I love Dancing with the Stars. At least I used to; I will admit I haven’t watched it in several years, but I used to love watching it. I loved the way the “stars” who had no dancing background would get better and better each week, and I would watch them with awe, so impressed with their hard work and ability to change their awkward bodies into graceful, delicate moves on the dance floor. Though harsh sometimes, I love when the judges’ scorecards grow higher and higher each week.
When I was a little girl, I took dance lessons. As I got older and cheered, we did dances. In college, I studied and took the test and received my license to be an aerobic instructor. Remember when we used to call it, “aerobics?” Sounds so archaic now. About 11 years ago, I fell in love with Zumba. I love to dance. I always have, and I always will. Terry has even agreed to take dance classes with me, where we can learn to Salsa and Rumba! Some days when a song we love comes on, Terry will just reach out his hand to me and we will slow dance right there in the kitchen or living room. I absolutely love those moments, too.
I love to dance and I want
Read moreI love Christmas so much. I love the lights, the smells, the feeling, the sounds … I love it all. My oldest bonus son graduated from Auburn several years ago, but two years ago we all went to the Auburn-Alabama game in Auburn. (Where Auburn beat Alabama, might I add). Anyway, Travis wanted to show us where he used to live. As we pulled up to the buildings, I said, “Oh my goodness! The doors are green and red for Christmas! I love it!” The doors were all alternating colors; green and red. Travis looked at me and said, “Only you would recognize something like that!”
When we traveled up to Rhode Island last month, I wished someone in the airport a Merry Christmas! He looked at me and replied, “Oh. You’re one of those people. The kind who can’t wait for Thanksgiving so you rush in Christmas.”
Yep. I am.
I am one of “those”
Read moreWhen I was a little girl, going to our grandparents’ house meant we were about to be spoiled! I can still remember being really little, and our grandparents would meet us out on their porch, so excited to see us. My precious grandmother would take my little hand and lead me to her kitchen. There she would open the yellow or orange Tupperware container filled with her M&M cookies. And she would smile so big and say, “Go ahead! Take one!”
I miss her so much. Her sweet smile just exuded Jesus to everyone. I don’t think that precious lady ever had an enemy.
Anyway, to this day when I look at M&M’s,
Read moreBoundaries can be a difficult thing for some of us, but they are imperative for protection.
A friend of mine told me, “You don’t owe everyone an explanation. No can be no and yes can be yes and no follow up required.” I have learned the hard way to simply tell someone, “I’m sorry, no,” or, “yes, that is my final answer.” Sometimes I do not engage further if the person is being combative or inappropriate.
I used to feel the need to over explain. To overstate what was on my plate and why I responded the way I did. I would offer lengthy explanations for the reasons behind my
Read moreA friend shared some very sad news with me the other morning. As I read what she sent, I could feel my heart breaking into pieces. Another Christian marriage, broken. I do not know details, nor do I know if the brokenness is irreparable. I just know what I told my friend, “What a reminder for us - marriages, Christian marriages especially, are vulnerable and Satan wants them.”
As I had my quiet time that morning, I wept for this couple. I prayed for miraculous healing and breakthrough with the prayer for healing for each of them … no matter what. Some marriages do not make it. Some are broken beyond repair. Infidelity, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, anger issues often cause marriages to crumble and for protection, one spouse has no choice but to file for divorce.
When you read Broken Strength, you will know more of my
Read moreI get super emotional sometimes. I spent a lot of years very sad. I used to read about the Israelites wandering and how miserable they were, and I felt like I could kind of relate. At least to the being miserable part. But they complained so much.
So. Much.
About everything.
“Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!" - Numbers 20:5
They had been in captivity; slavery and bondage, yet they acted like that was better, because at least there, they had pomegranates!
Good grief.
Read moreI am so excited to share today’s devotion with you. Y’all know how much I love Christmas. It’s no secret. I don’t even try to hide it. Not even in June. Nope. I wear my Christmas joy, all year long!
You might have seen the article about Linus and his security blanket that many people are posting again. I believe the article was written in 2015. The article pointed out that when Linus gets up and recites Luke 2:8-14, and says the words, “fear not,” he drops his security blanket. Pretty powerful, right? Charles Schulz was a bold, brave man of faith, and obviously made no bones about it, when he wrote “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Granted, in 1965 when this came out, it was a much nicer time, I believe, with more of a focus on why we celebrate Christmas. (I was not yet born, but I know from history, Christian faith seemed to be more prominent then). But even back then, not everyone was raised in a Christian home, and Charles Schulz knew he had an incredible opportunity to reach young children and teach them the meaning of Christmas!
Okay, so our pastor, Steve Lawes, has an incredible, incredible gift and talent of pointing to Jesus. One of the things I love most about Steve is his humility. Everything is about Jesus, not him. But I want to brag on him for a minute because this was another one of those, “game changers”
Read moreHave you ever noticed how truly intelligent people believe they have so much more to learn? And the kindest people you know have a tendency to say things like, “I need to be better?” Or the people who do things away from the spotlight are so humble and would never want their acts of kindness to “go viral?”
I have shared this before, but it makes my stomach turn when I see social media posts about “giving.” It’s people tooting their own horns, which takes away from their generosity. A couple of years ago, a pastor of some sort was out to dinner with his family and using his phone, recorded giving his waiter a $100 tip, and the waiter’s reaction. Was it generous of this man to tip his waiter $100?
Read more“Nothing I can do about it now,” has become a commonly used phrase in our house and a family inside joke I am about to share with you. Terry ran over my foot ... twice, now, with a lumber cart at Home Depot. The first time it happened, Michala was home for break and the three of us laughed so hard, out of shock, we could not move. Well, they couldn't move from laughter, I couldn’t move from immobility. Terry's comment was, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now." So, it has become a running family joke. "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now."
The second time it happened was back in September and Terry
Read moreMy mom taught Michala what, “I’ve got your six” means, years ago. We try to remind Michala constantly to keep her head on a swivel and be aware of everyone and everything around her. Last winter when we were traveling to the cabin, it was late and Terry wanted to get some fuel. The only station that had diesel looked kind of sketchy. The only real lights were directly over the pump and shortly after he began fueling, we all watched a drug deal take place at the pump next to us, and the guy walked off into the darkness. Convinced something was going to happen, I told Michala I didn’t want to take my eyes off Terry and I wanted to watch his six. To Michala, I said, “I need you to watch my back, Michala, so I can watch Dad’s. Let me know if anyone is coming up to the truck.”
What I did not
Read moreOne of my favorite songs of all time is, “Better Than A Hallelujah.” Amy Grant sings it, but it was written by Sarah Hart and Chapin Hartford. “We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody. Beautiful the mess we are, the honest cries of breaking hearts. Are better than a hallelujah.”
Grief is an unbearable emotion and the holidays can make it seem even more unbearable. We long for the loved ones to sit on the floors and sofas with us and open presents on Christmas morning. We miss the jokes and wisecracks around the table. We miss the texts and phone calls. The hugs. The laughter.
I shared with a friend recently, “Some days I can talk about it and it is just like mentioning a scraped knee. Other days, it’s reliving the death as if it just happened, all over again, and the pain is so fresh
Read moreHave you ever had someone save your life? I have. Her name is Penny Williams. When you look at her face, she just looks like a cherub. A beautiful angelic face, never without a smile. April 23, 2007 I was in a terrible car wreck. A man ran a red light and broadsided me. He was texting and witnesses said he smelled like alcohol. It was 8:00 in the morning. I had a broken back, part of my clavicle was fractured, I had severe head and neck injuries from the closed head trauma and my left arm was paralyzed for three months.
It took almost one year of physical therapy as well as speech therapy to relearn how to form my words again to feel “right.” It was an extremely difficult time. Once I was released to go back to the gym, I discovered yoga. Not only did I discover yoga, I discovered a
Read moreWe recently had a whirlwind travel week. We drove for about 15 hours to the cabin, (had to make several stops along the way) and arrived at 2:30 in the morning. It looked like an Alfred Hitchcock movie because there were dead bugs all over the hardwood floors; it looked like we had black floors. So we spent the next half hour vacuuming and doing bug removal. A day later, we went to pick up Michala, then drove another two hours to the airport. We flew out at 7:00 the next morning, so we had to be up at 4:30. Someone was kind enough to call Terry’s and my hotel room at 1:50 and again at 2:20, so we didn’t really go back to sleep after the phone woke us. We flew to Rhode Island, and it was go-go-go all day and night until we crashed. The second night in another hotel was pretty sleepless as well, and we had to be up and at ‘em bright and early the next morning.
I bought some super cute heels that had great reviews on Lulus for the events. Let me be clear … if I only had to wear these for a few hours, they would be perfectly fine. Wearing them for 14 hours, walking on cobblestone streets and pavement, however, was no
Read moreOne of my least favorite things about flying is the take-off. Terry knows how much I dislike this part, and recently when we were flying back to Florida, we were both engrossed in the books we were reading. Without saying a word, he reached over and held my hand tightly. Even better? Our personal photographer was with us on this trip and was able to capture the moment without my even knowing it. Doesn’t that sound so fancy? The fact that we travel with our personal photographer? Yeah. It’s Michala. She’s our personal photographer. The candid shots she takes are always my favorites.
Anyway, the point I am making is Terry knows me, inside and out; backwards and forwards. I did not have to say to him, “I hate take-off. It makes me so nervous,” because he already knew. Later on during that flight when I closed my book and tried to close my eyes for a nap (which never happened, because I can’t seem to sleep while flying) I realized I did not have to articulate my emotions to Terry. He knew. Just like when I am at the end of my rope, sometimes, and do not have the words to pray, The Holy Spirit does it for me. He just knows, and He carries my thoughts, my fears, my worries, my concerns, my frustration straight to God, and He expresses all of it, for me.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” - Romans 8:26 (NIV)
Okay, before you think I am being disrespectful, please do not think I am comparing Terry to The Holy Spirit. I am, however,
Read moreInappropriateness and laughter. That pretty much sums up our family’s Thanksgiving this year. We have one crazy family, let me tell you. For three years now, I have been trying to think of a way to pay back my brother for giving our parents sex toys, and writing, “To Mom and Dad, From Aimee” on the wrapping paper. I have yet to get him back. This year, they played another practical joke on me … this one was HUGE. My 16 year old nephew and his 15 year old girlfriend were coaxed by my brother, sister-in-law and get this … my mother, to play this joke on me. They thought it would be hilarious to tell me they were pregnant. They had a sonogram (that they found on the internet) and everything. I was in total shock. But in my mind, what’s done is done! No sense lecturing them about their age and future … I needed to be supportive.
Imagine my shock when I realized it was a joke. AND that my very own mother was behind it all! (Some day, some way, I will
Read moreTen years ago this month, I was on The Today Show. They flew me up, put me in a hotel across the street from Rockefeller Plaza and it was an incredible, amazing time. I met my friend Jan during that segment, and we have been friends, ever since. I got to see the city all lit up and decorated for Christmas and wander the streets of New York alone and mesmerized as a Nashville girl in the Big City. The driver sent by the show to pick me up at the airport was such a nice man. He picked me up in this huge, black SUV and opened the backseat door for me at the airport, but I asked, “May I sit up front with you so I can see everything?”
He asked me what I was doing for The Today Show, and I told him I was part of a “holiday recipe contest” and he told me all about his wife and her love for cooking, and his mom and her love for cooking, and we shared such a bond of our love for feeding people. He showed me all around New York; he drove me through Queens and The Bronx. He drove me all through the city, pointing out areas where he grew up, where he likes to eat, and told me not to be afraid of crime or terrorists. He said since 9/11, more police and more federal agents were on the streets than ever before, and that while I would see some in uniform, many were plain-clothes men and women, walking around, keeping everyone safe.
We had a rehearsal the evening before the live show, and then I wandered back to the hotel. My stomach began growling, so I wanted to find something to eat. I walked into the place next door, but quickly saw it was a bar and a nightclub, so I turned around and left. I went back to the hotel and asked the lady at the front desk to recommend a place for
Read moreTerry and I faced some pretty severe storms together. Hurricane Irma was a Category 4 when the eye touched just 3 miles from our home. Then we battled other storms when we learned a thief stole our credit cards and went to town paying their bills with them. Then we waited for justice. Then we waited to be paid in a business deal in which Terry was involved and has yet to be paid. We loaned a “friend” some money for his business in what was to be a six-month to one year at the latest deal; but now almost two years later, no repayment, no conversations, nothing. During all of this, I was praying
Read moreThe other day I was on the wine aisle in Publix, looking for a wine Terry and I both enjoy drinking, but one I can also use for cooking. There was a man standing next to me who said not to get the California Sauvignon Blanc, that he could tell by looking at me I wouldn’t like it. I couldn’t tell it he was being funny or flirty so I told him, “My husband and I taste tested a couple of them and we didn’t like any of the California Sauvignon Blancs we tried, so we stick to the ones from New Zealand.”
That guy walked away, but there was someone else standing behind me. The guy stocking wine told me, “I thought you handled that really well! You were polite, but you shut him down. No one would have known, otherwise if you flirted back.” I smiled at him and said, “But I
Read moreI have so many reasons to be so happy and grateful. So many. I try to fall asleep with Papa every night, listing the many reasons why I am grateful, and thanking Him.
I am so very thankful for my precious husband. Some nights I cry myself to sleep from crying tears of joy and gratitude. I know it’s mushy and silly, but I am so thankful and grateful he is mine and how God brought us back together after so many years apart. Terry takes care of me in so many different ways. He thinks of every little thing to protect me. One of the things I have grown to love and appreciate is the weight lifting belt he bought for me a couple of years ago. I was using one of his and it was just too big. It would not stay up, so I just shrugged it off, thinking I really didn’t need one, anyway. It’s not like I’m a powerlifter or anything.
But when we did leg day (squat machine for calves) and deadlift day, I noticed how much my back would hurt. Terry ordered a belt that’s “Fun Size,” (what we call me; I’m not a midget, I’m fun size) and it fits, great! It’s still a little big, but I can double over and make it fit nice, tight and snug to protect my back.
So the other day when we were working out, I told Terry how much I appreciated his thoughtfulness in ordering this belt for me a few years ago. My back never hurts anymore
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