Oswalts Gone Country

Guilt

2011-12-24T14:41:00.002-06:00

Since I (in my crazed state of being) put our blog address on our Christmas card, I now feel compelled to actually write something on said blog.

In the past 4 months, we have been enjoying watching AK grow, laughing at Tris as a 3 year-old, grading papers, and being busy with church. How that for an all-encompassing update?

With working and taking care of the girls and occasionally trying to cook a meal or buy a Christmas gift, I have just had to make choices about where to spend my time and honestly blogging hasn't been high on the list. I do miss it, but right now I just feel like my efforts are more necessary in other areas of life. Hopefully, I'll get back to it this summer when miss priss learns to sleep some. :)

In the meantime, I do have pictures to post from trissy's 3rd birthday and others of the girls that I want to share. BUT I am going to stop feeling guilty if I never post them! I am trying to remind myself of the fact that I can't do it all (or even much at all somedays :)

That brings me to another thing: due to the fact that this blog will probably become a big erratic picture dump, I am going to make it private. I have been talking to some friends and thinking about it for some time. So, if you would like to subscribe to our occasional craziness, just leave a comment with your email address & I will add you!

I have enjoyed blogging & love having this as a way to share our life with friends. We wish you all a Merry Christmas & remember the true reason for the season is the birth of Jesus!

A lesson in compare & contrast.

2011-09-19T14:55:00.003-05:00

Since I am gearing up to return back to school, I thought it might be fun to practice one of our text structures- compare & contrast! So listen up class :)

The first three pictures are of AK , and the last three are of Tris from around 1-3 months old. Here's AK reclining on the boppy. She's 6 weeks old this week!

The thoughtful pose...

Above picture = AK, Below is Tris- both rockin' the same outfit!

This is Tristyn at just one month.

This is Tris chillin' on the couch at about 6 weeks.

So far, they seem to be somewhat alike as babies. AK is LOUD baby and is always making squeaky noises :) They both seem to be pretty strong as babies and like tummy time. As far as sleeping habits go, so far both my girls have been night owls! (thanks to their daddy's genes!)

I guess time will tell more similarities and differences!

We are having so much fun seeing Tristyn's personality developing and it will be cool to see how AK will be!

Panic

2011-09-19T10:28:00.002-05:00

Today marks one week until I go back to school. Boo. Don't get me wrong... I am thankful to have a job in this economy & the chance to help provide for my family. But as I near this milestone, the one word that best sums up my feelings is PANIC!!!!

I know, I know, plenty of people do it every day...the whole work and have two kids thing. But I worry... Will I have enough quality time with both of them? How will I manage to wash dishes/cook dinner/ do laundry/ grade papers, oh and also that thing called sleep with a 6 week old baby who still wakes up every three hours a night to eat??

I have been reminded many times in the last week that the Lord is in control and not me. There absolutely is no way I could do this on my own, nor do I have to. A friend recently reminded me that all our deeds - seen or unseen- matter. As 1 Corinthians 3 says that we choose what we will build on our foundation with. As a mom and a teacher ( two jobs that often feel unappreciated )my prayer is that I will build my students and my own children with the knowledge of the Lord and treating others with kindness & love. They have to see those qualities in ME first!!! My prayer is that I won't get caught up in whether or not my house is perfect ( or even clean!) the laundry done etc but that I have built quality foundations with my family that will last way longer than a clean house ( which I have learned doesn't really last that long anyway :) For my type A personality, this is definitely a big prayer for our big God!

I have been eaten up with anxiety over trying to have "control" over the coming situations- which I don't even know yet! I know that I have to let go and trust in the Lord & his provision to care for our family.

" don't be anxious over anything, but in everything through prayer & supplication with thanksgiving submit your requests to God. And the peace which passes all understanding will guard your hearts & minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-08T10:01:00.005-05:00

We finally escaped from the confines of our house, and made the trek (AK's first trip!) to Honey & Papa's house for the long weekend! Avery Kate and Bear-bear chose to catch up on their beauty rest :)

Meanwhile Trissy, Papa, and I got to feed the chickens. Let me tell you...if you haven't fed any chickens recently, go find some. It is HILARIOUS! (or maybe I just need to get out of the house more eh? )

They love to eat bread, old fruit, pieces of lettuce. Really whatever you'll give them.

Then we went and gathered eggs. I think we counted 19 total and that was just one day! If you are in the market for organic free-range eggs, give us a call!

We had to be very careful putting them in the basket.

Had to include a few pics of my Avery Kate- just a little smile!

Chillin' in the bouncy seat- almost one month old! (actually happy one month today!)

We really just stayed at the house the whole time due to AK not having her shots yet and tropical storm Lee. Tris and I braved the elements to go take the chickens leftover cinnamon roll pieces.

Then we had some friends come to play! These are my friends' girls and niece along with Tris who clearly DOES NOT want to take a pic at this point!

Blurry pic of some high school friends and their kiddos. Linz is due any day now with baby boy Owen....we need a boy to round out all these girls!

And in sort of a sad turn of events, we got to see Aunt Camille. Her papaw passed away this past weekend, and since they came in town to be with him before he died we got some precious and rare time with her, Henry & Elliot.

Please note that this is what happens when you try to take pics of 4 kids under the age of 3 ;)

Welcome Avery Kate Oswalt!

2011-08-20T15:51:00.010-05:00

Cue the mommy guilt already for the second child- I am just now blogging about her arrival!!

We went in early in the morning on Monday, August 8, to be induced. We didn't really tell anyone since our experience with Tristyn taught us to "expect the unexpected" when having babies. Coincidentally, August 8th was also the first day at school which meant that if I hadn't gone into the hospital I would have been up at 5:30, driving myself to my school 30 minutes away, and on my feet and on duty in the hallways all day. Sooo....hence the fact that we felt it would be safer for me & little AK if we could induce!

Trissy came to visit when she woke up. We had lots of explaining to do about the IV's since she was worried I was sick.

It became a REALLY long day and I had a pitocin drip all day to induce my labor. With Tris I went into natural labor, and I think I highly recommend that route (if possible!) It was hard and boring to sit around all day hooked up to wires and having contractions. Our sweet family and a few friends came by to keep us company throughout the day and bring food (well for everyone except me...I was limited to ice chips :)

Finally (and suddenly!) Miss Avery Kate decided she had enough. Around 10:45pm, I told Brian I wasn't feeling too good and he ran to grab the nurse. After the nurses and my doctor staged the equivalent of a Nascar pit crew in my room, Avery Kate made her entrance at 11:08pm!

Prize fighter- she weighed in at 6lb 15.5 oz....so they rounded up to an even 7!

The grandmothers meeting AK for the first time. By the is time, everyone else had given up on her arriving that day and had gone to bed or gone home. Who knew!?

Tris came up first thing the next morning to meet her little sister! We visited the nursery first to see her.

When they finally allowed us to bring her back to the room, Trissy got to hold her for the first time! Sweet Big Sister :) She really has been great with her and whenever Avery Kate cries she tells her "it'll be awright Avery Kate!" and runs to find her paci.

Did you doubt that "funny face" would make an appearance in these precious pics?

Cuddling with my oldest daughter- wow....that seems so weird to say!!

When we got home, Trissy and Honey had put together a "Welcome" sign and some balloons!

You can see how impressed Avery Kate was with all this pomp and circumstance.

(also, sorry to our fellow bears, but we have no Baylor newborn gear to bring her home in!)

Holding sissy at home....very carefully!

And...a few days later...daddy with both of his girls hanging out and watching tv (probably either swamp people or some princess movie I presume!)

Things definitely have not been "easy" with two kiddos so far, but we have had so much support from grandparents, food from our church, and just prayers in general! Avery Kate had a few things both in and out of the hospital that we so appreciate your prayers for and are so thankful they have been answered. At first when she was born, she wasn't quite taking big enough breaths and had to spend some extra time in the nursery and get an ex-ray on her lungs. Then when we got home, she had jaundice and was having some trouble gaining weight. Whew! Needless to say I have not been without worries, but have also been daily reminded that God's mercies are new each morning and that He desires to be our comforter and sustainer!

Sweet Showers

2011-08-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

Having another girl has been super easy...we just got out all of Trissy's clothes and washed them and really haven't needed A THING! We are definitely super blessed in that respect.

However, some of our church friends (and other friends too!) have been sweet enough to send little "happies" for AK and have a few little celebrations.

The girls in our student ministry had a little party for us one night, and Tris LOVED it because it involved cupcakes :)

Here's my helper opening the gifts. I swear she thought the party was totally for her instead of for her "sissy."

I of course forgot to take any pictures WITH all of our "big kids" (as Tris calls them)

She racked up in loot though! She got a pink sparkly bracelet, a Cinderella smocked dress (that AK can wear later on) and all the pink frosted cupcakes a little tummy could hold :)

Then the staff wives (doesn't that sound like a good reality tv show?) gave us a diaper/wipes shower at the church. MUCH NEEDED!! Can I get an amen on how many diapers one kid can go through?? I am just thankful that Tris is potty-trained (at least for the time being) so that is saving us some moo-lah in that department.

Funny story- the cake originally said "Congratulations Brian and Margie" I think they should have left it. Then I could have made a dramatic scene crying out "Who in the world is Margie????" ha!

Funny face. again.

And more cake.

of course.

My sweet niece Caelen and Michelle's daughter Aubrey helped me open presents. They were very helpful since at this point it really takes me quite awhile to bend over.

Thank you hostesses! (and we missed Lindsey too!)

Ironically enough, I DID remember to get a hostess picture at this one but forgot to get any others of my mom or mother-in-law who came. Go figure!

I am currently 38 weeks and 6 days (yes, I am resorting to counting days :) during the biggest heat wave in the country! Woohoo! Can't wait to meet this little girl and become a family of four. Please continue to pray for a safe and healthy delivery and that my "cankles" stay under control (ok....only slightly kidding about that last part.)

The Coffee House

2011-08-05T23:43:00.002-05:00

"Once upon a time"... there was a blank room at a church. It had been used as a Kindergarten classroom, and then was changed over to a student ministry room. Except it had nothing in it.

Then, somebody donated a few couches.

Then....a crazy, driven, visionary youth minister decided it could be something big.

This coffee house (as it has come to be called) has probably consumed most of Brian's waking moments this summer and probably his dreams too!!! But we are now ready for the big final reveal which will be this Sunday morning and they will finally get to have Entry Point there (which is our pre-sunday school hangout time.)

These paintings were done by a local Mississippi artist that visited our church last Easter- pretty cool!

A 106 inch screen with HD projector. This is a serious movie-watchin' spot. I'm afraid Brian might try to leave us and move in here.

The "coffee bar"

Brian along with some other men in our church built the counter and a really talented mom of one of our students did the staining/painting.

It has a coffee maker and mini fridge! Coolness!

It has really been a labor of love, and there have been so many people that have contributed their time and talents to make the room happen.

I am super proud of all the talent we have in our church, but I am most proud of my hubby who has spent many nights, weekends, and days off working on this project to make it a place that will hopefully be used for Sunday School, small group discipleship, and even more hang-out opportunities for our students in order to grow the ministry!!

Seriously...this has been a made for HGTV project! Too bad no one was filming.

Exalt- Embrace- Evangelize

EBC Student Ministry motto.

And we hope to use the coffee house to do just that!

Fishes

2011-07-30T23:44:00.002-05:00

So as an English teacher, I am aware that there is no plural for "fish," but we did see lots of them at the Aquarium in New Orleans the other day. We celebrated our last "official" day of freedom by taking Tris to her birthplace. We've never been to an aquarium with her before, so it was fun for all...an added bonus = NOT outside in 100 degree heat!

Loved the tunnel and seeing the sting rays gliding over our heads!

Somehow we seem to be coming up with this "funny face" pose quite frequently. I have a feeling this will reappear in any serious and reflective family shots we try to take in the future, so don't be shocked if our Christmas card looks like this.

side note: did you know that male sea-horses are the ones who give birth? Seems like a swell idea to me right about now!

Bribed her with gum to get her to do "real" smile on the frog :)

Scoping out the white alligator with daddy. His favorite exhibit! Too bad he didn't wear his "choot em'" t-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

More "funny face."

Posed all on her own on top of Shamu. I promise we are not grooming her for Toddlers and Tiaras.

Crawling into the "fishy tunnel" We had to promise her that she would not get wet!

Watching the shark "movie." (it was just the shark tank, but it was dark and there was theatre seating, Tris instructed us to sit for at least 5 minutes until she discovered that she could swing like a monkey on the railings on the side of the seats.)

And of course, we couldn't leave New Orleans without our fav- a Hansen's snowball. OH. MY. WORD. You really have not had a truly good snowball until you have had theirs. The ice is perfect!!!

No more "funny face"....just "stuffing my face" :)

Firsts

2011-07-26T22:10:00.002-05:00

We have been trying to soak up life as it is our last "official" week of summer and we will all start back to school next week! (Well, Brian's been working all summer, but hey- who's counting? :)

We took Tris to see her FIRST movie last week- Winnie the Pooh! It was a great choice and a really good movie. Mostly she did well, though as the parent of an almost 3-year-old, I thought there were waaaayyy too many previews before the actual movie and the M&M's I brought almost distracted her from the movie entirely :) Oh, well. Live and learn. But we will definitely be getting this one on DVD.

Then, We also got our FIRST haircut! I know, I know....she's almost three, but she really hasn't NEEDED it cut until now.

Here's our "before" pose!

Mrs. Jessica let her wear the butterfly gown :)

The cutting process: She did great! She was like a little pro at it. When Jessica told her to put her head down or do anything, she did it right away!

And...drumroll please, the after shot with daddy!

Letter of the Week

2011-07-18T22:19:00.004-05:00

One of the things we have tried to start doing this summer is "letter of the week." I guess the teacher in me is coming out, because I am bound and determined to make everything an educational opportunity :)

Since Tris didn't go to school/daycare this summer at all, I wanted us to have some fun activities to do, and also wanted her to be "ready" for her K3 classes this fall!

Every week I have tried to do some sort of "set up." For instance, here is our set-up for the letter "F." We had all sorts of objects that started with "F" and we finger painted.

Then, we made funny faces at the camera :)

Each week, we also tried to talk about things that started with that letter, hung up our artwork on the window through the week so we could be reminded of the letter, and looked for it on signs as we drove around running errands. We also tried to read books that had to do with the letter, sing songs, and read a bible story (for instance, letter "R" week we read about the rainbow that God sent.)

Introducing the letter "D!" I didn't really have one website or curriculum for this craziness- just kind of through things together based on what I thought they would be learning in K3. Here we're eating a "dog snack." My friend Tonya also gave me the great idea of finding pictures of letters in the magazines or pictures of things that start with that letter and having Tris glue a collage of that letter. Also, if we save our artwork from each letter, I may laminate them and make an "alphabet book" for her to look back through. (I'm sure this will happen right after I finish our wedding scrapbook from six years ago, finish Tristyn's baby book, and fold all the laundry :)

So far this summer, we covered D, R, F, A, M, T, and this week will be the letter B...for baby sister who is coming soon!!

Sunshine Cakes and updates

2011-07-11T23:54:00.003-05:00

Oh dear, please just ignore that I am too lazy to turn my pictures! What have we been doing lately? Well...life is going FAST and before you know it, Miss Avery Kate's due date will be here so we have been cramming in everything that we can :)

I was asked recently to do a sunshine birthday cake for friends' little girl (who is also Trissy's little friend!) She loves sunshines and rainbows, and her party was at a local splash park/playground, so it was perfect.

As an added fun touch, we made the inside of the cake "rainbow colored!" It really did look cute, and was totally worth the effort and large amount of food coloring dye ingested by all.

Note to self: Do not attempt to make cake when Brian is out of town and it is just you & Tris and you are also 8.5 months pregnant. You will be late for the party, your back will hurt, you won't get much sleep, and your child will lick icing off the beaters for breakfast while you finish the cake.

OK, now moving on. We have also been spending lots of time watering our flowers since it has been so dry! I should have known this was affecting Tris when she picked the "grow your own herbs" flowerpot out of the dollar section at target :) She had the unfortunate mishap of getting some of my cactus burrs in her finger during one of her watering sessions and daddy had to remove them. (I do not dig anything out of fingers with tweezers, thank you!)

So, afterwards, she needed to return the favor for daddy. Complete with headlamp and all.

We had a great Fourth of July and Tris and I even made a flag cake (we're not going for exact replica here people.) Our church has a great celebration every year called Patriotic Picnic that the entire community is invited to with all kinds of inflatables for kids, the wind symphony, performances by our praise band, and a huge fireworks show at the end. It was awesome this year, and Grammie, Papaw, and the cousins even came up for it! We had a great time, but I was so busy chasing the kids and being hot and pregnant that I didn't take any pictures :)

While being a fan of my high heels (which I am currently not wearing at this point anyway!) Tris is NOT a fan of fireworks. Unless of course they are on a Disney movie.

And finally we went to see my sweet college roomie Meggie who just had her first little girl! She and her hubby are like naturals at parenting!! I was still freaking out with Tris when she was this old, and Meggie is so calm and collected AND has lost almost all her weight! Wow!

Tris and little Charlotte were not in the best picture-taking moods at the time, but we'll try to get them straight before they make it to their Baylor Sing debuts :)

Only 5 weeks until AK makes her big debut! There is so much still "to do," but yet I am getting really ready to meet her, and hold her, and not have people ask if my belly button has herniated yet :) Seriously though, please be in prayer for a healthy delivery and a healthy baby girl!

Do the Potty Dance

2011-06-17T23:45:00.002-05:00

After a few crazy first weeks of summer, we finally found ourselves at home this week.

So...we potty-trained.

We pottied (sp?) , and pottied, and cajoled, and begged, and pleaded, and encouraged, and promised, and threatened, and pottied some more. Whew.

BUT....I am happy to say, that Tris managed to fill up her potty chart in one week and stayed dry the whole day on Thursday! We also only had one accident on Wednesday and one today. yay!!!!

As a reward for all our hard work, we went to Wal-Mart tonight to pick out a toy- a princess bouncy ball and a pink bat & ball (ok, it was 2 things, but it was a long week.)

Personally, I kinda felt like mommy (& daddy) needed a treat as well for enduring!!

We are so proud of our big girl and hope that she continues to do well with going to the potty!! (remains to be seen if we will incur tooth decay and or debt while encouraging this.)

Going Global

2011-05-30T15:04:00.004-05:00

In spite of B not feeling too hot this past weekend (we ended up missing a friend's wedding Friday night :( we attempted to carry on for Saturday. We had been planning for a while to go down and visit Mammaw Ballard (Brian's maternal grandmother) and we decided to throw in a trip to Global Wildlife Center which is not too far from her house.

We told Trissy we had a surprise for her, and when she woke up from her nap she was sooo excited! Can't you just see it in that smile? ;)

Here's this enthused look as we waited for the "choo-choo" to depart. She is holding our animal food cup. Please note that the blue bucket in the background is a group of people who purchased the entire bucket of food. wow.

It's really like the zoo comes to you! Here's a bunch of deer (who have a fancier african deer name that I can't remember right now)

Here's Trissy's little red bow sticking out as she looks at all the animals we have left in our wake.

And then there was the camel. Tris was NOT a fan of the camel!!

Mainly because he stuck his head up INSIDE the wagon! Greedy camel. Did you know that camels don't really store water in their humps? They just can go a really really long time without. I think somewhere my third grade education failed me on that one.

She did love to throw food out to the deer.

"Bambi! Come get yer fooooood!"

Then there are the zebras. Apparently they bite, so we were not allowed to let them eat out of our hands or cups.

Check out this dude! I think they said he was a cross between a Texas longhorn and some type of African cattle. He was scratching his horns on the side of the wagon!

Brian and Tris threw out our remaining food to the deer at the end of the ride.

It was a HOT afternoon, but overall we loved Global and had so much fun!

Easter recap

2011-05-28T13:00:00.000-05:00

OK, ok I told you all that I am catching up....just one month behind, right?? But we had so many cute pictures from Easter that I just wanted to share!! We stared off our weekend with Tristyn's first egg-dyeing experience. She did really well, except that she got a bit zealous with the yellow egg and "forcefully" placed in down on the granite countertops. :) whoops! Our egg kit came with funny-face stickers, so we had a great time with those too.

Showing off the finished product with Honey!

Saturday morning, we went to our church's easter egg hunt. Here I am looking quite like an Easter egg myself as we wait for the hunt for Trissy's age group to begin :)

Daddy even helped her find a few up high!

She was really concerned that "there's nothing in there!" and wanted to stop hunting, but we assured her that you could turn in your eggs for a prize at the end.

Showing off our prizes after the hunt- carrot bubbles, some nerds, and bunny-shaped marshmellows.

Apparently pooped from the hunt and contemplating life.

Cute family pic of all four of us! Next year, Avery Kate will be in on the action too (sort of!)

They also had lots of other fun activities for the kids like bunny sack races, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, coloring, and this parachute. Here's Tris with her best bud Jackson.

And of course we couldn't leave out making some sweet treats! Tris brought these to her class party earlier in the week. She helped make and cut out the cookies, but mommy decorated :) (I promise I will give up my OCD-ness one day!)

While she was napping, I made these cute little marshmellow sheep for she and her cousins. They are made out of Milano cookies, and white chocolate to stick on the marshmellows. You know...the more sugar the better!!

After nap, we decided to go ahead and let her open her Easter basket! She got a Belle t-shirt, a princess coloring pad, and this lovely FurReal Kitty Cat who purrs and meows and walks. We have also discovered that the FurReal kitty also "really" sheds! Yippee.

We did a craft project outside at our picnic table to make something special for the grandparents.

The finished product!

The one thing that we didn't do was to do Resurrection Eggs or bake Resurrection cookies. We definitely emphasized that Easter was about celebrating Jesus, but it is still kind of hard to get the concept of death for our sins across to a 2-year-old. I am excited about next year though and being able to teach her more and more about her Savior!!

Toy Story 3 cake

2011-05-26T09:50:00.003-05:00

SEVERAL weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do a cake for a little boy's 6th birthday party. (I told you I'm a little behind in posting :) Of course he loves Toy Story, so we tried to include as many different elements from the movie as possible.

Here's a close-up of the cake board and detail on the "Buzz" layer. (note to self: do not get in front of light source while taking picture at 1 am.)

For some reason my pictures don't look very clear here (user error!), but it was a fun cake to do!! The Buzz "wings" are styrofoam covered in fondant, and I made the fondant alien and the fondant Lotso. In the top of the box are some small plastic figurines from the movie along with the "styrofoam" (aka marshmellows cut into peices.)

Happy 6th birthday Landon!

Big girl room

2011-05-25T19:00:00.002-05:00

HOPEFULLY you will see more of me on the blog this summer to chronicle our summer adventures, but for now I have some serious catching up to do! One of our weekend projects lately has been to work on getting the girls' rooms ready. We decided to give Tris a big girl room with new bedding, and then let Avery Kate have the nursery (with a few special updates and touches of course!)

So all in one weekend, Brian & Honey swooped in and painted the room a lovely blue, we painted and distressed an old dresser and changed the hardware, and moved her in! Keeping in mind that I am no Martha Stewart, here are the results :)

Dresser painted an antique white with new hardware.

"Reading corner" We love the anywhere chair from PBkids! We still need to get a bookshelf to organize all the toys, books etc.

The infamous "big girl bed." Tris has been very excited to sleep in her big girl bed, but I must say that the transition hasn't been totally easy. Hopefully by August, she'll be much more used to it. As of now, we have spent plenty of nights responding to pleas of "stay with me!!"

We still need to hang her name letters above her bed, but overall I love her room and am so happy with how everything turned out. Both the girls' rooms are such peaceful places to sleep, play, and hang out.

Hello my name is (will be...)

2011-05-22T16:11:00.002-05:00

We waited to share Tristyn's name until she was born, but having a two-year old who likes to talk doesn't exactly work with that theory on the second child :) So, we are proud to reveal ....

(thanks to Ali whose blog I stole this idea from!)

We were really just excited that we agreed on a name so soon, and it has been fun for Tristyn to learn and talk about her little sister. We just liked the name "Avery" for awhile and then decided on "Kate" for a middle name. As of now, she will be called by both names! Being a double-name girl myself, I like it and it's pretty southern :)

We are so excited for her to arrive! Crazy to think that we only have about 3 months (or less) left. I wonder how her personality will be different from Tristyn, what kind of baby she will be, and what she will look like. We can't wait to have Avery Kate Oswalt join our family in August!!

ROAAARR!

2011-04-25T22:40:00.002-05:00

I have easter pictures and stories to share, but I just had to take a moment to write this down about Tris so I can remember in the future. Here's our conversation from the other day.

Me: "Trissy, how was your day at school?"

Tris: "Mommy, Preston (a kid in her class) rwared at me and then I cried."

me: "huh?"

Tris: " He rwared at me!"

me: "ummmm....."

me: "Tris, what is a 'rwar?"

Then, with all the strength she can muster, she gives her biggest and best Lion King-type "ROOAAAAARRR!"

I'm laughing uncontrollably at this point, but apparently the "roar" is the new snub for two year olds. She has also taken to doing it at me when I ask her to do something she doesn't like. Case in point:

me: "Tristyn, please come pick up the colors."

Tristyn: "Rooaaaar!"

I can't help myself. Yesterday, I "rwared" back at her :)

Spring Break!

2011-04-01T22:27:00.002-05:00

Well, my Spring Break has come and gone but Tristyn is currently on "round 2" of her own. She was sick earlier this week and so Honey came to stay on her spring break- consequently Tris has spent the whole week home from school and loved it! (well, not the sick part, poor baby.)

I have been back at the grind of teaching eighth graders, and am now just reminiscing about our Spring Break a few weeks ago. At least I can look forward to summer!!

Over our Spring Break we invaded (I mean, traveled to) college friends' Ashley & Alan's house in Tyler, TX. They are part of a group of friends we called "Baylor group" (we are super creative- no? :) There are four couples who all dated in college and who are now all married! Though we all live in different places now, we love getting to together and meeting up whenever possible. Of course, it is hard for everyone to get there. Lauren was able to come (whose hubby Jeremy couldn't make it) and finally got to meet their adorable little girl Meg!

Isn't she the cutest!!?? Tris had to practice "sharing with the baby" like

she will with little sister :)

We just had fun hanging out, eating yummy food, visiting, shopping, golfing, and of course a trip to the church playground was in order.

Here's sweet Truett- LOVE those curls!!

Here's Tris and Truett feeding the fish in the big pond. They fed them fruit loops, but I think ended up eating most of the fruit loops themselves :) Ashley & Alan do have another son, Caleb who is almost 4, but he was doing "big boy" stuff....or either moved too fast for me to get any pictures!

We loved our time in Texas and it is so fun to be with friends! We don't get to see them very often, but anytime we do it is just like old times and we can all talk for days! We are so thankful for how many great friends the Lord has given us.

When we got home, the flowers were blooming and we had to take some pics in the yard.

This is our "cheese" face.

Trying to take a serious pose touching the azaleas :)

We are constantly reminded this time of year of the beauty God has put all around us!

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name and

give him glorious praise!" - Psalms 66:1

IT'S A.....

2011-03-15T23:57:00.003-05:00

Well folks, 53% of you were wrong :)

We're having another GIRL!!!

We are so thankful that she is healthy and measuring pretty much right on time! Praise the Lord! We took Trissy to the appointment with us this morning and she did pretty well, except half way through the sonogram she said, "I want to watch Snow White instead." :)

This little girl already seems to have plenty of Oswalt genes like her father and older sister since at 10am this morning she was still fast asleep and had to be prodded by the tech to move and get the "money shot." We are excited for Tristyn to have a little sister and have that special bond that only sisters can have! She has already promised to teach her to slide, pet the kitty cat, and color.

Thank you for your prayers and for voting in our poll!! Now.... if you could just make donations towards the Oswalt family wedding fund ;)

Mississippi Children's museum and baby cupcakes!

2011-03-13T22:55:00.005-05:00

A few weekends ago, we went to the Mississippi Children's museum with some friends/ fellow church staff members & their kiddos. We are definitely fortunate to have a great church staff who also have young kids and we hang out with them a lot!

It was a yucky, rainy day, and also "Dr. Suess Day" at the Museum so there were TONS of people there. Nevertheless, we had a good day and ended up purchasing a membership so that we can enjoy going back as many times as we want this summer!

Here's Trissy & Daddy walking in...this was before the deluge of rain :)

The museum is really neat and gives kids lots of learning experiences. However, Tris, Jackson, and Ashlyn were really interested in the playground part!

This was another jungle gym-type thing that helped kids learn about the digestive system. They went in through the mouth, climbed down the esophagus, and then eventually slid down the large intestine into yes...you guessed it...the toilet bowl! It was hilarious!

There was also a water table where you could crawl into the bubble and shoot water at the person inside. We convinced Tristyn to go in, and it was HILARIOUS because the poor baby thought she was really about to get wet and kept holding her hands up to shield herself. We finally took mercy on her and helped her "escape."

Here's Ashlyn shooting paintballs at the art board!

Jackson & Tris sliding in the Mississippi Forest section.

Once again, I should turn this picture, but just imagine- K?? :) They had a super large Scrabble board (eat your heart out Camille!) and we are learning how to spell our name so it was the perfect activity. I will say that Tristyn now knows how to write the letter "T," so we are really proud of that!

The kids had fun "digging" for fossils.

Jackson's face kind of sums up how we all felt at this point- Tired and ready to eat! It was a great day and we are looking forward to going back!!

This weekend, I made cupcakes for my friend Lindsay's baby shower. You might remember that Brian married she and David a few years ago, so we were so excited for them to have a little baby boy!!

Preggo mommy had requested chocolate cupcakes with no frosting, so I made sure to write her name on HER plain cupcakes :) Hey...I have eaten an entire bag of sour cream and onion potato chips recently, so I know there's no explaining the pregnancy cravings!

We had a great time getting to see our old friends from LaPlace and catching up that I didn't take many pictures. This was the only good one I got from the shower of LIndsay opening gifts.

A great weekend and now we are looking forward to enjoying and relaxing on our Spring Break this week!!

Behind

2011-03-09T23:27:00.005-06:00

My word for this year was supposed to be SLOW, as in "slow down."

However, my word for this year so far has really become BEHIND. This seems to be a theme for my life lately with everything we have going on. My hat seriously goes off to those of you with 2-3 kids, because at this point I'm afraid that I would (as my dad would say) "lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body." :)

Case in point:

I am terrrible, horrible, no good, and very bad at answering emails and going through my mail. For some reason it always seems to be the last thing that I tackle after other things like grad school, laundry, dinner, grading papers, church etc....etc. And by last thing...I mean every 3-4 months.

whoops.

So the other night I finally sit down to go through my stack of mail, and I find the following items:

1. A prescription for Tristyn from January (I'm not sure what it was for as I couldn't read the doctor's handwriting, but I'm assuming it was for her thumb which has by now, healed :)

2. christmas cards that I had meant to send out in late December....think it's too late if I scratch it out and write "Happy March!" ??

3. A movie from blockbuster which we figured was already so late that we went ahead and kept it an extra day to watch it and then returned it. I'm sure now we have $34 in late fees.

Brian and I HAD to laugh at all this.... because what else are you going to do???!!! HELP!! :)

Ps. see this post for more proof that I am, in fact, losing my mind.

Poll

2011-03-06T00:04:00.002-06:00

I'm really quite amazed that I actually got this poll up like I mentioned I would...it seems that too many things in my life (including large piles of mail, laundry, and a clean house!) go by the wayside.

We just put up a fun little poll to see what YOU think baby O #2 will be?? Will Tris have a little brother or little sister?? Either way we are so excited and will find out March 15!! Yipee!!

Alive, Hallelujah!

2011-02-19T22:20:00.005-06:00

We're "Alive, alive, alive- hallelujah!" Anyway, we do exist and I am procrastinating the large amount papers I have to grade and the journal article due for my grad school class to bring you this long awaited (for all two of you) blog posting.

2011 has been quite a year for us so far. Since I have been so delinquent in posting, I will try spare you and catch you up mostly in pictures. One of the fun things I've done lately is have the chance to make some various cakes for family and friends.

This was a cake for our friend Jackson's 2nd birthday party! It was a farm theme and his mom Lindsey decorated everything SUPER CUTE! There was even a pony and a rabbit that made an appearance at the party.

My camera battery was dying and I only got a couple pictures

(and of course I'm too lazy to turn this one) but I'm glad I remembered to get these.

How cute is this? For the favors, each kid got this little monogrammed barn with a barn puzzle and animal crackers inside!!!

And finally...some cupcakes for the kiddos :) Trisyn, of course, has seen enough fondant in her life and bit right into her animal face like a champ!

Tris also now believes that there should be a birthday EVERY weekend since the next weekend our family + more cake made the trek down to Baton Rouge to celebrate Mawmaw's birthday and Caelen's 7th birthday! Can't believe she is 7!!!

It was so fun and was held at the Sassy Spa. The little girls got to paint their nails, get their hair done, and be little glamour girls for the day. I tried to make Caelen's cake match the theme and invitation so this is what we came up with...

Here's the gorgeous birthday girl!

At the end of the party, each girl got to strut on the "catwalk" (a pink fluffy piece of carpet) and they took a group picture. Of course, I had managed to corral Tristyn long enough to paint her toes and then she and Cohen promptly spent the rest of the time chasing each other like wild banshees. :)

Last but not least, a friend of ours from LaPlace asked me to do a Pinkalicious cake for her little girl's 4th birthday We couldn't make the party, but I was still able to make the cake. I didn't know much about Pinkalicious, so some friends from church let us borrow the book for reference. I also made the inside pink velvet with cream cheese filling, so it was definitely pink INSIDE and OUT!! I hope the birthday girl loved it!!!

AND last but not least.... perhaps the REAL reason that these last couple months have been so tiring and tough :) Introducing Baby Oswalt #2!!!

I am currently 15 weeks (well tomorrow) and we are so thankful and excited for this little one to join our family! I have mainly just been tired and we had a little scare a few weeks ago, but we are so super thankful that baby #2 has continued to be healthy and is growing and doing great!!

Tristyn seems to be excited to be a big sister, but I don't think she really "gets" it yet since my tummy isn't really big or anything. She now thinks that SHE has a baby in her tummy too, and we have to explain that only mommies have babies in their tummies. I can tell that we are going to have LOTS of interesting conversations throughout this time ;)

We will be finding out the gender in about a month, so I will TRY to make it back to the blog to put a boy v. girl poll up to see what you guys think!!

Home improvements and One Word

2011-01-03T22:09:00.004-06:00

I have been spending the last 48 hours in full-on denial mode that I will actually have to teach students again and that this break won't continue indefinitely! Wouldn't that be nice? :) I know that once I get in the "swing" of things this week though, that it will all start to fly by and it will be May before we know it!

We happened to buy a china hutch from a family in our church that was moving and got to set that up as well as getting a new bookshelf and some other things at the amazing store- Dirt Cheap! (more on that later for you non-Mississippians.)

As we were setting up our hutch, I noticed that Tristyn was very busy. Suddenly I turned around to discover this:

If you could only look closer, you could see that Tris filled our new hutch with all HER kitchen pots, pans, fruit baskets, pretend mustard bottles and spoons.

"Mommy and Daddy! How kind of you to buy this furniture for me to store my kitchen equipment in! After all, that play kitchen was getting a bit crowded. "

(picture of Tris when "caught in the act."

On the other hand, one of our pastors challenged us on Sunday to come up with our One Word for 2011! If you haven't heard of this, it really is a neat exercise. Just visit www.myoneword.org and take a look!

I am still praying about my word, but so far I have felt like the Lord has impressed upon me the word SLOW. For those who know me, about the only thing I am slow in is running :) I always tend to fill my plate with something to do.

So this year, I would like to remember to SLOW down and have that needed conversation with a friend instead of always thinking about what needs to be done next. I want to SLOW my pace at home and realize that it's ok if all the crumbs didn't get swept up off the floor if I got to play and have quality time with Tris and Brian. I want to SLOW my steps and pray for someone right when they say they need it. My life will have to SLOW some if I am to take care of my body and not get sick.

What will your ONE WORD be for 2011?? I hope you'll go check it out and pray about having "one word" for 2011!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:55:00.005-06:00

Joy to the World!

The Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let every heart....

Prepare him room!

And heaven and nature sing!

Christmas card (sorta)

2010-12-23T17:29:00.004-06:00

So technology eludes me once more and since I couldn't quite get our actual Christmas card to upload, I bring you the next best thing: Pictures of us!

I can just feel your excitement.

We are really super blessed to have talented sister-in-law Erin as family photographer! When we were at Mamaw's for Thanksgiving, we had some outdoor photo shoots of our individual family and the entire family with Grammie, Papaw, Mamaw and everyone!

We feel so blessed this year to have settled in to our home in Mississippi and FINALLY be done with yard projects. (hopefully) We are thankful for this gorgeous little girl who makes us laugh and challenges us to be better at loving each other and loving the Lord.

We are also thankful to have such wonderful supportive family and friends who love us.

But most of all, we are thankful for a little baby who came in a manger to grow up and save us from our sins! As Tris says....remember that it's "Jeeus bird-day!"

Amen :)

Do you believe in Magic?

2010-12-20T23:17:00.002-06:00

So after seeing the first installment of the final Harry Potter movie- The Deathly Hallows, I had to re-read the book as well.

Can I just say that I had forgotten how absorbed I could get in a book and how wonderful it is! Guess I have been too busy wading through educational textbooks and grading papers eh? :)

And reading about all that magic got me thinking....

It's too bad I couldn't have some magic in my classroom!

For instance, a kid goes to throw a wad of paper from their seat basketball-style into the trash can way across the room and viola!, the paper gets thrown right back at them.

Pencils are automatically sharpened at students' desks whenever they start to run low, eliminating the deadly half-hour trek to the pencil sharpener and back which inevitably leads to a push or shove to a classmate.

I could yell "accio papers!" and get them all back in my hand in a nanosecond rather than saying "please pass back your papers" nine hundred times.

With a wave of my wand, I could automatically straighten desks, wipe the board clean, and shut down computers.

I might even impose some sort of transfiguration charm as an alternative to referrals and detentions. Bet that kid who is now growing a pig's tail won't talk back again in MY class!

Oh....I can dream....

Happy Birthday "Rinney" Cake

2010-12-13T22:49:00.002-06:00

So I think I will now make a pledge that I will not apologize any longer about my overdue absences from this blog. Hopefully all two of you will continue to visit here and again to see if we're still hanging in there :)

I was super honored a few weeks ago to do the first birthday cake for my niece Corrine. My sister-in-law had done an amazingly cute invitation for the party and I wanted to attempt to live up to its cuteness!

Here is a shot of her little smash cake with the invite in the background. I tried gumpaste on this cake for my first time ever and really had no clue what I was doing :) but was pretty happy with how it turned out. (mental note to take a gumpaste class sometime!)

And...the cake! The top layer was pink velvet with cream cheese filling and the bottom layer was chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate ganache. yum! I *may* have gone a tad overboard for a one year old's birthday party since I baked 12 inch and 8 inch square tiers. Oh well...everyone got to take LOTS of cake home.

The sweet birthday girl with her big brother and sis "helping" her blow out the candles.

Digging in for the first time :)

Tris managed to nap through the whole party but wasn't about to miss the "happy cake" for snack when she woke up. She also graced Corrine with a rousing rendition of "happy birdethday rinney" sung at the top of her lungs.

Happy Bird-day Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T23:34:00.002-06:00

Tristyn has been slightly confused today with trying to say "Happy Thanksgiving" and having our niece's birthday party next weekend, which has led to the phrase "Happy bird-day Thanksgiving!" She even was so kind to point out today that we did have a cake at lunch AND there were candles on the table. Hello people! That equals a birthday, right!? :)

We have been enjoying the nicest part of being a teacher- being out of school! Tris and I traveled to Ruston for the first part of the week to hang with Honey & Papa. We had a great time on the farm and seeing some of mommy's girlfriends.

I have talked about these ladies several times on my blog before, and I can't say enough on this day of thanks, how thankful I am to have them in my life! We can always pick up right where we left off and it is so fun to share in each other's lives.

Tristyn and Hallie (Linzie's little girl) had a great time playing the piano together.

They are the "big girls" - 2 year olds, showing the babies how it's done :)

Sarah and sweet Ella Grace - both decked out in their Saints gear!

Cam with her newest edition Elliot. Henry was hanging with his daddy, but might have been better for him that he missed the large dose of girls :)

The gang: Camille & Elliot, Sarah & Ella Grace, Linzie & Hallie, Janie & Millie Marie, and of course me and Tris, who refused to take her fingers out of her mouth OR look at the camera. Gotta love toddlers.

Love these girls!! Can't believe that in our time knowing each other we have gone from talking about what to wear to homecoming and stalking the boys we liked to now discussing career moves and when to feed a baby rice cereal :)

So thankful for getting to spend this time with them and to the Lord for putting them in my life.

Gratitude

2010-11-22T22:36:00.002-06:00

Our friend Michelle, who is also our music minister's wife, sang this song on Sunday morning in church and my heart stood still.

More than anything, my prayer since I heard it is that this song become the desire of my heart. That I would spend less time making plans of my own and more time thanking the Lord for what he has given us.

I promise you won't regret taking the time to listen to this song (the lyrics are also posted below)

Send some rain, would You send some rain?
'Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
But maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

Daily bread, give us daily bread
Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
Wrap us up and warm us through
Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
Or maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
A lesson learned to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead
And if we never taste that bread

Oh, the differences that often are between
What we want and what we really need

So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace

But Jesus, would You please . . .

Story of my life

2010-11-21T22:43:00.003-06:00

Since school got out on Friday, I have been a free woman. I have frantically cleaned parts of our house, gone to the LSU game, and tried to piece all the parts of my life together that fall by the wayside when I am teaching sarcastic seventh graders and staying up past midnight grading papers.

Tristyn and I headed out of town today to Ruston to hang with Honey & Papa and have a little get-together with my girlfriends from high school. I thankfully had remembered to grab little Elliot Jenning's present from where it was stowed away in the closet awaiting his arrival. So of course Cam pulled the cute onesie out of the bag and then opened my very sweet card....

To find this inside.

(Insert heart-warming loving statement about best friend's 2nd child here. )

If this action doesn't completely sum up the last 4 months of my life nothing else will.

Happy Fall Y'all!

2010-10-28T16:40:00.000-05:00

Even though it is still averaging in the 80's around these parts, we have still gotten in the spirit of fall! Most of this we did in preparation for Tristyn's birthday party, but it will definitely stay until Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas!

Here's what the front of our house looks like right now...

"BOO" sign procured at Hobby Lobby (love that place.)

Several of our geraniums weren't looking so hot, so we pulled those up and planted these mums, crocus, cabbage, and fake pumpkins :) (that way they won't rot!) Actually, I say "we" but I really mean my yard consultant (aka my mom) recommended and facilitated this change!

Since Brian built and finished the shed, we'd been wanting to put a bed out here. I love the purple lorepetlums (sp?) and hydrangeas are just so southern :) We'll see if they survive under my care.

More than anything, we are just thankful to be at a place where we are FINISHED with projects for awhile! The yard, laying sod, playground, etc has kept us busy for sure! Now we are ready for winter and can just enjoy it!!

California Wedding

2010-10-24T15:51:00.001-05:00

You have been warned...get ready for an insane amount of pictures!! Mainly because everything was so amazing that I couldn't pick just a few pictures to share :)

At the end of September, I left Brian and Tris on their own and hopped a flight out to San Francisco to eventually end up in Napa for my friend and college roommate Megan's wedding.

It was so incredibly beautiful there and of course all of Megan's experience as a wedding planner for others didn't hurt either :)

First, here is the house that the bride and bridesmaids rented to stay in for the week! Whoa. It was at the top of this super steep and windy hill...but totally worth the drive once you saw the house and the views.

Since I was flying solo for the wedding, Megan was sweet enough to let me bunk up with some of her bridesmaids. THIS was the view from our room in the morning when we woke up! Seriously...the house didn't have any curtains- it was so high up there was no need to worry about neighbors and why hide those views anyway!?

View from the house of the pool and surrounding Napa countryside.

Gorgeous foliage looking down the mountainside. (not sure if this is really a mountain, but not a whole lot of elevation changes going on in Mississippi, so this was a mountain to me! :)

All the bridesmaid shoes in a row!

Me and the beautiful bride while everyone was getting ready.

Lindsey is writing in their guest book- which was actually a Bouchon cookbook! Everyone just picked their favorite recipe or picture and wrote a note to the couple beside it. Such a great idea, since with a cookbook they will see and be reminded of those well-wishes often.

The ceremony was held at an outdoor garden and her wedding was themed fall.

Here's Lindsey looking gorgeous as she is escorted in by the groomsmen.

I LOVE this picture of Megan and her dad! She looks absolutely radiant. And hello... that dress isn't too shabby either ;)

I tried to get a shot of Andrew when he first saw her- perfect.

As we left the ceremony, all the guests walked to this table where we picked up our seating assignment and had a little h'ors devores time.

Meggie and I by the fountain during the cocktail hour.

Since I was without Brian, I liked making Meggie and Ryan take pictures together! Isn't this reflecting pool with the backdrop of the mountains pretty?? This is what we looked at all throughout our dinner under the stars.

You know I had to get a shot of the cake! It had three different layers- banana and peanut butter (the bride's favorite), chocolate with chocolate raspberry ganache, and white cake with lemon raspberry. Yum!

My place setting at dinner.

The amazing table scape under the vineyard trellis. I seriously took about 10 billion pictures of this!

Love this of Megan and Andrew at their first dance!

Like the country bumpkin I am, I took pictures of every course at dinner :) This was our "a'muse bouche" - figs drizzled with saba and served with pancetta and some sort of cheese that I had no idea what is was :)

Ok, whoops. This is the menu upside down. Along with the silverware.

Another of Megan and Andrew with an orchid in the foreground.

It was such a beautiful wedding, not only because each and every detail had been thought out and it was a gorgeous location BUT because the Lord was honored in the marriage of these two!!

I was so glad to get to attend and also catch up with my other roomies- Meggie and Lindsey. They and their husbands were sweet enough to ferry me around in various rental cars over the few days we were there. Meggie and Ryan dropped me at the airport in San Fran and I'll leave you with a picture of Alcatraz we saw on the way back in.

Tristyn's Birthday Celebration continued...

2010-10-21T15:30:00.001-05:00

We kept joking that it was Trissy's birthday Hanukkah because the celebration went on for almost 12 days! (not really...but it was extended over a long weekend!)

On Monday, Brian and I brought treats to her class for her birthday. We kept with our Halloween/pumpkin/fall theme and made owls out of moon pies! This is a super idea from Southern Living...just stick on oreos and candy corn with some chocolate almond bark.

Tris seems to be glad we brought snack.

Studying the owl treats..."what ARE these things anyway, Mommy?"

I took about one billion pictures of her class sitting at their little picnic tables. It was ADORABLE! It was also really fun to see how Tristyn interacted with the other kids and hear a room full of 2 year olds talk :)

On her actual birthday, we celebrated with a candle in our cinnamon toast :) We had to recreate this ritual twice since daddy was in the shower the first time.

And finally...the yearly measuring. This was a tradition that my dad always did with me except he marked in on a wall of our house! Since we have been married five years and moved about six times, I figured that a transportable chart was more the way to go ;)

Almost 3 feet tall! And according to the doctor 90th percentile in height! Maybe we will have someone tall in our family eventually.

One Meal One Day Challenge

2010-10-19T15:01:00.002-05:00

I'm inviting those of you who visit this blog to join me....

In the fight against world hunger. So often we believe the lie that "we can't make a difference." But through a movement called One Meal One Day, we really can.

All you have to do is skip lunch (or any meal) tomorrow- Wednesday, October 20th- and give the money that you would have spent on that meal to end world hunger. Our church is doing this together as part of our focus on world hunger month and I would love for those of you in "bloggy land" to join as well!

Just go to www.onemealoneday.com and give on "give" to submit your donation. You can also text in donations. According to Compassion International which helps to sponsor One Meal One Day, just $13 can feed one child for over a month. Wow. If you're like me, you've easily spent $13 on one meal for yourself before!

Also, if you can't skip a meal for health or medical reasons, just pack a sack lunch and donate the money you saved by not eating out!

God has called us to love our neighbors- in every part of the world! This is just one great way to do just that.

Trissy's pumpkin party

2010-10-18T21:53:00.005-05:00

I confess. I love birthday parties! And my tendency is to involve everyone who will listen long enough into scheming with me about it. Hence the fact that Brian had quite the list to complete and was even carving a pumpkin for a punch bowl at 11:30 pm Friday night before Saturday's party.

We had a great time...couldn't have asked for better weather and we were so happy that people showed up to celebrate Tristyn with us! We had most of the party outside since October is finally decent enough weather in the south!

Here's the drink table complete with Brian's pumpkin punch bowl.

And the desert table! We had pumpkin cake, cookies, and chocolate cake lollipops. Plus lots of Halloween candy that was in easy reach for the kiddos. :)

Another shot of the lollipops and cookies. I love doing all this, but I promise after this week I don't want to bake anything else for a WHILE.

The kiddos had a blast playing on the "playground" (aka swing set) in the backyard.

We also set up a "kids table" where they could color pumpkin coloring pages or decorate their own mini pumpkins with fuzzy dots, stickers, eyes, etc.

Here's Trissy's decorated pumpkin- I like to think she's channeling Picasso :)

Instead of having our friends bring gifts, we had them bring dog food to donate to our local animal shelter. Since Tristyn loves puppies and "kit cats" as she calls them, it was a no-brainer! I hope we will continue this tradition year after year and pick a different charity each year.

Papa also transported hay all the way from Ruston for a neighborhood hay ride! The kids loved it. Brian was a tad speedy and we had some good ole' windblown hair :)

Lindsey, Hampton, and Jackson- Jackson is probably Tristyn's favorite friend! They have been in the same school class several times and see each other at church ALL the time since Hampton is our children's minister.

The spread inside...included sandwiches, fruit, guacamole, cheese ball, and pumpkin-shaped PB&J's for the kids.

Tris is being uncharacteristic and loving on baby Cille. Cille brought her mommy, daddy, and big sister Stella to the party as well :) Scarlett and Damon are good friends of ours from LaPlace and Stella and Tris used to go to the same day care! We were so excited that they made the trip!!

Preparing to cut the pumpkin cake...

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Tristyn...side note...she continued to sing "Happy Birthday" to herself throughout the rest of the weekend.

Enjoying a candy pumpkin snagged off the table...one day where mommy didn't intervene on the candy eating! (ps. she had 5 dirty diapers this day as well....so no more junk after that!)

Here's Stella enjoying a cake lollipop.

And finally Daddy relinquished his hay ride driving duties and got to ride with the birthday girl- too sweet!

It was a great party and most importantly Tristyn had a wonderful time and felt special with so many family and friends there! Can't believe our little girl is two!

Our little pumpkin...

2010-10-14T00:37:00.004-05:00

....is turning two! Hard to believe, but this Sunday will be Trissy's 2nd birthday!! We were fortunate enough to snag the talented Erin Oswalt Photography to do the invites :) We are so thankful enough to have a talented auntie who is an awesome photographer AND designer.

Party pictures and much more blogging to come as my fall break (woo-hoo!!) is next week!!

Cakes and Craziness

2010-09-27T22:50:00.001-05:00

If you are wondering...yes, I am officially crazy . A few weeks ago I agreed to do a cake for Tonya & Michael's little boy Parker- for his first birthday! Then... another friend called and ask if I could do a last-minute cake for her hubby's surprise bday party. Well... I love doing this and couldn't say "no!"

Which lead me to completing two cakes in less than about a 48 hour span. While working. Yikes.

But I am happy to say that I was pretty pleased with how they turned out and had a lot of fun doing them!

Here's the first cake which was for Kyle's 40th birthday surprise party! It was a great party and we even placed 40 black and white candles on the cake. We were able to attend this party and it was really fun to see the look on Kyle's face when everyone surprised him. Amy (his wife) did a great job planning everything!

During all the baking madness, Tris discovered the magic of licking the beaters (unplugged of course :) This was one of my fav childhood memories and maybe why I love baking now!

Here is the cake for Parker's birthday. His little smash cake! Tonya had the great idea of placing it on top of the actual cake and it looked great. Once again, I will have to steal her picture of that because I was too crazed to take one.

And here is the cake in all it's glory. I think it turned out cute, but I used ganache for filling instead of buttercream and it gave me some fits. The ganache is just not as stable as bc and it was sliding for a bit! Should have refrigerated it but NO TIME! :)

The theme for Parker's bday was "Train a child up in the way he should go," and Tonya did an awesome job decorating and planning it! Their house was waaaay cute and the pics of Parker eating his cake were hilarious!

Thanks to everyone for trusting me with your special days!!

Only 7 weeks?? and Labor Day pics

2010-09-24T22:22:00.004-05:00

Wow. Has it really only been 7 weeks that we have officially been in school?? It feels like a LIFETIME! I really have trouble remembering the time when my life didn't revolve around grading papers, lesson plans, calling parents, and filling out reports.

It's funny how I used to think how tough my sales job was...now I look back and think that's easy. Then, last year I thought how hard it was to move to a new place and work as a teacher's assistant....now THAT seems easy! I guess one day I'll look back on this and think it was easy??? Who knows...maybe that's how life goes.

In all honesty, this has been the hardest week of teaching I have had so far. I will not go into details, but basically through some circumstances, I realized that I really needed to fine-tune my classroom management (aka control :) skills. It has been really tough with lots of tears, but I have also felt overwhelmed by the support that I have been shown both at my school and by friends and family! Even at a time when I more often than not fall asleep working on school stuff and forsake seeking the Lord and His word, He has sustained me and His providence has brought about better circumstances than I could have asked for or imagined!

I feel like I could write a book on this 7 weeks alone :) However, the other members of Oswalts Gone Country are also doing great and we should share our latest exploits (other than just surviving day-to-day!) We ended up traveling to Ruston to visit Honey & Papa for Labor Day and got to see some old friends as well! We caught up with mommy's friends at Aunt Linzie's house where we had a great time hanging out, eating yummy food, and swimming with all the kiddos.

Here's Tris and Linzie's little girl Hallie (about 1.5 months apart) looking longingly at the pool :)

Trissy and Henry enjoy toddler lunchtime :)

(ps. it is hard to get pictures of toddlers together! whew!)

After swimming, the kiddos found room in their tummies to attach the fruit tray once again!

Hallie and Tristyn being sweet to "the baby"...Miss Millie Marie...at the time a whopping 8 weeks old! She is Aunt Janie's first and so amazingly sweet and easy!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with the mommas....will have to steal some from Aunt Linzie and post another time.

Before we left to head back home, we got to see some family! Tristyn and Hannah remembered each other from Christmas (maybe? ;) and had a fun time playing. We will have to have a Jackson zoo date with John & Rebecca sometime soon!

"Where's Trissy?"

Lucky me...I got to me the one taking the pictures while Honey & Rebecca (who is expecting their second!) played ring-around-the-rosie.

We had a great time in Ruston hanging out! Now I am just counting down the days until fall break when we can get on the road and see some more family & friends!

Bob the Builder

2010-09-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

I have to believe that Brian has been watching a few too many episodes of "Bob the Builder" with Tristyn lately, because he has been PROJECT INSPIRED! I am most definitely grateful because the end result is great for our house! I do feel bad that I can't help him much since I'm so busy at school.

Project numero uno: Tristyn's playground (ok swing set, but SHE calls it the playground) This is her BIG early 2 year old birthday gift! Complete with rock wall, swings, and slide!

This is looking from the back corner of our backyard (sorry these pics are small...they are iphone pics.) We actually got in an insane amount of sod this weekend that Brian took on the task of putting out himself. Meanwhile I am in Ruston with Tris visiting Honey and Papa and writing blogs. It's a tough life but someone's gotta do it! ;)

What a sweet happy girl! Every time we pull into the driveway and she sees her "playground" she gets this BIG smile on her face!

Project numero dos: The shed. This has definitely been a labor of love between Brian and my dad who built it all themselves from scratch. Wow.

It may not look very bit in this picture, but is a really nice size and will be great to store Brian's lawn mowers, four wheeler, etc as Tristyn's toys take over more and more space in our garage :)

The door still isn't painted (raise your hand if you think we should paint it to match the trim?!) and Brian is working this weekend to cover the dirt spots with sod. We will also put another flower bed on the right side of the shed...I'm thinking lorepetlum (the purple bushes) and maybe some hydrangeas since it will be shady??

I am so thankful to my amazing husband for ALL the super, super, hard work he has put in to make these things happen and make our yard look nice!!! Also to Honey and Papa for so much of their help on the "projects." We are so excited to use them both and to finally have our backyard complete!

Alive

2010-09-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

Yes...we're still alive and kicking. I can't even bring myself to write "kickin'" because now being an English teacher has forced me to confront all grammatical errors outright in additional to taking away my other fun as well :)

But I digress.

In some weird, unexplainable way, I love what I am doing now! I am always one of those people who is "up for a challenge," and believe me- this is it. Teaching is really the hardest job I have ever had and if you don't thank your kids' teachers and those who give their time and effort in your community to pour into the lives of kids, seriously- go. do it. today. SERIOUSLY.

There is so much time and prep that goes into just one lesson to make sure that you are not only covering the competencies that need to be covered but that it is fun and interesting, it differentiates learning styles for the different needs, fits into the specified time frame, won't cause your principal to fire you, and doesn't involve obscene rap lyrics.

Whew. :)

I am slowly but surely chipping away at the other facets of life such as email, laundry, and caring for my dying plants on the patio, so bare with me. These weeks and months will be a lot about school!

One thing I am really struggling with right now is just the busyness of life. I feel as though I don't have time for one extra thing and that causes my relationship with the Lord to suffer. Before school started I was doing pretty well....having a daily quiet time, memorizing scripture, and regularly praying. Now I just feel like I'm in survival mode. I also make the mistake of telling myself that when I do have a free moment that I should take "me" time to watch tv or play Word With Friends (dumb game) instead of running to the Word for strength! I know it is all just a matter of priorities and someone waking up at 5:15am could just as easily wake up 5 minutes earlier, but oh geeez...that is NOT what my brain tells me when the alarm goes off!

So right now I am praying for God to work in spite of me and to carve out time for me to seek Him. In what other source is TRUE LIFE and peace and rest and freedom found!?

The B-I-B-L-E

2010-08-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

At the Oswalt household, we believe that discipleship starts early. Bible study is not for the faint of heart, but it CAN be for everyone. We think that taking the bible seriously early on can lead to great things in the lives of those to make the choice to follow its teachings.

Therefore, it's never too early to begin to encourage your child to read their Bible! (plus it builds good literacy skills-eh?)

But really, what we believe is the key to success in this endeavor....reading your bible while wrestling your alligator.

Folks, we just cannot make the stuff this kid does up. Who knew the alligator and bible fixation would occur in the same week??

Disclaimer: no alligators were harmed in the making of these story. Bibles, however, are being harmed. This kid insists on taking her bible to bed with her every night and if we by some chance "forget" it, then she yells out over the monitor, "momee, dadeeee.....bible!"

On a side note: it is a small King James version and she will also open it and "read." I also wish we could claim discipleship as the cause of this fixation...but who knows?!

Who ever said it would be easy?

2010-08-15T23:42:00.002-05:00

Almost a year ago, I wrote a blog about life with "A New Normal." Now we've been in Brookhaven a year (hard to believe!) and I am STILL creating a "new normal" for life...forging ahead in the career of teaching.

It's only been two weeks... yet it seems like forever!! But at the same time, I also feel like I have so much to learn and do that I will never get it. People- don't let anyone ever tell you that teacher's jobs are easy. Whew. Double whew. I honestly always thought they complained a little too much in relation to the amount of off-time received, but boy-oh-boy is that off-time ever deserved!!! Not to mention, the girl who used to saunter into work around 8:30 or 9, now gets to school at 6:45am to run off copies and get my room ready before my 7am duty!! Talk about a change of pace. I have often wished in the last two weeks for that time to walk to CC's and get an iced coffee, sit at my computer quietly working, or have a client lunch.

As it is, my task is to entertain, engage, and get groups of 7th grade students to learn- yikes! It also doesn't help that since most of my students are taller than me I wear heels most days :) I will need new feet by Christmas from standing all day!!

I graded my first set of papers tonight while Brian watched Sportscenter, so I guess I have "officially" joined the ranks of teachers :)

I am enjoying the people that I work with so far, and I hope that as everyone says it "will get easier." I have already experienced the joy of having a student "get" it and truly have some satisfaction that I have managed to teach them SOMETHING :)

Meanwhile, the other members of my family have been going on as usual. I have been really thankful for B as he has been taking T to school since I leave so early and picking her up since I've been staying until 5 or so in the afternoons. He has also been working hard getting the school year kicked off for youth! Tris moved up a class both in school and in sunday school! I seriously had a "moment" when I dropped her off this morning...she's not a baby anymore!

I went looking for Tristyn and found doing some internet browsing the other night.

Stalling before naptime...trying on mommy's shoes. Gotta love that fashion style.

And...drumroll please...our FIRST tomato from our tomato plant!!! Tris and I planted these back in May and we are FINALLY seeing some fruit (literally.) They have managed to survive her excessive watering and the excessive heat to produce something. Now if only I can keep her from picking it until it is ready!

Where have we been?

2010-08-01T22:27:00.005-05:00

I can officially admit that my blogging will probably take a backseat in the next couple months! Who knew that teachers actually have to go back to work before school starts!? ;)

Thanks to my amazing mom, my classroom has been scoured clean and rearranged and is now (hopefully) cute and inviting! I had curriculum meetings too this week a couple days so she did lots of work for me while I was in the meetings. I really would still be up there working on my room if she hadn't come and helped.

Last weekend, some sweet friends that I used to work with at WWL came for a visit! I love these ladies!! WWL was such a sweet family and I spent four years seeing these folks almost every day plus we took some girls trips together, had lunches, and went to plenty of weddings and parties.

I made lunch for us here and then took them on the extensive tour of Brookhaven :) I also made "happy cake" as Tris says...a bittersweet chocolate mocha cake with whipped chocolate ganache filling. I will definitely make this one again. yum!

Here's Leslie, me, and Kathi (my former office mate) with the infamous cake!

Note: When Kathi and I shared an office, we both hated the fluorescent lights so much that we filled our office with lamps and snowflake Christmas lights. I loved coming in the morning and turning all our lamps on. Bonus: you couldn't see the dirt as much with just lamplight :)

Tris has been enjoying her last days of summer hanging out in the backyard pool (which she bit the top layer and deflated! crazy kid!) Honey & Papa also brought my old boots from when I was little for her to wear.

the verdict- she loves them!

Boots and Pj's- the perfect fashion statement.

And now I have to go to bed to be ready for my early morning! I think our fun summer schedule is officially over.

Provision

2010-07-25T23:14:00.002-05:00

Remember this blog?

"And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you NEED them." - Luke 12:29-30

Nothing is a secret from God. Though I worried about getting a teaching job all summer, He provided for our needs!!!

I will be teaching 7th grade reading and English next year (meaning in like 1.5 weeks- yikes!) at a junior high in McComb! I am excited! And nervous :) And some moments scared out of my mind!

But most of all I am thankful.

The Lord definitely did not work in the way I expected Him to, and yet He provided!! I am constantly in awe of his infinite wisdom and kindness towards us in persisting to give us the things that we need. Yet we often sit and wring our hands and worry... when what we should be doing is trusting in Him.

I said all this past year that the odds were stacked against me- not from this town, bad economy with state budget cuts, and little teaching experience (ok....almost none :) I said that it would have to be "a God thing" if I was to get a job- so He must receive the praise, honor, credit, and glory that is due!

Now this week will be filled with workshops, curriculum mapping, getting my room ready, and job paperwork! Wooohoo!! Please continue to be in prayer that God will use me in this new position to teach students what they need to succeed and in the process be a light that shines Jesus.

Meet me in St. Louis- part II of the griswold-style family vacation

2010-07-20T11:00:00.001-05:00

I realize that this post has no less than a billion pictures, so if you're a grandparent or ever thinking about planning a trip to St. Louis- proceed ahead!

Continuing part 1 of Griswold-style family vacation, we left Nashville in the afternoon and headed to St. Louis! After crossing through Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois, we finally made it into Missouri! The next day we started our day with the classic Budweiser Brewery tour (which is free by the way!)

Tristyn was mainly excited about seeing the "horseys."

This horse is BIG. These groomers weren't small guys by any means and they just come up to his shoulders!! I think these horses have it waaaay better than we humans do. Just sayin'.

Brian on the Anheuser Bush property contemplating the meaning of Budweiser: King of Beers.

Tristyn says, "C'mon guys- let's get outta here! We're Baptist ya' know!"

The next day we headed to Grant's Farm- another Anheuser Bush property. (see a theme here?) This was also free (score!) except for the parking. We rode a trolley/train thing that was supposed to take us to see exotic animals but all we saw were some cows and ducks which kept Tris busy "moo-ing" and "quacking."

We got off the trolley and it was like a mini-zoo! Here's Tris getting mad at the goat for nibbling her feet.

She loved Grant's Farm because she could get out of the stroller and run around.

Making friends with a rather large turtle...

We conned another poor sweaty deranged parent there into taking a family shot.

That afternoon after a good nap (for all of us!) we headed to City Garden- not too far from our hotel downtown! It is an awesome sculpture and water park and there were about 1.8 billion kids there. As you can see, Tris loved it!

One of my favorite pictures ever!

We got early morning tickets for the Arch which was walking distance from our hotel. We rode in these little pod things which are INSIDE the arch (hello claustrophobia) and get out inside the top to look out windows.

view of the city

Commemorating our ride to the top! I believe the arch is the tallest national monument???

Cool view from the bottom looking up, up, up...

Then, we got brave and headed to the Children's Museum (aka Magic House.) There were also no less than 1.8 billion kids here as well...with parents, on field trips...my ears were ringing when we left. We ALL took good naps this day!!!

Posing with Daddy (these are the happy times...the meltdowns occurred shortly after :)

This water table was the coolest thing since no-spill bubbles. She could have just done this and been happy.

Daddy and tris building Lego towers. Their efforts actually attracted quite a crowd!

Walking in the toddler jungle gym area.

Shopping at the "grocery store." I was so proud of her...she picked out fruits and veggies :)

Parenting Tip: When your kid asks to eat the fake fruit, it's probably time to head to lunch.

On our last day, we headed to the St. Louis Zoo! It is (drumroll please) also free, but there are some attractions you pay for like the carousel, train ride, etc.

Here's Tris checking out the Jeep.

Loved the fishies.

It was really no less than 1000 degrees at the zoo on the morning we went. Plus being the mother of the year that I am, I had forgotten the sunscreen! (don't worry I was the only one that got burned. lovely.) We got all the fun we could out of it and 2 spankings later and absolutely soaked in sweat we went to eat lunch and take naps.

That evening we spent our life savings on the Cardinals baseball game of which we watched exactly 2 plays :)

Parenting tip #24: bubbles, coloring books, and food will only entertain your toddler for so long when they have to sit on your lap in 100 degree heat. Then they will want to run up and down the millions of stairs all over the stadium.

I didn't get many pictures because of parenting tip mentioned above :) But we do love going to baseball games and thanks to a half-off coupon from our hotel for tickets, we didn't have as much regret as we would have otherwise for only making it through 6 innings.

The verdict: Griswold-style family vacation a success!

Our Griswold Family Vacation

2010-07-18T22:02:00.011-05:00

In case you were wondering where we've been...(or in case you didn't!) We took our first "official" family vacation (meaning I guess that it was just Brian, T, and I) and it was "Griswold -style" meaning that we drove really long distances. Together. In the car. And saw everything.

We left last Saturday headed to St. Louis via Memphis and Nashville. Convenient- right?

Of course we had to check out the home of the King....

And the infamous Jungle Room!

We weren't allowed to take any pictures with flash inside the house, but still got some cool pictures. Graceland has basically been left "as-is" since Elvis' death even down to the avocado green appliances and white shag carpet.

Here's Tris checking out the extensive gold and platinum records.

This could pretty much sum up our Graceland visit. Tristyn likes throwing coins in the fountain best! She actually did really well considering it was pretty crowded in the house and everyone was being really quiet...two things that typically don't sit well with toddlers.

Checking out Elvis' car collection!

Tired girl :)

We ate at Neely's Interstate BBQ (yum!) and then toured Beale St. and downtown Memphis.

Of course, again, Tris was enamored by the balls outside the FedEx forum in Memphis. There were probably about 80 of the things and we had to touch EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

From there, we put Tris in her PJ's and caffeined up for the late night drive to Nashville!

We finally pulled in around midnight and found a hotel room. After sleeping in and eating breakfast, Tris was ready for another day of touring!

"Is this Nashville or Greece, Mommy??"

(I might add that the highlight of Nashville for Tris were the local playgrounds near the Parthenon. They were pretty awesome!)

Conversing with Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl at the Ryman.

I tried to tell her stories about watching Hee-Haw growing up, but she really just liked sitting on the church pews in the Ryman. Here we are for our Grand Ole' Opry stage debut! :)

Check back for more installments on the Oswalt "Griswold-style" family vacation part deux!

To Infinity and beyond....

2010-07-10T17:00:00.000-05:00

Our week of summer fun has really flown by! In addition to our exciting dentist appointment we did lots of yard work (or rather Brian did lots of yard work and we watched), we went to Wal-Mart, had dessert with some friends, and traveled to LaPlace to meet Cille and play with our friends Stella & Cohen! :)

In each of these events, I failed to realize that my camera batteries had died. Oh well. Except Wal-Mart. I really don't like to document that.

I also spent the greater part of Friday making a Toy Story cake for a little boys' 5-year birthday party!!

Have you seen Toy Story 3?? It is GREAT!

"THE CLAAWWW!!"

"you saved our life we are eternally grateful..."

In case you're not getting it, the cake is supposed to look like it's sitting on the floor in Andy's room. The aliens are steering the train into the cake since the birthday boy said he wanted the train to "crash" in to the cake :) Then of course we have Buzz & Woody sitting atop the box headed for the attic. All the figures I borrowed from the the little boy since Tris has no idea that Toy Story exists currently.

It was so fun to do and I hope it is the cake he dreamed of! :)

First Dentist Visit

2010-07-07T16:06:00.007-05:00

I had the bright of idea of introducing Tristyn to good dental hygiene at an early age. To be fair, they told me that since they are a Pediatric Dentist, they start seeing kids at 1. She's almost 2 right?

Here we are with Bear Bear (who of course had to come along) checking out the selection of books in the doctor's waiting area. The doctor's office was way cute and decorated with sea theme (hence the fish!)

Here we are brushing Bear Bear's teeth! Unfortunately Bear Bear was much more cooperative than Tristyn.

Watching the dental hygienist show us the chocolate fluoride and "Mr. Thirsty."

And the following is what happened when we moved on from brushing Bear Bear's teeth to Tristyn's teeth.

Not to worry! Here she is with daddy and her balloon. I think the doctor felt so sorry for her as a first-time patient that she gave her the balloon, about a billion stickers, a prize bag, and a toy from the toy chest! Can't decide if all this will make her want to visit the dentist ever again or not. Next installment in 6 months!

Happy 4th!!

2010-07-04T13:46:00.003-05:00

Here's hoping you and yours are having a wonderfully fabulous Fourth of July! I loved in church this morning when they had each of the branches of the military stand up and be recognized. It just gets me every time...the significance of the sacrifice those men and women made for our country!

It's hard to believe that one year ago, one of my first blog posts was this one...about our fourth of July weekend! Since then, the Langfords have another little one, we have moved, and we both have other jobs. Crazy what can happen in a year!!!!

This 4th of July weekend has been good so far, but I am looking forward to the end of it since we will go pick up Trissy! She has been staying with Grammie and Papaw in Baton Rouge and having all manner of fun and will probably not want to come home. I love that she has such wonderful grandparents who love her and want to spend time with her!

I still cried when we dropped her off though. People that have 2 and 3 kids tell me that feeling goes away eventually ;) Brian and I stayed pretty busy while she's been gone though...had girls day/guys day with the youth, went to a kid's birthday party, worked in the yard cleaning up some more trees, and had a cookout with some friends. NOT TO MENTION....our first movie theater movie since she was born- Toy Story 3!!! It was so so good :) We love pixar movies and this one doesn't disappoint. Also, it was nice to have some "couple time" since we aren't always good about making time for a date night.

The perfect way to round-out our weekend will be reuniting with Tris, swimming with the nieces and nephew, and getting to hang out with the fam in BR!

ps. We have eaten hamburgers for five days in a row. Can you say summer cookout month??

Canteloupe popsicles

2010-07-01T22:22:00.002-05:00

I failed epically at making Trissy's baby food myself, so now I'm trying to redeem myself by getting her to eat things like avocado, blueberries, mango, and tomatoes. But when that fails, I've decided I love summer cause we can try stuff like this....

Cantaloupe Popsicles!!

My cousin sent us this awesome popsicle freezie thing for Christmas and I have been so pumped to try it!

Wondering what a cantaloupe popsicle looks like? (fresh from the zoku!)

Or maybe what's is them??

(looks like Tristyn is here)

Don't worry folks- it's easy!

1-2 c. fresh cubed cantaloupe

1 c. orange juice

8oz. plain yogurt

Blend in food processor and pour into popsicle molds.

They really are so good. And they make my nutrition minor heart happy.

Plus they get high marks from the kiddo.

You can't get any better than that smile! :)

Happy Cantaloupe popsicling (and maybe other popsicle flavors coming soon to a blog near you??) and stay cool!

This is all that I can say...

2010-06-28T11:00:00.002-05:00

Lord I'm tired. So tired of walking.
And Lord I'm so alone.
Lord the dark is creeping in.
It's creeping up...to swallow me.
I think I'll stop...
and rest here awhile.

And didn't you see me crying?
And didn't you hear me call Your Name?
Was it You I gave my heart to?
Wish You'd remember where you set it down...

And this is all...this is all that I can say right now.
I know, I know it's not much.
And this is all that I can give.
That's my everything.

I didn't notice you were standing here.
I didn't know that was you holding me.
I didn't notice you were crying too.
I didn't know that was you washing my feet.

-David Crowder Band

This month has been one filled with school and being busy and feeling like my "to-do" list would never end. It has been filled with triumph and and questioning and many times feeling like I made the wrong decision. Did God lead me down this path for nothing? I don't think that I'm the first (nor will I be the last!) to question the WHY's of life.

Why is our story written a certain way?
Do You really turn sorrowful tragedy into surprising triumph?
Do You really know the plans you have for me?
Are those plans truly to prosper me and not do me harm? Then why does this not work out the way I planned?

I think it's ok to ask those questions. Especially in light of the hope that those questions will draw us ever-nearer to a God full of grace and mercy to meet our every need. And even if it's not us asking the questions at the time...we are always walking through life next to someone who is. So let us press on to give Him all that we have, all that we are, and all that we can say....even if it's not much.

"But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own." -Phil 3:12

Pool Party

2010-06-26T22:39:00.003-05:00

I've officially stopped checking the weather forecast now. It's just plain hot.

Hot enough that Trissy & I finally got Brian to blow up her little pool and had backyard pool party!

A waterhose is a fascinating invention....

Love this kid.

And in keeping with our "pool party" theme for the day...here's a cake I made for a joint birthday party at the pool! Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures at the actual party but we all had a blast.

And up close version of the birthday boy and girl! Only my second time to make fondant figures, and I was pleased with how they turned out. Now I just wish I could get some sort of magic formula for making my cakes smooth! The humidity killed me on these. :)

Parenting at it's Finest

2010-06-22T23:31:00.003-05:00

So now T-bird, B, and I are all back under one roof and back in our little summer routine. And because it's Wednesday, and because Tristyn had such a major meltdown in Wal-Mart that her daddy had to come pick her up so I could finish shopping, and because I think some of you might have "been there" at one point or another....

I thought I'd share my "trissy-isms." a.k.a things I never thought I'd say as a parent.

For instance: "If you take another bite, then you can have some more ketchup."

Or..."Tristyn, we don't hit people when they're on the potty."

(me to T when I was trying to use the bathroom....needless to say modesty goes out the window when you become a parent!)

And, "Tristyn, we don't stand on the coffee table unless we're bowling."

Which brings we to this video. And also brings me to what happens when I leave Brian and Trissy in a room together alone for five minutes.

Reporting Live

2010-06-19T21:40:00.004-05:00

For all two of you that were wondering, we've been in Orange Beach, AL for Student Life Camp with about 30 jr. high and high schools students for the past week. Tristyn went to "the farm" to spend time with Honey & Papa. I cried when she left and I'm pretty sure she didn't want to stay with us when they brought her back :)

We had a great time at camp and really had a wonderful group of kids. No one tried to sneak out or eat all of someone else's snacks, or even wear a two-piece. Essentially by Baptist standards, it was near perfect! But of course...it was called Student Life at the Beach. Hmmm....huge oil spill + beach = problems. And I was there to document it all. That's right folks...you heard it here first.

This was what greeted us at the beach everyday. We even checked the super-accurate Wikapedia to determine that red means going in the water is illegal! I did see one lady go in up to her knees and no lie, a police vehicle came bounding down the beach to tell her to get out.

We arrived on Sunday and I guess the crews hadn't been working over the weekend? (or working much at all...it's your call :) So it looked pretty bad on Sunday when we got there. But I will say that it looked better Monday-Wednesday...perhaps because President Obama was in town??

I like to think this is a clean-up boat. I have really no idea.

Sad day. All the tar that had washed up with the tide the night before.

Tar balls primping for their close-up!

Ok, if you normally go to Orange Beach or Gulf Shores in the summer, this shot will floor you!! I took these pictures at 4pm on a Sunday! The beach looks positively deserted compared to what is usually is.

You can see the boom far out there with some clean-up boats.

(note: if there is a more scientific name than "clean-up boats" please let me know)

More tar/oil from the tides.

On our first night there, we were eating dinner and looked down to see what looked like a giant snake on the beach!! Our condo of girls ran down and discovered this boom that had washed up. It was HUGE and heavy with water and oil. No clue where it was from. We asked a guy that was employed with the chair company and he said that his own company had pulled several big booms like this up because they couldn't get anyone out there to drag them up. I will say, though, that this one was gone the next day.

I made the girls in my condo take their picture with a portion of it. Hey...what else are youth leaders for?

Tar ball on toe. Thank goodness for the "tar wash" that was stationed at the end of each boardwalk to wash the tar off your feet.

Seeing it firsthand was really an eye-opening experience. It wasn't as bad as I imagined, but also wasn't good either. And the water had kind of an "old" smell to it....not a fresh, clean, saltwater smell. For the sake of all the people and businesses on the gulf coast, I hope and pray that this will get solved soon. Our way of life is definitely at stake.

And I'm definitely willing to do the cutting-edge reporting that brings the stories to you. (just like Geraldo!) This is Marylou, signing off.

Cupcakes and Cuties

2010-06-08T14:16:00.004-05:00

In the continuation of the Oswalt segment on fun, I wanted to share some cupcakes I did for Cohen's 2nd birthday party!! We also got to attend said party and had a blast. It was a swim party with all kinds of kiddie pools, sprinkler water slides, and a big mega water slide!

Here are the #2 and "C" cupcakes!

(working on changing to my macro function on the camera...can you tell?)

Some swimming bears! Actually Jace made Cohen's smash cake that also had the lifesaver bears on it which I thought was so cool! Jace did an awesome job with the smash cake...I'm thinking he has a future :)

"Happy Birthday Cohen!"

(written in edible ink....something about this one makes me think Dr. Suess?)

And for Cohen's special aunt- her very own cupcake!
(sorry....i'm too lazy to turn the pic)

And now, for the big day! My lens was a bit foggy since it was transitioning from the Louisiana A/C to the Louisiana outdoor humidity. Trissy with Mrs. Yvonne- such a sweet pic :)

There was also a kissing pic between Tristyn and Cohen, but I haven't uploaded it yet. Maybe I should note that it was Mrs. Yvonne's idea! Don't get angry, daddies :)

And it takes a village....to take the shoes off a child. Note that I am simply wielding the camera while I let everyone else do the work!

Tristyn clearly thinks this is a great idea for a party!!!

So does Stella!

check out that tummy....

Happiness is being in charge of the water hose. :)

And of course- "Mommeeee....dirty hands!"

We had so much fun celebrating Cohen and I am so thankful to Emily for asking me to do the cupcakes. I loved it! The Raney's are awesome party-throwers!

At long last!

2010-06-06T23:28:00.003-05:00

We have been trying to cram as much fun as possible into this past week since tomorrow we start into our "routine" of my grad school classes for the next 4-5 weeks! In fact, we have had so much fun that it will take several posts to tell :) We still had zoo passes since our failed zoo attempt before, so we made a visit to the birthplace of Tristyn Baylee Oswalt...otherwise known as the Big Easy.

After a quick stop at FBC Laplace to see some old friends, we finally made to Audubon Zoo....just as clouds were looming overhead. Still...Trissy sported her shades and took in the sights!

Here she is with daddy checking out the elephants!

Side note: The Wheel of Fortune crew was there filming some b-roll and *we think* that Pat and Vanna did a little segment too! They were all set up near the elephants, but we didn't stick around to see the action.

Here's our favorite attraction- alligators! Except this one didn't move....the. whole. time. T waved at the log mistaking it for another alligator. yup. Exciting day at the zoo.

In all actuality, the looming clouds opened up after about 20 good minutes. Thankfully, I was having a shining moment of mommy-preparedness that day and had packed us umbrellas and rain jackets! So, we put on our gear and kept trucking.

Check out those glasses pushed back on the head....this kid cracks me up.

We took a break from the worst of the rain at the Swamp Cafe and in the Louisiana reptile and white alligator area. We ate a yummy lunch and then T showed off her best wave to the white alligator while daddy looked on. In reality, she probably liked climbing the steps more than seeing the gator, but hey...who's counting?

One the few Trissy and mommy pics of the day...

Checking out the giraffe! Along with the black bears, they were her favorite.

"oooohhhhhh!"

Pointing at the wildebeest. "moo," she says. Oh well, we'll work more on animal

identification later.

Our petting zoo experience was not quite as rich as the Raney's and Pourciau's. I think after the rain, most of the staff had given up and we only got to see a snake. There was literally NO ONE else in the petting zoo when we went in (which you would usually think would be good) but in this case, it was giving the oppressed goats a chance to run around wild. No goat petting for us.

We did get close to this pot-bellied pig, who scared Trissy when he grunted really loud and looked like he might like to eat us for lunch.

Then we went on the Carousel and we were the only ones riding! It was really fun to watch Tristyn. She LOVED it!! She chose a Panda Bear (something about bears huh? :) and wanted to go again and again after she and daddy got off!

Here's a view of what our stroller looked like after the long day.

We let the peanut burn off any remaining energy on the very wet playground. By that point we were all pretty wet and disgusting and the Louisiana humidity had set in. But still managed a sweet smile :)

And quick slide or two!

And of course a wet, humid, sticky family self-portrait!

We had a wonderful first family day at the zoo, and want to go back again soon!! :)

You should see the other kid...

2010-06-02T22:52:00.002-05:00

OK, ok, I'm joking. But this really has been sweet T's eye for the last 36 hours. It is actually finally getting better tonight after much Benadryl, ice packs, and TLC!

We went out to eat Monday night and saw a mosquito on Trissy's eyelid in the car. So I crawled back to sit with her and "get" the mosquito. I got him, but not before he bit her on the eyelid, the side of the face, and the arm- twice! I am glad I got him because we were pretty mad at him for chomping on our kiddo.

arm bites- ouch!

She doesn't seem to be in any pain other than saying "boo boo" over and over :) Needless to say, we are prime candidates for a pediatric allergist and an extra large can of deet-free OFF!!

Jeeps, Ducks, Babies and other matters

2010-06-01T22:43:00.003-05:00

Tris and I packed up Friday and headed to Ruston- mainly for the baby shower of one of my good friends- but also to spend a long Memorial Day weekend in Ruston! With everything going on, we haven't been to Ruston in a few months. So of course, we got in plenty of Jeep rides!

Papa loved showing Tristyn "her" cows. And she equally loved saying "moo." At one point, she started pointing at cows and saying "mommee" which I took offense to until I realized that she was simply assigning those cows to me. "Mommee cows" and "Trissy cows." "Mooooo."

I promise that despite her expression in this picture, she loved it!

We also were witness to the Great Duck Release of 2010! What a treat! Papa brought home not-so-baby-ducks and released them onto the pond...but not without first having to build a shelter to guard from the elements (er, uh dog.)

Note how excited Blue (the dog) is to see the ducks! New playmates-ha!

But never to fear all you animal-rights activists out there...after the ducks were safely away from the crazy dog, they enjoyed swimming in their new pond, snuggling in their new hay, and being fed large amounts of corn and bread crumbs by a new admirer.

On Sunday, Honey & I took Tris to one of my favorite places (and a place I have spent countless hours at!) Lincoln Parish Park! She loved the playground and the swings. Honey and T played while mommy got in a run...whew, those hills are tough!

We also took an unforeseen dip in the lake. We walked down to the beach to "put our feet in" and Tristyn kept wanting to go out farther. So of course, being the super mommy that I am ;) I obliged. And spent the ride home in wet clothes sitting on a beach towel on the back seat. I'm beginning to think that adults also need to pack a bag with a change of clothes at all times. Adult diaper bag....here I come!

And the purpose for the weekend- sweet Janie's shower! Here are the Ruston girls (notorious :) minus Cam. Me, Sarah, Linz, and Janie. I love these girls and especially the fact that we can all pick right back up from where we left off whenever we see each other.

"It's a girl! " Such a cute cake!

Of course, Tristyn and Honey spent most of their time here- the staircase. Nothing fascinates a toddler faster than stairs. Well..cake my come in a close second if you're my toddler.

This is the probably the 2nd place they spent the most time - the garden! Wasn't it sweet of them to coordinate their outfits :)

And this, my friends, is a prime example of mommy-photography gone wrong. Awesome picture elements, no? But seem to be missing something??

School's Out for Summer

2010-05-29T22:22:00.003-05:00

I've been a little out the routine with blogging lately...mostly due to end-of-the-school-year festivities, trying to find a job, celebrating my birthday and watching insane amounts of tv finales. Whew.

It's tough but someone's gotta do it :)

We are now entering the season for which I changed careers and moved ourselves to Mississippi- summer. It is the main perk I have found so far of teaching! :) When I used to work in sales, I used to wonder...what other job do you get 3 months off?! (side note: teachers will tell you.. "it's really just 2 and then not even that because we have to go back to school so soon in August." funny. )

But it is all worth it to spend the summer with B and hanging out with this chick who loves her sunglasses!

Did I say something funny??

Looking back on this school year, I am really thankful for what I have learned this first year (when and when not to believe students who tell you they need to go to the bathroom being one thing.) I am also thankful for the opportunity to "ease into" the educational arena without having a class of my own. Otherwise, I think I might be writing currently to tell you I would be returning to marketing. ha!

Also the teachers at my school were so sweet and I really liked getting to know everyone (even if they didn't know what hummus was :) I hope I will get asked back to substitute there a lot next year and get to see everyone. It really is a community of people that care about others.

But now, Tristyn and I have lots of plans for the summer! (doesn't she look like she's posing for a magazine shoot or something?)

Hopefully, I'll get to share lots of blogging fun that involves visiting friends and family, swimming, the zoo, library time, eating new foods (I am determined to teach her to like things that Brian doesn't so that I have an ally!) and of course just relaxing and playing!

Stay tuned for all our summer fun :)

This message brought to you by Tristyn and the don't forget to wear your sunglasses even it's it's night outside campaign. It makes you look cooler. She says so.

Wordless Wednesday- Nice Hair!!!

2010-05-26T15:10:00.001-05:00

In Need

2010-05-17T14:29:00.002-05:00

I always feel like I am "in need" of something....more sleep, more time, more coffee, more money.

But right now, I am really in need of a job.

That's right folks. I quit my job in marketing to go back to school and become a teacher. Obviously since we moved in August/September, there were no jobs to be had for wannabe teachers. So I've been working as an assistant this year, getting experience and taking classes to get my certification.

However, in an interesting twist of circumstances the state of Mississippi has no money and has been cutting budgets and consequently teacher jobs.

I ALWAYS thought that when you were a teacher you would always be able to find a job! Wherever and whenever.

Turns out I was wrong.

In the last month or so, I have applied to eight schools, called 3 others, requested 18 transcripts for both undergrad and graduate work and I have written down at least 25 references. (please will you say nice things about me?)

But the prospects are looking dim. I have been thinking that if nothing comes up, I will try subbing in various schools and districts to try to get more experience and exposure. But even that thought is scary since I won't be guaranteed to work everyday....it will all be up to chance as far as who will ask me to come and how much I can get my name out. You'd think coming from someone who worked in full-commission sales this prospect wouldn't be scary! ha!

As Camille, so wonderfully reminded me today that "God is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine." He can provide for us and bear us up when things seem hard and when we wonder why our circumstances are the way they are. He will comfort us when we need comfort. He will encourage us when we need encouragement. He will provide!

It was really quite humbling to hear these wise words from her since she is in the midst of listing their house, caring for Henry, pregnant with their second baby and living states away from family. Let's just say she has a lot going on and a lot ways she trusts the Lord daily!

Surely I can also trust Him in this little job thing. So will you pray with me that God will provide the job that I need? That if it is His plan for me to sub next year that it will go smoothly and I will get asked often to make the amount of money we need to live? That this situation will help grow and increase my joy and trust in Him daily as I learn to trust more and more....

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

Parenthood

2010-05-12T12:51:00.005-05:00

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

Last night I was up around 3am with Tristyn. She doesn't cry often during the night anymore which probably makes me more likely to go check on her. You never know if she has dirty diaper, runny nose, or has had a bad dream.

It made me think about all the things we do (not just as moms!) as parents. I know Brian and I had never changed a diaper and frankly small children made me nervous. But the moment I held Tristyn, I knew that I had to care for her and give her my best. This thought is probably what drives parents to breastfeed, make their own baby food, take trips to Disneyworld, decide to stay home, or work several jobs to afford school.

All mothers are working mothers. ~Author Unknown

Many of my friends already have kids or are just starting to have children. We are all in various stages of life and financial stability. Some work full-time, part-time, or stay at home. But honestly, each job and each daily grind is tough! We talked in my Sunday school class this past week that if a woman got paid for all the things she does around the home (cooking, cleaning, laundry, and caring for children!) that she would be worth $160,000 a year! And that doesn't even include if she is employed outside the home!

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot

I only have one eighteen month old, but I can already vouch that all theories seem to be out :) Before Tristyn, I swore that I would never use snacks to quiet down my child, or let her use a pacifier for an extended period of time. ha. I also just KNEW that I would never fall asleep on the floor of her room while she was playing (whoops) or allow her to play with my phone. And OF COURSE, my child would NEVER throw a fit in Wal-Mart or refuse to listen.

Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children. ~Marilyn Penland

Sometimes, I think back to our life "pre-T" and wonder what we used to do :) Sure, we had lots of time to travel and go to movies and we needed our "alone-couple-time." But I love how much we laugh and goof off now. How we'll be totally silly just to make her laugh, or how we'll sing 89 verses of Old McDonald just to keep her entertained on long car rides. Maybe my favorite story ever is the night I came home from class to find Tristyn and Brian dancing and clapping to a Phil Collins DVD.

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. ~Chinese Proverb

As a parent, you wipe noses, wipe bottoms, wipe up spaghettios off your floor, and wipe up the crayon off of your chair. You learn that hugs and kisses are the best gifts and to take lots of pictures. You enjoy watching your kids learn and soak up the world and tell them that they're beautiful. All. The. Time. :)

And if you're me, you worry. You worry that they'll fall walking down stairs, that they're eating too little/too much, that they will be mean to other kids, or that they'll forget you when you go to work. (yes, all real worries from yours truly.)

I know a lot of these quotes are about moms, but I think they can apply to daddies too :) Though we all feel stressed and pulled in a million different directions and frustrated that the clean un-folded laundry has been sitting all wrinkled in the basket for 4 days now....(my life, yes) let's also not forget to stop and enjoy the bedtime stories, sticky hand prints and slobbery kisses.

Even at 3am (just please not again tonight Trissy!) I am so blessed to be a parent!

Appy Mommy Day

2010-05-10T12:52:00.005-05:00

According to Tristyn, yesterday was "Appy mommy day!" And it was the best :) We all cuddled in bed Sunday morning while I opened my crayon-covered cards. After church, we loaded up and headed up Baton Rouge where we spent the day with B's fam eating crawfish & shrimp, baked beans, fresh Louisiana strawberries, and plenty of dessert. In short- it was heaven!

Trissy loves playing with her cousins and had the best time chasing them around and trying to do whatever they did. We did the slide, swings, trampoline and went swimming. She was WORN OUT by the time we got her in the car around 8:30 to head home!

Here's Cohen taking her for a spin in the John Deere Gator.... notice she grabbed onto the "oh crap" handle (as Brian calls it) early on. Don't worry...Cohen wasn't going too fast though!

"Dude- are you sure you can drive this thing? "

I also made the infamous sugar cookies for Mother's Day. Since Tristyn wasn't napping on Saturday, I let her get into the action. She played with some cookie dough and "made her own" cookies. We baked them and then we "decorated" them with chocolate icing and sprinkles!

Please notice the large amount of green sprinkles on this plate! Yikes!

Nothing sweeter than a baby with chocolate all over her mouth :)

The verdict is in...it's good! I had to pry the can of sprinkles out of her gooey chocolaty hands. That's a girl after my own heart!

And here are the official Mother's Day cookies. I had to continually shoo Brian away from them until we arrived in Baton Rogue.

Purses & Hats

Trying out a heart cookie that I saw here

And "Who do we love? Mom! Mom!"

(Erin- can you help me understand how NOT to have my kitchen lights shine down on the cookie picture?? Geez. This photography stuff is hard!)

I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to be a mom and also (somedays) incredibly scared to have the charge of shaping another life. Anytime I think about the thing I want most for Tristyn it is always for her to know and love the Lord. I know that if we can help give her that, then we will have achieved more than all this world could ever offer!

I am also so thankful for such an amazing mom & mother-in-law. I know that not everyone has the gift of wonderful family and the opportunity to have them just a couple hours drive away. They love and support Brian & I faithfully and of course they are over the moon for Tristyn :) Both my mom and mother-in-law are givers who make you feel special and put themselves last behind everyone else's needs. I only hope that I can be the same one day and learn from these awesome women.

Hope everyone else had as wonderful of a "appy mommy day" as we did!

Weary Wednesday

2010-05-05T12:18:00.005-05:00

I can't even begin to nail down all the different things I've had running through my brain lately.

I don't know if anybody else experiences this, but I can do great for awhile...being happy with where I am...and then I can experience a serious season of discontent (otherwise known as a pity party!)

Usually it has something to do with me looking back on my "old life" and missing certain things about that...like lunches at Cafe Lebanon and walking to get coffee in the Quarter. I miss our friends that we made at LaPlace and our sweet neighbors next door. Or even weird things like feeling competent in my job, being in control of my day, putting in orders, going to sales meetings. Anything that is a far cry from my life now.

But what I fail to realize is that I've got it pretty good. If we hadn't moved to MS, I wouldn't have the time that I now have for Brian, Tristyn, and my family. I wouldn't have had the time to pursue being an advocate for Compassion. I would be less involved in our church (again, time issues.) I have a great house, a beautiful yard, a nice car and plenty of food to eat.

When I am in a season of discontent though, I rarely focus on these things. In fact, I find that I don't want to focus on blessings at all. I don't want to read the Word, or focus on Him....I WANT to wallow in my self-pity and self-interest.

The thing is, though, that I feel like I have always struggled with this in my adult life no matter where we've been. So clearly, it's not so much about my circumstances, but about my heart. Sometimes our Christian walk is mountain-top experiences of soaring joy and triumph....and some days it's about putting one foot in front of the other. I need to do the latter with patience and determination. Because when I slack off, that is exactly when Satan attacks on my mind and my heart.

I hesitate to share this with "blog land" since it's never fun to admit our shortcoming and struggles. But transparency gives me freedom as I freely admit and confess my own struggles, I am less and less likely to try to hide behind the facade of perfection.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. - Galatians 5:1

Happy 18 Months!!

2010-05-03T10:26:00.003-05:00

Happy Belated 18 months! Poor child. She is our one and only and I can't even get up a timely post about her 18 month mark. I already feel for our future other children who will undoubtedly have no pictures of themselves and never have birthdays acknowledged. :)

Wanna know the really sad reason I haven't posted yet? It's hard to admit. I feel like the worst parent ever. But I haven't taken many pictures of her lately to even use in post. There. I said. it. Go ahead and turn me in!

This sweet photo of her eating lunch at church was taken by our friend Celeste. I stole it off facebook....just keepin' it real people.

But enough about me....let's talk about T!! At eighteen (almost nineteen) months, you are able to sit for several minutes playing. You LOVE your table and chairs which used to be mommy's when she was little!

So cute! We have started having snack at our table and we like to color a lot. Thanks to the Raney's for the color wonder markers...they are the best invention since sliced bread! (especially since carrying around crayons can be detrimental to furniture and walls :)

Also, you are doing GREAT at feeding yourself. You love using your own fork and spoon...even though sometimes you still get frustrated and just use your fingers :) Favorite meals are anything with pasta, cheese, fruit, and (unfortunately) like your mommy you love sweets. Mommy often finds you conniving people at church into giving you extra cookies. boo.

You also have so much fun being outside. Since the weather has been nice lately, that is where we spend MOST of our time. We like to play with the cat next door, ride in our pink car, draw with sidewalk chalk, and blow bubbles. This is picture of you enjoying French Quarter Fest AND your first New Orleans snowball!

Right now, you can say about 10-15 different words and even more when prompted! You like to moo like a cow, bark like a dog, and run down the list of our family's names- "ammy" for Grammie, "papaw," "papa," and "ohnee" for honey. You also love to look for anyone that's not there...."mama go" or "dada go"when we leave the room or walk outside :)

Hopefully we will slow down enough in the next few months to take more pictures! I am so excited to get to spend most of the summer with you and continue to watch you learn and grow.

I love you Tristyn Baylee!!

So Long

2010-04-29T13:19:00.002-05:00

I blogged last week about attending the Beth Moore simulcast for her new book, So Long Insecurity. I haven't actually read the book, though I would like to. I just don't prioritize reading these days...in fact sadly enough I have quite the backlog of magazines and books living on my bedside table in hopes that they will be read on day.

Maybe I am insecure about not reading enough ? ;)

Anywho, so I really enjoyed the conference- maybe even more so since I had no idea what she was going to say. Beth Moore just seems so real and truly like she relies on the Lord to guide and direct her thoughts. Amazing!

She spoke about how we can overcome insecurity for ourselves, our daughters, and granddaughters! She also talked about how insecurity causes us to be focused on ourselves and then we can't fulfill God's purpose for us because we are too busy being self-absorbed....basically a form of pride! Wow.

I don't think that I am alone when I say that I can totally relate to this issue. I can totally internalize things like "Were they talking about me?" or "Is that person mad at me?" or "I look awful today" etc. etc. This keeps me focused on -hello- ME, instead of the Lord and what HE desires that I do with my life.

I think this is a big struggle for women, but also anyone who seems to struggle with being a people-pleaser (which I am.) I hope that I can begin to realize when I am being insecure and realize totally that my security- and the definition of why I TRULY AM comes not from what others think of me but from from God!

Think of what we could do and accomplish for HIM when our focus is removed from ourselves!

(ps... is it easy to be insecure when your loving husband tweets out about your snoring for the whole world to see. BUT based on my newfound security thanks to Beth and God I will claim.... er, uh triumph....in the snoring! yeah! )

Show Us Your Life- How We Met

2010-04-23T13:25:00.009-05:00

I really don't participate often in Kelly's Korner's Show us your life, mainly because I don't have anything creative to offer! :) But hello...everyone loves a good relationship story so I thought I'd share ours.

I grew up in a small town in Louisiana my entire life. I knew the same people, went to the same school and had the same friends. So no one was more surprised than me that I took a leap of faith and went to college in Texas! One of my friends had gone to Boys State with a guy who was going to Baylor- Brian Oswalt- yeah, sure...I'd look him up.

But, like many high-schoolers I was quite disillusioned and believed that the relationship I had been in for the past year would last when I went away to college. Uh, not quite. We'll just leave it at that :)

So, my freshman year at Baylor found me doing lots of studying, and most of my Friday nights were spent going to the SLC to work out and then hitting up the meal plan at the cafeteria. Ahhh...the life.

So, I decided to Rush when second semester rolled around (Baylor has delayed rush) mainly because of the whole "no friends" thing. Correction: I had Camille, but sensed she might be getting tired of me stalking her all the time :) That's when I met Ashley!

I started hanging out some with Ashley and a few other girls and started sitting with them in chapel once we were pledging. She dated an older Kappa Sig who also had older cute friends :) Enter- Brian. I saw him from afar for awhile and started kidding around with her about setting us up. Finally, one day we got to meet at the end of chapel. I swear that I remember what I was wearing, but Brian always says I was wearing something else so apparently it wasn't that life-changing on his part ;)

Then, we had Chi O pledge dance coming up where we had to ask dates. (sorry, I don't have more pics- I'm lazy!) I had spent the whole week working on decorations committee and getting no sleep, so by the time the date rolled around my throat was so sore I couldn't talk. Lucky for me, Brian had gotten sick that week too and lost his voice. We barely said anything on our first "official date" but I guess he had fun...we've been together pretty much ever since!

When I moved into my first apartment, Brian became our "apartment boyfriend" (see picture above) coming over to fix things, distract us from studying, eat our snacks, and in general possibly annoy my other roomies ;) Seriously though, I do appreciate them putting up with having a boy hanging around....because if we weren't hanging my apartment we were probably hanging at Brian's with Alan & Ashley (see above) since Brian and Alan lived together. Brian also helped corrupt me into staying up late and watching more tv. Thank goodness God knew what I needed in a guy because I totally benefited from lightening up a little :)

Here we are in deep concentration for our Supper Club pumpkin carving contest...

LSU pumpkin of course!

We were engaged between my junior and senior year (and Brian's senior year #1 & senior year #2-ha!) It was an awesome proposal which totally needs it own blog! We got engaged at Oak Alley Plantation which is seriously one of my favorite places because my grandmother used to own the bed & breakfast right next door! Brian even enlisted Erin to hide in the bushes and take pictures of the proposal and then she came out and took some shots after too. (one thing I remember is that I was mortified that on the day I got engaged I had on jeans and a white t-shirt! :)

Here we are at Baylor graduation- he graduated in May and I still had 2 classes left to take in summer school before I could graduate in August.

I was looking back at my college transcripts the other day, since I have to have them for grad school and saw that my senior spring semester I had the lowest grades of my entire college career. Yikes! Guess it had something to do with planning a wedding, trying to find a job, preparing for sales competition, trying to find a place to live, and still finding time to hang out with friends I wouldn't see very often after school.

I went on to take summer school in June, get married in July, moved to New Orleans and started my job July 30 and a month later hurricane Katrina hit!

Our lives have had ups, downs, and surprises but I wouldn't trade a thing and wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else!! (though I have threatened him if we move again anytime soon- ha!) Brian makes me laugh and loves me even though he knows everything about me. That is quite remarkable in itself :) He's a great daddy and I love working and helping him in ministry.

And finally- quick fact. Brian hasn't had a clean-shaven face since our wedding. Nice eh? Good thing I don't mind a goatee...

Double-down

2010-04-22T15:26:00.004-05:00

So I'm sure you've heard of this...KFC's new Double-down. And since people in Mississippi don't seem to think this is strange or over-caloric (I kid, kid) I needed to share it with you.

After all, what's not to love? Instead of a bun you use two fried chicken breasts as the outside and put two kinds of cheese, bacon, and mayo in the middle. I'm not totally sure what KFC's deal is with coming out with random food creations (anyone remember the mashed potato bowls a while back? ) but I will not be splurging for one of these anytime soon.

Personally, I'd rather waste my calories on these cinnamon rolls from Pioneer Woman!! ha!

Bakerella blogged about these this week and when both of those bloggers make a food, that automatically sends it into "must try" mode for me. So, I'm hoping to get to make them this weekend. I have disastrous luck with getting bread dough to rise though, so we'll see.

In other news, we have another busy weekend. Not that I'm complaining. It is all fun stuff....just a busy time of year! I signed up for Beth Moore's simulcast of her new book So Long Insecurity at our church and Brian also has a county-wide youth conference this weekend. Phew!

I am totally looking forward to Beth Moore and think it will be awesome. My mom is coming to watch T since our conferences are both all day Saturday and no child-care is provided at the church. Plus, Trissy spends all week at the church for school every day so I hate for her to spend all weekend there too! Such is the life of a minister's kid...she probably thinks she lives there anyway poor baby!!

I am so thankful for Tristyn to have grandparents who are close enough to help us out and watch T and of course SHE LOVES IT! She got to spend last weekend with Grammie & Papaw (B's parents) going to her big cousin's t-ball games, the zoo, and having an ICEE. I didn't think she was going to want to come home with us :) When she goes to my parents house, she can convince honey and papa to spend hours outside looking at the cows and Blue (their dog.) So while it is hard for us to be in ministry and have events where we must be away from her, I always realize that we are super blessed to have such awesome family to help us take care of her.

Finally, Happy Birthday Henry!! I love this kid's mom and soooo wish I could be there to crash his party tomorrow. And watch him smash cake into his face. That is totally the best part of any one-year-old birthday party! But most of all, I'm still on the campaign trail to bring them back south. To the land of fried food....and gravy. Probably the place that invented the double-down :)

HOW GREAT!

2010-04-19T10:24:00.006-05:00

I can even begin to express to you the feelings of excitement, awe, and gratitude at how GREAT our disciple now weekend was! And Brian and I both agreed at lunch- despite all the planning and prep that he and so many other had done....GOD was the author of the weekend and made things happen that were far above what we could ask or imagine.

Things were not looking so good earlier last week. On Monday, the band that had been booked had to cancel at the last minute. Yikes! But our speaker knew of a group in this area- Chris and Caleb- who were awesome AND could come play at the last minute. Score 1 for God.

Then we had a good surprise- our speaker Greg called to say that they were bringing more kids from their church. BUT we didn't have t-shirts for them and the company we used (see t-shirt design above) only had one operating machine and 2 days to pull off an extra order. Yikes again! But thankfully God pulled through again and the most precious box we've ever seen arrived Saturday morning full of all the shirts we needed for kids, leaders, and all those who put time into the weekend to be recognized.

Another unexpected surprise came with Greg's group- Checkers! He was a guy from seminary in New Orleans who had loved hip hop before he became a Christian...and carried his love of music into a Christian rap album. Crazy huh? So Saturday morning, he shared his testimony and rapped some for the kids. He was awesome!! Saturday night when Chris & Caleb played their concert, Checkers got up at the end and freestyled and rapped some more! The students LOVED it and once again Brian and I stood back in amazement and awe at how something we hadn't even planned for ended up making the weekend.

Are you getting the picture here? GOD IS GREAT.

Of course we had all the usual youth ministry d-now staples...lots of snacks, messy games complete with a "human hot dog bar" (aka a slip-n-slide with mayo, mustard, ketchup, chili, corn, and pickle relish- yummy :)

But the overall theme of the weekend- HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD- was definitely evident in how God moved to make everything awesome and how He worked in the lives of our students!

OUR SIN IS GREAT.

OUR NEED IS GREAT.

THANKFULLY, OUR GOD IS GREAT!

food blogging hopeful

2010-04-16T12:56:00.004-05:00

I have a vision somedays that my blog will turn into a true "food blog" like so many that I love to read! To be fair, I usually skip right over most of the "real" food recipes and go right to the baking, but still.

I keep adding to my sidebar and eventually will have to make it's own section for the baking/food blogs. If you get a chance, check out some of these for inspiration- they're seriously awesome!

The Pioneer Woman (hello, if you haven't visited her site, you might live under a rock...she is everywhere! The View, Good Morning America, Southern Living :)
Smitten Kitchen
Bake at 350
Bakerella
Dozen Flours

I wish that I had the time, fortitude, and caloric restraint to just try to bake about a million different things just to see how it would turn out. Or if I could just have my own business, then people could ask me for all sorts of different things they want to try- right? ;)

Anyway, I've been wanting to post a few of my cakes on here in the *hopes* that I can one day attain "food blog worthy" status ;) I think that first I will definitely have to hire a photographer since I am quite hopeless at taking pictures of anything I have made!

Just a recap- here's Tristyn's 1st birthday cake! I sooooo look forward to doing many more birthday cakes to come. It is just fun to me.

This cake was pink velvet with cream cheese icing and vanilla with cream cheese icing. I wish I had done the cupcake on top differently but at 1am, it seemed like a good idea. The cupcake topper served as her little smash cake and she loved it!

A cake done recently to celebrate Lauren & Jeremy's little girl arriving in June :) I was really happy with this cake considering it traveled from Brookhaven to Tyler, TX. It was yellow butter cake with chocolate filling and a buttercream icing. The stroller and other accents are fondant.

I don't' think I've ever posted this one before! This is a cake for a first birthday (duh.) I just did vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate accents. I made the bear out of fondant and brushed it with luster dust. I loved this cake (and her little smash cake!) except for my writing. I could stand to practice my writing a lot!

Cake for my amazing sis-in-law's birthday! She likes zebra print and the color orange. This was chocolate cake with Oreo buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream. I was happy with how this turned out and would love to experiment with zebra stripes more.

ELMO! This is the first cake order I ever got. It was for the 2nd birthday party of our friend's little boy. It was a pool party in May, so I was a tad worried about the effect of the heat on the buttercream. The top smash cake started cracking a little, but the bottom two were fine. I was really proud of how I did the fondant characters- it was so fun! What would I change about the cake though? At the time I was still experimenting so I wish the flavors and textures of the actual cake had been better.

AND if you're still reading, then you might like food blogs like me :) Sorry this has been such a long (and potentially boring) post, but it makes my heart happy to share my exploits and plot my next creation!!

A Public Service Announcement

2010-04-09T23:16:00.003-05:00

Dear parents out there,

You know you all do it. You think...."Sure, I can take my baby to such-and-such. They'll be FINE. I'm sure. It won't take too long."

Usually this list includes (but is not limited to) the grocery store, a nice restaurant, church, a haircut appointment, or a meeting you have to attend. (is anyone with me yet?)

But I am here to tell you this is a bad idea.

Why? Because I have fallen victim to such thinking recently, and I have lived (barely) to tell you that it's faulty. In other words- DON'T DO IT!!!

You see, this past Friday I had my annual doctor's checkup appointment in New Orleans. Yes, I still go to my doctor in New Orleans because I love her and I don't want to break up with her yet. Plus it's only once a year for now.

However, Brian had a bunch of work to do...(you see where this is going...) so I say, "sure, I can take her...she'll probably be ok."

This is mistake numero uno.

So, Brian picked her up from daycare WHERE SHE WAS TAKING A NAP (see mistake number 2 yet??) and loaded her in the car with me to head to New Orleans...during which trip she did not sleep a wink by the time we rolled up for our 3pm appointment. Lovely.

So, the waiting room is going great. She's sitting in her umbrella stroller playing with the buckles and being bribed with a snack. Chatting with the nurse- good. Doctor comes in and plays with her and shows her a cell phone. No problem! I'm now thinking I'm a pro at this.

Then, it's time for my actual exam.

For the sake of decorum, let's just say that if you ever think that you could successfully take your almost 18 month-old to your doctor's appointment you are wrong.

Your child will start bawling the minute the exam begins. And you may or may not end up holding your child, trying to distract her by singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" ALL while the doctor is giving you a pelvic exam.

(this has now officially topped the list as my most embarrassing moment ever. Only 3 days after the event can I even begin to admit that others might potentially find this a bit humorous. Okay, maybe hilarious. Which is the ONLY reason I am submitting it into the blogosphere. But seriously, if it were you...you would be mortified. And never go back to that doctor again. Ever ever. EVER.)

This has been a public service announcement. If you or someone you love may be thinking of trying this, please call for help today. Thank you.

The longest post ever- Easter weekend

2010-04-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

I promised, and pledge to deliver: the longest post ever about Easter.

My parents came in Thursday night and seriously we spent most of the weekend outside. The weather was so great!

While Brian and my dad worked on the shed - the eternal project, mom and I fooled around with the flowers, patio plants etc. I will have to take some more pictures but everything looks great right now! Aside from the pollen caking every surface that will stand still, the beds look great, mom brought me new herbs for my pots, we have fresh ferns on the balcony, and I just have a few more containers to fill to make our deck look fabulouso. :) I love Spring!

Saturday we headed down to Hammond to see some family and friends and also celebrate Papaw's birthday. Here's Tristyn doing her part to "lick" his card closed.

If you have a large party of people with kids- take this one recommendation. Sit outside! It was awesome weather, and made it so nice for the kids to get to run around and play. Here are the cousins (minus 4-month-old Corinne)

Ok, I know I'm biased but aren't they cute!? For once, I was so proud of myself that I actually had my camera on hand AND took pictures. A step in the right direction....

And the grandkids (minus poor 3rd child Corinne again, who was eating at the time) & Papaw. And carrot cake made by yours truly. I think it tasted good but lacked some in the appearance and form categories :)

Here's our attempt to take family Easter pictures. Of course this was after church since we can never all get up, get ready, and get to church all at the same time. To be fair, when your husband is in the ministry he has to be there unreasonably early.

Probably the reason that Tristyn was not interested in aforementioned Easter picture- the neighbor's cat.

Please excuse kitty's bottom, but I loved this picture of her pretty dress sitting in the grass!

Later, after a yummy lunch and a good nap for Tbird we had our own mini egg hunt. After a snack of course (please note pink snack bowl still in hand.)

Here she's perfecting her Easter egg "throw"

We had put puffs and yogurt melts inside the eggs, and when she first discovered this she looked at us like, "Mom, I don't think I should eat something I found OUTSIDE!?" But then of course she got over it and gobbled them all up. The end.

T's easter basket also contained some fun items like sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and some lawn care equipment. Perfect for our summer days! Here, I'm showing Tristyn just how serious and detailed sidewalk chalking can be.

"Hey! Enough pictures already!"

And Tristyn trying out her trusty rake. I can see lots of summer yard work in our future!

Strep Throat

2010-04-08T13:56:00.002-05:00

I am currently working on catching up and posting quite possibly the longest post ever about Easter. We had a great Easter weekend full of food, family and fun. But Monday, there was no denying. Anytime I beg for ICEES, and can't hardly swallow...well.... (by the way, Brian has been LOVING my new "need" for ICEES and offers to go get them anytime of the day!)

By Tuesday I had to take off work, spent most of my day between the couch, the doctor's office, and the pharmacy. It had traveled up to my ears and I really could sympathize with kids with ear infections.

Thankfully, after 2 days of rest (and watching Say Yes to the Dress and Food Network related content) I am back to "normal" (whatever THAT is! ha :)

Now I'm just praying that Brian and Tristyn don't get it and we can all stay well to enjoy this gorgeous springtime weather.

Easter Happies

2010-04-01T12:00:00.002-05:00

T-bird has her Easter party today at school. Not sure exactly what that entails for a group of 13-18 month-olds but at any rate, I made these. Apparently I have all this pent-up mommy creativity just waiting to explode for class parties :) ha!

To be fair, these aren't the ones I made...I forgot to take a picture before I sent them. But we did have carrot-shaped bags, and we did fill them with goldfish and tie them with green curly ribbon...we even put a little "Happy Easter" tag with a cute bunny on it attached. Tristyn's contribution to the whole project included gazing longingly at the super large box of goldfish and then finally making me cave in and give her a snack.

And here is the sweet Easter girl! Her first Easter (last year) she was sick (I'm sensing a theme here??) so hopefully this Easter will be better! This is what she wore for her class party today. Excuse the pictures. For more explanations on my photography skills (or lack thereof) see this post.

My parentals are coming to visit for the weekend and bringing CRAWFISH AND SHRIMP!!! I'm excited to see them and hang out but also excited to have some seafood. It's perfect weather here right now just to sit outside and peel crawfish and hang out!

Also for Easter, I'll be baking! (shocker!!) I'm looking forward to making our traditional Easter sugar cookies, a carrot cake with yummy cream cheese icing for my father-in-law's birthday, and trying my hand at these lemon-curd-filled angel food cakes. (from Southern Living of course!)

My dream job is to work for Southern Living. I don't know exactly what I would do there, but I imagine it would be something fabulous that involved drinking coffee while touring old plantation homes and learning the fine southern arts of gardening, decorating, and baking delicious food. That sounds like a reasonable career, right?

Hope you all have a beautiful Easter weekend celebrating our Risen Savior!

Follow-up

2010-03-31T14:27:00.004-05:00

This is for all of you out there who think that your kids might enjoy a pony ride right after they've just woken up from a nap :)

photos courtesy of Scarlett

I'm thankful she took pictures because I definitely wanted to capture this moment! Tristyn clearly DID NOT want to get on this pony at Stella's party, but after the guy convinced me that "once they got going" she would be fine...well, I hauled her up!

I think these pictures might be the best ones ever, and I can only thank Scarlett's amazing photography skills because seriously this was probably the only two seconds that Tbird wasn't crying. Poor kid with the pushy mom :)

All in all, the moral of the story is that Tristyn may share her mother's admiration (but not mastery) of horsemanship! That story may be forthcoming in future blog archives :)

Random & Picture-less

2010-03-29T14:41:00.010-05:00

I have officially decided that I am the world's worst at taking pictures. I try to terribly hard document our life's happenings and then just end up carrying my camera around with one or two blurry pictures of Tristyn's out-of-focus head. Maybe I will make this my summer resolution when we're out of school??

We had a nice weekend but it went by like a blur! I am looking forward to Easter and having some (hopefully) more quiet time hanging out. One of our weekend festivities (at which I took 2 horrible pictures that I refuse to share) was Stella's 2nd birthday!! It was so fun and good to see all our Laplace friends. This is a cute picture of Tristyn and Cohen that I stole off Emily's blog. (check it out for a full account of the fun!)

Also, future note to self: Tristyn does not care for pony rides only fifteen minutes after waking up. She does, however, love birthday cake at any time of the day :)

T-bird and Cohen were looking at Stella's new pet- baby bird. That poor duck got chased from here to kingdom come by kids at the party all day. I'm sure that Baby Bird was exhausted from all the birthday party fun!

We had planned to make more of a day out of our LaPlace trip, but funny sleeping schedules for T kind of made it a "fly-in" trip. Oh well, at least Tristyn and I got to share Cane's for dinner on our way home! Daddy was jealous he missed all the fun (he had to stay home due to lots of work!)

Other weekend festivities included watching The Blindside and Harry Potter: The half-blood prince. We haven't rented movies in FOR-EVER and it was nice just to sit and relax and watch a movie. I LOVED the Blindside and sniffled throughout. It was such a funny picture of the South and also what truly loving others means. If you haven't seen it- you totally should!!

I also made my own version of this yummy pizza we had when we visited Ashley & Alan- it is chicken, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella. yum!! I also made a plain pepperoni and some cheesy bread for B & T. I'm learning that in small towns, if they don't have it here you have to learn to make it! Maybe this will help expand my culinary repertoire :)

AND finally...after seeing Emily's on Saturday, I have decided that this is what I want for next Christmas (or birthday or whenever!) How cool! It's this handheld video camera by Kodak that allows you to shoot snippets as well as long portions of video (since T's not exactly school play age yet :) and can directly upload to the computer etc etc. Plus it's in HD! Cool huh? I am not usually impressed by technology but I liked this because it is small & compact and seems simple enough for me to use. Plus, it is less than 200 bones. So....fairly budget friendly too!

Maybe if I had this I would take videos and let Brian be in charge of taking the pics ;)

Happy Birthday Otniel!

2010-03-27T13:00:00.001-05:00

Well...makes sense that I am late recognizing our Compassion child's birthday since I am typically late on everything else!

His birthday was mid-March and to be honest I just totally forgot. We went ahead and sent a birthday gift late...hopefully it will be "better late than never."

Otniel is our Compassion kid that we sponsor and he turns 7 this year! His information says that he is in 1st grade but is "very bright" and helps out by gardening and doing other chores for his mom. He & his family live in Haiti, and we are pretty sure that they are doing great. They live in the mountainous part of the country in the North- far away from Port-Au-Prince where most of the destruction from the earthquake happened.

Maybe one day we will even get to meet Otniel! Some people only sponsor a kid for a few years, but the goal is to sponsor them up until age to go to university or start working so that they are well-equipped to go out and be productive adults. We enjoy writing letters and receiving letters and hopefully telling Tristyn as she grows up about her "brother in Christ" that is a small part of our family- he just lives in another country! :)

I think that sponsoring Otniel has really opened my eyes to the needs of others in other parts of the world. Whenever I start to feel "down" or worry about money for our family, I think about how much we really have! And how blessed we are to be able to help someone else- even the little bit that we do.