Happy 50th

My Grandparents will be married 50 years tomorrow. That's pretty exciting. Here's a post to the way things were back then. Congrats Grandmother and Grandaddy. Can't wait to have dinner on Saturday. We love you.


Cost of Living 1959
How Much things cost in 1959
Average Cost of new house $12,400.00
Average Yearly Wages $5,010.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents Average
Cost of a new car $2,200.00
Movie Ticket $1.00
Loaf of Bread 20 cents
Kodak Movie camera $67.50
Ladies Stockings $1.00

Also in 1959:

• Barbie is born, or molded if you will
• Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba
• Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper are all killed in a plane crash as the result of a snow storm
• The first Americans were killed in Vietnam
• Both Alaska and Hawaii achieve state hood
• Russia gets to the moon first
• Flavor Flav is born(I'm not sure how the earth survived prior this year, and how did anyone know what time it was?)
• Weird Al is born
• The original Alfalfa, from the Little Rascals, dies
• Ben-Hur and Charleton Heston both win Oscars
• Bonanza, Dennis the Menace, and Rawhide all premiered in 1959
• Mr. Freeze appears for the first time in the Batman comics
• The LA Dodgers won 4 games to 2 over the Chicago White Sox to claim the World Series
• Tang is introduced(and we're still asking ourselves why)
• The first non stop domestic flight from Los Angeles to New York
• The first picture of Earth was taken from Space
• The Grammy awards started

It was a good year. Happy Anniversary.

I Will Not Be Moved

After a meeting at church last night, Clayton and I were headed home and we were jamming to Natalie Grant, and I begin to think. This may or may not come as a shock to you. My mind wanders A LOT. I tend to over analyze absolutely everything. It's annoying to all those around me, and to myself as well. We were listening to "I Will Not Be Moved", and began to think about Jo, her issues, and what it's taken from me. Then, the Lord, almost audibly, said "I'm still here, so you've lost nothing". We might say it like "Quit complaining, there's a plan, stick to what you're doing".

We were jamming, singing, dancing(Clayton, not me, I was driving, and I'm not that good of a driver anyway), and praying all the way home. I set the CD player to repeat, and we listened to her song quite a few times. God settled some things for me, and I want to share them with you. 'Cuz I know you care that much.

• I will not be moved from my Savior. I can't be. It's impossible. He couldn't lose me even if He wanted to, and since He doesn't want to, then I'm safe.
• I will not be moved from my belief that EVERY life is valuable. Jo isn't healthy or perfect, but she is still valuable. God formed her the way the He wanted her. He is the giver and taker of life.
• I will not be moved from Clayton. He's my bud. He will never know his sister, simply because he's so young. But, I get the privilege to teach him about her, and to teach him about all the ways that God worked in this situation.
• I will not be moved from Chad. Besides Christ, he's my rock. He keeps me sane and calm. Not an easy task by any means. Jo's life and impeding death has changed us forever. I don't like change, so it has taken some acclimating on my part, but it's already been a change for the better. We were up late talking Monday evening, and I thought to myself, if it's this good now, what will it be like when we're 55, 65, 75, or 90? I love living my life with you babe
• I will not be moved from my family. It would be very easy for me to not let our families in on our pain. But what or whom would that benefit? Nothing and no one. If we can learn and grow as a unit, then the pain has been worth it.
• I will not be moved from enjoying this pregnancy. That's easy to say today, tomorrow may not be the same. I purposed within myself back in May, that with God's help I would enjoy every day that I have with Johanna. If she's born alive, I won't have her long. And, right now I get to be totally selfish with her love. I'm the only one who can feel her, and know her routines at this point. I'll have to share her soon enough, so I'm enjoying having her all to myself.
• I will not be moved from my faith. I believe God is sovereign. Only He knows what all He is doing through her life. Most likely, Chad and I will never know what her short life will accomplish. God knows though.
• I will not be moved from my excitement to see her again, perfected and holy. I have a refreshed sense of Heaven and eternity now.

"On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand."

Down South

I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "American by birth, southern by the grace of God". It's too true. I love being from the south. It's the best place on earth. There are so many reasons why. Where should I start?

• Hot summers. They aren't for everybody, but I like them. I love listening to the crickets late at night, and short summer rain storms in the afternoon.
• Fried food. Everything is better once it's been battered and deep fried. Chicken, squash, oreos, green beans. The list could go on and on.
• Sweet tea. 2 cups per gallon please. No more, no less. My mother makes the absolute best sweet tea on the face of the earth. Since Chad is insulin challenged, we mainly get Splenda tea, which is good, but not the same. I could so go for a glass of Mom's tea right now.
• "Ma'am", "Sir", "Please and Thank you". It's just something that's ingrained into every fiber of our being. I have to say ma'am and sir, depending on the gender I'm addressing. I can't make myself stop. I do understand when people say to me, "My name's Jim, not Sir". I really do get it, but it's just something in me that makes me say it. I can't help it.
• SEC football. Preferably Alabama, but if we can't get the Bama game on a particular Saturday, then we will watch the other SEC teams. I live in the heart of ACC country(NC), and let me just say, ACC football has NOTHING on SEC. Not even in the same league.
• "Bless your/her/his/their heart(s)". 'Nuff said.
• Big old houses, on magnolia lined streets. I don't have one, but I would like one. I don't really know why this means southern to me, but it just does.
• "Steal Magnolias", "Fried Green Tomatoes", "Drivin' Miss Daisy"
• Grits.
• Fresh squeezed lemonade
• Chick Fil A. Do ya'll have that north of the Mason Dixon line? If you don't, then you just don't even know what you're missing.
• Fiddles

Where are you from, and is there anything special that you like about it?

Not Much

There's not a whole lot going on today. That's a great thing. It's calm at work since the boss is out of town for 2 entire weeks. That's an even better thing. So that's all that I have for today. I'll try to conjure up something fantastic for tomorrow. See ya on the flip side.

Clayton and the Popcorn

I am positive that only parents of toddlers want to read about the newest adventures and escapades of other parent's toddlers. Today's post is entirely Clayton, so I completely understand if you have more important things to do. I mean there is a whole world out there that is still reeling over the death of Michael Jackson, the possibility of socialized medicine(and yes, I do have an opinion about that, and no I won't bore you with it), and the Gosselin tragedy.

Last night as I was preparing a fantastic culinary experience of ............ hot dogs, and home fries, Clayton was in the kitchen "helping", as is his usual custom. His idea of helping is to pull the empty pitchers out of the cabinet, eat the dog's food, and open and close the dish washer. Anyway, he spotted his Daddy's very large bag of pre-popped popcorn. It's been in the same place for months(not the same bag obviously, we aren't trying to grow Penicillin), so I'm not sure why it caught his attention last night. He proceeded to man handle the bag down from it's perch and bring(waddle) it to me. I wish I could describe in detail how hard he worked to get this bag down. It was over his head(that's not hard to do still), and it's a big ole' bag of popcorn. After he finally succeeded in retrieving the bag of popcorn he bear hugs it, and waddles across the kitchen to me. He repositions the bag in such a way that he's trying to hand it up to me, and starts shrieking "Mama". I interpreted that to mean, "Sweet, kind, beautiful mother, would you please let me have some popcorn less than 30 minutes before we are to eat the best meal you've ever placed on our table?" I of course consented. After all, the kid doesn't always want to eat. And he's been working on new bottom molars, so he needed a prize. I got out one of his little plastic bowls, and put a handful of popcorn in his bowl.

I assumed that he would sit in the kitchen and eat his popcorn. Boy, was I wrong. He grabbed his bowl with both hands, and headed for the living room sofa. He walked so very slowly and carefully. It was precious. It was almost like he was carrying a bowl full of gold, that's how careful he was with his popcorn. I walked with him, in case he dropped everything. He walked all the way to the couch, set his bowl down on the couch, climbed on the couch, scooted into one of the corners, pulled his bowl close to him, and proceeded to chow down.

I was absolutely amazed at how big he seemed while he was doing this. While he ate his popcorn, I continued to get dinner ready, and Clayton watched Paula Deen prepare an Easter extravaganza.

From our kitchen I can see straight through the dining room, and into the living room. I was keeping an eye on him, when I noticed 2 things. First, Clayton loves music, and loves to groove to the music. At one point I saw him dancing along to whatever commercial was on at the time. And second, I saw him and the dog eating out of the same bowl of popcorn. Good times.

That's Nice

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

I'll be completely honest with you. This is one my absolute favorite passage of scripture in the entire Bible. I have a lot of faves, usually depending on what I think I need for the day. This passage however, is always in the top 3.

In short, and not nearly as eloquently, Paul tells us that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate me from the love of my God. I am already a conqueror through Christ. Trust me when I say that I know it's not easy, and sometime almost impossible, to live life as though I am already a conqueror. But, that doesn't change the fact that I am in fact a conqueror.

This was on my mind today, and I wanted to share.

The Hubs.........

.............. he's good.

Yesterday was Monday(obviously), and Monday is always the busiest day at my office. I worked until about 7pm, and was absolutely pooped when I made it home.

We had kept the 'rents dog last week while they were out of town. We love having Mattie at our house. She is a great dog, and Clayton LOVES her. Seriously, she's his BFF. The only down side to keeping Mattie is that she sheds. I think I could weave her discarded hair into an afghan(do you weave afghans?). This really does have a point. I had asked Chad to simply sweep and mop the floors in our house. We have hardwoods and tile, so you have to sweep and mop the entire house. Our house is small, so it's not a big deal. Currently sweeping and mopping hurts my back. Just one of those preggy things. And, Chad does an amazing job when he sweeps. The floors look new again(and that's saying a lot, the hardwoods are almost 70 years old).

Not only did he sweep and mop, he washed, dryed, folded, and put away all the laundry(there was a lot of that too), completely cleaned the bathroom, and ran the dishwasher. It was fantastic to come home to a very clean house. Thanks babe. I really appreciate.

How did I repay him? I took him to a Chinese buffet. Actually, he took me. Either way. He loves me. It's official.

PS Chad I promise to cook dinner tonight. You really are fantastic.