For Sweet Baby Parker













When God Calls Little Children
To dwell with Him above,
We mortals always question
The wisdom of His love.

For no heartache compares
With the death of one small child
Who does so much to make this world
Seem wonderful and mild.

Perhaps God tires of calling
The aged to His fold
And so he picks a rosebud
Before it can grow old.

God knows how much we need them
And so He takes but few
To make the land of heaven
More beautiful to view.

Believing this is difficult,
Still somehow we must try,
The saddest word mankind knows
Will always be goodbye.

So when little ones departs.
We who are left behind
Must realize God loves little children
Angels are hard to find.

My Home Projects

I love decorating my home. Adding accents or decor that I created myself and doing it all for a bargain, well that just makes it all the better!  This is one of my latest projects - my front door hanging basket. I bought the tin basket at Lowes for under $10 and the flowers for half price at Hobby Lobby. I already had the ribbon. The total, under $24.00. Cute, huh?! 


I love to sew, drapes, that is. I've never sewn anything else. I love the fact that when you make your own curtains, you have so many more options. Here are some that I made for our house. 

Den


Dining Room

My son's room was one of my most fun projects. Here is his "Wall of Fame." I bought inexpensive frames from Hobby Lobby and 8.5 X 11 scrapbook paper in various patterns. I had black and white (5 X 5)  photos printed at Wolf. I taped the pictures to the center of the paper, which made the paper look like a unique mat. I did it all for under $70. Pottery Barn, who... With your crazy prices! ;-) 




This is my crazy artwork that I painted at Sips and Strokes - super fun; definitely recommend it! Anyway, these lovely painting are hanging in my laundry room. Yes, I am too embarrassed to hang them in any room where guests might actually see them. But they are cute in their own little, non-artistic way, so I had to hang them somewhere. My husband voted for the garage, but I won. ;-) 



Ashley Warren is a Great Photographer!!!


If you are looking for a photographer for individual, baby, family or wedding pics, Ashley's your gal! Check out her website... 

http://www.ashleywarrenstudios.com

Plus, she is super down-to-earth, sweet and fun! 


I am totally excited about this! I am helping out with this year’s “Rock the Block”, a children’s ministry through the Church at Brookhills.  We are taking Back Yard Bible Club to neighborhoods all over the Birmingham area. I’ve never participated in anything like this – I’m super pumped to see how God might use me!

If you live in the Birmingham area and are interested, check out the website. Registration starts May 17th.

http://www.brookhills.org/local/page_local_min_children_bybc.htm

I have volunteered to help with the BYBC at Pathways.  I can’t wait to meet these cool kids!

http://www.pathwayshome.org

Our Quick Getaway


My husband is in home security sales, which is a seasonal business. He works six days a week during the months of May through September. An upside to this long, hard summer is that he has a lot of free time the rest of the year. The downside is that Sunday is our only day together as a family and sometimes we don’t even get that. But as long as the summer can seem, it is his job that allows me to work part-time and therefore, spend more time with our son.

So knowing that we would not be able to take a summer vacation, we decided to sneak in a quick family trip to Destin. It was great! Besides it being a tad bit too cool to swim, the end of April is a wonderful time to go to the beach. It is between spring break and the start of the summer season, so you can get great deals. 

We arrived Thursday afternoon. Little Buddy was not too bad on the way down. A potable DVD player with video selections from Baby Einstein to Elmo to Word World kept him occupied for most of the trip. My husband, being the “salesman”, got us a great deal on a beautiful condo. It was spacious and had an awesome view. Sterling Shores is the name for anyone interested. http://www.sterlingresorts.com/ The pool was great, the walk to the beach was a breeze and we were right across the street from one of my favorite places – The Back Porch – great food and atmosphere. http://www.theback-porch.com/

We enjoyed a great Thursday evening, just the three of us. Then Friday morning we took it easy and eventually made our way to the incredible pool. Our son was less than thrilled with the water temperature, but after a little while, he decided that it wasn’t so bad.



My awesome sister drove down to stay with us for the weekend. The four of us decided to stroll around Destin Commons and have a bite to eat. The relaxed atmosphere was perfect for our son. He could run around and just be a little boy without being an annoyance to others. http://www.destincommons.com


The next day we played in the sun between naps (of course) and enjoyed the cool breeze and warm sun. Saturday night my sister was kind enough to babysit for us. Jason and I had a blast. We actually had the opportunity to dine at a restaurant, have a real conversation and take our time eating.  It was great – no taking turns entertaining our son or shoveling food in our mouths at warp speed in hopes of bailing before a tantrum erupts. 

After a long, lovely weekend, we headed back home on Sunday. It was bitter sweet. We had this great family weekend full of relaxation and fun, but knowing as soon as we returned home (back to reality), the hard work was going to begin. Jason would be working his butt off selling alarms, and I would be working solo with our rambunctious toddler all summer long.  BUT, I’ve got lots of activities in the works to keep that little booger busy! 
















My Beautiful Friends