When you feel like a friend has offended you, do you say something or hold it in? What is the right thing to do.

Some have told me the only way to go is to be open with the person. Let them know.

But what if it would only cause drama and reciprical feelings of hurt? Not to mention how most women, and some men, hold onto things like that with a vise grip, dredging them up with offenses long forgotten to build a case against you.

I prefer to work through things silently, and with massive amounts of prayer, unless it is unavoidable.

How do you deal with situations like this? I do feel hurt and put off. But if the offender doesn't realize they have offended, is there really an issue?

The *AMAZING* World Of Coke

This past weekend, we took another family adventure. We went and explored the World of Coke. I had gone back in high school days, but they have moved and added a bunch of stuff. The kids have been super pumped to go ever since we told them we were moving and listed the World of Coke as an attraction.

Cheers!

Tough decisions to be made...
Just before we went into the movie. It was a really cute cartoon with interesting and unique characters. It was like exploring the life inside of a coke machine. Very cute.
Tasting cokes from around the world. Some of those were N-A-S-T-Y. But my guys were determined to try them!

He probably did drink about that much!
Ahhhhh!!! Nothing like an ice cold coca-cola!

Things That I Like In My New Hometown:

* We are literally minutes from everything... movies, restaurants, shopping, schools. You name it, it's less than 15 minutes away (including Six Flags)

* My kids have friends over to play! It's a small thing, but my kids have friends already from the neighborhood and I am so thankful!

* My yard is flat and big! I find myself tightening my abs and my butt cheeks just walking to the mailbox. And a family of four rabbits like to hang out in our side yard every evening at dusk (is that redundant?).

* I have made 3 awesome friends in my neighbors! All three outstanding women of God! How incredible is that?!?! Encouraging, genuine, open, and willing to allow me into their circle!

* I have begun working out with 2 out of 3 of those neighbors in the mornings and feeling better and better about myself and the direction that the Lord is leading me.

* I have room for visitors now... and I love visitors!

* My husband is so content with our family back together! I can't even tell you. It's been an entire month's worth of a deep breath. Does that even make sense?

* Free movies every week at the local theatre...

* It looks like I'll have a homeschool class to teach here. It will help some financially and help me to keep my foot into the journalism world!

* There is a paper that is published by the county that lands in my driveway two days a week... and I discovered much to my delight, that they include coupon inserts from the previous weeks paper and the upcoming paper! I was so giddy.

* Also, I can purchase double coupon papers here... not in Alabama.

So in a nutshell, my doorbell rings more, my husband smiles more, and I feel like God is leading me down some new paths.

Thank you, Lord for delighting in every detail! You truly are the Author of my story.

Cha-cha-cha-cha...Changing

Today I has the opportunity to put some of

what I learnedabout friendships over the past 6 months into practice. I'm really expecting a lot of myself these days. I intend to keep the changes in me going and I think that starts with stopping the preaching and starting the practicing.

I've begun an exercise routine every morning for the past week. And while it's still early on in the process, I can only say that if you truly knew how determined I feel, you wouldn't be doubting me right now. You know you are! Quit it, already! Here is my new mantra:

I Peter 2: 1-3
So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.

Mom's Birthday

We met my Mom and my sisters for lunch yesterday on my Mom's *cough,cough* 39th birthday. We had planned to meet at Top O The River, but they were closed for lunch, so we ended up at Fuji to have our little party on the road!

The boys were thrilled to see Luke!And they spent the entire lunch emmersed in inside jokes, DS games, and laughter. I love how close they are.

Mom tried sushi... and after two bites, passed it around to everyone who wanted it... sidenote: I was proud of Tres for trying it. She says it was okay, but I'm still not convinced.

Ava Sophia spent some time watching Phineus and Ferb on Sierra's Ipod.

Then she decided to steal Aunt Tonnie's glasses!


We capped off our time together with some birthday ice cream at Maggie Moo's (a lot like Coldstone). And Bryant got a little crazy with the cotton candy ice cream!

All in all it was fun and it was so nice to hug my family! I love you Momma! I hope you enjoy the pictures. Come see us soon and we will be there in August sometime! ;)

Centennial Olympic Park Adventure

We had a visit from the Butlers this past weekend. It was a short one, but a fun one. We found a decent Mexican restaurant in our area and invaded with all 6 kids in tow! Ha!

After they left, we stayed around the house for a while then decided to head out on a family adventure. We have plans to visit the World of Coke next weekend, so we thought we would scope it out and go to Centennial Olympic Park. We had a lot of fun. Tres was running through the fountain before I could blink. Bryant has not been feeling well, so he was a little more reserved, but slowly got in and enjoyed the fun of the water. Sophie had nothing to do with it until her Daddy carried her over and got her wet. And by the time we were ready to head back home, she was ready to stay and play!







I kept seeing rainbows while we were there. And I felt like it was a personal message from God to me. I just love feelings and moments like that.

On the way home, I asked Hank if we could find this restaurant... can anyone guess why I wanted to?

Settling In!

I posted a bunch of pics of our new house on facebook, so I thought I would post here first this time with more detail. Here is our master bedroom. We updated the bedding, and were able to add a chair to our room here! Yay for space!! I have plans to cover the two pillow forms in the chair with green covers and accent the bed with some green pillow cases. We are updating our family pictures as we unpack them and will have those up in black and white soon!

Here is our dining room. I love how elegent it looks! These curtains were in our den in our Alabama house. They go so well in here! Love it. The only thing I have left to do in here is to hang up some old family pics from both sides of our family. And I want to do some yard saling and find some vintage looking frames.

This is the hall bath/guest bath/Sophie's bathroom. It's pretty straight forward as it stands. But we have plans to add wainscoating, paint and molding.

Here is the media room. We are furtunate that we have the space for additional den type area here. Hank mounted a flat screen above the toy closet. Other plans for this room include hanging all of Hank's Alabama stuff, including his Daniel Moores. And since that's a sofa bed, this is also another guest room.




We've been working on the boys' room for a while now. And we finally feel like it's coming together. We upgraded the twin bottom bunk, to a full sized mattress set and got them new bedding.
We upgraded the bulky old style computer monitor with a little flat screen tv/computer monitor for their room. We feel like as they get older, the computer is going to come into play more and more for homework and other pasttimes. We bought the table at IKEA. It will actually fold down if we needed it to. Then we framed it with some shelves we already had.




Well, that's some of our new home. All rooms still need pictures hung. A few need paint jobs. And Hank and I have some projects we would like to do... but overall, we are more and more comfortable here.

Small victories are being won every day. And just yesterday, when I asked the boys how they felt about where we lived now, they said, "It's awesome!"

The Truth of the Matter

I do my best to keep this blog light and informative. But lately, since we've moved, I haven't often felt light and informative. I've felt quiet, and busy, and alone. Just in case you are already rolling your eyes, or saying to yourself, "Here goes another pity party," I want you to know, I feel no pity for myself. I feel like I'm growing. I feel like I'm stretching. I feel like I'm finally coming into myself.

My house is slowly getting curtains, pictures, shelves put up... and in the process, I feel like God is doing a spruce up in me. Cleaning out corners and cobwebs. Dusting off old desires. Sweeping out the layers of life that have come and gone and revealing the never changing purposes He has planned for me.

A couple of things I'm learning in the quiet season. The phone doesn't have to ring. I do not have to have a full social calendar. My kids are fine not having as many play dates. We are all learning to lean on one another. To appreciate what we have. To hug each other more, to laugh with each other more, to watch a movie together and sit down and eat together.

Slowing down was hard for me and I resisted it at first. But it's like I was moving forward so fast, that when I stood still everything around me was in slow motion and crystal clear. My baby girl won't be that baby much longer. My little boys are quickly becoming independent of Momma.... unless they want a meal or need some article of clothing washed! My husband is thriving in his job and happy to have us with him. I'm doing my best to grab hold of my family... and live in the here and now and not in the I-can't-wait-until mentality.

Making friends is interesting for me. It's kind of a self examination time. What about me makes a good friend? What about me needs to be adjusted? What about me needs to go away?

It's been a quiet friend season. I think everyone believes I'm so busy. And let's face it, everyone is busier in the summer since kids are home from school... but my phone rings less. If I'm being completely honest, I've had to admit to myself that I was hurt and even mad at my friends for doing something that is inevitable... getting on with their lives without me! How crazy is that?

But there is One who is with me always. There is One who knows the plans for my life, because He made those plans. There is One who has laid out each step for me and my family. He knows the church we will be a part of. He knows the teachers my boys will get. He knows the next step for Hank at work... and He knows and cares about all the little details in between, like making friends and finding the stinking post office (yes, I might have gotten lost again yesterday). He hears me when I am singing praises and he hears me when I am crying.

I fully believe that we are smack dab in the middle of God's plan. He has us where He wants us.