from high to low in less than four days

i've been editing pictures from our epic weekend. waiting till i got back from atlanta to post about our daughter's debutante ball on saturday.
on the way home, we were wedged in between bad weather. and by bad… i mean black skies and huge hail. mayhem ahead in knoxville, and golf-ball sized hail in chattanooga. our daughter, in tuscaloosa, had been in a basement in a neighboring sorority house for two hours, and was snarkily tweeting about good times in basements #sarcasm.

{source AP}

she texted us a few hair-raising picture of tornadoes. that she took{not the one above, however}. ummmm hello… aren't you supposed to be in a basement, and GAH, those seem awfully dang close!! she assured us she was safe.
her phone was low on battery, but she kept us apprised of the situation. no news is no news, right?
we arrived home, put our things away and began to check emails, etc. it wasn't long before we were scrambling to get our things and head to the basement. armegeddon was breaking out all around us. green skies, blowing winds, rain and hail. lots and lots of hail. BIG hail.
{i'd post some epic pictures here of what used to be my garden. and lawn. and the hail. but i sold my cameras, and i'm in between at the moment.}
then i got a call from the girl. one of those ugly cries that only a mom can understand.
moooooom… everything is gone!
{sob}
wait. what? everything? ohmyword… your apartment gone? your car?

no. no. it's fine. but everything else, mom. it's a war zone! everything is gone!

and there you have it. from a beautiful deb on saturday to surviving an epic tornado and enduring the aftermath.
this is life. the hard part.
now the interesting part will be to see what she does with it. finals start monday. she has papers to write and exams to study for and her mind is a million miles from a library. no electricity, no internet. no interest. how the end of this semester shakes out for the students at alabama remains to be seen.
i'm praying that God's people are able to move in to this situation and love with the hands and feet of Jesus.
Lord have mercy… Christ have mercy…

living water

His words are so powerful. His Salvation so wonderful. His grace so merciful.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:37-39
 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of livingwater.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ” Revelation 7:16-17

water. 
it's life's most basic need.

so incredibly thankful for the ministry of charity:water. for their quest to give safe drinking water to the billion people who are plagued with the consequences of drinking filthy water. is it so cool that they are giving living water in the name of Jesus?

i have a garden. and i water it with my hose. of course, i would never think of drinking nasty hose water. gah. {shudder} but it is potable water. and i spray it onto my garden, use it to play with my crazy dog who attacks sprinklers for sport, and wash my muddy shoes with it. 
drinking water. 
the same stuff that people yearn for in developing countries.
please take a few moments to watch these… you'll see the dire need for clean water and the amazing ripples of life that come from one clean source.

then watch a village come to life through the gift of water. through the organization aptly named living water.



this easter, as we consider the sacrifice, the love, the miracle, and the blessing of the gift of the Holy Spirit in us… won't you consider giving the gift of living water to others… in our daily lives, for sure… but for those in desperate need?

what the hay bale??

well. it's in.

fertilized.

planted. 

staked.

stalked (that would be my "helpers").

and watered.
now we wait.

that crazy dog of mine… need to just leave her in when it's watering time. she goes absolutely crazy.

i've had to get after them for digging in my flower planter. grrrrr. for the life of me… they have an ENTIRE yard!! gah!
so far they haven't come back to it. maybe it was the linda-blair-360-venom-spewing i did. scared the hay bale right outta them! ;)

a must have… or not

i remember seeing the infomercial for the snuggie.
a snuggie? really? that's pretty lame.
and then about three million people promptly went out and bought one. or one for everyone in their household.

then there was the commercial for the hoodie-footie pajamas.
oh dear… are they serious?? $99 for pajamas?? and it comes with a little velour short set and a do not disturb sign.
uhhhh. awkward.
and those things flew off the shelf too.
clearly i'm no judge of must have items.
clearly.
that's why i'll probably be buying stock in the SlobStopper.
yes, you heard me.
SlopStopper.
or perhaps better know as the adult bib.
totally not kidding.

you might want to follow my blog now… you know, before i get so famous/rich. you can say you knew me when…
…or not.

just wait

so thankful for a DVR that records what would certainly be "appointment tv." much like my thursday nites used to be B.DVR and i was obsessed with ER. {ohhhh how i miss that show. thank goodness for grey's anatomy}

but i digress {surprise, right?}

the hubs is not a fan of "serial tv." he hates shows he has to show up for every week to know what's going on. this is why he loves hawaii five-o {wraps up, for the most part, each show, although there is a running sub-plot going on}. first of all, he doesn't have to show up every monday night at 10 to watch it, and secondly, it's our go-to show for dinner on tuesdays. yes… the cardinal sin of eating dinner in front of the tv. i'm sad to report that now that our kiddles are gone, we do this…when we manage to eat at home for dinner…which oftentimes is less than twice a week. i know. i know. bad us.

the other night, the hubs and i watched parenthood. it was the hub's second time, so he had a small inkling of what was going on… so he wasn't completely lost. the episode revolved around a 16 year old "good girl" deciding to have sex with her boyfriend. complete with a butt-dial to her parents during… ahem… "it."

awkwardest butt-dial ever.

watching it beside the hubs made me even more aware of the interchange between the dad and the daughter once the mom had made dad aware of their daughter's activity. it was absolutely gut-wrenching to watch the dad unable to make eye contact, avoid interacting in every way and literally being able to hear his heart break in two. i cried for his brokenness as he sat and watched his daughter's innocence wilt away.

i guess the parents handled it about as well as you would imagine a hollywood family would. they were open and conversational about it before, during and after. they weren't overly "judgey." the mom justified the daughter's behavior based on her own premarital sex activity and even praised the daughter for having a first time that was "better" than her first.

ugh.

it's not like i was expecting them to tell the daughter about God's plan for sex inside of marriage. i'm not that naive… and i guess from the world's perspective, talking openly, not judging and talking about protection is "responsible parenting."

ugh again.

i'm thankful that our kids have been given open discussions about sex since they were 7ish, much to the horror of the rest of the family. but we wanted our kids to always hear about sex from God's perspective, not from information gleaned on the playground,sleepovers, or God forbid… the media. we've had an open dialogue about guarding hearts, protecting future wives for their husbands, honor, restraint and how God mad sex to be wonderful… but within the confines of marriage. we've encouraged our kids not to date in middle/high school {both waited until college for their first serious relationships}. to not look at dating as acquiring some sort of trophy… but to look at it as an opportunity to be giving, serving, loving the other person.

it's far too early to wave the victory flag yet. the moment i smugly assume that our parenting has netted us two virgins on their wedding days is the minute i'll be sitting here with egg streaming down my face. let's just say i'm still having the sometimes awkward conversations with our kids about "it." it's a continuing dialog that i'll not stop having until they say I Do. those two words need to come before the word IT.

{and…let the record show that the pregnancy test in the previews for next week's finale will be assumed to be hattie's… i have a sneaking suspicion that it might be her mom's!}

a little pre-easter panic planning

easter is in two weeks. well, actually, less than two weeks… but who's counting {12 days}?
not only did i volunteer to have easter brunch at our house, but we also have bama girl's debutante ball the night before.
yeah. i think i need to get my head examined, too. ie what the heck was i thinking?
so in preparation for said event, and also while i continue to crank out the work/new menus/social media blitz/have endless meetings, i need to wedge in some cleaning {including the windows, blech}, easter decorating {which requires finding the land of easter in the attic… an expedition to be sure}, mani/pedi, hair for the girl, menu planning, pre-prepping as much as possible on saturday… not necessarily in that order. and i'm sure i left a bunch off the list.
we do have audience participation… MIL is bringing dessert {hopefully not something drenched in coconut which the kids abhor… all the kids… not just mine} and the SILs will bring a dish to share.
mind you, this is not me complaining. i love to have the family over. i'm really looking forward to the dogwood ball. it's going to be a wonderful weekend.
this is me having a small panic attack. me planning. me trying to be ready.
but if you know me even a tiny bit… you'll know that me + planning isn't found in the same sentence ever very often.
feel free to share any cute easter decor/table ideas. i think if the weather is nice we'll eat outside. probably several small tables since we have almost 20 in the fam. feel free to chime right on in. i'm all ears.

on a roll… or at least i was…

oh dear… i've been MIA for a week now. and after i was back on a good blogging roll, too.
no time to write, no time to blogstalk, no time to do much other than work work work!!
it's been a really crazy, yet enjoyable week. much of what i've been up to has taken me out of my office, and that's been a really good thing. it's spring!
i've had dinner with potential franchise clients, i've been out in the stores implementing a new menu… which for me means taking down the old panels and replacing the new panels which i've already priced {tedious work, for sure!}. i get to see our associates in the stores, talk with our guests and add to my never-ending list of more things i need to design for marketing. at times it gets overwhelming!
i also took a day "off" this past week to spend with jennifer mckinney. yes…that jennifer mckinney… mckmama herself.
she and her family are traveling RV-style across the southeast, stopping in various cities to offer up photo shoots for individuals and families. i literally squealed in delight when i learned she'd be coming to our little burg on her way to charlotte, and immediately emailed to ask her if i could hook up with her while she was here. {i also shamelessly wanted to hook her family up our little city's [and my family's business] culinary "invention" from 27 years ago and a fan-favorite ever since. imagine my surprise when i discovered that she not only fed her family petro's for breakfast, but also posted an awesome photo of said activity on her blog!}

not only did i get a chance to hook up with the mckphotographer, but she let me assist her for the day, which she told me she normally doesn't do. as a budding photographer myself, i wanted to watch and learn as much as possible.

i didn't ask too many questions {at least not about photography} but watched her work her photo-magic. her personality is as light as her footwork… she's never still for long.

it was a great day of learning, of spending time with a new friend who i felt like i've known forever, and a chance to meet her son, Stellan, the one whom i've prayed for over the past two years.

it's funny how life in blogdom is… you read about someone for so long, and when you meet, it's not awkward, but actually the most normal, natural thing you could imagine. while it sounds so sketchy to meet someone you met on the internet… i find that it's like embracing a friend you haven't seen in awhile.
it was a super rewarding day, and thanks to jennifer, i found a new treasure in my own little city. a beautiful botanical garden hiding in a corner i don't normally go. it's a beautiful oasis where i plan to practice my own budding mckphotography skills!