Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and I wanted to say how grateful I am for my wonderful mother. When I think of my mother several characteristics come to mind: giving, compassionate, caring, loving, CRAZY, humerus, Godly, wise, respectful, caregiver and many many more. She has been an amazing Mom my entire life and is constantly giving of herself to take care of others. Over the years she has taught me to live as a Godly woman, always laugh, care for others, cherish family and above all PRAYER! Over the past 4 years I have seen courage and wisdom in her shine. I hope that if God places trials in my life that I can handle them with the same grace and faith that she has. My family has been amazed by Gods miracle in my dad life but I think we often fail to see my Mom's courage and faith as a miracle in itself. Love you Mom...YOU ROCK! Below are a few pictures that capture my Mom and her incredible personality.

May she who gave you birth be happy. ~ Proverbs 23:25

Happy Mom Day! Love you!

Thank God for Cancer

I know the tile of this post seems a little crazy and believe for the past 4 years it has made me furious to hear my dad make that statement. If I stop and look back over the past 4 years I cannot help but agree (for the first time ever) with that statement. As many of you know 4 years ago my father, Randy, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with mets to the liver. The beginning of this journey was a true roller coaster of emotions. Initially the prognosis was not good, as most of you know pancreatic cancer is by no means what any family wants to hear. After further testing the oncologist informed us that his cancer was not the typical form of pancreatic cancer but a rare islet cell cancer. After researching and educating ourselves we learned that this was a much better scenario and prognosis...PTL. As I mentioned before this is a rare cancer, therefore treatment options were limited. My dad had an appointment to see a specialist at MD Anderson in Houston, TX in April of 2007. The Sunday before his appointment (Easter Sunday 07) our family was again hit with another obstacle. The islet cell cancer that metastasized to the liver was extremely aggressive in the liver tissue, leading to lesions to numerous to count, increase bilirubin and devastating prognosis. He immediately began chemotherapy treatment with the hopes that if it work we would experience another 4-6 months with my dad. In August of 2007 they decided to stop chemo in order to give his body a break and hoped to get 6 months without growth. Well we actually got 4 wonderful years! A few weeks ago after a CT scan we were told that there was mild growth and it was time to start chemo again. We are all very sad and upset for him to have to experience chemo again but God is good and so far he had done well with treatments! Please continue to pray for our family and my dad during the next few months of treatment. I want to share this verse that has been so helpful to our family and hopefully any of you that have been affected by cancer in some way can find God's peace in it as well. "The LORD will fight for you; you need only be still." Exodus 14:14

What I have learned from CANCER:
1. Trust God unconditionally
2. Love my family well
3. Live each day to serve God
4. Worry is NOT effective
5. GOD is so good
6. God uses trials to make us cling to him
7. God's grace is so amazing...
8. Be STILL
9. Serve others in their time of need
10. In the words of Randy...Enjoy the scenery along the detour!

LOVE you pops... you are a blessing to so many and have forever changed my life with your faith and courage during the past 4 years. You are truly a disciple of God's word!

Rush Andrew McDonald!

A few weekends ago Rosalyn, Dustin and amazing baby Rush came to Memphis for the weekend and we had a wonderful time. As I watched Rush throughout the weekend I could not help but be overwhelmed with amazement at something so special that God has made. He is this little bundle of happiness and his smile brings joy to those around him...truly a gift from God. "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate"Psalms 127:3-5 Here are a few pictures of Rush who I cannot believe is almost 1 year old!

PURE JOY! Love me some baby (soon to be big boy) Rush!

Our Home

God has blessed Jacob and I beyond belief! We live in a city that we LOVE, have jobs that we both enjoy and live in a cute little home in a WONDERFUL neighborhood!! We moved in at the end of August last year and have been slowly getting everything like we like it! We still have some small things that we want to update but here is what we have so far!
Our house during 1 of the snows this winter!

Kitchen....


Dinning Room....

And again...

Living Room....

Another view...

Our bedroom...still have some work to do here!

Bathroom

Guest Room...still have to hang the curtains and headboard but its coming along

Beautiful Weather and Shelby Farms

Weather in Memphis has been sooo amazing! Last weekend it was in the high 60s and sunny all weekend. Jacob worked all day Saturday so I headed to Tupelo for a quick lunch with the family...much needed by the way. On Sunday we had our normal church service, sitting with the Campbell's of course, followed by lunch at Swanky Taco. The day was so beautiful we could not resist taking the doggies to the dog park at Shelby Farms and letting them run wild. I am still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles on my camera so I took it with us and practiced on the dogs...here are some pictures of the day! Oh and by the way the Jones and Campbell dogs formed a click and did not leave each others side the whole day!

Is this not the happiest dog ever.....

Boyfriend and girlfriend!

Ashleigh's Wedding Weekend

I have spent the last few days celebrating Ashleigh and Chris Daniel's wedding weekend in Tupelo, MS. The festivities began on Friday at 11:30am for the bridesmaid luncheon at Park Heights...the food was fabulous and for dessert we had Creme Burlee...which is my favorite! After the lunch I had the pleasure of holding the beautiful Anne Cambria while she napped!!! Oh how I love her!!! Friday night we all gathered back together for the rehearsal at the FBC and rehearsal dinner at the Bancorp South Center. The entire day was awesome and I was great to see all my besties that I have missed so badly!

Melly!

The Fab 5

The BRIDE

Saturday began the big day. We all met at 2:00pm at Park Heights and took a limo to the church. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a blast. Oh just an FYI the best part of the reception was the older gentleman dancing on the floor and stage...WOW...gotta love weddings!

The beautiful BRIDE

Quinny and I

The Fab 5 again!

What a wonderful weekend spent with amazing friends. Congrats to the newly weds...Ashleigh and Chris have a blast in Mexico!!!!!

PT Girls

2 weekends ago Kate called and invited me to dinner with some of my favorite gals from PT school. Shannon was in town from Jackson for the night so we all used that as an excuse to grab dinner. Boscos was delicious and it was great to catch up with my back row buddies! Oh and may I add that Stephanie and Kathryn live about 100 yards from my house and Kate lives less than 5miles away yet we rarely get to hang out....so all that to say it was a much needed dinner date!

LOVE you ladies and wish I saw your beautiful faces more often!