Day 1

Breakfast:

Breakfast Burrito-  Turkey sausage, cheese, egg, and potato mixture wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla

Salsa

Water with lemon

Snack:

Apple

Lunch:

Lemon, Rosemary Chicken left over from last night

Rice

Steamed broccoli

Lunch:

Glazed Porkchops

corn

greenbeans

I tried a new recipe tonight and it was delicious! Here is the recipe!

porckchops (boneless, or bone in)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you like things)

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. both salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mix brown sugar and spices together in a bowl. Rub chops with rub and set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil in oven proof pan over medium/high heat. Once oil is hot, place chops in pan and cook for 5 minutes on each side or until browned.

Once browned really well on each side, place pan in oven and continue to cook for 7-10 more minutes or until done.

When you take it out, it will have a glaze around the chops. Make sure you drag the chops through that before you put them on the plate! It's delicious!!!!!

Commitment

So today I am committing to eating healthy and exercising EVERYDAY. I will be posting a blog at the end of every day for 21 days to keep me accountable. 

Basically, eating wise, my goal is not to count calories or fat, but to eat what God made us to eat. Anything natural. No processed foods for me anymore!!!

And for my workouts, I will be switching up cardio and strength training. I want to be fit! Not "skinny." 

I know that things happen and I might not be able to work out everyday or eat perfect everyday but I feel like having a goal will help me change my lifestyle. Keeping a blog will definitely keep me accountable! 

6 Months

I can not believe it but our sweet, little angel turned 6 months a week ago! She is growing so fast and I feel like I can not keep up with her. When I finally feel like she is getting on a schedule, she changes and starts a whole new routine. I love watching her grow and learn. She loves to sit in her bouncy and be able to jump. Ever since she was a couple weeks old Savannah has always loved to stand on her feet. SO now that she is able to stand and bounce in her new bouncy, she just squeals in delight the whole time. 

She is doing pretty well at sitting up by herself too! She will still fall every now and then so I have to make sure there are a lot of pillows around.

Savannah LOVES bath time. She could spend hours playing in the bath tub. I make sure and take her out just before she turns wrinkly. :)

Savannah, Daddy and I could not imagine our life without you. You have brought so much to joy our lives. We pray for you everyday. And hope we give you everything you deserve. We love you and happy 6 months!

Homemade Baby Food!

Jonathon and I are not the organic type of people but when I started thinking about how we eat food that can stay in jars for months it kind of made me sick. And then thinking I would have to feed that to Savannah, it made me look into just making her food myself. It sounded easy, so my mom offered to get a baby food processor for me as a Christmas present.

After researching and reading reviews, the Baby Chef sounded like the best for not a lot of money.

It steams and processes the food in the same machine. I LOVE it!

It took me a couple of times to figure things out but here was my first  go at it.

SO now that it was made, the real test was if Savannah would like it. So I gave her some carrots and sweet potatoes.

The texture was definitely a little different but she liked it. Thank goodness!!!!

Now I am so excited to try out different recipes for her! :)

2012 Decisions

1. Break strongholds. At church yesterday one of our pastors spoke about how we need to make a decision to break strongholds in our lives that we have been living with. I have a few that I will be working on this year. Worry - Bad Attitude - Fear
2. Organize House. I have gathered some great ideas for getting my house organized this year off Pinterest and can not wait to get started!
3. Be more creative. Through blogging, actually doing the things I pin and cooking more.
4. Getting healthy. And STAYING healthy!

We're Growing!

8 Weeks

16 Weeks

22 Weeks

26 Weeks

30 Weeks

Seeking the Lion within the Lamb

Jesus IS our slain Lamb. But He is also called the Lion in Revelation.

"But one of the twenty-four elders said to me," Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and it's seven seals." (Rev. 5:5)

He is BOTH our Lion and our Lamb. Paul could not find anyone worthy to open the scroll. But one of the elders told him to look, the Lion within the Lamb was worthy.

Jesus comes to us as a lamb, slain. But has the mighty power of a lion. Not only did He have the power to tear open the seven seals but He also wants to tear open the seal over our hearts. Or our relative's, enemie's, neighbor's, friend's...

"Worthy is the Lamb,who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and STRENGTH and honor and glory and praise!"

I Am Still a Daughter.

"See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle..."- Zechariah 9:9

Gentle He comes. To nurture me and comfort me. As much as I am having to learn to become a mother, I am feeling like I am losing myself and who I am.

 "God where are you?"

 "I feel alone."

 Those are thoughts that go through my head. I hate those thoughts. Because I know God has never left me and I am know I am not alone. I want to find that love for my Father. Show me God where you are. I need you.

"And He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, EVERLASTING FATHER, Prince of Peace."- Isaiah 9:6

Always available, always present. Waiting on me to crawl into His lap and receive a love like no other. Jesus came down to do the will of the Father. To die for me. What an unconditional love that I do not even come close to deserving. And no one goes to the Father but through Jesus Christ.

I am still His daughter. No matter how many children I might be a mother to. :)

Weekend.

So for the last couple of weeks Jonathon and I had been planing to go to Atlanta to pick up everything we needed for Savannah's room. (The last few months we have been online all the time getting ideas.) I thought we were just going down for the day on Saturday. But no sweet, sweet husband told me last friday he had gotten us a room for Saturday night! I was beyond excited! Hysterical really. :) That meant we got to go eat at all our favorite restaurants!

Pregnant- so of course food is constantly on the mind.

So what was on the agenda?

Saturday morning, woke up and got on the road at 9, not as early as we would have liked but you never get started when you want to really. The first stop was a yummy Mexican restaurant a friend of mine, Cana, introduced to me last year when we took a girls trip, Taqueria del Sol.They have the best tacos in town, literally. We go there for lunch everytime now! Now that we were all full of energy from lunch we headed down the street to this place Now if any of you have been to this store you know what an undertaking it can be. :) Add having a list of about 25 things to that and carrying a basketball in your belly. AMUSING. But with a very encouraging husband we did it and came out with:

Now we will be doing a little work on the chair. We are going to paint it grey! SO excited!

After Ikea we were drained so we headed to the hotel for a nap. I thought we were just staying in a regular hotel also. But NO. My husband likes to do it big in Atlanta. We stayed at the Midtown W.

We loved these rooms. But out of this room or the rooms in the Buckhead W we like the Buckhead rooms better.

For dinner I got to pick where we went and I picked my absolute favorite restaurant I have ever been to in the world. Bold statement I know but I am comfortable with that.

It has a southwestern feel to it and is really neat on the inside. It is one of those places you can go to and order anything off their menu and it be one of the best meals of your life. I definitely recommend going here the next time you are in the ATL.

Sunday morning slept in, ordered our way over priced room service and got ready to head to Cb2.

We came out with

This big grey thing is a pouf ottoman. Really fun. :)

So at this point we are pretty much thinking we are done. Can't fit anything else in our car, so we head to the Lenox mall just to look around for a few minutes before heading home. WHen we go into and Crate and Barrel and find a few nic nac things:

Obviously yellow will be our accent color. :)

Then we were DONE.

And we jammed home to some Maroon 5!

I'm Back.

Alright. I am trying to hop back on the blogging wagon. How long do I think it will last this time?

Who knows.

BUT I hope this will be a daily journal for me. I have been driving myself crazy the past few weeks (perhaps months)

with my lazy tendencies. So I will try to be more productive with my time and share with the world my thoughts. Maybe,

just maybe, it will change someones life. But for right now a GOOD NIGHT is all your getting because I am tired!

30 Days

So I stole this from a friend of mines blog. I wanted to do it too! For the next 30 days these will be the topics of my blogs.

Day 01 -- Introduce yourself
Day 02 -- Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 -- Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 -- What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 -- Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 -- Your day, in 'great detail
Day 07 -- Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 – A moment, in great detail
Day 09 – Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 11 – Your siblings, in great detail
Day 12 – What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 – This week, in great detail
Day 14 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 – Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 – Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 – Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 – Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 – This month, in great detail
Day 21 – Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 – Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 – A first, in great detail
Day 26 – Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 – Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 – Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 – Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 – One last moment, in great detail

My Grace

Over this past weekend a friend of mine introduced a book to me that I just could not put down. (Sorry guys if my nose was in that book all weekend at the lake.) The name of the book is A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers. We all know Francine wrote Redeeming Love, and what an amazing book it is. I have read it 4 times. :) So when my friend showed me this book I knew it was going to be a great book. Little did I know that it would change my heart, mind, and spirit.

Throughout the book Francine covers the lives of 5 very important women of the bible. Some I knew very well (Mary, Jesus' mother, and Ruth), others I had heard of but not really known their story (Tamar, Bathsheba, and Rahab). She has read between the lines of scripture and interpreted it to what she imagined happened. Jesus said to seek and you will find the answers you need for life. The best way to find the truth is to look for yourself!

I have not finished the book. I have read Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth's story. And in each women's story there was one word that described that woman's life for me.

Tamar- Faith

Rahab- Patience

Ruth- Strength

This book is changing my life. How I perceive things. How I understand the bible. It amazes me how God is SO faithful. I have been aching for something to awaken my soul. God will always answer your prayer. listen and watch for the instrument He will be using. In my case it was a book and the Bible. No matter where we live or in what country, God's Word is truth. It is as relevant today as it was yesterday. In it I am finding a future and a hope.

Anyways this is getting pretty long so I will end it but I do intend on going deeper into how each of the stories has impacted my life in different ways.

LOVE!

Nothing Like Being an Aunt

A couple of months ago my family went to Panama City beach for what we thought would be a normal vacation. But it was not! :) The last day we were at the beach Nicole and Stuart delivered some exciting news...

They are pregnant! She is due January 13th.

I was so surprised! We were on the trip for 4 days and talked about babies the WHOLE time! And she never mentioned anything to make us think she might be pregnant. I could not believe it.

When the shock wore off it was an amazing feeling. To know that I will be having a niece or nephew made me realize that my sister and I are coming into a chapter of our lives that is so precious. It is the most exciting moment!

I love my sister and brother-in-law and I am so happy for the two of them. They deserve this so much. God has blessed them with the most amazing gift we could receive.

Well so then the next big step was finding out the sex of the baby. And just so everyone knows from day one I just KNEW it would be a boy. I have no idea why but that was just in the pit of me. So Nicole planned a dinner for the whole family to come to. She was going to bake a cake and the inside would be either pink or blue. :)

25 people showed up at O'Charley's to find out what Nicole and Stuart would be having.

Mom cut the cake and what color was it?

BLUE

I will be having a nephew! I am so excited! And I cant not wait to see what he will look like. Now we just need a name!!!

I'M BACK

Ok so it has been since last Christmas that I blogged but I am back!!! I think a great way to start off again is for a testimony from mine and Mrs. Bezet's class.

Right after P.E. our kindegarden class has Bible story time. This afternoon we learned how God walked everyday with Adam and Eve in the The Garden of Eden. We also learned that they sinned and that God no longer walked with them because they sinned and God could not fellowship with them anymore.

After Bible story was over a precious little girl named Raines quietly asked Mrs. Bezet how to get Jesus in your heart. Mrs. Bezet spoke to her in another room about asking God into her heart.

Raines came in and said that she is a Christain now!!!

God's grace is revealed to all! The innocense of children is so sweet. Raines asked us, "This means I need to be quiet in class now, uh?"

Precious.

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." Romans 8:16

Joys of Puppies

So came home from work one day and clearly in the bathroom where I leave Chloe in during the day while I am at work, I left the toilet paper out. She had some fun. :)

2 Days

Ok so I have been on Christmas break from working at the school and I go back Wednesday. I absolutely love working but I can not tell you how amazing the last two weeks off has been. To just be able to wake up at 7:30 and not have to go anywhere has been refreshing. The house has looked great because I have had time to spend on cleaning it everyday. I have gotten so many things done that I have needed to do in 4 months. And then I get Chloe and I have gotten to spend everyday with her and I just don't want to stop all this. HAHA I feel like I just had a baby and I am having to go back to work after maternity leave.

But it will be good to get back into the swing of these. Or more like reality. SO I have 2 days to get in everything else I wanted to do on my list. And here they are...

1. Dust/vaccuum through the whole house again.
2. Clean Pixie's room since she is not living with us anymore. :(
3. Maybe make that room into Chloe's new room.
4. Hang all our pictures and stuff on the walls. It has been 4 months and the walls are still empty...
5. and finally... Evaluate my life.

I want to sit down and evaluate everything in my life. But most importantly how my walk with God is progressing.

Pastor Chris Sunday talked about 5 things to do everyday that will make your life more successful. Doing 5 small things everyday. So I need to spend some time thinking about those 5 things and apply them to my everyday schedule. I am very excited about this.

The Hubby

I love him so much.

I prayed so my nights for him. I mean I used to spend hours and hours thinking about the man I would spend the rest of my life with. I committed to God that I would wait to date until I thought it was the one God had for me to marry. And never did I ever dream that the blessings he promised would come so soon or so great. God's word is so promising and faithful. It never returns void. Luke 1:45 says," Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished."

I remember meeting Jonathon, we were at The Basement about 4 years ago when it was at Life Church in Trussville. And the service had ended. Most of all the people had left except for the ones of us who helped take everything down and clean up. I was setting the church's chairs back up and I noticed a boy doing the same. He was so cute! :) But the thing that I remember the most about him at that moment was the heart I saw in him. A servant heart. Most guys want to be the outgoing, loud, popular one, that everyone sees. But the thing that most attracted me to Jonathon was he was always the one behind scenes serving and cleaning. Doing the stuff no one wanted to do. That is who I married 4 months ago.

You know I have heard so many times that, "The first year of marriage is the hardest." Well I am wondering when the "first year" will start for us. I mean by no means would I say our marriage is perfect but like Matt Pitt likes to say at The Basement," We are not prefect, just FORGIVEN." I think that has been our motto for our marriage as well. I am not going to go through all the things we have learned in the first few months of marriage. But I will say that the biggest thing we have come to realize is that neither one of us is perfect. As individuals we can not solely complete each other. I believe the reason our marriage has been so great is because we have kept our First Love our number one relationship. And that First Love is Christ. I can not give Jonathin 100% of what he needs or deserves. He can not give me what I 100% need. But if we know that and remember that, everything will work out. We can not depend on each other for total satisfaction because we don't have the ability to do that for each other. But God can. And he has.

I am so blessed to have Jonathon. He is so good to me. I just pray I am that to him.

My Christmas Present

Chloe was my wonderful Christmas gift from Jonathon. We got a rascal that is for sure. It is like we have a new infant baby. She wakes us up in the middle of the night, she eats every 30 minutes, then takes a nap every 2 hours. But we love everything about her.