Mothers' Day 2008

Happy Mothers' Day to all you Mommies--and to me too! It was a good day with church, Sunday school, lunch with MY Mudder (and the rest of the family), home for a catnap, and then Financial Peace University. I brought snacks this week, and since Dave Ramsay is famous for telling people to save money by eating "beans and rice" that's exactly what I brought! Beans and rice chili with chips, cheese, and pretzels. Another lady brought the "sweets" so I was off the hook for that!

We're home now--without our baby though! She's spending tonight with my parents because I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. Last I heard, Cassie and Mimi were coloring.

For Mothers' Day, Cassie and Tim bought me a Bluetooth earpiece for my cell phone. It's very cool and works quite well. I'm glad I'll be more safe as I drive...plus, it'll be easier to push Cassie's stroller while talking on the phone now. Before I had to cradle it between my head/neck and that was NOT comfortable! My big sister also bought me Mother-gifts! The world's softest robe is now in MY possession--it's light blue and yellow and will soon become my new uniform here at home! :) Beka also gave me the Reynolds Vac-seal bag/kit and TWO new swimsuits for Cassie. We'll do a little fashion show soon and post the results. Also, Beka gave our Mom a dress for Cassie--it's a red sundress (Cassie's wearing it in the first pic)...very beautiful! My sister is definitely the thoughtful one in the family. I think happy thoughts about people but I don't seem to get organized in time to coordinate gifts. My big sister is STILL waiting for her birthday gift from me...her birthday was in January. Sigh.

Allison (Masker friend from college) and I took our kids to the Natural History Museum on Friday. It was a TOTAL hit! The kids (her Matthew just turned 1) seemed to have a blast and I enjoyed being with Alli. She's a precious link to my college years...I'm glad she's close by and only wish she had all the freetime that I have as a stay at home mom so we could do more (she works mostly fulltime). Here are the pictures from our adventure:

Museum Adventure

And just cause I forgot to take any Mothers' Day pics with my camera, here is the link to LAST year's Mother's Day (by the way, which way is correct? Oh, Miss Reeeeeno-is it Mother's Day or Mothers' Day? Hee...Isn't it nice to have an English teacher as my most faithful blog-reader!?!) :)
Cassie really has matured over the last year...she doesn't really look like a baby anymore. Sigh.

2007 Mother's Day

May Already?

I’ve been avoiding blogging lately, in case you haven’t noticed. Circumstances around here have been tough…not the happy “everything’s hunky-dory” sort of image I like to record via my blog. It’s been enormously difficult to rise above the emotional pain and stay focused on God. I am doing my best to set small goals though and just do “the next right thing.”

I know this is somewhat similar to an “unspoken” prayer request…you know, the kind that middle school girls give—“I have 3 unspokens” which triggers everyone else to start imagining the awful, wicked things that she might be referencing! It’s not that I’m hiding from shame--If I were chatting face to face, I’d probably be much more likely to provide details…I just don’t want to broadcast “my pain” over the internet. Additionally, sometimes in the explanation of “what’s going on” I’ve found that my focus gets stuck on what’s wrong rather than on what’s RIGHT (God, His provision and trustworthiness, etc.). THUS, I will set my eyes on things above and record how we’ve been lavished with God’s Blessings this past month! (I started thinking about the whole "unspoken" thing after reading the blog (link on the side bar) Stuff Christians Like (April 17 post)).

Mississippi University for Women Homecoming 2008! I went to my 10 year college reunion in the middle of April. It was, in a word, WONDERFUL! I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved my college years and it was so nice to be back with the girls I loved the most. I even made some “new” friends—Erinn and I have begun emailing each other for accountability in exercising. I set a goal of 10 miles this past week and, quite by accident, did almost 8 miles in one day! I do have an explanation: Cassie and I walked to the library on Wednesday-it’s about 3 miles there and 3 miles home, so I knew I was going for a “long” walk…but back in my running-days, I’d run 6 miles daily with no problem. SO, I had my cell phone with me and decided I’d call my favorite friend, Mary, who lives “on the way” to the library. Ummm…not so much. Walking to her house and back added on another 2 miles but Mary had joined us on that part of the walk so they were “effortless” miles! I got to visit with Mary—balm to my soul—and we stopped off to rest at her house so Cassie got to play with “Ms Mary’s” toys! It was so cute to see Cassie enjoying Mary…almost as much as I do!

There are many more things to write, but it’s time to get ready for church. Thanks for keeping up with us! Also, check out the slideshow of our recent activities!

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April Already?

Things have been busy around our house so blogging has had to take a back seat. We're doing okay...just had to deal with a lot of family drama.

Cassie has had many fun adventures lately. Poppi took me and Cassie on an adventure last week to ride the carousel, finally. I'd been taking her to the mall but we wouldn't actually ride the horses...it's $2 per person so I decided we didn't need to spend that money. She's played at the park across from her Tiaboo's house and had some special reading time with her Granma.

The BIG hit in our home lately is "Signing Time"--I decided to start learning sign language with Cassie via some DVD's I heard about on the TODAY show. We borrowed a few at the library and now she LOVES to watch Signing Time. We've both learned quite a lot of sign language and her vocabulary has grown exponentially as a result. I cannot begin to express how much our daughter loves these DVD's! Check out their website: www.signingtime.com