Love & Marriage

She is finally married! Yay! This is a picture of my little sister on her wedding day. I was the official photographer which is kinda scary considering the fact that my photography skills are comparable to that of a five year old! Thank goodness for photoshop! I am posting just a few of my favorite pictures from her special day. Although the wedding was thrown together in less than a week I think it turned out pretty nice.

Ice has blanketed most of northern Arkansas and created quite a disaster. I have talked to several people and the consensus is that no one can ever remember things being this bad due to an ice storm, not even the "old timers" around here. It is amazing the power that mother nature has to completely dismantle our lives in a 24 hour period. Luckily I now have the power and phone lines restored at my house, and am back to life as usual. But I think I've learned a lot through this trial. . . for starters, how to be thankful for all the blessings I have. So often I have heard myself complaining about my house - that its not big enough or fancy enough, but the night we finally got to come home to a warm cozy house, I couldn't have been happier had I been coming home to the Buckingham Palace! I've also learned to be thankful for my friends and family, I missed my friends while cell service was out and I was unable to call. I never realized what an impact they have on my life until I wasn't able to chat with them for a while. I'm also so thankful to have a wonderful family who loves us and welcomed us into their house with open arms, keeping us warm and fed while we waited for the power to come back on. . . and for the family that we weren't with but that I know was praying for us and worrying about us. . . that just means so much. I guess I never stopped to consider that all these things are blessings from the Lord, and can be taken away. Luckily they were taken away only for a short while, but in that time I learned a lot - hopefully I won't forget any time soon!

This day in history

Whether you voted for Barrack Obama or not, I don't think anyone would disagree that today we saw a historical event as he became our 44th president, and the first black president in history. I have been following the inauguration all day and reading what others have to say about it on various websites and what suprises me is that there are so many people who viewed this day in a negative light.

I understand that we all have our own political views and by all means, the very foundation on which this country is built would be shaken if we were not allowed to do so. But I think that regardless of your political views you have to appreciate the fact that we live in a country that allows people like Barrack Obama to achieve such greatness in their lives. It just goes to show that no matter what your race, religon or creed, we are all capable of doing great things if we set our minds and hearts to it.

I have no idea what the next four years hold in store for our country. I pray that the president is able to steer America in a new direction, because I feel like we certainly need it. I also hope that no matter who you voted for in this election, you respect the office that Barrack Obama now holds, and support him, if only because you want what is best for our country.

The marvelous misadventures of Miss Annie Grace

As many of you know, Annie Grace is constantly looking for new and exciting ways to create mischief around our house. She's famous for climbing in places she shouldn't be. . . ie: on top of the kitchen table, or playing with things that she shouldn't dare touch - mommy's scrapbooking supplies. But in the past I have viewed these occurrences as learning experiences and let her off with, at maximum, a time out. Lately her most favorite past time is taking various objects from the house and putting them inside other things. Sometimes they belong where she puts them and other times, this habit leads to a 3 hour search for the remote control. Anyway, last night was my scrapbooking meeting and I didn't get home until well after Annie's bedtime so she was in her father's care all night long. When I walked into the house Matt looked up from the bed and instructed me to go check out our bathroom toilet. All the explanation that I got was a foreboding. . . "Annie broke it."

Uh oh. . . the first thought that came to mind was an image of the toilets in cartoons when they suddenly erupt with a huge gush of water that is so powerful it dislodges the toilet from the floor. . . you know the one - it had to have happened in like every episode of Tom and Jerry. Perhaps I was over exaggerating this in my mind, but you have no idea the havoc this child can wreak when left to her own devices.

So upon further inspection I realized the cause of his concern - Annie had managed to unroll an entire roll of toilet paper and place every last piece of it into the toilet. The entire bowl was rounded over with soggy toilet paper. Flushing was NOT an option. . . Luckily the toilet was still intact and I was able to get it back into working order after digging out all the tp.

What really concerns me about this situation is not that Annie did this, but that she was out of her father's sight long enough to accomplish it! hmmm. . . I'll have to question him further about that one!

Where did all the time go? That was my thought when I saw this photo of Annie Grace recently. With each passing day she is beginning to look more and more like a little girl and no longer like the little baby my mind still says she is. Sometimes it makes me sad to see these changes in her, because, as someone aptly said: "A mother's one main purpose in life is to work herself out of a job." That is exactly how I feel. While I am so excited to watch her grow and gain her independence as her own little unique person, there is a part of me that will forever mourn the loss of my little baby girl. . .

Yet another hobby. . .

Ok, so I have found yet another hobby. . . blogging! I have so much fun reading other people's blogs that I finally decided to start my own. I don't know how much time I actually have to devote to my blog, but hopefully I can steal enough time between Annie's naps to keep everyone updated on our lives and what new and fun things Annie is doing these days.

Today Annie and I are at home, enjoying a Saturday together. Matt is out, busily working to install tile flooring at our apartments. My new years resolutions have been to: lose weight, (isn't that everyone's??) get organized, read my Bible more, and keep my laundry caught up through the week. So far I've done pretty good on the latter, which is why I have time right now to sit down are type this. I am also working on the getting organized part of my resolutions by uploading all the pictures off my hard drive to picasa. I only took 500 pictures over the holidays. . . can't imagine why I would feel the need to organize them!

I've posted some of my favorites so that everyone can take a look. Hope you all enjoy them!