Pause, Reflect, Breathe.

I took this picture outside of our church on Superbowl Sunday. We had been going non-stop all day, and when I went back to the car to get my camera, I noticed the way the light from the beautiful sunset was hitting this tree. It forced me to stop, take a deep breath, and relax a little. I snapped a few pictures of the tree, and went back in to the party with a little reminder to slow down, and enjoy life.

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Random Tuesday Thoughts

Random 1. This year I joined in Domestic Dork's Valentine's Day Blog Exchange. Today I received my lovely gift from my swap partner, Christina at Consider the Coffee. All I told her was that my favorite color is purple. She had no idea that I sort of collect things with the word "Love" on them. See, John calls me Love almost exclusively. He buys me things that say "Love", like earrings, home decor, etc., and when we see something that says "love", we joke that it has my name on it. So this necklace is totally perfect! I wish I had a better picture than this cell phone shot, but it will have to do for now.

Isn't it beautiful?? I LOVE it!
You should check out Christina's Etsy shop, Coffee and Cream, and see all of her beautiful creations.

Random 2. My best friend had weight loss surgery yesterday, and is doing well. I'm so happy, proud of her, and excited for her!

Random 3. John butt-dialed me this morning. He was getting in the car to take the kids to school and sort of sat on his phone. I couldn't understand much of what was said, but I did hear him singing "Your Body is Underpants" to the tune of John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland". Awesome - I have my own personal Weird Al!

Random 4. I have discovered the most delicious snack - if you like dill pickles. Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds! They are yummmmy!

Random 5. Also? Butter.Pecan.CAKE. I made this for our church's Superbowl Party and Oh Em Gee. Deliciousness!

Random 6. The Bachelor? What's your take? I was surprised that Ali chose to leave. Does anyone know what her job was? I never heard, and I figured it must be something good, to choose that over staying on the show. I'm sure she wouldn't have left to go back and waitress at the IHOP...right? Anyhoo, now I'm Team Tenley. BUT - my bets are on him actually choosing Vienna.

Random 7. Did you notice that a real life person linked up with my Weekend WrapUp post yesterday? I was so excited!!

Random 8. I'm leaving you with a random Facebook conversation involving me, my niece, and a couple of friends:

Me: My phone hasnt let me get on fb since last night - can you say withdrawal?? glad to be back!
Friend 1: welcome back to the mobile web!
Friend 2: we need an INTERVENTION....that is definitely NOT good
Me: What? im not addicted, i can quit anytime i want! *twitch*
My niece Heather: Cyndy, I am here because I love you and I miss my aunt... I remember when you used to call me a stupid brat... now all you do is tweet and play on FB and blog. If you do not accept this help we are offering I will no longer respond to your texts! :-D Whadda say?
Me: My name is Cyndy. C.Y.N.D.Y. wait, this is a documentary, right??
Niece: your addiction has affected me negatively in the following ways...

We crack ourselves up! Have a Happy Tuesday, folks.........and visit The Unmom for more Random Tuesday Thoughts!

Weekend WrapUp

We planned a great weekend for the kids, and I have to say it went off almost without a hitch!

Saturday we took The Littles to our local Medieval Faire. They had a blast, the weather was nice, and the food was delicious.

Elayna got the Princess Eye

Andrew is not so big on face painting, so he chose to have his arm painted instead.

Elayna petting a "Baby Dragon" (ordinary lizard, lol)

Andrew & Elayna playing with Crystal Sticks

They enjoyed this maze, and I thought the sign was cute!

...and speaking of cute signs, I really loved this one!

this beautiful little bird is a European Kestrel.

After the Medieval Faire, we picked Shelbie up from a church trip and dropped Elayna off at a sleepover party. Then we went to the mall. Shelbie wanted to look for a dress for her 8th Grade Social, which is over two months away, but I said sure, let's just look. We ended up finding a gorgeous dress on a GREAT sale, so we got it! Happy teenager, happy mama.
The day was capped off with a late-night Krispy Kreme run, and really, does it get any better than that??

Sunday started with picking Elayna up from her sleepover party, then we went to church. Afterwards we took the kids for their surprise: lunch at a Japanese Steak House! I mentioned over at Southern Loving, my food blog, that I am trying to introduce more foods from other cultures to the kids, and I'd been wanting to take them to a Japanese Steak House for a while. They LOVED it, and we all had a really great time. I posted more pictures of this adventure at Southern Loving, but here are a couple:




And the last fun activity was on Sunday night. We had a Superbowl Family Fun Night at church. Everyone brought food, there was child care for the kids, and we all just hung out and had a good time. They had a drawing to give away two football jerseys, and John won one of them! We left at halftime to get the kids to bed, but we watched the rest at home and were happy to see the Saints win.

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend too!
Link up if you wanna!