The Bright Eyed Brunette

Fishing is good for the soul! Trey thought switching his bait would help him catch a fish! Carlie never gave up My main squeeze! Excuse my constipated old woman face but this was our attempt at a river selfie. Love him more as the years pass! Beautiful evening sky Me and the girls Carlie and Carl Makena at the sandbar  Carlie Erin Trey loves the river too! My guy, again All dressed up for church Sisters My favorite trio The whole gang! Makena at therapy.  She started physical therapy for a bulging disc mid-June and will continue for 4 weeks. Bless her heart, this hasn't been the summer she hoped to have, but we are making the best of it! Whether we are fishing at the farm, swimming in the pool, or riding in the boat, we are having fun near the water! Much Love, Beth

My dad and his favorite "child", Toby We had a small get together and had cake and homemade ice cream.  Happy 60th birthday to my dad! You are the best dad a girl could ask for. You were always firm, yet loving. We love you and pray that you have many more birthdays to come. Much Love, Beth

Summer is my favorite season for so many reasons: warm (HOT) temps, family vacations, NO SCHOOL, my birthday, and of course Mother's Day and Father's Day! I have had the privilege of having some of the greatest dads ever in my life. I'll start with my grandfathers: Papa and Papaw. This is my Papa. He is my mom's dad and has always held a very active role in my life. He is a hard worker, a great provider for his family, and a Godly man. He loves us all well! This is my Papaw. Somedays it is still hard to believe he is gone. He was always active in my life also. Unlike Papa, we didn't go to church together, or even believe the same  (religion), but we respected the differences and I always knew that he loved me. They say that hindsight is 20/20 and  there are so many things I wish I had asked him. So many stories I wish had been told. He was a man of his word. I miss him a lot, but I am thankful for the time I got to spend with him. I regret not seeing him...

Let's talk about something serious for a minute, shall we? We all know that I am not a huge fan of wordy, opinionated, serious posts but this one has been on my mind. Forgiveness. It's a nice little three syllable word that requires effort that we have to be ready and willing to give. Our church is just coming off of a week of Vacation Bible School. I have been studying these lessons for roughly a month and have been convicted from the beginning. I never really knew that I struggled so much with this until about a year ago. I have always been a pretty forgiving person...it may take a little while but I have always been able to move on..or so I thought. Since the study of this I have realized that I haven't actually forgiven...I mean really forgiven like I need to. My solution the majority of the time is avoidance. Out of sight, out of mind is pretty much my mantra. I don't really forgive, I try to forget. The saying, "you're dead to me" comes to mind. I t...

Carl, giving his yearly train rides. The kids LOVE this train! My room, ready for night 1 Trey and some of the boys playing a friendly game of basketball before VBS night 2 My dad played the part of Ranger Woody..a silly park ranger. The kids loved seeing what Woody was going to do every night. Carlie, God love her, got the job of helping my mom with the Pre-K 4&5 class. When my mom had to play the piano, she was watching the whole class by herself. Makena and Bailey.  Carl and Reed. All the kids love Carl! Trey and Reed. Reed is our neighbor's grandson. He is cute and so smart. Spoiler alert on T-Man's hair...he finally decided that it was time to cut it!! Ready to sing! My pretty girls The sweet girls in my class. My nephews and niece. Our theme for this years Bible school was Camp Moose On the Loose and it was all about the love and forgiveness of Christ. I will touch a little more on that subject in ...

About a month ago I learned that there was a redneck themed piano recital planned. I was a little less than thrilled because I just wanted a nice picture/video of Trey in nice clothes, nicely decorated! I kept hoping his teacher, Aunt Becky, would change her mind but by Monday night I had to accept the fact that it was indeed going to be a redneck themed recital and we had to have an outfit! I went to Pinterest for a little pinspiration! At first he wanted overalls, which was fine but I didn't want to spend money on something that he was never going to wear again. So here is what we ended up with: He reminded us of Crawl on the movie Son In Law! Trey and Aunt Becky, his teacher He played really well. Trey and Noah. Makena Faith with her redneck goat tshirt  Carlie, grabbing a drink. Part of the crew The whole crew, minus Carl..he was taking the picture It ended up being a fun evening. The kids played afterwards with some rocket cop...