Every Little Thing

Our house is STILL for sale.

BOO.

But that's ok.  We know our house is perfect for someone, and they will find us soon enough.

Until then, there are a few things we need that we really don't want to buy until we move.  Like a new refrigerator, furniture, TV, washer & dryer, etc.  Especially since our laundry area is outside.  No way am I buying a new washer & dryer and putting it outside in the garage.

Well, our washer has seen better days.  We have to manually start the spin cycle.

What does that mean?

Well, I lift the lid, put my right pinky finger in the little hole that makes it go, then with my other arm, I reach in and grab the side and literally spin it until it gets going.  Then I take my pinky finger out and close the lid really fast.

Every time.

It's ridiculous.

Which is why our house needs to sell NOW.  We've just been praying the thing will keep working until we move.

So a couple days ago my sis (who just moved into her newly built beautiful house! yay!) called me and said, "Hey, we're about to get rid of our washer & dryer b/c it's just sitting at the house we just moved out of and wanted to see if you wanted it first."

I told her, "No thanks, I think we'll just wait it out and maybe ours will last until we sell the house."  No need in ruining a perfectly good washer by putting it outside ya know.

So last night we're swimming around in laundry, and it happened.  The spinner wouldn't spin.  It just refused.  As if to say, "I'm tired of you handling me, let me just die".

:(

So I called her back today to see if they still had it and they did!

And wanted to GIVE it to us.

Later today, I found out that it was only 2 years old, and when I saw it, realized it's about TWICE as big as our old one!

God took care of us before we even needed it, and it was bigger & better!

And FREE!

He loves me.

And this makes me happy. :)

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This is My Life

Heard this today with my own ears:


"How do you spell UP?"


"I WANT GUUUUUUUUUM!!!!!!!"


"Lena, you don't need any gum, you just had that chocolate chip I found on the floor for you."


"5 times 9 is 5."


"I was slinging it around like this and he just walked into it on purpose."


"Yes it's NOT!"


"Come'on Son."


I'll let you decide who said what. 


You just can't make this stuff up.

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27 Million

Need some perspective?



Today is #KEY2FREE and the launch of the new A21 video, "In Her Shoes." Let's help get the word out!
The A21 Campaign

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If I could lasso the moon...

The moon was absolutely beautiful last night.  I pointed it out to Lena as we were on our way to church.  It went a little something like this:


Hey Lena, look at the moon! Do you see it? Isn't it so pretty?


Uhuh, see it, moon! 


...chuch it, Mama, chuch it?


(heart swelling) No, baby, we can't touch it.  It's too far.


Fwy, Mama, Fwy? Chuch it?


Maybe one day, baby. Maybe one day we can fly to the moon and touch it.

If I could lasso that moon, it would be in serious trouble right now!

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Shut up 63!!!!

 Well, I didn't throw up!

My sis ran with me too!

I don't remember ever being that nervous about anything.  It was truly out of character for me.

 

I smiled and laughed a lot.  Awkwardly.  It took me a good 10 minutes to get my number pinned on my shirt.  I couldn't figure out what I wanted to listen to on my run, because I forgot to sync my Twilight music before I left home.  I mean, what else would I listen to on a Twilight 10K run? 

I think just the preparation leading up to this one event was what did it.  Also, I had never actually run the entire distance without stopping before, so I wasn't sure that I could do it.

There were 503 runners

It took a while for us to cross the start line. We were kinda in the middle

This is me parking my gum & pretending not to see the camera guy

This is Malissa cheezin' for the camera guy

The finish line! I took my earbuds out so I could hear my family cheering for me the crickets

Eli sees me. :)

Missing it guys!

Seriously, not stopping!

I felt like a million bucks after this run! Which was surprising, because I just knew I'd be ready to collapse.  Total rush crossing that finish line!

Wait, what?!


Perhaps I was moving too fast.

I wanna do that again! Immediately!

This is so much fun! (Um, check my calves)

This was such an exciting day for me! The trail was absolutely breathtaking, and the Christmas lights were awesome.  I can't wait to run this one again!

Approaching!

Winning!

Woohoo!!!

Disregard the old guy, notice the love in the background

We did it!

My friends and family really made this day special for me.

My mom and dad came up to watch, and my sweet friends were so great to send me messages saying they were praying for a great run and then excited congrats after.  

Including one ecstatic phone call from my friend Anna, who I thought would burst from excitement for me over the phone.

And texts like this:

Shut up 63!!!! I am so 

super proud of you!!!!! For

real. Like seriously!!!! No 

kidding!!!! Yay yay yay yay

Made my day.  God has truly blessed me with more love and support than I could ever dream of!

Oh, and not that it matters, but here are my results!

Official time: 1:03:37

Placed 235 overall (out of 503)

Placed 16 in my age group (out of 50!)

Not bad for my first 10K!

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Say What

Tomorrow is the big day.

No, not the Alabama/LSU game.  Although I am excited to see it.


Tomorrow is this...

And I am running it.

I saw this a couple months ago and decided I needed a REAL goal to get myself into shape.  One that I couldn't back out of easily.  So I signed up and paid before I had a chance to change my mind.  At the time, I could barely run 3 minutes.

But I've been training.  And now I'm prepared.  My goals are very simple:

1.  To finish before the Jolly Trolley sags to pick up last participants.
2.  To finish in less than 70 minutes.

Before today, I have been super excited about this.

Now I just wanna throw up.

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Sometimes I can be a little impatient...

Could I get one of these for 3rd grade English please? That would be great.



Then I could just stand there and watch them learn saying Show me.

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Grateful

Some days, like today, I realize how much EASIER it would be for me to send my kids to school and go to work.  But then I realize that it's not about me...

It's all about them.  Homeschooling is both a sacrifice and a gift.  But it is worth it ALL.  What a gift God has given me!  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a homeschool mom!

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Number One

Today was a great day.

Firstly, I had a Thirty-One Gifts open house at my home and it went really well! No thanks to my friends though! (You know who you are) I can't believe y'all didn't at least come eat a cupcake. You had 4 hours to do this. Gah.

But my sweet family came and a few friends, past hostesses, and customers too!

It was really exciting getting to show off all my new Thirty-One stuff.  I had the most fun setting everything up and preparing the food.  It's been a really long time since I was the hostess, and I didn't realize until today how much I have missed it!  So, I will be doing this again.  Hopefully soon.

Secondly, I realized why I will continue to be a part of Thirty-One Gifts for a very long time.

Let me tell you about two of my guests that came today.  They are the mother and sister of a very courageous woman who is currently in the process of adopting a child from China.  She is a hard working single mother and she is doing everything in her power to get to her daughter in China.  In case you didn't know, it costs A LOT of money to do this.  Her mother recently had a Thirty-One party as a fundraiser to help.

Yesterday, I was able to write out and hand this lady a check for an amount I wouldn't have been able to just give out of my pocket at the moment.  Because of Thirty-One.  When I delivered the order to her mother, I invited her to my open house so she could come see the new products.  She and her other daughter from out of town came by and the daughter was telling me how grateful she was that I had helped her sister out by doing the fundraiser for her.

But I'm the grateful one.  This adopting business is so much greater than any of us realize, and I got to be a very small part of that process for this family.

I hope I get the opportunity to do this again and again.

Sometimes I feel like I don't have what I want to give, but God has given me this WAY of giving that I would have never thought of on my own.  He always makes a way.  When it seems like there is no way, He just makes one.  I am so thankful that I have found this company.  Because of Thirty-One, I have been able to give in so many ways that I couldn't have otherwise.

There are so many reasons I love Thirty-One, but this has to be the NUMBER ONE reason.

Giving freely.  There is just nothing more rewarding than that.

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So you think you can dance?

I found this video in Photo Booth the other day, and I just couldn't keep this jewel to myself. Enjoy!

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What if?

Jessi was especially emotional today for some reason.  Maybe because she's 8?  I don't really know.  I think she just really needed some affection.  So she was sitting in my lap snuggling with me, after MUCH drama during the course of the day, and she was suddenly being so sweet, telling me how sorry she was for how she had acted today.  Then I was telling her how it was already forgotten, and no matter what she did or how she acted I would always love her bunches.  Sweetness.

Then she asked me if there was ever anything Daddy could do to make me divorce him.  And I told her absolutely not.  Me and Daddy are never getting a divorce.  The she said,

"Even if he stabbed you with a fork?"

Um.  You know what?  Yes.  Yes, Jessi.  I would definitely take all of you and leave your Daddy if he ever STABS ME WITH A FORK.

"Well, what if he was in a fight with somebody else and he accidentally stabbed you in the head?"

...


Don't you wish you had a Jessi?

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Freedom Fest

This year for the 4th (3rd actually) we decided to check out The Freedom Fest in Albany, GA, put on by Sherwood Baptist Church.  It was awesome.  Everything was free and they had a great fireworks show!

We went with some of our very best friends Shaun & Anna.
And all 7 of our little blessings.

Lena had her very first pony ride:)

I don't have video for when we took her off the pony, but it wasn't pretty.

Me and E

Ok girls, I wanna get a quick pic of the 2 of you, so on three.  Ready? 1...2...Three!

Ok. Zoe wasn't looking. Let's do it again.
Ready? 1...2...Zoe look at me...Three!

*sigh*
Ok girls, one more time...

LOOK AT ME FOR 2 SECONDS

Really?

With an actual smile PLEASE
WHEN I SAY THREE...Ready?

Whatever. Forget it.

Needless to say, there was alot going on.  It was very exciting.  They even had 3 skydivers land behind the stage.  Anthony Evans performed, which was awesome.  And this group called Voices of Mobile performed, who I think may end up on the Sing Off...

If you can get past the video quality, the fact that I still haven't learned how to zoom on my iPhone, and all the random people walking around, they're pretty great I think!

*Really bummed I didn't get them doing Can't Touch This.

AND they played the Superman Theme during the fireworks show!  PERFECTION.

We really had a great time!

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Potty Training: Day 3

Mission accomplished!  We are officially potty trained!  I was prepared for this to take longer than 3 days but it didn't!  She's got this.  Monday we had 30 accidents.  Yesterday we had 7 (including the 2 in her sleep).  Today we had 5, but I'm only counting 1 of those because one of them was that she woke up wet, and 3 of them were totally my fault.  She ran to the bathroom and I didn't know she had gone in there so I didn't make it to her in time.  She still needs help with her panties and getting up there, and she was standing right in front of the potty but I was about 2 seconds too late.  The one true accident she had was before 8am and she was standing in her chair at the table, and I really think she just couldn't get down in time.  She also woke up from her nap dry today, and then went in the potty.

We still did a lot of running back and forth to the potty, but today I could relax a little bit more than yesterday because I knew she would at least take off running when she had to go.  She did not wet her panties once on her way to the bathroom today.  She was able to recognize that she needed to go, and run to the bathroom holding it until I could get her on the potty (with the exception of the 3 times I didn't make it in time).  Also, we have had no #2 accidents since Monday morning.  She's got that one down for sure.

She has also figured out that it's a fun little game to yell POTTY and take off running down the hall, only to run into her room and wait for Mommy to show up behind her so she can laugh.  She also will do this and then just stand in the doorway of the bathroom just to see if I'll come.  It's all a big game now.  Let's yell POTTY and run to a different place every time just to see if Mommy will follow!  It's exhausting.  This is why there were 3 times I didn't make it to her.  She was constantly running somewhere.  Everywhere.  At least she has a special word for #2, which she got from her older siblings telling her she stinks every time she had a messy diaper.  So when she takes off running and yelling STINK, I know she means business.  I know that may be a little TMI, and it's also gross, but it cracks me up every time she does it.

I really didn't think we would be able to, but we even went to church tonight.  And she came home in the same clothes we left the house in!  Tomorrow we're working on using the footstool to get on the potty by herself and pulling her panties up and down.  I'm just so amazed and proud of her!  My 21 month old Lena is diaper free!

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Potty Training: Day 2

I could not wait until Lena went to bed so I could post this!  And because I'm completely exhausted.  So let me start by giving you the most exciting part first.  Yesterday we had a grand total of 30 accidents.  Yes, thirty.  As in a three in the tens place and a zero in the ones place.  Today?  We had 7.  SEVEN!  I don't think I have ever been so excited about cleaning up pee seven times in one day, but I am thrilled about it!  And did you notice I said pee?  No poop clean up!  Woot!  She had 4 of those, and they ALL made it into the potty. :)

I am so much more exhausted today than I was yesterday though.  Yesterday was full of picking her up and running her to the potty when she was already going.  Today, I did not have to pick her up but twice.  And it was because she was in a chair and wasn't sure what to do about that.  Two of those seven were in her sleep.  One sometime during the night, and the other during her nap.  So really I'm only counting 5 accidents.  And she only had 1 after her nap!

But today she understood what to do, and so every single time she even thought about going, she ran to the potty.  I think we ran to the potty about a million times.  About 80% of the time it was nothing.  She got up there, said, "Done" after about a second, and she was off and running again.  Sometimes she just wanted to stay in the bathroom.  But the times I thought, ok, this is getting ridiculous, would be the times she would go, so that kept me motivated.

Around 5:00 today, she figured out that she would get M&Ms every time she actually went in the potty.  It was pretty funny.  (I never mentioned them at all, I would just give her some when she would go.)  After she caught on to my tricks, she asked for them, and when I said no, she got upset, then got over it pretty quick.  About 10 seconds later she ran to the potty again and nothing.  10 seconds after that, same thing.  She was trying so hard to push something out but she couldn't do anything but toot.  It was hilarious.  She kept trying until she was finally able to pee a little tiny bit.  What kids will do for candy.

I think we're almost there!

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