SHELLY'S BABY SPRINKLE 3-20-10

Shelly has become a great friend and she and her husband, Dr Collins, have become a delightful addition to our church family. She and I think a lot alike which is a funny combo!

Baby Girl #3 will soon be here...Carrigan Marie

My little outfit I got her. Seriously Two Friends (the restaurant) has got to get blinds or curtains on those windows!!!

I teased her the day before and told her that she was going to like my present the best!

Joni (she just found out she was preggers) and me. Her husband does my yard and it makes me so happy to see it look so good and pay him to do it!! Just incase there's any doubt...I don't love outside manual labor.

Kimberly and Alison

Sandra, our Sunday School teacher, and Shelly

After the breakfast I went to Moultrie with Kasey to help Katie to get her nursery ready for baby Cason. When I came back to Valdosta, my friend Missy was in town so we got to hang out at her sister's house. I love Tina and Missy and all the kiddos! It was a very busy day, but a good one!

CONCERT & BABY SHOWER 3-13-10

So this is my Best Guy Friend Devin. He left Valdosta when he was 18 to sing Gospel Music full time. He has just joined one of the best groups in Southern Gospel...Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. I hope everyone has a friendship like Devin and mine where we don't have to talk all the time, but when we do it's like no time has ever gone by! I'm so proud of ya, bud!

me with Wayne Haun...EHSS producer, 7 DOVE award nominations in one year, singer, pianist...kinda a jack of all trades.

Me with Ernie Haase! A legend in Southern Gospel music! It was so nice to meet him and chat.

Doug Anderson, me, and Devin McGlamery. The concert was in Middleburg Florida.

The guys had their biggest, little fans come up to them after the show. They didn't get to hear their favorite song so Devin and Doug sang just to them. It was so sweet!!

The little boy told his dad on the way out..."Daddy, he sang my song just for me." It was PRECIOUS!

Devin's parent's held a shirt for him to sign for a fan.

Wayne singing with the guys. It was a very intimate session.

Devin singing his soul out!

It took me a little while to figure out their super cool lighting system.

I know this picture of Devin is blurry, but I can still see his personality shining through!

These guys trully have a sound like no other! What an awesome concert!

Katie Hill's Baby Shower was from 2-4 at Kasey Jones' house.

Her husband surprised her with a big box of presents, one of which was the bedding that she was so excited about.

Cason's first ornament from Merry Marketplace.

I had to get little Cason a "prissy" outfit!

Katie and her Mama...they could be sisters!

I love me some Christy, but I only get to see her every once in a while since they live in FL now.

Kasey and Katie

Katie and me

Katie's presents

The Mommy and Hostess'...Kasey(soon to be Mommy), me, Katie(soon to be Mommy) and Christy

The drink and candy station.

The spread

I love using my Southern Living at HOME products! The rattle and bottle cookies were from a company in Savannah.

The cake from "A Little Piece of Heaven". It turned out really cute and I was good and didn't eat any!

The pretty flowers from Valdosta Greenhouses

THE BIG 30...

No, I'm not about to be 30..I thankfully have a couple of years until that. The big 30 is in relation to the amount of weight I have lost in the past 6 weeks. I can officially say that I have been on the South Beach diet. I didn't want to tell anyone until I knew I was going to stick with it and it was going to work. After dealing with weight almost my whole life, people's words of encouragement can seem destructive instead of constructive. However, now I am feeling great and wanted to share my good news. I also went to the Dr last week for my regular cholesterol check. I have hereditary high cholesterol. He said my my blood work looked the best it ever has! I'm officially proud of myself.



These super cute earrings were a present of encouragement from my super sweet cousin, Whitney, when I hit my minus 20!
My Doctor's writing on my lab work! It's hanging on my fridge along with a few other encouraging things.

Babies and Birthdays...March 6th

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

The ladies were chillin around the firepit. Although the day started out warm and beautiful...it got cold quick!

Low Country Boil. The guys were great. They cooked and cleaned!

Lauren walking into her surprise. Her birthday is actually on leap year so we had her party on Feb 27th. There were around 25 people that came out to celebrate her and she was at home with the stomach virus. So we decided to throw a little surprise get together for her the following Saturday.

Me and my BFF Brooke at the baby shower earlier in the day.

Laura Robinson's baby shower for baby Reece.

Little James is checking to see if anyone is going to get on to him for going for the Blackberry on the table.

Some of the hostess' of the shower.

Anthony, Laura's husband, is in the air force.

Opening presents

What a blessing

The yummy's and favors.

the even yummier

MY "AHA" MOMENT...

Since I made it so clear to a lot of people a while back about a certain subject, I thought I needed to explain the outcome. Hopefully the next statement won't hurt my sister in law's feelings...When I heard that her dad was engaged only after a short time since her mom passed away, it floored me. Not so much their situation. After all, he's a man and I could list a lot of other reasons that I accepted it most of which being that Heather was ok with it. "I just want him to be happy" she said. So my brain starts thinking...what if my mom were to start to date. I would not be ok with that. That is the public statement I made to quite a few people. I wasn't shouting it off rooftops or anything, but when people asked I told them straight up! At that moment, I finally understood some things that my cousin Holli said not long after her dad passed away. People would say to me things like your mom deserves to be happy or you don't want her to be lonely, do you? For me, in my time of still such open wounded grief, I couldn't think about my mom. Yes, I want her to be happy and no I don't want her to be lonely. But in my mind saying it was ok, was a feeling of betrayal to my dad. It was saying to a 20something single girl that some man is gonna try to take your dad's place. Get the picture? I was being selfish. I knew it. I called it for what it was, but I still wasn't ready! I talked to my Aunt Susie about the situation. I asked her if she would ever date again and under what circumstances. I talked to my cousin Whitney about how and when she finally accepted that it would be ok for her mom to see someone. They both made valid points, but their timelines were so different from mine. My wounds are still a little open...healing, but open. Everytime I turn around I see another opportunity where I need a strong, godly man that I can ask for guidance and love. There are things that I've made decisions about in my life that I think, I wish I had my dad's leadership or my husband's leadership to look to for this! (I've even gone as far as to say that I won't have any problem submitting to my husband when it comes to making decisions...hopefully that statement won't come back to bite me in the butt!) Anyways, it's been tough.
It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I had my "aha" moment. I have been so incredibly busy lately as you can tell in my last posts. There's so much other stuff that you don't see too. So I rarely have time to be lonely. I spoke too soon. I was laying in my bed having my quiet time with God. I was reading a devotional and trying to pay attention. However, my house was so quiet. You know that quiet where you think you can hear ringing in your ears bc there's no sound coming from anywhere else? ( I realize some moms with elementary children are cursing me right now thinking...no, I have no idea what quiet sounds like.) That quiet to me was painful. I have over 1000 friends on facebook. I have over 500 email addresses. I have over 400 contacts in my phone. But my phone was not ringing, no text messages were being sent, no facebook notifications were popping up. It was just quiet. In that moment, I felt true loneliness. I cried out to God asking Him to show me His love right then. I knew Satan was attacking me at that very moment of having my quiet time, but I didn't know why. Until I started to pray for my future husband. I prayed that God would bring him into my life. I prayed that God would prepare his heart for me and mine for him. I prayed and asked God to never let me feel such deep loneliness again. At that moment, He gave me a picture of my mom! (I don't know if she's lonely or not, but it was a lesson for me.) I asked forgiveness for being selfish. I told Him I would be okay if she started dating again because I knew He would help me be okay. I knew at that very moment...that I never wanted my dear Mom to feel lonely like I had just felt! Whew.