Women of Faith

This past weekend I was so thrilled to attend Women of Faith in Atlanta with about 30 other women from my church! I had not been going originally but a week before the event I received a phone call that someone had felt that I was supposed to go and had paid for my ticket and my room. I was beyond ecstatic! I counted down the days, knowing Thursday afternoon wasn't going to get here fast enough. We finally got on the road about 7:30 Thursday night! Once we got to Atlanta our roommates had already checked in so we just joined them in our room and sat up talking until we finally decided we had to go to bed or we weren't going to be able to enjoy the next day.

Friday we attended the pre-conference stuff which was beyond fabulous! I had a hard time deciding who was my favorite....I loved Patsi Clairmont and Andy Andrews! I don't even know how to describe it to you....you just have to go. Friday evening we were able to enjoy a short concert by Stephen Curtis Chapman and his 2 sons. We also heard MaryBeth Chapman talk about the loss of their daughter Maria. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Saturday was more wonderful talks by some great women and to top it off we got to hear Mandisa who was on American Idol a few years ago (she didn't win but is a fabulous singer). We also got to hear Anita Renfrow perform some of her hilarious retakes on songs. If you don't know who I am talking about head on over to youtube and look her up. (A Real) Love Story is my all-time favorite!

I was sad to see the conference come to an end. All ready very excited for next year! We ended our weekend by 24 of the 30 women having dinner together at Longhorns before getting on the road to head home.

Our preacher's wife has already purchased tickets for next year and I can't wait!

Taylor's newly painted bedroom furniture!

Over the past week or so I have been working on spray painting Taylor's white wicker furniture a beautiful Rich Plum. At my sister's house Taylor has her own room (can you say spoiled) and my sister had painted a piece of wicker furniture this same color and it looked great so I decided to do all 3 of Taylor's pieces. It took many coats of paint and many trips to local Walmarts to purchase the paint. It must not be a very popular b/c I was only able to purchase 5 cans at one store and 3 at another. It wasn't enough to finish it....the white was really hard to cover, I had to spray both the outside and the inside of each drawer. While we were in Halls (the other side of Knoxville) for H2H I stopped in that Walmart and was able to snag 2 more cans :) Today I finished the nightstand. We got all 3 pieces back in her room this evening and it looks so good. The lighting wasn't the best so one of the pieces looks a little funny but in real life it looks great! Taylor is so pleased of her "new" furniture :) It looks great with her other furniture and her bedding! Her room definitely has that "tween" look to it!

The dresser


The nightstand


The headboard with her cute bedding!

Weekend at The Wilderness

This past weekend we were able to enjoy going to The Wilderness Lodge again. This is one of the kids favorite places to go. We were excited b/c when we went in May the outside area wasn't open yet. This was the last weekend it was going to be open for the season so we jumped at the chance to go. We were happy to be able to take the Tomlinson's again as well as Amy's niece, Kaleigh! Taylor loves getting to hang out with Kaleigh whenever possible. The Lazy River outside was fabulous though a little chilly :)

The girls sporting puppy dog ears!


The lone "boy" of the group (unless you count Matt and Aaron)


Sweet Coy


Clara loved the wave pool


Taylor and Kaleigh loved the Lazy River


As did Aaron and Clara


And Caleb and Aaron


Madison and Coy enjoyed the slide in the kiddie area




Aaron reenacting a scene from Flashdance :)


All of us on the Lazy River


Coy "swimming"


Taylor and Kaleigh body surfing




Caleb, Madison, Clara and Coy posing for a cute picture!


We had a blast and can't wait to go back again!

Busy, Busy and Busy!

We have been so busy since school started! I am ready for things to slow down a bit. I have been working 40 hr work weeks the past 3 weeks and am exhausted! I wasn't cut out for the work force! LOL 2 weeks of in-service/getting my room ready, subbing in the Fantastic 5's class 3 days, subbing in the 2's class 2 days and working my normal days has been rough. I am not sure how moms who work full-time and have a family do it! I haven't had time for blogging, barely have time for facebook. I fall into bed at night and am asleep in minutes!

We did enjoy the Labor Day Holiday Weekend though. We started off the weekend at Hope and Chris' lake house...sadly Matt didn't get to join us as he had a "thing" on Base that he was taking part in. We enjoyed playing lots of "Bananagrams" and just being lazy. We did head over to the marina and play on the rocks and playground. We had planned to go canoeing but since Matt didn't join us we ended up not (Hope and I briefly entertained the thought of putting all 3 kids in a canoe and taking them by ourselves while Chris watched football but quickly nixed that idea much to Taylor's disappointment). We promised her we would do it next time. Sadly I have no pictures of the weekend b/c I forgot my camera and the few pictures that got taken are on Hope's camera.

We got home late Sunday afternoon and had planned to go to Boomsday with the Aaron, Amy, Clara and Coy but ended up not b/c of how late it was. We did head over to their house where the kids enjoyed being pulled around the yard/field on the trailer. We also had our 1st bonfire of the season complete with hot dogs and s'mores for dessert! It was a great night for a bonfire. Monday was spent being lazy...the kids enjoyed playing outside in the gorgeous weather while Matt and Aaron did manly things like yard work and cutting down a bathroom door (which wouldn't close) and a bedroom door that dragged on the floor and was leaving a huge mark on our hardwood floors. Sadly I took no pictures of the manly work being done :(

All the kiddies enjoying a ride!


Taylor cooking her own dinner!


Enjoying the 1st bonfire of the season


My sweet little boy!


Our weeks are going to be pretty busy for awhile....Taylor has tennis on Thursdays and Girl Scouts on Fridays. We are trying to find Caleb something to do (tennis, karate, basketball) and Madison can't decide what she wants to do (gymnastics or ballet). Oh yeah, football season has started so I don't see much of Matt in the evenings....guess that is a preview of what my life will be like in a few months :) We are looking forward to a little R&R at The Wilderness this weekend though!