My Instagram Life ~ 5.10.13

I'm joining InstaFriday again today over at Life Rearranged.

 

I love recapping our week with all the quick pics I've taken with my phone throughout the week.

I didn't actually take this one.  She took it of herself.

She and her BFF were trying to match their clothes for our SKG outing last Sunday night, so they were  texting back and forth.  This was Lillie's, "I'm waiting"  shot......

We had the best time on our SKG outing!

Shopping at Target and then on to McDonald's to talk about Mean Girls and BFF's.  

And how sometimes, they can be the same person.

And how sometimes, we can be both of these things, too!

And here they are......

Twinsies.

I think they succeeded.

It's been very chilly here in the south to be the month of April.

Finally this week we've some actual Spring like weather.

This was one morning when it was warm enough for me to go outside as the girls waited on the bus....

So, he decided he needed a toilet paper roll......

and to get it, he flushed all the paper down the toilet.  

On Wednesday night, we had our Family Night at church.

These ladies work hard to make us a wonderful meal.

And the food was delish!!!

There is a field beside our house that will eventually be cut for hay.

Right now there are some great daisies blooming.  

So pretty!

I took the kids over there one afternoon to get some pictures.

We tried to do something artsy.

This is what we got.  

And even though they are all squinting and Brady isn't smiling -- I kinda like it.

And this is the best one we got of them cheesing it.

I like it, too!

Yesterday, our sweet friend Cassie came and went to lunch with Brady and I.

She lives in Sylva and we don't get to see her very much.

It was great to spend some time catching up with her!

We love her!!!

I did not sleep well last night.

Too many things on my mind.

SO, I got up at 4 AM and spent some time in His Word.

This is the Word he gave me!

Great reminder for me!!!

I was invited today to Brady's preschool for a special Mother's Day event.

I didn't know they were going to serve us lunch.

My sweet boy served me spaghetti and bread, with sweet tea and ice cream with strawberries for dessert.

And he made me this sweet card and that adorable sparkly candle holder.  

And now, I must be going!

We are heading out shortly to Brady's tee ball game.

Then, tomorrow we are headed to the mountains for a sweet friends bridal shower.

We we will be driving back home tomorrow evening to be here for Mother's Day.

AND- we have another sweet friend coming to visit Sunday night and Monday.  

It's going to be a busy and fun weekend.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend also!!!

Authentic Faith

I saw this quote on face book.

A friend said it.  {Thanks, Jeffrey Reed}

The authenticity of the faith of parents has a

direct correlation to the likelihood that kids

 will remain in church when they become 

adults.

I agree wholeheartedly.

If kids and teens don't see their parents living out their faith in an authentic way, then I don't think they really care if they have any themselves.  They see their parents and say well, they are just doing this on Sundays so why do I need it at all?

I think that until parents understand this and really begin to grow their own faith, kids won't see the need for it either.  

I've got much more to say on the subject but I'd love to hear what you have to say......

What do you think?

My First 5K

A week ago yesterday, I ran my first ever 5K.  

 I was nervous for most of the week before it when I stopped to think about it.

It was a 5K  put on by one of our local elementary schools in honor of a man from our church who was the  coach at the school 

This is me before the race with this man's wife and daughter and another sweet lady from church who was running the race.

My BFF {marathon runner} came to run with me. This is one of few pictures of her because she took all the pics of me.  

She was such an incredible encourager and though she could have run this race in about half of the time it took me, she stayed right with me for most of the race.  

This is Miss O.  Kandi pushed her in the stroller while running and taking my picture.

She's super woman.

Our shoes.

We were ready to run! 

Two of our other sweet friends came to run with me.

Jenny and Tripp raced down to be with us.

Jenny was feeling awful, though you can't tell it here

and Tripp looks like he is wondering why he agreed to this....

Me at mile 1.  Still happy and smiling.

Not dying.

And here I am at mile 2.

Still smiling.

Though beginning to look forward to the end.

Kandi sped up a little after the mile two sign so she could get me coming across the finish line.

Here I am......I did it!!!

I was so happy these two sweet friends of my came to be with me at this race.

I love them so much!

I am thankful that Tripp was there, too.

We didn't get a picture o the four of us together.....

but aren't they are cute couple!?!

{they are getting married in a little over a month}

When I agreed to run this 5K and signed up, I was so worried that I was going to hate it.

I mean, most days, I do hate running on my treadmill. 

I'm always thrilled I did it when I'm done but I'm never thrilled to be doing it.

I can honestly say that I didn't hate it.

Having my friends there to talk to and laugh with meant the world 

and it doesn't hurt that I finished in my fastest time to run EVER.

My official time was 35:35.

That's 11:30 minute miles people.

I know that isn't fast but when you factor in that I was walking every 4th minute and how short my little legs are, it's pretty fast.

I might just have to do another one.

I cannot believe those words came out of my head!!!!

My Instagram Life 5.3.13

It's been a while since I've been able to participate in InstaFriday 

with 

Life Rearranged.

I love getting to see every one's snap shots from their week 

So, I'm happy to be hopping back on the band wagon!

Here are some shots I've take over the last few weeks.....

Allie had a field trip a couple of weeks ago at the mall.

It was Math Day at the mall.

So, we spent the morning doing walking around the mall doing math.

You know: comparing prices at different stores, measuring steps, estimating distances, counting benches, estimating numbers of Polo shirts on a wall and figuring out tax on things.

But, after lunch, I checked her out and we had to go to her favorite store.

Justice.

And I kid you not.

Half of the Fifth grade girls were in the store. 

I tried to get her to buy this shirt, but she wouldn't.

I mean, really.

I can't imaging they sell many of these..... 

My sweet boy in the on deck circle.

I seriously swoon.

I'm a sucker for baseball players.

He's my favorite 

{But I'm pretty partial to watching hubs play church softball, too!!}

One day, a few weeks ago, when it was actually warm in the south, I got this picture of the dandelions.

I love it.

This is me channeling my inner teen -ager.....

trying out the dog eared look.

I'm not sure I can pull it off......

This is my friend, Jenny whose getting married in about a month.

We had the best time taking her to the mall to get a makeover.

She rarely wears makeup and wanted a natural look.

I think she got it and she looked beautiful!!!

After choir practice this past Wednesday,  we went outside

and the kids had a blast picking azalea's to put behind their ears....

This is Lillie and her BFF, Elli.

and they were having a grand time picking up dogwood petals and making it rain down on themselves.

Today, this sweet girl won character award for

"Sharpening the Saw".  

I've been super confused with these character traits this year. 

Allie won for being Proactive which I get....

but Lillie won for "Starting with the End in Mind".....not exactly sure on that one but I think it has to do with focus.

Maggie's award for "Sharpening the Saw" had to be explained....

It has to do with taking care of mind, body and soul.  

That's my girl!

When leaving school today, Brady had to stop to throw up the dogwood petals one more time....

And I went and got my hair done.

I love going to the salon.

It's "me" time.

And it's lovely.

Even when my hair isn't much different in the before and after pics. ;)

That's it for today.

Time to get off the computer and back to our busy life.

I have half an hour to find Brady's baseball cap before we head out to get the girls from school.

Then we as a family, will be headed to get two birthday presents and grab supper before being at the ball field for baseball pics and a ballgame afterwards.

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday!!

Where's My Head?

It's been two weeks since I've blogged.  To say that I've been running around like a chicken-with-my-head-cut-off might even be an understatement.  

Since I wrote last, I've.....

attended 2 -tball games

and worked concessions for an hour after one of them.

We had an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt at church

It was great fun!

We went to a local minor league baseball game the same night so Brady could run the field and go on the field with the players {that part,  Brady refused to do}.

I've been on two field trips.

Math Day at the Mall with Allie and the fifth graders which I don't have a picture of.

And

a long day trip to Raleigh with Maggie and the fourth graders.

and then packed Allie for a trip to Washington DC.

Not to mention our normal scheduled things like gymnastics, church softball games, choir practice and bible studies.{yes, more than one}

Two other things I've done that I will be sharing more about in the days to come are these.

I've ran 21.6 miles which included my first 5K.

I helped give my sweet friend a baby shower.

Yep! Life's been super busy.

Can't wait to tell you guys about the 5K and the baby shower.

Hoping I can do that this week as soon as I find my head....

It seems like we've slowed down a tiny little bit.

T-ball Love

I accidentally took a hiatus from blogging over the last week and a half.

I often take weekends off from posting but then hubs left on a mission trip a week ago this past Sunday for a whole week.

And by the time I got everyone in bed in the evenings that week, I was too tired to worry about anything else.

Except intruders.

Because I'm a chicken.

I really dislike being home alone.

I worry about things when I'm here alone that I don't even think about otherwise.

Anyways - back to what I wanted to write about today.

Yesterday evening was Brady's first t-ball game.

We were unsure what was going to happen because he had been telling us since his last practice, on Thursday of last week, that he was NOT playing in the game.  

His reasoning was that he couldn't run....

I may or may not have bribed him with a trip to the concession stand after the game if he would just go out and play last night.....

He agreed.

So, off we went ready for our first t-ball game experience.

Here he is warming up.

Then the game started and we were in the field first.

They put my boy on the pitchers mound, which - if you know anything about t-ball is the position {along with first base} that sees the most action.

The first two batters got up.  

They hit. 

Brady just stood there.

Finally, on the third batter he decided to get the ball and throw to first!

In t- ball, the whole team bats and no one really counts outs or runs.

There are no umpires.

But at least they are learning the basics of baseball.

The teams switched places and Brady came up to bat.

He hit the ball and was encouraged loudly to RUN! 

He finally did and ended up on first.

When he got there, the first base coach was telling him where to go next.

See Brady pointing? 

When he made it to third, he spent some time fraternizing with the enemy. ;)

Seriously, these two were in their own little conversation world.

They had to be stopped so Brady could run home. 

 Which he did.

But he was out.

Good thing they don't worry about such trivial things. 

Everyone batted and it was time for the second inning.

Here is a collage of the many things Brady did while in the field.

OH, he was moved from the pitchers mound to second base.....

So, he had some more time on his hands.

Which he used to play in the dirt, sing to himself and pretend to be shooting things with his fingers....

This was on his next time batting.

While in the batters box, he stopped to ham it up for me.

and to pretend the bat was a gun.....

In the second and third inning, his coaches actually pitched the ball to them before bringing out the tee.

In the second inning he hit the ball that was pitched to him!

Here are his sisters -- cheering him on from the fence while he was on third base.

They stayed around long enough to see him bat and make it back to home before they went back to play on the playground.

 In the third inning, Brady missed all three pitches but got at good hit off the tee.

After three innings the game was over.

Everyone lined up to show some good sportsmanship.

Which is kind of easy when everyone thinks they won! =)

 Here's our happy ball player with his Daddy after the game. 

I think he might even play the game on Friday with out having to be bribed with candy.

And this Mama, who loves baseball, is so very happy about that!!