While Daddy has been away.......

Kevin has been gone on a Mission Trip to Minnesota since last Wednesday night (the 22nd). There are 17 high school and college kids and 6 adults. They have conducted a VBS for this church in Minnesota, as well as doing some maintenance and landscaping work for them while they were there. As I write, the team is driving back over to Minneapolis to the airport. They arrive in Atlanta tonight around 6pm, and then will head home! The girls and I are SO EXCITED to have Kevin back home. We have really missed him!

I thought that I would do a post of what we've done while he's been away. It will be a good way to update you--and Kevin--on our lives over the past week!

Wednesday, July 22 - Kevin left late that night to meet the team at the church and drive to Atlanta

Thursday, July 23 - The girls and I hung out at home and I cleaned like crazy to try and get the house clean before we left for the weekend. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel with Gran that night and ran a few errands.

Friday, July 24 - After finishing a couple of cleaning things and completing our packing, we headed out to Americus around 10am. We got there in time for lunch and a pedicure for Mommy after lunch. The girls at the salon were sweet enough to put glitter on Chloe's toes and nails, which she thought was so special! Friday night, we had spaghetti as we waited on MeriBeth to get there. Shortly after she arrived, we had a new couple from Mom and Dad's church over for icecream. Chloe really had fun since they also have small children her age! It was pretty chaotic that night and everyone got into bed late! (seemingly a trend while at Reesie and Papa's!) Here is a picture of Papa and the girls on the front porch waiting for our company to arrive..........

I need to stop here and say that this is one of my all-time favorite pictures! It just melts my heart and strikes such a cord in me. This picture just speaks of memories and of making memories. The three of them were sitting on the front porch swing making a "motor boat" sound with their mouths. Claire learned to do that from Papa and so they always do it together. I am so thankful that my children have a special relationship with their grandparents....all 4 of them. As I get older, I realize that it's the little moments that create larger-than-life memories.....and to me, this just depicted one of those times. Thank you, Dad, for realizing this as well and for helping to create lots of memories over the weekend!

Saturday, July 25 - I took the girls for a quick swim before MeriBeth's parents, grandparents, and uncle arrived. Then, we all had a big lunch of grilled hamburgers! The afternoon was filled with wedding chatter, and then we all attended a dinner in honor of MeriBeth and Jess. It was perhaps the nicest wedding dinner that I have ever been to! Some of Mom and Dad's friends hosted the dinner at the church and it was such an intentional time of honoring Jess and Bee. We had an Italian meal that the hostesses followed by a special time of sharing advice and praying over Jess and Bee. It was very, very nice! And to top it all off, they surprised them with a very generous money tree! What a huge blessing for Jess and MeriBeth as they prepare to go on their honeymoon.

Sunday, July 26 - We went to church with the whole gang and Claire actually stayed in the nursery at Reesie and Papa's church. I thought she would be much happier being free to crawl around than having to sit still in my lap during the service. Chloe came with me to service and was so good. We had a big lunch with everyone at Reesie's house and then say goodbye to all of MeriBeth's family in the afternoon. After naps on Sunday, Jess, MeriBeth, and I took the girls swimming again.


Sunday night, after Claire headed to bed, Chloe got to go fishing with Papa and Uncle Jess at the pond. They caught several fish and were so sweet to watch.

Then, Chloe talked Papa and Uncle Jess into having a picnic with her.......priceless!

Monday, July 27 - The girls and I helped Reesie get her house back in order and then headed back home. We drove through and got some lunch on our way into Tifton. My friend, Melissa, arrived while the girls were asleep to spend a couple of nights. After the girls woke up, we went to Wal-Mart for some groceries and cooked dinner here at the house.


Tuesday, July 28 - We had lunch with friends and then Melissa headed to Valdosta for a meeting. Kevin's assistant, Cris, came out after work and kept the girls so that Melissa, Shauna, and I could have a girls night. We enjoyed dinner at Chili's.

Wednesday, July 29 - Melissa left mid-morning to go over to Albany for a lunch meeting and then home after that. The girls and I, along with Gran, met Reesie in Albany for lunch and picked up Chloe's shoes for the wedding. We also happened to find Gran a dress for the wedding that looks great on her! Then we headed home to be back in time for church. After church, I promised Chloe some ice cream and our good friends, Leslie and Emma, joined us.....what fun catching up!

Thursday, July 30 - We have hung out at the house and played hard today! After naptime, we're going to run a couple of errands and then get our dinner and baths before Daddy gets home. Claire won't get to see Daddy until in the morning. He's hoping that Chloe can stay awake that long....we'll see. They should arrive in Tifton somewhere around 10pm.

Well, that's pretty much it......for those of you who lasted this long.....I commend you! Have a great weekend!

My birthday.....

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and since I'm so behind on my posting, I'll start there! Kevin was so sweet to get up with the girls. I heard the door close a little bit later. I fell back to sleep and woke up with they arrived back home......about 8:45! I couldn't believe that I had slept that late! They came in with chocolate glazed donuts from a local bakery, a balloon, card, and some candy. They were so proud of themselves! It was so sweet! The girls crawled up in the bed with me and gave me my Disney princess balloon that Chloe picked out. Kevin took a couple of pictures but the ones with us in them were of us all in the bed and they are most certainly not blog appropriate! So, I'll include a picture of our breakfast.....it was yummy! And it was made more delicious because of the three special people who brought it to me!

"Here you go, Sister"

After the Rain

This is what we came home to on Wednesday night! It was beautiful! We could see it on the drive home, but had an even better view from our driveway. It was actually a full rainbow, but this is the best picture that we have. In the Bible, a rainbow was a sign of God's promise. When I see a rainbow, I'm always thankful for his blessing and provision in our lives!

Daraja African Children's Choir

*I found a picture that on my camera that I had forgotten about.....this is three of the sweet girls.....they just loved Claire and always came to talk to her!

We had the privilege of hosting these children at our church this weekend. It was a wonderful experience and one that I'll not quickly forget. Their joy for the Lord, despite their circumstances, was such a blessing. As "icing on the cake," their tour director is one of my dear friends and I was able to spend some time with her over the weekend. What a refreshing time it was! Click here to check out their website. This organization is doing some wonderful things to impact the Kingdom for all of eternity. They need our support!

Playing with Daddy

Pictures are worth thousands of words!

Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki

Kevin spent some time on the Food Network website a couple of weeks ago and found several new recipes for us to try. This one is a Paula Deen recipe so we thought it would have to be good! I love to try new things, but have a hard time finding the time to sit down and search. He really likes to try new things and as long as he finds a recipe, I can execute! Here are some pictures of the meal that we had last week. He pretty much handled this one since it involved grilling. Click here for the recipe..............

Summer in the South = Corn on the Cob

Last week, the girls and I spent a day over in Americus putting up corn. My mom usually puts up a bunch of creamed corn. However, Kevin prefers it on the cob, so Mom agreed to help me freeze some on the cob. We also used the kernel attachment for the EZ Creamer (more to come later) and did some kerneled corn as well. Although this post will be picture heavy, you just can't get the entire picture of our day any other way......I think that by the conclusion, you'll understand why our day was best described in pictures! (Captions will be under each picture.)

Since we were putting the corn up on the cob, we had to blanch it first. We had this big cooler set up with ice and water to cool the corn quickly so that we could get it in the freezer bags. Claire thought it was just perfect........she could reach in and get ice! That girl......always into something!




Here are Reesie and Chloe trying out our new Ziploc vacuum sealer that Reesie bought. It worked pretty good and was pretty cheap. The actual vacuum sealer pump was less than $5......however, buying the bags all the time will make it more expensive. We felt like it created a really good and tight seal for this corn.



While I was taking Chloe and Reesie's picture with the vacuum sealer, Claire had crawled over to this basket of raw corn that we were pulling from.

As you can see, she is slowly making progress.......there are several on the floor at her feet. She's well on her way to the goal of emptying the basket!

Oops....she got a little distracted......the corn looked too good to pass up. She decided to taste some! Gross! At this point, I decided that I had enough picture documentation and I put down the camera to rescue the corn from my sweet little adventurer!

Here's the setup outside.....pool for the girls, ranger for the cobs, EZ creamer for the kerneling.....and of course a fan to try and keep the gnats away!

Here's a close-up of the EZ Creamer.....bottom part is for silking and shucking (but my Mom doesn't really use it). Top part is for kernaling. There is also a part for creaming that attaches in the same place as the kernal part.

And this is how I found Chloe at the end of the day......playing the piano NAKED! Thought this was too funny not to capture and share!