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Strawberry Picking

May 4th, 2012 at 7:46 am / Amy Bennett / 9 Comments »

For years, our town’s spring festival was called Fest-i-Fun. Vendors lined our little Main Street with the usual festival fare. Teenagers roamed the streets, boys attempting a swagger and girls whispering and giggling about them. Kids turned sticky from cotton candy and begged their parents for sand art. When we were in high school, our (at that time, one) high school marching band had been state champions for years. We had a sign on one of our main roads touting our wins and each year a plaque would be added with the year. In May of 1994 when there were probably 20 plaques, Scott and I had just begun our courtship. And by courtship, I mean many late night phone calls. By the 7th day, he was my real boyfriend. Fest-i-Fun was the following weekend and Scott was one of the drummers. I was smitten. We stood at the end of Main Street where the marching band was standing in a semi-circle and listened. I can’t even recall which friend I was whispering to beside me. All I know is it turns out his mom was standing right next to us. That’s the first time she saw me.

Since the mid-90s our little town has outgrown a Main street festival. They renamed it to the Strawberry Festival a few years back and moved it to a nearby park. The festival kicked off Monday, with the festivities arching over the whole week now. Tuesday they offered half-price pick your own strawberries and a movie for the kids. Since I drink a smoothie every day for lunch, the strawberry picking was a must but for some reason I just needed Scott and the kids to go. The kids wanted to go swim with a neighbor and Scott really didn’t want to go but I just kept pushing. Usually, I’m fine to do my own thing but something just made me want to go with them.

I was thinking on it last night and finally put it together that this Strawberry Festival we were participating in was the same Fest-i-Fun festival I’d stood at 18 years ago. Something down deep stirred when I realized that. The circle of life or some kind of jazz. All I know is, it’s good. Very good I fell in love with a drummer boy and now get to go pick strawberries with our babies.

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How We’re Coping with Gluten-Free – Week 3

March 9th, 2012 at 12:14 pm / Amy Bennett / 9 Comments »

We’re going on 3 weeks of our diet changes. One thing I want to be clear is Lexi is not particpating fully in either of these. While she eats some of the gluten-free products and I make all of our dinners GF and milk free, she still eats the regular bread, cereal, ice cream, etc. And while Emma is milk-free, Scott and I are not. So we drink regular milk, have GF products that have milk in them, etc. So basically we’re managing 3 different diet needs.

But even that said, this week was SO MUCH better than last. So much. While I’m not 100% happy with what we ate (wish we could have had less red meat, less grains and more veggies), we ate and there was very little complaining. I was tallying it up last night and I realized I had cooked every meal for ten days straight other than Sunday dinner at Scott’s parents’. That’s a lot of meals in a row for me. I’m sure it’s some sort of record. And I have to say, this week I kind of liked it. While our grocery bill has obviously gone up, our eating out category has drastically dropped and it feels good to know that while the meals aren’t perfect, it’s a lot better than fast food. And ya’ll? I like the meal planning. It’s worked out great for us to either shop on Saturday or Sunday and buy for the whole week.

I thought I’d share some recipes and products that have absolutely saved us these past 3 weeks, broken down my meals.

Breakfast

Van’s blueberry waffles. Emma eats these every morning with syrup. OJ for a drink.
Granola bars. I sub with Bob’s Mill gluten free oats and Bob’s Mill gluten-free all purpose flour (and 1.5 tsp of xanthum gum so it will hold together) and I have a bar every morning for breakfast with some OJ. Emma would eat these but she can’t have the butter in them.
I bought Bob’s Mill Pancake mix but haven’t tried it.
Crystal swears by these waffles.
We also do bacon, eggs or a smoothie as alternates.

Snacks

Lots of fruits for the girls when they’re at home. Their favorites are bananas, apples, grapes and kiwi.
Zucchini bread
Banana bread
Smoothies with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk

I always have at least one of those breads made. I alternate between the two and Emma eats that for snack after school. I’m pretty sure she would eat the entire loaf if I let her. I wish it didn’t have so much sugar in it but I’m just going with it for now.

Lunch

Rudi’s or Udi’s Gluten-free bread. It’s not the best thing ever but Emma has been a trooper and eats her PB&J’s at school.
Vegan mayo. I use this to make Emma some tuna salad for her. Sometimes I put it on bread for lunch and sometimes she just eats it as a snack after school.
Glutino’s pretzels. Both the girls love these.
Pre-packaged fruit. I don’t know what it is but they hate eating fresh fruit at school. Is it not cool? I don’t know. But the packaged fruit is the next best thing.
Applesauce packs

Dinner – main course

Steaks
Salsa chicken in the crock-pot. Just put a few chicken breasts and a jar of salsa in. Shred it towards the end. You can either make tacos out of it, put it over rice or just eat it separate.
Spaghetti with alternate noodles. We tried rice noodles last time and trying quiona noodles tonight.
Manwich. We tried Rudi’s hamburger buns and they were horrible. They soaked in all the juice and made it very dry. We all ended up opening up the sandwich and eating the meat plain which was just fine.
Sweet potato chili. This was delicious. Scott’s parents and my sister all tried it and liked it. Lexi wasn’t a fan and I think she hate some sort of leftover that night.
Amy’s gluten-free, dairy-free spinach pizza. Emma will eat the spinach pizza but I buy Lexi and Amy’s small cheese pizza and just bake them together.
BBQ. Put a boston butt in your crockpot all day with a little water, salt and pepper. Shred after you get it out.
Pot Roast. I don’t like potatoes and carrots in mine so I just put a chuck roast in with one package of onion soup mix and 1/4 cup of water. I even made the gravy with corn starch.

Dinner – sides

Baked potatoes. Earth fare has non-dairy cheese and sour cream Emma uses while the rest of us use regular.
Refried beans. Emma didn’t like these but Scott and I loved them with the salsa chicken.
Any kind of Alexia potato fries. We’ve done both yukon gold and sweet potato.
Spinach. Turns out we like spinach. Lexi of course hated it but Emma asked for me to make it the next night.
Cauliflower mashed potatoes. I made this with the roast and put the roast gravy on them. No one knew it was cauliflower instead of potatoes. Amazing. It felt so good to get up from that meal and not feel too full.
I also use canned or frozen corn, green beans, carrots or peas as a side.

Desserts

Chocolate Cookies
Earth fare Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies
Dairy Free ice cream. You can get this in any store. Just look for a yellow wrapping at the top.
Oatmeal raisin cookies. These didn’t bake well for me but it still tasted good.
Peanut butter cookies

Miscellaneous

Smart butter is what I use for Emma on popcorn, potatoes, bread. I actually really like it and use it too.
Dino’s BBQ sauce. I got this recommendation from Katie and it’s really fabulous if you like it both sweet and a little kick. It was too hot for Emma and Lexi hated it but Scott and I loved it.
Agave nectar for sweetner in smoothies and coffee

So that’s what the last 10 days or so have looked like.

In really good news, Scott has seen no acid reflux at all. Before, he would only see a few good days in a row before he’d need to take some medicine. He did have one incident this week when he ate gluten by mistake and threw it all up that night. The doctor said it was a normal reaction when you are cleansing yourself from gluten. He also said it could be related to the bad fats they used to make it. I think that speaks a lot to how his body must be changing because of the diet changes.

Emma has only had one stomach ache in the past week and it was one morning she woke up and I can’t say it wasn’t just because she was hungry. She was fine as soon as she ate. She also has been MUCH more regular.

As for me, I’ve lost another pound or two, I rarely get bloated and my skin is looking so much better. Someone at work just saw me for the first time in a few weeks and immediately commented on my weight and skin. That was a great confirmation for me. I’m just enjoying having no cravings. For at least a week now, I haven’t had ANY food after dinner. We eat between 5 and 6 and sometimes don’t go to sleep until 10 or 11. I think that’s huge.

Truth be told, I’m not sure we’ll go back to gluten. This week really proved to me we could happily be gluten-free and I’m not impatiently counting down until our check-up at the end of the month. Feels great!

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Mountains, BBQ and American Girl

February 20th, 2012 at 5:00 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, please do! It will explain why we made a trip to Northern Georgia this past weekend. There were a few non-medical related tidbits I thought I’d share.

First off, I had no clue Georgia had mountains. Although if I’d stop and thought about the fact I’ve been to Stone MOUNTAIN twice I would have put two and two together. I struggle with the common sense sometimes. So I guess I was kind of shocked when we got off I-85 in Georgia and started heading deep into the mountains. By the time the GPS said we were just 15 minutes away and nearly dizzy from the hair pin curves, we found ourselves atop a mountain with the Appalachian Trail somewhere nearby. We stopped at this little store perched on the top of the mountain.

While it looks like it might just be a rest stop, it was packed with high quality hiking gear and local art to buy. We loved the views.

Blairsville, GA turned out to be a tiny little town. They did boast a Zaxby’s, Fatz Cafe, Bi-Lo, Ingles and WalMart but overall, this was a small mountain town still teeming with local businesses. The hotel I had chosen was family owned. In fact, the owners live on site. The decorations were humble but it was super clean, the staff was more than nice and more importantly, cheap.

Photo Feb 17, 4 38 19 PM

The funniest moment was Emma trying to work the TV and saying, “It won’t go to 2-9-9!” Those with DirecTV and kids will appreciate that joke.

Since we didn’t stop once other than the little mountain store, we were all ready to get out and get some dinner as soon as we got there. We decided on a local BBQ place. I was hesitant but Scott said you know if you go to these local places, they do it right.

This particular restaurant had recently moved to a new location. Don’t those roosters crack you up with Scott sitting there? Well, dinner was no laughing matter. It was DELICIOUS. Honestly, some of the best BBQ and baked beans I’ve ever had.

After dinner, we made a quick loop around town. Speaking of, on the trip we ran into all these small towns that had one huge building in the center of town with a round-about Here is the picture from our hotel parking lot of the center of Blairsville. Do you have these in your town? I think there might be some here in South Carolina but ours isn’t like that.

Photo Feb 18, 8 05 09 AM

We realized that this little town was still holding up many locally owned business. Isn’t this little grocery store Foodland a hoot? The last thing our town had like that was Piggly Wiggly and they closed probably 20 years ago.

We realized quickly that most of the town shut down about 6pm. Scott couldn’t talk the girls into strolling the aisles of Home Depot for the evening so we settled in to our hotel room and watched American’s Funniest Home Videos on Netflix on the laptop.

Saturday morning I was happy to eat at the nearby restaurant Cook’s. If the town’s BBQ was any indication, breakfast was going to be good.

And it was. I tried to stay healthy and only ordered one egg and grits with orange juice. Emma got toast and you could literally squeeze the butter out of it. So bad but so good! We were drooling over the biscuits and gravy at the next table.

After the doctor’s appointment which ended about lunchtime Saturday, we headed south 90 minutes to Alpharetta, GA, the home of one of the American Girl stores. We nearly took the girls at the beginning of January. I had the hotel booked and everything but decided against it last minute. I’m so glad we were able to bundle all this together!

The girls had an amazing time. Lexi was beside herself driving up to it. She had her hands over her mouth and I said, "Lexi, where are we?” She just said, “I can’t even say it,” through her hands. Cutest thing ever.

The store was an absolute mad house even given the size. This is only about a third of the store.

Photo Feb 18, 3 00 37 PM

What I loved though is that every single outfit they had was on display on a girl. No more looking at catalogs and the Internet! We tried to get into the doll salon to have their hair fixed and the bistro but they were booked solid. The girls ended up with two really cute outfits.

I had the girls pick out the outfits online before we went so we wouldn’t be there too long. Emma is so indecisive. Well, they were done in less than 20 minutes and that included a potty break. We got done and had plans to explore the mall. We spotted a carousel and a sign for the Cheesecake Factory but we were all so ready to go home we hit the road right away. Well, with Starbucks in hand. So yes, we drove 90 minutes for a 20 minute excursion. Whatever. The kids were satisfied and Scott and I in a mall are dangerous anyway. One day we might get back to Atlanta to visit the Coke Museum and Aquarium.

When we got home at 8pm, we couldn’t believe that we had been home at lunch time just the day before. It certainly was a whirlwind 30 hours. As hoped though, very productive and full of great memories.

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How This Weekend Changed Our Lives

February 19th, 2012 at 8:52 pm / Amy Bennett / 10 Comments »

This weekend in Northern Georgia

Let me be as dramatic as I possibly can and say this weekend was life-changing. I do mean that in the most practical sense and it could be life-changing temporarily or perhaps, long-term.

The thing about life-changing events is it requires a story. And unfortunately, this story is not one I’ve even begun to tell here. Which means this post is gonna be a long one. If you or a loved one suffer from allergies or stomach “issues”, you’re going to want to stay tuned. Well, I’d love for you to stay-tuned anyway because you know, life-changing and all that. Click Read More below to continue….

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Marriage, Fashion and Healing

February 13th, 2012 at 11:30 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

I couldn’t call this simply a weekend recap. So much stuff this weekend! If my last few weekends have been quiet and around-the-house type weekends, the last 3 days have been quite the opposite. Each day we had something pretty big and I can’t wait to tell you! Hang on, because this is a long one!!

MarriedLife Live

Friday night Scott and I attended the MarriedLife Live event at our church. It was less conference and more a night out for married couples in the church. We had a live band, dessert and coffee and we did hear from our family pastor. He talked about seasons of marriage and how some bad seasons tear couples apart and others are drawn together. To avoid the former, we should store up in the good times, just as Joseph did in Egypt, knowing a famine was coming. I felt like this was especially appropriate for us as the last year or two has generally been a good season for our marriage but I know the adoption will test us. Right now is the time to build up our marriage, not only when we’re trying to salvage it.

We also did an exercise where each of us had to fill out what we wanted each other to do and say at four times during the day: morning, saying goodbye for the day, saying hello and going to bed. I have to say it was eye-opening. We rarely do anything like that and really appreciated knowing what Scott expects and desires.

Be Red Hot

Saturday morning I attended the Be Red Hot Women’s conference at Dani’s church to support her as she led a break-out session. I was completely blessed by the main speaker Branda Polk. The conference was a diving board off the verse about not being lukewarm but either hot or cold. We want to be red hot in our faith.

One thing she hit on that I hope she doesn’t mind that I share is the thought that the Bible says we ought to do all things unto God. But how do my menial tasks mean anything to Him? Isn’t it only big people doing big things for God that He treasures? She likened it to our children picking dandelions and giving it to us as a gift of love. Practically, they are giving us a weed but because it is done unto us in love, it is a treasure. Isn’t that an awesome thought?

Dani rocked her fashion session. She started out speaking to the heart of the matter. Does God even want us to spend time on how we look? Yes! He cares about all things and the way we present ourselves on the outside can say something about what He’s done on the inside. It also says something about how we feel about the people around us. I know Scott always notices when I dress up more for work than I do him. That’s sending a message, true or not, that I care more for what they think than what he thinks. However, if our vanity and pride are keeping us occupied and unable to give like He requires, it’s a problem!

(top right photo, credit to Sherry Smith)

She also went over the top trends for the year, how she builds her closet and took time to dress up a few folks with accessories she had bought. I even got to help on stage for a hot second to share her Sneaky Jacket Trick. She did a fabulous job and I think everyone was ready for a full day conference just with Dani. I know if there is anything I know about styling, it is all from her instruction over the past 14 years we’ve been friends. Those blue shoes I have on in that pic are results of an email from Dani…"buy these and this is what you wear with it” (that yellow shirt is my one of my Old Navy shirts)!

Testimony

Fast forward through Saturday family time, Sunday church, dinner and nap and we headed to my parents’ and sister’s church to hear my sister give her testimony. One day I want to take the time and give you all the intricate details about what happened but the gist of it is this.

Heather has had a sleeping disorder her whole life. Without medication, she always wanted to sleep. Like, she would go to bed at 7 on a Friday night, get up at 1 the next afternoon and then could take a nap at 4. She finally was diagnosed at 20 and got some pills ($600 a month!) that would keep her awake all day. However, my mom would have to call her every single morning over and over and OVER to get her to answer the phone long enough for her to take the pills so she would wake up an hour or two later. It was exhausting and frustrating.

During the past few years, she had also started playing World of Warcraft video game and found herself addicted. Addicted to a video game? Yep! I remember having the girls’ family birthday here at the house the year before last and she came in with her laptop, hooked it up and was playing through the birthday party. She was playing every chance she got.

Well, her church did a 40 day fast last January and God called her to fast her video game. She did and as she described it, went through physical withdrawals. Towards the end of the 40 days, God was calling me to do the Daniel Fast (I mention Heather’s healing vaguely in the post). I had two different dreams about her just days before I started and I knew that I was to fast and pray for Heather. Heather had given me her laptop so she wouldn’t play it and I prayed over her laptop during the fast. Yes, I laid hands on a laptop! I can’t tell you the power I felt when I touched it. My heart broke and my spirit was completely burdened.

Three days before the end of her 40 days and Heather woke up on her own at 5:30am. The next day she woke up again. The next day was the end of the fast and God told Heather not to take her pills anymore. That same day, as I closed my fast, God told me that Heather was free from her video game if she chose to be. He wouldn’t force her, but if she wanted to walk away, she was free. It’s been 352 days now and she hasn’t take a pill and she is free from her addiction to the game. God be praised! It’s been amazing to watch her flourish in the last year and I’m so thankful for God’s healing and Heather’s decision to obey.

So, wow! Gold star if you read all that! My heart is so full from the weekend. God is awesome and my church, family and friends are more than I could ask.

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Merry Christmas 2011 – Alleluia

December 25th, 2011 at 11:30 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Alleluia – used to express praise, joy or thanks.

Alleluia

Close your eyes, lift your hands and say thank you.

Alleluia

My soul quakes and my flesh feels the waves of thanksgiving. We celebrate him abiding in flesh as a babe but today He abides in me. In His church. In the body, not a body.

I hope that’s truth for you. That this Christmas when you stretch your hands out with alleluias, you feel Christ abiding.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

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The Hobbies

November 29th, 2011 at 7:24 pm / Amy Bennett / 10 Comments »

Emma spent Lexi’s taekwondo practice drawing pictures of each of us doing what she perceived as our hobbies. I gotta say, she nailed it.

The Facebook cracks me up. Curious, what would Emma draw for you?

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Future Classic: The Chicken Pot Pie Crust

November 15th, 2011 at 8:10 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

OK, so this is going to be funny. Hang in there.

This all started with this tweet last night:

And I was exhausted! But super proud of myself for thinking about dinner the night before. All it needed was the crust which was already frozen in a disc in the freezer. I even remembered to sit it in the fridge before I went to bed. Last night I asked Scott if he thought he could roll it out and put it on and have it in the oven 30 minutes before I got home from the office. He’s really good about cooking if you tell him what to do. I asked him if he wanted instructions then or wanted to do it over the phone while I was at work today. He brushed me off and said, “No, let’s deal with it tomorrow.”

This morning I emailed him instructions telling him lots of details like to sit it out on the counter so the butter would get to room temperature and put flour down and make sure to put slits in it, etc, etc. He never asked any questions.

So this afternoon I get a call while I’m talking to my manager. I ignore it. When I’m done, I call Scott back and he starts in on an aggravated (but not mad) rant. “This dough will not roll out right! It keeps breaking apart! Is it old or something?”

I said, “No, I just made the other half of that batch like 2 weeks ago and it was just fine. Maybe you put too much flour on it?”

Scott says, “No, I didn’t. Even before I started it was falling apart. I rolled it back in a ball and tried again but then as soon as I touched it, it fell apart. So I just picked it up in pieces and laid it on top. I just wanted you to know when you saw it.”

I said, “That’s fine, honey. We’ll still eat it.” And it really was fine. It was 5:00 by this time and I was stuck in traffic. I really didn’t care what it looked like. And I was super proud of him for doing it without grumbling. On the rest of the way home, I was just thinking about what a good guy he was and when I cut my piece out of the pie I would enjoy it so much more knowing that he had done that for us. Yadda. yadda.

Then I get another phone call before I get home. Scott says, “Was that sugar cookie dough you had in a cylinder tube in the freezer?”

It dawns on me immediately what he’s done. “Yes. You didn’t use that did you?”

Yes. He did. He didn’t read the email carefully so immediately went for the first frozen thing in aluminum foil in the freezer. Little did he realize I had already put the pie dough in the fridge so it was already thawed for him. He said he even checked the freezer up and down when it was flaking so badly and still didn’t see anything.

So he says, “It tastes pretty good though. I figured it out when I took a bite and it was so sweet.”

Holy cow. Funniest thing EVER.

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Lexi’s 7th Birthday Parties

November 5th, 2011 at 10:34 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

The past two days we’ve been in complete birthday mode for Lexi. Normally we do a family party on their actual birthday and then do a combined party the week between Emma and Lexi’s birthday at a place like Chuck E. Cheese. This year, both girls wanted separate sleepovers.

Thursday was a complete blur. Lunch was spent gathering the cake, balloons and a present that I didn’t really need since I forgot I ordered American girl stuff. I was a little wiped out before the party even started.

But it turned out to be a great evening. Lexi was ecstatic when people actually started showing up. I think she was legitimately worried people wouldn’t come.

By Friday morning I had to take a deep breath and do the whole birthday thing again but this time with 7 girls. Overnight. I kept it pretty simple as far as decorations go. Lexi wanted all her friends to watch Soul Surfer together so we made it a surfing theme. We had a cool cake made and borrowed a real surfboard and let the girls take pictures on it like they were Bethany from Soul Surfer. Between pizza, cake and presents they danced, played Twister and red rover. They finished out the night with the movie. I was feeling pretty good about this whole sleepover thing. Until the next morning.

This morning I woke to find that during the night, some of the girls had taken the pretzels, goldfish and other snacks I had out and put them on other girls as they slept and generally made a mess of all the food in the living room floor. It was so bad Emma had the cheese from the pretzel sandwiches in her ear. No one would own up to it. I kept my cool (outwardly) but gave them a full-blown “that was rude and disrespectful” speech. I think they thought I was an evil stepmother about then. Scott’s only comment to me was well, just think, if they were boys, it would have been shaving cream. I do know pranks are part of sleepovers but I wasn’t prepared to see that this morning. All is well though. We moved on and got some breakfast and they got some good play time before everyone headed out.

I can’t believe my baby girl is 7 and all the work was definitely worth seeing all her smiles.

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Not on the Honey-Do List

September 20th, 2011 at 9:04 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

Remember that honey-do list I mentioned? Well, next on the list was the pool cover stand. Just 2 4x4s and a metal bar could have done the trick so we could roll the cover off the pool onto it for storage instead of dragging it off. But Scott says, “Why don’t I take our swing set down and use the 4x4s from that for the pool stand and build a whole new swing set?” Well, um, ok, honey, but you could just go buy 2 new 4x4s. Look, I’m not complaining that he wants to build the kids a new swing set and honestly the steps were in bad repair but it seems a little much to do the WHOLE thing.

But, guess what I came home to today? Wait. Here’s the before of our swing set. It’s a 3 year old picture of Scott’s mom pushing them but you get the drift. Simple, standard swings and slide. PS Lexi’s hair was oh so long and cute and her wegs are so teeny tiny. Lexi! You’re distracting mommy!

Well, here’s the ginormous swing set I found in my back yard this evening:

Apparently he realized a little too late he got 10’ 4×4” boards instead of 8’ boards. Just a wee bit different. I have to give him props for getting all this up in one day and the kids are ecstatic. But dear mercy, I just hope I get my pool stand out of this.

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Living Proof Live – Charlotte and a Surprise

July 23rd, 2011 at 6:35 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

Golly, the past 24 hours were so good. So. good.

I keep typing and backing up and typing something else. Where do you start? How do you put into words 6 pages of notes and a very full heart? First I will tell you this. And it is what I walked away with. That story? I’m gonna write it. No lie Beth said the words “We always want our past to be our past. To pretend like it never happened. But we must use our past as our testimony. We have to offer hope.” There are many more things she said that completely confirmed my thoughts scripturally and enlightened more. Above all, I walked away with the affirmation just once again just how much affection He has for me. He is not tolerating me, he DELIGHTS in me.

There is no way to fully explain all of what she talked about but I will hit the highlights. Our two words for the weekend were HOLD FAST. Hold fast and cleave to God. She gave us eight reasons we needed to hold fast as an acrostic:

H: His affection is set upon you. She went into the many ways he loves us. But be assured he is loyal, faithful, emotional, passionate, devoted to you.
O: Only He is your praise. The good of the universe loves YOU and wants good for you. Praise him.
L: Loving Him Awakens Your True Heart. We do not know ourselves until we cling to him. He is what makes life work.
D: Doing His will Does Us Good. He cannot lead us wrong. God uses everything that happens to you for your destiny.
F: Fleeing to Him means Fleeing From Him. He is always with us.
A: Any Tighter Embrace Will Also Replace. Oh boy, do I know this one well. We are supposed to love but when we cling to something else harder, it becomes a stronghold.
S: Satan Wants What You Have. He wants your marriage, children, church but most of all your faith.
T: The Lord is Your Life Col 3:1-4 Choose life.

So good. I wish every one of you could hear every word. But I’ll just say this. Hold fast to Him. He is the answer. Your life should not be a train wreck. If it is, fall into Him. Hold on for dear life. When you are walking with Him, things work. It may not be easy but there is peace. Whew, I could go on!

I do want to tell you about the lovely people I went with and got to meet.

Susan, Dani, Michele, me and Heather. I was so happy Heather. At the last second, she was able to snag one of their Siesta Scholarship tickets. If you need one of those, it was so painless and such a blessing.

I also got to meet up with my good friend Becky

..and Beth who sadly I didn’t get a picture with.

And I’m especially happy to have finally met Boomama. I have been a long-time reader of Sophie’s blog and let me just tell you she is a DELIGHT. I’m not sure there is another way to describe her. And she is the same in person. She’s down to earth, and funny and Southern to every bit of her core. I just love her.

OK, so I must quickly tell you about a surprise last night that happened after we got back from LPL. Yesterday afternoon I talked to Emma. I told her I was excited to see her in one day! I talked to Scott last night just after we got out and he said the girls were asleep so I didn’t get to say good night. When I got home, I went almost straight to sleep as my alarm was going off at 5:45am. Scott called right at 11 and said, “I hate to do this but Corporal has to come get my radio to use it tonight can you go get it out of the closet and put it on the bench out front.” So I did and when I walked out the front door, I saw car lights on and thought Corporal was already there. I started squinting really hard when I saw a shadow of a child and saw that it was Emma! “You’re kidding me”! I said when I realized it WAS Emma and Scott was also walking through the yard. Scott had completely surprised me and travelled back that evening. I can’t tell you how happy I was!

So between the conference and having my babies back last night you can imagine I’ve been on cloud 9 today! Hope your weekend is going well!

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Show Us Your Singles

June 23rd, 2011 at 9:05 pm / Amy Bennett / 8 Comments »

Kelly’s Korner is hosting a Show Us Your Singles carnival and when my cousin, who by the way is also named Kelly, emailed me to suggest I participate by writing about my sister Heather, I just couldn’t pass it up.

So how does the carnival work? You write a post about a single friend or family member and then everyone links up back at Kelly’s. People start match-making and apparently, sometimes, it works! A few people have started dating seriously from this process and one couple even got married! Since Heather is into online dating recently I figured this couldn’t hurt.

But how in the world do I tell you all the great stuff from 30 years of sisterhood?

How can you start to capture all the times she’s made you laugh?

Or gone to a concert with you?

Or hugged your kids because she loves all babies so much?

Or celebrated with you?

How in the world do you describe just how much she loves animals?

Maybe it’d be a good time to tell that story how she literally swam through a lake to save a drowning dog’s life?

How can I describe how she’s been by my side through everything, even little things like meeting Spongebob.

Should I tell you how much she loves music and movies and TV or how much she loves pens and post-it notes? Or just how much she has a heart for God and what He has in store for her mate?

Or were you looking for “the stats” like

She’s 30
5’4” (I think?)
Resident of Fort Mill, SC
Graduate of a 2 year school with graphic design
Works with my mom at her custom blinds business
Owns her own house and car

Or maybe I should just tell you how beautiful she is inside and out

because she is. And how any guy would be a LUCKY. GUY. to get her.

Yeah, ok, so maybe she doesn’t get a date out of this post but I sure hope she gets just how great I think she is. I don’t say it a lot.

But I mean it a lot.

Love you, sissy.

Oh and cute, single men, well-meaning mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins and friends, leave a comment if you have a good match for her!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Photo Booth

December 28th, 2010 at 12:45 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

It sounds silly but one thing I will really miss about my MacBook is Photo Booth. It’s a sample camera that takes pictures with different effects applied and you can see yourself as you take the picture. The kids loved it and it’s the one thing they mentioned they would miss. Probably because it’s the only thing I would let them do on it. It was always a fun time to take silly picture with one another at random times. Most of them are garbage but there are a few that I would be sad if they disappeared and make me happy.

The three of us piled onto my bed one night.

A quick hug at my desk.

Not sure but they effect was really cool. I feel like Marilyn Monroe.

Being silly on the couch.

Being extra silly on the couch.

Impromptu family portrait in our bedroom. Can’t leave out the Build-a-Bear.

Love my girl!

And we’re good at being silly sometimes.

Did I mention silly?

Lexi stealing the camera by herself one day.

Emma stealing the camera, feigning surprise, I’m sure.

Fun right? So different than the usual family pics we grab around here.

I think maybe what I’ll miss the most is not the Mac or Photo Booth but the moments we let ourselves be silly.

This post is linked up to ohAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday

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Christmas Recap

December 27th, 2010 at 1:49 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

We had a lovely Christmas weekend. Scott had to work Friday and Sunday but we fit in a trip to each of our parents’ Friday night and Saturday. Sunday was spent at home trying to figure out where to put everything AND playing in the SNOW. I think it was the first white Christmas in Charlotte in 60 years or something. In true Carolina fashion, the sun was out as soon as it was done and is quickly melting it today.

I have a few favorite memories I hope to keep with me from this year.

I created a “package station” where the girls had their presents in stacks, labeled with handmade paper snowflakes above it.

Making the snowflakes brought back great memories of doing them in school.

But seeing the girls see something new and fun that I actually managed to hand make was WAY better.

We still have the snowflakes up and really I have no desire to take them down.

Mom and Dad bought Lexi a police officer outfit. Cutest thing ever. Lexi has Emma in handcuffs as I type this and Scott is telling “security” to “take her away please” as he sits at their new Barbie cash register at the “mall”.

Lexi was quite animated opening presents. This particular score was over new earrings.

Emma was just as excited but reserved in her reaction. Her best reaction was over a Taylor Swift CD. I loved reading the lyrics in the jacket cover as she played it on her new CD player my aunt got her. I haven’t done that since 1997.

It’s not that she hated her unicorn pillow pet as I assumed when she busted out crying after opening it. It was her last gift in her pile, none of which included the American Girl doll she was desperate to have. I thought I’d be clever and put all but their big presents out and at the end say, “I have one more present for you." and then bring it out with much fanfare. Christmas FAIL. She calmed down when I explained it but wow, she really wanted that doll.