Throwback Thursday #3

Because there have been so few posts on the blog in the past year, I thought it might be fun to look back on Thursdays to see what has transpired in that time.  Today's Throwback Thursday will be:

The Arrival of Our

SWEET BAILEY RAE

The date was October 29, 2015.  It was our beautiful granddaughter Brooke's eighth birthday and after a bit of a scare, we welcomed a new princess into the family.

 

 

Our Sweet Bailey Rae Allen
Once we finally freed her from NICU, we took so many pictures that she thought the paparazzi was in the room.

This was the picture we had all been waiting for.
There is sheer relief in that little momma's eyes.
Due to a traumatic birth and a misinformed nurse who refused to listen, our sweet girl didn't even get to hold her baby girl until late in the afternoon.  This was the moment the nurses released Bailey from NICU and placed her in Bri's arms.  Let's just say there were tears to go all around in that moment.

 

Proud Daddy right here. 
You should have seen the concern on his face trying to be everywhere at once. He didn't know whether to stay with Bri, who was freaking out because she barely got to see Bailey before they whisked her away, or to stay with Bailey, who was being carefully monitored in NICU due to some bruising on her neck. 

Pappaw's Little Princess
This picture makes me swoon.
He was such a good Daddy and he makes an even better Pappaw.
All of that pink doesn't scare him one bit. 
He will have her out at the pond fishing or walking the property squirrel hunting as soon as she is big enough to hold the proper equipment.

 

 

Tomorrow this little bundle of joy will turn 6 months old!  Where did the time go?

Throwback Thursday #2

Because there have been so few posts on the blog in the past year, I thought it might be fun to look back on Thursdays to see what has transpired in that time.  Today's Throwback Thursday will be:

Ladies Retreat

Surfside

Back Row: Lynn, Suzi, Maudell, Barbara, Ellen, Kyra, & Brandi
Front Row: Nancy, Anita, Jeannie, Linda, Shirley & Fonda

Last September I helped to plan our Women's Retreat at church.  I was very surprised to learn that several of the ladies had never spent a weekend at the beach.  So, we booked a house on Surfside, asked my dear friend Ellen to be our speaker and gathered for a glorious weekend of fellowship.  Our theme was 'Jesus is My Anchor' and the t-shirts turned out so cute!  I love it!  We ate like queens, laughed ALOT, took walks on the beach and listened to some good teaching from the Word of God.

I am looking forward to our time away this coming October as we travel to the Frisco/Dallas area for Abundance by Lifeway.

A Gift To Myself

I have become a huge fan of podcasts in the past year and a half or so.  It began with me subscribing to the Revive Our Hearts podcasts so that I wouldn't miss out on Nancy's daily teachings and then expanded to include Happier with Gretchen Rubin and Rainer on Leadership with Thom Rainer.  A few others came and went in that time, but these three have remained the same. {Note: all links go to the iTunes page for each podcast.}

While reading Gretchen's newsletter last week I stumbled across a list of highly recommended podcasts and found a new favorite; What Should I Read Next? with Anne Bogel. The show description is as follows:

What Should I Read Next is the show for every reader who has ever finished a book and faced the problem of not knowing what to read next.  Each week, host Anne Bogel interviews a new person and finds out their tastes.  Then, she makes recommendations about what to read next.

I am still enjoying my Audible subscription, but I have been missing the feel of real books in my hands.  And, though I have plenty of 'To Be Read' books on my shelf, I have been missing the excitement of a good 'New Release' to dive into as a nightly routine. (I have been reading non-fiction before bed but have found that I am too tired to focus on something that serious and I end up abandoning most of them without finishing.) I want my nighttime read to be purely for pleasure. 

Then, one day as I was browsing Anne's blog (Modern Mrs. Darcy), I saw a list of things she is enjoying these days.  One of the items on her short list was -- The Book of the Month Club.  I hit the link in her blog post and voila!  Pure reader happiness!  They have a list of five books to choose from each month. AND, in case you can't possibly choose JUST ONE, you can purchase up to two more New Release hardcover books for $9.99 each. April's choices included two memoirs and three works of fiction (one of each - historical, family and thriller). I knew right away that this was my kind of place. 

So, I joined...and within the week I had a peach colored slip of delight in my mailbox notifying me that my book was waiting for me at the post office.  The very next morning I rushed to the post office to find this:

Even the design of the box makes me happy. 

And behind the packing was this little baby:

Check out this blurb:
The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?

In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.

This is not my normal kind of read, but it sounded like a great premise for a book and I cannot wait to dive in!

And I can hardly wait until next month when I get to choose another book to gift myself!!!

If you would like to subscribe to the Book of the Month Club use promo code READNEXT to get 50% off of a three month subscription.  I subscribed before the code...and I still thought it was a great deal.  But hey, it never hurts to save a little money.

Okay, I'm getting off of here to go read now.  Let me know if you've read anything good lately.

Throwback Thursday #1

Because there have been so few posts on the blog in the past year, I thought it might be fun to look back on Thursdays to see what has transpired in that time.  Today's Throwback Thursday will be:

Grandchildren Brag Day

Christmas Edition

 



Davin (8), Santa, Dayton(18 months), Meagan and Delayne (3)



Weston (2), Brooke (8), Maddux (6), and Ellie (3)

Bailey (2 months) and Santa

 

If you received a Christmas card from Jim and I you have already seen these.  But I like to keep a record of these things here on the blog as well.  Kelli and family were not able to join us for our annual pictures with Santa at Santa's Texas Wonderland this year.  She did a great job of snapping an impromptu picture of the kids in front of their Christmas tree one night before bed and posted it to Instagram.  I asked her to forward it to me so that I could use in on our card and she readily agreed. 

 

One quick story about the pictures of the rest of the grands.  The whole time we stood in line for pictures (which was a long, long time -- just saying) Delayne could not stop talking about meeting Santa and getting a picture with him.  Imagine our surprise when, upon entering the room with Santa and Mrs. Claus, she backed herself into the nearest corner so tightly that we had to pry her out and Meagan had to hold her to get her as close as you see in that photo.  Then Bailey had her time with Santa and as we turned to leave, we had to nearly drag Delayne out because she was in such deep conversation with Mrs. Claus.  In hindsight, we should have let Bailey go first so that Delayne could see that it wasn't as scary as she believed it to be.

 

There's always next Christmas!

Well, Hello World. How've You Been? Good to See You, My Old Friend.

I love that song by Lady Antebellum and it is striking a chord in my heart as I opened the blog page today.  It's been a long, long, LONG time...and I've missed you.

I've been meaning to update here since January.  But one day becomes a week, which becomes a month, and before you know it I have posted only once in nearly year.

I think mourning does that to you though. 

Don't get me wrong, I haven't been in a deep depression with no light in sight.  (Thank You, Lord, for Your great mercy.)  But I know that the loss of my dad last February has cast a pallor over my heart and I have had a hard time expressing myself.  I am beginning to get my voice back now though and wanted to check in with whoever is still out there reading this little piece of me. (I know of at least two of you!!!)

Just to let you know how we have been, everyone is doing well in the Goode family.

• Meagan and family are all settled in to the country life. They are homeschooling and involved in Boy Scouts. Derrick is working in a neighborhood in Katy and enjoying his new zero turn mower. (Those are the things that excite you when you get to a certain age. AHEM!) Davin has taken a huge interest in sports cars thanks to a ride in the Corvette and Fast & Furious 7. Delayne is growing like a weed and can talk you under the table.  She is loving all things Ariel at the moment. (If we've watched Little Mermaid once, we've watched it 50 times.) Dayton is still one of the happiest children I have ever seen -- always smiling.  Well, unless you tell him that he can't go outside. He is happiest just sitting in the Polaris pretending to drive. Meagan has been raving about the new online grocery shopping service that Wal-mart now provides.  I cannot even imagine...but I do know that if that had been an option back when I had to coax five children in and out the car I probably would have been gushing over it too.
• Kelli and family are nearly finished with their massive remodel project of Matt's childhood home.  The house was very nice to begin with but Kelli has turned it into a beautiful display of her distinct personality. They, too, are homeschooling.  Matt promoted to Sargent last fall.  We are so proud of him and his dedication.  Brooke has grown into such a compassionate and responsible young lady. She loves to read. (Which makes me VERY happy!) Maddux is losing those little boy features and growing into a handsome young man.  He played football last fall and enjoyed it...but his love is still all things Lego's.  Ellie is hitting a growth spurt in which she may just catch up to Weston.  But we're not holding our breath. She loves her Pappaw...and dogs.  (No connection implied. Ha!) And as I said, Weston is a linebacker-to-be.  He's a chunk and cute as can be.  Which is good, because he can be a bull in a china shop so I'm sure the Lord made him cute so his mom wouldn't kill him.
• Brianne and family are also doing well. She and Josh are adjusting to this thing called parenting.  As most of us know, you cannot fully explain it to anyone until it happens...and then you just have to figure it out.  They are doing a great job though.  Josh is home at the moment and that little girl of his just adores him.  Bri is over the moon in love with our sweet Bailey Rae...and it shows in their relationship.  That girl wants no one except her momma, especially when daddy is off shore.  Bailey looks just like Josh, has Bri's super blonde hair but has a temperament all her own. When she gets mad -- she's mad all over. And when she stops crying she sniffs and sighs for the longest time so that you don't forget how mad you made her.  Bri and Josh just hosted their annual crawfish boil on Saturday and did an outstanding job once again.  The food was delicious and the company even better.
• Brian is still in San Marcos and working at the resort.  He is thinking of moving back to the Houston area in the fall and perhaps going into drafting.  He and Deborah were able to make it in for the crawfish boil and it was good to see them.  I don't hear a lot from him...so there's not a lot to report.  But he does make it home for every family event possible, and for that I am thankful. 
• Will is still in Tomball, living with friends and working for us.  We see him about as often as we see Brian...but he seems to be doing well too.  The big news for him is that he got his hair cut this past week.  This was him at Christmas: 
  

          and this is him now: 

As for Jim and I, we have been busy getting things done around the house.  He had his shop erected last year but we just completed the finishing touches on  the game room build-out earlier this spring.  (We love it! It is now the favorite family hangout.)  He has been working hard at clearing the back of the house, making us a backyard and pathways.  We hired someone to come in and clear out the underbrush in front of the house.  Now we just need to have some trees cut.  (We have lots of pine.)  We also have someone installing the rock around the sides of the house. All of these were things we have been planning since the house went in.  We just got a bit burned out last year and decided to give ourselves a break from all of the construction. 

We hosted our annual Custom Fire Protection crawfish boil out at 'The Barn' a few weekends ago.  That prompted us to get some of these things taken care of.  It turned out great.  I estimate we had about 80 people in and out throughout the afternoon.  We had lots of room and the Lord blessed us with the perfect weather.

Okay, enough about us.

How have you been? 

Have I mentioned how much I've missed you?!?!