Obscure Movie Review

Okay, I thought I'd share a little insight into Aly here. This is one of my all time favorite movies. I became a Mike Myers fan back when he was on SNL. I'm not a big fan of the Austin Powers stuff but I love this movie. I often quote it because it is HILARIOUS! Some of my favorite scenes are when Charlie's Dad (also played by Mike Myers and based on his actual Father) is talking. He's Scottish and obsessed with Scottish culture and all things scottish. The movie is filmed in San Francisco, my most favorite city in the world, I have a lot of happy memories there and have been to many of the locations you'll see in the movie. Anthony LaPaglia plays his best friend and Nancy Travis is his love interest who he believes may be an axe murderer. It also has a great soundtrack with artists like Toad the Wet Sprocket and The Spin Doctors. Pick it up at blockbuster this week and let me know what you think.

Baskin Robbins Night is Here Again!

It's that time of year again! On Wednesday night, April 30th between 5pm and 10 pm y'all need to head down to your local Baskin Robbins to support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. All you have to do is eat some yummy, cheap, ice cream. You can feel good about eating those extra calories because you're helping to take care of the families that have lost a loved one in the line of duty. We are going to the new one in Gallatin, next to Dunkin Donuts after dinner. We hope to see you all there!

Marriage 101

I was clicking around some blogs the other day and ran into one my brother told me to check out. His name is Mike and he is a pastor of a church back in my hometown of Sacramento. He leads marriage seminars and he shared some tips for new husbands on one of his posts that just made me like him. Doug this may help you out a bit buddy......what am I saying? Heck! What man couldn't stand to be reminded once in a while?

I'd love to hear some valuable lessons we've all learned as husbands and wives. Feel free to tack on some of yours.

Advice from an Old Husband

The best part about boring airplane trips is that you can sit around and listen in on other people's conversations (especially when they think a tune is actually playing on your ipod). In a ten minute stretch of snooping around the floating conversations, I caught two younger husbands making some fundamental mistakes in their marital communication.This got me thinking about the things I would have loved to know when I first got married that I should pass on to other men. If any of these is new to you, you're welcome, and please pass them on. None of these is meant to slam or in any way denigrate my wife. That last sentence is actually the first thing you should learn as a husband: Never slam or denigrate your wife. The old adage still stands - never piss off the person who helps prepare your food.

1. Never start a conflict after 9 p.m. This should be obvious, but you would be amazed how many men do it. For the most part, men are usually winding down mental acuity earlier in the evening than this and we don't stand a chance being good listeners at night. Plus, depending on your bed-time, you will weary of the battle and not accomplish anything before both of you are exhausted.

2. Looking after your children is not called "babysitting the kids". You put the seed into the equation, therefore you are a caregiver as much as your wife. Mutually shared exhaustion, especially in this day of mutually shared income, is a given. I never knew that and paid a medium-sized price for it.

3. You both can be good at different things and still be a couple. You don't have to do everything together, dress with the same colors and spout the same philosophy in life to have a good marriage. If both of you agree on everything, one of you is unnecessary. Also, you will annoy the crap out of the rest of us.

4. You don't have to tell your wife everything. Oh, I don't mean have dark secrets from her. What I mean is, you don't have to tell her about every person you're angry at and every person who is angry at you. Some things really are your yoke to bear in life...our wives tend to defend us if they sense we are being attacked. We might get over an imagined offense in a couple of days and wonder why, two years later, she doesn't want to hang out with that person.

5. It is okay to ask your wife if she is agreeable to having more sex. Just as it is okay for her to ask you the following:
a. Can you please shower first?
b. Can I wake up first?
c. Can I be warm, and assured that no one, including our children, will walk in on us?
d. Will your ego handle it if I don't react with delight after 14 hours of looking after little people with dirty hands?
e. Can we avoid any positions that require me to know the five basic ballet moves?

6. If she says she likes flowers, buy her lots of flowers. Don't ask why she likes them, just do it.

7. Don't let your wife put a scale in the bathroom, unless you want to deal with a regular bout of "I just need to lose five more pounds". If she owns one when you get married, then break it or set it back monthly. Remember, no one is sexier than the person who likes the body they currently have.

8. You ask her if you can pray together each evening. Don't make her ask. She will be in love with you forever if you do this.

9. Asking your wife ten straight questions when you are doing finances together is intimidating to her and usually ends up badly.

10. The phrase "all I said was" is a rationalization...always. If you want to communicate as well as she does, learn to recognize tones of voice, body language and timing...your own!

Walgreen's Wisdom

Today I checked in on Bro. David's Blog. Now that March madness is over I figured it was safe again. (Basketball lingo confuses me) Anyway, I ran into this post and it struck a nerve. Just what I needed to hear. With my life being so busy lately I don't want to lose touch with all of you so expect a phone call from me here soon. I love you all!

Recommendation....I love Bro. David's "Monday Random thoughts" not to be missed. I suggest clicking on his link in my shout out's every Tuesday if you need a little chuckle.

Lessons Learned at Walgreens
In Spiritual Growth, Thoughts at 1:24pm
A while back I was in Walgreens. I was just stopping in to grab two things, so I didn’t get a basket. However, as I was getting my two things, I happened to see other things that I could not live without. Jennifer also saw some things she needed, and before I knew it, my hands and arms were full. Can you identify with me on this?
So I make it to the check out line, which had to be the longest in the history of Walgreens. You guessed it – they only had one register open.
While I’m waiting, I’m shifting the load to relieve muscle spasms. Twice I almost yelled, “open another register you idiots! Haven’t you heard of customer service!” I didn’t, but I considered it.
I got the “positive thinking” thing going, telling myself, “I can make it!” One more load shift, and I’m good. Then the unthinkable happened. The bottle of pink finger nail polish that my dear wife needed slipped through the place between your bicep and forearm where you can hold stuff when you bend your elbow, and it fell to the floor. I watched it fall for what seemed like an eternity until it finally collided with the floor, and there was the most brilliant pink explosion!
Very embarrassing! Very frustrating! Very messy! Here I was tempted to yell, “clean up on aisle 2!!”, but instead tried to play it cool, hoping no one would notice. “It’s just BRIGHT pink goo splattered everywhere with broken shards of glass sticking up waiting for a pre-schooler to step on,” I said to myself. No one will notice. It was then that my good citizen training kicked in, and I sheepishly went to the counter and reported my transgression. The teenager at the counter was very kind and gentle with me, and for that I was grateful. It just wasn’t a good day for me at Walgreen’s. I was so frustrated that I’m not sure I even got the two things I ran in there for.
Life is not only like a box of chocolates, but also like my experience at Walgreens. Sometimes we get too much stuff in our hands. More stuff going on than we can manage. If we do that, inevitably something will fall – most often the relational pieces of our lives. When we are too over-scheduled, too busy, have too much stuff we are trying to juggle, we skim relationally. We let relationships fall by the wayside, especially our walk with God. This impacts everything else we attempt to do.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Always start with God. You can’t do everything and still take care of the main thing, which is to walk closely with the God of the universe. Out of this walk comes wisdom to live a reasonably balanced life.
And next time you go to Walgreens – get a basket!

Bath Time?

Apparently she took that frost warning on the news last night a little too far.

Thanks for cracking me up today God.

In the Market?

So, it's official, our home is for sale. We have mixed feelings. I tend to get rather attached to our homes. We have three years of memories and lots of sweat equity poured into this one. It has sheltered us well and we will leave a piece of our hearts behind, not to mention our good friends the Kimmel's live just around the corner.

On the plus side we are looking forward to "stretching out" a bit in our new place. As big as 2400 square feet sounds for a family of 6 it can be a tight squeeze. The home we are currently interested in is over 3,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms 3 and a half baths and in a beautiful new subdivision in a great school district. Did I mention it is not built yet? That's right once our new home is finished I will be the first one to put my butt print in the tub. Bailee will have her own bathroom off her room. Which is great because she always uses ours, according to her Bubba's bathroom......."It stink Mama" I can't blame her, three distracted sharp shooters makes for a big mess. If everything goes smoothly we should be in our new place sometime in the middle of July. There is a guest room so y'all come on, we'd love to have you!

For those of you who may be in the market, click on the realtracs link above and you can see all the specifics and a bunch more pictures. Thanks Tiffany, you win realtor of the year! Steve layed all the hardwood and tile and of course he painted everything.......a couple times (it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind ya know)

Pray for us as we try and sell our place, that I won't crumble under all the stress of trying to keep our house straightened while the "midgets" mess it up right behind me. I do love them so but they are the messiest little people and they tend to leave chaos in their wake. Pray for Steve that he won't lose his mind every time he has to write out another check for closing costs or upgrades or whatever. Moving has lots of little costs that can add up fast.

Hope to see you soon!

Steve's New Ride

My husband is getting a new ride next month. How many guys above the age of 5 can say they drive a truck like this one? I don't think as adults we ever grow out of our initial career dreams that we had as kids and a few lucky ones get to live them. That's why I am so happy for him. He's been busy getting the new station ready to open all week. It is his new post so it is like his home away from home, he's very excited. They even got new furniture. The ribbon cutting is this friday, April 18th at 6pm for those of you who wanna bring the kids down to check it out. For more pictures follow this link. http://www.imageevent.com/tjenkins

Steve's first shift is on Sunday the 20th if you wanna drop by then, he'd love to give you a personal tour. While you're there wish him a Happy Birthday, he turns 30 something on the 19th.

When the Storms Come

So it's spring here in the south which means it's storm season. Let me just say this, I LOVE storms! I know alot of you may think I'm nuts but there is just something about the sound of distant thunder that thrills me to my toes! I think lightning is so breathtaking. Whenever their is a big BOOM of thunder that shakes me to my core, I can't help it, I giggle every time.

My favorite time for a storm to hit is late at night when I'm in bed, safe in the shelter of my home under my fluffy down comforter. To watch my room light up with each strike of lightning and hear the wind and rain pounding on my windows. Sometimes the thunder will roll and rumble for what seems like forever and then BANG! I jump every time..........I LOVE IT! It's such a small example of God's incredible power.

I was pondering this very thing when I was struck with a bit of a metaphor. In life we encounter many "storms". I realized as Christians God has given us the luxury to lay under his fluffy comforter, in his big house of protection while the winds blow all around. Yet many of us forgo this luxury and take the opportunity to FREAK OUT! WHY?? After all, ultimately we have NO control and dare I say it....thank God we don't! What a mess I make every time I try and take control.

Praise him in the storm and amazing peace that passes all comprehension will overcome you.

Busy....Busy....Busy

Just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts recently. We are house hunting and getting our house ready to list so, as you could guess we are super busy. I'll try and check in as much as possible.

Here's some houses we've considered. Both are 4 bedrooms about 2700 square feet in good snobby neighborhoods in Hendersonville. The one on the bottom has a three car garage for Steve and a cool little "hideout" under the stairs for the kiddies. Both are minutes from the fire station. And the prices........$239,000 and $253,000. Just wanted to tempt my Cali friends. You know ya wanna move here!!

Izzy

I thought I'd take a moment to properly introduce the newest member of our family to y'all. A few of you lucky ones have had the honor of snuggling our little fur baby. Isabella was my birthday gift from my darling hubby. You see, everyone around me lately seems to be having babies and I was fresh out of em, so, my Steven decided I needed something to love on. The only major difference is I can kennel her and she's less messy than my other babies (believe it or not). She is a Malti-tzu (Maltese/Shih-tzu hybrid), she will weigh about 5 pounds full grown so she's travel size. Which is good because I already have a car full and she fits nicely in her little purse on shopping trips. Normally she has a pink bow on her head but this shot was taken before her hair was long enough. She is a perfect fit for our family. Our kids love her and she's all about playing in the mud and getting down and dirty. She's really good at tag and keeping the birds out of the yard too. I'm sure as this blog progresses you'll here a few Izzy tales because she's a hoot and we all love her.

Bailee's So Grown Up

My sweet little baby girl turned 4 years old last week. I can hardly believe it. There are a million cliche's I could use to describe this predicament I'm in but I don't want to sound insincere. I am utterly floored at how fast the last four years have gone by. My children are my proudest possessions and suddenly I am realizing that as they grow and become these incredible individuals that they are not really my possessions at all but a temporary gift. This new understanding couldn't have come at a better time. You see I have recently let the little things that occur as your children grow really get to me. I have been living in a state of overwhelm for a few months now and through this have even asked God what He was thinking when he decided that Aly would have 4 children. His timing is perfect. I think someone must have been praying for me. My patience is refreshed and my heart is full. I look at them with their sweet little dirty faces and grumpy, sticky-out lips and I have to catch my breath....aren't they just the most wonderful little creatures? Instead of "why me" I am praising my Lord and saying "Why Me, what did I do to deserve this tremendous honor?" It is now my intention to breathe them in every moment I get because before I know it another four years will pass, and in four years my oldest, Weslee, will be almost 13 years old!

Breathe Aly......just breathe.