The Perfect Weekend

There are just moments in time that I want to freeze forever and really this weekend was it. We celebrated my nephew Luke's 2nd birthday. I wont' go into too much detail but he is just one cute kid and is just the sweetest thing to ever live. But I'm not a biased aunt or anything like that. LOL! Anyway, this weekend my family got together this weekend to spoil the kid rotten. I also got so spend some good quality time with my boyfriend since we hadn't seen each other in two weeks.

Friday night I got there around 7pm and we decided I would meet everyone at Logan's for dinner. But it was an hour and half wait to get in so they (my family) decided to try O'Charley's then Mellow Mushroom and after driving all over Tuscaloosa and realizing it would be a long wait no matter where we ended up they decided to just go back to my brother's house and order pizza. That was the very much condensed version of that story but there was frustration and the throwing of a cell phone in the car because some people kept changing their minds and others (me) was getting frustrated and tired of driving all over town after driving for 4 hours and was getting a little cranky and was done talking so I threw the phone where I couldn't reach it.

But finally we all made it to my brother's house and we had some awesome pizza and my frustrations melted away. Then on Saturday it was just a gorgeous beautiful day. The weather was just so springlike that I am now officially getting Spring Fever. Alan (my wonderful boyfriend) came over around 10am and we all just sat around and talked and played with the kids. Then Alan and I got bored so we took off for a few hours before the party started. He drove me over to where he works to show me the shop. Alan is a machinist and I never understand what he is talking about when he talks about his work so he took me there so show me some things. Nothing is really that much clearer but I do realize that what he does is something I could never do and that he works in a very dirty place. That place is so full of grease and grime and dirt. But it's a shop so what should I expect, right? But it was cool to see all those machines and he tried so hard to explain to me what everything did. I was glad to see that part of him.

After that we went down to the Riverfront and walked for a little while. It was so special to me. We just walked for awhile holding hands and talking...about everything and anything. Then we went down a path to where there was a tiny little beach and pebble area on the water and he tried to show me how to skip rocks on the water but every time I tried it my rocks would just plop down to the bottom. He could skip them for three or four times. I was proud. :) Then it started to get very windy and a little chilly so we decided to head back to my brothers since it was almost time for the party anyway. We had the party and ate hot dogs and watched Luke open his presents which consisted of cars, cars, and more cars. It was funny.

After that my parents headed back to Nashville, Chad and Jenny went to dinner with Jenny's parents and Alan and I headed back to his place to watch a movie and play some Rock Band. This boy has been trying to get me to play Rock Band since we first met and I always made excuses why I didn't want to but he finally wore me down and I played and I loved it! It was so much fun. I'm not so good on the drums but I can rock it out on the guitar. Later we headed back to Chad's and played some Wii bowling and tennis with Chad. Jenny had to give the kids a bath and put them to bed so she opted not to play.

Then on Sunday afternoon we just stayed at my brothers and watched Karate Kid II & III. I love Ralph Macchio! He was so dreamy. But anyway, it was just a perfect weekend. It might not sound like much and maybe it sounded boring to you but I just love doing a bunch of little things where you don't have to spend a lot or any money at all. I guess I just love the small stuff. It was the perfect weekend.

What more can you ask for?

Where Has The Time Gone? Part 2

I'm making this a sequel to a post I wrote at the beginning of the month. That post was about niece turning four years old. Well this weekend her little brother, my nephew, will be turning 2. It's so hard to believe that he is already 2 years old. Of course, he never seemed like a baby to me. He always seemed like a little man. He's such a sweet boy. My friend Tammy calls him "hot" but that is so disturbing to me to call a 2 year old that so we'll just say he's oh so adorable. :) He is pretty cute. He has blond curly hair and blue eyes and gorgeous dimples when he smiles. He will be a heartbreaker when he's older, that's for sure.

I remember when he was born so clearly, just like I remember vividly when Anna Grace was born. His birth was so much less dramatic than Anna's and I was able to be there when he came home from the hospital. He was so tiny. But now he's huge! That boy is almost bigger than his sister. He will just eat and eat and then he wants to eat some more. LOL! He is all boy as well. He loves his cars and trucks and loves any type of ball you put in front of him. The poor kid is already a Cub fan but by force and now choice. :) It's cute. It's funny every time I see him he says,"Papaw, phone." I have a video on my phone of dad doing the claw to Luke. It's pretty funny and Luke knows it's on my phone and as soon as I walk in the door he grabs my phone and makes me turn it on and then he'll sit there and watch it 20 times in a row. The kid's got it the words on the video memorized as well so he says right along with it. It's pretty funny. He's so cute.

So in honor of my sweet sweet nephew, Luke, here are a couple of pictures.

This was taken the day after he was born.

This is my brother, Chad, with Luke at the beach this past summer on vacation.

It's kind of funny because Anna looks just like her daddy (and me so I've been told) but Luke looks nothing like him. Luke looks just like my sister in law but with blond hair. I'm going to try and take lots of pictures this weekend as I head down for his birthday. Last year I didn't get to celebrate his 1st birthday with everyone because one there were tornadoes everywhere from Nashville to Northport and I wouldn't have been scared out of my mind. Secondly, I didn't get to go down there because that was when my mother's illness started and it was pretty bad so my parent's nor myself went down there. I felt awful and I said that there was no way on earth I was missing it this year.

Again, he's such a sweet boy. We think that he will be just like his daddy in the music department. The boy can sing already. He's always on key and loves to carry the mic at church around with him. It's so cute. Chad said he will make sure he learns how to play the piano because he seems to be drawn to it and any other musical instrument he sees. So I think this boy is going to grow up to be like my brother. It could be worse. Ha!

Happy Birthday Luke! Jan Jan loves you!

There Was A Wasp In My House!!!!

My house. MY HOUSE!!! My brand new beautiful ladybug infested house and if you've been reading my blog for awhile you know my huge phobia of those wretched creatures...wasps not ladybugs. I just loathe them and see no reason why they are on this Earth. But I digress. I came home from work and was about to turn on a lamp when I saw the ugly black thing crawling on my floor. Ugh! I shutter just relieving this whole experience. But my first instinct was to just step on it but then I just froze because of this certain thought. I work at a place of business that requires us (the women) to wear dresses or skirts everyday and I had just walked in the door so needless to say I was wearing a dress and about mid step the thought crossed my mind of "What if this wasp sees that I'm about to step on him and he flies up my dress and stings me in places I don't want to be stung." So that's when I froze and started whimpering like a little baby.

I automatically run for my Windex cleaner (because it coats their wings and they can't fly which then lets you step on it with no fear of them flying up to sting in places you don't want to be stung). While the cleaner is in my hand I thoroughly forget I'm a 30+ year old woman and act like a five year old and call my mommy. That's right. I call her and whine and cry about how a wasp is in my house and I'm about to die. She just laughs at me and tells me to get the Windex which then I informed that it was in my hand and she said, "Then just spray it you big baby." But by the time I got back to wear the wasp had been....he was gone! I was so not enjoying this moment. I looked everywhere and found him crawling on my blanket. My blanket!! The one I cuddle with at night watching the Olympics for the past week and now this gross beast was walking his skinny little legs all over it. Ugh! I shutter again thinking about it. So I finally muster up enough courage to spray the thing. I mean I sprayed him. I had a full bottle of Windex and now I think I have half a bottle left. I was making sure the little mutant couldn't fly anywhere! My poor blanket was soaked in Windex. So this wasp slowly crawled off the blanket and onto the carpet where I finally was able to squish the heck out of him. Then I realized that there was no one there to scoop him up so I grabbed about a half a roll of paper towels and scooped him up and but him in the bottom of the trashcan and covered him up good with trash!

I texted my loving, protective and comforting boyfriend to tell him I almost died because a wasp was in my house and he texted back, "You big baby, it only hurts for a minute if they sting you." We had words later. He did make up for it by saying that if he was there he would have taken care of the problem.

It was very traumatic and so I had ice cream.

Do You Think Jesus Had Perfect Pitch?

My family is a musical family. Well, my parents, brother, & sister in law are musical. Me? Not so much. I can carry a tune and I do sing in the praise team at church and have done specials in the past but let's face it....I'm no Chad Donoho. But the thing about my brother is that he has perfect pitch. It actually makes me sick that he got all the musical (and athletic) talent in the family. But I'm not bitter. lol! Actually, as much as I do wish I could sing like him and hear music the way he does I'm absolutely proud of my brother and all that he has accomplished with his singing.

But anyway, last night I attended a meeting with everyone who will be involved in our church Easter program. I didn't think I would be a part of it because since I travel to Alabama on a regular basis now I didn't think that I would have the time to put into the rehearsals that is needed and required. But when the director comes up to you and point blank asks if you can be in it to sing a song, it's pretty hard to say no, so I caved and said yes.

Anyway, during the meeting I was sitting by a friend who will be playing the role of Jesus (I'm Mary the sister of Martha). We had gotten to the part of the meeting where she was asking if anyone else wanted to sing. My friend said, "Jesus doesn't sing." Now, the way he said it just cracked me up but I then got into a conversation with him about how I felt that Jesus probably could sing and I imagine he had perfect pitch. Why would he not? He was God and He was perfect. But my friend argued that Jesus probably couldn't sing because He was also part human so therefore maybe Jesus couldn't sing. But Jesus was perfect so I bet (well, not bet, but strongly felt) that He had a better voice than David Phelps and could probably hit any note on the scale and could sing any part written. My friend and I had about a 10 minute discussion about this. So my question is do you think Jesus had perfect pitch? Do you think that Jesus could sing? I honestly want to know what you all think about this subject?

Happy Monday!

PS - Is anyone else as excited as I am about the Olympics? I can't get enough of it!

Where Has the Time Gone?

The snow has finally decided to melt and the roads are nice and dry so my dad can stop acting like Fred Flintstone. :) They are calling for it to snow here again this Friday but I don't think it will be anything like what we had here this past weekend. Luckily for me, I'll be heading out of town midday.

This weekend is my niece's fourth birthday. I cannot believe that Anna Grace will be four years old. Where does the time go?

Here's a picture of her when she was born:






And here she is on our family vacation this past August to Gulf Shores, AL:

And here's one of her and Chad since they both are celebrating a birthday this next week:

She has grown up so much. Now something that you either didn't know or might have forgotten was that when Anna was born she had to spend the first couple of weeks in the NICU. Her first night born she had acid reflux (which we didn't know she had obviously) and was getting choked and would stop breathing. She would turn blue. It was so scary and they had us all worried that she wasn't going to make it. They had us thinking she suffered a head trauma during the birth that was causing it. They finally realized that it was acid reflux and they just gave her medicine and she grew out of it after a year or so. Luke did the same thing although he wasn't in the NICU. He didn't have it as bad as Anna but he, too, grew out of it. Also, as little tidbit, Anna was born on my the third anniversary of my grandma's death. So now the date has a happier meaning to us than a sad one even though I miss my grandma terribly.

But anyway, every year at this time we head down to AL for a big birthday bash. It's not just her birthday but Chad's birthday is a few days after Anna's so we have started a tradition of celebrating both birthdays. We also have a big dinner on Friday for Chad and then we usually head to the park for Anna's birthday. So Friday at lunchtime, I'm headed to AL for that and to see my sweetheart.

It's been two weeks since I've seen him and it's killing me. We have tried to see each other every weekend with us taking turns driving but lately we've only been able to see each other every other week and it's just harder with each passing week to be apart. I'm telling you, long distance relationships are hard work but he's worth it. He's an amazing man and he's worth every bit of the hard work that goes into making this work. We text all during the day and then we talk every night so I feel as if we are doing very well. But it would be nice if we could see each other more often but at least we only live 4 hours away from each other and not longer or we wouldn't be able to see each other as much as we do. So to answer every one's question (which I get constantly from everyone at church and in my family), yes, we are doing great! We are still together and enjoying every minute of it. I'm so unbelievably happy and so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a good, godly, hard working man. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Happy Birthday, Anna Grace and Chad! I love you!

What's In a Name?

I can't remember if I've talked about this and I'm just that lazy to not go back and check so if you've heard this before...I'm sorry. :)

Our Ladies Prayer Group at church is currently trying to pick a new name after the strong encouragement of our pastor. Meaning, we have to change our name. At first I balked at this request. I thought it was working out for us quite well but we've learned that it actually is keeping some people from attending.

We had a recent attendee tell us that she wouldn't ever try us out because she thought all we did was chant verses and pray the entire time. Now we do read verses and we do pray but that's not all we do. We are a group of women who go through a Bible study, we take prayer requests and we eat. Of course we eat. What FWB get together doesn't involve food. LOL! But after she told me this it did get me to thinking about our name I realized that maybe we should change it as to not be identified as a group of women who sit and chant for an hour and a half.

At our last meeting, I talked to the girls about it and we all thought it would be a good idea and so we started listing names that we had either just come up with or names that we had found on the Internet. There are some very interesting ones. I won't list the ones I thought were a little too outlandish as not to offend anyone whose ladies group might be named this. But let me list a few and if you wouldn't mind to maybe comment on what you think about them or if you have an entirely different idea just let me know this as well. But first let me say that last week, I had put this as my status on Facebook to try and get suggestions and of course some were very, um, interesting (partly thanks to my pesky brother). A male college friend of mine ended up writing me a message on Facebook letting me know his thoughts and how I need to be careful on choosing a name. There were many other things he wrote and we had quite a discussion. I agreed with everything he said and so what I've done after his suggestion was to really think about the goal and purpose our ladies group. My main goal and purpose is for us to learn what the Bible says about being better women for Christ...learn from each other...pray for each other...encourage each other...get closer together as sisters in Christ...and glorify Him. That is what I try to bring to our lessons each month. So after thinking of our purpose here is a small list that I, along with a few others, have come up with. Let me know what you think.

Sisters
Women in Christ
Women of Rejoice (that is the name of our church)
Women's Bible Study (not too catchy but at least you know we aren't chanting)
The Ruth Group (I love Ruth. She's probably my favorite woman in the Bible)
Together (Someone suggested this but I don't want to step on WNAC's toes on this one.) :)

Those are about it. Not too catchy of names but my favorite on the list is Sisters. Let me know what you think and if you have a suggestion please let me know.

Happy Monday!

Bumper Cars

Well, us, along with almost every other church in Nashville, have called off services for today. The roads are just way too icy. I learned that first hand this morning. It was quite an eventful morning all before 9 am.

Dad left last Thursday to go do a seminar in California and he flew back in to TN this morning at about 8 am. Since we called off services I went ahead and picked him from the airport. Now, being from the North I do have experience driving on icy roads but what TN has that IL does not have and that is hills and lots of them. That does make it harder even for the experience icy road driver. But I knew that I did know how to handle the car in case I had trouble. So at 8 am I climbed into dad's car and slowly made my way to the airport. I was so excited and proud of myself because I had no trouble whatsoever.

Now I'm putting in a little side note to TDOT here. When snow has fallen or is in the process of falling. Salt and brine are not going to keep the roads clear. You have to actually plow them. But you would think common sense would tell them that. Murfreesboro road was nothing but one huge ice rink and had not been plowed once since the snow fall we got on Friday. This is Sunday!! Plow the roads people! Maybe that's why Nashville has had at least 300 car accidents. You have got to plow the roads in addition to laying salt and whatever to the roads. Since Nashville is obviously capable of getting about 6 inches of snow and ice at one time you would think they would get enough equipment to handle this. But it's Tennessee and they just don't have the common sense it seems. Its frustrating.

Anyway, I pick dad up from the airport and we head back home with me driving. Again, I'm having no trouble at all and then we turn onto the road that my parents road is on. We make it up the first hill and then as we approach a road turnoff we see up ahead a car stuck in the middle of the road. So we decided to turn at the first street and go that way to our house. No problem. We start up the hill and realize that its a sheet of ice with no snow for traction. Dads car is a front wheel drive so I was pretty confident but when there is no snow for traction you pretty much can't do anything. so we start to slide a bit. I automatically stop the car and put in park and dad comes around to get in the driver's seat so I don't have to slam into someone else's car (which probably would happen as soon as we put the car in gear.) So dad gets in and put the car in reverse hoping that we can just slowly creep back down the hill so we can get back to the main road. Well, we start sliding backwards and fast. Dad had lost complete control of the car and now this is where it gets funny. I was laughing during the incident and laughing hysterically afterwards. :) We were headed for a house with lots of cars in the driveway and I knew we would hit a few of them. So dad opens his door (while pumping the brakes) and stick his other foot out the door to try and stop the car Fred Flintstones style. This was hilarious to me at the time and I still chuckle when I think about it now just two hours later. Well, obviously that wasn't working and miraculously the car spins a 180 so now we can see ourselves hurling towards cars and mailboxes. Dad somehow manages to swerve the car away from the other cars and we end up someones front yard. Of course, I was praying the entire time that the Lord would keep us safe and not to hit anything so the first thing I said after we stopped was "Thank You, Jesus!" Which dad thought was funny and started laughing. We both were shaking and laughing and amazed that we didn't hit anything at all and no one got hurt. So we get back out on the main road and decide to go up that hill because there was more traction and we just drove around the cars stuck in the middle of the road. There were people there helping them so we didn't need to stop and help. We finally made it home safe and sound and thankful my mother wasn't with us or she would have been freaking out!

Now I'm back at my parent's house, in my pj's watching the movie "Breakdown", where I plan to stay the rest of the night.

Happy Sunday!