emily ferguson

3 quarters of a year

2011-08-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

mg turned 9 months. i'm still in denial.
i'm going to have to apologize to him later for dropping the ball on the cute month-by-month pictures. i always forgot!
plus when you move in the middle of that & sell a house the monday before you move & go to the beach for a week right before all that....your mind sort of loses it!

anyway...
here is an update on mg. this is more for my sake later, so bear with me.

he was
21 lbs.
28 in.

he loves his food, but the boy still gets giddy about his baba.

his vocabulary has grown
his order of words.....

hey
hi
dada
mama
yaya (what we call my nephew)
daddy
hey daddy
alligator (i know...we were scratching our heads on that one too! he said it twice with multiple people in the room)
i didn't do it (wonder who he heard that from!)
i lub you
baba (that's the first one that we think he knows what he's saying...he will say it when he gets hungry)

he hasn't "officially" crawled yet, but can get wherever he wants to go. he has done a somersault, but no official crawling. he can go from laying to sitting by himself & he will get in his linebacker pose and walk his feet up. he isn't sure where to go from there.

he still sleeps about 10+ hours a night.

he loves the bath & swimming. he loves to laugh. he's ticklish everywhere. he likes to get other people to laugh. he thought it was hysterical when i would swing my ponytail, so if someone comes in he will bob his head back and forth til the person laughs. he also likes to sing....just lala lalas, but it's so cute!

he sleeps with his stuffed dragon & sort of can't go to bed without him.

that's all i can think of right now, but i'll put some more later

he is the snuggliest, sweetest boy i could ever ask for!

i'm so blessed that the Lord saw fit to bring this family together.

my dad

2011-06-04T00:18:00.000-05:00

as the 6 month mark of my dad being gone & father's day approaching i think about my dad quite a lot these days. well, pretty much every day.
i've lost friends before. i've lost grandparents. but no one who i looked up to as much as my dad. no one who was such a constant in my life.
my mom always tells my sister & me that we'll probably be fine on father's day, but it's the other days when we need to know what to tell the air conditioning guy, or the insurance guy or when i get a whiff of that BBQ smell when it is the hardest.

james arness from gunsmoke passed away today. my dad loved gunsmoke. i'm sure my dad was in his welcoming party up in heaven. it's things like that that make me smile when i think about my dad.

there is one thing i have realized from all of this. when bad things happen to others....when friends of mine lose someone they love....i am going to try my hardest never to say "let me know if i can do anything." it will be hard, b/c it's just ingrained in us down here. my friends taught me a lot about how to love your friends when you see them struggling. like the one who didn't give me an option but came & stocked my fridge with breakfast food the day after my dad died. we hadn't been to the grocery store...we had a month old....and we had people staying with us for the funeral...she even carried up a huge thing of water to put in our fridge. i didn't tell her we needed that. she knew. she also helped me type up all the handouts for the funeral...and caught my typos because i couldn't think straight. the food helped feed my numerous friends who drove 4-7 hours to be there for me & love on me. then there was the friend who drove from nashville and back in the same day to be there. or the one who had a c-section on wednesday & came to the visitation on friday night...ridiculous.
and then there are the ones who couldn't be there who loved me from afar with calls, flowers, cards...
even flowers & cards from people i've only known for a couple of months or haven't heard from in years.

i didn't use names because so many people did so many things, but i wanted to be specific because when i think back on that time i think about how well they loved me. i want to always remember that and give examples of things that meant the world to my family & me. i had a month old. had just lost my dad. i had absolutely no clue "what i needed" in order to ask someone to help.

love is an action verb. i understand that so much more now.

love y'all. thank y'all for loving me.
xoxo
em

the past 6 months...

2011-05-25T18:17:00.000-05:00

here is a recap of our past 6 months with our sweet boy...

at his 6 month check up he was:
weight: 19lbs.
length: 26.5in.

his first word: hey...he says it to everyone
his favorite food: bananas
his favorite toy: still his lion over his changing table & the "friends" above his crib...his mobile
when he started sleeping through the night: 1 month old and since then sleeps 10-14 a night
states he's visited: tennessee, louisiana & alabama
things he loves: laughing at his daddy, food, laughing when being tickled, sucking on both fists...at the same time, listening to music, putting his toes in his mouth, kick-kick time, chika on sprout, bedtime, being outside, looking at trees when we go anywhere & being spoiled by his grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins

here are some more recent pictures

this is what happens when your half birthday falls on cinco de mayo!

look at those eyes

already in with the celebrities

we were at my brother's car race & put headphones on to cancel out the sound of the cars...he wasn't sure what was going on

listening to his uncle michael's band

st. patrick's day parade with daddy

november 5, 2010

2011-05-25T16:30:00.000-05:00

the date that changed mine & heath's world forever!

i will back up to november 4th...

i went to a surprise baby shower for one of my best friends, helen marshall. while i was at the shower i started having contractions. i didn't really think anything of it because i had already had some on and off.

those contractions started around 6pm.

i came home and heath & i watched a movie...i kept feeling the contractions.

we tried to go to bed, & i only slept about 45 min.

i decided i should probably start timing these bad boys. i had a handy app on my phone that would time contractions. they were now 5 min. apart, lasting about a minute each and that was for about an hour. the 5:1:1 combo! i woke heath up around 2 and we timed them again to make sure. i had been to the doctor the day before and she didn't see anything progressing, so we wanted to make sure.

at 3 heath called the hospital & they told us to come on down!

i fully expected for them to send me home. women in my family take FOREVER to go into labor. well, i was 1 cm! i know women go weeks at 1 cm, but for me that was huge! an hour i had progressed to 3 cm.

it seemed to be going pretty quickly. woohoo! well, it didn't go so quickly for the rest of it...but that's ok. looking back it all seems like a blur.

my sister & heath were in the delivery room with me. at last...24 hours later...our sweet little boy was born!

the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, but the doctor was so quick & it didn't cause any problems. he was a little blue, but he bounced right back. they said that it hadn't been that way for long, so we are blessed! below are pictures from the day.

heath's mom, cousin & my nieces waiting in the waiting room

heath's dad & aunt geraldine

my brother-in-law, michael & niece molly & nephew alex

the babies entertaining everyone in the waiting room with their dance moves

he's here! 7lb. 9oz. of sweetness!

could i love these two men any more??

i love him so much!!

my how things change

2011-01-10T23:19:00.000-06:00

so my last post was exactly 4 months ago & wow have things changed.

you know how sometimes you get behind in posting & you don't even know where to start....

that would be the understatement of the year here!

about 10 days after my last post we were waiting to hear some news about my dad. my husband had driven him down to new orleans because they thought he had a bleeding stomach ulcer. 2 years ago my brother gave him a kidney & they were worried that the bleeding would affect the kidney. they wanted him to go to new orleans, where his transplant surgery occurred.

we were not ready for the news the surgeon had. they determined that it was actually a tumor that was bleeding & not an ulcer. he was diagnosed with gastric cancer & they needed to do surgery immediately to remove the tumor & the majority of his stomach.

when the surgeon opened him up they discovered that it was inoperable & had already spread to his liver & lymph nodes. they sent him home with a grim prognosis.

chemo would not help him & would decrease his quality of life. he wanted to be at home & wanted to be able to hold m.g.

there are good things that happened in these 4 months!

our little angel buddy was born!!!

don't worry...i will devote many, many posts specifically to him!

he was born on november 5th.

the doctors told us at the end of november that my dad would probably only last a few more days.

he was lucid until the very last day.

he actually held m.g. on his chest and patted his back with one finger an hour before he passed away.

my dad passed away on december 8th.

i'm not sure if y'all are aware of this...but i am a daddy's girl through and through.

always have been. always will be.

there isn't a man quite like mtg. he never wore suits. he watched cowboy movies daily. he loved his grandchildren & his children. he would do anything for those he loved. he was the smartest man i have ever known. he was the one who first told me about Jesus. he had the dryest, but funniest sense of humor. he was the best story-teller. he always promised we would have our millionth birthday party in heaven. he loved good food, so it always made me feel so good when he would ask me to come over to cook for him. he was buried in his blue jeans...of course. he LOVED m.g. the first time he saw m.g.'s sonogram he said he looked like an angel. he constantly said he was an angel & referred to him as his buddy or his angel buddy. he got blood transfusions to stay alive...& the day i had m.g. he had to have one. he got it at the hospital i had m.g. so that they could wheel him up to see m.g. & get to hold him for the first time.

i could go on and on & some days i probably will.

God's timing is ALWAYS perfect! it has been a whirlwind of a year of marriage.

oh yeah....that reminds me.

heath & i shared our 1st anniversary on dec. 19th.

i love that man! i will devote many posts to him as well. he has been my rock & my best friend through all of this.

i am thankful that God brought us back to live in jackson....so that i could be here with my dad these past few months. i wouldn't change that for the wolrd. i'm thankful that my dad was able to walk me down the aisle & i'm thankful that he was able to hold my first child. i'm thankful that our first child was a boy & that we had decided long ago to name him after my dad. i'm thankful for my family. i'm thankful for my sweet friends who have been there for me through all of this. i'm thankful that i was given the chance to tell my dad just how much he means to me & just how much i love him!

things are slowly getting back to "normal"....not sure if they will ever be "normal" again...but you learn to live with the new "normal"

and i have a cute little guy who makes everything happy!!

baby mousey cheese

2010-09-10T10:40:00.002-05:00

our youngest niece called us when we got pregnant. she is 4 and wanted to know if she was having a baby boy cousin or a baby girl cousin. i told her we didn't know yet, and asked her what we should call the baby. she thought for a little bit & decided on "baby mouse."
i have no clue where she got this name. she adores any kind of animal...and baby mice are up at the top apparently.
we told her that we found out it was a boy & the name evolved to "baby mousey cheese."

here is our little baby mousey cheese at 27 weeks

the nursery

2010-08-18T21:12:00.004-05:00

i love sweet, gentile nurseries...adore them. but i also love colorful children's paintings....LOVE them. after writing color theory papers in college & majoring in art, psychology and human development i understand the importance of bright colors in early development. good thing that i have lots of colorful paintings! i didn't really have to buy much of anything for the nursery.

here is the view coming in the door. where the star pillow is will be a chenille chocolate brown glider.

the tall walter anderson would only go in that spot. it weighs about 100 lbs. & we didn't want to risk it coming off the wall, so that is where it is going to stay!

heath has to lower the mattress, so then i will be able to tie the ties on the bumper. it's just the simple brown and white bedding from pottery barn. since i knew that the paintings would be colorful i wanted to keep everything else simple. the brown chest is one i already had. the crib was a gift from heath's mom. she gave us some money for a crib & i found one we loved at a great price! we were able to get it and the changing table with the money she gave us.
we are trying to find some curtains for the window because the sun still comes through the blinds. i have some more paintings to put where the tv is on top of the chest.

i'm painting a picture for the hospital door that will eventually hang over the changing table.

still have some more work to do in this area. i have a small painting to go by the tv, so hopefully everything will seem balanced.

this is the bookcase that is by the door. i'm going to need to hit up some garage sales to fill it! although i'm sure i'll have plenty of stuff to fill it with once our little guy shows up!

my sweet mom got us our stroller and car seat, so we are ready for our sweet little guy to get here!!

xoxo

in your dreams...

2010-08-16T22:22:00.002-05:00

apparently pregnancy gives you the strangest of dreams. i'm not sure if the dreams are different than what i normally have, or if it seems weird now because i can remember them.

these are just a few of the ones i have had:

- heath was the bachelor and gave me the final rose. while on our final date we had a stalker and the restaurant we were in had mice running all over. the stalker kept trying to get him, but he gave me the rose in the end. haha.

- one of my good friends, cassie corless, was kidnapped by dean cain (yes, superman) and i saved her.

- i started selling fruit that i would pick from the trees outside our apartment. helen marshall is one of my best friends. at her wedding about 7 years ago i met her uncle. i've probably run into him two other times in my life. well....he was my main customer. her mom was also a buyer of my fruit as well.

- heath and i went on vacation with one of my childhood best friends and his wife...henry & natalie glover. we went to miami. i've never been to miami in my life. we went to some big show, but had to go to this booth to pick them up. henry & natalie had already gone in. the woman giving us the tickets was jordan walker's mom. jordan grew up with henry & me, but i haven't seen him in ages. jordan's mom told us that jordan was planning on coming to the show with grenades & was going to use them. jordan is the sweetest guy on the planet...married to the sweetest girl & just had a little baby. not sure what that's all about.

- caroline hogan is one of my best friends. we gave a baby shower for her when she was pregnant with her first little girl. one of the presents she got was the largest stuffed elephant i've ever seen. like 4 feet tall. i don't remember much of the dream, but i do remember rocking the elephant to sleep in m.g.'s nursery.

- i caught heath kissing another girl in one of the dreams. his response when i caught him was that i was better & always would be. good to know. haha!

that's all i can remember for right now, but i know there are more of them.
i'm not sure if i want to know an interpretation for any of these!

that is all i can remember right now, but i know there are more of them. the weirdest thing is that it is people i know.

lots of changes...

2010-08-08T21:35:00.003-05:00

in addition to the new background there is lots of news to share with y'all.

we are officially back in mississippi!! we are so excited! moving while 6 months pregnant is not very exciting though. unpacking and decorating a house is one of my favorite things to do. i can usually have the whole house set up in a day or two. this time it has taken a little bit longer because i am dependent on my sweet husband moving everything for me. once i find the piece of equipment that lets me upload pictures to my computer i will be back in business with the blog.

while you wait for that i will share with you a picture of our sweet baby's crib!
which brings me to the most exciting news...
we found out that we're having a BOY!!
what a sweet and precious time it was having that sonogram and seeing our little boy!
his name will be michael gerald, but he'll go by m.g.
i know you're thinking it.....no, he's not going to be named after me.
heath's grandfather was the most influential man in his life & basically helped raise him. his name was milford gerald, but everyone called him m.g.
we are naming our m.g. after him and the michael comes from my dad.

we are so excited about this little boy & feel blessed that the Lord would give us this special little one!! we hope to raise him to know Christ each and every day of his life.

here is his little crib.
we don't have the paintings up yet, so i'll take more pictures when it's all put together!

some of my favorite things

2010-04-30T22:18:00.002-05:00

there are some things i love right now.

flash mobs and the tv show "the middle"

ole miss just pulled off a flash mob in the union. you can see the video here. i wish they had done cool things like that when i was there.

here is another one. they danced to michael jackson in stockholm.
and i'm sure everyone has seen this one where they dance to a sound of music song in belium. who doesn't love a good sound of music sing along with dancing??

it's a worldwide phenomenon. and i'm always amazed.

the ole miss one reminds me of zumba classes that my sister & i used to take when i lived in mississippi. oh how i miss zumba.

if you don't know what zumba is....watch this. it is an aerobics class where the instructor just dances and you follow along. she doesn't call anything out. you just dance. it should be included in my list of favorite things.

my next favorite.

the middle.

i really could just narrow it down to one of the characters on the show. brick.
you have to watch this to see what i'm talking about. heath and i find ourselves imitating his whispering all the time. it comes on wednesday nights before modern family (which is another one of our favorites). just trust me. you'll love it.

our little jelly bean

2010-03-30T14:03:00.004-05:00

this morning was a first for us! we went to oschner here in new orleans to have an ultrasound!
we were able to see our little jelly bean and hear the heartbeat!
they determined that we are about a week behind what we thought we were.
soo....our due date is nov. 20th.
i am about 6.5 weeks pregnant. i can't wait for another 5 weeks, so i can breathe a little easier!
we feel so blessed!
it is amazing that this little dot will grow so much over the next months!
love y'all and thank you for praying for our little family!

xoxo

what are you doing in november??

2010-03-11T20:25:00.002-06:00

november 12th we will be having a party in a waiting room somewhere in nola as we welcome our FIRST CHILD!!

you heard it! the estimated due date is nov. 12th, but i'll find out more later.

this was a surprise to us, but we also knew it was a possibility considering i'm allergic to birth control.

we are beyond thrilled!! if you know me at all you know how much i love children!
to think that the Lord saw fit that we should be parents completely humbles us! we have already started praying for this sweet child and ask y'all to join us.

i know that a lot of people wait a few weeks til they announce. well....i was never good at holding things in! my sister told me that you live as if you are going to have the healthiest baby & if something else happens....then you deal with it. i'm not going to worry about that right now.
if something were to happen then i know the Lord is still in control & i would want my friends to know then too.

this way y'all can all be praying for sweet little ferguson, who is the size of an orange seed right now! haha!

love y'all!!
xoxo

because i love y'all...

2010-02-14T21:56:00.002-06:00

happy valentine's day!

i think i told y'all last year how much i love this day. it's true. heath wasn't in the picture last year, and i still loved it! always will!

our weekend was amazing. i'll come back to it once i get our pictures up.

for now i will share with y'all what i look forward to every morning.

my favorite breakfast.

cinnamon oatmeal with strawberries and walnuts.

i have a secret though and since it's valentine's day and i love all of y'all....i'll share it with you.

if you get the weight control oatmeal it has the least amount of sugar. here's the secret....make it with 3/4 cup of soymilk. trust me on this! vanilla or very vanilla by soy taste the yummiest.
heath and my brother, thom, are probably the last people that would ever try soymilk.
they both LOVE this oatmeal though.

just a warning though. once you try it this way you will never be able to go back to water or regular milk. you will probably have to have it every morning, but at least it's good for you!

hope y'all had an amazing valentine's!!

and the saints win!!!

2010-02-08T11:47:00.005-06:00

i'll come back to the wedding stuff, but i had to talk about the saints!

SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS!!!

it was such an amazing game! we went to one of heath's co-workers houses to watch the game with some other of our friends. i was so excited that i completely forgot to take some pictures.
these pictures are from the weekend that my brother, thom, came to new orleans for the NFC championship game. heath was so sweet and let me go to the game with him! it was an awesome game! i've told you about my best friend, caroline. the guy painted up in gold is her husband, reed, aka "goldman."

i've known reed for a while now and he is an amazing father and husband! i'm so thankful when my best friends have awesome husbands! he is a doctor in dallas and after his God, wife and children...the saints are his true love!

here is an article about him.
i'm sure you've seen him on tv.

i am so excited for the saints and for reed, but definitely more excited for the city. this is going to be so great for new orleans, and i'm so excited to be living here during all this excitement!

WHO DAT!!!

btw...isn't my husband a cutie?

decisions, decisions

2010-02-05T09:40:00.004-06:00

i'm going to try to post some pictures of how i came to some of the decisions we made about our wedding....let's be honest....decisions i made.

i didn't want to post them before the wedding because i didn't know which decisions would stick and which i would change at the last minute. so here goes...

my sister and i live for parties. we love decorating and going all out.

i figured a long time ago that your own wedding is like the ultimate party because it's all about you and your spouse. you get to make all the decisions.

it's so funny how we dream about our weddings and have it all planned out, but when the time comes....our decisions are different than we thought they would be.

i started collecting pictures a long time ago of things that i liked. i knew i wanted to get married at the beach. i think everyone knew this about me because i've been saying that since i was in the sixth grade. the wedding wouldn't be on the beach...just at the beach...the seaside chapel to be exact. i wanted my bridesmaids to wear whatever white outfit they wanted. the groom/groomsmen would wear white shirts and khaki pants. my dad was so excited about all of this because he could wear tennis shoes.
the rehearsal dinner would be at either the red bar or stinky's (my dad's favorite restaurant down there)

getting married in december wasn't really conducive to a beach wedding. it would have been difficult for our family and friends as well.
so we decided on jackson.

i decided on the yacht club because we could have our pictures in front of the boats and feel like we were at the beach.

the yacht club was awesome!
the only part that i didn't like was having our reception split. they have an upstairs and a downstairs. it's perfect in the summer b/c there is a natural flow, but the winter is a little bit more difficult. i knew this going in, but we decided on it anyway. i'm so happy we did!

just look at this view!
that was taken the night of our wedding by my cousin. the Lord gave us a perfect day!!

so here is decision #1...our reception location

my new favorite thing

2010-02-03T20:25:00.004-06:00

granted i have only used it one day, but i'm really excited about my new discovery.

bounce dryer bars

you stick the bar in your dryer and it is supposed to last for 2 months. you don't have to remember to put a dryer sheet in and you don't have dryer sheets all over your house when your laundry is done.

this is such a great idea, that even if it has problems i am sure that they will be fixed and improved.

i have seen the future and it smells good!

jumping in...

2010-01-27T23:56:00.004-06:00

so you know when you start blogging you kind of start seeing things differently. you can't wait to create a meal that is "blog-worthy" or you find the the greatest new thing on the market and want to share your discovery with others. then there are the events that you want to share with everyone. i find myself taking pictures of everything, so that i can blog about it later.

right about the time that heath & i started dating i got a new computer. i LOVE it! it is an imac. before this computer i had had my previous one for 10 years. it was the greatest computer and still is, but being an artist....a mac is a must. the only problem was that all of my pictures were on my old computer. i slowly transferred all of my info onto my new computer. everytime i was on my computer i was working on organizing and such.

then there was the new boy in my life. i sort of got distracted. then we got engaged. then i sold my house. then i moved all of my belongings except for myself to new orleans. i moved in with my mom and planned our wedding. i really like being organized. i like having a place for everything to go. y'all should know this by now. having my stuff scattered all over the place didn't bode well for my ability to sit down and blog.

so my blog took a huge hit.

but i'm back.

i'll post tonight, but i'm in a wedding this weekend, so you won't hear back from me until next week.

but i promise i'm back.

all of that long-windedness up there was basically to say.....i have LOTS of things to share with y'all that you've missed. the babies birthday parties, trip to disneyworld, kenz's wedding, our engagement party, wedding showers, mitchell's wedding, pics from our wedding weekend, christmas, the cotton bowl, living in new orleans, being married, painting new orleans, the saints...and many more.

i add to that list all the time. those are just the events. i didn't even mention all my new favorite places and things!

i'll get to them eventually, but tonight as i was drinking a mug of decaf coffee....i felt compelled to write about my cup of coffee. so much so that i am postponing all of those big events to tell you about it.

one of our favorite wedding presents was a coffee maker. not just any coffee maker.

it's the keurig.

it's amazing.

it will change your life.

you see. you fill up that resevoir on the left. you pop in one of those pods. you put a mug under (don't forget this part...i have), you push a button and your drinking coffee less than a minute later. there are so many flavors or you can get a reusable pod and put your own in it. it's great if one of you likes flavored coffee and the other doesn't. or if someone wants tea. it does that too. and hot chocolate.

heath sometimes has to get up at 5. he can have his coffee then and i can have mine at a normal hour.

did i mention to clean up you just remove the pod and throw it away? no filter. no coffee smell in the trash. no coffee grinds on the floor from them falling out of the filter. (btw...is it coffee grinds or coffee grounds?)

we leave ours plugged in and ready to go. i'm guessing that's not good for the environment, but i don't have a dishwasher....so, they can get over it. i think it balances out.

go out today and buy a keurig. just trust me on this one.

thank you for being patient with me.

xoxo

em g ferguson

my last name is ferguson

2010-01-07T08:53:00.003-06:00

we did it!

we are married!!

on december 19th i married my best friend. i can't even begin to tell you how amazing of a man heath is b/c every new day i discover something new about him that makes me love him even more. i love our nightly devotions together. praying with and for each other. knowing that i have someone who cares for my heart more than i do! it's amazing!

i promise to put some more pictures up of all the events. i'm trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle that is our apartment. getting a 3 bedroom house to fit into a 2 bedroom apt. with the addition of wedding presents is quite a task....but i'm almost done!

until then...
here are some pictures to hold you over.

love y'all!!

emily ferguson

xoxo

what has been consuming my life

2009-11-02T00:11:00.005-06:00

THE INVITATIONS ARE DONE!!!!!!!!

this is where i'm moving...

2009-10-26T23:01:00.003-05:00

i so wish this picture had turned out better. i stopped for gas the other night in new orleans. as i pulled in there was a van that was having to be towed. apparently they spent all their money on turning the van into a teapot and neglected the tires. it's all about priorities! i would put the tires off too!
if you click on the picture you can kind of make out the spout coming out of the grill on the front and the lid on top of the van. i should have gotten a side shot so you could see the handle coming out of the back.

i really would love to know the story behind the van. you know there has to be one.

wedding festivities

2009-10-22T09:50:00.007-05:00

it has begun! most of the planning is done...most. i finally put all the driving directions and hotel information on our website, so if you are planning on making the trip all the info you need is on www.theknot.com/ourwedding/emilyguthrie&heathferguson.

now that the planning is done...the festivities can begin!! my mom's friends recently hosted a wedding shower for me and i was completely blown away by the generosity and love i felt that day!

we are definitely blessed!
the shower was at vicki robinson's house, and it was absolutely beautiful!

here are the hostesses for the party

have i mentioned that i have the prettiest flower girls? this is one of them. molly and me and her babydoll.

my mom and me before the shower

on the right is jennifer lowe, my sister's best friend from childhood. her mom, mrs. lee, and her sister, kristy sanders, are on the left.

sweet mrs. fyke and me by the beautiful table! if you can't tell by the colorful flowers...they know me well!

all the girls. molly, emily annie, my sister, mom and me.

sweet hellian and mrs. moss. helen is one of my bridesmaids. i think i have the sweetest, prettiest bridesmaids.

laura husband and weezie polk! weezie...i put this on here for you!

mrs. mccay and me.

sweet kate long and me. kate married one of my good guy friends from high school.

this picture is trouble. this is how i opened presnts. the girls would pick out the next present for me to open. my sister would write it down while cannada put it back in the box. cannada and nette together are trouble. i believe during this picture cannada was asking molly how many children she wanted heath and me to have.

on the sofa are some of heath's aunts. aunt gayle, aunt jean, aunt rosie and aunt geraldine. they were so sweet to make the drive up for the shower!

cannada and me. we don't really know exactly how long we have been best friends. my dad and her mom went to law school together. it seems like she's always been in my life. she is engaged right now and getting married in march. it is so much fun going through all of this together!

this is mrs. tohill. you need to know her. she is hysterical and wonderful! obviously she got the memo that i'm not the typical bride & like fun!!

my beautiful cousin julie, her precious daughter mary evins and my beautiful aunt pam. they were so sweet to come as well with all they have going on!

on the left is lauren dent. she and i used to work together at first pres. and on the right is my old roommate, emily craft. i love these girls!!

my matron of honor....my sweet, sweet sissy.

this is for caroline

2009-10-22T09:38:00.003-05:00

so i was threatened if i didn't update my blog. i need people in my life who are going to set me straight like that!
i'm heading down to nola this weekend. have i mentioned that i'm moving there after the wedding?
all my stuff is already there. heath is living there right now, but stays in the hotel when i come to town.

if you are ever in nola come see us! we have plenty of room for visitors!
here are a few pictures that were taken with my phone...so they're not the best quality.

thank you caroline for making me update!

where do i start....

2009-08-13T20:19:00.004-05:00

i owe y'all a huge apology for not updating until now, but i think y'all will forgive me when i explain why i have been occupied!

well you see.....

I'M ENGAGED!!!!

i have been dating a guy named heath for a little while....we knew of each other previously though. on aug.7th he asked me to marry him! he took me to a bluff off of the trace. got down on one knee and asked me. i of course said yes! i had decided a while back that i wouldn't pray with any guy until i was engaged. so we prayed together for the first time. it was the sweetest moment!

heath lives in new orleans and is going to the new orleans baptist theological seminary. he is getting his masters of divinity in counseling.

we will be getting married in jackson on december 19th!! and then i will be moving to new orleans for 2 years. how much fun is that???

for some reason i envision the new orleans, married me being a lot more artsy and really cool!

we of course will always be open to having visitors....all the time!

now that i have rediscovered my love of my blog i will post the things you have missed over the past couple of months.

until then.

xoxo.

for your viewing pleasure....this is at my sisters after we got engaged.

sometimes i can be cool too...

2009-06-17T16:53:00.006-05:00

in less than 24 hours my roommate and i threw together a house show for stephen gordon and adam agin.

it was awesome.

ok...so i'll be honest. stephen is one of my roommate's old ruf students, so it really had nothing to do with me being cool. i knew y'all would have figured out that i couldn't be that cool. y'all are smart.

adam is on the left. stephen is on the right. check out their music on itunes! or pause the music on my page and listen to them below.

for all you in or near nashville tomorrow....

2009-06-04T00:04:00.006-05:00

this post is for you.

i hope that everyone reading this post has had the opportunity to meet ruthie sayles, but i don't think that is the case. if you do know her then you understand how hard it is for me to put into words just how amazing this girl is!

i remember the first time i met ruthie in college, but i also remember the time i realized just how cool of a friend i had made. it was my freshman year. super swap at forresters with 17th floor playing. it was our first swap. we were all there with our "owl pals" feeling oh so cool. all of a sudden in walks ruthie with our pledge trainer, leslie logan. i had only met ruthie one other time before this, but i was pretty sure she wasn't a chi o. she was a couple years older and we had just pledged, so i didn't know for sure. ruthie is beautiful and tall, but can get down unlike any white girl i have ever seen! we were all awkward freshmen who had no clue what was going on. ruthie got us all out on that dance floor, though. it was hands down the greatest swap we ever had! as we were leaving she informed us that she wasn't a chi o, but that she never passes up an opportunity to dance to 17th floor. (p.s. if you're looking for tupac, i'm pretty sure he is the lead singer for 17th floor, the rap cover band that plays ole miss parties. they are awesome.) she didn't care if they kicked her out. she was going to dance. that is when i realized just how cool she is!

on april 15th, ruthie's father passed away. this was a complete surprise, but thankfully we serve a God who knows no surprises. ruthie started a blog to share this hard walk with us. one of the things i love the most about ruthie is how real she is. this is a hard time in her life and she doesn't pretend like it isn't. she does this with hope though b/c she knows she will be with her father again.

(ruthie with her father on her wedding day)

a couple of weeks ago ruthie and her husband, will, were driving through jackson on their way back to nashville. will's car broke down and they were stranded here. when it rains it pours. i got to spend a little time with them and catch up with this sweet friend.

i knew that ruthie had been having treatments for her back (problems remaining from a wreck she had in high school), but i learned the extent of all of this.

one of her close friend's summed it up better than i can....

"For those who don't know, she was in a very serious auto accident in 1996 and was in critical care for 6-8 weeks. With a broken neck, it was a miracle that she was even able to walk again. However, she has suffered chronic and intolerable pain since then. Recently, doctors discovered a surgical wire that has broken and pierced her spinal cord that must be removed. The countless medical bills will be in excess of $100,000, and their insurance policy excludes Ruthie's pre-existing condition."

the surgery is risky, but it can't be left the way it is.

this is what brings me to this post.

TOMORROW NIGHT (thursday, june 4) there is a benefit concert in nashville for ruthie.

it is going to be an amazing night, and i wish more than anything that i could be there!
i figured that i would post this on here on the off chance that someone in nashville hasn't heard about it, and wants to help out my sweet friend!!

this flyer has all the information, but if you need more just let me know!

i love you ruthie!!

why is it....

2009-06-03T21:06:00.007-05:00

that my lips go down for a frown, but can't go up for a smile?

ever since i was little i could make the "bulldog face", which then turned into the will clark face.
will clark played baseball for mississippi state, but went on to play for the giants, rangers, orioles and cardinals. when he would bat he would always make a frown.

since my family rarely missed a state baseball game they thought it was entertaining to get me to do the frown.

it isn't a mystery that i love to laugh, and i love to smile. all the time. one day in high school, a friend (caroline...i think it was you) pointed out that when i smile my lips don't go up.

to illustrate this point here are some ridiculous pictures. i apologize.

here is the will smith frown these days....

and here is my no smiling smile.
i am trying my absolute hardest to bring the corners of my mouth up. they don't budge.

thanks for letting me share.

this past weekend

2009-06-02T21:09:00.008-05:00

i really am ashamed that i haven't updated this in forever. i mean caroline hogan and cassie corless just gave birth (with two small ones at home) and they updated theirs! i have no excuse.

this past weekend was such a great one....i know y'all want to hear all about it!

lucky you!

my mom and i drove up to memphis on thursday for my cousin's wedding weekend. i was going to stay with newman on thursday night and help her celebrate her birthday (i try to help out where i can!)!

my mom dropped me off at a mexican restaurant. yes, i felt like i was in junior high. especially after my mom ramped half of the car up onto the curb. (sorry mama, it was funny)

we had apps at the mexican restaurant with andy and vern, then headed to bosco's to meet up with more people. i would tell you who all was there, but i don't remember. part of me being old.

bosco's is a great restaurant in memphis...i highly recommend sitting out on the patio (i highly recommend sitting on any patio).

from there we went to some hole in the wall pub. i love hole in the wall pubs!! especially when long lost friends, like isaac byrd, walk in! i went to college with byrd dawg and i don't think i've seen him since i've graduated.

here is the one and only picture taken from that night.

the next day my mom and i spent most of the day with my grandfather. he is in rehab now, but they are pretty sure that he had a stroke, which made him fall. he has a pacemaker, so they can't do an MRI to determine that. physically he is fine, but mentally he isn't quite as with it. when we got there he said he was ready to go to the farm.
he grew up on a dairy farm in mccomb (probably where i get my love of milk from!)
the next day we went to see him he had on two button down shirts. he said that he was afraid he would get cold while he was working.
he still is hands down the cutest grandfather around!!
i discovered something while we visited. he loves wheel of fortune. so do i! my sister makes fun of me for this. although i am in the wheel watchers club, and i don't think he is quite to that level.

friday night we went to the most beautiful rehearsal dinner for my cousin's wedding. drew's dad (my uncle) is on the national heart transplant list and wasn't able to be there for the wedding. i know he hated missing it, but he wouldn't have wanted them to cancel it.
drew's oldest brother, bryan, stepped in and read the sweetest toast my uncle had typed out. drew has two older brothers and they are all really close. i love all of them so much and was so happy to share this night with drew and his new wife, merry claire.

merry claire is adored by everyone she meets, but i don't think anyone loves her as much as my sister's girls!

here are some pictures from the wedding at the memphis botanic gardens.....

merry claire was a beautiful bride!!

their first dance was to elton john's "this is your song." my uncle was a classical guitarast in college and sang this song to his wife when they were dating and after they got married. it was so sweet to see drew and merry claire dance to it.

drew dancing with his mom. all the babies call her "aunt pink"

the reception was gorgeous!

on the left is elizabeth bratley wardlaw (married to my cousin, bryan), me, julie wardlaw (married to my cousin, russ) and their little girl mary evins wardlaw.

congratulations drew and merry claire! i love y'all both and pray the Lord will continue to shower you with his love and blessings!

text messages

2009-05-19T11:47:00.002-05:00

this is why i love my friends....

because they take pictures of themselves while driving and message them to me with "miss y'all already" as the subject.

speaking of driving and taking pictures.

one of these days i'm going to figure out how to get vhs videos on to a computer, so i can show y'all the meatloaf music video hallie and newman filmed while driving my car.
that is when i knew we would be bff.

my sweet grandfather

2009-05-13T23:21:00.003-05:00

i've told y'all about my cute grandfather, "grandaddy wardlaw," in this post.

this past weekend he had a really bad fall and had a brain hemorrhage. he used to walk 2 miles a day...every single day. he also ate an apple a day...core and all. he walked those two miles up until a couple of months ago. he is 91.

my sister, her youngest and i went up to memphis on saturday, so we could spend some time with him.

even in a hospital bed he is the cutest thing.

he has moved to a rehab place and is doing much better than we originally though!

thank y'all for the prayers!

want to hear a cute story?

we got to memphis on saturday and went straight to the hospital to see my grandfather. my mom was telling molly what my grandfather had eaten for lunch....tomato soup and apple juice.
after we left we ran by target. sweet molly asked her mama if we could get some apple juice, so she could share some with grandaddy wardlaw.

she wanted to have an apple juice party with him. the juicy juice in the picture would be from their party. he loved the apple juice!!

a dear friend

2009-05-04T23:10:00.009-05:00

i don't think there is a memory i have of my freshman year in college without patrick ross and eric eaton in them. the three of us did everything together.

that year for fall break i flew out to san diego to see my sister for the weekend. patrick and eric actually wrote me letters for the plane ride b/c they were scared i would get bored without them.
once when i was sick i was laying in bed and heard the door open. i thought that either someone was breaking in, or someone was coming over to just hang out. my house was kind of a free-for-all for anyone who wanted to come over. i called out and got no response, so i decided it was a robber. i didn't really care b/c i felt so bad. after awhile eric and patrick came in my room with chicken soup. i'm pretty sure it was homemade too. i can't tell you how many stories like these that i have.

i bet you are wondering why i'm taking this walk down memory lane. may 5, 2004, our sweet friend, patrick, died in a car accident. everything about that day is so vivid....it seems like it was just yesterday.

i'm not writing this to make y'all sad. i've actually been laughing to myself remembering all the things we did together. i can smile because i know that patrick loved God. it was evident in everything he did. i use this day as a reminder of how short life is. a reminder to ask myself what kind of legacy i am leaving. it also reminds me to be thankful for my dear friends and all the memories we have together.

i hope y'all know that i'm thankful for you. all of you.

patrick used to give the best bear hugs. hands down the best. if he didn't give a bear hug he would put his arm around you and grab onto the seam on the shoulder. he would cup his hand under the seam and squeeze tight. i always thought that was so strange, but he said it was his way of giving a sideways bear hug.

all that to say

don't let an opportuntity pass you by to give your friends and family a great big bear hug.

this picture is from our trip to madison, GA (patrick's hometown). we went to see the ole miss/georgia game. patrick's sweet family took us in for the weekend. he has the greatest family ever and i'm so thankful that i can keep up with them still.
left to right is luke, carol anne, patrick, me, amanda and eric.
i love these people!

(eric...that first song is for you. i tried to find cabin fever, but it wasn't on there...i can't imagine why!)

signs i'm approaching 88 and not 28

2009-04-29T14:37:00.004-05:00

- i love playing bridge with my family

- scrabble is probably one of my favorite games...if there was a jackson league i would probably join

- my breakfast of choice is always oatmeal with walnuts and strawberries

- i love hot tea with lemon and honey

- i prefer honey that is made locally...to help with the allergies, you know

- i always have to have a blanket when i watch a movie, even in summer

- i have to wear reading glasses

- when i drive i like to listen to sermons, mpr or afr. really? i'm embarrassed of that one. the next step is getting books on tape. i don't listen to the classical music on them yet, but i do listen to the talk radio segments.

- i prefer soymilk

- i frequent fabric stores

- i like eating dinner at 5:30

- there are many, many white hairs on my head

- i like to sew and really want to learn how to knit, smock and quilt

- when i'm out with my friends we complain about the noise (at least i'm not alone on that one)

Easter festivities

2009-04-15T22:37:00.009-05:00

this is the wreath that my sister and i set out to make. she had found the picture in an old magazine, so we were determined to make it. it's so colorful and looks so pretty with my azaleas that finally bloomed that i don't want to take it down.
i'll try to come up with another colorful wreath to take it's place.

after church on Easter sunday we went over to my mom's house for lunch. we missed having my brother's families there, but i couldn't resist a photo op with my sister's children in their Easter dresses.

i told them to hug each other. it looks like alex sort of has a choke-hold on molly.

no choke-hold

if you wear bunny ears you have to do a bunny pose

alex might kill me one day, but then again he is the one who did the pose

after the posing it was off to the hunting. as you can tell the eggs weren't really "hidden." this was about their 6th hunt, so the excitement had worn off.
alex, who learned how to be sarcastic from his mom and me, looked at his mamaw and said, "wow! you hide eggs really well!"

cute little annie

sweet mimi put her eggs in so carefully

molly was missing a lot of the eggs and not really in to all of it....until....jeanette told her that some of the eggs had "crabby patties" in them! the kids gave up candy for lent, and crabby patties are molly's favorite! (crabby patties are from spongebob squarepants just in case you are unfamiliar)
after molly heard that she was running across the front yard trying to grab as many as she could.

their church had a hunt for them after the service, and alex had racked up. we decided that they should put all the eggs on the floor and divide them evenly. it was a ton of eggs!!! after we went through all of them and picked out the ones where people had just stuck some unpackaged jelly beans in they had a normal amount.

if you go to my sister's blog you can see pictures from earlier in the week of the egg dying and cake making. Easter is jeanette's favorite holiday, so we always go all out!

google reader

2009-04-14T17:24:00.003-05:00

i have a lot of friends with blogs

i read a lot of decorating/crafting/recipe blogs.

i stalk even more blogs of people i don't know, but feel like i do.

google reader makes this process much easier.

if you don't know what google reader is then you must find out now!

www.reader.google.com

it will make you so much more productive!

click on add a subscription at the top. add the url (mama...that's the web address). it updates it automatically. as you scroll down it marks it as read. it's like it's all on one website.

it's amazing.

right now i have 42 unread posts. it would take me forever to click on all those blogs, but now it takes no time!

if you still have a yahoo, hotmail or aol account....just go on ahead and do yourself a favor and sign up for gmail.

you can thank me later.

good friday

2009-04-10T00:25:00.002-05:00

since it is officially good friday (12:25am) i thought i would share a song with y'all.
we sing this at my church and it hits me everytime.
as you know, i'm a huge fan of hymns and an even bigger fan of the lyrics in the hymns.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon his cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

may your good friday be wonderful and may you be reminded of the cross everyday, but especially today!

mark it on your calendar...b/c i don't have one

2009-04-09T00:14:00.005-05:00

never in my life have i been able to keep a calendar. never.

i might be one of the most organized people you know...might. i love all the new school supplies and organizers when august roles around. notice the use of the present tense. one year i got so nostalgic for school supplies that i got a binder that i could use for all my house things...bills, addresses, business cards. you can ask my accountant, john eric, about the binder. he knows it well. a little side note...if you need an awesome person to help do your taxes...john eric hester. he's awesome.

back to the binder. in this binder i have a calendar section. there is only one month filled out.

that is my problem. i get calendars and fill them out for a couple of weeks, but i never go back to look at it. this might be why i miss appointments all the time. sorry.

on the other hand...it is what makes me the type of person who decides to go to the beach at 2 a.m. with these crazy people,

doesn't tell anyone and comes back later that night. or the time when we left at 4:30 a.m. for the beach, or the numerous times we tried to think of what do do for supper and decided that memphis was a good option. or the time when we drove home from memphis and decided to take a side trip to tupelo to visit the boats. or the countless times we decided that 2 a.m. is a great time to go to graceland too. you get the drift.

the only thing i have that is close to a calendar is the sheet of typing paper i grab on sundays to jot down my week's activities. how i got through school, college and being a youth director...i have no clue.

i don't think that i will ever be able to keep a calendar/organizer.

actually i take that back. i will totally be the mom with a calendar on the refrigerator with a color for each kid and their activities. joy cannada used to do that and everytime i went over there as a kid i would just stare in amazement. i always told her that i wanted to have a color.

so until i have enough kids for the calendar to be colorful...i will stick with my sheet of typing paper.

there is a point to all of this.

earlier this week i made a purchase.

U2 tickets for $30 in atlanta OCTOBER 6th.

i've never made a plan that far in advance.

and yes, you did read correctly....the tickets were $30....to see this man.

amazing!

thank goodness my sister and roommate are going with me, so they will remind me about it when october roles around. actually...nette will probably remind me every day with an official countdown.

the recipe contest we almost won...

2009-03-26T23:11:00.008-05:00

a while back i saw an ad in the Mississippi Magazine about a recipe contest they were having.

i thought this would be super fun even though i have never created a recipe before (except for monster cookies...and let's be honest...we just added m&m's to an already crazy recipe)

i set my heart on crab cakes.

i love crab cakes and can make them pretty well, so i decided to test out different variations.

i invited the only person i know who loves crab cakes more than me...nate bonham. his wife came for moral support...she isn't a fan of seafood. lauren dent and my roommate, emily craft were also among the taste-testers.

it sounds like a fun and easy job, but it was quite daunting.

we decided to make a black bean salsa to go under the crab cakes. this was delicious. some referred to it as "manna from heaven." i didn't argue.

we took a basic salsa recipe for this one and added our own variations. if there are recipes out there like ours...it is purely coincidental.

Manna:

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 8 oz can white shoepeg corn, drained (not to be confused with hominy...which i did in the grocery store)
1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
1 large mango, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 whole cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (we used an english cucumber, but i think regular would be fine)
2 T fresh lime juice
1 T olive oil
1 1/2 t. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

combine all of these ingredients and chill for 30 min.

this salsa is amazing but it kind of over-powered the crab cakes. if i had to do it over again i would chop mango and red onion and make a salad of that to set the crab cake on.

so here is our amazing crab cake recipe.

(we tried so many that i think i'm giving y'all the correct version)

Southern Crab Cakes

- finely chop the following:

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 granny smith apple
4 celery stalks
1 small red onion
1 bunch of cilantro or (1/4 c.)

- sautee the veggies using:

olive oil spray
1/2 t. worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. tobasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste

-sautee until they are tender. about 10-15 min.

(this makes a large bunch of veggies, so i reccommend saving them for another recipe)

- in a separate bowl whisk 2 egg whites (we used the break free egg whites that are already separated)

- to the egg whites add:

1/2 lb. of lump crabmeat, drained (1 can of lump from kroger)
1/2 c. mayo (we used the one from canola oil)
5 T oatmeal
4 T bread crumbs
1 t. worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. cilantro
1 1/2 t. old bay seasoning
1 T. dijon mustard
2 t. capers
5 grinds of black pepper
1 cup of the sauteed veggie mixture

- mix gently with a spatula.

- let a skillet heat at med. and spray with pam

- form patties with the crab mixture and add to the skillet. cook on each side for 2 min. then put the skillet in a 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.

- plate and top with manna

yields: 6 - 8 crab cakes, depending on size.

this recipe above was the fan favorite

but here are some alternate substitutions and additions:

-in one batch we added 1/4 c. light sour cream instead of the egg whites and mayo.

-another had 2 heaping T of cream cheese (the weight watchers kind) instead of the egg whites and mayo. mix this one by hand.

-in some we added captain rodney's and some liked the sweet addition.

-since you make a lot of veggies this recipe can be doubled or tripled easily and you can just save the crab cake mixture...maybe make some sort of crab cake bisque?

-you can forget the manna and the veggies and make the crab cakes just plain. maybe with the mango and red onion on top. that part is really easy.

the recipe sounds scary and involved, but it really isn't that hard to make them...or mess them up.

the only problem was that i forgot to enter the recipe into the contest. so we will never know if it was a winner. in our hearts it is.

of course i would forget to submit it.

i would like to thank all those involved in the first annual crab cake festival 2k9.

children's book report

2009-03-24T22:57:00.004-05:00

here is another book report for you.

i don't have kids and even if i didn't have nieces and nephews i would get this book to have in my house in case a child ever came over. i wish i could buy tons and give them to every child i see.

the book you ask....

"an awesome book"

no really. that's the title.

dallas clayton wrote this awesome book.

it's all about dreaming big. not dreams like matching silverware (that's in there), but dreams of candy cane machine and rocket-powered unicorns.

the book is so awesome that you can actually read the whole thing online for free...here.

after you read it you are going to want to purchase it.

and you can here.

it's $15.

here is the awesome site...i'm sure that Mr. Clayton will probably have many more books down the road.

or at least i hope he does.

bear with me...

2009-03-07T20:46:00.014-06:00

this has the potential to be a long post, but the good kind of long....lots of pictures and little writing. i can't believe i've had so many posts lately without pictures.

so to recap last week...

1. lauren is having a BOY! i'm so happy for her and casey! they are going to be amazing parents!

2. the art show at st. catherine's was hilarious! my sweet friend from church, shirley marshall, is the events coordinator for the residents out there. she was there when my grandparents lived there and is always putting together fun things for them! i've been doing this show with her for the past couple of years, and it's always so much fun!
my roommate put out some of her amazing scarves. one of these days she's going to teach me how to knit. not sure if she knows that.

i have two videos from this show. apparently i need to put a sticker on my camera to remind me that you can't film vertically. i apologize.

this first one is of one of my favorite ladies there...the one with the purple, yellow and green umbrella that she would use to dance with.

the second is a friend of mine (we'll call her shamie shosko) who works as a nurse at st. catherine's. she goes to church with me too, and does a great job out there...she loves those residents!

3. i sadly didn't get to see baby harry last week. i sat down to make the new website and all of a sudden it was wed. night. hopefully next week i will get a chance to go by there.

4. the art class is still so much fun. i'm sort of getting addicted to painting oils now.

5. after i left oxford on sunday i drove to hernando to see jenny and her sweet little elizabeth! and her husband, chas, and 2 year old, anne mitchell. they are one of the cutest families!! i've known jenny since 2nd grade and i have never doubted that she would make an amazing mother...and i wasn't wrong! she makes it look so easy!

sweet elizabeth

this last one is of anne mitchell. i asked her what my name was. she said, "emmie." then i asked her if i was her friend, and she said "yes." i would give this litle girl the world!

6. this one really needs no explanation, but i'll give one anyway. hallie and newman are two of my best friends in the world. when we all get together everything just makes more sense and we can all breathe more easily. they are the friends i have who know the most and worst about me and love me regardless. i don't know how i got so blessed to have the friends i have, but i am so thankful for them!!

7. sweet taylor marshall. helen marshall is another one of my best friends from high school and college. sweet hellian had a sweet little boy on jan. 21st. someday soon i'll post some pictures of her baby shower and her holding him at the hospital. we all got to go see helen in action as a mom! that baby boy has the greatest parents in the world!! helen's sweet sister, mary ann, stopped by and brought her little boy, allen. allen is 4 month older than taylor (i think that's right). here are some pictures from our visit...

helen with baby taylor

mary ann and newman with allen

newman with taylor

we had decided to get showers after our visit, maybe we should have rethought that? oh well.

four best friends...hellian, harriet, em g and newman

8. words can't describe how excited we were to all be in oxford! we got to oxford and went straight to proud larry's. newman's sister, cali, had a table waiting for us. we ate with her and some of her friends (one of them being a good friend of mine...emily moore).
from there we met up with another best friend of ours, ashley, for drinks. i realize y'all don't want to know all these details. they're more for me than you.
ashley's parents live in oxford and always let us crash at their house. they are AMAZING! if they aren't opening their door up to us then they usually have multitudes of others that they take in.
funny story y'all might appreciate.
-when we met ashley for drinks it was 8pm. we were so excited that downtown grill wasn't too packed (having not realized what time it was). we sat with ashley and grilled her new boyfriend (who is wonderful btw). we sat there a couple hours and it started getting crowded and loud. we decided it was too loud for us, so we left to go home and sit in front of the fire in our pjs. it was 10:30pm. apparently we are getting old.

on saturday we all met up at bottletree for breakfast. i felt like we were in college again.
we went back to ashley's where we made a fire and chilled for the rest of the afternoon. ashley's dad even made us lunch, so we wouldn't have to venture back out in the cold. i'm telling you...they're amazing.

then that night was the wedding.
our sweet college friend, suzanne eleazer, was the bride. it was such a sweet and fun wedding!!
obviously we loved the dance floor.

this picture of hallie sums up our night quite nicely....

suzanne and newman dancing to whip it. the band was awesome!!

because it was so cold that night (it was snowing!) we ran to our cars after the ceremony. i got a sweet parking spot, so we were the FIRST people to arrive. we secured a pretty sweet booth that was right next to the dance floor. perfect.

hallie, matt milner, carter milner (sweet high school and college friend of mine), andy and newman

andy, newman, me, miriam, ashley and casey

best friends....
newman, em g, miriam, ashley and harriet

9. when we woke up for church on sunday this is what we woke up to.....

SNOW!!!

and lots of it! (ok...a lot for a mississippi girl!)

we made it to church and were actually early. i'm telling you...we're getting old.
after church newman's sweet, sweet mom drove from clarksdale to make lunch for us!! how sweet is that! a bunch of us went to cali's house and had an amazing sunday lunch.
we all hit the road and that is when i drove to hernando to see baby elizabeth.

10. it is now march. it took me forever to write this post, so i hope y'all are still my friends after reading it. i said this post wouldn't have many words. i lied. i'm sorry.

an added bonus from last weekend. another one of my best friends (we go way back), caroline hogan, was in town for the weekend. i stopped by her sweet in-laws house to see her and her cute girls. i've told y'all about her. she has 2 little girls (ages 2 and 1) and has another one on the way. i, of course, think this is completely normal and so fun!!! she's such an amazing mom....she won't notice having one more mouth to feed...right? caroline completely has her hands full, but somehow still has the time to be there for me always. i'm so thankful for her friendship over the years! she was always the one who would call and ask me "how is your heart and how can i pray for you"....in HIGH SCHOOL! i know. i'm telling you...i'm blessed with the most amazing friends.

sweet caroline and cute little millie. millie had just learned how to walk the night before!

getting sweet kisses

oops! haha! millie moved right as we were getting our picture taken!

their sweet deedee reading to all the grandkids

i can't believe how old dendy looks!! they need to hurry up and move back to jackson!!

y'all only thought i was finished with this post. ha!

yay for spring being here!!

new website!

2009-02-25T22:13:00.003-06:00

today i felt inspired to create a website. this doesn't happen very often, so i decided to run with it.

i've never created a website before, but thank goodness the people at officelive make it pretty easy....and free.

here is the new site!

www.emilyguthrieart.com

i hope to have more paintings for sale on there, but right now there is only one.

i'll still keep the art blog going, so i can put up new items pretty easily. i probably won't be changing around the website as much as the blog.

let me know what you think!

10 reasons i'm excited about this week...

2009-02-23T01:12:00.004-06:00

1. my dear, sweet friend, lauren hester, finds out tomorrow if she is having a boy or a girl. so exciting.

2. i have an art show on tuesday. granted it is at st. catherine's retirement village. but a show is a show. right?

3. i am going to see baby harry on wednesday. some sweet church friends had a baby boy in january, and after seeing him this morning in church i decided i had to hang out with him longer. he is precious. mary ella is his big sister.

4. i am taking an art class with my mom on wednesdays. it is so much fun and i'm loving taking the class with my mom.

5. one of my best friends from high school, jenny, (jennifer o'neal emerson) is having her second child on thursday. she lives in hernando, so i won't be there for the birth. but still exciting.

(funny how so far the majority of my exciting things involve babies)

6. this is super exciting. two of my best friends, hallie and newman, are coming in town thursday! enough said on that one!

7. the three of us will get to hang out with helen's new baby, taylor marshall.

8. the three of us will drive to oxford for the weekend where we will get to hang out with another best friend (ashley), see more friends and see another friend get married.

9. i will get to go to church with them in oxford on sunday.

10. the end of the week just means the start of another....which means that spring is getting closer!

to sum it up.

the things that make me happy:

friends
children
art
family
oxford
church

(not in that order)

fantasy football update...

2009-02-10T00:56:00.003-06:00

i just realized that i never updated y'all on my fantasy football team.

i would like to announce that i (drum roll please)

...was not the winner!

you see, it's a little crazy b/c in some aspects i was the winner. i didn't win overall though.
i did go undefeated for a crazy length of time. about 10 games or so.
i lost in the single elimination play-offs.

i somehow ended the season with the highest points though.

so, i think i'm a winner.

laura treppendahl

2009-02-07T00:33:00.006-06:00

6 years. it seems like yesterday.

i lost a dear, sweet friend in college...laura treppendahl. after RUF that night she came to my house to play games and sing kareoke. when she left i was the last person to get a hug from her. if i had known that would be the last hug i ever got from her...it is exactly how i would have wanted it to be. that was one of the beautiful things about laura. when she hugged you, she meant it. when she said she loved you, she meant it. nothing ever became monotonous with her. she did everything with such emotion...because she knew that she wasn't promised tomorrow. at dinner that night laura talked about singing at RUF. she said that singing Holy, Holy, Holy was like an appetizer to heaven. we would usually sing it as the last song and they wouldn't play instruments on the last verse. she described it perfectly!

we used to meet every thursday afternoon for coffee on the balcony at square books. she and i would sit and talk for hours about how we always overcommit to things...obviously i haven't changed much in that area! laura introduced me to palmer's cocoa butter chapstick...the greatest chapstick, hands down.

i could go on and on about laura, but a friend of mine wrote something about her that is more beautiful than anything i could dream of writing.

this was written by johnathan keenan. he was roommates with laura's boyfriend, dallis.

if you don't read anything else on my blog....read this...

The name Laura Treppendahl may not be a word in your ear that sounds
familiar. This person is simply another name whose identity is
unknown, a mystery, someone that you will forget once you have read
this. But to others, when this particular name is whispered,
ironically, mystery is still in the air. The identity is known, but
without words that seem fitting.

She is the person in your life that smiles simply because she knows
no other expression. She laughs because she finds that is soothes the
soul and that it makes her smile even more. Her presence in a room
brings great joy, yet comfort for the ones who do not have the social
graces as others. She always exudes happiness when she sees you. It
seems almost fake, but when you begin to see how she works, you
understand that she truly is ecstatic to simply say "hello." When
speaking with her, at that moment in time, you are most important. She
possessed the wonderful gift of listening. But more importantly, she
was compassionate when listening. If you were sad, she was sad; if you
were hurting, she probably felt your pain; when you were excited, she
elevated even more excitement. Her humbleness is perplexing, her
willingness to serve others is convicting, and her ability to love
others is gripping. The name Laura Treppendahl is now a familiar tone
to some of you because you can think of that person in your life who
exemplifies these wonderful gifts.

All these characteristics sum up a person who was in love with Jesus
Christ. The profundity of Christianity baffled her. She understood
grace, which happens to be the most perplexing concept of the entire
Bible. How did she grasp the idea that God sent His Son to the cross
to die a horrible lonely death for her? Well, it was by faith. Deep
down inside her tiny little frame, her heart beat to the sound of
God's drum. From before the beginning of time she was one of God's
children.

Dallis Ketchum, another name that is foreign, except maybe the first,
which is a pretty familiar city, but other than that no identity is
captured from the sound of the name. He is my roommate, truly one of
my closest companions. We know each other well, very well. He is in
love, enamored, smitten by Laura Treppendahl. I do not know the
feeling he possesses for her, because I have never been in love, but
from what I can grasp, I want what he has. It is not the cheesy
romantic love that the Entertainment industry conjures up. It is the
gospel-centered love for another person that strangely exist between
two Christians whose first love is Christ. It is the sacrificial love
Christ so perfectly displayed amongst His people. It is the ability to
see the other person the way Christ sees them, perfectly radiant,
possessing something they were created for, Holiness. It is not the
romantic feeling (which changes as easily as the Seasons do), but the
concept of Love. The concept that says, you know what, I am going to
love you for your sake, not mine. I am going to serve you not because
you deserve it, but because you don't deserve it. I am going to be
patient with you because God is patient. I am going to humble myself
because Christ humbled Himself. I don't understand love, but I write
like I do because I have witnessed a unique relationship that taught
me more than I asked for.

Dallis Ketchum wanted to spend the rest of his life waking up to
Laura Treppendahl. God said no, I have other plans for you.

On February 7th, Laura Treppendahl was killed. She was "called home"
as us Christians like to say. Why she died, I have no idea? Why did
God take her away from Dallis, I don't have the slightest clue? The
mystery of God's sovereign plan is just that, a mystery. But I must
and will continue to find comfort in the doctrine of a sovereign God
who by His own divine Will rules the universe as He pleases. You say
"comfort?" How can this be comfort when a drunk driver killed my best
friend's second love? It is comfort because I believe if God did not
exist as a sovereign ruler over all then that means no one rules,
which means that this world would be in major chaos. It brings peace
to know that I am not in control. But this does not nullify the
feelings I have and don't have for the divine tragedy that happened.
My friend lost his Love. I do not know what pain exist in his heart. I
do not understand the agony he goes through day in and day out, the
silent yet awful sound of sleepless nights that brings more tears and
more heartache. I try, but nothing happens. I see him hurting, I hear
him crying, yet, I have no feeling that matches his. Guilt is the only
pain I feel. I feel that I grieve without pain which makes me believe
that I am not actually grieving, because I do not understand what he
lost and what Christ gained. I miss her tremendously, her beautiful
smile, but my grief for her is slowly turning into a quiet little
peace, but it has turned full force towards my beloved roommate whose
pain is foreign and whom I have no remedy for.

It has been a surreal moment in my life, these past couple of weeks,
but time continues to pass and the days are beginning to get back to
normal, but one thing that remains the same, Laura Treppendahl is not
here. She is in perfect condition, Holy and blameless, illuminating
the radiance of Christ and if we happened to see her now, we might be
tempted to worship her because she reflects the image she was created
for, Christ. May you find comfort in the friends you have like Laura
Treppendahl, but more importantly, may you find rest in the Name of
Jesus Christ, by whom we long to be with. I leave you with this quote
from C.S. Lewis on Heaven: "Your soul has a curious shape because it
is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours
of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the
house with many mansions. For it is not humanity in the abstract that
is to be saved, but you-you, the individual reader...Blessed and
fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another's. All
that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His
good way, to utter satisfaction...Your place in Heaven will seem to be
made for you and you alone, because you were made for it."

random things

2009-02-05T18:09:00.004-06:00

there is a popular thing going around facebook these days. people tag other people and they list 25 random things about themselves.
i did this on facebook, but after i posted it i thought my list was pretty lame. sure there were some good ones on there, but i decided to do another one here.

so here are 25 random things about me:

1. i once locked the keys in the car with the car running

2. i like to wear flowers in my hair. any occasion.

3. speaking of hair. i've never had mine past my shoulders. the doctor said it gave me headaches when i was little because there was so much of it.

4. i thought my dolls came to life when i was little. now that you know that you can understand why i did not take it well when my brothers hung them from a tree in a front yard and put a spotlight on them....as a halloween decoration.

5. i hit my brother on the back with a hammer once. i'm sorry thom.

6. my brother "accidently" followed through too much with a swing and hit me in the face with a wiffel ball bat stuffed with newspaper and wrapped with duck tape. it broke my sinuses.

7. just counting my parents, my siblings, their kids and myself....there are 18 people in my family.

8. i sat right behind heath ledger on a flight once. i didn't realize it was him til we were getting off the plane. he is a fast walker, but i kept up with him and we were the only two people in the baggage claim. we were able to talk for a while. i'm glad that i somewhat stalked him to talk to him.

9. certain fabrics givv me the heebie-jeebies. courduroy, velvet, velour, car carpet, some rugs. i don't know why but thom is the same way.

10. whistling drives me crazy.

11. my mom told me she would pay me 5 cents for every magnolia leaf i picked up in the front yard. i wasn't smart enough to think that if i filled one bag up with 200 leaves, that the next bag would probably be that. if i miscounted i would pour them out and start over. i picked up 2800 leaves to make $140. i spent all the money on buying more american girl accessories.

12. i've always wished that i could go on let's make a deal where they go through the audience and ask them to pull out random things from their purse. i would rock that game!

13. in college a group of us arranged our schedules around "the price is right" and we would meet in the union to watch it together.

14. people have always felt the need to wear costumes to my house. i'm not sure why, but i love it.

15. there are certain songs that chi o has ruined for me. material girl, everlasting love, abc, one way or another, carolina in my mind & proud mary to name a few. i can't hear them without hearing the chi o version for rush.

16. i've always wanted someone to follow me around with a boombox and play a soundtrack for my life.....except i wouldn't want to hear scary music.

17. the first time i went to the zoo was when i was 24.

18. i once ate a whole bottle of flintstone vitamins. i thought they were supposed to be good for me!

19. clint babysat us once when he was in college. as my parets were driving out of the driveway he told us to write down 3 things we've always wanted to do that our mom never let us do. drinking a second glass of milk before i finished my veggies was on my list.

20. my sister and i can have a whole conversation without saying a word.

21. i believed there were purple polka-dotted cows in hawaii until an embarassing age...like 12 or something. clint would be the mastermind behind that one.

22. in the past i have been known to not wear sunscreen. ever. even when i would live at the beach. i do now.

23. i drove 8 hours to the beach. layed out for 7 hours. drove 8 hours back that night. total trip time: 23 hours. best trip ever!

24. i'm not a fan when people don't use possessive pronouns. for some reason it always happens when people are talking about their parents....they'll say, "dad is going to the doctor." .....but he's not my dad.

25. i have had a full leg cast....twice. from thigh to ankle...and it wasn't the kind you can remove.

texas trip number 3

2009-01-29T20:52:00.016-06:00

this past weekend my mom and i took annie and emily for a long weekend to san antonio. every time we have driven there we go a different way, and i think we finally found the best route.

while we were there we had a miss america party.

these were our activities:

-coloring
-making necklaces
-decorating tiaras with stickers
-making hair ribbon things
-watching the pagaent
-eating pizza pizza
-drinking shirley temples with a crazy straw
-decorating cupcakes...strawberry of course
-dance party!
-putting on make-up
-doing fun hair-dos
-painting fingernails
-cleaning fingernail polish out of the carpet...did you know that windex gets it out? neither did i! shaving cream also works, but not fingernail polish remover...which is what you think would work.

thom decided to get out of the house and go to the movies, so it was an all girls night!

here are some pictures from the party...

the girly girls showing off the hair ribbons they made.

the next day cailin asked me to do another scavenger hunt for them. the last time we took alex i did 3 scavenger hunts because they were having so much fun! the funny thing is that a lot of the clues included them cleaning and doing school work!

this time the clues said that a silly monster had stolen annabel's penguin and we needed help finding it.
one of the clues had them crawl under all of the dining room chairs that were in a straight line. they had to spin around in a chair and walk a straight line, and about 18 other activities. we made a fort and finger puppets. later that night they put on a play with the finger puppets.

i am so blessed to be their aunt!!

i have a couple more pictures from the scavenger hunt that i'll post later. one of these days i'll post pictures from texas trip #2

below is a video of annabel saying her name....annabel "guffy"

the scariest driveway on the planet

2009-01-22T15:42:00.005-06:00

for months now i have been wanting to get some footage of my brother's driveway.

while we were there over christmas i finally accomplished that goal.

the sad thing is that it doesn't really even do it justice.

here are some pictures of walking up the driveway

it should be noted that at the end of the driveway is a lake...which adds to the excitement (a.k.a. fear)

here is a video of clint backing up the driveway...again, it doesn't do it justice

fashionably late...

2009-01-22T12:24:00.004-06:00

i've had a couple of posts with no pictures...that's no fun!

so

here are some pictures from christmas morning.

the first couple are from christmas morning in jackson, and the two on the end are from christmas in birmingham.

we had such a wonderful christmas being all together!!

update on cold tangerines...

2009-01-16T00:21:00.003-06:00

i recently told y'all about a book i was reading called cold tangerines. scroll down a couple of posts and you can see the cover of it.

this book might be one of my favorite books ever. largely impart to the way the author writes. she writes like she is just talking to you. obviously i am a big fan of that because i tend to do it myself. my brain doesn't form eloquent sentences at the strike of a key, and i don't take the time to really think about what i'm about to write. no worries though...her writing is MUCH better than mine!

i finished the book over the holidays and decided that i wanted to get one for all my friends to read. then i remembered that i'm 27 and poor. i thought that i could mail it to one friend and then have them send it on to the next friend. but that just automatically means that i am never going to see my book again. it is so good that i can't actually part with it. plus i underlined my favorite lines and starred passages that i want to remember. i'm holding on to my book.

so

all this to say....go buy the book. it is $12.40.

i'll even give you the direct link for it at amazon. i tried finding it locally and couldn't, so you're going to have to order it somewhere.

after you read it....come back and tell me what you think.

i'm back!

2009-01-12T23:48:00.002-06:00

i actually got back a week ago, but last week when i tried to post my computer wouldn't let me.

let's be honest...i gave up after trying twice.

tonight i fixed the counter. not sure what was wrong with it. and i took down the christmas music. sad i know, but it is january 12th.

there are so many pictures to show, stories to tell and a video of my brother's driveway. you will understand why i got video footage of it when you see it!

but for now....just know that i'm back, and the updates will come!

vacay!

2008-12-24T20:33:00.002-06:00

all my christmas orders are done, presents are wrapped and bags are packed!

nette and i grew up living in the same room from the time i was born til her senior year of high school. we each had twin beds and every christmas eve we would push them together or sleep in each other's bed. we don't have twin beds anymore and we don't share a room, but every christmas eve i go over to their house to spend the night.

i'll stay there tonight. we will wake up and see what santa brought. have christmas breakfast in our pajamas with mamaw then load up the car and head to birmingham! clint & brooke get jack the day after christmas, so we wanted to go celebrate with them!

i'll be in birmingham til next tuesday....then it's off to the BEACH!!!!! that absolutely deserves all caps!

a group of friends from college are going down to seagrove to ring in the new year!

my dad wants me to stay down there a couple extra days, so i'm not really sure when i will be home next. i'll have lots of pictures to share when i get home!

but for now....i hope y'all have a wonderful christmas and new years!!!

merriment...

2008-12-19T21:41:00.004-06:00

i decided to make my own christmas cards this year, and had a brilliant idea to save them in picture format and just get them printed.

i'm working on a lot of orders right now, so i didn't think i would have the time to address them all.

plus...

sending that many letters can get expensive. especially when i think that everyone is my best friend and needs a christmas card from me.

so...

i emailed them this year.

don't be offended if you are one of my best friends and you weren't on the list. i got frustrated trying to find everyone's email, so i just hit send. i decided i could post it here instead.

in case you are wondering. i do realize that my nieces and nephews aren't my real children, but i love them like they are my own!

plus sending a solo pic of me just doesn't say merry christmas! although it would be funny!

i hope everyone has a wonderful and merry christmas!

i love y'all!

(you can click on the picture to make it larger)

book report

2008-12-17T21:10:00.005-06:00

i was the dork in school who read every book that was assigned. i secretly loved it, but had to act annoyed at the audacity of a teacher to assign us another book to read.

there was only one book i didn't read. it was in college. i had to compare a book that i forgot to read to a movie i fell asleep in. i still have no clue how i pulled that one off.

when hallie was in town she mentioned this book to me....

it's called cold tangerines by shauna niequist. hallie hadn't read it either, but heard it was amazing. she said you don't find out why it's called cold tangerines until the very end. this completely bothered me. i always have to read the end of a book first. i started that in school because i would rush through a book trying to figure out the ending, but not paying attention to all the things the teachers wanted you to write about.

i have only read a few parts of this book, but i was deterimined not to read the end first. i am loving it though. i'm sure i'll tell y'all all about it when i finish.

here is a quote from the book on the back cover. i don't know if it's where the title came from, but it's good....

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that He gave life to someone who loves the gift."

i love that last line.

i have about 4 other books i'm reading right now, but i think this one just jumped in first place.

tacky christmas

2008-12-17T01:43:00.005-06:00

it isn't christmas without a tacky sweater party.

for some reason i feel like there are more tacky parties this year than ever. does that come with age?

our supper club is a random assortment of people...which i love. we usually meet once a week, but this fall we have been slacking. we decided a christmas party would fix everything.

the majority of the people weren't even our normal supper club, but we had fun!

somehow i only took two pictures

hallie's visit...

2008-12-16T11:51:00.015-06:00

i took a week hiatus from the blog this past week because......

HALLIE WAS IN TOWN!!

(i know...all caps!) she is back from africa and came for a visit! she called me back around thanksgiving and told me she could only come during the week because she had something every weekend. good thing i paint from home!

she came last monday and was going to leave on thursday, but got snowed in. she decided that mississippians driving in ice/snow was too dangerous, so she left on friday. we made a list of people to see and things to do, and pretty much accomplished everything on our list!

we had the greatest time and got to see cute, pregnant helen a couple of times. helen had us over for dinner one night and carter, kate and jmay stopped by for a little while. we looked at pictures from college that helen had, and laughed at our outfits. i mean...we haven't been out of school that long, but we definitely made some bad decisions with our outfits. sequin tops were number one on that list. those pictures you will not be seeing.

cute helen....you can barely tell she is pregnant from this picture

we surprised helen with some cupcakes, so we could celebrate her birthday early!

the next morning hallie went with me to alex's gingerbread play. stephen wanted us to meet him for breakfast, so we met him before the play. the play was hilarious. the kids had a "free style" portion of the play. alex totally rocked it....

side note...molly doesn't like looking at the camera any more because she doesn't like the flash, so she smiles and looks to the side.

another stop we made was to the sorgenfrei house to see sweet baby shelby! shelby is the sweetest baby ever. i was nice and let hallie hold her some...only because she lives in atlanta.

shelby was asleep when we got there, but that didn't stop us from holding her! she is such a love!!

brian talking to shelby while she was waking up. he and liza are such great parents!! brian has come a long way from when alex was a baby...he wouldn't hold him til he was at least crawling!

shelby has the greatest hair on any baby i've ever seen!

on thursday night we had the brilliant idea to go see a movie. the only one that was out that we had heard about was twilight. neither of us have read the books, but wanted to figure out why everyone is obsessed with them. we now know. it was a great movie and i might have to borrow someone's books. after the movie we decided to take a trip to canton to see the lights. if you haven't been to canton at christmas....you should go. they go all out. pretty much anything with lights is put out. we decided to pose by some of our favorites.

hallie is going skiing in january, so she had to get ready for the slopes.

the bears playing instruments were a definite favorite

it was really cold, so we just took the picture of the christmas tree from our car.

this past week was such a great one! i am so blessed with the friends i have and love y'all so much!!

now i'm off to put together my outfit for our supper club tacky christmas party tonight!

really?

2008-12-07T20:25:00.007-06:00

i know jackson is getting cool these days, but i hope that this fashion trend never comes here...

these are "harem" pants from the versace spring 2009 collection

i just don't get it. i know it's not their first appearance in fashion and they have been popular in europe for a year or so, but please don't come to mississippi.

these, i can only guess, are male harem pants.
i'm not big on fashion, so maybe i'm way off base here.

i have cool friends: part 2

2008-12-05T12:47:00.007-06:00

i thought that i would tell y'all about my cool friends that work with RUF (reformed university fellowship). it is a ministry of the PCA church to college students. i have been putting this off for a while trying to gather info on everyone, and decided that i would just dedicate this post to erin newman. you got it newman...a whole post just for you!!

newman is the intern program assisstant. (newman, aren't you impressed i knew the title!)

colleges that have an RUF program have campus ministers. some campus ministers are able to have interns...after they have flown solo for a while. newman is in charge of the interns. there are a lot of them. i try to help out by sending her funny emails every monday morning to cheer her up...we all have to do our part!

i'm lucky though because newman is one of my best friends. we first met our freshman year of college, but didn't become BFF til sophomore year. she is always giving people her time, and would do anything for anybody! i personally think she has the greatest prayers of anyone i know. the Lord has completely blessed me with friendships like this one. newman is amazing and everyone should want to be her best friend! please pray for the work that she does and for the ministry of RUF.

...excuse hallie's dad in this picture...he just wanted to make sure elvis got in the picture with us.

if you're sitting there thinking...where have i seen that face before...

the USA Today put this picture on the front page the weekend of the presidential debate in oxford! yeah, she's famous.

more installments of "i have cool friends" to come...

why is my eye drawn to things not for sale?

2008-12-04T23:32:00.006-06:00

about a month ago i got my pier 1 catalog in the mail. pier 1 at christmas is a dangerous place for me to be...it's just all so pretty!
as i flipped through i saw this page:

i kept flipping through the catalog hoping to find it for sale or at least a kit to show you how to make it. anything.

of course the lime green balloon tree isn't for sale. of course.

just like the red chalkboard in the pottery barn catalog.

after i finish some holiday orders my goal is to figure out how to make that thing. it may be valentine's day by then, but i will figure it out!

don't worry....i'll tell you all about it.

i'm also on a mission to figure out how to make tutus.

another post?

2008-12-04T01:21:00.003-06:00

i know. i know.

she doesn't blog for weeks, and then does 18 in one day. i apologize, but at least it will keep you entertained during work!

scroll down to

"it's a beautiful thing"

(which just so happens to be at the bottom of this page)

for the first one i posted.

it sort of makes more sense when you read them in order....if it is even possible for my posts to make sense at all.

read fast because i have more coming tomorrow!

it's official...

i'm back!!!

santa!! i know him!!

2008-12-04T00:40:00.008-06:00

"smiling! smiling's my favorite!"

yes, ELF is probably one of my favorite movies ever. if you don't think it's funny or at least crack a smile then i don't know how it is possible that we are friends.

that's not even what this post is all about. sorry.

this post is all about the kids going to see santa! we had a big plan to take them to see santa on friday. we were worried about the crazy shoppers at the mall, so we took them that night. we didn't have to wait that long...probably because no one in their right mind would take their child to see santa at the mall the day after thanksgiving.

i rode with nette's crew to the mall, and my mom and alex rode with clint's crew. i doubt clint's car listened to the "techno hampster" car on the way there....but ours DID!!! i thought i would share it with y'all...i know...how did you get this lucky? if you look closely (sorry about the lighting) you can see molly and emily doing their dance of choice...cat eyes.

annie fell on the way into the car, so she didn't feel like dancing.....but the "techno hampster" song will cure any ailment and make you want to dance.

we got to the mall and realized we had to get three pictures.

1. group photo with all 5 kids

2. group photo with nette's kids

3. group photo of clint, brooke & jack

they took the pictures rather quickly, but santa's elves forgot to adjust the camera to get that many people in the shot.

so...they had to take the 3 pictures over again.

we were so excited and i had my photo op with the kids while we were waiting for my mom and clint to sort out which ones to order.

it took a while, so we entertained the kids by making them make silly faces:

apparently santa's elves weren't really paying attention and put the first batch of pictures on the disk. we didn't realize this til we got home, so sweet uncle clint had to go back to the mall to fix the problem. santa said the elves were new this year.

here are the pictures with santa:

#1

#2

#3

i think jackson has the best santa ever!

"buddy the elf, what's your favorite color!!"

thanksgiving #3

2008-12-04T00:21:00.005-06:00

i've established the fact that my mom's thanksgiving really equaled two, so going to my dad's for thanksgiving would technically be our third.

in the past we always had lunch at my mom's and then went to my dad's that night for turkey sandwiches while we watched the egg bowl. a couple of years ago the powers that be ruined our tradition by moving the game to friday. i guess it is a good thing that the players can eat with their families now.

this year my dad threw us all for a loop when he hosted an iron bowl party. what?? my sister and i still cheer for ole miss, but the guys have abandoned state and are now alabama fans.

that's fine.

my dad's specialty is ribs. if you have never had my dad's ribs then i feel sorry for you! and i'm even allergic to them! he said that is his new tradition...a rib thanksgiving. jeane (my dad's wife) made her oyster stuffing to bring our total to 3 different stuffings for the holiday.

as i sat at my dad's i thought back to last year's thanksgiving at my dad's. it is amazing how everything has changed in one year. i think everyone in our family thought that last year would be the last holidays we would spend with my dad. the Lord so graciously provided for our family and we are so thankful that Clint was willing to give his kidney to my dad. there were so many times that i doubted whether or not the surgeries would be successful or even happen b/c everything had to happen so perfectly. it still amazes me to this day that everything happened more perfectly than we could have even prayed for! the Lord is so good to us and we are so blessed!

and the boys get to have many more thanksgivings where their grandaddy can teach them cool things like....

pretending your finger has been cut in half:

seeing jack

2008-12-04T00:04:00.006-06:00

even though we didn't get to see thom's crew (have i mentioned that a time or two..haha! i'm hoping if i show them how much we missed them then they will make a special trip in december because they can't come for christmas)....we got to hang out with jack!

he is getting so old! they all are!

alex loves when jack comes to town b/c he has a fellow dude to hang out with.

i LOVE how close they are!

they LOVE that they can play against each other on their DS and that they have a good guy and a bad guy when they are spies.

a while back i didn't have pictures of jack in his baseball uniform, so sweet brooke made sure to get clint to send me pictures!

here are some more recent ones of him:

i wish i hadn't graduated to the adult table!

2008-12-03T23:51:00.007-06:00

i felt like my sister's thanksgiving decorations and crafts deserved their own post.
she already wrote about it on her blog, but she's too humble....so i'm going to show you some pics.

i just don't understand how she finds the time to do all this.

did i mention that she has 4 children within 2.5 years of each other? don't worry i have close-ups of all the crafts...

individual hats for each child

turkey cupcakes

thom turkey (you know i can't spell it tom!) made out of a cantelope and a pear. the tail feathers were grapes and cheese, which the kids loved! if you are amazed like me then you will be even more amazed to know that there were MORE crafts! go to her blog and you can see the turkeys the kids glittered. i know you're thinking that she is the coolest person around...and she's MY sister!! how did i get so lucky?

here are some cute pictures of the kids getting ready for the big lunch! they love going to mamaw's house!!

two is better than one.

2008-12-03T23:17:00.010-06:00

i talked to ridg tonight and it was so good for my soul!! she already spilled it on her blog, so i feel like i can post it here.....she is pregnant with her 3rd baby! she has dendy who just turned 2 and millie will turn 1 in a couple of days. they live in dallas...away from family, so pray for this sweet little family!!

(p.s. melissa caroline: when you come in town in december can we get a recent photo made? i mean really...how old is this picture!)

while i was talking to caroline she told me it was about time i update my blog. i totally agreed and informed her that it would happen tonight.

i finally uploaded some pictures from our "dueling" thanksgiving.

pretty much every year we have dueling stuffings because my mom makes the kind that we have always grown up with, and gibby makes the stuffing that he has always made. his has meat in it. hers doesn't. we always joke about the competition.

after i got my plate this year i looked at it and realized that it was out of control this year. it wasn't planned, but it just sort of happened this way....

we had:

2 different turkeys
2 different stuffings
2 different green bean casseroles
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
2 different pecan pies
frozen green salad (which i bring every year)
frozen cranberry salad

we also had little chess pies, pumpkin pie and some steamed veggies.

pretty much the only thing that we all agree on is sister shubert. granted some of these variations were to avoid food allergies and i just like to be dramatic. we aren't as high maintenance as our menu sounds.

we had a great lunch with the family, a football game in the front yard and many family game nights! it was a great holiday, but we still missed thom's clan!

it's a beautiful thing...

2008-12-03T15:03:00.004-06:00

christmas came early in jackson!

the new anthropologie opened!

watch out world....

jackson is becoming cool!

we now have

j.crew
apple
pf chang's
anthro

...and urban outfitters is coming??

i also heard a rumor a while back that cheescake factory was coming.

what in the world?

all we need now is a sephora!

my nightmare

2008-11-24T20:42:00.005-06:00

a couple of days ago i heard a lot of commotion going on outside in my neighborhood. not human commotion...just commotion.

i looked out the window and this is what i saw....

really?

you would have to have me committed if that was my front yard. i wish y'all could have seen me trying to take this picture.

words i can't say...

2008-11-22T11:43:00.003-06:00

so, i have a lot of friends that post the words that their infant children are learning to say. i think it's awesome. it will be something that they can look back on when they get older.

you know...to help them realize that they have made progress.

my list of words is a little different. these are words that i realize i can't say, or i struggle saying. a lot of times i don't realize i say them funny, but i have a kind sister who lets me know.

so here is my list...
i'm sure i will add to this down the road.

1. for. you think this would be an easy word to say, but i have been known to say "fir" on many occasions.

2. syrup. i can't for the life of me figure out why i struggle with this one.

3. boil/bowl. i blame this one on growing up in mississippi. i think a lot of people join me on this one.

4. pneumonia. sorry mama, but i have to blame this one on you. growing up she would tell us that we were going to catch pa-na-mone-ia. i can't get past that pronunciation.

5. ford focus. ok, so sometimes i combine words without realizing it. my brother-in-law drives a ford focus. you can't just call it a focus. we all think that you have to call it a ford focus. i guess we are suckers for alliteration. my mind thinks to fast for my mouth (or at least that's what i'm telling myself), and it pushes words together. i don't realize this til the word has come out. i accidently called the ford focus, "the forcus." this of course stuck and now that's all i can call it

6. movie theatre. my sister can tell you on her blog how this originated, but my niece calls the movie theatre, "the movieatre." i think it's genius and can no longer say movie theatre. she takes after her aunt! (let's not talk about the fact that she is 4 and it's normal for a child to do that).

don't look too closely at my bookshelf...

2008-11-21T13:05:00.010-06:00

..because you will find a book of mormon up there. but it's not what you think.

i am still presbyterian.

however, the Lord has used a mormon in my life two times now.

the summer after my junior year of college, a big group of us lived in oxford for the summer. it was one of the greatest summers ever.
one night while we were over at newman's apartment someone knocked on the door.
it was two mormons on their mission...going door to door. we talked with them a bit, and somehow we agreed to cook dinner for them the next night to talk some more.
we weren't interested in converting. i think we were more interested in converting them, or dazzling them with our reformed doctrine intellect.
the next night they came for dinner. elder sparrow and elder green i believe. halllie commented how great it was that they were friends and had the same first name. sweet hallie.

we ate dinner and they started talking to us about their faith. we would talk to them about ours, and we realized that we were just going to have to agree to disagree. we invited them to summer RUF that night at les' house. they actually came with us, but left somewhere in the middle of les comparing dispensationalism and covenant theology. i was more focused on what they were getting out of this sermon, than actually listening myself...i wish i had listened more now b/c i don't remember any of it. isn't that always the case.

one thing happened that night that i do remember....

as we talked with them i realized that they knew every word in the Bible and in their book of mormon. i respected that greatly. i sat there thinking...i claim to love scripture, God and this religion....but i haven't actually read every single word of it....let alone committed it to memory. yeah, i've always tried to do the Bible in a year thing, but i've never gotten past february. (i'm just going to interject for a moment and apologize for my run-on sentences. when i start typing from stream of consciousness i think that i am faulkner or something, and have the right to throw all grammar out the window. me...the grammar patrol!) the elders gave us all a book of mormon to do a little of our own research. i've never actually opened it, but i keep it on my bookshelf as a reminder to cultivate the desire to learn more about the faith i love so dearly.

a couple of days ago the Lord used another mormon to inspire me.
ok...i admit...i was blog stalking. you know we all do it.
i kept seeing these things that said "donate to nie nie." i set out on a mission to find out what exactly nie nie was.
i discovered this site:

www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

and

www.cjanerun.blogspot.com

the first is nie nie herself (stephaNIE NIElson), and the second is one of her sisters, courtney. stephanie and her husband were in a horrible plane crash in august and have been recovering from burns in a hospital since then. stephanie was a lot worse than christian, and was actually in a medically-induced coma for a few months. they have 4 children who looked like they walked off of a disney movie set...they are adorable! courtney is taking care of the kids on top of her own.

stephanie always blogged before the accident, and they have tried to keep the blog up by getting strangers to post their favorite of her past entries. she talks about her children, crafting, her love for anthropologie and vintage things, decorating and her faith. you can probably figure out why i loved reading her entries so much! reading these entries reminded me that this life is too short for us not to enjoy it and glorify God through that.

here are my favorite of her posts....

Today I went on a bike ride with the children and Mr. Nielson.
I had gigs (nickname for Nicholas because Oliver couldn't say NICHolas, but could say GIGolas and then it became Gigs. Sometimes gigers, gig-o-rama, gigmister,and so forth.)
on the back of my cruiser and Mr. Nielson had Jane (who wants to be called "winny") and Ollie in the chariot.
Claire rode her own bike.
Of course we don't strap our children in the chariot,
because we are awesome parents.
Anyway, as we were minding our own beezwax, some lady with big hair and foot long cigarette,( but my children call them ZIGGeretts) stopped us to say that we were basically the worst parents on the planet.
Can you imagine what she would think if she came to the house?
The children may or may not be jumping off the couch in a big pile of pillows and
stuff like that.
yikes.

And of course, Claire reading Junie B.
But what little girl DOES NOT read Junie B?

****************************************************************************

Ticket city is a spot way in the back by the
kindergarten room with all sorts of colored tickets for bad kids.
Claire received a red one.
Apparently, she went to the bathroom during seat work, and instead of going back to class she helped herself to the monkey bars.
When I told Christian, we both laughed our heads off imagining Claire sneaking off for some one on one time with the playground.
Claire was ashamed and stressed out about her red ticket.
That means, Claire has been constipated including a stomach ache since then.
Claire would not eat any dinner.
Claire is staying home from school today.
I don't think a 6 year old should have stress in life-time for that later.
We are going to make pancakes with lemon whipped cream and strawberries. Read books all day long, and play at the playground until her little hearts content.

********************************************************

**********************************************************

Is this what your life looks like at 7:56 pm?

Isn't it wonderful.

**********************************************************

ok....so there are about a million more i could post. like the ones of them looking up at the stars on blankets in the back yard. or when one of the daughters gets a letter in the mail about going to dinner with her godmother & wizard...you just have to read it for yourself.

go to her site and her sister's site. read about their family and trust me you will want to live your life a little differently from now on.

*since i copied these posts i feel inclined to say that they have set up ways for people to leave donations of time, money and skills to help offset the cost of their medical bills. they do have insurance, but that only goes so far. i am poor, but i can put a link on my page where other's can donate. that doesn't cost a thing*

to learn more about their recovery go here:

nie nie recovery

p.s. i really like how she enlarges some words and changes colors....makes it so much easier to read.

i can't do this...

2008-11-17T13:18:00.005-06:00

my niece, cailin, is in the first grade. i've probably mentioned that a time or two.
i had to repeat that because you need to understand that i am 27 years old and she is 7 years old...and i can't do what she is doing in this video.
while we were in texas, we went to a really fun restaurant near thom & katy's house. we were sitting outside and trying to entertain alex & cailin while waiting for our food. cailin learned this song in school, and i had to record it. she is not reading anything. no one is helping her out. she doesn't pause to think. it is pretty much amazing.

so here it is ladies and gentlemen.....your u.s. presidents sung in order by a 7 year old.

head hung in shame...

2008-11-15T19:28:00.002-06:00

i am so embarrassed how long it has been since i have updated my blog! it has been even longer since i updated my art blog, so i decided to start with it.
i will update this one tomorrow.
for now...check out www.emgart.blogspot.com!

boo-ti-ful day

2008-10-31T14:01:00.009-05:00

happy halloween everyone!
here are some pictures of halloween's past....

that is nette in the plastic little orphan annie costume. thom is the clown in the middle and clint is the man with the beard. i'm not sure who he was supposed to be. i am on the far right, wanting to desprately get off the sofa.

obviously the clown costume got a lot of use in our hosue. there are pictures of clint and nette wearing the clown outfit too...i will have to search for them. thom was a space cadet. i'm pretty sure my mom made both of these outfits.

fast forward to high school. this was at cannada's house. i believe that cannada still wears the super woman outfit. in case she tries to deny it that is cassie in the front, but i can't remember what she was supposed to be. alvin? but a dog?
that is carol anne on the far left. she had an old person mask and a cape, so i made her a sign that said "little red riding hood, the later years"

this is a group of us from college. we decided to dress up and go to the corn maze in memphis. brian is in the yellow pants. i believe he was some sort of fast food employee. liza is next to him in black. she was cat woman i believe. sneed in the red did not partake in the dressing up. will todd was michael jordan. torrent in blue and lexie in white in front of him met up with us at dinner...they also didn't partake in the dressing up. miriam was a sonic employee. i am in the back with my classic outfit...partly cloudy with a chance of showers (i carried a water gun). walt jones is in the cap and gown. his outfit changed through the night....sometimes he was the graduate and sometimes he was darth vader. the graduate was more conducive to getting through the maze. josh white is in front of him. he was a ghost...don't worry we made fun of him. hallie was also a sonic employee. and mary john was a ghost with josh. this was one of my favorite nights in college. on the way home we decided to give paul mcleod a visit at graceland too. that in and of itself is an experience.

the next few pictures are of my babies dressed up throughout the years....

just f.y.i. emily is not wearing a wig!

i didn't have a picture of annabel in a costume, but here is a cute one of her at the pumpkin patch!

cleaning

2008-10-30T12:15:00.003-05:00

most people do spring cleaning in the spring...most people. i'm either really slow or i'm getting a jump on things by doing it early.
i am possibly getting a roommate in december/january, so i decided it would be nice for two cars to have a place to park in my garage. in order for this to happen i had to go through all the boxes that have been in there since my mom moved from my childhood home. if you wanted to know how my penmanship progressed over the years i had school binders from pretty much every year. i have a box of letters that friends have written me over the years. i couldn't part with this box just yet...the letters are hysterical! and they will be funny, future blog posts! it's funny...there are some things in there that i could have sworn i threw away, but magically my mom rescued them from the trash and boxed them up for me. i really should have taken a before picture of the garage, but i think i would have been too embarassed to post it.
i started cleaning it out last saturday and i still am in the process. i'm not contained to just my garage anymore though. i'm declutterizing the whole house.
i've already taken two car loads to goodwill, and i know that my trash pile was a delight for my neighbors to see.
once i finish with the house i will get back to blogging. i apologize for my slacking. losing my power, headaches from all the dust, painting and taking care of a million things for my dad also contributed to my lack of posting.
i'm hoping that today will be my last day of cleaning, so i should be back to wish you a bootiful halloween!

blog award

2008-10-22T16:16:00.009-05:00

my good friend, cassie, gave me my first blog award. thanks cass! apparently you are supposed to write down 6 interesting things about yourself and then pass it on to 6 blogging friends. i wanted to think of the not-so-obvious things, so i decided to keep a list on my phone as things came to me. well, of course i ended up having more than 6.

here are my top 6:

1. i like strange color combinations. aqua and red has probably been my favorite the longest. in college i had aqua colored walls and a red comforter. in my head they totally went together. recently this color combo has become popular, so it sort of isn't as exciting to me as it once was. i still love it though. i also love light purple and red. i always wanted light purple walls with a red ceiling? strange i know. in college my awesome roommate, mitchell, let me paint the walls light purple and we had a red slipcovered sofa. that might be the closest i ever get to having my dream...unless i can talk my children into it one day! pink and red together are also another favorite of mine. oooo..and pink and red with aqua. i could probably talk forever about colors!

for visual aide here is a picture of my current den. i loved my room in college so much i painted
my whole house that color! it goes with everything! i love it with green too.

here is the painting that started my love of aqua and red together. i did this peacock batik in high school.

2. i like to be organized...sort of to an extreme. just look at my pantry...

it really might be a problem that i'm this organized. do not confuse this with being clean though. i think they are totally different. i HATE (notice the all-caps...that means i really hate it) doing floors and dusting. i always get sick from the dust, so that's probably why. maybe if i did it more regularly i wouldn't get sick.

3. i LOVE hymns. love them. i love reading them and singing them. my two all-time favorites are "how sweet and awesome is the place" and "holy, holy, holy." how sweet and awesome was originally "how sweet and awful is the place" because it meant full of awe...not some of awe. now it is taken the wrong way, so they changed it.

here are the words to it....

how sweet and awesome is the place
with Christ within the doors,
while everlasting love displays
the choicest of her stores!

while all our hearts and all our songs
join to admire the feast
each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was i a guest?

"why was i made to hear thy voice,
and enter while there's room,
when thousands make a wretched choice,
and rather starve than come?"

'twas the same love that spread the feast
that sweetly drew us in;
else we had still refused to taste,
and perished in our sin.

pity the nations, o our God!
constrain the earth to come;
send Thy victorious Word abroad,
and bring the strangers home.

we long to see Thy churches full,
that all the chosen race
may with one voice, and heart and soul,
sing Thy redeeming grace.

my church doesn't sing this hymn yet, but they better start singing it soon or i might cry! all my old students know it is my favorite b/c i used to make samuel play it at insight all the time!

holy, holy, holy is just an amazing hymn. we used to sing it at RUF in college. it was usually reserved for the last song after les' sermon before we left. they would not play the instruments on the last verse...i still get chills just thinking back to it. it will always have a special place in my heart b/c it was also a favorite of my sweet friend, laura treppendahl. laura was killed by a drunk driver when we were in college. at dinner the night she died she talked about "holy, holy, holy." she said it was a tease. that when we sang it at RUF it was an appetizer to heaven. i have never heard someone so perfectly describe a song than she did!

some of my other favorites are it is well, o day of rest and gladness, for all the saints, dear refuge of my weary soul, whate'er my God ordains is right, come thou fount, how deep the father's love for us, the church's one foundation, when i survey, on jordan's stromy banks i stand, how sweet the name of jesus sounds, o love that will not let me go, be still my soul, be thou my vision, the sands of time are sinking, jesus i my cross have taken, o come and mourn with me awhile (preferably with carrie everett singing)

there are probably more...those are just off the top of my head. each one has a special meaning to me and reminds me of some time in my life, or some person who has influenced my life in some way.

4. i love valentine's day. so cliche i know. i love walking into a store and seeing everything red and pink...and with hearts everywhere! everyone that doesn't like valentine's day just doesn't get it. they always say..."i don't need a day to tell the person i love that i love them...i do that everyday." do you really? i love christmas and easter too...for what they represent...what they remind us of. i wish i lived every day of my life in rememberance of what Christ did...but let's be honest...i don't. i need those yearly reminders. the same is true of valentine's day! we are able to love others b/c Christ first loved us. i love this reminder!

5. i reserved this one for my 3 favorite places....the beach, peru and oxford. i could write paragraph upon paragraph about these three places...but i won't torture y'all.

i have been known to leave in the middle of the night for a beach trip. one time in college harvey, mitchell and i went on what was later dubbed "the shadiest trip ever"....simply b/c we didn't tell anyone we were going. we left in the middle of the night after a football game. i won't tell the time b/c my mom is probably reading this. we drove 8 hours to the beach, layed out for 6 hours and then got in the car and drove 8 hours back. to this day it was one of the greatest trips ever! i adore the beach.

i also love peru. i have been on 5 mission trips down to peru and fall in love with the country every time i go. check out www.perumission.org to find out more about the ministry down there. they are doing amazing things!!

last on my list is oxford. there just aren't enough words to describe how amazing oxford is. i love when you realize that there is so much more there than ole miss. not that i don't love ole miss!

6. here are all my other favorites...shortly summarized.

i love children...pretty obvious if you know me AT ALL. i love children's art. i love the creativity behind it. i would probably decorate my whole house with only children's art if i could! i love meeting friends for breakfast. i love looking at the stars at night. i have to be able to see the stars where i live! i love flamingos and peacocks. i would have a backyard full of plastic flamingos if my neighbors would allow. even before tv was invented i used to record tv shows. i'm not a fan of live tv. i also love a good tv watching party. in college we had dawson's/felicity parties, then ed parties, bachelor/bachelorette parties and now we have office/lost parties. i watch an episode of friends everynight before i go to bed. i think it is one of the funniest shows ever made! i love scarves. i love buying plain clothes so i can accessorize them to my mood. i have a true love for fresca. i think my family is the only family that still drinks it. my mom always has them in stock. my love for fresca is second to my love for sunkist. i had a sunkist habit a few years ago that i have kicked. i only have water at my house now. i love collecting art. the majority of the art in my house was not done by me. i love seeing other people's creativity. i love tocca candles...the cleopatra scent. i can't find it everywhere, but seda france japanese quince smells very similar to it...i thank ridg for that one! i love game nights with my family. we do it pretty much everytime we are all together. while i'm talking about family...i love sissy nights! i don't know what i would do without my sister! i love to journal. i have journals going back many years. secretly i think that someday i'll become famous and they will discover my journals and publish them...ha! please don't let them! i also love coffee. i love making it the night before, so all i have to do in the morning is push a button. sweet relief!

here are the 6 people i have chosen for the award:

1. my sister: www.thecrazyoreillys.blogspot.com

2. ava aycock: www.avaandbrookie.blogspot.com

3. sally black: www.sallyandwayneblack.blogspot.com

4. brittney strong: www.dstrongfamily.blogspot.com

5. laura estrada: www.justinandlauraestrada.blogspot.com

6. nikki bonham: www.nikkibonham.squarespace.com

7. amanda eaton: www.ericamandafamily.blogspot.com

...i obviously can't count.

and i have two on reserve.....
hallie and harper for when they get back from africa. their internet usage is limited in africa, but maybe this will keep their blog going when they get back!

right click on the blog award picture above. click "save picture as." it will save in your pictures file. write 6 interesting things about yourself and pass it on to 6 people. you may want to comment on their blog and tell them you have nominated them.

good and bad

2008-10-13T23:32:00.011-05:00

good things: recovering precious pictures, two art shows and pieces hanging at smitten

bad things: losing a few pictures, having to buy a new memory card, getting sick and having an eye that would scare small children

it seems that data rescue isn't so much of a hero after all. i can't totally discredit them because they were able to save the majority of my pictures. for some reason my pictures from one day were not recovered. that was our day in dallas with caroline, dendy and millie. i also lost the precious picture of alex surprising cailin at the door when we first arrived in san antonio. i do have pictures from san antonio, but i have to go through them to find my favorites. after i did the recovery program i tried every way possible to clear the memory card and reformat it, but it looks like i'm going to have to invest in a new one. it would make me nervous taking pictures on that thing anyway. those things are expensive, so for now y'all will have to suffer with blurry photographs from my college camera that i keep in my purse.

two of my art shows were this weekend. they both were on friday night, so i tried to split my time. i started feeling sick on thursday night but tried to push through it. i woke up at 4:30 friday morning and felt horrible. i was able to get back to sleep, but didn't realize that i happened to pop a blood vessel in my eye when i was sick. really??
i went to my mom's friday afternoon to finish framing my art. i felt like i had some non-feverish version of the flu. my sweet mom told me to sit because she could tell i wasn't feeling well. i started putting on my make-up and that's when i noticed the white part under my lower eyelid was red. awesome. it was 4 and my art had to be at hal & mal's by 5:30. ever since i had meningitis i've had problems with my eyes. my doctor sent me to see a retina specialist a while back. in his own words....my optic nerve is "special." it's apparently shaped different than all of y'alls. something happened to it when i had meningitis and i have to get it checked out every 6 months or so. if you ever have meningitis...go to the eye doctor afterwards.

i feel like i should say something here. in high school my real eye doctor gave me someone else's perscription and messed up my vision. i took it upon myself to find my own doctor. i decided to go to lenscrafters in the mall....hey, i was in high school! that actually has been the greatest decision ever. i love my eye doctor. her name is dr. patton. she has fixed my vision and brought my perscription back down and she's the one who sent me to the retina specialist.

i really don't know why i'm telling y'all all of this. long story short. i decided that it probably was no big deal, but i should just go get it checked. since they take walk-ins i was in and out by 5. everything is fine with it. it burst when i was sick the night before. i have to wear my glasses and it should go away in 2 weeks. awesome. my sweet mom took my paintings down to hal & mal's for me.

my mom, nette and i had a fun time at the art show. they hung the art from these really cool wagon wheel pieces. my two pieces are in the picture to the left. second wheel from the right. they are both oils. one is of onions and the other is a small peacock. the pieces had to hang the whole night, so they are still for sale if anyone is interested. that show was only a one night thing, but my other two pieces will be hanging at prep until the beginning of november.

also, smitten has 5 of my things hanging in their cute store. they are in ridgeland on jackson street by the railroad tracks. go check them out!

i have another show coming up this weekend at lake caroline. i started feeling a little bit better today, so hopefully i can crank out some pieces before saturday!

here are some pictures of the things hanging at smitten and what i will have this weeekend

next time i'll iron the pillowcase and take them out in the sun! some of these are old stamp designs that i freehanded and altered a little bit. i have over 70 patterns and lots more animals!

my hero

2008-10-10T12:39:00.002-05:00

www.datarescue.com is my new hero!

so, i told you that something happened to my camera, my flash drive or my computer which made me lose all of my pictures from texas. i did some research and discovered the greatest website ever....data rescue. they let you run a demo of the program before you buy it to make sure that you can recover your pictures. it recovers pictures or any file on a memory card. the program is only $29 which is the cheapest i could find. some out there were in the hundreds...and they didn't let you test it beforehand! the external memory card reader was $7 from best buy. for a total of $36 i am able to recover precious pictures!
i hope this never happens to anyone, but if it does don't give up hope! it wouldn't work if i had decided to give up and take more pictures on top of my memory card, so just keep that in mind.

i'm the happiest person ever right now, but i am waiting for my registration key from the software....so i guess officially i don't have the photos saved yet.

roll tide

2008-10-09T21:32:00.005-05:00

no, i'm not an alabama fan now. it seems like everyone i meet now is though! all of my friends at church are HUGE alabama fans. brooke loves them and even clint and jack started cheering for them.

a couple of weeks ago i had lunch with two of my friends from church. they are both married to two alabama fanatics. one being my preacher. they both brought their daughters, who are the cutest things ever!!

this is avery. she belongs to my friend, vicki. i mean...look at those curls!

this other sweet little girl is mary ella. her mom, mary margaret, is the one trying to get her to say "roll tide" by asking her what an elephant says. if you look closely she says it very softly.
they are such loves!!!

watch this

2008-10-08T23:34:00.002-05:00

earlier i told y'all about a clip on one of my friend's blog. she changed the name of her blog, so the link didn't work. i just now realized that.

here is the clip. trust me...it's worth the time it takes to view it! you will probably view it more than once to be honest. this woman is crazy and i'm just waiting for this clip to wind up on some news/comedy segment.

catch-up

2008-10-08T22:44:00.010-05:00

i'm back home from texas and i'm trying to catch up on everything...this blog being one of them.
we had a blast in texas. don't worry i'll tell you all about it as soon as i can get my camera to cooperate. there is something wrong with my memory card, so i'm having to download a photo rescue software to retrieve all my pictures. it's going to be a sad day if that doesn't work and all my pictures are gone for good!

i have a small camera that i keep in my purse all the time, so i have some pictures from the trip on it. it has not suffered the same fate as my big camera.

before i left for texas i went with my family to the gluckstadt german fest. i love fall and the nice, cool weather. i think my sister loves fall even more because of all the festivals. she is a festival junky. i like to celebrate too, but she and her family hit about 3 festivals a week! the gluckstadt fest was fun because it was about a mile from my house. here are some pictures from the day.

i feel like i need to explain the next couple of pictures. while we were sitting there my sister pointed out this college-aged guy wearing a lederhosen and said i should take a picture. i sadly missed the photo-op. mental note: always have my camera ready....especially at festivals! about 15 minutes later he came over to our tent and started talking to us. this was my chance! but i thought it would be really awkward if i just started taking a picture. i put my camera in my lap and non-chalantly tried to take a picture. annie is sort of blocking him in the picture, but i had to show it. he and his friend had a dog that they let the kids pet. i felt like it would be ok to take a picture of the kids petting the dog...but my main focus being the lederhosen.

as soon as he left our tent i spotted another pair of lederhosen. this time on a small child. i held the camera down on this one too because i didn't want to be obvious. if you know either of these people...i apologize for finding humor in their attire. i mean no harm.

we had a great time at the festival. it was a hot day, but thankfully i hadn't taken the tent out of my car from the grove. my awesome brother-in-law went back to my car to get it, so we were able to have some shade! i am not sure if it was legal for us to set it up, but i highly reccommend it if you go!

what i've been doing

2008-10-01T21:05:00.008-05:00

here are some pictures taken with my cell phone. i apologize for the angle, lighting and overall poor quality. i haven't had a photo shoot with the paintings yet, so this will have to do for now.

that little guy and i became good friends last night. it is what i was working on til 4:30. here it is in the frame, but not totally secure yet.

i realize now that i didn't even get the frame. i'm sorry...i will blame it on the lack of sleep, the fact that it's a phone camera and i was rushing.

these two pieces will go to the prep alumni show next week. they will be hanging at prep the whole month of october. i have a bad feeling that they are still going to be wet. what can i do?

i'm really excited about this one. i've done about 30 similar to this one, but with different patters and animals. these will be for sale at smitten in ridgeland.
is it bad that i'm absolutely about to go to bed and it's only 9:20???

busy...

2008-10-01T11:08:00.002-05:00

i know it's been a while. i've been busy painting, so i haven't really had time to blog. i finally finished my largest and last piece last night. in true em g style i finished it at 4:30 am. awesome. it's probably going to take me a while to recover from that one! i can't believe i used to do that all the time in college. i have to deliver two paintings to prep on tuesday, so just pray that they dry enough over the weekend for me to take them! now i have to go varnish a few paintings i'm hopefully taking to smitten this afternoon. i'll try to get some pictures up tonight.
tomorrow i leave for texas with my mom and alex! i'm so excited!

this weekend

2008-09-23T01:08:00.007-05:00

i discovered some things this weekend...

1. i am related to eric and amanda eaton's sweet little baby banks. how you ask? on friday i went with my mom to see sweet banks in the hospital. i didn't have my camera with me, so i'm going to borrow a picture from bethany hembree's page (sorry bethany). that is eric with his little boy! eric and i have been great friends since high school. he has always been like another brother to me and losing our good friend, patrick, bound us even closer. i couldn't be happier for him and amanda!! sorry...i got sidetracked. while we were visiting them i told eric that my grandfather was on tv. he loves history and i knew he would want to see it. amanda's grandparents were in the room while we were there. all of a sudden her grandfather chimed in and said, "yeah hugh wardlaw." i was so confused and surprised that this man knew my grandfather's name?? he and my mom started talking and apparently we are all related. i don't remember exactly how, but my mom knows all that. i signed my baby present as aunt emily, but in actuality i am cousin emily! i thought it was cool! bethany has more pictures of the cute little family on her blog. why didn't i take pictures??

2. liza sorgenfei is one of the cutest little pregnant moms ever! i went to a shower for her on saturday. i didn't take pictures there either. it was fun to see everyone and she got awesome presents! if someone posts some pictures then i'll "borrow" them too. she is due oct. 21st and it's a girl! i can't wait to see brian dale sorgenfrei raising a girl! for those that don't know brian & liza...she was one of my roommates in college and he is an old friend from high school.

3. i'm more allergic to dust than i ever thought was possible. i was in my mom's house for about 10 minutes on saturday....it just happened to be right after she had been sorting through some of my grandparent's old things. i'm super, super allergic to dust. if i touch it my hand breaks out in a rash. if i turn on one of my fans that hasn't been cleaned i get pink eye from the dust falling in my eye. what 27 yr. old gets pink eye? while i was at my mom's i could feel my throat starting to get scratchy, so i decided to leave. it was too late. i woke up on sunday morning feeling like i had pieces of glass in my throat and sluggish like you do when you have the flu....seriously? from 10 minutes. i hate dust. i feel like the kid who had to sleep with a humidifier in the room....oh wait...that WAS me.

4. i started a new art project this weekend. it's so exciting! i'll have pictures up soon! i've already done a bunch! i also painted some gourds for my table. please don't make fun of me.

5. this didn't happen to me this weekend, but it did happen this weekend. a friend of mine, marty cooper, posted this on her blog and everyone has to go watch this video of this woman. i'm so ashamed that she lives in mississippi! marty pointed out to look at her shirt, so i will too....it figures! click here to go to marty's post.

6. i get to see caroline, reed, dendy b, millie, thom, katy, cailin and annabel next week!!

my granddaddy is cuter than yours...

2008-09-19T12:41:00.007-05:00

or at least i think so!
right before gustav hit my grandfather came to town to be interviewed by wlbt for their veteran history project. they aired it last night on the 5 o'clock news and again today at noon. i'm not sure if it will be on tonight at 5, but possibly.
here is the piece they did on him...

Hugh Wardlaw was a senior in high school when he joined the National Guard in 1936. He stayed with the military as he went to college, honing his skills with the ROTC. He started with the 31st Infantry Division. In 1943, he was transferred to the 3rd Infantry and sent to northern Italy. "We broke out of the beach head at Anzio and then we fought in Rome and captured it." From Rome, he went on to France, working to clear out occupational forces. The locals were thrilled to see allied troops. "They welcomed us real well as we were going in." The troops moved north through France, into Germany and eventually Austria. "It was a heavy duty job. We had heavy casualties." As the fight in the European Theater drew to a close, Wardlaw and his fellow soldiers began liberating concentration camps, like the one at Dachau. "It was a terrible place to have to be. It was poor feeding and just a heck of a place to be. It was bad." As horrible as his surroundings were, he knew they were doing important work. "You felt you were really accomplished something at the time." After the war ended, Wardlaw went back to Mississippi State and got his degree in mechanical engineering. He stayed in the Reserves until 1978, when he retired as a colonel.

my grandfather received a purple heart, a combat infaltry badge and a silver and bronze star. my mom has been going through all of his old letters that he would send to my grandmother. for his 90th birthday my brother, clint, put them together in a book for everyone. he actually narrated the book and made a dvd for all of us to watch at the birthday party. my mom, clint and brooke worked so hard on this and it looks awesome! i wish you could read the letters....they are so sweet!

the intro of the book says:
enclosed are pictures and excerpts of letters sent home by this officer and humble gentelman to his wife. as a soldier in the army's 30th regiment of the 3rd infantry division, wardlaw was nicknamed the "ole man" due to his gray hair in his twenties. commanders would know how bad a situation was by asking the radio operator, "has the old man picked up his rifle yet?"

so i guess i get my early gray hair from my granddaddy and i'm ok with that.

here is a picture of my grandmother writing him letters. she has his picture framed on the desk. she worked in the pentagon in the war department when he was in the war.

there are lots of things i love about the letters he wrote. he didn't want to worry my grandmother, so he tried to talk about his beard and other things besides the war. you could tell how much they loved each other. he used every way possible to tell her how much he loved her! another thing i love is that he wrote out his division's song in one of the letters...

I wouldn't give a bag of beans to be a fancy pants marine I'd rather be a 'dog face' soldier like I am I wouldn't trade my old M1 for all the Navy's great big guns I'd rather be a 'dog face' soldier like I am On all the posters that I see they say the Army builds men So they're tearing me down to build me over again I'm just a 'dog faced' soldier with a rifle on my shoulder and i eat a 'kraut' for breakfast every day So feed me ammunition, keep me in the Third division Your 'dog-faced' soldier boy's ok.

here is the link to the article on wlbt's site... veteran's history project and here is the video they showed... hugh wardlaw

he looks good for 90!

the grove!

2008-09-18T22:40:00.007-05:00

oh how i miss oxford and the grove! i went up last weekend for the ole miss/samford game. my sister graduated from samford, so she invited some of her friends to share a tent with us. i went up early on friday to set up the tent. it is way more intense than i ever could imagine! i stayed with a good friend of mine, emily moore. emily is awesome beyond words and agreed to help me with the tent. she should have said no.

emily called some of her friends to figure out the strategy. i don't think people took us seriously that two girls were setting up a tent. we found out that they moved the set-up time to 7 pm instead of the old time of 3 am. i was ecstatic! we heard that people start getting there at 5...we found that out at 4:45. awesome.
we pull up and there were some guys we knew setting up their 16 tents ready to run with them when they got the go-ahead. we unloaded our poor little tent and waited. we had no clue what we were waiting for. the cobra guy told us that when everyone started running that was our cue.
he was right. everyone started running towards the walk of champions and we ran for the spot across from the law school. we were able to get on the edge...probably taking someone's spot, but oh well.
we had a great spot and it was easy for everyone to find the next day. it was so great to be back in the grove in our own tent! i hung some lanterns to try to spruce it up a bit...

ok...so it's kind of a redneck tent, but we had fun!

not much has changed about the grove except for the police patrolling. don't get me wrong...they patrolled when i was in college, but not to this extent. emily and i got there early enough to watch the police go to unmanned tents and go through all the coolers. if they found a cooler with beer they would drag it over to the garbage, individually open each beer and pour it out. you know that internally they had to have a conflict of interest. here is a pic of them pouring out the beer.

my sister brought her whole family. her kids were making friends with everyone around. alex would make things with sticks and try to sell them to drunk people....absolutely hilarious to watch! molly would make sure everyone took a picture of her and her siblings. there are probably more than a few people out there who woke up the next morning wondering why there were pictures of small children on their camera! go to my sister's blog...she has cuter pictures of the kids. her is one of them with baby richard. richard is bink's baby...my sister's best friend.

oh this isn't good...

2008-09-17T00:56:00.002-05:00

so i sort of have a tendency to be organized. i'm not necessarily a neat freak because my house isn't always clean, but it's always organized. i just discovered this site...
martha's organizing tip of the day
this is not good for me because i can spend hours going through all these tips! it's also not good that she has a
craft of the day and
halloween idea of the day.
i just bookmarked these to my toolbar.
i'm never going to get anything done, but at least my house will be organized!

new art blog

2008-09-16T18:48:00.002-05:00

i figured it would be easiest if i had a separate blog for my artwork..."keep it separated" (that line is for you, sissy).
here is the link to the new blog...
www.emgart.blogspot.com
i couldn't decide if it should be titled "off the wall" or "on the wall"....let me know what you think.
there are some pictures of some canvases that i did for my nieces in texas. my sister has already put in an order for 3 "magical trees" for her 3 girls.
there are also some previews of the ones i'm doing right now. when they are finished i'll take them outside to photograph, so there won't be a glare. sorry.

totally random

2008-09-15T23:51:00.007-05:00

the name, emily guthrie, is strangely common. there is another emily guthrie from jackson. went to FPDS and prep, but is at state now. i used to get her mail all the time. i thought it would stop when she went to state, but then another emily guthrie emerged. she went to auburn with some friends of mine. for the past few weeks i have been getting these forwards from this one email address. i finally asked the person if i knew them, and the guy said that we met in south carolina in august. not me! i was getting the auburn emily guthrie's emails.

it happened again tonight. i got an email saying that the things i had ordered would be delivered to me. it seemed like a legit email, and i was worried that someone had stolen my credit card or something. i responded to the email wondering had been purchased. the girl said that i had been to patty's house on friday and bought some things...again...not me! apparently there is another emily guthrie in new jersey! what in the world?? the girl that sent the email was really nice and works for a christian company sort of like southern living home.

i went to her website to look at the things and there are some cute things on there. i, of course, was drawn to these.

mason jar salt and pepper shakers!

if you know me at all you know that i hate glasses. i hate when they chip and when they get that funky residue from the dishwasher. i drink out of mason jars. they don't chip. they don't have weird residue after the dishwasher. they come in all sorts of sizes and they are so cheap!! you can get a whole set for nothing!
anyway, i've never heard of this company, but they have some cute things.
here is the main page of the website.... at home america.

i promise i'll upload my pictures from oxford soon...it was an entertaining trip!