WOW!!!

What an emotional week it has been! Circumstances can change in a second. Thank you God for carrying us this past year. Coy got a full time position this week and we are so blessed/thankful/excited. There really are no words, just extreme awe in what a mighty God we serve. We have praised God and worshiped Him through changes in our lives, prayed for His will, for great things. Prayer works, I promise. Not immediately, not tomorrow, we never know, but in God's timing.

Romans 8:26-39 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, either height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's NOTHING my God cannot do."

A Sweet Story from my Daddy

A newly married couple was preparing dinner together, a roast, and the man watched as his new bride rubbed the roast with olive oil, sprinkled salt and pepper on it, and then cut an inch off the right side of the roast and an inch off the left side, put it into a pan and put the pan in the oven. The man thought this was a bit strange, so he asked, "Honey, why did you just cut an inch off each side of the roast?" His wife replied, "That's just how you make a roast. That's how my mother showed me to do it and I don't see any reason to change it." The man still didn't understand, but he thought, "If this is the strangest thing she does, I guess I can get used to it." He counted his blessings and let the matter drop.

A few weeks later, they were invited to her mother's house for dinner. She said, "I'm having a roast, I hope you like them." "Definitely," the man said. He thought, "Oh good, maybe now I'll find out where this business started."

When they arrived at this mother-in-law's house, the man went straight into the kitchen and asked if he could watch her prepare the meal. "Of course," she said, so he sat and watched her rub the roast with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, cut an inch off the right side and an inch off the left side, put the roast in a pan and put it in the oven. He asked his mother-in-law, "Why did you cut an inch off each side of the roast?" She replied, "That's just how you make a roast."

The poor man was getting more and more baffled, but he enjoyed his dinner and they returned home.

A couple months passed, then they were invited to her grandmother's house for dinner. The man, determined as ever, called ahead and said, "Would you mind a special request for dinner? I'd really like to have a roast." She agreed and a few days later, they went to grandma's.

He asked if he could watch her prepare the meal and she said "sure."

So he sat down and watched her rub olive oil on the roast, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, put it into a pan and put it the oven.

He said, "Didn't you forget something?"

She said, "No, I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

He said, "You didn't cut an inch off each side of the roast before putting it in the pan."

She laughed and said, "Oh, that! I stopped doing that years ago."

"Why?" he asked.

"I got a bigger pan."



Such a sweet story, but a great reminder how precious certain people in our lives are. So many sad things are happening in our town and around the world. This is a great reminder to slow down and enjoy those little, sweet moments about people we love so much.

Breaking and Entering

So, one night recently, we decided to go out to dinner. I had gotten off work and come home and laid down for a quick nap. Once I got up, we were starving and wanted to get to the restaurant quickly. I got my shoes on, Coy got a vest on, and we were on our way.

Until we realized that we did not have our KEYS! I was furious! I had a rough day at work, Coy was hungry, and I was withering away by the minute. Thankfully I had a cute table to sit at while Coy figured out what to do.

We have three keys to our house, our 2 and my Mama has a spare. Mama and Daddy were out of town that night, so there was no way we were getting in without a fight.

Since there were basically no tools outside, Coy had to get our garden tools and a hammer in the bed of his truck. (Thank GOD he keeps one in the bed!)

Breaking into a house really is not that hard.

Exhibit A:





This was used to pry back the door jam... can you catch my enthusiasm about what was going on?!?

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:



Once he removed the door jam, we had to pry my precious door open.

Before:

After:



We finally got back in the house, really after only 30 minutes. We got our keys and went to dinner. It was really funny talking about it the next day and I know it is something we will laugh about the rest of our lives. That night, though, it was a touchy subject!

Debuting Saturday Night...

This Saturday night, at our church's Sweetheart Banquet, Coy and I will make our appearance as contestants on...

I am soooo nervous I think I could throw up.

How am I supposed to do something and be serious sitting next to him on stage? It's going to be so embarassing, but so fun!

I really hope we win. I'm kind of competitive, it's part of the control issues :)

Surprise!

I am normally a calm and reasonable person... when I am asleep. HA!!! I tend to overreact, and over dramatize things, sometimes, don't we all? A few weeks back, Coy told me he was having something made for me. Since that very minute, I have had this burning desire to find out what this "thing" was and to make SURE it was something we needed and something I would love.

Let me back up a little... I love control. I like knowing what is going on. I have known what I was getting for Christmas and birthdays since the beginning of middle school. I like to plan out what is going to happen. I like to be the deciding factor in most decisions, both big and small. I balance the check book better than my bank does. I like to do the laundry because I know the exact number of scoops of detergent and to use two dryer sheets with my clothes. I am the oldest sibling and extremely bossy. This makes marriage challenging, and I need to let go of some things, I guess.

So... when Coy informed me about thing thing mentioned above, I was having a freakout in my mind. For two and a half weeks, I tried to find out from anyone and everyone what was going on. I tried to get it out of him without letting him know it was bothering me.

If I don't know what is going on, I am usually spending the day like this:

So, to my surprise, I came home Tuesday night from work to this:

The bed was made, and a gift bag and rose from Unforgettable! And inside, was a beautiful gift. He really did have it made. He loves me enough to know what I love and to get it done for me. Pearls and black, what more could I ask for?

They are heavy and absolutely beautiful. An early Valentine's gift to wear to the banquet at church Saturday night.

And in this gift was yet another gift, a simple but firm reminder that I need to let some control go. Instead of being quick to decide, I need to slow down and let God have control. I can't make all the decisions, neither can Coy. We need to work together, but know that nothing is in our control. We know this, it just took a new necklace to get the point across. :)

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

Happy Birthday Alli

February 5 is one of my sisters birthdays! Allison will be 21 tomorrow. She is one of my favorite people. She will make you laugh without even trying. She is sweet to anyone she meets. She is always smiling, unless things are not going her way. She is super smart. She is a Christian and someone I love to be around. She is a junior at Clemson and I get really excited when she comes home to visit.

She is almost 5 years younger than me and growing up, she was my best friend. We had so much fun together (mainly because everything went my way because I am the older sister)! She is engaged and will get married next year. Her fiance is a pretty good guy, too (and one of my most devoted readers)!

I looked through Mama's house the other day and got some of my most favorite pictures of her.

The first is a picture of her from Vacation Bible School in 1992.

She was 2 in this picture as well. I think she was precious.

This was us at the beach one spring. I am loving our jackets. I think my shorts are better. The early 90's were so awesome.

Here is another one at the beach in the spring. I think our Mama liked putting us in awkward looking outfits and taking pictures at the beach. 

This was a picture from her 11th birthday, I think. The candles are grouped too closely to count, so I had to go down memory lane for her hair-dos. This was one of the sweet ones! HA!

This was the Halloween the WHOLE family dressed as M&M's. I really wish I could have found a picture of the 5 of us in our outfits. 

This is more recent, a few summers ago. So tan!



This is us with Abby, the baby, after a recital last spring.

That was a fun trip down memory lane!

Alli,

Thanks for bringing so much fun into my life these past 21 years. I can't believe you are this old. I really have enjoyed watching you grow up. You were the person I learned everything with, good and bad. I have no clue what my life would be like without you. Each of these pictures is a vivid reminder of how much we have been through and what you truly mean to me. I became a nurturing and loving sister the day you were born. You are so beautiful in so many ways. I am beyond proud to call you my sister and friend. I can't wait to see where God takes you in the next 21 years and look back through all the memories.

Love,

Ari

Everything comes out in the wash...

Or does it? I have never liked doing laundry, but when I got married, the dislike turned to hatred. Maybe it was based partly on my laundry room being unorganized, but most days, I feel laundry will never end and in my head, this is what our laundry room looks like.

No, this really isn't our laundry, ours is worse! Not really, but by the time the weekend comes, I feel like the dirty clothes are like this. Once it gets this bad, I usually lose interest and don't even want to think about doing it at all!

So, I used to feel bad when laundry would pile up and we would have to wear ugly clothes that we hate and are uncomfortable in. It was a vicious cycle... until I went to Ross and saved our marriage and got cute stuff to make me WANT to do laundry.

First, whatever the dirty clothes go into must be liked LOVED!

Once that is done, and full, I go to the laundry room and smile. I used to use liquid detergent, but I saw something on another blog and got a huge glass jar from Wal Mart and it made me so happy... it's the little things, right?



I absolutely LOVE these two things in my laundry room! It makes me so giddy to see my jar full of detergent and my pretty basket holding my dryer sheets. So much better than a ghetto jug of detergent and a busted up box of dryer sheets. It is pure bliss!

Another thing I love about the laundry room is the little storage thing in between the washer and dryer. Coy got it as a surprise when he picked up the dryer. I usually do not like surprises, but this was a great one. It has three drawers, a small, and two large. The bottom drawers hold Clorox, Spray 'N Wash, cleaning supplies, and lots of goodies. The top drawer is where I keep MY stash of tools, screws, nails, and change I find in the wash.



Laundry can be a dirty, nasty thing that most people don't like, just take some time, a little bit of money, and make it something you enjoy. Remember, it all comes out in the wash!

P.S. I added this to Traci's blog, go check out other laundry rooms as well!

The Making of OUR China Cabinet

Because our house is on the smaller side, I always assumed that a china cabinet was out of the picture until we moved. Boy, was I wrong. I moved the kitchen table out (more on that later) and put my favorite sitting chair in the kitchen with my china cabinet.

I found a good china cabinet at Sally Anne for a good price and the vision was in place. She did need love and attention, though!

We put her in the kitchen and got to work! I took the doors off and removed the glass from the top doors, it made it much better. I Kilzed it once and then it took two coats of paint, Linen Napkin from Lowe's.

I decided not to paint the inside, no one will see it!

I have it almost complete, I am just waiting to get new hinges. Here is the top part complete!

I put a chair in here by my the small table from the living room and got a lamp. The lamp was squatty looking, so I used one of my Granny's old cookbooks and put it under there.

I think I need a rug in the kitchen and some other things, but so far, I think it is looking good.

I can't wait to show what I put in the living room in place of that small red table!