Kirkpatrick Family Life

A Bittersweet but Exciting Change!!

2012-01-30T15:51:00.022-05:00

I will first give you the background, so I will warn you that this could be a long post!

If you didn't already know this, John, Mallory and I have been living with my parents since we moved back to Hattiesburg, which is about a year and a half ago. So just to clarify, that means my wonderful selfless parents have had our family of 3 plus our dog Daisy living with them in their house. Now if you have never done this, I know you are thinking "I could never do this", but I will tell you that you can and if you ever have to, you will be a better person from it than you were before!

After having Mallory, I longed to be near family. It made me sad to think that Mallory would not grow up near her grandparents or cousin. I was blessed as a child having my grandparents only 20 minutes apart and my dads parents lived in the same town. On top of missing family, I could tell how unhappy John was in his current Job. The long crazy hours and being on call 24 hours a day was not his idea of a fun career, even if he was good at what he did. The atmosphere at this plant was so different than his previous plant. This one was very negative. However, God had given John this opportunity, so he tried to make the best of it, while being an Christian example and having a positive attitude. During these days, I spent many hours praying and searching the Internet for John a new job closer to Hattiesburg or Alabama where he is from, but sadly couldn't find anything.

To our surprise in Early 2010, my dad offered John a job and needed him to start June 1st, 2010. My parents knew that we still owned a house in Florida, so they offered us to move into the second floor of their house! I admit thinking to myself.... "Do they know what they are getting into bringing a 6 month old baby, who tends to do lots of crying, into their house to live and do they realize it could take forever to sell our house in the Florida housing market??? As far as I could tell they had no concerns and seemed to be excited to have us coming back!! Honestly, little did my parents know, but this was a answered prayer I had been praying for. I just never expected it to happened like it did!! Luckily, God's plans are better than our own!!

Now, to the house selling part.... we put the house on the market when Mallory was only 4 weeks old!! Now I will tell you.... this was not what I envisioned after coming home from the hospital. I mean wasn't taking care of a brand new baby enough? Well I guess not cause my husband insisted we get the house ready to sell and put on the market even though we had no where to go at this point!! Five months later and the house was still sitting on the market while the end of May was getting closer and closer. At this point I am wondering if we are making a terrible decision...... and if the house not selling was some kind of sign from God that we need to stay put.... but after much prayer , we packed up our most important things and moved into the second story of my parents house!

The first several weeks and months were interesting in that Mallory didn't want much to do with anyone but John and I. She would just scream and cry if I left her with anyone even Nana and Pops.... in fact one time when John was out of town, I tried to leave her with my dad for a little while to go with mom to the store. 30 minutes into the trip, my dad calls me very stressed telling me that I MUST come home NOW cause Mallory had been crying for the entire 30 minutes I have been gone!! He said he had tried everything he knew to do and nothing was working. I can laugh about this now, but at the time it was terrible and I had not seen my dad that stressed out in a long time!! Thank goodness we have come a long ways and she now loves staying with Nana and Pops!!!

Some of the best things about living with Nana and Pops, were having family dinner almost every night and Mallory getting to see Nana and Pops everyday! This past year and a half is not only filled with lots of great memories, but also many lessons God taught me as well. Patience, Sacrifice, humility, and what it truly means to be selfless are just a few of the lessons God taught me through this time in our life. I never thought it would take over a year to sell our house, but patience was definitely something I had to learn all over again!! Also, being content with what you have and where you live... I mean you have to admit it's not the coolest thing to tell someone that you are married, have a 2 year old, and live with your parents!! I definitely got lots of crazy looks when people would ask me where in hattiesburg we lived and my response was my parents house. In the end, I was just grateful that I had such selfless parents that allowed us to live there so we could not only wait out the sale of our house in Florida, but also save money for our new house!

I have the the best parents hands down, they are not only humble ,but they are selfless, and giving too. I thank God for their daily example in my life and the lives of people around them. My mom and dad choose to uproot their normal life, allow our family to move in ,plus the dog(which my mom is not a fan of), and didn't complain one bit the entire year and a half we lived there!! In fact, she told us we didn't have to leave several times!! Although, I secretly think she was mainly referring to Mallory not leaving. So, thank you mom and dad for blessing our life and allowing us to uproot your quietness and space for the past year and a half!! They not only allowed God to use them to answer our prayer, but far surpassed my original prayer request!

After, God was teaching me once again how important it is to be "still and know that I am GOD"..... our house in Florida finally sold last Feb(2011) after 2 failed contracts and over a year one the market! We were finally free to start looking for us a new house here in Hattiesburg!! We were really excited, but after months of looking and looking for a house and not finding anything we liked that had at least an acre of land, I was very discouraged. We then decided to check into possibly building a house. We actually found land, had the plans drawn up and an appraisal done. After the appraisal coming back very poor, we didn't know what to do. I felt disappointment all over again, but knew we have to be patient.

Over thanksgiving, we decided to look at a foreclosure that our realtor had just seen and thought we might like. I had seen it online a while back, but they had recently dropped the price, which then put it in our price range. Little did we know that we would not only really like the house, but that someone else would like it too. After the bank requested the final offer we were willing to pay, I just knew we wouldn't get the house. Well, I was wrong once again, they accepted ours and we were under contract!! We were excited, but tried not to be to excited since we knew it was a foreclosure and that could bring up many unknown issues. However, to our surprise after a inspection, and very awesome appraisal, we closed on our new house December 23rd! I honestly am still in awe that we have our own house again!! Don't get me wrong I miss my parents, but I think it's great that we can now live in the same town, and have our own space... and I am sure they are enjoying the quietness again!! I honestly do miss their company... but don't miss all the clutter!!

So we spent the weekend of New Years moving into our new house!! John's mom and Aunt Betty came down after Christmas and helped us do so much!! John's dad even built us a awesome gate for the stairs!! We are enjoying our new normal and loving our huge yard and space! We have 4 pecan trees, a kumquat tree, 2 fig trees, and several other fruit trees that we are not sure what they are. I am looking forward to making new memories in our new house and hopefully blessing others by glorifying God!

Here are a few pictures. I am still in the process of organizing and unpacking... more pictures will come soon.

A Christmas trip to see the Lewis Lights, Santa Clause, and Mallory turned 25 Months old!!

2012-01-26T08:40:00.015-05:00

A Christmas in Hattiesburg Ms is does not feel like Christmas without going to see the Lewis lights. This was Mallory's first time to go see these lights, but John has been a few time before in the years past. If you haven't been to see the lewis lights, they are amazing!! It's not only a display, but they have a trail you get to walk through and all these cute hand painted wood characters and even the Christmas Story! This year we invited Carmen and John, who are some new friends we have made that have been visiting our church. I think they enjoyed it and it was fun to share the experience with them!!

This was Mallory's second time to go see Santa clause at the mall. Last year was her first, and she had just turned a year old so she didn't remember it at all. She actually did much better than I expected and sat in his lap.... she wouldn't smile for us until they gave me this weird looking puppet for me to show her and it brought a little smirk!! She talked about Santa Clause the rest of Christmas and has even asked to see him after Christmas this year!! I am not sure she really understood that he brings presents, but she definitly knows who he is. She got to see him several times over the holiday... and sat in his lap every time!! Praying that even though a lot of focus gets pointed on Santa in America, that one day she will realize there is more to Christmas than Santa... and it's Jesus!!!

Mallory turned 25 months old in December!! She is talking even more and more each day!! She loves to look at art she made at school and tell me "I made that"!! She loves to sing songs now. Her favorites to sing are Happy Birthday to Jesus, Row Row Row your boat, Jesus Loves Me, The Wheels on the bus, and Twinkle Twinkle little star. She know most of the words to all of them and I love to see her face while singing!! She is till pretty timid with people she doesn't know, but she is getting a little better about that. She also still has problems with Men in general but if over the age of 40. She doesn't usually want anything to do with them, unless its pops!! Mallory is it tends to be worse! Ha! She is still a pickey eater, but is doing better and finally trying new things, however I hear "I don't like that" quite often. I guess it's pay back since I was a super pickey eater too!! She is really starting to test her limits now, which has become interesting and a little bit stressful at times!! I love being mommy to Mallory and seeing her grow and learn is such a joy!! Being a Mommy is one of God's greatest blessing!! Looking forward to many more years watching her grow and learn, Lord willing.

Enjoy the pictures from Lewis Lights and other events!! Coming up next is a huge purchase and change for the Kirkpatrick family and I will tell you all about our Christmas 2011 which, involved a trip to my Grandparents, A wonderful Church service, and a trip to Alabama to see John's family!!

A 60th Birthday Party Surprise!!

2012-01-15T16:26:00.019-05:00

Back in September, my mom had the idea of throwing dad a surprise birthday party since he was turning 60 this year. Now, if you haven't thrown a surprise party before, it's not an easy task, but it's especially hard if you live in the same house as the person you are surprising! My mom wanted to do a nautical theme, which at the time sounded like a great idea in September, but come December you could not find any toy plastic boats or nautical themed stuff.... so decorations were much harder than I ever dreamed they would be. After lots of searching, we did get lucky and find a few things at a local party store, which really helped. The party was held at a local community center in Glendale, which is right outside of Hattiesburg. After spending days upon days closed in the bedroom upstairs at my parents house working on decorations, I was very glad when they were done, and that dad never happened to walk in on me. I am still amazed that we managed to pull it off. All in all I think he enjoyed himself and it was lots of fun to see his reaction!! We had food catered by Front Porch, which included a roasted Pig!! The look on some of the guests faces after seeing the pig was priceless. Good food, great guests, and the best birthday Dad made for a great, fun, and memorable surprise!! I definitely have the best dad any girl could ever dream of having!! A daddy's girl I will always be!! Here are some of the funny things I found on the internet to read at his party. Enjoy!

Here are the top 10 signs that you are 60:1. Your back goes out more than you do.
2. Your address book has mostly names that start with DR.
3. Getting Lucky means you found your car in the parking lot!
4. Your joints are more accurate that the national weather service.
5. A dripping faucet causes an uncontrollable urge.
6. Your investment in Health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
7. Your ears are hairier than your head.
8. You now know where your prostrate is.
9. You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police.
10. You turn out the lights for economic reasons rather than romantic reasons.

Helpful Tips for turning 60:1.Keep a diary – it will be a great source of comfort and handy reminder of what you did yesterday.
2.Cultivate friendships with people much older than yourself. This will make you feel so much younger!
3.Never attempt bending down, except under strict medical supervision.
4.Take the strain off your tired memory by labeling all household objects such as the bed, fridge, and television.
5.Save all hairs that come loose when you brush your hair. One day medical science may develop a means of replanting them.

Lastly, I will leave you with the toast I gave to my dad at his party.

Dad,
It’s hard to believe that you are 60 years old! Wow that sounds so old!! You still actually have your hair and it’s not even grey!! Those 2 things should make you feel younger already.
Looking back on the past 30 years, not only brings back wonderful memories, but also reminds me what a good sport you were living with a house full of girls!! Now as you can imagine, a house full of girls requires some major adjustment. As most of you know, dad has always been a tight wad when it comes to money, but he quickly learned with girls came, clothes, shoes, and make-up. Surprisingly, he learned pretty quickly that he just better be quiet and carry the bags.
With a house full of girls, came lots of emotions and drama! He handled this way better than most men, but I often wondered if some of our emotions were rubbing off on Dad. One example of this was the morning of my first date at the age of 16; dad came in my bedroom and woke me up with tears running down his face telling me “that his little girl was growing up.” By the end of this conversation he had me in tears and wondering if I should cancel the date!!
Another step in growing up was dad teaching me how to drive. I am still not sure who was more nervous Me or Dad !! Just to tell you how nervous dad was, the entire time we were moving he held a very tight grip on the parking brake of moms Maroon Volvo station wagon. I guess he thought if I forgot to brake, he could yank the parking brake up and it would stop us! Dad, I sure am glad you have finally gotten past that!
As I was getting ready for this party, I came across letters you wrote home and scrapbooks Mom (your grandmother) made for you when you were in college. One funny thing I found was a copy of a wreck less driving ticket you got in Starkville Mississippi!! I almost couldn’t believe that the slowest driver in our family had gotten a wreck less driving ticket!! As, your mother Patsy put it, Mom may have kept a few too many documents!!
Now, I know you have been called many things over the years including: Dad, Bobby, Uncle Mike, Sir, Boss, Deacon, Forester, The Tire man, Sunday School Teacher, and Pops. But now you can officially be called a senior citizen!!
No matter what name you are called you will always be the best dad a girl could ask for! Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

Mallory's First Chrismas Play

2012-01-15T15:58:00.003-05:00

So I am very behind on all the events that happened in December, so it's time to play catch up.

Mallory attends a Trinity Play school here 3 mornings a week. This year she got to be in her first Christmas play! This happened on December 19th. Nana, John and I all came to watch. The entire play was about 20 minutes long and since Mallory's class was the youngest they brought them in towards the end for the last two songs. They sang "We wish you a merry Christmas" and "Happy Birthday to Jesus". I had no clue what songs they were going to be singing, since Mallory kept telling me they were singing Row Row Row your boat and didn't' appear to know any other songs. They ended up bringing Mallory's class in with them holding on to a rope. It was so cute! We made sure as not to bring attention to ourselves, not knowing what she would do if she saw us. She looked so confused the whole time taking it all in. I wish I could know what was going on in that little mind of hers! Her facial expressions were priceless. After the play, we were invited back to her classroom to have a party with them. Their teacher read a book to them while they ate Christmas cookies. After eating, all the kids had sweet little gifts for their parents. This included some handmade ornaments. Getting to see Mallory be apart of this was a feeling I will never forget!! What a blessing it is to be her mother! Now, weeks later, she is still singing Happy Birthday all the time and still puts Jesus in at the end. Praying one day she will understand who Jesus really is and what His birth means to us! Enjoy the pictures.

Stay tuned for a successful 60th Surprise Party for the best Dad a girl could ever have!

Merry Christmas from the Kirkpatricks!

2011-12-23T17:26:00.003-05:00

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Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-22T21:20:00.006-05:00

This year, since my parents were in another country and the stores were only closed 1day for Thanksgiving, we could not make the 4 hour drive to Alabama. We were fortunate enough that John's family was willing to meet us in Jackson at John's sister's apartment for Thanksgiving. Nanny also made the trip down with John's parents, which made the trip extra special! It was fun getting to spend the day with them and Mallory loved getting to watch Aunt KK's cat run around the apartment. She also had fun playing Tea, playing baby dolls with Nanny, and hide and go seek with Granna! Looking forward to spending a few days over Christmas with John's family!

Here are some pictures from our fun day!

A Minnie Mouse Party

2011-12-22T20:28:00.012-05:00

Well I have been really busy lately and have neglected to post since October!! We have a lot that has happened, so I will try and play catch up!

Back in November on the 13th we had Mallory's 2nd birthday party. My parents were leaving for a Biblical Tour in Turkey, so we had to have the party a little early.

Mallory had lots of fun opening gifts and eating some of her Minnie Mouse cake! She got so many gifts that at one point she lost interest in opening them. John's family and Nanny made the trip down here for the afternoon, which was so nice of them. Mallory's favorite gifts were the School Bus Aunt KK (aka Aunt Krista) gave her and the pink kitchen sink she got from Nanna, Pops, Granna, and Papa. She loves to pretend to cook and wash her hands!

At Mallory's 2 year old check up she weighed 26.11 pounds and was 33 in tall. The Doctor joked with me that she was finally now in the normal weight range! I guess all that Cheese she eats is finally paying off!! After seeing the doctor, she sent us to get Mallory's finger pricked to check her blood work. This was a first, and I wasn't to thrilled to see her go through this, but I knew shots were much worse! Once they called her name back there, the tech was trying to talk to her and the first thing Mallory does is poke her bottom lip out as far as she could. It was pretty funny and had the techs in the room laughing. Next the tech pricked her finger and we all kept waiting for Mallory to cry, but to our surprise it never came! Mallory is officially stronger than her mother when it comes to pain!!! Mallory just wanted to get the band aid on! As soon as we got back to the waiting room, the others in there commented to me that they kept waiting to here her cry too and couldn't believe what a big girl she was!! I was one proud MaMa!! Hoping she continues to get John's pain tolerance and not mine!!

Mallory is now talking up a storm, can sing row row row your boat ,and the wheels on the bus. She now knows what a sucker is and likes them. To be honest I wasn't too excited about that, but I guess it's about time!

She loves the play ground and every time she sees one she wants to stop and play. I can't believe Mallory is finally 2! I mean it seems like yesterday she was born. I just love seeing her blossom and learn. Her giggles make my heart smile, her hugs and kisses are priceless and can turn a bad day into a great one! She recently told me she loved me and this was hands down one of the best moments of being a mom so far! Praying one day that she will understand that there is a God who loves her even more than I can! Praying I am the motherly example God wants me to be!

Enjoy the pictures from her 2nd Birthday party! Stay tuned for a fun Thanksgiving at Aunt KK's in Jackson.

A trip to Mitchell Farms and 23 Months old!!

2011-10-31T16:26:00.014-04:00

Recently, John, Mallory and I loaded up the car and headed to Mitchell Farms Pumpkin Patch in Collins. If you haven't been here or taken your kids you are really missing out on lots of Fall fun!! This was Mallory and I's second time to go, but John's first. He loved it just like we did!! It was so cute to see how much fun she had going from one thing to the next!! Her favorite was the slide and the train ride! I think she would have stayed on the slide all day if we had let her!! Playing in a pit of corn, a corn maze, tire swings, slides, a train ride, a wagon ride, and a animals petting barn are just a few of the fun activities you get to do at Mitchell Farms!! Mallory even got to help us pick out 2 pumpkins to bring home!! It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go again next year!!

On October 20th Mallory was 23 months old! Gosh where has the time gone??? I mean in less than one month she will be 2 years old!! Here are some recaps from the last month!

- If you ask Mallory how old she is she will tell you 2 even though she is still actually one. She thinks since her cousin EE is 2 she is too!
- She goes pee pee on the potty at least 1 time a day sometimes more when we are at home. She even held it all the way home one day for me! I was so proud of her!! I hence full force potty training in our near future! She gets a sticker for going, which she loves!! We tried M&M's and those were not a hit... she wouldn't even try them! Ha!
- She is still some what a picky eater, but if you have the right food I think she would munch all day! She loves Ice Cream!! I have learned the hard way that I need to fix a separate bowl just for her or she will want to eat all of mine!
- She is constantly asking me "Where Dada go?" "Where Nana go?" ,"I want to play with EE" or "Where school bus go?"
- She is still really into School Buses. She gets so excited when we see one in town and she loves to wave to it and say "Hey School Bus"! It's super cute!!
- Her favorite friend at church right now is Cadence. She tells us "I want play with Cadence." It's really cute!
- She is at the stage where she doesn't like changing clothes unless they are wet or she is getting to take a bath. She is great at having melt downs. I guess that is part of the terrible two's coming out! Thankfully it has been a little bit better lately.
- She got her first busted lip at school recently. She was trying to climb up onto the changing table and fell. This was all after she had been told not to climb on it! I guess she had to learn the hard way, but she got a Popsicle out of it!!
- One morning when I was in the carpool line to drop Mallory off at play school she started pointing at this little boy, grinning really big and saying Nate Nate... I asked her do you know him? She said uh huh with a big grin! So when the teacher came to get her out of the car, I asked her what the little boys name was and to my surprise she said "Nate"!! I proceeded to tell her that Mallory was just pointing, smiling and calling him by name!! Mallory's teacher thought that was super funny... since Nate is not even in her class, although they do play on the playground together. She said all the girls love Nate!! Well I guess our little Mallory likes Nate too!! Ha Ha...
- We have finally moved up to size 4 diapers, I think we were in size 3's for a really long time!! Now it's time to focus on no diapers!!
- Mallory loves wearing jackets and sweaters. Sometimes she will get really upset if we try to take it off. Not sure what caused this!
- Lastly, Mallory loves Football!! She loves to go to the games and have it on TV! Hoping this continues and she likes to watch it as much as I do!! The other day I turned on the TV to watch the news and she kept asking me "Where football game?" . Explaining to her that college football only comes on certain nights of the week was pretty funny!!

Stay tuned for a fun Minnie Mouse Birthday Party!! Enjoy the pictures!

A Rainy trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!!

2011-10-13T10:27:00.021-04:00

So, yesterday afternoon John, Mallory and I returned from our very wet trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, Disney World!! Our dear friends that we met while living in Valdosta Georgia, invited us to tag along on their fun adventure to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Beware: this may end up as a very long post!!!

At first, I admit, I was a little hesitant since Mallory is not even 2 yet and I knew she would not remember this trip at all. However, just getting to see our friends Pam and Jeff Sweatt and their 3 year old Anna, made all my hesitations go away! To my surprise both girls were great!! They didn't even fuss about all the rain!!

Our first stop was in Tallahassee, where we spent the night with some dear friends. I wish we could have had more time to see others, but it was great to see a few of our friends again. I was super grateful to be able to break the 11 hour drive up into 2 days instead of 1!! As you can imagine how 11 hours in a car with a 1 year old would be.

On Friday morning we got up and headed to Orlando to meet the Sweatt's at our condo. This whole time, I am trying not to worry about the weather even though the forecast shows 60% to 100% rain the entire time we are going to be there. And not to my surprise, as soon as we hit Orlando the storms start, but hey a rainy day can be fun as long as Mickey and Minnie Mouse are there right??

The first afternoon, we headed to magic Kingdom and it had stopped raining!! Mallory loved riding a horse on the carousal, the mad hatter tea cup, and Dumbo. She even cried when we had to get off the horse!! I was finally not worrying about the rain forecast at all now. Just seeing all the smiles on Anna and Mallory's face was priceless!! Since it was getting close to dinner time and it looked like it was about to rain we decided to head back to the car. Well right when we got off the boat ... the bottom decides to fall out... so let just say we were soaked by the time we got to the car. Surprisingly, that was thankfully the wettest we got the whole trip.

It ended up raining the next 2 days, but we were prepared with tons of rain ponchos!! The first morning there, we had reservations to eat breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. I wasn't sure how Mallory would react to these large characters!! Not to my surprise, she was ok with them at a distance, but didn't want them near her!! Anna on the other hand loved them and it was precious to see her smile with excitement!! Even after the expensive tab we had, I would do it again!! It was well worth it and the food was really good!!

We spent the rest of the day at magic kingdom and got to see all the princesses. Mallory was not nearly as scared of them as she was the larger characters.

I am still impressed how well both girls did, considering how much it rained. I mean they didn't even complain!! All of us adults probably complained more than the kids did!! Mallory even napped in her stroller some each day!!

The last day we went to Animal Kingdom, which by the way I would not recommend for younger kids. It was fun, there is just not a lot of stuff for pre-schoolers. That morning, we decided go see mickey and Minnie again... and to my surprise this time Mallory actually walked right up to Mickey and gave him a hug!!! I was so excited and in such shock!! It was so cute to finally see her excited about seeing Mickey!!

I am looking forward to many more trips in the future!! It's almost like you become a kid again when you are there!!

Here are my tips if you take a child to Disney that's under the age of 4.
1. Bring your stroller, pushing them around is much easier than making them walk and much faster!!
2. Bring lots of snacks, juice, and bottled water, the drinks and snacks in the park are expensive. They will allow you to bring a soft cooler in the park and you can store it in the bottom of your stroller!
3. Purchase a autograph book before you go to the park for the characters to sign. Also, have a large pen handy. They sale these at Target in Orlando and they are inexpensive. The kids will love getting each character to sign it!!
4. We always went to see the characters first, as the lines seemed to be shorter first thing in the morning. Have your camera and autograph book ready!!
5. If your camera takes batteries, make sure you have plenty extra. I took so many pictures, that I had to change the batteries more than normal.
6. Before you even leave for Disney, buy a bunch of throw away ponchos in case it rains!! You will want them the minute it rains and they cost less than a $1.00 at Walmart and Target. The local Orlando Target also had some, since we had to replenish our stock from all the rain!! Note: the ponchos at Disney cost $8.00 for just 1!!!
7. If it rains, use extra ponchos to cover stroller. We taped a poncho over the stroller and it helped keep Mallory even dryer!!
8. If you set a budget for your trip and are terrible at spending over it, then get it all in cash. Once your cash is getting low you know how much is left. Note: it's very easy to spend money at Disney even if you are a conservative spender!!
9. Share a lunch with your child. I never bought Mallory her own meal in the park. I just ordered something she could eat and we shared. We also, drank our bottled water instead of paying extra for a drink.
10. Take a backpack or small bag to put your important stuff in it. You don't want to leave your valuables in the stroller while you are riding a ride or watching a show.
11. Before you buy all the cute souvenirs in the Disney park, check out the local walmart and target first. Their stuffed animals were just as cute and a little bit cheaper. I will tell you they do not have near the amount of stuff, but its worth a look!
12. Favorite rides at magic Kingdom our girls loved: Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cup, Winnie the Pooh, It's a small world, and Buzz light year.
13. Favorite rides at Hollywood studios: Toy Story 4d ride(interactive and lots of fun!!)
14. Shows we loved: Little Mermaid(Ursala can be kinda scary), Muppet 3d show, and Disney's Junior Live on Stage.
15. Taking a child that is 2 and under has it's advantages. Everything is free from entrance to the parks to the character breakfasts!!
16. Don't be scared of the rain!! John and I actually think the rain was almost more pleasant than sweating and gobs of sunscreen!! Just through a poncho on and grab your umbrella and have fun!! Made a whole new meaning of Singing in the rain!!
17. Pack band aids just in case you need them or get a blister!!
18. Don't get worked up about the lines for rides. Look at it like you get out of the sun or rain for a while. We also noticed that most of the wait estimates were over estimated which made for a shorter wait!!
19. If it's close to someones birthday with you then ask for a birthday button and every employee in the park will tell them happy birthday all day!! Jeff got John one since his birthday was the week we got there and the first day to my surprise he actually wore it!! Ha ha... and every where we went we heard "Happy Birthday John".. It was pretty funny!!
20. Most importantly have fun!!! Disney will be what you make it regardless of the weather!!

Faithfulness During the Midnight Hour

2011-09-28T13:20:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago, we had a special guest preacher come speak at church. He and his family were here to preach and meet our church family in view of a call to become our full time pastor. The message he preached really spoke to me and I wanted to share it in hopes that it might encourage you during the Trials of our lives.

In Acts 16:16-34: Paul and Silas, who had been preaching God's Word got put in Jail, clothes torn off and beaten. Now if you put yourself in their shoes, I definitely don't think my first reaction would have been to Pray and Sing Hymns to God to at the midnight hour, but that is exactly what Paul and Silas did!! I mean what a testimony to how we should react during the many trails we go through!!

I think back to the day I got a phone call that John had been laid off and they were closing down the Weyerhauser plant in Valdosta, Ga. At first I was in shock and had lots of emotions running through my head. I kept thinking what are we going to do???? Is John ok?? After all my initial fears and shock, I was able to find peace in the uncertainty we faced, but oh how God would have rather me Praised Him immediately instead of several days later. I mean if Silas and Paul did that under those terrible circumstances and the Jailer not only didn't commit suicide, but his family and him accepted Christ, just think how God can use us today during our trials to impact people around us!!

Praying that whatever Trials I will face in the future, I will praise Him in the midnight hour and use it as a testimony for His Glory!! After all, Isn't our mission to Glorify Him??

Tractor Party and Almost 22 Months!!!

2011-09-17T13:48:00.006-04:00

Last Sunday, Ethan had his two year old birthday party!! Hard to believe My sister has a two year old!! It seems like yesterday we were both in high school fighting over what time to leave for school. Ha! Well my little nephew is obsessed with anything Tractor related!!! So a tractor themed party was very fitting!!

We enjoyed grilled hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, cake, and ice cream!! The kids also had a blast playing on the splash pad out at Paul B Johnson State Park. The weather was wonderful and thankfully not to hot!!

I can't believe tomorrow, my sweet little baby, well really a toddler, will be 22 months old!!! She is growing up so fast!! She's talking more and saying small sentences. Some examples are: I want out(referring to her crib, high chair or car seat). I want grapes. I want juice. Mama's car red. Mallory also loves to color now, and still loves to read books!! She also loves to help me and Nana do things, although sometimes is ends up taking double the time! When she gets really excited she starts breathing really loud and bats her hands, which is super cute to see!! Recently, She went to the potty for me. My mom suggested I give her an M&M as a prize for going, well she was really excited to get the M&M but I couldn't convince her to eat it at all. She just held it in her hand for a long time until I had to take it away due to the fact the coating was turning her hand green!! She was not to happy after she saw me eat it! HA! I guess I am going to have to come up with another idea, for potty excitement!!

This past Wednesday at play school, Mallory was playing in one of the play houses and apparently there was a huge fire ant bed under it and the teachers were not aware of it. All of a sudden they told me Mallory just started screaming and screaming.... well ants were crawling all over her shoulder and right arm. So sadly she came home with at least 10 yucky looking red ant bites, but at least they haven't bothered her to much.

In less than 3 weeks we are headed to the Happiest Place on Earth!! Disney World here we come!!!! We are meeting some of our friends we made during the two and a half years we lived in Valdosta, Ga. I am super excited to get see them and their little girl Anna, who is 3 I think. It has been over a year since we have seen them, so it will be fun to hang out again for a few days!!

I am looking forward to see what 22 Months old brings!! I feel so blessed to be a mommy to Miss Mallory!! Enjoy the pictures!

Cubbies , Cubbies and More Cubbies!!!

2011-09-05T21:39:00.006-04:00

Well our church has decided to official start Awana and it starts this Wed!! I am super excited to be the Director of the Cubbies group. This is pre-kindergarden age which is 3's and 4's. I love this age to much and look forward to spending the next 9months with them!

It's so excited to be apart of such a great program that not only allows kids to have fun at church during game time, but also pushes memory verse learning each week!! I have all sorts of ideas from fun games, to crafts and bible stories we are going to implement and can't wait to see these little children grow to learn all about how great our wonderful merciful Savior is!! I even found a bear puppet at Dollar Tree that I am going to use as Cubbie Bear and my wonderful husband, John will be his voice!! I am super excited and know the kids will love it!!

I know how much Christ has done in my life and can't wait to see how he will impact these children and their families!! Our Cubbies Motto is "Jesus Love Me" and oh how true this is!! I pray that I am able to help these kids understand how much Jesus loves us that He died on the cross so we could have eternal life!! I mean how awesome is that??? To have someone who loves us that much and loves us unconditionally is such a blessing that we do not even deserve, but are given!!

I am looking forward to teaching these sweet children all about Jesus and how much he loves us! Praying for God to get all the glory in this wonderful program and for Him to do a work in the Leaders and Children!!

School, Potty Training and Lots of Sewing have kept things really busy!!

2011-09-03T14:51:00.018-04:00

Well a lot has been going on around here lately. Mallory started back to play school on the 29th at Trinity, which was much needed for both of us!! It's only 3 mornings a week from 9 to 1. She loves it and it really helps with the clinginess!! We have even made it the last two days without her blanket!! I am still having problems coming up with things to send her for lunch. Mallory is one picky eater and I feel bad sending the same thing over and over again!! Right now her lunch has consisted of, yogurt or applesauce, cut up cheese, and grapes. She will hardly eat meat and doesn't like peanut butter and jelly yet... so I am struggling with a better variety!! All the other things she eats are items that have to be warmed up in a microwave, so they are out... I am praying one day she will learn to eat a little more variety!! I know that some of this is due to her limited diet from digestion and reflux issues until she was about 14 or 15 months old, but now she should be able to eat anything she just doesn't want to try it!! I am sure with time this will get better, cause I was a really picky eater as well, but I at least ate chicken and peanut butter and jelly!! Ha!

This past Tuesday, my mom and dad packed up the truck and headed to New Orleans to catch a flight to Las Vegas for the night before boarding a small plane to where they would embark on what my dad would call "a vacation of a life time". However, my mom would beg to differ, but is being a great supportive spouse and has agreed to go so my dad can check one more thing off his Bucket List!!

Now, to give you a little idea about what this "vacation of a life time" entails, imagine yourself riding on a raft in the Colorado river floating through the bottom of the Grand Canyon not just for one day but how about 7!! Now, if you know my mom very well you can tell right off that this is definitely not her type of vacation, but fits my dad to a T!! I am still trying to figure out how my dad talked her into going!! I guess she really has mellowed in her old age!! HA! She is getting to experience no running water, sleeping under the stars, no diet cokes, no power, no a/c, and probably the hardest one no INTERNET!! It will be good for her I think!! Ha Ha!! As far back as I can remember tent camping was not even in her vocabulary, it had to at least be a cabin and that was only on our Yellowstone vacation!! So I am anxious to here all about their "vacation of a life time"!! They will be back at the hotel in Las Vegas Tuesday and back in Hattiesburg on Wed. I really hope they are having fun admiring all the beauty our wonderful Saviour created!! I can only imagine that is indescribable!

On another note, I have been sewing like crazy..... I have made Ethan and Caroline matching MSU outfits. I made Ethan a Tractor Shirt for his B'day coming up. I have also made Mallory an USM outfit, MSU shirt and pants, Minnie Mouse Appliqued shirt and some other stuff. I am still not done with my list... maybe one day I will catch up... ha..

I can't believe that my nephew Ethan is almost 2!! That means Mallory is creeping closer to being 2 also... Oh My!!! Where has the time gone!!! She is really starting to talk a lot now... everything is a persons... such as Mama's juice or Mama's Car Car. Every time she See's a red truck she points and says Pop's truck... it super cute!! She is also in the stage where she doesn't want to sit for very long in the shopping cart.... so this has caused one fit in public and I am sure will cause many more!! She has also pooped on the potty 3 times and tinkled 2 times!! I was so proud and it was totally her idea!! I don't know that she is totally ready for full force potty training... but it is getting a lot closer and we are definitely introducing the idea!! This is actually quite scary to me considering how terrible my mom said I was to potty train.. she said it was a nightmare!!! I am hoping Mallory will not be as difficult, but if she is we will just push through it!!

Mallory now knows what apple juice is thanks to Daddy!! I wasn't to happy since she was completely fine with ice water for so long and didn't care if there was juice in it or not. However, now she will ask for it and point to it in the fridge if she sees it!! I still water it down, but I guess it was time for her to know the difference and what kid doesn't want sugar over water right?? I guess this is completely normal!! Mallory is also terribly afraid of Lizards and bugs.... it's pretty bad when she freaks out worse than me!!! I know you are thinking I am the one who taught her this... but I promise I didn't .... She also doesn't like bandaids at all nor thunder. Not to sure where these come from, but they are definitely fears at the moment. She is starting to say short sentences now such as "Daisy's food gone gone." Some of these sentences we understand and some we have no clue! Thanks to Pops Mallory now knows what the ice cream tub is... and gets really excited when she sees someone get it out of the freezer. She loves ice cream and always wants her own bowl of it!

Well that's about all that has been going on with us over the last few weeks.... looking forward to our upcoming trip to Disney with our friends from Georgia!

Unwanted New Wildlife

2011-08-21T21:11:00.003-04:00

In the last two weeks, a lovely Alligator has decided to make it's home in the lake my parents house is on. In case you didn't think you read that right... I did just type Alligator!! The first time John spotted him we were all in shock and really disbelief!! He has never gotten very close to our bank side, so you have to use binoculars to see it. Lets just say... I am not to excited about this!! John and my Dad think it's pretty funny! My Dad even said he hopes it eats some of the turtles and snakes!!

Tonight John and I got in the little boat my dad has with his trolling motor and went out to try and see if we could find him!! I know you are thinking we are crazy...but according to John and my Dad he doesn't appear to be very big!! My only goal was to really get some pictures.... and I didn't want to get very close at all!! I mean why risk it you know?? Well, as I am shooting the pictures with my parents camera, John keeps getting closer and closer... assuming I wanted to get some really close up pictures!! Lets just say he scared me out of my pants.... as well as the gator that decided to fall of the log and into the water about the same time!! Of course, I just knew he was coming after us and we were going to be eaten alive!! Thankfully, the somewhat small alligator was more or less scared of us and just decided to hide all but his head in the water and just stare at us. The awful stare was almost as scary and I was quickly ready to get back on land and out of the boat!! Anyway... here is the proof that we have a alligator living in the back yard/lake!! I am wondering if the wildlife people are really going to come and get him like they have said... I guess we will just have to wait and see... but until then I will be keeping my distance!!

Recent Pictures

2011-08-19T14:49:00.006-04:00

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to the beach, to my sister's house and to the Children Museum.

Enjoy

Busy Busy Busy and Almost 21 Months!!!

2011-08-17T13:44:00.008-04:00

Busy Busy Busy..... describes the last month or so. I have been to Gulf Shores again two different times, took Mallory to Alabama to visit John's parents and see his extended family, and also visited John's sister in Jackson and took Mallory to the Children's Museum. I am finally caught up with all the unpacking and laundry!! I have gotten to see My cousin Chris, and His wife Lindsay, and my Aunt Vickie and Cousin Julie for the second time this summer! It is always so great to spend time with them. Ever since my grandparents passed away and they moved to Texas, we haven't gotten to see them as often as I would like, but two times this summer was great!!

Other than all the traveling, Mallory is now almost 21 months old!! I can't believe it!! We are getting way to close to the 2 year old age group!! She is now talking more and more, which is so much fun to listen to!! Instead of Juice, now it's Mama's Juice or Dada's Juice or Pops Juice or Nana's Juice. Everything has a person to it now. She loves to say Mama's Car Car and Dada's truck. She also tells us at night when she ready to go to bed, which is really cute. We have finally overcome some of our fruit selectivity!!! Mallory will eat: Peaches, Grapes, Bananas and Strawberries!! This is much improvement from just eating Bananas! We are still not to fond of most meats, but she has tried more than she would in the past. I even got her to eat a chicken nugget from Wendy's!! She still takes a 2 hour afternoon nap most days, which is great for me!! She can also put most of her shoes on all by herself, but usually they are on the wrong feet. She loves her cousin EE (Ethan) so much and talks about him all the time. She even refers to him when he is not here and says EE's Juice or EE's Car. Its really cute how much she adores her cousin!! She loves to pretend to talk on the phone and only wants to call EE!! All in All she is growing up so fast and I am trying to enjoy every minute I have with her!

I am super excited about all God has in store for Hardy Street Baptist Church. We are starting Awana this year on Wednesday nights and I am going to be the Cubbies Director. I am super excited and have heard what a great program this is for children!! I also love this age group pre-k. I had them last year on Wed nights and they are soooo sweet!! I am so excited to see all God is going to do in these children lives and look forward to the day Mallory with get to participate!

Well this is about all that has been going on.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day......

2011-07-26T16:38:00.010-04:00

Well yesterday was one of those Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Days for me.

It all started with Mallory waking up crying cause her diaper had leaked all over her pj's and bed, therefor she wasn't to happy. After changing her clothes, we headed down the hall to get Daisy up and feed her. Normally, she is wide awake and going crazy for some food!! However, as soon as I unzipped her crate, I get the wonderful present of some gross white thick foamy vomit!! You can trust me it was quite gross and covered one whole end of her crate!! After much shock, I picked up and set her down in the hall. Oddly enough she just sits there and doesn't even ask/beg for her breakfast. Now if you have ever met our dog and seen her eat her dog food, you know how much she loves to eat and usually eats it in like 30 seconds!! So this was one really big clue that something wasn't right.

Next Mallory, Daisy, and I headed downstairs to eat some breakfast. As Mallory was eating and I was pouring my cereal a frosted flake accidentally fell on the floor. Now normally Daisy is up and under your feet before you can even bend over to pick it up, but once again she was no where to be seen! I finally found her laying next to the couch looking like she didn't feel good at all. Since this was a play school morning for Mallory, I had to get ready and didn't have time to babysit the dog all morning. So we took Daisy back upstairs and went on with our morning routine.

During my shower and while I was drying my hair, I made Daisy stay in the hall and closed all the doors.... I mean who wants to clean vomit up under a bed or other furniture right?? Well, as I went to check on her once again, not surprising she has vomited up again and not only was it the gross white foamy stuff, but this time it had little dime size drops of blood in it!! So after quickly getting Mallory dressed, I attempt to scrub the carpet clean... and trust me BLOOD is not the easiest thing to get out of carpet, but I succeeded thank goodness!!! After texting my sister, a Vet, and calling my Brother-n-law Craig, who is also a vet, we decided that I would just watch her and see how she does. He seemed to think maybe she just ate something that upset her stomach.

Well it's probably 8:40 now and I am trying to figure out what to do with Daisy while I will be gone all morning. My only solution is to crate her, which I could tell she disliked very much due to the barking and whining we could hear downstairs as we were leaving. I left her there anyways, and left to take Mallory to Play school and then went off to the Goodyear store to do a little work. I tried not to worry about her while I was gone, but that wasn't to easy.

After picking up Mallory from Play school at 1:00, we headed home for Mallory to take a nap. She fell asleep in the car as usual and as I am unlocking the door I can hear Daisy going nuts!! At this point she is much louder than she was when we left!! After putting Mallory in her crib and feeling lucky that Daisy didn't wake Mallory up I go open the door to where her crate is..... and to my shock she comes running out of the room!! Now, if you remember right, I told you earlier I locked her in the crate.... well yes you guessed it she chewed a hole in her mesh crate and managed to get out!! On top of all that she also threw up again on the carpet!! Where she is got all this energy to chew like that I have no clue, since all she will do is drink water and was laying around like she felt terrible. Just in case you are wondering... yes this did not help her stomach problem any more... especially since she did swallow some pieces of the crate she threw up....and will more than likly come right back up!

At about 2:00 Mallory decides to wake up early from her nap and is quite fussy... lets just say this was not what I needed deal with on top of a sick dog that keeps vomiting!! A sense of humor got me through to this point; so lets keep it going right?? I mean it can't get much worse??

Well, Since Daisy decided to ruin her crate by chewing a wonderful hole in it, Mallory and I had to go purchase another one. I opt for the hard crate this time....for obvious reasons...

Well it's finally getting close to time for my Dad and John to get home from work and by this point in the day, I have lost count of how many times she has vomited.... and it finally got to the point where she was just throwing up water....I was even nice enough to leave John several spots to clean up when he got home!! He was a good sport about that!! I mean why wouldn't he want to join in the fun of my wonderful day?

Somehow, in the middle of all this I managed to get dinner fixed and a load of clothes washed. Last week my mom and I found a bread maker at this local salvage place in town, that appeared to be brand new and a great deal! John has been bugging me to try it out, so since we had all the ingredients I thought why not... maybe that will make the day a little better! The smell of fresh bread sounded great... After adding all the ingredients in, and pushing start... I realized I forgot to add the salt... but it was to late now so I let it keep going. After, a couple hours it turned off... and looked done on the top, but after cutting it the inside was definitely not done!! So I attempted to finish cooking it in the oven, which seemed like a great idea, but sadly didn't work! The bread didn't taste very good either... hint ... don't leave out the salt!!

So after John got home he said lets try again with a different recipe. So I thought well ok, I mean all you have to do is add the ingredients and it does the rest. Well after adding the ingredients ... and plugging it in.... the Steal Not A Deal we thought we got.... wasn't working!! Surprise Surprise!! I guess fresh bread was meant to happen yesterday! I will admit I tried to keep a good attitude about it realizing that some peoples days are much worse than mine, but at this point I was just ready for bed and a new day!!

After dinner, John and I were watching Daisy and she seemed to be getting worse and worse. So we called Craig again, and he recommends us bringing her in that night or first thing in the morning. I would much prefer the next morning, but much to John's pushing we decide we better take her then.

At this point it is 7:30 at night and to be honest I would much rather be getting ready to go to bed, but I love our Daisy girl, so Lucedale here we come. Right as we are about to leave the house ..... Daisy decides to throw up one more time.... right while John was holding her! I am thinking to my self .. glad she got that out of her before we got in my car and glad he was holding her!! Well I guess I thought to soon and was being to cocky, cause half way down there.... she decided to throw up right in my lap and on the floor board... thank goodness it was just clear fluid or I might have been throwing up with her!! I actually handled it much better than I thought I would. Its all about a sense of humor right?? I kept telling myself our poor dog was very sick and couldn't help it.

After the hour drive, which seemed to last 2 hours, we arrived there to meet Craig. He did xrays,and blood work, and determined she was very dehydrated and needed fluids badly. Also, her blood work levels were not all normal, partly due to the dehydration. The xrays didn't show much except her colon was so full of poop that it covered her stomach, which blocked our view of trying to determine if something was in their that shouldn't be. After sedating Daisy, hooking her up to fluids and some nausea meds, we left Daisy there in hopes she would be better in the morning! We finally got home about 11:30 and I got my wish of going to bed. Better late than never right??

All during this time my mom has been in Gulf Shores with Katy, Ethan, and Baby Caroline,which was probably a good thing cause my mom has a weaker stomach than I do and that's pretty bad!! My wonderful Dad offered to keep Mallory and put her to bed for us, so we didn't have to take her on this wonderful night adventure to the vet clinic in Lucedale, Ms. I am so very thankful for Craig spending his evening helping our sweet Daisy!! We owe him big time!!! This morning he called me and told me that the fluids really helped Daisy over night and she actually wanted to eat some food this morning!! This is major progress and I hope in another day or so she will be back to her crazy self!!

Thankful for a calmer day today, and for a God who gives you a sense of humor even during a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

John 16:33 says:
"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

A new Niece, Trip to Gulf Shores, and 20 months old

2011-07-23T13:50:00.006-04:00

Well I have not blogged in a wile so, I finally am taking the time to sit down do it. So much has happened over the last month that it's been pretty crazy around here!

My sister welcomed her newest little girl into the family on July 9, 2011!! Her name is Caroline Leigh Harrell and she weighed 6.6 pounds!! She is so adorable and I love her so much already!! It amazes me how little she seems compared to how little I remember Mallory!! She has a head full of dark hair with most of it in the back and is such a sweet baby!! I just hope she starts sleeping through the night soon for katy's sake!! I mean having 2 kids under two.... has got be really exhaughesting!!! Much to the oppositte of me she never complains one bit either!!! I am amazed by her stregnth!!

The weekend before Miss Caroline Leigh was born was the 4th of July. John, Mallory, Daisy and I decided to pack up the car and head to Gulf Shores to the Bay house. I was a little nervous about Katy having the baby while we were gone, but we went anyway! It was so peaceful down there. We played in the bay, at the beach and just relaxed! I was so sad to head back to reality on Monday.

Mallory has now turned 20 months old!! Gosh we are way to close to 2 years!! Where has the time gone? She is talking even more now. Two times now before we even turned into the Goodyear store she eyes the sign and says da da ... I couldn't belive she actually new where we were!! She loves playing in the tires and pushing the nascar tire around the store while were are visiting pops and dada. She painted John and I her first picture at church nursery wednesday night! I was so proud!!! She just loves taking her shoes on and off and usually puts them back on the wrong feet. She has now told me two different times that there was poop in her diaper-- I guess that means we are getting closer to the whole potty training thing!! Oh and that sure is a scary thought, espicially since according to my mother I was a horrible toddler to train!! I guess we will find out if its payback?? Ha... She will now eat chicken nuggets from Wendys!! Yea another food item added to our list!! She is truly such a joy and I am truly blessed that the Lord put her in our life!!

Well I have lots of laundry I am behind on so that's all for now.

Here are some pictures!

Enjoy.

Always a Daddy's Girl!!

2011-06-20T16:04:00.012-04:00

So yesterday was Father's Day. It has been crazy around here with a trip to Gulf Shores last week and then Father's day over the weekend, along with Mallory getting sick. On Saturday afternoon, Mallory's left eye started leaking yellowish stuff, which to be honest was quite gross!! It wasn't red at all so I didn't really think it was pink eye, but what do I know!! So after missing church, two mornings of waking up with a crusted closed eye and terrible sleeping I took her in to the doctor this morning. We ended up having a ear infection, eye infection and one side of her nose was irritated and draining. Poor girl!! No wonder she has been sleeping terrible the last 3 nights!! Our treatment includes Eye drops, a antihistamine, and a round of antibiotics. I am hoping this helps and we don't end up allergic to the medicine. The last round of antibiotics we had a terrible rash develop after a week of taking it, so hoping this new one doesn't do the same.

So back to Father's day....we ended up missing church afraid that Mallory was contagious. Since we were home all morning we ended up cooking a Meal for my mom and dad for lunch. It was great not fighting the crowds trying to eat out!!

I have always been a Daddy's girl since I can remember! My Dad was always someone I looked up to and have thought the world of!! I have always admired his integrity, honesty, and compassion. His work ethic and compassion to help people in his business taught me to be a fair, hard, and compassionate, worker! He taught me that your job title is just a name, but your work ethic, integrity, and compassion towards others will make an impact that could last a life time! Actually today of all days, I found my dad out mounting tires cause a tire man called in sick and we were short handed at the store. How often do you see a owner/boss out their doing those types of jobs?? In my experience not very, but ohh what an example it gives to your employees to show them what real team work means!! After all aren't we called to do our best to Glorify the Lord!! What a Christian example it could be just by stepping out of our so called specific job duties to help out where needed. Isn't that the true meaning of team work anyway?

Another thing my dad taught me was the true value of money. Now if you know my dad very well at all.... you would agree that he is what you call "tight" when it comes to spending money!! I can honestly say, the business and my parents would not be where they are today if it wasn't from being good stewards of what God has given them. After all isn't that what we are called to do? My dad's example, helped me to not make silly financial decisions after I moved out of the house and taught the importance of tithing! After all, everything we have is from God anyway right? I am so very grateful for this simple but oh so important lesson my dad taught me!! It saddens me to see so many young people that just don't understand money and/ or were never taught the true value of it! I thank God everyday for all He has given us to manage and pray John and I will be good stewards of it!

Maroon, White, Maroon, White fight fight fight!! My passion for MSU came right from my wonderful dad who happened to choose to attend this wonder college back in the 70's!! Now the funny thing about this is my dad's parents are Ole Miss graduates and not a single one of their children attended Ole Miss, but two of them graduated from Mississippi State!! My dad's passion for MSU football and the school helped make my college decision very easy!! Without this influnce I may not have met my wonderful husband!! I hope Mallory will love maroon and white as much as we do, after all it's in her blood!!!

The saying "A Daddy's girl usually marries someone a lot like their dad" has been proven to be true numerous times since we moved here a year ago. As most know, John is now working for my dad at the Goodyear store. Most weeks anywhere from 2 to 6 times he is asked if he is Mike's son. He has even been told recently that he is a lot like Mike and even looks like him! Ha ha!! The customer usually asking this laughs when john politely tells them that he is only the "son-n-law". I have to admit I have to refrain from laughing out loud the few times I heard this happen while I was there. I told John next time someone tells him that he is a lot like Mike.... he can just tell them "that's probably why his daughter married me". The longer John and I have been married the more I realize he is a lot like my dad!! Thanks dad for teaching me what to look for in a husband!! Your example and God's timing blessed me with my wonderful husband John!

I could go on and on about my dad cause I think he is one special person, but I will stop here! I am very thankful God decided to bless me with such wonderful christian parents who had such a impact in my life!! Without their love and guidance I would not be the person I am today!

A Daddy's girl who was once so small will always be a Daddy's girl!!

The Beach, an Anniversary and a Doctor Visit make for a busy few weeks!

2011-06-02T13:00:00.013-04:00

A few weeks ago, we packed up the car and headed to Gulf Shores for a few days. It just so happened that my aunt Vickie and Cousin Julie, who live in Texas decided to also come down to the bay house! It reminded me of old times, when the whole Hollomon family use to go down to the bay house. All of the cousins had so much fun and lots of great memories!! Sadly, since my Mom's only Brother, Mickey, and his family moved to Texas many years ago, we haven't had the whole family there in a long time! It was great to at least have Julie and Aunt Vickie there!! Mallory fell in love with her Cousin Julie. She was so attached to her that anytime Julie went outside or even went to the bathroom Mallory thought she had to go with her. If Mallory was not allowed to go, the this would involve a full blown crying session!! It was so funny to watch Mallory follow Cousin Julie around!! She loves her Cousin Julie very much and I wish she lived much closer!!!

While we were their we played on the beach, kayaked in the bay, and worked on a puzzle. It was a fun and relaxing week! Mallory loved playing in the sand and after the second day at the beach she finally got her feet wet in the water. The bay water was a little to cold, so she wasn't a fan. After spending 5 days there, it was time to head back home to reality. It sure was fun to get away for a few days! I can't wait to go back soon!

The next weekend, we got a visit from Granna, aka John's mother, for Friday night and Mallory loved getting to see her!! She ran right to her as soon as she saw her which was so much fun to watch!!

Last Saturday night, my parents watched Mallory so John could take me out to eat at the Walnut Circle Grill Downtown for our 6 year anniversary. The food was really yummy and it was so nice to have an evening out with just John and I. I can't believe we have been married 6 years already!! I am truly blessed to have him in my life!!

As soon as we had finished dinner, my phone rang and it just so happened to be my Uncle Bob and Aunt Ceil. They happened to be in town and wanted to come by to see us and Mallory!! What a great surprise this was!! Uncle Bob has always been really special to us and it was great to see him and Ceil again. They live in Birmingham; so we don't really see them very often. I have a feeling, he will be telling Mallory some pretty funny stories of me when I was little in the coming years!!

This past Thursday, Mallory had her 18 month check-up and had to get her last shot until she enters kindergarten. She was a trooper and even had a delayed crying reaction to the shot this time! She also has finally gained weight and is in the normal range!! We weighed in at a whopping 24 pounds 7 ounces!!! She gained almost 2 pounds in less than a month!! Now that is some kind of growth spurt!!! I was so proud she had gained so much weight, although the doctor still reminded me that she needs to eat high calorie foods.....

Here is a little info on what all Mallory is doing now days:

- She loves music and will try to sing along and dance, which is super cute!
- She is talking lots more, but still knows more than she says!!
- She signs "please" when she wants something.
- John has recently taught her to say toodles, which sounds pretty funny!!
- She still loves shoes and purses,but not much into dolls!
- She is a really great helper and wants to help you do everything!!
- She has recently started loving books and will bring one for you to read and expect you to stop what you are doing to read it to her. Her current favorite is "Caps for Sale" and "Finklehopper frog". She also likes a book that has pictures of animals and food in it.
- She has started feeding her self, which makes for a messy meal!!
- When she is hungry she will go and stand at the fridge and start fussing!!
- Her favorite thing to eat is still Cheese, and we sometimes get a double please for it!! She also loves to eat pizza, but is still a picky eater just like her mommy was!
- She loves to say the word dog and every time she sees one she talks about it, even if its just in a commercial on tv.
- She has started climbing more and more. I turned around one day and she had climbed up on this horse, that was actually me and my sister's when we were kids. Now to give you an idea, this horse sits of the ground on a frame and is attached to some springs about 2 1/2 feet off the ground. So as you can imagine this freaked me out!! I secretly think Nana, aka my mom, has been teaching her to climb up to ride it!!
- Sadly, she is still not sleeping well, and I hope this one will be worked out in the near future. She has done better the last 3 nights!!
-She has 12 teeth total now and getting some more in! Four of those are back teeth, so she can chew her food much better now!
-You can tell her to march and she will start Marching to one...two..three...four.. it's really cute to watch!

All in all she is growing up way to fast!! Here are some recent pictures! Enjoy!

My First Embarrassing Moment as a Mother in Public!!!

2011-05-20T15:47:00.005-04:00

So, my time finally came to have my very first embarrassing moment in public with Mallory. I wish I could have seen the look on my face when this happened, cause I am sure it was priceless!!

So yesterday, Mallory and I had been out running errands and our next to last stop was the post office to check my mail. As I always do, I got her out the car seat, carried her to the sidewalk and then put her down to walk while holding my hand. To my surprise, Mallory started to walk slower and slower and slower, and at one time I stopped briefly to make sure nothing was wrong with her shoes. After checking her shoes, which were fine, we started walking again and then all of a sudden right in front of the post office entrance, she came to a complete stop. As I turn my head the unthinkable happens....... I look down towards her feet and out of nowhere, well not really nowhere ,but you know what I mean, comes a DIAPER falling out the side of her romper. Yes, and in case you think you didn't read that right, I did just say a DIAPER fell out of Mallory's outfit!! Now at that very moment, I am thinking to my self "This can't be what I think it is... how in the world would her diaper just fall out like that????" Well after the initial shock, I picked her up to check and yes, sadly, I determined it was in fact the DIAPER she HAD been wearing for the last 1 to 2 hours!!!

Now as you can imagine, I am still in shock as I am walking into the post office with Mallory in tow, holding her wet diaper, and praying she doesn't use the bathroom on me!!I am sure it look rather weird for a lady to be holding a wet used diaper in her hands while walking into the post office!! I also was hoping no one was watching us while all of this was happening.....but I knew their was a lady sitting in her car at the time it happened.

Now as I am hurrying to get her back to the car, so I can get Mallory a new diaper on (I mean who really wants to be tinkled on, right??) and of course the same lady is still sitting in her car. Right as we walk past her car, I see out the corner of my eye her window rolling down. So I think to my self, "Oh no... what is she going to say???? Should I just hurry and act like I don't hear her??" Well the next thing I hear is this lady laughing and then she says:, "Oh Honey, Baby Girl done lost her britches huh??" I was so embarrassed, all I remember saying is "Yes, Mam. I am not sure how this happened... it has never happened before." I continued to walk to my car not looking back at her and after she finally drove off I got Mallory a new diaper and we were on our merry way.... Hey at least I provided her a few minutes of laughter!! As for me, I am now laughing about it but most thankful it wasn't a poopy diaper that fell out!!

I am sure their will be many more funny embarrassing moments in the years to come!! I guess this is all part of being a mommy!! I wouldn't trade it for anything... and it will make for some good stories when Mallory gets older!

We will be Gulf Shores bound tonight when John gets off work!! Oh and Happy 18 months to Miss Mallory today and Happy 29th Birthday to the very best Sister a girl could ask for!!!!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my first embarrassing moment with Mallory!!!

Turning 30 Along with a Surprise Visit to Alabama!

2011-05-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks have been busy but lots of fun! On May 1st I turned the big "30". Yes, I am officially not in my 20's!! At least I don't feel any older yet! John surprised me with a yummy cake Mrs. Beth Robinson made and I got lots of fun gifts!!

This past weekend was Mother's day. Several months ago, John and I got this idea where we thought it would be fun to plan a surprise visit to His parents for Mother's day. In order to pull this off we had to involve his dad, sister and Nanny. Now, if you know my Mother-in-law, you know that she freaks out about having a super clean house and has told me many times not to just show up unannounced!! Now, knowing this made me a little nervous as to what her reaction might be. I was hoping she would just be happy to see us and not worry so much about the house!! To be honest, I never thought we would be able to pull this off, but to my surprise we succeeded!!

On Friday, after work we piled in the car and headed north to Cordova, Al. In Tuscaloosa, we stopped and picked up John's sister Krista. At about 9:30 we were pulling in the driveway and the whole house was dark. Since we are all such pro's at pulling off surprises we already had a game plan of what to do next...NOT!! Oddly enough we all sat their in silence wondering what to do next... I mean do we ring the door bell?? Call their cell phones since the house phone was still not working due to the recent tornado's?? Well, we finally decided to ring the doorbell and after standing their for what felt like 15 minutes, John's mom finally came to the door. She was in her house coat and had her hair full of rollers!! You could tell we had just woken her up, but she was still all smiles!! I wish I had thought to get the camera out, but lets just say the smile on her face was definitely priceless! We could all tell she was so happy we had come!!

The next morning, Nanny cooked the best breakfast I have had in a long time! Her homemade biscuits were finger licking good!! During our visit, we got to see Aunt Betty, Aunt Peggy and Uncle Steve, Cousin Kelly and Dusty and their sweet new baby Emma! While at Aunt Peggy's house, we got to see a 1 day old calf and lots of cows! I honestly have never seen a calf that close or been that close to a cow! Mallory thought the cows were so neat!! Sadly though She kept saying ruff ruff, which as you know is what a dog says... I guess we need to work on the distinction of the MOO MOO sound from a dog barking! Ha Ha.. I promise we have tried to get her to MOO MOO, but she much prefers the ruff ruff sound!!

We had such a great time and I am so glad we were able to pull of the wonderful surprise visit!! Seeing John's mom so happy and not so worried about food and a clean house was great!! I am blessed to have the best in laws and am so thankful for each one of John's family members!! After Church with the family at Nanny's church on Sunday and a 4 hour drive back to Hattiesburg on Monday, we are back to reality and our regular schedule.

Even though we are back to reality, I still can't get out of my mind all the tornado devastation we saw in John's hometown. We were able to drop off some items these people needed, but I wish I could have done so much more! There were so many people that lost everything and even family members! It really puts in perspective whats really important in this life! All of our material things can be replaced, but living for God's glory is much more important! I can't even begin to understand what it feels like to loose everything, but I do know that with the help of our fellow Christians and faith in God these people will get through this this tragic situation and be a stronger person because of it! I challenge every christian out there to have the attitude that we were put on this earth to Serve and not be Served! You never know when you could be in this situation yourself! Praying for all the many people that were affected by these terrible storms!

One of my favorite new songs is Blessings by Laura Story. Here are the lyrics. It is a very true and powerful song. Just think how powerful trials in our life could impact others around us if we looked at them the way this song describes!

"Blessings" by Laura Story

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

My mom had a huge impact on my life!

2011-05-05T14:48:00.015-04:00

Today on Mothers Day , I can't help think about how special my mom is and what she has taught me!

Loving, Giving, Opinionated, a Leader, and the Energizer Bunny, are just a few words that come to my mind when I think about my Mom. I am thankful for each one of these and would not be the person I am today without these valuable lessons!!!

The true meaning of love and loving your family is such a valuable lesson my mother taught me. Her example of not only loving me during the wonderful times ,but also loving me when I was being a horrible and terrible teenager, had a huge impact on my life! I can tell you that She spent many many nights and hours in prayer for me during my teenage years and thank goodness I am not that horrible terrible teenager anymore!! God is good and those prayers were answered...although she would probably tell you it took a little longer than she had hoped for, but it was worth the wait! Ha! I can tell you that I would not be the person I am today without her loving example no matter how terrible I acted towards her!! Thank you for teaching me the importance of family and what it truly means to love your neighbor as thy self!

One lesson that I can totally give mom the credit for teaching me, is what it means to truly give. From giving God back His tithe, helping a neighbor/friend in need, paying someones bill, or even just cooking dinner for someone, she taught me that giving to others is very important. Now, I will also tell you that she is the person that would prefer to do things anonymously and never wants the credit. The biggest lesson learned here is that giving does not just involve money, but it can also include your time, service and prayer. So many times people just need a helping hand! Witnessing this on a weekly basis made such a huge impact in my life and I hope to teach Mallory how important giving really is. After all isn't everything we have God's anyway?? If everything we have is His, then why shouldn't we use it to glorify His kingdom instead of our wants.

Now, I know the word opinionated may not sound like the nicest description of my mom, but if you know my mom at all, you will agree 100% that this describes her to a T!! I can honestly say this part of my mother's personality has taught me so many valuable things! What I believe in and why, where to shop and why, it's ok to voice what I think out loud, and I better speak up or else fade away, are just a few of the lessons this has taught me! So mom thanks for being opinionated even though sometimes we still give you a hard time about it!!

When I think of a leader, I definitely think of my mom. I have seen her in action on church committees, planning wedding showers to dealing with hospital care for my grandparents. I will tell you that if you ever have to be in the hospital or if you need anything done such as a shower or maintenance at the church... she is the one to get the job done! I will never forget when she didn't like the care my grandfather was getting in the hospital and my mom got it handled quicker than the nurse could! Thanks mom for teaching me what true leadership is about and that seeing the job to the end is very important!! Important lesson here is don't be a quitter!

The Energizer Bunny keeps going and going and going and going... well this is my mother! I mean sometimes I think she has more energy that a teenager! She can work circles around me! I thought it was suppose to be the other way around, since I am 30 years younger, but God has given her so much energy, which she has used to bless my life time and time again! This energy has helped me move too 2 different states, get 2 houses ready to sell, and take on night time feedings the first several weeks of Mallory's life. Oh and that is just a few of the things! The first 5 years of my marriage John and I lived at least 6 to 8 hours away. She was always just a drive away if I ever needed her. I am blessed to have a mom who keeps on going and going and going! I hope I have even half of the energy she has when I am her age! It's so awesome to see her using that energy not just for her family, but to help others around

My mom is one special person and I could never thank her for all she has done and taught me. Mom thank you for blessing my life time and time again and most importantly still loving me even when I was a selfish child and teenager!! Mallory is blessed to have one awesome Nana!!

He is Risen, He's Alive!!!

2011-04-25T14:37:00.014-04:00

Matthew 28:6 Says "He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

Not only did Christ die a brutal death on the Cross, but He rose from the dead and He's alive!! This amazing event changed everything for us! It's so amazing that Christ loved us so much that He sent his only Son to die for you and for me so we can have eternal life!! Man is that cool or what!! We are so undeserving, but yet he loves us anyway!!

I teach a 4 and 5 year old class at church on Wednesday nights and this past week the theme was Easter. The director, Kathy, had set up several stations for us to go and look at. Some examples were Nails, linen cloths, an empty tomb and praying hands! It was so cool to explain the story to these sweet kids and see their expressions. Now, I know they didn't fully grasp the understanding of what took place on Easter and the days leading up to it, but I could tell that it really planted some seeds in their hearts!! I am so thankful for the opportunity to impact these sweet kids life!

This Easter was a little more active than last years since Ethan and Mallory are older now and running everywhere!! Saturday, we took Ethan and Mallory to a friends house for an Easter egg hunt.. it was fun, but John and I were worn out by the time we got home!

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny left Mallory a basket full of goodies! Now, my childhood memory of the Easter Bunny is actually pretty funny now, but at the time I was quite disappointed! As a child, I can remember waking up to see what the Easter Bunny had left at our house and to my disappointment year after year it was always a basket of fruit!! Now I know you are thinking seriously you got a basket of fruit?? Well, yes that is what he left every year - A big ole basket of Yummy Yummy Fruit!! It consisted of Apples, Bananas, Oranges, grapefruit to name a few. Now if you can imagine going back to school the following week and all your friends asking you what the Easter Bunny got you and my response was always "well at my house he left a big yummy basket full of fruit, but at my grandparents house he left some Candy!!" Needless to say my classmates were like wow you didn't get candy at your house?? So yes it was a little disappointing the first couple of years!! I can remember thinking maybe this will be the year we get candy instead of fruit... but to my disappointment it was fruit once again!! Now, don't feel to sorry for Katy and I, cause my Grandparents always had us a basket of candy, so we were not totally deprived of Easter candy!! The older we got, it eventually became a joke getting the basket full of wonderful yummy FRUIT!!

Now, since I am now on the side of being the Easter Bunny... I was determined not to give Mallory fruit!! Ha Ha! My mom even jokingly said ... "well I guess I will have to get Mallory something other than fruit for Easter, cause all she eats is Bananas!" At least we all know that the real meaning of Easter has nothing to do with Easter candy, or eggs, or even fruit, but has everything to do with a Risen Savior!

Sunday morning we had a wonderful service at Hardy Street Baptist Church. Katy and Craig drove down and came. It was really nice to have the whole family at church! We also had 100 more in attendance than we have been averaging which was awesome!! I saw people I had not seen in a long time there!! So thankful for all God is doing at Hardy Street Baptist!

After church, we had a yummy lunch, Mallory and Ethan took naps and then we headed out to my Grandparent's house to hunt some Easter eggs! It was so much fun to see Mallory putting the eggs in her basket!! Cousin Chris, did a great job hiding the eggs for her!

So thankful for yet another day to remember the amazing event that changed our life forever!!

Enjoy the pictures from this weekend!

Mallory's first year!

2011-04-17T18:18:00.001-04:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Weekend with Nana and Pops

2011-04-06T17:16:00.002-04:00

Recently, my mom and dad took Mallory with them to Gulf Shores for the weekend. It was a really nice break for John and I! She got to see a real fish up close for the first time and wasn't to sure of it! We had planned to go and watch a movie, but the only movie I wanted to see was Grace Card and it was no longer playing in our theater. So instead we ended up watching Secretariat at home. It was actually really good and I would recommend it! Here are some pictures from Mallory's weekend with Pops and Nana!

Another wedding in Texas!

2011-04-05T16:35:00.005-04:00

Back in March, we got to travel to Dallas to attend another wedding. This is my 3rd time to go to Texas this year!! I am pretty sure that is a record!! My youngest cousin, Jon, on my mom's side of the family got married!! I still can't believe he is old enough to get married!! It always seemed like he was so much younger than me!!

The 10 hour drive was not much fun, but Mallory did pretty good considering! She didn't really start to fuss until we were right in Dallas traffic!! I was also really nervous about how she would do attending the rehearsal dinner and wedding, but she did great. She actually slept through most of the rehearsal dinner and speeches and then John kept her outside in the hall with the other kids for most of the wedding!!

While we were there my mom and I gave Heather, the bride, a bridal luncheon the day before the wedding. This was our second time to do this in Texas, which means we have to haul all the decorations with us. Well, this time we decided to order the flowers local and carry them in the car in a bucket of water. Now, normally when you special order flowers you tend to expect to get what you ordered... well... mom went to pick up the flowers the day before we were leaving to drive and expected to find some really pretty purple Gerber daisies.... but ended up finding FUSHA pink Gerber daisies!! Now I have nothing against Fusha pink Gerber daisies as I did use them in my wedding, but the wedding colors were purple! So as you can imagine we were in a panic as pink flowers with all purple and black decorations didn't really flow! So after picking up some pink fabric to coordinate with the purple, we made it work and it actually turned out pretty cute! I am definitely getting lots of practice making up flower arrangements, but would never want to do it for a living! When telling Heather about the flowers we told her they were the very special Mississippi Purple Gerber Daisies!! She laughed and loved them anyway!!

I was blessed with such wonderful cousins! I have many wonderful and funny memories of them during the holidays and at Gulf Shores! I just wish we could have lived closer to them through the years!! The wedding was so sweet and God honoring! It was just perfect and fit Jon and Heather to a tee!! So happy for the both of them and wish them many many years of blessings!

Here are some pictures from the trip!

16 Months old is such a great age to be!

2011-03-22T12:21:00.007-04:00

Well Mallory turned 16 months old on the 20th of March! I still can't believe how fast time has passed!! Here is a look at the past month!

She loves dancing to music!! Her favorite songs are "If your happy and you know it clap your hands", "I'm a little tea pot", Itsy Bitsy Spider, and "Old MacDonald had a farm".

She is still wearing size 3 diapers and some size 12 months clothes and some 18 months. We also, finally turned her car seat around and she loves it except when they get her out of the car for play school. We are back to crying now... I guess it's cause she can see me!

She had her 15 month check up a few weeks back. She got 3 shots and only weighted in at 20.5pounds, which according to the doctor was in the 5%(lowest we have ever been). We were also told to try and get her to drink more milk even if that required adding Chocolate or Strawberry syrup!!! I will go ahead and tell you that we are drinking more milk, but it doesn't include any extra syrup!!! Ha!!

She is still not eating meat at all and loves her starches!! Her favorite food is still Mac-n-Cheese and Mash potatoes.

She has started talking more. Her new words include: Eyes, Yes, uh oh, cheese, more, and please. She can also, show you how old she is, give you five, and knows where her nose, feet, toes, ears, mouth, teeth, and eyes are. She knows a lot more than she speaks!!! I can ask her to go get most things and she comes back with them.

Her favorite playtime includes doing puzzles, playing with her tea pot, shoes and purses, and riding the old horse I had when I was a child.

Mallory has been caught getting her purse and walking to the door ready to go with whom ever is leaving the house!! This is so funny to watch and even funnier that I never taught her to carry a purse. I guess she just saw me grabbing mine to leave the house!

Every meal now she goes to her highchair to wait to get in when she is hungry!

Mallory still take 2 naps if we are at home. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. If She is at play school then she only gets one nap, which is usually a long one!

Recently, after being in the car for over 9 hours on our trip to Dallas, we were sitting in Dallas traffic and Mallory started fussing. I preceded to ask her if she had a stinky diaper and to my surprise she said "YES" very softly !! I honesty thought she had no idea what I was talking about, but we pulled over and after checking her she did infact have a dirty diaper!! I guess toddlers know more than you think they do!!

All in all she is doing great and growing up way to fast!! John and I are truly blessed to have such a sweet little girl!! Here are some recent pictures! Enjoy!

Baby shower and family are a great combo!!

2011-03-14T18:08:00.010-04:00

Back in February, Mallory and I packed up the car and headed to Alabama to visit John's family and attend his cousin Kelly's baby shower. I was really excited about going and seeing all of John's extended family. Some of his family had never met Mallory and some had not seen her since she was 5 weeks old! We had lots of fun. I ended up making her gift myself. This was a first for me to give someone something I had sewn besides my nephew Ethan. One dress I even attempted my fear of sewing useing zipper!! I sew Mallory stuff all the time, but it was fun to give baby Emma some stuff too! Here are a few pictures from our trip and peek at some of the things I made for baby Emma! Oh and just to clarify I didn't make the pink pants, I bought them to go with the onesie. Enjoy!

More posts soon about my cousin Jon's recent wedding in Dallas, and Mallory turned 15 months! Hopefully, I will catch up before Mallory turns 16 months old, which is only a week away!!

Be still and know that I am God.

2011-03-14T12:07:00.006-04:00

Psalm 46:10 is one of the verses that gave me peace over the last year while our house in Tallahassee was on the market and would not sell. In December of 2009, 4 weeks after Mallory was born, we decided to put our house on the market. We knew that this was a long shot selling a house in the state our economy was in, but at the same time we also felt it was what we needed to do.

Over the two years we lived in Tallahassee, John never once got peace with his job and felt like it was just dragging him deeper and deeper into a rut. We both felt like he gave it plenty of time to get better, but the atmosphere never changed. Working 60 hour weeks, a commute of 50 minutes one way, a negative environment, and being on call 24 hours a day were just some of the stressful things that came with management at this particular plant. After Mallory was born, my wonderful dad opened the doors for us to move back to the great state of Mississippi where I grew up!! If you could have seen the smile and excitement on John's face, it was priceless! I was very excited to be moving back, but a little nervous about John changing careers! However, once again I had no reason to be nervous cause John loves his new job and loves working for the family business!

So now after 7 months of the house being on the market we still had no offers! It was time for John to start his new job working for my dad so, we packed up our special items and necessities, drove 6 hours to Mississippi and moved into my mom and dads upstairs! Now, if you can only imagine, bringing our stuff on top of the stuff my mom and dad already have, lets just say we are busting out the seems!! Aside from the clutter and stuff everywhere, we are truly blessed that they allowed us to move in! It's so great to get to eat dinner with them every evening and for Mallory to see them everyday!! I can honestly say I have some of the most giving and generous parents and I am so very thankful for the example they have taught me and will teach Mallory!

I guess it was sometime in the fall of 2010 we finally had our first offer! To our surprise it didn't go as we thought and the guy backed out within the first 15 days and even got his deposit back. Now, as disappointing as this was we moved on and I still had a peace that it would sell in God's time! The amazing thing was this whole time I never worried about it selling at all! I guess I just knew it would sell, we just had to be patient!! Now patience is not something John had an easy time learning at all with this house, but towards the end I think he finally got it!! It's amazing how God uses tough times to teach us powerful lessons!!

Come December, we had another offer and not surprising to us this time it also feel through. This time the couple's financing fell through. And although it was a little disappointing, I was glad it happened for the couples sake especially if they couldn't really afford the house.

Now our house had officially been on the market over a year now, and we got our 3rd offer!! The amazing thing is the same day this happened we also got a 4th offer!! Now, two offers in 1 day is pretty amazing in this economy and in Tallahassee!! After lots of counters, we were finally under contract again, but due to our past contracts we new not to get to excited until the papers were signed. After the 15 day period, everything was still going great and God just gave me this peace that it would sell. Now fast forwarding to the day we signed papers, our realtor told us she new God had been looking out for us. The roof and appraisal were two things that she was really concerned about. Our roof was original to the house (1993) and didn't have much life left, which in the past had been issues with buyers, but this time it didn't' even come up!! In the words of our realtor "It's a total God thing, He was looking out for you!" As for the appraisal, a house in our neighborhood recently sold for a really low price and we were all worried about how this might affect our house value, but God once again came through and we had no problems!! Another God thing!!

Now I can't say everything went our way with selling this house. I mean we lost a ton of money and had to pay money to sell it, but the fact that we are once again debt free and it sold means more to us than any amount of money we lost! I can honestly say not only was God good to us but he also taught us what true patience means!! We are now looking forward to starting over in Mississippi!! God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!!

Two Texas trips and 14 months old!!

2011-02-02T10:32:00.010-05:00

Well a lot has been going on the last couple of weeks and I have hardly had time to sit down. We have been to Texas twice in two weeks, which is a record for me!! The first trip was for my cousin Chris and Lindsay's wedding that was in Houston! We gave her a bridal brunch on the morning of the wedding, which was lots of fun! The trip was fun, but a very long drive! It was the longest drive for both Mallory and Ethan! As you can imagine, three adults and two one year olds in a car for 9 hours is not the most fun adventure, but we made it most of the drive without to much screaming or crying!

After we got back, I noticed Mallory had this diaper rash that just would not go away and didn't really look like one I had ever seen. After, a little research and a trip to the doctor we were given medicine for a yeast diaper rash...yuck is all I can say! I felt so bad for Mallory!! It just looked so terrible, but thankfully it is looking much better now and according to the doctor these types of diaper rashes are very common!

The second trip to Texas was to Dallas to attend the Goodyear dealer conference. John and I got to fly for this trip, and boy was I nervous about that!! I wasn't so much nervous about the flight itself, but about getting a pat down!! ha ha... I know it sounds crazy to be worried about that, but if you are around my mother for very long you will hear the worst of the worst stories about pat downs at airports recently!! To my surprise, neither John or I got a pat down and we made it home in one piece!! Besides the easy time getting past airport security, we enjoyed awesome food, learned lots about new products coming out, attended business sessions, saw two of the Dallas cowboy cheerleaders, and listened to Huey Lewis and the News preform. We even got to sneak a dinner in with my Sweet Aunt Vickie, my cousin John and his really sweet fiance Heather!! It was a fun trip, but I am glad to be back home with our sweet Mallory!

Mallory has been growing and growing way to fast lately. While John and I were in Dallas, Nana and pops taught her to hold up one finger when you ask her how old she is! It's so cute!! She can also blow kisses, is running, loves to try and copy us, and loves to play "where's Mallory". I can't believe she is already 14 months old!!

Enjoy the recent pictures!!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-03T14:47:00.010-05:00

Well it's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already and it's a new year!! Here is a recap of the events!!

Christmas Eve, was spent at the Christmas eve service at church and then we went out to my grandparents and had Christmas with the Davis family. Our church doesn't have nursery during this service, which as you can imagine was a disaster 10 minutes into the service!! Ethan started getting fussy so ten minutes into the service Katy pulls out the snacks to entertain him and not to my surprise Mallory sees them and goes nuts!! So about 15 minutes into the service Craig and John took sweet Mallory and Ethan out and entertained them the rest of the hour!! After the service, we found them climbing up and down the stairs in the choir room!! I guess at least they lasted 10 minutes and then got to be toddlers!! After all they are 1 year olds!! At my grandparents, we had our yummy traditional gumbo that we have been having for years and then exchanged gifts!! Mallory wasn't into the gifts to much ,but did pull the paper a little bit!! It was fun just getting to spend some time with the family! She was fast asleep on the way home, as it was way past her bed time!!!

Christmas morning we got up in the living room was a Pink Metal Retro Airplane waiting just for Mallory from Santa (aka NaNa and Pops)!! It's so adorable and cute!! She loves to just sit in it and make sounds!! There was also a red fire truck waiting for Ethan!! It was so cute to see them get excited about the new stuff.

For the past twenty something years, it has pretty much been a tradition having the whole Davis family together on Christmas, but this year was a little different. It was just Mom and Dad, Katy, Craig and Ethan, John, Mallory and I, Cousins Ivy and Tate and then we invited two other families from our church that didn't have anywhere to spend Christmas!! It was so nice to have such a wonderful group and see how appreciative they were to be invited! The older I have gotten, the more I now understand how special it is to give than to receive!! I would much rather give now than receive, which is something I hope to be able to do for the rest of my life! Jesus Christ has given so much to us and to be able to return that favor to others around us is something really special! I hope one day Mallory will understand the true meaning of Christmas ,but also how special it is to give! I can honestly say my parents have been such wonderful examples of this and for that I am truly thankful!

After a big meal and fellowship at my parents house we loaded the car up and headed to Cordova, AL to visit John's family! This was the first Christmas we were able to make it up there on Christmas day, which was such a special blessing! I grew up with my grandparents living only 20 minutes away from each other, so it was pretty normal to spend holidays at both homes. I now realize how special that really was and how uncommon it is today for most families! To our surprise, when we were about 30 minutes from John's parents it's started to snow!!! So for the first time that I can ever remember we got to have a white Christmas!! It continued to snow the next day off and on, but sadly it didn't stick for to long. I sure did enjoy watching it fall! We ended up having a wonderful time and Mallory got some of the cutest presents!! John's sister, Krista picked out Mallory the cutest tin Tea Set!! This has to be one of Mallory's favorite gifts if not her favorite!! She also loves her pink cell phone John's parents (aka Granna and Papaw) picked out for her!! She got many more thinks such as books, clothes and dolls!! We now officially have way more toys than she can play with!!!

Poor John was sick with a sinus infection this whole holiday and had to go to the doctor twice before he got any better, but thankfully now he is well and everything is back to normal!!

All in all Christmas was such a special time and we are very blessed!!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Why Jesus is better than Santa Claus!!

2010-12-24T15:31:00.001-05:00

Author Unknown

Santa lives at the North Pole ...
JESUS is everywhere.

Santa rides in a sleigh ...
JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.

Santa comes but once a year ...
JESUS is an ever present help.

Santa fills your stockings w ith goodies ...
JESUS supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited ...
JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then enters your heart when invited.

You have to wait in line to see Santa ...
JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap ...
JESUS lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, what's your name?" ...
JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.

Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly ...
JESUS has a heart full of love.

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO ...
JESUS offers health, help and hope.

Santa says "You better not cry" ...
JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you."

Santa's little helpers make toys ...
JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.

Santa may make you chuckle but ...
JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.

While Santa puts gifts under your tree ...
JESUS became our gift and died on a tree.

It's obvious there is really no comparison.
We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about.
We need to put Christ back in CHRISTmas, Jesus is still the reason for the season.

Yes, Jesus is better, he is even better than Santa Claus!!

Merry Christmas from the Kirkpatricks!!! May you be filled with the love of Christ!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

2010-12-15T16:36:00.002-05:00

Well it's finally turned way colder than I would like, but Mallory is getting some great use out of her cute winter hats John's mom also known as Granna got her. Here are some pictures I took of her wearing them! Enjoy!!

2010-12-08T21:50:00.001-05:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Walking and more Walking!!

2010-12-02T14:09:00.008-05:00

Mallory is now walking 80% of the time!! I can't believe she is growing up so fast!! She has also started eyeing everything I eat and would rather eat it than what is on her plate! We are getting Ethan and Mallory's picture taken today. I am curious how the photographer is going to preform this diffuclt task!!! Hopefully we will get some cute ones!!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!!!

2010-11-30T15:57:00.003-05:00

The weather has dropped here in South Mississippi and we have pulled out the cute coat and hat John's mom got her!! Here is a picture of her wearing it the other day!!

My dad said she looked like she needed to be in New York, not south Mississippi! Ha! I had to laugh!! Now if I can just convince her to keep the hat on longer than 2 minutes we will be staying warm this winter!!

Shots and More Shots!!

2010-11-30T15:00:00.004-05:00

Well, today was Mallory's 12 month appointment!! She had to get 4 shots and her finger pricked to check to make sure she wasn't anemic. She cried more than I have ever seen!! It was so hard to watch and I am surprised I wasn't in tears!! She weighed 19.12 was 28.5 inches long and her head was 43 cm. She is in 10th to 15% percent on weight, less than 10% on her head and 25% on height! I just knew she would weigh 20 pounds at this appointment, but I was wrong!! For some reason, the doctor always refers to her weight saying she is a "little bitty thing". I know she doesn't have much fat on her, but when she is around other babies to me she doesn't look that much smaller than them!! Out of curiosity I asked the nurse if she thought Mallory looked smaller than normal for her age and she replied "Yes, for a 1 year old she is small" . Well, I guess to me she is just Mallory even though others think she's really small!! Maybe she is just destined to be little like I have always been, well except when I was pregnant with her!!

I also got the clearance to start slowly decreasing her prevacid to see how she does!! I am hoping to be able to get off that medicine one day so Mallory can be medicine free!! I also, asked her for some suggestions on how to get her to drink Milk out of a sippy cup and her response was not what I really wanted to hear, but she wants me to keep her drinking it from the bottle longer cause of her weight. So, sadly we will not be bottle free for a little while longer... I was afraid the doctor was going to tell me this... On the bright side I can start giving her whole milk and no more formula!! Yea!! Now I just hope her stomach can tolerate it!! I guess we will be finding out pretty soon!

All in all we had a great appointment and don't have to go back until she is 15 months!!! I am very thankful for a healthy little girl!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-11-27T12:25:00.014-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Davis family!! Ate lots of yummy food and laughed as Mallory and Ethan entertained us all!! Mallory was introduced to some new foods and loved them all!! She at Turkey, Mac-N-Cheese, Peas, Cornbread dressing, Banana pudding and pumpkin bread!! I am so thankful that her digestive problems are much better and we are still off the reglan!! She has been eating more and more solid foods than ever and we haven't had any problems!! Praise God for this!! Here are some pictures from the day. Enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday Mallory!!!!!

2010-11-27T11:30:00.007-05:00

Mallory has officially turned 1!! I can't believe it!! Last weekend we celebrated her day with a family party at my parents house. I think she had lots of fun and got way to many gifts!! I had lots of fun decorating and making her dress and birthday hat! Her dress however would not have looked nearly as good if John's Nanny had not helped me with the collar... boy she was right when she said collars are hard to sew!! I think it will be while before I try another collar!! Ha! Mrs. Beth Robinson a longtime friend of our family made her adorable cake!! It was not only delicious, but super cute too!! Enjoy the pictures I have included! Most of you may have already seen these on Facebook.

Mallory has also started walking more and more since then, which is so much fun to watch!! Luckily we haven't had any accidents yet, but I am sure there will be some to come!! Mallory has also started to say more words. Her letter of the week must be "D" because she has said Daisy, Dog, Daddy, and Duck!! I sure to love watching her learn!!

Answered Prayers, Birthdays and Mallory's First Halloween!!

2010-11-02T10:06:00.006-04:00

Mallory's first Halloween was very low key this year. Due to her age we didn't take her trick or treating and our church didn't have a fall festival here so we opted to go with a friend and her little girl Kensley to the ZOO BOO. To be honest it was fun getting out, but all we did was push her around in the stroller and I didn't get very good pictures but will post some for you to see her. At first I wasn't even going to get her a costume but after some friends fussing at me and my friend Carrie finding me one on clearance with shipping for under 12 dollars we ended up with a really cute and fuzzy white tiger cub with the cutest pink ears! I am not to sure what Mallory thought of it but she didn't complain about wearing it, which surprised me!

Mallory's first birthday is coming up in less than 3 weeks now!! It's hard to believe that she is almost one!! We are having a low key party with just family this year and I am trying to do most of it myself except the cake of course!! Our wonderful and talented friend Mrs. Beth is making her cake and I can't wait to see how cute it will be!! The pictures are a sneak peak of her party dress and invitations!

The next good news is we officially have a new realtor, and don't get me wrong I liked our last one and he was super nice,but it was just time for a change since it's getting close to a year that the house has been for sale. Hopefully our new one will work her magic and sell our house!! She sure did put my mom and I to work with her long list (3 pages!!!) of recommendations she suggested we change!! The funny thing about the list is a lot of it was getting a females perspective over a males!! However, after we completed the list the house looks more like a model home than a personal residence and the best part of all this was most of the changes were free and didn't cost a penny!!

Lastly, I took Mallory off one of her digestive/reflux medicines about a week ago. She is still on prevacid ,but I took her off Reglan. This medicine is known to have some very bad permanent side effects and has the worst label (Black) a medicine can get by the drug approval people. You might have also seen commercials about attorneys sueing over this medicine!! I am sure you are now wondering why on earth would you give such a medicine to your child, well without going into a long history all the problems we have been through, I will just tell you that the risk of side effects did not out way the benefit she was getting from the medicine. In order for Mallory to keep food down, digest any solids at all, not choke on her spit up and gain weight normally - we had to have this medicine. I can honestly say that without this medicine I am not sure where we would be today with her eating and weight gain, so in a nut shell that is why we opted to give her the medicine. Well moving on to last week, Mallory all of a sudden started doing some strange stuff with her tongue, which is a side effect of this medicine ,plus we have been on it way longer that it's recommended, so I decided to stop it. So far so good, we have spit up a few times, but nothing like it was and she has been able to digest all the solid foods I have given her ,which is a huge answered prayer!! Also, the weird tongue stuff has subsided ,which is also a relief!! Praise God for all this cause I didn't know if we would ever make it this far about 3 months ago!! I will say that Mallory has been a little extra fussy since taking her off and I am hoping it's not cause she is in pain from the lack of medicine, so I will continue to monitor this, but until any other negative changes we are REGLAN free!!! My prayer now is that one day in the near future we can introduce some of the foods that she wasn't able to digest even while on Reglan and once that happens I will know her digestive system is finally maturing!! Praising God for all these steps in the right direction and for answering our many prayers!! God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!

I will close with one of my favorite bible verses. It's Philippians 4:4-7

”Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Two days in a row!!

2010-10-23T11:06:00.003-04:00

Well I am on a roll... posting two days in a row that is... but I am sure it will not last ! Ha!

Recently, my sister had to take Ethan to a birthday party at Mitchell farms in Collins, and she asked Mallory and I to tag along for the ride since Craig had to work. I can honestly say it was not an easy trip... and next time we will be taking another adult along with us!! I did manage to get a few pictures, but not very many since Ethan was running off and I had to hold Mallory most of the time cause she isn't walking... I can say I admire people who have twins and don't see how that do it all the time!! Katy and I were worn out when we got home and didn't even make it home with our pumkins we were suppose to get!! Ha!! Besides having our hands full while we were there, it was a really neat place that I hope to make a family tradition in the years to come! Here are some of the pictures we took. Enjoy!

It's about time!!

2010-10-22T16:42:00.008-04:00

Ok so I know it's been way to long since I updated our blog. It seems like every time I thought about sitting down to update, Mallory would wake up from a nap or laundry was calling my name. Hopefully I will do a better job in the coming year!!

I don't even know where to begin to update on our crazy life!! Mallory is almost a year old and is growing way to fast!! She has gone from just laying around to crawling and now to pulling up and pushing toys around the room. I am sure walking is just around the corner!! She loves to clap ,put her hands in the air and do the "touchdown" move!! She has also started dancing to music now which is so cute to watch!! We have 4 teeth on top and 2 teeth on the bottom and I can honestly say the teething process is not much fun but part of having children!! We recently went to the doctor and she weighted 18.10 which for an 11 month old is only in the 12% but thats ok. Eating has been another story all on it's on. We have battled reflux since birth along with Gastroparesis, which is a delayed empyting of the stomach. Although we are on two different medicines eating certian solid foods it quite the issue. I am praying she will outgrow this problem and will one day be able to digest regular food and eat like a normal child, but until then we will take one day at a time and continue to eat what we know she can digest! All in all God has blessed us with such a wonderful sweet little girl!!

It has been so amazing to see Mallory blossem and grow. It's hard to believe how different she is from almost a year ago. The Lord's blessing of children is truly amazing and I thank Him for every day I have with her!

On a different front, John has taken a new job. He is now working for my dad selling tires in my hometown of Hattiesburg, MS. Our house is still admist the wonderful Florida housing market and that requires me to drive back and forth to check on it every so often, but hopefully in time it will sell. It's just such a blessing to be back where I grew up and so close to family!! Mallory will now get to grow up with her cousin Ethan, which is great since they are only 10 weeks apart!! I can honestly say after living in GA and FL that Mississippi is the best place to live hands down!! The is no place like home and that home to me has and will always be in Mississippi! Excited to see all God has planned for us back in Mississippi!!

Well that's about all the updates I have time to write today, but will try to update again soon!! Next big event coming up is Mallory's 1st Birthday on November 20th!!Enjoy the recent pictures I uploaded!

2010-01-19T16:43:00.004-05:00

Well it's been a while since I have written and I can't believe how fast Mallory is already growing!! She out grew newborn clothes during our Christmas vacation and has now outgrown the newborn size diapers!! She has also started to smile a lot and make lots of cooing noises!! She seems to really like being talked to and sometimes attempts to talk back!! The greatest mile we have hit is she is now sleeping all night long!! Praise the Lord for this. She now sleeps 9 hours!!

We had a great Christmas this year getting to spend it in Hattiesburg with Mom and Dad. The entire Davis family was able to make it this year and I enjoyed getting to see them all!! It was also fun having Ethan and Mallory together once again and I can't wait until they can actually play together!! I am sure they will have lots of fun!! We also got to make a trip to see John's family the day after Christmas, which was really nice, but I was really happy to finally get home and sleep in my own bed!! It has also been really nice to get in a routine with Mallory. She seems to be a lot happier when she is on a flexible routine!

It's hard to believe it's already 2010. I normally don't make New Years resolutions cause I am sure I would end up breaking them, but I do plan on trying to get back in shape and loosing some of this baby weight from having Mallory. Little old me actually gained 60 pounds when I carried her! Yes, I did say 60 pounds.... Ha! I never in a world's dream thought I would gain that much weight and hope to never gain that much again even with another pregnancy. My poor little legs had a hard time with the extra weight towards the 8th and 9th month!! I have probably lost 60% of that now and hope to loose at least another 20%! I also still can't wear my wedding rings yet, my hands are still to big.. so I hope my hands will go back down once I loose a little more weight... anyway enough with the whole weight thing. John and I ordered the P90X videos recently and they should be coming in this week so we are getting ready to start working out!! Yea!! I can't wait!! I really would like to start back running again, but until the cold weather is over I will put that off.

Last year for my birthday, John got me a sewing machine. I played with it some, but just didn't feel up to it that much while I was pregnant. I also need some lessons!! I did recently pull it out to work on a new project I found online. I am making some fabric quilted alphabet letters to help teach Mallory the alphabet when she gets older. They are turning out cute but it has been some very detailed work with cutting out each letter in the fabric and then sewing batting in the middle. I would really like to learn how to make clothes at some point, also. It's amazing the cute things I see that people make online. I am looking forward to putting my creative side to work in the coming years!!

All in all life is great! I feel so blessed to have a sweet healthy baby!! I look at her and think how lucky and grateful I am that God gave John and I such a big blessing!! I think it's so awesome being a mom and I look forward to the years to come!! I hope we have the relationship that I have with my mom now!! My mom is truly my best friend and I love her dearly!!

Tomorrow Mallory goes for her 8 week appointment and will get all of her shots!! I am not looking forward to the shots, but excited to see how much she has grown and weighs!! I will post the stats in my next entry. I can't believe my sister's little boy Ethan just had his 4 month appointment and weight 16 pounds!! He is growing so fast just like Mallory!!

This weekend my parents are stopping by on their way to Orlando for a Goodyear conference and it just so happened it's the same weekend that our church is doing baby dedication!! So they will get to see that also! I am super excited to get to see them, but I am sure they are more excited about seeing Mallory!! Ha!

Well it's almost time for Mallory to eat again and I better get started on dinner. Hope you enjoy the pictures! I will try not to wait as long to make another entry!! Hope every ones year is starting out great!!

Kelly

Mallory Anne Kirkpatrick has made her arrival!!

2009-12-01T08:30:00.002-05:00

On November 20th at 7:45 am Mallory Anne Kirkpatrick was born!! John and I feel so blessed that God put her in our life. I still can't believe that she is ours and came out of my stomach! Ha! She is very precious and such a joy to have. It's so cute seeing John smile at her!

Labor was not fun at all but worth every minute of the pain. I had to be induced due to my blood pressure being high, but it was nice to have her a week early!! My epidural quite working once I was 10 cm dilated and they couldn't give me anymore cause it had messed up and was in a blood vessel. So the last hour or so I was with out pain meds and waiting on the doctor to finish delivering another lady. It was crazy, but she made it here weighing a healthy 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.

John and my mom have been so helpful since she was born and I am not sure I could have made it without them. My mom has been in Florida since the 19th and has been helping with anything and everything I have needed. She actually kept Mallory in her room last night and took all the feedings so John and I could get a full night of sleep!! Wow that was awesome and not expected!! I have the very best mom around and I am so lucky and blessed to have her!!

Well its about time for Mallory to eat again so better wrap this entry up. I will try to write again soon!

Almost 31 weeks and counting.....

2009-09-22T12:28:00.002-04:00

Well it's been over a month since I have posted an entry. So much has happened since my last post. The most exciting news is that my sister Katy had her baby boy on Sept. 9th. His name is Ethan and he weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces. He is adorable!!!

I have now surpassed the 30 week mark, which is awesome!! I am so ready for little Mallory to come out so we can meet her. I am also ready to have my regular body back. Now I know some people just adore being pregnant, but I on the other hand am not one of those. My hands and feet have recently started swelling. I can no longer wear my wedding rings and none of my close toed shoes fit anymore. I am just praying it doesn't get to cold before this baby come so I can continue to wear my flip flops!! She has been moving a lot more now and it's so awesome to sit on the couch and watch my stomach move.

We have finally finished the baby's room. When I get a chance I will try and post some pictures of it. I think it turned out cute. We painted it a neutral tan color so when we decided to sell this house we wouldn't have to paint again. I did however accent with lots of pink!!

I am starting to get a little nervous about how our dog Daisy is going to handle a new baby in the house. Hopefully she will still continue to be her sweet self! In October, I am having 3 baby showers one is in Hattiesburg, one in Valdosta, GA and one here in Tallahassee. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people who wanted to give baby showers!!

Well other than waiting on this baby to be born I plan on trying to take it easy over the next couple of weeks. I can't wait for the end of November to get here!! I will try to not wait so long to post next time.

2009-07-10T09:56:00.004-04:00

Well it's been over a month now since I have blogged, but I have been really busy! I got to spend a few days helping my sister unpack boxes at their new house they rented in Lucedale, MS. It was kinda funny to have two pregnant women in the same house and not to mention going everywhere together for a few days. We did get quite a few stares! Ha! Once again we even got asked if we were twins! HA! It's beyond me that people think we look so much a like even being pregnant!

We recently got to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.... and it's going to be a........... GIRL! Yay! We are really excited. My parents will now have a grandson (Katy's) and a granddaughter! It's funny to me how everyone kept predicting that we were having a boy and they were all wrong!!

Recently, we also got to go back to Valdosta and visit some of our friends there. I still get so amazed at how people are so fascinated with my baby bump.... even the guys were! Sometimes I wonder if they are more crazy about it than I am... ha! While we were there I got our friends Pam and Jeff to show John how to change a diaper... since he has never had the privilege!! John's reaction was priceless to see especially with the really smelly one.... if you know what I mean!! I am not to sure if he could do it all by himself yet ,but at least he did pay attention and seem to want to learn! I told him he will soon get lots more practice once our baby gets here and before he realizes it he will be a pro at baby diaper changing!! He informed me that he was not interested in having that as his new career!

For the 4th of July this year we met my parents, sister and her husband Craig down at the bay house in Gulf Shores for the weekend. It was a lot of fun with swimming, kayaking, and eating lots of good seafood!! We had the shrimp boil tradition once again that dad cooks with shrimp, potatoes, and corn along with his special shrimp dipping sauce and boy was it good!! At the last minute my husband decided he did not want to board our dog at the vet and insisted on bringing her. Now, normally this would have been ok, but since my sisters dog polly and our dog don't really get along to well I would have preferred to board her. Needless to say, John brought her and Saturday night my sisters dog decided to bite our dog over some food issues during our blessing of dinner. I don't think it could have come at a better time ha! Our dog Daisy definitely didn't win the fight and got bite in the process but she did put up a pretty good fight considering polly is about 30 pounds heavier and a lot bigger! I hope this situation never happens again, but I have a feeling Daisy is going to always hold a grudge against polly from now own..... On the way home, I asked John if he could do it over again would he have still brought Daisy along... and not to my surprise he said yes he would have still brought her... I hope one day they will learn to get along.... wishful thinking though!

Well I have some things I need to get done around the house and a few thank you notes to write. Hopefully it will not take me as long to update the blog next time!!

2009-06-05T11:38:00.003-04:00

Well it's been about a week since we returned from our great vacation to Disney world. We had a great time and I have finally gotten all caught up on the laundry. While we were there we went to three of the parks, attended a medieval dinner and show, ate really good and walked more than I have walked all year!! We tried some Moroccan food and also some Irish food, both of which were very tasty. Although I wasn't to sure about the belly dancer they had dancing in the Moroccan restaurant. We were lucky it didn't rain to much while we were there just in the afternoons mainly, which cooled the temperatures off. All in all it was a great trip and I look forward to taking our kids one day!

The weekend VBS starts. I am working with kindergarten. I had to go and get my t-shirt today at Lifeway bookstore and all they had left was adult size small and XXL. Now normally a size small would be perfect ,but now that I am pregnant it's a little tight in the stomach area. So I had to get the small in hopes that it doesn't look to tight. I guess these are the joys of being pregnant!!

I went back to the doctor this week and got to hear the heart beat once again!! It's the most amazing thing that there is a baby growing inside of me. I also found out that I get to find out if it's a girl or a boy at the end of this month! Yay!! John and I can't want to find out!! Well I am in need of a nap so gonna cut this entry short. Hope you enjoy the pictures I posted from our Disney trip.

Headed to the happiest place on earth.....

2009-05-22T13:10:00.004-04:00

Well it's been an interesting few weeks since I last posted. I have started to feel better and I think the morning sickness has finally passed which is great! I just wish I could get more energy back.

I was in TJ MAXX the other day paying for something and the clerk proceeded to ask me: "There's a baby in there isn't there?" I was in so much shock that I almost didn't know how to reply. I replied to her that yes there was. She then proceeded to keep talking about how cute and round my belly was. I will go ahead and tell you it was the most awkward conversation I have ever had with a random retail clerk. I have a feeling it's just going to get worse the bigger I get! I guess these are the joys of being pregnant!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago on May 28 I married the most wonderful man! God has truly blessed me with such a wonderful husband. This next week we are taking a anniversary trip to Disney World in Orlando. I am really excited, just hope it doesn't rain the whole time we are there! It's hard to believe that this time next year we will have a new addition to our family!

I can honestly say that God is truly blessing John and I here in Tallahassee. We have really gotten to know some great new friends and our church has been wonderful. Also, John's job is finally getting to where he is starting to enjoy it! Praise God!! It just took a while for him to get a handle on it and learn the new product. It's funny how impatient we get in wanting things to go our way, but it's God's time table that always seems to work out the best. I thank God for putting us here in Florida and look forward to all the things in store for our future!

Well I am in need of a nap and need to finish some laundry I started so better close this entry up. Until till next time.....

Mickey Mouse here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trips, Graduations and Birthdays have kept me busy...........

2009-05-05T13:14:00.002-04:00

Well I know it's been a while since I have written an entry, so I thought I would finally sit down and do it. It has been really crazy lately, which is one reason I haven't written.

Last week, I got to spend several days in Mississippi with my parents, which was lots of fun. My sister Katy and her husband Craig graduated from Vet school. It's pretty cool that we now have two doctors in our family!! It sounds so crazy calling them Dr. Katy Harrell and Dr. Craig Harrell. We also received a surprise on their graduation day finding out that Katy is having a baby boy!! They are super excited. It was really funny due to the fact that Katy told us her appointment to find out the sex was the day after graduation. Boy, did she have us fooled!!

My pregnancy is going good. I actually went back to the doctor today and got to hear the baby's heart beat and see its arms and legs. It was the most amazing thing to see it moving around inside of me. I get to find out the baby's sex in 8 weeks, which I am excited about. The morning sickness has gotten better, still have some nausea every now and then. I just feel so blessed that God has given us this special gift that is growing inside of me!!

This weekend our church is hosting a woman's tea, in which I have volunteered to decorate a table. I am getting to use my Grandmothers china and my crystal glasses, which I am super excited about. I have not gotten the chance to use it much, so it will be fun to pull it out of the china cabinet.

This past weekend I had my 28 b'day. It's hard to believe I am 28. It seems like yesterday I was living at home with mom and dad in grade school at PCS. Boy, doesn't time fly!! My wonderful husband surprised me with a ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, which happens to be my favorite! He also took me to this really nice Italian restaurant, but my favorite gift of all was the sewing machine he got me!! Now I just have to figure out how to use it!!

Well over all things are going great. John's job has been a lot better lately, which is definitely an answered prayer!! I continue to be thankful for all God is doing in our life!!

Some new Kirkpatrick news!

2009-04-14T14:51:00.003-04:00

Well it's been a while since I have updated the blog, so I figured it was time. We have had massive amounts of rain lately in Tallahassee, and many people in the surrounding counties homes have flooded, which is really sad.

We had a great Easter. We spent it here in Tallahassee and ate with a family at our church. I missed being with family in Mississippi and Alabama, but it was nice to not be on the rode driving.

I do have some news to mention and that is I am pregnant! I am expecting the first Kirkpatrick baby!! John and I are really excited! I am about 8 weeks so not very far along and am due at the end of November. It will be fun to have a baby so close to my sister so they can play together!! I never in my wildest dreams thought Katy and I would be pregnant at the same time!! Ha!! My dad was really funny on the phone when I told him. He said "We are sure going to have a busy fall, but it's a good busy. When ya'll have kids you sure do have them don't you" I laughed at him and told him yea I thought we would bombard him with grand kids all at once. Anyways they are excited.

Being pregnant has had it's downsides lately, especially with morning sickness. They really should call morning sickness "all day sickness". Feeling nauseous it not very fun. I will be happy when all this passes in a month or so, I hope!

Well hate to cut this entry short, but I am pretty tired and in need of a nap. I will try to write again soon!

2009-04-01T14:46:00.003-04:00

Well it's been a while since I have written. It's been pretty crazy around here. It seems like it has been raining for weeks. Our garden is really starting to grow, which I am excited about. I posted some pictures of it. We even have a small cherry tomato on one of our tomato plants... it's way to early for tomatoes, so not sure why so we have one so soon... well I know this is a short entry, but I am tired today and in need of a nap. I will write a longer one next time. Looking forward to some sunny weather, until then I will stay in the house out of the rain!

Veggies and Fruit are on the way......

2009-03-16T15:47:00.003-04:00

Spring time is already here in Tallahassee and pollen is in full force!! A lot has been going on since I last posted. Last week I drove to Mississippi and visited my parents for several days. I also got to eat and visit with my grandparents and Aunt Kathleen.
I really enjoyed getting to spend some time with family, but sadly I had to come back to reality!!!

This past weekend John and I stated working on our garden. We bought some tomato plants which we have planted in some pots. We also bought some cow manure! Yes, I do mean actual cow manure.... and to be honest I thought it was quite gross, but according to John's Nanny it really helps a garden if you mix it with your soil. So, I hope it will actually help our garden grow some yummy veggies!! We are planning on planting some squash, okra, bell peppers, and tomatoes. We have some other seeds that John's nanny gave us, but I don't want to over do it, since this is our first real try!! I will try to take some pictures soon for you to see.

We lucked out in our yard here in Tallahassee to have a peach tree already planted in our back yard. I honestly wasn't sure how well it was doing based on the looks, but to my surprise it already has small round peaches forming! I was so excited to see these and can't wait till they ripen and we can eat them!! Our neighbor says, is usually produces a lot of peaches every year, so that was good to hear!! Also, a while back I told you about the lemon tree John and I planted in a pot. It has struggled along, and spider mites got on it at one point, but I have slowly nursed it back to health and it looks like it might be getting some small lemon buds forming, which I was very excited about!! So hopefully we will get to have our own lemons and peaches this year!! I never knew growing your own veggies and fruit could be so much fun!!

Saturday, John and I ordered some new counter tops for our kitchen here. John is really tired of look at the old light green ones that have been here since the house was built. We also knew that if we try to sell this house they would need to be updated. We picked out some high definition laminate that will look tons better. It takes at least 3 weeks to come in, and funny enough it is being made in Gulfport Mississippi!! I will post some pictures after John installs them.

Well not much else is going on and I am behind on laundry. I continue to be in awe of all God is doing in our life! Until next time......

Lessons taught during tough economic times

2009-03-03T13:37:00.005-05:00

Well it's been over a week since I have posted, so I figured it was about time to write a new entry. Since then we have had a cold front come through the south, which produced snow where John's parents live in north Alabama and my sister and Craig also got snow in starkville, MS. I thought come march things were suppose to warm up a little and I sure hope that happens soon. I have never been a fan of cold weather, which is why I prefer to live and have lived in the southern part of the US my entire life.

As most of you already know and probably have been following, our economy continues to tank and hasn't shown any signs of relief coming in the near future. Yesterday, the Dow Jones and the s&p 500 both fell to 11 year lows. What does this tell us?? It definitely looks like the more money Obama is throwing at these major companies the markets are telling us they don't like it. You would think he would get a clue at some point and quit spending all this money, but that doesn't look promising anytime soon. Also, the job loss rate is the highest its been in years. In fact, in the last two days I found out about 2 different families we knew in Valdosta that their husbands no longer have jobs due to the economy. When I heard this my heart hurt for them, because a little over a year ago John and I were in the same place they are in. When I think back to December 2007, when John found out he was losing his job, I still get amazed and am so thankful at how the Lord took care of us. In fact, if I had the choice to go back and change what happened I wouldn't. God used John's job situation to teach me many lessons. Some of these are, what it means to fully put your trust in the Lord, that worrying is not the answer cause He is always in control, and that His plan for our life is so much better than our own. Jeremiah 29:11 says: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This was one of my favorite verses during the time John lost his job. I know how hard the uncertainties can be for these families, but I also know that if they put their trust in the Lord, He will not only provide, but He will bless them more than they will ever expect. John and I are perfect examples of this. One of my favorite quotes by Richard Phillips says "The key to trials is to get out of them all that God intends for us." Having this attitude can change your whole perspective on any situation. In our world today, there is a huge distinction between good times and bad times and between sorrow and joy. However, in the eyes of God, they're never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom. God never promised our skies to always be blue, but He did promise strength for the day,rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trails, help from above, unfailing sympathy and undying love. I am so very grateful that no matter what circumstance we are enduring, we can still have true joy from the Lord! I pray that God will give these families a peace that surpasses all understanding during this tough economic time of losing their jobs. I know God has great plans for them and I can't wait to see what they are!

I challenge everyone that is not being directly affected by our economy and still has their job to remember to thank God every day, because we never know who this is going to affect next!

A Valentines Day full of fun...........

2009-02-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well it's been busy here in Tallahassee since I last posted. The week of valentines day I helped get ready for a valentine banquet we had at our church. When I say get ready, this entailed hot gluing ribbon to vases, cutting out hearts for the walls and tables, baking 3 cakes, creating signs, and decorating wedding pictures with cute paper and hearts. Boy, it was fun, but a lot of work. I have posted some pictures for you to see, so hope you enjoy! I was really excited about the cakes I baked. Baking has never been my favorite thing to do, I would rather put together regular meals than cakes, but I really enjoyed learning how to make this frozen berry angel food cake. I even figured out how to make in in the shape of a heart, which I thought was really cute!! This was actually my first attempt at separating egg whites from the yokes. I don't know what I would have done without the egg separator tool I had. This recipe called for 10 egg whites, yes I said 10!!! When I read that I almost thought it was a typo, but it wasn't. All in all, the cakes were great and I am excited to have a new tasty recipe to add to my list! The banquet went really well and everyone loved all the decorations we did, plus enjoyed watching the couples play the newlywed game. We had 80 people come, which was way more than we ever expected!! Even though it took a lot of work to put this event on, I can honestly say it was worth every minute! It was great to see all the different ages of people that came and enjoyed themselves. God has truly blessed us with such a great church and church family here in Florida!!

This week I have been busy attempting to create a website for my parents family business. Several weeks ago, I got a phone call from my mom saying they wanted me to create them a website for the business. Now this wouldn't have been so funny to me, but about a week before that John and I had just had a discussion about how they needed a website. John actually couldn't believe they didn't already have one. So, yes they were behind the times, as you can see!! When they asked me if I would do this, I thought sure it can't be to hard. Well, boy was I was wrong, this is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to figure out technology wise, but after some major research I have finally figured out what I am doing - at least I like to think I have! The website is still a work in progress, but it's getting better. If you want to look at what I have so far, the link is www.danddtireco.com . Now, not all the links are working yet, but some of them are. Even though I started out clueless at the beginning, this has taught me some great new skills and I am sure there will be many more to learn in the future. Who knew creating a website from scratch would be so challenging, but at the same time fun???

Well it's finally the weekend and for the first time in several weeks we don't have any set events except for Church and Bible Study at our house on Sunday night. Its going to be so nice relaxing and just hanging out with my wonderful and awesome husband!!!

It's so awesome for me to see God still working in our daily lives. I have been challenging myself to remember to thank God for everything , but especially the small things we to often take for granted. To many times we think God is not there, but the problem most often is we are not looking! Our world seems so depressing right now with all the economy and job problems and the only way I believe to get through this is to put our faith in God. I know there are many people that are going through a lot tougher times than John and I have ever faced and the thought of that just makes me humbled and grateful for all that we have and have been given. I challenge you to remember to thank God for not only the big things in your life, but also the little ones to!

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our fun valentine banquent we had last weekend!

Acting, Crafting and Facebooking can keep life exciting.....

2009-02-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a great week so far. John spent the first part of it in Orlando at smoke school training. He is getting the opportunity to learn the environmental manager role in addition to his current technical manager job right now, so this training is part of that.

This past Sunday, John and I got to make our first acting appearance in Florida. At our church, we got to be apart of a short skit they had during the morning service. We had to pretend we were hurt and sitting in a doctors office waiting room. John was on crutches with his foot wrapped up and I had my arm in a sling. Neither one of us had a speaking part, but I did however get to scream loud and run out of the room, which was pretty funny. The funniest part was people actually thought we were hurt before the service since they didn't know about the skit! One lady said she was getting ready to start asking people to volunteer to bring us food until she realized it was just part of an act. It's been fun getting involved in our new church. God has really blessed us with some new amazing friends and another awesome church!

Lately, I have had fun attempting some various craft projects. I have made a new wreath for the door, a flower arrangement for the dining room, some baby signs that are for baby gifts, some coasters, and other various things. I will try and load some pictures for you to see. I never knew it could be so much fun being crafty! It also amazing at the ideas you can get on the Internet. Plus it's a lot cheaper to make a gift than buy one, plus you can personalize it!

This Saturday, we are going to take a trip to Valdosta and visit some friends. I am excited about getting to see everyone! Plus, we will get to visit our old church there, which will be nice. Our dog, Daisy, is also excited cause she will get to visit her "boyfriend" Rocky. Rocky is a jack russell terrier and was Daisy's best bud when we lived in Valdosta. I know she really misses having him to play with!!

Things have been a little better at plant for John lately. The price of the product they make rose $5 and they have finally shipped out all the extra inventory they had sitting in the warehouse. They are also getting new orders in to fill. This is definitely a answered prayer, since the economy is still drowning and the housing market is no better. I pray the price will continue to rise and demand will increase! Even though the price rose $5 it's still to low to make any money compared to the price it cost to produce it. However, John did say if it rose another $5 then they would hopefully see a little profit, which would be great!

Today, my sister called and asked: "Did you know that Grandmother was on Facebook?" Since I had not signed on in a while, I didn't know yet, and was presently surprised. My sister and I got a good laugh at this news! I think it's great that she is so computer savvy and can now keep up with all her grandkids via facebook! Ha!! Now my mom and dad are behind the times and mom says she will be fine with it staying that way! We will see how long that lasts!! At one of the Goodyear tire meetings in DC this week dad was at, the guy recommended they get facebook accounts. My dad got a kick out of that. I guess we will have to wait and see if he ever takes the advice.

Well, that's about all that has been going on lately. God is truly blessing us even in this horrible economy and for this I am very grateful! More importantly, I am thankful to have a God that never leaves me and who gives me a peace that surpasses all understanding so I no longer have to worry about circumstances I cannot control!

What I have learned since moving to Tallahassee...

2009-01-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since my last entry, so I thought it was time to update my blog again. Not to much has been going on, but I have been having fun cooking and crafting since, I am still not working. I have been looking for a job, but still no luck. I know one thing, this economy hasn't helped at all. I am however, still enjoying cooking and keeping the house clean and organized. I actually have never been so organized in my life, wow did I just admit that?? Well, if you were to ask my mom how my room was growing up, she would probably say it was worse than a pig pen. Actually, that's probably not even a bad enough description, but since that was back in my teenage years I will move on. I am just glad my cleaning habits changed dramatically- oh and I am pretty sure John would agree with that as well!!

Last night, for some reason I got to thinking about all the different things that I have learned in the short time we have lived here in Tallahassee. I thought it would be cool to share some of these with you, so here it goes.

1. Feeling safe and secure is something to never take for granted.
- After the neighborhood that the rental house we lived in for our first 2 months in Tallahassee had 8 burglaries over the span of a few weeks as well as getting to make my first call to 911, I quickly realized how important it was to feel safe and secure where you live!

2. It really doesn't matter if the pastor of your church wears a suit or not.
- The pastor of the church we ended up joining here doesn't wear suits or a tie, which at first bothered me, but God taught me that it's not about what he wears, but where his heart is.

3. It's not fair to compare the last place you lived to your new location.
- In order to give Tallahassee a fair chance, I had to quit comparing it to Valdosta. I will admit, there are some things I still miss from Valdosta and one of those is the wonderful people!

4. Mowing the yard can be really fun, however, this does require a riding lawn mower!!

5. It's so fun and exciting to see how much you can actually save on food by using coupons and watching the weekly sale ads!
- I never thought there would be a day where I would be looking forward to the coupons in the Sunday paper!! You would be amazed at how much you can save by using coupons and planning your meals around what's on sale that week!

6. Before you buy something in town, check the Internet.
- I have saved up to $25 and received free shipping by ordering things online!

7. It's so important to take time out of our busy lives and let others who are going through hard times know that you are praying and thinking about them.
- It doesn't take much time at all to send a note or email and you never know how that might impact their day!

8. I never leave the house without all the doors locked and without being on "guard" while in town running errands.
- It is a normal occurrence in Tallahassee for someone to get mugged. This has really woke me up and helped me realize to always be alert of my surroundings!

9. Florida is definitely not the South! Boy, are Floridians missing out on all the wonderful food and southern hospitality found in Mississippi and Alabama!!
- Until two months ago, we had some new friends here that were born and raised in Tallahassee and they had never tasted or herd of Shrimp Gumbo! It's also normal to get honked at here while driving in town, as everyone moves at faster pace than I am use to!

10. Hobby Lobby is the best craft store around and sadly Tallahassee only has Michael's and Joann's. I really do miss my Hobby Lobby, but I will survive and most likely save lots of money!!

11. Recycling is such a great option to have and it saves so much space in your regular trash!
- Tallahassee is the first place I have lived where we have the option to recycle and are provided a separate trash can for it. It really has saved lots of space in our normal kitchen trash can and it also helps the environment at the same time!

12. The worse thing you can do to the walls in your house is to texture them!
- In Florida, apparently it's a standard thing when building a house to texture the walls unless you are applying wall paper. Not only do texture walls suck up more paint, but I think they look very messy - plus you can't get rid of it unless you sand all of the walls down, which I am sure would take hours!

13. Having a separate shower and tub in your master bathroom isn't really that important.
- Our home in Valdosta had a separate shower and tub, but our home we bought here only has a large shower. To my surprise I have not even missed the tub, plus we have a tub in the guest bathroom if I need one!

14. Living one day at a time and thanking God for not only the big things but also the small things in life should be an every day occurrence!

15. I am learning how rewarding it can be to use everything God has blessed us with to help glorify Him and further His kingdom.
- To often we forget to remember everything we have is a gift from God and how important it is for us to be good stewards of His gifts!

Well, I will stop here as this post has gotten really long. It's amazing at the things God can teach us as long as we are willing to learn! Even though Tallahassee is not my favorite place I have lived, I am excited to see what God has in store for us while we are here!

Grateful God has been working in our life!

2009-01-12T14:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I have written and that's mainly because a lot has been going on.

For several weeks, we have had John's job on the prayer request list in our Sunday school class. We really have not known at all what to expect in the future and still can't predict months down the rode, however we have received some promising news in regards to the particular plant John works at. The corporate guy over the forest products industry for GP, stated that since John's plant operates on the lowest cost they would do everything to keep it running at all times over other plants that make the same product. Now I know this doesn't "guarantee" anything, but it sure did ease any worry we had of them shutting his plant down in the near future. John and I really feel that God sent us that small piece of news to remind us that he is in control and we are commanded to not be anxious. Also, on top of this great news, John is also getting the opportunity to train and learn the plants environmental manager job since they currently do not have one and have no plans of hiring one until the market turns around. He is super excited about this opportunity, as it could open up many different doors in the future. Once he is trained he will then be the manager of quality and environmental stuff for his plant. John joked and said: "I not only get to learn new things, but it will also give me better job stability since I will be managing over two of the most important aspects of the plant." Again, this is just more reassurance that God can answer prayers in more ways than we could ever expect! Boy, isn't God good!! It's so great to have the peace that passes all understanding even during this horrific economical situation our country is currently facing.

Our church here in Tallahassee, decided last year to have small group Bible studies on Sunday nights in 2009 in different members homes all over Tallahassee, instead of the normal Sunday night service. In November, when this was decided they started asking for volunteers to open up their homes to host a small group. All this required was providing a place to meet every Sunday night. I felt God kinda tugging my heart and telling me this might be a way John and I needed to serve our Church, but I was a little unsure and asked God to give me a sign. A month later on the way home from a trip to visit John's parents in Alabama, I called and check our messages at the house and to my surprise we had one from a lady at the church asking us is we might be interested in hosting a small group at our home. I don't think God could have answered me any clearer and last night was our first meeting. It went great and we had 14 people here! We are doing a study on Mark and it was great! I am so excited to see all that God has in store for our small group and look forward to getting to know some more members in our church!

Well I saved this news for last since it's probably the most surprising and exciting news for our family..... and the news is.... my sister, Katy, and her husband Craig are expecting their first child!!! This was not a planned situation, due to the fact that they still have 4 more months in veterinarian school and have not even started looking for jobs yet, but I know God will work all the details out and He will take care of their every need! This awesome blessing from God is just a reminder that God's timing may not be ours, but His is always the best! I never would have guessed that they would have beat John and I to the wonderful blessing of parenthood!! Ha!! Now, if my parents already thought they felt old, I wonder how the thought of being a GRANDPARENT makes them feel! HA! HA! No matter how it might make them feel I know they are very excited and I am super excited about being a AUNT!! So, congrats Katy and Craig!!!

Well this ended up longer than I meant, which seems to always happen! I hope every ones new year is off to a great start and that you will remember to thank God for all that he does in your life!

I will close with one of my favorite scriptures: Romans 8:28 " And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." I can honestly say that this scripture describes our life right now!

Another great Christmas and a blessed year!!

2008-12-30T15:42:00.000-05:00

Christmas is already over and John and I are now back in Florida from a wonderful visit to both Mississippi and Alabama. This Christmas was wonderful! Not only did we get to see most of the Davis and Kirkpatrick family, but we also got to see the Hollomon family! This was the first year since my mom's parents passed away that we got to spend Christmas with them and boy was this a treat! The only one that didn't make it was my cousin Chris and I hate he didn't get to come, but maybe next year! John and I are so blessed to have the best families in the world!

It was so great to get to visit with family and eat some great food! Leaving is always the hard part, it seems to always remind John and I of our wish to live closer to home. I hope one day we will be able to live a little closer to family, but until then I will remain content that God has great plans for us here in Tallahassee.

While we were in Alabama, we got to attend John's church back home, which has been a rare occurrence over the last 3 years. Most of the time when we visit his parents, we have to spend Sunday driving home. The minute we walked in people were so excited to see us. It amazes me how friendly they have always been towards me. His church is a really small country church and has always treated me like they have known me as long as they have known John. This church is such a testament of Christ's love. I thank God for allowing us the opportunity to visit John's home church once again, but more importantly the impact they are having on their community.

Today, I have spent most of the day taking down all of the Christmas decorations and washing laundry from our trip. I have always loved putting up Christmas decorations, but taking them down is not near as much fun... At least I am almost done!!

My mom and dad are coming to visit this weekend and are also bringing the rest of our Christmas present, since we could not fit it all in our car. They gave us some beautiful light fixtures for our home and I can't wait to get them up! This was such a great gift and John and I could never thank them enough for this!! I am excited we are getting to see them again for a few days!!! When you live far from family- you cherish every moment you get to see them!

It's hard to believe that another year has already gone by. This month last year, John found out they were shutting down the plant he worked at in Valdosta, GA and he had to look for a new job. I can honestly say that without going through that event in our life, I would not be the person I am today. It's the neatest thing to see God take a situation such as a job loss to help you develop perseverance and to help you grow stronger with Him! God has blessed us so much this year with John's new job, new friends, a new home, a new church and many other things. As our economy continues to weaken, I am currently grateful that John still has his current job and we are able to pay our bills. The future looks so uncertain with the industry John works in, especially since they are shutting down plants every month and most of the companies are having major financial problems. So far we have been blessed and his plant has stayed in the clear. I continue to try and remain calm, knowing God is in control and He will get us through what ever this economy throws are way. I will always remember how God took care of us last year and that no matter what we will endure in the future that he will take care of us once again. I am so thankful I have a God that will never leave me nor forsake me!

I am excited to see what the future for John and I holds and to experience all that God has in store for us in 2009!! I pray that no matter what you are going through that you not forget that God is always there and He will never leave you!

Christmas is almost here!!!

2008-12-18T15:31:00.000-05:00

Well Christmas is almost here and I can't wait to see my family!!I have finally finished my Christmas shopping, which I am very happy about. The traffic and crowds out right now in Tallahassee are getting worse by the day. I am guessing due to the economy there are more last minute shoppers this year waiting to see if sales are going to get any better.

Tomorrow night John and I are hosting our Sunday School Christmas party, so most of today I have been cleaning the house. It seems like I constantly need to dust this house, and I can't seem to get rid of it all. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know. It's really funny how the older I get the more I notice I am like my mother. Ha! Did I really just admit that?? My mom has always never had a problem entertaining and hosting events are their house, and John says I am just like her in that respect.

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. One of the reasons is cause I get to go and visit family! If you have ever lived away from your family, holidays are times you always look forward to!!

Some of the best memories I have as a child are during Christmas time. One of the Hollomon family traditions that I miss the most is getting to eat Gumbo at my Daddyer and Memi's house. Memi was always such a good cook, and I regret not spending time with her in the kitchen. She could cook anything and boy when she cooked it was not just a few dishes it was a delicious feast!! Another favorite memory is getting to spend the night with my cousins Chris, Julie and Jon, at Memi and Daddyer's house during Christmas. We would always pull out all of Memi's blankets and sheets and make pallets on the floor, so we could all sleep in the same room. I will never forget some of the pranks we would play on the first person who fell asleep! Tooth paste or shaving cream in the hand was always a funny prank.. boy those were the days!! All of these wonderful memories really make me miss my grandparents on my mom's side. Ever since they both passed away, we rarely get to see our cousins since they live in Texas, but this year there is a slight possibility they might be coming for Christmas and eating lunch with our family. This would be a really nice surprise if they do end up coming!!

Also, for the first time ever the Davis family will not be together on Christmas day for lunch. As much as this saddens me, I know the older everyone gets the harder it is to get everyone together. I do feel blessed that for my entire childhood and most of my young adult life, I got to spend Christmas with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. Thanks to my mom and dad's influence, I truly understand the importance and meaning of family!

As important as family is, the real reason we should celebrate Christmas is even more important. With out Jesus' birth we would not have eternal life. Instead of getting all caught up in the stresses of the Christmas season, I hope you will stop and remember the real reason we celebrate this glorious holiday and that is due to Jesus' birth. Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Just remember, if we take Christ out of Christmas we have nothing!!

Mississippi and Alabama here the Kirkpatrick's come!!

Bring the Rain....

2008-12-10T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well it's a gloomy day here in Tallahassee. It's been raining off and on all day. Last weekend we got to go visit John's family and have a late Thanksgiving with them. John was in his best friend Jamie's wedding in Alabama on Saturday. It was really nice getting to spend some time with John's family, but at the same time made me sad we don't live closer.

I can honestly say that God blessed me with such loving and giving in-laws. Even though technically they are only my family by marriage, they treat me as if I am their own daughter. John's mom is one of the most giving persons I know. While we were there, we got to visit with some of John's cousins, his Aunt and Uncle and his Nanny. His nanny sent us home with a huge tin of homemade Caramel popcorn, which is very delicious!! Overall, it was a great weekend and I am looking forward to visiting again for Christmas!!

This week has been really busy for John. He has had several visitors at the plant, that are keeping him really busy. I spent some of Monday decorating the front door and entry of our house for Christmas. This was the first time I have ever tried to hang garland over our door and it wasn't the easiest thing to do with out a helping hand, but I managed to get it up there. Since a lot of the homes in our neighborhood including the front entrance of our subdivision are decorated for Christmas, I thought our house needed some decorations as well. I will try to post some pictures of our Christmas decorations for you to see. I still need to hang the wreath I made, but I am waiting on John to put a screw in the door.

Yesterday, on my way to do some much needed Christmas shopping, I heard a song on the christian radio station that really spoke to my heart. The song is "Bring the rain" by MercyMe. I am going to post the lyrics in case you have not heard this song.

"Bring the Rain"

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that
I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

(Chorus)
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings
You glory And I know there'll
be days When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to
praise You Jesus, bring the rain

I am yours regardless of the clouds that may
loom above because you are much greater than
my pain you who made a way for me suffering
your destiny so tell me whats a little rain

[1st Chorus]

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
is the lord God almighty
is the lord God almighty
I'm forever singing

[2nd Chorus 2x]

everybody singing
Holy holy holy
you are holy
you are holy

This song truly expresses the attitude that God wants us to have and live out during painful times in our life. I have seen so many Christians that have had circumstances happen in their life and instead of clinging to God and drawing closer to Him they turn away from God and blame Him for there pain. This really saddens me to see people blame such a loving God.

Back in 2003 my cousin Kristen, who was 12 at the time, somehow aspirated Staph Aeurous pneumonia in her body and within 24 hours it had destroyed her lungs and she was put on a ventilator. After many nights and weeks in the hospital, God chose to take her home to be with Him. I spent many nights and weeks trying to figure out how this could happen to our family, and God finally taught me to see this situation with a completely different attitude. You see we are only on this earth to give God glory.Our job is to honor Him in everything we do. I am so very thankful that Kristen's passing not only, brought people from all over the US to their knees in prayer, but also left a legacy to the people who knew her. It has been so encouraging to see God glorified in this situation. God has allowed Kristen to be a great testimony in my life, and I have had the privilege of sharing it to many. I can confidently, say that the day Kristen arrived in Heaven to be with our wonderful and almighty Lord, she was told "well done good and faithful servant". This tragedy, has not only brought Glory to God, but has challenged me to live each day as if it were my last and to make sure everyone I know will one day have eternal life just as Kristen is experiencing. It is my prayer that no matter what situation we may encounter, that we will realize that Jesus is much greater than any pain we may encounter and to suffer for His glory is an honor not a tragedy.

Sorry this ended up being so long, it's just what has been on my mind lately. Hope you enjoy the christmas decoration pictures.

What I am thankful for!!

2008-12-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Well it has been a while since I have posted. This is mainly because I was out of town the whole week of Thanksgiving. This year was the first year that John and I were not visiting family on Thanksgiving. Since John is in a new job and wasn't able to take as much time off we decided not to make the drive home.

This year, I had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving week helping out a dear friend we made while we lived in Valdosta. My friend's daughter was having surgery that week and her husband is currently serving in Iraq. John and I decided that I would go help her out and he would drive up Thanksgiving day to be with us.

This past week allowed me to gain a new appreciation of military families. You see, I had never really been exposed to the military life style until we lived in Valdosta. I can honestly say that military wives are very strong women!! I kept thinking how much I missed being away from my husband for one week, and then realized that's nothing compared to what my friend was going through. Her husband had been gone for several months already and will not be home until the middle of Feb. This week helped me realize how blessed and easy I have it compared to these families! I now am truly thankful for what are military does and has done for our freedom! I am truly grateful I was given the opportunity to spend a week and help my friend out with her adorable little daughter!

Even though it is already past Thanksgiving, I still want to tell you what I am thankful for. There are many things that come to mind such as my family, John's family, my wonderful husband, and John's job, but most importantly I am thankful for Jesus' death on the cross, His forgivness and the gift of eternal life. I believe that this is most precious gift one can receive and I will always be grateful for this gift! A lesson God has been teaching me lately, is that He shows up all through our day, but we often never notice Him. This is because we don't acknowledge Him. I was emailed this story a while back and it has really changed that way I look at my day. Here is the story:

"I was in the waiting room and I saw an old friend with his wife - they're both in their 90's. He's working hard to care for his wife because her health is really deteriorating. Because it had been raining when they came in, my friend asked the dentist if he could help him get his wife out to the car. My dentist came back in, really touched by what had happened in those two minutes - so touched that he brought it up two more times. He said, "When I went out with George and his wife, it wasn't raining. And George said, 'Isn't it great that the Lord stopped the rain long enough for us to get out to the car?' Then he just looked heavenward and said, 'Thanks, Father.'"

Now isn't that acknowledging Him and noticing God working in the details of your day.If you don't, you'll miss God and you'll miss the joy that only comes from the Lord. But if you do train your heart to go on a daily "God hunt," you'll experience what the great preacher Charles Spurgeon talked about when he said, "He who looks for providences (or God actions) will never lack a providence to observe."

If you haven't been seeing God a lot lately, it's because you haven't been looking. I challenge you to go on a God hunt everyday and you will be amazed at how many blessings you were not noticing before!! I am thankful that I have a God who works in my life everyday!!

Do not be anxious.....

2008-11-18T12:57:00.001-05:00

Well the weather has turned cold here in Tally. I think it got down to 33 one morning this week. I am not a fan of cold weather, but John loves it.

This past weekend John got almost all of the quarter round cut so we can finish and cover the edges of the wood floor we had put in. Next I guess I will get the pleasure of painting it so we can finally nail it down... boy am I ready to get that project finished!! 1 more down 50 more to go! Ha!

Last week John had to travel to Ocala, Florida for a business trip for several days. To his surprise the day he got there he found out that they were shutting down that plant. Boy, was this a full circle moment for him. In case you didn't know, they shut the plant down John was working at in Valdosta last December, which caused John to look for a new job. Fortunately, God took care of us and John got a new job really quickly. Even though this shut down does not affect John's job as of right now, going through this last Christmas brought back not so great memories. My heart goes out to all the employees who lost their job, and I pray that they will rely on God to get them through this difficult time. This economy has gotten so bad and is really making me nervous. Plants like the one John works at are getting shut down every week due to the economy and housing market. I struggle trying not to worry about this, but I know that ultimately God is in control and he will take care of us not matter what happens in our future. The verse that helps remind me to not worry is Philippians 4:6-7. It says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." After studying this verse, I noticed that we are commanded to not be anxious and no matter how hard this may be God commands us to not be worried. I pray that we all realize that no matter what we are going through we are told to not be anxious about anything and to present our worries to God. I can honestly say that once you practice this a burden will be lifted off of your back and God will give you a peace about your situation, however this doesn't mean the worry will go away, it just means you gave it to God to handle. Enough of rambling about this, I just pray for all the Americans this economy is affecting.

A while back I mentioned we had planted a lemon tree. Well I finally took a picture of it to post on here so you could all see our cute little tree! It's the picture above that has a tree in the planted container.I am still hoping it will produce lemons one day!!! One of our neighbors, who happens to be a widowed man in his late 80's or early 90's has a orange tree that is next to our fence in his back yard. I never knew it was an orange tree until this past week when I noticed oranges hanging all over it! It's so neat to see the oranges! I was really tempted to climb on our fence and sneak one to try, but I didn't. I am sure if I asked him he would give us some, as I know he will never be able to eat all of them, but I hate to bother him. Anyway, I took some pictures of it; so hope you enjoy them! In case you can't tell by my excitement, I have never been around fruit trees much in my life so to me this is pretty neat!!

Well I better go before this gets to long and boring. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our lemon tree and the neighbors orange tree!!

God is always there!!

2008-11-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I have written anything, so I thought I would take the time to update my blog. Last week, I got the pleasure of spending the week in Hattiesburg, MS with my mom and dad, while John was on a business trip in Virginia. I had the best time! I got to see several family friends, my aunt Kathleen and my grandparents. I also got to eat at one of my favorite restaurants back home called Peppers. They have the best potato salad you can get anywhere! I really wish we could get this restaurant in Tallahassee!!

One afternoon I got to visit with my grandparents and I helped my grandmother learn how to cut and paste on their computer. In case you are wondering if I just said grandparents and computer in the same sentence I did! Believe it or not my grandparents are computer-savvy! When I met John he did not believe me when I told him they used the Internet and actually emailed me! I personally think it's awesome that they wanted to take the time to learn this new technology to communicate with their friends and family.

While I was in Mississippi, my mom through an election party on Tuesday night with their supper club friends. It was great to get to see all of these family friends that I have known just about my entire life! It also happened that everyone there was rooting and voted for the same candidate, but sadly he didn't win. I have since realized that even though I think the wrong candidate won the election, I also know that God is in control and this was no surprise to Him. No matter how hard these next 4 years may be, I know that Deuteronomy 31:6 says: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." I am so very thankful that God will always be there, even if the new president might make some bad decisions for our country.

I came across this poem the other day that I want to share with you. I do not know who the author is.

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways, all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way.
Grace for the trails, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, Undying love.
God, your love is so precious!
You protect your people in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm36:7

When I read this the first time, it really reminded me that no matter how hard things may get for us, that with God's strength and love we can get through anything. God never promised us a life of no suffering, but he did promise us grace, strength, and love to get us through tough times. More importantly than all of those promises, we have been given the gift of eternal life and that is the most precious gift we could ever be given.

Well I guess I have rambled enough. John will leave again tomorrow to head to Ocala, Fl for a few days for work. I decided to stay here, so we would save the money from having to board the dog. Well I need to get some stuff down around the house and this is about all that has been going on with us.

Boring long week.....

2008-10-30T08:58:00.001-04:00

Well this week has felt really long for some reason, but at least it's almost over! Not to much has gone on this week. I have worked on the Christmas shoe boxes for the kids that our church participates in and that has been fun! John and I always enjoy buying the toys and items to put in them every year. The weather here has turned out to be fairly cold this week in the mornings. I can't believe it has already dropped in the 3o's a few mornings this week, but thankfully it warms up during the day to the high 60's and low 70's. We have actually had to put our lemon tree in the garage due to the cold weather.

This weekend John's plant is having family day. John and I will go and I think we get to play games and win prizes. Monday morning John will fly to Virginia for a week on business and I am planning on traveling to Hattiesburg to visit my parents for several days, which I am excited about! When you don't live close to your family, it's always exciting to get to go back and visit!

I am still on the job search and I found one or two I did apply for this week, but don't know if I have a shot. I have been told by several people that it can be really political in getting a good job here in Tallahassee, which stinks but nothing I can do. I am trying to be patient and remember that it's all in God's hands and He has wonderful plans for me. I know John is still enjoying me being at home and all the dinners I have been cooking! I will admit that it has been really nice to be able to pick up and go anywhere at anytime and not be pinned down to a full time job schedule, but the extra money a job would provide would have advantages as well!

Not to much else is going on in our lives except will be doing some traveling in the next week. Hope all is well!

Hattiesburg here comes Daisy and I!!

Thanking God for the little things!

2008-10-24T16:30:00.000-04:00

Today has been a very gloomy day outside and it has rained all day long, but God has reminded me of wonderful cherished memories, as well as many new blessings.

Growing up one of the things I was blessed with, was having the very best neighbors on Bellmont Drive. Our neighbors were like family to me, well really more like grandparents, but they were such role models to everyone one around them. I can remember many times wishing my parents would buy a bigger house instead of adding on to our current one, but they always said that we couldn't leave our neighbors. And until now, I never really understood why they were like this.

In Valdosta, we lived in a nice neighborhood, but never had neighbors that wanted to get to know John and I. This was a little disappointing, but we had so many friends from church I never really thought to much about it.

Now that we are living in Tallahassee, in our new neighborhood, I have realized what me missed out on in Valdosta. The day we closed on our house here in Tallahassee, John and I were painting and that day we had neighbors already ringing our doorbell to meet us. I was so amazed! It turns out we are blessed with some really great neighbors!

One of them, is an older lady in her 60's with no family close by, doesn't drive, and recently found out she has breast cancer. Even after all that she is going through, she has made such an effort to get to know me. Today, in fact I got the privilege of going to lunch with her at a cute cafe and then to help her pick out a wig for her to wear after she looses her hair from chemo. I have so much admiration for her strength. I can not even understand what it is like being in her shoes, but I am very grateful God is giving me the opportunity to help her in even the smallest ways. I am confident God will teach me many lessons through her! I have already been reminded today to thank God for my health, my families health, for being able to drive, and for my new caring neighbors!

As much as I thought I missed our house in Valdosta, I am even more grateful to have the experience I had growing up getting to know our new and wonderful neighbors! Between our new church here and our new neighbors, God has truly blessed us so much!

My challenge to you is to remember to thank God for the little things we seem to most often forget about.

I am reminded of Philippians 4:4 " Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice." This is actually a command from God and I hope we can all remember to rejoice in the Lord during the good times and even during the not so good times.

Fall weather is finally here!

2008-10-21T16:39:00.000-04:00

Today, it finally feels like Fall weather in Florida. The weather is just absolutely beautiful. I took Daisy on a walk and for the first time her tongue was not sticking out half way home. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the nice weather outside and all the colored leaves are just beautiful to look at!

John got back Saturday night from Minnesota. He said the weather was cold, but he loved it! I think it got down in the 20's at night. One thing he misses about North Alabama is the colder weather. He said they actually got snow fairly often in the winters, where as in South Mississippi we rarely saw snow growing up. I have never been much on cold weather myself, but John seems to really enjoy and miss it.

We still have many things we are working on at the house we bought. I don't think the work will ever end. Last night after work John painted the wood molding around the garage door white. It's looks much better. It was in need of a paint job. We still have the quarter round to finish on the wood floors we had put in before we moved in, as well as some painting to finish in the master bedroom. I think this list could go on and on, so I will not bore you with all the updates we still want to make. I am sure if you own your house you understand how it never ends.

In a previous post I mentioned that we recently planted a lemon tree. Well, I am not sure what's going on with it, but a few of the leaves started to turn yellow, which according to the research I did is not a good sign. I researched a little on the Internet and it said it may not be getting enough iron or nitrogen or maybe it has been over watered. We have cut back on the watering and went and bought some citrus fertilizer to help it get some nutrients. I hope this helps our poor little tree. At least it's not wilting yet and it still looks pretty healthy! I really want it to produce some lemons!!!

Not to much else is going on with us. Hope you are having the great Fall weather that we are getting in North Florida!

2008-10-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

I was thinking the other day about how long it had been since we moved from Valdosta to Tallahassee. I couldn't believe it had already been almost 7 months. Boy does time fly or what!

This week has been pretty good so far. On Monday I got to keep a friends 2 years old while her and her husband worked. Their nanny who normally keeps him was on vacation. We had the best time playing with Thomas the train, talking about big trucks, and watching airplanes in the sky pass over our house. I have always heard of terrible twos but he was the complete opposite. He was great! I will say one of the diaper changes was quite traumatizing, but I managed to get it done!! Ha!

John left this morning to head to Minnesota for some work training. He was excited about getting to be in some colder weather. I guess it will be just Daisy and I until Saturday night when John gets home.

About a week ago John and I planted our very first fruit tree. It's a Eureka Lemon tree. We are excited about it and hope it actually produces some lemons. It's not a very big or tall tree but it's cute! I don't think it's going to get over 4 ft tall.

Last weekend in Valdosta at our church was the youth groups Mud Bowl football games as well as homecoming on Sunday. Seeing pictures on facebook brought back wonderful memories of living in Valdosta! It was also the big high school football game "winnersville". This is where Valdosta High plays Lowndes High. This is the biggest rival game ever and always is a sell out! This year the win went to Lowndes once again. I think that every year we lived there they won the game, I always felt bad for Valdosta High. If you ever want to go visit a town that lives and breathes football take a trip to Valdosta, GA! Not only is high school football big, but also the local division 2 college Valdosta State University, has a really great football team. They were division 2 champs last year! Go blazers!

Well enough about valdosta, how about those Bulldogs who beat ranked Vandy last weekend! Boy was I happy we finally got another win! Funny enough most people here in Tallahassee think you are talking about the Georgia Bulldogs when you mention the Bulldogs. Yesterday when John and I were at the eye doctors office the doctor and his wife, who works the fronts desk, noticed John's MSU shirt he had on and said they were big fans to! They have a son who goes to graduate school there and is an athletic trainer for the football team. Wow, what a small world! They even said they attended Super Bulldog weekend last year. It's really neat when you meet people who have connections to back home here in Fl, because I don't feel like people here in tallahassee understand what it means to live in the real south.

Well enough about football, I need to get ready to run a few errands.

Very Blessed!

2008-10-08T08:49:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a while since I have written, but I have been pretty busy lately. This past weekend my wonderful mom came to visit, which was lots of fun! This past weekend was also John's birthday. He got lots of nice stuff and I even got him his first ice cream cake! I think I may have been a tad bit more excited about it than he ,but he did appear to enjoy it. Growing up the Davis side of our family always had ice cream cakes for birthdays and boy they were good! John had never had the pleasure of getting one, so I thought he needed to see how great they are! Ha!

Mom left to go home on Sunday morning and John and I were a little sad to see her go, but I know dad was missing her! I will say though I think we were a little tired of watching politics on Fox News... If you have been around her lately I am sure you have gotten an ear full of concerns regarding the presidential election coming up. I think everyone we came into contact for very long with she brought the election up. It's pretty funny. I have not met many people on fire as much as her! Don't get me wrong, I do think this election is very important, I am just not one to bring it up with the guy I meet at Lowe's. Ha! I still love my mom and agree more than ever that if Obama gets into office we are in for some big trouble! I am just sick of all the media favoring one particular candidate! It's not fair and sadly most people will believe what they are hearing. Well enough about the upcoming election.

I have been thinking lately about some news I found out about several couples we knew in GA separating and or getting a divorce. This news has really saddened me. I just don't understand how Christian couples can let this happen. To me if you ever think you are falling out of love you need to first pray to God and secondly get help. Divorce should never be an option. I believe that if your relationship ever gets to this point then you need to sit back and take a look at your relationship with God. My heart just goes out to these families that are going through this. I could not imagine being in their shoes. I feel so blessed that God provided me such a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and would do anything to make sure I am happy. My husband also understands that I am not perfect and forgives me just as Christ forgives us. Wow, just thinking about this gives me chills ,but also warmth. I know God has truly blessed me with such a loving Christian husband and I thank God for him daily! My prayer is that these couples will seek out God and realize without him in their relationship it will continue to fail!

Well I guess I have rambled enough. I need to go and get ready for my Chiropractor appointment.

We are back from Mississippi and back to reality

2008-09-29T10:08:00.000-04:00

Well this weekend is over and it seems to have gone by so quickly! John and I had the best time riding the Goodyear Blimp and still can't believe we got that opportunity! It was really neat getting to look at Hattiesburg and Petal from the air. We were able to ride over three of my dad's Goodyear stores, the campus of USM, our old house on Bellmont and mom and dad's new house in Timberton as well as many other locations in Hattiesburg. It was also great getting to see our whole family! We even got to see my grandparents, one aunt and uncle and some of my cousins! What a fun trip we had in Mississippi ,but now it's back to reality in Tallahassee, FL.

John is back at work and I appear to have lots of laundry to get done around the house. My mom is coming to visit this Thursday and will stay the weekend, which I am very excited about, just wish dad was able to come as well, but maybe next time. I am still debating what I want to cook while she is here. Since I have been spending so much time at home now that I am currently not working, I have taken up the hobby of cooking. It's been really fun trying new recipes and John is liking being the ginny pig! Luckily most of it has been edible! Ha!

This weekend is John's 29th birthday. It's hard to believe he is that close to being 30 years old! To bad people only think he looks like he is in his early 20's! Ha! He was even mistaken for a high school student when we first moved here. We laughed about that for a while!!

Well not to much else is going on, but it will be nice to finally be in town for a couple of weeks. I am ready for a break from traveling. I think I just heard the washer go off, so I am gonna get back to the laundry.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of us riding the blimp!

Almost the weekend!

2008-09-25T14:53:00.000-04:00

Well it's almost the weekend and I am getting excited about going to Hattiesburg this weekend to ride the Goodyear Blimp! In case you are wondering, yes it is the actual Goodyear Blimp that flies in the air and that you see on TV during some of the football games. If you know me well, you already know our family business is Goodyear franchises, so needless to say yes I get excited with anything that deals with Goodyear! Ha! Who would have thought a Mississippi girl could like rubber so much! Ha Ha! I will post pictures of the Blimp when I get back.

John has had a pretty good week at work, especially since he took a vacation day this past Monday and he is leaving early on Friday to go to Hattiesburg. I have spent most of this week doing laundry, cooking dinner, and cleaning the floors. Sounds exciting doesn't it.... Ha, well I guess that's the life of a stay at home wife. I really would like to find a job, but that in itself is turning out to be a challenge in Tallahassee. Either I am way to picky or the economy has caused there to be a shortage of good jobs here. Hopefully in the near future I will find something to do, but until then I will continue to keep cooking and cleaning.

I was looking at my calender the other day and noticed that my parents 30th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of this month. I thought wow what an awesome accomplishment! I am so proud and excited for them. I look forward and hope to make it 30 plus years one day like them! I could never thank God enough for giving me such loving and thoughtful parents!

Well I better go for now, but I must thank God for all the blessings He has and is currently blessing us with!

Hattiesburg, Mississippi here we come!!!

First Blog

2008-09-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Well I decided to start a blog, after seeing so many people I know have one. It's been pretty neat to be able to keep up with what's going on in their life, so I decided it would be fun to blog myself. Since this is my first blog it will not be very long, but here is a brief update on what has been going on with us.

John and I are now living in Tallahassee, FL which has been a adjustment from Valdosta, GA. We have bought a new house here in Florida and are finally unpacked and settled, but at times we still miss living in Valdosta. John has not adjusted as easy as I have, he still is a little unsure about Florida, but I think with time this will improve. I can honestly say right now that God has truly blessed John and I in the short 3 1/2 years we have been married. I am excited to see God's plan for us in Tallahassee.

Well, this is all I have for now, since I have some things to get done around the house, but more will come soon!