An average day.....

Well, nothing spectacular happened today and yet it feels like a lot happened today. Megan was up from 2-4 this morning and then awake by 7:15! Oh yeah, I'm already scared of today before I even get to my cheerios! Well, I'm still coughing up a lung, Jacob woke with snot dried all over his face and Megan was up because she can't breath--combined we have a cold!

So, staying in the house just becomes miserable sometimes ya know? So, off to make a return and do a little toy shopping in exchange for Christmas shoes that didn't fit. We arrived home to find a sack of hand me downs so after Jacob went to bed I took Megan donning her purple pajamas, new pink tutu and blue flip flops to Target! Oh yeah, I was that mom who took her kid in what she was wearing in search of kleenex with lotion for my poor little girl's red nose! I should have taken a picture, but we were just enjoying our time today. (blessing each other after sneezes and reminding each other to cover our mouths when we cough).

Before we reached home for lunch Megan informed me that I was making her rude. What a teachable moment sharing how we choose our attitude and how God wants our hearts to be happy and to show Him rather than choosing to have a bad or "rude" attitude. And yes, I laughed at that scowl on her face proclaiming it mommy's fault that she was being rude.

We are planning this weekend for a visit from our great friends who moved to TN shortly after we did last year. They'll be here for a week and we'll get to hang out and let our little girls giggle and love on each other--I promise cute pictures will be posted. The girls are so sweet together!

Today we also had sweet friends worried about their little boy--they had to have tests done at the hospital and fortunately he's home now and all is good, but what a reminder of how fragile our little ones are!

So, I'll keep our snot, cough and stuffy nose! I'm blessed to get to snuggle and sit up all night to help her breath and make special trips to Target for Kleenex with lotion so my princess's nose doesn't hurt. I love an average day.....

Megan's new hobby

One of Megan's favorite gifts for Christmas was a camera of her very own! I thought I'd add a couple pictures she's captured. I went to download them to the computer thinking she'd taken maybe 50 and there were almost 300! Most were of her red toenails, the carpet and furniture......there are options on the camera too that add backgrounds or accessories (hats/ears) to faces! Hope you enjoy! Thanks Mimi and Poppy!

Your address is written in pencil

When I changed dorm rooms in college my aunt informed me that she had written my phone number in pencil because I moved around too much. I lived with one roommate for all 4 years, but I think we lived in 4 or 5 different rooms. Jim and I have moved often over our nearly 12 years together--sometimes close; sometimes far. A very close move is upon us again.

We recently were told that the house we are currently renting is being placed on the market and that our lease wouldn't be renewed. Within days we discovered that the family renting our house in TN is not going to stay beyond their lease either. So now, we need a home here and have an empty home there......

Tonight I'm happy to report we're on our way to a resolution! We have secured a short-term rental here in FL only minutes from where we are now (friends who currently are working out of town). We have also decided to put the TN house back on the market the first of April. Please pray with us that the house will sell quickly and that we will be able to settle a little more permanently by this summer. We're loving it here and Megan will be starting preschool next year so we're really hoping to stay very close by.

So, I hope you have your pencils handy to erase and rewrite and then erase again.......

Sweet friends!

Megan and I both have been blessed with sweet friends! Our family joined the Y late in the fall in order for me to work out and have a place for the kids to stay while I do so. I've been blessed with a dedicated work-out buddy who has a daughter just about Megan's age. So while we work out the kids get to play. This has been a huge blessing because Meg is a bit clingy lately and doesn't like to "go at the Y" if her friend isn't going to be there. So let your friend know you appreciate them--we all need friends whether we're young or old(er).

(This picture is the girls sharing ice cream at Chick fil A after playgroup)

A stop at the playground

Here are just a couple cute pictures from a recent afternoon at the playground!

It's a little cold here too!

Sunday morning I got to work with Megan's compassKIDS class! The room where they meet has coffee filter snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and Meg was so excited to see the snow! Granted, that's probably as close as we'll get--other than looking at pictures on other's blogs....but just so you know it is a little cool here.

On Friday we bundled up and took the kids back to Sea World for the afternoon. Megan's been missing Shamu she told us! I'm not sure if you can see their little red noses, but under the covering of the shows the wind was nippy.....enjoy the cool. I just heard the weather man say "the 70's are back!" So who's coming to visit the warmth first?

Hopkins family Christmas

This year we were able to stop by for the Hopkins family Christmas too. My mom and her sisters along with my grandparents all gather when we can. I truly love my family and was grateful for the time to see them and catch up a bit! Each year my Granddaddy reads Luke's account of the birth of Christ. It was neat to see Megan truly hearing him for the first time this year.