A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.-- Anonymous

i am grateful for my friend lisa. i tend to laugh out loud a lot when i am with her, mostly at our husbands. there are few friends i can curl up and enjoy life with. i love that she loves me in my t shirt and jeans, and i love her in her pearls and sparkles. and i love that she has such clean a bathroom. if you are sick and need to lay face down on a bathroom floor... pick hers. not only is it amazingly beautiful, it is spick and span. thank you lisa... ILOVEYOU

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

this is my overdue valentine's post...
my sweet girls...
we fill baskets for each holiday, not just easter. so that is always the exciting part of the morning. our holiday fairies tend to always create a mess. the valentine's fairy leaves red and pink "fairy dust" from the baskets to the window. she is not as messy as the tooth fairy, who spreads her fairy dust under the pillow, on the bed, and all the way to the window. sheesh... it is hard to clean up, but well worth it. even now, when the girls are older...they still love it.
we try to cook everything into a heart shape. put red food coloring in as much as we can. and delight in each other!
my sexy husband...
we have become more and more in love as the years move forward. we have also decided to celebrate that love through out the year, not just on feb. 14. he is so great about bring home fresh cut daisies, my favorite. bring home a new pair of shoes for me, or now that we are broke, he will put up the laundry, scratch my back, play with my hair, and always leave me notes on the bathroom mirror. as far as loving him...well, we all know what guys like.
love. love. love. XOXOXOXOXOX

A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent.

yesterday i had coffee with a great friend.
there is something about being in community with like minded people. i love the safeness that comes with being around good friends. i love that you might not get the chance to talk all the time, but when you do it is precious. i love that encouragement can make you feel on top of the world. i love accountability and the depth of love that comes with that. we should always want the best for each other, laugh together, cry together, be mad together. hold tight to the relationships that we have been blessed with. they are not always convenient. they shouldn't always require too much. everyone is busy, everyone has something else to do. but everyone needs to sit down with an old friend and have some coffee. life is too short. hold tight to the ones who love you, they will be the ones to pick you up when you fall.
tall-non fat- no whip-cafe mocha.

"in the end, our only business is to love God and to delight ourselves in him"

"yet troubles always spring from useless thoughts, the kind of thoughts that ruin everything. the trick is to banish them from our thinking as soon as we realize we don't need them for what we are doing at the time or for our christian walk. then we can turn back to our conversation with God.~brother Lawrence... practicing Gods presence

i love to go back and reread my favorite books. i have not looked at this book in many, many years, however, the things that i highlighted back then still line up with my heart today. it seems to me that the thing that keeps me from God the most is my thought life. that is where my doubts, fears, lies, and sins are hidden. i love how he writes "to banish them from our thinking as soon as we realize..." it is all about leaving behind everything that doesn't lead to God.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

rumor has it that a cold front is on it's way. as much i hate the cold, it makes me more grateful for the past few days of PERFECT weather. it also makes me hunger for spring.
for tonight we will cozy up with my young life friends and enjoy the office, 30 rock, grays & private practice. make soup and paint our toe nails.
cross your fingers that it will ice over tonight and we will have a late start to school tomorrow!


Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne



The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination. ~Ward Elliot Hour



One kind word can warm three winter months. ~Japanese Proverb

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. ~Woody Allen

so every year we take family pictures... we always seem to catch one of us cracking up, which becomes my favorite!
i added some from the past...



The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~e.e. cummings
Laughter is an instant vacation. ~Milton Berle
A man isn't poor if he can still laugh. ~Raymond Hitchcock




Remember, men need laughter sometimes more than food. ~Anna Fellows Johnston
A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip
Laughter is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one place. ~Josh Billings