Today is our TWO year anniversary!
What a true joy and an unexplainable honor it is to be married to Jamie. No other words today that really come to mind except blessed...

I have always called Jamie my Mr. Steady, because in all things he is steady and unwavering, and never ceasing to continue to amaze me in how he loves and respects me and our lives together. I love that and find incredible comfort in that attribute about my handsome husband.

I waited and waited knowing Jamie was Heaven sent to me and knew the Lord spoke to me and gave a reassurance in my heart to trust Him...I am preparing Jamie's heart, the Lord said as I prayed for wisdom and discernment.. just be patient and trust that I know best...That was soooo incredibly hard for me because I am goal oriented and need a plan, but MY Mr. Steady did have that unwavering faith and was continually praying for the Lord guidance on our lives and our future marriage. What a blessing it has been.

It is nothing short of amazing to see how The Lord puts two people together that are so comparable in so many ways...We just fit! I woke up this morning before I got my day started looking at this amazing man beside me feeling so complete in what the Lord has done.
Jamie:
The one who still melts my heart
My confidant
My handsome hunter
The fearless leader of our home
The one who still puts butterflies in my stomach
My bow hunting teacher
The spiritual leader of our home
My best friend
My reassurer of life
My protector
My Mr. Steady
My love...

I am going to interject here with an news bulletin update------

I posted the below blog earlier today, and my sweet, yet rowdy, puppy that is ever increasing in size does have my heart, but perhaps it grows horns sometimes! Tonight Jamie and I came home from a lovely meal that my sweet, handsome, and just down right wonderful husband treated me to tonight. Seeing that we have not played with Brodie all day today our excitement grew as we came in the door. Brodie has gotten to where he LOVES playing in the trash when we are not looking. You will find the normal stance of 2 paws up on the trash can with his nose plummeting into the fresh throw aways from the days meals. He totally knows it is wrong, and will stand and bark at the trash can when we are looking demanding we know his disapproval of us not letting him eat out of the trash can.

I could tell by the look in his eye and when I turned my back to unload the dishwasher I heard the noise....crinkle, crinkle, boom...I look up and over the counter to find a full coffee filter with coffee grinds spilling out of his mouth. Brodie, filled with excitement that he has just gotten away with what he knows is wrong is jumping up and down wanting me to chase him to see if I can catch him. As he makes his normal figure 8 around my living room couch, under the coffee table, around the leather chair, through the kitchen, down the hall, and into the dining room just to start the process all over again if I have not caught him by now....he is faster than you all may think! Now, mind you that he had a full coffee filter with black coffee grounds that have now spilled out of his mouth with every step of his paws and are now mashed into my tanish colored carpet!! Let me tell you that I have a fresh aroma of morning coffee filling my house.

All of you know that I have been working on my patience, and I felt like I did a very good job of holding it in when I had to get out a toothbrush and scrub my carpet after I vacuumed all I could get up and was still a tanish chocolate color after he threw his tantrum! Life goes on...I just thought it was very amusing, actually I laughed out loud when I looked at my earlier blog of my sweet Brodie looking like a perfect angel... :)

JUST BECAUSE HE HAS MY HEART!

"IMPORTANT PARENTING QUESTIONS...???"

Yes, as Jamie and I were discussing Brodie's future the other night the common questions arose: "How are we doing to train him?", "Will he ever have a girlfriend?", "What if he tries to sneak out during the day?", "I wonder how we are all going to snuggle on the couch when he gets older and bigger?", then the question came: If Brodie is going to be the #1 hunting pointer dog, well then by all means he has to have a #1 Camouflage Doggie Bed! So, the journey began to try and find the perfect, cute, camo doggie bed. Our search quickly ended when the only camo beds we were finding were $100.00 and up... for a dog bed I asked myself!?

My ingenuous husband, being as smart as he is, decided that I could make one; and that is what I did! Just call me a one woman show... real estate agent during the day, and camo doggie bed maker at night. We went and bought a normal dog bed, and I took it home and started tearing it apart, or better known in the sewing world as, ripping! Once I had everything taken apart, I cut out my camo pattern, and had it all ready to go sew.

For my mom and brothers birthday we all went over to my parents house for a cookout and to watch the Alabama game... Roll Tide Roll! I decided that it was the perfect time to start sewing my camo doggie bed. (I did not have a sewing machine, and my mom did...hey, I still need help being a one woman show!)


I was sorely mistaken thinking that I could just "sew it together!" I mean how hard could it be? 4.5 hours later I finished Brodie's masterpiece of a camo doggie bed! If Brodie could talk I know he would say that he loved it. I didn't just get a top and bottom and sew them together, it had sides and tan piping around the top. What did I get myself into I thought to myself, but I was so proud when I was done. My grandmother, my mom and Mrs. Darlene all pitched in to help. The following pictures I will cherish, because this is the night it all began and that I knew I became...A Camo Doggie Bed Professional Sewer!

Brodie's Final Masterpiece

He is still trying to figure out what I am doing...I get this look often!

Seriously, I am over the picture taking!

Brodie's new dog house, bed, and cute doggie bowls

SPOILED....NAH!!!

PUPPY POWER!!

Ok... so this morning I definitely had to bow my head in prayer. Jamie and I are recent puppy parents. 3 weeks to be exact. Brodie, our German Shorthair puppy, is so incredibly cute and such a joy to come home to in the afternoons. We go for walks around the neighborhood, fall asleep together watching tv, and he also keeps me company when I get ready in the morning for work.

I want an inside dog, but have a huge fear of having an inside dog because I am a real estate agent and have those listings that when you go in you take one whiff and let out that huge sigh...seriously, do the sellers just not smell the awful pet odor! Oh My Gosh, what if I now become one of those people!! I am stressing out. I really try hard to to keep a clean and neat house for me and Jamie. That may be a quickly fading concept. Brodie has his particular "spots" that he likes to lay in and if you come in our house you will see blankets everywhere. I put them down so I can just pick them up and wash them like everyday and vacuum everyday! Paranoid, maybe...

Brodie, being only 10 weeks old, has not quite learned that we do not TT inside, only outside. I think the Lord brought this puppy into our lives to teach me patience. I have now learned that that is an area in my life that may be lacking. I am pretty paranoid already about the smell, so you will find me on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and cleaner scrubbing every spot that I find he tted in--Having to breathe in and breathe out while I am doing it. I know it is not a big deal and I am working on it and when you see his cute little face you just want to love on him and I know he doesn't do it on purpose. Relaxing is a virtue I am working on... "it is not a big deal" I tell myself.

Well.. this morning at 2:30 am he wakes up whimpering and needing to go out, so I get up and take him out thinking this will be great, surely he will sleep until at least 8. At 6:30 am he wakes up again needing to go out only we find it was raining. He goes and tts outside, but immediately wants to come back in. After he puts two paws inside, he starts tting on the floor! I pick him up and put him back outside and he precedes to tt outside again, I let him back in b/c he was barking up a storm and I didn't want to wake up the neighbors, and about 5 paws inside he tts again on the carpet. "Breathe in, Breathe out!" I tell myself. Again, I take him outside and scared half to death of the rain and barking so loud he is starting to wake everyone up in the neighborhood not just my neighbors, I let him in again after scrubbing the carpet with a toothbrush. Immediately he goes to the hardwood floor and makes a HUGE puddle! For the Love! He thought it was great and very fun and jumps in the middle of the puddle, onto me and then tracks it all over the floor and carpet! My blood pressure is up just thinking about it. Now I just have to laugh, because poor thing he just didn't know what to do in the rain. The bad thing about a garden home community is the houses are so close together it is not like you can just leave him outside and bark as loud as possible. I just can't do that to my sweet neighbors.

Needless to say I cried, so wanting to be a good puppy parent and at my whits end with knowing what to do. I love Brodie and love him being apart of our family. My sweet husband just laughs a little and hugs me telling me that I am a great puppy parent. What would I do without my handsome husband. It has been an adventure for sure at my house these past couple of weeks. Children may be on hold for a while...I have to get the puppy parenting down first! :)

FAMILY PICTURES

Brodie is about 10 weeks old now, and not until Mrs. Gina pointed it out the other day did I realize that Brodie has a perfect heart on his side! It just makes him more interesting and cuter by the day. He is now sleeping through the night until about 6:30 a.m., which is better than the every couple of hours he was waking up during the night. That did get old and fast. With him in this puppy stage I feel like I have a child at home because he is so reliant on us for everything. Jamie and I have certainly enjoyed having him as part of the family now. These are a couple of pictures that we took this past weekend

Isn't Brodie just so photogenic!

Newest Addition to our Family!

We are welcoming Brodie and Sam to our Family

They were born August 1, 2008 and about 7 weeks old now!

They are German Shorthair Pointers, with Liver and Roan coloring. Long story made short, Jamie and I were talking one night and we decided that we wanted to get a puppy. After some discussion Jamie has been eyeing this particualr breed of dog for a while. So, jokingly I said to him on Monday night that I wanted to have a puppy by the weekend. Well... Tuesday Jamie calls and says he found some puppies and they were the color that we wanted! So, needless to say our family expanded by Tuesday night.

The story continues...on the way to pick up the puppy, Jamie told me that our best friend Zac always wanted a German Shorthair puppy also..that was news to me, but I thought he would really love ours and maybe get one at some point...well...Zac called while we were meeting with the Breeder and was ecstatic that we were getting that particular breed of puppy so he told us to pick one up for him also!!

Now we have brothers!! How exciting!

Sam, Zac's puppy, is on the left, and Brodie, our puppy is on the right.

Brodie Higdon, 5.5 pounds, hazel/blue eyes, about 13 inches long!

The two boys were like little kids on Christmas Day getting their first Red Rider BB Gun! Excitement filled the air.

Zac and Sam

I came home after work and found the boys crashed on the couch!! I laughed and laughed and ran for my camera. Brodie was worn slap out from playing allll day long. Great memories...

Beach Trip

Wonderful Rest and Relaxation!! Jamie and I had this trip planned for about a month when a hurricane thought it would make its way through, but lucky for us it missed us completely! It was sunny and beautiful the whole time. The waves were absolutely huge when we got there, and the police were out making sure no one even stuck their toe in the water! So...we enjoyed the chairs and umbrellas at the pool.

We stayed at Emerald Beach Resort and it was wonderful!! The living room looks out over the water and most of the time we just sat outside on the balcony and watched the waves crashing in onto the beach. It was beautiful. We really just stayed around the condo during the day and went out to dinner at night. This was the pool on the beach that we swam in, but they had two new pools that just opened with an abundance of childrens water features in them. Great for people watching...interesting to see children play.

(the two new pools)

Jamie and I definitely just relaxed and enjoyed seafood, went walking and ate at the new Pier Park, and went looking at the boats coming in at the docks. I feel relaxed and rejuvinated! Time was to short...

Recruitment 08'

PHI MU RUSH 2008!!
This year I have the privilege of being the new PHI MU Chapter Adviser at the University of Montevallo, and what an honor it is. To me this is a ministry and an opportunity to build relationships with young women. I have been praying for a way to minister to young women, and I truly believe the Lord has opened this door for me for a reason. It was an exhausting, yet rewarding 5 days! I had no idea what went on to make sure RUSH and Phi Mu as a chapter runs smoothly through this process. I took good notes, so hopefully next year I will have it down pat. The adviser who did hold this position has been doing it for the past 25 years! I just remember going through my years with Phi Mu and having such a respect for Theresa, so I am honored that I have this opportunity to walk along side her. (She is still helping me, thank goodness!)
This is the current chapter president and I on open house night; she did a fantastic job!

Each night there were different parties the new girls would attend and this night during recruitment we do a Grease skit and it is so incredibly cute! This is a picture of the Pink Ladies and the T Birds...

After a long, long week and several 2-4 a.m. nights, Bid Day finally arrived! I was very proud of all the girls for the hard work they put into this week.

New PHI MU 2008 Chapter!!

GRILL MASTER

Master Chef at work again...

For Labor Day my family had a cookout at my parents house. The menu was vast, weather was just perfect, and the company was great.

Menu included: Hamburgers, wings, hotdogs, porkchops, sausage, potatoes, casseroles, and chocolate pies! WOW! These are incredible wings...seasoned to perfection! My dad taught me the secret!

Mia took a liking to dad when he brought out the food to feed the Koi fish... That kept her entertained for a while.

David took all of us for a ride around the property on the 4 wheeler. My grandmother actually really enjoyed the ride!