Can't find the words

I have tried to post the last few days, but I just can't find the words. I want to say life is hard but God is stronger than that.  I want to say that my God has all of the things that we are facing under control and I am trusting in him.  I do trust him and I know that He is in control, but . . .
I am a very emotional person.  I wear my heart right out on my sleeve and my heart is hurting right now.  I find myself going from sadness, to anger, to frustration.  I am having to work daily, hourly to reel in my emotions and stand on His promises.  I know my emotions do not dictate my relationship with God and am thankful for that. 
The truth is, I am scared and worried.  I think I have previously noted that I hate change.  Well, we are cliff diving into a mound of change right now and I am as shaken as can be.  I feel like I am in a dodge ball game, and I'm stuck to the floor, with the balls just pummeling me.  I will find the words to share everything that is going on, but right now, we just need prayers for our family, especially for our Papa and Memaw.  Most of all, we need prayers for peace in our souls.  I know that satan is standing in the wings waiting for us to falter, but God can and will provide the peace that surpasses all understanding and that is what we am need most.

Painting

This post is out of order, but that's OK.  I went to Sips N Strokes last week with Amy, Christi, Linda and Jenn.  I have done this a couple of times and realized that I really enjoy painting.  No one else had been, and I got a kick out of listening to them fret about putting paint on a canvas.  Who cares what it looks like.  You don't have to hang it in your living room.  I must say that I loved all of the pictures.  Everyone did an amazing job.  Most of all, I enjoyed the time with my family, my friends.  Amy never gets to do something just for her, and I so enjoyed watching her settle in, relax and have fun, just for her.  Christi and Linda were a hoot.  Christi is a perfectionist, so worried about every detail.  Linda was painting 10 minutes after the class stopped and announced that we were just jealous that we weren't still painting.  Jenn was giggling most of the time.   She made me giggle too.  It was fun.  So fun.


I am thankful for these times and memories.  I am thankful for a husband that wants me to do things for myself and is so willing to keep Will and push me to go.  I am thankful that I am friends with my sister, my cousin, my Aunt.  I am so blessed to have grown up in a close family.  I have realized that family does not always mean friends.  I know many people who rarely talk to their siblings and have shut out their families. That makes me sad for others, because I can't imagine not being friends with my sister, or Christi, or Linda or the rest of my extended family.

Pictures, Birthdays, Weddings

This weekend has been CRAZY!  I love being busy, but . . . WOW.  We started yesterday with Will's 10 month pictures (which should have been 9 month pictures, but we got off schedule).  This makes me nervous.  I always worry that he will get upset, that the pics won't turn out well, that we will stress out his Daddy and Kim, our awesome photographer.  Silly, I know.  They are pictures of his life and if he is crying, that's OK.  He does that sometimes.  However, if you have been around me with my son, you might have noticed that I don't like for him to cry.  EVER.  I do everything I can to make him happy all the time.  Can we say spoiled?    That's OK, because I waiting a long time to get him here and that is my right.  Anyway, to get back on track, the pictures went great.  He was wonderful and this made Mommy very happy.
So, that was in Trussville and we had to make it back to Hueytown for my sweet cousin Nathan's second birthday.  Thanks to Daddy's stellar driving, we made it and I'm so glad.  What a fun time we had.  Will swam with Amy, Luke, Shelby, Grace and Christi (mommy forgot our swim bag, so no Mommy and Daddy in the pool).  He loves the water and we had so much fun watching them.  Sweet Nathan had a great party with a ton of people that love him.  We stayed longer than we should have, then had to pack up and hurry home.
Next on the list was getting Mr. Will ready to spend the night with Grandma.  He loves his Grandma (and so do we).  He gets excited to see her coming and loves her living room filled with his toys and his pool on the patio at her house.  So Grandma came to get Mr. Will and . . . we had to get ready to go to an out of town wedding.
Getting ready is not my strong suit.  I am slow, I get side tracked and I am usually late.  There I said it.  If you love me, you love me in spite of these things.  So, I tried to hurry, but I was of course running a little behind.  We get in the car, where I told Bill the directions were on my phone.  Down the road we go, where Bill asks, " Where's your phone?".  Back home we head . . . and we're off again.  We have to pick up a friend in Homewood and make it to Anniston in basically an hour.  Once again, thank you Bill for your amazing driving.  We made it.
What a beautiful wedding Natalie and Taylor had.  She was gorgeous.  He was handsome.  The food was good and the band great. AND Bill danced with me.  What a great night and a great date.
We stayed for a little while, but then we realized that we could be at home, getting a full nights sleep, which does not happen with Mr. Will.  So, we are such party animals, that we were home by 10:30 and we had a great nights sleep.  (Thanks again, Grandma!)
I would post pics of all of these wonderful events, but my camera was at home the whole time.  Oh well.
Now for today 's agenda - Church, Memaw's, Amy's for Crystal's 16th birthday, then the mound of laundry in my laundry room and to clean up this house that is definitely lived in and overrun with toys.

** One more side note.  When I posted to Lindsey last week, I was on pain drugs.  I did go back and fix my many errors and did notice that it was basically unreadable.  I will try not to blog while high anymore :)

10 Months . . .

Mr. Will turned 10 months old yesterday.  He celebrated by taking a few steps at Memaw and Pappa's house and by showing out and making us all laugh hysterically yesterday.  It seems like only yesterday that I held him for the first time and yet, it seems like I don't remember life before his joy became mine.  I love this little boy.  I am so blessed to be so a Mother to such a sweet precious little guy.

YUM

Homemade . Key . Lime . Cupcakes.

Cream . Cheese .  Icing.

YUMMY!

(and pain drugs to take to help with the joys of another ovarian cyst.)

Lindsey's Challenge

So, my sweet baby sister-n-law issued a little blog/game/challenge to me to answer a few questions. Fun, but of course, I am late and I am sure she didn't think I was reading her blog or paying attention, but I am. Nah Nah Boo Boo little girl. Here are your answers:


and here are my questions for all you ladies.

1. what is your favorite restaurant, what do you order?
Sumo and I love Crunchy Shrimp Roll, California Roll, Spicy Tuna, or Shrimp and Scallops

2. favorite childhood memory?
Floating down the river in a HUGE float full of soap suds with 20 of my closest friends


3. (only because I love princesses) what princess would you be and why?
Fiona. Why you ask? Her Prince Charming is unconventional and funny and she lives with a bunch of fruitcakes.
Ariel would be my other choice, because she is a hard-headed dreamer and I love that!

4. what is your biggest pet peeve?
People who are two-faced. I have been that person, and I was not a good person. I wish people would just say "I don't like you" rather than pretend and stab you in the back.


5. what is your favorite hobby?
WOW, I have a ton. Dancing, painting, thrift-ing, shopping, laughing. I guess my fave is laughing.

6. if you had a genie for a day, what would your 3 wishes be?

       Lots of financial security for my family so I could stay home with the kids, and help those I know who need a boost
      Kids - meaning my second wish would be for 2 more perfectly healthy babies
      To see everyone that I know accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour

7. what is your favorite movie?
Steel Magnolias! Hands down.


8. what is a quote you like?
"my strength is as big as the God within me". I actually was given this today by a dear friend from a blog that she loves, and I am clinging to it right now.

I wore the wrong thing . . .

I wore the wrong thing last Thursday.  I got out of bed, chose clothes that I don't usually wear and was uncomfortable all day long.  That trickled down into every part of my day.  I was anxious, uptight, agitated all day long.  I could not concentrate and did not do a good job at my work.  I was miserable.  Over clothes. Something that shouldn't matter.  Once I got home and changed clothes, I noticed an immediate change in my attitude.

I have thought about that a lot about that since Thursday.  How often do we wear the wrong thing on the inside.  We put on a smile and makeup and clothing that makes us look the part, but we wear malice, anger, bitterness, jealousy, insecurity.  Those things make us anxious, uptight, agitated.  They affect everything that we do during the day.  What we wear in our hearts is directly related to what kind of day we have and who we are. 

I am trying daily to put on the full armor of God.  That way, I am dressed appropriately for anything that comes my way.  I want to be uplifting, positive, encouraging, self controlled.  I want to wear the fruit of the spirit that God has called me to wear.   And when I fail, I want to praise God for the opportunity to change.

Puppies

Mississippi, Wonderful Relatives, and DOGS

I'm tired. 
That could be because we travelled to Jackson Mississippi this weekend.  We went to visit Aunt Libbie and Uncle Mike, Kelly, Jamie and all the dogs!  We got in late Friday night and stayed up until 1 AM visiting.  It is so nice to go into someone else's home and be made completely comfortable.  Such fun conversation and laughter.  They are my relatives by marriage, but it just felt like family this weekend and THEY SPOILED US ROTTEN!  Saturday, we spent the morning loving on dogs (I will run down all of the dogs in a minute).  Aunt Libbie cooked for us, while will flirted with her.  He played and played, and was just wrapped around his Uncle Mike's finger.  Then, they took us out for awesome pizza and a trip to Aunt Libbie's Merle Norman store at the mall.  I shopped and oohed and awed over everything while they took Will to the toy store.  As you can imagine, he came back rich with awesome toys.  And I left with new shoes and a new purse and a new face thanks to sweet Kelly.  Mike and Lib kept Mr. Will while Bill and I went on a date to Vicksburg for good food and fun.  What a great time I had with my sweet husband.  We should date more.  When we do, we remember that we really, really like each other. 
Sunday morning, we got up again and played with lots of puppies, while Uncle Mike and Will cooked us breakfast again.  Then, we had a wonderful Japanese lunch and more visiting before we headed home.
I will post pictures, but I want to run down a list of the dogs just for my fun.  They have a LOT of Boxers right now.  Momma dog, Lilly, who is accompanied by 12 of her puppies.  She has Hank and Bella (who are huge) from her first litter, Petal from her second litter (who is a boxer/German pointer and a princess)  and nine new boxer babies.  If you know me, then you know that I was in HEAVEN with all of these babies.  I managed to love them all and even name several of the babies - Button, Spice, Pumpkin, Little Man . . . and I announced that I wanted each one at least once during the 48 hours we were there.  I think we decided that we love Button for Grandma and we want Lilly, if and when she needs a new home. 
I know this post is all over the place, but I want to document this because I felt like a Princess all weekend.  I did learn one valuable lesson.  Traveling with a baby is HARD WORK, and we have a wonderful happy baby.  It is just taxing, especially because I don't like to travel at all.  I like to go new places, but I hate getting there.  Thank God, Bill has the patience of Job and handles my grumpy self very well. 
I am glad to be home, but I want to remember this weekend.  I felt like a kid again, and with all of the stress that has been on my shoulders for quite some time, I needed this. 
Thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Lib, Kelly and Jamie for letting me be a part of the family, for loving Bill and Will and for making us feel so special. 
We love you guys.