A hard week...

Early Monday morning, our sweet Mama Dot went home to be with the Lord. These past few days have been very hard for our family, and I know there are some really sad days ahead. We rejoice knowing she is in the presence of Jesus, but oh how she will be missed here. Please remember my family, particularly my mom and her siblings, in your prayers. She was so precious to us.

Mama Dot swinging with the girls. She loved that swing!

Visiting Leo the lion. Mama Dot is the reason my Lily loves lions.

She has been taking her grandchildren and now

great grandchildren to visit UNA's mascot for years.

Mama Dot with her cat, Josie. This picture makes me laugh every

time I look at it. She was never a cat person, but this little stray

found it's way to her back door. She has loved him ever since. Yes,

the cat is male. Lily named the cat after her BFF before we realized

it was not a female. The name just stuck.

Mama Dot with Evie. I am so grateful that she met my two girls.

She loved them, but "peapod" held a special place in her heart.

Mama Dot with Lucy Kate. We are so, so blessed that she

had the opportunity to meet her. God's timing is so good.

She stayed with my mom for the last month of her life, and she

had precious time to just hold and rock LK. They both loved it.

I love this picture. A sweet new baby at the beginning of life,

and my sweet grandmother closer to the end.

"..The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;

blessed be the name of the LORD" Job 1:21

This picture is so tiny that you probably won't be able to see it.

I cannot figure out how to make it bigger. But I just love this

shot of Anna and Mama Dot. I think it says so much about her.

Good Friday

Tomorrow is Good Friday... yay! I am excited because Patrick is off work, and we have fun plans to spend the day as a family. We will probably dye some easter eggs, play outside, and just enjoy the sunshine. We also plan to take my little lion loving children to see Disney's new movie "African Cats." Lily is extremely excited about this. I know I really don't need to do much more to encourage her crazy obsession with lions, but I just can't help myself. She finds them fascinating....so I oblige.

All of that above is great, and I am looking quite forward to it. But in the midst of it all, I want to make sure that my family stays in a spirit of thanksgiving and prayer. I cannot just go about tomorrow as if it is any other day off for Patrick. It's not. In fact, tomorrow is everything.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21

I'm posting a short little video from youtube. It's a part of a sermon from David Platt. I hope you can find time to watch it. He does an amazing job of truly explaining the sacrifice Christ made.

Click here

I hope everyone has a wonderful Good Friday! It is good indeed.

A plug for a plug-in

It's Spring!!! Yay!! Fall and Spring are my two favorite times of year, and other than some pesky allergies, I am just loving this weather! I wake up, open all of the windows in my house, and find every excuse in the world to avoid housework so I can go outside with Lily and Evie and soak up the amazingness that is a sunny, 70 degrees day. I know all too soon that it will be really, really HOT and really, really HUMID. Oh well, I guess that's what you get for living in the south.

Anyway, not much has been going on lately. Just enjoying life... But I wanted to do a quick little post and give all of my many readers a link to buy the most awesome product ever. Okay, I really don't have that many readers. But I promise I'm not lying about the product. I'm having a basket party for my best friend, Jenna. She sales Scentsy, and if you do not have one, you are missing out. I love mine! You buy a warmer, plug it in, and then put in a little block of the ridiculously good smelling scent. You can leave it on ALL day long, and I promise the smell will fill your whole house. It's great! They have some really good, fresh, clean new spring scents that I love. I am sorry for the shameless plug, but I would feel guilty if I didn't give you the chance to buy the best thing ever. ;) Click here to shop. When you get to the page, just click on my basket party. I promise you will love them!

Also, my house is back on the FSBO market. So I totally understand if you can't get a Scentsy because you need to save money to buy my wonderful house:) But if you don't buy my house, then at least make yours smell nice. ha!

You have GOT to be kidding me....

Okay peeps, remember my last post? The one about my missing crackers. Yeah, well....the food company/people are out to get me again. I'm beginning to think this is nothing short of a conspiracy to completely turn my lunch world upside down. You know how I eat the same thing everyday? (sandwich, crackers, 100 cal pack...sometimes I throw in an apple--to keep the doctor away, of course) Anyway, you are not gonna believe this. Get ready-- I can now no longer find my Keebler Grasshopper Cookies in the 100 calorie pack. Not at Kroger, not at Target. I am on the verge of panic. I realize there are wayyyyy more important things in the world than my daily dose of yummy, minty, crunchy chocolate. But still....it hurts. Plus, I genuinely find it odd that now TWO of my lunchtime staples have disappeared. I can find no plausible explanation other than it must be the end times. If they take away my diet coke.... well, I can't even go there.

Bring them back!!!

I am on a mission. For about four years now, I have been in love. I mean....seriously, the object of my affection has been a daily part of my life. Every morning, I would long for eleven o'clock....that special time when my world would light up at the mere sight of my darling obsession.

I'm talking about Kellogg's All Bran Wheat Crackers in Garlic Herb flavor. My turkey sandwich, crackers, and diet coke make me one happy woman. But for the past several months, they have been MIA. I go to Kroger, and there -among all the HUGE selection of crackers- my favorite is nowhere to be found. I have taken comfort in the fact that Target still carries them. But alas, I can no longer find them at Target. I'm grieving. I have even written Kellogg's a letter expressing my undying love for the fiber-filled, flavorful amazingness. But so far, I have had to settle for Wheat Thins. No offense to Nabisco, but I just don't LOVE them. I only like them. So please.....join me in protesting to Kellogg's, Kroger, Target, and everywhere else....BRING THEM BACK!!!

This is me with my crackers.
This is me without my crackers.

Posted by Corrie....a hopeless fiber lover.

Quickly...

Hey blog readers! I just wanted to do a very short little post today. I have many more planned :) My goal is to become a better blogger. Or at least a more frequent one. But this past month has been kinda crazy. With the debut of Miss Lucy Kate Rucker, we have all been quite busy loving on that precious baby. Can I just say that I adore her? From the moment I saw that little head come out with the enormous amount of black hair, I just fell in love. I never thought I could love another baby so quickly other than my own. But oh, she has just captured her Aunt Coco's heart!

Anyway, as wonderful as little LK is, this post is about another Lucy. I came across this blog through some friends on Facebook and have been keeping up with the precious family's journey as their little five year old was just diagnosed with brain cancer. I want to share the link with you and ask you to fervently pray for them. I don't know them, but my heart aches for little Lucy and her parents. I cannot begin to imagine what they are going through. It sends shivers down my spine to even think about one of my children being in that situation.... so young and fighting for her life. I am going to post the link to her blog, and I hope that you will pray with me for this family. They have been so heavy on my heart. But God is in the business of answering prayers! I am praying for complete healing for this little girl, comfort beyond comprehension for her family, and that God be glorified in sweet Lucy's life. No matter what happens, God is GOOD. I pray they can cling to that hope when everything in them wants to scream otherwise.

Click here to read her story

Long time...

Hi blog readers! It has been forever since I (Corrie) have posted. Somehow life just seems to get in the way of this little blog. But that's okay! I have a lot of things I want to post soon, but I thought I'd just spend this one catching up. Really, there's hasn't been too much happening around here, save the anxious/excited/can-hardly-sleep wait on baby Lucy Kate. I know Anna has shared her thoughts about it all, but I feel the need to give you an update from MY perspective :)

First off, words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am about meeting my niece. I have been wanting to hold this baby before she was even conceived. You can ask Anna, I am bugging the stink out of her with my daily/hourly questions of "has anything changed? Any contractions? Pain?" When I say hourly, unfortunately, that is a pretty literal statement. The anticipation is killing me!! I can't wait to see her and hold her and tell her how much her Aunt Coco loves her! I am going to be one of FIVE amazing aunts, so I am going to have to step up my game so I can be her favorite. haha!....just kidding to all other aunts who might reading this:) I'll just say this- Lucy Kate is going to be one loved baby girl.

Other than meeting Lucy Kate, I am beyond thrilled for Anna and Nathan to experience parenthood. There is nothing in the world that compares to those first few days in the hospital when you just fall head over heels in love with this precious gift. It is just the most incredible time as a family. I loved it, and I can't wait for them to have this special time with their daughter. It's especially wonderful because at the hospital, people wait on you hand and foot. They can take your baby to the nursery for some much needed sleep, people come and dote on you, and the world is just perfect. Then you go home....which brings me to my third point.

As wonderful as motherhood is, there is no denying its difficulty. Especially those first sleep-deprived, exhausting weeks/months. Even getting up with my babies at midnight, I truly cherished those moments. They were so precious and sweet...and so short. And that's what you have to remind yourself of at four a.m. Because you.are.so.tired. I used to pray "Lord, give me the strength to get through this and somehow enjoy it in the process." And He faithfully did. Some of my best memories of Lily and Evie at that age are the times I spent singing, nursing, and rocking them to sleep in the dark, quiet early morning hours. It's wonderful. And hard. And amazing. And enough to make you cry. And thank God for the precious blessing of actually having that baby to rock and hold. And also plead with God to please make this baby stop crying. When it comes down to it, there is nothing better in the world. Those hard moments will be over before you blink, and then you will wake up with a one year old. There are women all over the world who would long for nothing more than to get up and pace the floors with a screaming baby in their arms.

So that is what I am looking forward to the most: Anna (and Nathan) getting to experience the absolute JOY of one of God's sweetest gifts. My advice is to cherish every minute. It goes so fast. And when you are tired and can barely keep your eyes open, just praise God for Lucy Kate. Praise Him for healthy lungs that can scream so loud. Praise Him for her waking up at all hours to eat. It means she's a growing baby girl. Praise Him when you feel you just can't go on another minute....because He will give you what you need to care perfectly for her. Some of my most desperate and heartfelt prayers came after Evie was born. I would be exhausted, and she would be wide awake at three a.m. I knew I would be getting up with a two year old in a matter of hours, and I would think "there's just no way I can do this." But HIS strength is made perfect in my weakness, and somehow, I managed. I would hold her and think - this is LIFE, and I love it.

Last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I am looking forward to watching Anna change all those diapers, clean up spit-up, chase after a crawling/walking/crazy baby, and all of the other totally unexpected things that go along with motherhood. Because just as most (or all) of first time expectant mothers are, she.doesn't.have.a.clue. I can't wait to sit back and laugh. haha!!:) I'll leave you with a few quotes from Anna to prove my point:

"How hard can it be? If she wakes up, I'll just nurse her and lay her back down. I mean, why would a baby cry for no reason at all?"

" I have thirty newborn diapers, so that should last for a pretty long time."

me- "Anna, those might last four days..."

"WHAT?? Are you kidding me? They go that much?"