Life with my sister

Today we are linking up to Kelly's Korner again for a working mom post. Let me start by saying that ALL moms are working moms, whether they stay at home or work outside of the home, that is FO SHO! Today she is highlighting working moms and since I am a working mom I wanted to link up and share what little wisdom I have on the subject. I am a mama to Henry. He is my only child. He was born while I worked a very high stress job in health care marketing. I learned the first day back from maternity leave that it wasn't going to work. I continued to get up and go through my day like a guilty zombie until he was 6 months old. One day I walked out and never looked back. I had no idea what or where I would go for work, but I knew God had a better plan for me, my boy and my husband. Lesson #1 - no job other than being wife and mother should take priority. My family It took me a year to find the right job for my family. That year long journey taught me a lot. I am a different"work...

This is my single co-worker and church friend, Shaun. He and I have so much fun bantering back and forth. He takes what I dish out and scoops it right back up and hands it back to me. He is a keeper for that and many other reasons, which I will share on this post. He was kind enough to allow me to highlight him on Kelly’s Korner http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ for her singles link up. His last words to me about this were, “ This better not be an embarrassment! ” I trust I will do my best to make it not be, but I make no promises! The first thing you need to know about Shaun is that he loves Jesus and the Boston Red Sox . He asked Jesus into his heart at age 8 and is still seeking and serving him today at age 26. Shaun graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in digital media and design. When he is not busy creating masterpieces for our customers he is hiking, watching the Red Sox , playing basketball, horsing around at the lake or beach, and watching movies. He is fu...

My marketing buddy and I decided we needed to have a contest for our employee Christmas lunch. The employees got excited about it, which sort of surprised me. Some people call it the ugly Christmas sweater contest but out of respect for those we borrowed the sweaters from and those at our work who wear them...we called it festive attire contest. I had lots of choices and it was hard to decide. My Aunt Babs brought me a vest and my mother-in-love brought me this 12 days of Christmas sweater. I brought both to work and my co-workers chose the sweater. Candace won the prize for most festive. She literally took things of her Christmas tree and put them on. She had a mini wreath on her wrist, pines cones in her hair, a door knob hanger and garland as her belt, etc. It was priceless. I won this tree. It was an all out fight and I won. Dirty Santa is so much fun. Gary won it, Vicki stole it and then I took it from her. She was none to happy with me and has threatened to break in my truck an...

This week we had a charity event at work. I coordinated the shindig and had a ball. I love a part-a! We raised money for 5 local charities and ate real good. Leslie (in the pic with me) and I love to eat good so we enjoyed being in charge of the food. I found this cheese tray in shape of a tree on the Pinterest and insisted we had to have it! It was much better in person. This photo was taken at a bad angle, but I was too busy hosting to be taking photos for Food Friday...just sayin ! This is not food related, but this tree and I have had some rounds and I think I am finally ahead! I decorated our work tree in mid-October for a November issue of our local magazine. They did a feature story on our event and came and took photos. We moved the tree to the back of the building until it was acceptable to have a tree on display in the lobby... and it all fell apart. We brought it out last week and I redecorated it. Then, the next day the lights decided to burn out. So, I undecorated it, stru...

Friday afternoon Henry and I headed about an hour outside of town to one of Randall's plots so he could ride the combine with his daddy. Henry did not pose for this picture. It just happened. He was watching his Daddy out in the field and looked back at me to tell me "Daddy work". When we got there Henry ran in the corn yelling "Daddy's corn" over and over. It was the cutest thing. His daddy made a pass up to the front of the field and picked up Henry soon after we arrived. Henry was eager and excited to get on Daddy's "tractor". We tried to correct him but when we said "combine" Henry said "crouton" (he loves croutons!). This is a research combine if you are wondering what in the world kind of combine this is. It is very specialized and records data as the corn is cut/shelled. I just love my boys. They live for each other. It is the sweetest thing. I don't know who was more excited...Randall or Henry. Randall loves be...

Some of you may know this pretty face as my dear friend Paige, but she is also an angel. She was the hands of feet of Jesus this week for a group of us that could not be. I love how Christians pull together and just do it because it is the right thing to do. No fanfare, no bells or whistles, no over thinking, no praise required...we just do it because it is required of us. Knowing we could call on Paige to work with us to show love to someone who really needed it was such a blessing to my friend heart. This is Whitney. She is a coworker of mine that I have never actually worked with! She had her baby 8 weeks early and it was on the weekend before I started my job here. She has been in Little Rock all this time, living at the hospital praying her baby home. This week we could tell it was starting to take its toll on her (Though you cannot tell. Doesn't she look beautiful!?) . She needed a hug real bad and our arms were too far to reach her. Paige provided the arms for us. Paige t...

" You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north." Deuteronomy 2:3. I love this verse. I discovered it in a book I was reading one morning in May before a job interview. I wrote it on a note card and put it in my car. I glanced down at it on my way to the interview and laughed because I realized I was headed north of town. Well, I am now employed by that company and recite this verse with much praise to God's amazing provision for me. It sums up the last year of my life so beautifully. I am excited about putting my high heels back on and stepping up! I quit my job last June 15th. It was a sticky situation. I felt it was best I leave and find another job that I could feel good about it and not "icky" every day as I was forced to make decisions I did not agree with. I have learned in my short career that looking like you have it all together does not mean you do and lots of warts and scars come from wearing that mask. I decided to flee that path in li...

I have walked this path and steps too many times to count these past few days. Isn't it pretty?! We came here last year and found ourselves here again. Randall's company hosts a family retreat each year on the Gull Lake in Minnesota and this resort seems to be a fave of the group. It is nice that he works for a company that not only makes great butter, but values family and rewards spouses for their support during the busy seasons. I had a fabulous spa day provided by his company while he sat in meetings all day. I never splurge on spa type things, so it was super fun to spend someone elses money for a little pampering. We drove over to the Mississippi River outside of Baxter, MN one afternoon. It starts in Minnesota. This is not it, but it is as far as we were willing to drive! It was so different than the Mississippi River we see back home. We parked and walked over the bridge. Randall was actually standing on the concrete wall with 4 lanes of interstate traffic roaring behi...

Well, its the end of the school year and busyness has hit!! We have been running all over the place the last few weeks and will be for the next couple of weeks. I must brag on my kids. Now, I know they are 13, 10 & 7 so they should be well-behaved but I have put my children in situations lately that have required them to sit quietly with nothing at all to do and they have made me such a proud Mom! I forget that I have really great kids. I also forget to tell them that they're great. This will serve as a reminder to go and tell them. Tell yours too! I've been helping decorate for a wedding & reception this weekend. Those of you that know me and those that have been to my house are laughing loudly right now and feeling so sorry for the bride. It turns out with someone else on my team I'm not so bad! We've had late nights this week with a couple more to go but the reception is going to look beautiful and the ceremony is, well, it will be just right! Last night betw...

It is that time again...planting time! This was taken last year at the beginning of planting. So hard to believe it has been a year and that baby boy on that little tractor is so big now. Our little daddy rolls out this week with his guys to head south to plant his first few plots. He loves this time of year and after sitting at home all winter witnessing what all he does to prepare for this season, I am pretty excited too! Randall works for a seed company based up north and he is responsible for planting all their research plots in the south (they call it the delta, but we know better). He has 12 plots this season, in 5 states. The closest one is a little over an hour from home. Watching him prepare for the season makes me realize how flexible he really is. I have always thought he was a bit stiff (hee hee)...but the guy is actually Gumby ! He is a scientist, accountant, engineer, negotiator , boss man, IT guru, coordinator, and quite the seed, chemical and weed specialist. He has ...

I love this girl. This is Julie's youngest, Anna. She makes me smile. Today I was reminded what a blessing she is to our crew. Julie told her to tell me what she wanted for Christmas and she got out the toy catalog and went to town! That made me laugh because her brothers just spouted off a few things and went on their way. I love that she took her time and went to the wishing well, so to speak. Nothing like a toy catalog when you are a little girl! So, she picked out an expensive toy and showed it to Julie. Julie told her it was too expensive. She then responded, "It is ONLY $59.98!" Oh, to be wide-eyed, innocent and have no concept of money. I am thankful for this encounter today. What a wonderful reminder of how sweet innocence is! I am thankful for this mess upstairs in our craft room/office. It means we are 2 weeks away from having a 1st birthday celebration for our sweet Henry Patton. It means we survived a year of late night, early mornings and learning how to pa...

...You never know what you are going to get. What a Summer. I felt every emotion this Summer. I am still a bit raw, but a happy kind of raw. "Raw" is my new word. Not sure why. Maybe because I have felt it so much lately. I need to get a new word, I know. I know many of you have wondered what has been going on with me, but I have not felt it was the right time to share until now. Silence and patience really are a beautiful thing. I am still working on both...a lifelong process, I tell ya! In mid-June I left my job with no plan. No plan. I am Type A....I had no plan. Hello! I did not even go into work that day thinking it was the day I would leave. God will smack his children across the head to get His point across if you ignore Him for too long. That is what happened on that hot, sticky, overcast day in June. I am so glad God loves me like he does...but it hurt! I wish I had some big, grand story to tell you about what happened but I still don't know what happened. it so...

Sweet Henry got his 6 months shots this week. We love his doctor. He is such a blessing to our little family. I am glad he came to our hospital room as the doctor on call when Henry was born, otherwise I would not have known how wonderful he is. We had chosen a different doctor for Henry but I made the switch to him after seeing his bedside manner. I love this picture because it needs no caption! Our little Daddy with his boy. He met us at the doctor. He is such a sweet little Daddy! Henry and I are about 3 blocks from one another during the week. His doctor's office is right between us. Driving to all 3 places is a little much so I decided we would walk. His daycare director gave me the daycare stroller and insisted I use it. They fixed him a bottle and gave him his blanket. It was so cute watching them pack him up in that little bitty stroller with all his stuff. They then walked me out with him and wished him well with his shots. I think they love him as much as we do....I jus...