Wednesday Walk ~ Goldfish Guilt

This week's Wednesday Walk down memory lane is from when Savanna was about 2 years old. I can vividly remember this Sunday morning. She woke up before anyone else and decided she was hungry and "made" her own breakfast of goldfish crackers. I love that sweet, sleepy-eyed baby face!

Unforgettable Staff Meeting

Every month we have a luncheon in our home for all of the families that have visited the church. It is a wonderful time to get to know these new friends and answer any questions they may have about the church. Usually after the luncheon is over, our church staff hangs out and has an informal staff meeting before returning to the church for the evening services. This past week, we had a staff meeting like no other.

Bro. Phil, our Minister of Music, had slammed his finger in a window the day before and was in some serious pain. Brian convinced him the only solution was to relieve the pressure by drilling a hole in the nail! Now, I promise with all my heart, these guys love each other, but doesn't it look like Brian is having WAY too much fun in the picture?

Actually, they never really used the drill. Bro. Phil apparently had a few hesitations, (I can't imagine why!) Another church member who is a nurse lives across the street, and she graciously came over to help in the "surgery". I will spare you the details, but we all had a few laughs at poor Bro. Phil's expense.

Note to self: DO NOT slam your hand in a window!

Lukewarm Faith

Brian has been preaching a series about "Crazy Love" based on the book written by Francis Chan. If you haven't read it yet, you need to put it on the top of your 'must read' list.

~

This past Sunday, he preached an awesome message about Lukewarm Christianity. Talk about stepping on some toes! (including my own ~ yowsers!) He used the passage in Revelation where the Lord says "So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will SPIT YOU OUT OF MY MOUTH."

In an effort to make it 'real' to the people about why the Lord has such a distaste for lukewarm faith, he told a story about how just this week he had taken a huge gulp of coffee that he THOUGHT he had warmed up. To his surprise and GREAT DISTASTE, he realized he never had warmed the coffee up. GROSS! It took all he could do to keep from spitting it back out. Now anybody who knows Brian at all knows that he is a serious coffee drinker. He loves ANY flavor, ANY brand, at ANY time of day (he can even drink a cup of coffee at night and go right to sleep!)

The only kind of coffee he DOES NOT like is LUKEWARM coffee.

~

It was a GREAT illustration to go along with the message.

~

Monday morning as he arrived early at the office for Men's Prayer Meeting, he found this on the doorstep of the church office...
A desktop coffee warmer and a note that read:
"PREACHER-TO KEEP YOUR COFFEE HOT! THANKS FOR A GREAT SERMON."
~
As of yet, no one has claimed the good deed, but we are grateful for the encouraging words and kind gesture. Brian says, at least it was nice to know someone was listening. :)

Wednesday Walk Down Memory Lane ~ Tea Party

I got an idea from someone else's blog.

Instead of doing the 'Wordless Wednesday' thing, she does a 'Wednesday Walk' Down Memory Lane recalling old stories from before we were all so technilogically advanced and had blogs and digital camera and such.

~

Here's to hoping that imitation is the best form of flattery!

I now present my very first 'Wednesday Walk'

~~~

Some of our dearest friends in Jacksonville had four precious girls that made for great playmates for Savanna. Anna and Ariel in particular were her best buds since Savanna's birthday fell right between theirs. Here is one of my favorite shots of one of their MANY dress up tea parties. Savanna and Anna were three years old and little Ariel was only 2.

My, my time certainly does fly! Here they are now, about to enter MIDDLE SCHOOL!

These chicks LOVED to play dress up back then though.

In fact, we had two huge tubs filled with nothing but random dress up 'stuff '.

~

Although we live far apart now, this family will always have a special place in our hearts. They were a big part of what made our time in Jacksonville so special, so I am sure you will see more of these sweet faces in future 'Wednesday Walk' posts.

Wacky Tacky Relay for Life

Our school is AWESOME about using creative tactics to help raise money for our Relay for Life fund. Typically, you pay $1 if you want to wear sunglasses for sunglasses day, wear a hat for hat day, or in this case dress out-of-this world CRAZY for WACKY TACKY DAY!

Micah's teacher spear heads all this fundraising fun and she jumps in with both feet, so to speak.

Yes, the above mis-matched flip flops with equally tacky socks belong to our beloved Mrs. D.

They all had a ball seeing who could be the tackiest.
Apparently there is none tackier than Savanna's Math and Science teacher, Mrs. C.
(she's on the far left ~ it wouldn't be so hard to pick her out if she wasn't so tiny and cute that she blends in with the children!)
The kids got to vote for $0.25 each on who they thought was the Tackiest Teacher of all.

My kids think she won because she showed off some awesome Roger Rabbit/Running Man dance when she modeled her ensemble for the students. As the kids said "It wasn't just her clothes that were tacky, her dancing was pretty wacky tacky too!"
As a grand finale to our wacky tacky day, we celebrated Mrs. P.'s birthday with some Scooby Doo cupcakes and a necklace from the class.

Okay, so Mitchell and Josh may not have gotten on board with the tacky clothes thing, but they got the wackiness mastered!

Time to form a Search Party

Well, today's experience totally confirms my theory that the Lord sends us children just to enhance our prayer life.

We had been enjoying a beautiful day at the ball park, when all of a sudden, we realized we had not seen Micah in quite some time.

Now, I am embarassed to admit that we don't always know exactly where he is while we are at the ball park. I know that is TERRIBLE, but you have to understand, we have a very small ball park and we know pretty much everyone there. In fact, most of the people there also worship at our church. So it is what I call a 'safe zone'. You know, one of those places where you totally let your guard down when you really shouldn't. It's kind of like walking away from your purse while at church thinking that 'of course no one would steal at church!' I know I am flawed in my thinking and it is not intentionally the plan to walk away from my purse or let my child wander away, but it just happens because I am not "on guard" in these pseudo 'safe zones'. Before you call Child Protective Services, please understand that I am working on this and today's experience gave me a good wake up call.

~

Once we realized NO ONE had seem Micah or his pals Heath and Brandon we formed a search party of sorts that covered every square inch of the ball park.

STILL NO BOYS.

This is when panic started to set in for me. I mean like for-real panic! I tried to stay calm, but I could feel my heart pumping like crazy and a voice in my head reminded me of all the scary things that could happen to adorable 7 year old boys!!!!

~

One of the teenage girls said she had seen them playing near the woods about 45 minutes earlier. NEAR THE WOODS?!?!

Oh great! The sun was about to go down!

After what seemed like an eternity ~ I know it couldn't have been that long, but it certainly felt like it ~ Brian { the hero of the story } heard faint voices in the woods and was able to find our wayward children.

Oh the joy!

Now, you know, when we make 'bad choices' there is always something that the enemy uses to tempt us. Would you like to know what clever thing it was this time?

A SLIM JIM!

Yep ~ nasty, stinky beef jerky.

How you might ask?

Well it seems as the boys were enjoying a lovely pressed beef snack from the concession stand, one of them thought 'This sure would make for some good fishin' bait.'

The rest is 'all she wrote'.

One thing led to another... they made fishing poles from random sticks, wire, and string that they found. Then they wandered into the woods to find a creek and catch them some fish.

I didn't know if I should hug or spank first....

so instead, I opted for choice 'C' and took a picture.

You know, when you are a blogger, life is just a blog ~ not a blur, but a blog!

And the 'Father of the Year' Award Goes To....

I know it is no where near Father's Day.

And for that matter, I know there is not an actual award for 'Father of the Year',

BUT IF THERE WERE...

I know exactly who I would nominate.

Brian sat down with Savanna this afternoon and gave her her very first guitar lesson. She has been on the pursuit of a new 'thang' for some time now. She hung up her dancing shoes a short while ago and decided that she wanted something new as a hobby, but she just didn't know exactly what that 'thang' was going to be.

She even went out to the ball field during draft week to try softball on for size.

Since her closest buddies weren't on board PLUS she realized she couldn't play ball in the new press on nails she just got ~ GASP ~ she decided to vote "NO" to softball also.

She was thrilled when she mastered the 'D major' chord!
Look at that sweet face ~ she was BEAMING!!!

Brian was incredibly patient and encouraging with her. It was such a precious interaction to witness.

As if that weren't enough, he also agreed to appease Micah's imagination and play along with his laundry hamper Olympic Bobsledding dreams. :)

Yesterday's game of choice was Cops and Robbers. I totally thought Micah was in BIG TROUBLE when I heard Brian talking in a very loud, authoratative voice. Then I realized they were chasing each other with toy guns!!! HA!

{wish I had thought to grab my camera then}

Here's a series of images to document what they spent the better part of today doing. It will also serve as good evidence to show the chiropractor when we try to explain why Brian is curled up in pain tomorrow.

Check out the expression on Micah's face!

I know this one is a bit blurry, but I included it just to show how dog-gone FAST these guys were going!

GOLD MEDAL for sure!

After several exhausting laps around the house, Brian finally called it quits.

But I truly do not know another Daddy that pours as much love, energy, and time into the hearts and lives of his children.

I tease him all the time and tell him I would have married him just for his bug killing abilities alone. {I CAN NOT STAND BUGS!!!}

But I honestly can say, I really would have married him just for his fathering skills. I am so thankful for what he does and who he is.

Cracker Barrel Breakfasts

I love Cracker Barrel for many reasons.

The atmosphere complete with rocking chairs, checkers games, and fireplace is one of a kind. Not to mention their pancakes and baked apples make for the best breakfast in town hands down!

But more than anything else, I LOVE, LOVE , LOVE their gift shop! Check out my new treasures I found. This adorable pancake pan that imprints your pancakes with animal faces {how cute is that?!}

And I just couldn't resist this funky clock made out of utensils for my kitchen.
This is one of those thing you either love or hate ~ and I LOVE!

These are the kind of treasures that if you pass them up, you will never be able to find them again!

At least that is my rationale for buying them anyway.

We joined Brian's parents for a long standing family tradition ~ Saturday morning breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We don't usually like to get up early on Saturdays, but we do love getting to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Micah immediately challenged Grandpa to a round of checkers.

Daddy and Savanna warmed up by the stone fireplace.

And Grandma and I reserved our table while sipping our coffee and waiting for our pancakes.

I love it that Micah is sharing his expert checkers advice and strategy with Grandpa.

Don't worry, the kids didn't leave without a few treasures of their own, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. Savanna found a 'too cute for words' Florida Gators shirt and Micah found himself a wooden snake.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa, for a great morning that filled our bellies with delicious treats and our hearts with special memories.

Baseball's Back!!!

This Saturday is baseball draft day!

These are some shots from last season. Seems hard to believe Micah won't be in T-ball anymore....sniff, sniff! It feels like just yesterday he was only 3 years old drawing in the dirt during the games, but now he is hard core and focused.

He is so excited that he is finally old enough for Coach Pitch.

Every year so far, we have been so blessed with a wonderful team and coaching crew. Baseball season means so much more than just baseball around here. It becomes our way of life for the next few months. We form new relationships and opportunities to share the love of the Lord with people in our community. Would you believe I have actually gotten to pray with several children and lead them to ask Jesus into their hearts right there at the ballpark sitting in that orange clay? What an honor and privilege!

Who'd of ever 'thunk' the ballpark could be a mission field?

Can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for this season!

Trash to Treasure

Can you believe these super creative chicks made a wreath entirely out of trash?

Even better than that, they thought of it all by themselves!

They tore out the pages of an old magazine and wadded them up to create their very own, one of a kind wreath.

What a fun way to pass an afternoon!

The One that Swallowed Jonah

I am forever thankful that the Lord gave us both a girl and a boy. Yesterday, I took Savanna shopping while Brian took Micah fishing. My phone rang while we were in Old Navy and I was super excited that Micah was on the other line. Micah is not much of a phone person! If he talks to you on the phone, consider yourself privileged and know that something exciting has happened.

He started off the conversation by saying, "Mom, I caught the BIGGEST catfish! Dad says it's big enough to be the fish that swallowed Jonah!"

It certainly was a whopper of a fish and will make for some good eats tonight!

Why do I feel like a criminal?

We just made a quick run to Target and left feeling like CRIMINALS!

~

Savanna had a gift card that was burning a whole in her pocket and she just couldn't wait to get a new Wii game. We had several things on our list to buy, but we made a direct shot over to the gaming area to make sure they had the Mario Bros. game she was wanting. The only problem was, you can't leave the electronics department without paying for the game there. I guess there are too many games that mysteriously "disappear" if they leave the electronics area without actually being purchased.

Transaction #1

***

Then we made our way over to the pharmacy area to pick up some generic Nyquil to help me shake off whatever it is I seem to be fighting the past few days. Again, we have to pay for the item in the designated area. Only this time, we also have to provide a driver's license and sign off on something that I think was verifying that we would not be going home and making black market drugs with the Nyquil. Anyway, we finally made it out of the pharmacy with our much needed meds ~ but only after the pharmacist gave us what I consider to be a look of great suspicion.

Transaction #2

***

Finally, we found all the other much needed items on our shopping list such as pictures, bubble gum, shaving cream, etc... and checked out at the regular register in the front of the store.

Transaction #3

***

Now I ask you, what in heaven's name is our world coming to when it requires 3 different transactions to leave Target with less than 10 items? For someone like me who already has a ridiculously high guilt complex about things that I am actually innocent, it does something to your psyche to be treated like a thief or drug dealer before 10:00 am on a Saturday.

Maybe it's just me, but it makes me mad, sad, and a little frustrated to have to deal with such nonsense ~ not to mention, I'm beginning to develop a criminal complex for pity's sake!

Snow Day?

Can you believe that we actually got a SNOW DAY?

True!

School was cancelled last Friday for a SNOW DAY!

We were so excited we could hardly stand it!

We waited and watched, and waited and watched some more.

Mostly all we saw was rain, rain, and more rain.

Finally around 1:00 in the afternoon, we got a phone call from a friend that there were snow flurries falling.

We burst outside ready for our Winter Wonderland in Florida!!!

Well.....needless to say, we were a little disappointed in the AMOUNT of snow, but technically we did have snow!

Micah examined the ground because he really wasn't sure about this actually being snow.

The prospect of throwing snowballs or making a snowman was near impossible, so Savanna and Micah decided it would be fun just to catch as many snowflakes as possible on their tongues.

As far as I'm concerned, I would much rather be playing in the white sand at the beach instead of the white snow ANY day. This cold weather is ridiculous!

Instead of a snow day, we had a pajama wearin', fire buildin', popcorn poppin', movie watching kind of day. We had a very fun and cozy time watching the first 3 movies in the Love Comes Softly series ~ which I would HIGHLY recommend. I kept thinking that they reminded me of Little House on the Prairie, which is my all time fav, and then I finally realized that they were directed by Michael Landon Jr. I can't wait til we can get our hands on the next movies in the series.

So much for snow pics, but good family memories were made none the less.

My Valentines

Aren't these the sweetest Valentines you've ever seen?

I just love my children and love a day that you celebrate love!


Savanna found a cute speckled frog in her bag. She is really into frogs right now, mostly for the whole "Fully Rely On God" thing.

Micah got a few G.I. Joe figurines.

And they both found some new, cool clothes in their bags.

(I heart Target!)

You want to know what REALLY warmed my heart....

They made EACH OTHER Valentines cards!

How cool is that?

They weren't even told to do it!

Can you tell my heart just melted!?

We didn't get to have our school parties on Friday because of our SNOW DAY (crazy right? I'll post on that tomorrow) Anyway, Monday was our parties BUT I had already planned a "half-birthday" party for Micah's teacher, Mrs. D.

She has a summer birthday so we wouldn't be in school to celebrate with her. She is DEFINITELY someone worth celebrating, so we planned a little surprise b-day action to go along with the Valentines fun.

The class gave her this beautiful necklace for her "half-birthday" with all three of her babies on it. Her middle child went home to be with Jesus shortly after his first birthday and I have felt burdened to find her photo jewelry that would include a spot for all three of her beautiful children. Her oldest daughter was a doll and helped me smuggle a few pictures out of the house so it would be a surprise.

Mrs. D. and I burst into tears when she opened the gift ~ the children were so funny, they thought she didn't like the gift!

They understood a little better when she showed them Riley's picture. She is very open about Riley and talks to the children about him. It has also made her a big influence in our school's Relay For Life fundraising campaign as we try to find a cure for cancer.

Micah and Mrs. D. enjoying the ice cream float and cookie cake.

Check out the beautiful handmade Valentines that the children made at school.

Micah with his bag of goodies from all of his friends.

Savanna with her fifth grade buds making ice cream sundaes.

YUMMY!

Hope you all had a WONDERFULLY SWEET VALENTINES!

We are still trying to get our blood sugars leveled out over here before the Easter candy arrives!