as a project accountant (Yikes! Math!), very involved in our church, and getting ready to return to school this fall. I can say that I love our life. Sure, a new house and a new car would be nice, along with a fatter bank account. But I love our family, our friends, our church, my MOPS group, I love my job even though I never imagined I’d be doing what I’m doing, and I love where we live.

Last night I was driving home from DH’s softball game, past the peach farm, and thinking how much I love living here. It’s so nice to be able to say that finally.

I can say that I’m much closer to God now than a year ago. One of my birthday presents was the Beth Moore study “Jesus – 90 Days with the One and Only.” I’m hoping that and other studies will bring me even closer to Him.

This past year has held it’s share of failures and bad days, but it’s also had the best days and the sweetest moments. Watching Brady grow up into such a little boy, with his own opinions and thoughts. I can’t imagine what he’ll be like a year from now.

As for the year ahead, there are many things already on the horizon. My in-laws will be moving here next month, We’ll be taking a trip to Boston in August to visit DH’s sisters and brother for a week. I’ll be starting school again. There will be lots of trips to the zoo, trips to the park, bedtime stories, pancake dinners, Sunday School socials, lunches with friends, new babies, new friends.

My prayer is that I savor every moment and take many more pictures. Happy Birthday to Me!

Finally Friday!

Is it Friday already?

This week has seemed long, yet it’s flown by at the same time. Does that make sense? I hope everyone has a really fun weekend planned. We’re supposed to get some rain tomorrow, but otherwise it should be really nice. Spring finally arrived!

Jon and Kate, from TLC’s “Jon and Kate +Eight,” are speaking at my church tonight. It was originally just a MOPS event, but we opened it to the community and sent out over 1,000 tickets in two weeks! They were gracious enough to stay for Saturday night and that event sold out as well. So I’m taking tickets tonight and tomorrow night. It should be pretty interesting. Thankfully we had a lot of volunteers show up last night for the run-thru, so we should be okay.

Tomorrow morning I’m taking Brady to story time at the library while DH is wonderful enough to do the Walmart shopping trip. I’m a little worried about what all he might bring home! He has softball practice tomorrow afternoon and then I’ll be back at the church.

Sunday is Sunday School, church and maybe a trip downtown to Artisphere.

It’s a big art festival and there’s even a kids area, so I think Brady would enjoy that. Then we’ll be getting ready for another week.

Happy Friday!

Recipe Review - Paula Deen's Barbeque Chicken

Here's a new recipe for Paula Deen's Barbequed Chicken. It was so good! It will definitely go into regular rotation at our house. We had it with mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans. Enjoy!

Paula Deen's Oven-Barbequed Chicken

Ingredients:
6 small chicken breasts, boneless & skinless (Paula used a whole chicken cut-up)
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP orange juice
1/4 tsp smoke flavoring
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. Put aside 1/3 of the sauce to save for later. Toss the chicken in sauce with tongs. Place chicken in baking dish at 375 degrees for 45 min. When you have 20 minutes remaining, put remainder of sauce on chicken.

I can finally tell you!

There have been two newsworthy items in our lives recently. No, I’m not pregnant so stop thinking that!

The first one is the surprise we pulled on my mom for her birthday this past Saturday. I hadn’t mentioned it here because I never know if she might stop in for a visit. She never takes time for herself and trying to plan a trip is next to impossible, so about two weeks ago my sister and I started planning a surprise for her birthday. Along with my dad, we arranged to take her to Helen, Georgia for the day. Helen is like Gatlinburg, but in Georgia. It’s a little Alpine themed town. Lots of little shops, restaurants, river tubing, miniature golf, etc. A little bit cheesy, but fun at the same time. My mom loves it, but she hadn’t been in ages. So we arranged all of her normal weekend errands to be taken care of and even got my sister’s riding lesson moved to Sunday. I got down to their house at 7:30am and the look on her face was priceless when we finally told her the big news. At first she tried to come up with some excuses, but quickly gave up when she realized we had taken care of everything. It was a really fun trip (that almost never was due to some bad Mapquest directions!). We shopped, ate, antiqued and laughed. I hope we can make another trip like that very soon. It couldn’t have gone better.

The other news is that I’m going back to school this fall! This may sound like a broken record to some people, but this year it’s finally happening. The timing, the finances, everything has fallen into place. It’s a total God Thing. I’m going to the local community college to finish up some basic classes, then I’ll be transferring to a local branch of the University of South Carolina. My goal – Bachelor of Arts in Non-Profit Administration. I worked for a long time at a hospital and I really feel like the non-profit world is for me. I’m not sure if I want to work for a charity organization (Red Cross, United Way, etc.). Nothing wrong with those, but I feel pulled more towards healthcare or maybe community affairs. It could even reach to the Chamber of Commerce or Visitors Bureau. So pray things continue to go well and that I can really focus and commit as much as possible to this. I’ll be taking two classes in the fall semester. That will be two nights away from home and that’s my max. My family still needs me and I still need them! I need to be a much better manager of my time; not only for my family, but with work and church responsibilities. Pray I’ll be able to say “NO” when I need to!

So that’s my news! Happy Tuesday!

6 Things About Me

I was tagged to list six unimportant things about myself by Pink, Green and Southern.



RULES1) you link back to the person who tagged you.

2) post these rules on your blog.

3) share six unimportant things about yourself.

4) tag six random people at the end of your entry.

5) let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs



6 Things about me:

1. It really irritates me when my husband goes to bed before I do. Now I don’t have a problem going to bed before him, but I hate going to bed after him. Strange, huh?

2. I have green eyes, but one has a brown spot in it. DH calls it my “evil eye.”

3. I’m allergic to bananas.

4. I won’t eat at buffets (Ryan’s, Golden Corral, etc.)

5. I have a scar on the palm of my left hand where I slipped and fell on a piece of broken salad bowl at O’Charley’s when I worked there.
6. I secretly enjoy watching fishing shows.



I'm tagging:

- LSU Girl

- Kellys Korner

- Raising Alikaye

- Just Melissa

- In Every Season

- Pinot and Pacifiers

Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds are just blowing past this week, aren’t they?

Brady’s been a bit under the weather for the past few days. He had a small fever Monday night, but was fine by Tuesday morning so I sent him on to school. They called us around 4:40pm to come get him and then DH stayed home with him yesterday. He was running a small fever and complaining that his mouth hurt. His fever broke during the night last night and he seems fine this morning, so I think DH is going to take him to school in a couple of hours. Thankfully he’s really good about trading off when Brady’s sick, so neither of us gets stuck taking off every time. With two working parents, there has to be give and take.

That’s been the majority of our week. Today I’m meeting a couple of friends for lunch at PF Changs. I don’t think we have anything planned tonight or tomorrow night. There is housework to catch up on and various things like that.

Have a great day! Hopefully I’ll have something exciting (in a good way) to write about soon!

5 Things

I stole this from another blog because I just can’t think of anything interesting to write about and I also didn’t download the pictures of mine and Brady’s chalk art from last night. You all would have been very impressed with my abstract elephant!

What I was doing 10 years ago - Spring of 1998
1. Getting ready for the Peer Counselors trip to Florida and high school graduation.
2. Working at Cracker Barrel and O’Charley’s
3. Thinking about school in the fall
4. Getting ready to meet the guy I would date for the next year
5. Eating chicken tenders at every restaurant in the area with Melissa

Five things on my to-do list today
1. Work
2. Meet Ashley for lunch at Panera Bread
3. Get some paperwork notarized
4. Clean the bedrooms
5. Do something fun with Brady tonight while DH is at softball practice

Five snacks I enjoy
1. Kettle Chips New York Cheddar Chips
2. Whole Wheat Goldfish
3. Fresh fruit
4. Brownies
5. Ice cream

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire
1. Tithe
2. Buy a nice house with a big yard (and hire yard people!)
3. Pay off my family’s debt
4. Send Brady to college
5. Travel the world

Five of my bad habits
1. Sleeping too late
2. Not exercising enough
3. Waiting too long between hair appointments
4. Being critical of people
5. Wasting too much time on the internet

Five places I have lived
1. Lexington, KY
2. Durham, NC
3. Southaven, MS
4. Memphis, TN
5. Greenville, SC

Five jobs I’ve had
1. Sno Cone Maker – Country Crème (MS)
2. Hostess – Cracker Barrel (MS)
3. Server – O’Charley’s (MS)
4. Office Coordinator – Methodist Healthcare (TN)
5. Project Accountant – MACTEC (SC)

Movie Reviews and Celebrity Status

So we went and saw Leatherheads on Saturday night. If you liked O Brother Where Art Thou, then you will love Leatherheads. The same type of humor and even a lot of the same actors. George Clooney was quite the looker, as usual, and Renee Zwelleger was even slightly tolerable. Jim from the Office was great as “The Bullet.” You don’t even have to like football to enjoy this movie!

Right now it’s absolutely gorgeous outside. Bright sunshine and a slight breeze. A thousand times better than all the rain from last week, even though we desperately need the rain. I ran over to register for school during lunch, but the wait was 4 hours. Yes, I said 4 hours. So I’m going to go back later this week when the rush has died down.

On a different note, I got an email today from an old high school classmate. He found me on one of those alumni websites and apparently I was the “Featured Alumni!” I always wanted to be famous, but this was not quite what I had in mind!

I hope you all are having a fabulous Monday!

Happy, Happy Friday!

Happy, Happy Friday!

Despite the cold, gray, miserable weather we’re having around here, I’m so excited it’s Friday!

We have a busy weekend planned. Aren’t they all busy these days? Tonight I’ve got to do a little grocery shopping after dinner (which is to be determined) and then we’ll just hang out at home with Brady.

Tomorrow DH is supposed to have softball practice at 9am, but I have a feeling it’s going to get rained out again. Oh well. There are still a couple of weeks until their season starts. The local library is starting a new weekend story time in the morning, so I’m going to take Brady to that and then to get his hair cut. He’s getting shaggy! I need to run to Walmart at some point and finish up the grocery shopping. I have a total love/hate relationship with Wally-World. I love the low prices, but I hate going there! Then I get my hair cut in the afternoon and tomorrow night we have Date Night! We’re going to do dinner and then go see:

Leatherheads!

Sunday is a big day at church. Our potential new pastor is going to speak and then we’ll vote on him right afterwards. It seems like we should at least have the afternoon to think and pray about it, but they decided to vote immediately.

I may run out and do a little shopping on Sunday afternoon. Even though the weather doesn’t say Spring, the calendar definitely does!

What are your weekend plans??

Birthday Wishes

On a happier note than yesterday's post, my birthday is coming up later this month! I firmly believe in Birthday Weeks. Plus, my anniversary is three days after my birthday, so I really get to celebrate. Here are a few things on my birthday wish list this year:

New Shoes!

A New Bible!

The Vera Bradley Village bag in Raspberry Fizz

The Vera Bradley Zip-Around Wallet in Raspberry Fizz

I wonder what I'll get!

Hopes and Dreams

It’s been gray and raining here since Saturday and it’s really beginning to get to me. I need a little sunshine!

Between the rain and other things going on in our lives right now, I’ve felt rather down and out the last few days. We had thought we were really making progress on some things and now it seems nothing has happened. I was able to make it home last night before I had my complete meltdown. Poor Dh just stood in the kitchen and looked at me.

I did some crying and some yelling and then I did some praying. A lot of praying. In fact, I’m still praying. And I feel better. We’re refocused on our goal and determined to see certain dreams come true. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.


The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Thy faithfulness!
"The Lord is my portion", says my soul
"Therefore I have hope in HIM".
Lamentations 3:22-24



"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD, "plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11