Whirlwind Weekend, Part II

Sunday morning, I did last minute packing for the second time in one weekend. This time there was an overnight bag for Matthew and I and another for Philip as we could be separating after church. It worked out well that our youth choir had a fund-raiser lunch at the church so we ate there, fed Philip too, and then handed him over (and all of his stuff!!) to our youth pastor Jason and his wife Julie for the next 24 hours. I was completely comfortable with them as our choice to keep him, but being our first overnight trip away from him, I was still a little hesistant. About 1:15pm, Matthew and I left church and headed to Asheville, NC.

We arrived at the Grove Park Inn around 2:30pm. I was so excited to see this grand old hotel of which I had heard great things, and it fulfilled my expectations and then some! Matthew and I were attending a Celebrate Your Marriage conference in the hotel as a belated 6th anniversary present to ourselves. I love conferences and thankfully Matthew will attend them because he knows how much it means to me!

We hurriedly checked-in, registered for the conference, ran up to our room to drop off the overnight back, and quickly back to the ballroom in which the conference has held. We made it back just as they were starting. The conference began with Jay and Laura Laffoon (husband & wife; authors and speakers) leading the group (probably about 500 people) in a few songs. You would recognize the secular pop music tunes, but Jay gave us new words to sing (i.e. "She's a brick house" became "This is God's house"). I was having a ball while Matthew on the other hand was remaining his cool, calm and collected self. Again, thank you for going with me, baby!

This first session ran until 4:30pm and focused on the question, "What is the purpose of marriage?" Jay and Laura's answer, "Becoming one: physically, emotionally and spiritually."
They focused on the Bible verses, "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one" (Mark 10:6-8).

Some key statements included:

• Am I thinking about my marriage as if it is a competition?
• What do I do every day to make my spouse a priority?
• It's not about him, and it's not about me. It's about us.
• God brought us together to create something better.
• Is the decision I'm making now going to make us more or less one?

View from our hotel room.

Next, we made a dinner reservation at The Blue Ridge Room (inside the hotel), and returned to our room for a very short 20 minute rest. The hotel is built into the side of a mountain so entering the main lobby we took the elevator down to our 8th floor room! It was hard to figure out at first, but if you ever visit the Grove Park Inn you'll understand. The hotel opened a world class spa in the last few years so on the way back to dinner, we walked past it just so I could dream about going in for a massage one day (I'll be sure my masseuse won't talk!).

Dinner was like from a dream itself. You can see what a view we had. The dinner was set up buffet style, but like something I had only seen on television. There were two rooms of food all in silver warming trays; porkloin with blackberry sauce, pecan-crusted trout, shrimp, mussels, pasta, balsamic vinegar marinated grilled vegetables, cheese, crackers, fruit, smoked fish, salads, bread, etc., etc., etc.!! And two tables of cakes, pies, ice cream and toppings! It was a little bit of heaven on earth. But thank the Lord we don't have to pay to get into heaven because that dinner sure took a good chunk from the checkbook!


Jeff Allen and Jay & Laura Laffoon.

By 6:30pm, we were walking back into the ballroom for the entertainment portion of the conference: stand-up comedian Jeff Allen. This was definitely Matthew's favorite part of the conference as he didn't stop laughing hardly at all. It was a great change to be able to enjoy a comedian without thinking, "Will this cross the line?"



We wandered around the hotel grounds for a short while before turning in for the night. We were both wiped out from our activity-filled weekend.

Monday morning, we packed and checked out of the room before picking up some milk and a danish in the lobby (it's not like any lobby you've ever seen, trust me!). The first session today began at 9:00am. Dr. Jim Henry, recently retired pastor of First Baptist Orlando, taught us how to see our spouse as "a beautiful piece of art created by God". He had us read, "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner (can be translated "fine china") and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers" (1 Peter 3:7). This verse he stated could be taken for wives toward their husbands as well. He told us wives to tell our husbands how much we admire them, and recommended that as couples each day we say "I love you" twice and share one 8 second kiss!

At 10:00am, Lisa Whelchel was introduced as our second speaker of the morning. I was excited to hear her speak as I remember her from my childhood. You might too if I say she starred as Blair on "The Facts of Life"! Lisa gave a short-version of her life story but mainly focused on meeting and marrying her husband. She and Steve were friends for several years as they both attended a prayer group at the home of Stormie Omartian (author of The Power of a Praying Wife, etc.), but complete opposites. She said in fact she had no romantic feelings toward him at all. Through several events that can only be explained as God-ordained, they did fall in love and married. The first year was great, but years 2-7 were horrible. They did have 3 children in 3 years but mainly their personalities made things impossible. She took on the controlling, decision-making role and he the passive, submissive role: the complete opposite of a Godly marriage. God worked in their lives and finally helped her to see that Steve was anointed to be head of their family and she must be his helpmate.

I really felt convicted to try to follow her example because I am actually quite impulsive and quick to forget that I should consult with Matthew about things. God has blessed me with a husband who sees things rationally more so than emotionally. He knows when I have too much on my plate, looks farther down the road than I care to, and reminds me "Why worry when you can't do anything about it anyway?" Thank you Lord for a spouse perfect just for me. Lisa said that we should trust in God and not our emotions. That is something Matthew displays in his life too, and I am trying to get better at it.

There was one last session titled "Understanding Saying I Do". Jay and Laura split it into three sections: "Saying I Do to the concept of marriage" (we have to believe that we are enough for each other, and never question God's gift for me), "Saying I Do to the circumstances of marriage (no circumstances should alter my commitment level to our marriage, marriage is not disposable), and "Saying I Do to the covenant of marriage." Jay illustrated the last of the three sections with the statement that if he dies before Laura, he wants her to place a sign reading "I Did!" on his chest in the coffin. As in, he did keep his covenant promise of marriage until death do us part.

We concluded our wonderful getaway with lunch at Fuddrucker's before a quick drive back to Spartanburg and our little munchkin.

New Link

I've added another link to my blog. Carrie is a friend from college and now she leads the exciting life of wife to Len (Matthew's college buddy) and mom to twins Gracie and Caroline. The girls are just a month older than Philip. We hope to meet them in person one day because I know seeing all three of them together would be a hoot!

Carrie, whenever I'm having a rough day with Philip, I think about you and your double dose of blessings from God!! They always look precious in the photos (even when crying!).

Whirlwind Weekend, Part I

Friday, I packed the car while Matthew was at work so we'd be ready to head out as soon as he got home. We were headed to Pickens for his friend's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. His buddy and co-worker David was getting married and we were very happy for him. God blessed David by bringing Rebekah into his life just a few years ago. They were set up on a blind date and it was on to the altar from there. We have enjoyed watching David count down the weeks and then days to his wedding with as much excitement as a child has about Christmas. It is quite exciting to watch a Godly couple eagerly anticipate the day which will begin their married lives.


Philip with Great Great Aunt Amy and Uncle Melvin (this photo was taken on New Year's Day and has been on the blog before)

It worked out quite well for Matthew and I that his great aunt Amy and uncle Melvin live just 10 minutes from the church at which David was getting married. After the rehearsal dinner (Mutt's BBQ! Yum!), we headed out into a thunderstorm with our Mapquest directions. Pickens backroads are hard to navigate at night not to mention the rain, but we arrived at Magnolia Estates around 9:30pm. This old house on 110 acres is a favorite of mine to visit. Amy was actually born in this house and it is filled with hundreds of things collected through the years. Philip had a hard time getting to sleep and only around 11:45pm did I take him temperature and realize it was 101.2! After a dose of Motrin, he finally settled down (allowing the rest of us to do the same) a little after midnight. Thankfully we all slept through the night.


Funny seeing a pack-n-play among antique furniture!


Philip wanders around his new surroundings.

Saturday was a great day! Amy found Philip playing in his pack-n-play around 7:30am and he happily followed her around until we got up around 8:00am. She prepared a great breakfast for us (half of Philip's grits and eggs were in his booster seat as usual) and then Matthew got ready for the day. He had to be at the church at 11:00am for pictures so we laid Philip down for a nap right before we left for me to drive him up there. Well, when I got back Amy said Philip had been fussing/crying the whole time I was gone (20 min.). Up he got out of bed for some more playing/exploring the house. I got ready for the wedding, laid him back down for his "morning" nap at 11:45am, ate lunch and left for the wedding at 12:55 (it started at 1:30pm).


The happy couple! Unfortunately zooming in on Rebekah and David cut Matthew out of the picture. He would be a few inches off screen to the right, but our pastor, Dr. Hank Williams, is the guy on the far right in the pink tie.

Moving along (I know you aren't interested in reading a novel), the wedding and reception were very sweet. And my hubby looked especially nice in his tuxedo! Arriving back at Amy's a little after 5:00pm, she said Philip woke up at 1:30pm, had lunch, met some cows with Melvin (they have 60+ cows!), and played a little with 3-year-old Tyler (Matthew's cousin's son). Back home after that. Great quick 24 hours in Pickens!

Trying again to post photos...

Let's see if Blogger is in a cooperative mood today.

Philip was excited to see that Grandma came for the Easter Egg Hunt too. Funny Philip. That's your Easter basket, not a hat, silly. (It was Matthew's Easter basket as a child too!)


It was nice sharing the morning with both of our moms. Philip loves his Nana and Grandma and they LOVE him!


"Pick up that egg, Philip," Daddy says. Philip thinks, "It's my naptime and you have me out here picking up eggs which aren't even hidden."

The following pictures are from Easter Sunday. We enjoyed a celebration of Jesus' resurrection at our morning Sunday School and church services and then met together for a family Easter lunch at my mother-in-law Ruth Ann's house. It was a great time of fellowship and the numbers keep increasing. Those in attendance were Ruth Ann, Matthew, me, Philip, Elise and Arden (Matthew' aunt and uncle), Grandma Mary (Matthew's Grandma), Mollie and Paul (Matthew's cousins), Michael (Mollie's fiance - 6 weeks and counting!!), and my parents Patty and Rich. God made holidays pretty easy for Matthew and I because when my parents moved from Greenville to Boiling Springs, they moved onto Ruth Ann's street. They live on either end of the road but within walking distance!


Here's Philip in his Easter clothes. No bow tie and suspenders for this dude. He's too cool for that.


Another egg hunt for Philip. This time the eggs were hidden by Matthew and Michael. And this time all the eggs are for Philip alone to find! What's inside this one?


Grandma Mary and Philip are off! Another egg to find.



Papa points Philip in the direction of another egg to find.



After much hard work, Philip reaps his reward. Here he is enjoying his first ever Marshmallow Peep!

Photos from Easter

Well, here you have it. Philip colors his rabbit picture on Daddy's lap amidst the crowd of happy children and parents ready for Easter.

Blogger is being incredibly slow this morning and I have a terribly unkept house. Gotta blog later.

Bummed about the video

Matthew and Mom both said they hit play on their computers and it says "Loading..." but does nothing. Matthew said it is because the video is a big file. I was so excited and now feel so let down. I suppose if you want to watch it, click play, go out and run some errands, come home and then watch the video!

Adding videos...

Well, here's my first video blog post! I probably won't be adding videos very often as it took forever to upload this short video to www.youtube.com. however, I noticed another blog with a video on it and thought it might be a cool addition to my blog now and then.

Just had to share this video as it makes me laugh. Philip definitely has a love of music and likes to get down with the radio. He loves to turn the volume all the way up too! However he scared himself yesterday by turning the volume all the way up before turning on the radio. When he hit the power button, he jumped back about a foot and my heart skipped a beat as it scared me too. Crazy boy.

Mom's Second Surgery

Mom and Dad met with her surgeon last Thursday. Her second surgery (to reverse the ileostomy bag) will be on Thursday, May 18th. Easy to remember by saying four days after Mother's Day. We will have a joyous yet anxious Mother's Day together this year. Her surgery will begin at 11:30am. Please keep Mom and Dad in your prayers as this date approaches. Mom is thinking very positively, but is still nervous due the length of stay and complications from her first surgery (it was 12 days if you've forgotten). Also, the recovery from this surgery won't be as extensive as it was from the first, but her body will be readjusting to expelling solid wastes like the rest of us so that may take some time to fine tune. (That was written very tastefully if I do say so myself. Maybe "tastefully" was the wrong word to use for the subject matter!) As before, I will keep you posted via this blog.

Easter Eggs at church

Saturday, we attended our church Easter Egg Hunt. It was pretty fun, but more importantly it is a great outreach event. Our church has a preschool program called Weekday Early Education. Many of the children come from unchurched families however they do attend activities such as this egg hunt. The hour-long event started with a craft, led into the Easter Story about Jesus' resurrection complete with illustrated pictures on the large screen projector and concluded with an outdoor egg hunt separated by ages. Philip was quite overwhelmed at first, but colored a bunny rabbit picture with help from Daddy. He wandered around during the story and picked up just a few eggs before becoming very clingy to Grandma in his overly-tired state. Unfortunately, the event began at 10:00am which is his morning nap time. Oh well, more fun next year!

As fellow bloggers know, it's not letting me load pictures. Photos to come soon!

Remember...

Easter is in two days, and yet until today I had not really thought about the true reason for it. Tomorrow is both our church Easter Egg Hunt and mine and Matthew's 6th wedding anniversary. Both are exciting events. Another year of marriage to a wonderful Christian man is a blessing for which I am so grateful. And of course, Matthew and I are equally blessed to be the parents of such a precious gift from the Lord as Philip is. We can't wait to see him trying his hand at making an Easter craft and stumbling around as we point to plastic eggs, "Put it in your basket!"

However neither event comes close to remembering the main picture. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died a horrific death and in doing so took away the sins of the world. What He went through leaves me speechless. Especially in thinking that He did die for the world but He would have endured it just the same if I were the only one needing salvation. He would have done it for you alone also. I just finished watching "The Passion of the Christ." I won't say watch it for who the director is or because of all the controversy it caused. I will say watch it if you would like because in today's society we are unfamiliar with the proceedings of a crucifixion. I came away from it with a deeper sense of my unworthiness for such grace and a desire to try in all circumstances to be more like Jesus. He did everything for us; the least I can do is my best for Him.

If you've seen the movie, you know what the last scene is... it's my favorite! Jesus died, but after three days He was resurrected. Brought back to life! Through His death and resurrection, we are assured eternal life after our death on earth if we have asked Him to be our Lord and Savior. If you have not done that yourself, please talk with someone you know who has or visit www.needhim.org.

ALL BOY!

We are having a lot of fun watching Philip's personality come out more and more each day. One strong part of it in being a boy is that he wants to explore everything and he doesn't care how dirty he has to get to do so. It's especially fun now that he is walking. Philip is a really quick learner too. If he's walking along and trips over something and falls down, he will rarely do it again. I look forward to future camping trips as this boy definitely has a God-given love for the outdoors!




Look at those dirty britches!


My mom's friend gave us this little bench since her granddaughter is too big for it now. Philip loves to climb up and sit on it. He even points to each of the animals in the back. We are working on learning the animals' sounds. Does anyone know what a giraffe sounds like? :)

Last Day of Spring Break

Last Friday, Philip and I met my mother-in-law Ruth Ann for lunch as it was the last day of her spring break week (she's a kindergarten assistant). We enjoyed our subs and Doritos and then headed outside for a few minutes of golf lessons.


Grandma Ruth Ann was keeping Philip for the afternoon as I joined our youth pastor's wife (and my friend) Julie and their daughters for a bowling outing with whichever youth would show up. Well, our youth attendance that day was 2! Yes, Cody and Mason, both 7th grade boys. It was still a really fun afternoon as I hadn't bowled in maybe 10 years! I actually bowled 2 strikes and a few spares! Go me! It was also great watching Sara Beth and Brittany bowl for the first time ever (Sara Beth got a few spares too! We were bowling with the side rails up!) and getting to know Cody and Mason.

Spring Break at the zoo

Our youth pastor Jason set up an activity each day for our students who didn't go anywhere for Spring Break. Great idea!! Yesterday, Philip and I joined the students for a trip to the zoo. It was nice to get out of the house, good for Philip to be around the students from church (he rarely is), and fun for me to form stronger friendships with them too.

Rokel, Sara Beth, Brittany, Julie (left to right). Rokel and Brittany are sweet girls I've gotten to know while chaperoning trips in the past. Julie and I are becoming great friends through church and being in BSF together.
Philip gets hugs from our youth pastor's daughters, Sara Beth and Brittany. If someone didn't know, they might think he was their little brother!


Here's Jason just before he started handing ice cubes to the great ape behind the fence. It was scary seeing the ape take the ice right from his hand. Guess the ape was hot that day too!



Philip enjoyed the Preschool Playarea at the zoo. This was his first springy-animal ride-on thing! What would you call those?


Look at that beauty! Yes, the cheetah in the background is nice too. I actually didn't realize how good this photo came out until I uploaded it to the computer.

More from Georgia

Here's a photo of my aunt and uncle's house.



They even wrote a welcome message in the side walk leading to the front door. They want to share Jesus with people even before coming into their home! What a testimony!



What happened little Philip? My mom has a hair crayon to cover her gray roots. I thought Philip might look cute with dark eyebrows. Aunt Cindy added to the look with a mustache and goatee. He looks a little more like Uncle Greg now.



Sitting on the porch, enjoying the day.



My cousin Courtney and Philip. I remember holding you, Courtney, when you were born and now you're holding my baby!

Weekend in Georgia

Last weekend, Philip and I rode along with my parents to visit my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Greg who live in northeast Atlanta. It was Mom's first out of town trip since having surgery so another great milestone. My aunt and uncle built this beautiful home themselves and moved in just last year. God has extremely blessed them because of their faithfulness to him. My uncle owns his own painting and roofing company, but there come times where there are no jobs in sight. He told me literally he and a coworker have been praying for another job and his pager will go off with someone calling with a job offer. That's working by faith! We had a great weekend eating, talking, visiting my cousin's new house, playing card games, watching King Kong, and sitting on the porch. All the while trying to take care of Philip who was on his best behavior most of the weekend.



Philip and his new buddy, Dixie. Philip has such a mature look about him, is he 2 already?




Here's Philip and Dixie playing.

I am blessed with a wonderful sleeper. My aunt had this pack 'n' play from when she kept children. When Philip is tired, just give him Lamby and down he goes. Sometimes with 5-10 minutes of crying but we don't think that's too bad when he sleeps 9-10 hours after that!

Day at the park with Nana

When Mom was recovering from surgery and she thought her life would never return to how it was, I would tell her, "One day you and I can take Philip to the park." That did encourage her and thank the Lord, that day came last Wednesday. We had a nice time together visiting the park as she gained more confidence being out in public again and Philip was acclimating himself as a "walker" at the park (he was only five months old the last time we took him).

Nana with Philip in the sandbox.


Philip sitting backwards in the baby swing so he can hold on to something.

Nana helping Philip up the steps.

Big Boy Philip

Yesterday when I checked Philip's diaper after his morning nap, it was completely dry. This posed a great opportunity to give Philip a first test run on the potty. I took off his diaper and plopped him on our toilet. I just held him under his arms and talked to him. It was just a no pressure time to play potty. But how excited I was when I looked behind him and saw yellow water!! Yeah Philip, you peepee-ed in the potty!! I was so happy, but he didn't exactly understand why Mommy was clapping and hugging him.

Well, today I thought we'd give it a shot again because again his diaper was not wet after his nap. I sat him up on the toilet and waited. He was looking at me like, "What am I doing, Mommy?" I was just about to turn the sink water on (you know that helps you go), when there comes the peepee down into the toilet. I again got excited and told Philip how proud I was of him. When I looked behind him to see if he was finished, to my surprise there was a poopy too! He's mastered pottying on his second day. Just kidding but I pray maybe this means he won't be too hard to potty train. We won't seriously focus on potty training full time for at least several more months (the poor boy can't even speak yet!), but Matthew agreed that it's ok for me to "practice" with him by sitting him on the toilet after his naps. This weekend we're going to buy a child potty so Philip can practice walking to it and sitting on it himself. I've read that training a child by making the activity fun makes all the difference. I'll let you know his progress as we practice pottying.