By Nicole

There's another great "pay-it-forward" award going around... only this time the rules are different.  Taylor  flatters me so much and always (okay only twice... but to me that's a lot!) lists me in her bunch of favorites!  Check her blog out.  I am supposed to share seven random things about myself and then list 15 blogs I love and let them know.  But Taylor said it wouldn't hurt her feelings if the buck stopped with me.  So, what I am going to do is complete an amended version (like I have seen others do).  I don't want them to feel obligated to pay forward, so I am just going to make a list of all blogs I think to be pretty great and if they read about themselves on here, then they have a choice to pay forward or click away really fast and pretend they never saw! At a minimum, I hope they are flattered.  No pressure. Whew!  I just did a post of 100 things about me , because I am totally ...

1. I numbered this list first, and I messed up twice. 2.  I put on pajama pants or sweats almost as soon as I get home every night. 3. I like the taste of the coating on Advil. 4. I love my chiropractor. 5. I'm addicted to coffee. 6. I like to Google people, but I am not a stalker. 7. The snooze button is my friend. 8. One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 1:25 - "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 9. My Amazon wish list is five pages...of shoes. 10. My notebooks are covered in doodles. 11. The older I get, the braver my fashion choices. 12. My nose has been pierced for over 10 years. 13. I don't forward forwards, no matter what doom will befall me. 14. I am the oldest of four. 15.  Chocolate is my favorite food.  When I was pregnant with Leilee, I couldn't even stand to smell it, let alone think of eating it. 16.  I love a good, dark beer. 17...

A coworker of mine reminded me the other day of Days of Our Lives. We talked about how much we loved Hope and Bo and how evil Samantha was. You see, back in the day, when I didn't do much but nanny for part of the day in the summer, I used to get done just in time to race home and watch Days of Our Lives.  It was this mindless, mind-numbing escape.  Everyone was glamorous and rich and had horrible family and relationship problems.  There was also plenty of bad acting, which helped my teenage brain think that I could so easily be a movie star.  (Maybe I'll tell the story of my one and only  college drama class another time).  I remember thinking how messed up things were in their lives and how their relationships were so screwed up. Fast forward through life a little, and I have learned about and seen some pretty screwed up things happen in real people's lives and homes.  I think I would rather be kidnapped by Stefano than deal wit...

Uh oh... I am dropping off the face of the blogsphere.  I read a post of mine a few weeks ago about how I hoped that at some point in time there would be a time where there wasn't a lag between posts.  This lag isn't near as bad as the hiatuses I have inadvertently taken before... but that's how it starts.  Anyway, disclaimer done.  This last week we had an emotional and amazing night of Bible study.  I held it in again... only crying a little.  If you know me, you know I am like that.  But, the topic really got me to thinking.  We are doing the Beth Moore David: Seeking a Heart Like His  study, and I am loving it.  (Sadly, I have missed two of the four nights because of travel for work, although I caught up on the videos this weekend.  On a completely shallow note, I love to see what she wears.  I couldn't stop checking out Beth's boots in section 4... still trying to figure who made them...). Okay, back on track again....

I was so excited to get this book in the mail!  Voices of the Faithful: Book 2 is the second series of daily devotions complied by Kim P Davis.  It also includes an introduction written by Beth Moore (love her! ).   The daily devotion consists of a memory verse, a short, real-life story from a missionary and a prayer.  Each section of the day's devotion is clearly divided and in a different font. Each month has a certain theme along which the devotions connect.  January's theme is prayer, February's is love, etc.  The cover and inside art is very elegant.  A friend of mine showed me this book before I even requested it from Booksneeze.  It had been a gift to her from her husband.  Once I saw it, I remembered that it was an available title, and I made up my mind that I had to have a copy. Since I received this in the middle of January, I decided to catch up by reading the first two weeks worth of devotions.  The stories a...

One of my favorite nights of the week is Thursday.  Not because it is relaxing or there isn't anything going on.  In fact, it might be the most hectic and latest night of my week.  Thursday night is the night that Jason and I go to bible study.  He goes to men's group, and I go to women's group.  We smooch in the gym and head into our separate classes.  I look forward to the class because of the opportunity to fellowship and pray with women who love God and want to be closer to Him.  I have grown so much because of that time, even though I must admit that most weeks I have to say, 'Um, no...' when Lucy asks if we finished our chapter.  Even when we did the Beth Moore study on Esther ( phenomenal!) I didn't always keep up.  Some nights we pray and cry out to God longer than we spend in the book and other nights we dig straight into discussion of the chapter and the topic.  God has put some amazing women in my life, with such wonderful sto...