Praying for Stellan and Abby.

Good morning friends. I just wanted everyone to be aware that things with Stellan have gone rapidly downhill since last night. Jennifer's last tweet said their families are all on the way to the hospital, which is frightening. I wanted to ask everyone-even those of you who don't follow MckMama-to please pray for Stellan and their whole family during this difficult time. I pray that God will intervene, but I also know that God's plan is not always our own.

*********************************

Also, I just read on Brent Rigg's blog that Abby is on the way to be admitted to the hospital this morning and she is in serious need of prayer also. Abby has a vigilant form of cancer and has developed an dangerous infection and they are not sure how far advanced it is. Please pray

for Abby and their family as well.

TTFN,

Wordless Wednesday...circa may 2000

Ash. 3 years old.

We found these shoes this week cleaning out a bunch

of old stuff and boy did some nostalgia set in!

Oh, yeah, this is Wordless Wednesday.

Sorry. (Not really :)

TTFN,

I ♥ Faces Week 28-Feet

I ♥ Faces

Week 28-Feet

Emmie loves chalk and usually gets it everywhere-

including her feet!

I love this pic-it has her chubby hands too.

Sorry I've been AWOL for a few days.

Paul ran his thumb into his table saw on Friday

and we had a crazy weekend. He's fine, although in a lot of pain.

Thankfully he will not have to have surgery to fix the bone

he shattered-they said it should heal on it's own. I would post

pictures, but I like most of you, and don't want to scare anyone

off! :) Needless to say, I've been playing nurse and doing most

everything around the house by myself. I'll try to catch up

on my reading and commenting later today.
I really wanted to participate in the 'Not my child

Monday,' but Paul had an appt with the ortho-hand

specialist yesterday and last night I was just too

tired to think that much! I can't wait to read everyone

else's though!
TTFN,

100th post giveaway winner!!

Good Saturday morning!

It's time to announce the winner of my

100th post giveaway!

There were 34 comments.

I used the random number generator

at random.org.

I was trying to get a screen shot when I

accidentally navigated away from the page

and lost the screen! So y'all will just have

to take my word for it!

*****************************

THE NUMBER IT PICKED WAS #3!

Congratulations, Kimber!!

Wow, girl-you are on a roll this week!! :)

Email me and we'll discuss exactly what you'd

like to get!

*****************************

Thanks to everyone who entered!

TTFN,

What would you do?

When we were in Atlanta, my MIL was with

us as usual. She goes on every vacation with

us-partly for her to get to travel, partly for us to

have help! It is really wonderful.

******************************

As we finished our lunch at the Turner

Building, we walked out onto the sidewalk

and stopped to discuss where to go next. As

we stood there, a man walked up and asked if

he could help us find anything. We told him no,

we didn't have any particular destination in

mind yet-we were still deciding what to do next.

He said ok, that he just wanted to help. After an

awkward moment, he said he was in a bad spot

and didn't have any money but was hungry,

did we have a few dollars we could spare

so that he could go to the Subway down the

street and get some lunch? I was a little uncomfortable

but immediately reached into my pocket

because I knew I had a few loose ones-and Paul

did the same. Paul gave him a bunch of

change (probably $3-4 worth) and I gave him

the $3 in ones that I had. Not a lot of money,

but it would have bought him a sandwich at

Subway! My MIL was horrified. As soon as the

man walked away, she began lecturing us on

how we 'knew' he didn't want that money for

food, and you don't just hand money out

to just anybody. Paul told her that we did

what we thought was right in the situation, and

what the man did with the money was between

him and God. It was out of our hands at that

point, and we only did what we felt was the right

thing to do. Paul said,"What if that man was Jesus?"

She was not swayed by anything we said, and she

continued to make negative comments about it

for the next several hours-in front of the kids.

********************************

I prayed for the man, of course, but I also

prayed that my kids would walk away from that

situation with the lesson God wanted them to see,

and nothing else. I truly think we did the right

thing. We will never know that man's real

situation in life, or what he really did with that

money. And I think all that's beside the point.

I'm not saying we should throw our money away

stupidly, or that we should be able to give to

everyone who sticks their hand out. I realize that

there are many people out there who are very quick to

take advantage. But I think we have to take each

situation individually and give when we feel led

to give. And always do what we feel is right-no

matter what anyone else says. And that's what

I hope my kids saw that day.

*****************************

To defend my MIL a bit, she is a wonderful

Christian woman. She has been inspirational in

my walk with Christ and I love her dearly.

She was raised in different times with different

perspectives on a lot of things-like not wasting

ANYTHING, and holding tight to money, etc.

We get along fantastically, unlike many MIL/DILs,

I just didn't agree with her in this instance.

*****************************

So, friends, have you been in that situation?

What did you do? If you haven't, what would you

do? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

***********************

And the King shall answer and say unto them,

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have

done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40 KJV

TTFN,

BTW-I forgot to say, if you haven't entered my

100th post giveaway, please do so soon!!

Just click here!!

It will be over tomorrow at midnight!!

July 17-12:ooAM central time!

Wordless Wednesday-Hop on Pop!!

P.S. Notice Paul's facial expressions! He was hamming

it up-the kids LOVE it!

Props to Pop!
TTFN,

Just a little FYI-I'm going to end my giveaway THIS

Friday, July 17. Waiting till the 24th is just

gonna drive me crazy! If you haven't entered yet,

click here!!

I♥Faces week 27-Sports in action!

***If you haven't entered my 100th post giveaway,

click here!! You have until July 24!***

I♥Faces

Week 27-Sports in action!

Hop over to

I♥Faces to see all the other

Sports in Action pics!

This is Jacob at his first practice!

Can you tell by his smile he was excited??

He had such a fun season. He just loved playing!

I was going to post a pic for the I♥Faces pet challenge

too, but Blogger won't upload it for some reason, so

I guess maybe I'll try again tomorrow!

TTFN,

Post 100!! And just a little taste of one of my favorites (also known as-a GIVEAWAY!)

These are Ashton's glasses from her 100th day of Kindergarten!

I thought they were appropriate!! :)

Yeah, I'm a packrat.

Well, friends, I made it to 100!

It doesn't seem like it's been that long!
Honestly, when I first started this blog, I didn't know if
I'd actually keep it up or not. But I really love it! I love
knowing that I am recording our life in words and photos
in a way that I might not have had otherwise!

***************************************

And I have made some great new friends and
been able to get some great insight into my IRL
friends who also have blogs here.
Thanks to everyone who reads this blog on a
regular basis. You honor me! Seriously.

**************************************

Now to the fun stuff!
As all of you who read my vacation post know,
we stopped at Priester's Pecans on the way to Atlanta.
I LOVE nuts in any form (see: Paul-hehe) but I really
love pecans. Maybe it's a southern thing. I don't know.
But they're to die for! Priester's makes them just
about any way you can imagine-frosted, honey glazed,
roasted and salted, with chocolate and caramel...
{wiping drool off chin}
Sorry.
So, since I love Priester's, and I love all of you
(not in any funny way, you know what I mean!)
I thought it would be neat if I brought the two
together! So, I'm giving away some of the yummy
goodness! Around $25 worth of any Priester's
goodies you think you'd like to try!

*************************************

So, here's the info:
Go visit Priester's website then come back and
tell me what you'd like to try-as many things as
you'd like to try! That gets you entered!

Want more entries?
1. Follow me and let me know in another comment.
2. Grab my button and leave another comment.
3. Blog about my giveaway, even a little blurb-
just make sure you link it-and you can have
2 extra entries. Leave me 2 comments and
please tell me where I can go read about it!
~That's up to 5 entries!!~

**************************************
Ready? Set?? GO!!! You have until Friday, July 24!

Didn't find anything you'd like? Nuts not your
thing? That's not a problem-maybe I'll just give
you $25 from YOUR favorite place-just let me know!
And thank you all again!
TTFN,


BTW-I'm loving Blogger today. No matter how much
I complain, it is really good sometimes! I had this
whole post typed up and just before I hit publish, my
DSL went down! I was totally bummed thinking
I'd have to retype it all, but thankfully when I
came back, it was all still here!!! It had saved the
draft! Thank you blogger!

There and back again-a vacation story in pictures. (Post #99!!!)

Disclaimer:

This is a LONG picture post. I will type as little

as possible.

You're welcome.

Ok, so this isn't a vacation pic-but my hair is straight

and that NEVER happens and I wanted everyone

to see it. Thank you Mary for using your Chi so well!

Now for the vacation:

The kids on the porch at Priester's Pecans.

Another pic by Paul on the top of Stone Mountain.

I didn't freak out when I saw this one-then I realized

it's the zoomed one...

this is the actual shot! Paul swears they weren't

in as much danger as it looks!! He says they weren't

actually sitting on the edge of the world

mountain, that it gently sloped down behind them

and there was even a fence. Humph.

I thought this was a really cool shot.

This is the mountain face-it has a beautiful intricate

relief of three Confederate heroes (Davis, Lee, and Grant,) and they do a

fantastic laser light show right on the mountain itself!

There are tons of other things to do-check out their website!

This is just us! :)

Waiting for the show to start! It was the Fourth of

July show and it was fantastic! I totally didn't cry!

(Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Monday!)

Now for the Six Flags and White Water pics!

This is me with my Wonder Woman cape that

Paul won for me.

Totally appropriate, I think! Hehe!

Nothing like a family Fourth of July pic with

Tweety Bird!

Jacob and Batman! He was so excited that Batman

spoke!! (Cause none of the cartoon characters did)

Paul and Noah on the Carousel.
A bit of trivia:
A carousel goes counter-clockwise,
a merry-go-round goes clockwise.
That's the only difference!
Love Marvin the Martian!!
Paul chillaxin at the water park!
Syd cheesin in the pool.

Ash also cheesin in the pool!

Jacob cheesin in the pool!
(getting redundant...sorry!)

Noah playing at the kiddie pool. He had a

blast at the water park!!

Emmie just being Emmie.

Paul fought the no-nap monster and won!

Paul with friends from church-

Mandy, her son Noah, and Lindsay!

Ashton and Emmie looking down from the

sky bucket.

Syd riding the trucks with Noah!

Me and Emmie riding the trucks. Also my

favorite pic-taken by Sydney. :)

We had a great time! It wasn't too hot, and we spent

lots of family time together! It was wonderful.

I have tons more pics, but I figure that's enough!!

I wish blogger had a simpler uploader.

Anyone know a faster way to upload pics?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just wanted to point out-this is post 99!!

It doesn't seem possible that I'm almost to 100!

For those that are interested, scroll back up and

click on the link to Priester's Pecans. Pick out

some YUMMY goodies and be ready to

tell me what you'd like to try!

Watch for my post tomorrow for

more information!!

TTFN,

Wordless Wednesday-Ash and Jacob on top of the world!

(Or maybe just on top of Stone Mountain!)

Photo courtesy of Paul.

TTFN,

Not Me! Monday-vacation style!!

Welcome to "Not Me" Monday-

Where we get to admit deny

all the not-so-fantastic things we

didn't do this week. Cause, you know,

we'd never admit the things we actually did.

Brought to you by MckMama.

Hop on over and read what she and

all the other moms have not done this week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We did not take a vacation to Atlanta this week!

It was not a 4 day church trip that we just extended

to make a full 7 day vacation! I would never insist on

stopping by here

along the way, because it is not my ALL TIME FAVORITE

nut place! And I don't mean the padded wall kind of nut place either!

I'm talking PECANS! OMGosh. And I have not totally eaten a whole

bag of my favorite kind-honey glazed-in a week!!

Cause I'm totally not that gluttonous!

(well, I might have shared some)

(And I might share some with one of YOU

when I hit my 100th post in a day or two-just sayin!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't mildly freak out when I looked up and saw THIS

out the front windshield!! (Thankfully, I wasn't driving!) Once

I realized there wasn't any danger , I didn't immediately grab

my camera with this exact post in mind!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My two little ones did not wake up every morning of

vacation by 6 AM. Since Paul got up around that time anyway,

I seriously didn't put them both in the bed with me

in the hopes of getting more sleep-and, as evidenced by

this pic I was able to snap by playing the ISO setting

on my camera (thanks, MckMama and Brittany!) it didn't

work, EVERY MORNING!

I was not then able to catch a few more hours sleep.

It was so not wonderful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We didn't spend an entire day in the Six Flags White

Water Park. I do not have a one year old who HATES

water. It didn't take hours for me to convince her

to just STAND ON THE GROUND! Finally, she didn't

let me set her down, and she didn't run around

waving and grinning at everyone. But she would have

never still freaked out EVERY time water touched her!

She didn't look totally cute in her bathing suit, and got no

comments at all from passing strangers about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in one of the unfunniest moments of the week,

Paul and I took this pic

in which I am absoutely not wearing Emmie's bow in my

hair-cause that would be just silly-and I would
never post a pic if I did. This is not one of mine and Paul's

favorite characters, and as we were walking away, Jacob

did not ask, "Momma, why is his name 'Popcorn Leghorn?'"

Nope, my kids know their Looney Tunes better

than that!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway, sorry this is so late!!

TTFN,