Vacation

I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday. This week is going way too fast. But I've gotten to spend some sweet time with my babies, got my hair done, and am now down spending some time with my family. I ordered Nikki's house warming invites and some business cards for myself. Can't wait to see those when they come in. I need to finish some more marketing packets. Anyone need any product?? Business cards, flyers, anything?? : )

It's almost Halloween. Caitlyn was going to be a ladybug, but she meow's everytime I turn around, so we went out and got her a cute little kitty outfit tonight. So she's going to be meowing in her cute little kitty outfit. She'll be so cute! Haven't decided where we're going yet. My neighborhood is pretty boring, plus RPM will be in Atlanta on the 31st. We'll be singing at a crusade down there. We'll figure something out though.

I'm in the 'writing songs' mood but have no keyboard down here. Kinda wanna write some regular songs versus worship songs. Just have this feeling, plus Shawn and I have talked about possibilities for RPM. Anyway, such random thoughts I know. Really tired, I should just go to bed. Okay, goodnight : )

Quote

"To get something you never had, you have to do something you've never done. When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you."

A friend of mine posted this on their facebook status. I've always heard, "to get something you never had, you have to do something you've never done." Shawn used that religiously in worship at a previous church. But to hear, "when God takes something from your grasp, he's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better," that really makes sense. I've never thought of it that way, but that's exactly what God does. So many times, we blame God for pulling us away from a comfortable place or removing certian people from our lives, when he has to do that in some cases to take us forward.

"The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you." I believe his grace is sufficient for all of us, deserving or not. And I cannot be thankful enough that His grace protects me in every situation. It may seem at times that He's not there or He doesn't have his blanket of grace over me, but as invisible as it may seem, it's very visible in His presence.

Random Thoughts

So mom sent me pictures of her area and I've seen some of the damage from the flooding. That is crazy stuff!! I can't imagine. I'd be freakin out if it were ankle deep outside my house. I'd be evacuating quick! Haulin butt outta there, lol. I's worried about mom cause she was at home alone last night and Atlanta was expecting more rain and the picture of her yard looked awful. But I spoke to her today and she's still alive, so I guess everything is fine.

This Saturday, RPM has an event in Atlanta down by the stadium in downtown. Pretty excited about that. We get the stage for almost an hour. Gonna be fun! Anyone who loves to worship and will be around at 4pm, you should drop by Adamsville Recreation Center, 3201 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Doors open at 3:30pm.

My hubby is cooking pot roast tonight with potatoes, fried green beans, and cornbread. Mmmm....my tastebuds are so ready. 45 more minutes before I can leave work.

Chris and Nikki got their house. They are closing on October 12th. Its a really nice house, even though its further away from us. But we can take a certian highway straight to their house instead of going through all these backroads like we have to now. I told them we'd be over there every weekend to stay so I can use her jacuzzi tub...ahhh, I can't wait to get one of those. We're thinking about doing a major remodel of our master bath and walk-in closet come tax return time. The remodel includes adding a jacuzzi tub, YAY!!! I think I'll be in heaven then, LOL

Have I mentioned that I'm ready to go home?? Well.....I'M READY TO GO HOME!!!!!!!

New Items

So we've really been wanting to finish our basement really bad. We like using it for band practices and stuff because of all the room, and we'll probably incorporate a large den/play area down that could still be used for a practice area, but we would really like it to be living space as well. So! Yesterday, a lady offered on freecycle some carpet, 11x11 ivory colored plush carpet. It's 6 years old and they bought it at Home Depot. She said it was hardly used. That is was in their dining room area but they never used their dining room for eating. They recently decided they wanted to start using their dining room for eating, so she wanted to put down hardwood. So they pulled the carpet up and the cushion part, and I got it!! We brought it in the basement last night, and it looks like its going to cover at least 1/3 of the basement. I think its larger than 11x11. Its huge! And really nice. I can't believe she was giving it away. But of course we went and picked it up at her house and she lives in a very prestigious neighborhood, so she was starving to sell it to make money.

So after picking that up, we met up with a guy and got two bathroom vanity light sets. We're gonna paint them a silver or black color. They're really nice, once they get painted. But I'm gonna keep my eye out. Hopefully, I'll rack up on some other things to finish the basement. It'd be awesome to get it all done for free, lol

Marketing Packets

So I finished my marketing packets today. I've made little packets that include my business card, a Print Quality Sample (a postcard that I had printed from the print company I use to show the quality of paper/print), a sheet introducing myself along with some reviews from several customers, and the last sheet gives pricing for the most popular business printing needs.























I'm hoping to pass these out to several companies, and hopefully they'll see how much they could save on printing, while getting custom design for not much more than what they're paying just for print. It's amazing what some people will pay for sucky print service, while at the same time not being interested in looking at other options. A lot of times, it falls on convenience, its just convenient to take their needs down to the local print shop. But I'm hoping to open some eyes with these packets.

If you know anyone who you think may be interested or who may benefit from better quality printing/design, tell them to check out www.coxdesign.webs.com.

Vacation

I think I need a vacation. I am very exhausted. I'd love to get away for a week to somewhere like the beach or even the mountains to a nice cabin. I need some get-away time right now. Anyway, really random thoughts here, every time we come to Greenville, when Shawn drops me off at work, Caitlyn cries, no mama no, no mama no!!...as we approach my company's street. Breaks my heart to pieces. I'm going to eventually go back to being a stay-at-home mom, maybe starting my own business, I mean just continuing more heavily what I've already started. I enjoy working in the work field, but I miss my baby too much. And she will eventually be going to pre-school and I want to be able to pick her up from school and go to her little class things and events, games. Yes, I think I want to be a soccer mom for a living, lol. Anyway, I know that's a ways away, but as I'm told, it sneaks up on you before you know it.

Thank God we have a 3-day weekend this weekend. I'm gonna rest, maybe do some resting, and probably rest some more, lol. Maybe we'll actually get to hang out with our friends for the first time in like, forever! We used to hang out every weekend, but lately one or the other has had something else to do. Anyway, its almost time to go home and I'm about to fall asleep. I gotta go walk around or something.

My Landscaping

We dug up tons of monkey grass from my moms house this past weekend. After putting all of it in our car, the entire back of the durango was full of monkey grass. We had TONS of it. But we ended up having just enough. I lined both sides of the driveway thicker, cause before, we had a little patch every foot or so, but that just wasn't doing it for me. I wanted it to be completely lined. So I think it looks so much better, not to mention, fuller. And then we continued to line it up the sidewalk to the porch. Of course we gotta clean the driveway now, lol...and lay some grass seed. Living on that hill, the drainage system sucks. All our grass washes down the hill over the driveway. We're working on digging a little trench to reroute the water. But anyway...

Then we lined the little flower bed next to the porch and laid ivy down so I'm hoping it'll reroot itself and grow up that whole area. I've just not known what to do with that little patch since we moved in. So now, if I can get it full of ivy, it'll look nice. That was a lot of hard work; we didn't finish till 10pm last night, but I believe it was well worth it.

Potty

So Caitlyn is doing really good potty training. We went to a friends house last night and she went outside with all the kids and played like a big girl. They even walked down the road of the cul-de-sac and didn't even potty in her pants. She was so big. She's really good at telling me when she's got to go now. We've not mastered the whole "#2" in the potty. Its kinda like she's on one day and off the next. But we got "#1" down pretty good.

My next step is to buy a step stool to put in front of the potty so she can hop up there herself. Then, I'll almost be hands-free, lol. I guess I should get some pull-ups for when we go places like church and anytime we're traveling for longer than an hour. But its such a relief to not have to buy diapers every week or two, especially now that Wal-mart has decreased the number of diapers per box, but kept the price the same. Whatever...

Virginia

We had a blast this past weekend in Virginia with the band. Although I only got maybe 7 hours of sleep the entire weekend, I'm doing pretty good right now staying awake, lol. I don't think I've laughed that hard in several years. It was almost constant humor. Wish we could travel all the time. But we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the "bonding" time with everyone.

We got to play at an outdoor "End of Summer" bash on Saturday. That was pretty fun. We were under a shelter so it wasn't too hot, even though I think the humidity is worse up there than it is here in Georgia. I thought it got better the more north you went. But anyway, we decided to start performing our original stuff instead of mixing it in with cover songs. And this was the first time we actually did this. And it went very well. People loved it. Especially Sunday morning. We went to a church and did their two morning services. They were crazy. They love to worship; that's for sure. I loved it myself. I miss being in that kind of corporate atmosphere. It's different than being in your personal quiet time. I don't know what it is about a bunch of people getting together and worshiping the Lord. Its very powerful. I was crying the whole time; as if that's not usual here lately. God was definitely in the house. But the first service was just overwhelming worship. The second service turned more into a praise fest, lol. I guess the second crowd was awake and ready to go. First crowd was still asleep : )

Anyway, we talked to a guy up there. He came to hear us. He heard us last time we were up and enjoyed it. And he talked to us this time and informed us that he has just been placed in a new spot over KTV video production dept, which is on Dish, Direct TV, etc. as a christian television station. Anyway, he will also be in the recording label division of the organization. And he asked if we were signed. We told him no; that we had looked into it before, but the timing was never right, plus we've just recently narrowed down which direction we want to take as a band. And he said he definitely wanted to contact us when he gets settled in his new position, because he loves our new stuff. So I thought that was pretty cool.

Well, its time to go home.

Swimming

So this is the pool that my sister-n-law got for me for free. She didn't want it because its more a real pool rather than a kiddy pool. I originally wanted the 16' pool for myself, but then she came across this one on the web, someone giving it away for free. And she thought it was smaller, but when she went to pick it up and saw it had chemicals and a filter, she didn't want it. So she gave it to us. I was totally excited. We set it up and I was just happy we had something to get wet in on a hot day. When looking for pools, I was real leary about these easy set pools. They just looked like they'd be hard to work and probably a piece of junk. But I tell ya, this is the best thing, probably better than what we originally wanted in the 16' pool.

It's 10x30, so it's only about 2 feet deep. But its completely perfect for the three of us. I mean, absolutely perfect. Caitlyn can stand up in there and we can sit down and play with her or we can float. I started thinking, I would've had the roughest time with a deeper pool, especially having to hold Caitlyn the whole time, because floaties are good, but they won't keep a child's face out of the water. And Caitlyn's definitly a curious swimmer. So we filled the pool up on Friday night and swam all day on Saturday, I've got a nice lobster burn to prove it, lol, most of it's gone away by now, except my back and my right thigh, lol. But I'd have to say, if this were a purchased product, it would've been the most absolute best purchase we would've made. And I'm glad it worked out this way where it was given to us, because I never even thought to get this small of a pool, or this type of pool. But it is great!! And believe it or not, the water is warm. I guess because its a small pool, the water can warm up faster, plus we have a cover we keep on it. But we can lay in there at night and its so warm. Its great!!