Big Sister's Blog

So, I am so excited! My big sister April has decided to start a blog! I went to her house today and helped her get set up. So click on her link to the right and welcome her to blogland! She also wants to do Thursday Thoughts, but won't be able to participate this week because she has an outpatient surgery tomorrow, so say a little prayer for her.

Survey Mania

5 things that were happening in my life 10 years ago:

1. Finishing up my sophmore year in HS.
2. Had just gotten my drivers liscense and a green Ford Festiva!
3. My Grandaddy had just passed away.
4. I was just discovering the wonderful world wide web (AOL, Instant Messenger)
5. I was still listening to cassette tapes. :)

5 things on my to-do list today:

1. Finish up the laundry
2. wash dishes (by hand, I might add, since I don't have a DW)
3. finish painting the den
4. Go to my sisters house to help her start a BLOG!
5. Go to church tonight

5 snacks I enjoy:

1. Ice cream
2. strawberries
3. peanut butter crackers
4. chocolate chip granola bars
5. anything else with peanut butter or chocolate

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Pay off mine and my family's debt
2. Pay for our church to build a new fellowship hall
3. College fund for Isabelle
4. Travel across Europe
5. Buy a big farm house with a lot of land and horses

5 bad habits-

1. biting my nails and cuticles
2. procrastinating
3. being late
4. spending too much time on the computer
5. leaving the toilet seat down (Ben added that one)

5 places I’ve lived: (it's more than 5)

1. Jackson, TN
2. Bluefield, WV
3. Fort Chiswell, VA
4. Pennslyvania(not sure where, I just know we lived there at some point when I was a kid.)
5. Ohio(same as above)
6. Sumter, SC
7. Warner Robins, GA
8. Other places in Virginia

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. McDonald's
2. Cato Fashions
3. Tool Department at Sears
4. Receptionist at a Hair Salon
5. Office Assistant at a Dental Lab
6. Stay-at-home mom

I tag anyone else who wants to do it!

First Boo-Boo

Well, the nameless guy is at it again...Isabelle got her first boo-boo night before last. Most of you know how much she loves to stand up. She hates to sit. Anyway, the nameless guy had her standing up beside the couch (again), and she let go and went face first into her exersaucer. This is the result...(sorry it's a little blurry.)

It really wasn't too bad. She bled a little, but after about 30 seconds of crying she was fine...I think I was more freaked out than she was. :)




Anyway, we had a very busy weekend, and I am planning to post about that later. Also, Ben is working on putting a new door in the dining room. (First step in kitchen remodel.) As soon as that is finished (right now we have a huge hole in our wall that is covered by a shower curtain) I'll be posting about that, too. I hope you are all having a blessed week!

Thursday Thoughts Blogroll

Hey just wanted to let you all know that I am going to put a "Thursday Thoughtfuls" link list on my page. That way we will all know who's participating and can be sure to read everyone's posts and encourage each other by leaving comments. Anyone is welcome to join in. This is just a great way for us to encourage fellow Christians in our Bible studies. If you want your link on the blogroll and I have not already added it, just leave a comment here and I will be sure to add your link. You can all feel free to link back to my blog also.

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”

Also, thanks Stacia for making the cool header and letting us all use it!

What's Your Delight?

I think contentment is something that we all struggle with from time to time. I will admit that there have been times in my life when I've said "If only I had _______, I would be so much happier." (You can insert whatever you wish in the blank.) In my tiny little human brain, the blessings come first, then the happiness follows. But as usual, God has corrected my thinking on this. I came upon a verse one day that I know I had heard a thousand times before, I even had it highlighted in my Bible. But for some reason that day it just jumped out at me, and I finally GOT IT. It was Psalm 37:4 which says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." You see, I had it backwards!! God says, "Be happy with JUST me, and THEN I will give you what you desire."

So, close your eyes and think of your hearts deepest desire, then, whatever that is, insert that into the verse where it says "the desires of your heart."

Do you desire a better marriage? "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you a better marriage."

Do you desire to be a better mother? "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will make you a better mother."

Do you desire to have closer friendships? "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you friendships that are closer than you could have ever imagined."

So here is how you get what you want: Delight yourself in the LORD!

Now, don't get me wrong: I don't mean that if you have really been wanting a new Mustang, God is just going to plop it right down in your driveway, but he WILL change your heart and help you to be content with the car you have. And who knows, if you put your trust in Him, maybe one day He will bless you with the ability to buy a new car when you need it, but your heart has to be right first.

I found several other verses that have the same message:
Psalm 107:9~"For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness."
Psalm 145:19~"He will fullfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them."
Matt. 5:6~"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled."
John 6:35~"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."

This is something that has been on my heart and mind all week. I can already see the Lord working in my life the more I delight in Him. But, we also have to have patience. God will give us the blessings we need in HIS own time, not ours. Psalm 37:7a says "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;"

So, this week ask yourself, "Where I am getting my happiness?" Hopefully, you are delighting in the Lord!

Smelling(Eating) the Tulips

Well, springtime is finally here in Virginia, and so we went outside at my Mom's house last week to look at (and eat) the tulips. Here are some pictures...

Also, just to show you all how much she likes to eat (as if her eating the tulips was not enough to prove it), here is a video I thought was cute:

Well I hope you are all having a great week and enjoying the warm weather!!

Our Night Away

Last night, we had our first night away without Isabelle since she was born. It was kind of an early birthday trip for me since my birthday is on Monday. We dropped Isabelle off with her Grandma (Ben's mom), dropped Zoey off at my sister's house, and went to a place where we never imagined we could have so much fun: Floyd County, Virginia! It's a little one-stoplight town (literally) that I have driven through a hundred times before, but just never really stopped to appreciate how much it had to offer.

First, we went and checked in at our Bed and Breakfast, The Mountain Song Inn. We had never stayed at a B&B before, so we were very excited about this. It was sooo nice. It was out in the middle of nowhere, but the views were beautiful (pictures below), and we met some very nice people.

After checking in, we went and had dinner at Oddfella's Cantina. It was a very interesting little restaurant, and they were playing live Jazz music while we were there. I think they have live music every weekend. It was a really neat atmosphere.

After dinner, we went to The Floyd Country Store, where they were having their Friday night Jamboree. It was the coolest thing. You could tell everyone was having so much fun, and I just couldn't keep myself from smiling and tapping my feet while I was there. It was contagious! :)

This is the back deck of the Inn.

This is the view from the patio that was right off of our room.

This is the view from the back deck

After having breakfast at the inn(which was awesome!), we drove about 30 minutes to Mabry Mill. It's an old sawmill/gristmill that is now a historical site on the Blue Ridge Parkway. They have a restaurant where we were going to eat lunch, but it was closed. :( We still had a good time walking around and looking at some really neat things, though.

The Mill

Apparently, this is how they used to make soap. All I can say is, thank goodness for Bath and Body Works. :P

Ben working really hard. :D

When we left, we took the Blue Ridge Parkway back to Floyd. This is the view from one of the overlooks. This picture doesn't do it justice. It is much better in real life.

Also, as a added bonus, here is a short video of some real live flatfootin' at The Floyd Country Store. This also was much better in person.

Anyway, we had a great time in Floyd, and hope to go back very soon!!

Thursday Thoughts

Sacrifice

So first of all, I have to admit that I have been a little bit like kid on Christmas Eve waiting for today to get here. (I know, I’m a dork.) I am just so excited to see what you have all been studying this week. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” That is so true, and I feel that by sharing what has been on our hearts this week and what we have learned from the word of God, we can really encourage each other as friends.

That said, I also have to admit that I have been so out of touch with God’s word, that when I was trying to figure out what to study this week, I didn’t even know where to start! There is so much to be gained from the scriptures, that it can be a little overwhelming knowing where to go first. So, I just randomly opened my bible and started reading wherever I landed. I figured that is better than not opening it at all, right?

I ended up in I Samuel chapter 15 (I know, it would have been easier if I'd ended up in Ephesians or something). One verse specifically stood out to me, verse 22 that says, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” God had told Saul to go and destroy the Amalekites, and that included all of their livestock. Saul decided, however, to keep the best of the livestock to use as a sacrifice to God. God didn’t want Saul’s sacrifice because he had not obeyed what He told him to do. Saul’s heart was not in the right place. So God removed him from being the king over Isreal. So how does that apply to me?

I found several other verses that dealt with the kinds of sacrifices God does want (the psalms are filled with these kinds of verses):

• Psalm 51:16,17~"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-these, O God, You will not despise."
• Psalm 69:30,31~"I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull"
• Psalm 107:22~"Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with rejoicing."
• Hebrews 13:15-16~"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

So from reading all of these scriptures, I learned that sitting in a pew 3x a week and "worshipping" God is not enough. He doesn't want my sacrifice if he doesn't have my heart. The kind of sacrifices that truly please God are a repentant heart, praise and thanksgiving, and to do good and share. God wants my obedience, and that means giving Him my whole heart, not just the Sunday morning part of it.

Check this out

I saw something on the news the other day about a website called FreeRice.com. It's a really cool word game where you guess what words mean, and for every correct answer you get, they will donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger. So, if you don't have anything else to do, and you want to learn some new words to use when you're playing scrabble, go and check out this cool game, and feed a hungry person while you're at it. :)



FreeRice.com

Happy Birthday Nonee!

Today is my Mom's 59th birthday! All the grandkids call her "Nonee". We all went to The Homeplace Restaraunt for dinner to celebrate.


It's in a beautiful old farm house way out in the country.


It's family style dining, so they just bring out all the fixin's and you pass 'em 'round the table. The menu is not very long, but it is mmm, mmm good!


This is my mom, Linda, and stepdad, Michael.


Nonee opening her presents.


Isabelle was at the head of the table.


Mmmmm, mashed taters!


Getting kisses from Ainsley.


This is Sienna: now she's happy....


and now she's not....
The whole gang. (except for Susy, we missed you Tootums!)


Then we went outside for some photos...

All the chilluns in their hoodies.


All the girls. (It was just a little windy outside.)





Chris, April and the girls checking out the scenery.


Hope you had a great birthday, Mama! We love you!!

Idea...

I just wanted to thank Amber for directing us to read Julie's post about what influences us. You should definately read it for yourself. It really convicted me about how much time I spend studying God's Word. I can tell you that it is not even a FRACTION of what I spend on the computer or watching TV. Yes, I go to church 3x a week, but I am ashamed to say that some weeks that is the only time I hear or read God's Word, and with an 8 month old, I rarely even hear it then.

So I started thinking, "maybe I need to give up blogging and spend more time in Bible Study." But then I thought "what if we could use our blogs as a way to encourage each other in our studies, sort of like a Bible study group?" So I just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this. This could be a great way to get our blogging "fix" and get into the Word at the same time.

So what are your thoughts? Should we set a certain day of the week to post whatever we have been studying about that week? Should we pick a certain book of the Bible or topic to study, and then just post our thoughts whenever we can? or should we all just study whatever we want to and then share what we learned? Anyway, it's just an idea, so let me know what you all think.

Quiz

You Are Dr. Pepper

You're very unique and funky, yet you still have a bit of traditionalism to you. People who like you think they have great taste... and they usually do. Your best soda match: Root Beer Stay away from: 7 Up

What kind of soda are you?

You Are Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional. You prefer things the way you've always known them. You'll admit that you're old fashioned, and you don't see anything wrong with that. Your tastes and preferences are classic. And classic never goes out of style. Those who like you crave security. People can rely on you to be true to yourself - and true to them. You're loyal, trustworthy, and comfortable in your own skin. And because of these qualities, you've definitely earned a lot of respect.

What kind of pie are you?

I saw these quizzes on Lisa's blog. I got the same results as her. I tag: Stacia, Amber, Sarah, Dawn, and Andrea.

My Little Trooper

Well, there's a first time for everything, and last night was one of our firsts. It was our first time taking Isabelle to the ER. From what I hear other mothers say of their experiences, this will only be the first of many....oh boy.

Yesterday, when Isabelle woke up, she was making these weird gurggling noises, and didn't act very interested in her bottle, but other than that, she seemed fine. Then someone (who shall remain nameless) was letting her stand up beside the couch on her own. She let go of the couch and "crash!" she fell to the floor and hit her head. She cried really loudly and then immediately starting throwing up. She finally calmed down, so we tried to give her the bottle again. She drank the rest of it, but then immediately threw it up...so we decided to skip church and go to the emergency room. The triage nurse checked her vitals and they were all fine...no temperature or anything, and no bumps or bruises on her head. So basically that meant it would be a while before we were seen. Isabelle was being her normal self in the waiting room (laughing, smiling, playing) so we decided to take her home after an hour and a half of waiting and just monitor her from home.

She took a nap on the way home (the triage nurse said it was fine for her to go to sleep). Then at home, she took 4 oz. of formula. She kept that down fine after 30 minutes, so we gave her another 4 oz, and she kept that down just fine too. We had been planning to go to Christiansburg to see Ben's mom(45 min. or so drive), and since she seemed to be alright, we decided to go ahead and go. She was doing fine when we got there, so we decided to leave her there for a little while and go run an errand. Ben's mom called while we were gone and said she had thrown up again, so we went and bought some pedialyte and went back to her house. Isabelle was still acting herself, and was not running a fever. We gave her a little pedialyte and decided to go to church....yeah, that was a bad idea. I was holding her in my lap and as we're singing, suddenly I have warm orange goo all over my lap. We left church and went back to Ben's mom's house. We gave her a little pedialyte, but she could not keep it down, so we decided to take her BACK to the ER. We were afraid she would get dehydrated. She threw up three times in the car on the way to the ER, and was having dry heaves while we were in the waiting room.

She was such a trooper!! When we got there, it was already past her bedtime, and her and I both had throw up all over us. We only had to wait around an hour and a half for her to be seen. Since she had fallen that morning and hit her head, they decided to do a scan of her head. It came back normal. So they did an xray of her tummy to make sure there were no blockages in her intestine causing her to throw up. That came back normal, too. We had given her a couple syringes full of pedialyte while we were back there, and she was keeping that down, and acting like her normal self, other than being very tired and cranky.

So finally, they took some blood so they could check for an infection and make sure she wasn't dehydrated. They went ahead and put in an IV while they were taking the blood, so they wouldn't have to stick her again if she was dehydrated. Poor baby!! Of course she didn't like that part! She gave Ben and I the most pitiful looks, like she was saying "save me!" My precious baby's little chubby arm looked so pitiful with the IV and washcloth-splint on it. When they were done with that, it was already around 11:30pm, so she was exhausted! We turned the lights off in our room and she fell asleep in my arms for about 30 minutes. The blood results came back normal too; no dehydration or infections. So after all that agony, it turned out to be just a VIRUS!! Something that we probably could have kept her at home for, but it is better to be safe than sorry...

She seems to be feeling a lot better this morning, but you can tell she is wiped out from such an eventful day yesterday!! I am slowly giving her more and more liquids...no solids yet. And she is keeping it all down so far...so hopefully it was just a 24 hour thing. Anyway, I am so proud of her for being such a trooper yesterday. I can tell she is going to be a strong girl!

Random Isabelle Pics

Sporting the striped hand towel...

Checking out Daddy's scruff

Checking out the rug

Workin' on my fitness... :D

Helping Grandma with the laundry...

Baby Mozart caught on tape!

Another Great Blog

Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal (I'm going to have to try this one.)

Sweet potato casserole

Hey All! You may have noticed that I added a new blog to my favorites. It's Adria's blog. We went to the same summer church camp and also went to the same congregation for a little while. Now she lives in New York and has this awesome food blog called A Southern Grace. I haven't tried any of her recipes yet, but I plan to, they look delicious! So go check out her blog, just beware, it will make you hungry!!


The pictures above are just a little sample of her goodies!




Also wanted to post a link to my friend Misti's website. She is a home consultant for Longaberger. They make beautiful baskets, pottery and wrought iron for your home. I hosted a party for her at my mother-in-law's house last month, and got tons of stuff for free! I think they have some of thier pottery on sale right now. You can check it out at www.longaberger.com/mistigardner. You can also place orders online.

This 12 piece pottery set is one of the things I got for free for hosting my show last month.