The passing of my grandmother

On Sunday morning, October 6th, my 91 year old grandmother breathed her last breath.

Let me tell ya about this little lady me & my brothers called Ma Ma.

See, my oldest brother Jonathan was the first grandkid. And he was the one who tagged her "Ma Ma." Her husband (our grandfather) was our Pa Pa (not Poppa, but Pah-Pah). They were married in 1946. Then, 17 months after their union my crazy daddy was their firstborn. He was joined by a baby brother 7 years later. And that was their family. A momma, a daddy and two little wild boys.

They were really poor. My dad tells stories about dirt floors in the house, a “straw tick” bed, homemade clothes and putting cardboard in the bottom of his shoes. He even tells of bread sacks tied around their shoes because they couldn't afford rain boots.

Even though they didn’t have a lot of “stuff” my dad says his momma was always able to I M P R O V I S E ! He also says she was quite the marble player. And she taught daddy how to sing and play the guitar. 

But the most important thing Ma Ma did was take my daddy to church and talk to him about his soul. When he was really young she’d ask him if he died whether he'd go to Heaven. Many times he says he'd snicker in response. Because he didn’t understand. But one day he did and he felt that tug in his heart we Christians call conviction. He knew he needed Jesus in his heart. And one night at church Ma Ma's brother (Uncle Bill) came and asked Dad if he needed to pray and that night Dad became a Christian. 

Fast forward a bit and you'll hear of some rambunctious shenanigans of a teenage boy. Pretty sure my dad (and his brother) were the cause of Ma Ma's gray hair ;-) 

But my dad tells a story of one night when he was out really late and when he came home he heard his mom talking. He asked her who she was talking to and she said I was praying. Dad knew why... 

Thankfully my daddy came back around to the kind of living his momma taught him about all his life. 

Sidebar -- I sure am thankful for that because if God hadn't intervened I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been born. But that's a story for another time.

Dad remembers the conversation he had with Ma Ma when he told her he was going to be a preacher. She cried. She was so proud. 

When I was a kid I spent a week every summer at Ma Ma's house while my parents were away at an annual church convention. I didn't spend as much time at Ma Ma's house as my brothers did when we were growin up. But I do have a lot of cool memories with Ma Ma. Going to pick blackberries, playing in the garden, doing seek a word puzzles and watching tv together. She wasn't one for spoiling me. ha 

Ma Ma lost the love of her life 29 years ago so she spent a long time as a widow. But she filled her time helping with grandkids and great grandkids and spending lots of time with her sister, who was also her best friend. 

She'll be missed, but my goodness who can complain about getting to live 91 years on this earth? Oh, Ma Ma that's who... 

a couple years ago I had a conversation with this feisty little woman that went somethin like this - 

Ma Ma, how old are you? 

89

Oh wow! Well next year when you turn 90 we'll have to have a party for ya. 

I'll probably be dead.

Oh...now don't say that. 

Well I don't know why I've lived so long. Nobody oughta live this long. I didn't want to.

And that folks, is just a tiny glimpse into my spunky little grandmother. ha!

At the funeral, my brother joked that if complaining is allowed in Heaven he's pretty sure that Ma Ma went straight to Jesus and said WHAT TOOK SO LONG?  

This lady was one of a kind for sure! 

Our family is definitely gonna miss her, but one day we'll see her again ... in Heaven... and what a beautiful promise that is! 

a post about movies

My man loves movies. 

That's what we did on our first date - went to the movies. Saw Forrest Gump as a matter of fact. While we were dating, we watched a lot of movies. 

Doesn't seem like movies are as good as they used to be. But once in a while, we still run up on a good one. 

One of our most recent faves is Safe Haven with Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel. The movie is set in a small coastal town in North Carolina. It has a couple twists and turns and is a really great movie. It has a little suspense and some romance as well. And as rom-coms go, some humor in there. One of the things I was impressed by was how they really made Julianne Hough look like a young girl. Amazing what makeup, lighting & wardrobe can do. 

Anyway. 
You should watch it. 

Another good one I recently watched at the behest of my coworker Cindy - Driving Miss Daisy

I know, I know. You're shocked that I missed this one for the last 20 years. It came on cable here and there but I just never stopped and watched it. 

It's really a great movie!!! 

Morgan Freeman plays his character so well. And that little old lady - she is a hoot! Jessica Tandy sure did a piece of acting in this movie. The folks that hand out the little statues agreed. Gave em F O U R ! 

Tonight my hub is out at a football game with a buddy and I'm sitting here watching Julie & Julia when I should be editing pictures. 

Ohhh this one, this is a superb movie. 

It came out in 2009 and it'll have ya laughin' and cryin' throughout the story. Amy Adams really is great as the young girl who decides to go through Julia Child's cookbook and blog about it. But the show thief here is Meryl Streep as Julia Child. She nails Julia Child in every way. 

Watch it but know you might get hungry seeing all that yummy food. 

Go to redbox, Target or click up Netflix - however you do movie night, I promise these three deliver! 

Labor Day looked kinda like this>>>>

My parents had a cookout. 
We ate food. 
We played basketball and badminton. 
We talked. 
We laughed. 
And we played with those cute baby boys... 

See for yourself!

 the gkids are all gettin so big & grown up... sigh.... 

me and muh bros

Don't you just wanna give him sugars right nowwww?!  

This is Conner, not that I knew on my own. I had to text my niece. Cuz I'm a crappy aunt.

 Conversatin' and laughin' 

Not sure what the convo was here

  

Apparently one must lay on the grass to determine whether the birdie was in or out...

 Cheerleader stunts? 

Yeah, we got em!

A certain couple fellas mighta got most of the attention though...

Blue bib ->Brady 

Phil was makin him giggle aww 

The twins were probably like HEYYYY, there's my brother. Geez, why have we been separated all night?! 

We passed em around like salt & pepper shakers. Gimme, gimme, gimme!

Movin on...

Kerby has a winning smile, doesn't he?!

Kerlandy and Camden built some stuff with Legos but Cam was too quick for me. He hates pics. You can see Kerlandy doesn't mind. (tryin to be cute cuz she knew I was shooting a pic) 

I'll leave ya with this one because Conner's expression just amuses me. 

I sure do love this crazy bunch! 

Thanks for indulging me. I know it was a lotta pics. If you didn't smile at least once, you may need to seek medical attention cuz yo face muscles must be broke!
;-) 

Flashback Friday - Zac Brown Band

So back in June there was this little thing called CMA Fest in Nashville. Formerly known as Fan Fair, this thing draws people from everywhere. As in all across the United States and even other countries everywhere. 

Cuz people love em some country music. Can't blame em. It's pretty good!

The hub and I are in the Zamily, which is Zac Brown Band's fan club. Every year ZBB has a fan club party on the night they're performing at CMA fest. We usually go. It's cool cuz not only do you get to hang with the guys in the band, they also feed ya. And lemme tell ya it's some good food. It's one of Anthony's favorite meals of the year.

This year, they surprised us IN A BIG WAY when they announced that for the first time, we'd all get to have our picture made with the fellas. 

I hugged Zac as soon as we walked up to the photo spot. 

And if you know me, you know I AM NOT A HUGGER. 

I don't know what got into me. I guess it was just one of those fan moments where it's all a blur and then you think oh, I bet I looked & sounded so goofy. Oh well. 

I don't even know why I was nervous. I've talked to Zac on the phone before. ;-) Read the post about my call with Zac here

Anyway, they played several songs and it became apparent that they didn't have a set list before getting on stage because at one point they were standing around asking each other what they should do next. Fans were shouting suggestions. They really seem like some laid back dudes who just LOOOOVE music. So cool.

We didn't go to CMA Fest but seeing our fave was worth the drive to the music city!

Let me backtrack a bit.

When we were waiting to go into the party, a vehicle drove up right beside us and out stepped Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town. And next was Karen. Then the fellas. 

Everyone was respectful and just watched for the first 5-10 minutes. Then we slowly inched our way over to the area where they were & started snapping pics. 

They were filming a bit for CMA fest because this year LBT was the "host" or whatev. Cool.

But then it got even cooler. 

Inside, they announced that LBT was gonna be serving us the food that Chef Rusty had cooked up for the Zamily. 

Whaaaaat?

Way cool! I chatted with Kimberly and she was SOOOOOOO nice. So very nice. Anthony chatted with Karen & Jimi - he said they were really cool. 

I love how CMA fest gets fans close to the artists!

Before we left, we stopped for a pic in front of the ZBB logo. 
Good times.

 the pic on the bottom corner was right after they announcement that we were gonna get to take a pic with the boys

Gotta love Nashville.
And CMA Fest.
But most of all Z A C  B R O W N  B A N D !!!

Jump right in!

Flashback Friday - Memorial Day 2013

Calling all delinquent bloggers. 

Calling all delinquent bloggers.

(ahem)

So Memorial Day is usually spent at my parents' house in their back yard. Cuz back yards are where memories are made.

Like this - 

 This is just one of my favorite pics everrrrrr... 

Phil is silly & crazy just like his pose. Sasha and I are just... well.. us... and Anthony is jammin' out makin' like the racket is a guitar. Typical. Yeah, Mom will definitely be seein' this shot in her yearly family photo calendar.

When OUR FAMILY gets together there's 
A L W A Y S 
sweet tea cuz yall, we're TRUE SOUTHERNERS. ;-) 
Mom manned the grill this year. Trevor was a slacker. Or maybe he was just too busy holding them babiesssss... 
See, this was back when those sweet little twin boys were just a month old. Little tiny toots. Adorbs & presh and all that! 

And we may have kinda rigged up an extension cord on some wooden posts for a makeshift net. Yeah, duct tape was involved. As if you had to ask... 
And Phil & Anthony may have run to the local dollar store for badminton stuff. 
Improvisation at its finest.

I love love LOVE this shot of the Carver brothers. 

They used to be little. But now they're kinda big. 

 and Kerlandy looks like she's laying an egg... er, a basketball egg.... lol

Yeah.... so um.... I looooove my family! 

We sit around and talk and laugh. 

We sometimes have a little church when we're all together. 

It's just good stuff. Really it is. 

Ahhhh

Onesies posing as cupcakes - a little DIY for a baby shower gifty

If you read my blog you know I love Pinterest. It's just a cool way to find great ideas. Especially when you're wanting to give a U N I Q U E gift, which is me.all.the.time. I'm not uber crafty, but I like to try ;-) 

Recently a sweet friend was prego and she was special enough to deserve a nifty gifty such as this.

Onesies packaged up like cupcakes 

Aren't they just adorbs?! 

First of all, you have to get all this stuff - 
~ cutesy gift box from Michael's
~ cupcake papers (fancy ones if that's how you roll)
~ pack of solid onesies
~ red socks (I had to buy multi packs so guess who's getting the others - yes, my niece's twin babes)
~ tape

Seriously cute and pretty doggone easy! 
But in case you need steps - here ya go 
1. Fold the onesie so it's thing and long (trust me, the snaps can cause probs later but hang in there)
2. Work the sock in there so one of the toes is poking out (don't stress over this, you can fiddle with it later if it's bein a punk)
3. Roll the onesie (with the sock) tightly 
4. Once you have the whole shebang rolled up, tape the bottom

I mean really... this is easy and sooo cute. 

Are you IN LOVE with this gift?! 

I wrapped a wire edged ribbon (from Dollar General) around the box, added a gift card and made a card with my scrapbook supplies.
There ya have it folks....

Ain't she a beaut?!

Giving credit where credit is due... the blogger who came up with this has better pics than mine AND a more professional way of 'splainin it. ;-) 
Find it here!

:: F L A S H B A C K :: Fun with Friends

I've been nicely scolded by a few faithful readers lately that my blogging has been a little too infrequent lately. I'm gonna try to do better.

I love pictures. 
So here are some from the past few months of fun things with frans (that's the hip way to say friends now fyi). 
Believe it or not, I don't photograph everything we do. 

So those UT fans... um I really love them obviously... cuz I ran in a 5K with em even though they were wearing that hideous garb. Sorry. Volhater here. Don't talk to me about it being the state I live in. I am originally from Kentucky. But seriously though this was Rhonda's first race and I was so proud of her! 

Moving on. Clint & Kyla came over recently... it was a lovely night. Really it was. We ate and chatted and little Avery played his little heart out.  

Then there was this baby shower... it was a very pretty shower for a very sweet & pretty girl Shannon. Love her and her sweet family. Her mom (in the pic) was my dad's right hand at the church for more than 12 years (bless her heart). She's a good un. 

Chippy dippy with the BRAs is always fun. They're my Back Row Alto pals from choir at church. Don't you love the acronym?! Hilarious! 

The last one is my sweet Riley on a pony at my work on "happy fun day" as we call it... Rain/thunderstorms cut that event short. Riley was pretty bummed. And so was I! 

So here we have another potpourri of frans fun. My friend Heather is preggers with a baby girl and her shower was super duper cute. 

I might have gone to a wedding I wasn't invited to cuz I wanted to see Riley in a tux. So what? 

Girls night at J. Alexander's downtown to celebrate Angela's 40th birthday? 
Yep! 
If you've not been there, go ASAP and have some of their mac n cheese. It's unbelievably good. For real though.

In the middle - that's just some cool gals from church I love a whole lot. We were together for a very important purpose that night. TO.BUY.JEWELRY. 

The red & white.. um yeah, that's just one of those funny things that happens at work once in a while. Not planned. 

Next is Anthony and his pal Clint - they been buds since elementary school. We actually spent the 4th of July with him & his wife and their babysitter (and a bunch of other people we didn't know). Had a great time AND some awesome food.

Bottom corner is a pic from Jennifer's birthday (a BRA). That night was a happy fun night & I was hyper. What of it? 

Last but not least is a pic of me and my pal Pennie - back story on her... she and I used to work together. She mentored me in photography. She was the one who stumbled on the job I currently have. She's just great is all. And now, God has brought us back together. Not only are we attending the same church, but we're teaching 6th grade girls together. 
Ahhh, blessings!!! Love love love those kind! 

Ok, enough rambling... sorry for the long post. 

Wait... no I'm not. 

Enjoy every letter of this post. Every single syllable. Every period, comma and exclamation point. 

hahahaha 
I love you sooo much if you're still reading this.  XXOO 

Halfway point of 2013... well kinda

A lot of times people make New Year's Resolutions and by the end of the month they're pretty much forgotten. 

I just flipped back through the posts I've made on my blog during 2013. 

I came across my January post where I talked about my plans for 2013. 
Here's T H E P O S T ;-)

In it I said this - - 
     In 2013 I plan to be more obedient. 
     I plan to serve more. 
     I plan to be the child my Heavenly Father can be pleased with. 
     I plan to be MORE in 2013 than I was in 2012.

So here we are a little past the halfway point of 2013 and I'm looking at these goals and thinking back to what I've accomplished so far this year as it relates to these goals.

In some ways I feel like I have been more obedient. But I also recall times I acted like a spoiled kid who didn't get her way. 

{Thank God for His grace.} 

I feel like there have been times this year God has been pleased with me. But I definitely am not the masterpiece He wants to carve me into yet. When it hurts and life is hard, I know my Master is chipping away at me. 

Onto serving more ...

Please let me rewind a bit to give this some context.

Last year when we started attending Long Hollow my friend Rhonda encouraged me to join choir (which I immediately did; no arm twisting required). Right off the bat she also told me I'd be great for summer camp. 

Planted that seed she did.

Well as summer was approaching, I had these straggling vacation days and the hub and I weren't planning a trip so... 

I started thinking about summer camp. 

Long story short, in June I ended up going to Middle School Camp as a counselor and 
I 
E N J O Y E D  L O V E D 
E V E R Y
M I N U T E 
O F
I T ! ! ! !    

And of course I plan to go back again next summer. 

While I was at camp, my friend Pennie text me about teaching a class with her when the school year starts back. I told her I'd let her know. But I already knew. God was already working on ME even before Pennie asked me. 

On Sunday we started teaching a beautiful group of 6th grade girls. I'm so excited to see what God is gonna do with these girls.  

This year has really been a year of spiritual growth for me so far. I can't share all of it here, but know that it's an incredible journey that I'm pumped to be on! God has challenged me to get out of my comfort zone in a few areas. And He's so faithful to honor obedience. It's just awesome, that's all. 

So I guess to wrap up this post and say I certainly haven't done everything right so far in 2013 but when I reflect on a few things I feel victorious and blessed and thankful and... well you get it... 
I'm just glad to say I'm a child of the one true King (as the song says) 
Watch/listen here!

Easy berry cobbler

Again, I love Pinterest. And of course that's where I found this recipe. 

See how delish it looks?

Ok so maybe it's not winning a blue ribbon on appearance, but trust me it tasted super yummy! 

sorry for the cheapy paper plate... just keepin it real folks 

Here's the link to where I found it (via Pinterest) Berry cobbler blog post 

Only three ingredients... 
JUST THREEEEE (wheeee) 
1. Sprite Zero 
2. Cake mix (white or yellow is fine) 
3. Frozen berries (I did strawberries)
Bada bing bada boom.... it's almost magic  

In a nutshell (if you're too lazy to click the link to the original poster) you put the berries in your dish, pour the dry cake mix over it, then slowly pour the soda over it. It bubbles up sorta like a cool science experiment.

Yes, I'm easily amused.

Bake it at 350 for about 50 minutes. You can tell when it's done cuz it's browned. Duh. 

You're gonna love it! 

I WILL be back... Time? tbd

Please don't think I've abandoned the blog... just busy livin' life ya know?

Eatin happy meals and what not...

Work seems to stay busy. Weekends fly by. Life just zips on by.

The older I get, the faster a month goes by.

(sigh)

The other day at work, one of the gals brought in some killer mini bundt cakes. 
And I won't lie... I was happy, happy, happy...

If you wanna try one for yourself, it's in Nashville and of course online here

That's all I have on my mind tonight... 
Sad, I know... 
Peace!