Hairbows and Repairs

Tonight, Tommy and I came home from work to find a part of our garage ceiling bulging and looking like it might collapse.  After ripping out a small part of the ceiling, we realized the leak was coming from our shower.  Tommy inspected it and almost seemed excited as this would be our first "major home repair."  Crazy what gets a man excited! Haha!  Anyways, he realized it was just a small seal that needed replacing and got to work.  We made a trip to Home Depot and ate dinner at Shane's Rib Shack on our way.

When we got home, Tommy got to work on the repairs and I got to work on some hairbows.  I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought a HUGE supply of ribbon.  I use ribbon for everything and each roll was 50% off so I really got a good deal.  I started working on my hairbow creations for my little Lilly.  I only made 3 tonight, but I have plans for many more.  I made her a pink ladybug bow for Valentine's Day, a green bow for St. Patrick's Day, and a purple Disney Princess bow since she is in LOVE with all things "Princess."  I think they turned out really cute and I can't wait to snap some cute pics of little bit wearing them!  Happy Monday!

I need to try and find a cute princess crown for the purple bow to add to the middle and give it a little more pizazz!!!

My Amazing Mom

I have so much to update everyone on from January, but I want to devote this special post to my amazing mom.  In the next few days I will try to post pictures and let everyone know about our "snowcation", my 3 week sickness, and what we've been up to this month.

This past Thursday my mom made the ultimate sacrifice and donated a kidney to someone from her church.  About 7 months ago, she came to me and told me that she was planning on donating a kidney to someone in her church that needed a kidney transplant.  She felt as though God was leading her to do this. Naturally, I was immediately sick with worry and could not understand why she wanted to do this for someone that was not a family member.  However, we all know that when God is telling you to do something, it's probably in your best interest to listen.  My mom immediately felt peace about the situation and went to get tested and of course she was a match.  So we have been preparing and praying for the last 7 months about this big procedure.

I went down Wednesday night to spend the night at my parents house because we had to leave at 5 a.m. for Emory Hospital.  My Aunt Gini went with us as she was planning on staying in the hospital overnight with my mom.  As we arrived, I was finally introduced to the "recipient" of her kidney and his wife.  We all waited in the consultation room and were introduced to a husband and wife couple that had the same surgery 4 years ago and were now volunteers for the hospital.  They gave us lots of information about the surgery and what to expect afterwards.  The next thing I knew, they were sweeping my mom away for the surgery.  We all gathered up to pray over both my mom and the "recipient" and then I immediately lost it.  I mean this is my mom we are talking about.  She is my best friend and biggest supporter, and I just can't imagine the thought of not having her here in my "earthly" life.  I am so thankful that we are a Christian family and that we have faith in God and know that he leads our lives.  I sat anxiously waiting that morning for them to come out and tell me that she was going to be just fine.

Finally, the doctor came out with a big smile on her face and said that everything went great and that she had a beautiful kidney! HALLELUJAH!!!!  I was so relieved and then we continued to wait to here how the recipient would receive the kidney.  By the end of the day everything went just as God had planned.  The recipient took to mom's kidney wonderfully and they both started the recovery process.  My mom got to come home from the hospital yesterday and is still experiencing some pain but is healing nicely.  It will be a long process for both of them, but what an amazing story of how God used my mom to save someone's life! I couldn't be prouder to say that I have the best mom ever!!!

I took some pictures of my mom in the hospital, but she probably wouldn't want me posting those.  And just to show where her loyalities lie, the first thing she said when they wheeled her into the room was "There's my grandaughter Lilly," referring to Lilly's picture that we put up in her room.  She had a few pictures and cards and things that she wanted put up in her room.  Of course, she wanted to see her Lilly so we put up her picture and a little handprint that Lilly painted for her.  Tommy also brought her a beautiful bouquet of "pink lillies" for her room (this is one of the reasons I love my husband so much).  I'm so glad she is at home and recovering! Now, if I could just start feeling normal again everything would be great!

2010- Do It All Again!

So I thought I would recap the end of 2010 with pictures from every month to update everyone on my life up until this point.  I couldn't mention all the wonderful memories made and show the thousands of pictures taken, but these were some of the "highlights"!




January
As 2010 began, it was filled with a new beginning- Tommy and I as a married couple. We returned from our honeymoon and began settling in and organizing all the wedding gifts and recovering from all the madness. It was a time of rejuvenation.

February
February brought on Valentine’s Day, some family fun, as well as, my good friend Katie’s wedding and bachelorette party. Also, we received a bunch of snow that month and couldn’t resist snapping some pictures of the winter wonderland.




 

March

March was filled with lots of fun weekends with our little one, since we got to start keeping her for the entire weekend!!! We had lots of family fun.

April

April was jam packed with tons of great events and memories. I enjoyed a nice long Spring Break and Tommy and I attended the Season Opener for the Braves. Easter was at the beginning of the break and we enjoyed having all are family up for Easter weekend and did an Easter Egg Hunt for Lilly. Lilly was very spoiled by the Easter Bunny and we enjoyed attending Church on such a special day. We also celebrated our engagement anniversary by heading to the Melting Pot!! OMG was it yummy! We celebrated my birthday at the end of the month by heading to the Atlanta Fish Market with my parents and sister to celebrate! Some of the best seafood I have had in a long time!

May
I started preparing for graduation at SFHS! Cheerleading started back and I absolutely both my JV and Varsity squads this year. They were a great group from the start. I celebrated Mother’s Day with my mom by doing the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Atlanta Race. We do it every year and we always have so much and it’s great time for us to get to spend one-on-one time together! My sister also graduated from high school which was a major accomplishment!

June
We celebrated Father’s Day and Tommy got some great stuff. We spent A LOT of time at the pool and teaching Lilly how to swim! She loves the pool so much. We also went to the summer concerts at Sterling on the Lake. They are always so much fun!

July
This brought on our first entire week with Lilly!!! We had soooo much fun! We went to the pool everyday and painted toe nails, and had family movie nights. We would camp out in the living room and eat finger foods and watch a movie all together. We also celebrated Fourth of July with fireworks at Sterling on the Lake on Saturday night and on Fourth of July we had a huge party at our house and then went to watch fireworks! At the end of July, my amazing girlfriends from college through me a post-wedding “bachelorette” party! Since we moved up the wedding they weren’t able to attend the other bachelorette party thrown by my Atlanta friends and family. The weekend was called “Bex in the City” and we all had a wonderful time celebrating in Birmingham. I also attended UCA camp at UGA with the cheerleaders!! Peel banana, peel peel banana! My girls had fun and we actually won several of the competitions as well!

August
I prepared to head back to school and was actually excited about starting my new year. I redecorated my classroom and went with blue, black, white our school colors! Of course we had tons of polka-dots and zebra print! The rest of the month was spent preparing for our little one to turn 2! We did a Minnie Mouse themed party and Tommy and I actually put together a huge Minnie Mouse puzzle and had it framed for decoration and her room. Lilly racked up on tons of gifts but her definite favorites were her new “pink” kitchen and her princess table! I can barely keep her out of her “pink” kitchen now, she adores playing in it. We also celebrated Tommy's mom's birthday at the same time!  At the end of the month we did Lilly’s 2 year-old pictures and got some family shots done at the same time.

September

I kept pretty busy every Friday and Saturday with cheerleading all through the month of September. I had Friday Night Football games and Saturday competitions! My girls got Top 3 at all of their competitions and even one first place twice!

October

Our main focus in October was doing everything “fall.” We took Lilly to the Burt’s Pumpkin Patch up near Dawsonville! Gran, Pops, and Aunt Rachael also went with us and we all had a blast. She picked out lots of good pumpkins to paint, carve, and decorate with. We carved pumpkins at the house and celebrated Halloween at a Fall Festival at Tommy’s work and going trick-or-treating! Also in October we traveled to Valdosta and Thomasville to catch a Blazer’s game and hangout with my best friend Nicole and her husband Matt! It was great getting to see everyone and introduce Tommy to the old stomping grounds.

November

My Varisty squad made it to State and we won 3rd place out of 84 teams!! Whoo-Hoo!!!  We celebrated Thanksgiving and Tommy’s birthday. We went to my Aunt’s house for Thanksgiving and it was great spending time with all the cousins. We also went to a birthday party at Monkey Joe’s and it became Lilly’s new obsession. She had so much fun! We also decided to take her to ride the Pink Pig at Macy’s and get it in before the holiday season got to crazy.

December

December was loaded with tons of family events and wonderful Christmas season.  We bought a NINE foot tree and decorated the whole house.  Lilly even had her own pink tree in her bedroom.  Lilly got to visit Santa and tell him about the “bunch” of presents that she wanted.  We went to the Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands and Lilly LOVED seeing all the Christmas lights and the carnival at the end.  We celebrated with Tommy’s family and my family and made tons of rounds on Christmas day.  Lilly racked up some pretty sweet stuff, but her three favorite things were her Barbie and Barbie car, Dance Star Mickey, and her new easel.  She also got a Radio-Flyer pink tricycle that she loved.  We ended December by celebrating our one year “Paper” anniversary.  Tommy rented us a lake house at Lake Lanier Islands with a hot tub.  Oooh-la-la! : )  I got him a 4-game pack for the Braves in 2011 and he got me a wonderful massage which I used right before heading back to school.  New Year’s Eve we celebrated by going out to dinner and then spending a quiet night at home.  We had plans with friends but their daughter got sick and we didn’t want to expose Lilly to anything!  So we played Candyland and some other games and did sparklers outside.



It was an amazing year and I am truly blessed to have the most amazing family, friends, and school family!!