Happy Birthday Bo!

Today Bo turns 2!! He is truly an answer to prayer as he started his little life with a few problems.




I love you Bo!!

March's NEW

My New Year's resolution of doing/trying something new every month has been something that I've, surprisingly, been able to keep up! I have to say that I was a little nervous about this month, because I just couldn't come up with anything...until today!



I was featured on a real blog!! Not one of my dear friends who mentioned me on their blog because they're just nice like that, but a complete stranger's blog who lots and lots of people read. Granted, my name is misspelled, but having an unusually spelled name, I'm used to it.

Go check it out here!

Top Ten Tuesday

Sadly, it's been another whole week since my last post. Yet another dismal reminder that my life is pretty much as exciting as the daily happenings of a sloth.

But I am kind of excited about this week's top ten because it is in celebration of St. Patty's Day...kind of.

This year, I won...er...ended up with this little guy at our grade level christmas party.

While he's not technically a leprchaun, I choose to believe he's a cousin. So he'll have to do for this...

...TOP-TEN-PLACES-LUCKY-THE-GNOME-HID-IN-MY-HOUSE!

Try to find Lucky in the following ten pictures:

Top Ten Tuesday

Ok, I just realized that my last post was my TTT from last week...which means that I've let a whole week go by without updating my blog. Boo on me!

So, my TTT post today is...

TOP-TEN-THINGS-THAT-KEPT-ME-FROM-UPDATING-MY-BLOG-LAST-WEEK!!

Super exciting, I know.

1. Baked layer #1 of a wedding cake.
2. Baked layer #2 of a wedding cake.
3. Baked layer #3 of a wedding cake.
4. Baked layer #4 of a wedding cake.
5. Baked layer #5 of a wedding cake.
6. Frosted all 5 layers.
7. Packed up and transported all 5 layers to Athens, Ga.
8. Stacked all 5 layers to make a pretty wedding cake, if I do say so myself.
9. Enjoyed the wedding in Athens of my cousin.
10. Ate some delicious food (and cake!) at the reception!

Top Ten Tuesday

I'm new to the Top Ten Tuesday and seeing how it's after 10:00 pm, I realize this is almost running into Wednesday.

Deal with it!

So my Top Ten is my Top Ten Favorite TV Characters!

1. Jack Bauer (24)

Nuff said!

2. Jack Shepherd (Lost)

I know I might get some grief for this one, but I just love him! He's a great leader despite being thrown into the position. I love his vulnerability...and let's face it, he's h-o-t!

3. Sawyer (Lost)

Does this one really need an explanation?! The way "Freckles" just rolls off his tongue is intoxicating!

4. Phil Keoghan (host of The Amazing Race)

OK...so he's not really a character, per se, but he is someone I enjoy watching on TV. He's funny, he's cute...and he's not bad on the eyes! And it really touched my heart that he's learned sign language b/c of the deaf contestant on the show.

5. Cast of Friends

I really tried to pick one, but they all work so well together. This is one show I could literally watch all day! I have seasons 5-10 so far (I buy them at Target when they go on sale for like half off) and usually on Saturdays or just some day when nothing's on, I pop one in and literally laugh my head off.

6. Matt Lauer (Today Show co-host)

So this is probably not how you're used to seeing Mr. Lauer, but this is one reason why he's on my top ten list :) Actually, I really do enjoy watching him on the Today show. He's really funny and if you have to get your news from somewhere, may as well be somewhere cute!

I'm just noticing that the majority of my list is men!!

Moving on...

7. Cast of Saved by the Bell

Going back a few years here! Again, there's no way to pick just one. They're a packaged deal :)

8. Cliff Huxtable (Cosby Show)

The world would be a much better place if parents would take a few lessons from Mr. Huxtable!!

9. Ty Pennington (Extreme Home Makeover)

Ok, I could go with the obvious here...ay yi yi! But I really believe what he does is a ministry! He meets people at their need and I really believe he feels this is his life mission. He puts his heart and soul into it.

10. Curious George

Are we really surprised I'm ending with a man?! Ok, he may be more of a boy and you're probably scratching your head about this one. Ya see, my nephew Evan, got me hooked on him. Evan would watch Curious George back to back to back to back...you get the idea. I can pretty much say I've seen just about every episode. And I have actually caught myself watching it on Sundays morning before church!

See more TTT at Oh Amanda.

Puzzle Pieces

Church was great yesterday! Children's church and big church! In children's church, Kraze, we started a new virtue, hope. Even when bad things happen to us, God loves us and has a plan for us.

I have heard that my whole life. And, thankfully, I've always known that to be true in my life. But, I saw it from a whole different perspective in church...children's church!
I love it when that happens!!

Our bible story was about Paul and all the troubles he encountered sailing from Caesarea to the island of Malta. In spite of all this, Paul didn't lose hope. He knew God had a plan for him.

So after that, we gave each group of kids a puzzle to put together. Seems easy enough, right? Well, we didn't give them the box to see what it looked like or the last few pieces. Sneaky!

Of course, they could only go so far and had a hard time putting it together not knowing what it looked like. After a while, we gave them the rest of the pieces and the box. They were so excited to put the whole thing together.

Here's the point:
Our life is just like that puzzle. Some of the pieces are good things in our life and some are bad things. We only see a piece at a time. We can't see the "box" and we don't have all the pieces. But thankfully GOD does! He knows the big picture and He has ALL the pieces. And good and bad, all the pieces make up our life.

And even though bad things happen, we can trust that God loves us and has a plan!

February's NEW

I'm two for two in keeping up with my New Year's resolution of doing/trying something new every month. I got this one in right before the end of the month.

This month's NEW is also why my house was topsy turvy.

I HAD MY KITCHEN & BACK SPLASH TILED!!

My kitchen originally had linoleum. A while ago I noticed that my linoleum was actually peeling away from the wall! It was coming up in the corners. Aside from being incredibly tacky, I knew it would have to be replaced b/c I hope to one day move outta here.

Thankfully, my brother does tiling on the side. Check him out here. Call him for all your tiling needs :)

It was quite a process. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING touching the floor, had to be removed. Including the fridge and oven!


The oven ended up in the back yard b/c my living room is only so big!

I forgot to get a before pic of the floor, but here's the back splash before and the floor during




And the finished product





The floor looks a little streaky. I'm supposed to lightly mop for a few weeks to get off the extra grout. You also can't tell a big difference between the before and after pics of the floor because I wanted to stay as neutral and similar to the original as possible. Wait till I get my own house! Then I'll go a little more crazy!!

I was very pleased with how it turned out! My next project is to repaint the kitchen. Anybody wanna help :)