Monday, February 22, 2010

a baby shower and a new challenge!

I mentioned in my post yesterday that some of Heather's sweet high school friends (seen in first picture) gave her a shower here this weekend. I was hoping to steal some of the pictures that Heather took at the shower, but, well... I'm afraid that it will stress her pregnant self out too much if I ask her to email them to me. Plus, I thought she'd rather have them on her blog anyway.
I took some pretty good ones though, so here you go! Doesn't the little sis look fantastic?
...and now for the "challenge" of which I was speaking in this post title....

I think I'm about to take the plunge. I've heard of a lot of people who've done P90X and I've said "Oh, I couldn't do that," but guess what? I said the same thing about running a half marathon.
I've had little motivation to work out lately. I'm not going to say that I miss training for the half marathon, but it kept me so disciplined! I need something to push me again. I thought of training for another, but I decided to go for another challenge. We'll see how it works out for me!
Any of you P90Xers have any advice for me?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Let's go fly a kite!

So...am I the only person who was completely obsessed with the weather this weekend? After how cold it's been lately, it was so refreshing to have some sunshine!

A few of Heather's high school friends gave her a shower here this weekend (pictures to come tomorrow...), so Kristen, Rob, and Henry were in town. Henry really wanted to fly a kite this afternoon, so naturally, his aunt had to tag along to capture some pictures!

He loved every minute of it.

I'm enjoying the rain outside right now, but I'm afraid that means that it's going to get cold again before it STAYS the way it was this weekend.
WHAT A TEASE!
Oh well...here's to hoping it's a fantastic week to you all regardless of the weather!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

and here they are...

American Idol
Season 9
Top 24!
While the auditions are fun and entertaining, I always look forward to this point in the competition when I can focus and really start picking and choosing. Do I sound like an AI addict? Well....maybe I am.
Anybody have a favorite yet?

So...guess what I gave up for Lent AGAIN this year?!?!

Think I can do it??
(I will, of course, be "cheating" on my birthday though. Just a little FYI.)

Monday, February 15, 2010

CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Please do not judge the way the blog looks right now. I took down my Valentine's layout only to realize that I'm too tired to come up with another one right now...
Don't worry though...I'll come up with something tomorrow. Right now my bed is calling my name....

whew!

My weekend actually started Thursday, when my friends HEGS, Candi, and I went to the Veranda where we celebrated Candi passing a BIG TEST!

GO CANDI! (And thanks for the pics, HEGS!)

Meanwhile, Henry and Rob made their way to Starkvegas where Henry made Valentine's cookies with "Lita" on Friday

and went to the Rodeo with Grandaddy on Saturday.
At the Rodeo, Cowboy Henry was able to pet and ride on some animals and had a blast!

Friday night, I went to the Grill to celebrate my friend, Laura Mims' birthday Sorry for the belated birthday wish, Mims! I'm glad I got to spend it with you!
On Saturday, Mom and I went to fantastic women's conference at our church with guest speaker Vicki Courtney. Any of you heard of her? She's a writer and speaker, and if you've never been to one of her conferences, allow me to recommend that you do so!

Saturday night was spent watching Dee Bost

and the Bulldogs defeat Auburn in overtime. GO STATE!

Sunday was spent relaxing and spending time with some very dear friends. Perfect weekend? Well, pretty close to it....

Weekends like this make waking up on Monday morning SO HARD!

Plan B...

This was emailed to me this morning (thanks, Claire!), and I thought it was worth sharing. You should take time to read it.
And please stay tuned...I had a wonderful weekend and will be blogging about it all tonight! (I know you'll all be on pins and needles today as you anticipate the post)....
Running With Plan B. A special report on This American Life follows the lives of several people currently living what they unequivocally call "Plan B." Host Ira Glass expounds his thoughts on an informal poll and a seemingly universal human reality: He asked a room of hundred people to think back to the beginning of adulthood when they were first formulating a plan for their lives. He called it Plan A, "the fate you were sure fate had in store." He then asked those who were still following this plan to raise their hands. Only one person confessed she was still living Plan A; she was 23 years old. It seems a trend for many of us: There is the thing we plan on doing with our lives, and then there's the thing we end up doing, which becomes our life. Here, Christians often have a nuanced view of Plan A—it is God's plan we are trying to follow. But there is still very much an initial picture of what this plan, and subsequently our lives, will—or should—look like. God's best becomes something like a divine Plan A, while any other plan leads the follower to something else entirely. But akin to the statistics in the room with Mr. Glass, it is likely that the number of Christians who find themselves living the plan they first imagined are also few and far between. For some, this is seen as good news. Many discover along the way that they are doing far more leading than being led, and God mercifully redirects them. "Many are the plans in a human heart," the proverb reads, "but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (19:21). Others find the journey with God from Plan A to B to C to D an interesting part of the pilgrimage itself. Yet there are still many others who walk away from Plan A thoroughly defeated. Regretful turns and drastic detours may now be behind us, but our deviation from the journey is writ large before us. We have failed at Plan A, the plan we believe God intended; God's best is now merely God's backup. When life turns out to be something you didn't plan on, when missteps and unplanned detours loom with guilt, a life of alternative routes and broken roads seems certain. It is easy to wonder in despair what it means to have missed God's best, and to believe that somehow God must now step back into the picture, disappointed, and find a secondary plan for your life. How significant, then, are Christ's words to his despairing disciples after an evening of mistakes, and to those of us who have ever felt the sting of falling off track. To these men who repeatedly failed to follow his instructions, Jesus simply said, "Rise, let us be going" (Matthew 26:46).A wise friend of mine once wondered if following God was not something like following the directions on a GPS system. At the beginning of the journey, the plan for arriving at the desired destination is set before you. But when you accidentally turn left or are forced to take an unforeseen detour, the computer doesn't scold you. It doesn't force you to start over or announce that you can no longer make it to your final destination because you have ruined the route. In fact, it doesn't even make you feel guilty. The end still in mind, it simply adjusts the plan from that point onward, as if the “wrong” turn was a part of the journey all along. The destination has not changed. Plan A may have switched to Plan B, but the outcome will be the same. Although Blaise Pascal was a mathematician who saw the created world as one of equations and precision, he saw the God who created this world as one who is innately personal, guiding, and accommodating. "[T]he God of the Christians is a God of love and consolation," Pascal wrote in his Pensees. "He is a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses: he is a God who makes them inwardly aware of their wretchedness and his infinite mercy: who united himself with them in the depths of their soul...who makes them incapable of having any other end but him."(1) God is well aware that there are turns in life we can never undo, choices we cannot erase, and detours we were never expecting. Some of these turns God no doubt laments with us. But God is never deterred by our position. Plan B is not any farther away from God than Plan A or C or D. In fact, God sees only one plan: "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" (Jeremiah 29:11). In this, God is ever at work redirecting our steps, while the end—God Himself—remains the same. Despite broken roads and secondary paths, God is forever showing us that the destination is unchanging, and in the end, God's best comes into our lives not because of our careful steps toward the divine but because of divine steps toward us. The God of the Christians is one whose plans are all-encompassing, whose arm is not too short to save, who goes the extra mile, and who takes every detour, that even one will not remain lost.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

a much better Max.

Emily, a teacher friend of mine, requested that I post a recent picture of Max so everyone could see how much better he looks! I know I told you that he was doing so much better, but I guess I neglected to post a picture so you could see for yourselves. Compare this picture of him to the one I posted just a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, he looks AND feels so so much better! I love him.

I apologize for the demon-possessed-looking eyes he has here. Ha! Not sure how to take care of "green eye" in pictures...

as seen on a billboard...

I DO.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

RELIEF.

GREAT NEWS!
I had to wait over a week to get Max's test results, but I found out today that MAX IS FINE! I said before that Max's dr. was hoping it was a bacterial infection, but he was afraid that it was too severe and he was preparing me to hear not-so-good results. I honestly was expecting to hear that Max had something severe that was going to cause him to be on medication for the rest of this life as well as shorten his lifespan. The thought of that terrified me. Seriously.
I was absolutely relieved to find out today that it really was just a serious bacterial infection that will cause no long term problems. He looks and feels so much better, THANK GOODNESS!
Oh, and just in case I've failed to mention it before, I LOVE MY DOG.

If you're single and live alone, I hope I don't find out because I will find a way to convince you to get a pet DOG! :)
Oh, and about the house that I wanted to so badly?...Well...unfortunately I was let down once again. :( It fell through and YES, I was disappointed, but oh well. That's life, I guess...Sad.
But did I mention that Max was healthy and happy again?