Photo Friday!

TGIF, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY-eve to my dear friend, Tiffany (see last year's tribute post HERE).  #29isfine

We're celebrating with a road trip to Sam n' Ella's tonight, followed by "cookie time in the park" (or at the coffee house or whatever)... get excited!! =)  Then tomorrow, the celebration continues with brunch, a movie, and dinner with more fun friends! Hooray!

* * * * * * *

In other very exciting news, last night after his basketball practice, Jace asked my Mom about baptism and when he could get baptized... She explained that you get baptized after you pray for Jesus to become your Savior (and explained the basic gospel details of Jesus death paying the price for our sin, and how we have to repent and ask Him to be our Lord)... and he said, "I'm just gonna pray that right now." Then folded his little hands and prayed out loud (which I do wish was somehow recorded because his prayers are always really precious, and Mom said it was a great prayer). Anyway, YAY!!  1-25-2018, a few days before his 6th birthday, the Jaceman's salvation date!  I also love that my Mom walked him through that and led him to Christ, as she did the same for me 27 years ago! =)  She was a little concerned about whether he's too young, but I think you don't have to be very old to understand the basic concepts, and God loves childlike faith!  He'll obviously grow in his understanding and maturity, as we all continue to do throughout our lives.  And Mom's gonna have their neighbor, Bob Rutherford, (our old pastor from Meadowood Baptist Church, and someone Jace chats with every time they're outside together), come over and talk with him a little and make sure he understands it. =)

(This = an artsy photo by the Miss K when we were at Ron's last weekend!) ❤

And this = the pic I took last year when his pre-dinner prayer was:  "God, You're so handsome, and I love You.  You're the best!  Amen." Using all the compliments he hears from Mamaw! lolol ❤

This Monday night was the Foster's Connect group (and Kristin's birthday-eve).  I made this collage for FB on her birthday... a pic of us from 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2018.  I'm so thankful for long-term, Godly friendships!!  Also, she and Jon are closing on their new house this morning - get excited! =)

That's all I've got for this post.  Lots of great things to celebrate today!!

Kid Zone Cuteness

❤❤❤ Kyndal Faith

 ❤❤❤ Jace Michael

❤❤❤ Carter Lee

 ❤❤❤ Triston Michael

Last night, we had Mom's bday dinner at Boomerang inside HeyDay!  The kids played lots of games, and me and Rach and Josh joined them for laser tag!!  There were 29 players and they randomly divided us into a red team and a green team. T-man and me and Rach were on the RED team together!  (Everyone else in our group was on green.)

Sister selfie... please note Rach's crazy long eyelashes, courtesy of R+F Lash Boost... she's the only person I've seen in real life with these results, but it's definitely noticable, so I may buy some soon!

About a third of the way through the Laser Tag game, I walked by a place where they had the scoreboard posted and updating shot by shot. Most people were in the thousands, then there was K Faith with 0 points.   Aww, tiny preshface!  She was probably the youngest player there, and I wondered if she was confused on how to shoot.   ...I laughed for a second, then headed right up to find her and make sure she had it right, then let her shoot me a few times for good measure! LOL  A slight betrayal to my red team fam, but I gotta look out for the Mini Miss!! ❤  #superawesomefriend #preshface #greenteamfrenemy

In the end, Josh was in first, Rach in second, Carter in third, and T-man in fifth!  And Kyndal got a few more points than Jace, so she was satisfied with that. lol Fun times!!

After laser tag, the boys did the free ropes, as Jace calls it!

Josh walked him through it for a bit, then he got scared and came back downstairs...

Carter Lee ready to take on any challenge!

Jace gathered up his courage and decided to try again... this worker guy went up with him and walked him through all of it!

Showing Jace that the harness will catch you if you fall. lol

Everyone supporting Jace as he tried again and did much better!

 After all that, Dad finally got there (after coaching bball practice at the YMCA)... then we ate our tasty Boomerang dinner! Miss K requested to sit next to me, which always makes me smile! We practiced letters... I wrote her name out for her and did a lowercase "L."
K-Faith:  "That's not a L! Here, let me show you!!"

Jace showing Dad the proof that he had done the free ropes thing! =)

Miss K traced her little hand and I helped her make a turkey. =)

Chocolate shake... YUM!

This is this morning before Jace's game!

=)

Quick shoe-tying break in the middle of the game! lol  I just love little kids games for stuff like this!! =) This and the fact that dribbling is optional - just pick up the ball and run full force. Haha... and the fact that Jace and the boy he was guarding were chatting it up and becoming friends mid-game! LOLOL

Jill, Bill, Rach, and the Miss K chatting for a minute while the chaos of the game continues in the background! Bill was cracking jokes blaming the Coach for everything that went wrong. LOL  (...Also, could she be any cuter, for reals?? Gracious!)

Spontaneous worship session. ;-) #praisetheLord

JK - just rebounding with all the intensity!  
I showed Mom this pic and said, "Look at all their hands up!"  T-man was walking by and said, "You should zoom in and put hashtag - praisetheLord!" lol  So I did. =)

KRJ. #lashboostpower #suuriously

We went to Teds for lunch with Bill and Jill, then came to see Carter and Triston play at Destiny. CHA vs. CHA, so we could cheer for everyone! lol

Josh coaches the boys' team and Dad coaches Jace's team. Fun times!

Finally got my new "In God We Trust" license tag - hooray!!  And Dad was able to get my bling frame (from Charlene) back from Lexus! Love it all!!

  
Dad teaching Jace some golf techniques... whilst I strongly encouraged him to avoid hitting my car. lol

Miss K fake-driving the golf cart, being freaking adorable with her French braids, bows, glitter shirt, and red boots!  #pullingthemoff #HIMYM

Okay, that's it for today's picture-fest!  
Tomorrow = church and lunch with the fam, then heading back to T-town!! 

Photo Friday!

"Life isn’t simple or easy.
But hard doesn’t equal bad.
And God is faithful."
~Karen B. (CHA mom whose son is currently going through chemo treatments)

I loved that quote, and originally meant to do a Thankful Thursday post yesterday, then got busy. It doesn't go super well with Photo Friday, but throwing in a little depth is always good in my book.

Okay, on to the pictures...  We had an early birthday celebration at Cheesecake Factory for Kristin Foster, my longest adult friendship and one of my favorite people!! =)

I tried the "Celebration Cheesecake," mostly for how cute it is! LOL  It was good, but I'll stick with chocolatey ones next time! =)

We were actually celebrating Kristin and Amber with their Connect Group from Woodlake Church! =)

K-Foster cuteness!

Tiffany is training to learn how to take court minutes for our Felony Tuesdays... so between cases whilst Judge was checking his statute book, I snapped this pic of her and Laura! =)

I made homemade mac n' cheese, and it was tasty! lol

Also made my first Instant Pot recipe - some chicken tortilla soup! Really good, and it's crazy how fast the Instant Pot can cook!  The pressure cooker thing scared me a bit, so I stayed out of the kitchen then used a long spoon to release it from "sealed" to "venting."  Steam shoots out of there and sounds like a train whistle, or maybe it just felt that way because I was on edge. lol  Anyway, I survived, and the food was good, so win-win! =)

If I didn't mention it before, I joined the New Year haircut bandwagon (Sarah, Karli, Jessica, and Evan all did it before me) and got my hair cut this past weekend. It's significantly shorter than what I asked for, but still a cute length that I know how to work with, so I'll take it!  (I always touch up my makeup and take selfies on haircut day when it's fresh from the salon, and they're almost always my favorite pics of me. I need to put more time into my hair and makeup on a daily basis, but sleeping in often wins that inner debate! lol)

Today, I'm in OKC to celebrate Mom's birthday (which was yesterday)... get excited! ❤

This = J&K on T&C's hoverboards. lol Life is entertaining here.

Happy (late) Birthday to my wonderful Mom!!  We're off to the HeyDay Boomerang for a tasty dinner followed by games and Laser Tag! =)

Happy Friday!  Have a fantastic weekend!! =)

Musical Life

Not sure if I'm in the minority or if this is more common, but my life is so often accompanied by a soundtrack playing in the background of my heart and mind. ❤🎜🎝 For any major event, I probably have at least 10 songs that will transport me back to that time period. This old school Maroon 5 song came on while we were at Cheesecake Factory tonight, and it threw me right back to the heart of all the drama of 2007.  It was all I could do not to close my eyes and sing it right there in the restaurant.

"It is so easy to see dysfunction between you and me. We must free up these tired souls before the sadness kills us both... I've tried and tried to let you know, I love you but I'm letting go..." My gosh - sing it, Adam Levine!


I have a real desire to belt out the songs every time I see the Mamma Mia (Here We Go Again) trailer: 

"There's a FIRE within my soul! Just one look, and I can hear a bell ring. One more look and I forget everything!  Woah-oh!!" LOVE it!!
Brings back memories of seeing that first movie years ago with Sarah Bliss and seeing the Broadway play with JMM and Holly Dei!!  I know this movie is likely to be cheesy and ridiculous, but I don't care at all.  She's lost her Mom, and her Mom's friends show up to help her out, and I love that.  I'm already so excited for it because I love musicals! lol

There are so many songs where the lyrics speak right to my heart in a way that I can't begin to explain. This is one of them... do yourself a favor and listen to presh David Archuleta sing it. ❤


You ought to go north, somebody told us, 'cause the air is filled with gold dust and fortune falls like snowflakes in your hands. Now I don't recall who said it, but we'd lived so long on credit, so we headed out to find our promised land. Just poor Smoky Mountain farm folk with nothing more than high hopes, as we hitched our station wagon to a star. But our dreams all fell in on us 'cause there was no land of promise. It's a struggle keepin' sight of who you are. 

Oh, and these northern nights are dreary, and my southern heart is weary as I wonder how the old folks are back home. But I know that they all love me, and I know they're thinking of me. Smoky Mountain memories keep me strong. 

You know, I've been thinking a whole lot lately 'bout what's been and what awaits me. It takes all I've got to give what life demands. You'll go insane if you give in to it. Life's a mill, and I've been through it!  I'm just thankful I'm creative with my hands.  Oh, and these northern nights are dreary, and my southern eyes are teary as I wonder how the old folks are back home. But I'll keep leaning on my Jesus who loves and guides and leads us! Smoky Mountain memories keep me strong. 

I'll keep looking to the Father to keep our heads above the water, while Smoky Mountain memories keep me strong.

I'm also still loving The Greatest Showman soundtrack, and I recently downloaded this gem thanks to another movie preview. lol  


No major point to this post. But hooray for music and lyrics, for songs we can belt out in the car, for the songs that move us and become part of the soundtrack for our lives! 🎜🎝

MM ~ New Year's Eve 2008

 Ooooh, the hilarity!  =)

Today's Memory Monday is my 2008 New Year's Eve party for the new Diving Deeper LifeGroup... I invited my new friend, Laura, and I quietly asked Bobbi to put her in my group for the scavenger hunt we had planned so that she'd feel more comfortable. She replied with a smile, "I'll take care of it!" .......Then she put Laura in her group and stuck me with the random new kids (who were clearly long-time best friends with lots of personality happening between them)!  I was a little shocked and a lot irritated, but trying to be nice. To make it worse, the scavenger hunt was a game of speed - not my strong suit - and I had to drive (because I certainly didn't trust either of them with my car, which is also super ironic now). 

Thus, my first major introduction to Chettles and Sarah Elizabeth. LOL (They'd come to a LG Christmas party the week before, but it was huge, and I hadn't had a chance to talk to them much then.)

We had to get a pic with a nativity scene (my house to the rescue), someone standing on a fire hydrant, "holding a puppy," hugging one of the Tulsa penguin statues (all above), shaking hands with a Starbucks employee, sitting in the drivers' seat of someone you just met (yay, Starbucks guy!)...

The group holding bowling balls, "playing an instrument," snow angels in front of the Praying Hands, at the Center of the Universe (we got creative and used the Bible - just daring someone to say God's not the center of the universe - lol), licking a pole?? (pretty sure he put his gum on it and that's what his tongue is touching - lol), and a picture with a really tall man (or squatting down next to a perfectly average-height man). lol 

"Climbing" a tree, group singing a Christmas carol to someone we just met (again, yay for Starbucks - and I love that picture!!), and standing on a stage (Riverwalk Crossing). The other pics are obviously later that night with Laura and Liz!

I was happier by the time we got our Charlie's Angels co-leader pic! lol  Then there's a pic of the newly engaged Mark and Natalie (Markalie, as I called them). Laura, Paul, and K-Lamb (her last name at the time)... then Cassie and K-Lamb!

Pretty much everything I remember about this night makes me laugh now!! =)  The irony of Chet and Sarah becoming two of my favorite people and closest friends. The awesomeness of still having close friendships with five of these people ten years later!  K-Lamb looking fierce in our co-leader pic, Sarah in her long denim skirt and no makeup (before she broke away from the Pentecostal church), Chet Lee in that hat looking so very young, me understanding their relationship dynamic almost immediately, ALL the Scavenger Hunt memories -- including them telling me stop and put my flashers on in the middle of the street so they could get out and take a couple of the pics we needed (which I reluctantly did, then took some deep breaths to calm down - LOL), K-Lamb saying "This is MASS CHAOS" whilst watching Kyle act out a clue in a game called Partini, etc. =)

God knew what He was doing, as per usual. And it probably made Him laugh, too, as He always knows the big picture way before we do!  

Anyway, that's all for today's Memory Monday!!  I'm gonna try to start these back up again. ❤