A crazy little thing called Love

A little lesson on love during Sunday School really made me ponder the concept of "love". Our society has a corrupt view of love. We know there are many different facets to love. We love our children in a different way than we love our neighbors. We really overuse the word love, "I love ice cream". I mean really, do you love ice cream? I was thinking about things I love and this is what I came up with:
Please note this is not a list of everything or everyone I love. Just off the top of my head.
I love:

1. My husband
2. My kiddos
3. Living in a safe place
4. The smell of fall in the air
5. Dessert
6. Being pregnant
7. Working with a purpose
8. To teach and train ( totally in my element in front of a room of adults sharing information and facilitating conversation)
9. Finishing a project
10. Making decisions that I know will have a positive influence
11. The clearance rack
12. School (I will forever be a student)
13. Honest people
14. Time with my husband (I used to take that for granted)
15. 
    
    This crazy and blessed life we lead
    
    
    What does love feel like? What do you think? How do you describe the feeling of love? Is it that warm fuzzy feeling inside? Or when something takes your breath away? Leave me a comment.

What was supposed to be a Lazy Day

We had no intentions of being productive today.

The goal was to be lazy. My goal anyways, Chris always does something productive.

I took the girls to the library. They checked out a few books. Then we met Chris for Lunch.

On our way to lunch, a plane landed on the four lane. Really! No joke! The pilot is a good friend of ours, we are thankful he was okay!

The remainder of our day is going to include fresh veggies on the new grill and

A campfire, with s'mores of course. Happy Weekend!!

Road Trip

We really love to go away for the weekend. We don't get the opportunity very often because we always end up having some kind of obligation. But when we get the chance, we hit the road!!

I have learned from Chris that packing is really not a big deal. I used to make a list and pack as I checked off the list. Not anymore!! I just open up a big duffle bag and I start throwing stuff in. His philosophy is that you can buy or do without anything for a few days. This time I thought I forgot the hairbrush but luckily, it was in the bottom of the bag. Thanks to Ava, she packed lots of random objects that I found once we arrived.

We stayed at a really kid-friendly hotel with a pool and waterslide. They also had a "marshmallow"! Maddie calls those mushrooms that spill water, "marshmallows" and I love it!!

Our primary destination was the aquarium. On our way into Gatlinburg, we stopped at a book store. I bought, "Curious George visits the Aquarium". I read it to the kids on the road several times. It was so awesome! It was like "practicing what you preach"! I encourage our teachers to relate experiences to literature, but how many times do I really do it for my own children. That's not important, right? What matters is that I did it this time. The kids listened so intently, I felt like supermom. I think Chris thought he was married to supermom too! I could tell by the little smile on his face, as I was reading (he thought I didn't see it).

And so, as a reward for being supermom (you know, facilitating a literacy experience), Chris played putt putt with the kiddos while I shopped at the outlet mall. I got an awesome shirt at J Crew and a Coach purse. I am in love with the purse, but it is black. I am not sure if it is appropriate to carry it before Labor Day? I guess I will ponder for a few more weeks or maybe I will break the rules and carry it tomorrow.

The kids loved the aquarium. Actually, the parents loved it too! It was fun! If only every day was the weekend!

Extreme Oreos

There are lots of little reasons I love Chris Austin.

Tonight I was reminded of one of the reasons. After dinner, Chris announced that he had to take a quick trip to the grocery store. He proceeded to get shoes on Maddie and Ava and off they went. They returned an hour later with 6 boxes of oreos. Yes, six! I wondered what the lady at the register thought, maybe something like "What is his wife going to think about this!!" Not the traditional oreos (that would be boring), but instead these new oreos with peanut butter, fudge covering and other additional calorie items.

Nay and I often laugh about this "extreme" tendency that Chris has on occasion. One box would not do….. six boxes are sufficient.

I forgot to mention that we devoured an entire box.

We Were so in Love….

The conversation went something like this:

Chris:    "Do you remember when we used to be so in love and sleep upside down in the bed?"

Me:    "no" (very confused)

Chris:    "oh"

The conversation ended and we both went back to our normal nighttime routine, baths, lunches, homework, and on and on.

Then before bed the same conversation continued-

Me:    "Could we talk about that sleeping upside down in the bed thing again?"

Chris:    "sure"

Me:    "Why did we sleep upside down in the bed?"

Chris:    "I think we were pretending to be on vacation"

(I did not think sleeping with my head at the wrong end of the bed was something you ordinarily do on vacation, hmmm….)

Me:    "oh, well"

Chris:    "I think you were pregnant with Maddie"

Me:    "What does love have to do with sleeping upside down in the bed?"

Chris:    "Everything"

Me:    "Are we still in love?"

Chris:    "yep"

I dozed off thanking God for my blessings, including love and humor. That is what makes the world go around, right?

Funny conversations are in order around our home place J    

Picnic and “Pedal” Boats

Chris, Maddie, Ava and I spent yesterday at the Breaks Interstate Park!

It is a beautiful park in the heart of Southwest Virginia.

We attended a picnic with some folks from Chris' new job.

We also rode "pedal" boats. The girls loved it!!

They squealed with delight and sang every song they could remember as Chris pedaled us along.

What a fun day!!

P.S Anna Beth and Sam started the new school year, we didn't forget them!

Why do you Walk?

Friday night our family participated in the Buchanan County Relay for Life.

I must say it was AWESOME!!

I took lots of pictures, but this one takes all.

Chris was a contestant in the "Womanless" Beauty Pageant.

It was funny, really funny!!

It raised lots of money for a really good cause.

We walked because cancer is terrible. Everyone is affected in some way by this terrible disease.