My Favorite Room

Kelly from Kelly's Korner asked people to post their favorite room in their house. My favorite rooms are my bedroom and master bath (I was kinda surprised that SO many of you guys picked your kitchen. I have to unload/load the dishwasher way TOO many times for that to be my favorite room). Ha! We have had our bedding for a few years and I love it! My son threw up on it a few months ago and I about had a panic attack (I'm seriously just kidding!), because I knew I could never replace it. It was a gift from my sweet mother-in-law and she got it at Steinmart. If you shop there, you know that they don't keep things very long.


I know what you are thinking...where are their accessories?!? Yes, I am well aware that I don't have enough stuff sitting out. We redid our whole house last spring (new floors, furniture, paint, accessories, etc.). Notice that accessories was the last thing on that list. Need to go shopping.
Those black, leather boxes have pictures on the top. My husband bought those and gave them to me for Christmas. One has a picture of Luke at the beach and one has a picture of the two of us.

The walls are the palest blue you can imagine and it's very peaceful. Other than the dusting and floors, this room usually stays cleaner than the others in the house.


From our bedroom you come straight into the bathroom. I picked out the color for the bathroom and I LOVE IT! I told Eric that I wanted this room to be Tiffany & Co. blue and we came pretty close (the colors are a little more vibrant in person). Love taking long baths before bed every night. I love to read and I usually take a book with me! I know...I am weird!

The little statue in the corner was a Mother's Day gift from Eric and Luke last year. It's from Africa and the three little people represent us! Love it!


Our bathroom is almost galley shaped-it's pretty narrow and only has one sink, so we usually take turns in morning (we learned long ago that this works best for us!!!). Ha! After being married for almost 15 years, you learn all kinds of interesting things.


There's Eric's shower right past the tub. From there you walk straight into the closet we share. Notice that is NOT my favorite room in the house. It needs a major overhaul! Wish I could hire one of those companies to totally organize my closet...oh well.

I thought this was a fun post and now it is your turn! What is your favorite room?

Rainy Riverfest

Friday night Eric, Luke and I went to Riverfest for a catfish dinner and then we crossed the new walking bridge over to NLR (what a trek!!!) to hear some music from someone Eric knew. I guess The Nobility was Luke's first official concert.


Saturday Luke and I went back to Riverfest with my sister April, bro-in-law Bryan, nephews and with a friend Kristie and her kiddos! Here we are enjoying our free drinks and Yarnall's ice cream in the hospitality pavilion (Thanks ER&I!!!).


Here's Hannah & Cody hanging out with the Riverfest mascot (?). Ha! That creature must have been burning up, because it seemed like it was about 125 degrees!


The boys are LOVING their Krispy Kreme donuts. Since they were able to dip them in the chocolate themselves, they had so much dripping everywhere! YUMMY!


See how much taller I am than my little sister! I think we were delirious from the heat.


We attempted to watch the Jessie White Tumblers from Chicago (my favorite part of Riverfest), but it started raining and those guys were slipping all over the mats. So we walked down a little bit and it started raining even more. The kids hung out in the rain, but all of the grown ups were crowded under the Heifer International goat tent! Good Times!

I'm so thankful for my sister's family and my new friend, Kristie! I love you, guys!

Have you ever been to Riverfest? What is your favorite Riverfest memory?

Bring the Rain

If you have never read Angie Smith's blog and "their" story, you MUST do so - like now. Her post today was exactly the touch I needed from the Lord.
Here is a link to her blog and to the post she updated with last night: http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

Angie is the wife of Todd Smith, singer from the Christian band, Selah.

To read their story of loss, grace, tragedy, faith, and undying hope from the beginning to the end, start here: http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2008/01/beginning-of-story.html

Favorite Fotos Friday!

For my Favorite Foto Friday, I usually post one picture, but these had to all be posted together as a series. These were taken about two weeks ago as we were leaving Epcot after eating dinner at Le Cellier in Canada (YIKES! Has it REALLY been TWO weeks ago?!? I'm ready for another vacation!). We had time to go on a few more rides since the park was having extended hours that night. As we were on our way to ride the Finding Nemo ride, we passed by these fountains that had shoots of water that would fly from one flower bed to the next. Luke said, "Can I get just a little bit wet?". Yeah, right!


We seriously took over 600 pictures on our vacation to Walt Disney World, but these are some of my favorite because he is having the BEST time! It was about 10:00 at night and he was TOTALLY drenched, but he does not care! I could have watched him for 3 hours-it was so hysterical!


Eric did a good job of getting action shots of the water actually pelting him!


Love the look of excitement and anticipation here...


Doesn't he look slightly crazy here? Think he was a little delirious from all the water!


He is so content with the water dripping off his chin. I know people that go to WDW and totally stick with their Touring Plans! If we would have been like that, we would have totally missed this! Like my mama always tells me, "Don't forget to stop and smell the roses!". Ha!

So proud...

A few weeks ago, it was Grandparents/Special Friends Day at Luke's school. They sang some songs, presented awards and had their Knowledge Fair. Luke had to make a posterboard about any animal and he chose an anaconda. For some reason, he has a big fascination with snakes right now. Eric is terrified of snakes. He can't even talk about them without getting sick! Ha! This is Luke with my mom, Lee. Luke, Ty & Harlan call her MaLee.


Each first and second grade teacher had to choose one boy and one girl from their class that portrayed Christian Conduct throughout the school year. We were so proud of Luke-he was chosen from his class! Here he is looking at his plaque. He also received a certificate for straight As this year.


Here's Luke and his Pop! He couldn't have been more proud of Luke!


Nena & Papa took Luke to hang out for the rest of the day. I think Luke is holding a roly poly in this picture. He's fascinated with creepy crawlies!


Luke has loved first grade! He writes in cursive, can add two-digit numbers (and even carry numbers!), tell time, understands less than/greater than numbers and reads really well. He loves going to computers and music but most of all he loves recess! SURPRISE!


Proud Mama! Can't believe in two short days he will be a second grader!

Animal Kingdom

Here we are by the Tree of Life that Luke was so excited to see. Loved the safari and seeing all the animals. We went there first thing,so we were able to see tons of critters. We saw elephants, giraffes, black & white rhinos, lions, warthogs, gazelles, hippos and tons of birds.


This was while we were waiting to see "It's Tough to be a Bug". It surprised me that Luke got so scared in this 3-D show.


Luke is cruising along to Dino Land at Animal Kingdom. Notice his cheeks are bright red. He gets so hot and sweaty immediately. Good thing we didn't come in August.


Cutest little meerkat posing for one of many photos for Eric. He has been the BEST photographer on this trip. He lugs our big camera around and puts up with me saying, "Take a picture of this" and "Don't forget to take a picture of that". Ha!


This was taken at the Wilderness Lodge on Thursday night when we ate dinner at the Whispering Canyon. Loved that place!

We are trying our best to pace ourselves and not get too focused on trying to see everything. We have to save something for next time! :) Of course, Luke loves the pool at our resort best of all...

We Love Walt Disney World!

Here we are at Epcot this afternoon! We have already done SO much in two days! Luke liked flying and everything went so smoothly changing planes in Atlanta. He even got to sit in the cockpit with the pilot and they let us take pictures (I'm sure I will be posting those later! Ha!).

The weather here is great. It's warm, but so nice and breezy in the shade. The lines aren't nearly as bad as what we had feared. We walked right up to the front for most of the ones today and yesterday, and utilized FAST PASS for the really popular ones that had lines.

We are getting acclimated to the whole Disney way of life. It's crazy how big everything is and how they have everything down to a science. The rides have been incredible (Sunshine, you would be so proud of me. We rode Soarin' today and I LOVED It! No anxiety attacks at all).

Luke is LOVING the characters! We bought him an autograph book and so far he's gotten seven autographs. This kinda surprised us...that he would be so into it.

Tonight we ate at Whispering Canyon restaurant in the Wilderness Lodge resort. That place was beautiful! We took a boat ride over to the resort-that was Luke's first boat ride ever! Isn't that strange?!? Ha!

Well, gotta run! We have an early morning. Tomorrow we are going to Animal Kingdom! Very excited about that!

I just love doing things that aren't on my regularly scheduled day! Staying in hotels, swimming, boat rides, etc. What is your favorite thing about traveling?

Disney Bound

After more than five months of planning, we are FINALLY leaving for Walt Disney World in the morning! This will be Luke's first airplane ride so he's very excited about that. This is our first trip to WDW (technically I went with my parents when I was almost 3...I do remember snippets of the trip, but maybe it's because I've seen the pictures...).

Eric is CLUELESS about the whole Disney thing. He knows about Animal Kingdom, because Luke has talked about it so much. But he doesn't even know the names of the other parks. I've read so many books and studied for months, but now I'm feeling a little panicked! I want there to be a happy medium of having things planned and going with the flow kind of vacation. I know we are not going to be able to do it all, but we are sure to see a ton. We are staying for 7 days.

I'm excited about seeing everything! I want to ride the monorail, visit the other "countries" at Epcot and ride Splash Mountain (along with tons of other rides). I'm also very excited about the following: NOT going to work, NOT going to Wal-Mart, NOT dropping Luke off at school, NOT making dinner, NOT running errands, NOT cleaning house, and NOT doing laundry. Ha! I'm very thankful for my life, but sometimes we just need a break!

Have you ever been to Walt Disney World? What are some of your favorite memories?

Petit Jean

I just realized that I forgot to post these pics of a weekend trip to Petit Jean. We went last month and had the BEST time. This was my first time to go with Eric & Luke and explore all over the place. I've gone scrapbooking a few times up there, but when I've done that it's nothing but cutting out pictures and sticking 'em in an album. Plus, plenty of meals, snacks and cutting up with my sister and my friends. No nature walks or picnics on those trips...


We've had tons of rain, so the waterfall was so huge and loud. We walked down this really cool trail that leads to this overlook facing the waterfall. I wasn't expecting to be SO high up! I don't know if you know this, but I have a HUGE PHOBIA OF HEIGHTS!!!! Oh my goodness...it was scary! But I prayed and talked myself through standing there on the deck overlooking the waterfall. I was trying not to act like a freak around my son. Ha! All the while, Eric is trying not to laugh at me.


Here's Lukey on the front porch of our little cabin. I say little because it was really a glorified motel room/duplex cabin with a wood burning fireplace. It was clean and that's all that matters when you are "camping". This is my kind of roughing it!!!


This view is right behind Mather Lodge where we had breakfast Saturday morning. YUMMY!


Me and my sweetie, Luke. He was running a high fever Thursday and Friday and we almost canceled our trip. Even on the way up to Petit Jean, he was sick. He had fever, was listless and had no appetite. When we pulled up to the Lodge to check in, he jumped out of the car, got a burst of energy and his sickness was TOTALLY gone! I'm going to have to remember that next time he runs 101 fever. We will be taking a road trip to Mather Lodge-it has healing powers.


Here's Luke on the turtle rocks. We went to three different overlooks and two 30-minute trails. We will have to go back in the fall to hoof it down to the bottom of the waterfall-I think it takes about 2 hours for that walk. Luke didn't have the stamina for that (plus Eric didn't want to carry him back up the trail).


Looks like a greeting card for Father's Day, doesn't it? Luke sure does love his daddy. Eric has told Luke a different made-up story every night since he was about 2 years old. They love practicing T-ball in the yard, fishing, playing Wii, 4-wheel riding in Sheridan and driving me crazy with weird voices. :)



We ended our trip with a picnic on one of the overlooks (over by Petit Jean's grave). I took a picture of it, but decided posting grave pictures was not something I wanted on my blog. Ha! The story of Petit Jean is very cool if you've never heard it. I loved it, but Eric was laughing at me and said he thought it was all made up and a publicity stunt. Do you see the pattern here? Eric laughing at me!?! Yeah, so do I. The Lord sure did know what I needed when he sent me my Eric. And his little "mini-me", Luke. I love them!