Summer

Friday was the last day of 10th grade for Christen. Her best friend came over Friday night and stayed with us throughout the weekend. Fun was had by all! We broke in the pool. My brother, niece and my brother's "friend that is a girl" came over too.

Christen had another friend over Sunday night and I took her home this morning.

My cousin graduated from High School Saturday. She was the Salutatorian for her class. I was shocked that prayer was not given at the beginning of the ceremony, but Mary was such a great witness in her speech. She's bound for greatness and I can't wait to see what all God has in store for her!

My Child

I love my kid. She's pretty awesome. She's a beautiful child of God and I'm so proud of her. I'm on pins and needles to find out what all God has in store for her for the rest of her life!

All that being said, she can surely drive me crazy. She's so smart and beautiful, but she forgets that sometimes. And when she forgets, she gets into trouble. Thankfully she's pretty tame compared to some other teenagers (like me when I was her age).

She loves sports (soccer and now she's getting into softball too). She does great in math, science and Spanish. She doesn't do as well in Honors Lit though. But I was so proud of her this morning when she emailed me and told me she made an 81 on her Honors Lit Final Exam. I doubt she will wind up with a B in the course, but she did prove that she could do well if she would just study.

Like any other teenage girl, she loves boys. And she's pretty enough that boys love her too. Lately, we've kept them at bay, I'm not so sure how long it will last though.....

This summer, she'll be gone for a total of 3 1/12 weeks. One week she'll be on a mission trip, another week she'll be at youth camp and then for 1 1/2 weeks she'll be in Sweden playing in the 2010 Gothia Cup. That week and a half, if I post at all, I will probably post incoherent blogs in between crying fits. Yeah, she is SO ready and I am SO not.

I still think of her as this baby:

But clearly, she is growing up. And God has His plans all laid out for her. So, I just need to learn to sit back and be still. Thank you Irritable Mother for reminding me of that with this verse: The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14

Who am I fighting?? I am fighting against the world for my daughter to make the right choices. But I need to remember that she is only on loan to me. She is God's child first and He will take care of her.

PS. The Lime & Chili Almonds ROCKED!!!

Walgreens Rocks!

I love Walgreen's. I am familiar with just about everyone that works in my local Walgreen's. They are all super nice and they don't make me feel like a nuisance for going in there just about every day. Especially when I don't have time to make my coffee in the morning. When I don't have time to make my coffee or if I forget, I'll stop in Walgreen's and pick up a Starbucks Frappuccino. I prefer the Mocha flavor, but today I had to settle on the Coffee flavor.

I have to have caffeine. Without it I'm impossible to deal with. With it, I'm almost possible to deal with.

While in Walgreen's, I thought to myself: "I need to have a healthy snack". Bathing suit weather is here people!! I just got to where I'm comfortable wearing a bathing suit in my back yard, but I'm just not ready to wear one on a public beach or pool. I do have a gym membership, but it really doesn't do me any good when I just drive by the gym instead of stopping and actually going inside and working out.

Anyway, healthy snack... I saw the Almonds. Almonds have been getting a lot of press for being heart healthy. But I didn't want plain almonds and I didn't want sweet almonds. So... I got these:

I can't wait to try them... still a little too early in the day yet though...

I will give a full report on how I like them later.

Last Week Before Summer Vacation

It's Tuesday! Have had a great morning so far. I got up really early, before 6am!! I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got ready for work. We had time, so I took my daughter by McDonald's for breakfast. It's her last week of school before summer vacation.

In about 5 months or so, she'll be able to drive herself to school. Now THAT'S a scary thought! She has to bring her average up in Honor's English though. That was the deal. All A's & B's on her report card.

When we got to school, her friend Lynsey came up. She drove herself to school today. My how the time flies... I guess we're having fun!

This time 16yrs ago, I was getting ready to graduate from High School. I was pregnant and scared out of my mind. (I'll save that story for another entry) I pray daily that Christen makes better choices for herself and that she keeps Christ in her heart.

So, she has a lot going on this week. I'm praying she passes all her finals, that she pulls a B out of Honors English and that we can go with out arguing the rest of the week. That last one may take a miracle!!

Beckham - BelChore - Turd - DumDum - BelChum - The Beckhams

Oh how we have enjoyed our boxer, Beckham. (yes, he's named after David Beckham) He goes by many other names depending on our mood and what he has done or is about to do. It's now Beckham's favorite time of season = pool season.

We've had a terrible time getting our pool regulated. And by "we", I mean "Jon". As you can see, it's barely green here:

Beckham really doesn't care if the pool is blue, green or black. He just knows it's hot enough to swim and by golly, he's gonna swim.

He likes to pretend that he'll only swim when you say it's ok. But the minute your back is turned, he's swimming.

Yesterday, I left him and Brandi in the backyard to run around for a bit. (Brandi hates the pool, she never goes in voluntarily) When it was time to let them back in, Beckham was soaking wet and smiling the best boxer smile he could muster. I'm thinking, it's not so much the water Beckham enjoys, but the drying off. He loves to get love and attention. He gets both when we dry him off from being in the pool. He stands there, for as long as he needs to and just enjoys the attention. Oh the life of a dog....

I'm Addicted

I suppose it could be worse. I could be addicted to many dangerous things... but so far, my main weaknesses are: chocolate, carbs, bread and most recently, the Classic Limeade Sparkler from Taco Bell. No cherries.... please....






It's odd that I love this drink so much. Why? Because I'm not the biggest fan of Taco Bell. I really have to be in a "Taco Bell" kind of mood in order to eat there. My daughter, on the other hand, could eat Taco Bell food everyday and never get tired of it. She prefers the Cherry Limeade Sparkler. I.hate.cherries. So I have no clue what it tastes like.


But the Classic Limeade... oh, it's heaven in a cup. So, no more writing about it. I'm just going to finish enjoying it!

My Boxer Babies

I do believe I forgot to mention my other two babies. Shame on me. Let me start by saying, I have never been an "animal"person. I've always loved admiring animals, from afar. And I've always loved baby animals such as puppies, kittens, ducklings, etc. But once they reached a certain stage, I just really could have cared less for them. All of that changed when I met my Brandi girl. I was dead set against having a dog live in the house with us. And that changed too when I met Brandi.



My brother's boxer had puppies and Brandi was the runt. She was less than half the size of all the other puppies. My brother and his (now ex) wife bottle fed her until she could drink milk from a saucer and eat puppy food. We got her when she was 5wks old and only 2lbs. Her largest brother/sister was 5lbs at that time! She could literally fit in the palm of my hand. There was no way I was going to let this baby sleep outside. I do believe she officially became a part of our family when on the way home from my brother's house, she pooped in my lap. It was actually kind of sweet. Thankfully I used protection in the form of a puppy pad.









Now she is five years old, she's had puppies of her own. We kept one and we call him Beckham. He is probably the smartest yet most idiotic dog I've ever known. He's surely a clown and will keep you entertained for hours on end. He actually was the entertainment of my niece's 9th birthday party this year.









If you read my first post, you know I got a Nikon Coolpix L100 for Mother's day. Only because my boxer babies can't put their paws over their face EVERYtime I try to take their picture, they will be my main subjects. I would love for Christen to be my main subject, but since she's a teenager, she's all cranky and stuff whenever I try to take her picture. So below are the first couple of picture I've taken w/ the Nikon. Hope you enjoy!

My Numero-Uno Blog Post

Hi, my name is Jodi and I'm a Christian, 33 year old mother to a 15 year old daughter (yeah, you do the math). I'm also a wife and I work full-time as an insurance agent (P&C). I love my daughter, I love my husband and I tolerate my job. I am thankful for my job, don't get me wrong. But I felt it best to be upfront about my feelings.

We live in a small town in southern Georgia. I've lived here most of my life. I've tried my best to leave and never come back, but there is truly a gravitational force that will not allow me to escape. The last time I moved back here, my mother was so happy to have me back in town! When we moved to her neighborhood, she so was so estatic she sold her house and moved to another subdivision. She then promptly moved about 7 hours away. If she weren't a Christian, I'd swear she was giving me the finger and muttering: "So long sucker!!!" as she drove away. Seriously, I love my mother. I know she loves me.

My daughter, Christen, keeps us on our toes for sure. She is a great soccer player. Her position is goal keeper and she is fierce! She is coming to the end of her 10th grade year in school. Lucky duck is traveling to Sweden in July to play in the Gothia Cup. It's like the World Cup of Soccer, but for kids.

My husband, Jon, is a great person. We are like night and day though. So our relationship proves to be interesting and difficult, but we're in it for the long haul!

I do love to paint (as in art, not walls... I abhor painting walls.... or cabinets.... or doors... well, you get the picture) and I'm going to dabble a little more in photography now because I got a Nikon Coolpix L100 for Mother's Day! GO ME!!! Music is also a passion of mine. I love to sing and write poetry & lyrics. So in this blog, you'll find a little bit of everything.

Soon, I hope to have the posts filled with paintings, photographs, lyrics, poetry, triumphs and trials of being a young mother to a teenage daughter and stories of marriage (blissful and not-so-blissful).Please feel free to comment and ask questions, and please check back soon. More to come!