A very merry unbirthday to....ME!

On Saturday - 8/29 - I turned 25 years old. Now I have been somewhat dreading this day for months now. I'm a quarter of a century old. I'm 1/3 of the way to dead b/c, let's face it, I'm probably not gonna live much past 75 lol. Plus 25 just seems so....old.

So I told my hubby several months back that I wanted him to take over the planning for my birthday this year - that I needed a little extra TLC this birthday lol. And boy did that man ever come through.

Now granted, turning 25 was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was totally freaking over nothing - which anyone who knows me know I tend to do this often. There are definite benefits to getting older and I honestly have a good feeling about this year. My marriage is getting stronger, my little boy is getting bigger, my job is going well, we're shopping for a house. Just lots of good things going on and I'm enjoying my life right now. So once I put the emotion of "getting old" behind me, I was able to see lots of good in life lol.

But back to my amazing husband....

I'm sure you know that Disney is running a special where you get in free on your birthday. So James decided that we would go to Disney World's Animal Kingdom for the weekend. We've been to MGM (which is apparently NOT called MGM anymore??) once and Magic Kingdom twice. We've wanted to do Animal Kingdom since the first time we went to Disney, but have never had the opportunity (read - the people we were with didn't want to go lol). SO we got a hotel room in the park for Friday - Sunday (btw - it pays to live in Florida as we saved like 30% or something on our room) and headed for Orlando. It's a short 3 hour drive and we talked the whole way, which was great.

So Friday, we check in around 4 and then hang out around the hotel for a couple hours. We had dinner reservations at The House of Blues in Downtown Disney at 7:30 that night. Let me just tell you - they had the most awesome BBQ ribs I have EVER had! Seriously - I ate like 3/4 of a rack of ribs and usually I don't eat more than 1/4. They were freaking amazing. We walked around Downtown Disney for a little bit afterward and then decided to head back to our hotel and turn in early, with plans to get up at 7am and find a MCd's for breakfast and a Target. I had forgotten to pack a swimsuit and needed a second one for home anyway, so we figured we'd grab one at Target so we could swim that night.

Saturday - we actually got up on time, which is rare for us, and headed out. I was having horrible allergy eyes and discovered at Target that Zyrtec makes an eye drop. Let me just tell you - these things are awesome. Now they didn't work for the 12 hours they were supposed to, but I'm thinking the fact that I spent the day surrounded by animals and plants - both of which I'm allergic to - had something to do with it. But they lasted for about 7 hours and even then, my eyes weren't too itchy. Awesome stuff!

Moving past that though! We got to the park at about 930 and headed straight for the safari. At the safari, we met:

Now of course there were tons of other animals - really cool ones! - at the safari, but this fun ostrich friend came walking right up to the car and I seriously could have touched him had I not been afraid of losing my fingers.

There were tons of cool things in Animal Kingdom, but to tell you everything would take too long! But if you go - ride the roller coaster in the Asia section b/c it's amazing and take time out to see the Lion King show and Flights of Wonder.

Flights of Wonder was a free flying bird show. Totally awesome! We learned about a ton of birds, heard one sing "how much is that doggy in the window" (this parrot knows SEVEN!!!!!! songs), and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

One of the highlights of my day though was at the Lion King. At Disney, on your birthday, you get a Happy Birthday pin to wear. I totally wore mine all day and it paid off big time (apart from having everyone I met wish me happy birthday! I feel one should be the center of attention on one's birthday, so this was fine with me). While waiting in line for the show, one of the employees asked if I wanted to magically help open the doors since it was my birthday. Of course I was all over that and off James and I went to the front of the line to help out! The guy told the crowd it was my birthday and then on the count of 3, I waved my hands and - poof! - magic! - the doors opened. We also got front row seats, so that was cool. If we had had to wait in line, we would have been in the back area, so yeah.

I got a cool certificate for my "magical moment" (this pic was taken at the Finding Nemo Musical):



But the Lion King show was just AMAZING! I'm telling you - if you ever go - totally check it out. It was right up there withe the Safari in my opinion.

We finished up at the park at around 6 and then went back to the hotel to swim. We went to dinner late and then came home and crashed.

Sunday - we slept in until 9 (it's amazing what having kids will do to you as far as sleeping in goes. I remember when 9 was an early wake up!) At 1030, we headed back to Downtown Disney for the House of Blues Gospel Brunch. Oh my Lord! It was wonderful. The food was awesome! There was a made to order omelet bar and I swear there were 4+ eggs in my omelet, plus it was STUFFED with ham and cheese! The music was good and exciting and they were all over praising Jesus. I loved it! Definitely something to check out if you're ever in Orlando on a Sunday morning. Of course, cameras were not allowed, but we snapped this shot outside afterward:


After the show, we walked around Downtown Disney and just hung out. Here are a couple of pics from that:




And one more from the park on Saturday:

I seriously have the most adorable child in the world. Seriously.

Tonight as I was cleaning him up after supper, I looked over and said to James "I love you!" This is the conversation between Corbo and I that followed:

Corbin said "what you say?"
Me: "I said I love your daddy"
Corbin: "no! You can't love daddy!"
Me: "Yes I can."
Corbin: "no you can't love daddy! He's not your daddy! He's my daddy! You can't love him!"
Me: "Well can daddy love mama?"
Corbin: "Daddy not love mama! Daddy love Corbin!"

So apparently we are only allowed to love Corbin. It's a good thing he's so easy to love!

I miss...

I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From a broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt

You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I wanna be holy like You are

You are everything that is bright and clean
And You’re covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man

You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are

But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean

Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy, holy God

So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly Yours

I am wholly Yours

I am full of earth and dirt and You

Happy 4th of July!

We're spending the weekend on the beach with some family and friends. We're having a blast so far.

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday. More to come tomorrow :)

For MeeMaw Buchwald

Corbin and I worked hard on this video. He wasn't sure he wanted to be a movie star, but once I told him it was for MeeMaw he was quite cooperative.

Well I can't get the video to post here, but here's a link to it on Photobucket. Enjoy:

http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/ruthiemay22/?action=view&current=MOV01970.flv

favorite foto friday

I know it's been a while since I've done this lol

On Wednesday, we bought a "new" (to us) truck. It's a 1996 Chevy S10. And for the first time ever we paid cash for a big purchase. Yay for Dave Ramsey!

Here's the truck:

I'm a rib

One of the sweet ladies that led my Bible Study this Spring wrote this in an email to everyone. I liked it, so I'm sharing it with everyone:

From one bone God fashioned you and He chose the bone that protects man's life. God chose the rib, which protects man's heart and lungs and supports him,

as the woman is meant to do. Man's heart is the center of his being and his lungs hold the breath of life. God made us to be strong, yet delicate just like the

rib since the rib cage will itself be broken before it will allow damage to the heart. Therefore, allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those areas where you still need

to be "broken" so you can support your husband like a rib cage supports his body. You were not taken from his feet to be under him, nor were you taken from his

head to be above him. God took you from his side so you could stand beside him and be held close by him. As you learned from this study, God loves a "gentle

and quiet spirit" in which you can show your husband your strength. In your humility, you can show him the power of emotion God has given you and in your

unconditional (agape) love, you can show him that you are the rib that will protect his heart. You are His Beloved and He is preparing you to be His Bride!

my house smells GOOD!

Today I decided to tackle homemade spaghetti sauce. I looked up some recipes, got the basic idea, and then threw a bunch of stuff together in the slow cooker. I went to Costco and bought tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms. I also added onions and garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano.

I ran all the veggies through the food processor b/c I am opposed to large chunks of veggies in my food.

So now it's all cooking and should be done in a few hours. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

A New Project

Ok first things first....

I have been a bad blogger of late. I promise I'm going to start at least posting Favorite Foto Friday again and my weekly recipe blog :)

Moving on...

Over the next few weeks I plan to start making more foods from scratch for our family. While I don't buy into a lot of the hype surrounding high fructose corn syrup and other such things in processed foods, it does make sense that the closer a food is to the way God made it, the better it is for you. So I am going to start making some of the things that I buy just b/c it's more convenient.

1. I am going to start making our bread. I've been looking around and truthfully, it doesn't seem that difficult or time consuming.

2. I am going to start making our spaghetti sauce. I can make a bunch up in the crock pot and freeze it for future dinners. I have a huge crock pot like thing, so really, I can make a ton lol.

3. I am going to start making our salsa. It's really not that hard to make some up before a meal that needs salsa. And when we actually move somewhere with a little extra storage space, I'm going to start canning it.

As I stated a few months ago, I'm really getting in to cooking lately, so I'm very excited about this. I'll keep you guys updates on my progress :)

Let's talk about potty training

As you all know, we started potty training in mid-december. Well here we are 5 months later and we are almost 100% potty trained.

For a while, he was potty trained only if completely naked. So he spent a lot of time running around the house stark naked. We decided in March that he needed to start wearing underwear so he could get used to taking off his pants to go potty or letting us know that he needed to go potty. After a week with lots of accidents, one day he finally started to get it.

About 2 weeks ago, he started taking off his own underwear when he needed to potty. He also started doing short trips in the car or to the store in underwear. He's had one accident while out and that's b/c we were gone for 2 hours and I didn't try to make him go potty.

Corbin is a little scared of big public potties, so I haven't really forced the issue of him wearing underwear if we're going to be gone for long periods of time. But yesterday at church, I discovered that the toilets in the his class are miniature versions of big potties. So he will use the potty at church. He had no accidents yesterday at all!

Next Sunday, he will go to church for the first time in underwear. We're going to ask his teacher to take him potty midway through the service. I think this will work. If not, we're sending dry clothes too lol. I'm also looking for a portable seat to put on the public potties. It will make the hole smaller and not quite as scary, so I think he will use it.

If he keeps up this good work, I think we may be diaper free - at least while he's awake - by the end of summer - maybe sooner. As for bedtime and naptime.....that may take a while.

My baby's growing up

Tonight James and I decided it was time to move Corbin to a big boy bed. His crib converts to a toddler bed, so we changed it over. He was so excited. He loves his new bed. In a couple of months meemaw and papa Murphy are getting him a set of bunk beds, but for now, the toddler bed is perfect for him.

Before we laid him down for the night, we gave him two "big boy bed rules":

1. No getting out of bed once mommy and daddy lay you down for sleep.

2. No jumping on the bed. In the crib he could jump, but with no rails, I don't want him to jump on the bed at all. I'm afraid he'll fall and break a leg lol.

So of course, he broke rule #1 about 10 minutes after we laid him down. So he had to have a spanking. Poor buddy. But he only did it once. He was asleep about 15 minutes later and is still asleep now. Hopefully the rest of the night goes well.

It's bittersweet. I'm glad he's growing up in to such a smart, fun little man, but it's hard to hit all these "big boy" milestones. Makes me miss the tiny little guy we brought home from the hospital 28 months ago.

It is an awful lot of fun to watch him grow up though.

Saving the planet...

...one bottle of water at a time...

better late then never

4 years ago yesterday....

I met my hubby. yay! Here's a pic from that day - Thunder Over Louisville 2005:

And a couple of others from when we were dating:

How could I possible be mad at this??

We have been having some issues lately with Corbin coloring on himself with pens. I try to keep them out of his reach, but sometimes he's trickier than I am. Here are some pics of him showing off his artwork today. I had to hide my smile until I put him into the corner. I'm not sure though, the time out may have been negated when I took pics of him afterward lol.

Corbin cuteness

Corbin was trying to put his trucks in the printer. When I told him to stop he said "But mom!!!!" Like he was 6 years old or something. Seriously is there ever a good excuse for shoving trucks in the printer???

Corbin has recently learned how to say his name. He now loves to announce "Name Forbin Muwphy" Anytime a stranger asks him a question, that is what he says lol.

I taught him the words to the Beatles song Drive My Car. He has been walking around for 2 days singing - "beep beep beep beep yah!!!"

Corbin got a book for Easter about love. It's a very cute book and we've read it every night at bedtime since he got it. At the end, it talks about saying goodnight to the stares and waving at the man in the moon. Corbin is now crazy about the man in the moon. He loves to read that page in the book and always has to kiss the moon goodnight. It's too cute.

another update

Cody went home on Saturday. He is doing much better. The doctors still have no idea what happened and he will be following up with them in the days to come.

update...

Cody is doing much better this morning. He is still in the hospital and all his tests have come back fine. The docs have no idea what the problem is, but they are going to continue running tests until they figure things out.
Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

prayers needed please

James 5 y/o cousin was rushed to the hossy from school this morning. He passed out. When EMS got there, his blood sugar was 30. He has no history of diabetes. This is the same kid who's had pneumonia twice in the last 6 months.

They admitted him to the hospital (obviously). James just got a text from his aunt and Cody is still doing pretty bad. His temp is 93*. The docs are not sure what's wrong with him.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. We're all very worried right now.

Easter at the Murphys

This year was the first year Corbin has really gotten in to Easter. It was a lot of fun.

I worked Saturday night and got home at around 630 Sunday morning. I managed to get off work a little early due to a bit of a rough night. Got home, made a cheesecake, and went to bed until 10AM. Then we went to church. We tried to bring Corbin in with us for the worship (something we're working on) but he wanted to "go play", so we gave up on that idea.

Yesterday afternoon, we had Easter dinner and an Egg Hunt with the family. James cousins are 4 (twins) and 5. There were some other family friends there as well with 2 young kids. Corbin had a blast. He really enjoyed the egg hunt. Of course he had to have a little help from mama. Unfortunately, his mama is a little competitive and pushed him into a bush to fight for the "golden" egg with his cousin, Cody. Cody ended up with the contents of the egg (a dollar!) and Corbin ended up with the egg, which is all he really cared about anyway. I ended up with the reputation as the mother who will not be allowed at her child's sporting events lol.

All in all it was a really fun time. Corbin ate too much candy and is still bouncing off the walls today. It was so fun to watch him get into the activities and to teach him about the real meaning of the holiday - Jesus' resurrection.

Praise the Lord for His death on the cross for our sins and His rising from the grave. Without it we have no hope.