Little Girl's Dream

There is dream that most little girls share.  They pretend to be the princess bride. The bride that has all of her favorite stuffed animals lined up to be the best bridal party ever! The bride that has the most beautiful sheet from her mommas linen closet as her veil.

No matter how much money my daddy tried to pay me to just..."go get married at the Courthouse"...I couldn't do it!  I still had this little girl dream of a wedding in my mind!!  Two years later I think...man that $$$$ sure sounds nice now..  just kidding!!  I wouldn't trade our wedding day for anything! It makes Valentines Day just that much more special.

Today, I had the most precious 9 year old girl in my chair at work.  I gave her the remote to change the channel on the tv in my operatory, thinking it would soon be on Nickelodeon, or the Disney Channel.  I was quite surprised when I looked up to see TLC's Say Yes to the Dress.  She was so excited to see the beautiful women in wedding dresses, parading in front of their entourages.  She was smiling & so into the show, that she didn't hear me at first when I asked if she watched it at home.  Her response was, "Oh yes, I love it.  Do you like dresses? Are you married?  Did you have a beautiful wedding dress like these girls? How long ago did you get married? Did you have wedding? I can't wait to get married one day."

I love the innocence of a little girl's dream....

These are a few of my favorite things!

Family Time...One of my favorite things!!

Wow!  Donny & I had a great weekend!  It all started with my Mom's 57th bday on friday!  We cooked shrimp, homemade french fries, & Kim busted out the 3rd homemade cheesecake.  Let me elaborate...Kim is my brother Stebo's girlfriend.  The first time we met her she brought a "fresh from her kitchen" pumpkin roll.  The second time I saw her, she brought "fresh from her kitchen" toffee, peanut brittle, & all kinds of cookies.  The truth is...the chick can bake!  Per Mom's request, she made a cheesecake.  Thursday night, she was driving home from a friends house and her precious cheesecake fell on the floor of her car while rounding a curve.  The kitchen saw her again, at 5:00 am on Friday, to make another one.  That one didn't turn out exactly like she wanted, soooooo, we made another one when she got to my mom's house on friday evening.  Poor thing!  She practically had the recipe memorized by that time!!  But, I must say...It was GREAT! This is Mom, Kim, & Me!

My very first nephew...Ty...One of my favorite things!!

Ty, was my other brother..Rick's first born.  I can still remember that rainy day in September we were blessed with him.  I couldn't get from Tyler, to Nacogdoches to Baytown fast enough to see him!!  Tammi hadn't had him yet, so I was trying to keep her company by talking about my new friends I had met at college.  I kept saying, "Tammi, I have a new friend.  Her name is Sarah.  She is from this town called Hughes Springs"....and I kept rambling and rambling.....Ty is growing up for sure...but he is such a tender hearted little guy.  He cares about other peoples feelings...He is sooo smart....& most of all....He LOVES HIS KK!! 

My 2nd niece...Brie....One of my favorite things!!

Sweet baby Brie...Rick's second born.  What a special little angel!  Every time I go to Dayton, we always go pick up baby Brie!  She is a cutie, and spoiled to the core!  My dad is in love that baby!!  She finally took over my daddy's princess throne that I occupied for 28 years.  I was glad to pass that on to her!!  ;)  Brie is loved by  SO many people, and I know that she will also grow up to be an amazing young lady...that also  LOVES HER KK!! 

Mom & Dad had the most beautiful flowers in bloom...and I couldn't help but snap a few pics of my little loves.  It was a tad bit windy on Saturday, so we had her hat on.

I wish you could have seen her face when she first saw Ty!  It was the cutest little expression! 

Donny....One of my favorite things!!

Golden, D, Babe...just a few things that I call him!!  I can't imagine my life without him!  He makes me laugh,  he wipes my tears when I cry about my bad days & is my biggest supporter in life.  Donny is a thyroid cancer survivor!  What a strong & amazing man! He proposed just days after he finished his first radiation treatment...such an exciting time!  When he was asked about our future before we got married he said, "I'm excited...It's going to be like having a slumber party everyday with my best friend!"

Certainly I have more...but these are just a few of my favorite things!!


Thank you, Lord, for all of these things!

Spring Break = Spring Cleaning

Why is it, that every Spring, we purge out the old, crummy clutter, just to make room for new, crummy clutter?  This happens to me every spring.  I get so proud of myself for the hard work that I put into cleaning...and man, I mean...I devote an entire WEEK out of the year to "spring cleaning."

The other 51 weeks of the year are spent cluttering up the area I treasured the week before.  Why is this?  I get so irritated when I recogize this is happening...

But mark my word...this year is going to be different!  I refuse to clutter up my precious space!! 

This year, I began my cleaning spree in my closet.  It is so much fun to get rid of clothes...especially those are too BIG! Yay! I feel like a new woman when I clean out my closet.  I hate to admit, that this area has been neglected for a few years! It is finished now...Whew, what a relief!

I have this room....I think we all have a similar room...that collects all the big junk.  Technically, this isn't junk in my lovely room.  It's wedding gifts that haven't been used yet...like, new dishes, crockpots, small kitchen appliances, towels, shower curtains, that sort of thing.  We are saving all the "goods" for our new house...that way, we will have new things to fill it!! How fun is that!! ;)  Well, there were some things in there that had to go...Donny's grandparents lived in  our home before us, so there was still some of their things in there.  That sounded bad.....Not good things, or anything with emotional attachment, but just stuff we hadn't distributed to other family members or just things that needed to be thrown away that they hadn't done yet.  We found 2 karoake machines, 2 or 3 radios...lots of face masks, all kinds of stuff!  Thanks to Mrs. Beth for her awesome help!! 

I think that was the room that I got the most satisfaction from.  I am still in my cleaning journey this week, so Donny better lock up the things he wants to keep!  Things seems to "disappear"...and its mostly his stuff!!  haha..poor Donny! I told him that if he helped, that wouldn't happen!!

I challenge you to purge your clutter...in all aspects of life...faith, life, and your home!

Funday Sunday!

I know that the title of this blog makes you think I will talk about Sunday, but that is a tad bit misleading!  My bff already took the title "Team Molly," so I had to think of something else...haha...

What is "Team Molly?"  Well, if you read Megan's blog, you already know.  But for those of you who don't, it goes a little something like this:

A few friends & myself have decided it would be a good idea to begin training for a few 5k's, then possibly a 10k, and then we shall see where else this leads.  Team Molly is what we called ourselves yesterday.  It was a wonderful chick, Molly Calvert's 30th birthday!!  How exciting is that! A new milestone!  A new adventure! So, on her birthday, we conquered a 5k.  How cool is that...to run 3.2 miles on your 30th birthday!  We had shirts made & everything for this monumental occasion.  Here we are below...after the run I may add...thats why my face is soooo red!

It's me, Molly ( the birthday girl), and Megan.

It was a great time!  And...not only did Mr. Kilgore prove what a SUPERSTAR  he is...finishing 3rd in his age group, but Stefanie W. also proved how awesome she is, too!  She completed a half marathon!  Wowzer!  How unbelievable is that?!!

This whole running experience has been quite the emotional roller-coaster.  I didn't think that I would be so consumed by it.

I'm learning... from a very passionate person, that there are life lessons in "running the race." She says on one of her latest blogs, "You are stronger than you think. You can push and dig deeper than you think. You may slow down, but don't you ever stop."  She says, "I dare you to believe. To move past the voice of impossible."  

This is my biggest weakness. The voice of impossible....But with Meg's encouraging words, His guidance & strength & a whole lot of FAITH...I WILL obtain victory! The taste of victory is...Oh..So...Sweet!!  The sense of accomplishment makes me crave more! 

What's New

What's new...Well, honestly, this past month has been a whirl wind!

For starters...my niece, Brie, had her very, very 1st birthday!  I can't believe that she's already 1! Isn't she just so cute & tiny!! This is Brie checking out her cake...

Big brother, Ty!  He's so proud of his sister! 

 She wasn't diggin' the icing on her fingers.  Ugh...get it off!!
This..was.... by far.. Brie's favorite present!  Uncle Stebo & Kim did AWESOME!!

The same weekend of Brie's party was Feminar.  Feminar is a ministry of Macedonia Baptist Church dedicated strictly to women.  How fun is that!  And I'll tell ya, there was alot of estrogen flowin' in The Belcher Center.

Here's a little recap of this years Feminar that I sent in to Branches, IBC womens publication:


One word to describe this years Feminar - AMAZING!! I sincerly enjoy studying the Word of God with my all time favorite, genuine, speaker/blogger, Lysa TerKeurst. BUT, in this season of my life, Lori Salierno spoke directly to my heart! I haven't felt tugs LIKE THAT on my little heart strings in quite sometime. She reminded me that when we "run the race of faith" we are armed with freedom, confidence, & power. I felt like she was speaking directly to me, saying "Kayla, be confident! Be confident! Be confident!" It doesn't matter what SIZE my favorite jeans are, or how BIG my new, super cute shirt is..I am His! We are running the race for an audience of ONE. In difficult times, when we think that our world is closing in around us, we are to be reminded that Christ will not let us get destroyed. We may feel the pressure, but with our focus on Christ, we WILL NOT crack! That truth is so exciting! Like Lysa says, some days just a one verse day...and this is the truth that caught my attention during Feminar... "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

It was a great time!!

So, with that in mind...I'm going to focus on running the RACE...ALL THE RACES THAT WE RUN...The race of FAITH, the race of LIFE, and literally the 5K race this coming weekend!!

Great-Time-Get-Away

I know I've said before, but last Monday was our 2nd wedding anniversary.  We are trying to save mucho dinero, so we decided to head east, just about 25 miles away from home to have a date night.  Although Donny & I have a date night every Thursday night, this date night was a little different. 

On Thursdays, we don't cook, its a "left over" kind of night, and we just relax & watch recorded tv shows that we've missed throughout the week.  Donny actually took it upon himself to make reservations at this super cute hotel & we spent the night!  Even though we were so close to home, it felt good to get away.  I told Donny that I felt bad leaving Lola & Chico and his response was, "Babe, we need to get away...we need a break!"  Its funny that we talk about them like they are our kiddos....

After we checked in to the hotel we headed over to the Boardwalk in Bossier.  The Boardwalk was packed!  People were everywhere.  Dinner at Saltgrass was amazing...even with the 45 minute wait at 4:30! Neither one of us had ever been to the movies down there, so we decided to check it out.  We had a great time!!

This is our official 2nd Anniversary picture.  Aren't we cute!!  Haha...

You know, it is good to go somewhere alone, even if it is only 25 miles away! 

So now, its back to the grind...I have big ideas of what this week is going to be like.  Megan, Molly and I are hitting the road hard tomorrow after work.  We are training for a 5K in March, a 10K in April ( I think) & a half marathon in October (I think..)  So we shall see how this works out! 

Happy week bloggy friends!!

This is Whats Been Up!!

Oh My Goodness...What in the world has happened to me?  If I didn't know myself, I would have thought I vanished off the face of the Earth.  Not so much...I've just been WAY, SUPER-DUPER BUSY!  I feel so bad that I haven't shared anything that has happened in my WAY, SUPER-DUPER EXCITING life lately! 

So, here we go!  I have a new nephew since my last post. Duty & Megan welcomed Easton Lee Golden on Super Bowl Sunday..maybe he'll be a football player!! He is sooo cute!  Don't you agree?

This past weekend, Megan K. & I hung out with 11 super neat 9th graders!  OMGoodness!  It was a blast!  We lead group discussions at DNow.  I LOVED the theme, "A fire burns within me" ...and our discussions focused on "Love Out Loud."  I always enjoyed DNow when I was in jr. high & high school, so I knew it would be rewarding!  I kept telling them that it wasn't a coincidence that they were there or that we were their group leaders...it was all part of the Lord's plan.  We knew that we didn't have much to offer, we just kept praying that He would give us the words that we needed to teach those sweet girls what it was they needed to learn!   It all worked out...Marvelously!...OHHH...and I showed them my awesome cheer skills that were a little rusty (its been a little over 10 years since those skills were used)...& actually, somehow, managed to do a toe touch or two!! 
  
Monday, Valentines Day, was mine & Donny's 2nd Wedding Anniversary!  Whoo hoo! We made it TWO YEARS!  Donny says, with a cute little smirk on his face.."Its been two Loooooooonnng years!" ..I know he doesn't mean it!!  ;) He was so sweet yesterday!  He made a roast with carrots & potatoes & I made him a red velvet cake.  (His favorite, which is why that was his grooms cake) It was so nice to come home to dinner, and spend it just hanging out with the most awesome guy I know!  Here's a pic of my gorgeous roses!

Oh, and I'm so excited that I get my hair did this Friday!  I love how sassy I feel when I get it cut & colored!  Hahaha...

So, that is whats been up!