THE DUGGAR'S

Coco and I had the pleasure of going to a Princess Brunch at our church Immanuel Baptist on Saturday. Our special speaker was Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

Ms Peggy and the ladies at church have a heart for God's Princesses and they know how to do it up right.

The tables were all decorated so pretty.

They served juices french toast, breakfast casserole, biscuits and the most wonderful apple butter ever.

At each place setting there was a photo of the Duggars and a book mark.

Sorry the photos are blurry, I had to take them without flash and couldn't get it steady enough. Michelle had planned to bring the girls to sing and play for us but they had a rough time getting to Saturday. Jim Bob and Michelle were on their way home on Friday from D.C. and all their flights were delayed. They were in Atlanta at 11pm on Friday night and Josie had to be taken to the ER for respirtory problems. They were at the hospital until 3am and our event was at 10am on Saturday. Grateful that they were able to make it. They decided on the plane that Jim Bob would come with her and they would share their testimony. I remember Michelle going to school with my sister and she was always the sweetest girl back then. She hasn't changed a bit. They were very transparent in their sharing about how they came to know the Lord. I left encouraged and uplifted. She was very sweet to Coco when Coco asked her to sign her card. Michelle just hugged her and asked about her.

We won their new book that is coming out soon.

I love how they sign their name with their favorite verse.

RANDOMNESS

I have been super busy this month and it is not slowing down. BUT it has been full of fun stuff!

Tonight my Girl Scout troop went to a local food bank to help pack snack packs. These are bags of 8 individual snacks that are given to children at risk of not having enough food to eat at home. They are given out on Fridays at the schools in our area. There are over 30,000 kids that need these each week so that they will have something to eat over the weekends.

These are 7 of our girls that were able to come tonight. They had a wonderful time and worked so hard. They didn't play around or anything. So proud of them.

Coco and Amber packing away

Last week I had my first date with this guy. I was so worried about going that I had put it off. So glad I finally went and got it over with. It was not bad at ALL! Unfortunately, he called me back for a second date! I have to go back on Thursday for more pictures and possibly an ultrasound. So please say a prayer for me on Thursday at 2pm!

If you haven't had your mammogram GO NOW! It doesn't hurt at all and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Last week our troop also did a community service project with Project Linus. This is a group that makes blankets for children that are in the hospital, shelters etc. We tied 6 blankets in one hour. I have a huge bag of them waiting on another meeting! The girls loved this too.

Last Friday night I went to a Princess Banquet at my church. This was my first experience with this. One person hosted each table, brought her own decor, dishes etc. She set and decorated the table and invited women to join her for dinner. We also were treated to a special speaker, Holley Gerth from the INCOURAGE BLOG. She was wonderful and had a great message on God Sized Dreams. The tables were all so beautiful but I didn't get around to take photos of them all. Can't wait until next year to host my own table, maybe I will finally use my wedding china!

Some of the husbands did the serving of the meal. We had carmel apple porkchops, mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese, green bean bundles and apple pie for dessert. Plain mashed potatoes will never work again! Really the best meal I have eaten in a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time!

We are still in the throes of fall softball, for one more week at least!

So that is what I have been up to. Still have several events this month for girl scouts and my sweet man is having a milestone birthday next week.

Hoping November slows down a bit.

Blessings

Pam

WEEKEND REVIEW

Friday night after work we went out to eat at Dixie Cafe. Coco and I love it, Scott would rather eat McDonalds than Dixie but he gave in to our desires. Good man

When Coco and I were talking about our friend Darleen passing away. She had the idea that she wanted to take the money she had left over from her birthday and go make Stephanie (her bff and Darleens daughter) a build a bear for something to sleep with and a reminder of her momma. This was totally her idea and I am so proud of her for thinking of it. After eating we went to Build a Bear to make a bear. We ended up making 2 so that they would have matching ones. Except we put a heartbeat and I Love You sounds in Stephanies bear. We will be mailing it to her this week.

I had a small list of items we needed from the grocery store so we went by Walmart before going home. They had the school supplies lists out.

Coco's list was not long this year. It was kind of sad, she didn't need GLUE this year. That is another reminder that she is growing up. I love buying school supplies and it look forward to it each year with Coco. She was even excited this year. We got her backpack at Target today.

Saturday we spent lounging at home, cleaning and resting. Coco went to her friend Maggie's birthday party at the Arkansas Naturals baseball game. She didn't get home until after 11pm and waiting up for her made us think about what it will be like when she starts going out on Saturday nights. Scott and I drove into Wendys to get a burger , we got it to go and just ate in the car. We had both been working and didn't feel like getting all dressed up to go out. Even though it was just an hour we enjoyed that time talking just the 2 of us.

Today we visited a new church. Some friends invited us to hear a special speaker on Creation. We invited my sister and her family to come with us because we knew my nephew would enjoy the dinosaur part of the presentation. We ended up seeing several friends there. We ate lunch at Backyard Burger.

I came home and took a 3 hour nap while Scott and Coco went to Nana's to ride the 4wheeler. They ended up taking a nap over there too.

I have to tell you how God works so amazingly. Friday I had a conversation with a coworker that doesn't believe in God. I felt very frustrated when I got home because I felt ill equiped to discuss the science that she believes. I was so caught off guard and this is not something I have encountered before. Anyway the speaker at church today was a man from Creation International out of Atlanta. We bought a couple of books, Answers to the most common questions on Creation vs Evolution and Refuting Evolution. God knew I needed this after the conversation on Friday.

Pam

Heart of Gratitude

Wow what a day we have had. We started out with a wonderful church service. It was youth Sunday so our youth minister preached and he is so good at it. Really gets you involved.

This is one of the songs they sang for us. Heart of worship. I love this song and I tried my best to focus on coming back to the heart of worship and focusing on Jesus.

After service our Sunday school class went out into the community to help out those in need. Coco and I went with a small group to clean out flower beds at the post office. This was not really a need but our community needed it.

Rhonda from Down Memory Lane gave me this gratitude award. Thank you Rhonda.

When life gives you lemons....make lemonade!

So there are a few rules to this award:

1.Put the logo on your blog or post

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs that show an attitude of gratitude

3. Link to your nominees within your post

4.Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received this award

5.Share the love and link to this post and the person who nominated you for the award.Tell us how you've come to have an attitude of gratitude.

There are so many blogs that lift me up that I can't choose. I pick all of you and thank Rhonda again. A few things I am grateful for today are:

1. Jesus and all he did and continues to do for us.

2. Scott and Coco

3. Family

4. My old job ( I start tomorrow) say a prayer for me.

5. And so so so many more blessings.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Blessings,
Pam

HAPPY SUNDAY

This is what I am up to today. I have several projects I am painting today. Something for the wedding, Easter decor and something for my desk at work. I have to pretty up my cubicle!!!!

I went to Mom's yesterday and she is gathering things for our garage sale next month and I found a perfect little lamp for Coco's shade I made this week.

I found that big shoe at a thrift store for $1.00..... STEAL

This is a horrible photo but I blew up a photo of Coco to a 20x30 poster size for her room. I found the frame at the Walmart sample store for $5.00 and thought it would be perfect for this project. I need to mat it later when Hobby is having a 1/2 off sale.

We had a great day at church. Our Sunday school class talked about ways to impact the community and we had some great ideas. As a class we are going out in a couple of weeks to do some spring cleaning for people in need. We also discussed some long term things we could do. I am so excited about some of them. First we are going to do a community garden and the produce will be given away during our Angel Food weeks. That will be a blessing to so many.

I have a meeting with some other ladies this week to begin making plans for classes that we can offer to the community. Some of the ideas sound so fun. Just a few are classes on being frugal, budgeting, cooking, canning, meal planning, etc. I can't wait to get started on these. It will be so interesting you won't even feel like you are working. This type of stuff really gets me going. Helping people while learning yourself.

If any of you have ideas or things that you have done at your church, I would love to hear about them.

I think my paint is dry so I better get to it. I will post pictures of my finished projects, in between laundry. It is Sunday, I should be resting but this kind of stuff is relaxing and enjoyable for me.

Blessings,
Pam

Perfect Sunday

Instead of Sunday school we took church out in to the community today. We had several different groups. Some picked up trash on the streets, pumped gas at the station, washed cars, visited the old folks home, and our group raked leaves. Coco was such a trooper, she did great. My elbows are so sore. I think I have tennis elbow and I am feeling it along with the allergies with all the leaves and dust! It felt great to be out helping people.

Now as promised. Some photos of my mother-in-laws home.

This is in her living room, a collection of her butter churns and crocks

This is going down the hall, more crocks and photos. The first picture is of scotts great grandparents.
This is the master bedroom, isn't in beautiful. I love this sleigh that sits atop her entertainment center in the living room. She has some beautiful pieces and collections. We joke about me and her daughter selling it all in a garage sale someday. I told her she should put notes in everything so that we don't sell it for $2 or something. I hope she knows I am joking.

We had a great weekend. Hope you did too!

Blessings,

Pam

Where have I been???

This is where we have been most of this week. This is from this morning. That is my girl pitching. THEY WON! Yea! They beat a team that was undefeated until today. That was a lot of fun. It really helped their moral!

Yesterday was the last day of school and we took Coco for ice cream. We now have a third grader! She is growing up way to fast!

More ball games and practices. We have been at the ball field 4 days out of 6 this week and we will be there probably 3-4 days next week.

Since we were in Florida on Mothers Day we took my mom (Mimi) to Mimi's Cafe for lunch today. She had never been there before. She loved it, she ordered the Chicken Pot Pie which was almost to pretty to eat. I had my usual Grilled Liver yum yum and it is only 4 points for all of it. We won't talk about the mashed potatoes and gravy.

After lunch we went to TJ Maxx and boy did I find some bargains. I found a King size mattress pad for $20.00, a shower curtain for $5.00 and a long rug for the bath for $15.00

I came home and clean the bathroom from top to bottom and put up all the new stuff. It looks like a new room. I will post a photo of it tomorrow.

I also found some brown patten leather espadrilles. They are adorable!

We have had a great day, Scott got started on cleaning our little pool so hopefully we can be playing in it by next weekend. He got more of my plants in the ground too.

It is a good day when you can look around and see what you have accomplished.

I am looking forward to church tomorrow. I haven't been in 4 weeks. Thursday I went to our local daycare to sign Colby up for summer and I saw 1 of my little Sunday schoolers. She didn't recognize me at first because I had gotten a shorter hair cut and I am wearing my contacts more. When I told her I was Ms. Pam she ran into my arms and had the biggest smile on her face. It made my day. She is a twin so I had to go out to see the other and she calls me Ms. Ham. They were so excited to see me and kept giving me lots of hugs and lots of questions. Can't to see them all tomorrow.

Have a great Sunday!