7 years and a bowl game

January 1, 2004, we became Mr. and Mrs. Derrick L. Givens....

.....and 7 years later, we went to the Capital One Bowl game to see our Tide play, and WIN!!!!

We had a dadgum blast, pregame, during the game, after the game. It was an enjoyable day, around 75 degrees and breezy!!!

Here we are when we first arrived around 10 am.

We happened to be at the right places at the right times because we got to see the band come through, followed by the cheerleaders and BIG AL!!!

I was so excited that I was jumping around and shouting......over a big stuffed elephant!!!

Little did I know what, or maybe I should say who, my eyes would see next...

That's right....coach!!! Led in by an ALABAMA State Trooper, and followed by the players!!! So exciting! Please notice behind coach, behind the Orlando officer, over to the right, the annoying Michigan State fan. She was awful. The whole time we were cheering, led by OUR cheerleaders, and OUR band, she was shouting, Go Green, Go White. Well, I hope she had a nice 18 hour ride back to Michigan singing Rammer Jammer Yeller Hammer!!!

Anyway, I met some other nice people.....

Let me just say these are real tatoos. And this is also probably where someone wearing green walked by and said, "Where are you guys from?" To which we replied, "Up round Alabamer!!!"
And, of course I have a thousand pictures from the game, including the scoreboard at the end (and once at half-time, just in case that team from the first half left like they did in the past!), I'll not bore you with those.

I'll just end it with, although we were exhausted, it was our anniversary,
and we saw a local steakhouse the day before that we were excited about trying, only to find it closed on New Year's Day, so Logan's to the rescue!

"You had me at Roll Tide!"

Greetings from the Holy Land

No, not Jerusalem, just TBN's "The Holy Land Experience!" And boy, did we have an experience!!! If you are ever in the Orlando, FL area (which we were for our anniversary!) you should make plans to go by the Holy Land. We had a wonderful time, and while an actual post of the whole day, complete with the 200 pictures I took, would take forty days and nights to write, I'll just hit the high points!

This guy (a wilderness tabernacle priest) came out to the street market and blew into a ram horn of some type, opening the park for the day.

While there, we visited a couple of exhibits, including the Wilderness Tabernacle, the Scriptorium, we had communion with Jesus, we saw a replica of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, we saw several plays and productions....TBN does not disappoint...and really had an overall good time. We arrived at 10am, and left at 7pm!!! It was that good.

Over in the Smile of a Child (TBN's children's network) area, they had several Bible story sets, including.......

....the parting of the Red Sea....

.......Samson......
......walking on the water.....

....and a couple of others that didn't make the blog cut: Zaccheus, Noah's Ark, and Jonah and the Whale.


This was a beautiful dedication to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Then we went to one of the plays : Behold the Lamb

It was very real, graphic, and moving.
And it was a beautiful sun-shiney day, until the part where they raised up the cross, then the clouds came (real ones!) then at the end, they disappeared.
In the end, everything turns out ok, of course, He is not here, for He is risen!!!

Here's me and Derrick, and well, you know, the big guy!

Here we are in the Reflection Garden. It was gorgeous, and nice to sit down!

This is a lake, and behind it, the Scriptorium, which is a 55 minute tour on the history of the Bible. Derrick thinks I should sell this to TBN for a postcard!!!

Oh, and it's hard to see in the above picture, but on the other side of the lake, the hedges spelled out He is Risen! It's behind the water fall.


Oh yeah, they had this little place where you could dress up like a king or queen, and Derrick and I were going to do it, we were behind this little 94 year old granny. She said she wanted to make her picture with Derrick, since he's so young. Her family guessed he was about 25, what's that make me....10?

Here's Derrick with his real queen....

And their Grand Finale was nothing short of amazing. They had angels come in and dance, then blow the horns, announcing the way for King Jesus.
That's his robe!!! And to the right of the picture is the head Roman Soldier who beat Him at the whipping post!!!

I'm telling you, pictures and words could not describe all of the heartfelt things we witnessed that day. What a glorious time!

And I will have to return with Orlando Part 2....Capital One Bowl Game/Seven Years of Marriage!!!

Blogging takes the backseat!

So, since school has been out, and hubby was off work a couple of days last week, blogging has definitely taken the backseat!!! And boy, how I have enjoyed our time together!!! Unfortunately, I have very few pictures of any of this time, I was so caught up in the moments, I guess the camera was somewhere in the backseat too!!! Hopefully, everyone's Christmas was full of the love, mercy, and hope of Jesus, and family fun too! I am also very excited about spending a long weekend with hubby in Orlando at the Capital One Bowl Game(our anniversary is 01-01!)!Be back soon!

Noah on Pajama Day on the last day of school before the Christmas break!

Noah with cousins on Christmas Day!

I went to Midnight Mass with my mom and some of my family, and was totally jealous of my niece's new jacket!!! (This pic is at 1:05 am, Christmas!)

Me, Mother-n-law, Hubby, and Lum at Christmas Day with cousins! My niece inspired me to wear my houndstooth too! And who knows what Lum is doing!

And our cool anniversary present from my folks!!! Can't wait!

Gingerbread Train

Hello Everyone!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season.

We have been so busy around here.......and, in case any one hasn't heard yet, we found out that in August 2011, Noah will be a big brother!!!!

So, I am definitely trying to "savor" the moments I have with "just Noah" as this is his 7th Christmas of just him! Of course, I am very thankful and excited that there will be someone else here next year, I just hope Noah adjusts too!!!

Anyway, my mom had bought Noah this little set a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday, as it was the official beginning of school vacation, we decided to try it.

He was very excited!

I put the pieces together, but he put all of the candy on it, and all in patterns!!! That's my boy!
Beside the train there is a "N," ya know, for Noah!

He also wanted to personalize the backside of the caboose!!!

Merry Christmas, and more about "the baby" real soon!!!

Southern Miss-To the TOP!!!!

We hereby announce that:
Mrs. Jessica Lea Kennard-Mizell
has completed a Course of Study and is awarded
the degree of
Bachelor of Science
in
Elementary Education
on
December 10, 2010
Three O’ Clock in the Afternoon
from the
University of Southern Mississippi
College of Education and PsychologyJessica is our oldest niece, and we are super proud of her!!!

Thankfulness

So, maybe this post is a little late......Turkey day has come and gone....

However, in the past week or so, some things have been revealed to me, and for that I am thankful. This isn't a list of "things" I am thankful for, rather a list of "knowledge and wisdom" that I am thankful to receive.

Warning, I am about to share my feelings......feel free to exit out if you aren't interested!!!!

1. Every decision you make will affect at least four or five other people, so think of others before you act. Take us for example. We are a family of three, but the choices the three of us make go beyond our walls. They will typically affect someone else. I'm not saying make decisions that aren't best for your family based on what is best for everyone else, I'm just saying there are other factors to consider.

2. Never work for family. If you do, make a contract of what you will do if something should happen or if something changes. I recently had my heart shattered into a million pieces over this. Make sure you make a small print page that both parties sign.

3. Never take people for granted. Life goes by so fast, and you can be talking to someone that morning, and that night they could die. Trust me!!! Don't think it couldn't happen to you, it could!!!

4. The truth will set you free. There is a fine line between condemning people out of arrogance, and telling them the truth out of love. Not that I make a practice of lying, but sometimes, for people's feelings, I have been known to go along with something that I feel is wrong. Well, I found out the hard way that's just not right. I'm not saying walk around with a 20 lb Bible and tell people they are going to hell. If the Bible (any version, after all, Jesus didn't speak in Elizabethan English like King James did, so KJV is a translation too!!!) clearly states that something is wrong, and someone you love is doing that very thing, tell them so that when you get to judgement day, that person isn't standing before Jesus, hearing it from Him, and that person turns to you and says, "You knew it was wrong. Why didn't you tell me?!?!?!" Remember, the truth will set you free.

In the past couple of weeks, I have had some curve balls thrown at me. It is obvious that I had to go through some things so that I can turn around to someone who is where I was, and tell them, "Come on, you will be alright, I've been there too, and I made it through, only by God's grace!!!"

It's Jesus, or bust.

In exciting news, after all of that hassle, last night I'm cleaning up the kitchen after supper, and Noah walks up to me and says, "Oh momma, you're so nice!!!"

Does anything else matter?!?!?!

Christmas time is here....

....and it's showing itself too!

Most people save the best for last, but I think I'll start with the best, then go in no particular order...

Here's the reason we have Christmas.

Notice the sheep right beside Jesus(who was probably not blond headed and blue eyed!)? Noah put that sheep there because, "Jesus always takes care of His sheep Mama.....He will look for them when they get lost!"

Here is where our stockings are hung by the chimney with care...

This little ditty was made by my one of my grandmother's best friends, and probably the friend she's had the longest. Somehow, it made it's way from Na-Na's living room to mine!!! (Wink Wink!)

And for the fireman in us all...

My favorite part of the tree.

She used to move her arms and head back and forth and even flap her wings, but she broke a couple of years ago, I'd love a new one, but I'm not sure how to say bye to this one. Yes, I know it's not a real angel, but I do love her, and don't want to say bye! D told me that I should just stand in a chair by her everyday and move her body parts for her....I wish that's all I had time for, but it's not!

Oh, here's another couple of favorites that joined us 2 years ago. What? Two years ago....that's crazy, seems like yesterday!

The snowmen are Noah's fingerprints!!!

Here she is in the daytime.

And at night.
For that tree to have 1,001 ornaments on it, it sure does look empty. I'm going to have to invest in some more ornaments this year, maybe after Christmas sales?!?!?! And our tree will probably never look like the ones in the magazines, I just love an original.

Oh yeah, let's don't forget about outside.

See our pretty tree through our pretty door?

Our pretty door that needs a paint job, luckily you can't see it in this picture. Have I ever mentioned that my dad can paint?!?! Anyway...

We have 2 of these as new additions this year.

Our other windows look like this....oldies but goodies.

The pictures I have taken of our Christmas decorations do not do any justice to the actual decorations them self, but I decided to post them anyway. I am definitely not a decorator, never have claimed to be. This is not Southern Living, but it is Living Southern!!! Also, please let me note: try not to laugh, it may look silly to you, but for the first time in 7 years we decorated everything different than the past 6 years......it was a big deal!!! Every year we put the same decorations in the same spot, the same way. This year we got a little wild!

Later on I will probably do a post, along with Noah to display "his" decorations!!!