Christmas is gone, time to start a new year... are you ready?

ok so 2008 is fastly approaching. i'm so ready. the last 4 years with my sweet hubby have been wonderful. and i have a great feeling about the upcoming year. there is so much room for anything to happen.

Christmas was great. we had so much fun but travelled to much that by the time Christmas day got here we were pooped. we spent Friday and Saturday in Brookhaven, Sunday with my family and Christmas day with Chip's family.

this is the first year that we have spent the night at Mamaws since before Jacob died. i know that he was looking down on us and smiling. we use to all get together and play UNO (that was our game). it was bitter sweet to be sitting there and he not be there. i miss him dearly. i kept thinking he was going to walk thru the door smiling.

it was so nice, this year has been the first year that Symon, Walker and Addie understood what was going on. They understood Santa and we had so much fun with them. It's such a joy to see the look on the kids faces and be able to be witness to their sweetness.
Tyler is old enough to understand but he had more fun just playing with his brothers and of course Myles is too young but next year will be great.

anyway, i'm rambling.

Merry Late Christmas to all.

Happy New Year....

babies, kids and other little people

ok the past few weeks chip and i have had company at our house. my sis-in-law has been working out of town and to help my brother with the boys, they have been staying with us. i can take them to school in the morning and my brother can get to work on time and not be stressed about the kids. we have had so much fun. tiring and stressful but fun.

ok so i'm back. sorry for the delay. i try and catch up while at work at slow times but then we get busy.

i've been doing a lot of praying about the whole baby thing. chip and i are ready to be parents but we aren't sure the Lord is ready for us. i have come to the conclusion that i think we have been put on hold b/c my brother needs help. and i'm ok with that. i love my baby brother and would do anything for him. so if this is what i have to do in order to achieve my ultimate goal of having my own family then that is what i have to do.

we are also going to get tested. b/c i too am a little impatient. i have had lots of patience with prayer and faith but do you ever feel that it's running out. i still have my faith. but my patient is wavering. just say a few prayers for me. we need all the help we can get.

Working toward FINANCIAL PEACE.....

Ok tonight was our last class with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. We are so excited that we actually stuck with it and went to all the classes and have been working towards our goal to be DEBT FREE. Those words use to never crossed my mind b/c i just knew we would never be out of debt but we have learned that it is possible.

Tonights lesson was on giving/tithe. All my life we have been taught and preached too that we should give but i have never been given the real reason why. Dave Ramsey tells you why? God gave everything for us and we are made in His likeness and we are too give to Him.
No preacher has ever said it as plan as that. Crazy Huh!

But Chip and I have begun down our road to Financial Peace and are thrilled that life has been so good to us.

God has been good to us since the day we met. We owe HIM more that everything.

We have also found a really great church and are planning on joining before the end of the year. And in January some friends of ours that go to church with us are starting a class on the 5 languages of Love. we can't wait to start that path also.
We feel we have a very strong relationship but we want it to grow more in the Lord.
Such good things happening.

Keep us in your prayers. We need all we can get.

Church Ladies

OK I found a really cute website. OK my sis-in-law found it and told me about it.
www.woggleonline.com

very cute tee for young church ladies.
and at very good prices

thought I would share

Turkey Day is near

This year is the first since we have been married that we have had a house big enough to host a gathering of more that 2 people (not counting ourselves). We are so excited. Well, I'm sure me more that Chip. He's not big on hosting, but he knows I love it so he deals with it.

My granny is in town so we are having a little Holiday Dinner at our house. It will be my parents, my brother and his wife and 3 boys and of course granny. I'm so excited.

Family is so important to us and we treasure every moment we get because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Be thankful and enjoy all the good times.

Rachel... this is for you.

My cousin got a new chocolate cake recipe and it has become my favorite. It's so easy. Which is what I'm all about.

Here's the recipe....

1 butter cake mix
8 oz. sour cream
6 oz. mini chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1- 4 oz. instant chocolate pudding
1 cup of oil
1/4 cup water

dump together and bake (bundt pan is best)
325 degrees
15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

there is icing too......

3 1/2 tbsp cocoa
1 stick of butta'
1/2 cup of milk
1 box of powder sugar

on the stove dump together and let melt
pour over the cake and let cool

eat until you can't eat no more....

it's so good with some vanilla ice cream.

Living Peacefully.....for now.

well not much to report. just thought i would share some thoughts. i'm sitting at work not doing much today but people watching.

chip and i are great. settling in our new home. which is our first home we purchased together. our old house was his before we married. we have a new black lab named, Macy. yes like the store but i didn't name her b/c i think if i were to name her after a store it would be target or potterybarn. ha ha. yes my new obsession. macy and daisy (our pug) are getting along great. but of course being two women of the house they struggle for control. daisy seems to be winning.

we are still in the process of planting trees and flowers and trying to get grass to grow in the backyard. right now it is a dust pile. my house is so dusty but i'll live with it. i'm trying not to complain.

life is good
God has truly blessed us.

new house and new job... good things are happening

we'll we finally got moved in and settled. sort of, at least the rooms we need to live in are ready. i still haven't put anything on the walls yet but i'm getting settled and making sure i really want the stuff i had before the move. you know you want to have new stuff with a new house. but chip is praying i can use all the stuff we already have.

but give me time it will all be done soon. i'm starting to get restless.

ok new job promotion. i'm a new financial rep for trustmark. i'm so excited. i get to open accounts, cd's, and pretty much anything a customer needs.

such good things. can't really complain for now.

Closing on our houses

YIPPEEE!!

OK we are finally closing on our houses. selling the old and buying the new. we are so excited. trying not to get too excited b/c with our luck something will go wrong. so lots of prayers and good thoughts for the next 24 hours.
we won't be able to actually move in until next week. our floors aren't finished, which stinks but when you have to work on other peoples schedules it makes life hard. but that's ok, we will have the keys in our possession tomorrow. and we will move everything into the garage until we can get into the house.

i'll upload pictures of the house later.

say prayers and keep us in your thoughts

caribbean cruise.....

i have to admit that our vacation this past week was so awesome. we met some great people. relaxed by the pool almost everyday. and got to go snorkeling in Cozumel. it was the best vacation. actually it is the first real vacation that we have had since our honeymoon. we have had weekend get-aways but not anything for a whole week.

i highly recommend a cruise. so relaxing.

vacation....here we come, ready or not!

ok so luck is a funny thing. Chip and I have very little. sometimes we feel like we have none. but we are happy and we laugh about it a lot. we are heading out tomorrow for our cruise to cozumel mexico. and yes there is a hurricane scheduled to hit cozumel on wednesday. we will be sailing into the port on thursday morning. how great is that. all we can do is laugh, b/c this is what our lives are like. you know they say nothing that comes easy is ever worth it. believe me we are extremely greatful for everything we have and we thank the Lord everyday for it.

so say a few prayers that we don't end up in cuba for our vacation.

but please know where ever we dock, we will be laughing and enjoying ourselves the entire time.

I need a vacation.....

ok we are on the countdown to VACATION!!
sailing to Mexico for relaxation and fun and no phones. yippeee! chip and i leave monday for New Orleans to get on the boat and set sail at 4pm. say a few prayers that we don't kill each other. my reason for saying that is; i love to sit by the pool and read or tan or drink. whatever i am in the mood for. chip on the other hand has to be doing something. i swear i think if he stops he thinks he will die. he has to explore everything. i promise he will probably go missing and i will hear over the loud speaker "Mrs. Long, Please retrieve your husband from Captains quarters." then we will probably be banned from Carnival cruise lines. pray for us. He's nosy and very curious. but i love him so much.

we haven't been on a real vacation since our honeymoon. and ironically we are sailing to the same place we went then. so i'm excited. we are going to snorkel and tan and explore the cities.

yes i know you can tell i am sooo excited. i can't help it.

Daisy (our Pug) will be staying with her nana and pappaw. she loves going to nana's house. she follows her pappaw around which he loves but says that it drives him nuts. so she will come home spoiled even more that she already is.

ok enough for now.
toodles--

selling our house

i dont' wish this process on anyone. i'm so stress out right now. crazy huh!!
i hate to clean and with selling a house you have to clean all the time. we have been on the market since march '06 and i am going crazy.