Blue Ridge and Other Things

Happy Thanksgiving week!  I am sure everyone is gearing up to cook and/or eat lots of food here in a day or two.  I, for one, am super excited about spending Thanksgiving with my family!  I haven't spent Thanksgiving in Florence since I got married so I cannot wait to see a lot of relatives I haven't seen since my wedding and introduce Mason to everyone.  I am also very much looking forward to my Aunt Marva's macaroni and cheese and my mom's seven layer salad and my grandmother's (Mamaw) chicken and dressing, fried okra, and potato salad!!!!! I am so pumped! (Big Fat Fatty)  Notice I only mentioned the food and nothing about the thankfulness.  I am very thankful for so many things, but I will save that for a future post, Lord willing I have time to do another one soon.  

Now, let me wrap up the Blue Ridge vacation with these pics from the last full day we had at the cabin...

Here we have Ben's artistic photography capturing his "perfect s'more."

Ben and Mason are going to kill me for putting this one on the blog, but I love it!!! Mason doesn't favor us in many ways physically (the bright blue eyes and blonde hair), but he has so many of our other characteristics.  I love their sleepy head looks early this morning.  We didn't get much sleep on the trip because Mason had a hard time sleeping through the night for some reason.  Special thanks to mom and dad for staying up with him a couple of nights.

Ahh, I am so sneaky capturing this picture of Matt.  Cara brought her cool travel hammock and I think I need one of those as well... maybe for Christmas.

Cara was forcing Matt to share the hammock with her.  

Not exactly the correct focus, but I think this picture of Berkley is hilarious.

Mason is always thrilled to walk around.  I am learning to shoot on Manual and I forget I have the camera set to manual and just start shooting.  This pic is over exposed and unedited but I love the expression captured on Mason's little face.

Berkley Boo my mountain dog.  He is such a rugged poodle.

The sun made the leaves light up like they were glowing!  I love fall because of all the beautiful colors!

It was all in all, a wonderful trip and we had so much fun! I definitely recommend Blue Ridge as a fall vacation spot for any family.  I wish I had captured a few shots of down town Blue Ridge because it is such a quaint little town.  I also need to share our experience at the store "Gypsy Eyes, Mystical Shop." Yes, didn't know that was the name of the shop until after we went in there.  You can just imagine....

I would also like to share this link with you.  It is from Women's Bible Cafe which I stumbled upon while searching for a good Bible study.  The Women's Bible Cafe offers several on-line Bible studies that you can follow along with every week.  I did Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and I loved it! I highly recommend this website if you don't have time to meet weekly with a group or another individual but would like to participate in a study.  It was a blessing to me even though I did struggle to keep up with the reading.  The link I shared is a really uplifting article about gifts that we can all share with others such as Joy, Strength, and Peace.  It reminds me that "small" things, as simple as praying for someone or just being there for a friend going through a tough time can have such an impact on another person.  Check it out if you have time!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you have been reading this blog for a while (and bless you because I have been anything but consistent), then you might remember my posts from last summer and fall about my garden. If you haven't read them, then you can find them here and here.

Now, let me bring you up to date on this lovely garden of mine...  Early in the spring, when I was still pregnant with Mason, Ben and I were in Wal-Mart buying groceries when I decided that I wanted a box of fruit roll-ups. Strawberry flavor.  Keep in mind that I haven't bought a box of fruit roll-ups ever and I probably hadn't eaten one since grade school, but I wanted a fruit roll-up. So, we buy them and I have one out of the box and unwrapped before we are even in the car.  (Not as good as I remembered. Still have about 8 left from the box of 10.)  So, Ben is like, "I can't believe you bought that box of fruit roll-ups. Those things are expensive." "They aren't that expensive." I counter back, defending my purchase.
Then the conversation continues like this:

B: "They have to be at least 3 dollars."
K: "No, I looked before I picked them up, they were only 2 dollars."
B: "No, they have to be more than that. Let's make a bet."

I have to add here that Ben is all about making bets.  He claims that he will not make a bet unless he knows he won't lose.  Ben is also all about saving money. I could write 15 blog posts about Ben and his money saving. This is the reason he is questioning my frivolous fruit roll-up purchase in the first place.

K: "Ok, what do you wanna bet?"
B: "I bet that those are more than $2.50 and ....."

I honestly cannot remember what I was going to have to do if I lost, but that isn't important anyway since I won.

K: "Fine. I bet that they are 2.00 or less (remember, I looked at the price before I bought them but he didn't believe me because I am so frivolous, obviously, and just throwing money into the wind) and if I win then you have to prepare, plant, and cultivate the garden to my specifications ALL SUMMER."
B: "It's a bet."

So, we get home, pull out the blessed Wal-Mart receipt and low and behold, those babies were $1.99!!!
Muwahahahaha!!!!!

So, feast your eyes on this year's garden:

See how cultivated it is?  Isn't it lush?  See all of the lovely, defined rows of plants?  Not a tree weed in sight! Oh, and the produce!!  Don't even get me started.  You are all going to be so jealous. Allow me to show you these pictures (can't capture it in just one) of our bountiful first crop of tomatoes:

Aren't they so beautiful and round? Don't they remind you of prize winning tomatoes or the ones you see at the farmer's market?  I know. We can't all produce this kind of quality fruit.  Some have it, some don't. And, I guess we just have it. Don't worry, there was more where these came from! Unfortunately I was unable to photograph the three tomatoes that grew together to form one tiny tomato with three bottoms. You will just have to imagine it.

I think we are also producing jalapeno peppers... if I could just locate the plant.

Ok, so needless to say, that is not exactly to my specifications.  However, remember my post about Ben traveling to montevallo every day for all those months? Well, when is he going to have time to care for a garden? So, I haven't been that hard on him.

It wasn't until my friend, Ashley, who was in town yesterday visiting from Florida while her hubby took the Bar  here in town, looked out my window and said, "Oh. Is that your garden? It kind of reminds me of a rain forrest." that I realized it was a pretty good laugh.  So, at her suggestion, I decided to fill you in on the latest garden events.  I hope I did not cause you to covet.  Just holler at me in the comment section if you want to sign up for my community crop share program. Thanks.

When I went to photograph the "garden" yesterday, I happened across this little beauty on my butterfly bush and I just wanted to share these photos since you don't get to see pretty butterflies like this very often.

The Power of Positive Thinking

First of all, thanks to all of you who thought of me this past week as I went back to work.  Your comments, notes, and text messages were very encouraging and I definitely felt your prayers coming my way!

As I mentally prepared myself to go back to work, I tried to think positively about it and not dread it.  I knew that dreading the day would only make things harder and make the situation worse.  Honestly, that mindset helped a lot.  I was able to remain upbeat and the week went really well.  I am not attributing the success of the week just to my positive thinking; I know that God played a huge part in the way things played out and I really had a sense of peace about everything.  However, I am constantly reminding myself of the power of our minds and how I can use my mind to make things better.

Living with an eternal optimist really encourages my drive for positive thinking.  Before you start thinking I am all optimistic and stuff, I have to tell you that Ben's positivity sometimes drives me crazy.  I'm all "can't you just let me whine about this for one minute?!" :) Forcing me to look at the positive side of things and put things in perspective is one way that Ben helps make me a better person and for that I am thankful.

When I get down or become negative, I am reminded of this verse in Philippians 4:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.(verse 8)


That verse is preceded by "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  In my Bible I have written, "Dwell on your blessings while God works out your problems.  


Yesterday, my mom sent me this article which I found very motivating.  It is about thinking big, thinking outside the box, and acknowledging the power of your mind.  The main points that spoke to me in this article are: 


1. Invest time strengthening your strengths.


2. Spend your life on your passion. "This is what you were created to do."(Do you know what your passion is?)


3. Deposit your energies into the creation of products and services that will add value to the lives of others.


4. Choose to see abundance, be abundance, and live abundance, but never at the expense of others.


If you have time, it is worth the read!

And for you moms out there, I stumbled across this website, last night while reading an article on PW's blog about the effects of school on creative children (yeah, I guess you could say it's a little early for that). Anyway, that website (coolmompicks) has a really great recommended reading list that you might want to check out.  I think I will be reading a lot of those books in the future.

And I leave you with this:

My little man is three months old today!! Can you tell that he was DONE with this photo shoot?  I was taking pictures of him this morning ( I will post the Three Month post once I get them edited) and we were doing some shots in vintage outfits.  First I put him in a Feltman Bros outfit that belonged to my brother, Matt, that was complete with matching shoes.  Then, I remembered the p.j.s pictured above which is what Ben and both of his brothers wore home from the hospital when they were born.  I had intended to take Mason's pictures in those a while back (like, when they would fit him) but forgot about it.  When Mason came home from the hospital he was only 6 pounds 3 oz so the outfit would've swallowed him whole at the time (since his daddy was a whopping 8 lbs 12 oz when he was born). Anyway, this morning the p.j.'s barely snapped (I didn't even attempt to snap the top one) and Mason was not having it! Needless to say, I have pictures of him in his daddy's outfit, but they all look like the one above. That picture is a bit deceiving because Mason was an absolute angel during the whole event until I tried to put those on him! You will see when I post the others later on.

Have a great day!

New Things

Greetings from Pike Road during the ice storm of 2011!! I have to say that it was a bit of a let down for me, seeing as we didn't get any snow. We did, however, get a little ice covering here and there and I woke up in time to snap a few pictures of the ice covered pines before they returned to their normal state.

Now, on to new things....

First of all, we have decided on a name for our baby!! He will be called Mason Grant Lassiter. Mason is my mother's maiden name and Grant is Ben's middle name. Although we have thought this would be the name for a while now, it has been really hard for me to say it was a definite! It is just that he will be stuck with this name for the rest of his life and I wanted to be sure he would like it. I hope that he does! For Christmas my sister-in-law, Jessi, gave me some monogrammed cloth diapers with Mason's name on them and they are adorable! It was very exciting to get his first personalized item! I have officially bought all of the fabric for the bedding (that my friend Kellie is going to make, she, along with mom and sis have been a huge help) so now I can get going on the nursery!

With the new year comes new year's resolutions.... I make these resolutions pretty much every year with last year being the only exception. I thought, I never keep these resolutions so why make them? So, last year I was resolutionless and somehow I survived 2010....shocking. Anyway.... this year I went back to my old ways and decided to make some resolutions... I'll begin with the one I have actually kept:

1. I cannot order a beverage with any meal (other than water) unless it comes with a combo or a special (like at a bar-b-que place where tea is included, etc.). I did this back in 2007 and it worked well. Cuts back on unnecessary calories and saves money... two for one bonus! Ben and I make this into a competition to keep us motivated and so far we are doing a good job with this one.

2. Bedtime at 10:00 and wake up time at 6:00. So far this one is a no go. We have made it to bed at ten on occasion, but it is the waking up a 6:00 that gets me every time. I wanted to do this resolution because I feel that I will be more productive if I get on up and going earlier in the mornings. You know what they say, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise!!!" I know that 6 is not early for many, but it is early for me!

3. Read my Bible more often. I set my goal for 3 times a week. I am not doing so well with this one either but it is going to improve!! I am going to start a new Bible study (a 90 day study) called "Becoming the Woman God Wants You to Be" focusing on Proverbs 31 and I am quite excited about it. I am waiting on my book to get here from Amazon so I can get started. My friend Shelley is doing this study with me and my mom has already started it with some of her friends. I think this study will help me with my "read the Bible more often" resolution for sure!" Now, if only my book would get here!!

4. Exercise more. This also has a 3x per week goal. So far I stink at this. What happened to those days in college when I loved to go running as a stress reliever? Now thinking of running causes me stress. Granted, I can't exactly run with this belly because it just feels bazaar, but I should be doing more exercise wise. Why is it that the older you get and the more exercise you need, the more difficult it is to do?? Life can be so ironic sometimes.

5. Thank you notes. I AM AWFUL. I mean, I did well with the wedding and showers and writing hundreds of thank you's for those things. However, I am really bad at writing sporadic thank you notes. I want to be better about this. Several friends have already given me little gifts for Mason that I appreciate so much but I only think of writing the thank you note when I am at work or driving or in some situation where writing a thank you note is completely inconvenient. Ben, who doesn't really see the value in or the necessity of a thank you note says I need to let this go, but I can't. I can't. It is good etiquette to let the gift giver know you are appreciative. Ben's reasoning is, "you don't expect a thank you note, do you?" Granted, no, I don't expect one and I wouldn't remember if I didn't receive one. But they are really nice to receive, aren't they?

So, there are some other things that I have been working on lately that aren't really resolutions but just things that I am enjoying and wanting to do more of:

First, pictures! We have finally purchased some wedding pictures (yes, over 2 years later). We decided to purchase the cd of all the pictures so we could do what we wanted with them. It was just waaaay to hard to pick and choose a few. I am excited about putting together a photo book and getting some of these pictures printed to actually HANG ON MY WALLS. If you have ever been to my house then you are aware that I have NOTHING on my walls and NO recent pictures displayed. It is pretty sad actually. We have been here 3 years in May! So, before Mason gets here, we have got to get some photos up. When we have a baby, we are officially no longer newly weds and it will not be acceptable to have no wedding pictures out. Here is one of my favorites! (Seems like it was just yesterday. Sigh.)

Another thing I have been wanting to do for a WHILE, and have recently started, is archiving recipes. That probably sounds lame. I love to read recipes but when it comes time to cook, I get so overwhelmed trying to choose a recipe out of the thousands on line and in the fourteen hundred cookbooks I have, that I freak out, mentally shut down, and then cook Poppyseed Chicken Casserole. That is always fine with Ben because that it is his all time favorite, but I want to try new things!! Thus, let the archiving begin! What I mean is, I will write down the best recipes on notecards and store them in my handy recipe organizer box that mom gave me (it has a bluebird on it in honor of Mr. Tweeters). Then, when I go looking for new things to cook I can just consult one consolidated place instead of searching the afore mentioned plethora of recipes. Ahhh, I can think better already. On a side note, if you have not checked out PW's Tasty Kitchen site, please do so! I especially love the Tasty Kitchen blog. The blog often features themes of recipes that have been posted on the site. The themes include Mac and Cheese recipes, Pasta Salads, various beverages, chocolate desserts, etc. etc. etc. I love it!

And last, PHOTOGRAPHY! I have enjoyed this hobby so much and I have so much to learn! Very soon my reason for taking up this hobby (my baby) will be here in all his glory for me to photograph for life!! Thanks for all the practice, Pete and Berkley, but I am movin on up. I am very appreciative to my friends Kellie and Lindsey and Jessi for letting me practice on their babies.

In conclusion, a very special shout out to my Auburn Tigers!!! Good luck guys and WAR EAGLE!!!! It is almost game time!!!!!