Living Proof

What a wonderful week this has been! Last Thursday my Mom and Dad came to stay with us. We began our evening with a delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel.

My Dad and I CRACK up every time the waiter asks, “Biscuits, cornbread, or mix?” because I had this waiter once that was SO country she made each of those words five syllables…it went something like this: “Diiiiid youuuu wawwwnnnttt beeezzzzccuuuuiiiittssss, cooooorrrnnnnbreeeadddddd, ooorrrr miiiiiieeeeeexxxxxxxxxx?”

My Dad and I can no longer make eye contact when we know this question is coming.


During our meal the sky was getting progressively darker, as in it looked like night time at 6:30 pm. It had even looked threatening earlier on my drive home:

I am obsessed with storms. They have always fascinated me, and especially tornados. At one point I thought I was going to be a meteorologist. Can you imagine tuning in to me providing your local weather report?? HAHA! As I always say, it’s never partly cloudy- it’s partly sunny!

On our way home in the monsoon we saw a car holding up traffic and driving very slowly. We wondered what was going on, and as we got closer we realized exactly what was happening, and boy was it hilarious.

Evidently a high school girl and guy got in an argument. In her attempt to show him who was boss she got out of the car (books, bags, and all) and proceeded to walk home.
That's when the bottom dropped out, and the rain was unbearable.

Ryan summed it up perfectly- "Well, what good did it do her? She was mad before, and now she's mad and soaking wet."

Hahaha. Moral of the story: keep your hands, arms, and quarrelling inside the car. Especially if it's raining cats and dogs.


Friday I had the pleasure of having lunch at Uncle Larry and Ellen’s house. I hadn’t seen them in a while and was thrilled to spend some time with them! That evening I met the newest addition to Meagan’s family: Lyndsey’s son John Alan! What a cutie : )


His first official portrait. Look at those big blue eyes!

He has already made friends with his cousin, Noah:

Cuddle time!

Noah wakes up in a state of confusion. He is so precious!

Later that evening Meagan, Dawson, Noah, and I watched the Muppets. What a CUTE movie!!

On Saturday Joy and I had a delicious lunch at (where else?) King’s, followed by a walk around Doctor Hardy Circle. We love our neighborhood, and we have walked that circle many nights- even in middle school. What I would give to have a recording of one of our conversations from back in the day. If I had to guess it would be something like…

“Do you have the latest Lisa Frank trapper keeper?”

“No, but I just got a brand new Yikes pencil sharpener. So there.”

“I am working on this awful English/History/Science project. ”

“Let's go play one of Heather's grown up board games.”

"Hey, let's go door to door and see if our neighbors need chores done."

"How about let's not and say we did."


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Saturday evening we went to one of our favorite restaurants with Ryan’s family:

This place is PHENOMENAL. We actually ate there on our senior prom night:

Anyway, back to 2012. This past Sunday was Easter!

As I was getting ready for church that morning I became aware of a dreadful error I had made in packing...

This, my friends, is the "pair" of white shoes I brought home to wear to church. You may note that THEY DON'T MATCH. Whoops.

It's a good thing that the Lord says "come as you are."

It's also a good thing that I happened to have a pair of extra sandals.

What better a way to honor Jesus on Easter morning than to worship with fellow believers and rejoice in knowing that this world is not where we belong. We will be together in Heaven for an eternity!

No picture will ever do it justice.


Mark 16:6 And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.

Which brings me to the inspiration of today's post:

The nail scarred hands.

Jesus's scars served as living proof that he had risen. They removed any doubt of what Jesus had done.

And that got me thinking...

What's my living proof of Him? Come to think of it, what is anyone's living proof that they are a follower of Jesus?

Is it the way we react in the work place or classroom?

Is it what we do when no one is looking?

Is it returning money to a cashier when they've given you extra change by mistake?

Is it being an honest businessman?

Is it fleeing from the presence of evil and not partaking in activities that you know are displeasing to the Father?

Is it honoring your mother, father, and authority?

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

As a Christian I must possess and portray these qualities consistently. Does that mean that I'm perfect and will never fail? Absolutely not. But Jesus asks us to give Him our all daily.

Given what He did at calvary, I don't think that's too much to ask.

Stick a post-it to your car or bathroom mirror. Give yourself a reminder in whatever way will be helpful for you to: BE LIVING PROOF!!!

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Yesterday some of our sales team had lunch at D's Wings.

It was most delicious.

Because we had more than four people, our waiter brought an extra two person table. Everyone joked about getting me a high chair. Anyway, unfortunately for my boss I was sitting directly in front of him. Throughout the meal I kept bumping the table, because its leg was right by my foot. We should have heeded the warning signs...

Right after our meals were delivered hot-n-ready to our table we were deep in an animated conversation about mph on a jet ski, when, as if on cue, I bumped into the table really hard...

You can guess what happened next.

A deluge of diet coke.

All OVER the table.

All over the floor.

And most embarrassingly, all in my manager's lap. I was mortified.

There were even pieces of ice in his wing chips.

What's worse is that the waiter had JUST brought me a refill. The glass was as full as possible. I now realize that having a glass "half full" is not necessarily good in every situation.

Many profuse apologies, numerous stares from strangers, and forty napkins later, we finished our meal and were able to laugh it off.

When Ryan and I were dating his parents always joked about designating a cup for me at their house.

I suppose situations like this build character.

Yesterday evening Jamie and I went to one of our favorite places:

Among the myriad of incredible crafts, projects, and decor, behold this new interest upon which we stumbled:

Dollhouses!!!

I know you're probably thinking I have the mind of a 5 year old, right?

On second thought, don't answer that.

But it was the neatest thing! They even had an entire aisle dedicated to furniture, appliances, etc. They even had stainless steel ones!

The possibilities are endless!

I tried to envision the conversation that would take place if I came home with a $400 doll house. I imagine that Ryan's expression would be something like this:

And I on the other hand would be emphasizing the money I saved.

"But Ryan, this living room set was only $7- it was a steal!"

"And can you believe that I found a refrigerator for $2???"

I suppose for now this miniature house fascination will have to stay in my mind.


We ended our evening with a game of Scrabble. As we became more and more tired Jamie was more lenient with her acceptance of my words. Case in point: yip.

It seemed like a perfectly logical word to me.

"Katharine, did you clean the kitchen?"
Yip.

"Do you want Cheetos for a snack?
Yip.

"Did you buy anything in Belk today?"
Yip. Oops.


And I'll close out with the word of the week: PERSISTENCE! I have been working on a deal for over TEN months that finally closed this week. Cue the hallelujah chorus! This one was about to give me a coronary.

I am looking forward to a RELAXING weekend. May God bless and keep you safe, happy, and healthy while you are living proof for Him!!!


Until the next shenanigans,

Go with the Flow

If there's one thing to remember about lives and routines- you learn to expect the unexpected. There was a slight change of plans on our Bridge Run. Ryan's dear, sweet Aunt Dot passed away on Friday morning. We had just visited her in the hospital two weeks prior, and I'm grateful that she was surrounded by so many family members and friends in the last days of her life. We decided not to go to Charleston for the Bridge Run and headed to Dillon instead to be with Ryan's family and attend the visitation and funeral. God willing, we plan to do the run next year.

I did a double take the first time I met Ryan's Aunt Dot, because she resembled and reminded me so much of my Grandmama Alice. Those two sweethearts were wonderful Christian examples while on earth and are now both in Heaven. Knowing my grandmother, she is probably sweeping dust off of those gold streets...

God bless you, Aunt Dot, until we meet again. We love you!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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This work week has been stressful. Fortunately, there have been a lot of great TV shows to look forward to and get me through it, including but not limited to:

I loved Miranda Lambert's performance!

I got a double dose of Giuliana this week. Season two of Giuliana and Bill premiered, as well as the True Hollywood Story of Giuliana's life. Hearing about her battle of overcoming breast cancer is quite humbling. No one is immune from pain and sickness on this earth, which is why it is so important to have your eyes set on eternity.

Almost ANYTHING on this channel I will watch. I'm obsessed. Ryan hates it.

This week was the SEASON FINALE of the original "Dance Moms." What ever will I do now?? Until they announce a third season I will probably have to get by watching reruns and extra interviews...

Or, I could finally clean out the trunk of my car which Ryan has been asking me to do for a while now....


Fun fact: did you know that a messy car can actually save the day? How, you ask? Take this hypothetical situation for example: let's say you were going slightly over the speed limit (9 miles to be exact) and an officer pulled you. After profusely apologizing you proceed to inform him that your registration and other imperative documents are in the back of your car. You open the back of said car to reveal a pile of Monopoly games, random shoes, First Baptist bulletins, packages of candy, a multitude of papers, DVDs, etc....when the officer smiles and says, "You know what? Let's just forget it. Slow down and have a nice day." See??

*Friendly reminder: this situation is hypothetical*

Now where did that lightning strike come from?

This week has been bizarre in several ways, one of which was Monday morning...

I woke up in a stupor and heard the shower running. After rubbing my eyes several times I looked at the clock: 4:45. 4:45?!? What was Ryan doing in the shower at such an ungodly time?? I was so confused, and my mind began wandering. Was he A) waking up early to surprise me with donuts from Krispy Kreme? Ha. Not likely. B) going to work early for a meeting...nah. He would have mentioned that. Then it hit me. NO WAY was he playing a late April Fool's joke and changed my clock so that I would be late for work.

I thought, "That dirty little rascal..." That's when I got up to check all of the clocks upstairs- my phone said 4:45, so did the television, so did the cable box...wait a minute. Ryan's clock is the wrong one. How could that be?

I barged into the bathroom to find a soap-covered abominable snowman in the shower.

"Ryan?" I yelled out amidst the steam, "I'm very confused."
This didn't really register with Ryan, because I'm frequently in a state of bewilderment. He finally asked why, and I explained to him that there was a slight discrepancy between all of the other clocks in the house and his- by a whole hour. In that instant I came to a realization- he was going to think I was playing a joke on him. I promised him that wasn't the case.

After much more confusion he solved the mystery. Years ago I kept giving him a hard time about his desk clock. It was so old that you couldn't make out half of the numbers. 7:00 looked like 1:00, and it was just nonsense. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he hadn't replaced it, but then again he is a male Moody...spending money is like getting a root canal; you only do it if it's absolutely necessary.

Long story short: I bought him a "smart clock" that sets itself as soon as you plug it in. It also automatically falls back and springs forward for time changes. When the time changed a couple of weeks ago Ryan corrected it manually, but the clock somehow went back an hour again on Sunday night. As if Mondays aren't dreaded enough, this definitely wasn't a good start and ended up throwing off our entire day. Don't you just hate technology sometimes??

Last night I did something unheard of in the Katharine world....I made macaroni and cheese for dinner. I hate pasta, but there was definitely an ulterior motive here. I figure if I cook a meal that I hate, I won't be tempted to eat it.

One of my fears as a child was going to a friend's house for dinner and hearing the words, "We're having spaghetti for supper." I immediately hoped that: 1) they had a dog that I could feed under the table 2) they'd have really large napkins that could hide lots of noodles, or 3) there would at least be enough sauce for me to eat so that I wouldn't go to bed hungry.

Seriously, I wouldn't eat pasta if I was stuck in a tree during the Hunger Games...

Plus, not liking noodles means that I can eat plenty more CANDY! Speaking of that- many days after school at DCS Meagan's mom would take us to Tiger Mart (R.I.P. Baskin Robbins) to get snacks. I would almost always get one of these suckers.

They are SO delicious! They are also very hard to find now- an antique and in very high demand item, if you ask me. Well, my friend, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet I have found a website that still sells these pops. Can I get a hallelujah???

When Jay returned home from studying in Scotland three years ago I threw a surprise party in his honor. I also purchased many sweets for the occasion, including a FIVE POUND bag of tropical smarties. If you've never had these, then you better pick up the phone and order some right away, because they are SO FANTASTIC! No, I'm not being paid for this.

Anyway, I'm sure some of our esteemed guests ate a pack or two of Smarties, but a few weeks later my mother asked where they were, and I had eaten them ALL- plus I was only home on the weekends, so you do the math. Whoops. And people wonder where I get all my energy...

Here I am at two years old eating one of my first chocolate cakes...

Yep, I'm a mess- both figuratively and literally.

I am definitely looking forward to this weekend: there will be lots of Easter excitement, along with the opportunity to catch up with some great friends. Not to mention that I can finally bring out my white pants and shoes...

I am humbled every time I think of what Jesus did on the cross. One of the ways to show your thanks and gratitude is by making church a priority. Many people say they believe in God but don't feel the need to be in church on Sunday. It's almost like saying, "Well I believe in marriage, but I'm not going to attend my wedding..." If you had a best friend with whom you rarely communicated or showed your support it would take its toll on your friendship, or in this case, your relationship with Jesus, if you have one.

The price has been paid for you to spend an eternity in Heaven. All you have to do is accept it. If you're unsure how, ask someone, or send me a message. I'd say I'm a pretty friendly and open person, and that's putting it mildly!

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

I hope you and your friends, family, and loved ones have a HAPPY EASTER WEEKEND!!!