Boys will be boys....

Yesterday afternoon after it rained Garrett wanted to put on his rain boots. After it rains we get a huge mud puddle at the end of our driveway. Since Garrett had never gotten to wear his boots and play in puddles I decided to let him. (Well he instinctively did it on his own - there was no "letting him!") And by the way, we do live at the end of a dead end road in case you are wondering by looking at these pictures. Graham decided he would sit in the driveway and eat rocks until he realized what his brother was doing looked like more fun. So they played in this puddle for about 30 minutes. Garrett ended up sticking his head in it and laying down on his back in the water. Needless to say, after it was all over they were only allowed to come in the house naked and go straight to the tub!!! What a JOY these two are!!!

The Iris

Okay, so I'm really about to put myself out on a limb, here. I have never in my life written a poem or even attempted to, but Saturday night all these words in the form of phrases kept coming to my mind. I couldn't sleep until I wrote it all down. It is very elementary sounding, but I feel like I am supposed to share it.














"The Iris"
I noticed this iris the other day
And it made me think of you.
It was growing all by itself along the driveway,
And it was your favorite color of flower - blue.
I call it "my little hug from God" because it felt so real
It felt as though you were watching me
And that is helping me to heal.
Another "hug" came from God on Mother's Day
When in a box outside two pocket angels I could see
It was as if I could hear you say,
One was for Boo, and the other one was for me.
I've often told others one thing that gives me peace
Is that I didn't have to watch you suffer through a disease.
Your Savior took you unexpectedly at your happiest
For that is one reason I feel so oddly blessed.
I've always thought if I lost someone close that I would feel so alone,
But I have felt just the opposite - God's goodness He has shown.
My God is drawing me closer to Him than I have ever felt before,
I am overwhelmingly amazed of the Love that He has poured.
I can't explain His comfort, His sovereignty, or His plan,
But His right hand upholds me - that I do understand.

Back to Destin

We went back to Destin for a week with our friends, Catherine, John and Thomas. We had fun even though it rained all week. (Somehow it didn't rain while the guys played golf, though!) Graham and I didn't even get to go to the beach. Therefore, we ended up going to the outlet mall and napping a lot. We did get to eat good, though. And the best part was that we were at least out of Jackson for a little while.

Jeremy and Graham (I love this picture!!!)

Catherine, Thomas and John

One night we went to dinner at Stinky's Fish Camp at Santa Rosa beach. The food was very good. However we had a very "stinky" episode. Catherine and I were outside with the boys and Catherine smelled a stinky diaper of Thomas's. Then Graham turned around and had poop all over the back of his shorts, overflowing his diaper and on his shirt. Then Garrett said, "Mommy, I poo-pooed!" We had all 3 boys in the minivan changing their diapers. It stunk so bad!!! Since Graham had messed up his clothes, he had to ride back to the condo in his diaper. After all that we decided we had to get family pictures in front of the sign.

Thomas and Graham rode in the cart as we were packing up to leave. (The wind was blowing, but Graham's hair was already sticking up some!!!)

"Deeper Still" Event in Nashville

I had the best weekend a couple of weeks ago in Nashville with 11 other wonderful women. We went to the Deeper Still conference in Nashville. The speakers were Patricia Shirer, Beth Moore and Kay Arthur. It was amazing!!! We actually went to an overflow site at Belmont University with 3500 other women because the convention center was packed out at 25,000 women. Friday night we were surprised with a performance by Mandeesa (I don't know if I spelled her name right.) She was the heavy-set christian girl on American Idol last season. We got to worship with her and hear her testimony about being on American Idol. My friend, Stacy, who was there said she felt like she was at a Bon Jovi concert. She started screaming when Mandeesa came out!!! (You have to know Stacy!!!)

Saturday night after the conference we went to dinner at "Bounty". (I think that's the name of it.) Anyway, it was so delicious. It was tapas style dining where you order a lot of appetizer-sized items and everyone shared.
Pictured are: Catherine, Brandy, Amanda, Chrissie, Nakeetsha

Mrs. "Freda"- (a very funny story about her name), Christy, Laurie, Stacy, Mrs. Sue, Noel

After dinner we played the funniest game. Everyone takes a piece of paper and puts their name on it and 3 things that have happened to them. You have someone to host the game who reads everyone's pieces of paper and picks 3 people to come up in front of everyone. Then the host says, "Tell me about the time you....." Each of the three people have to tell a story. It only happened to one of the three people and the other 2 people have to make up it up. Then everyone votes on who it really happened to. It was so funny watching people make up a story on the spot and some stories you "thought" were made up. Some of these ladies I look at totally differently when I see them now!!!