You should probably have that checked....

Either he's REALLY allergic to sushi...

Or we are easily amused by a giant strawberry masquerading as a super gross tongue.

Either way.

You probably want to back away slowly.....

Our Underwater Ally...

So, we spotted Nessie. You can't prove it's not.





Napoleon would be proud.

From one Mom of girls to another...

As the Momma of two precious girls, I'd like to say...FINALLY!

Finally someone is taking a stand to promote purity through modesty. I'm a firm believer that you can be beautiful, stylish & modest all at the same time.

If this means something to you, consider signing the petition and adding your voice to the chorus.

Hillsong Concert...

Mike was able to go just for attending the Wonder Conference at WCA. They were sold out, so there really was no hope of my being able to go with him. I told him he could NOT miss the opportunity and to tell me all about it when he got home.


So sad.


We went to eat dinner and on the way back to the church we decided it was at least worth it for me to park and walk up with him. Maybe someone had an extra ticket...

Mike started praying that there would be a way for me to go with him. Lo and behold, at the exact moment we walked in the door Mike saw a gentleman hand an extra ticket to one of the door attendants. He walked over and she smiled and said, "Here you go"!


I just about had a moment right there in the middle of the lobby...actually I did do a praise filled fist pump because come on...give praise where praise is due!

God is so good. Even in the small things!


The picture above is from the concert. They had it up on one of the ginormous screens. I cut it down because this sweet woman's hair was floating in the side of the picture! This is the only picture I took during the whole concert. It was awesome and I couldn't bring myself to do anything but worship. It was beyond icing on the cake of this blessed trip.


Sometimes God speaks in whispers...and sometimes He shouts! Last night He was SHOUTING and I was in AWE!


Consider these lyrics:


This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled
To be emptied again
The seed I've received
I will sow

Hillsong - Desert Song (There is no sound until about 21 seconds in so hang with it! You'll be so glad you did!)

Pictures...

*Read the post below this one to hear some details from our trip so far*

Here we are at my Momma & Daddy's (AKA "Camp Grandma & Grandpa") saying good bye for a few days...



Think we might be excited?!



A huge bridge we crossed in Veedersburg, Indiana. I thought it was neat.



I'm obviously no photographer, but even so, these pictures just can't do the scene justice. These things were EVERYWHERE and they were so cool. The next best thing to harnessing my children's energy would be this...



Lunch time. Cracker Barrel. Because that's how we roll...







A Veteran's Memorial in Hammond, Indiana. Absolutely stunning.

A lousy attempt at catching the scope of the Lake as we drove down the Chicago Skyline. It was much like seeing the ocean. Water as far as you could see...

I just couldn't capture the Skyline at warp speed. It was impressive to say the least. And Windy City is right...we left home with temps around 85. We arrived in Chicago with 54. Burr...

Chicago Bound...

Yesterday morning we left our sweet girls at "Camp Grandma & Grandpa" and headed north. Mike mapped out a path along back roads so we could enjoy the landscapes instead of blaze past everything. The mileage was almost exactly the same it just took a little longer because the speed limit was lower. So anyway, I wasn't as quick with the camera as I wish I could have been. Some of the things we saw were beautiful - miles and miles of farm land, rivers and bridges, old farm houses restored. Some were unusual - a giant porcelain pig, hundreds of enormous wind mills that looked like something from Star Wars. Some were down right hilarious! Things like:

The Funk Farm
Abnor Horrell's Wholesale & Retail Melons
Gobbler Knob Country Market
Chuckles Gas (my personal favorite)

Our trip was going along smoothly. We found our way onto the Chicago Skyline route. We drove along the gorgeous Lake Michigan. Saw the Navy Pier. Watched countless people bike, jog, and walk along the Lake Shore park. The buildings were beautiful. Old. Classy. The traffic wasn't bad so we could gawk a little.

Then it happened.

Mike saw a sign for US-41 (the road we'd been following all the way from Clarksville) and whipped off at the exit. After I put my head back on, I said, "Um. Where we going?". He said, "We're supposed to be following the US-41 so I got off here." And according to the directions, we were. So to make an hour delay a short story. We were LOST! But I must say, Chicago is for the most part an incredibly beautiful city. Or maybe the Lord just allowed us to get lost in the beautiful part. And if that's true....PRAISE GOD! It was getting dark and quite frankly it was as terrifying as it was thrilling! So we wandered around for a while until Mike's awesome navigational skills got us back on track and we made way to our hotel. We got settled and since it was 10:30 PM we decided to hit Steak and Shake. One double steak burger/chicken salad and two shakes later we hit the hay.

I'm setting here now in our 7th floor Hilton hotel room while Mike is at the Wonder Conference at Willow Creek Community Church. I'll meet him for lunch and then he'll head on back for more insight and inspiration.

I'll try to post some pictures in a post soon of a few of the things I did catch on the trip up.

Also, I'm obviously away from home and my pictures to post my memories from our 10 years of marriage. So basically, you win some...you lose some! I hope you enjoyed remembering with me some of the moments in our past. We'll have to leave it there for now. I'm too busy enjoying the present!

Love from Northern Chicago!

Life is a day at the Park...

"Daddy, go hide. I'm gonna count 1-2-3-10-18-9, ready or not here I come."





Daddy & his girls. These 3 are my everything. As it's been said, "All this and Jesus too?!"

June 5th: 7 days until our 10 year anniversary!

(For June 5th) Our third year of marriage, 2001

We got house fever near the end of 2000. I don't know if it was an early "nesting" symptom or what. We found this beautiful little cabin on 6 acres. The owner and his family had it built as a vacation home and then decided shortly after having it finished that they didn't need it. So a brand new home on 6 beautiful acres for $46,000. Um, yes we'd like to buy it NOW! So we did. It was very exciting and we couldn't wait to make it home. We closed the last week in February.



You can see the creek that ran directly behind it. It was breath taking!



This is the view from up on the hill country behind the cabin. We were looking down on it. It was akin to something straight out of a Gatlinburg brochure!

As I mentioned earlier, the need to find a home may have been foreshadowing what was to come. Exactly 2 weeks after closing on the house, I woke up one morning and thought to myself...I don't feel right. We were NOT trying to expand our family and when that faint second line appeared on the trusty EPT, I immediately started crying! Mike and I took turns looking at it saying, "That can't be right." But very soon fear faded into a cozy shade of delight and I distinctly remember the moment I looked at my husband and thought, "I'm having your baby. How could I be so blessed." The next day I received the most dazzling bouquet of yellow roses (my favorite) with tiny purple flowers and baby's breath. And a card that could have made Hitler cry! I'll never forget how special I felt at that moment.

Here we are in our country cabin. Mike is building a new laundry room for me. I am VERY pregnant. Call me crazy, but I miss that. I would have had many, many more babies with you, Sir!



On December 12, 2001 at 7:11pm we met for the first time our precious baby girl, Gracelynn Michelle Williams. I never got overly emotional during my pregnancy. In fact, I never shed a tear. Until I heard her cry about 2 seconds after her delivery. It was suddenly very real and I was immediately madly in love with her. And so was her Daddy. And darling girl, we still are.

Gracie is less than 2 hours old here. Her Daddy had just changed her very first diaper. A few kisses to top it off.



These posts could never capture the emotion and deep love each of these memories hold. I miss those moments with our squishy, soft newborns, but I cherish each new memory we make with them as they grow into fine young ladies!

My sweet husband, you were in 2001, and you are now the most amazing father! Our girls are blessed. I am blessed. I love you!

June 4th: 8 days until our 10 year anniversary!

(For June 4th): These are two memories from our second year of marriage, 2000.

This was our first plane ride. It was crazy fun. I made the poor lady sitting next to us take our picture! When the plane took off and landed I really wanted to put my hands in the air and squeal like a roller coaster rider. But I didn't. Your welcome Honey. One day we'll do it again!



The second was not fun at the time, but we can laugh now. Or I can laugh now anyway... a quick back story... Mike & I left our jobs in February 2000 to work together. We took a contract with a guy running an installation company. We traveled around uninstalling and reinstalling dishwashers that had been recalled in apartment buildings. I know. This particular time we had to travel to Atlanta. We were meeting a guy there to help us get a complex completed under a time crunch. His name was Dave Matthews. I'm not making that up! So we headed on down. Found our guy. Finished our first day and headed back toward our hotel. We got off the interstate and on the turn, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR DISHWASHERS flew off the trailer into 3 lanes of heavy downtown Atlanta traffic! Sweet mercy. Mike instantly became the Incredible Hulk (I'm pretty sure he was actually green) and threw them all back onto the trailer while dodging speeding cars. I was in total shock...I wanted to quit that day.

Here's Mike in our Atlanta hotel totally faking a conversation with Dave Matthews. He was pretending it was THE Dave Matthews :)

June 3rd: 9 days until our 10 year anniversary

So on with business here! I have so many amazing memories. In part this blog was meant to capture some of them as life blazes by year after year....but for the next few days it will simply be for remembering some.

These memories don't necessarily represent my "greatest" memories or the biggest moments in our life together. I promised myself when I decided to do this that I wouldn't over think it. I'd just share what came to mind. Moments and memories from everyday life with my Man...

I've made up my mind to share a memory from every year of our marriage.

(For June 3rd) To make up for Monday & Tuesday, I'll be sharing three of my memories from our first year of marriage. That's basically like trying to pick up only three grains of sand! Many say the first year is the hardest. That wasn't my experience AT ALL! From the moment Mike asked me to consider dating him I knew he was in my life forever. I couldn't wait to be his wife. (And I still get butterflies in my stomach when I know he's on his way home!)

I'll start with the very first memory I have after the "I do's" and the kiss that sealed the deal! I took his arm - his big muscly arm - and turned around to face a gathering of our closest friends and family and heard the words "Mr. & Mrs. Michael Scott Williams". Everything in me wanted to shout and happy dance, but I managed to save face and just grin ear to ear! I love being called Mrs. Williams. It practically still makes me giggle. I said it to myself for over a year. I wrote it in my journal and on notebooks over and over and over. And then, in a moment, it was real...

Here we are practicing that moment!



Here we are trying our best to remove all the icing we gingerly shoved up each others noses!



*FYI: I just had a stare down with a lizard that took cover under our TV stand after the rain. Gross! These are the memories I could live without.*

So anyway, memory #2. Mike surprised me with a first class stay at Opryland Hotel for our wedding night. It was beautiful and I definitely felt like Cinderella. The next morning after our "free" $50 breakfast (Babe, do you remember how I - totally not on purpose - finagled us a top notch breakfast when we were supposed to get toast and fruit?!). Anywho, we were ready to head south down the coast so we had the valet service bring our rental around. We jumped in and drove a few hours before stopping. In honor of our visit to the new Star Wars exhibit at MGM we decided to stop at a Kmart somewhere in Georgia to buy the new 3D Star Wars board game. Back at the car Mike noticed something missing. Our conversation went something like this:

Mike: "Hey Babe. Where's our license plate?"

Me (thinking): On the back of the car stud. I know last night was awesome, but pull yourself together. "Um. On the back of the car?"

Mike: "No. Seriously, we don't have a license plate."

Me: "Well, it's a rental. Maybe it doesn't need a license plate."

Mike (thinking): EVERY car needs a license plate doll. I know last night was awesome, but pull yourself together. "Not likely. Maybe we should call the rental company."

Me: "Nah. Let's hit the road!"

And as dumb as that was, we made the entire 2 week trip and never got pulled over! Can someone say "Goobers"?! Well, at least we were extremely happy newlyweds on vacation for 2 week Goobers!

Here's Mike at one of the restaurants we ate at in Englewood. It was called Mad Sam's and that's where we learned what Calamari is!



This is in our condo on the beach. Sorry about the picture quality. I don't have my scanner hooked up right now and so I had to take pictures of the pictures to post!



This is a picture I took shortly after our "turkey" incident. In an attempt to save money, I packed turkey sandwiches and drinks for the trip home. Undoubtedly I bought the cheapest white bread I could find and because of that....Mike got a huge hunk of it stuck in the roof of his mouth and as these two sweet older people drove by he started to tell me about it and the turkey flapped and the people were horrified and we laughed until we cried. I understand this makes no sense to anyone but us. Aren't those some of the best memories!



Memory #3...I know y'all are on the edge of your seats...or you've officially decided we are the dullest couple alive. Either way, I'm enjoying myself...

Our first Christmas married. What fun! It was the first time in 19 years that I hadn't raced with my brother down the hall to my parent's room (after making the coffee of course because that was the deal) to startle them awake! Mike and I woke up early and plowed through the mini pile of gifts we'd picked out for each other. I squealed a lot and pinched myself a lot. It really did feel like a dream. Then after we celebrated at our parent's houses we decided we wanted to see snow! There was no snow in our neck of the woods. So in typical pre-children fashion we threw a few days worth of clothes in the suitcase and took off for the Smokies. We drove into Pigeon Forge and checked into a log cabin style hotel. The front desk clerk wooed us with promises of a hot tub and fireplace. We unloaded the truck and headed on up. As it turned out, our "hot tub" was a bathtub with two jets. One was broken. The fireplace was a kerosene heater with at plywood "mantel" around it. But, it might as well have been the Biltmore. We drove up the mountain the next day and got our eyes full of snow. Mike, in an attempt for me to get the perfect shot, took a little "swim" in the pure, icy mountain stream! In his new coat and boots. Once I stopped laughing, I tried to help him out. I'd wanted to take his "after" picture, but by the look on his face I thought better of it...

So instead, here's a picture of us somewhere in Gatlinburg.

And here's the snow.

I know this is the longest post in history and you truly deserve a medal if you made it to the end. If you can stomach it, I'll be posting more later! :)

Thanks for sharing these memories with me, Mr. Williams. You are what makes each one special to me!

*Disclaimer*

I just can not keep up with my self on this blog! I will post my first 3 memory recalls tomorrow! And why not tonight you ask. Well, tonight I'm making new memories with the Hubsy in the form of a couch date and mucho 24.

Thank you Netflix.

Season 7.

NO COMMERCIALS.

The end.

Check back tomorrow for things such as the honeymoon road trip and turkey lunch meat.

Jack Bauer is calling. I'm out!