A little Friday humor ...

Claire has been in VBS at our church this week so I have kind of had "kids" and "church" on the brain. Then, I found this old email someone had sent me when I was cleaning out my inbox today at work. These are sure to bring a few chuckles.

A Sunday school teacher asked her class, "What was Jesus' mother's name?"One child answered, "Mary."The teacher then asked, "Who knows what Jesus' father's name was?"A little kid said, "Verge."Confused, the teacher asked, "Where did you get that?"The kid said, "Well, you know they are always talking about Verge n' Mary.

3-year-old, Reese:"Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name.Amen."

A little boy was overheard praying:"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.I'm having a real good time like I am."

A Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments.They were ready to discuss the last one.The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was.Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted,"Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor's wife."

After the christening of his baby brother in church,Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.His father asked him three times what was wrong.Finally, the boy replied,"That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."

I had been teaching my three-year old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord's Prayer for several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat after me the lines from the prayer.Finally, she decided to go solo.I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word right up to the end of the prayer:"Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us some E-mail.

One particular four-year-old prayed,"And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."

A Sunday school teacher asked her children, as they were on the way to church service,"And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"One bright little girl replied,"Because people are sleeping."

Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother Joel were sitting together in church.Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud.Finally, his big sister had had enough."You're not supposed to talk out loud in church.""Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked.Angie pointed to the back of the church and said,"See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers."

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5 and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson."If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'"Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand."Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked."He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.The boy thought a moment and then said,"Did God throw him back down?"

A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?""I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied."Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

Happy Friday!

Love Story

Today, Will and I are celebrating 9 years of wedded bliss. I thought it would be fitting to write down our love story just for old times sake.

Will and I actually met 19 years ago ... in 8th grade! Yikes! It's kind of nice to know that kind of history about your spouse, but on the other hand, we both got to witness in person the other's awkward years.

So, Will and I met in 8th grade. We went to a small private school so there was only about 50-60 people in our class. We "knew" each other, but I would not say that we were friends. Around 11th grade, we were on the debate team together and we started hanging out with the same little group of friends. My best friends Kaisha and Ginger went to church with Will so that is how we all ended up in the same little group. Fun times!

Will and I started dating in the fall of our senior year. He asked me out to our class hayride/bonfire at Michael Cooper's house. We dated for about 3 months and then he broke up with me the week before Valentine's Day! He was smothered and I was devastated. I just knew he was the man I was going to marry and didn't understand while he didn't see that too. Needless to say, I eventually moved on and decided that maybe Will was not "the one" but that it was someone with similar personalities traits, values, etc.

This is a picture of us our senior year of high school and our jr/sr formal. We did not go together, but I made him get his picture made with me anyway.



Fast forward 4 years. Will was in college at Alabama and I was at Belmont. We had actually stayed in touch over the years just because I had friends at Alabama and I typically ran into Will whenever I went to visit them. I had just ended a relationship 3-year relationship with my college boyfriend (over Christmas break). I had seen Will over the break when he was in Nashville for the Music City Bowl. I sent him a letter (how lame is that) telling him that my boyfriend I had a broken up. He called me that night and invited me to Tuscaloosa for him and his roomies annual Super Bowl Party. I went down the for the weekend and the rest is history.

We dated long-distance until we both graduated from college about 4 months later (May 1999), and then we both moved to Auburn (and drug our roommates along with us) where Will started working on his MBA and I worked on a research grant in the psychology department at the University. We got engaged in August (7 months post-getting back together) and married in July 2000. We moved to Tuscaloosa the summer we got married so I could start law school 3 weeks after we returned from our honeymoon.

This picture is from the night we graduated from college. I found it last night when I was digging up these other photos and it really cracks me up. I drove down to Tuscaloosa from Nashville after my graduation from Belmont. Will and his roommate Cory were having a little get together at their house. Cory, pictured with his girlfriend-at-the-time and now-wife, Amy, has been Will's BFF since they were itty bitty. Cory was a good friend of mine in high school too. Cory and Amy got married 2 weeks before we did.

Here is a picture from our wedding day. Don't we look young and in love?



What I learned from our dating/falling in love experience:

(1) Be patient. God's timing is always perfect.

(2) Be faithful and God will give you the desires of your heart.

(3) Pray for your spouse daily, before you even know who he/she is.

Happy Anniversary sweetie! We have had a great 9 years together and I pray for many more. God created my perfect life partner in you. I love you!

Model Behavior

I snapped this pictures of Miss Claire on Monday afternoon ... I promise that she came up with these moves without any prompting from me.

Baby brother on the other hand is practicing some not so "model" behavior. He moved that chair to the sink and climb up in it all by himself. This boy is going to be TROUBLE!

Look what I found!

It's that pesky little simplicity pattern that I have been scouring the Internet for. Right after I wrote this post, my friend Colleen found and purchased the pattern on ebay, my friend Melissa emailed me and said she had the pattern and I could borrow it, and I found my own copy on ebay. I purchased my ebay copy for like $7 with free shipping. I can't wait to sew this little number up for Miss Claire this weekend.

Menu-Plan Monday

Another great week of sticking to the menu plan. We're on a roll! I have gone back and posted a few recipe links on my previous menu-plan posts that were good (because apparently I have nothing better to do).

Anywho ... here's the plan for this week. We are going to have lots of yummy leftovers that my mother-in-law sent home with us.

Monday: Greek chicken, brown rice, garden salad and homemade peach ice cream

Tuesday: leftover rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli and Hawaiian rolls

Wednesday: our 9th wedding anniversary. Will and I are either going out to dinner (sans kids) or grilling steaks and popping open a bottle of wine at home after the kids go to bed. We'll fix sandwiches or something easy for the kids.

Thursday: leftover spaghetti, garden salad, bread

Friday: leftover grilled Mexican burgers, black beans & corn salad

Saturday: Polynesian chicken, rice, steamed squash & zucchini

Sunday: (lunch) potluck lunch at church (I am visiting the church I grew up in to celebrate their 50th anniversary. This meal will be a treat for sure!)

Sunday: (dinner) leftover buffet-a Sunday night special

Check out other menu plans here.

For your reading enjoyment ...

What? No pictures? I love to read. I used to read a TON. That, of course, was B.K. (before kids). I had my nose in a book all the time.

Now, I barely manage to finish one book for my monthly book club group. Much less read anything extra.

Here is my reading list for the first half of 2009.

"New Moon", "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn" by Stephanie Meyer. Books 2-4 of the Twilight series. The first book, "Twilight", was probably still my favorite of the four. You definitely need to read the entire series though.

"Marley and Me" by John Grogan. This was our book club book for January. It was good, but I got busy and never finished it. I figure I can always watch the movie, even though I heard it is a little different from the book.

"The Shack" by William P. Young. This was our book club book for February. I think every one should read this book. It didn't "change my life" as many people say it did for them, but it did make me think about the holy trinity from a completely different perspective and re-evaluate my relationship with Christ.

"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. This was our book club book for March. Only 3 people read it. Myself not included. I read about half of it. It was good, but I didn't finish it before our book club meeting and it got laid aside so I could finish other books.

"Love Walked In" by Marisa de los Santos. This was our book club book for April. I finished this book on the plane trip home from Vegas. Its about finding love in a very unusual way ... the love of a child and the love of a friend.

"What Remains" by Carole Radziwill. This was our book club book for June. I finished this book on the plane out to Vegas. If you like reading gossip magazines, this book is for you! It is filled with an inside look into the life of the Kennedy's-specifically the JFK, Jr. and Caroline generation. It is written by the wife of JFK, Jr.'s cousin, who is the child of Jackie Kennedy's sister, Lee (who married a European prince). It chronicles their short marriage, her husband's battle with cancer and the plane crash that took the lives of JFK, Jr. and his wife.

"Blood of Flowers" by Anita Amirrezvani. This was our book club book for May. I missed book club this month. This book is still in progress. It is about the life of a young Iranian girl who becomes a rug maker. It is supposed to be very similar to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khalid Hosseini, which I LOVED.

"The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs. This is our book club for July. It's an easy read so far (about halfway finished now), but its about a group of ladies who meet every Friday night at a local yarn shop in NYC to knit. As you suspect when a group of women get together, there is a lot more than knitting going on at these weekly gatherings!

The best pecan pie ... EVER!

My mother-in-law made pecan pie for dessert last night. She got it from this old cookbook she has called "Ida Ramsey's Favorite Recipes". She cooks from it a lot. The recipes are handwritten on the pages.

She told my sister-in-law and I that we could fight over the cookbook after she died. We reminder her of a new-fangled invention called a photocopier!

Here's the recipe.

1-1/2c. light corn syrup

1/2c. granulated sugar

4T. butter

dash of salt

1t. vanilla

3 slightly beaten eggs

1c. coarsely chopped pecans

In saucepan, combine corn syrup, sugar and butter; bring to boiling. Boil gently uncovered for 5 mins., stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. Line 9-inch pie plate with pie crust. Place pecans in bottom of pie plate. Combine eggs, vanilla and salt. Pour syrup into egg mixture and heat well. Pour over nuts. (Pecans will rise to the top.) Bake at 375 for 30-35 mins.

Enjoy!