God Speaking

"Who knows how He'll get a hold of us, get our attention, to prove He is enough? He'll do and He'll use whatever He wants to...to tell us, 'I love you'." -Mandisa

Lately our church has been experiencing a mighty move of God! We are doing a fast for this week for God to continue to move and work in our church as we are getting ready to move to our new facility. I have been committing my lunch and free time when Allie is asleep to read the Word and listen to what He has to reveal to me. It is truly amazing how God will speak to You through his Word if You will just take the time to read and get some quiet time in order to listen.

Reading the Word isn't only how God can speak to us. It has been great to look at the things of life and have Him show me how He views them because I have asked Him to. We are who we are for a reason, and He allows us to experience the things of life for a reason; to help us grow, to help us love, and most of all to help us appreciate.

So throughout your week, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Not only through His Word and in the quiet (rare) time of your day, but throug the day to day things of life. "God let me see things the way You see them, and let me know that it is You speaking."

Let the summer days begin!

I know this sounds terrible, but I remember my first summer with Allie. I thought, "I will never be able to relax, have a vacation, and do what I want to do ever again!" I am not deserving of the mother-of-the year award for sure, but I realize now as your child grows, more fun begins. Now my perspective has changed. Now I am excited of all of the fun things that we will get to do together. Although this will take time, this blog will be a way for me to remember the days I spend my third summer with my 2-year-old little Allie girl!





This is Allie on her last day of "school". She is moving from Toddler I to Toddler II when she returns to day care after the summer. She has done so much to grow during this year, and I'm so proud of her.

Right before school let out, we had a church picnic. This is something that Centerpointe A/G does every year. This year they decided to go to Steele Creek Lodge in Satsuma. This was the first time that Allie was able to go on a boat ride. James Dykes was so sweet to take us in his boat. He has a small child like we do so was very careful with Allie and her new boat experience. She had a great time and almost fell asleep on the way back.

We began our summer vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. This wasn't the first time that Allie has gone to the beach; however, it was the first time that she was able to get up and around places. It is hard to believe this time last year Allie was still crawling! The child didn't crawl until 15 months!

The thing about this vacation that was different from others is the fact that Mom, Michael, and Spence could not stay the entire time. They all had to be at work on Tuesday morning. So we had to make the most of our quality time together!

The views were absolutely amazing!










I just love a good sunset! So did Allie!

Another fun thing we experienced was Allie and the ocean. I always love to take walks on the beach with my mom; it is a tradition of ours.

Since she had to leave early, I thought Aundrea and I would just take Allie. She was excited to go towards to the beach.





Little did I think about the fact that when a wave would come around Allie's feet, she wouldn't brace herself for the sand to move under her feet.







Notice that she is soaked! She didn't really care for the waves after that moment! She had sand all in her diaper and shorts. So our wonderful memory of walking on the beach was a five minute memory that came and went!





It was such a relaxing trip, and I was excited to spend some quality time with my little girl. So we end this tremendously long blog that contains many pictures with this one of my sweet girl.

Perspective

It has been a hard couple of weeks. Sickness has come through the house like normal; Allie has a cough and runny nose, pink eye, and has fallen and scratched herself up twice. The only thing that has been a little bit different is that I've been sick! I do not mind having an occasional sickness throughout the year, but a sickness that knocks me flat on my back and takes away my voice is not cool! Poor Michael has had to take care of Allie last week while I was out of town on a business trip, and when I return to continue my normal Allie activities and responsiblitites, I can't because of this disease called sinusitis!

I have realized through it all how truly amazing my husband is! So, thank you, Michael, for being them man that I need! Now if I can just get better so I can get close enough to actually kiss you!

Keeping it in perspective,

Amanda

FIRST WEEK

Well, the first week of the year was semi-successful. Allie and I had a busy week of school, and "daddy" had a busy week of work. I found myself 3 out of the 5 work days falling asleep on the couch by 6:30! Michael said he couldn't even awake me, for I was out! I do feel very accomplished, however, because I have gotten a great deal of things done during the day at work. I have a very good co-worker that keeps me on my toes and has helped me to strive to organize! I have actually gotten all of my lesson plans done for the next four weeks! My house on the other hand has suffered a little!

Allie has started a new week in day care. She is no longer in one of the "nurseries" that they have at her day care; she is now in Toddler I! She has done so well, and I am so proud of the progress that she is making. She actually walks down a hall to go to lunch now and sits on a real live lunch table! Oh, how she is growing so quickly. On Friday, I had an opportunity to go into work at 7:15 instead of being in a meeting at 7:00, so I had more time to spend with her that morning as I walked her to day care instead of dropping her off. As I walked her into her classroom and put up her sippy cup, Allie looks at me and says, "Bye Mommy!" and starts to play with some toys! I was shocked to see that she wasn't the least bit sad that I was leaving, but I think she has gotten it into her head by now that I will return.

So, first week, you have come and gone. I have kept almost all of my "Changes for 2011", and am looking forward to another challenging week. I think for now, I will just sit back and enjoy my coffee. Mmmmmm.

List of changes for 2011

Listed below are eleven life changes for 2011 in no particular order:

1. Read my Bible more-of course, this is a given, but I am making it a point to read a little bit every day with no skipping. Kindle on my Android is going to make this much easier!
2. Pray more while keeping a journal-I have tried to do this before, and it wasn't successful. I am going to list down the extremely important things in my life and watch how God works the situation out.
3. Exercise-Yes, it is always everyone's New Year's Resolution it seems; however, my husband promises me to move our treadmill downstairs so I can walk or run whenever Allie is asleep for the evening.
4. Spend more time with Allie-After I get off of work, I go to get Allie from day care. When we get home, there is normally a million things to do. For example, cooking dinner, getting the garbage out, cleaning the kitchen, grading papers, and getting things ready for the next day. I have made it an effort to come home, change clothes, and spend some time with Allie before cooking dinner. When I do begin dinner, I make sure to involve her in it-give her a pot and a spoon and let her pretend to cook along with me.
   
5. Keep my nails polished, clean, and tidy-I am terrible about painting my finger and toe nails. I have already begun this change and so far, so good.
6. Do my make-up at home not in the car-nothing needs to be said about this....self explanatory.
   
7. Drink more water-I do like water, but I was just telling my sister-in-law, Kellie, about how much I love diet coke/Pepsi (it doesn't matter which one, both do the job). I really only get it in restaurants when I know there is a lot to do for the rest of the day and I need that extra "kick". I have heard caffeine is terrible for trying to lose weight. I do like coffee; however, I do not always drink the entire cup. Maybe I need to start ordering a coffee and I will get some caffeine, but won't drink the entire cup, whereas if I get a soft drink, I will drink at least two diet cokes/Pepsi's when I order them (plus a "to go" cup).
8. Clean my house once a week while straightening the house every day-I have good intentions about keeping the house clean. The hard part is straightening the house before cleaning. I am going to do my best to keep the house straightened so I don't have to work so hard when cleaning the house.
9. Make time to read more-I have always loved to read. In fact, when I was younger, I would not go to bed until the book I was reading was finished. I would sometimes go to bed at 2 in the morning! My goal is to read at least one book per month...(this does not include my Bible reading, of course)
10. Write my husband more encouraging notes-When Michael and I were first married, I would write him little notes and leave them in random places for him to find. He never really told me that they meant a lot to him, but I know the thought counts....we'll see how it goes.
11. Practice the piano more-I told a friend of mine the other day that the best they would ever be is when they are in college. It seems that once you graduate from a music program, you do not have the stress to be so amazing any longer and begin to let your skills slack a little through lack of practice. I have got to start doing my scales again and getting better classically. I know that when I do this, worship music will be directly affected!

I do have to say it was very difficult to come up with eleven things to change in my life, but I did it. I apologize for being so descriptive at times, but I felt the need! I will be sure to make it a point to look back at this blog and make these LIFE changes to improve the me that God created.

LIFE

I have realized that life is too rushed. Recently, my husband and I made a huge life change and decided to slow things down. I know that God intends our lives to be about others; however, I also know that He doesn't want our lives to be so busy that we cannot enjoy life. Not making a blog since the end of May is exactly my point.

Since this decision to slow down a tad, we have been able to spend more time with family than ever before. We did many family-oriented things during Thanksgiving and Christmas:

• Thanksgiving dinner with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Left for Tennessee to see Michael's Mom, Dad, Aunt, Cousin and her sons, and Grandpa Turman on Thanksgiving day
• Spent Christmas church services with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Had traditional Christmas dinner with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Spending the end of Christmas with Michael's brother and his family-Kelley, Jackson, and Selah (I cannot wait to see Allie's reaction to her cousins as she is finally playing with other children... I will let you know of the new things she learns from them soon.)
  

These family occurrences have never before happened in such a short period of time, and I love it. So, I have decided to keep the joy that I have felt with family over the holidays throughout the year by coming up with a list of changes I will make in the new year 2011.

List coming soon.....have a Merry Christmas night, and I'll see you soon.

My first day of summer

Well, it is finally here, my summer vacation. All of the grading, cleaning, and goodbye's of the last week of school has passed. Last summer, Allie was a newborn, and I was just getting used to being a new mom. Now, we are having the time of our lives. Allie plays throughout the house, and at times, we just look in each other's eyes and smile. I know this is going to be one of the best memories ever, spending QUALITY time with my 1 year old daughter.