Tag Archives: friends

19Jan / 2011

Birthday Cakes…throughout the years…

We just had a “Tangled” party for Maggie and Lily…Anya made this cake… 

I thought I’d post a few of the different birthday cakes this family has had over the years…

From being a new mom with my one and only, Anya,  turning 1!!  The cake was amazing!!   What was I thinking, that kind of cake at 1?  I am sure every other year has been a bit of a let down…

Or Taylor’s Racetrack cake!  I am sure that it must be because of this cake that the T, LOVES cars, fast cars, knows all about cars, and basically is obsessed with, yes…cars!

To many of the white or chocolate 9″ round, chocolate Frosting cakes…

Hey at least the plate says, “You are special today”,

because this cake is well…BORING!!

The springs in this cake seem to have broken! 

Look at Maggie so patiently waiting.

But, what I lack in creativity, I make up for in taste!!  Yummy!  (If I do say so myself!)

Then there are the store bought cakes…  It was all about Thomas that year and several after…In fact here is my ginormous 2 year old son, Kieran, on a Thomas train he had for about 3 seconds.  He outgrew it within hours of the purchase!  Doesn’t he kind of remind you of the boy in the movie, “Honey, I blew up the kids!”  

And the Ice Cream Cakes…(Kieran loves these…) 

The wintry Igloo…(attempt) 

The 9 x 11 sheet cake, still in the pan of course…  But the teens don’t care!

The amazing cake by Pam Lewis for Anya’s 16… 

I love this “Construction Cake”  It was a MESSY Cake!  Made sure I had a cheap plastic table cloth and just let them dig, (get it?) Sorry…  dig in!!  Then just emptied out the truck and tied it all up and threw the mess away…easy clean up!

Plates don’t really match the cake theme here do they?  Haha!!

I love celebrating the kids birthdays…I can go overboard, renting ponies, bouncy things, going to bouncy thing places, Tea themes, beach themes, Tangled…untangled, overwhelmed, underpaid…

We have no family in town to celebrate our “big” day with, so I had decided with Anya, that I would try to make the birthday’s awesome and  fun and memorable…to try to make up for lack of family…in town.

I am asked to have my “extended families” parties at my house too!!

Lane!!

Diana is 39??? Again? (Look at Brett's face back there!!)

John's 50th! John and Rhonda with John Ford Coley...

After looking at all my pics throughout the years to find some of the cakes…I am so glad that I love cakes…Cakes mean parties..Parties mean friends, fun and amazing memories for all!!  It brings me great joy and many happy tears to look and see all the smiling faces.

My life is awesome!!

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31Dec / 2010

The 1st Annual Harden/Pemelton Florida Extravaganza!!

So about the Pems… 

This is a family we do life with.   

I have known them since I had Taylor back in 1996.  I met Diana at a conference at BCC…(Hope Park now).  I decided that I wanted to be friends with her and made it happen!  She is, as she calls it, a fellow breeder like me.  They have 6 kids, we have 6 kids.

We have many kids that are very close in age…

although they do NOT have the “Rowan”!!!   Though he is adorable, I am sure they are glad!  He is 3 and he is exhausting!  I think one more year and he will be much more  manageable!  I think, I hope, I pray!!

We have been adopted in to their extended family, who all live in Nashville!  We love spending time with them!

Birthdays, holidays, DSG, you name it…   We live life with them!!

I am blessed to have “family” like this in Nashville.

After one of my “Girlfriend getaway’s” in Florida, I was talking to them about vacationing together.  Bret loved the idea and voila!

It is LOUD!

It is  CHAOS!

It is BUSY!

It is AMAZING!

IT IS…WHERE IS ROWAN?

It is refreshing and amazing to watch all of our children interact, and play and bond!  We have games, we have Nerf footballs, Frisbees, plans to hang at the beach, eat seafood! Go out to eat every now and then, laugh…Crazy hats and sunglasses (New Year’s Eve) Jokes, singing, ipods…soaking up the sun!  They all rented bicycles and are riding all over the island!!  Visiting my parents, my sister Christy, Nana Deacon, and Sam and Terri and the kids will be there too!!

We are a family blessed!  I love the Pems!  I love living life with this family!!

Happy New Year!!! 

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26Nov / 2010

Thanksgiving…What are you thankful for?

Tom and I spent many Thanksgivings by our selves during the early years of our marriage.  Family…very far away.  My extended family was in Alaska for years then they moved back to Colorado. Several moves later, we are scattered all over, Maryland, Florida, Denver, Knoxville…  As the family as moved around, we decided that Nashville was the central location for ALL of us to meet.  So every other year we meet at our house for an amazing Thanksgiving weekend!  All are invited on the off years as well.

This is an on year…

The family started to arrive on Tuesday.  Mom, Dad and Christy.  Then Wednesday, Sam and the clan arrived.  Late Wednesday night Beth, my beautiful pregnant sister, her husband Deuce and their friend, Cameron came in from Denver.  Drew and Dara are in Florida with her Dad this year.

What an amazing time we have had so far!!  The visiting and laughter.  Watching all the kids have a wonderful time together!

Deuce cooked up an amazing dinner.  AMAZING…you don’t understand, he is brilliant!  I cook…I can get the job done…He is an artist…He started early this morning.  Spices and sauces and garlic and love and laughter.  Later in the afternoon Jen came over with Lane and Maddy.  My parents shared pictures of their beautiful house in Florida.  My father has been working on it for months.

We were treated to Turkey, dressing and all the wonderful trimmings.  My pregnant sister Beth, made an amazing Apple Pie.

Several hours later, one of my closest friends, Teddy, came over after working her LONG shift at Southwest.  She treated us to cupcakes, which the kids have devoured.  Enjoyed the Thanksgiving dinner as well.  More love and laughter, stories, thankfulness was shared.

After 2 or more hours cleaning the kitchen, mainly done by my wonderful husband Tom, we packed it in and headed off to bed…

It was a simple day, spent with loved ones, sharing our hearts, laughing, crying, bonding, cherishing every moment together!  It doesn’t happen often enough with all of us living so far away from each other, but you would never know when you walk through the front door.  That is the magic of family!  We have a BLAST!!!   Do we all agree on everything?  Politics, religion, what kind of car is the best?  Does the toilet paper on the roll hang forward or back?

No, and we have always agreed to disagree.  It is what makes us who we are.  We had 23 people for dinner tonight.  Most will stay until Saturday.  My parents and Christy will stay until Monday.  I am blessed!  It is a time of the year that I ALWAYS look forward to…

I am very thankful to my family and close friends.  I am blessed with an amazing husband and children!  I mean amazing!  I serve an awesome God.  I live in a free country.

I am blessed…I am thankful.

What are you thankful for this year?

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19Oct / 2010

Sibling Rivalry among friends? The new “extended” family…

The new “extended” family…    

I am seeing the tween and teen generation is so unlike ours…we didn’t have our friends in our lives 24/7, via, texting, and fb, and IM and skype.  We had time to ourselves, and natural boundaries. We had our siblings 24/7, but we had parents that were in charge and guiding us on how to solve problems and how to get along.   I look at the kids now and they are all so close and in each other’s lives, they’re more like siblings than friends.  They bicker like siblings, yet there isn’t the “family” bond, to get in eachother’s “faces” and deal with it and move on, or the parent to guide, or make them sit down and make them work it out.  They are kids from different families with different parenting styles, so the way one kid deals with stuff, doesn’t always jive with the other person, so feelings get hurt…  That is a confusing boundary that all cross.
I have to say, it’s a NEW road for us as parents to walk down.   We don’t have any history to draw

from.    

I feel very fortunate, because, the “extended” family in my kids life, I love and like these kids, and for the most part, I am very close to their parents as well, and we all discuss when and if there is a problem, and we can help the kids work it out.

Unfortunately, in this “new” family, that may not always be the case…

Parents: How do we deal with this?  Kids of texting, im’ing, FB, and twitter world:  How do you feel about this?  What are your boundaries?  What kind of support do you expect from other parents?  Do you agree, is this the new norm?

Teens: You don’t know any other way, do you ever wish you had more space from your friends?  Do you get frustrated?  Do you wish there was a way you could talk to one or more of your friends about something, a problem, but you don’t know how?

The new “extended” family…what is your opinion?

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05Oct / 2010

Grace and Mercy…A little story of relationship issues between “My someone” and “their friend”.

(note: I have used “my someone” and “their friend” instead of actual names to keep it private)

While I was away on my little journey,  I found out some information on someone very close to me.

“My someone” has a very good friend that, unbenounced to “my someone”, is very angry with them, and has been since last spring.  My someone was really going through something very difficult in their life.  Apparently, my someone was quite “impossible” to be around and was very hurtful to their friend, as well as others.  I know it wasn’t intentional…my someone was hurt by others, and I believe, felt safe to vent, spew, vomit, what ever you want to call it, at their friend.

Their friend had had enough.  My someone didn’t realize how hurtful they were being and continued the spewing.  “Their friend” is done…my someone still didn’t’ know they had crossed boundaries, and had angered and hurt “their friend” until a few weeks ago.  My someone didn’t’ find out how angry “their friend” was, until I told them about it last night.

My someone is very sad.  They want to make this right.  They didn’t mean to hurt their friend.  They love their friend.

This has been a good learning experience that teaches us so many things.

In relationships, we need to step outside ourselves on so many different levels.  There are times that we are going through something very difficult and we become quite a pain in the…(you fill in the blank…) It is times like these that we need a lot of grace.  We can’t live in the hateful state forever, but during this time that we are going through this, our friends and loved ones really need to look at the whole picture and as they help you through this time, really let the anger roll off, and extend grace.

When we are going through our “ pain”, it would be good for us to let those loved ones around us, with our words, know that we are going through a very difficult time, and that we need their grace and mercy, and help as we go through this.

Communication is KEY.

If “their friend” has had enough, and really can’t extend anymore grace, they need to voice that, so that “my someone” can step outside of themselves, and either get through the time, and/or have a heart to heart and change their behavior toward others around them.  Maybe go see a professional so that they are no longer abusing their close friends.

It is time for me to intervene…

I will be getting “my someone and their friend together” for a little chat and a lot of honesty.  It is time for communication, repentance, reconciliation, and restoration.

Friendships…relationships are worth it!

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