Happy Birthday Sebastian

We spent this past weekend with family.--- Our little Sebastian,
had his third birthday party. Sebastian is the son of Todd's youngest brother, Richard. His party meant our little Avery got to attend her very first birthday party! Not only Avery went to this party, but our whole family was there. The guys had a great time in the pool wrestling and such.
They have always loved wrestling in or out of the water. What is that with guys?

A good time was had by all. Avery enjoyed the water at first but then would get ready to get out. I didn't get a picture of her in that swing but I think she preferred that to the pool. She played in the mini pool too. She even had some friends join her.
Later Saturday evening we did find out that the pool received guests much too soon after "shocking" it. Either that or there were too many chemicals of some kind in it. I certainly wont go into detail here but the guys who spent all day in the water are regretting it at this point - yes even on Monday since Saturday. That may be why Avery wanted out when she did. (Smart cookie!) I enjoyed swimming with her and the water was fine to me but I wasnt in very long at a time. I got out when she did. Todd had a good time swimming, sliding, and diving too. Mark had a good time in the pool too.Sebastian seemed to be glad that all his friends and family were at his house. I thought this next photo was a sweet one of him and his daddy.We were all glad we went. It was a very nice day. We are looking forward to another nice weekend coming up. I will once again be cooking for our crew. Shish Ka Bobs it is! I think Mawmaw, or more recently known as GiGi will be baking us a couple of chocolate pies for the occasion! YUMMY! So I will be posting then about that gathering with more pictures to come of course. I am going to have to be deleting some of these off my computer soon before it blows up! LOL
Later

Wordless Wednesday -Why Not-

Avery Visit

****UPDATE****
Just wondering which of these pictures are your favorites??? Just Curious!


On Friday Avery came to see Nonna and Poppa and she brought her mommy and daddy with her. We had a good day and Nonna had a surprise for her when she got here. So pretty much as soon as she arrived we checked it out. She reached in at first and then decided to jump in with both feet so to speak. She loved her new tiny pool. This is her way of saying thanks. She threw us kisses! I loved her in her sunbonnet and her bathing suit. She swam and splashed and really had a good time in there. We had a very nice afternoon in the back yard. Even in the heat. We were in the shade mostly and enjoyed the occasional breeze. Then Saturday was her daddy's birthday so we took part in one of his favorite activities - Golf! We went to Duncan park with him, while he, Papaw, and Josh played 18 holes! We were about to catch up with them on the course when I took this shot. (That is not them ahead of her, but she was on her way to find them.) While they golfed, we played in the rocks. (I was getting a little artsy with this one.)She loved the rocks even though her mommy wouldn't let her eat them.
I had a great time taking pictures. I particularly love this shot. You can see the love in their eyes for one another.
Avery had a pretty good time. Can you tell??I could go on and on and on. Believe me, but I wont. 8-)

Flashback Friday

OK that was just flashing back to a few weeks ago, but what a great flashback it is. Actually I was just trying to upload an edited photo to this blogger. It worked! Woo hoo!!!!

Rewind - Pause - Fast Forward

Let's just rewind a second. When I was 20 years old. Oh so many years ago. 24 to be exact. I was married to my high school sweetheart and a mommy to a baby girl so precious. We lived in a very small mobile home and were so happy together. I was a stay at home mom and Todd was the assistant manager at a grocery store here in town. People usually say the first few years are the hardest. I guess we were so young and stupid we didn't realize it was suppose to be hard. We were just happy being together. Sometimes at night we would kid around with each other about how one day we would have a family of grown children who would be having children of their own. I remember us talking about how we knew we would grow old together. I pictured us gray headed and holding hands. That seemed so far away then, but boy it is coming upon us fast. It's here already really. One of our children has made us grandparents already. One of us has gray hair already. :) And we do still like to hold hands. In fact I am looking at our family portrait on the wall right now. In it we are holding hands. I love that portrait. (Thanks Jami) Life goes pretty fast when you think about it. Wasn't that just a little while ago that we lived in that trailer and we used to draw pictures with our fingers on each others backs at night and make the other guess what we were drawing? Who hit the fast forward button? It cannot have been that many years since Casey was crying because she wanted to go to pre-school. It seems just like a year or two since Shayne Knapp shot Mark with the BB gun and then made a card for him apologizing with not one but two quarters taped to it. I still have that card somewhere. How does time go by so fast like that. When your in the midst of it, it doesnt seem to be flying by. Could it have been over 15 years ago that Josh pulled down the Christmas Tree? (Two years in a row.) I will never forget his little face, scared that he was in trouble, and worried about the tree laying flat on the floor. I wont forget his pouty lip, and his words " I sawwwwyy". 15 years ago? Seriously?? Who decides that life can go by so quickly anyway? Can't we just pause a minute? It seems like I should be out there right now picking up the towels from where Casey and Amber layed out in the driveway getting a suntan, after practicing their cheers and dances. Or maybe I should just run outside and pick up the juice boxes and socks off the trampoline that Mark left out there. Or the baseball, and basketball, and football that Josh strewed here and there. He always had a ball of some sort. Shouldnt I be out there picking those things up? Or has time fast forwarded to now? Casey a mommy to a miracle baby girl of her own, Mark away at College and starting some grad school classes, and Josh a couple of months away from his Senior Year. Whew! When I think back all those 26 years since Todd and I married I am so thankful to God for taking us through. Once again it makes me think of my new "favorite" scripture. Isaiah 41:13 ' I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you Do not fear, I will help you.' I guess that is how you get through those years that go by at the speed of light. You let God take you by the hand. You listen to His voice telling you not to be afraid of everything you will experience. You let him help you. One day you realize what all he has brought you through and know that he will be there to help you through whatever else will come your way. We were very blessed back then and we are very blessed now.

Pensacola Beach

Todd knew I wanted to go to the beach this summer at some point and he decided to surprise me with setting up a trip! I was so glad we got to go. Josh even went with us which surprised me some. Especially since the friends he invited to go with us couldn't make the trip. He wanted Uncle Mic to go in their place but he couldn't get off work, so it was just the three of us. I was a little concerned about him being bored to death but it was fine. While we were there we enjoyed the view from our room. I loved being able to wake up first thing in the morning and open the curtain and see God's handiwork. It was awesome. Then I would immediately freshen up and head out there. I couldn't get enough. Pour my coffee, bring something to read and get to the water, that's what I did. I don't know why I bring something to read though. I open it, and read a few lines and then look at the water for 15 minutes. Then read a few lines, then eyes up to the horizon again for the next 20 minutes. You don't get very far in the book that way. LOL But I just think, why do I want to look away from this? Cant do it for long. So after a bit Todd would make his way out there and we would enjoy it together. Eventually Josh would get up and get down there too. Getting in the water is not my most favorite part of the whole beach experience. The guys love to do that though. They threw the football in the water.
They wrestled in the water too. Todd got those goggles on and explored. I know he would LOVE to go snorkeling if he wouldn't get sea sick on the boat trip out there. Anyway I do like getting in some but not even every day. I like to walk the edge and find sea shells in the crashing waves. It was great. We were blessed with a full moon while there. At night the moon would shine so brightly on the water it was amazing. I thought about trying to take a picture (Of course) and it actually turned out pretty good. We also went down to the pier that you can see in this shot. I love going down there. There are so many interesting people there. I like watching the fishing although this trip there wasn't much catching of the fish. LOL Too bad for all these guys. Oh yes, the most important part for Todd this trip. His highlight was the trip he and I took to Five Flags Speedway. He used to go there as a kid and found out that there was a race Friday night. So off we went. Josh opted to stay back at the Hotel so he could watch LSU win a ball game. Todd was like a little kid. I am not kidding. This guy loved this activity. We were there until almost 11 P.M. It was pretty cool though. We saw some crashes. It was really loud. I had never been to anything like that so it was a great experience. Of course now Todd wants to go down to the Track in Monroe. So I think we are gonna plan that for him. The next day we went jet skiing. Todd would tell Josh how fast he was going so then Josh would have to try to go that fast with Mom on the back. That was a little disconcerting, but fun. Then back to the beach again. Late one night we played a game of scrabble. Interestingly enough our score was 125 to 125 to 125! The guys were not quite as happy about the outcome of that game as I was. I thought it was neat that we were all equal! The last day we went on the parasailing trip. Of course when we got there they were running behind even though we had an appointment. So we waited and waited and waited. But really after getting up in the sky above God's glorious beauty, feeling the wind in your face, and listening to the silence, it was definitely worth the wait. All in all this trip was a winner. :)

Naive

I have always been naive. When I was little I would believe everything my brother told me. And believe me he can surely tell some tales. One in particular I remember was that my Memaws apartment building had a large quicksand spot in the back by the fig trees. I am still tempted to believe that today! LOL He would still say it was true too. :) One time some friends of ours drove us by a home that had a motion light installed back when they were newer items. The friend told us that a "crazy man" lived in that house and would turn the light on every time you drove by. Yep, believed it, for a short time. So anyway the older I get the less naive I am getting. Or at least thats what I thought. I am almost embarrassed to say that I was semi following a blog. It was the story of a supposedly Christian young woman pregnant with a sick baby. I have a heart for those issues and was so suckered in to believing this story was true. Man I am so sick to think that I fell into believing this whole aparantly made up story. Who would make up these things and what the heck for? So even though I thought I was better at this naivety thing, I was wrong. I think it stinks that people make up lies and it stinks too that now other blogs I find interesting could be made up by crazy people too. Maybe I should just stick with those of you I know personally. I guess it goes to show there really is only one completely faithful and true. That is our Lord Jesus and I am thankful that He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Not Me Monday, I mean Tuesday

After a wonderfully long weekend, work Monday, cooking supper, and Joshua's ball game, I was not too tired to do a Not Me Monday post and I didn't decide to wait until Tuesday to do it.

There are some other things I did not do since my last Not Me post like:

I certainly did not have a small accident while I was a the beach. Things like that don't happen. At least not to me. I wasn't sitting in the lounge chair early in the morning. While I was enjoying my {Beach & Coffee}, my chair which had not been clad with the comfy cushions yet was not (really not) properly locked in the back. It DID NOT fall completely backwards. I did not fall with it all the way back. No, my coffee did not fly out drenching my sweet husband who was sitting beside me. AND I did not scrape and bruise my already ugly elbow to a knotted purple yuk. I also did not hold back [well mostly] tears from the pain. No none of this happened while the nice semi-retired couple that was sitting next to us was giving us their mini life story.

I did not ditch my son and husband on the patio during an exciting game of Ping Pong
and literally RUN down to the beach to see the dolphins.I would never trade out time with them for sea life.

I didn't even hear the large man screaming like a crazed animal about the fact that he expected a "rescue boat" (Don't laugh) to pick him up after he fell off his jet ski and COULDN'T GET BACK ON! (I said Don't laugh!) That ranting, screaming at the top of his very large lungs, cussing, using words I havent heard in a long time, it didnt make my heart rate move up. I wasnt concerned about him at all. I didnt raise my own voice mentioning to him that there were small children present. I didnt think - when he was screaming "The State of Florida will hear about this!" that because of his loud mouth much of the State of Florida has already heard about it. LOL It didnt make a sense of nervousness set in before going on a parasailing trip.
I didnt think that some of the bikini clad teens giving my son a second look needed to remain looking from afar. I would insert a picture of the one on the parasailing trip with us but if you remember I did say bikini clad.

I did not get a cute post card for Avery while in Pensacola. I didnt forget to mail it to her as soon as I got back to the Hotel. I was not so concerned with spending every second on the sand that I let it slip my mind. Absolutely not - I mailed it as soon as I got back just as I intended and it's not still in the bag at home. I am on top of things. yes Mam!

I did not do this complete post and try to do the cute trick that McMama does where you srike out words and then put other words. Since it ended up striking out most of what I wrote and I couldnt fix it, I did not have to delete the entire post and start all over! Not me.

And last but not least I don't even like the beach. I mean who does? Who would like this?

Not me.

Smiles

The other night at a revival I noticed a small baby girl smiling up at the loving face above her. It reminded me of a time several months ago when I was waiting not so patiently for a smile from Avery. She was so selfish with those at the time. She certainly was a good bit older than this sweet baby before blessing us with the light of her smile. I remember being anxious about the fact that it was taking so long. I have been anxious at times with the simplest things with her even though I tried not to be. I remember tying to do whatever it took to see that smile from Avery Grace. But of all the crazy things I would do to evoke it, she would just study me, looking so seriously and steady at my face. I also remember when I could finally do something completely silly that would bring about that smile. Believe me I did it over and over again. The first time I received the blessing of that smile I felt overwhelmed by it. Each time after the first was so wonderful! I love the smiles. It is funny how something as simple as a smile can bring anxiety (from the lack of it) then relief and such joy (at it's presence). Do you know that they say smiling releases endorphins each time you do it. It's like natural pain killers and serotonin. It's physically good for you. I even read that smiling can lower your blood pressure! :) You're suppose to be able to take your pressure, then smile for one full minute, then take your pressure again while smiling. It's suppose to be lower. I am going to try it! I was going to try it before I did this post but I forgot about it. What a wonderful thing a smile is. Now go around smiling today. If you need something to smile about well just look at this. There you go.