Darcelona

I have heard many mothers describe their little boys as being "all boy."I know Darcy is physiologically a girl...but she is ALL BOY. Not only does she love the mud and dirt (unlike her "first born" sister)...This kid is just tough. Take this evening for example. Colby watched the girls so I could go for a long run before dinner. She apparently landed face-first on the coffee table from a standing position on the couch. Colby admitted to me that he was brought to tears as he cleaned up the bloody mess and tried to see if anything was broken. However, 10 minutes later she was trompin' around the house, back to her old self. Thirty minutes later I was getting ready for church and noticed something in her mouth. Now, it always makes my heart pound when I see Darcy's mouth full of something. I have found everything from play-dough to unmentionables stuffed in those cheeks. "Darcy...what do you have in your mouth?" I asked the fearful question. She looked up at me, pulled out a PIECE OF GLASS, and smiled a bloody smile. "Oh, Dear God have mercy......."
I can't get over her. Yesterday I found a piece of black rubber in her mouth after the long drive to drop Nonny off at the airport. I couldn't figure it out until I saw a hole in the toe of her shoe tonight! One more thing...tonight at church she found some candy on the floor
and proudly said "pah-bah poo." It's your homework to decode that one!

p.s. Colby just reminded me of the time we found her dipping our loofah sponge into the toilet (THAT HALEY HAD NOT FLUSHED!!!!!!) AND SUCKING IT!!! Colby is trying to stop me from sending this because he says this is TOO much!!!

"You let her do WHAT?"

Last night Nonny decided to let Haley Jane paint her toes. Nonny is very brave.

Ristorante Renato: The Review

I have decided to enter the world of dining reviews. I thought of it today when I was eating and remembered how much I love food. I also am convinced that I am blessed with a discerning pallet and should offer my services to those who are not as gifted. Lastly I want to be a cheerleader for the best dining in the Wood-Staff-Fred area. Perhaps I will develop categories and recommendations, but right now I want your help with a rating system, something other than stars.

Today Annie and I ate lunch with the Jessups (their treat, Thanks Guys). With my mother-in-law visiting Pastor Bill saw the opportunity for a daytime blessing of lunch with our wives and no kids. As is customary he chooses the best restaurants and we ended up at Ristorante Renato. I was immediately struck with the attention to detail from the waiter. As we were being seated he did a number of things to our place settings that I did not understand but seemed very important. Even arranging the plate so that I could see the picture. I wasn't sure what was happening, but it sure was fine attention to detail. As I often do in Italian Eateries I ordered the Chicken Parmagian to compare with some other recent experiences. My new Chicken Parm rankings are as follows.
1. Rebekah Kimbrough's Recipe
2. Annie Garman's Recipe
3. Ristorante Renato
The meal was kindly served in an atmoshphere that was a bit dark for midday and all the food was good. I do not want you to misunderstand the third place rating. This is a good Chicken Parm. It comes in ahead of Carraba's, Vinny's, PrimaVera, and many other good showings. I recommend this restaurant as a nice dining experience in the nicest of downtowns. Even more so I recommend the company.

RV Roadtrip

This was my home from Sunday Night 'til 4:00am on Wednesday. Six guys, four beds, no hot water. I flew to Atlanta to join Clint, Keilan, Jamie, Jonathan, and Dwayne who had left Stafford on Saturday. All of them are involved in new church starts and we were headed to the Evolve church planting leadership conference. I thought I would offer ten memorable moments in no order of rank or importance.

1. Airline Disaster. Not only was our flight late taking off and arriving, when we finally landed at 10:20pm the baggage for our flight was nowhere to be seen. At 12:15 Jonathan finally came into the airport and we gave up and went to Wal-mart to buy supplies and park for the night. (In the morning my bag was retrieved in less than five minutes)

2. The Land of a Thousand Hills coffee served at the conference at no charge flowing freely like milk and honey in the promised land was splendid.

3. No showers for anyone from Sunday Night on.

4. Keilan and I woke up to breakfast in bed on Tuesday thanks to Jamie and his George Foreman grill- Pancakes and Sausage!

5. My maiden voyage at Sonny's Barbecue. There is only one remedy for the sorrow that accompanies the drive home- a large plate of meat shared by the brotherhood.

6. Jammin' to the Old Hymns on the way home (Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Livin' on a Prayer, Hey Jude, amongst a host of other favorites from a by-gone era).

7. Steven Furtick's message and the hour long heart-to-heart to follow in the RV. If you could have seen a video of it without hearing the audio we would have looked like six guys on the Okra Winfrey Show.

8. 100 wings at Beef O'Brady's

9. Bourne Ultimatum

10 Spending 90 minutes trying to find the cars in Richmond during the early hours of Wednesday morning. There were five guys and none of them could remember where they met to leave.

Helen Haley: Raw and Uncensored

WHO ELSE gives the "The Amazing Walking Penguin Pooper Candy Dispenser" as a gift to their grandkids? This penguin actually winds up, waddles, and poops out CANDY...They love it. All night long Darcy has been asking if she can eat some more poop... THERE'S ONLY ONE NONNY.

Nonny has arrived!

Last night Nonny arrived for her-8th annual-February visit. We had a fun day opening presents, showing off toys, and playing in the snow...Poor Nonny....on Monday I told her that it was almost 70 degrees, so she packed capri's and got geared up for her "spring break." Too bad the Wisconsin weather followed her here.

This is getting out of control...

Ode to my husband

This post goes out to the love of my life, Colby John. Colby wins Super Dad/Husband of the Year Award for his amazing ability to juggle child-care duties while working from home, grocery shopping, cooking, kitchen clean-up, vacuuming, changing the sheets, and late-night drives to CVS for NyQuil. He even offered to wash my hair for me because I was too weak. (I'll let his comment, "Wow...whatever weight you've lost this week being sick you've gained in hair grease" slide). He was even willing to sacrifice his much-anticipated trip to Georgia with the boys to stay home and help me. If you're reading this, Colby, I am now 100% recovered and I hope you are having a much-deserved, amazing get-away! We love you, appreciate you, miss you, and can't wait to talk to you since its been nearly 9 days since we've had an actual conversation. I even washed my hair today. :)

A Good Word

So, Colby is reading a Puritan Paperback's reading list this year (only my husband...). The other day he read a quote to me out of The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. I have been chewing on it for quite some time now and thought it was blog-worthy.

The devil and his instruments would soon devour the servants of God...if He did not cover them with the golden feathers of His protection (Psalms 91:4). God's watchful eye is always on his people, and the enemies shall not do the mischief they intend; they shall not be destroyers, but physicians.

How encouraging...the things that the enemy has meant to harm us with, God will turn around and use for our good and His glory! I am very visual, so this stimulates a beautiful picture in my mind. I picture an enemy stabbing me with a knife in order to destroy me, but God using that very same knife, not to kill me, but to scrape out any cancerous cells that may be in me and heal me. This makes the verse, "If God is for us, who can be against us" even more meaningful. Whatever bruising or piercing may come your way today, know that God has allowed it into your life in order to heal you.

Call Guinness

Haley Jane went to bed last night at 9:00p.m. and DID NOT WAKE UP TILL 5:00 P.M. today!! I thought for sure she had died. When Colby came home for lunch, he was surprised that I hadn't checked on her at all. I told him, 1) I was afraid I would find her dead, and 2) if she was, in fact, alive, she must really need the rest. Colby checked on her (found her breathing), and tried to wake her up so she could eat breakfast (and lunch). She opened her eyes and asked if she could go back to sleep. Needless to say, Haley is a victim of the cold and flu season...and she is not alone. At this point, the entire Garman household has been taken down by this viscous virus.

What Would Annie Do?

So, last night was date night in Old Town Fredericksburg. After a wonderful meal with a two-for-one coupon at Primavera, we decided to take a walk around downtown and burn some calories. As we passed Castiglia's, I noticed an older man sitting on a park bench. He had old, worn boots and jeans and looked slightly disheveled. I immediately thought of the message on Sunday about being aware of the needy people around us and wanted to do something for him. Instead, I made excuses and kept walking. After walking most of Princess Anne Street, we turned around and headed back to our car where we had three boxes of leftovers from our dinner. As we neared our Civic, I saw the man again. When we caught up to him, I said hello, and asked if he was interested in some food. He smiled and said, "Oh, no thanks." At that moment, I looked at his face, and to my horror, and began to think to myself, Oh no....what have I done? He didn't look nearly as "downtrodden" the closer I got to him. What if he was NOT, in fact, homeless, but rather a history professor at the University? This guy could very likely be employed down the street at one of the local shops. After all, I wear ripped jeans regularly and look rather disheveled myself at times. I pictured him returning home to his wife and telling her the story.