her 8th grade letter & "a photo shoot" ...sorta

 

My sweet emi. I am so proud of you. It’s hard for me to believe that you are just weeks from wrapping up middle school and moving on to high school. So many times I look at you, I catch myself thinking you are still my angel baby, carrying around all your things. And smiling.  Always smiling.

You have always been my happy, sanguine child. Just like daddy Gregg and his granddaddy. Both of them always had such a happy disposition. You look just like him. I saw it just the other day. You made a face & something with your mouth made me think…wow, she still looks just like him. I think it was a special gift to me that the Lord created you with so many similarities to daddy Gregg.  I know he is so proud of you too. 

I have often said that you have such a loyal heart. You remind me of Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia, & not just because of her cute bob! Just like Lucy, you always find the good in people.  You are so quick to forgive and you never hold a grudge.  You have a loyal heart and a tender spirit. Your sweet, cheerful disposition is delightful. You are encouraging and genuinely make others feel loved.

I love your that you have a heart for the Lord.  I love to see you worship Him. The scripture says He delights over you & surely He does that indeed. I love that you have a tenderness for spiritual things. Each morning I smile when I hear you getting ready for school while listening to worship songs. His words and His promises will take root in your heart and then blossom through you while you are away.

Speaking of being away~ Dad & I are thrilled that you are going on your first mission trip to Peru!!! I can hardly wait for you to go & come home to share all about everything!  I know the Lord is going to awesome things both in and through you.  I’m so proud of you for going. For being available. For serving and loving on others. You will be a light. You will be the hands of feet of Jesus.

You are going to have a great time in high school! My prayer for you is that you will continue to be that loyal fun friend to those that the Lord has placed in your life, but that you will also make wise choices.  I pray you will be a light to those around you, drawing others to the gracious love of Jesus. I also pray that you guard your heart.

You are full of purpose and destiny.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made.  You are beautiful and have His heart for His people. No weapon formed against you will ever prosper. You are loved, cherished and adored.

I’m so proud to be Emi’s mom. Everyone loves you sweet girl.  I pray that I learn to love you better. I pray you know that I am always here for you.  & most definitely, I will always support you and be your #1 cheerleader. 

I love you angel baby! 

mama

 

i have to hand it to sweet emi.
the other night she was quite the good sport when her older sissy had fun during a little impromptu middle school-style photo shoot. for those of you with middle schoolers, you might recognize some of the ... ummm....poses!

 

 

(blogger has been acting up for the last 48 hours...i lost any of the earlier comments that had been left.
thank you for your sweet words)

kindles, camera lenses, poufs & jeanne oliver

good morning everybody!

can you tell i have much to talk about today?

here we go~

i finally made time last night to peruse the people magazine feature of the royal wedding. i snatched this up last week as soon as it hit the stores to add to my small collection. the girl at target that rang me up was clearly not team royal wedding. poor child. she asked me why on earth i was so tickled to purchase this magazine.

i'm serious.

 

speaking of target. i was also looking for the infamous, seemingly sold out everywhere, poufs from the calypso line. 

sold out. sadness. 

i drove over there thinking i'd grab a couple of gold ones, maybe grab a silver one, just in case.

yeah, well apparantly so did everyone else. the day they came out. thankyouverymuch. rumor has it they're not stellar quality but for the price, who cares. darn it. 

if you scored one, lucky girl.

i love this one, but at 400 smackers, i'll pass.

 i debated forever between the nook and kindle. i wanted the nook because

a. it's white

and most importantly,

b. there is a fabulous lilly cover for the nooks. 

after some research, i ended up going with the kindle. there's a super cute kate spade gatsby cover. but since i haven't read gatsby i felt i wasn't worthy. so red leather cover it is....until lilly whips out a kindle cover, right?

 

(the inside of the lilly reads, judge my nook by it's cover. how darn cute is that?!)

 madison set it up for me the day it arrived while i was at a meeting & promptly downloaded a free copy of Pride & Prejudice ( which i promised her i'd read during her birthday month, which was march. i'm on page 37. oops.). i have samples of On Folly Beach & mary alice monroe's latest, The Butterfly's Daughter. ready to go the next time i sit back down!

speaking of research, i finally made a decision on a couple lenses. i've primarily shot with my canon 50 1.4 prime lens which i love. i wanted something with a little bit more of a wide angle , so i went with the tamron 28-75 2.8. it received great reviews & is a fraction of the  price of comparable other brands. fraction! i used a telephoto lens for years until it basically died. i guess that happens when on vacation alone i took 5,000 images. anyway, i knew i wanted to pay more for the lower aperture option on the wide angle, but just wanted a basic telephoto zoom. this one isn't anything fancy , the ap only goes to 4-5.6 but it will work great for what i need. it's also a tamron, 70-300.

while we sadly missed out on metallic ever so cool poufs at tarjay, we have poufs going on over here.

the girls were a huge help yesterday and made several for the party saturday. sweet bailey, who yes, has returned to life as a brunette ( shade kate middleton) even ran carpool for caroline's tumbling class yesterday. love that girl.

 (they're for outside, not the living room btw)

i begged her not to go to ole miss. seriously. i have to make myself NOT think about what the days will be like when she is not dropping in daily with savannah. one of the fallouts of having my first born leave, is that means her friends leave too. honestly, i found myself already fast forwarding to the days when they graduate from college & we can spend days going to lunch and shopping for lilly together. 

sigh.

the dads unloaded tables yesterday while dan took a quick break from the tedious job of pressure washing. i'm sure the neighbors will love it when we quit parking in the street.

 

 

since i'm obviously not as great a multi-tasker as i'd like to think i am, 

no one complained about my burnt spaghetti sauce last night for dinner.

actually, i think the girls were just ready to get back in & watch the prom episode of glee.

did you hear them sing adele?

awesome!

anyway, gotta love teenagers that are easy to please!

since the girls were over me taking random shots of them after a day of running around,

i'll redeem them & share a quick few from prom.

they were all so good looking!

 

more of those later....

and to wrap it up, i'd love to share my friend jeanne's lookbook from her new FABULOUS spring summer line, Town & Country.

goodness gracious, i love it all!!!

Open publication - Free publishing - More fashion

a simple springtime dinner just for the girls

 

i'm married to a meat & potatoes man

so if we have an evening at home when he's out & about

i try to serve something that i know the girls will love

but he won't feel like he's missing out.

since we're up to our ears in party planning together anyway,

sweet bailey came & joined us for the dinner.

& of course, she fell right into place when i told her i'd need 

a quick little shot of her plate.

what a gem!

the salad recipe is from a sweet friend of mine & was served at her bridesmaids luncheon

years ago.

it's been a favorite ever since.

~ oriental salad ~

 1 head napa cabbage shredded

5 green onions chopped

(i add red cabbage too)

2 ounces (or to your liking) sliced almonds

1/2 jar sesame seeds

1 package of ramen noodles ( crumble these & do not use seasoning)

brown the above three in 1/2 c butter

dress just prior to serving with:

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c vinegar

1/2 c oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

(we also added a little grilled chicken)

enjoy!

 

we also enjoyed some delish zucchini muffins.

i think the green shredded pieces in the muffins had the girls a tad skeptical

but they loved them.

every last one.

they are sweet with a very moist consistency.

recipe found here

~zucchini muffins~

3 cups shredded zucchini

3 eggs

2 c sugar

1 c oil

1 tsp vanilla

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3 c flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

mix first seven ingredients then fold in flour, salt & baking powder.

pour into muffin pans or loaf pan

bake at 350 for 25 minutes

yields 2 dozen

 we're trying to enjoy dinners out on the back porch

before the scorching days of summer get here.

honestly, i don't think they're far away!

ps. on a funny side note, caroline found out dan wouldn't be home the other night.
she requested another meal of "healthy springtime chick food" for dinner.

"to help me perform well on my crct"!

hilarious!

her senior letter

happy mother's day my friends!

i hope each of you has been hugged on, loved on & pampered on all day long!!

we've had a great weekend.

busy, but great.  

i'm knee deep in prom photos & wrapping up details for savannah's graduation party next weekend.

as with each of you, the end of the school year is full of fun memory makers.

while i feel the days are whizzing by & i'm barely keeping up,

i fear if i don't write down each of these moments, they'll be a blur at best.

 this week our church had a special service for our 8th graders & then one for our seniors.

the parents are asked to write letters for each

& then read them aloud ( privately) to our child.

 these letters are so tender & personal. 

sometimes i wonder if sharing them here is maybe a little too much 

however, this being where i chronicle our little life, i'm choosing to share them here too.

today is savannah's & later this week i'll share emi's.

Sometimes I wonder if I have a sinful pride when it comes to you. I have always loved being known as savannah’s mom. I love walking in somewhere, anywhere, with you. Whether it’s watching you practice gymnastics as a little girl, listening to you read, watching you cheer, photographing you all dressed up, reviewing your perfect grades, I’ve always been proud of you. Always.

There sure was much pomp & circumstance when you were born. I wanted to be the mommy of a little girl before I ever dreamed of being a bride. I knew I wanted to name that little girl Savannah, after the gorgeous, charming city. While they told me you’d come at the end of February, I predicted you’d be my valentine’s day gift. And sure enough, just after midnight you came. Just like a first born to be punctual! Daddy Gregg loved his little savvy and carried you around with that same sinful pride!

You know my memory can be a little sketchy, but I clearly remember where I was and your exact response when I told you we were marrying daddy. With those big brown eyes of yours and a heart that could never lie, you looked up and told me that while you’d always love your first daddy you were very happy to have this new daddy. Your relationship with him has been such a blessing to my heart. While I needed your approval as a little girl, to see you approve of him and respect him as you’ve grown up has blown us both away.

Your sisters have always looked up to & respected you. While I can’t imagine our homelife without you, I know you have left and will continue to make a priceless mark on each of their hearts even while you’re away. Shoot, I had gotten this far and now there’s the tears.

Just as scripture says, there is no greater joy in my heart than knowing you are walking with the Lord. You have always had a tenderness for Him. You have always wanted to do the right thing. But when I have seen you worship Him, I know in my heart that He is filling up yours. He inhabits the praises of His people, so that means He sees you sweet girl and is right there with you, enjoying you. He delights over you. I love that!

I love you my brown eyed girl. More than you’ll ever know. You will always be in my heart. I will always be your number one fan. Always. i couldn’t be any prouder of sweet girl. You have done well. You have done it all well. And I simply can not wait to see what the next chapter in your life will hold. I really wanted you , if you had to go away ;), to go to UGA. I love everything about UGA!  While I never had the big college experience, I can only imagine this will be the time of your life! You are going to do great! You will not miss a beat. You have always been able to transition seamlessly from one life change to the next. I’m so excited for you!!

Remember when you go, that you always have a place in our home. if you are having a yucky day, stop & count your blessings, they will always outnumber the trials.  have a thankful heart. Look for the simple joys. Take time to encourage others. Listen those that have gone before you and are where you want to be. Respect your elders and love on the younger ones. Eat healthy and get your rest. Always have a teachable spirit. Dream big. Remember birthdays. Journal. Try to make time to read scripture every day.  there often is many right things, try to choose the best right thing to do. Hold hands. Brush & floss. Write thank you notes.  enjoy rainy days and soak up the sunny ones. Try not to be in a hurry. Drink lots of water. Be your sisters best friend. Never compromise your morals. Worship Him in spirit and in truth. Use your sunscreen. 

Above all, love the lord with all your heart and your soul, with all your strength and your mind. 

And love others well.

All of my love baby girl.

i love you.....

mom