COTH

I'm sure most of you don't know what those letters in the title mean, but to me and so many others, those letters mean Camp of the Hills. A little piece of heaven on earth nestled in the hills of Marble Falls, Texas whose soul purpose is to love on inner-city children and teach them about Christ. I LOVE Camp of the Hills - it feels like home to me and brings back a flood of some of the most wonderful memories in my life. To recap the story that most of you know....Jason and I started dating when we were co-counselors at COTH in the summer of 2000 and that is where, in April 2001 by the lake shore, Jason proposed to me. It holds a very special place in my heart and always will. It is amazing how some place that you only spent 12 weeks of your life can impact you so much.

I was blessed to spend this past Thursday and Friday there - me, Elijah, my mom, my niece Katherine and our friends from Fortress - Sheena and her daughter Jordan. Sheena was a camper there about 10 years ago and had been wanting to go back and see camp again as an adult because it meant so much to her as a child. We had a wonderful and relaxing time and were able to help the volunteer group cook meals in the kitchen while we were there. We also watched the crucifixion reenactment they have every Thursday night - Elijah asked A LOT of questions, wanted to "help Jesus" and wondered why they were hurting him - it proved a perfect opportunity to share with him the most beautiful love story in history and tell him how much Jesus loves him. Elijah had a great time and it was so special for me to see him having fun and enjoying the place where his Daddy and I fell in love.

Camp of the Hills is a place of refuge and the place on earth where I have seen God most clearly. Here are a few pictures....




Our group - Katherine, me & Elijah, Sheena, Jordan and my mom, Kathy












Elijah and I sitting on the steps of the dining hall. That porch alone holds a ton of wonderful memories!







Helping my mom make biscuits for breakfast in the kitchen. Can you tell he had fun with the flour? :-)


































In the swimming hole and the beautiful view of camp from the back deck of the dining hall. The lake you can barely see off to the left of the picture.
My last thoughts of camp come from a friend and co-counselor in an email that he sent out just a few months ago:

"Look at the letters, COTH. Think about it for a moment... Four random letters of the alphabet that don’t even spell out a real word, but to us, it is a real word. To us, that word means something. There’s no other place in the world that can be called “camp.” If one of us talks about camp, then all the others know what is being talked about. We don’t have to say the full name of the camp, or talk about where the camp is. We all know what it is, and we all know where it is. To US, it’s just “camp.”

We all share a special bond together because we were a part of camp. To each of us, camp is such a special place. For most of us, camp is the place where we saw God bigger and more alive than ever before. I thought of all the memories, the sweat, the prayers, the tears, the hugs, the joy, the comfort, the encouragement, and the love that we all shared at one time or another while at camp. I thought of kids. The KIDS. The countless numbers of kids that walked those grounds. I wondered where they are, what their lives have turned into, and do they ever think of camp.

As I sat there, I just thanked God for CAMP. For the memories, the hard times, the up times, the down times... For many of us, there were times when we felt like we were sweating blood trying to get a kid to open up to the love God wants to give them, and when we got to the point where we had nothing left, God took over and showed why he is GOD.

Thank you Lord for your love. Thank you Lord for friends. Thank you Lord for camp." Amen.


Sidenote: I finished the new Harry Potter book last night at around 2 am (pathetic, I know but it was completely addicting!). One word: FANTASTIC!

The book, The big 5-0, The Stephanie, The Tattoo & other random things

The book - the one I've been waiting for. Picked it up on Saturday and from the moment I started reading, I'm hooked. It's hard to put down and the only reason I didn't read all weekend was because we were very busy. I'm on chapter 6 - so far, so great! I think it will meet its very high expectations from so many.









My wonderful mother-in-law, Debbie, turned 50 on Saturday. My father-in-law, Gary, planned a great surprise party for her! I was so proud of him - he got the whole party together himself, the food, the friends, the family and she never had a clue! Lauren, Nova and I had to keep her occupied out shopping for a couple of hours while the guys got the party ready, but when we got back and she saw all the cars, she was in shock! It was a lot of fun and especially fun that the whole family was there, all 9 of us (yes, I'm including you Matt because I love ya!). Between the 9 of us, we had 4 guitar players and a drum, so we had a great time out on the back patio just singing and talking (picture below). I love my in-laws - some people have horrible in-laws but I am blessed with wonderful ones so I have no idea what that's like. They are just like family to me and we always have a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures:


Jason with his best buddies: Bill, brother Brad & Clabe































Also, my BFF from college, Stephanie came to stay with me on Thurs and Friday. We had a great time hanging out and talking, and I think Elijah likes Stephanie as well (if you can tell from the picture). On Friday, we met our friend Melissa, from A&M as well, at a park in Hurst to eat lunch and play. We had so much fun talking, watching Elijah play, getting sno-cones and "bird bowling" around the pond. Thanks for meeting us Melissa, we had a great time! Above, there they are eating their sno-cones. They were both impressed that when I asked Elijah what the Aggies say, he said "Gig 'em!". Whoop!

Other randoms from the weekend:




My sister's husband, Dale, took Elijah for a ride on their new 4-wheeler. He had a blast!











This is Elijah with his "cozy", as he calls it. He just got attached to this blanket this summer, and we're hoping it will be our redemption from the paci! :-) No luck with that yet. He asks me several times a day to "get cozy" and I wrap him up in his blanket and set him on the recliner. He gets a huge smile on his face!






This I just thought was a cute picture of Elijah with Lori's daughter, Annalee. Little do they know how cool it is for Lori and I to see our children together. We were 10 years old when we met - talk about coming full circle!








Lastly, The Tattoo. Yes, Jason Cox - my husband- got a tattoo on Friday. What is the world coming to when my husband gets a tattoo?!?! :-) I will post a picture of it later. Jason was a little worried to tell his parents about it, but it all went fine when he waited until they both had a glass of wine in their hands - Ha! :-) Elijah and I may be taking a short trip to Camp of the Hills this Thurs & Fri with my mom and a few others. I'm looking forward to showing Elijah where his daddy and I started dating - it is such a special place for Jason and I, and I'm sure I'll get lots of pictures.

Thank You God For Friends

Yesterday at lunch I was blessed to meet Mr. Ira Hays for the first time. His parents, Joe & Laura and their daughter Sophia, were ministers at Fortress about 4 or so years ago when Jason and I were there. Now they are church planters in Brooklyn, NY and are on their first road trip since Ira was born 2 years ago. We were so blessed that they fit their old Fortress crew in their busy schedule, and were so glad to get to see them again and the famous Ira! If you don't know the wonderful story of Ira, please check out Joe's blog, which is also on my sidebar. I'll also reference my friend Stacy's blog, because she is such a great writer and gives a beautiful story of meeting Ira yesterday. Stacy wasn't at Fortress when the Hays were there but has been following their blog since before Ira was born. It was a sweet, sweet meeting, and she has much better pictures than mine along with a good group picture of all of us at the bottom of her post. Thank you Joe & Laura for taking the time on your busy trip to eat lunch with us - it meant so much to all of us to see with our own eyes the miracle of God that is Ira!






From this past week: Elijah playing with his cousins, Kristopher and Jonathan - my sister's two youngest boys.








Today, Elijah had a great time playing with his good buddy, Ellie (and her baby brother, Deacon). Ellie is my sweet friend, Abbie's, daughter and her and Elijah have been buddies since they were tiny babies. Abbie only lives maybe a mile from our house so we are able to see them fairly regularly. They had a great time eating ice cream and playing in the sprinkler (Elijah in his undies - ha!). Such sweet friends and we are so thankful for them. Thank you God for friends - present, past and future. They make life so much sweeter!

Movie Buffs

Jason and I saw TWO movies on Saturday! I don't remember when that has ever happened before - two movies in one day. His parents took Elijah for the weekend, so we were all alone with a gift card to Cheesecake Factory and a movie theater gift card....can we say FREE day of fun by ourselves! The second movie we saw was Transformers (a great action thriller!) but the original movie that we had planned to go see a long time ago was the new Harry Potter! I was so excited about this one - I read the books and own every single movie so I had been counting down to this movie for a long time! It was really good and one of the better ones in my opinion - of course, they're never quite as good as the book and never have time to include every plot and detail, but overall - very good! Now I can't wait for the last book to come out this weekend - I pre-ordered it! :-) Have a great week and maybe I'll have something more exciting to write about soon.

Jason and I have been reading Romans the past few weeks. Each day we'll read a couple of chapters, then read the same chapters in a different Bible version the next day and a different version the next day until we've read those same chapters in 3-4 different versions...then we move on to a couple more chapters. It has really helped me to understand the Bible better this way and to learn new things that I didn't notice before. Elijah has noticed me doing this every morning, and so now he and I are reading his children's Bible together every day too. He is just like a sponge and soaks the word of God in! I am so thankful for his excitement in reading his Bible and praying with me....it makes me smile! This morning Romans 11: 34-36 spoke to me:

"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen."

We are absolutely nothing and God is everything! We cannot tell him what to do or offer Him counsel, as if we are smarter than Him! Everything we have is His, all of our wonderful blessings, and we have done nothing to deserve them. I have done nothing to deserve a wonderful husband, beautiful child, a nice warm house, a loving family, 2 cars that run, great Christian friends, food to eat everyday, and I could go on and on.....Praise God for His loving kindness and generosity towards us!

I'll leave you with a cute picture of Elijah in the bathtub today....

4th of July pictures & Fellowship

We had a great time at the Ranger's game on the 4th! Here are a few pictures. Thanks again Beck family for the free parking pass, free tickets in the suite and free food - we all had a great time, especially Elijah whose favorite part was of course the fireworks!

































Last night we enjoyed some WONDERFUL fellowship with Robert & Jan Reagan, missionaries in Thailand. They are here for their annual trip to the USA to visit family in Fort Worth, and they fit us in their busy schedule! We enjoyed spending time with them while we were in Thailand and were thrilled to have them over to our home for dinner! There is nothing like a good meal and good fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. We reminisced about our trip there in May, dreamed about the future in Thailand and caught up on what has happened there since we left. It brought back such wonderful memories & feelings about Thailand from our trip. We were enjoying our evening so much that we were all surprised to look up and it was already 10:30 pm! I am mad at myself for forgetting to take a picture, but maybe I will this weekend when we go to church with them.

Crazy week & some new portraits

We had an eventful week last week. I helped my mom with an estate sale all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which meant we spent most of the week getting last minute things ready for it. Elijah spent some time with my friend Abbie and her daughter Ellie, my niece Katherine and my sister Kristi and her son Jonathan while I was working. Thanks so much for the help guys! With all of the rain though (Crazy!!) I just let Elijah go outside and play in it one day. He had a blast and even rode his tricycle around in it as well. Here is a picture of him soaked outside!












Another fun thing we did last week was to ride the train to Daddy's work. Jason started doing this about a month ago to save on gas money, and it has really worked out well. He suggested I bring Elijah out on it sometime when he was leaving and he could ride back with us, so that's what we did last Tuesday. It was the cheapest form of entertainment - he LOVED it! He had never ridden on a real train before, just the small one near the zoo, so it was beyond thrilling for him. Here he is waving at one as it zooms by at the station by Daddy's work.











This past Saturday night, we took Elijah to see "Ratatouille" at the movies. This was the first movie we have taken him to in a long time - it was really cute but we discovered that he isn't quite old enough to sit still through a whole movie yet. :-) Then we drove on to Gainesville to spend the night with Jason's parents. We got up the next morning to go to church with Jason's sister, Lauren, at the church in Denison where she is doing an internship this summer. Here is Grangoat reading Elijah a story before bedtime.

Here is the funniest picture by far - Elijah slept on the floor in Lauren's old bedroom. When I went in to check on him before we went to bed, I found him asleep like this! I almost died laughing and called Jason's parents in to see him - those are Lauren's girlie boots on his feet! He is such a mess! :-) This isn't the only crazy thing he did this weekend. The whole weekend beginning with going to see the movie, then at church the next morning and on into the day on Sunday, he was WIRED! We all just kept saying, "I've never seen him like this!" over and over. He wasn't being bad, he was just very, very hyper and full of energy! At times, we just laughed watching him run around like a crazy man! Those of you that know Elijah know how calm he usually is, so this was quite a surprise for us - I hope this isn't a sign of what's to come! Ha! A few funny things he said this weekend: 1. While I was gone working at the estate sale, Jason gave him some animal crackers and Elijah told him, "Mama says if it's not a vegetable then it's a treat." I guess he is listening when I talk to him about healthy and not healthy foods! 2. This one wasn't funny at the time because he was being a mess, but when I asked him to pick something up off the floor, he looked at me and said "Not today mama" and walked off. 3. Last night when putting him to bed, we asked him what he did with Clare (this is his friend in Gainesville that he had been playing with earlier that evening). He said, "We went shopping." We asked him what he went shopping for and he said, "Mattress with Clare." Jason said, "You went mattress shopping with Clare?" and Elijah said, "Yes." We just about fell over laughing and called Clare's dad (Jason's good friend Bill) to tell him what our children had been up to that evening. Bill jokingly thinks that Elijah is after Clare, and he and Jason are always telling each other to keep their kid in line around the other, so this was a really funny story! He is such a funny little boy and is always making us laugh!

Also this week we got our professional pictures back that we had made right after Elijah's 3 year old birthday. My good friend, Neal, is just starting a photography business and offered to take our picture for free to get his business up and going. We only had to pay for the pictures themselves and I think they turned out great! Below are a few of my favorites.....






Have a great 4th of July! If it doesn't get rained out, we'll be going to the Ranger's game with Lori & Micah and sitting in a suite - woohoo! Never been in a suite before and it will be Elijah's first game since he was a baby. If anyone has some suggestions - the text and pictures always look one way when I type them and then different when posted on the blog so that's why they sometimes looks crazy and off on here, just FYI.

Fun Times with Family

We had a really fun, relaxing weekend these past few days. Elijah spent the whole weekend with Jason's parents and Jason and I were able to go out on a date for my birthday and spend some time on Saturday getting things done without a child around, which was nice. We still missed Elijah, but you parents know what I'm talking about! :-)


However, Saturday was a hard day for Jason because he sold his motorcycle. He's had it for a year and a half and originally bought it to save us money on gas going back and forth to work. For a while, it proved useful, but then when cold and rainy weather hit, it just ended up sitting there. We finally decided, since Jason is riding the train to work now, that it was time to sell it before it lost its value. He was very sad, but knew it was the wisest thing to do. He took Elijah on one last ride around our driveway Friday afternoon. Elijah always wanted to "ride" Daddy's motorcycle and sit on it. He thought it was so cool, and it was! One day when we're retired, we'll get another one and travel the country - ha! They really are fun to ride and I was a little sad to see it go as well - we had had some fun dates on that motorcycle. Another thing Elijah and his daddy love to do is play guitar, so they also enjoyed some guitar playing time on Friday as well. Then Jason's dad came to get Elijah and Jason and I went out to eat and to see Ocean's 13. I don't know if I've ever seen two movies in the theater in one weekend, but on Saturday night, my mom took my sister and I out for our birthdays and we saw Evan Almighty. Wow, what a great movie! Hollywood got something
right with this one - it was PG and very clean, had a great faith message, family message and "not looking like the world" message. I was very impressed and decided I am going to buy this one when it comes out on DVD. It's one that I'll want Elijah to watch when he gets a little older. If you are skeptical, I highly recommend it - go see it, you'll be as surprised as me at how good it is!









On Sunday morning, Jason and I headed to Gainesville for Jason to preach at his parents' church. Once a month he preaches there, and each time I am amazed at how much God has blessed him in that area. He is truly inspired by God and always touches my heart with His message. The great thing is that Jason doesn't even know how good he is, and that humbleness makes him that much better! When we got there, to the right was what we found Elijah doing! Jumping around in a circle wearing a Bible times robe. I just about laughed my head off, but they were having a dress up play in the children's class. That face is his embarrassed face - he gets that face when I take his picture doing something that slightly embarrasses him. :-)





Jason's grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins were in town as well on their way back from Arkansas so we got to spend the whole day with them as well. We hadn't seen them in probably over a year or more! This is a picture of Elijah playing in Nana & Grangoat's swimming pool. He had been swimming and riding his "own tractor", as he calls it, all weekend long!!






Now this is an old picture, but the only one I can find at the moment, of Elijah with Jason's parents, Nana & Grangoat (don't ask about the name!). :-) He loves spending the weekend with them, not just because he gets to swim, ride his tractor, eat pancakes and gets lots of fun new things, but because he loves being with them!








The next picture is Elijah with his cousin Tricia (whom he called "that little girl") riding on Elijah's own tractor. He was actually really good at sharing it with her and she would drive him around while he sat in the trailer. It was really cute. And the last one is with all 3 of the cousins, Taylor, Travis and Tricia. He had a great time and we did too!

Sunday Drive

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads that we know! The picture to the right is of Jason's gifts from Elijah - he made him a paper tie, a #1 Dad ribbon and picked out an elephant card. It was all really cute. We just returned from a lovely Sunday drive. Our plan was to drive out to Las Colinas to go eat at a restaurant called Bahama Breeze, which was where we ate for our anniversary this past January. It was really good food and Jason had a cow over their yucca fries, so that's where he wanted to go. We drove 30 minutes to get out there and they had closed the place down - frustrating and disappointing! We decided while we were all the way out there that we'd take Elijah to see the famous Mustangs of Las Colinas and get his picture with them. So we drove to those and the fountain around them that makes them so cool was turned off, so we didn't even stop. Elijah still thought they were neat looking as we drove by, but I was getting more frustrated that my plan Father's Day plan was not working out like I had hoped. Jason said that he'd always wanted to go to eat at Boston's, a new sport's place owned by Babe Laufenburg, so that's where we ended up.....right back by our house. :-) By the time we got there, we had been driving around for over an hour and were really hungry, but the food was good and we enjoyed ourselves. So much for MY plans. God is showing me every day that His plans are far better than mine and that I don't need to get so frustrated when things don't go the way I had hoped. This second picture above is when Elijah was born and in the NICU, just a few weeks before Jason's first Father's Day. It's hard to believe that this is his 4th one and to see how much Elijah has grown in the past 3 years!!! I knew before Elijah was even born that Jason would be a wonderful father. Girls, you know how when you're younger and you imagine one day being married to a wonderful handsome man that will cuddle and play with your children? Jason far exceeded my expectations - Elijah lights up when he gets home and loves being with his daddy. Jason, someone is watching every move you make and I'm so glad that God is the one continually guiding your every move!


Last Saturday we heard that Boz the Bear was going to be at Family Christian Store in Richland Hills. Elijah LOVES Boz and so we decided to take him out there to meet him and get his picture with him. If you don't know Boz and you have preschoolers, check out the website here. It is the cutest Christian show and not annoying at all - the characters are cute, the music is cute and the lessons are great! My brother-in-law co-created a computer animation company called ReelFX in Dallas and they teamed up with the people who created Barney to make this show. We are lucky, since we are related to Dale, to get lots of free Boz stuff! This picture above is of Elijah and his aunt Lauren (or Laur-Laur) as Elijah calls her. Lauren is Jason's little sister who's going to be a junior at OC this fall (I can't believe it!). She came down to spend last Saturday with us and went with us to see Boz. Elijah always has tons of fun with Aunt Laur-Laur! This picture is from the spring when we went to see her in Spring Sing at OC.

The latest news in our family is that Jason's little brother, Brad, is now engaged to his girlfriend of one year, Nova. They are getting married next June 7th, on Jason's birthday, at Lake Travis near Austin. We had them over for dinner and a game of 42 last night, and are so excited that Nova is going to be part of our family!!! Nova, we love you and are so happy you will officially be a Cox now - we just hope we don't scare you off! :-)

I will try not to wait so long in between posts next time - it is birthday month around here and so we are busy, busy, busy! First Jason's, then my niece turned 13 last week (Katherine, you are making me feel so old!), then my dad's and sister's next week and then mine the next. Add Father's Day in there and that makes for a very busy and expensive month! Happy Father's Day again - hope you enjoy the blessing of your children!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Yesterday was Jason's birthday. For 3 weeks out of every year we are the same age, but on the 28th I'll be older AGAIN and believe me, Jason never lets me forget that!

We decided that instead of getting each other gifts this year, we would do something together that we both enjoy. We haven't been able to find something yet. Does anyone have any suggestions of some fun things to do together in the D/FW area besides going to see a movie?

Yesterday I decided to make him a birthday cake. I don't remember ever making him a birthday cake - I have bought some birthday cakes but never made one. This is a yummy strawberry recipe that Lori gave me and helped me with, and yes, the icing is made from scratch - wow! Go me! Jason said last night that he didn't know I had it in me. Thanks a lot! :-) It was really yummy and Elijah was begging me for some ALL DAY LONG, so we were really glad when Jason finally got home at about 7:30ish last night. It had been a long day for Elijah waiting so patiently to eat the cake - he was really excited to finally get a bite!
















I remember the first birthday that I knew Jason. It was the summer of 2000 out at Camp of the Hills (the summer we started dating later on). We were just friends then and had been for about 6 months. I remember on my weekly trip to the Marble Falls Walmart with a group of co-counselors, I asked Amy Austin what you might want for your birthday since she had grown up with you and knew you a lot better than me. She suggested this A&M baseball hat that we found, so I bought it (for $5) and gave it to you. You still have it. It's hard to believe that was 7 years ago and how much has happened since then. We started dating about 3 weeks later and it's been the happiest 7 years of my life! Happy Birthday, Jason! I hope you had a wonderful day and enjoyed your homemade cake. You are a wonderful Christian man and Elijah and I are blessed to have you as the leader of our family. We love you!

Also yesterday, Lori and I took Elijah and Annalee swimming. This was Annalee's first time and she really seemed to like it even though the water was a little cold. Here are a few pictures.

The past few days

I love this picture of Elijah from the water park in Thailand so I thought I'd post it since I don't have any new pictures to put up yet. This is also a preview of what's to come this summer since he LOVES swimming and being in the water!

I don't have anything in particular to blog about, so I thought I'd talk about some fun things we've done in the past few days. I can't believe we've already been back from Thailand a week and a half - almost as long as we were gone! On Friday, Jason and I went on a date to eat at Chili's and see the Pirates 3 movie. It was a good movie but the ending was very frustrating. It leaves you hanging again and makes me hope that there is a 4th movie coming out in the future. I didn't think I'd ever say that there needed to be a 4th movie of anything, but I need to know that there's a better ending than the one they left us with. :-)

We had a very lazy weekend of unpacking and getting things done around the house. Boring but kind of nice. Sunday night we met Jason's parents for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Denton. They live in Gainesville, and Denton is halfway for both of us, so a lot of times we'll each drive 30 minutes to meet for dinner. We, especially Elijah, always enjoys when we're able to get together with them. And Elijah left with a new toy airplane, so I think he was happy!

Monday was spent doing things around the house except for a quick trip to meet Elijah's buddy, Ellie, at the park. We had not seen Abbie or Ellie since we got back from Thailand, so it was fun to catch up with them at the park, and Elijah had really missed Ellie. They only live about a mile or less from our house so it's very convenient for us to get together often. Abbie and I both went to A&M together and were at Fortress together for a while. Also, my good friend Jill came over for dinner that night. We have been friends since Jr high at church and it was so good to spend some time catching up with her.

Yesterday, Elijah had his 3 year old check-up at the doctor. He was less than thrilled about that, and I had forgotten about it until the night before so I had little time to warn him about it. I knew that he was caught up on his shots since he got his last Hep A before we went to Thailand, so I convinced him he was not going to get stuck this time. He seemed okay after that, and was very brave at the doctor's, letting them weigh and measure him, look down his throat and in his ears, and listen to his chest & back. He weighed 31 1/2 lbs and is 37" tall - in the 50% for both and is estimated to be 5' 10" when he is an adult. I thought all was going very smoothly until the doctor said that they had not done any bloodwork in a while! My first thought was, "Do you people want children to hate the doctor? The one time he doesn't need any shots and you want to do bloodwork!" So I had just a few minutes to prepare Elijah for that, and surprisingly, he seemed okay, but kept saying that he didn't want to get stuck. First he got to pee in a cup, which he thought was cool, and then just had his finger pricked - he was okay with that part until they came at his finger with the little tube to collect the blood and then he kind of freaked out and thought he was going to get stuck again. I calmed him down and then all was okay. All in all, it was not as bad as I had thought it might be. He was a very brave, big boy.

After the doctor, I got him some ice cream at Lori's house, since she lived close by and I thought he deserved something for his bravery. We decided to take a picnic to the Botanic Gardens and walk around at the new nature displays they have set up for children. It was a lot of fun and a very nice day - Elijah especially enjoyed pushing Annalee (Lori's 5 month old) around in the stroller and seeing the turtles in the pond. When we left, we decided that it was perfect weather for a sno-cone so we stopped on the way back to her house to get one. Elijah got a small pina colada and accidentally dumped the whole thing in Lori's front yard as soon as I gave it to him. So Lori and I both gave him part of ours and sat on the front porch enjoying our sno-cones. Lori and I have been best friends since the 5th grade, and it's so neat that both of us have a child now and can spend our days together again hanging out. It's so funny how things circle back around like that! We didn't go to college together and Lori has been working up until she had Annalee, so this is the first time we've really gotten to be together a lot since high school!

Up until yesterday, I thought I was going to Tennessee by myself this weekend for my cousin's wedding, but the airline prices went up and it didn't work out like I had hoped. Sabrina, I hope that your wedding is beautiful and that you have a wonderful day to remember forever!

Until next time....