The Shack

Here is the way to get me motivated to do something:

Conversation with my sister-in-law.

Amy: "I just read The Shack...you should read it."
Me: (in my mind I'm thinking about Shaquille O'Neal) Oh really, what is it about?"
Amy: "Can't tell you, it will give it away."
Me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Some days pass, I'm at a MOPS retreat, everyone that walks in says, "Have you read, The Shack?" "NOPE, but don't ruin it for me...I'm getting it on Sunday!"

Tuesday night, finished The Shack! It was awesome. This is a book that I needed in high school before I "got it", and also when I first "got it" (the relationship with Jesus)! I loved the book, like Amy said...can't really give a summary...you'll just have to read it for yourself! It didn't take me long to read it...it's a page turner. FYI-It is Fiction.

This is a quote from the back cover, "In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?

Here is the website to check it out for yourself. http://www.theshackbook.com/

You can believe in Jesus, go to church, read the Bible, but if you don't understand the relationship that God yearns to have with you and don't accept that He is always with you...none of the above matters. If you work on your relationship with Jesus and accept him as the Lord of you Life...you will be changed and you will fill that empty void in your life!

Tyler eats some puffs

The danger to teaching him to chew and eat puffs is that every small thing goes into his mouth! He is just growing up so fast. He'll be 9 months old tomorrow! He's already grazing across the couch, saying baba and ga. He's very busy and doesn't like to be held much...just wants to GO!

We also are having to put up gates...he's not too fond of them yet.

I'm having the time of my life with my little man!

Pantry Drama

A couple days ago I was asked to bring desert to dinner with some friends. So I thought, what do I have all the ingredients for? Oatmeal cookies of course! So, I'm making my cookies and I go to get some flour out of the pantry (we had A LOT of flour, from a previous baking kick I had 6 months ago that ended after one day) and there was an infestation of those little weevils! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! So gross...I opened another, yep and another...all of the flour was ruined! Then I thought, I'm throwing everything out, but yesterday I thought surely this brand new pancake mix will be fine....NOPE! So, completely disgusted I emptied out the entire pantry peeled off contact paper...scrubbed the shelves, had Scott spray for bugs...reapplied easy non-slip shelving paper from Dollar Tree, and now we have a pantry that I am hesitant to put any food in. I don't think I'll be shutting the door, new house rule is that nothing goes on the floor of the pantry so the bug man can spray...so on and so on. But talk about getting motivated to clean! We also got those airtight sealed containers to put only 1 bag of flour at a time. I will NOT be stocking up on anything again (grocery store is only 1 mile down my street!).

and by the way, I did the classic "borrow some flour from the neighbor" to finish my cookies, which were AWESOME!

All in all it was a VERY productive day...add 4 loads of laundry and a trip to TJ Max, the Dollar Tree, Wal-mart, and back to Dollar Tree with a 9 month old! (to find shelving paper and containers!)

Happy Birthday Grandma! From Tyler

We love you and miss you. Can't wait for you to come back to Savannah next month!

Love,
Carrie, Scott, and Tyler!

Tree for Tyler and some babble

This weekend Scott and I attended his best friends sister's wedding and their party favor was a tree to plant. So we've decided since we don't have a good spot for the tree...and we didn't think the neighbors would like us planting a tree in their yard, we would ask JohnE and Jenny if we could plant it at their house. And of course they didn't care. So this tree is for Tyler...hopefully we'll be able to watch it grow while JohnE and Jenny live in Savannah and then long after they leave we will always remember where the walnut tree is and drive by to reminise Tyler's first year of life. I just hope it grows!!!

Tyler is babbling away these days. We are trying to turn the bababa into dada/mama...but not yet, this is all we get so far. What do they say, "You spend the first year of their life teaching them to stand up, walk, and talk and the rest of their life telling them to sit down and shut up!

Happy Birthday John-E!

It's my brother's birthday! 1/4 of a century old! Let's see, he's getting married next year, he's a home owner, he's an uncle, hmmm...you could say I'm pretty proud of my little brother! Love you John-E, hope you have a wonderfuly birthday here in Savannah!

Love,
Carrie, Scott, and Tyler!

Two weeks ago Tyler started crawling and he's already pulling up. I thought we'd have a few more weeks of crawling but I guess he just got bored. I think he's still a few months away from actually walking on his own...he's pretty wobbly. The firt time he pulled up on his own was Saturday August 2nd...and here it is on video from today!

Tyler Laughing

Tyler has been giggling for awhile now, but today I heard a whole new laugh come out...so I thought I'd share what I captured. It's sure to make you smile and maybe even giggle yourself.

Love,
Carrie