Mia and Money

This morning as I was packing my lunch, Mia asked "Why do you go to work Mommy?"  I explained that I go to work to help people put papers together, and that they pay me for that.  When they give me money, we can use it to buy our food, toys, books and clothes.  She asked "They give you coins?" so I said "Yes, they give me coins."  She thought about that for a second.  Then, she put one hand on her hip, and started shaking her finger at me from the other hand.  She said "Okay, take those coins and get some toys and blananas okay? And yogurt" ("Blananas" is how she says bananas).  The look on her face was priceless; she cracks me up!  And thus begins trying to explain the value of hard work!

Sweet Lily

Monday was Mrs. Worrell and her husband's second anniversary.  She happened to mention it to me the week before (since we just celebrated our anniversary), so on the way to school Monday, I told Lily this and reminded her to tell Mrs. Worrell "happy anniversary" if she thought about it.  On Tuesday, a note was sent home with Lily that said:

"Had to share this - Yesterday we started the day with prayers of thanksgiving -just a quick praise from each student.  Lily's was my anniversary.  I had to hold back tears!  Lily obviously has a wonderful example of a godly marriage in you and the importance of it.  What a gift you're giving her!  Just wanted to encourage y'all in that and also tell you how greatly it blessed me too.  Best, Annie Worrell."  How sweet is that note?  I really appreciated this note.  We are so thankful for Mrs. Worrell!

Deacon Ordination

I am so proud of Ryan.  He was recently nominated to serve a three year term as a deacon at our church.  Out of the 8,000+ members of our church, he will be one of the approximately 150 men who serve in this capacity.  Nine of these men (including Ryan) are first-time deacons while the others have served before and were coming back for another term.  This is a huge honor, but also a big responsibility.  The purpose of a deacon is to serve the church body by praying for it and helping in many roles.  I am confident Ryan will do a great job with both of these.

We returned from our cruise on Thursday the 12th.  On Friday, Ryan left for an overnight retreat for the deacons.  The new deacons shared their testimonies, and from what I can gather, this was a wonderful experience for all involved.  On Sunday evening, we got to go to the deacon's ordination at the church.  All the new deacons were introduced by our pastor, Bryant Wright, and then they were challenged and charged by chairman Pat Abney with the new duties requested of them.  We all joined in singing several worship songs together, and one of the deacons, Trevor Lang, gave his testimoney.  After that, each deacon kneels to pray at the front of the church.  Each had asked three experienced deacons beforehand to come and pray over them.  Ryan had asked Brian Fox, Shane Gary and John Gary who are all really good friends of Ryan's, and they each share his passion for missions.  It meant a lot to Ryan to have them pray for him.  Additionally, our former Sunday School teacher, Ron Hughes, and Bryant prayed over him as well which was greatly appreciated.

After this, the new deacons and their wives stood at the front of the church for everyone to come up and encourage us.  We greatly appreciated all the deacons, their wives and church members that came to speak to us.  We were both truly grateful too that Liz, my mom, my dad and my cousins, Sid and Elaine, were able to come be a part of this very special evening.

We are both very excited about Ryan's time as a deacon in the upcoming three years.  I can't wait to see how God continues to use Ryan in furthering His Kingdom.  I am so proud to be married to Ryan, and watch him grow in his faith and love of the Lord.

Thanks to Shane for snapping this picture before we left:

10 Years Ago

This was our big day ten years ago.  What an amazing and wonderful day January 12, 2002 was.  I can't help but smile anytime I think about it.  I feel so fortunate to be married to my very best friend.  Ryan is an incredible man who seeks God's heart and direction.  He is a loving father to our two precious girls.  He makes me laugh every single day, and he has such a great laugh to hear.  You will never meet anyone more loyal than him.  He has a sense of adventure that makes travel with him lots of fun.  I've always thought that we're not perfect, but we are definitely perfect together.  I cannot imagine a better match.  I am so thankful God brought the two of us together.  I can't wait to see what the next ten (and many more) years have in store for us.

10 Year Celebration

Can you believe Ryan and I have been married for 10 years?  What an amazing ten years it has been too.  We have been blessed more than we ever could have imagined, and we are so thankful for every one of our blessings, especially our two little girls who make us laugh every day. 

We couldn't wait to celebrate our first decade of marriage.  Even though the beginning of the year is a pretty hectic time around the office, a 10 year marriage anniversary only comes around once, right?  So we decided to take a week off and go on a trip.  You know we always love to travel!  We were very excited to spend a few days in Fort Lauderdale before getting on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas ship.  It was awesome!  Here are a few pictures to show what a beautiful week we had.

The view from our hotel room in Fort Lauderdale.  We had beautiful weather and enjoyed resting and admiring the view.  It was the perfect way to start our vacation.

 A quick little story.  As the boat was leaving, we passed a row of very nice houses.  There was a pretty old man standing on his back patio wearing a bathrobe.  As the boat passed by, he yelled into his megaphone "You're going to have a great time!  Those of you on the back of the boat, the captain doesn't even know you're alive, but you're gonna' have fun!"  Cracked us both up!

A little while later, as we were standing on the balcony of our room, we realized we were passing by Cuba.  You can see it in the distance.

 One of the coolest things about this ship is it had a "Royal Promenade" going down the inside of it.  Here, there were several neat little shops and restaurants.  One of our favorites was a little Italian place called Sorrentos.  We visited every afternoon to get a little salad or some fresh meats and cheeses; it held us over until our 8:30 dinnertime!  Another favorite on the Promenade was The Cupcake Cupboard.  Yum is the best way to describe it.  On day two of the cruise, I took a cupcake decorating class there.  Since Royal Caribbean partners with Dreamworks, Princess Fiona stopped in to try her (huge) hand at it too!

 My finished puppy cupcake.  I thought it turned out pretty well given I have never attempted anything like this before!

 Liberty of the Seas has an ice rink on it too.  We never made it down there during an "open skate" session but we did go to see their ice show on day two.  It was awesome!  The skaters were amazing.  A lot of their music was from Broadway which we love, so that made it even better.  Here they are at the end of the show.

 They had another show called "In The Air" which was interesting.  It was in the main theater, and it was mostly made up of aeriel acrobatics.  It seemed a little bit like Cirque du Soleil, but not nearly as varied.  It was neat to see though.

We couldn't resist having a meal at Johnny Rockets.  It's on the 13th deck which is really high above the water!  We sat along the edge and were able to look out while we enjoyed our burgers and milk shakes.  What a fun meal!

 On day three, our ship stopped in Belize City, Belize.  Neither of us have ever visited before.  However, we knew that they have the largest barrier reef in this hemisphere, so we were excited to go snorkeling there.  Here are a couple of pictures from that hour of fun.

 I haven't really cleaned up the pictures yet, so it may be tough to see, but there are a lot of fish swimming around the reef in this one.

 Our self-portrait.  FYI, it's really difficult to get a picture like this while you're floating.

 This snorkeling excursion was different than other times we have snorkeled.  Usually, it's very calm water, the reef are about 20 feet or so under you and the fish are right up in your face expecting you to give them food (Can fish really expect things?  I don't know but if feels like they do).  This experience was very different though.  First, we were in a lot of waves that had a pretty decent current to them.  This took us both by surprise.  However, we also liked that we were so close to the reef; at times, we didn't even want to kick our legs for fear of hitting the coral; we would just float by and use our arms instead.  Also, the fish stayed pretty much away from us which we both appreciated.

After snorkeling, we went to a little beach in Belize for awhile to rest up.  Not a bad view, huh?

 The sunset as we left Belize.

 On day four, we went to Cozumel.  Ryan and I didn't even leave the boat.  We have been to Cozumel a couple of times before, and we guessed it would be more relaxing to pretty much have this huge ship to ourselves.  We were right.  We sat by the pool for a long time.  They had a huge high-def tv above the pool playing ESPN, so we enjoyed watching that and listening to our music on our iPods.  We also tried out the hot tub that sits over the side of the ship so you're looking down at the ocean if you look over the side.  Oh yeah, we took a nap too; that became part of our daily routine.  I think we'll miss that now that we're back to the real world!

I love the little towel animals that the room attendant makes for you when you're out of the room.  I had never seen a bat before, but it made us laugh!

 The water as we left Cozumel.  Amazing doesn't begin to describe it.

 Day five was spent at sea on our way back to Fort Lauderdale.  It actually rained some but that was alright with us.  Didn't disrupt our naps at all and allowed us to not feel guilty about reading and relaxing on our last day!  That evening, we went to the ship's "Farewell Show" which had a lot of recap videos in it.  However, it ended with Charles Peachock performing.  He was a juggler who did really well on a season of America's Got Talent.  He was really impressive, and we thoroughly enjoyed his show.  Here's a picture near the end of his show.  He had a keyboard on the floor, and he juggled five small balls downward to play it.  At this particular moment he was playing "When the Saints Come Marching In," but he also did "When You Wish Upon A Star" and Beethoven's Fifth.  Unbelievable.

Those are the quick highlights of the trip.  What a wonderful way to celebrate.  It was nice to be home though on Thursday afternoon and see the girls again.  Thursday was our actual anniversary, and we all went out to dinner that evening.  We went to dinner at Buckhead Diner which was a lot of fun.  It ended with Ryan and Mia sharing a milkshake and Lily and me sharing one.  No better way to celebrate the occasion!  Of course, it was back to reality as Lily came into our room about 3:30 Friday morning, and Mia followed shortly thereafter for help using the potty.  Welcome back!

A big, huge thank you to Liz and my parents who kept the girls this week.  Mom and Dad had Lily spend the night on Friday night along with my niece Molly.  They had a blast!  They also took the girls to church on Sunday which I think everyone enjoyed.  They were able to help Liz on Monday and Tuesday to give her a little bit of a much-needed break then too.  We truly appreciate the three of them being so willing to help, so we could relax and enjoy our anniversary.  Thank you for making the big day 10 years ago so special and for all the amazing things you do now!  We love you!