Laurie's Life

My parents came on Thursday night. Their visit was two-fold. They were helping Steve with the girls so I could have a little get-away and Emily has a choir performance tonight at church. I got to go to Little Rock to see James Taylor in concert. He is about my all time favorite!!!!!! I just LOVE his music. My friends Kelly and Eric introduced me to him when we were freshmen in college. I was hooked. He is my kind of singer-songwriter. I wish the concert had lasted all night long!!!! His band and back-up singers are unbelievable. They can harmonize like nothing I have ever heard before. I just wanted to start screaming at times because it sounded sooooo good!!!!!!!!!!! I had chills from head to toe. I LOVE the guitar and I love to hear James Taylor play it. I wish I could take guitar lessons from him! I stayed with Kelly and Eric while I was in Little Rock. We ate at The Oyster Bar before the concert. I also LOVE fried oysters. It really was the perfect evening......gre...

As I am typing this, I am hearing,"Mama come here!" SK has said this over and over for the past hour. And...I just heard,"LAURIE!" She is in her crib and needs to be taking a nap. Giving up the pacifier has been pretty awful. She did not sleep much AT ALL Sunday night. WE had a miserable night. There was NO nap yesterday and I don't think there will be a nap today. When Emily gave up her paci, she never took another nap again. I think the same is going to be true with Sarah Kate. She has looked all over the house and car for a pacifier. I think this could be harder on me than it is on her. She has looked under every couch cushion and bed in our house. I KNOW it has got to get better with time. Some of you have asked some questions and I thought I would just answer them right here and now. Where did you get your white watch and what kind is it? I got it in my hometown at Merle Norman. It is Geneva brand. What kind of camera do you have? Most of the pictu...

We have had a good, but rainy Easter weekend. Friday afternoon I talked with Emily about Good Friday and what that meant. She knew a lot more than I thought she did!!!!! This thrilled me. We read her children's Bible and then I asked her if she wanted to see a movie about Jesus. I showed her bits and pieces of the Passion of the Christ. She was glued to the screen. I would stop it along the way and answer her questions and explain things to her. At one point she said, "okay, press pause." " Okay, When I am in heaven I am not going to be able to understand anything Jesus says." The movie is in Hebrew or Aramaic. There were lots of teachable moments with Emily on this Good Friday. The Easter bunny brought lip gloss and electric Cinderella tooth brushes. They have brushed their teeth at least 6 times today. None of our pictures were too good today. This is about the best we got. Steve's Mom got SK this Cinderella gown a few weeks ago. It is the new ...

We decided to go ahead and get Emily a bunny. NO! I am just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!! After reading the advice from many of you, we are NOT getting a bunny! No, thank you! The good thing is......... I think the bunny phase has ended. But Emily did get to enjoy two cute bunnies at our Easter playgroup. Two girls that LOVE each other......Sarah Grace and Emily. Tracy, Sarah Grace's mom, had playgroup at her house yesterday. It was fantastic! Best of friends......Neely and Sarah Kate. Emily would live at Sarah Grace's house and Sarah Kate would live at Neely's house if we would let them. Another dear friend, Summer. They have been in MDO and preschool together since they were babies. The Easter bunny made a surprise visit!!!!!!!!!!!!! Emily is crazy about Alex too. They have been friends since they were born. Tracy goes all out! She is the hostess with the mostess. I think I stress her out with all my food dislikes. She always makes sure there is something I can eat! My fr...

I really should not write a post about this. But, I am going to. Along with my bird phobia, I guess you could say I have a phobia about certain foods. There are a lot of foods that I LOVE! In fact, the foods that I love, I seem to go overboard on them. Examples of this would be Chili's chips and salsa, watermelon, shrimp boiled in crab boil, Jr. Mints, PF Chang's. I could eat my weight in these. I also love any meat, except liver. I will eat ANY cooked veggie and I adore fruit! But there are other foods that I just CANNOT eat. I have tried and I have gagged. I can't even eat them to be nice. I go into an all out panic when I am invited to a friends house for lunch. Most women I know eat light and girly food for lunch. I will often get out of an invitation for lunch if I think it may be a food I don't like. It is a terrible problem to have. I respect those people who will eat anything. I wish I were like that! If you are wondering what I CANNOT eat, it would b...

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Living Proof Live this weekend in Little Rock with some girls from my Sunday school class. WOW WOW WOW! That is all I can say. I am so glad I went. There is just something about being away from the "normal" of a busy life and being in a dark arena with 8, 500 women hearing a Word that God wants us to hear. I love the way Beth Moore always has a fresh word from God's word and how she brings scripture to life. Beth spoke on "finding your ministry in the wild of community." The teaching was from 2 Timothy 4. Travis Cottrell can lead worship like no other. I LOVED the graphics on the screens with the words. Oh my goodness! They were amazing. I tried to get some pictures of some of them, but the pictures do not do them justice. I got to see sweet and talented Caroline. She is a blog friend who has become a real life friend. She is just a breath of fresh air! I also got to meet her sweet Mom. Seeing them was a high...

One of Emily's school friends brought two baby bunnies to school on Monday for show and tell. Guess what Emily is wanting???????? When she got home from school on Monday, she got the cat carrier down. She got several little carrots out of the fridge and she filled a bowl with water. Then she said, "let's go get a bunny." I am thinking NO on the idea. I just don't like the idea of having to take care of a bunny. I am also afraid Kristen the cat might kill it. Ever had a pet bunny????? This morning I put some clothing items in the Rhea Lana consignment sale. This was my first time to do this. I got all sentimental and had to bring home a few of the items I had already registered. I just could NOT get rid of them yet. And...for those who know me well, I took the girls to school and went to Rhea Lana without taking a shower. I wore a ball cap and the make-up still left on from yesterday. I know many of you will be proud of me for that. Everyone gives me a ha...

Redbox, here I come! I took the movies back on Wednesday to Blockbuster. I just had to go in to find out what happened with the bird. The manager told me that they have about FIFTY birds that live in the attic and they fly in all the time through the vents. I wanted him to talk fast so I could get out of there!!!!! I don't think I will be going back......unless I do the note with Emily again. I am happy to hear that I am not alone in my bird fear. Your comments have encouraged me. Yesterday I bought a bunch of flowers and let the girls help me plant them in our planters. It is always a happy day when I pot flowers. We all got clean and had a little family outing to the mall. The girls are doing a little better now when we go out to eat. Progress! Steve's famous words in a restaurant for the past couple of years have been, "we are never doing this again."

Friday was my birthday and Steve and the girls got me this princess ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. I think the girls did the picking, don't you? One of the funny things Sarah Kate is saying these days is calling the washing machine the "wash cleaner." Great name! Emily loves to take pictures. She took this one of Kristen and said Kristen was having coffee. This morning at Bible study, we had a VERY sweet lady in our church share about decorating your house for Spring. She is so talented and she gave away some door prizes as she went along. I was a winner of this wreath. I am so proud of it. I think it is so pretty and a wonderful reminder of God's faithfulness and the beauty that He creates. I LOVE Spring! I have to take the movies back to Blockbuster tomorrow. I am a little nervous, but you better bet I am going in to find out what happened with the bird. Another funny of the weekend: I took Emily to a birthday party of Sunday afternoon. The party was at ...

I enjoyed a great lunch today with my best friend and my favorite baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hollis was perfect! When I picked the girls up from school I took them by Blockbuster to rent some movies for the weekend. Yes, I am one of the last people on earth who still goes in a movie rental store and rents a movie. I will get modern in a year or two. I just like being able to see all kinds of movies of all years all at once and being able to watch it on any t.v. in the house. We walked into Blockbuster and there was a fair size bird ZOOMING all over the store and landing on top of the racks. I freaked out. I tried to go get the movies, but I just could not. We left out and I was so mad at myself. I told the girls that I could not go in because of that bird. Emily was saying,"why you scared of birds? Their just sweet and sing sweet songs????" We went back to the car and I came up with a plan. I wrote the girl inside a note and asked her if she could get me the four movies. I...

Today I got a package in the mail from my cousin, Tommye Ruth. When I saw the bracelet, I loved it, and then I read the story behind it. She told me in a note that our Mema had given her a lot of her buttons about 26 years ago. My Mema was really good at sewing, gardening and cooking. My cousin was at the gym recently and saw a lady wearing a bracelet made out of buttons. She asked the lady about it and was able to have the lady make this bracelet for me out of Mema's old buttons. After I read the note, I loved the bracelet even more! I am so proud of my bracelet. How special to have something like this that belonged to my Mema, who I loved so much.