Ok, Bloggy Peeps, This Is A Call To Action

I'm issuing a SOS, warning bell, mayday, get on my knees and beg, distress signal to all of my bloggy peeps.

I have a friend, who is a SAINT, who needs your help. Many of you may know her - many more of you may know of her, many more of you may know of her ministry.

Her name is Amy Beth and she is the founder, director, head chick in charge, of Starlite Ministries, an amazing program that takes the Word of God into public schools (wow, right?) by means of after school programs for girls. They have weekday programs, lock-ins, & spa days (where the Starlite volunteers paint nails, fix hair, etc.) all through the local schools. The whole time they have the girls, they are teaching about the love of Jesus to kids who might not hear it any other place. The cost to the girls? Free. Nada. Zip.

Here's where she needs your help. Aka, the SOS.

Microsoft has offered to help Starlite Ministries earn some major fundage. They have created a downloadable task bar called Microsoft Live Search. They have told AB that the more people who download Microsoft Live Search, the more money Starlite can earn.

In other words, free cash for an amazing cause. All you gotta do is download the task bar (if you don't like it, you can delete it). Here's the link with all the instructions.

I'm gonna be honest. I don't know anything about Microsoft Live Search. The program only runs on Internet Explorer, and I have Safari. But I DO know that this ministry is worth anything and everything we can possibly do to keep it running. Due to the squeeze on the economy, several of her regular donators have had to suspend donations. This is getting pretty critical for her. They have made a promise never to charge the girls money for coming, and (Praise Him) girls are coming out of the woodwork to experience her programs. More girls + less money = problem.

Please consider downloading the task bar. If you do, leave a comment on AB's blog and you will be entered in a contest to win a $25 Starbucks gift card. Holla!

Oh, and I failed to mention that Amy Beth is 24 years old. She started Starlite at the ripe ole age of 18 and didn't draw her first paycheck until 4 years later. She's amazing and God is working wonders through her ministry.

Let's help a sista out, how bout it?

Souptacular!

I wish you all knew my dad. He's a cool guy, Baptist Preacher, Alabama fan (I don't hold that against him...), wonderful PawPaw, and a really good cook. He and I share a deep, deep love for The Food Network. And I'll venture out to say that he is the best, THE BEST soup maker in the history of the world. Clearly I'm a little biased, but his soup is GOOD. And it's never, ever, the same recipe twice.

So, in honor of BooMama's Souptacular Crockpotalooza, I'll share the recipe to my dad's famous soup. Actually, I'll share the recipe that he made last weekend. Because if he makes it again next weekend, it won't be the same.

I'll also go ahead and tell you that my dad doesn't know how to cook in small quantities. He cooks for 20 people, even if the meal is just for he and my mom. So this recipe will make enough to feed you, your family, your neighbors, your kids' teachers, have leftovers for days, and freeze some. Don't judge. He grew up in a large family.

Reminds me of the time that he smoked chicken during one of our visits to their house. There were 4 adults, 1 child, and 2 babies. He cooked 36 pieces of chicken. Mercy.

Ok. Here's the recipe.

Empty The Cabinet Soup
Ingredients:
1 ham bone (we had smoked a ham earlier in the week and had a ham bone. Not necessary, but really, really good. Our ham bone had lots of ham still on it.)
If you don't have a ham bone, you will need 4 cups of any kind of meat. I've had this soup with ham and chicken. Yum. We added more ham to our soup in addition to the ham bone.
1 jar of pearl onions (with the juice - very important ingredient. Don't pour out the juice)
2 cans whole tomatoes
1 large can tomato sauce
2 small cans tomato paste
Veggies - we used fresh-frozen corn, field peas, lima beans, "soup mix" - which had green beans, carrots, & english peas - these veggies come in bags in the freezer section - we used a little over 1/2 a bag of each of the veggies. You can add okra and potatoes and the soup will be a little thicker.
2 cans Low Sodium chicken stock
2 cans Low Sodium beef stock
4 cups water
Garlic Powder (my dad has a really scientific way of measuring the garlic powder. He starts pouring and "circles the pot" 4 times. I think that would roughly measure out to about 4 tablespoons.)
1 T ham base
Black pepper to taste.
**Notice we didn't add any salt to this recipe. There is a lot of salt in the chicken stock, beef stock (even though they are low sodium), tomato sauces, & the ham base. You can always add salt later, but you can never take it out.

Combine all ingredients - in no particular order.
Simmer on med/low with the lid on.
The longer you cook it, the better it tastes.
It's great with crackers, but even better with cornbread. It's also good with a splash of Tabasco, too.

And, like I said before, invite the neighbors. You'll have plenty.

Head back over to BooMama's post and you can also find lots of other soup recipes, too.

Have a great, fantastically wonderful day!

***UPDATE***
Apparently, the mention of ham base has raised several questions amongst the bloggy community. Apparently, a lot of you peeps don't know what ham base is. So here's an explanation....
Ham base is a concentrated ham flavor - like bullion, but in a paste form. It intensifies the flavor of soups. You can get ham base, beef base, chicken base, and vegetable base. It comes in a little jar and can be found near the soup/stock/bullion in most grocery stores.
Except I haven't checked "most grocery stores." It just sounded good. I know for sure that it can be found on isle 3 in my Publix right down the street from my house. As for your grocery store? You're on your own with that one. However, I DO know that if you are making soup, a base of some kind will make it yummier.

Peace out.

Nashville

I'm here.

Hubs has a meeting here tomorrow, so I tagged along.

I plan on doing productive stuff like shopping and sleeping late.

I'm pretty excited about the sleeping late part.

And the shopping without the kids part.

Because they're at home with my mother-in-law. Bless her wonderful heart.

And, you wanna know what the most exciting part of the whole trip is?
I get to hang out with this chick tomorrow. Because she's cool. And she lives here. Which makes me insanely jealous of her. Because people in Nashville are rock stars. Well, at least Annie is.

And Reba. Holla.

I'll be back tomorrow - have a great Tuesday.

What Up, Peeps.

So.

Yeah.

I've been a little busy as of late.

Ye Olde Blog has had to sit on the sidelines and be quiet for a little while. She has not enjoyed it.

So in order to appease the blog, I'll let you know what we've been up to.

You know, because I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath to find out this information.

Anyhoo, without further ado, I'll present to you "What I've Been Doing, Yo."

I added the Yo just for you. Because I'm gangsta like that.

Ahem.

Mary Emma plays on a travel softball team and we had a tournament last weekend. While playing in the first game (she played 4 in one day), she was running onto the field and ran directly in the path of the girl who was on deck and practicing her swing. Whammo. Mary Emma was hit with a bat right across the chest and went down like a tree. Scared us to freaking death. Turned out it hit her across the front of her right arm and across her chest right below her collar bone. A little higher and her collar bone would've been a goner. A little lower and it would've hit right across her sternum and I don't want to think about what could've happened. It was a scary moment. She has an ugly bat-shaped bruise, but played in the remaining 3 games that day. She's a tough cookie. And before anyone fusses at us, we made totally and completely sure she was ok before we gave her the green light to play again. We talked with a couple of nurses (actual RNs who were also softball moms watching their kids) who checked her out and we made her sit out the rest of the game in which she was hurt. We would've been at the hospital lickety split if we had any question that she wasn't ok. We're not overly competitive sports parents who make their kids play injured. We see the big picture.

Homecoming went very well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it, because I was a mom in charge of wrangling dads who were escorting daughters, and a girl can only multitask in so many directions before her head explodes. But my father-in-law got some pictures and as soon as I get them from him, I'll show them to you. I know you can't wait and will mark the date on your calendar.

Tait is almost completely potty trained. Can I get an Amen? Hallelujah? Holla? Woop Woop? As soon as she masters the whole "pooping in the potty isn't the scariest thing on the entire earth" mindset, we'll be there. That deserves a blog post in itself.

Camille is still hard headed, stubborn, hilarious, and fearless. I'm pretty sure that'll ring true for a long time.

Mary Emma had a field trip to the Symphony this past week. I think she enjoyed it, because HELLO, it's a day out of school. But let's face it. Most 2nd graders are bored silly with the symphony. I, however, was a nervous wreck that day. I hate school buses. I am terrified of them. The thought of a bus wreck with my baby on board scares me a lot. So, as much as I know she loves field trips, I sure wish she could be seat belted in an airbag filled car (or mini-van, in my case) rather than a non-seat belted, no airbag, metal box.

I volunteered last night at the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W. Smith concert. I was working at the Compassion booth. There were a LOT of upsides to the evening. Most importantly, over 100 kids were taken out of poverty through sponsorship. Praise Him for that! I also got in the concert FREE. I also got to see a lot of the concert and it was gooood. I also got to hang out with BooMama (she was working, too) and got to meet Greek Grits when she stopped by the booth to say hey! That was cool. What up, Greek Grits, yo?

After I got home from the concert (at 11:15 pm), Mary Emma, who has been really croupy over the last couple of days, was sleeping in my bed and struggling to breathe. So I packed her up and went to the ER. She has croup and was given a steroid to help her breathe (of course, by the time we got all the way downtown to Children's Hospital, she wasn't wheezing anymore, but was still barking/coughing). We left the hospital at 4:00am and came home. Spencer stayed home this morning so she and I could sleep a little. I got in bed about 4:45 and slept till 10:30. It's nice to say I slept till 10:30, even though it really doesn't count since I went to bed at dawn. However, I'm a wee bit rested.

Lastly, I was leaving the house the other day and was telling Mary Emma goodbye (the little girls were taking naps) and she said to me, "Yo, yizzle, Bye Mommy, Yo." And then made the sideways "peace" signs with both hands.

The gangsta acorn doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?

Thank You, Interpeeps.

I think I might've mentioned once or 20 times before that I am not very internet savvy.

Let's clarify.

I can google and find anything on the internet. I can shop like a skilled professional on the internet. I can look up directions on how to replace tile or how to bake a ham or how to eat a guava fruit on the internet.

Except not the replacing tile part. I mean I can look it up, but let's be honest, I'm not gonna replace any tile. That's why God invented my Dad.

But stuff like replacing the header on my blog, or, for that matter, anything that requires html code isn't optional for me.

I just don't get it.

I have a dream to learn how to create a button. The other day, BooMama was saying that Shannon created a button for her. While Shannon's button is perfectly lovely, I am a little jealous of her button-making abilities.

Because y'all, I don't got em.

However, I just YESTERDAY learned about something that has changed my life. It's a phenomenon called "Google Reader." You, interpeeps, taught me about it. Apparently, something was going horribly wrong with Bloglines, which caused many of you to blog about switching to Google Reader, and me, being ever curious, had to check it out. (And just so you know, I have no idea what I just typed - I'm doing the ole "act like you know what you're talking about and people will think that you actually KNOW what you're talking about" bit). Oh my. It's awesome. Yes, I was a click click click kinda gal until last night when I sat and smiled at my Google Reader page. I didn't know what else to do but smile at it. If Google Reader were a person, I'd hug it and kiss its face.

I'm also amused by small things, in case you didn't catch that before.

So now that my internet savvy abilities have been taken to a whole new level, I have the confidence I need to learn how to create a button.

Or I'll just smile at Google Reader for a while.

Merry Christmas!

My friend, Travis, just released a new CD today called Ring the Bells.

Before I continue, let me clarify the word "friend." Travis is my friend. I'm not sure he really knows who I am. But he should, because I'm a nice person and I know BooMama and I love Jesus and I bought his new CD on iTunes. I'm his Facebook friend. Ok, so he has over 1800 Facebook friends. But I'm one of them. I even met him. Once. In a crowd of about 10,000, but I bet I made an impression. Wonder if he remembers me.... So I think we are friends. I'm star struck easily.

Ahem.

Anyhoo, my FRIEND, Travis, released his new Christmas CD today. And it is goooo-ooood.

I consider myself to be a Christmas music mega fan. I got married at Christmas. I listen to Christmas music in my car at the very first hint of cool in the air. I may or may not have played Christmas music in my car/house during months like April. Or June. If I could have a Christmas tree in my house YEAR ROUND I totally would. Love. It.

For the past several years, Point of Grace's "A Christmas Story" album has been my favorite. I have played it so many times that I wore out the CD and had to buy another one.

Trav's, (see, we are on a nickname basis here) CD trumps that one. I've listened to it TWICE today. Of course, I love the old school songs on the CD, but lawsie, "Jesus Saves" made me stand in my den with my hands up this morning. O. My.

Y'all. Go buy this CD today. You can get it in stores or download it on iTunes (my personal fave - you know, instant gratification). Buy one for friends and family. Stick some in stockings. It's that good. And it's Christmas music. And it's my friend Trav.

What more could you ask for?

I'm Featured!

Hey! I'm featured on the Siesta Spotlight today. Go check it out.

Follow Me

You all know how techy savvy I am. Not.

Anyway, because of some other people being techy savvy and me being able to copy them (thanks, Lisa) I added a "Follow Me" gadget thingy to the side.

Right over here. ----->

Click "follow this blog" and let me know who you peeps are!!! That will make me clap my hands and smile big.

Thank you very much and have a fab Saturday. And War Eagle.

Has Blogging Affected Me? Read On....

This weekend, as I was desperately trying to unblock my brain and think of something to blog about, I received an email from Queen B telling me that she was tagging me in a meme. She didn't tell me what the meme was, though. She's a sly gal. So I went out on a trusty limb and accepted the challenge. Because I am nothing if not a competitor. So here goes.

Here are the rules:

1. Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively.
2. link back to the person who tagged you
3. link back to this parent post
4. tag a few friends or five, or none at all
5. post these rules— or just have fun breaking them

I'm chuckling at the last rule. Because I am a rule breaker (in the most innocent way possible - nothing dangerous like driving fast or playing with knives). So we'll have to see where that might lead.

Anyway.... Ahem....

1. Relationships: I am a naturally social person. I've never been one to stay home for days. Then I quit teaching school to stay home with my oldest daughter and I started staying home more. A little adjustment was required. But I could always throw her on my hip and head out to do whatever I needed. A little more trouble, but totally possible. I lived in the same town I grew up in, so I knew everyone. I couldn't go to Target without running into my entire senior class and was never freaked about being out of the "work force". Then we moved. To Florida. Tallahassee, to be exact. I knew no one. NO ONE. I was staying home, with a 2 year old, in a strange town, and my husband traveled on average 2 nights a week. It was the most alone time of my life. I would go to Target just to hear some adult conversation. I became really involved in my church and made some super amazing friends who helped me keep my sanity. I had to grow up. A lot. I got a little more used to staying home, but was never really fond of it. Then, 4 years later, I had 2 more daughters who were 16 months apart. The logistics changed. It wasn't possible to go out anymore. I had 2 babies. I could hardly handle the grocery store. I mean, where do you put the kids? I put Camille (who was in her pumpkin seat) in the front of the buggy and put Tait (who wasn't old enough to walk along side me) in the back (where the groceries go) and Mary Emma walked beside me. Great, except I didn't have room for groceries. My cart was full of kids. I realized that going out, anywhere, was out of the question, and I became a recluse be default.

Then I discovered Bloggyville. I started the blog mainly to keep up with the cute little things that the kids did. I've never been good at keeping a Baby Book and don't even mention the word "Scrapbook" to me. I will start twitching. But people started reading. And I started reading theirs. And a friendship formed. Then another. Then another. I was able to have a semblance of a social life, even being the mom of 1 kid and 2 toddlers - when leaving the house some days is more trouble than it's worth. I've always loved Beth Moore, but when I started reading her blog, I became a part of a community that has become VERY near to my heart. I even went to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago to meet these incredible people. There were over 700 of us and it was awesome. Here's a picture of us.



So definitely relationships have been positively affected by blogging.

2. Confidence: I never thought I could write. I never liked writing. I actually hated it. I have a friend who has wanted to be a writer for as long as I have known her and it has always blown my mind. Yuck. But now, I am enjoying it. I might throw a random comma in here and there (sorry, grammar/punctuation snobs) but I am having fun. And I might venture out and say that I'm decent at it. Ok, I'll step back from that - not sure I'm there yet.

3. Laughter: You people are hilarious. I laugh EVERY DAY at blogs I read. I will almost always click on a link to another blog when I reading a post because I hope there's something funny there. I read BooMama religiously because I laugh until my sides hurt. Plus, she's a really cool person, in real life. I would've probably never met her if it hadn't been for the blog. I'm happy she's my bloggy friend and my real friend. And I can't forget Annie. I met her in San Antonio and we are the same person. I heart her. And she makes me laugh out loud. And we both love the Reba show. That's a match made in heaven. And of course Queen B. If we lived near each other, we would get nothing accomplished ever because we'd hang out with each other all the time. We are bloggy friends and I wish we lived closer.

My next goal is to get my Aunt Dot to start a blog. She's the funniest person I know FOR REAL. Her blog would be an instant hit. You would laugh until you pee. You should see my family at Thanksgiving. We all sit around the table and listen to Aunt Dot. And we laugh so hard we are exhausted when we get up. She's hysterical, y'all.

4. See, this is where I'm a rule breaker. I'm only going for 3. Technically, it's 4, because I did put a #4, but it's not a real point. Don't split hairs with me.

All in all, this blog has become one of the most awesome blessings in my life. Every time I get a comment on my blog, I get excited. I love it. I love meeting you and knowing about you. You bless me every day. Thank you.

So now, I'm tagging......
Wendy - this chick has 11 kids. Eleven. And she rocks.
Jackie Sue - met her in San Antonio - love her.
Erin - my Tallahassee friend and San Antonio side kick.
Gayle - fellow Birmingham blogger who was also in San Antonio. Need to hang out with her SOON.
Dana - she was in my sorority at Auburn and we have reconnected through the blog world. She's hysterical and awesome and an amazing Christian woman.

Unexpected Blessings

Every Wednesday, Camille goes to gymnastics. She's actually a little young for this class (they're supposed to be 2 and she won't be 2 until November), but she holds her own. Actually, she does more than hold her own. She dang runs the joint. I've mentioned before that she's fearless, but it's especially true in gymnastics where jumping and running and flipping are not only required, but are offered in an environment that is covered in padding. She loves it.

After gymnastics, we always head to the grocery store. First of all, I only have 1 kid on Wednesdays. The other 2 are in school. Second of all, that kid has just run and jumped and flipped for 45 minutes and she's ready to sit and be still for a minute. As long as juice and a cookie (thank you Publix for free cookies for kids) accompany it. Can I get an Amen?

Every Wednesday, an assisted living facility nearby takes some if its residents to Publix. They come in a minibus, and in a matter of minutes the place is crawling with the sweetest elderly people you have ever seen. They buy their groceries, have them packed in a paper bag, the director writes their room number on the bag and places the bag in the back of the bus, and they get back on the bus and wait for everyone to finish. Now, you must know, that I have a HUGE soft spot when it comes to elderly people. I love them. There's nothing sweeter or wiser. And they all LOVE babies. And babies in leotards will melt anyone's heart.

Several of them have connected with Camille. She doesn't like strangers, but loves these people. She waves and says Hi and smiles and they eat her up. One precious man sits on the bench at the front of the store. He's a people watcher and doesn't want to sit on the bus. He always stands up when we walk by him because he wants to touch Camille's hand. And she lets him. They will say "There's that sweet baby that we saw last week!" I think she makes their day happier. I know they make her day happier. Mine too.

As we leave, we are sure to walk by the minibus and wave at the people in the windows. Then they head home and we do the same. And we can't wait to go back to Publix next Wednesday.

Who would've thought we could be so blessed in a grocery store? Just shows that God uses unusual places to touch your heart. Look for Him in the unusual places.

Happy Labor Day!

In honor of Labor Day, I decided to participate in a meme from Shannon. Because it's all about labor. You know LABOR - childbirth. A process that I have been through 3 times. So here goes.

How long were your labors?

Kid #1, 5 hours.
Kid #2, 6 hours
Kid #3, 7 hours.

Clearly, we love a good pattern.

How did you know you were in labor?

Kid #1, induced
Kid #2, started labor the weekend before, came again in the middle of the night - no mistaking true labor.
Kid #3, induced

Where did you deliver?

With all of them, at a hospital. Where the drugs are.

Drugs?

See above. Oh mercy, YES. Actually, my epidural for Kid #2 didn't take. My left thigh was numb, but nothing else. Nothing says easy labor like a numb left thigh.

C-section?

No, but Kid #2 almost was. Her heart rate kept crashing. Probably something to do with the extreme pain I was in (except for my numb left thigh). She rallied late in the 4th quarter and made a quick and PAINFUL entrance into this world.

Who delivered?

Docs. Doc #1 with Kid #1 almost missed it because he was in denial that I was moving along as fast as I was. Never, ever, underestimate me and my birthing skillz.

Doc #2 was a lady doc that I met in the ER that morning. It was Saturday and 4th of July weekend. My doc wasn't on call. New doc was great. A little awkward, though. Nothing like getting to know someone by flashing the old hoo ha within minutes of meeting them.

Doc #3 was fantastic - still my doc today. LOVE him.


If you want to participate in this meme, copy and paste these questions into your blog. Leave me a comment so I know to go read them!

It's Football Season, Baby!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.
War Eagle!

OOO! I Forgot To Tell You How It Ended!!!

Before you read this post, you have to read this one.

I'll wait for you to get back.

Take your time.

Ok. Done?

Well here's how it ended.

I left off with me sitting in the Continental Airlines President's Club room.

Time out: By the way. Continental Airlines was one big mess on Thursday. From the stories I heard over the weekend, they weren't much better on Friday. Example A. Shape up, Continental.

Time in: Anyway, my flight was scheduled to leave Houston for San Antonio at 9:20 pm. Remember, I landed at 3:45 pm. I was OVER being in the airport. Alone. Over it.

I got to my gate about 8:45. You know, making sure I was not IN ANY WAY even close to missing this flight. Then I noticed that the flight had been delayed till 10:15. People waiting were cranky, let me tell you. Most of us had been waiting all day for delayed flights, missed flights, cancelled flights...and this one was the last one of the day. So you can imagine the tension in the room.

There were also several small children on the flight. Who were tired and hungry and bored, thus leading to crying and wailing and screaming and whining. I actually saw a man bang his head against a wall. And I'm not even kidding.

It was NOT PRETTY.

Finally, they let us on the plane at 10:05. The plane was packed. People were tired. Not everyone smelled, um...fresh, because we had been sitting in airports all the live long day! We all sat down, buckled our seatbelts, settled in for our 35 minute flight, and a flight attendant came on the speaker.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for flying Continental Airlines. At this time, we will be experiencing a slight delay as our pilots are on another flight and haven't landed yet."

No, no. Wait. It gets better.

"Also, we will be unable to turn on the air conditioner because the switch is located in the cockpit, and as we just said, we have no pilots to turn it on."

I can't make this stuff up. It was unreal. UNREAL, y'all.

So here we sit. Tired. Hot. Smelly. And for some unexplained reason, they decided to strap us all in our seats so we could breathe that stale, contaminated, shared air that I'm sure will give me some sort of illness in the near future. I seriously thought the Hispanic man behind me was going to storm the cockpit and find the air conditioner switch. I mean, come on. How hard could it be? Flying the plane = hard. I get that. Turning on the air conditioner = apparently, pretty dang hard, too.

Really?

And don't forget that it's August. And Texas. Nuff said.

At 11:00, the pilots arrive. The flight attendant announced enthusiastically, "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Pilots are HERE!" *chirp, chirp* Silence. Nothing. I think she expected us to applaud. We were WAY over that.

We finally take off at about 11:15.

I land in SA and find my friend, Erin, who has played a Guiness Book of World Record qualifying number of Word Jumbles that her mom kept giving her via phone from days and days of Jacksonville, FL newspapers. I find my bags, a taxi, and we head to the Marriott Rivercenter. At 12:30 AM. We order a room service omelette, marvel at the teeny bottle of Tabasco that came with it, and we crash. At 2:00 am.

Yeah, it wasn't the best day I've had in a while. But it did make for some good bloggy material. You know, because I'm a "glass is half full" kind of gal.

Check This Out!

This pic makes me happy. Happy is a good thing. Rock on.

PS - Props to Annie for introducing me to Picnik. You rock, my friend.

I'm Hom...zzzzz...

I'm home.

My flight home was waaaayyy less "eventful" than my flight out to San Antonio.

Thank the Good Lord.

I'll blog more tomorrow about the weekend. I'm so tired right now I need to take a long nap. Like the kind of nap where I don't wake up till tomorrow.

But let me tell you...

It

Was

Awesome.

Waiting, Waiting, and Waiting Some More

My Siesta Fiesta Journey is here.

Well, sorta.

My flight was supposed to leave Birmingham at noon. It actually left at 1:30. So, I was a little nervous about making my connecting flight. However, all nervousness was replaced with "are you kidding-ness" when I noticed that a family with 4 (yes, 4) babies and a Jack Russell terrier named CoCo were also on my flight. Now, I have 3 kids of my own, and am a former teacher. The sounds of babies/children generally do not phase me. However, all 4 of the kids cried the entire flight. And the dog, (remember, a Jack Russell - aka dog on RedBull) was cooped in a tiny crate and barked the entire flight. Plus, the plane was only a smidge bigger than my minivan. Lemme tell you. There's nothing more head killing, ear deafening, than riding on a teeny airplane with screaming kids and a barking dog. Shoot me.

Also, the rain has been a little sporadic today (THANKS, Tropical Storm, Fay!) so as we approached Houston, we were told to circle around a few times because it was too crowded to land. Somehow, we ended up over a huge body of water (I'm assuming the Gulf of Mexico) which was a little confusing because I never EVER thought that a flight from Birmingham, AL to Houston, TX would take a seaward route, and for a minute I questioned if I was even on the correct flight, and then I wondered how on earth I was going to explain to my husband that I had gotten on the wrong flight... and eventually landed in Houston. At 4:00 pm. My connecting flight took off at 4:00 pm. I sprinted like an Olympian - ok, well, not so much, but imagine... - to get to my gate only to be able to look at the plane with closed doors sitting at the gate. It was mocking me. I think it stuck its tongue out at me. I had missed the flight.

So I weighed my options.
1. Get on the next flight, which is at 9:20 pm.
2. Find another carrier and see if there was another flight to San Antonio. There was - SouthWest - at Hobby Airport - I'm at George Bush.
3. Rent a car and drive.

I checked on option 1 - and got booked on that flight.
Then I checked option 2 - tickets were $179 and I had to be at the other airport in an hour. Nope.
Then I checked on the rental car option - $155, 3 1/2 hours, rain, and Houston rush hour. Nope.

So I'm sitting. I bought a day pass into the Continental Airlines President's Club room (best $45 I've spent yet), got some fantastic dinner, bought a book, and am hanging out. My friend, Erin, is sitting at Baggage Claim at the San Antonio Airport waiting for me to get there. Bless her wonderful heart.

I'm fully expecting Beth Moore to BRING IT this weekend, because I'll confess that my mind has not been full of happy thoughts today. I need some time in the Word.

More tomorrow - peace out.

Siesta Fiesta! It's FINALLY Here!

I'm not a patient person. I wish I was a patient person. I don't have the patience to force myself to become patient. (Ba dum dum dum).

I have been waiting now for almost a year for this weekend to get here. A YEAR, people.

That's longer than I waited for the birth of my children. It's longer than Spencer waited to propose to me after we met. It's a LIFETIME in my existence.

But now, it's here! It's the Siesta Fiesta in San Antonio!!

I will leave Birmingham at noon on Thursday to fly to San Antonio and will return Sunday. My amazing, wonderful, fantastic, husband is keeping the girls so I can go. Read: I won't have to change a diaper for 4 whole days!

My friend, Erin is meeting me in Houston, and then we are flying to San Antonio together. She is one awesomely crazy chick who LOVES Jesus and guarantees side splitting laughter, so I'm pretty stoked about hanging with her for the weekend. Plus, we both share a love of LOST, Shawn Johnson and the entire US Women's Gymnastics team, the Montgomery Biscuits, PF Changs, Travis Cottrell and his Praise Team, the Nacho Cheese joke, and Hunt's Snack Pack Chocolate Pudding. I love her. She is tall and skinny and resembles a JCrew model, and I am not tall and not skinny and resemble a mom who hasn't showered in 2 days. But other than that, we're twins.

I also cannot wait to meet people FOR REAL who I have gotten to know on this blog. People like Lisa who has just finished writing a book called Married to the Ministry. She wrote a BOOK, y'all. Her writing and picture will soon reside on the shelf in my den. How crazy is that? I went to a Birmingham Blogger dinner about a month ago where I met in real life Sophie, Kim, Gayle, Leslie, Ditsybug, Rhoda, Lora, Stacey, and Becca. **UPDATE I totally forgot to add Trista and I read her blog EVERY DAY! I used the list of people who were at the dinner that she has on her blog. Because it was on her blog, she didn't list herself, so I didn't list her, either! SORRY TRISTA!!** A lot of these gals are headed to San Antonio and I am looking oh so forward to seeing them again. You know, because we have to travel 800 miles to hang out together when we actually live in the same city. But Birmingham's salsa doesn't compare to San Antonio's salsa (so I've heard) so that in itself justifies the trip.

The whole Siesta Fiesta part is a get-together of ladies (and a few men "Miestas") who read and comment on Beth Moore's blog. We have matching tshirts (which I have always thought was waaayyy corny, but am super excited about it this time) and reserved seats a pajama party and a lunch/meet-and-greet with Beth and ENDLESS SHOPPING. But to top it all off, Beth will be bringing the Word like it ain't been brought before. The Holy Spirit has tickets and will for sure be in attendance (and there is nothing like a gathering of Christian women AND the Holy Spirit), and I guarantee God, himself, has his popcorn ready and will be ALL OVER that arena. I. Cannot. Wait.

I hope to be able to update ye olde blog while I'm in San Antonio, but I won't make any promises for stuff like internet service at the hotel (after all, hundreds of bloggers are descending upon the place, so it could throw in the towel and cry Uncle), or my choosing shopping over sitting at a computer, or the goodness of the salsa that might deter my thoughts away from blogging. But I'll try.

Oh, and changing the subject really quickly, I had the amazing privilege of re-connecting with a cousin through the wonderful bloggy world. Her name is Phyllis and we haven't seen each other in about 10 years. She is now married to Will, and they, along with their 3 children, Jaan, Raia, and Asya, are missionaries in the Ukraine. Please add them to your daily prayer list. They are LIVING the Great Commission every single day. That's awesome.

See y'all later.

Hysterical, I Tell Ya.

I just found this blog.

I have tears of laughter streaming down my face.

This lady, who I want as my best friend because her wit has cracked me up SEVERAL times this morning, makes fun of cakes. Misspelled, poorly decorated, questionable, cakes.

Go there and laugh. Right now. Pronto.

And have some tissues handy, because she makes you laugh the ugly laugh that produces tears.

But oh, so worth it.

Oh, and vote for me, if you haven't. Thanks.

Sniff....Clap....Yell....

I yelled.

I cheered.

I clapped.

And at the end, I bawled.

They did it.

Nice work, kiddos. We are VERY proud of you.

Wanna Get Me All Riled Up?

My dear, wonderful, amazing husband has learned it the hard way.

Don't ask me what I've been doing all day.

Just don't even go there.

Because one day I'm really going to keep a list of what I do all day and I promise it'll be about 6 pages long.

As moms, we do stuff that we can't even keep track of. We multi task like a ninja. We can do things that we don't think about and have no recollection of doing after we've done it. (That was a weird sentence.)

So far, this morning I've...
looked (unsuccessfully) for my glasses that fell off the bedside table during the night
peed (twice)
picked out school clothes
packed a lunch
packed a snack
signed a take-home folder
written a check for the school lunch account and put it in said folder
fixed breakfast for Mary Emma
fixed breakfast for Spencer
tied shoes
put paperwork for Tait's school on the front seat of my car so I'll remember to take it with me today to her school
brushed hair
taken pictures of a cool spiderweb outside
sat on front porch and waited with Mary Emma for her ride to school
kissed and hugged Mary Emma as she left for school
kissed and hugged Spencer as he left for work
read a few of my favorite blogs
commented on a couple of them
downloaded and ordered pictures from Sam's to pick up this afternoon
reviewed and updated my calendar for the week
responded to 2 emails

And all this was done by 8:05 am.

And Tait and Camille are just now waking up, so all of this was done with only one child awake.

I think that list might be more like 15 pages long. I'll be at 6 by 10 am.

So don't even go there.