Faith, Family and Friends

Jonah & Sister, Claire

This adorable young man,

Jonah

and his precious twin, Claire

are the grandbabies of one of my dearest friends, Lynne Griffies

and her husband, Allen.

They were too cute not to post on today!

Lynne is an accomplished photographer

and we have plans this summer

to gather some of her shots

and publish a coffee table book!

Stay tuned and remember,

you first heard about her book here!

Family & Friends~

Here are some snapshots I have confiscated.

Our princess in Mississippi, Alaina~

We were able to spend time with them Saturday

and it is always such fun for us.

I'm hoping that Stacey has some snapshots

to send me from our time with them.

I forgot our camera, rats, but she had hers!

Austin ~ don't you know he really wants to be

somewhere else? "Okay, mom, hurry."

Ian liked the Easter bunny.

Noah did not.

Two of our three daughters,
Leslie & Stacey~
we are truly blessed.

Now I need for Jenny to send me the snapshots
she took at her house Sunday~
and here are some dear friends
that we miss a lot!
Hey Buck's!!

it's about time to get together again!!!

We will be celebrating with Jenny & her family after worship this afternoon. There will be additional thanksgiving offered for the apparent health of the child they are expecting, along with the latest news that this grandchild is a baby girl, of which her two brothers had no doubt that this was indeed a 'baby sister'. I look forward to being with them, and sincerely hope that today will be a beautiful Easter for you as well. Happy Easter everyone~

We're home!

Back from Mississippi,

and finding out the gender of

our newest grandchild!

Celebrating Leslie's birthday!

Watching Austin & Ian playing,

Alaina dressing in her princess outfit,

and Noah loving the trains!

A beautiful day for driving, for laughing,

loving, sharing, and finding out

if we're having a grandson or grandaughter!

{You'll have to wait for Jenny to post

before you read it here!}

Stay tuned.

News & snapshots coming!!

Making Dreams Work~

It's always heart warming to me to read of inspirations in our world and I read of another one this morning. The Feathered Nest is a spot I love to visit and I always leave a better person for having brought a bit of Dawn Edmonson back with me. She has written of a friend of hers that came to the edge of losing her business, only to work hard, do without, and make a return with hard work, determination, and faith. She did this without a government bailout or whining. Here's a bit about her ~Dawn Dallaire ~ the owner of Clearly Fun Soap; successful business owner. Dawn was awarded Business Person of the Year for Georgia in 2008 and right after winning, lost $200,00 dollars when Linen 'N Things went belly up and bailed on debts. Dawn's company overhead was drastically affected, and she went without a paycheck for nine months (take THAT overpriced execs, AIG, GMC and Ford MotorCompany!). Slowly, but surely, Clearly Fun Soap is recovering. A wonderful team of workers, and family members are bringing it back. CNN and Brook Baldwin recently interviewed Dawn to learn more of her survival story.

Visit her website. The soaps are too cute, shipping and handling are cheap, and you'll be helping someone much like yourself. I think you'll want a bit of everything, just as I do!

For you Bunco girlfriends, check this soap out!! Bunco Babe Bar Soap ~ you gotta have it!

The bunnies will be coming soon,

to hide eggs and leave tasty chocolates~

where will you find your hidden eggs?

and where will you have your Easter lunch?

I Will Be a Better Mother~

There are women that become mothers without effort, without thought, without patience or loss and though they are good mothers and love their children, I know that I will be better.

I will be better not because of genetics, or money or that I have read more books but because I have struggled and toiled for this child.

I have longed and waited. I have cried and prayed. I have endured and planned over and over again. Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams.

I will notice everything about this child. I will take time to watch my child sleep, explore, and discover. I will marvel at this miracle every day for the rest of my life.

I will be happy when I awake in the middle of the night to the sound of my child, knowing that I can comfort, hold and feed him and that I am not waking to take another temperature, pop another pill, take another shot, or cry tears of a broken dream. My dream will be crying for me.

I count myself in this sense; that God has given me this insight, this special vision with which I will look upon my child that my friends will not see. Whether I parent a child I actually give birth to or a child that God leads me to, I will not be careless with my love. I will be a better mother for all that I have endured.

I am a better wife, a better aunt, a better daughter, neighbor, friend and sister because I have known pain. I know disillusionment as I have been betrayed by my own body. I have been tried by fire and hell many never face, yet given time, I stood tall. I have prevailed. I have succeeded. I have won.

So now when others hurt around me, I do not run from their pain in order to save myself discomfort. I see it, mourn it, and join them in theirs. I listen. And even though I cannot make it better, I can make it less lonely. I have learned the immense power of another hand holding tight to mine, of other eyes that moisten as they learn to accept the harsh truth and when life is beyond hard.

I have learned a compassion that only comes with walking in those shoes. I have learned to appreciate life. Yes, I will be a wonderful mother. ~Author Unknown

Thank you, Shawna, for posting this tonight on your site. My heartfelt prayers are with you and Daniel as you travel this path. I have been there, and it is not an easy one. My Jenny was the only child I was able to carry to term, and it took five years to become pregnant with her.

Johnny and I suffered a miscarriage during the fall of '88. {We were to suffer one more, a total of four, but I carried this child the longest.} Our child would have been twenty this month. I think on this each spring and wonder what he or she would have looked like, what dreams they would have held in their heart. I have always, always hated the words "we lost the baby", for we don't lose them. We know where they are, where they have returned. They are simply gone from us but for a while. We will see them again, if we live a worthy life. And I so intend to live that life, to see those children that are mine, and to be reunited once more.

The Little Girl and The Wolf
by James Thurber
One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest
for a little girl to come along
carrying a basket of food to her grandmother.
Finally a little girl did come along
and she was carrying a basket of food.
"Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf.
The little girl said yes, she was.
So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived
and the little girl told him
and he disappeared into the wood.
When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house
she saw that there was somebody in bed
with a nightcap and nightgown on.
She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed
when she saw that it was not her grandmother
but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look
any more like your grandmother
than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge.
So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket
and shot the wolf dead.

Moral ~ It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

A big 'thank you' to Michael Erfman tonight for the second biggest laugh of my day! The following post will clue in to why Michael is the second~

I Laughed And Laughed!

If you read Jenny's blog, then you've already seen this.

But for those of you that haven't, I just have to share!

John always seems to be the first one to tell me

that Jenny has a new post on their family site.

Tonight, he couldn't wait for me to get there.

And yes, I laughed.

And laughed.

First, there was this snapshot of Ian and his crush.

I laughed, but thought 'The Look' was too cute~

And then I got to this snapshot.

Ian is giving his 'fans' a thumbs up.

Oh yes, he loves watching the crowd~

I laughed. I really laughed this time.

And then, I scrolled to this picture.

And totally lost it. Truly, I lost it.

Apparently he is 'stretching' before the kick.

Whatever, it still rocked my soul.

Do you think kids have any idea how funny they are?!!

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.' Her parents beamed. 'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guygo over

and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

[Thanks to Deborah Aldridge for the laugh today!}