A Very Busy (and fun-filled) Weekend

One day (hopefully in the near future), I will have a laptop at my house that works and I will get to post pictures from Christmas and our snow days and all the other things we've been doing for the past month and a half.  For now though, our Dave Ramsey budget doesn't allow for a new computer purchase. :(

But, this weekend I made a few pictures with my phone so you will get at least a little of us!

So here's what we did...

Friday Night

Noah went to his dad's.

AnnaLauren went here with her GeGe - I do NOT love this place!

Tommy and I sat at home.  He "worked" on his work laptop and I decorated for a baby shower.

Saturday

AnnaLauren headed to her Grams to spend the night,Tommy headed out to get away from all the women and I threw a baby shower!

My sweet friend, Victoria, came over and we had a fabulous Woodland Themed Baby Shower, complete with pine cones, sunflowers and the cutest cakes you've ever seen!

This is one of the signs from the party.  So Cute!  I will try to do a complete post about this sweet and very budget friendly shower.

Saturday Night

After a little clean up.  Tommy and I got ready and had a little night out.

We went to a little place called The Stables for a cocktail and some fresh chicken strips.  Yum!  It's located is an alley downtown and actually did serve as a stable and carriage house way back in the day.

Then we went to see these guys!  They were never really on my radar before, but they were fantastic!  Seriously, two thumbs up!

Rascal Flatts

We had fun - see!  We even made a self-portrait!

 

After the show, we did the old stand by from back when we were single.  A run to Krystal!  I think this has been standard post-concert fare for us since before we even met.  Back in in high school days even!  But I question everything about you, if after a long night, that you don't love a Krystal Chik with Cheese. J/K :)

Sunday

We were losers and slept in on Sunday morning.  Being withour kiddos and staying out way too late will do that to you!  But, we should have been here...

But, the afternoon was devoted to football!

Our uber cool (way cooler than us) friends, the Warrens, had a few people over for a little Super Bowl party.  And although this year we weren't really pulling for one team over the other, I really liked seeing a new era of the Green Bay Packers withour Brett Favre.

We ate WAY too much though.  Just a partial menu was - 5 kinds of wings, hamburger sliders on hawaiian rolls. meatball sammies, cajun steamed shrimp, rotel cheese dip, peach cobbler and King Cake.

So fun!  I love restful weekends, but every now and then it's fun to go all out and have a non-stop weekend of fun.

Hope yours was fabulous too!

From Craziness to Surrender

I drive myself crazy a lot of the time.  I over-analyze things, do things the hard way and get bogged down in the general minutiae of life.  The even crazier thing is that I know I do it but sometimes I feel powerless to stop.  I feel the need to "handle" things.  I feel the need to exert control over everything that comes my way.  I HATE to delegate.  I HATE to give up control.

But, occasionally something comes along and proves to me that many things are completely beyond my control.  And sometimes these things aren't so great - pregnancy at age 17, divorce, health concerns, etc.  But sometimes, these things are so good and eye opening and soul touching that I know they are straight from Heaven.

Last night I had the honor of listening to the stories of a few phenomenal ladies at The Orchard Women's Night for January.  Most of my fabulous friends from small group met me there.  I am so blessed to have a group of girls who are all best friends to me.  Love you Amanda, Amy, Brandy, Shannon & Victoria! The theme was surrender and it resonated so strongly with me. 

Our first speaker talked about her recent adoption of a baby girl from China and how after raising three perfect biological children that God put it on her heart to adopt.  She and her husband took 5 years before being able to totally surrender to God's will and bring Sophie home.

The next speakers were the co-authors of the book A Cord of Three Strands, Sara Berry and Tricia Robbins.  I bought the book last night, so I have not read it.  However, just listening to their story of how bad times sometimes turn out not to be bad times but are instead hard times and how God can redeem us when we feel our most broken was wonderful.  I am including a link where you can read about and even order the book - here.  But, please know that I am not affiliated nor compensated in any way.  I just truly think that others may be moved the way I was.

Will I always surrender?  Probably not, I'm not there yet.  But will I think more?  Absolutely.

Have a great week!

Growing Deep

I've mentioned my awesome small group in several posts, so I thought you should get the opportunity to meet some of us...

Our leader Brandy and her husband Jamie

Brandy inspires me every week with her huge heart for Jesus.

Some of the rest of the crew...

Michael and Amanda

Their Beautiful Children

Chloe, Vaughn and Brodie

Corey & Jen

Although they are following their careers out of town next month, they'll always be part of the group.

Amy (and AnnaLauren)

Some fun stuff...

And lastly, yours truly, the sweaty photographer

My name is Nikki and Mondays are my favorite night of the week, but 93 degrees at 9:30 is craziness.