Flashback Friday

So this week, since I have been busy with my garden and I ran into this picture; I thought I would flashback to our first garden experience. As you can tell, it was pretty pathetic! Three lonely and very small sweet potatoes was all we got our first tryout. Now, extension will always tell you "Get a soil sample, it will help you." Yes -- please do, or you'll end up like these sweet things.

This year is going pretty strong. We have enjoyed our over-wintered greens, our garlic looks good (at least from above ground), our herbs have popped back up, and we just planted some tomatoes, eggplant, and squash. Lets hope that those blossom, because I heard that tomatoes went up 28% since last year. Yikes!

You may be asking yourself, "Well, do the kids like to garden?" Well, Meredith does enjoy being outside, and she also likes to water the plants and gets her shovel out and "helps." She has learned the words lettuce and spinach and points to those rows of plants. We think she's pretty special :) I'm sure Russ will be playing in the garden soon enough

Instrumental Music Concert

I just wanted to let you guys know that our church is doing an instrumental music concert on Sunday night. The orchestra and handbells will be performing several classic hymns. Yours truly will be playing her flute, so I would love to see some friendly faces in the audience. Here is a link to the church's website about the event: http://www.parkhillbaptist.org/about-us/instrumental-music-ministry-concert.html.

Psalms of Ascent - Week 3

I had another good week of bible study, and I was left this week thinking how I could spend so much more time on each day of the homework. It was really a good week of reflection and focusing on what direction I am headed.

This week during the homework, we finshed up Psalm 122, and also went through Psalm 123 and 124. Today during study, we discussed the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.

It was so neat to me that we were discussing the Feast of Unleavened Bread this week, because the first day of Passover was this past Sunday (20th), so if I understand it right we are right in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I pray that this week, I too will use this time as a way to cleanse out any "bad yeast" in my life, and get on with the buisness of doing God's will.

Stephanie, if you are reading this, I thought of you today when talking about passover and remembered that we still should get together and prepare a passover meal. We gotta get you back to Arkansas!

Choo Choo and Bounce Bounce

Hope that you all had wonderful weekends! We spent a good deal of this weekend outdoors, and then some time watching the NBA playoffs. Side note, isn't the DVR the best invention? We taped all the games we wanted to watch, fast forwarded through the commercials and free throws, and watched whole games in no time at all. Its a good thing to be a 21st century family!

Counting today, we have been to the zoo 3 times in the past week. The zoo membership is a good thing for our family, and its fun to see Meredith learning lots of animals. Her newest thing is to say "more animals" and thats our cue to go to the next exhibit. On Saturday, there was a little boy on the train that kept saying "choo, choo" the whole time. Well, it must have stuck with Mer, because today at the zoo she kept saying "choo, choo" on the train and even out at the store this afternoon. She has the cute arm pulling motion, too.

This weekend was also our church's annual block party. Russ caught a good nap, while Ms. Meredith found a new fun toy -- the bounce house. Oh my -- did she jump and bounce with the best of them. It was good to see her having a good time and not being frightened by the other kids in the house. She also went up the "rock wall" with daddy, and down the big slide. It was a big day for our toddler.

I also forgot to blog about Russ's 4 month stats. He is now 14 lb, and 25 1/2 inches long. I was telling someone last night that he only has 8 more pounds to go before he catches up with Meredith (weight wise). She better enjoy being the "big" sister now!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Flashback Friday

My high school class is getting ready for its reunion this summer, so I've been going through a lot of my old pictures, and found this goodie from my 6th grade graduation. Can you find any future bloggers in this picture? Take a look.

Psalms of Ascent - Week 2

It's been a very rewarding and rejuvenating week of bible study for me his past week. By God's grace I was able to finish all my homework for the week, and felt prepared to contribute to the group.

We worked through Psalms 120 and 121 this week, and started on 122. The first being a cry out to God, the second recognizing that God is our protector, and the last a song about the people of Jerusalem. I have been challenged to truly mean what I pray and pray what I mean. I've realized that this can be a difficult thing to do when you really want something else to happen.

I'm reminded of when I was growing up and thinking "What if God comes back before I can get married" or "What if he comes back before I have kids." Sometimes my thoughts turn to the future and wanting to be able to watch my kids get married, have kids of their own, or grow old with my husband. God willing I hope that all of those things happen, but when I was asked to pray for the peace of Jerusalem in the last day of homework this week I was really conflicted. Praying for that kind of peace means praying for the 2nd coming of the Messiah and that means that my dreams must take a backseat. That's a hard pill to swallow!

Of course the major flaw in this thinking is selfishness. I must remember that God has much greater things in store for us as his children. So my prayer is that anytime I think that my way is better, no matter how much I want it, that I remember that His plan is Best!

Weekend on the Hill

The Lipsey's, sans Matt, enjoyed a weekend in Northwest Arkansas to help celebrate Amanda and Kevin's upcoming wedding. Dee Dee and Big Daddy helped us out by staying with us the whole weekend, and we got a chance to see Liz as well as so many of my sorority sisters (and their families!)

It's amazing to think that 10 years have gone by since I first got to the hill as a young freshman, but even stranger to think that its been almost 6 years since I left the university. We were able to go see my name on senior walk for my parents, see all the changes that have been made to campus and the area, and even headed up to Rogers to see the new mall. It was a whirlwind trip!

Some of the weekend funnies included:
1. Meredith announcing each and everytime someone went to the bathroom at the hotel, and quickly followed by the words "And that's OK."
2. Watching Meredith just stare at Brinley when we went out to eat. Its very rare for Meredith not to be the center of attention and her actually being captivated by another little girl.
3. Watching Russ being so happy around my sweet sorority sisters (well, except for Wendi -- sorry girl!) We are pretty sure he's gonna be a flirt!
4. Meredith falling head over heels for the elevator at the hotel. She would talk about it ALL the time, and then would be so excited to push the button and run off and on the elevator. It was too cute.

Here are some pictures of our adventure

The Beautiful Bride to Be

Let's play Peek a Boo

No, I'm looking at you

Kristina, Brinley, Meredith, and Rachel

Flashback Friday

I thought it would be a fun little idea to share some old pictures from way back. I've pulled a few that I like already, so beware...you could be next.


First up, my dad and me. I was going through some old pictures, and just had to share this one. Meredith LOVES balloons. We almost had a major meltdown last week at Chick-fil-a because they were handing out balloons to all the kids and we couldn't find the girl who was handing them out. Thanks to a sweet stranger who took pity on us and gave us one of her grandkids' balloons, the meltdown was avoided, but you get the idea about her obsession.


Anyways, apparently I also was pretty enamored by the big "balloon balls," and here's a picture to prove it.

Those were the days when all you wanted to do was sit next to your daddy and hold a balloon.

Hope ya'll have a good weekend. I'm off the NW Arkansas for a wedding shower.

Psalms of Ascent - Week 1

Tuesday morning is bible study time for this blogger, and I thought that I would try to blog each Tuesday about what God is teaching me as a way to stay accountable to the study and let you readers know more about what is going on in my life.

The Psalms of Ascent are a group of 15 psalms from Psalm 120-134. They all begin with the words "A song of ascent" in my bible. Today I learned that the Hebrew meaning of the word ascent is "to go up," and about the 3 main associations with these psalms (pilgrimage, temple steps, and returning from captivity). It's another Bible Study written by Beth Moore.

There were so many gems from this first day, but I think that the thing that struck me the most today was almost an aside -- I am not big enough to mess God up. It is truly a blessing to know that when I falter or even when I just don't know what I am doing, God's plan is and will be fulfilled. It's not about me, but all about God. I am so thankful to be doing this study, and pray that you will also be moving step-by-step closer to God.

Finally the rain has let up

It sure has been a wet week around here, and we are ready for more sunshine this next week. It is not a lot of fun when you have to stay inside the house and not get to go down to the slide and play of the swings.

Meredith and Russ did try to make the best of it, with Meredith thinking that going down the slide with Russ would be really fun. I think that Russ may have enjoyed it as well.

Milestone alert -- Russ is rolling over from his back to his belly. These pictures are from a couple different attempts, but as you can see he got the hang of it. He's growing so fast!

Speaking of growing fast, here is a 1st rice cereal picture. The boy has been HUNGRY this past week, so we were trying to get him started eating from a spoon. He still has a little tounge-thrust issue, but he can eat it if he really wants too.