Quick post, only because I thought this was funny at the time (still do).

During the Christmas season, we had many packages being delivered (since all of our family is out of town, they ship our gifts to us).

I happened to notice a package being delivered by a Budget (rent-a-van). I later found out it was via Fed-EX, but thought it was funny that a random rental truck delivered a package.  Strange.  I guess you have to use whatever methods you can, huh?

Back in mid September, I joined the Hello Mornings Challenge.  It ran for three months, ending in mid December.  This challenge is usually done with groups meeting on either facebook or twitter.  I belong to neither (and found out that many others were in the same boat).  This past challenge, they opened up an email option to connect with each other. Of course, this was the route I went.

I was put with a group of about 16 women.  We checked in with each other daily and got to know each other pretty well.  I was able to go to another level with these women, opening up to them with my true feelings or prayer requests.  It was easy to do because I didn’t know them and we couldn’t see each other.  It felt so freeing.  I felt such a powerful bond with several of them.  We became prayer warriors for each other.  I could go to them with any prayer request (big or small) and got so many encouraging responses and people checking in on me.  What a wonderful group of women!

This Hello Mornings Challenge is starting back up again on January 16 (registration ends January 2).  If you’d like to sign up for it or find out more information, be sure to check out Kat’s Inspired To Action website.  I hope you’ll join me.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

From our family to yours…

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’m an avid reader of a blog called, Skinned Knees.  You can tell by the title of her blog, that she has a son, right?  Christy and her husband Paul are getting ready to celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary on November 23rd, so she is hosting the Still The One: A Marriage Challenge.

Here are the details (copied from Christy’s blog post):

Each Wednesday during the month of November, five in all, Christy will post a challenge for that week. The challenge will encourage you to love on your man and find ways to make him feel special. She’ll be participating right there with us and knows our marriages will be blessed by this. The Tuesday night prior to each week’s new challenge, she will blog about the previous week and how it went, and hopes that you will as well and link up on her blog, Skinned Knees. Then during the first week in December, she’d love to interview all the participants (that are willing) and write an article all about it later that week.

If you are interested in joining the Still The One Challenge, let her know! She’ll be putting together a Participants Page soon and would love to include you on it! When you email her, include your name, blog and where we can find you on the web if you’d like. Be in prayer about the challenge and ask God to bless our marriages through it.

I’ve signed up.  Now it’s your turn.

Isn’t that so true? I don’t think many of us just come up with ideas on our own. We look to other things for inspiration and build off of that (tweaking to make it our own). Loved this saying when I saw it and just wanted to post it.

While out and about this past week, Brody and I were sitting at a stoplight (a VERY LONG stoplight).  I had time to memorize every license plate around me and check out the surrounding stores (yep, I felt like I was sitting there that long).

Here was my view:

I looked to my right to see that Auto Zone was having some construction done…new parking lot perhaps.  I first wondered if they were getting ready to demolish it and build something else, then I read the sign, “OPEN, entrance off of Old Buffaloe Road”.  Hmm, ok.

Then I look to my left to see Advance Auto Parts.  Clear as day was the hood of a pick-up truck open with a large sign that read, “Easy Parking”.   Very clever guys…very clever!

I had to laugh.  Very smart on their part for taking advantage of the not-so-easy-to-get-to competition right across the street.

I was flipping through blogs and came across a post titled, “Today I Am” on After Nine to Five‘s blog.  Loved reading through her post and wanted to join in as well, so here we go…

• Ready for life to slow down (big time).  I’m treading water and gasping for breath.
• Wishing that time could stand still for at least one day.
• Excited for upcoming fall activities, especially my first MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) group starting in September.
• Happy to have the new Steven Curtis Chapman CD (re-creation) in my car.  LOVE his music!
• Proud to have the privilege to be called “Mama” (8 long years in the waiting).
• Realizing that I need to stop making excuses and get myself back into shape.
• Finally adjusting to the fact that we may only have one child.  I’m fine with pouring all of my love into our little miracle.
• Noticing that my clothes are starting to feel tight again. Ugh!
• Wasting Spending too much time on the computer and not enough time in front of my sewing machine or in a chair reading a good book.
• Hungry for water.  Can you be hungry for a liquid?  I’m so parched right now.
• Looking forward to waking my son up in the morning, hearing him ask for “Dada” (he always asks for the parent he’s not with) and then seeing him smile at me.
• Thankful for the family that I have, that they love me unconditionally, for the church that we attend and how it’s such a perfect fit for us, and to know God and have a relationship with Him.

Brody and I went to the grocery store today and two things made me laugh.  We turned the corner to see a Pug balloon in the middle of the aisle. I’ve never seen anything like this (how do you know how much helium to put in them to make sure they stay grounded on the floor…the feet weren’t weighted).  Then we walked out to the car and walked past the cart in the ground.  Both random things, but both made me laugh.

My husband wasn’t thrilled that I displayed the “goofy” (how he described it) picture of our son (upper right corner of the winner post). He says he looks like the silver teeth dude from James Bond. LOL! I completely agree. It is a HORRIBLE photo of him (and he’s such a cute kid).

I had to redeem myself and post a few pictures of Brody that aren’t goofy. Enjoy!

…shrinking mommy of 2.

So I changed the way I chose the winner.  I see random.org used everywhere, so figured that was the way to go. When I finally checked it out (earlier today), I was surprised to see that it cost almost $5 to use their “random picker”.  Um, no thanks.  I’ll use my next best thing…my son.  He’s unbiased.

We let him go to bed a little later than usual (as you can see, he’s already in his pajamas).  I printed out the comments left on the giveaway post (16 in all…not counting the comment I left), cut them into individual comments, waded them up (sophisticated system, huh?) and had my son pick one.

Congratulations to shrinking mommy of 2!  I really hope you like everything!  I’m also throwing in a mini journal (something not handmade in case you’re not a fan of handmade items).  The camera didn’t get the coloring right on the journal. It’s a rust/brown color, has a magnetic closure, has lined paper and a red bookmark for keeping your place.  Enjoy and congratulations again!  I’ll send you an email requesting your address.

Thanks to everyone who entered my first giveaway. Since I had more response than I thought I would, watch out…there may be another giveaway fairly soon.