"Cancer Free"^squared

After nearly 3 weeks on the road, Dada is HOME!
And if that wasn't enough to tickle our fancies, we heard the words "cancer free" twice today. Twice in one day. We are just absolutely beside ourselves.

Might even be tempted to dissapear to Tahiti in the middle of the night to celebrate. If Mama could only catch up on laundry...

What's for supper?

Feelin' kind of crafty tonight. Cookin' up some tie-up shades for the breakfast nook. This is my inspiration. Precious, no?
Simple. Funky. Fun. Going with a big bold print and 2 of my favorite accent colors: lime and teal. Just sewing down the hours until hubs gets home. Miss. him. so.

Open Book

A friend and I were talking today about how open I am with this darn blog and why I feel compelled to live my life as an open book. My reasons are simple:

1) In my mind, only 3-4 people read this: my mother and my closest group of girlfriends (all of who know the scoop long before I sit down and clinkatyclink it out in black and white)

2) Blogging is WAY cheaper than therapy.

3) It serves as a scrapbook of our life.

4) God prompts me to do it.

I know it sounds cliche, but I truly feel like He is trying to be glorified and lifted higher through the sharing of our life with people who come across our blog. We can't possibly believe that the series of events that have unfolded this past year are "coincidental". Not possible. If nothing comes out of what we go through, with the exception of people seeing the real us, then we feel that God has done His work in us.

I admire private people. I really do. I am surrounded by them. I look at them in awe and wonder why I have such frequent cases of verbal vomit.

At the same time, I feel like life is to be shared, and so, I seek to share it. I apologize if I give too much info or too many details. Please excuse me while I take a blogging pepto and call it a night.

Lightening

There is an old adage that says: "Lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place".

There is an old verse that says: "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you in the palm of my hand". Isaiah 41:10

I'm up against a little procedure tomorrow. A biopsy, but we don't say words like that in our house anymore, so shhh. Putting on the armor of God and keeping my chin up. It's truly no big deal. "Nothing to lose any sleep over" says the good doctor.

I might be partaking in a little retail therapy post-procedure at some point too, but I would never endorse such dysfunctional coping skills here. :)

Our prayer for 2011 is that, God willing, our life will be QUIET. No drama. No crises. It would be incredible if I didn't even have anything to blog about. I could shut this sucker down and go back to playing online Rummikub.

Could it be that God isn't done trying to get our attention?? We cry out to Him that we are listening and ready to act on His word but are we missing something? My conclusion is simple. I don't think God ever stops trying to get our attention. The end.

My sweet friend's mama is up against a little procedure tomorrow too. Please whisper a prayer for her. She is just precious and such a gift of encouragement to those around her.

Bible Graffiti

Mini-mommy-meltdown: complete.

I feel silly. Don't know what got into me, but oober thankful it has set sail and left me flying high again. It's departure probably had something to do with something PK said in his message Sunday morning:

The presence of exhaustion does not equate to the absence of God.

I've been studying my old Bible this past week. It magically appeared during the move and I find that when I read it, it's like being hit over the head with a frying pan. I got this particular copy of the Bible back in 2000. I was a sophomore in college. It was the year before I met Chris.

The margins look like an underpass in downtown Atlanta. Graffiti in the form of chicken scratch quotes and thought-provoking lines from past sermons and messages.

The other night I came across a line in the left hand margin.

It read: "I wonder if I will ever have a testimony to tell."

I got goose bumps as my eyes read and re-read those simple words. Little did I know. I can clearly remember feeling like I didn't have a "story" to tell. People would stand up in church and speak about how their lives were transformed and made new. I would sit in the pew, lovin' on my Jesus (the tiny infant version of Sweet Baby Jesus, mind you), wondering if I would ever have a huge lightening bolt moment--an epiphany--a transformation.

All my life I have known Jesus. I have worshiped Him, walked with Him, loved Him, thanked Him, praised Him, questioned Him...I honestly can't remember a day when I didn't know Him. Sure, I have grown in my faith--have had peaks and valleys, but I believe that He has always been a part of me.

My mom says that I was saved when she was pregnant with me. To say she had a tough time in those days, is an understatement. She hit a wall where she felt like she physically didn't have the strength to carry me. She asked God to carry me, and well, He did. And He does. And He always will.

I digress, my original point was that tonight I ran across these words in my old Bible: "Focus on what is left, not what is lost".

It's in Philippians. Next to one of my all-time favorite verses:

"I've learned how to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with mush as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am."

Tonight I sit in awe of answered prayers. It's easy to focus on what we don't have. When you stop to see what you actually do have, you, like me, might just find yourself overcome with gratitude. Prayers whispered up have indeed come raining down. They cover us. Surround us. Blanket us.

If I had to name 2 answered prayers, that I would have never dreamed possible of coming true, I would say: 1) By the grace of God, the love of my life is now cancer free. Absolute. work. of. God. 2) We have been blessed with the incredible gift of becoming parents. A tiny little peanut who lets us rock him to sleep at night, wipe his boogies, kiss his boo boos, and hug his little neck sleeps in the room just down the hall. What we thought might be impossible, became possible this past year, and for that we are eternally thankful.
Garth Brooks reminds us to thank God for unanswered prayers, but tell me, do you also stop to thank God for answered prayers?

Ingleside

Incredibly humbled tonight. Whispering a word of gratitude to the sweet folks at Ingleside Baptist Church in Macon. We are honored and moved to tears that you thought of us like you did. Knowing that my parents are surrounded by such beautiful people is absolutely awe-inspiring.

Blessings and love to each and every one of you...

Ice Hotel

Y'all. I'm sitting here at 12:53 am, in the midst of a mini-mommy-meltdown.

Insert Disclaimer: This post is going to be ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. If you come to my blog looking for inspiration and wisdom, stop now. This post is sure to let you down. If anything, it will simply reassure you that I am a silly girl. Human. Subject to periods of insanity.

Read at your own risk. Seriously.

I can't decide if it's the fact that I'm wearing my multi-colored reindeer pants (again) despite the waistband being unraveled half way around.

Or if it's the fact that I just found a dried up sweet potato puff on my sleeve.

Maybe it's the 5 day ice-lock down that's caused me to go loony tunes.

Perhaps it was the interesting microwave Weight Watchers chicken and mushroom roll up-wrap thing I had for dinner.

I. am. in. a.funk. A travel funk. A I-need-a-change-of-scenery-funk.

It's not a permanent kind of funk. It hasn't even lasted 10 minutes really. It's just I was supposed to be joining Chris in Vegas this weekend for my inaugural get-out-and-see-the-world-jaunt, and well, here I sit. Life got crazy (again) and I had to cancel my plans of joining him for my wow weekend. It's no big deal really. Except that the list of places I have traveled to goes something like this:

1) Panama City Beach (when I was 8 and again when I was 27, don't go getting all excited thinkin' I got to go during Senior Spring Break week or anything crazy like that).
2) Nashville. With my parents circa 1998. I slept in the bathtub all weekend because my dad snores so badly that I almost lost my mind.
3) Pigeon Forge. I know, the lure of Dollywood is mighty powerful, but for the love of Pete. I have revisited approximately 7 times, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
4) Oklahoma (Hi Aunt Irene and Uncle Al--see, if you didn't live all the way out west, my list would be a whole bullet point shorter)
5) Myrtle Beach. Rootin' for ya Spartanburg.

Do you see where I'm a-going with this?

Honestly, I was trying to mind my own business and fall asleep counting cows, but I just keep getting caught up in this crazy dream where Stacy London and Clinton Kelly whisk me away to New York where they dress me in some insanely fabulous outfit (I'm thinkin' tall boots and skinny jeans?) and Nick Arrojo (and Tammy the Great, of course) spin me around in the salon chair whipping up some hot new hair doo. I ditch my play-it-safe-Clinique make up bag (circa 1999) and swing by the Mac counter for a total make over. A limo picks me (and Chris and Super Coop) up and takes us to the airport and we board a private jet that transports us to that ice hotel in Sweden (but not before we jet off to Paris and Las Vegas and Rome, oh and Greece).

I'll leave it at that. Don't want to get too wild and crazy tonight. It's a work night afterall, and I've got to get up early to give Coopie a breathing treatment.

So tell me, do you ever just want to sneak away for just one day?? Do something crazy? See something new?

Snow Much Snow!

Just a lil post from lil ol' us to say...

Happy Snow!

We prayed and prayed to have a little time with Daddy before he hits the road for his long trip and we woke up Monday morning to piles and piles of soft, white, snow! We are blanketed in the spendor of it all. Covered in white flakes that we are just sure Uncle Stevie sent down as kisses to his sweet girls, Dori and Ludi Mae.

Hope y'all are stayin' warm!

Home. Sweet. Home.

We've been "unplugged" for the past 2 weeks. It's been quite nice, to be honest. We've played board games, drank hot chocolate, snuggled by the fire, and told silly stories.

Riiiight. Mostly we've just Facebooked and checked email on our phones because...

Did I forget to mention?

Could it be? Could it be?

Home. Sweet. Home.

Alas! We found a home, closed on it on the 30th of December, and spent our first night there together on New Year's Eve.


Come on in!

We are just absolutely beside ourselves. We have endured oh so much this past year. Every day we look around and praise God for granting us the opportunity to build a home together.

He is good. He is sovereign. And I have a new bath tub to praise Him in.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. -Matthew 17:25

Oh, and PS. There is not a Chickfila for miles and miles. Are you wondering how in the world I am going to make it? One word: Milos.