Tali

I’m a bit sad today. I talked to my friend, Tali, yesterday and it was great to visit with her…but it made me realize how much I truly miss her…

I met Tali in Sunday School at Broadmoor in September of 2001. I was newly married and lacking friends in the “young married” category - I needed the encouragement of someone in the same climate of life as I was. One Sunday Tali and her husband were sitting across from us in Sunday School. She shared a prayer request that turned into a giggle and then laughter erupted in the class…at that time I remember clearly thinking, “I want to be HER friend.” From that week on, Tali and I have been close…you ladies know what I mean – when you meet that kind of friend, you know in an instant that you’ll be close forever. I can now look back and see that we met at a time in our lives when we both needed a God-given girlfriend…

Tali moved from Shreveport to Charleston, SC in December. She was my closest friend in Shreveport for 4 years and it was VERY hard to say good-bye. I think I cried about 2 hours after I left her house that evening last month. She was one of those friends on whom I could always count to drop everything and run to my side when I needed her. When I had Stone, she brought me tons of boy stuff…when I was hurting from a broken friendship, she hugged me tight and told me that God was the only one I could truly count on…when I was frustrated, she reminded me of God’s perfect timing…and when I was careless with money, she brought me back to my senses.

Tali ALWAYS pointed me to the goodness of Christ because she frequently exclaimed (and still does), “God is SO good – look what He’s done for you & me today!”

Our friendship will always be strong, I am sure. It’s just harder when a phone call replaces the late night latte trips to Barnes and Noble where we would laugh AND cry at the hardships of this life. I miss her presence more than anything right now, but I know God will use this to teach me much…

a Rocking Horse

Since I never put a picture from Christmas at our house, I thought I would share this one...

Santa brought Stone a rocking horse! It just didn't seem right not to have a wooden horse, rocking chair, or something "vintage" for Stone on Christmas morning...so I chose the rocking horse and I'm glad I did. He loves it. What a joy it is to be a parent!

To peel or not to peel...

So, my sweet sister-in-law, Megan, is an esthetician. What is that (some of you) ask? Well, I asked too, when my brother told me what she did. An esthetician (as best I understand it) is someone who does facials, body wraps, hair waxing…basically, skin and facial maintenance. I used to think things like this were frivolous until I recently looked in the mirror and realized my skin is getting older just like the rest of this aging body. So, in my effort to somehow help this aging skin and also to support my sister-in-law, I called and made an appointment to get a facial with Megan.

Megan is very good at her job. She made me feel very comfortable and she treated my face to a healthy refreshing. The facial lasted 30 minutes and I came out of there with the smoothest, most refreshed feeling skin! I asked her what I should do in the evenings to help this aging skin feel like this all the time and she gave me some advice. I chose to purchase just one of the pricey items she used – a “peel.” She also gave me a bag of samples to try some of the other things she used…which leads me to the experiment…

Two nights ago, I decided to get out my peel and the bag of samples and try some of this skin maintenance myself. I lined up all of the 12 bottles and 3 pouches of samples she gave me on my bathroom counter. No – I’m not kidding – I had 15 things sitting there. Not knowing what to do with all of this stuff, I resorted to reading the labels thoroughly (which I never do). In my crazy mind, I thought that would help – until I realized that all the bottles had only one line of English and about 16 lines of other languages on them. All I know is I had toners, moisturizers, replenishes, rose toners, peels, night balms, “liquid gold,” cleaners, and eye cream. Since the eye cream was the only somewhat straight-forward label, I chose to set it aside. I still had 14 bottles. Suddenly, a brilliant idea – I would get out the peel I purchased and hope there were directions in the box. Much to my delight, there was a sheet of instructions…that had one paragraph of English and 40 other paragraphs in different languages. The one paragraph did tell me in what order to apply and rinse 5 of the products. Finally – a little direction…however, I quickly realized that the peel I purchased was a different brand and none of the names in the directions even remotely matched the labels on the 14 bottles…

After about 15 more minutes of trying to sort products and pondering the situation, I dumped all of the bottles back in the little sample bag and resorted to my regular skin care ritual. I did add the “peel” into my already 4-step ritual…and I now know why they call it a peel. I think it literally peeled the top layer of skin off of my face. Ouch!! We’ll see if I try that again! (I probably did it in the wrong order)

So, I figure I’ll have to take my sample sack and a sharpie back to Megan and get her to number the bottles in the correct order for me…but for now, I’ll be using my trusty Mary Kay skin care 4-step ritual that I have been using for a little while now. Thanks to my sweet friend, Jolie, I am in the loop with Mary Kay!

Christmas in North Carolina

We enjoyed our trip to North Carolina for Christmas SO much! We stayed with Angie and Joel and Davis for a week. Chet's grandmother, "G-G" and parents, "Grandma and Grandpa" and Joel's mom, "Dee-Dee" were all there for the festive holiday, as well. We had a wonderful time opening gifts, visiting, cooking, sewing, camping, and most of all, watching the boys play together.

Davis and Stone played very well together. They even shared well, much to our surprise! It was lots of fun to watch them interact and to see the differences in them. They played with trains, keyboards, and jumped off of steps, but their favorite moments were watching Bob the Builder and Thomas the Train on tv.


Stone had never met his great-grandma "G-G", so it was really neat to see him interact with her and to see her get to know him. They played together a lot and I know they both enjoyed every minute! G-G's favorite thing, I think, was clapping for Stone when he would clap for himself as if to encourage everyone to join in. She humored him with praise every day!

It would be bad if i didn't mention the camping trip! Angie and I chose to stay back at the house with the little boys and grandparents while the big boys went adventuring into the NC mountains as they love to do! Since I've never been, I have no idea what goes on in the woods with those guys, but I'm sure I'd rather not know! Chet and Joel enjoyed two days of nature while we were there and I was happy inside the Parker's warm home!


Because I am a little behind the times and do not have a digital camera, I had to use pictures from Angie and Joel. Once I get my film developed and scan in an image or two, I'll share Christmas with the Trussells! I hope you all had a great Christmas with your families this year.

My Sweet Grandaddy Tatum

This picture is of my grandparents' wedding on January 23, 1950.

Today would have been my sweet grandaddy Tatum's 83rd birthday. We lost him two years ago and I've missed him so much since then. I am very fortunate to have had all my grandparents live into my late 20's, I know, but sometimes it seems unfair because I know more and more what I'm missing now! Anyhow, I'm grateful that the Lord let me have so much time with him.

As I reflect on my precious grandfather and how much he meant to me, I think of several things:

• his unending unconditional love for my grandmother
• trips to Disney World
• his laugh
• watching Wylie Coyote on Saturday mornings
• steak and potato lunches every Sunday
• his place at the head of their dinner table
• annual summer trips to Pickwick, TN
• his handwritten birthday cards
• his comforting hugs
• "pretty is as pretty does"
• his conducting the orchestra on the radio instead of keeping two hands on the wheel!

Most of all, though, I remember that he never missed a Sunday at church. He was there every time the doors were open - not because he felt he had to be, but because he worshipped with fellow believers whenever the opportunity was presented. I used to be so excited when he was the deacon to say the offertory prayer or the benediction. I would smile proudly as if everyone in the room knew he was MY grandad and as if they wanted him to be their's!

Those days are over now, and I miss him to this day, but I don't ever regret the time I had with him for any reason. His wise words still resound so often in my head.

Thank you, Lord, for grandparents.