Welcome, Fall!!

Thank, GOD, it happened! Suddenly, the 90s have gone away, and we are in temperatures in the 50s in the mornings. The highs are high 70s to the low 80s, and it has done wonders for my motivation to go outside. One of the good things about having Sage in school is that I get to spend some one on one time with Jaggar just like I did with Sage when she was a baby. Taking advantage of these cooler temps, I took him to the park on Monday for the first time since he has been able to walk, play, and really be aware of his surroundings. He screamed the moment we pulled up because he saw all of the fun stuff.

Another beautiful thing happened too. Normally, I HATE the park. I hate the crowd, the germs, and mostly having to parent other kids whose parents seem to be oblivious that they have children at all. It's just annoying. But there was only ONE other baby there for the majority of the time that we were there. It was awesome. He had such a great time and didn't hesitate for a second to dive into all that there was for him to do.

This is what he ran to first.I have pictures of Sage on this when she was a baby too.


Look at that sweet face.
This is when he discovered that there was another baby playing there too.


Ok, this is hilarious. The SWING. I strapped him in this...kind of...and he flopped over like a sack of potatoes. I think he would have went to sleep. He stayed like this for a LONG time (until I just got him out, not because he wanted to) and kept sprawling himself out more and more. He's so funny.
An attempt to take a pic of the both of us. He was not in the mood to be held still, which is obvious by that face.
A rare picture of him going DOWN the slide instead of climbing up it.

A New Creation

Tonight, something that I prayed (and continually prayed) before Sage was born and as she grew was answered. Yesterday, I had posted about the young girl that we had been praying for that passed away the night before. Her name was Heather Spivey, and she was a teacher at Word Alive Academy, which is also where we attend church. Sage went to preschool there for several years. When Sage was 4, she was in class with Collin, Heather's youngest son. Though I'm still not exactly sure what happened and why, Heather was diagnosed with a rare cancer just two months ago and died Monday night. It was/is heartbreaking for her family and all that knew her.

She was just 34, and she had 3 young children. Honestly, it is just not right. It seems unfair. It is unfair. She was young, beautiful, and full of life. It is a reminder that life is a precious gift. It makes the day-to-day complaints that we think are so important suddenly seem otherwise, and it's because it's true: those things are UNIMPORTANT. Because, as the saying goes, "The most important things in life aren't things."

So, I thought it was important tonight to ask Sage to specifically pray for Collin. I told her that even though his mommy (Ms. Heather, as she knows her) is actually WITH Jesus now, he won't get to see her here on this earth. Then to my surprise, she said something like, "But Jesus and all of us will come back to establish His kingdom here, right?" Um...YES. She said, "So when we die, we come back to life later?" I said, "Well, there's a part of you that makes you YOU. It's the part that laughs, the part that makes you silly, the part that makes you love, that makes you like to have fun...THAT part, it never dies. If I have a puppet, and I put my hand in it to make it talk and suddenly take my hand out, what happens to the puppet? It stops moving, right? But what made it move? My hand. THAT part of YOU, the inside, lives forever. So that part of you will never die, and we'll all be together again."

Then it happened. She said, "So we'll all be with Jesus? Everyone will go with Him?" I said, "If you've asked Him into your heart." She said, "Have I?" I said, "Have you?" She said, "No." I said, "Would you like to?" She answered, "Yes." And I prayed a sweet, simple sinner's prayer with her trying not to cry too much the whole time, something like: Dear Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you died on the cross and rose again for all I've done wrong and ever will do wrong. Come into my heart as Lord and Savior of my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen." I said, "That's it! You did it!" It was the most precious moment. She said, "Mommy, I felt Jesus come inside my heart. He kissed me."

Then at bedtime, I read her a devotion from one of her books, and she said, "Mommy, I'm new now." Just out of the blue like that. And I said, "You are so right. The Bible says that, 'If anyone is in Jesus, he/she is a new creation. The old has passed away and all things are made new.'" The last, precious thing she did was right before she climbed into bed and said, "Mommy, when we are eating ice cream at school tomorrow and we are allowed to talk at blue table, I'm going to ask anyone if they'd like Jesus to come into their heart." I mean, come ON! This girl is going for it! I am so proud of her and, even more so, THANKFUL to my Lord for answering those prayers that I prayed for her before she was born and as she grew: "God, let Sage come to know you as Lord, Savior, and Friend at a young age. May she always run TO you and never from you". He hears and answers our prayers!

And sweet Heather, your life and death was precious seed into this salvation. I'm betting you may be one of the first to welcome Sage in on that day. See you again!

Jesus' Friend

When Words are Few

I don't have many words on this day. A young girl we had been praying for passed away last night, and I heard this right after I heard the news. I love that I'm friends with this God, rather than the one Religion portrays.

Pumpkin Patch Cookies

We are big fans of the seasonal Charlie Brown shows that come on TV throughout the year. We own both "The Great Pumpkin King" and "Charlie Brown Christmas" on DVD. All the stores are starting to put out their Halloween/Fall items, and I came across one that I knew would be really fun for Sage and me: The Great Pumpkin Patch Cookie kit. It came with cookie cutters and all.

Travis is in Auburn for a few nights, so I thought tonight would be the perfect time to bake. This was a totally new scenario for Sage (and me for the first time in a LONG time) to actually BAKE in the world of "instant" everything. If I'm "baking" cookies, it's usually the premade-throw-'em-in-the-oven-and-eat-in-6-minutes kind. This involved a little more effort and a LOT more mess, which made for an extremely happy 5 year old.

She did it all too. She cracked the egg, measured out the butter, mixed the dough by hand (quite well actually)...and her FAVORITE part: rolling out the dough with a LOT of flour. It was everywhere. Then we baked them, and THEN she made the icing, ate a lot of it, and iced the cookies. The kit even had eyes to put on some and two "writers" to decorate the rest. We had a great time and watched the Great Pumpkin King before her bedtime. Jaggar tolerated it all. He did partake of the icing. :)

The kit: even the box is cuteFor the first little bit, Jaggar ate his own cookies in his chair. I know that he wanted to help with that flour though.

In a world where I am CONSTANTLY trying to keep things clean, this was a miracle in this house to have permission to get messy. She loved it.

She kept saying, "We need just a little more flour. What's it taste like? Oh...not bad."

To keep Jaggar from climbing up on the chair or table with her, I opted to just let her sit on the counter. It worked out well, and that was even MORE awesome to her. She is decorating here.

Masterpieces in the making

Meanwhile, to keep him occupied, I gave him some spoons. He did this for a while. Then he went upstairs and sailed them down the steps from the landing. I didn't really expect anything less. Oh, notice our dining room table? It's pretty high. He learned how to climb up onto those chairs while we were baking.

Finished work with the creative mastermind behind it all.

Aren't they fun?

She was proud. She said, "Can we do this again?!"

I told her to tell Jaggar "thank you" for being so patient while we baked. I will confess that this is a reenactment of the initial time that she thanked him. The first time, he had the sweetest smile, and I said, "Oh, that's so sweet. Let me get a picture." This was the best of the worst from the few that I took. He was completely over it and wanted her off of him. Now that I look at it, he's probably about to whack her with that spoon. Day in the life!

Autumn's Beginning

I have been so anxious for fall to get here. It's probably because of the scorching summer we've endured this year, but regardless, I LOVE fall. We've had glimpses here and there of a cool morning, but it still gets in the 90s daily. We are pressing on though, in hopes that fall will still make its appearance.

Last night, we decided to have family time around the new fire pit that Sean and Chrissie gave us (Travis) for helping them move. I was SO excited about this because I LOVE a fire. It was so nice to relax around it and roast marshmallows. Sage had her first smore (yep, her first), but she honestly wasn't too impressed. She liked the marshmallows by themselves more.

I decided to play a game that I grew up playing back in my youth group days around campfires: the one where you start a story and then pass the stick to someone else to keep it going. At first Travis and Sage were like, "Um, what?" But I said, "USE your imagination. Get creative." We all need to keep doing that. Before the night was over, Sage was outdoing all of us with her story lines. It was really fun, and we will definitely be doing it again.Sage's first smore...not too impressed

Cute, cute

This was my first attempt to use the self timer. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

Grandparents' Day

Today was Grandparents' Day at Sage's school, as well as the book fair. Families were encouraged to come and eat lunch with the kids and then go to the book fair. Sage was ready for Monday on Friday because she was so excited that Travis's mom and I were coming to eat with her. I forgot how awesome it is to a child when their families come to eat lunch with them. It was such a sweet time, and I really appreciated Travis's mom working on Saturday, so that she could have today off.

Travis fixed her hair into pigtails today. Doesn't she look cute?Oh yeah, it's always "brother day." :) He was happy to be there too. He loved the brownie that was served with the lunch. Aren't they cute?
This was on the way to the book fair. We love books, so we left with quite a few cool finds. Right before we walked into the library, Jaggar started screaming. He wouldn't stop and he was stiffening his whole body, so I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, something had gotten inside of his clothes and stung him three times. Sigh....I told Eletha that every time she's around, he gets stung. He got stung by the wasps when they were over a few months ago. :) The nurse put some salve on them, and he was better. We enjoyed our visit with our big kindergartner.

In the Kitchen

Literally. We went to Birmingham on Saturday to help Sean and Chrissie move. Translated: We went to Birmingham on Saturday, and Travis helped Sean and Chrissie move. At one point, both babies, Holland and Jaggar, were fighting over who could get in the kitchen. They made a nice compromise. I took this because I know in a few blinks, THEY will be starting school, and I'll be pulling this picture back up to sob. But for now, this is the present, and it's great.

Second Child Syndrome

Yes, you can deny that you won't do anything different with your second one that you did with your first, but you'd be lying. I'm living proof. Sometimes, I just have to do what I have to do. These pictures are a regular occurrence at my house. Jaggar is a climber, and he loves the kitchen table. I'm embarrassed and ashamed of these. Only not really. This is a day in the life here. Emily saw him push a chair over to the table to climb up one day day, and goes, "Oh my gosh! Can he fall?!" I looked and said, "Um...yeah. He could." Mother of the year, I tell ya.I don't know what the deal was with him and that tube and toothpaste, but he carried it around all morning.

The BEST Surprise

I don't talk about it as much as I used to because it's probably gotten to a healthier level as I've had another child and gotten older, but I love John Mayer. I mean, I LOVE John Mayer. Aside from being HOOOOT, he is one of the most talented muscians/artists/writers that there are. I really love a lot about him, even though he'd gotten a lot of flack in the past year for his mouth. I can relate to that. We've all got one, right?

Anyway, he's gotten back to what he's best at: music. For the past week or so, a girl on facebook was trying to sell John Mayer tickets for August 8th in Atlanta. Travis told me about it: 20 bucks a piece. Lawn. Wrong. I've seen John Mayer up close each time that I've seen him, and I just love him so much that if I'm going to see him, I'm not sitting in the lawn. It was a nice offer, but I was going to pass on that.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning, the day of the concert. I hear my phone go off saying that there's a message, and it just happened to be from Heather Varvell, our music pastor's wife. One thing that clicked with the Varvells and me right away when they first moved here years ago was our mutual love for John Mayer. Her message: They bought tickets months ago, and they had no idea the concert would fall on the church's first Wednesday night back in session since our break in July. Luke was out. Would I care to join her? WOULD I?! She said that out of all the people that they could think of to go, I was the perfect fit. I totally agreed! Travis said not to get too overly excited because these could be lawn tickets too, not that it wouldn't be fun still...but I knew Luke and Heather. They are like me: presale tickets. Row 10 to be exact. No screens necessary. Sweet Jesus, thanks for smiling at me!

The cool thing is that this was the first day in weeks that Travis just happened to be home all day, so I didn't have to rush to get a sitter. Also, I had just been reading John Mayer's blog and twitter a few days before kind of rediscovering why I liked him, and then I get this offer. It's like I was being set up, and I was! It was such a God thing, and Heather and I had an absolute blast. She and I never get to hang out, and we clicked right away. I'm so thankful for such a great night. I really needed it.

Heather and me

And the pictures begin...there are many, but this is like my journal. I really love him.


The screen behind him was really awesome (not that I needed it), but it had some really sweet effects. I took some of these for Travis because he's very into this kind of thing.


Poor guy threw his lower back out. He informed us that he was high on back medicine, which made for some pretty funny dialogue.