The Secret to Success

"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the dang poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the heck out of never trying."

-Dr. Meredith Grey

Found this here and felt inspired.

Happy Autumn!

{christopher, my love}

2 whole wonderful years.

that's how long i've been married to zees b.e.a.utiful boy.

{click on image to see his crazy face a bit bigger...it's worth it}

Sooo, our 2 year anniversary was on Oct. 6...and Chris was unexpectedly able to come home for a week. {scared me to death by surprising me from behind the door when i walked in one evening thinking he was in Cali!}...and so we last minute picked up and went away for a weekend to Blue Ridge, Georgia to celebrate! It's very close to the Smokey Mountains and we stayed on the Ochoee river.

Us, fishing...{or attempting to} on the river right behind our cabin.



The decks leading all the way down to the river...



A few highlights from the trip:

-the Swan Drive-in movie theatre.
-fishing here, there and everywhere
-hot tubbing on the deck
-scrabble on the screen porch by the river
-lots of polaroids! {if only we had a scanner...}
-driving together
-cherry seven-up!


And...our anniversary was actually a couple days after we returned.

That day's goodness included:

-Pumpkin waffles to begin with


-a surprise locket for me {from the 1930's!}


-eggnog mustache


-trip to the nashville science center



-Indian food for dinner
-Big Bang Bar! {its a dueling piano bar in nashville}

Anyhow, i feel as though the occasion was well celebrated :o)

Now he's gone again, but just one more week and then he'll be home!
{for a couple days at least}

Adios amigo.

Mi amor is no more. In Franklin at least.

He's flown off to Germany, and then France and England. Poor Fella.

However, we had such a great couple weeks together...i thought i'd write down a few highlights so i can remember (when we're old and grey) what in the world we did with ourselves when we were young and without kiddos.

. we had a campfire in our leetle leetle backyard. we roasted hot dogs and then put them in macaroni and cheese.
. we sang around the campfire while chris played the guitar.







. we rode bikes all around town exploring new streets and quirky neighborhoods, dreaming of the day when we have a home with a yard and our own mailbox.
. mexican cheese ice-cream and banana pops.
. movie nights out...sneaking food in. sssshhhh...
. making up our own language :-)
. Lunch dates with friends after church
. friends over to our place...a little irish cream, pazookie, scattegories, and cranium
. friday night out at Wild Ginger
. Pueblo Real queso
. Nashville Shores water park
. Completely re-doing our living room
. movie nights in said living room
. Mellow mushroom pizza at the pool
. ivey cakes coconut cupcake!
. Settlers (board game) at D'Arc & Wes's
. Wedding shower. i discovered Mike's hard lemonade. i love it.
. my surprise birthday party! (chris is an amazing husband and threw me the sweetest party in the world. he even got all my favorite food and drinks and an ice cream cake too!)
. visiting with Bradley (Chris's junior high pastor who also married us) and his wife Mida together. Love them.
. babysitting their kids together. the singing bee tv show...amazing and chick-fil-a!
. breaking into the pool (we forgot our pool key...i almost didnt make it over the fence)
. guitar lessons in the living room
. yahtzee game nights on our new rug which we love!
. runs with brandon and erin after zumba
. lazy days in leipers fork....crazy nice old ladies in antique stores
. driving in the bus around town together

and even more i'm sure...

now the lovely boy is gone...but i came home from work to notes hidden all over the house because he's just that thoughtful...

(yes, at times we refer to one another as "hottie mcgee"...feel free to make fun of us)


(i'm pretty sure he didnt mean this in any kind of sacrilegious way,just so funny how he wrote it)


(this was seriously needed. thanks love)


Dear Christopher,

Please hurry home so that we can make more memories together. And if you wouldn't mind too much, i'd really love a little treat from Europe? Something, you know....Europe-y. k, thanks...you're the best.

Love,
Mimsy

He bought me flowers; i put them in our new living room.

Christopher went to the farmers market and bought me flowers. the most beautiful flowers i have ever been given at that. He then proceeded to bring them into my work and embarrass me. (that wonderful kind of embarrass that makes your cheeks bright red because everyone in the restaurant is staring but you feel so loved it doesn't matter)

anyhow, i put them in our new living room. because we HAVE a new living room! well, it's really the same room just completely redone. and we love it! we repainted it. that color that looks light light greyish blue color. and then proceeded to riiiiiiip up our carpet and stain our concrete a beautiful grayish color. i love it (to say the least)

so here's our living room.
and my beautiful flowers.





the stained floor...

fell off the bandwagon...

I've a little bit been living (little bit been? sorry mrs. martin) in an airplane, car, or bus this summer....and i just fell off that darned bandwagon.

But im back...with stories and adventures to share galore!

let's start with my birthday shall we?

Sadly, Christopher was gone for my birthday...but a few lovely friends of mine scooped me up and took me out for a lovely night out.



it was wonderful :-) not to mention some lovelies i've been given! mom and dad got me those sweeet moccasins ive been so desperate for. AND a pair of earrings my mom picked up from france for me. and anners (seester) splurged on a beautiful pair of handmade earrings i'd had my eye on. Christopher Kyle actually got me the holgaroid!! Yay! (i'll hopefully post some soon once we get a scanner!)

but one of the absolute best packages ever arrived this afternoon. i'm sorry to make you all jealous, but Meredith over at Plumb sent me a box of birthday sweetness. i absolutely must share, because she is oh so talented it's ridiculous!

so i got this hat. favorite hat i've ever owned. first thought was, "oh wow, why would anthropologie be selling winter hats in august?" well, they aren't.

SHE MADE IT!!!

(i know i could have just set up the timer...but taking a mirror picture and covering up half of my justgotoutofthepool face was sorta part of the plan)



also, she's shopping for my future children. (and her's...we'll share) she knows me so well. i just bought a kids bowl last week because it was so stinkin' cute and i was afraid i'd never find a bowl for my kids to eat cereal out of that was just quuuuiiite that cute.

have you seen anything cuter than these? (i dont think so!)



and as if that wasn't way spoiling me too much.....she threw in a minnetonka moccasin key chain because they're my favorite shoe.

hey meredith. friend across the country and way too far away from me. i love you. thanks for being the most thoughtful friend and making my birthday so special all the way from california. you're the best.

and i'll be back soon. promise! i'm back on the bandwagon.

Birthday Wish List...

Well well well...my birthday's right around the corner and my mother, sister, chris, family, etc...will soon ask me that question that i never know the answer to!!

"what would you like for your birthday?" im always stumped. and then of course i think of things i'd like aaafter my birthday. so im determined to be prepared this year.
and it's 100% fine if i dont get a single item from this list! but i'll darn well know the answer to that question.

ok. numero uno. i've wanted this pair of moccasins for about a year now. (ever since my last pair got holes in the bottom)



i like the dark brown ones in a 7 1/2. and they can be found here.

Also, and this is shooting for the stars....just really dreaming with this one.

the Holgaroid.


this lovely little contraption can be found here.

I would love any of Phil Wickham's albums. I love him but don't have any already.

Then there's always beautiful jewelry...

this necklace (but with an "M") found here.


Nail polish! i don't really own any except for red....and ive been dreaming of yellow nails and orange...perhaps a purple??!!

and totally random....but ive needed this for years...and never want to spend the money on a good one....i dream of another angle brush (the really little one to put on eye liner) from Mac makeup.

Also, while we're talking makeup...i dont own any lip liner (except for a cover girl one that never stays on) and would love one that stayed on longer than 15 minutes...i mean, what's the point!

and then this little beauty has been calling my name for quite some time now too....ooh so many things to love in life aren't there :o)


and it's found at a lovely etsy site here.

Now, if i don't get a single thing off of this list, that will be fine! but for those of you who like to have suggestions...here she be.

love you all!

Day 4.

alrightio. this concludes the lovely lovely stay with my boy.

and it included a zoo!

Day 4 was also a show day...but being as kind and as sweet as he is...he managed to sneak away from tech world long enough to pop into the zoo and visit a little wildlife with me!!

i kissed a monkey. (ok, sort of)


This is one of the reasons i love my husband. he's crazy. (in the best sense of the word.) not to mention that i sort of made him do this. "babe, just stand right there. great...now a little to the right. perfect. now just, look like a beast for a second. awesome. thanks"



I got a little over-the-top excited about heading into aussie land...(i lived there for about 4 months doing missions work with YWAM and loooved every second of it!!)



And these little guys run around everywhere just like deer here. loved it! we (YWAM friends and i) would run around chasing them...totally dangerous i know. but oh so much fun. and those little joeys!



Aussiemobile



okay. so thats that.