Our awesome photo shoot...

So Andy decided that it was sad that we didn't have any updated pictures of us together as a couple and suggested an impromptu photo shoot today. So being the girl that I am, got VERY excited and quickly got ready for an awesome day of playing "America's Next Top Model!" I had a blast with Andy and here is just a little of what transpired:

My Master Mischief Maker!

Yes, I am talking about my sweet 2 year old angel, Peyton. As of the past week, she has turned from beautiful princess angel to the Master Mischief and Mayhem Maker! Although, I will say that she is having some help from her brother! Every day for the past week, I have had multiple mini-catastrophes. EVERY day. Here are just a few examples of what she and her brother have put me through.

One morning, I was in the living room talking to Amy and the kids were in the kitchen. I am not sure how I didn't hear it happening...I only heard it once it was too late. They had found our stash of bottled water and preceded to open 8 or 9 bottles and pour them out on the kitchen floor....flooding it! It took me about a dozen towels to get it all up! Same day, a few hours later, they found my sugar container. Yeah....I know. They dumped the whole thing out ( a big canister full), out in the living room carpet. The sugar thing has happened TWICE this week as apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time!

My M.M.M. apparently has a new found taste for candles. Yes, candles. She likes to EAT them! Her brother takes a kitchen chair somewhere random to get what he wants and leaves it there for his sister to find any candles with in range. A few nights ago, I come down stairs to her entire face and hair being dyed red from her eating/smearing/smashing a candle everywhere! What the heck!?!?


WARNING: THIS NEXT STORY CONTAIN GRAPHIC/ VULGAR MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR SOME...
The grossest/ funniest of the week has been Peypey's pooping habits. For some reason, as soon as you put a swimmy diaper on her she decides to poop. The problem with this is that swimmy diapers are not meant to absorb pee or poop, just to contain it. But if you get in the water, be ready for a steady wash of poo to disperse. Twice, I had to dump the pool and refill it because of poo water. The third time, I actually got the poo of her before she could get in the pool. I was washing her down with the hose but still couldn't get the poo out of the crack with out wiping it...(Sorry, this is alittle graphic I know....) So I run inside to get a couple of wipes. I walk back out just in time to see Peypey sliding down the slide bare butt leaving a nice smear of poo trailing her down. This is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased! :)

Then today, it was a little more serious. The kids where playing at the kitchen table, Eli messing with the chandelier and Peypey playing next to him in a chair when the massive, 100 pound chandelier fell. It was the most scariest moment of my life. The glass from the underside lights shattered everywhere, it was inches from hitting the kids. If any of you have ever seen this light, you know the danger of all of this. I was so freaked out, luckily Andy came home and cleaned it all up for me. When it comes to cleaning up glass, he is the man!

So as you can all see, this has been a heck of a week. I am even leaving out a few of the not so entertaining stories. I have NEVER used the vaccum or wipes as much in my life as I have this week. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

WORDS TO LIVE BY!

For those of you who read Tara's blog, this will be a repeat for you. But read it again. I will read it every day, because it is a FUNDAMENTAL principle that can change your life, and the lives of those around you. I know that God spoke these words to Tara, but it is crazy how I feel like he spoke them to her to speak to me! I feel his presence every time I read this. His presence always seems to follow truth.

Tara's most recent blog from her site: tarabruce.theworldrace.org


"Be still and know that I am God."
Breathe deep. Still yourself before Me. Listen for My voice. I am longing to speak to you. Wait. Sit. Be. I only want you, not what you can do for me. Just come and sit with me for a while. Soak in my presence. I have mysteries I long to reveal to you. I have created you for so much more. I did not create you to survive, but to thrive. Breathe in me. Breathe in my presence. Can you hear me now?

As I sat in the river God began to speak. Don't you hear it? All of creation around you is worshiping me! Listen to the birds, the river, the trees. You are the only creation with a choice to choose what you were made for: to worship me with your life. It's your choice every single day. Choose me.


I loved this moment with the Lord and I cherish our talks. I sat there wondering how I could not choose HIM. I have tasted and I have seen his love and goodness. His embrace is endless and his presence is all I long for. I will take a deep breath and breathe him in and as I exhale with breathe his presence on others and worship the Lord most high!

A Great Reminder!

Geez, sometimes I just don't get how we can be so DENSE! We are humans, very little. And God is SO big! How do we forget this? I also love how hindsight is 20/20! One of my favorite things is looking back over a period of time and actually seeing God maneuver people and timing to be right where he needs it and seeing everything just fall into place. I mean, he knew all along that it was going to work out that way...But if you were to go to that person in the moment, there is NO way they could see it!

Two months ago, there is NO way that I could see what God was doing. I knew that he was orchestrating something...I just had no clue as to what. No clue. Now, I find myself going to cosmetology school in less than a month. With my sister-in-law. For less than $2,000. Yeah, crazy! And I couldn't be more excited! It was all God, and looking back, I can see every chess move that he made to get me here. Why do I ever worry about anything? You would think that all of my past experience (especially MY past) would remind me that I am NOT in control. And I am quite happy about that by the way. Cause he does a great job with my life and I am incredibly thankful!

I just want to remind myself and you that HE is in control of EVERYTHING! Jobs, your children, college, majors, the people you meet, timing, where you live, and places you travel to. Everything. He is big, and he can do whatever he wants or needs to to get you to where you need to be. He is in control. So just relax, and allow him to guide you. It might be bumpy at times, but I promise, it will be a fun ride.

Okay, you asked for it!

Alrighty, here goes...

I'm going to start a list of guesses per your requests.  Who thinks I will be done with the jaw breaker when?  Let me here your guess.  And the winner will get, you guessed it: a jaw breaker!  (Regular sized of course...not anyone can handle an extra-large.)  Okay, so here is where I am at as of right now.

Now, keep in mind that I have been working on it for 2 weeks. Good luck!

The one year Jaw Breaker...

So here is one of my hobbies.  Jaw breakers.  Now, I have become a professional jaw-breaker licker over the past few years.  But I will be honest, I have not yet been challenged, until I saw this baby!  We found it in Chattanooga at the "Candy land"  candy store.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that it HAD to be mine... The man said that it takes the average person a year, but he's never seen MY work! Haha...  So needless to say, I am going to try to set a record.  (I wonder what IS the record for most ginormous jaw-breaker?  Must look that up.)  So like a blogging nerd, I am going to document my progress complete with pictures.  :)  Wish me luck!  

P.S.  This thing weighs like 2 or 3 pounds, it's insane.  I think I might consider it a biceps work out too!

Warring with the Enemy.

Okay, so for those of you who know me well, you know that I am a positive, upbeat, joyful, glass is half full kind of girl.  This is partially why this post will be so disturbing.  I am not writing it to disturb you, in fact I am writing it for many reasons.  I will tell you those in un momento.  First, you need to know that I firmly believe in spiritual warfare.  It is real, it is intense and it is very, very serious.  Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy for sure.  Another thing that is important to know is that many, if not most of the battles take place in your mind because that is what he is after.  Okay, so why am I sharing what I am about to share with you?

A.  You need to know that EVERYBODY is fair game to the enemy.  And even a "happy" person can get dragged into the gutter.

2.  I want to show just an example of how Satan can trap you and try to take your mind so you will be prepared against such an attack. 

C.  I need your prayers.  When the enemy attacks me it is extremely intense as you will see.  Which just shows that God has amazing plans for my life and the life of my children, so I need all the prayer cover I can get!

4.  I want you to know the real me.  For accountability, for intimacy and a real relationship. I am not interested in faking anything for anyone.  

All that being said, here is what happened to me this weekend:  We all have bad days.  We have "off" days where we feel down, sad, for no particular reason.  I had a couple on Thursday and Friday.  Just blah days... I felt lonely, depressed, boring, and down right pitiful.  Tara is gone, we didn't have any plans for the Fourth, etc.  That was phase one, the spirit of depression.  I didn't recognize it because it is subtle.  It was his entry.  (Let me clarify real quick my belief on how demons work.  Once you have the Holy Spirit inside you, demons can not "enter" you.  I believe that they can attach to you and attempt to gain control over your mind and make your life miserable, but they can't take you over.)  So without me even realizing it, the demon of depression had it's talon in me.  The second phase was the spirit of lies.  He showed himself slowly, a lie here and there so as not to alarm me.  If you are suddenly bombarded with many lies at once, you realize that it is an attack and it's easier to fight against, but if it's slowly...you don't even realize it's happening.  

"I am not the best parent for my children." "I am not doing enough to help them."  "I am lazy and pathetic."  "I can't even get out of my pj's!"

(Remember, the enemy is trying to take over your mind, so the thoughts will be camaflouged as if your own thoughts.  But they are NOT!)

So this lasted for a few days.  Couldn't sleep well on Saturday night, completely restless.  Then all of the sudden Sunday morning,  full on ambush.  All morning I was heavy, I mean really heavy.  I almost didn't go to church simply because I didn't want to keep moving.  I started to realize what was happening, that it was the enemy...then all hades broke loose.  Once I realized what was happening there became a combat with in myself.  It was SO weird.  Almost like an out of body experience.  I knew how to fight it, but for some reason I didn't care.  I was literally arguing with myself.  One the way to church while me and the kids were in the car, it got way worse.  The third demon showed itself.  Now, there are only a few times that this vile creature has ever attacked me, the first time I will never forget.  It almost won.  Satan doesn't usually use it because I immediately know that it his him and tell him to get lost.  But he knew that I was unusually weak that Sunday morning and tried it again.  The demon of suicide.  I know that it sounds terrible and shocking.  But it's Satan, what do you expect?  I'm going to give you a brief moment into my car ride to church, the war that waged between the Holy Spirit and the demons:

Suicide:  "Maybe I should just hit that car coming on the on ramp and be done with this.  My kids are autistic, they are going to suffer.  They would be better off going to heaven."

Holy Spirit:  "God has a plan for me, God is going to use Eli and Peyton like I can't even imagine!"

Suicide:  "I'm tired of fighting an uphill battle.  They are not getting better."

Holy Spirit:  "Just tell these nasty demons to leave me alone and they will leave.  I have power over them, they have to obey me!"

Lies:  "I don't even care.  I'm not strong enough. I'm weak and tired."

Holy Spirit:  "Just get to Andy when you get to church, he will war on my behalf."

Lies:  "He is too busy, he'll just think that I want attention and am acting out."

Holy Spirit:  "He loves me and would do anything for me.  He would drop the entire morning service to free me from this!"

This is just a couple of minutes of the torture that is spiritual warefare.  Long story short, I made it to Andy.  And he did war on my behalf, he prayed and told the spirits to leave me and they did.  Within a few minutes I felt strong, like I could do anything.  Exactly like God intends me to feel!  I am so thankful that I have a husband who understands the war that is waged against us, and uses the authority that the Holy Spirit gives us to defend against it.  I still don't know why I couldn't war on my OWN behalf, I am praying for God to help me understand that. But I know that that is why he calls us to live in community with others, so that we will have people around us to fight this fight with.  So next time you start thinking things that are contractory to what you know is the truth, recognize it for what it is:  lies.  Tell it to leave in Jesus name (aloud).  And be free.  Freedom is what God has called us to, it's what He desires for us.  So let's live in it.  Always feel free to call me or email me if you need prayer or warring!  I don't think that it is a coincidence that this happened a week after Tara left, she kept me strong.  So Tara, honey, keep praying for me.  I know that I don't need you here, but I know what an awesome prayer warrior you are!  

Thank you all for loving and supporting me through good and bad times.  God has a plan for my life and the life of my family, and I am SICK and TIRED of the enemy trying to steal from me, kill me, and destroy me!  So I ask you to join me in waging war against our ENEMY!

A Funny Farewell.

I have been delaying writing about the farewell with Josh and Tara because....well, it's just alittle depressing.  But in true Jones and Bruce fashion, it was funny.  There were a lot of tears on my end, Tara did pretty good about holding it together.  I on the other hand, just let it all out!  When we first got to the airport, Andy found a wheelchair and decided he was tired of walking...(we had been walking for about 45 seconds...) We found Josh and Tara inside and we hung out for a little while in the food court before we said our final goodbyes.  In that time, Andy broke the wheelchair by popping a few wheelies and falling over backwards.  Twice.  Boys don't learn the first time.  Come to find out they don't learn the second time either, but that's later.  We all had a great laugh over Andy laying in the middle of the airport on the floor with the wheel chair upside down next to him with the back ripped off due to the hard impact!  We said our final goodbyes and it was quite sad.  Not exactly our style.  So after we watched them walk to the security area hand in hand, Andy decided on a different goodbye.  He followed them and then, as loud as he could, belted out his high pitch girlie laugh.  Those of you that have heard it understand what I am talking about.  Now, my typing (or words for that matter,) can not possibly convey the hilarity of that moment.  Let's just say that the entire airport's attention was on a man laughing and clapping his hands like a little boy, er, little girl.  It was the perfect farewell.  But what Josh and Tara don't know is that our trip to the airport was not done.  On the way out, Andy once again grabs the busted wheel chair and continues to pop wheelies.  (I know, I saw that it was not going to end well and tried to warn him, but you know boys...)  He ended up falling upside down yet again, slamming into the ground as there was no longer a back to the wheel chair to break his fall.  As he was laying on the ground moaning, Joe Brim walked up and stood over him, pointing and laughing.  Which thinking about later probably looked really bad to everyone else in the airport that didn't know Andy wasn't handicapped.  Anywho, Andy reached up from the ground with his uninjured arm and smacked Joe in the.....well, you know.  Down Joe goes, fast food and all!  So I just want you to make a mental picture here.  Two grown men, strewn about the floor.  Upside down well chair.  In the Atlanta airport atrium.  Busiest airport in the US.  Yeah, I was laughing too....

Slip n' Slides and Bubble Bath...

So birthdays are a big deal in my family and we usually have the same party over and over again.  We sing (horribly), eat cake and ice cream, open presents and play games.  Now, don't get me wrong, I always have a lot of fun.  It's just usually predictable.  Well, we decided this year to combine Andy and Eli's party, and because of my recent sadness over Josh and Tara leaving, my parents decided to mix things up a bit!  They rented a 40 ft long moon bounce type slip n' slide with a 4 foot pool at the bottom.  Oh yes, you heard me right!  The best part about it?  Pouring bubble bath on it!  Eli and Pey-pey LOVED it.  They slid a little bit and mostly played at the pool at the bottom getting splashed by all the "big kids" sliding down.  When I say "big kids", I mean all the adults!  Now, the sliding was incredibly fun, but my favorite part was what I like to call the "bubble mosh pit".  The middle part of the slide leveled off and we would pour almost an entire bottle of bubbles in one spot.  One by one, a person would slip and fall into the pit of bubbles.  Before long, everyone was stuck in one spot and NO WAY OUT!  You could get ZERO traction, you were at the mercy of the slimy mess of people.  Everyone was covered and no one can go anywhere but into other people.  I laughed SO hard.  People would get lost under other people and you couldn't tell what body part went to who!  I have to say that my head got stuck against my dad's hind quarters, my face in my brothers armpit, and I am pretty sure that I was violated by Kelsey's toe...yeah....crazy, awkward times!  But SO much fun, we might just make it a tradition.  Pics will follow soon, I promise!  Long story short....Giant slip n' slide, 8 hours, and 6 bottles of bubble bath later= amazing memories!