Wednesday's Words

The birthday party

On Saturday we went to Will's birthday party. We had birthday cake, cotton candy, snow cones, swings, slides, bubbles, and balloons! We all had a blast. It is so nice to enjoy the family, and the weather was perfect!

last weekend fun

Last weekend my niece, Ryleigh, was playing on her softball tee. Yes, big red bow, the "flower dress Sissy bought her," shiny shoes and all. You would think with some of our sporty genes that some of us had a little more athleticism, so we will just keep our fingers crossed Miss Priss doesn't take after her Sissy.

 But looking at this picture, we aren't looking good. Eyes closed while swinging the bat is pretty similar to my hitting skills growing up. However, I did have some pretty good fielding skills. Ha.

 But hey, she got it on the next try.

 And totally looks cute doing it.

 And with all of these pictures of my niece and nephew (It was Will's birthday yesterday), I can't forget this buddy. This picture was taken at the beach. The baby blues take my breath away too. I'm sure he will be a heart breaker.

Happy Friday everyone! 

happy 2nd birthday

Will! 

It  has already been TWO WHOLE YEARS since you were born.
Time has flown by so quickly and before you know it

you will be big enough to drive one of these.

But lucky for us you to still love to cuddle, let us give you kisses, hold our hands, and let us hold you tight! You are a handsome, spunky little fella with the
absolute warmest heart.
Happy Birthday!!

I Love You, Sissy

"Peace for the Past"

 A good friend RT this blog. You can find its original here

"I think one of the keys to life, happiness and success is about learning and always moving forward. We have to learn from the experiences we have, the heartaches we go through and continue to move past them into the light of a new day of opportunity.

Too many times did I lose sight of what was important to me, what really mattered in my life, by staying caught up in what I had suffered from in the past. There’s a certain lack of responsibility that goes along with this, because I somewhat blamed others for the painful experiences I’d had and not given credit to the fact that most often I’d had a choice in the matter. I wasted a lot of energy-I was giving my power away.

I started to then feel the deep need to control as much as I could in my life, thinking that I could work harder to prevent anymore hurt/heartache. I mean, who would want to go through the same painful things again? It wouldn’t be a possibility for me! Yet, ultimately, I realized that life simply doesn’t work like that. I don’t think there’s really ANYthing that we can control. So, again, I found myself giving my power away.

It’s like a stream: water is flowing down continuously and if you throw a rock, a boulder or two, into it, the water will continue to just flow around it. It will always find a way of continuing to move. Such is life. Therefore, I had to continue to move. Move from my thoughts of guilt, my thoughts of painful memories, and my thoughts of control. I needed to be peaceful and move forward.

We are loving beings at our core. We are seamless; we are fluid. We just need to keep connecting with that foundation.

I am FAR from perfect in any way, but I choose each and every day of my life to move forward from the past to create the life I enjoy living. I believe everything happens for a reason and there are only messages/truths to learn that give us the ability to grow stronger and be better people. And therefore, we cannot let our thoughts lie in the past. I believe that whatever we went through, we did the best that we could at that time with the tools we had acquired along the way. It’s only important to ‘keep collecting’ those tools. So that when difficult times arise, we are better prepared and can move forward more quickly.

“No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.” "

I love this post. We all have a past. I totally believe most people are loving beings at their core, but that that doesn't mean at some point or another we have made some bad choices.  I have. Sometimes I feel like my past is as colorful as they come, but isn't everyone's? Its how we choose to step forward. Its how we choose to pick up what's left, tape it back together, and take a leap of faith into the unknown. I haven't been the best at any of the above. I pull all of these pieces through life with me, dragging them along, knocking down everyone and everything in my way. Well sometimes at least.

This post is totally inspiring. I shall read it everyday. Or try to. Each day I do try and make a genuine effort to leave what I can not change behind. Today is a brand new day. I can not say I am at peace with who I was or what I did, but right now I am okay. I think I needed a sense of closure with some of it, and that I may never have, but as long as the people in my life right now know me for me, and I know me for me, then that will lead me into a beautiful and bright future. I am pretty excited about today and maybe even tomorrow. But for now, today is all we have.

Memory Lane

Sunday, I made a quick trip down to Tuscaloosa. It is where I spent five years of my young adult life. Tears were shed, laughs were laughed, money was spent, but I have memories that will last a lifetime. I haven't been back since May and this was only the second time I have been down there to see the tornado damage. Our real last day of school was the day of the tornadoes, except one day we had to take a computer test. It still breaks my heart. To pull up to a huge four way stop that you know so well, and to see nothing in its place is very much heartbreaking. I drove around with a huge lump in my throat, but I know they will come out on top. I sure do love that town.

However, I did go down to see my long lost friend, Ashley. We ate dinner Sunday night at our favorite mexican restaurant, El Rincon. The raspberry margarita was the perfect ending to a long week. On Monday we did a little shopping, then had another great lunch at Roly Poly. No, I was never an Alabama Cheerleader, and don't quite see that in my future, but that pin sure is cute! RTR. >> that is just our way of saying Roll Tide Roll.

a weekend of photos

on thursday (because that is practically the weekend) 

I went to dinner with the family.

Buffalo Wild Wings is always super yummy.

then friday 

I did a little shopping for the apartment.

and saturday 

I went to dinner with Meghan and Elizabeth.

we went to Slice. It was a great little pizza place.

It is always fun to hang out with the girls for a night.

and sunday
I traveled down memory lane with a quick trip to tuscaloosa.
I'll save those pictures for the next post.