Wordless Wednesday - Baptism

A cute give away......

How cute is this sign.....I love it.....
Ashley @ My Life, Our Journey has been blogging for one year and is having her first ever give away. There are lots of ways to got your name in the hat. Her blog is great too and you will enjoy it.

I weighed in and.....

I lost 2 pounds. I am glad I lost any after this weekend, I just knew the scale was not going to be my friend, but it is not as bad as I expected. I am going to be very strict and stay on the plan because I have to beat these men in the contest.

Team Brayden

We have another precious baby to pray for. Please pray for baby Brayden and his parents Jenna and Chris please visit Jenna's blog for updates on Brayden's condition. 

Southern Snow

UPDATE: All the snow was gone after lunch... LOL Only in Charlotte....

Only in the south can it snow a couple of inches, the roads are 100% clear and our schools close. On a positive note, I made it to work in record time. It is pretty and don't get me wrong, I love SNOW, but if I was a teacher who just lost a teacher workday due to snow or the lack there of it would be slightly aggravating. Personally I would love for it to snow like a foot or 2 or 3, LOL just once in my life here in Charlotte, NC. I know the whole city would shut down but I think it would be great. The kids can make snowman and angels galore.....

200th Post Giveaway by Bergdorf Blondes Blog

You need to check out her site become her friend, post a comment and possibly win this great item. Your skin will thank you for it. 

Prayer Request for Harper

Please pray for my blog friend Kelly, Scott and their brand new baby daughter Harper. If you do not already follow Kelly's blog please visit for specific prayer requests. Baby Harper was born yesterday and she had to be flown to Tulsa NICU where they thought they may have to do a bypass to help her breathe. She is stable and God is answering our prayers. Harper is not out of the woods yet so we all need to continue to pray for this special family.

My week......

I just wanted to give an update on my life.... I hope (keep your fingers crossed) that my computer is back up and running this weekend. I mistakenly clicked on the wrong thing while chatting with my darling sisters, who of course say it serves me right for not giving them (on 3 way none the less) my undivided attention. So for the last 3 weeks (give or take)I have only been able to get on at work. Which is a task in itself.
This week has been a roller coaster, started out great and went drastically down hill. On the weight loss front, I have worked out 4 times this week. (Yeah me) I forgot to weigh before I left work but I will on Tuesday and will update everyone then. Those who don't know I work for LPL/UVEST, we are a third party broker dealer. So I work with stock brokers all day. It is no secret that right now the market stinks, so it is a barrel of fun. Anyway we are playing a game at work where we all started out this month with a portfolio of $500,000 (Pretend money of course) and whoever has the most money on March 31st will win a day off. Sounds like fun right... well it is, but I have made some risky choices, for example I decided to buy alot (like almost 20,000 shares) of Circuit City stock last week since it was at .47 and still going up. Well today I have lost on that particular position around $90,000 since they announced they are out of business so it closed at .03, all I can say is thank goodness it is not real money. One of the guys at work (Mike) said that based on my recent decisions that I should do the opposite of what I think I should.
But the worst was yesterday when some of my dear friends at work were laid off. It was so sad. I wanted to cry all day. I would have taken a pay cut if it meant my friends could have kept their jobs. I pray that everyone across the country who is unemployed find employment, I also pray that they know that if they trust God he will supply all your needs.

3 Years Ago Today.....

For those of you who do not already know 3 years ago today after many shots (THANKS Heather), I went through IVF to help two very special people have a family. On this day 3 years ago Dr. Wing (Who is awesome) implanted 2 embryos and the Journey of Surrogacy began. This is a journey I had thought of for many years even before the birth of my daughter 12 years ago. I had always said I would be a surrogate for my (3) sisters, but 3 years ago I embarked this journey with then a stranger now a sister and friend. Kim is a great lady and I do love her like a sister, but at 35ish she found out during a pap smear that she had uterine cancer and ended up have to have a radical hysterectomy. She has now been cancer free for close to 8 years and is now the mommy to 2 beautiful 2 year old little boys. I will try to share more of my experience in later posts but I realized today I shared the miracle of life with someone who could not conceive on her own.

Flabapalloza has begun

At work we are having our own weight loss challenge which has been titled "Flabapalloza". It started officially on 1/02/09 will run for 2 months. At the end of January the person with the highest percentage of weight loss will win $50.00 (basically their money back) and the person at the end of February with the highest percentage of weight loss will when the the whole pot which is currently $650. So we all weighed in the exercise room downstairs. It is so funny the difference between men and women. The breakdown is 12 men to 2 women, the men at the weigh-in were so proud of their starting weight (which we were told before hand that no one had to know your starting weight unless you personally chose to tell them, that is no one except the one "guy" in charge of the contest). There were actually a lot more women signed up but they chickened out. Anyway, on the day of the weigh in I was actually shocked when I stepped on the scale here (either my scale at home is way off, or the Holiday's were not friendly to me. All I can say is the game is on and the boys better watch out. LOL, So I will keep everyone updated weekly on my progress. Of course the boys better Watch out, because my good friend Magda and I are going to be permanent fixtures at the gym and we are not stopping until the reach our personal goals.

I have always wanted a family picture like this, and now that I have created it, I am LOL because my 12 year old daughter is really taller than me. But on here it is so funny.

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

2009 Countdown

More countdown widgets here

My computer is sick!

I have a sick computer I hope to be back up and running soon.

Christmas at the Shack

A couple of weeks ago our pastor announced that the title of the series he would be preaching on over the next couple of weeks was "Christmas at the Shack". At the time I had not heard of the book titled "The Shack" so I had no idea what this series was going to be about. He had told us that if we had not already read the book that we could purchase a copy out front for $10 and amazingly enough (because I never carry cash) I had exactly $10 so of course I bought one. I was not sure what to expect from this book but all I can say is WOW! If you have not read it I highly recommend it. It is very enlighten and has strengthened and even renewed my faith in God. I hope it touches you as much as it has blessed me.
If you would also like to follow along with the series I have attached the link to the Forest Hill website. (Click below)

Current Series :: Christmas at the Shack

I would love to hear your thoughts.

It is a great book.....

Wordless Wednesday

Send a message to our Troops!!!

Here is a great way to say thanks to our wonderful troops...

It is sponsored by XEROX

If you go to this web site, http://www.letssaythanks.com/ you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

How AMAZING would it be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second.Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them.This takes just 10 seconds and it's a wonderful way to say thank you.

We can never say thank you enough.
Thanks for taking to time to support our military!

Faithful Fridays

I am not sure about the rest of you but I seem to get overwhelmed and a little blue this time of the year and this year on top of the normal cold weather and shorter days that tend to make us all a little depressed. We are now officially in a recession and though gas prices are continuing to drop, the stock market (which I happen to work in) thinks it is on a teeter totter and is not sure if it wants to go up or come down, this economy is affecting everyone.

Today while trying to catch up on my blog reading, I saw this video on Angie’s blog and it has really touched me and reminded me that through the chaos we call life, we need to remember we are not alone and that God is doing something inside of each of us that is bigger than we are. I realized or should say I was reminded that I needed to turn my eyes to Jesus and just surrender to him. So starting today I am going to take the words of this song {that I have literally listened to close to 50 times today} and I am going to turn the chaos into a masterpiece that I may not be able to see finished for quite sometime but one day I know I will step back and be able to take it all in. Right now I am going to just breathe and lean on God. I know he will supply all my needs.
Thanks Angie for posting this video I really needed it.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful to be the mother of such a

loving, compassionate, fun and beautiful daughter

My daughter Chandler and my niece Isabella, after their orchestra concert
last year. When we came out I told them I wanted to take a picture of
them together. They had so much fun....

What inspired me to blog?

On April 8th, my sister sent me an email that changed my life and introduced me to Blogs. In her email she told me about a blog she had been reading for quite sometime, it was a blog that is written by Angie Smith the wife of Todd Smith the Christian singer with the group Selah. I have always loved Selah so I thought why not. On the day I began reading it I was hooked, I new that Angie and Todd's 4th daughter had just been born. Being the type of person who would never want to ruin the story started at the very beginning, It was like I could not put the book down. Angie is an exceptional writer and I now feel like she is one of my sisters even though we have never actually met. I know she would fit right in. I would read it at work and would be in tears.My co workers who of course I shared the blog with would always say are you still reading "the blog". I would stay late because I could not stop reading. I felt like I was with Angie through it all and I had to catch up to the present day. I would not suggest reading the whole blog in such a short period of time due to how emotional it is. I actually grieved deeply for the Smith family. My sister at first felt like she should not have shared it due to my grief, but I am glad she did. I only say that because, as I am sure anyone who has read it felt all of the pain Angie felt. As a mother my heart broke for her, but I also understood how she felt and I know she is much stronger because of precious Audrey Caroline. I can't wait to oneday meet the precious Angel that changed the world. I hope to oneday also meet Angie (my adopted sister, I wish) as I need to hug her. Not to mention she would fit right into our family. I am the oldest of 3 girls. Heather and I already talk about her and laugh at the stories like they are our family. So, Angie if you ever read this, the next time you are in Charlotte, we would love to meet you. All of this to say, I have now decided to start my on blog. I will try to post again soon and I will try to keep it fun.