Three G's! GA bound, Gutters & God and your Bod!

I've already e-mailed several of you about Ashley's exciting news but for those who haven't heard, Ashley is going to be a Georgia Bulldog in the fall! Ashley will graduate with HONORS with her Associates Degree in Math Education June 14th.

We are hoping to get signed up for the June 20th orientation at UGA. She is so-o-o-o excited.

Rob purchased a home and is working on getting it fixed up to move in. In the mean time he asked if he could move back home for a couple of months while he gets it fixed up. He's also been helping us get some much needed work done on our home while he is here. He and Wayne pulled off some rotten gutters the other day. He certainly has youth and strength that Wayne and I are now lacking! He has been, as always, a godsend.

He's also helped straighten the garage, get all of the pine straw off the roof of the pool house and clean those gutters. He is pretty amazing...he works full time, works out at the gym at least 3 times a week, has his own business buying and fixing up houses, works on those houses on the weekends AND somehow finds time to help us, spend time with the family and his sweet girlfriend. They have both been attending church with us and we have really enjoyed them being there.

We've had some awesome series of messages at church lately. Our last series was amazing. Joe talked about the many questions we have about God and about life for God. He made it clear that no matter how long we have been believers we will probably always have questions and it's okay! It was clear that though we have questions we can still walk in a wonderful relationship with christ. I love how Joe can make his messages so relevant to our everyday life.

Our latest series started today and it is called, "God and your bod".

This first message of the series focused on extremes. Joe asked the question,

"Are you a worshipper or a neglector?"

A worshipper could be someone who is obsessed with going to the gym and a healthfood fanatic where a neglector is an issue is someone who never exercises and eats with no regard to what is healthy. A worshipper can also be someone who worships clothes and is obsessed on how they look. Both of these extremes are issues of self-centeredness and affect the relationships in our lives. It is better to be balanced or more accurately perspective, GOD'S PERSPECTIVE. We learned that the bible talks a LOT about our body. We talked some about fitness and how we are instructed to treat our body as a temple and take care of it but he also talked about how our life is not our own. The creation (us) is owned by the creator (God) and since we are all created by God, we are His. It sounds like a great series and I can't wait until next week to see what else God has to say through Joe.

I'm going to set my goals this week for our 6 week challenge to get closer to God's perspective and will share that next time.

Hugs ~ Kim

The last 2 months have been a whirlwind of activity!!!

First of all, Happy, Glorious Easter! For a special Easter Blessing watch

Brad Paisley & Sara Evans - New Again

The Newlyweds...

I had intended to make short posts every couple of days before the wedding so everyone could share in all of the planning, etc. Well, as you can see, that plan didn't work out too well! :o) But, despite the craziness, Stephanie is married and we had a great time on our cruise!

Anyway, let's see if I can get caught up. Since my post on January 24th, it's been a whirlwind of activity.

On Saturday, February 2nd, we had Steph's bridal shoot in Washington Park and believe it or not Rose Hill Cemetery.

They were absolutely gorgeous. I took over 100 photos and one of Stephanie's friends, Adam Neil Butterick, recently started a photography business and shot some unbelievable photos. A small slide show version of his photos are on my side bar. If you are interested in great photography at a great price visit Adam's website. I've included a few pictures that I took.

Then I took the pictures Adam and I captured and created these collages @ Walgreens.com photo online. I framed them with black poster frames. They are gorgeous!

We had 5 birthdays between January 22nd & February 13th! I feel bad not doing my typical "tribute" post for each but just have too much to catch up on right now.

Bryant's 7th birthday was January 22nd. I can't believe that little guy was barely 1 year old the first time I met him and now he's 7! Where does the time go?

Rob's sweet girlfriend, Sabrina, but we lovingly call her "Sabby", started our February birthdays on the 3rd...

Our "baby", Ashley, was next on the 8th leaving her teen years behind and turning 20! I can't find where I filed the pictures from her b-day so I decided to post 2 of my favorite pictures of her. The first one is 2 years ago at a wedding and the second one is from her first trip to Europe in June 2004 posing with a gorgeous St. Bernard in Switzerland!

Jessica celebrated her birthday on the 13th, though she claims her birthday should be celebrated the entire month of February!

Then on the 16th of February my precious Mother-in-"love" (as I call her), Mary Ann, celebrated her birthday. We didn't get to see each other on her birthday but just 3 weeks later we were at the wedding and on the cruise together. Here is a picture of her with Wayne and his sister, Becky, on the cruise.

Also on February 16th, we had a huge shower for family and friends. I think our entire neighborhood knew what was going on that day with all of the decorations and about 30 cars on both sides of the street!

Heather & Ashley, her maids of honor, gave her the shower at our home.

Stephanie & Brian were truly "showered" with gifts! They received so many lovely things from friends and family.

Our CRAZY cat, Sandy, was not real happy with all of the people invading her home that day. She kept getting up in the biggest chair and spreading out so nobody could sit there. She is constant entertainment!

Steph with 2 of her childhood friends, Jennifer & Jadie. She was so tickled they were able to make it! They don't get to see each other enough.

This is such a special picture. I didn't really know it at the time. I just thought it was a cute shot. Little did we know that sweet little Bryant would get food poisioning the night before the wedding in Tampa and had to stay in the hotel with Jessica's Mom during the wedding. It was so hard to leave that little guy lying on the bathroom floor feeling so miserable. He ended up missing nearly the whole next week of school and went to the doctor twice that week. So, this picture is the only one we got of him in his ring bearer tuxedo. :o(

This is right before the wedding in Steph's cabin on the ship. Ashley, Heather & I are helping Steph get into her dress and get her make-up on. That was such a special time and something I will always remember. My sweet friend Sandy sent me a text message while taking these pictures telling me she was thinking about us and wishing she was there! It was so special and meant so much to me to know that she was with us in spirit like so many of our friends and family who could not attend.

These pictures were actually taken right after the ceremony. Aren't they GORGEOUS?!?!

Here is the wedding party:

(L to R back row) Sabrina, Jessica, Shayla, Heather, Ashley, Stephanie, Brian, Jesse, Chris, Travis, Alan, Rob

(L to R front row) Lexi, Campbell & Maddy (Wish Bryant could have been there!)

Steph with her maids of honor, Heather & Ashley

Our family, me, Rob, Steph, Brian, Ashley & Wayne

The Newlyweds with their parents & grandparents

We are on the left and Brian's parents, Debbie & Jesse are on the right.

Seated are Wayne's Mom, my Grandmother & my Mom

On to the reception...

We had such a GREAT time...

The really funny part is Sabby (Rob's girlfriend) caught the bouquet and Brandon (Ashley's boyfriend) caught the garter. So Rob & Ashley "staged" a "jealous" look for the camera showing they were both VERY close by and were watching every move. It was so cute!

In all of the chaos before the wedding Steph left the CD with their reception songs in the car. Luckily the DJ had one of the songs she inteded to play for the father daughter dance. It was certainly not your typical father daughter dance song but it was just PERFECT! They danced to Gimme 3 Steps which they have been dancing to since she was about 3 years old and used to stand on her Daddy's shoes. It was absolutely adorable!!!

This was the ice sculpture they had at the reception with the wonderful food. Like everything else, it was gorgeous! I want to send out a special thanks to our dear friends Tracy, Dee & Haley for coming to the wedding and taking back a lot of our wedding stuff.

Now for the REALLY FUN part...the cruise! Okay for those of you who have never cruised...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? It was FANTASTIC. This was our 4th cruise and they just keep getting better and better! There were 47 of us at the wedding and 26 of them cruised! That is a fantastic turnout. I wish we could have gotten a picture of everyone at the reception but it just didn't happen. We had a great mix of family and friends from 6 years old to 87 years old and every where in between.

Here we are on the beach in Cozumel, Mexico with Ashley and Brandon and our very good, long time friends, Paul & Tracy. You might remember that we visited them in Tennessee last summer for Wayne's birthday.

Ashley & Brandon being Ashley & Brandon! :o)

Here's our family!

This is a very meaningful picture. Let me explain. Let's start at the top so you know who everyone is first. From top to bottom, my Aunt Mike (Michele), me, my cousin Amy, Stephanie, Amy's daughter Lexi. Now the meaningful part... I was a junior bridesmaid in my Aunt Mike's wedding. Amy was the flowergirl in my wedding. Stephanie was a junior bridesmaid in Amy's wedding. Lexi was one of the flowergirl in Stephanie's wedding. How special is that???

So we headed back home last week on Saturday afternoon. I have to say that night at bedtime it was so disappointing that my bed wasn't turned down with chocolates on my pillow and there were no cute little towel animals either. Then, when I got up Sunday morning there was no breakfast buffet. Wow, getting back to reality was difficult but I am just thankful for the wonderful time we had with our terrific family and friends. This whole experience was full of MANY BREATHLESS MOMENTS in my BLESSED LIFE! If you stopped by, please leave me a comment so I know you were here! With much Love, Kim

We're back! The wedding is over and we had a fabulous Cruise!

Hey everyone! Please be patient and I will post the details of the wedding and cruise in the next day or so. I just want you to know that the wedding was beautiful and the cruise was absolutely FANTASTIC! We got back tonight and I'm exhausted and going to bed! Love to all and I can't wait to share the breathless moments in the latest chapter of our blessed life! Kim