Friday Morning Suggles

This is a common scene. Lorelai literally sleeps on top of CC!

Poor CC, we've had her for 2 months and you can still see her ribs. She was so neglected/ abused when we brought her home from the shelter. She has gained over 8 pounds in these 2 months, but I am hopeful she'll gain another 10 to 15 to really look healthy.

Family Photo

National Law Enforcement Memorial Service

My parents brought L downtown today to see her daddy at work. We had lunch and then it was back to the grind.

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

Phone Calls

Lorelai has learned my phone number and how to call me on her own. So she picks up the phone at her leisure from my parents house and calls me intermittently through out the day. She's a genius!

West TN Strawberry Festival

Lorelai has been to this festival for FIVE years in a row.  How is that even possible?!  It's the best tradition to kick off summer in West Tennessee!

Adios Juanald

One of our friends, Ronald, moved home to Pittsburg so we combined his going away party with Cinco de Mayo! This is a group shot of my best girl friends here, love this picture of us!

Tea with Miss TN

My mom, L, and I went to "Tea with Miss Tennessee" today. It was the cutest philanthropic event ever. The little girls all got crowns, books, and a jewelry kit and the women all got a tea time recipe book. Lunch for the ladies was chicken salad on croissants with mixed fruit and berries and the girls were served chicken tenders, goldfish and fruit. For dessert there was a cookie bar! Lorelai loved visiting with Miss Tennessee.

CC sleeping

Notice where her little paws are. Lorelai snuggled all the way into the CC-hug. Sweet baby.

Thirsty Thursday

Wordless-ish Wednesday

Our house...

is a very, very, very fine house... we've lived in it for FIVE years today! I've finally finished painting almost all the walls, whats left: the guest room, the bonus room, and the ceiling of the master bath (because I messed it up painting the walls). And, one day I still hope to put sod on the back hill. I guess that's the beauty of the journey... there are always projects to do and places to improve. It hasn't been that long that we've lived here in the grand scheme of life...but if these walls could talk they'd tell stories of laughter, tears, and love. Happy birthday, home!!



"As for me and my house, we shall serve the lord." Joshua 24:15

Parable of the Day

Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything? The professor asked.

"Yes sir", the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil". The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

31st Birthday

All in all it was a huge success with over 20 guests I was thrilled to ring in 31.  The older I am getting the more I am learing that it's all about the jourey and enjoying the ride!









Lorelai picked our party dresses.  She actually got hers first in Memphis with Meme and Grandpa, then when we were there for Easter bunny pictures she spotted the matching dress in my size (not exactly my size, I could barely breathe) and I HAD to get it, she wanted me to have it so much so that when I told her Mommy wasn't going to get it because it was expensive she quickly put down the things she was going to ask for so we would have enough money to get my dress to match hers! 

Part of Rusty's gift for me, he really went above and beyond in the gift department this year.  Lorelai picked a Lululemon skirt for me, Rusty made me a sign like the one at Bottle Tree in Oxford that says "Be Nice Or Leave" and then he made a Therapie pie throwing booth for me to throw pies at him!  It was really sweet and I loved it!  I also scored the bedspread I've been dying for from the Shabby Chic collection, and it is going to go perfectly with my bedroom makeover!

 

Blowing out 31 candles on top of my 31 cupcake cake!  Wearing Paul's beer hat!










Family group shot.

Furniture Progress

My long dresser is finished and in place, the drawers aren't ready yet but it looks great anyway! As soon as the glaze dries (hopefully by tomorrow) we can put the tv back on it! Thanks to Rusty for all his endless hours of sanding, stripping, and painting!

Endless Hours of Fun

Happy Caro

I haven't really figured out how to put into words the emptiness that arrived when Paul departed.  I haven't really stopped looking for him coming across the yard for dinner, I still look for his car when I pull up to the office, I still look to see if his lights are on when we pull into the neighborhood, I still make my class do the poses he liked best at yoga.  I haven't been back to boot camp at the gym or restarted the morning routine that we had planed for after he finished the half-marathon (though I am making myself go to morning gym class again starting next week), and I've deleted most of the dvr...it seems cruel that our regularly scheduled 'reality' programs are continuing without their funniest fan.   

In short, I miss my best friend.  There is a lump in my throat even as I type those words, maybe more words and stories will come later.  For now though, I'll be wearing his beer hat, and it's going to be an awesome cocktail hour as I toast to another year. Lorelai starts school this fall, I've already booked her amazing fifth birthday, I have a job I'm proud of, a home I'm cozy in, a fantastic family that loves me, and amazingly charismatic beautiful friends... cheers to 31.

Here is a picture of Paul on his 31st birthday... in his beer hat.  And, also a clip of him singing Happy Birthday to me last year, the title of the song as he saved it is simply "Happy Caro". 

Oh, and also here is a picture of Lorelai's first gold fish.  When the fish died, and Lorelai had fallen asleep, Paul hacked that little fish in half, filled two glasses of vodka and tossed each end of Nemo in a different glass, snapped the above picture, and then he shot his like a champ and handed me mine... when I hesitated, he said "if we are really best friends, you'll take the shot" and with that I drank my daughters first pet.  We'll be serving "THE BEST FRIEND SHOT" at my party tomorrow, vodka and a sweedish fish... because lets be honest, only the crazies drink dead goldfish anyway and it's no fun to be crazy alone. 

The menu...

My bday is tomorrow, YAY!

Best Job | P&G London 2012 Olympic Games Film

"Pound"

Lorelai loves playing pound! There are many versions, the most common is with Lorelai being the dog catcher and she puts all of her stuffed animals in CC's cage. I take turn after turn calling the pound asking what dogs are there and which ones are available for adoption...then when I come to the pound, I must ask a series of questions about which (stuffed) dogs bark, which ones pee on the floor, and most importantly which dogs are available for adoption that day, I also must pay for my dog and be checked out at the cash register before leaving the pound! Another common version of the game is rescuing CC from the pound. Tonight however, there was the cutest whimpering little puppy in the pound (calling out directions that I was the one supposed to adopt a dog and daddy was the dog catcher)! I'm slightly reluctant to post this on the Internet... here goes her chance at public office, but this is too fantastic to keep to myself!