John Brooks

My sweet friend, Heather, met her little boy this past Friday. And I have yet to meet him! I was so sad I couldn't go up to the hospital to welcome sweet Brooks in person.

Heather sent me this picture today of Brooks hanging out in the hospital. He has to get better before we can meet too! Brooks has pneumonia and will be staying in the NICU for several more days before he can go home. I am just dying to meet him!

John Brooks
2.5.10

A Fresh Start

January is known for being the month to start something new, and thanks to Sephora's LashStash Mascara Sampler, my sister and I will be trying a new mascara for the next 10 months. After all, we love mascara and what better way to try some of Sephora's most popular mascaras then with 10 adorable mini-sized tubes that can't help but make us smile.

We thought it would be fun to pick the same mascara each month so we could talk about what we liked and didn't like about the formula. For January, we chose Fresh's Supernova Mascara.

Here's what the BOX said: Supernova Mascara creates dramatic, diva-worthy lashes in just one coat. The ultra-black, glossy formula thickens, extends, and curls lashes.

Here's what WE said: Supernova definitely extended and curled our lashes. It felt very clean, but the formula was very thin. In order to have diva-worthy lashes, it took several coats. And I am a one-coat mascara kind of girl. A mascara that costs $25 should give me the results I want after one coat. I did notice that Fresh had the smallest container out of the entire sampler box. I'm afraid it was too small and we might have had better results with the regular sized mascara.

PURCHASE OR PASS: I'm afraid it's a PASS for both of us; there just wasn't enough drama.

Fresh Supernova Mascara in Black

Fire On Demand

I love hanging out in our new den, especially when Bryant makes a fire for us to enjoy. We moved into our new house right before winter, and being the strong winter that it's been, my first memories of the house are of us cozied up by the fire.

Bryant has shown me a time or two how to start a fire. It is a process even if you know a few shortcuts. As he was packing for his trip Sunday night, he took the time to fill up our basket next to the fireplace with the perfect sized wood for handling and explained why one of the logs was covered in a yellow wrapper with the name Duraflame on the front. He then gave me a quick demonstration on how to make an instant fire while he was out of town by positioning the firelog front side down, wrapper and all, in the middle of the fireplace grate, and lighting both ends.

And it worked great! In the few minutes it took to put the lighter up and grab a drink from the kitchen, the initial flames turned into a roaring fire! I snapped a picture with my iPhone to show you.


What a sweetheart my hubby is and such perfect timing! Monday afternoon, I came down with a terrible sore throat which has since progressed to this sinus infection/viral "thing" that I hear can last up to 2 or 3 weeks. Ugh! Thankfully, the last few nights I have stayed warm due to my husband's thoughtfulness and Duraflame's fantastic invention!

How to start a fire when your husband's away and you're not feeling like much of a girl scout:

1. Place the Duraflame firelog in the center of your fireplace grate, with the two red arrows facing down.
2. Place a piece of dry wood parallel to the Duraflame firelog, one in front and one behind.
3. Light the two designated areas on the Duraflame firelog.
4. Place a third piece of dry wood diagonal to the three logs.
5. Grab a drink, snuggle on the couch, and enjoy a 4 hour fire!

WARNING: Intended only for wood-burning fireplaces. Do not attempt in a gas-burning fireplace!

I used the Duraflame Xtra 6lb Firelog, sold in a box of 6.

The Mushroom Comes to Memphis

Sunday afternoon, Bryant and I enjoyed the drive back home from Clarksdale, MS. It was like driving through a winter wonderland with all the beautiful trees covered in icicles.

We arrived around 2:00 p.m. and wanted to grab lunch before heading home. We stopped at the new Mellow Mushroom in Germantown at the Shops of Forest Hill. Of course, it was packed because of the ice storm. Everyone had the same idea to get out and grab a bite to eat. Bryant had a pizza and I built my own salad which consisted of choosing a type of lettuce (romaine), veggies (sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers), and protein (BBQ chicken). It was delicious! I'm so excited that I have yet another place to get yummy salads!

The atmosphere is fun and family-oriented and I'm sure it will be very busy for quite some time. I believe the restaurant will do great at its new location.

Situational Awareness

Bryant makes me laugh. Not because he can tell a good joke, but by the way he can assess a situation. He points things out that I would never say, and all I can do is laugh because of the obvious truth of the matter.

Just the other night I was trying to get caught up on housework and Bryant happened to walk in the laundry room as I hurled a huge pile of laundry into the washing machine.

I sighed, "You know, laundry is just one of those things that you can't get behind on."

He replied, "Yeah, and the bad thing is you can't get ahead on it either."

In all the years of doing laundry, I had never thought of it that way.

Favorite Food Group

As Buddy the Elf says in the movie Elf, "We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." Well, in my world, the list goes a little like this: crackers, stoneground wheat crackers, crispy wheat crackers and sea salt crackers.

It seems as though a day hardly goes by that I don't eat crackers. I try and eat fruit for one of my snacks throughout the day, but come mid-afternoon and I am reaching for the box of crackers. In search of a rational justification as to why I eat so many crackers, I peeked at the nutrition facts listed on the side of each box. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was getting protein as well as iron in my tasty treats. Protein in crackers. Who knew? Now we don't have to discuss the carbs and sodium, I'll save that for another post ;)

So here's the run down on my favorite food group as it would appear.

Stoneground Wheat and Crispy Wheat Crackers

Sea Salt Crackers

Rivers in the Desert

I am claiming a couple of verses for my life this year. Pastor Gaines has mentioned these particular verses in the recent services and actually said he is personally claiming them for 2010. I am excited that these verses that God has impressed on my heart are the same verses that my pastor is praying over his life and the life of our church. It is no coincidence that I will be reminded of Isaiah 43:18-19 throughout the year at church as well as in my individual reading of God's Word.


This is a picture of the Okavango River. I read online that it is the world's largest inland delta. Two rivers converge to form this river that flows in the middle of the Kalahari Desert. I read on the Okavango Tours website that "The contrast of desert and wetland is what makes the Okavango unique, and fosters the bewildering variety of life that it supports. Dry land and wetland species cohabit, creating unique and startling associations of plants, amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles."

A river in the desert is unique and the life that comes from it is bewildering. "Lord, create in me something unique and startling that can only come from a river in the desert."

From where will this river come?

"...Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' "

“ Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert. "
Isaiah 43:18-19