The Garden...Year 2

After our first success trial garden from last year, we decided to give it a try again this year. However, we did do a better job of tilling and fertilizing this year so hopefully we will reap greater benefits.
We decided to plant corn, tomatoes,peppers, okra, and watermelon. I am going to try my hand at some container herbs so I can make some very fresh salsa this summer. Yummmm,yummmm!

Tilling...



I am so proud of this little guy and his first little pepper!
Peppers
Tomatoes

corn

watermelon



okra

I also decided to add some roses to one of our flower beds. Hopefully next year this plant will be twice the size with twice as many roses!

"I found the one my heart loves".
Song of Solomon 3:4

Today, May 11th is mine and Austin's 8th anniversary! It has been a great 8 years and God has truly blessed me with the man that my heart loves.

Austin and I met in high school and started dating our Senior year. But, if I back up about three years when I was 14 or 15, I started praying for my spouse. At Macedonia, we had a group of ladies who brought us girls together and taught us about choosing a Godly mate. I am so thankful to those ladies for instilling in me the desire to pray for and search out a Godly man. I remember they had us make a list of the top characteristics we wanted in a spouse. My top ones were listed as follows:

1. Faithful Christian Man
2. Loves me for who I am
3. Loves his family and my family
4. Loves children
5. blue eyes
6. Tall and dark complexion
7. Hard worker
8. Big, strong hands (random, I know)

I prayed over this list almost every night. I made alot of decisions regarding my future as a college athlete/student based on the feelings from my prayers. Then, in April of my Senior year, God answered all my questions and my prayers. Austin came into my life and the questions about college were answered. Nothing about being a college athlete felt right, so I decided to be just a college student, hang around Florence, and mine and Austin's relationship blossomed and the rest is history.

I look back on "the list" and not only did God fill my every request but he did 10 times better than I expected! Because of "the list" and what I learned from it, I try to always keep prayer in the center of my marriage and in the center of my life.

Austin is a great husband, wonderful father, and I cannot wait to see what our future holds! Happy 8th Anniversary, Austin!

I Love You, More!

Lane Lately

"Baby Bear, Baby Bear" in a basket... Lane loves to paint and painted the following canvases for Mawmaw Delano and Cicle (Austin's mom and MawMaw). Lane loves to "mock" his daddy. And Lane is LOVING some popcorn right now. He wants to eat popcorn almost everynight as his snack.

Callaway Gardens Getaway

Wow, two posts in one day! I am on a roll!

Austin and I had an opportunity to go to Callaway Gardens for a couple of nights. Lane stayed with Pop and Cicle (Austin's parents)on Sunday and 1/2 the day on Monday and went to stay with Poppa and Nana (my parents) on Monday and Tuesday. I missed that little stinker, but it was nice to get away.



On Sunday, we went to Six Flags for a few hours to ride some roller coasters! They have a buy one get one deal right now, so I was pumped about saving some money on tickets. The weather was perfect and it was not very crowded. We both agreed that Goliath was our favorite ride, and that we will NEVER ride the old, rickety wooden coasters again. They beat our brains out, and I had to pop some advil! LOL

After riding all the roller coasters, we headed to Callaway Gardens. This place was gorgeous, secluded, super quiet, and did I mention gorgeous! One of Austin's clients hooked us up with an awesome suite! I think it was bigger than our first apartment and had 3 balconies. The amenities were spectacular and the staff was very hospitable!




On Monday morning, we went and toured the gardens via bicycle. We decided to ride the bikes from place to place and walk when necessary.
It was a very wise decision on Austin's part because we would have been ExHaUsTeD if we would have tried walking the entire gardens. They have the most spectacular azalea gardens I have ever seen and they were not even in full bloom yet. So I can only imagine the beauty of the Azalea Bowl when they are all in full bloom.



There were so many different points of interest and we mainly focused on the ones that were closest to the bicycle rental building! After visiting the memorial chapel and garden area, we went to the azalea bowl, then on to the little cabin in the woods. I must say, "Dear God, thank you for not making me live in the 1800's. I am unsure of how I would have survived."
About halfway through our tour, Austin got a message that we had massages at the spa at 3 pm! Holy cow, what a treat! We wrapped up our 3 hour bicycle tour with a light lunch, then went back to the lodge for our massages. After the massages, we played putt putt, cleaned up and went to dinner at the "Piedmont" in the Lodge. The food was delicious!

We had a great trip at Callaway Gardens and hope to go back. It was so nice to be surrounded by God's glorious creation and to see all of the different ways that his hands work for the good of His glory!

Lane is 2!

We celebrated Lane's 2nd birthday on Saturday, April 10th (his actual birthday). Austin and I enjoyed planning his big day and the party was a blast. Lane loves trucks and dirt so we thought a construction birthday party would be perfect for him. For his cake, I got cupcakes from Sam's and added crushed oreos (dirt) on top with tonka truck picks. I put the cupcakes in an old metal tonka dump truck to serve from.
Each child got an apron, construction hat, and a bucket with sand tools. The kids played in the sand table and sand pool, pushed around cars and trucks, played with balls, and the older kids jumped in the bounce house (thanks Lisa)! All the kids stayed very busy and seemed to enjoy themselves!



This year was alot of fun, because Lane understood that he was having a party and was going to get to play with his friends. My favorite part was when we were singing "Happy Birthday" and Lane got embarrassed when he heard his name in the song. He turned pink and lowered his head and had the sweetest, most innocent look on his face. It was unforgettable.



The weather was absolutely beautiful and this day was perfect to celebrate God's gift of Lane's life! We have enjoyed every minute with him and we are very thankful for a very healthy, happy, rambunctious, active, mischievious, sweet, loving 2 year old! We Love You, Lane!

Easter!

I was so excited about this Easter because Lane could actually dye eggs, hunt the eggs and talk about dyeing and hunting the eggs! We had a great Easter weekend with our families. We missed the church egg hunt because Lane DESPERATELY needed a haircut and the only time Gail had was 5:30. On Saturday afternoon we went to my parents house to dye eggs with Lane's cousins and his Nana. Of course his little hands and fingers were stained, but he LOVED getting the eggs in the dye and seeing the outcome.
After dyeing the eggs we hunted the eggs with his cousins. I was anxious to see how he would do, and he did great! Instead of following Michael and Rylee, he spotted eggs opposite from the direction they went and collected several before they did!
That's my little competitive thinker! Once he collected his eggs, we had to count them, and he proceeded to squish a couple of the eggs between his fingers! YUCK!

After church on Sunday, we went to MawMaw Delano's for lunch and more hunting.
While at MawMaw's I had a lot of memories run through my head of Austin's grandad, Big Jim! I miss that man so much and I know he was in Heaven smiling down at all of us!While Lane was napping Austin and Brad pulled out their guitars on the back porch and the family sat around and sang some classics (and Jimmy was loving this too!).
Once Lane awoke, he hunted eggs with Cade and Clay (this would have been Jimmy's favorite part). Then his cousin Linsey gave him her old guitar. He was VERY proud to have a "big" guitar like his daddy!




Easter weekend was busy, but great! This upcoming weekend we will celebrate Lane's 2 year birthday! Time has flown and it has been a rewarding two years! I will post about all of Lane's accomplishments in his 2nd year next week.

Callaway Gardens

Coming up in April, Austin and I will travel to Pine Mountain, GA to stay at the beautiful Callaway Gardens resort as an early anniversary getaway (8 years in May)! I am super excited and this place looks absolutely gorgeous. According to their website, they feature amazing azaleas (which I love) and they should be in full bloom in early April when we go. We also plan to do a little hiking on our getaway which is something that we have not had the opportunity to do for quite some time.

Has anyone ever been to the Pine Mountain, Georgia area or does anyone have any good hiking trails in the FDR National Park?


We were supposed to go on this trip in February during my Winter break, however the Winter Break days were used as snow days. So I have been anticipating this trip for quite sometime! I can't wait!