37!

Lukey Dukey turned 37 years old today!

When we woke up this morning, 
I just had to tell him how glad I was that he was born!  
He is the love of my life and the best daddy and husband I know. 

I am so thankful that God directed our paths 
to meet at Presbyterian College 18 years ago.  
I know he is so much more than I deserve.

I am blessed to get to spend my life with him!

We celebrated with some of his favorite...

ribs on the grill, mashed potatoes, butter beans, squash casserole

and pink lemonade pie for dessert.

His gift this year was a very sentimental one. 

I had his "Grandaddy" drawing framed.

I told him it was a very fitting gift, 
because he reminds us of Grandaddy in so many ways.  
He is honest, giving, loyal, hardworking, always puts his family first, loves the Lord, enjoys the outdoors, is a true leader, respected by many,

and has a special place in his heart for Moultrie, GA!

I just know Luke will leave behind the same kind of

amazing family legacy that his Grandaddy Buckner did. 

Ambry and Trey made him a funny paper hat and gave him handmade cards.

Ambry's contained 37 cents in honor of his age.

Happy Birthday Lukey Dukey.  Many, many more.
You are so very loved!

Depends

I have a confession to make.

Sometimes, when I laugh, I tee tee in my pants a little.

Today, I got to spend the day with two of my girlfriends and

two sweet little ones.

These girlfriends are two of the funniest people I know.

(When I am with them I laugh so much,

 I seriously consider wearing depends!)

We ventured over to Carrollton, GA to check out a couple of local stores.

The Nest and Feathers and Twigs were full of antiques and funky goodies!

I came home with a crazy iron tree that I could use indoors or outside.

I think I will try it as our Easter tree this year.

We ate a scrumptious lunch at Little Hawaiian,

thanks to a recommendation from our favorite 'schmoozer' Chris!

We sampled each others meals... fried green tomato and pork tenderloin sliders, hawaiian pineapple coleslaw, hawaiian okra, fried jalapeno chips,

fried fish, seasoned fries, buffalo shrimp and

some kind of chocolate fantasy for dessert. 

To say we ate well is an understatement!

Perhaps my favorite saying today came from Heather...

"Hey, where do I know that hand from?"

(It's easy to guess which photo that saying goes along with!)

It was a fabulous Friday with friends.

I laughed a TON, thoroughly enjoyed the girl-time and thankfully

I made it through the day without the need for depends!

quote

"Spring is nature's way of saying... Let's Party!" 

~ Robin Williams

School Picture Day!

Today was spring picture day at school for Trey and Ambry.

I hope they smiled really BIG.

(They look so tall!)

Decisions.

Spring is here.
Flowers are exploding everywhere we look.

The top is down on our jeep.
(And it won't go back up until fall!) 

Sidewalk chalk rainbows and roads cover our driveway.

How marvelous to be seven years old,

and the hardest decision you must make is:

Should I scoot?

OR

Should I skate?

Touche!

Luke and I were talking tonight at the dinner table about one of my best friends. 
She is going through a really hard time.

I said, "It's just not fair!"

and without missing a beat, Ambry said,

"That we don't have a dog?"

Touche!

Kids' Choice!

What does this...

Plus this...

Plus this...

Plus this...

Make?
Spaghetti Tacos!

Trey and Ambry have asked me to make spaghetti tacos for a few weeks now. 

I had no idea there was such a meal! 

(Apparently a lot of the kids at school talk about them

 and eat them regularly.) 

I decided that today was their lucky day! 

Spaghetti tacos it was for supper tonight. 

I'm happy to report they were so good!  

I just made my special spaghetti sauce
(with LOTS of extra veggies chopped VERY fine in it),
mixed it with cooked angel hair pasta,
and used mozzarella cheese and lettuce as our toppings.

We all loved it.

Perhaps the funniest part of our meal,

was Trey and Ambry placing spaghetti noodles on their noses

and then trying to get the noodles into their mouths
using only their tongues!

Kids' Choice was a great change for Sunday supper.
Good food and even better entertainment.
I love our family! 

The PRES VIRUS!

I subbed at the kids' school on Wednesday. 

The teacher I subbed for is a dear friend of mine. 

She was home sick with a virus. 

Little did I know that 45 kids were out that day with a virus and

15 more were sent home during the school day!

Two were sent home sick from the class I was subbing in.

I thought I was ok until 1:30 am this morning.  The PRES Virus hit me hard!

Thankfully I am feeling much better now. 

Hopefully it is just a 24 hour bug.

When I am sick, I want my mom.

Lukey is a good "nurse" who gives me lots of rest and gatorade.

But there is nothing in the world like my mom's cool, smooth hands

on my forehead and cheeks when I don't feel well. 

I miss you and love you Mommy.  I wish you were here!

YOU are definitely the best nurse I know!

Happy Birthday Grandmama!

She would have been 96 years old today...

 our sweet Grandmama, Mary Pearl Taylor Buckner.

We are so thankful for the example of her life. 

She taught her family so much about hard work, generosity, and kindness,

and ALWAYS with humor mixed in! 

On the day of her funeral, her daughters and grand-daughter-in-laws celebrated her life with strawberry daiquiris. 

We wrote some of her famous sayings on the outsides of our cups. 

"Oh Flitter!" and "Don't Want to Look" were my favorites.

There was never a dull moment when Grandmama was around.

Luke and I made a point of visiting Grandmama and Grandadddy Buckner

as often as we could.  When Trey and Ambry were born, we tried our best to go see them on their farm in Moultrie at least once each month. 

Those visits and the memories we made are so precious to us now. 

As we talked about Grandmama this morning over breakfast,

Trey and Ambry said

"Let's sing Happy Birthday to her.  She can hear us from Heaven."

(And we did!)

She was such a special influence on our lives.

Grandmama at her 94th birthday party, surrounded by her eleven great grandchildren!

Grandmama loved her daylillies. 

She gifted some cuttings to Luke and now we have a huge bed
of Grandmama's daylillies in our garden. 

Happy Birthday Grandmama. 

You left a long legacy of love!

sacrifice

At church on Sunday, there was one line of the message that really stood out to me.  I couldn't stop thinking about it yesterday.

"Great sacrifice is the formula for a miracle."

I have so many friends and loved ones that are going through great trials right now.  Illness, depression, discouragement, surgery.  So many sacrifices. 

I am praying this morning that

God uses these sacrifices to bring about miracles.

He's already shown us He will...in the greatest sacrifice and miracle... Jesus.

The Forsythia Festival

We drove to Forsyth, GA yesterday to attend the annual Forsythia Festival!

(Forsyth is our dear friend Becky's hometown.)

Her daddy is a two-time champion
in the horseshoe throwing competition there. 

We cheered him on yesterday and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, the small town festival and the gorgeous yellow forsythia blooms.

We ate lunch at the local sandwich shop, Anne's deli, sampled the kettle korn, rode the rides, played GIANT pinball, 
and ended the warm day with orange Italian Ice. 

It was a perfect spring Saturday with friends.

Japan

We are lifting up Japan today. 

Our hearts break for all of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. 

We are asking God to bring His perfect peace to Japan and His restoration.

Luke's mom recently went on a trip to Japan for her job.

She flew into Atlanta on her way home,

 and we were able to visit with her for a couple of hours. 

 We are so thankful this did not happen while she was over there. 

Here are a few of the photos she took on her trip

as well as some from our short visit.

She described Japan as being beautiful, rich with colors and culture.

I hope our family will have the opportunity to go and visit there someday.

Make Your Bed!

My mom always told me to make my bed when I was growing up. 

She said the whole bedroom will look better if the bed is made up.

Now that I am an adult with a home and family of my own,

I have to agree with my mom.

One of my favorite times each day is in the morning,

right after I drop the kids off at school. 

I come home, the morning hustle is over,

and it's peaceful in our house. 
I go into each bedroom and make up all of our beds.

It makes me happy to see them all neat and smooth with the pillows just so!

Making up our beds also reminds me to be thankful that I am a homemaker and can take the extra few minutes to do this simple chore for my family.

Tease.

Oh Mother Nature.  Why do you tease us like this EVERY year?

I was all ready to plant flowers afer last week's warm sunny snap,
but Luke asked me to wait. 

He said we shouldn't plant until after Easter weekend. 

I'm SO glad I waited, or we would have had some frost-bitten little blooms.  So instead, we'll just keep enjoying the flowers I put out every January. 

 They're very low maintenance... they don't even need water or sunlight!  :)

   

Love.

Luke and I are reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

for our Life Group at church.

The chapter I read today (What Matters Most) just gripped my heart!

I wanted to share a few of Mr. Warren's words:

"Life is all about love. 

Because God is love, the most important lesson He wants you to learn on earth is how to love.
  It is in loving that we are most like Him,

so love is the foundation of every command He has given us...

He said, "Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are My disciples." 

Love should be your top priority, primary objective, and greatest ambition. 

Love is not a good part of your life; it's the most important part. 

The Bible says, "Let love be your greatest aim."

God says relationships are what life is all about.  Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with other people.  

All ten are about relationships! 

Jesus summarized what matters most to God in two statements: 

love God and love people...

Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matter most in life...

Love leaves a legacy. 

How you treated other people, not your wealth or accomplishments,

is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.

As Mother Teresa said,

"It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters."

I am so thankful that I read this today.  I get so busy sometimes, so rushed.  I go through the motions of my life, checking things off my to do list instead of doing those things out of LOVE.  I prayed today and asked God to help me be content in all things.  To do laundry, to clean, to cook, to volunteer all with LOVE because of WHO I get to do those things for. 

I am so thankful I was reminded today of what really matters most... Love.

Get Kinected!

It's been raining all weekend.

We've been stuck indoors.

Today after church, we went to Sam's Club to get some water and chicken.

Daddy surprised us and put an Xbox Kinect in our buggy!

So, we've been doing a lot of this...

And I made some of these...

The rainy weather isn't so bad after all!