words i can't say...

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...

..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...

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...

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

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

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

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.