Goodwill Finds

I have always enjoyed reading my frined's blogs of their great Goodwill finds and have always felt like a loser because I never had the luck hunting talent that they have.Well, yesterday was a new day. My running partner,and by running I mean shopping/errand parter, SJ talked me into going to Dollar Tree. So she picked me up and off we went. We actually never made it to Dollar tree but did hit up Dollar General, Target, and finally Goodwill. I wasn't in the hunt for anything but of course am always up for an adventure. Anyways...... while walking around Goodwill I spied this lovely metal "C" for less than $5 and of course I snatched it up. While waiting for SJ to decided what lamp she wanted I got distracted and found this Southern Living Dress Me Up plate and of course I snatched it up too! All in all I found two fabulously wonderful items for under $10 and gained hope in the ability to find good bargins!

 

 

As one of our wonderful high school teachers use to say,

"Have a LARGE day"!

 

 

Girl's Weekend Day 1

Friday October 12th The Journey to Hot Springs

All the Mississippi Ladies met up at my house and we headed out for Arkansas. On the way we looked at magazines, listened to Christmas music, solved some world problems, talked a 3 year old into taking a nap, and at one point I was being directed on what and how to color by the sassy 3 year old. Here's a few snapshots of us traveling...

We finally made it to Little Rock where stopped for a yummy lunch at Cracker Barrel. My sweet Momma Shirley was ready to eat and ready to shop. At one point she looked at Kelly and said "I could just shop in here for hours"! We laughed at this but if we would have allowed her she would have shopped for hours. While we were eatting lunch this man got an ear full from my AUNT who didn't take her SANITY meds that day. I was almost sure he was going to jump her ....it was pretty funny to watch his facial expressions as he listened to her crazy fictional gossip. After lunch we ran to Sams club and then finished the rest of the journey to our lovely home.

When we finally arrived Riley Kate was ready to paint! She couldn't wait a second longer so......of course I had to do what any good aunt would do.....we painted!

That night we enjoyed gossip cathching up and soup as we sat on the back porch and looked over the water.

 After everybody finally made it to the house we started the baby shower for Payton Ruth and Michelle.

 

The Little Girls loved eatting cupcakes and watching Mush open her happies

 

 

 I had to end day one with this LOVELY wonderful face! She is beautiful from the inside out and I love her to pieces.

 

Well until next time my friends......

Wow

Wow, it's been awhile since I've last wrote on here! I am always reading other's blogs but have become LAZY on mine!

Life in the Clay house has been busy to say the least. I always have a project or room to decorate. Jonathon is loving watching football and coach a soccer team from our church.

Other than that it's work, time with family and friends, and working with the youth at Longview.

This weekend marks new beginings for me......I turn 30! Wow!!! My mom always said that 30 was her worst birthday. She believed it was the end to an important age....but for me I am thankful! Thankful is all I can really say about this time of life. For years among years I prayed for a husband that loved the Lord and the Lord has really giving me the desires of my heart! I love my hubby from the bottom of my heart!


To celebrate my 30th birthday I am going with the girl relatives to Hot Springs, AR. I am SOOOOO excited to get away from life and enjoy time with some of my most favorite people in the world. Here's a sneak peak of where we will be spending the weekend!

Until next time my friends!

Blessings

http://youtu.be/1CSVqHcdhXQ


This song was sung a few weeks ago at church. This expresses my desire to trust in the Lord more. He knows when we don't. Some days this is hard to trust even when we don't understand. Just a song that I thought I would share!

Life as newbies.....I pray it never ends!

Well, as of May 21, 2011 4ish in the afternoon I became a wife to a godly man named Jonathon Clay! So yes we are newbies....in the marriage department and life is just perfect! Ok really perfect will not be achieved until we get to heaven, but it is really good. We've had our first arguements and found out "A LOT" about each other but we are enjoying the journey!

Here is one picture that a friend took of us as we were about to cut the cake!

Since we've made it back from our relaxing honeymoon we've been setting up the house and enjoying our summer. Since we don't have cable yet I bought a season of Everybody Loves Raymond and we've been watching that. We love that show and both crack up at that crazy family. Well the other day we were watching an episode in which the daughter ask Raymond, "Why did God put us(humans) on earth?" Raymond had no clue and the reason that was given was far from the truth. While watching it I wanted to scream...."We were placed on earth to bring honor and glory to God"! It's that simple!!! Well that led me to being convicted...."Am I honoring God?" Uggg, how can a simple episode convict me? Truth is it's not the episode...it's the Holy Spirit. Anyways, praying about getting rid of A LOT of me and bring in a lot of Christ!

Hope all is going well for you all!

April

For some reason the month of April has always been a hard month for my family. If something was going to happen it happened in the month of April. My aunt use to kid that nobody could go on vacation during the month of April. As the years have gone the month of April has changed from gloom to pure joy. I like to believe the birth of my sweet nephew Carter changed the blues of April. Our sweet Carter turned five on April the 3rd. And yes I know I am behind on his birthday blog....but please remember I am a teacher, grad student, YMCA supervisor, and also planning a wedding. :) Now, back to Carter! I can't not believe that my sweet boy is five. How did he become a "whole hand" old? Where did the years go? Fast Facts about our little blessing:

• He loves sports.


• He randomly still gives me kisses ( it breaks my heart to think that soon he won't)


• He is so smart!


• He is going to be my ring bearer! I can't wait to see that handsome boy all dressed up!


• He loves to play! The other night he played in the dirt for an hour...."Aunt Amber come see the church I am building for the ants"! This melts my heart...I pray he will always see the importance building up the "church" of Christ and sharing the "Good News"!


• He ask tons of questions...which means he's only learning more and more!


• He loves his baby sister!

Happy Birthday Sweet Carter! I love you very much and am so blessed to have you in my life!

Going Home

Ahhhh, two words that I just love....Going= I love to go and do.... and then Home= I love love love home! Dorothy had it right when she said "There's no place like home." Tonights visit home had such great unexpected surprises. I mean time playing and visiting with family is great but then surprise visits is even better. Tonight while helping (watching) my dad work on the pump for the pool, my Uncle Art (Ark) drove up with my older childhood friend Stephen. You see I grew up in an extremely small town and lived even farther out of town so the only people near my age were boys. No wonder all my friends wanted to stay over at my house....Ha! Well anyways Stephen is at least 5 years older but is probably one of my favorite older (adopted) brothers. We had the opportunity to catch up for awhile and then of course we headed down memory lane. Now many people would say it would be horrible to grow up in a small town but Stephen and I would argue that point by the stories we talked about. It made me long for younger days and wish the miles that have drifted so many of my friends away would shorten just a little. Just a few of our memories and a few I thought about after he left:

• Gwen's crazy ideas of always giving us something to get into


• Throwing fireworks out of the Brock's minivan.


• Snow days (we all slept at one house --it looked like a war zone with bodies laying everywhere--and then spent the next day riding the country and playing in the snow)


• The Rain Makers ( a singing group that we were all a part of .....everytime we went to sing it would rain and normally tornandos would be near us)


• Swinging and talking


• Riding bikes


• Movie nights


• Driving to New Albany to go to Wal Mart....sad but true


• Laughter and lots of it!

Thanks to all my friends that were apart of those days! They and you will always be a treasured part of my heart!