Top Ten Moments of 2013… # 9

Favorite moment #9

Ok.  These may not be in order of most favorite because if so, this would probably be in the contender for the top 3 but I'm in the mood to blog about it today. So…. there you go. It gets to be #9. 

These are actually two moments morphed together.

The preparation and the big reveal.

For me, the preparation was even more epic than the reveal.

You see, my mom is scared to death of water. Even though we were always around water..we had a pool growing up, my dad had a boat and loved to fish, we lived near water…..but my mom was always deathly afraid of the water. 

Why? Because she never learned how to swim. 

My entire childhood she never swam. 

She only floated on a raft.

 In the shallow end. 

And no one dared get her hair wet. 

That was a major no no.  

And she never…and I mean never..went into the deep end of the pool.

So we all pretty much knew she didn't swim and never would and that was that.

Boy,  were we wrong.

After all these years, she decides at the age of 69 that she was going to learn how to swim.

So she buys herself some swimming lessons they were auctioning of at a church fundraiser and was gonna go without telling anyone and surprise us all by jumping into the deep end of the pool at our annual memorial day get together. 

That's my momma….she has a flair for grandeur.  And I love it.

Then I surprise her by telling her I'm coming to stay with her a few days last February and she had to spill the beans because her lessons were already scheduled the week I would be there.

SO… to my delight, I got to attend two of the lessons.

  The day we went was freezing. I mean literally freezing…they were closing roads and bridges and stuff like that.  But she was determined to still go and I was delighted to be a witness.

That is my momma in the deep end of the pool.

This should be put in the history books or something. It's huge.

 Her teacher, Terry,  was awesome.  She was super firm with her but still gentle.

 To see her let go of the side and swim in water above her head was incredible for me. 

I would have never believed it had I not been there.

I mean this is a woman who will drown you at the beach trying to stay above water if she accidentally falls off her float.  She will climb on top of your head to get out of the water.

And yet here she is.

 Swimming in the deep end.

With her hair wet.

To see her JUMP IN the deep end….

…was possibly the highlight of the year for me.

This face.  

So proud of herself for kicking one of her greatest fears in the gut.

I'm so thankful God worked it out so that I could share in this moment with her.

So that was the preparation all leading up to the big reveal.

She was planning on doing this at Cow Camp..which is our annual Memorial Day weekend camp out with the family. We ride four wheelers, fish, play games, sleep in one big open room together and of course…..swim!

Momma always just mostly sits on the side of the pool looking all pretty.

But this year she had her a  big surprise.

I was a tiny bit nervous since she hadn't swam since her lessons in February…that she might panic.   But I also knew she was determined and that she was gonna do great.

So it went down like this. 

She gets up and walks over to the deep end.

Looks it over..

And jumps in!

 Just like that!

 She didn't announce it or anything.  Just jumped in and started swimming.

We caught it on video. But I can't get it to upload. I know…so sad. :(

I can't begin to tell y'all how proud I am of her.

This was huge for her. She conquered her fear right before she turned 70 old.

She is my hero. Always has been. Always will be.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

 –Eleanor Roosevelt

                                                                       

Stitch Fix # 5

 I can't believe I'm already on Stitch Fix number FIVE!

You can read about the other four here, here, here and here.

I get beyond tickled  when the FedEx man pulls up in my driveway with this beauteous box.

 And then there's always my card from my personal stylist with a note for me. I'd love to meet Catherine one day and hug her neck.  This month was my absolute favorite.  I loved every single thing in the box and it all fit to a tee.  She even recognized that one of the pieces was cut a little narrow for my shoulders and said she hoped it was ok that she went up a size from what I normally wear.  I love that.

 So without further ado…

Here's fix number five in all it's glory. 

Piece number one was this navy blue striped shirtdress.

I've never worn one of these and loved trying something different. I wore it to church with my faux fur vest. (my tights are looking kinda smurfish but didn't seem that way in person. Probably will try a different color next time. lol) The necklace is from  one of my previous fixes.

Piece number two is so fun!

I love the colors and design but mostly I love the little bow at the neck.

It feels like something I would see Joan wearing with a pencil skirt and pointy toe heels. 

(or any of the ladies in Mad Men for that matter but Joan's style is my fave.)

 And it's cute for a casual look with cropped jeans. 

Especially when you roll up BOTH legs. lol. 

Piece number three is my favorite of all….

This scalloped black and white blouse!

 I will be able to do SO much with this.  It can be dressed up or down.

I immediately threw it on with a black shrug sweater, boyfriend jeans and black booties.

This is something I would wear all the time.

Here it is by itself.  I love the details of all the scalloped edges.  

I can see this in the spring with a pair of cropped dress capris and pumps.

 I love it paired with this skirt and my new shoes from Mod Cloth. They were a Christmas gift from my mom and she did so good.  I love the vintage feel.

I'm also wearing piece number four…

The long gold green gem necklace.  It's actual name is called "Lydia" so it was meant for me. (Lydia is my middle daughter's name for anybody new reading this.)  This is simple enough to wear with jeans but has just enough pizazz to lean on the glam side too.  Plus I can layer it with the necklace I already have from my  previous fix.  I love how they build my wardrobe….choosing things that go with pieces they've already sent me. Perfect. 

And for piece number five….

This cobalt blue blazer!!

I LOVE it!  

This is the piece that my stylists thought I might need to go up a size because of the cut.  I love that she doesn't just go by the size in the label but taylor things for my body…oust one of the perks of a personal stylists I suppose. 

She knows my love for all things black and white and really delivered this month.  

As if the scalloped blouse wasn't enough….

there's this!

 It makes me want to go around flashing folks the inside of my jacket! lol.

And just for good measure…so those of you who know me personally can snicker… 

here's my "modeling pictures".   My photographer husband just pulls it out of me. lol

I'm thankful he makes me feel like a model anyway…. so I worked it for him.

Stuff like that is what made the last 25 years being married to him so amazing.  

Can't wait for the next 25. 

Oh…and according to my 70 year old momma, who is a fashion diva in her own right,  this color blue will be the new black this spring… one of the  "hot" color in her words.   So there.

If you need all the details about Stitch Fix and how you can get in on it, just click here.

Or you can email me. I'm good with that too.

honeyholden25@gmail.com

My Top 10 favorite moments of 2013… #10

Why hello there! Long time no see.

We're already six days into the new year! Woah.

I'm anticipating exciting things for 2014.  I just have a holy flutter in my heart and can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use us for His kingdom.  My one little word for the year is "new".  We are in a new season now that the girls are all married and I just get excited thinking about this next chapter of our lives serving the Lord together.  I just want to be willing for whatever He has.

"But forget all that- it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.  For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway throughout the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. " 

Isaiah 43:19

But in the midst of my goal planning and dreaming, I want to take some time to look back at this year.

God was faithful at all times. He grew us through difficult times and He blessed us with times of refreshing too. There was much I didn't get around to sharing on here and want to take the time in the next few weeks to do so.  

To look back and remember His goodness…Kind of a top 10 of my favorite moments if you will.

So without further ado…

here's my #10 favorite moment of 2013…

The discovery of Geocashing.

Have you heard of it? It's been around for years and years. I'd heard the word here and there.  But during our trip to visit the kids in North Carolina during the holidays, my awesome son-in-law introduced me and Nick to it and well…..got me hooked.

So what is it?  

Well here is the technical definition…

 Geocaching  is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS)  or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little financial value, although sometimes they are sentimental. 

I can sum it up like this….

Adventure  ~ fun  ~  treasure  ~   family

And the best part about it ….it's basically free to do! Woo hoo!

Here are glimpses of my very first geocache!

Rosalyn is hard core about it. She is a serious Geocacher.  She knows how to follow the arrow on the gps and she went straight to this first one. It was attached to the bottom of a park bench by a magnet! It was just a micro one so there was no treasure….just the thrill of finding it.

But y'all…these are everywhere! You've provably sat on one and never even knew it. Parked your car next to one and never even saw it.  It's like a secret world waiting to be discovered.

Now on to the next one…

Julia Rose was taking advantage of some Paw Paw time…usually Nate is hogging him.

  

  They found it.  It was another micro.

 Jules had to take a short beauty break to freshen up.

Chris was eager for us to find an actual treasure before the sun went down so we piled back up in the swagger wagon and tracked one down.

And let me just say, this was the hunt that hooked me.

It was a real adventure…we were racing against the clock, the park closed on us, we had to sneak in a closed area, trek through treacherous grounds….it was awesome.

 And then there is was!

The log book dated back to 2005!

The code is if you take a treasure out of the box, you must replace it with something you brought.

  Rosalyn loved the glasses but we convinced her to leave them for everyone who comes behind to have fun trying them on….

 Like her Paw Paw for instance.

So. Much. Fun. 

We put our treasure inside and hid it back right where we found it for the next adventurer.

It was one of those epic days where you realize how much you love your family and doing anything with them and wanting to experience everything with them.
You know what I'm taking about it?

Which leads me to this…

Of course I wanted the rest of the fam to get in on this.  So next week once we were back in Mississippi and my mom was up for Christmas that is exactly what we did.

My momma the fire starter.

We went to see the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".  SO good. Definetly one of my favorite movies.  And it was the perfect thing to see before taking my momma on her first geocache hunt.

We felt like kindred spirits to Walter Mitty when we were climbing hills in the woods just before sundown.

 Three generations of giggle boxes right there.

Then we saw it! 

You see it?  This one was so big and just sitting there in plain sight.

My mom after we made it out of the woods…

I think it's safe to say she loved it!

It was a great day.

 Now to take Lauren and Blakey-Poo and Marky.

Let's go. I'm ready!

Thank you Christopher for introducing your old maw-in-law to this epic adventure! xoxo