O, Mom!

I set up my blog so my mom (a non-blogger) can get emails when I write a post. She just replied to my post about karaoke with the following message.

"Hi. Do you know Pocket Full of Sunshine or something like that? It is a cute song that I am sure you can beat Cory on!! LOL -MOM"

Then she sent another email to me right after that with the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVzpGQYhBLI

Only my mom would find the chipmunks version.

O, mom -- thanks for the laugh!!
You are definitely one hip-to-the-hippity-hop mom!

Back to Work!

Well, today I returned back to work after a great Spring Break! I didn't go anywhere or do anything extraordinary but it was a good week of rest and relaxation!

The weekend before spring break started off great with having coffee and great conversation with an old grad school friend -Han. I love ya! The rest of the week I stayed at home and slept in, caught up on HGTV, continued reading the second book of the Mark of the Lion series (highly recommend!), ate lunch with some friends, made lunch for Cory on days I was home, cleaned, reorganized my pantry, played Sing Star with Cory, caught up with long phone calls to close friends, and found some new recipes.

Getting out of bed this morning and going back to work today was difficult. I was hoping for just one more day of laying on the couch!! :) The good news is that I only have 9 more weeks and then I will be off for the whole summer! I have a lot of kids to test, reports to write and conferences to attend between now and then so I think it will be fast and furious.

I do have one picture to share! One night after American Idol, Cory and I got an itch to get our video game Sing Star out and do some karaoke. Like I have posted recently -- I cannot sing but boy do I love to try! Cory usually beats me at Sing Start b/c he actually knows that A, B and C are something other than the first three letter of the alphabet! I beat him on my favorite song on the game -- "Put Your Records On" by Corinne Baily Rae. I took a picture of him and the screen for proof that I actually beat him!

Girl Power.
CEC.

Two.words.

Spring.Break.

Auntie Cari's Kiddos!

This past weekend I got to see my brother, SIL, nieces and nephew. I don't get to see them very often b/c we live very far apart. In fact, the last time I saw them was Labor Day weekend 2008. They spent their spring break at my parent's house. I had such a fabulous time with them! They are so sweet and such a blast! They definitely got spoiled rotten at PaPa and GiGi's house for the week. For the time I was there the kids dyed some Easter eggs and had a good time playing strapped into their booster chairs. Here are some snapshots of my pride and joy!

Tilly Brooke

Summer Journey

Carter Stokes

There is a special place in my heart for these sweet faces. I think and pray for them daily.

CEC.

Opening Pandora's Box

I have long spouts of time where I sit at my desk typing up reports on the kids that I have tested. It is painful for me to sit there without any music. Painful. About this time last year someone introduced me to http://www.pandora.com/ I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pandora. It is an online radio station. It is free, all you have to do is have a log-in. For starters you type in any musician or even a specific song that you like. From that song it starts your own radio station and starts to play songs that are similar or that you might like. Each time it plays a song you can "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" the song. It takes your feedback from each song and continues to play songs that you may like. You can create several different "stations" depending on what you are in the mood for. I have a Contemp. Christian, Easy Listening Office, WAKE UP (from when I am trying to stay awake at my desk) and a couple of others.

I have always LOVED music. In fact, when I was little I use to make up my own songs and sing them out loud in the car. My brother would be SO annoyed at me. He would always tell my mom to make me stop!! Although I love music, I have no musical talent or any sense of "pitch" or the right key. I think most people on American Idol sound fantastic -- even in the beginning rounds. Cory has an ear for music so he is always trying to explain it to me. I just don't get it.

Anways, when people ask me what type of music I like I don't really have a good explanation. I love country, praise and worship, rap, rock-n-roll, r&b, blues, gospel, etc. This is where Pandora has been such a great thing. For each song that it plays you can click on the button that says "Why are you playing this song" It will give this VERY detailed description. Example - "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features basic rock song structures, major key tonality, a vocal-central aesthetic, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, and electric rhythm guitars." How can you argue with that?

I feel like I have opened up my Pandora's box of music. I have found tons of new artists that I love and have found lots of new songs that I like. It hardly ever plays the same song twice and it starts off right where you leave it when you log out.

I highly recommend that you check it out.

Amazing Weekend with Amazing Friends, well practically Family!

Let me start by saying that we had the most fabulous, the most enjoyable and the most fun of weekend. Now that you understand, let me tell you about it.

Friday night we drove to stay the night with my parents. On Saturday we met up with 6 other friends to drive on to El Dorado. We had been planning a surprise visit to see Scott Attebery and his 7 month old son Bryce. This is the husband and son of my dear friend Jill Attebery that died in a car wreck on November 2, 2008. Go here to read that story. All of us use to travel with Scott and Jill for youth conferences. I traveled with them on about 4-5 trips per year from 2000 till 2004. This group is nothing but a ball of laughs.

So, we were going to surprise Scott but we hadn't really worked out the details as to HOW we would do that. One of the guys went ahead of us and did not say anything about the rest of us coming. When we got into town they had left eating at El Chico and had run next door to Walmart. Dustin (the guy with Scott) had sat in the car while Scott ran in to get some baby food and stuff for Bryce. So, we go over to the Walmart parking lot and find Scott's car. We all decide to pile into Scott's Sequoia (8 of us). We thought we would just surprise him when he got back in the car. So, soon we saw Scott coming and all tried to duck down. When he got in the car he saw Dustin in the passenger's seat and turned around to put his groceries in the back seat. When he did we all kinda yelled "Surprised!" and he took a quadruple take. He looked like he had seen a ghost. He was like "What are ya'll doing here?" and Lindsey yells, "We are staying the weekend" and Scott replied in a mimicking voice "With you?" We were dying laughing. We all piled out of the car and explained a little more about our trip to see him. He was SO shocked. We all get back in our cars and follow him back to his house. When I got back in the car with Cory I told him that Scott looked mad and this was a BAD idea and we should all just go back home. (Or Abort, Abort as Nick would say!!) Cory agreed that his reaction was not one of excitement. At this point we were thinking that this was WAY too much for him to take in.

When we got to his house, he seemed a little more at ease. On the drive he had called Adam (his youth minister and our friend who had been our contact to help us pull this over on Scott) to ask him about who all we were going to stay with. He felt better that there was a plan. I think he was like "What am I going to do with all these people?!?" We hung out at the house and go to see Bryce!!! O, he looks just like his sweet mother. I see Jill so much in those big eyes and his content disposition. Here are some pictures of him. I stole these from Lindsey who took them and is a professional photographer. That is why the quality is so good. You can see Lindsey's photography blog here.

This is when we gave Scott the scrapbook full of the 77 letters to Bryce from people all throughout her life. What a memory!

Even Bryce enjoyed the book...Although at this point in his life I think he would rather chew on it than read it, but I know one day he will cherish it!
After we hung out at his house for a while he took us up to see his church. They recently built a new building and it is awesome! The church has a book store and a donor gave money to have a section of the store dedicated to Jill. It will be a girls/women section full of books that she was always giving away to other girls. In fact, Scott said that when he got ready to do his taxes he pulled out the folder that they kept receipts and tax info in and he found a HUGE stack of receipts of all the book she had given out over the last year. After the tour of church, we drove to Ruston to have dinner at Chili's and coffee/hot chocolate at Starbucks. The whole weekend just consisted of bringing up old stories and crazy memories. A lot of stories were about Jill and something crazy or silly she had done. It was fun to recall all those memories.

Me and Beka at Chili's

Scott drinking his hot chocolate through a straw...b/c as he says "its not as hot when you drink it through a straw!"

Diva Cari and Diva Lindsey (as we named ourselves back when we all traveled together.)

Micheal and Ashley. Poor Ashley, I'm not sure how she puts up with Micheal. :)

Diva Lindsey and Diva Beka

Cory (he is such a good husband) married into our little DCM "family". He was at all the events and traveled with us but it was b/c he was recruiting for the college.

We all stayed with different families in the church on Saturday evening and Sunday morning we headed to Sunday School and church. I had done pretty good with my emotions on Saturday but Sunday morning when we walked into church a wave of emotion about knocked me over. We went on to Sunday School and it was really good. It was just so fun to be apart of Scott's church. After that we went on to church. Scott preached and did a great job. I laughed to myself b/c it is amusing to see Scott as a pastor! I think he has been back preaching for about a month now. At the end of the service he stood up and said, "Well church I just want you to know that I have the most friends here today!" Everyone laughed and he explained who we were and how we had surprised him. He then looked at us and said in front of the whole church, "I just want you guys to know that this has been the best weekend since the funeral!" He got teary-eyed and I lost it. That was enough to just make your heart melt.

After the service, we took the opportunity to get some pictures with Bryce and a group shot.

I love this sweet face.
The whole family!

Top row: Micheal, Cory, Scott, Nick and Dustin

Bottom Row: Bryce, Me, Beka, Ashley and Lindsey

O, how we had SO much fun. I do regret that I never made it down to visit when Jill was still alive to see her in action as a pastor's wife. It was an honor to be a part of such a fun weekend for Scott. Several members of the church came over to thank us for visiting Scott. After lunch on Sunday, we all had to leave. Scott shared that he really missed Jill and enjoyed talking about her. I think it was pretty therapeutic. He asked when we were coming back!! We have decided to make it at least an annual event and hopefully more often. Scott LOVES and I do mean LOVES the razorbacks! He said he plans to come visit soon for a Razorback game. I hope he brings Bryce!!!

Well, if that wasn't enough to cram into a weekend we had ONE more stop. Our friends -- Clif and Kristi -- were also apart of the DCM group mentioned above and traveled with us. However, they were unable to come this weekend b/c they just had TWINS about a week ago! They lived about an hour or so away so we had to stop in and see those babies!! Cory and Clif (the babies' daddy!) have been friends since childhood. We cannot say enough good things about this couple. They have been a huge influence on us and our marriage. On Friday night February 20th, they were born! She carried them to about 38 weeks! Their names are Samuel Strong and Sophia Jill. And yes, Sophia is named after Jill Attebery. I am so glad they chose to name her that. Scott was so honored. I did take the opportunity to take some pictures of the twins. Sorry for the downgrade in the quality of photos. Where is Lindsey and her stellar camera when you need it!

Samuel Strong

Sophia Jill

Samuel

Sophia

Jack the I'm-not-sure-what-I-think-but-maybe-if-I-close-my-eyes-then-the-two-new-babies-might-dissapear-big-brother!

And of course, we had to get a photo opt with both of us and both babies!

Congrats, Clif and Kristi. We are so happy for you guys!

I am still basking in the happiness of this wonderful weekend. Hanging out with Scott and Bryce and the rest of the crew was so familiar and relaxing. Of course we all miss Jill but instead of focusing on that we talked about how much fun she was and what an inspiration she is to all of us. It is awesome to see the book store that will house a section in memory of her, to hear about the scholarships that are going to be created to send other teenagers on mission trips and to look into those eyes of Bryce and see the living legacy of his mother. I cherished this weekend. It was therapeautic for me as well. I have written so much on my blog about Jill, but I still feel like I never convey how amazing she truly was. I have seen lives changed because of her death and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Continue to lift up Scott and Bryce in your prayers. It is evident that Scott's hope rest on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.

CEC.