You've heard of No Shave November right? It's when guys grow out their beards and don't shave for the month of November. It's a cultural phenomenon. I don't know where it started.
Along those same lines, I think the blog {inadvertently} participated in No Blog November.
I had lots of stuff going on in my mind. And in my life. I mean, not like, life-changing things. I was just busy. And sick. And tired. And evidently couldn't find it in myself to peck out a post. Sad.
If you were wondering about my test. I delayed it. 'Twas no way I would have been ready. New test date is January 14th. Which, is actually sister's birthday. So...I'm giving myself a present of taking a two hour test that kind of determines if I'll be able to teach the rest of my life. Or something.
No biggie.
;)
The nieces came for Thanksgiving. And I know I've said it before, but I seriously. SERIOUSLY. HAVE THE CUTEST NIECES EVER. Proof below.
And before I inundate you with pictures, can I just say Instagram has to be one of the best things ever invented. Ever.
Just a reminder, Anna Woods is the oldest, she'll be 6 in a month. And is in kindergarten. And can READ! Little girl read me a story about a pumpkin and I was just like..."Can you stop growing up? PLEASE?" Also...we decided after seeing one of these pictures that she's basically The Godfather. Except, the playground kind. Or the kindergarten kind. She cracks me up.
Little brown-haired chick is Hadley. She's 3 1/2...there are three pictures of her on the couch that I feel should be in like a baby GQ magazine or something. And what's funny is Mary Neal took those pictures. Ha.
Smaller blonde-haired chica is Mary Neal. And she's actually almost a whole month younger than Hadley, even though she's a head taller.
I loved getting to play with each of them separately for a tiny bit. They are all so completely different. And I'm pretty sure they're going to be the best freakin' friends for their entire life. And that makes my heart so abundantly happy. You have no idea. So without further delay. Proof they're the cutest.
And this view every morning. {Apart from the three that it rained.}
The complete lack of cell service and the whole watching kids thing kind of kept me from doing anything that took more than 2 minutes. Which means my poor Google Reader has 91 unread posts in it.
91.
I think it may just attack me.
:-/
But I have some exciting news tomorrow. :)
Yay for that!
Hope y'all have had a fantabulous two weeks.
Full of fun things and sunshine.
P.S. I normally take WAY too many pictures. An entire 7 days at the beach?
I took 10.
10!
Ridiculous! I think this may be an all-time low.
Or actually that's probably the time I went to Disney World and took two pictures.
I'm guest blogging over at the Sister's today. Can I just say I feel ridiculously important when I type that? Like I belong at (in)courage or...some other ultra-cool place. :) Here are a few snapshots from my weekend and Monday. I'm still in love with the Hipstamatic app.
Love. It. :) Enjoy!
I LOVE THIS PICTURE. Is that...bad? In Downtown Tupelo? Yes. Crazy cool.
This one too. The Firestone never looked so cool. Ha, get it? Cool? Fire? :) Sorry.
All Hadley wanted for dinner was CAKE! It was Nana's birthday last Thursday and this is some leftover cake. What's funny is she really only ate the whipped icing. She picked it off...and then ate the cake when Nana made her :)
SUH-WEEEET! Ugh, I just melt when I see that face! :)
Hope y'all have had an awesome start to your week! :D
This is going to be short because I MUST go to Wal-Mart and clean my house before 12 women invade it for Bible study tomorrow night. The best way I know to keep it short? Bullets. But not the shoot from a gun kind...
- AW's visit last week was absolutely fantastical and full of fun times. I'll recap more when I'm not hurried but here's an actual conversation between AW and Leah (my oldest sister, AW's aunt).
Anna : I like my hair straight. Leah : Really?!?! I love your hair curly. Anna : Well I don't. Leah : Really?!?! Anna : And...I don't like it blonde. Leah : What?!?! That's just crazy. Anna : I know...I am a little crazy.
I'm sorry...if you aren't laughing by the end of that...you have no sense of humor whatsoever.
- Vacation Bible School wiped me SLAP. DAB. OUT. I can't remember if I've told you but I had the 1st and 2nd graders and they are CUH-RAZY. In a completely normal way of course. :) Anyway, we do this thing called the penny parade and you're supposed to bring just pennies. Sarah and Margaret were the penny parade 'projects' and those kids raised over $1,700 in pennies in 4 nights. Is that not unbelievable?
In case you aren't sure, the answer is yes. It's quite unbelievable. Only God.
I put together a PowerPoint for the closing program and, not to brag or anything but it was the BEST VBS CLOSING PROGRAM POWERPOINT IN THE HISTORY OF MY CHURCH. That's a church member's description, not mine. Who am I to disagree?? ;) As soon as I figure out how to convert PP into a video...I'll share this piece of cinematic magic with you.
- I stopped by Mama and Daddy's to see Hadley, the other cutest niece on the planet and, to perhaps pick up something to eat because I didn't want to go to Wal-Mart hungry...the outcome is no bueno when I do that. And Mama had a surprise waiting on me! A couple of weeks ago my mom had asked Sarah and me to pick something out of this catalog that we like and I picked out this beach bag. It's way cute.
If you're thinking it's not cute...you have no sense of style. Plus, it's way cuter in person.
Anyway, so...I had picked the beach bag above out already and I couldn't limit my choices to just one, I needed backups. Obviously. So, I picked out these other fabulous bags and Mama said I have something else for you, but it's a birthday present. Y'all, my birthday isn't for another 4 months!!!! And she said, well, you can have it now, but you won't get anything for your birthday. I told her I'd take it now. (I'm sneaky and thinking maybe she'll forget that she already gave me a birthday present by the time December rolls around. ) Don't remind her. SO...I opened my eyes and Voila, there was the CUTEST little purse in her hands that I had forgotten I picked out!
Again...it's way cuter in person and I absolutely LOVE it. I'm transferring stuff out of my old purse before I go to Wal-Mart. UGH. Ridiculous amounts of cute.
The ONLY downside is the straps aren't very long so it's not an over-the-shoulder bag. Boo. But, I will sacrifice ease of use for cute things. I can be bought that way.
- I was sitting at lunch today and this cute boy at the table next to me was making eyes at me and flirting with me. His name was Jacoby but everyone that knows him calls him Coby. I really think we could have made something work.
If only he weren't 17 months old.
:)
- You know how I told you about that Brooke Fraser CD that I can't stop listening to? I seriously 'listened' to the YouTube video for 'Deciphering Me' while at work at least 20 times last week. Enjoy.
- Lastly...the sister leaves a month from today. What a sad way to end a post. I'm getting better at dealing with this. God's doing and acting in immeasurably bigger ways than I could convey.
After squalling during the first night of VBS' opening ceremonies, she sat there and behaved like she should tonight. She made a wall-hanger. I think that's quite obvious from the picture above. It's ultra-fabulous.
Her and Aunt Sarah worked on some memory verses today and she said 5 tonight! On the 5-minute car ride home she taught me Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." As we were leaving she told Bro. Tracy, "I had a good time tonight! See ya tomorrow!" He laughed.
And I fell even more in love with her than I already am.
Do you have nieces that you absolutely adore? Tell me about them in the comments.
Goodness gracious night alive I am one worn out chick! My oldest niece, Anna Woods, started spending the week of VBS with my parents (Gendaddy and Nana to her) and so my mom and I drove down to meet the family today and pick her up.
Here's the cute family eating lunch at McAlister's. From left to right are Anna Woods, 4 1/2 (she had just hit her head on the corner of the table and was crying). Ed, my brother sporting an LSU shirt. Groan. Melanie, my sweet and beautiful sister-in-law. As soon as I took the picture she knew she had her eyes closed but the girls wouldn't sit still for another one. Then my youngest niece, Mary Neal who is almost 28 months old. Aren't they just a beautiful family? Seriously...beautiful :)
Ed and Melanie got married my freshman year in college on what was actually Ole Miss' Homecoming that year. I missed my first college homecoming for a wedding. Melanie's bridesmaid dresses were some of the prettiest I've ever seen...if only I had a picture! And looking back, I wore the ugliest thing to the wedding. It was just...ugly, goodness. Anyway.
Anna Woods posing with her Nana (my mom). Anna has a busted lip. Mary Neal gave it to her with a book. You have got to love sisters! :)
Now THAT is one of the cutest pictures ever! I absolutely love that girl. She has 'grown up' so much since January that she's not the same little girl. I can actually understand every word that comes out of her mouth and boy, does she have some stories! We also discovered she can't do certain things in a car - take a nap, say her ABCs, and count to 25 just to name a few.
Mary Neal and Melanie again. She was chomping down some Mac and Cheese and poor Melanie can't keep her eyes open! Mary Neal (MN) used to have red hair and it's slowly going blonde. :( I wanted to have at least ONE red headed niece or nephew. They need to have another kid. HA! :) Funny moment - I asked Mary Neal why she was so cute and Anna Woods who was sitting beside me at the table, without missing a beat, responded, "Because she don't look like her mama." Now...I probably shouldn't have laughed because I don't think she realized what she was saying and it wasn't nice but it was just one of those times where you laugh before you think. Melanie's a good sport about it :)
Ed, Melanie and Mary Neal went back to Greenville while we brought Anna Woods home with us. After we had some chicken pasketti (Why can't kids say spaghetti?) at AW's request, Aunt Leah, Anna and myself went to enjoy some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I think that's quite obvious by Anna's mouth! Aunt Leah and AW at Baskin Robbins.
They turned the camera around on me and boy do I look scary! I had been up since 6:15, on a Saturday...that's rough!
I'm so looking forward to what this week is going to bring. Making memories with my niece is so beyond fun and I'm so blessed to be her aunt.
Lastly, I absolutely love this song that was on an episode of Bones from Season 2 (The Aliens in the Spaceship) and I felt like sharing. That episode is SO GOOD. One of my favorite episodes of all 5 seasons. So. Good. Enjoy!
I pray everyone has a blessed Sunday! I know I will :)
There will be pictures of the nieces' visit soon...I promise. My life has been crazy busy the past two weeks and I can't really say with what. I hate that...when I've been ridiculously busy but yet, after two weeks I can't remember what any of it really was. Ya know?
So...maybe this week I'll get pictures up of AW's and MN's visit and all will be well with the world again. Also, if you're reading this and you don't know me in real life then I'd appreciate you praying for my little sister, Sarah, who is gone to the Philippines right now for a women's ministry conference with a group of women from her church up where she goes to school in Arkansas. She'll be back in about a week and a half and then she'll be heading back over there FOR GOOD closer to August. Ugh...while you're praying you can pray for me too because I'm pretty sure that I will need it. I do NOT do well with being continents away from my sister even if she's doing God's work. I know it's a trust issue so just pray that I'll trust Him for her. If that makes sense.
Lastly, I have no idea why, but all morning I've had this song stuck in my head. Well, really since we left church. I don't know why. I hate when I can't figure out why I have a song stuck in my head.
Mama made chicken and dumplings for lunch so I'm about to go enjoy those, or try to, because I don't like them. But I'll eat them. Which makes me think, JUST yesterday, I was eating lunch with a group of girls (ladies?) that I love love love and we were talking about chicken and dumplings and how they all love them, but I however, don't. I realize that's probably not that interesting...but obviously I felt like sharing.
Also, can I just say how disinterested I am in the Super Bowl? Yeah...I am. I've determined that 'who dat' has to be the most annoying phrase I think I've ever heard. I think I'll pull for the Colts if only because Peyton is their quarterback, and he's a Manning, and I like him, surprisingly more than Eli, which is kind of backwards because Eli played at Ole Miss, my alma mater...
This post has to stop because I'm pretty sure I've reached a new low in randomness.
My brother's daughters, Anna Woods - 4, and Mary Neal - almost 2, who, have a funny way of crawling right.
into.
your heart.
They're here while their Mama and Daddy are in Mobile, AL playing in a tennis tournament. And I know my mother is just OVER the moon with excitement that her grandbabies get to stay with her for at least, 3 whole days. :)
A-dub (what I sometimes call Anna Woods) told me last night that she was going to 'make' me something with Hadley's play kitchen. So...she made me Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the stove. While 'making' the cereal, which involved 'heating' a plate on the stove and then pouring the contents in a bowl, she said "I've never had Cinnamon Toast Crunch before, but I've heard it's really yum." Hysterical!
She also told us that she has to wake up in the mornings to eat because she's "HONGRY!" Yes...hon-gry. Which, I equate to being really hungry. :)
Oh, and I almost forgot that the cereal-making above, was done in pajamas and plastic dress-up heels that made her look ADORABLE. Even more so than she already is. She also sat down across from me in a little red plastic chair (you know what I'm talking about, those kind at every church and nursey and daycare the world over) and crossed her legs like she was a little lady. I guess it was hysterical to me because she had those heels on.
Meanwhile, Mary Neal is just hanging out in the background. She's a girl of few words (probably because she can't get any in edgewise with AW around).
She does like to put people's shoes back on them, as she tried to do with me. We'll see if I can get her to talk a little bit over the next few days.
And just so Hadley won't feel left out, I included this picture of her and MN (who is evidently breaking it down). I don't love Hadley less, but I do get to see her almost every day. So...as a disclaimer, Hadley is just as cute as the other nieces, I just get to hear it all the time with her (She's started saying 'Hey baby' recently and it cracks me up.). Oh, and I'll also point out that Mary Neal (on the right in the picture) is a month YOUNGER than Hadley.
I'll also point out that all three of my nieces have double-names (Anna Woods, Mary Neal, Hadley Grace). So, it's a DN party.
I'll stop pointing things out now.
This post was just to whet your appetite of the funny (and silly) things and cute pictures I'll have to post about next week. Aren't you looking forward to it? I mean...really, who doesn't love a post about cute kids and crazy things they say? :)
Until next week!
P.S. All these pictures are from Thanksgiving 2009. All 3 of my neices are even cuter now!! :)
P.P.S. I think being an aunt is one of the greatest things on the planet. :D
