Date night...

Brad and I have decided to make more time for each other - including DATE NIGHTS! Last was our first one in a while - we went to our favorite restaurant, Golden Eagle, and then we FINALLY saw The Dark Knight! It was a great movie, and I know that Brad enjoyed every second of it!

Things have been going so well in my life - I have made it my life's purpose to start appreciating more of life's little moments and enjoy every second. Until the past few months, my mind has been in a very strange place, and I can honestly say for the first time in a LONG time, I'm a blissfully happy. I am giddy. I smile at the silliest things. I laugh. I cry. I feel. My relationship with Brad has been better than it has been since we have been together. And I owe it all to the one who gave it to me in the beginning. The only regret I have is that I could have had this feeling a long time ago, why am I just now choosing to embrace that love and happiness when it has been here for the taking from the beginning?

I have lots of thoughts running through my head, but it's way past my bedtime...so, I will continue this post on another day!

Blessings, y'all!

A heartfelt thank you.

First of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your kind thoughts, emails and prayers. You have no idea how much that all means to me. Although I am still shocked and confused, I feel that God has been preparing my heart for this for a few months now.

I loved my job very much, but I already feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. I am so excited about the many opportunities that are waiting for me.

I cannot not thank my family enough for all of their kindness and thoughtfulness. Although the next few months will be extremely difficult for Brad and myself - financial wise - I know that we will make it. God will provide.

There are a lot of things going on with my termination that are very sticky, so please pray that things will end swiftly so that I can move on from this. Also pray that my heart will not stay bitter. At first, I was devastated. I cried for almost 3 days straight. Now I'm mad, and I don't like the way I feel.

Throughout all of this, Brad and I almost forgot about our one-year anniversary is on Monday! We are not doing gifts as we are trying to save as much money as possible, but we did purchase something for a very good price - more details to come on Monday!

My mom has kept me very busy each day (she owns her own cleaning business, so I've been helping her), and that has helped me tremendously. Brad has gone to Kentucky with my dad for the weekend to watch my brother play Western Kentucky in baseball, so momma and I have the whole weekend to do lots of little projects to complete! One project involves making a homemade fountain for my patio! I'm so excited - hopefully, it will go as well as we hope!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings to you!

In memory of Granny Willeford.

The past two days have been bittersweet for my precious family. We lost our dear Granny Willeford, and we will miss her so, but we are comforted by the fact that she is suffering no more. I am a very emotional person (as is my mother and grandmother), and we all get that from my Granny Willeford. So, at the visitation, when I saw how beautiful my Granny Willeford looked, I wept. I wept because she has suffered for so many years, and she looked so magnificient. She wore her favorite periwinkle suit that she wore to her 60th Wedding Anniversary party. Granny Willeford always like to look good, and she especially like to have her nails painted. She always scoffed at women with clear nail polish - so of course she had her nails painted bright red.

At the visitation, they had a slideshow playing of various pictures from Granny Willeford's life. I have been told my whole life that I look like my grandmother, but I never thought that I looked like Granny Willeford. Anyways, the very first picture they showed was a picture of Granny Willeford in her teenage years. When I first saw the picture, I gasped. Everyone started saying, "Lena! That looks JUST like you." I wish I had a copy of the picture so I could show y'all how much it looked like me! Hopefully, I'll have my own copy soon.

Even though most people never get the chance to know their great-grandmothers, I am extremely blessed to know that I spent almost 24 years of my life with my sweet Granny Willeford. I know that those who have gone before her - especially my PawPaw Willeford, Aunt Peggie and Uncle Dean - were waiting on her in heaven, and I am thankful that I will one day see them all again.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of days - even though we were all mourning the loss of Granny Willeford, we managed to celebrate her life and have a few laughs - that's what she would have wanted us to do.

Here is a picture of me in my FAVORITE suit that my parents got me for Christmas. I was playing around with some of my grandmother's antique hats - I love old hats! I thought it looked pretty good, but I opted out of wearing it to the funeral - it may have been a little too flashy :)

My absolute best friend, my mother. Through all of this, I have been reassured again at how precious my family is to me. I love this woman with everything in me!

This was after everyone left, I got my grandmother into the hat collection as well. Do you think we look alike?? Someone must have said something funny because we are really cheesing here! I love the hat I'm wearing - it reminds me of something Audrey Hepburn would have worn!

Yesterday was my grandfather's birthday (his birthday is exactly one month from mine), and it was also my great-aunt Lenore's birthday as well! Of course we had to have a cake and candles!

This is the first time I have posted a video - I am going to try and make an effort to video tape things more often - you can hear my southern accent singing "Happy Birthday" - HA!

Thank you again for all the prayers and sweet words - I am forever grateful to you all.

In memory of Mattie Kathleen Alexander Willeford - mother to 5 children, grandmother to 14 grandchildren, great-grandmother to 29 children, and great-great-grandmother to 1 child.

September 18, 1910 - February 19, 2008

Scary weather.

Last night, Brad and I visited my parents for dinner and some American Idol. For some reason, we always watch American Idol at their house. Well, our show kept getting interrupted with weather alerts, and I was getting very annoyed. I didn't get to see if some people made it or not! Anyways, back to my point...my dad is such a weather freak. He always has been - when we were kids, he would just wait for a big storm and then go into "storm mode." We would all huddle in the hallway with our blankets and pillows, and my dad would stand guard. He would roam around outside - which always freaked me out. He said his dream job would be a "storm chaser."

A what? Why in the world would anyone want to do that?????????

So, last night he was just eating up all the bad weather, and I knew he probably wasn't going to get any sleep because he would be staying up all night watching the weather. Well, I'm glad he did.

Around 2 a.m., I got a phone call from my dad, and his voice was quite frantic. "Lena, there is a bad storm coming RIGHT towards you. You need to take cover right now."

Well, being asleep and all, I JUMPED out of the bed and turned the television on. Sure enough, there was our little community of Christiana on the television.

And the freaking out began.

I grabbed the cats, dogs, pillows, flashlights, anything I could get my hands on and ran in the bathroom. You know what Brad was doing? Walking around outside and throughout the house like a FOOL!!! I thought I was going to pass out I was so scared.

Needless to say, the storm weakened considerably before I got there, but it reminded me a lot of my days when I lived in Texas - when everything would get extremely calm and still before the storm came. And because in 2003, a tornado went right past my parents' home, and they suffered lots of damage, I was even more frightened. I am so very thankful that I did not have to experience destruction again.

Even though we were out of the "tornadic activity," my heart was racing because I was seeing all of the destruction that was happening across the southeast. Because I have a heart for service - especially in times of disaster (I did relief work on the Gulf Coast less than 3 weeks after Katrina and have visited 4 times since then), I immediately began praying for all the people who would wake up and see the destruction in the daylight. It breaks my heart for these people who will have to re-live all of their pain once the sun shines on their destroyed homes and families.

So, even if you think the storms didn't affect you life, they did. I encourage each of you to check within your local American Red Cross to see if you can help - give your time, your blood, your money - anything helps. Believe me, I have been in that situation before. Remember to say a prayer for all the states that have been affected - this storm has changed the lives of many citizens of our country.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
- Romans 15:13

Blessings, y'all!

Merry Christmas and a DRYER New Year!

I completely forgot to tell y'all about the BEST gift I got on Wednesday morning. Santa arrived in the morning via a Lowe's delivery truck, and he brought a much-needed gift.....

A NEW DRYER!!!! WHOO-HOOO!!!

Actually, the gift was an early Christmas present from Brad's parents!

We had an okay washer and a HORRIBLE dryer at our last house, and when we moved we decided we would just LEAVE THEM THERE! Ha, our dryer was so loud that you could hear it on the other side of the house. Not to mention, it took about 3 hours to dry one load of clothes! Anyways, my parents gave us a fairly new washer when we moved into the new house, but we have gone the past month without a dryer - and it's been hard. I love to do laundry - especially fold clothes, so it's been a difficult thing. I've pretty much been doing all of my laundry at my momma's house.

So, Brad's parents decided that they would buy us a new dryer for Christmas, and I L-O-V-E that thing! It's so quiet, and I've been doing laundry like I'm the laundry queen! I don't think there are any dirty clothes in the house! THANK YOU to the Warnocks for making me love laundry again!

I'M BACK!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all of your prayers and kind words! I'm officially back to work today after 3 sick days! I'm feeling much better - although, I'm not completely back to my normal self! I have so much to post about, but I just wanted to start the morning off by thanking everyone! I hope y'all have a wonderful day!