This has been such an amazing day! Worship this morning was awesome, and Dayne really brought the Word! All I can say is WOW. If you missed it, get the cd!

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Superman

This was Jason's birthday gift from the kids, for those of you who didn't catch this on facebook...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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Happy Holiday

I have to say, this has been one of the most enjoyable Thanksgivings I have ever had. I don't know if it's because I'm just so thankful to have my hubby home for more than 1 day, or the fact that we didn't have to go shuffling the kids around everywhere, but I have loved every minute of it!

We went to Headland on Wednesday night to have dinner with my Mama's aunts and cousins.  Total of 35 people.  We really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending some time with them, and the kids had a blast running all over the place with their cousins.  It was a great night.

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. My Mama came over early and we cooked together, which I loved, Jessi and Eli were sneaking random bites here and there, and Lena was just so excited and literally running all over the house the whole time. It's like she knew it was Thanksgiving. Then my dad, brother, sister, and niece came over. I only had 2 cooking mishaps, but I don't even care!  It's Thanksgiving!

1st mishap: The Pumpkin Pies.
I cooked them first so I could get them out of the way and the oven free for the sweet potatoes, Jason's mashed potato bake, and the turkey. I didn't get started until 7am, so I was in a bit of a bind with the clock. I really needed the oven before the pies were done, so I just took them out early and ended up having to put them back in while we ate for a lot longer. But they turned out great anyway, so it was good.

Mishap #2: The Turkey
Yes, the turkey. After all the "no baggie" drama, I actually found the baggie while I was trussing the turkey. Now, what all that other junk was that I pulled out the night before, I don't know. I'm just glad I found it before I baked the turkey.  I seasoned that baby and in the oven she went. After the amount of time I thought was right, I inserted the thermometer into the meaty part of the thigh to be sure it was completely done, and it read 190, which was actually about 30 degrees higher than I wanted, so I took her out and let her rest while we finished up.

Beautiful right?  I thought she was PERFECT!  But when I started carving (that's why she's on a towel btw), the breast was fine, but the legs and thighs were NOT.  I still have no idea why.  I guess I need a new thermometer, because it really did read 190 at the thigh, and it was not touching the bone.  So, I had to put her back in the oven and we had to wait a little while longer for her to cook.  But it turned out okay.

We sat at the table and ate, and just enjoyed the rest of the day doing nothing but sitting around.  Then, my Mama stayed home with Lena while she napped, and me, Jason, Jessi, and Eli went to the movies to see Tangled.  It was really cute.  We ended up sitting with my aunt and cousins and their kids (the ones we saw Wednesday night) who happened to be there too!

When we got home, Jacque, the lady who half raised me and was my godmother, was there!  I was so glad to see her on Thanksgiving!  I usually don't get to see her because she always has big plans with her family.  We talked about black Friday sales and I thought about joining her at 4am this morning.  HA!  I am SO not a fan of early morning black Friday shopping.  I usually make sure we have everything we need before Thanksgiving so I don't have to leave the house that day for ANYTHING.  But she brought some sale papers over and I looked through them and saw a few things that were on the kids' Christmas lists, so I told her I would call her if I decided to go.  Well, 4am came, and there was NO WAY I was getting out of the bed for shopping.  I did get up around 8am and decided to get ready and go see if there was anything left.

It really wasn't bad at all!  I found several of the things I went for, which were the main things on our list for the kids, got great deals on them, and not once did anyone try to fight me!  Traffic was no biggie either because I just went a different route.  Did I mention I did NOT have to get up at 4am and still got the deals I wanted?

Now, it's time to start getting things ready for Christmas!  I absolutely LOVE this time of year!

Oh yeah, and tomorrow is Saturday!  Which means I get to have my hubby home for 2 more days!  I'm so excited!  I don't even know what to think!   I am SO THANKFUL!

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First Time for Everything!

Ok, so we're having Thanksgiving at my home, which I am VERY excited about! I absolutely LOVE being the hostess of any event! I can't really explain why, but it just makes me happy. Mama is coming over in the morning to cook with me and Jason. I'm SO ready! My Granny always made such a big deal about Thanksgiving. We were always in the kitchen with her from early in the morning until about noon when everything finally came together and was ready to serve. I will never have a single Thanksgiving that I do not think of her. She's why I love this holiday SO MUCH!

So I'm preparing for all the cooking that's taking place in my kitchen tomorrow, and that starts tonight with brining my turkey. I was so excited to see that our new Publix carries fresh turkeys! Yay! I've been waiting for this moment ALL DAY! So I open up this guy and prepare to take out the innards in the cute little baggie they always come in, and LO, NO BAGGIE. Gross. WHAT am I supposed to do??? I certainly am NOT sticking my hand in there. Oh. My. Goodness. This fresh turkey has fresh innards. EWWWWWWWW!

I know that maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but EWWWWWWW! Gag reflex is definitely kicking in. I call for Jason to come hand me a spoon so I at least can scoop out whatever is left in there after I pulled out something unrecognizable and gross. I hate this kind of stuff. The excitement over the fresh turkey and the brining is GONE. But I did it. I got them all out. I think. I HOPE. Now, for the brining! Maybe I'll be over the trauma by the morning.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

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To All My Following Friends:

Ok, so here's the deal-e-o. I had a major crash with my blog last week and so, at a complete loss for how to fix it all, I just created another blog, kendalljo. I eventually figured it all out (with some help), but I ended up with 2 blogs and just couldn't decide which one I liked. I changed the url for The Proper Pinky to theproperpinky.blogspot instead of kendalljo.blogspot, but then that was confusing and I lost several subscribers. I actually like kendalljo better, so I changed the url back and deleted the new blog.

The bottom line is, everything is exactly the same as it was before, except I changed The Proper Pinky name to kendalljo. So I hope this actually puts things back to normal. Sorry for the confusion everyone! Thanks for sticking with me:)

ps. I have my blog backed up this time...

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Mama is Always Right

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always knows exactly how to jack me up and tell me how to feel when I'm flippin' out and having a stupid pity party. She has this wonderful "snap-me-out-of-it" gift, and it works every time. I was feeling so sorry for myself today thinking that nobody understood me and that nobody even cared about how I was feeling, and blah. blah. blah. Ridiculous, I know. I have so many wonderful friends that really do love me and show it ALL THE TIME, and here I am, being stupid. Letting little things hurt my feelings. Here's the problem with that...

IT'S NOT ABOUT ME.

It really doesn't matter how people feel about me, what they do for me, how they love me, or even IF they love me. THAT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. What matters is that I love them unconditionally, NO MATTER WHAT. The enemy is so stinkin' crafty when it comes to this area of my life. He knows that he can't shake me in most any other area, but when it comes to relationships, he knows just what buttons to push. It's a battle for me, but I assure you it's a battle that I WIN. I refuse to let him rob me of being a blessing to the people I love the most just because he plants little emotional thoughts in my head when I'm stressed out and the most vulnerable.

I've made a lot of mistakes where this goes and I have given in to these emotions, but I always have to keep moving forward and trusting in Him. He loves me and that is more than enough for me. It is so unfair to put that load on anyone because even the VERY BEST of friends can't carry all of that. Only Jesus can.

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always helps me put things in perspective. I pray that I will always be that kind of Mama for my babies.

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I Can Handle This

This has been probably THE MOST STRESSFUL WEEK AND WEEKEND OF MY LIFE.  We have been going through a lot of changes in pretty much every nook and cranny of our life.  I know that God is moving us into greater things.  I can feel it.  I feel it in the pit of my stomach, and I feel it in my spirit.  God is BIG and He has BIG PLANS for us!

With big plans comes big change.  We are definitely being stretched to say the least.  The amazing thing is, I feel ZERO dread about ANYTHING that we have to do right now.  I won't frighten you with my "To do" list (believe me...it would definitely frighten you), I'll just say we are very busy, but I believe that God gives us the grace and ability to do ALL that He has called us to do right now.  And I believe that we are in exactly the right place at the right time doing exactly the RIGHT things.  I have an undeniable peace about all of that.

But even with all of this new stretching going on, it all just fades into the background because my heart can only think about one thing right now.  One of my youth girls.  Things are very difficult for her right now, and I know she has had a tough day today.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about her all day and all night.  This sweet girl is under so much stress, and I just want her to be ok.  Praying for her...

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Little Things

I am working on making this blog pleasing to the eyes, and I think it's coming along.  I still have a lot of tweaks to make, but I think it will get there eventually.  It would be awesome if I had all the time in the world to just sit here and play with my blog, but not in this house.  I just have to settle for a few minutes (or seconds)  here and there.  So if things look a little blurry, I KNOW, I just haven't had time to fix it.  I am usually working on my blog during the day, whenever I can manage to get past my home page without having to stop again (so thankful for my laptop!), or the wee hours of the night when everyone is in bed.  Honestly, I don't even know how any of my blog posts make any sense.  You have NO IDEA how many times I get interrupted.  I mean, it seriously took me forever just to write this, and I'm not even sure what it says because I literally haven't been able to read through it JUST ONCE without interruption, so I'm just going to post it and hope for the best!  Maybe I'll get to read it tonight after everyone is in the bed.  But you know, I just can't get upset about these little things, because they are just not that important when it compares to being able to be with my interrupting beautiful children all the time.  I really do love the life God has blessed me with!

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I made something!

So, I made a t-shirt scarf! Two of my good friends made one and it looked like something I could actually do, so there you go. This is the probably the only crafty thing I have ever done, so you most likely may never see a post like this again on my blog. I used this tutorial that Nicole and Leasa posted on their blogs. It was super easy and my daughter enjoyed helping with mine so much she's already making her own. I made mine for game day. Crimson, white, and 2 shades of grey...Roll Tide!

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AHA!

God is so good to me. I don't know if this happens like this to anyone else, but most of the time, I don't realize God has answered my prayer until I'm knee deep in the thing that I prayed for.

Last night I was lying in bed thinking, and I had one of those "AHA!" moments. A few months ago, I was drawn to Proverbs 31. I read it over and over several times, and I just had this longing to be that woman. I wasn't discouraged by the fact that I don't know how to sew or do most of the things that she did, but I remember praying for God to show me what I could do to be that woman for my family. If it meant that I needed to learn how to sew, then ok, I'll learn how to sew. But I really just prayed for Him to give me insight and wisdom, and to show me what to do according to the gifts and talents He has given me, and I remember praying for Him to bring opportunities my way that would put me in that place.

For years, I have wanted to do something that would contribute financially to our home, and I KNOW God has called me to be at home with my children, so I have searched through many options, but nothing ever seemed like the right thing. A couple of months ago, the Lord literally brought an awesome opportunity to me. I love organizing and doing paperwork (I love working on our budget and paying bills), and when I was offered to do a paperwork job for a local judge that I knew personally, I knew it was right, and it comes with a GOOD monthly paycheck. I recognized that this was from God immediately, and I'm so thankful for it.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a Thirty-One Gifts party and had a great time. A party full of totes, bags, and purses, all for the sake of ORGANIZING. Cuteness. I knew Gina, the consultant, personally from a mom's group that I'm in, and she talked about where the name Thirty-One Gifts came from...Proverbs 31. This should have been my "AHA!" moment, but nope. I never even thought about it. The next week, I just had this sudden urge to be a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, just for the fun of it. I had SO many other things going on in my life, and I just needed something that was fun and just for me. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than cute organizing stuff. Honestly. So, I called Gina and signed up. I knew it was right, but I didn't understand why it was such a quick and easy decision for me. Until last night.

I was lying in my bed thinking, and I had that "AHA!" moment. This is EXACTLY what I prayed for! God brought into my life opportunities that allow me to contribute financially to my family, that are perfectly suited to my gifts and talents, and just to show off, one of those opportunities is named after the very scripture that I prayed!

You can't make this stuff up. God is just TOO good!

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