Webbed Toes

Yes I have webbed toes, AKA flower toes and mutant toes. This does make me somewhat weird and when I was in elementary school I was totally self-conscious about my fish like feature. Since then I have grown to love them and am now so proud of my uniqueness that I’m making sure all know that I HAVE WEBBED TOES. Let me clarify some things so you don’t have to ask:

• I don’t know if they make me swim faster because I don’t know how fast I would swim without them.
• I don’t think I walk funny. You can be the judge of that.
• No, they don’t feel weird. I don’t know what it would feel like to not have webbed toes.
• No, they’ve never ripped.
• No, I don’t know what it would feel like if I tried to rip them… I’ve never tried but imagine it would hurt!
• No, I can’t wear toe socks. I’ve tried.
• No, I can’t wear a toe ring on them. I’ve tried.

That’s all the silly questions I can think of that people have asked me throughout my life. :)

Snowing on Wisteria

I've been disappointed many times this year when James Span would say it's going to snow this weekend so I didn't believe it this time! Woke up around 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning and squealed when I opened the blinds to find Wisteria covered in a blanket of white! I'll show you around our quaint Wisteria, enjoy the pics! :)

Here is our house :)

This is the Segar's house, Betsy and Greg have three of the most adorable children, Anna, Andrew and Mary :)

Todd and Emily Celeste live on the other side of us. They moved to Birmingham from Texas. We've really enjoyed getting to know them better these last few months!

Miami figuring out this snow thing.

Miami deciding this snow thing is COLD!!

Me and Jared after a snowball fight!

Our mini-snowman

Jared really tired of me taking pictures!

The End.

Cheers To 2009

Jared and I have spent 3 New Years at the Garrett’s house playing cards and board games until after midnight. They are always so generous to welcome us into there home! Stephanie and Ryan Garrett are our fabulous friends that live in Nashville and we are lucky enough to live in Birmingham where both of their parents live, so every time they come to see the parents we get to spend time with them as well!
This New Year’s Eve we played a super fast version of Scrabble where you take seven letters and try to use up all of them in different word sequences as fast as you can. The first person to use all their letters yells 2, where the rest of us slow pokes have to grab two more letters to put into our nonexistent sequences, and on and on we go until the last letters were grabbed and someone yells done. I am the WORST speller in the universe so I knew I was going to be horrible at this game. I made it very clear at the beginning of the game that if someone sees a word in my mess of sequences to call me out on it… didn’t know that was going to be Jared over my shoulder the one game I’m not coming out negative! We were having so much fun we missed the ball drop! :)
After the Scrabble game we played my card game, Stop (it’s also called Nerts). It’s basically playing the game Solitaire with a lot of people (to many rules for me to blog about so visit this link if you are interested, http://www.pagat.com/patience/nerts.html).

The group playing Speed Scrabble

Lance and Donna Rushing (Steph's parents) are the BEST! When I said smile Lance frowned. :)

Steph and Ryan's first pic of the New Year. This was taken at 12:01 AM.

Mine and Jared's first pic in 2009!

Mr. Garrett always toasts to the New Year! (with COC Champaign)

The Graduate

My beautiful cousin Codie graduated from The University of Alabama on December 13th, with a major in Public Relations (like her big cousin) and a minor in Computer Science. I made it to her graduation lunch at her cute campus house where we enjoyed visiting with family and friends while eating Uncle Andy and Aunt Teresa’s yummy crawfish boil! I mean YUMMY!!
Here are some pictures from an elaborate photo shoot in Codie’s den.

Chase and Calli with the proud graduate


Me and Codie

Miami getting some face time

Me, Mom, Grandmother, Grandma, Codie, Teresa, and Calli Jean

Hamilton Christmas in January

Christmas with the Hamiltons, my Mom’s side of the family, was on January 10th this year. We gathered at my parent’s house in Tuscaloosa to play games and open presents. Here are some pictures of this fabulous event.

Colton and Jared opening presents on the couch

Papa modeling his presents

Aunt Teresa and Uncle Andy quickly pose while handing out presents

Codie and Colton (Codie had her wisdom teeth taken out a few days before, she doesn't even have chipmunk checks!)

Great Grandma and Ashley (my cousin)

My cousin Chase and his cutie girlfriend, Taylor

Me and my cousin Calli Jean

Codie with her boyfriend Wes (not Will)

Jessie Dean and her husband, Alex

All the cousins, Grandmother, Grandaddy and Grandma took a trillion pictures but this was the best one from my camera.

(Clint, Codie, Wes, Jared, me, Ashley, Grandma, half of Grandmother, Grandaddy, Taylor, Jessica, Alex, Bobby, Chase, Calli, Luke, and Colton)

Just in case you were wondering what we were doing in between these trillion pictures :)
(Clint, Codie, Wes, Jared, me, Ashley, Taylor, Jessica, Alex, Bobby, Chase, Calli, Luke, and Colton)

The Shack

So I finished reading the Shack by William P. Young last month and although I didn't agree with every aspect of it I really liked it! It showed the different characteristics of God in unfamiliar ways.
One of my favorite chapters is about forgiveness. The main character in this book doesn't know how to forgive his daughter's killer. The killer didn't ask to be forgiven and the main character feels that if he does forgive the killer it's like he is betraying his daughter’s memory. God (in the book) explains to the main character that forgiveness is something he’ll have to decide to do daily and that his anger will still be there but after a time of consistently deciding to forgive this killer one day the anger will leave too. It goes on to talk about the difference between forgiveness, relationship and trust, I love the way this is worded so simply, this is a quote from the book that really impacted me and I just wanted to share it with you:

“…forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established.”
– William P. Young, The Shack

Now the book covers many other layers of forgiveness but these few sentences really stood out to me. Read the book to find out more! :)

25 Random things I noted on FB

Here are 25 random things about me, enjoy! :)

1. Even when I’m in the worst of moods my husband can always make me smile!
2. I like to drink out of two straws!
3. My high school nick names is Rocky! So, don’t cross me on a bridge!
4. Watching Big Love on HBO is one of my guilty pleasures! (I love the characters, especially Nikki!)
5. I love chatting with my girlfriends about nothing and everything for HOURS!
6. In my day to day life I can usually find at least one moment to reference FRIENDS!
7. My PERFECT days have been spent riding horses at SawGrass!
8. I love to spot actors in random movies and ask “do you know what else they play on?”… my husband is growing tired of this game!
9. I think I would be good at Quidditch! … I read all 7 Harry Potters in 3 months and am now having withdrawals! I can’t wait until the 6th movie comes out! (http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/10/new-hp6-trailer.html )
10. I love my cousins; we always have a BLAST together and make up silly things to laugh about… God bless Kurt! Whip crack away! You’re WEIRD!!
11. I love the Gilmore Girls but am disappointed in how they ended the show! Right Calli?
12. I do NOT sleep on a pillow!
13. I google EVERTHING!
14. The best conversations happen when riding horses with your friends!
15. Sushi and cheesy fries (from Outback) are my two comfort foods!! Yes, I have eaten them together! :)
16. Church’s of Christ are NONdenominational, there are no TWO COC exactly the same!!!! COC is “autonomous, not denominational, and purposefully do not maintain an ecclesiastical hierarchy or doctrinal council, it is not unusual to find variations from congregation to congregation." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Christ#Variations_within_Churches_of_Christ) … I am a COC girl! And married a COC boy!
17. I love having conversation with kids! They love to be listened to and say the most insightful things! My neighbor’s kids have come over, knocked on our back door and asked “Mr. Jared can Mrs. Rachel come out and play!” They are so much FUN!!
18. I love to ski! (snow and water)
19. NUMBER ONE pet peeve, people who reek of hypocrisy!
20. If people would just bust out in song and dance at random like in old movies it would solve all the countries problems to date… guaranteed! I love old movies!! Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, all Doris Day’s movies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Gone with the Wind, High Society…
21. I don’t remember life before DVRs! Or how anyone can watch TV without it!
22. I use to swim with my horses in the pond behind the house I grew up in! I couldn’t tell you how many times I have fallen off, been thrown off, been bucked off, and been stepped on but so far I haven’t broken anything! It is a miracle I lived through my young teen years riding horses in the woods!
23. I love Broadway musicals!! I’m seeing Wicked for the second time in April!
24. I totally believe Miami understands me when I talk to her! She is so smart!
25. I want to ski dive before 2010!! Anyone want to join me?