Memory Verse #6

Philippians 4:12 (New International Version)

¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I am very blessed and know that each and every day when I wake up. I would like to meditate on the word content for the next two weeks. I have so many friends who are suffering with job loss. I have friends in risk of losing their homes. I have friends who don't ever get to go out to eat. And yet, I complain when I can't find anything to wear in my closet! A closet full of clothes! I wonder what my Savior thinks when he hears me whining in my closet. I am able to take a mostly free beach trip this week besides my food and gas. I will not have cable, Internet or phone service. I am really nervous what it will be like being unplugged for that long. I pray I will learn to be CONTENT and focus on what maybe I have been missing while I have been plugged in! Husband is praying I figure it out sooner in the trip then later so I don't have a HUGE cell phone bill. He is thinking of a pay-as-you-go phone for my trip for some boundaries!

Frankie, Forty, Fanny Pack and Fun,

I have a friend named Frankie. She could be one of the funniest people I know. Her husband...even funnier(even though he is an AL fan!). Her daughter . . . the sweetest and has been in my Awana group for 3 years. Well Friday, Frankie is Forty! Frankie and I go way back. She was a chosen high school girl that my mother loved and you may have read my mother drugged her with Vitamin C. Mother also chose her to "entertain" me. (Frankie says I was too old for a babysitter but mother still wanted someone with me!) Frankie is also one of my pool buddies. She is one of the few mommies at the pool who will slum and talk to me, the new mommy in the neighborhood. She gives me the best advice and is always such a good listener. My kids think she rocks! And she will kill me for this post and pictures. So last night, I was so excited that we got to celebrate an early birthday for my sweet friend. I had a blast buying gifts for my friend. The picture above is Frankie and her Fanny pack. My mother did send Frankie some Vitamin C but wanted me to know it was not chewable. She wrote Frankie a note telling her she had to swallow. I told mother, I think Frankie has reached the age to swallow vitamins.

Jenny and I got Frankie some Depends, Metamucil, reading glasses and Polident. I was so hysterical buying the gifts that after I paid for them I almost ran out of the store. Then the young cashier said, "Mam, you forgot this..." It was the Depends. I did the walk of shame in Target. So I was more embarrassed buying my gift then she was receiving. I hope you have a happy birthday Frankie!
I bit the bullet. Son finally had desire to ride the bus. I talked to the school, to parents, to his friends on the bus and I let him. I was sooo nervous. Daughter and I waited for him in the driveway where they let off! He was so excited his ears were red. His teacher, his Nana, his daddy, his Aunt all called to make sure he made it home. I think I might like the bus riding after all . . .
This is where I find daughter on many afternoons. Holding Yoda and taking in the sunshine. Life is Good.

Who is smarter then a 4 year old?

Well I am not sure what daughter is going through but she is winning. Every time I leave her she has started this screaming fit. I mean wrap her hands around my neck and latch on for dear life. She begs me not to leave her. She will even ask to go see Nana and then when we get there screams for me not to leave her. Some of you are thinking sad, sweet, bless her heart...I am not thinking those things. Because I know what happens after my departure. Blissful laughing. She laughs! So this morning I decide I have had enough of it and I will try calling her out on this torture she puts me through.
She was crying about not going to school. I park the car and have her come sit with me while we were waiting on Bre to pick her up. I look her in the eye and say in my stern but loving voice, "Listen, you can not scream every time I leave you. I know what you are doing when I leave. You laugh. Mommy loves you and sometimes we can not be together and I miss you too. But you can not cry and scream just to make me stay with you and then laugh when I leave. I am smart and I know what you are doing." She then looks me in the eyes and says, "Well, you are not too smart because I have been doing this a long time!"

Memory Verse #5

Westwood Baptist Church Sunday morning in the snow!

My memory verse is out of Matthew again. And I like it for many reasons but to remind me why we were designed to serve.
Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Not only do you get to serve others as Christ did but you get to serve in the snow with fun people. How cold do we look in this picture? This is me, Jenny and Missy!
And then you get to serve with these people! Just Kidding! Mark got me good! He brightens most of my Sunday mornings with his funny stories.

You didn't think I would let him get away with it? I didn't! Thanks to Stu for all the pictures! It was a Sunday I will never forget.

Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For Aunt Pam

Aunt Pam needed some snow pictures and here they are. Son took this of mommy and daddy. I was like a little kid. I got up at 3:00 am and 4 and 5 and then woke husband up at 6! I waited until 6:30 to wake the kids and they were pumped!
Our snowman looked like ET but he was cute.
The kids dressed themselves and we are not prepared for snow...This is daughter, our little snow angel. I know mother is dying...no coat.
Snow sledding, Alabama style. Good ole boogy board.
Yoda loved the snow. He lost all control. He wore his sweater and ran as fast as he could. He ended up with tons of snow stuck to him. I had to use hot water and a blow dryer numerous times that day for him.
The Roach Plantation.
Sandy said, no thanks to the snow. She likes to lay in both beds to prove she is in her retirement home and Yoda was not invited.

Fun Peggy Sue Facts

1. My mother decided we would paint our metal swing set smurf blue on a windy spring day when I was about 8. I remember after gasoline was poured on me to remove the paint, she decided it was not a good idea.

2. My mother convinced me to let her wash my hair in eggs to make it shine. She then rinsed it in hot water and therefore cooking the eggs in my hair.

3. My mother also mixed a solution of tide with bleach and vinegar to get chlorine out of my hair. It provided a volcano effect but goodbye green.

4. My mother once brought home A CAN of beer that was confiscated at the high school to wash her hair in and not to drink.

5. My mother took me to a hairdresser two days in a row to get a perm. I wanted to be ANNIE. I came out with a fried ANNIE look. After my teacher called my mother, and explained I had taken a toboggan to school to hide my hair, she decided we had a problem.

6. My mother could be found on any given night with cucumbers or other kitchen ingredients on her face. She also drinks apple cider vinegar and honey every morning.

6. One night my mother made me sell programs to get into a play downtown. We ended up seating in the peanut gallery and could not see. Only to almost die on the way home at Malfunction Junction. MEMORIES!

7. My mother makes the best spaghetti sauce known to man and I blame her for my addiction to that entree.

8. My mother let me drink Dr.Pepper for breakfast and eat Twinkies and was" just glad "I was eating. She would let her grandchildren do the same!

9. My mother has helped many of teenage high school girls survive breakups and friend fights with a Dr.Pepper and chocolate. (She works at my old high school)

10. My mother believes every old wives tell that has been told. Getting cold, makes you catch a cold. Starve a fever, feed a cold.

11. My mother and warm salty water are a deadly combination. If she can hear me sniffle or thinks my throat is scratchy, I get the gargle with warm salty water speech. When I was pregnant with son, I had a horrible sinus infection. The doctor told me to use a saline solution to snort. Mother made a deadly combination and the screams of warm salt traveling to my brain was heard around the world. She really thought she killed me...I believe the hole in my brain is still there!

12. My mother has cleaned every house I have ever lived in, she can't help herself.

13. My mother was smart when she gave sister and I the same initials. What she saved on monogramming was priceless.

14. My mother and I have been known to buy large objects that don't ever fit in our car. It usually ends with a foreign speaking individual and some rope.

15. I would say one of my all time favorite memories of mother was when she and I spent the day at Lee County Public Lake fishing. Just me and her.

16. My mother was in the room for both of my children being born and even husband would tell you, we needed her there! Even though she kept asking all the doctors how old they were and was telling me how dirty the room was!

17. My mother has taught all the grandchildren what ice cream is and what Ziploc bags were meant for...if you need a snack, she has a Ziploc bag waiting just for you.

18. My mother will still ask me if I want to borrow her curling iron before we leave to go anywhere. She really wants to roll my hair.

19. My mother and I talk sometimes up to 6 times a day.

20. My mother still believes in me, cries with me, loves me and prays for me daily.

I love you mother and pray that this too shall pass.

Memory Verse #4

I am a part of a woman's bible study group. These girls are some of my best friends. We are starting a new "independent" look at Matthew together. We will be studying this book and looking at the crucifixion right before Easter. So for this reason, my verse is coming from Matthew. And it is exciting to see what verses will take on different meaning to me during this time...for this week I am going with this verse!

Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means:'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.