Great Weekend

This has been a wonderful weekend! My weekend started on Saturday when I got my acceptance letter to nursing school. This has been a dream for 10 years now since I decided to leave school to stay home with the boys after Braxton was born. I am so blessed that God has given me another opportunity to finish my degree. And then Robert and I traveled to Atlanta to the blogger party. We had a wonderful time getting to know so many of the other bloggers. Even though it is not but about a 3 hour drive, we decided that we would stay in Atlanta over night, so we went back to the room and just spent time together! That was nice! Then on Sunday morning we got up and came home to go to church at NewSpring in Greenville. Clayton King is awesome, we are so blessed to have him as our teaching pastor and the back up when Perry needs a break! Then after church we picked up the kids and came home to take a nap! Then we went to my favorite Mexican Restaurant with a group of our closest friends and celbrated my 40th birthday! It was a great weekend! I will post pictures later!

Exciting Weekend

This is going to be a busy and exciting weekend for me. This afternoon we will be traveling to Roswell, GA for a Bloggers Party hosted by Heather Whittaker of Whittaker Woman. I can't wait to meet all of my fellow bloggers that also follow Heather and her wonderfully funny family. Several of these people are members of the NewSpring Florence campus, can't wait to meet my fellow NewSpringers.

Then tomorrow we will come home and go to church. I can't miss this series, beautiful, this has meant so much to me and my Christian growth. After church I will get my boys and we will celebrate my 40th birthday! I am excited about this birthday, I am not sure why, but it does not bother me! I guess I still feel young because I am challenging myself by going back to school and finally following my dream and passion of becoming a hospice or oncology nurse.

Can't wait!

Turning 40

My birthday is Sunday, November 9th, I will be 40! I am actually pretty excited about it, it means God has allowed me to reach yet another milestone in my life. I am not depressed like some people get at 40. I am however reflecting on my life and especially my mom's life.

A little history, my mom died from breast cancer at the age of 44. She discovered her lump when she was 41 and it had probably been there for 2 years. The closer I get to those ages the more I reflect on her life and all of the moments we shared!

My mom and I were very close up to the very end. We talked about everything, things most girls are afraid to talk to their parents about as teenagers. I know that she didn't always like what I told her, but she always tried her best to understand.

I have tried very hard over my children's life to be the kind of mom I had! There are many times that I feel that I have failed miserably and other times that I rejoice that she would be proud of how I handled the situation.

I started looking for pictures of me and her together and couldn't find many because she did not like pictures being taken of her. I am a lot like her in that way, I don't like pictures being taken of me either. I will be changing this when it comes to pictures of me and my boys, I don't want them to look for pictures of me and them together and not be able to find them because I didn't want anyone to remember how fat I think I am.

Below are the few pictures I found of us together!

My mom and me at my first birthday!
My mom and me at my Jr. prom, she turned 40 that July. (love the 80's hair)

My mom and me at the first prom I attended.

My sister Tracy, my mom and me at mom and dad's 25th wedding anniversary. (again love the 80's hair on Tracy and me!)

Election

I am so glad that the election is over! No matter if you are pleased with the results it is now time to get behind the new President and build him up! Now is the time to start praying for him and his family. This is a very difficult time in our country with the wars and the economy, it will not be easy to lead for anyone! Let's pray for all of our leaders, both newly elected and those who have been serving for years! Pray for guidance for them and for the entire country!

VOTING

WOW! Robert and I voted this morning. Polls open in SC at 7:00 a.m. so we decided to be there early so we would not have to wait so long! WRONG!!! We were there a little before 6:30 and did not finish until 8:00. That is a good thing! Voter turn out is great! I don't care who you vote for as long as you throw your hat in the ring! It is so important to have your voice be heard and to excercise this huge right and privaledge. Don't forget the men and women that have fought and lost their lives so that we would be free to vote!!!

Praise God for this country and our freedoms!!!

November already?

I cannot believe that it is already November! I talked to my sister yesterday and we were making plans for Christmas. I cannot believe it is already that time of year again! I do so love this time of year! Not just the Holidays but the fact that it is cooler outside and I start baking stuff that makes the house smell good and the heat from the kitchen warms the entire house! I baked apples last night! They were so good! It has been 18 years since I had one, I baked them for my mom when she was sick! I also baked her a pumpking pie and forgot to put sugar in it, by the way girls, pumpkin pie must have sweetener of some sort in it or it is bitter!! That is a story for another day! This time of year makes me so sentimental and makes me think of my mom and my childhood a lot, it makes me smile. I hope that when my kids are older they have a special time that they think of their childhood and smile!

For women only

WOW! This series at church (NewSpring Community Church) has been eye opening. This week Perry was in Australia so they had a guest; Shaunti Feldhahn. She is a bestselling author and is a weekly columnist on women's issues in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has written a book, for women only what you need to know about the inner lives of men. She has also written similar books for teenage girls and with help from her husband a book for men and teenage boys. The message was wonderful! She has interviewed over 1,000 men to get the information in her book, it is indeed an eye opener! As a gift to every woman that attended Sunday, NewSpring handed out the book. I can barely put it down! I am already 1/4 of a way through it! It has already helped me to understand how to relate to my husband! I can't wait to finish reading it! Girls I highly recommend that you get this book, I assure you it will help your marriage!

Again the book is "for women only-what you need to know about the inner lives of men" by Shaunti Feldhahn. I also would strongly urge you to go to www.newspring.cc and listen to the current series, Beautiful, it has helped me so much!!!