Loquacious Lady

Charlotte is one of my favorite girl names. And, it’s also the name that one of my best friends, Esther, named her baby girl, who was born yesterday. Since I think Charlotte is going to be one of my favorite little girls (just like my nieces) on the planet, I’m glad she has an awesome name.

I told y’all about Esther’s baby shower. But what I didn’t tell you is that a few months into being pregnant, they learned that Charlotte has spina bifida. This changed the ball game for the birth. Esther was hoping for a natural childbirth, but instead she had to have a c-section. They also had to plan for Charlotte to go into surgery at some point shortly after the birth and to have her in the NICU to recover.

Understandably, this was a shock and a bit scary for Esther and Ben (her hubby) as they adjusted to the changes. But their faith that God had chosen them as the parents for this sweet baby and that she is indeed “fearfully and wondefully made” has been such a source of comfort and joy to them. She has blogged about her pregnancy journey here. There has been an outpouring of love and support for their new family as people from Georgia, where Esther grew up, and from Alabama, where Ben grew up and they both live now, have been praying for them without ceasing, touching base online and on the phone to show their love, and trying to figure out when we can get out there to meet this beauty they brought into the world.

Would you all, please, give a prayer for Charlotte and Esther as they both will be recovering from surgery, and for Ben and Esther as they adjust to being new parents? I know they would appreciate prayers during this time of recovery and transition.

So, I just have to tell you that my eyes filled with tears when I got the chance to see the pictures Ben’s sister, Beth, took of Esther meeting her daughter for the first time, after waiting for 5 hours post c-section. She had only seen her for a second during the c-section surgery, then Charlotte was whisked away. Look at how overwhelmed she was with love for her baby girl as they wheeled her into the room.

Charlotte was over the incubation. She wanted her mama!

Sweet, sweet Charlotte. I hope that as you grow, you’ll realize how many people have loved you and prayed for you since you were just a little one growing in your mommy’s belly. I can’t wait to hold you and love on you, you precious girl.

“I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” -Ephesians 1:16

~Meghan

The Winner of the “Home” Photo Competition

Thanks to everyone who voted, left comments, and especially to those who entered in the “Home” Photo competition. LoLa will be posting more themed photo competitions in the future, so please enter again, and if you missed the chance to enter this time, enter next time! Also, I’m thinking of having a second place prize as well in future contests.

A quick note: Don’t forget to take advantage of social networks, email, etc. for future competitions.  If friends know you are in a contest, oftentimes they want to help you out, so don’t be afraid to ask!

And now for the winner. Congratulations to Kristen Sagar! You are the winner of a $15 Amazon Gift Card, and you’ll be receiving it shortly. Bunny Towels on a cute baby with her daddy are hard to resist. Jay Caruso was in second place with his beautiful shot of the NYC skyline.

What I Learned at Boot Camp

Wow. So many things. I actually need to do a different post about Boot Camp, but here are a few quick things:

*I don’t have the body I used to have, so jumping up and down every time a song plays like I used to at punk concerts in my teen years…I’m still paying for it. I feel like I was beaten up and down my body. Especially my legs.

*I still lose my voice quite easily if I scream cheers. My throat = pain.

*R-O-M-E-O is the way you spell Romeo. Which happens to be the “company” I was in. And part of a chant we seemed to yell nonstop. Every company knew our cheer by 3 hours into camp Friday night.

*Eating camp food will make me sick after a couple of days.

*North Point puts on camps that are as great as their Sunday youth programs or better.

*I can get some serious speed when I get a running start and dive head first onto a slip-n-slide downhill.

*My girls are the sweetest junior high girls I have ever met. Actually, I’m not sure they’re in junior high. Because I never knew girls could be this nice to each other at that stage of life.

*I am in love with my co-leaders and would have not been able to survive this weekend without their teamwork.

*It’s possible to keep up with 19 eleven-year-old girls for an entire weekend on only 10 hours of interrupted sleep. But you will pay for it by crashing on any non-moving surface when you get home.

*At a camp with that many kids, you should plan to have more than one nurse. I’m just sayin’. She was overworked.

*Which is why I didn’t bother her with the multiple scratches I got on my legs and bee stings on my feet. And because that’s just par for course for me. Accident Prone is my middle name.

*Loose gravel is a poor decision for landscaping a camp for kids. Or me. I definitely did an awkward, fall/catch-myself/keep sliding/twist-my-ankle/weird-split-thing on a hill on the way to dinner with my girls. Laughing it off and walking it off are two very important parts of my existence.

*Sixth graders will do some gross stuff in games so they can win. But they will freak out if you find a mouse in the cabin.

*I can burn 3,000 calories in a day when keeping up with my girls. I hope this means I’ll be a skinny person when I have an 11-year-old of my own someday.

*Every lost minute of sleep, every sore muscle, every bug bite, every sting, and every banged up body part is worth the bonding and the spiritual growth you see in your group over just a few days.

*I love my church.

~Meghan.

Instead of a Friday Favorite, today, I’m just telling you what’s going on and asking for some prayer. (Nothing bad has happened to me or Tom.)

As I mentioned in July, I’ve begun leading a group of sixth graders in North Point’s Xtreme small groups along with Janet, a mom, and Skylar, a sophomore in high school. I also mentioned that we have 21 girls in our group. Oh, and I said I might be crazy.

So, one month later, what do I think? Well, Janet and Skylar rock. Xtreme is an amazing environment, and I wish all churches had something like this for their middle schoolers, the kids most likely to slip through the cracks as far as adults’ attention goes. The 21 girls are cute, sweet, and display a wide range of personalities. Oh, and I might be crazy. Coo-Coo. Nuts.

And that might be to my advantage. Because, when the band plays the worship music, I’m not worried about jumping up and down as I sing along. Because, when I’m in a room full of girls who barely know me, I’m comfortable cracking jokes and leading discussion. Because I just committed to a group of kids I had never met for three years. And because most of them are almost already my height, and I’m not bothered by that.

But here’s what scares me (some) and excites me (a lot). Boot Camp.

(source)

Boot Camp, they say, is a weekend with your kids that is as good as a year’s worth of Sundays as far as bonding and spiritual growth are concerned. It’s just for the 6th graders. (The older middle school kids have a different event to attend later.) Most of these kids have never been away from home for a camp, and now they are taking off with their small groups to spend a weekend playing, praying, worshiping, and learning about God, each other, and how it all fits together. Obviously, you want as many kids in your small group to attend as possible. We have over half our group attending, plus some of their friends are tagging along. It’s this weekend, and I’m pumped.

Overall, North Point, Buckhead, and Browns Bridge have 600 sixth grade kids attending Boot Camp this year. That’s amazing! And, another cool thing is that only about 8 of the adults that will be there are on staff for those churches. All the others are volunteers who lead these kids in small groups and are committed to them. I don’t say that to boast about my involvement but because I’m so excited about how God has raised up enough people in these churches to meet the demand of how many kids are coming to church and needing spiritual leaders to invest in them. And don’t forget, most small groups will probably not be 100% in attendance at Boot Camp. There are a LOT more than 600 kids in sixth grade attending Xtreme.

But, as excited as I am about this weekend and about how God is going to use it, I’m already expecting to have little sleep and lots going on. I’m pretty much facing a weekend of exhaustion, followed by another work week before I can actually get some rest. So, I could use some prayer. I just want to be able to keep focus on what’s going on with these girls and not let being tired distract from that at all. I also would really appreciate y’all praying that if these girls are not sure about becoming Christians, that this weekend would be a really positive experience for their faith, even to the point of a decision. Thanks, y’all!

Happy Friday!
~Meghan

When you were growing up, did you hover around the kitchen any time your mom made something sweet? I did. Anytime my mom or my sister went to work on a dessert, I was there, wanting to be a part of it. Specifically the tasting part.

And as a result, I learned to make chocolate chip cookies, blonde brownies, and other treats over the years. I was put to work stirring, usually, sometimes adding chocolate chips, until I was old enough to make these treats on my own. I’m sure I wasn’t that great of a help, but I was still paid in the currency of spoons with batter on them once they were done being used. And that’s great payment since both my mom and my sister are fabulous cooks and bakers.

When visiting with Lisa and her kiddos the other day, I saw this being repeated in the next generation. All of Lisa and Jonathan’s girls were eager to help Lisa make some peanut butter pies. After a while, Madeline had her fill and wandered off. But Anna Kate and Violet stayed put. It wasn’t long before I pulled out my camera to capture the looks of total satisfaction one gets from sampling a dessert before you “should.”

“Finger-lickin’ Good” for Anna Kate.

“So Good You Can’t Look At It” for Violet.

Overall, the pies were a success. And I’m sure it’s because of all that help Lisa had. Anna Kate looks like she was saving some for later…

I love peanut butter pie. But even more than that, I love the sweet, little peanuts that helped make it. What great helpers!

~Meghan

Thanks to everyone who participated in the “home” photo competition. Y’all turned in some really great photos with some awesome reasons for why you chose that one as your entrance. I’ve decided that, at least for this photo competition, I would like to leave the winner to a vote. So, what will happen is you and anyone you ask can vote for your photo once a day. So make sure you link people to this post so they can vote for your photo!! Don’t be afraid to use twitter, facebook, email, and your blogs to get your votes up! The place to vote is on the right side of my blog. The polls will close Sunday night. Then, I’ll announce the winner of the Amazon Gift Card on Monday!

**Important: you can vote once every 24 hours. So if you voted at 12:30pm, you can’t vote again until after 12:30 pm the next day. Keep that in mind!!**

Now to your photos! I’ll post these in alphabetical order by first name:

Alejandra Vidal-

So here is a pretty looking plantain box.  How does that represent home?  Well, I have moved from Texas to Atlanta, and most recently to Phoenix, Arizona.  Home was hard for me to pin-point, and even now is a continually changing definition.  My husband Jose and I just got married and are living in our first “home.”  We found this plantain box the first week we moved here and decided to use it as a fruit holder.  It might sound silly to be excited about a plantain box, but this is the first time in my life I have my own kitchen.  Jose and I love food, and I also love my culture’s food.  Jose embraces my Latin roots and that is one of the things I absolutely love about him.  Eating platanos takes me back to my childhood home.  Plus, look at those pink puffy balls — I LOVE decor.  The box embraces my roots (and in turn my childhood home), my passion for the arts, and a piece of my first home as Mrs. Vidal.

Amanda Elliot-

I took this photo right after the big snowstorm this year.  It immediately made me think of the song “Feels Like Home” by Chantal Kreviazuk.  I love it because although I only meant to take a picture of the house covered in snow, I caught Kyle and Isabelle playing in the yard.  It really captures home to me because home is all about family and cherishing every moment with them.

Athalia Critcher-

When I think of my childhood home, I always think of my mother’s kitchen table: the countless meals that we ate together as a family there, the mornings spent birdwatching through the huge picture window while eating breakfast, after-dinner chores and wiping down the table following the grains of the oak and its honey-stain.

But that is her home, which is now a place I go to visit.

When I think of home today, I think of our wrap-around, appalachian-styled porch. It’s the “heart” of activity in our home:

Sitting on the steps eating lunch in the sun.
Curled up on one of the old church pews with hot tea  as the night settles in.
Standing in the doorway talking with a neighbor or a friend who dropped by for a spell.
Swaying in a rocking chair looking out through the trees to the blue ridges beyond.
And, lately, getting down on my hands and knees to play blocks on its worn surface with my little girl.

Jay Caruso-

Obviously, I don’t live in NYC, but I do consider NY to be my “home.” It’s where I was born. I worked there, proposed to my wife there and fell in love with photography there. This was actually made circa 1993 from Weehauken, NJ.

Jasmine Vidal-

Home: To me is a place where you can be yourself; be it with family or friends.

Home is a place of comfort, good times, crazy fun, and all around enjoyment.This picture reminds me of how my family is my home. My Mom the crazy cookie one, my Dad who denies attachment (though only jokingly-you know he loves us), my brother who supports and instigates our craziness, and Ale my long lost sister who shares my passion and adoration for the arts.

No matter where we go, when we are together, we are home. ^_^

Kristen Sagar-

I picked this picture for two reasons:

1)  For me, home is the place where you can find your family, and this one has my family in it, playing and having a good time.

2)  Home is also the place where you can take a relaxing bath in the kitchen sink, and then put on your rabbit-head towel and frolic naked before you have your pre-bedtime bottle of milk.  Obviously.

So there you have it! Please vote for your favorite at the poll at the top of the sidebar to the right, and feel free to also leave a comment for these contestants telling they why you picked their photo.

~Meghan

My father-in-law, Tommy, or as I like to call him, Daddy T, loves to take cars from old hunks of junk to shiny, restored beauties. My brother-in-law, Ben also likes to spend time helping him convert these cars into vintage awesomeness.

I don’t know how all schools do homecoming, but the ones I attended would have the girls on the court (and their escorts) driven around the field in convertibles before they were let out at the back of the field to get in line and be escorted out and introduced. Back when in my senior year of high school, the one time I was on the homecoming court, Tom drove me and my dad (my escort) around the field in an old impala convertible his dad had restored. It was so fun (and much more challenging than I expected to keep my balance) sitting on the back of that car as we went around the field.

But Daddy T’s baby, his absolute FAVORITE car, is his ’58 Delray. Why?

Well, he found it at a junkyard in 1999, purchased it, and brought it home. One and half years of parts and manual labor later, it looked like this.

It’s beautiful, shiny, and quite a crowd pleaser. He’s won a ridiculous amount of awards for it at car shows over the years. He said that a couple of things in the car made it clear that it was built right here in Georgia, in the Lakewood Assembly Plant.

And before you car fanatics ask how much he’d sell it for, I can just paraphrase that he will never sell it and that we might have to find a plot big enough for him AND the car when the Good Lord calls Daddy T home. This car has been his pride and joy in car shows from Detroit, MI to Tallahassee, FL.

He also told me that these cars weren’t very popular back in 1958 when they were new and as a result are pretty uncommon nowadays. Hard to believe about a car that sweet, huh? But now, he’s racking it up in awards and trophies at car shows with a unique entry in the lineup that has people stopping him to reminisce about the ’58 Chevys they used to “know.” So, where do those awards live? They keep watch over the Delray out in the garage.

And he lets almost no one drive it. I can definitely understand why. I mean, if no one drives it but him, he won’t have anyone to be upset with if something happens to it. And he trusts his own driving. So, it was especially awesome when he let me and Tom use it as our getaway car from our wedding reception. I knew then that he really was showing us how much he loved us, because he let Tom drive it off.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that I recommended that we keep it hidden so that no one could mess it up, had his brother retrieve it right before we drove off, then we just drove it less than a mile down the road from the reception site to the church so that we could switch to Tom’s car and have Ben load the Delray onto a trailer, safe and sound again. It never hurts to have an iron-clad safety scenario planned out when you make your request to use someone’s prized possession. And now Ben will get to drive it off from his own wedding reception this fall.

Are you a car person? I’ve never even changed my own oil. But I sure can appreciate riding around in vintage head-turners like the Delray.

~Meghan

Amazon Reminder

First, I just want to remind everyone that this is THE LAST DAY to get me your “home” photo for a chance to win an Amazon gift card. I extended the deadline until today so that as many people as possible could enter, even if, like me, they are forgetful of deadlines (last Friday) and need some grace (via an extension). Get it to me by midnight!

Preggo (No, Not Prego)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, can I just tell you how excited I am? I have some great friends that are “great with child” these days. One friend is having a C-section next week! I can’t believe it. I could cry just thinking of her being a mom, and I can’t wait to meet her sweet baby girl. (Happy tears.) And I have another friend whose due date is next month, expecting a precious baby boy.

The couple expecting a boy live closeby, so Tom and I drove out to meet them recently for a little photo shoot.

Lydia and Jeremy Hatfield are one of the first couples we got to know at NPCC (our church) and are also some of the first friends we made as a married couple.

Shortly after Tom and I got married, we decided to go to grouplink, which is where the church connects you with other church attenders/members in your area looking to join or form a small group. We decided to do a newlyweds small group the first time around, and that is where we met the Hatfields.

The four of us hit it off right away, and over the next two years, over dinners and great conversation, Tom and I came to realize that they are the kind of people you want to always have in your life. An uplifting, fun couple that loves the Lord and cares deeply about their friends, they’re the kind of people you know God is blessing you with by bringing them into your life.

And after eleven months of their trying, the news that Little Ethan was going to join their family was news that had me and Lydia jumping up and down, hugging in my kitchen, dinner ignored on the stove. (Yes, girls do that jump-hug thing sometimes.)

So, it was a no-brainer to offer a little photo shoot when talking over dinner. They quickly accepted, and we decided to wait on pictures until Ethan was an obvious part of Lydia’s anatomy.

A few months later, and we were eating spaghetti, taking pictures, and hanging out at Rita’s for dessert. A great way to celebrate God’s blessings of friendship and family.

I happen to think Lydia is a super cute mom-to-be. We had so much fun hanging out with them, laughing and catching up.

I’m so excited to meet baby Ethan Kingsley Hatfield! Isn’t that name great? Lydia is from England, and Kingsley is a family name on her dad’s side.

I know they are so looking forward to having their baby home with them, and they’ll be fabulous parents. Their love for each other is obvious; it will be fun to see that love multiplied as their family grows. One more month, guys!

~Meghan

Um…sorry y’all, but this is one Friday Favorite you CAN’T have. haha At least not as your spouse. As a friend, sure. =)

Tom has totally amazed me lately. I have one heckuva husband. I’m just sayin’.

He pretty much always is amazing, but in the last two weeks especially, he’s been such a superman.

(Don’t hate me, Tom.)

Shall I explain? Here are a few events:

*The Great Battery Blow-Out Of 2010.

A couple of Sundays ago, I was driving Tom’s car to church (mine was blocked in the garage by our friends’ car, no biggie), and I stopped for gas. When I restarted the car, there was a loud POW and smoke coming out from under the hood. I stared at it. It fixed nothing, so I got out and popped the hood and saw that the battery had cracked. Wonderful.

Thankfully, Tom was sleeping in that Sunday and planning to come to church later. (I go to the 9AM Xtreme for my middle school small group, then we go to 11AM big church. Since we had friends in town, Tom was going to take advantage of sleeping in and riding back with them.) I got a hold of Tom, and he got out the door, bought a new battery, and drove out to meet me. He replaced the battery, and I was on my way. Crisis averted.

*The Awful August Engine Screw-Up

The next week, I was driving my car home from work when it began to shake and sputter and make other upsetting noises at me. I begged God to just let me get home before it went out on me, and He was kind enough to acquiesce to my request. Tom called around and after consulting with his dad and brother, we had the problem diagnosed, a free tow for my car to get to Covington, and a family friend in Covington willing to help out with the car. So really, all the McFarlin men were pretty darn super in taking care of it. My car got hauled off Tuesday, and we’re picking it up tomorrow. Pretty quick for some people doing us a favor!

*The Rockin’ Promotion of the Year

The long and short of this is that Tom is a hard worker and is good at what he does. He would never say that, but it’s true. Any person would be lucky to have someone with Tom’s know-how and work ethic doing code for them. SO, I was extremely pleased to see that this was noticed by his boss and his boss’s bosses.  Tom has steadily moved up at work since he started in January 2008. But this time, it was different. Because his boss got promoted, and Tom was given his boss’s former position of team lead, without having to interview for the position. They didn’t even hold interviews for it like they usually do. They just decided Tom was the right person for the job. If you can’t tell I’m bursting with pride, then you’re probably not paying attention. I am so, SO proud of him, and I know how much he deserves this position. YAY!

On top of all of that, Tom has been working his booty off as a member of the  8BIT team, some talented guys we both think are awesome,  and he’s been doing some of his own work for clients of Forty-Second Solutions, his LLC. And he still manages to spend time with me and the dogs, be a part of our church and small group, hang out with friends, and keep up with running and working out (which he enjoys, the freak). I don’t know how he does it all. But I’m glad he does.

Just call me Lois Lane.

~LL

A couple weeks ago, Tom and I kept our nephew (of the dog variety), Rascal, at our house for a week. Rascal is my oldest brother, Jonathan, and my sister-in-law, Lisa’s, dog. Mainly Lisa’s dog. Anyway, Jonathan quite aptly summed it up when he referred to Rascal as a powderpuff. The dog’s a sweet, fuzzy, 4.5 pound malti-poo of 3 years of age.

And he’s in love with Sam. Samantha is a sweet, feisty, 21 pound rat terrier mix and is 2 years of age.

And she has a twin brother who is 32 pounds and didn’t approve of this star-crossed romance. Rascal never stood a chance.

First of all, she doesn’t need defending. She and Liam are rough and rowdy wrestlers. They’re both tough, and if he’s got her pinned, it’s only because she’s letting him. (Just look at her teeth. Sam can make some scary faces when she’s roughhousing with her brother.) Rascal was smart enough to not dive completely into the fray, but he didn’t seem to realize Sam is as scrappy as she is, because he bounced around the yard after them, barking his head off.

Secondly, he couldn’t-or wouldn’t-take a hint. Sam was just not interested.

“Sam, let me whisper sweet nothings in your ear.”

“Sam, how ’bout a kiss, you tall drink of water?”

“Forget it, short stuff.”

“Okay, how about I just listen to your heartbeat and pretend it beats for me?”

“Whatever.”

“I’m gonna puke. Get your nose off my sister.”

Oh well, Rascal. At least you’re super cute. Maybe you’ll have better luck with a girl your own size. And who’s not your cousin. You definitely won the hearts of all the girls in the couples from our small group when they came over to hang out that week. You’ll just have to be satisfied with that.

Ah, young love.

~Meghan

The other day, Jess and I were watching Asher and Will together. After we put them in the pool and let them play with chalk on the sidewalk, we got bored and started painting on the boys with wet chalk.

They enjoyed it.

It was fun to see them actually learning to color and to play together.

Of course, when the chalk goes from fun to food…

….it’s time to pack it up and rinse them off.

Naptime.

~Meghan