Back...

from a very long hiatus. A VERY LONG, TOO LONG hiatus!

Life is what happens in between postings.

Apparently, I haven't been managing life too well these days (or for the past year). If I had been, I would have made time to do something I enjoy...like this blog!

So, starting today, I'm going to make time to write about our lives...again! No one may ever read this blog, and that is fine by me!!! I created this blog as a way for my children to see themselves through my eyes...50 years from now. I lost sight of this fact. I'm back. With FOCUS!

Today's focus...Peyton. My 7, soon-to-be, 8-year-old Favorite Firstborn. Words escape me when I try to describe him. How is that possible? He's so many things that a few words can't capture it all. He wants to be so many things that words can't capture it all. he wants to do so many things that words can't capture it all. There are simply not enough great, fabulous, beautiful words to describe him and his little life. So...here's some pictures...I'll let the pictures speak a thousand words!

I love my little man more than words can express. We're in full swing of 2nd grade, baseball, Church and more, yet somehow, he manages to keep up and not get too much of an attitude.

We are blessed beyond measure to have him in our lives. Still trying to figure out what I did right to get him!!!

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful for this "almost as tall as me" firstborn,

Chasity

It's Fall...

Ya'll.

Woo hoo. One of my favorite times of the year...of course I say that when every new season begins (except maybe Winter...love the snow, hate the snow)!

Unfortuntely, it's still REALLY hot right now. Unseasonably hot according to the weathermen on TV. I'm ready for the cool weather. Ready for the leaves to change color. Ready for Halloween. Pumpkins. Thanksgiving. Turkeys. Fall pictures. READY!

Of course, when Fall hits, that's also when it feels like the start of the "Merry Chaosmas" season begins. In the meantime, we're going to enjoy every minute of Football Season, Fall Baseball, Hunting Season and so on...

Fall Break for the boys will be here soon -- trip to Florida, Florida State Football game...already counting down the days.

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have Seasons...
Chasity

PS...Browns, Golds, Maroons...all beautiful Fall colors are about to shine through...

No more...

soccer for our family (or Palmer)!

You know, according to the title of this blog -- Discovering God's Perfect Plan and Amazing Sense of Humor Each and Everyday -- we are constantly discovering God's perfect plan. Sometimes it takes a while for us to discover his plan...

Nope. Not. this. time.

On Thursday, after a very stressful evening of soccer (with multiple breakdowns from Palmer throughout the one hour practice), homework, etc., I'd had enough. Something in our crazy, fast-paced life needed to change. Granted, I could easily give up my 4:45 workouts (to get an extra hour of sleep, but truthfully, I like my hour of quiet workout...it's peaceful at 4:45 a.m.) So, I prayed. Prayed that God would somehow put an end to the craziness and let us gain a little control. I think at that time, I knew what needed to happen, but couldn't make the call...

And then, Saturday happened...

You know those people on the TV shows that you see fighting at their kid's game -- you know, the ones...that all the parents are looking at, while shoving their kids in the opposite direction because the ones fighting have clearly lost it. That was Brent and I at Palmer's Soccer Game. I laugh about it now. But at the moment that I just got up and left the game in the middle of the game, I was not laughing.

It seems in our haste to integrate Palmer into the world of "extracurricular activities," we forgot to ask him...do you want to do this?! But, you know, children have a way of telling us things. Sometimes we listen. Sometimes we don't. This time, we did!

He clearly didn't want to be playing Soccer -- that was apparent when the coach sent him out of the game for a "break," asked him to go back in the game and a minute later when the coach asked the other kids who wanted a break, Palmer asked for his break. 1 minute of playing and he was ready. His lack of effort about drove Brent crazy, which in turn drove me crazy, which in turn led to "big ears" Peyton making a comment that sent me right over the edge. Yep, I left. Got so angry, that I left. Jumped in the car, drove home and called my Mom crying. Crying. Crying so hard my Mom couldn't understand what I was saying. That's bad. Very bad.

So, after some apologizing by Brent and a quick "Palmer do you want to play soccer?" with a resounding "No!" We made the call. No more soccer. Just like that. God showed us His plan. And the craziness ended. And, I didn't even feel bad about it.

Got also revealed his other plan -- Palmer + Wednesday night KidsLife at Church = A great evening. Since Palmer wasn't playing Soccer anymore (thankfully), and since Peyton has baseball practice on Wednesday nights, we decided I'd take Palmer to KidsLife (45 minutes of music, 30 minutes of games, 30 minutes of storytime) at Church. The first 10 minutes included our typical "I don't want to do this" breakdown, which then ended with crying, which then ended with him finally going into the room with the other 20 kids already in the class making "musical instruments" out of plastic bottles and rice. I stayed for the music portion and when they left to play games, I snuck out. Went back an hour later and this was what I heard, "Palmer, did you have fun?" "Yes!" "Do you want to go back?" Yes! Yes! At which point, he wore his artwork around his neck as a necklace and proudly showed it to Brent when he got home.

WIN. WIN. WIN.

God had a plan and it didn't include Soccer. Thankfully.

So, we're no longer those crazy parents yelling at each other. The Lord is in control and our little Palmer, well, he's learning the Lord's ways and the perfect plans He has for our lives.

No more soccer...we're all ok with that!

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have a God that is not afraid to "make the call" for us,
Chasity

PS...the Church is crazy on Wednesday nights...WOW at the children that were there!

Labor Day...

weekend is supposed to be a time of relaxation. A celebration of sort's for the last weekend of Summer.

"Supposed to be" are the key words.

What began as a weekend intended for relaxing, quickly became a weekend of "we've got to get our house clean." Oh, and take our little Brooke to the vet (our little Brooke is going to Broke us)...

I thought I kept a fairly neat house. Thought. But, clearly, after this weekend's cleaning spree, I am wrong. wrong. wrong. And, we didn't even touch the things that just need to be given to Goodwill.

We cleaned the carpets, dusted every nook and cranny, windexed every window, cleaned every inch of every bathroom and there's still more to do. More that we didn't do. And, oh, somehow managed to find the time to decorate my Sunday School classroom and buy a new pair of jeans (very important tasks -- yes, the decorating part)!

But, amongst all the cleaning, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Chris and Jody came to visit us. As my Mom said, "At least I know you two can get along without me being around." You did good Mom. And Chris did good when he asked Jody to be his wife:) She's the perfect sis-in-law and Aunt...and she puts up with Chris! I would have killed him by now (JK) -- although he is really good a technical stuff. So thanks to him, he fixed our Wii, cleaned our computer, secured our WiFi and even managed a little Star Wars lego building time with Peyton.

Chris and Jody were so sweet. They watched the boys for us while we went to a 40th birthday surprise party -- did I just say that. We've officially reached that age, that it's not our parent's friends turning 40...it's our friends. WOW! But, we did feel like teenagers that night. Getting to go out and party without having to pay someone to watch the kids...ROCK ON!

Of course, we always try to make their visit memorable (the last time they came, they got engaged), so we arranged for them to see Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at Starbucks (ok, no not really, but dang, we've lived here for 4 years and never seen anyone like that). Pushed them to eat at my favorite restaurant -- Whiskey Kitchen. We even made it to the pool and managed to grill out and eat some awesome Paula Deen Mac & Cheese:) The boys L-O-V-E Jody. So with a little chanting -- stay one more night, stay one more night -- (and Uncle Chris' mistake on the location of their next "intended" stop), they decided to stay another night! After some talk about Peyton staying up all night to wish on a shooting star, Jody left the boys the sweetest message:

So, after a weekend of crazy cleaning and visiting, we all got to get up and go back to work. Except Chris and Jody -- they were headed to the Spa (Oprah's favorite Nashville Spa). I'm not hating them right now. No. Not. At. All. And of course, they're next stops: Loveless Cafe and Arrington Vineyards.

What a weekend...whew. I need a Non-Labor Day weekend from my Labor Day weekend!

WE ARE Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have Chris and Jody in our lives. What a great visit,
Chasity

PS...Little Brooke is having surgery right now. Praying all goes well!!!!

About time...

that I started blogging again...

Apparently, my mind just decided that since it's called "Summer Break" that I should take a break from blogging. Apparently.

This past Summer just flew by. It was like a blur. It seems we were really busy this Summer. Not to mention, it was HOT. VERY HOT. UNUSUALLY HOT. ALL. THE. TIME. Maybe it was the heat (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), but I was even a slacker at going to the pool. I know. My titles of "Sun Goddess" and "Pool Wife" were lost (or at least that's what all of our friends say)! Now, of course, I'm wishing I could get Summer back. Ugh...can't ever be happy.

Well, nothing I can do about it now. Except try to relive it through this blog.

Since I rarely ever take a lunch break while at work, I've decided that I'm going to spend at least one lunch hour during the week updating my blog -- after all, the whole point of this is to be a diary of sorts for the boys to "remember" what their lives were like at every age. So, with that being said, stay tuned. I'm going back to the beginning of Summer and will slowly, but surely, update you guys on our Summer of Fun, Heat and everything else.

Really quick...updates from this weekend -- Brent went alligator hunting, leaving me and the boys to ourselves. We did a little bit of everything this weekend. Friday, Palmer and I partied by the pool with the neightbors, while Peyton weazled an invitation out of his best friend to go skating. We were lazy Saturday morning, but finally gathered enough energy to go to the pool for a few hours, go see Nanny McPhee Returns (which has now become one of my all-time favorite children's movies) and dinner at Moe's. This also happened to be our first Sunday of not having Brent to help me on Sunday morning before Church. Whew. Never thought I'd enjoy getting up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, but it's all worth it. We were actually early to Church, so the boys helped me get ready for the babies. I managed to get them to Sunday School on time, and we even went to Cracker Barrel for lunch (to have breakfast...and no one killed each other while waiting for our table). And to top it all off, we donated a big old bag of groceries to GraceWorks -- the mission arm of church collecting food for children on reduced lunch plans to take home over and eat on the weekends. The drop-off times -- 1 to 6 -- we got there a little early at 12:45 and there was already a line...WOW!

Anyway, stay tuned. Posts and Pictures are a coming...

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful,
Chasity

PS...So ready to not be a single Mom anymore!

WOW...

where has this Summer gone?

Why are we always in such a hurry when Summer should be "lazy"?

Why has it been so hot that it makes us not even want to go to the pool?

What happened to the body I had just 3 years ago and why does it look "bad" in a swimsuit?

Why is it that in the 2nd week of July, I'm already thinking about school supplies, uniforms and after-school care?

Why is it that I feel the need to make my child do "workbooks" during the Summer?

WOW...a ton of questions of which I don't want to have think about, worry about or deal with...I just want to enjoy the Summer. Darn it!

It's going to be Fall very soon and we're going to wish we had Summer back, but all we do during the Summer is get ready for the Fall.

Today is obviously filled with frustration and questions. So, I've decided to write Summer a letter and ask a few things...

Dear Summer ~
We love when you get here. Pools open. No homework. Summer camps. Lazy Friday nights by the pool. Saturday cook-outs. But, I have to ask...why do you have to go so soon? It seems like our time together just goes by way too fast. And, of course, the heat doesn't help things at all (can you do something about this ridiculous heat we're having?).

Please, stick around for a while. Pull up a chair. Grab some sweet tea and let's hang out. No laundry. No cleaning the house. No ridiculous heat. No worring about back to school. No responsibilities. Just you and us working on a nice tan while listening to the children giggle, laugh and splash us with Cannon Balls.

Think we can make this happen? If you try, I'll try.

Thank you!

Your Summertime friend,
Chasity

He's 41...

Fourty-One. 4-1. 41...

May 31, 1969 was a big day for Brenton Lynn Phillips.
May 31, 2010 was a relaxing day for Brenton Lynn Phillips.

We celebrated by going to beach! Yeah, we celebrate big around the Phillips house!

So, while at the beach, we went over to Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Linda's house for a little celebration -- to make it even better, they live on the water. SWEET. So, we ate. We visited. We played. We fished. We celebrated (with cake). We swam. We had a great time! Happy 41st Birthday to my sweet Brent (and to his Mama for giving birth to him -- it's a big day for her too)!

(I just love this picture. He was doing exactly what he loves to do!)

(Still doing what he loves to do!)

(And, now he has a little helper to help him do what he loves to do!)
(To be honest, not sure how much of a "helper" the little one was!)

(Yep, that's us...Perfectly Phillips!)

(Little Man getting in on the action!)

(Nothing like Daddy's kisses!)

(There's the birthday boy just chillin'!)

(Birthday Boy and the Mom that loves him so much!)

(Brent and Uncle Jimmy -- such amazing men!)

(Brent and Mike -- can you tell they used to aggravate the devil out of each other?)

(Me and my better half -- ignore the fishing pole!)

Yes, I know the hat looks stupid, but I'm getting older, so I'm allowed to look stupid every now and again.

What a great day...and even more fun days are ahead of us. Stay tuned. Cool pics coming your way!

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to be married to a 41-year-old man that acts like he's 18 (all the time),
Chasity

PS...He keeps life interesting. I think I'll keep him!