Savannah trip

Here is Andrew and Taylor's house. We had a great time but the cold that I had was really bronchitis and strep throat so I have been down for the count. Here are a few more pictures, when my head is not so fuzzy, I'll put up more.
Here are the trees at AUBURN that some rabid alabama fan poisoned on the day of the IRON BOWL. I wanted to see what they looked like. Here they are.

There were lots of folks there with us taking pictures. It was sad. I am looking forward to seeing what all good comes out of this because I am sure it will!

Connections!

KimT said to me one day, a few years ago "You need to write a blog. You need to document all the things that happen to you." That got me thinking about it. Not long after that LindaG told me that she read a blog that she thought I would like. That's how I found Anne. I have never met her but feel like I know her. We share many thing in common- AUBURN, PCA churches, home schooling, reading etc. On Anne's blogroll I found Laura. The name of her blog caught my eye- Lines in Pleasant Places- because I love that verse. Laura is a reader, home schooler and I enjoy her outlook on life.

A few years ago, when we went to AUBURN, Laura saw my pictures and told me to let her know when we plan to be there again and she would meet us.

We spent spring break with Andrew and Taylor in Savannah. We planned to go home through AUBURN. I contacted Laura, our meeting was set up and then I got a terrible cold. I didn't want Laura to get this. It is still rough. I contacted Laura again and she suggested that we pull off the highway and into her driveway so we could at least wave at each other. I was so touched that she still wanted to meet. So I called her when we left AUBURN and we pulled in her driveway about 20 minutes later. Carl, Kaitlin and I jumped out to meet her. I handed Carl the camera and here we are.

What a delightful visit! She also met her husband at AUBURN and goes to a PCA church. We saw her sewing place and her beautiful yard. I felt like I had know her for years. I do hope we can meet up again soon for a long visit over a meal!

I hope to one day meet Anne!

KimT is now saying she wants me to write a book. Kaitlin has the name already "Hamsters in the bath tub." I'll keep you posted.

Back to my cold. I am moving slowly and not thinking too quickly but wanted to let you know a little more about our trip so here are a few shots from Kaitlin. It is an amazing blessing to have a professional photographer in the family.



We ate our way through Savannah. Lots of funny stories- I'll try to remember to tell you about me at the Beer Parlor!?! More tomorrow, I hope!

161 days!

Plan your vacations here is your AUBURN schedule

Do you have a bubba?

I had to start out with this picture because it is so funny to me. My brother and his wife are two of the happiest folks I know but when I held up the camera on Sunday at lunch they didn't respond like usual.
Ahhh Here is how I know them anyhooooo
After church on Sunday, Andrew suggested that we go to Uncle Bubba's for lunch. Uncle Bubba is Paula Dean's brother.
Look who greeted us at the door...why that is Bubba himself
Here is a picture of our happy group minus Carl and me in the front. Andrew wasn't too keen on the waitress taking a group shot

Let's start with dessert first. Some of the best pecan pie ever
Oysters, Carl and Andrew enjoyed them.
I got Low County boil. Yum yum
Andrew got shrimp and grits. It was wonderful.

Bubba was back up front when we left so Kaitlin and I got our picture made with him.
I would highly recommend his restaurant and hope we go back!

I found some of you!

One of the blogs on my blogroll had a post on Spokeo . You need to read it and follow the instructions because I did and I typed in some of you and found you.

Spring Break

We are having a great time! Here are some somewhat travel pictures.

Here are the books I packed but I made short work of most and now have reloaded with trips to Barnes and Booksamillion

Kaitlin always packs the coolest stuff. She is knitting squares for an afghan.
She always packs some sort of lovey, this trip it is Minnie

Always need some snacks
Love my computer bag!Lots of visiting, laughing, and enjoying.

Saturday thankfuls

I am thankful for

a husband that keeps up with our March madness bracket

beautiful weather to travel

suitcases with wheels

a GPS that shows what the road ahead looks like

a son and a daughter in law that welcome me into their home

the traffic in LR and that it is not like the stuff we saw in Atlanta

laughter

friends that pray for merging into traffic safely

laptops

flexible traveling buddies

spring break '11

Meet Albert!

John and Marisa came over a few days ago and brought their new puppy, Albert. He is a miniature, long hair dachshund. He is a cutie. Marisa loves holding him too.

He finally got tired of all this picture taking
and fell asleep
He found a cozy place by Marisa in the chair for the rest of his nap.

March Madness and maps and Andrew

I love College basketball. I love March Madness. When my children were all being homeschooled and I knew I would be watching lots of basketball, I had to come up with a way to make the tournament educational. One of my ideas was to map out where the 64 (at that time) colleges and universities were located. You see some fun trends when you do this for a few years and you learn lots of geography!

Today I got this email from Andrew. He has taken this idea to a new level. Enjoy! High Tech version by Andrew

Me and Christopher Columbus

I just have to share a recent discovery that I made that really rocked my world! I needed to share it with you. If you have a house plant...it needs water. Who knew?? Not me!! But I took this plant and made
This.....with just water. I feel like Christopher Columbus with my great discovery.

no snow

I have taken lots of pictures of my beautiful view about this same time every month. I realized as I took it that this is the first picture without any snow in it!

Song for Japan!

1. Today I am singing this song for all those in Japan. I am praying as I sing that they will know the 'firm foundation' .
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
   Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
   What more can He say than to you He hath said—
   To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
5. “Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
   For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
   I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
   Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
6. “When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
   The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
   For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
   And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
7. “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
   My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
   The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
   Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
8. “The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
   I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
   That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
   I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

My thankful list

I am thankful today for

a great day after a blue day

cake from Charlotte's (if you don't know what this is, call me and I'll make this something you are thankful for also)

20% off coupons from Bed, Bath and Beyond

Sandy, the Amazing, that does wonderful things at my house

Heather, the wonderful, who does amazing things at my house

early birthday presents

my friend, Julie

a wonderful public library

March Madness

ESPN full court so I can watch all the March Madness I want

the call from Kaitlin that she had just ordered her cap and gown!

Today is a Happy Day

Here is a fun site! I read the Happiness book last year and thought it was thought provoking. This site is by the author. I think I am some of 8/5/1. what type are you?

Addie Lou, I love you!

Where were you 15 years ago today? It was a Sunday. I was in New Orleans at the SEC basketball tournament. Carl and I went with a group of people from his office. His boss at the time was Bill. Bill was a Mississippi State grad and we got our tickets from him so we sat in the MSU section. MSU won the tourney that year so our section was full of excitement. Our group sat in front of a family that always bought a whole row of tickets minus one. Part of their trip fun was to see if one of their group could pick the occupation of the person who sat 'in that other seat' on their row. They were such a fun and sharing family that we soon learned about this fun tradition. We all were waiting for someone to sit in 'that' seat. He finally arrived. He was a plumber and sure 'nuf someone had picked that occupation. What fun we had!!

I called my mama on Saturday night and told all about my day. How I loved hearing the tennis shoes squeak on the court, how pretty the Kentucky blue was and how fun the crowd was. I also told her the I could hear the calliope from a riverboat when I was in my motel room. How do I remember that I told her all these things? She wrote them down on a note pad she had right by her phone and I found that notepad the next day.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, my brother, John had the very sad task of calling me to tell me that our sweet and precious mama had died. We knew it could happen at any time but it was still a shock.

She had an aortic aneurysm but couldn't have it operated on because she had COPD. When they finally found what was causing her to be short of breath they gave her 24 months to live. She lived 19 months. I believe she had had the aneurysm for quite awhile so I am thankful for all the time we had her.

Today I plan to spend the day watching basketball. AUBURN plays at noon. I am thankful that it is sunny here today because my grief has been very near this week. Standing in the sun helps. I plan to have fun, comfort food for lunch and supper. In between roundball games I plan to read a new to me D E Stevenson book.

Call your mama today. Tell her you love them.

I think yellow is a happy color!

Doesn't that just look like a smile on a a stem?!?

My last few pictures of this flower garden have shown it covered with snow.
Here is my undercover forsythia. It is in a neighbors yards and they don't get to see it but I do when I get in my car. I love the bright colors that spring brings amid the gloominess of winter.I hope your day is happy!

Missions Conference

We just had our missions conference at church. I love our missions conference!
Our conference takes lots of preparation. Here are JanR and Barb getting ready for the dinner the first night. The first night we (the missions committee) have a dinner with the missionaries in a home. The last several years have been at JanR's.
Here are two of our missionaries. Jenny on her way to Columbia and Kathy in Mexico. They realized after meeting that they had been on a mission trip together! What a wonderful, small PCA world we have.
Here is the beautiful table set at JanK house for the wonderful tea we had. It was an informal time to just visit.
JanK and JanR
Ruth-France talking with Susanne and Jenny-Columbia
Virginia and Marilyn
One of the things that I found out at the tea is that the cookbook committee asked our missionaries if they wanted one of our new cookbooks. Those that said that they did were sent one. The cookbook chairman got to talk to Kathy about her cookbook. Kathy got to share that those on her mission team are enjoying the cookbook!
Ted-RUF got to visit with SaraMartin and her husband, Hess. SaraMartin was in the youth group in Jackson when Ted was the youth leader. SaraMartin and her husband are now doctors here.
Here is Jeff with the flag he carried during our flag ceremony. How cool to have a MK carry the flag for the country that is now his.I love our missions conference! I love getting to know and meet new friends. I enjoy renewing friendships with those that have been here before. I love that my prayer list gets new requests. I love the stories that come back from the field. I love seeing God's hand work and move all over the world.

The missions conference holds lots of wonderful memories. Andrew and Robert came to every conference while they were at AUBURN. We set our 'most folks sleeping in our house' record during one conference- 17! You should have seen the shower schedule?!? I loved having meetings and dinners here.

I hope your church has a conference and if not come to our next year!!

A Prayer for Grace to Accept Change

A Prayer for Grace to Accept Change

Here is a prayer from a blog that I love. It is on my blog role. I agree with him about change, I don't like it either.

A few favorite tweets

I love Twitter. I follow lots of folks. I follow sports people, book people, music people, friends, family and just regular people. My favorite group is Christian thinkers.

Tabletalk_Mag, CSLewisDaily, burk_parsons, PaulTripp and ScottyWardSmith are my favorites and here are some of their recent tweets---- Enjoy!

Always respond to every impulse to pray- Martin Lloyd-Jones

Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise- Thomas Watson

A man must have a care to what he puts in his mind, for when he's alone on a hillside and draws it out, he'll want treasures to be his company, not regrets.- Elizabeth Yates

Jesus knows about it and is praying for you right now.

Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all- Augustine

Too many Christians watch movies with the discernment of a vacuum cleaner- D Wilson

God's intention for the gospel is that it not only grow wider in the world but that it also grow deeper in Christians.

The irony of Gospel Growth is that you end up obeying more when you realize your relationship to God isn't based on your obedience but Christ's.

Be not angry that you can't make others as you wish them to be, since you can't make your self as you wish to be- Thomas A. Kempis

A man's free will cannot cure him even of a toothache or of a sore finger and yet he madly thinks it is in it's power to cure his soul! The greatest judgement which God Himself can, in the present life, inflict upon a man is to leave him in the hands of his own boasted free will.- A Toplapy