black friday and bowl time

{WARNING: very long post!!!}

this morning, my phone started buzzing at 3:15. it was my sweet friend (and new mom of THREE), shana, telling me that she was on the way to meet me.

it started yesterday.....

shana had no intentions on going shopping on black friday. not like last year. or the year before that. yes, she is my faithful friend who will get up and endure the other crazies to see how many good deals we can get! but this year i truly didn't even ask her if she would join me, considering she and jeff (dawson and grayson, too) just welcomed brantley 10 days ago.

so yesterday their family went to tommy's mom/step-dad's with us for thanksgiving. when they got to our house, she saw it. and by "it", i mean my stack of sales papers that i was taking to tommy's mom's house so that i could strategize!

well, the thrill of the hunt got to her and she couldn't handle it. shana said that she would be there. our problem? wal-mart and target both opened at 5:00 and both had things we wanted.

so we weighed our options. and wal-mart won out.

we arrived at wally world at 4:00 to find hardly ANY parking spots available. i was fine with this - shana on the other hand....it kinda stressed her out. but it was fine and the main thing we needed they only had 25 of - we were numbers 16 & 17!!!

now the checkout? that was a TOTAL nightmare......

anyway....that was it - stop #1...............

next was on to target. shana had a few things here that she needed to get and i did, too. we had planned to be at target by about 6:00, but instead it was 6:40. the checkout lines were INSANE. we bypassed them and went on to try to find what we wanted.

she found hers, i found mine, and we got in a checkout line. this at least held our spot and one of us would stay with the "goods" while the other went to see if we "needed" anything else.

whereas checkout at wal-mart was close to an hour (seriously), we were in and out of target in about 45 minutes. AND i got the closest parking spot possible!

i love praising God in the little blessings like that!

so there we have it......stop #2.......

after leaving target, tommy met us with mpb. he has to work today (boo!!!!) downtown, so he got her ready for me for the day!

our church does something that i love at Christmas. we adopt children who may not otherwise have a very good Christmas (gift wise). normally we take up money for a few weeks (we have 3 children assigned to our class - 2 from a school we partner with and 1 from within our church) and then all of the women go to dinner and go shop one night.

well, i saw some of the deals that were available yesterday (old navy) and today (lots of places) and decided to use the money that we have raised already (i just paid out of pocket for the rest) and take advantage of some of these sales!

one of our children wanted a new Bible, Bible cover, and Christian fiction books. i went and got these today!!!

so there it was............stop #3...............

after leaving lifeway, we went across to shoe carnival to look for shoes for the children on our lifegroup list (and i had a coupon!!!). after looking for a little bit, we found what we needed (and saved some money in the process) and headed out!

stop #4.........

i went to old navy yesterday to take advantage of some coupons and good deals (and to go before today's crazy crowd), but shana had not been, so we went in there after we left shoe carnival. i still found a few more things that i needed to get (imagine that!).

stop #5............

after all of this shopping, it was 9:30 and we were STARVING. i mean, we HAD been up since 3:30! so mary peyton suggested that we head to mcdonalds for breakfast. not such a bad idea. shana and i were able to visit (without having to hunt for bargains or deal with crowds) and mary peyton got to play for a few minutes to get out some bottled up energy! it was a win-win situation!

if you're keeping up with the count, stop #6...........

after breakfast, we took shana back to her car so that she could head home. shana banks with tommy and needed a deposit, but also needed to get home to that sweet new baby. so mpb and i ran to wachovia to help her out.

stop #7............

mary peyton and i decided to go to renaissance after the bank to hang out. she was seriously being so good and i just wanted to do some things that we enjoy together.

our first stop was barnes & noble (i KNOW you're not surprised). she wanted some hot chocolate (i went against my norm and got some, too!) and to look at magazines. so we did!

and it was so precious to just sit and enjoy "big girl" time with my angel....

#8................

mary peyton looked at me and said, "mommy, can we go to 'lemon beret' and see if they have my animal bracelets in?". i told her, "sure, but miss courtney would have called me if they came in." (since we go in there at least once/week!). mpb thought for a minute and said, "well, how 'bout I ask them this time and not you, ok mommy?". wow. like that's going to magically make them have them!

since lemon meringue does not have a logo that i could find on the internet, i took a picture of the front of the store off of facebook. this truly is such a precious store and ranks up there as one of my favorites for mpb (along with sweet dreams, sweet pea, and popfizz!). the decorations in there are unbelievable - like you are in a fairy tale!

#9.................

so after leaving renaissance, mpb and i came home. we've been playing school and just enjoying the lights of the tree and the fire in the fireplace. it's nice to just be here and not have an agenda. well, besides a few things that i've got to get done before we head home....

but right now we are watching this:

i asked mpb who she is for and she said, "between alabama and auburn? i'm for auburn". really? how did that happen? i guess i'd feel the same way if she said alabama. i don't know why she chose auburn, though!

but she's been bouncing around cheering and flipping out over touchdowns and such. she just loves football. i guess i should expect that, huh?

tomorrow mary peyton will go to her first away football game. i can probably count on one hand how many home Ole Miss games she has missed in her lifetime. if it's a game i can't go to, she still goes with her daddy.

but she has never been to another stadium for an Ole Miss game. that will change tomorrow. and she isn't all that happy about it.

when we got home from the Ole Miss/UAB game, our egg bowl tickets were in the mail. i showed them to mpb and she said, "WHY does that say mississippi state???" i replied, "because Ole Miss plays up there this year and these are our tickets to the game!". she said, "ok....but why would we want to go up there?".

she's like her daddy.....bleeding red and blue!

(i found this picture and thought it was too neat to not share!)

hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and a black friday that suited your taste (shopping or not!)

rebs over vols

it was an emotional week leading up to the game saturday between Ole Miss and Tennessee.

first of all - greg hardy had surgery and is out for the rest of the year. uuuggghhh.

then - tennessee has three players arrested.

then - we find out that 2 of our good players, kentrell lockett and patrick trahan, have been in the hospital with the swine flu. uuuggghhh.

and the underlying thing all week? ed orgeron, the chair throwing, chest beating coach that was in oxford for a few years, would be returning as the defensive line coach for tennessee.

revenge? yep. i think so.

we decided to wait and go up to oxford on saturday morning. that meant that we left home around 4:45. i slept part of the way (not at all to the surprise of my poor husband), but got up around grenada to talk, etc.

this season, we have gotten in the habit/tradition/whatever you want to call it of going to the inn at ole miss (alumni house) to eat breakfast before going to walk through. we even do this when we tailgate. crazy, i know. but we have enjoyed talking to other people over a nice breakfast of grits, fruit, sausage, bacon, yogurt, biscuits, coffee, juice, eggs with cheese......

ok - now i'm ready for breakfast THIS weekend!

anyway - we went to walk through after breakfast and were able to stand with my dental mentor - dr purifoy. he was my dentist growing up and is the one who encouraged me to go into dental hygiene. i love this man.

mary peyton must, too. she ran to him and hugged his leg saying "hey, doc!!!".

this was mpb during walk through. she wasn't nearly as cold as she was acting...

looking towards the arch on the walk of champions....

she has been completely petrified of colonel rebel for 2 years. well, we kept telling her that we would NOT be going to disney world until she had her picture made with him (she LOVED him from a distance!). so she said that she wanted to take a picture and after she did, we were walking off and she said (in a humming na na na naaa na voice), "now i can go to DISNEY WORLD!".

bless her heart - i didn't say how LONG after the picture we would go, just that we would!

mpb wanted a picture with mrs brandi.

cheering on her Daddy's shoulders (ok - that's pretty obvious, huh?)

she wanted some chips with steak (um, no sweetie, those are corky's nachos with bar-b-que...), so we got them and had a "picnic" while waiting on the team to come out at half time so that we could cheer them on!

another one of her with her "steak"!

baula decided to come down and hang out with us. i told her that the sunglasses were awful. they were VERY 1980's and had "Chi Omega" on the side.....

the picture below is of our sweet friend, mrs karla. karla and her husband, rick, have sat behind us since mpb was born. they have literally watched her grow season to season and are somewhat "football grandparents" to her. mary peyton looks forward to seeing mrs karla every time we go to oxford!

and here's one of mrs karla and mr rick!

after the game, we decided to go down and see if we could get some pictures with players, etc.

the first player we got to and were able to take a picture was andrew ritter, our kicker. we loved seeing him because he graduated from JA last year and mary peyton knows that there's a raider who plays for the rebels! (of course JA also has reed neely up at ole miss, too, but we didn't see him)

chyna ward (the main assistant to coach nutt - and the past few coaches) was talking to me and mary peyton and mpb said that she wanted to see jevan. mp literally jumped to chyna and chyna marched over signaling to jevan to come here.

the picture below is the end result! and the smile on her face says it all!

this is mary peyton with chyna. i was talking to her about the ladies forum stuff for next summer (she is the one who coordinates everything) and mary peyton would not come back to me! so chyna smiled real big and said, "i've got a new friend!" she later emailed me and said that her baby is 20 years old and it had been so long since she had little arms and legs wrapped all around her and it was just what she needed. i love this sweet lady!

so here's mp with kentrell lockett. yes, the one who had had the swine flu. so far we are good! if you want to know our favorite memory of lockett, just find a copy of the ole miss/florida game from 2008. he is the one who blocked the field goal to help us win the game!

GET YOUR HANDS UP!

this is mary peyton with jerrell powe. he is SUCH a nice guy! for those who don't know, they call our defense the "landsharks", so you see lots of people putting their "fins" up when the defense is in!

powe has so much heart, in my opinion. he fought so hard to be able to play ball at ole miss and i just don't know that i would have been able (mentally) to handle that!

oh my goodness.

does this even need an explanation?

mary peyton with her ABSOLUTE favorite player, dexter mccluster. i love that she knows players numbers and names and can't wait til the next game.

but dex is special. go to YouTube and search "dexter mccluster testimony".

dex was saved this summer. he was baptized this fall. he is not ashamed.

and i'm glad that my child has athletes like this to look up to.

see the bracelet on his arm? it says, "Yes, Lord". our pastor just did a series with this as the title and they passed out bracelets to serve as a reminder.

long story short, tommy decided to give dex one during walk-through one day (uab game). well, during the arkansas game, some church members saw it on him on tv! then, during the next walk through, tommy said he saw it on again!

we were able to talk to dex and his girlfriend, brittany, for a few minutes. they are such sweet people with smiles and personalities that make you feel so good when you leave them!!!

and here is mary peyton with miss brittany. her smile is BEAUTIFUL!

it's been a fun year to be a rebel. yes it's been up and down emotionally, but i'm not a fair weather fan, nor can i stand talking to fair weather fans. these are kids that are 18-22 years old and we expect so much from them. i admire them for their hard work and effort!

hotty toddy!

Mary Peyton's big day.......

today was the big day!!! i'll explain about each picture below.....

mary peyton opening a gift from us - a sweet diamond cross that i found. i wanted to give her something that she would always have and that can be passed on if she wants.....

mrs dianne praying with mary peyton before Baptism...

geno was so excited about Baptizing her!!! she loves her papa g!

he explained the water....

my sweet little angel.....this was the smallest robe that the church had!

our family - we were so proud!!!

a great picture of mp and mrs dianne!

mp checking out the Baptism waters....

mary peyton and miss nan.....oh how we love her!

geno explaining more stuff to mary peyton.....

mp and her surrogate grandfather

waiting.....

pointing out people that we know!

geno talking about mary peyton. he's so sweet!

my favorite picture of the entire day. he said that her looking at him like this choked him up... he was explaining to her that since before she was born, he has been praying for this moment. he then quoted isaiah 40:11 to her. we had him pick a verse for her Baptism and this is it. we used it on her invitations and my friend ashley is going to be painting it on a canvas for her.

buried with Christ....

4 generations

3 generations

our family after lunch!

Fall Festival 2009

last night was our fall festival at church. it's such a great time every year!

we had thought that mary peyton was going to go as Annie this year (she went as Annie to the JA carnival and was a HIT!), but she saw that i had gotten elephant and lion costumes and said she wanted to wear the elephant! (i buy things way ahead and had bought these as size 4t/5t when she was about a year old.)

ANYWAY - i think she was a pretty stinkin cute elephant! don't you?

and of course we have to have a family shot each year......

so here she is with her bud lulu (her internet alias). they are such sweet friends! lulu's grandmother was my science/chemistry teacher in high school and lulu/her family all go to church with us - as well as tailgate with us in oxford!

mpb with junebug (lulu's mama). mp seriously loves this woman - even through all of her craziness!

now this next picture.....you cannot possibly appreciate it unless you have seen my child writhe in horror when she spots colonel reb. or any other character for that matter! i told her that we couldn't go to disney until she had her picture taken with col reb. well, after we saw him the first time this season, she looked at me and said, "mommy, how 'bout you and daddy go to disney world and i'll just stay with my gran-gran." bless her heart....

so anyway - it appears we are making progress!

Tomorrow is the day!

i cannot believe that i haven't blogged anymore this month! here it is - the last day of october - and this is my 2nd blog post. go figure. busy? yep.

tommorow is the big day. mary peyton will be baptised in the morning. such a big day for such a little girl.

since i never went back and did a post like i said i would about what led up to her asking Jesus into her heart on october 4th, i'll do it now.

on september 22, we were curled up in the bed watching t.v. and playing with our 20+ lb cat, tiger. mary peyton looks up at me and said, "mommy, i want to ask Jesus into my heart." just very matter of fact.

we thought something may be coming soon. she had been asking questions, etc., but i didn't expect it to just come out of the blue. i told her that we could talk to mrs dianne about it. and then i sent dianne a text asking what i should ask next. she has always told us to answer questions with simple answers and not to elaborate on anything.

so she told me to ask mary peyton "why do you want to do that?". so i did. her response - "because i want to go to Heaven when i die and if you don't have Jesus in your heart, you can't go to Heaven."

i called dianne and we talked. and set up a time for us to sit down with her and see if mary peyton was ready to take that step - if she understood everything she needed to.

that wednesday after dinner at church, we met with dianne. mary peyton understood everything except sin. she didn't think that she had sinned, much less dianne, tommy, or me! so we got a workbook and started working on it.

the very next day, mary peyton bit a little girl at school. now let me tell you - she never bit even in daycare when she was teething, etc. so i don't know if the child and a few others that were there provoked mp and that was her only response or what. but she did it and it was wrong. she was punished at school (had to miss recess, etc.) and then was punished at home. plus, i made her get up at 6 a.m. that friday to write notes to both of her teachers and the little girl she bit.

and she told me that she had sinned. aaahhh - maybe she was starting to grasp it!

we continued to work through our book, but the next sunday (october 4th) during the night service, she told roseann that she asked Jesus in her heart. um.......when? so after church, she told me that she wanted to go talk to mrs dianne.

we got down to dianne and mary peyton said, "i want to go up to your office to talk about Jesus." dianne asked, "do you want to do it now or go up on wednesday like we did last time?" mp replied, "i want to go NOW." dianne looked at me and said, "we're going up to my office!"

we went upstairs and dianne asked her everything again and again. mary peyton answered everything clearly and said that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart that night. i'm so thankful that i had my iphone with me (i carry it on sunday nights because i have a Bible app that has a note-taking feature on it) so that i could capture that time!

so now here we are. baptism tomorrow!

if you want to watch it, you can! our church shows services in live time on the internet. go to
www.colonialheights.org when you go here, you will see in the top right a tab that says ".TVwatch". click on this and you will be able to see the service live.

the baptism is the first thing that happens in our service, so if you do go here and are going to watch it, i would start watching at 9:25 a.m. it usually isn't until 9:30, but i would hate for it be over if you are wanting to watch it!

be watching for pictures - i WILL get them done!!!!!!!

my prayers answered....

the picture below was taken last night, october 4, 2009, at about 7:30 p.m.

this is our precious preschool director, dianne wentworth, leading mary peyton through the prayer of salvation.

yes, God pricked mary peyton's heart to her need for him. and now the prayer that i have been praying since september 19, 2004 has been answered. that is the day i found out i was pregnant. and i knew that i wanted that little life to know Jesus at a young age.

we are so incredibly proud of you, mary peyton. and we cannot wait to see what God has in store for your life!

much love always,

mommy and daddy

***i will do a longer post later about how we got to this point with her. i just wanted to go ahead and get this posted for now!***

ms o'neal

last weekend, we went to my daddy's after the ole miss game so that we would be there sunday for pictures (see post below!). as usual, i got up and went straight for the paper. i don't know what it is with the greenwood commonwealth. there's really not hardly anything in it. but for some reason, especially on sundays, i'm drawn to it. either in person or via the internet.

i love reading the comics. why? i can't answer that one! then there's the "lifestyle" section (on sundays only). i love seeing who's getting married, who got married, what babies have been born, etc. lastly (and pretty much in the backwards fashion), i read the "main" part of the paper. the "news" part with the editorials, sports, news, and obituaries.

it's this last part that got me.......

i was excited to be out of kindergarten and going to the first grade. at pillow, we would always go (with our parents) about a week before school started to find out what class we would be in and who our teacher would be. i can remember wanting mrs coleman. when we got to the school, we found out that i had ms o'neal. many of my closest friends were in mrs coleman's class, but i had some in ms o'neal's, too, so it was fine.

i can remember our math quizzes in particular. they were small square sheets and i would rush to see how fast i could do them. they had one big star on one side. rarely did i miss one! and i was shocked that year when i won the math award for the first grade.

ms o'neal was about as perfect of a first grade teacher as i could ever want. she never married and loved her career and her students. she was not a teacher who went into it for the convenience of being off in the summer - she wanted her children to learn. she loved me and i felt special as her student. she wore orthopedic shoes and i never knew what was wrong, but felt sorry for her none the less.

a few years ago, when i was pregnant, i was walking through the mall. sitting on a bench was a face i would have recognized anywhere. it was ms o'neal. i took a second look and she caught my eye. she recognized me as well. we hugged and i sat down beside her.

she was waiting on her sister to shop some and said that she just needed a break. i think that God knew i needed to see her and have a conversation. we talked about our present conditions - what each of us was doing - and some stories from around 1985. we lost track of time sitting on that bench just reminiscing and talking.....

she asked if i remembered the only time she had to get on to me. i told her no. she said that we were in our reading circle time and i got up (with another friend) and we said the pledge of allegiance right there. she said, "i was giggling inside and proud that you knew it and wanted to say it, but it was an inappropriate time, so you got in trouble!"

i told her how much i appreciated her as a teacher. how much she meant to me.

i'm glad i did.

in sunday's paper was the obituary for patricia nell o'neal, 68 years old. God blessed me to not only have her as a teacher, but to allow our paths to cross just a few short years back so that i could let her know what she meant to me. i am so thankful for that opportunity. she will be greatly missed.

thank you, ms o'neal, for helping lay the foundation of my education. i couldn't have asked for better.......

this past weekend, we had a WONDERFUL photo shoot with my sweet friend, beth - b. mo foto! she is the one i've been talking about and is responsible for mpb's "rockstar" picture in the pettiskirt with the guitar at the beach.

anyway - here are some more pictures! i'll explain each one (sorry, facebook friends. i know most of ya'll have already seen these!)

the pictures below.......of course the one on the left you've already seen. the one on the right...I LOVE. the dress is one i had made in cleveland - a great store called fox road. the girl that owns it makes a lot of the clothes in there and names them. she designs a lot of them herself! anyway - when dana and i were up for the mccarty sale in march, we went in and i fell in love with this dress, but it wasn't the right size. the girl heard me and said, "i've got just enough of that fabric to make another one. that is a vintage fabric." so i took her up on it! when i was paying, i looked at the tag - this dress is the "stella". another reason to buy it!

this picture was taken in a field by my home church - minter city methodist.

this picture was NOT posed at all. seriously. we put mpb up on this truck (a 1950-something model) out at my daddy's and just let her do what she wanted. well, she ended up plopping down after a little while and this is the look we got. we told her to just STAY PUT! i love the "pout" look on her face!!!

this picture is precious to me! we went over to the "old streeter school" which was minter city high school. yes, for those of you from the Delta, minter city had a high school! my daddy went to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades here. my granddaddy graduated here (and my grandmama, too, if i'm not mistaken)! i just wanted some pictures of her there!

ok - this is another picture from the beach. i LOVE it!

yes, tommy and i even got in on the shoot. this is one of a good many pictures she took of us. this one was over at the minter city gin. growing up, especially when i was her age, i would ride with daddy over to the gin when he was taking cotton. mrs regleman would always keep dill pickles in the office for me and have one ready when she saw us pull up! i'm glad we were able to document mpb there too!

also, tommy and i have no pictures of us kissing. i know, i know...... but even from our wedding - no kissing pictures! so we got a few in this shoot!

i can't wait to see more of them! i'll let you know when they are up!!!!!

my poor blog.....

i've neglected this blog so much lately! life is busy and when i get home, i rarely get online....

i do have some things to post - maybe i'll go to barnes & noble (remember - the internet speed is SO much faster there!) and try to get some things posted!

i'll try to do some now - we'll see how the connection works!

a new shot of MPB!

we went to the beach over the labor day weekend. fortunately, a good friend of mine (the one mentioned in the previous post) and a friend of hers - BOTH photographers - were there!

SO - as most of you know - pictures of mary peyton are my weakness. we got ready and mary peyton was excited about her shoot.

beth sent me this picture yesterday - as a "teaser". i can't WAIT to see the rest!!!!! mpb said that she was a "hannah montana rock star"!

Pictures!!!!!

a precious friend of mine from high school, beth morgan, is coming to mississippi to take pictures!!! she lives in georgia now, but will be here for almost a month.

ANYWAY........please go over to her website and check it out! it is www.bmofoto.net she was having some problems with the images not showing up, but they will be back - keep on checking!!!

here is her deal: 2-4 hours, as many outfits as you want, as many locations as you want, up to 5 people, you will be given a disc with all images (and the rights to the photos) to do what you wish. the cost is $300 - not bad considering you get all of the images and can blow them up, make Christmas cards, give them as Christmas presents, etc!

let me know if you are interested!

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Some more beach pictures!

our family at the beach....

tommy loves this picture of mary peyton - she was so mad and decided to head back to the house. this is why she is flinging her left arm so much.

me and my sweet girl

tommy and mary peyton walking down to the beach...

a sweet one of tommy and mary peyton

thank you, shana, for taking pictures for us! i hope yours that i took turned out good, too!

8 years already???

tommy and i met in april 2000. we started dating may 13, were engaged october 8, and got married on august 11, 2001.

we were married at colonial heights baptist church. it's where we met and tommy's family had been members for years.

everything was just the way i wanted it. sorry i don't have pictures of dresses, etc. none of them are on this computer! but here's what i do have!

our invitation:

a picture of us. yes, tommy had hair (that's always the comment we get...). i still have my bouquet from that day - it's in a crystal ice bucket in the center of my china cabinet. good grief - i don't even want to know what would happen if i touched the flowers!!!

we had bells for people to ring when we left the reception....

the front of our program. our program was long - i had a lot of info in it. but it was what i wanted!

one of my precious things from my wedding. and one that will be handed down to mary peyton for hers. granny (doris britt - my great-aunt) made this for the wedding. she has our wedding date on it and her initials. it was made out of the same fabric and lace that mary key's dress was made out of (she was my sweet flower girl!)

so much has happened in 8 years - some bad and lots of good. but through it we've both grown and all of it has made us stronger as individuals and as a couple.

we have enjoyed today doing nothing - absolutely nothing. we got up this morning and ate breakfast, then headed to the beach. the water today was crystal clear - no seaweed anywhere! we saw 2 manatees that were about 40 yards from us. we came up for lunch around 1:00 and let mary peyton nap during that time. i played on the computer while tommy watched tv and napped. then we went back to the beach around 2:30 and didn't come in until 6:15.

a perfect day.

we are going to go to dinner now. 8 years ago right now we were sitting at the old capitol inn watching deuce mcallister make his nfl debut with the saints. our picnic basket in between us on the bed - eating chicken tenders, catfish, cheese sticks, and a little cake. now here we are, with our busy, busy 4 year old at one of the prettiest places God created.

thank you, God, for 8 wonderful years. and i hope that we have many more!

Happy 87th Birthday, Grandmama!!!

my sweet grandmama turned 87 years young today....and i hate that i wasn't there with the rest of my family to have lunch and spend the day with her! but we went up last weekend and spent the afternoon with her. it's always good to go home!!!

these are the flowers that i took to grandmama. i loved them!!!

lawson (my cousin kimberly's son), muffin (the poodle), grandmama, and mary peyton

i LOVE LOVE this picture of mary peyton and lawson! every time we go to minter city, she can't wait to see lawson!

happy, happy birthday, grandmama!!! we love you so much and hope you had a wonderful day!

Inlet Beach so far!

well, we are finally on vacation! a few friends think we are crazy because we have taken a few shorter trips, but this one is longer. and so, so relaxing!

below are a few pictures from our first few days. our good friends, jeff and shana, are with us with their boys, dawson and grayson. they are going home tomorrow, though, while we are staying for a few more days.

our flip flops in the sand - love this because it just means that we are barefoot in the sand!!!

my sweet girl loving the beach!

tommy and mary peyton.

jeff representing 'bama.

we went to the pier park to eat. we decided to eat at 5 guys burgers - it was SO good. i'm glad that we're getting one in ridgeland!!!

one of my favorite pictures of the 3 kids! they have played so well together!!!

i love this picture of tommy!

jeff and shana went with tommy and myself to the beach in april 2002. this was before either couple had been married for a year. what a difference 7 years makes! 3 kids (and 1 on the way - shana - NOT me!) and lots of things have happened, but we still have fun with this sweet couple!

thank you, God, for the gift of friendship!!!

I love you, so, my daughter!

this used to hang in my room when i was little. it still hangs in my room - over at my desk. and if i can make it work, it will hang in mary peyton's room, too.

my mom cross-stitched it for me way back when. it's one of the first things i can remember trying to memorize. and now i've taught it to mary peyton after saying it to her for 4 years.

it is precious to see her holding her baby dolls and saying it. time will fly and before i can even blink, it will be her saying this to her daughter/son (you could change the wording for a boy, i guess!).

anyway - in case you can't see what it says, here it is:

"I love you so my Daughter and I never

cease to pray, that God will guard

and keep you safe - - within His love

each day. May you be guided by His

word in all you say and do. For all

the pride of life for me - is centered,

Dear Daughter, in you.

Love,

Mother"

Cake blog

ok, katrice. there are 3 "new" cakes on the cake blog. they aren't that new. but they are ones that were on the computer. and you wouldn't believe how long it took to get them loaded on the page.

so whenever i get back to barnes & noble with my computer, i will add some more! sorry that i've neglected that blog - since january (i think...)!

a picture!

see this lady in the picture with me???

she is a patient of mine who has also become a sweet, sweet friend.

she is also an addict. like me.

only she is worse!

we are both addicted to easely amused. there. i said it.

but she has been a lot more than i have lately. for whatever reason, the summer has ruined my "therapy" for me (which is what we call our trips to easely amused...).

so, deanna, i hope we get to go there together soon!

what's my deal?

random, random stuff......

~i don't know why i haven't been blogging lately. really, i don't. i've thought of things i want to blog and then i just don't take the time. part of it is our S-L-O-W wifi at the house. it's so much faster to blog at barnes & noble. but let's face it. as much as i'd like to go there every day and just relax, i really do have a life. really, i do.

~i've got tons of pictures that i would LOVE to share with all 5 of my readers. but it takes too long to upload them to blogger, so alas, no pictures. but when i get to b & n.....watch out! their internet works so much faster. it's great.

~i can't believe that summer is almost over. mary peyton starts pre-primer 3 weeks from today. it seems like i was just worried about her starting k3. and that year FLEW. i dread the next 14 years.....especially if they all go by that fast. if time could just stand still, i would appreciate it!

~mary peyton has loved going to JA this summer. some of the high school kids work in the afternoon with after-school kids, so mpb has made some "big" friends. a few graduated this year and mary peyton lovingly refers to them as the "singers" (instead of seniors).

~mary peyton informed us this afternoon that she broke up with jude because he wouldn't play with her. jude is the son of our good friends, brad and chasity. he is going into the 1st grade. but all kids who have finished k3, pre-primer, and primer play together on the playground in the summer. so mpb is with the older kids, too. she informed us about a week or two ago that she was marrying jude. chasity and i decided that the wedding would be awesome!

~mpb informed me a few weeks ago (my facebook friends know this...) that she wants to go to new york. here was our conversation:

mpb: "mommy, i want to go to new 'ork"

mama: "what?"

mpb: "i WANT to go to new 'ork!"

mama: "baby, why do you want to go to new york?"

mpb: "'cause, mommy! i've never been THERE before!"

so i guess we've deprived her for 4 years of her life, huh? she proceeded to ask tommy this past sunday if the 2 of us could go. he said yes. she came to me beaming saying, "mommy! daddy said that me and you can go to new 'ork!"

i just asked if he was going to pay....

~we went out of town 2 weeks ago for a few days. we went to lake tuscaloosa, alabama and had an incredible time. lazy weather with no set plans. i loved it!

~we are going to the beach soon for 8 nights or so. can we all let out a big ~SIGH~. please pray that a hurricane does not come through and ruin this trip for us. we need a break so bad!!! shana, jeff, and the boys are going to go down with us for a few days, so that will be fun. the last time we went to the beach together was pre-kids. what a difference 7 years makes!

~i guess i'll stop at this. there are many other things that i'm sure i need to update everyone on, but i'm having writer's block! i'll do a better job - promise.

taco casa

my friend, jenny trouard, introduced me to taco casa when we were in hygiene school. it is now my "go to" place when we are in vicksburg.

well, i just saw on t.v. a big commercial about it....

TACO CASA IS 35 YEARS OLD!

so............

Happy Birthday, Taco Casa!

i love you, even if my husband doesn't.....

and here i sit.....

at the genius bar.....

for the first time.....

and i think i'll be back.....

for those of you who don't know, the genius bar is basically the tech support at the apple store. and all of a sudden i love these people.

my appointment was at 3:45. the appointments last 15 minutes. it's 5:58 and i'm still here. and they are still helping - with smiles on their faces, i might add!

no, i'm not having a problem with my computer, phone, etc. i just had some questions. and since our internet (even though it IS dsl) is so slow at home, i was unable to download new updates because it would always time out.

so since i've been here, we've done 15 updates and are installing the new 3.0 software to my iphone now.

my iphone has not been synced to my mac since i got it because it needed the updates, so this is SUCH a big help. i've had nightmares that i would lose my phone/break it/etc and lose the 465 or so numbers in it. now at least they are backed up.

so are the some 900 pictures that i've taken with my phone.

and now i'm ready to go on and sign up for some classes to help me learn how to use this thing better.

seriously - the customer service/tech support is even more of a reason that i love my mac.

thanks for reading this blog written out of boredom!

a fun day!

again, a post with no pictures.  i'm sorry!!!  i'll change that soon...

i'm glad that today is over....monday's are just never much fun.  

this morning when we passed renaissance on our way to ja/work, mary peyton asked if we could go to barnes & noble after i picked her up.  i told her that if i picked her up and she didn't have marker all over her and was halfway clean, we would go.

as soon as i picked her up this afternoon, she showed me her hands and said, "mommy?  see?  i'm not messy!".  so we went straight to barnes & noble.  she wanted a frappaccino (go figure) and i got a iced caramel macchiato.  i looked at people or us weekly while she looked at a miley cyrus magazine.  it was such a nice break.

after this, we walked over to anthropologie.  i've fallen in love with this store - but can't afford hardly anything in there - UNLESS it's on sale!  so mp and i went to the sale corner and that's when i saw it.  

now i don't know about many of ya'll, but i will search and search for the PERFECT purse until i find it.  and i will do without.  but here it was.  sitting in a bin with 2 rather unfortunate looking purses just waiting on me to grab it.  and it was on sale.  

i looked on the anthro. website and couldn't find it, so i searched ebay.  i couldn't find it there, either.  so maybe i'll take a picture of it soon so that my few readers can see it!

after mary peyton was so good at b & n and anthro., she asked if we could go get toys.  of course we could!  she had a gift card from rivers & kimbell from her birthday, so off we went.  

we headed home, had supper, and have just hung out watching t.v.  

now that's a good day to me.  fairly uneventful at work, a great few hours with my favorite girl, and dinner at home.  what more could we ask for?

hope you have a great week!

all words, no pictures...

so i started to title this one "things to do/know before you go" but it didn't seem right...

anyway....after edgar butler/kim/e.b./emily were all killed in the wreck, i started thinking about lots of stuff.  so if you are not a planner, you may not want to read this blog post....

tommy and i had a will done right after we married.  with us both being only children, it was important to me to have everything "mapped out" the way we wanted it.  especially concerning life insurance policies, etc.

i always thought that an attorney had to prepare a will for you.  tommy talked to one of his friends/customers who is a lawyer and he said that that isn't the case!  so ours is just typed up!

after mary peyton was born, we revised that will and we now update it about every summer.

in it, we have 3 scenarios:

1.  the death of one of us (parents)

2.  the death of both of us (parents)

3.  the death of all 3 of us (us and mpb)

i know this sounds morbid - and i know tons of people who have never even thought of a will.  please let me encourage you to do so!!!  and set out all of the scenarios because you never know which one will have to be used.  it's a sad thought, but so true - as our family found out almost 2 weeks ago.

but don't stop there.

once you make up your will, show it and explain it to someone who DOES NOT live in your household.  let them know where you keep it in case it is ever needed.  if i told tommy and then we were in a fatal accident and we had kept that information between the two of us, it would be a mess...

here is more about what we have in our will:

1.  because we are both only children, we have mary peyton's guardian named in our will.  it is not automatic that your family gets custody of your child if you die.  this was of utmost importance to me.

2.  material possessions:  i have certain ways to handle things in each scenario and all of these are mapped out in our will.  i have pieces that have been inherited from one side of the family or the other, so i have a "liason" named from each side to handle this situation.

3.  how we want insurance money distributed/handled in case we all die at one time (a scholarship set up, our church, individuals, etc.).  i also have our insurance agent's name and the different policies that we have listed.  we also have any investment information listed.

4.  where we want to be buried (we have had this for a while but have not purchased our plots - we are doing that in the next few weeks...)

5.  information concerning our lock box

6.  the attorney that we want present with our families to discuss the will if it is needed.

i now need to go through and want to put down aspects of our service that we want.  yes, this sounds morbid.  but it's a part of life!  music, pallbearers, etc.  i want it all down.....it is less that my family will have to think about if the unexpected happens...

anytime we go out of town on a vacation, i take a box with discs of all of our digital pictures (and the external hard drive), a copy of our will, our lockbox key, and jewelry to someone in town just in case anything happened.

i'm sure edgar butler and kim thought they would just be back in inverness in a few days, but as we all know, God's plans were not theirs.  if that happened to us, i just want things lined out with our wishes....

i'm alive....

it's just been a busy 2 weeks.  but i've got pictures to download from my camera and then upload to the blog.  and several posts that are going through my head......

hope all of my 2 readers had a great 4th of july!  we are so blessed to live in this country!!!