Day 2 pictures continued

ATL day 2

Saturday morning, we took the Marta to the Georgia Aquarium (along with everyone else in GA). The Marta was fun and I think the kids enjoyed it. There is a picture below of the MASSIVE escalator that took us to street level. The aquarium was everything we thought it would be and more. We saw tons of neat things including a glass tunnel where scuba divers and fish swam beside and above us. I think we all enjoyed the "Dolphin Tales" show the best and Preston actually leaned over to me during it and told me that he no longer wanted to be the president. He wanted to do "that" (swim with and train the dolphins). After the aquarium, we went to Hard Rock Cafe for a very late lunch and they sang happy birthday to me and brought me a sundae which the three kiddos enjoyed very much. :)

I promise, Preston is happy. He just has a hard time smiling for pictures all the sudden!

ATL day 1

Since we are wanting to buy a house later this year, we decided that we wouldn't do a BIG vacation this summer. We decided to go to Atlanta for a long weekend. It turned out that Greenville is about 2 hours from ATL so Joey, Liz, and Cates met us there on Friday night and spent the day with us on Saturday. In a last minute decision, Linda decided to go with us as well which we were very happy about. We got up early Friday morning and started driving so we could get there in time for the kids to play in the pool. After some swimming, J,L,and C arrived and we went to dinner at The Varsity. We had been warned by several that the food was not good, but you go for the experience. My family actually enjoyed it. Maybe we are just used to greasy food. :) After dinner, we drove to Stone Mountain where we watched most of the laser light show and enjoyed the nice breeze after a downpour on our way there.

Cosmetologist

Last Wednesday, I wasn't feeling well so we skipped church, ate a modge podge dinner, and I laid on the couch for most of the night. The kids were great and played upstairs in the playroom for a couple hours. It was a pretty quiet night. The kids had been going to VBS at Colonial all week and Thursday night was family night. We were sitting there eating our dinner and I kept noticing that Emily's bangs wouldn't stay in her bow. Let me rephrase that... her bangs that WERE the length of the rest of her hair. A lightbulb went off in my head and I calmly asked Emily if she had cut her hair. She replied with her normal, high pitched voice "yes". When we got home, I went upstairs to find a chunk of her bangs along with hair from Rapunzel, Arial, Tinker Bell, and Cinderella. Apparently, she had gotten bored Wednesday night and decided she would play cosmetologist. Thankfully, it's not that noticeable and doesn't look that bad. I don't think she will be cutting her hair anytime soon though. :)

3 John 1:4

Yesterday was Father's Day and it's a day Jeff, Preston, nor myself will ever forget. Jeff and the kids went to VBS (Jeff helped his Mom in recreation) at Colonial Baptist last week. Their long time Children's director and VBS coordinator had passed away last year making this VBS the first one in a long time without her. There were several memorial donations made in her honor and the church decided to give each child that attended a Bible in memory of Grady. Preston is very excited and proud of his new "Amazing Wonders Aviation" Bible and was reading out of it on the way home from Father's Day lunch and swimming at the Shands yesterday. He read Romans 3:23 out loud and I decided it was time to really sit down with him and talk. Over the last year, Preston has been asking questions about what it means to be a Christian. Jeff and I have done our best to answer them and help him along this journey, but wanted to make sure that he was fully ready. The conversation Preston and I had yesterday afternoon could not have been more special and led to him admitting that he was ready to ask Jesus to come into his heart, but was scared to get baptized. At Highpoint, they refer to baptism as "going public". They bring you in a few weeks before your scheduled baptism date and video your story. When the day comes for you to be baptized, you get in a tub and have all your family and friends gather around you and support you as your video is being played. Then your family member or friend baptizes you. Not really to our surprise, this terrified Preston. My sweet little boy is very shy and the thought of being in front of people with a spotlight on him was keeping him from making the most important decision of his life. Jeff and I talked to him last night before bed and told him that God tells us to be baptized and to be obedient to Him, he would need to be baptized, but he didn't have to do it today. Once we told him that, it was like a weight had been released and he was ready. Jeff led him through the sweetest prayer while Preston repeated it with full smiles and I cried. :) I am convinced that there is nothing more precious than watching your husband lead your child to Christ. When we dedicated Preston, our pastor gave us a letter to give to Preston on the day he accepts Christ. We were able to give that letter to Preston last night and he read it with such excitement. Brother David referenced Luke 15:10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Preston Scott Shands, your Mom and Dad are so happy that you have chosen to receive the greatest gift ever given to you. We pray that you will walk in the light of God every day and that you will tell everyone you know about the awesome God you now serve. We love you and are so happy to welcome you as our new brother in Christ. Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy. We are so undeserving. 3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

So Much on My Mind

Right now, my mind is full of emotion... NERVOUSNESS...I'm nervous and excited because Preston is taking a formal IQ test to see if he will be accepted into the Spotlight program for school. He asked us last night what we would do if he failed. We reassured him that there is no pass or fail for this and that we will be proud of him no matter what the outcome. I know he will do well and just pray that God will take away his nervousness. Goodness knows I have enough nervousness for the both of us right now! THANKFULNESS...Emily started showing signs of being sick Wednesday night and once I looked in her throat, I knew she had strep. I took her to the dr yesterday and sure enough, it was strep. We went to the store and got her prescription and a few other goodies (since she hadn't eaten very much in the last couple of days). She spent the day at work with me and watched movie after movie. I think she finally started feeling better about 2:00 and from that point on, she was like a different kid. Thankfully, she bounced back very quickly and we enjoyed spending the day together. I am also thankful for a job that allows me to bring my kids to work with me if need be. HURT...I recently started following the blog and status of a little girl from Covington, TN named Lucy. She's a beautiful little girl who has had to endure something no child or adult should have to endure. Cancer... She was diagnosed last February with Medulloblastoma and her Mom's blog on Tuesday said that Lucy's cancer is back and there is nothing they can do. She has very little time left this side of Heaven. As a Mom, I imagine Lucy's Mom (Kate) is feeling so much pain, hurt, question, denial, anger, and the list could go on. She said that some other Mothers who have walked down this path told her that she will have strength that is truly beyond anything humanly imaginable. That is what I am praying for her. I'm praying that God will pick Kate and her husband up and completely carry them during this time. I'm sure it is really hard for her to keep her faith knowing that God is taking her daughter so I'm praying that God will send her constant reminders that He has wonderful plans for Lucy's legacy. While praying all that, I'm also praying that God will perform a miracle and that Lucy will be 100% healed and healthy here on earth. Cancer is such an ugly disease and I believe it's one of Satan's greatest tools to try to bring people down. Please join me in praying for Lucy and her family. I follow their blog and it's posted to the right in case you want to read more about this sweet girl. EXCITEMENT...We leave for vacation in TWO weeks!! TWO WEEKS!!! We are going to Atlanta for a long weekend. We are going to visit with our friends DR and Brandi and we will see Joey, Liz, and Cates while we are there as well. After that, we are going to swim at the hotel, go to the Coca Cola museum (for FREE thanks to Lotti and her coke rewards caps), go to American Girl and Lego Land, eat LOTS, and just enjoy some family time. Another part of my excitement is that we are in the process of searching for our next house. We've been searching for several months, but we are just waiting on God to say "go". We don't have to be out of our current house until January 31st so we still have some time, but we are ready to be in our own house where we can start planting some roots. I guess that's about it right now. :)

Memorial Day 2012

I can honestly say that this Memorial Day ranks up there with one of the best weekends ever. Seriously, from the start on Friday afternoon to the end on Monday night, it was perfect. Jeff and the kids spent the day in the sun on Friday so by the time I got home from work, they were exhausted. I was feeling a little sad for some unknown reasons so my Mom sent us to Outback for dinner. Since everyone (except me) was tired, we decided we would go to an early dinner and then go to home for an early night. On the way home, I saw that a friend had 4 free tickets to Saturday night's Redbird game. We were planning on going with some friends Sunday night, but who can pass up FREE tickets?! We were standing outside waiting for our friend to bring the tickets and our neighbors came over. Their little girl played in the sprinkler with P and E and then we all decided to go to their house so the kids could paint. They painted and then jumped in the pool. While the kids played in the pool, the adults got to catch up and enjoy the nice weather. Saturday morning, we got to sleep in a little bit and then headed to Jeff's parents to swim. Linda fixed us lunch and we spent several hours in the pool. That night, we went to the Redbirds game. It was HOT, but thankfully we had GREAT seats and they were even in the shade. I've been to several Redbirds games, but this one was different. Preston watched the entire game. He watched how they stood when batting, how fast the pitcher threw, how the outfielders ran, etc. We ate a lot and I mean a lot! I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back, Preston had a little surprise. He had gotten a foul ball while I was gone. I didn't think there would be a chance for us to get one because we were behind the net, but we actually had 2 hit up our way. That was all it took for P to have a smile on his face for the rest of the night. The Redbirds fell short, but the fireworks made up for the loss. I tried to get a good picture of Emily's face, but it's pretty dark. I'll post it anyway because it was priceless. Sunday, we went to church and then went back to the Shands' for lunch and more swimming. That night, we all played the Wii for a while. Preston is always asking us to play, but it just seems like there isn't enough time. We let the kids sleep in our room Sunday night because they think it's about the coolest thing ever. Jeff and I did everything we could to make the room dark so we could all (including Ginger) sleep in the next morning. It worked... we all slept until 8:30! We got up and started getting the ribs and homemade peach ice cream ready to take over to the Shands'. Finally everything was ready around 12:30 and we headed back for more eating and swimming. We ended the night with me turning in one of my Mother's Day coupons and letting the kids painting my toenails. I feel exceptionally blessed that God chose Jeff, Preston, and Emily to be my family. I could spend every waking hour with them and still don't think it would be enough.