Happy 8th Birthday!!!

My sweet Dougie boy turned 8 years old this weekend! I can't believe you're eight!
You are such a great son, you bring so much laughter and fun to our lives. I love watching you play ball. I love that you LOVE the Bulldogs! I love your hair when it's buzzed! I love watching you teach your little brother about boy things! I love hearing you quote scripture. I love you!

Love Mommy!

We're home!

We got home about 3:30 this morning. I can't wait to tell you all about our trip. But right now, I'm too tired to even think about it!
Have a great weekend!

And We're Off!!!!!

Well, the time has finally arrived. The kids are settled at Grandma and Paps' and having the time of their lives. We are packed and counting down the minutes until
4 o'clock. We're taking the church bus to the ATL, so one of the guys going, is just going to drive to everyone's house and pick us up. Remember, we live in a small town and most of us live within a 4 mile radius of each other!

If you would, pray for us. Here's a list of everyone going:

Steven, Matthew, Anita, Kaylan, Jenna, Rachel, Lois, Tammy, Debbie #1, Jordan, Debbie #2, Penny, David, Aaron and myself.

We hope to post daily updates of our trip at Score international's website.
Click on the trip updates tab and select Costa Rica. Our church is West Millen.

Also pray for these precious ones:


We will be back late on the 25th, until then......

I dearly love you all!!!!



Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
"Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8

And the Winner is........................

Cause I'm all about technology........

And the winner is........

In case you can't read my handwriting, it says Amanda Jo!! Congratulations and I'll be contacting you to find out where to send your goodies!!!

Y'all be praying for me. Tomorrow, Emma, Dougie and Caleb are heading to my mom's, where they will stay while we are in Costa Rica. This will be the longest we've left Caleb and to make matters worse, he has become very clingy over the past few weeks. I know he will be well cared for while we're gone, just pray that we'll all be filled with peace!

I'll give more details about our trip later. Cause after my kids are gone tomorrow, you know I'll just have all kinds of time on my hands before we leave Thursday afternoon!!!

Last chance!!!!!

Today's the last chance to enter the giveaway!!!!
Hurry....time's running out......go here!

I'll draw tonight!
We're heading to Splash in the Boro!!!
Have agreat day!

Sunday......

100th Post!!!!!!!

I can't believe that this is my 100th post. Well actually it's my 101st post, I didn't realized that when I posted about getting paid with veggies, that was actually my 100th post. oops!! Oh well, it's my blog and if I want to celebrate my 100th post, when it's actually the 101st, then I will!!!
Anyway, I'm going to attempt the traditional 100 things and if you and I make it through, there might be a surprise at the end.

1. I am a Georgia peach!
2. This is already getting hard!
3. I am married to a wonderful man, Steven.
4.I have 3 beautiful children.
5. I am a certified teacher.
6. I have a voice disorder called spasmodic dysphonia.
7. It's not life threatening, just a 'thorn in my side'.
8. You can google it to find out more, if you want!
9. I was diagnosed in 2001.
10. So when I tell you that I get botox, it's not for cosmetic reasons!
11. I love coffee.
12. I prefer it cold and flavored.
13. I am a punctual person.
14. My 1st son is like me, he was born on his due date!
15. I love the beach!
16. I live in a small town.
17. I enjoy living in a small town.
18. I hope Barack is not our next president.
19. I can't believe I'm only on 19. yikes!!!
20. Dark chocolate is the best.
21. I developed a taste for it when i went to the Ukraine.
22. I went to the Ukraine in 1992 on a mission trip.
23. I turned 21 while we were there.
24. Now you can figure out how old i am.
25. I've always looked young, i hated it when I was younger.
26. But now I love it!
27. That's why I color my hair.
28. I'm not going to let gray hair give me away!!!
29. I was raised in a Christian home.
30. My parents will celebrate their 42nd anniversary this year.
31. I have an older brother and sister and a younger sister.
32. I have a wonderful sis-in-law and a crazy brother-in-law.
33. I have 2 nephews and a niece.
34. I am the 3rd child, enough said!
35. Rude people irritate me.
36. My spiritual gifts are mercy and service.
37. So basically, I'll love you through any situation and feed you while I'm at it!
38. God has really been strengthening me in the area of speaking the truth.
39. It's all about being balanced.
40. I believe that Jesus died for the WHOLE world!
41. I can't wait to share that great news with the people in Costa Rica.
42. I'm getting anxious about leaving Caleb. Pray about that please!
43. I'm a pastor's wife.
44. I'm not the typical pastor's wife.
45. I've been divorced.
46. God hates divorce but you know what, He loves the divorced! Praise HIM!
47. There is no such thing as a 'typical' pastor's wife.
48. We're just regular women.
49. Cute saying: I'm a BMW! Baptist Minister's Wife :0)
50. Half way there!!!
51. I was a single mom for about 3 years.
52. It was during that time that I learned what it really means to surrender to Christ.
53. I tithe.
54. In fact, you couldn't convince me NOT to tithe.
55. While I was a single mom, I learned first hand, You can't out give God!
56. The first summer I was single, the kids and I went to the beach with my fam.
57. As usual, I spent too much money.
58.The Sunday we returned, I knew I needed to give my tithe.
59. If I gave my tithe, things would be really tight for the rest of the month.
60. The internal struggle was so great, fear versus trust.
61. Trust won out and that morning I gave my tithe with no hesitation.
62. That Sunday evening my older sis went to FBCW with me.
63. After church, hanging out at my house, she gave me a card.
64. The sweet ladies in my mom's Sunday school class wanted me to know they loved me.
65. They were praying for me.
66. The wanted to bless me with a gift.
67. Inside the card was a love offering they had collected that morning.
68. It was the exact amount of my tithe I had given that morning.
69. I sobbed. My sister sobbed.
70. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread. Ps.37:25
71. See #54
72 You're never more like Jesus that when you're giving.
73. I learned that from Pastor Johnny.
74. I love to eat.
75. I wish I could make chicken and dumplings like my Mama's.
76. I've mastered cornbread dressing, thanks to my mom and grandma.
77. My new favorite show is Design Star.
78. I hate drama.
79. I generally calm, cool and collected.
80. Although I can cry at the drop of a hat.
81. I love to read.
82. I love to sit on the beach and read.
83. If I could, I would adopt a child from overseas.
84. Beth Moore is my bff. She just doesn't know it!
85. Priscilla Shirer is next in line!
86. She has the prettiest teeth.
87. I am competitive.
88. I don't yell at my kids ballgames.
89. It is a struggle though!
90. Oh my word! I'm almost done!
91. I love hanging out with my husband.
92. We both like visiting historical places.
93. He makes me laugh!
94. I love to laugh.
95. I'm rarely serious.
96. I'm a night owl.
97. I'm also a morning person, go figure!
98. My life verse is Jeremiah 29:11.
99. Jesus Christ is truly my best friend.
100. I want Him to be yours too!!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!

Ok, I think I promised something about a surprise if you made it to the end!
For my 100th (101st) post celebration, I'm going to have a giveaway! (see #72) ;)
I'm going to give you some of my favorite things:

$10 gift card to st*rbucks so you can drink a coffee.
A bag of hershey kisses, I prefer dark chocolate but I'll let you choose
$10 gift card to Lifeway so you can read a good book.

Leave a comment and tell me what kind of kisses you prefer, Hershey kisses that is! I'll draw a winner on Monday, July 14th! Invite your friends to enter, unless you just really want to win. Kidding!!!

I love you all and since it's actually my 101st post:

101. I LOVE MY BLOGGING BUDDIES!!!!

In case you were wondering.....

My friends Lisa and Amy have both tagged me with the same meme and since I've done this one previously, you can go here to learn more about me.

As most of you know, we live in a small town in a rural part of Georgia. And if you were wondering, do people still pay the preacher with things like vegetables? The answer is YES!

This bag of squash and cucumbers was left on Steven's desk Sunday morning:



And when we got home from taking Emma and Dougie to their dad's, we found these goodies had been left in our carport. Yes I said carport, we don't have garages here in S. Ga., we have carports!



Yes we get 'paid' by our church but getting these home grown vegetables is one of the top benefits of living in the country!!

Have a great day and remember: Eat your veggies!!

Hilton Head 2008

Hilton Head 2008

We had an absolute blast on our mini-vacation to Hilton Head. Our friends, Matthew and Anita and their 2 kids were there for the week and they invited us to come and stay with them. Another couple, Penny and David were also going but couldn't leave til Thursday afternoon. So Aaron, their teenage son, who is basically a big brother to my kids, rode up with us Thursday morning. So we had 6 adults, 5 kids and 1 teenager in a 2 bedroom condo. But there was a sleeper sofa and we took an air mattress for the kids so it worked out great!

We're all alike, in that we all love to spend the whole day at the beach and that's pretty much what we did Thursday and Friday. Caleb wasn't crazy about the ocean. He was content to play in the sand. Aaron, Dougie and Emma dug him his own personal 'pool'. When he started getting sleepy, we just laid him on a float and he actually fell asleep and slept for at least an hour!Thursday evening after Penny and David got there we went to eat at The Crazy Crab. It was delicious! Afterwards we went and got an ice cream and then let the kids light sparklers on the beach.

On Friday, we spent the whole day at the beach again. It was so crowded. I don't think I've ever seen so many people on the beach! Once again, Caleb took his nap at the beach!
Our plan was to order some pizza and wings for dinner and then head to watch the fireworks. But the more we thought about fighting the crowds. We decided to skip the fireworks and somehow (thanks to David and Matthew) ended up back at the ice cream shop! The running joke among the adults was, "What you get on your vacation? I got diabetes!" If you could have seen the cinnamon rolls David brought for us, you'd understand!!

Now you may be thinking, how could you all deprive your children of firworks on Independence Day? Well see, our little town can't afford to have a fireworks show on the 4th, so they always have it on the 5th. (the cost difference is unbelievable!) So we knew that the kids would get to see fireworks when we got back home on Saturday!

Anyway, we had a great time and I'm so grateful for the great friends God has placed in our lives!

Be Still...........

July 4, 2008

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

American flag photo: printourflag.com

Finally..........

Sorry it's been a while, I had to take a 'wireless router' imposed bloggy break. For the past few days my wireless access has been giving me fits. I'd get it straight on our pc, then Steven's laptop wouldn't connect. And when I'd get his laptop connected, our pc wouldn't connect. It has been driving me absolutely insane!!!! So finally I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with bellsouth and then with linksys to reconfigure our router. Guess what the problem was.....someone, who shall remain nameless, pushed the button on the front of the router that resets it. Now who, in our family loves to push buttons, especially ones that blink when you push them?

hummmmm.....

Anyway, the router is now out of the way of sticky little fingers that might push that nasty little button again.

We had some friends, Brett and Lacey, stay with us Monday evening on their way to somewhere further north to visit their family. And also for Brett's 20th class reunion, I just had to get that in! They have 4 beautiful children and their youngest is the sweetest child ever! I didn't hear her make a sound the whole time they were here. But I guess with 3 older siblings, easy going is a requirement.

Here's some pics from their visit:


Now for the really good news!!! Some friends of ours are in Hilton Head this week and they have invited us to come spend Thursday and Friday with them!!! Yeah!!! So we made some cookies today to take with us to celebrate the 4th!