Happy, happy bath time

Let it go

Over on Without Wax, Pete Wilson wrote a post about striving to be a person who is fast to forgive. I have to say that while it was not what I wanted to hear, it was exactly what I needed to hear tonight. Those who know me will tell you that I am definitely not fast to forgive. I am the queen of holding on to things that I should have let go of years ago.

I don't know why I struggle to let things go. I choose to let things eat at me instead of just moving on and focusing on something else. I know that forgiveness isn't always an easy thing to accomplish, but I rarely even try. I think there's something about holding onto my indignation that makes me feel like I'm taking back a little control over a situation that didn't go as I had planned. It affects every relationship & friendship that I've ever had. I feel very certain that I would be a much happier, lighter person if I could just learn to let it go. I let myself get robbed of so much joy because I'm too busy focusing on who I'm mad at today.

So, going forward I am going to make the conscious decision to be fast to forgive. Or at least make a valiant effort...

Magic Couch

I planned on writing a great creative post today but you know how plans go...

Alaina was super fussy and a serious grump today. My in-laws came and visited for the afternoon and I cringed the entire time because my house is SUCH a disaster. I hate when people come to visit and my house is a mess. Not enough to actually clean it, mind you, but still.

I stayed up entirely too late last night and slept right through church this morning so I don't even have a great sermon to tell you about. Pretty much, this is a post about nothing in particular because I started the 365 day challenge and I can NOT fail on day 3.

I promise that I will have better content in the very near future to share with you.


Oh, and I have a magic, magic couch. In case you wanted to know...

Live, laugh, love

Today was a great day of fun, friends, & football. What could be better?

Like a breath of fresh air

Today has been a wonderful, lazy day. My friend Kristine is here from California and we spent the day just laughing and catching up. I forget how ridiculous and giddy we are until we are together again. She is an absolutely wonderful friend and I feel incredibly blessed to have her in my life.

During the time that Alaina was in the hospital, we were blown away by the love and generosity that was poured out on our little family. One of the most incredible things was done by Kris and her fiance Bryan. Because the majority of my maternity leave was eaten up by Alaina's NICU stay, I was only going to have a week or 2 home with her. She decided that it just wasn't acceptable that I only have a tiny amount of time with my child so she did what any good friend would do.

She threw us a party.

A ton of people that we have never met got together to celebrate my daughter. They donated money. They donated items to raffle off. They made us beautiful handmade gifts that we will cherish forever. A couple weeks after the party, I got a package with the presents and a check that enabled me to stay home for 5 weeks with my baby girl. It was one of the most incredible, generous things that anyone has ever done for us.

I can not express enough how grateful I am to her, and to all of the people that supported us during that season. You blessed us in ways that I can not even begin to describe.

Thank you.

365 day challenge

There are many areas of my life where I am steadfast and consistent. However, when it come to blogging, I'm a total flake. I am so bad about posting on a regular basis. It's gotten better since Alaina was born but I am still more sporadic than I want to be. I always intend to write more and I even have several posts that I've started and never quite gotten around to finishing. Somehow I manage to get distracted by just about anything else and then forget to post.

In an effort to change that, I'm joining love and marriage on her 365 day blogging challenge. Perhaps if I have to be accountable for my goal, I will actually reach this one! I won't promise that all of my posts will be deep and meaningful, but I will post something every day. So for those of you brave (or crazy) enough to read this, here goes nothing!

Happy Halloween & Game Day

Since I know several of you are Georgia fans, I'll get the game day portion out of the way first. Being the always fair person that I am, Alaina was house divided on Saturday. She wore a black shirt & Georgia socks with her Gators bib. Which she drooled ALL over.

I think she took it to heart when her daddy told her that, "Dawgs rule & Gators drool."

Her first Halloween was wonderful. We spent the evening over at the Emerson's and had such a great time. We took the girls trick-or-treating until it started to get cold and windy. Scotlon and I headed back to the house with Alaina while Hannah braved the elements in search of more candy. She was NOT going to let a little wind get in her way! I don't blame her a bit, by the way. I would have done the same during my trick-or-treating years.

I know that I am a wee bit biased but Alaina was the cutest thing ever. Don't you agree?

I hope that you all had a wonderful and very happy Halloween!