Kristin McLendon

Kristin McLendon: January 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Oh, Maddie...

Robert and I have had a really busy week this week and our precious, precious, can do no wrong, Maddie let us know how she felt about us leaving her alone so much this week.  Here's how our dear one looked upon our arrival home one evening:
The best part about this picture--it was the first, but not the last time we came home to this scene this week---and on this occasion--the puppy pad that she destroyed--she tinkled on first---which meant she smelled like tinkle....so once again we had an emergency bath.  You would think she would learn! :)

She's growing so quickly!!  She went for her 9 week check up last week and she had doubled her weight since her 6 week check up--weighing in at 12 pounds!!  How do you gain 6 pounds in 3 weeks???  Geesh....

We hope this picture makes you smile--because even though it was a pain to clean it up--and her--all we really could do was laugh.  Oh, the joys in life...

posted by Kristin @ January 29, 2009 2 Comments

Monday, January 26, 2009

Saturdays/Mondays with Ashley

If someone were to come up and ask you, "When did Jesus show the full extent of his love?" What would your answer be? Most of you probably said without hesitating...the cross. Yes it is true that the cross was an amazing act of love, but according to John 13:1 (NIV) the cross was not the FULL EXTENT of his love. I'm not making this up...it's in the Bible. So lets look at the Bible and see what it has to say about the full extent of Jesus' love. "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love" (John 13:1). Now if you just read that verse and you had never read the bible before you would assume that the next thing Jesus did was where he showed the full extent of his love...right? Well if we continue reading the next thing Jesus does is wash the feet of his disciples. How is this the full extent of Jesus' love? Because the very essence on Jesus was humility.

Now we read this story and if we're honest we would admit that it kind of offends us. Jesus is fully God, he should be the very last person washing everyone's feet!  And yet he claims this is the fullest extent of his love. Now this really stirs us up, because as christians this also means we are called to walk in humility. The problem is being humble goes directly against our flesh. We struggle as our spirit cries out yes and our flesh cries out NO! We're torn between the two. We look at the bible and see verse after verse about how we should be humble. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). We use our relationship with God as almost a trophy, we carry it around and set it in front of people so that look and admire. I went to one of Savannah's cross country races and after the race I watched as one of the boys who had come in the top five took his medal and put it in his bag. One of the dads looked at him and said, "Hey where's you medal? You should be wearing that proudly." The boy just smiled politely and changed the subject. That is humility. We so often take our achievements and flaunt them around wearing them proudly and just waiting for someone to come up and congratulate us. When really we should be taking that and putting it in our bag, you still have the achievement and you can pull it out to help others when necessary, but for the most part it stays in your bag.

I've really been taking time and trying intentionally to be humble, I've found I'm not very good at it. I encourage each of you just to take a day where you intentionally try to be humble. Not trying to draw attention to yourself, but instead serving the person that your with. When you do something and someone else takes the credit don't puff yourself up and loudly proclaim that it really was you who did it all. When you get in an argument go up the person and be the first to confess your fault. I love this definition of humility..."Humility, or being humble, is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modest person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others." Humility is what we're called to "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, AND TO SHOW TRUE HUMILITY TOWARD ALL MEN" (Titus 3:1-2). Humility is so against everything that we want to do, this is why it is the full extent of love. We don't want to do it, but we do because we are supposed to love our brother. This is what Jesus did he showed humility in everything he did...even coming to the earth. "Who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness" (Philippians 2:6-7)

So take some time and look at the full extent of Jesus' love and try to make it a reality in your own life. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). So go low try to be intentionally weak. We live in an upside down kingdom where you loose to gain.

God Bless
Ashley

posted by Kristin @ January 26, 2009 0 Comments

Friday, January 23, 2009

Bath Time again...

We've had so many adventures with our Maddie and love sharing them with you...but we can't leave out our Abigail---she's still as spunky as ever....


Here's her bath time...it was voluntary....

(If you can't see the video, click here)



Just thought we'd share with you another glimpse into the life of the McLendon Family...

posted by Kristin @ January 23, 2009 1 Comments

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

It's all in what you expect

Below is a blog that Cory wrote for our Student Ministry Blog.  You may click on the link or read it below.  It is a testimony of what the Lord did here on Sunday night and what He is doing in our midst and with our youth!


It's all in what you expect

We had Scott Thompson and a ministry team from Bethel Church Atlanta come Sunday night. It was incredible! We were completely blown away by how good God is! They spent some time encouraging our leaders with prophetic words that were very strong and accurate. In fact, there were some things spoken that were impossible for them to know in advance, it was so obvious that the Father was speaking-and loving on His kids. The team also had some time where they spoke "words of knowledge" and we prayed for the sick. We received several emails the next morning about confirmed and genuine healing that took place. Scott also shared a dream that he had that was powerful (described below), and we ended the night with a fire tunnel of prayer. God is on the move at Riverstone Church. It is blowing us away how He is opening up doors and He is pushing us into deeper things.

Lord, we surrender everything to You-come and have Your way.

Check out the article below from Scott Thompson:

About a month ago I had a dream. In the dream there was a woman in a large room. The walls of the room had strips of dark, rich fabric lining them. Immediately I knew that the woman in the room had given her self completely to making that room look the way it did. I knew that she had really spent time decorating and making everything in the room just right. There was no furniture in the room yet. The woman was looking around and there was something missing. The room was not quite finished. Then some people came in carrying a gold colored couch. The woman got all excited and I knew this was what she was waiting for. The people put the couch right in the middle of the room. The whole room was prepared just for this one piece of furniture. The woman walked around the couch looking at it and I could tell by the look on her face that it just wasn’t right yet. Then John the Baptist came walking in. I knew the women was married to him. John the Baptist represents preparing the way. The woman was married to preparing the way. Right when John came in he pointed at the couch and said, “It’s supposed to be like this.” When he said that, the couch turned to liquid gold. The woman was so relieved. Finally, everything she had prepared was for a reason and the reason was sitting right in front of her.

Then some time went by in the dream. The woman was standing in front of the couch with a look of dissatisfaction on her face. There were other people around her that were also looking at the couch. The couch was no longer liquid gold. It was just an ordinary gold colored couch again. The people around the woman were looking at the couch and saying things like, “Well, at least its gold, right? That is the color we were going for.” Another person came up and sat on the couch. They got up and said, “Wow, you should try that out, it is really comfortable.” The woman nodded her head and said, “Yeah, at least its gold, and it does look comfortable.” Right then John the Baptist came walking back in shaking his head. The look on his face was one of anger. He looked at the woman and said, “You just don’t get it do you!” Then he pointed at the couch and said, “It’s all in what you EXPECT!” When he said the word expect, it was so real that the letters of the word came out of his mouth and filled the room. Right then the couch turned back to liquid gold again. The woman was so relieved and at the same time she was disappointed in herself because she had started to settle for less than she had poured her life out for.

The last part of the dream is the most interesting to me. After the couch turned back to liquid gold, people started coming in the room one at a time and sitting on the couch. When they would sit down they would disappear into the couch. They were completely consumed by the liquid gold couch. It was no longer just comfortable. The woman in the dream represented us, all believers from past to present. Generations before us have poured themselves out to prepare the way. Some have even given their lives. Some generations have seen the liquid tangible presence of God show up. Some have only dreamed, but all have prepared. There have been moves of God in the past where things start to happen on a large scale; healing, miracles, salvations and it effects the masses. There have also been times where the church has just gotten comfortable. We started making sure we gave our new visitors a spoon full of sugar with every bite of the gospel. We wanted to make sure our message was not uncomfortable or offensive. By doing that we lose focus of our call to prepare the way for the real thing. We have to make sure as a body of believers that we are continually married to preparing and expecting. When we pray we have got to expect power. When new people come we have got to expect that they will be consumed by the liquid love of Jesus like they have been starving for. We have got to create a culture of expectation, because with expectation there is faith. I do not believe you can separate the two. There is no faith without expectation. If we cannot expect what we believe, then how can we expect the world to believe with us? The world is waiting for a church that is expecting, and seeing what they expect in a real way. All we owe this world is an encounter with God. Lets expect the tangible presence together. Lets go for a habitation of God’s presence instead of a visit. I believe God is looking for the ones that will expect. I believe the word expect has left the mouth of God and is so real that it is filling our surroundings waiting for someone to grab hold of it. This world is looking for God. High school and university campuses are looking for God. Your friends are looking for God. Let’s begin to prepare and expect like we never have before. When we expect, the message is no longer comfortable, it is consuming.

posted by Kristin @ January 21, 2009 0 Comments

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Introducing Daniel Bashta...

We are excited around here at RiverStone that I just had to pass on the excitement to our blogging friends!  


This past Sunday we announced who our new Worship Pastor is going to be.  Daniel Bashta has accepted the position and we are eagerly awaiting for him and his wife to make his transition here.  

We absolutely love and adore our current Worship Pastor, but we are excited for the door the Lord has opened up for him and the new opportunities the Lord has for his family!  Bill, you will be missed!!!

For our blogging friends, Daniel has a cd out that you can download for free off of his website!!!  (Yes, it's free!)  Just click here to get to his site and download!!! It's sooo good!  When Robert and I came to RiverStone's Summer Camp (side note--the Student Ministry website has been updated recently and looks amazing--click on that link to take a look!) over the Summer, the kids were singing "Awakening" which is one of Daniels songs.  It's become a staple in our youth group over the past few months and the Lord has used it to move mightily!  

Listen!  Allow the Lord to take you into His Presence!!!!

posted by Kristin @ January 20, 2009 1 Comments

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Saturdays with Ashley

Shark Teeth

Whenever my family goes to my favorite aunt's and uncle's (on my dad's side) lake house we usually go looking for shark teeth. To do this we have to drive down to someone else's dock and go to the shallow part of the lake and just start sifting our hands through the sand, sometimes to make the process go a little faster we'll bring a few strainers. The looking can be a little monotonous and many times we've gone home empty handed. So what makes us keep going back to look? We've found some before. When someone finds a shark's tooth everyone gets excited and ooos and aahhhs over the tooth. The best scenario is when you find one, when you feel your hand hit something hard and you look down and it's not a rock but a perfect smooth shark's tooth. You're convinced that this is the best shark's tooth that has ever been discovered. You do a victorious fist pump in the air showing everyone what you have found. You take the shark's tooth and put it in a safe place, and every now and again you bring it back out and the same excitement and amazement is still there as you look at the tooth.

Finding shark's teeth is (in my mind) like searching out the deep things of God. Often we as Americans want things to happen quick. We want to know the deep things of God without ever having to do anything. Most of us are satisfied with just going to church on sunday morning and listening to what the pastor has to say about what he found out about God. This is like when someone else finds a shark tooth, yes it's exciting and we can marvel at what they found. How often do you remember what the pastor said? There are some sermons that just stick with you they strike your heart you ooo and ahh over what the pastor said, but think about if you had gotten that revelation for yourself. How much more would that have struck your heart? When you find out something about the living God it messes you up. You can't function the same as you did before. You carry that "shark's tooth" around with you and you go around showing it to everyone hoping that it will have the same impact on them as it did on you. When you find these things it stirs something up in your spirit just like with Moses. I don't think Moses had a speech problem, I think Moses had a God problem. Moses was once a military leader...would they have put someone with a speech problem in charge of their military? I don't think so, Moses had an encounter with the living God and it messed him up. It was ingrained in his mind forever. 1 Corinthians 2:10 says "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." This verse isn't saying the Spirit is finding out new things about God. The Spirit lives inside of us and is here to teach us about the deep things of God. The Spirit knows all of the deep things of God, so we have a great helper that has come to show us who this God that we serve really is. We have committed our lives to Him, but have we taken anytime to get to know Him? I don't know about ya'll but I want to know all about this God that I'm serving. I think this is why so many people struggle, they don't know who they're serving. We've heard He's good and He is! That's great that we serve a good God but I want more than that. I want to get into the word (lake) and read and keep reading so I can find more shark teeth. I don't want to stop after I've just found one, but I want to keep looking I want to keep searching. Some days I may come up without anything, but I know there's a shark tooth there and I want to find it. I want the joy and the ecstasy that comes with getting a new revelation of who God is.

So I'm going to show you how to find some shark teeth. Look through the word and find some of His attributes, pick one and focus on it, get verses about it, and sit and meditate on them. For example the self-existence of God. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God." Revelation 21:6 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." We've heard these verses but what do they mean? In the beginning...when was the beginning? As humans we can't even begin to fathom what this word "beginning" means. For us everything comes from something...everything has an origin. So where did God come from? The beginning. What did the beginning look like? He's been here forever? What's forever? As you begin this thought process as you begin to sit and meditate you develop and godly fear "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom" (Psalm 111:10)  So I encourage you this week to go looking for shark's teeth. If you don't get anything don't be discouraged there's plenty there it takes time. Look into His wisdom, his omnipresence, his mercy, his wisdom....there's some big ones, and if you sit and really look into it you'll understand why we need to fear Him, why need to serve HIm, why we need to praise Him, and why we love Him.

God Bless
Ashley 

posted by Kristin @ January 17, 2009 0 Comments

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

On a not so serious note...

I just posted the last blog--and my husband came out of the bathroom with this....I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still...so we moved to photo booth on the mac and had a little too much fun with this creepy mustache!  

Before:  

After:









posted by Kristin @ January 14, 2009 3 Comments

What are you reading?

What does the Lord have you reading in this new year?

I have a really bad habit of reading anywhere between 3-5 books at one time.  One of the associate pastors here at RiverStone the other day asked me if I had read all the books on my bookshelf.  Unfortunately my response was that I've started at least 95% of them and probably only finished about 50% of them.  You would think this would keep me from purchasing new books, but I have a slight addiction (kinda like the one I have to cute notecards) to books.  Anything that will challenge me in my walk with the Lord--I have to have my hands on!

I came home from OneThing with a few new books that I started to read--until last Thursday when I went to Intercession and the Lord blessed me with the book, "Happy Intercessor" by Beni Jonhson.  

I have a few things I'm working on tonight--such as reference letters, etc. that I need to get back to--but I had to share this quote with you from this book.  May it touch your heart as it's touched the depths of mine.

"God is waiting for us to enter into Him.  He is longing for us to see His world, to see into that glorious realm of His Kingdom.  He wants us to partner with Him for heavenly breakthrough."

So...a) what are you reading?  b)  how does God speak to you through this quote?  If I get a chance, I'll comment more on this tomorrow!  For now, enjoy HIM!

posted by Kristin @ January 14, 2009 1 Comments

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Maddies First Real Bath

This was our first attempt at a bath in the bathtub. Not sure who got more wet. Me or her!

(**Sorry--pic taken from cell phone so not the best quality!  Not enough time to grab the real camera!  I'll think that one through next time--since this was an "emergency" bath--you don't want to ask!) :)

posted by Kristin @ January 13, 2009 0 Comments

Monday, January 12, 2009

Saturdays/Mondays with Ashley

**Sorry for the delay on this one guys!  Read slowly and allow the Lord to speak to your heart!

Lets Take A Swim

I remember when I was just learning how to swim without my floaties (which is a really big deal). My dad would take me to the neighborhood pool and he would get in the water while I stood on the steps. He would get a few feet away from me and then say, "Come swim to me Ashley." So I would put on my goggles and make sure they were leak proof and then flail my arms and legs just trying to reach him, but right when I was about to reach him he'd take a step back. He would continue to do this and then finally he would stop and I would cling on to him and gasp for air. Once I caught my breath I'd say, "DAD! You kept moving and wouldn't let me catch you!" He would just smile and say "You made it, and look you swam the whole length of the pool (which actually it was the width)." If he had told me when we got to the pool that day that we would be swimming that far I would have said no way. He didn't do that.  All he said was swim to me.

God does the same for us, He gives us a little bit at a time. 1 Corinthians 10:13 "And God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." I think the main reason we can't see the "big picture" is because we would be overwhelmed. He shows us what we need to see right now. Our job is to follow where He leads us. We see him taking a step back, and part of us wants to follow him while the other part wants to turn around and swim back to the steps. You have a few different types of swimmers:

1) The perfectionist- You swim a few strokes and then realize you're not doing it right so you go back to the steps and start over. That's not how it works. God sees the level of maturity that you're at and He won't expect more out of you than what you can do. He's not expecting you to jump in the water and start doing a perfect butterfly, He is expecting you to jump in and have terrible form. You won't be able to grow in your relationship with God if you don't allow yourself to make some mistakes. Don't beat yourself up about every little thing, just keep swimming.

2) The ones who don't trust Him- They see Him step back and go..."WOAH this was NOT part of the plan. I said I would swim to you and that's it." They don't trust His leadership, they don't trust Him to save them. They don't know Him, they don't know that He's good. They haven't gotten into the Word and looked at who He really is, so they're afraid.

3) The curb standers- These say, "Yeah I'm a Christian, but I don't have to get in the water I'm perfectly fine here on the curb (in the world)." They choose not to go anywhere in their relationship with Christ. They are perfectly fine just they way they are. I believe that we're called to jump in the pool. We aren't called to be lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). If you're a curb stander you need to make a choice, either jump in or go home, but don't stand there dangling your toes over the edge.

4) The sinker- This one is like Peter, they jump in the water and they're ready to go, but then they see Him take the step and they panic. They can't decide if they really want to follow Him or if they want to go back to the steps, as a result they sink. The idea of following Him is too hard but they realize they can't live life without Him. They continue to weigh out the pros and cons of both decisions, but they can't decide and after staying still for so long they sink. The good news is He's standing right there, and He'll pick you up and hold you and remind you why you want to keep swimming after Him. Then He'll let go and take a step back.

5) The A.D.D- This swimmer jumped in and is ready to go, but then they see one of those rings on the bottom of the pool surface. This swimmer is like one of the foolish virgins in Matthew 25. They are so wrapped up in their ministry and helping others that they have forgotten why they jumped in the pool in the first place. They aren't able to get more spiritually mature because they're stuck at the bottom of the pool. While these things are still in the pool and they're good, the A.D.D swimmer isn't quite strong enough to go down and get the ring yet. He isn't quite ready to go and help everyone else, he isn't mature yet. After awhile he'll run out of air (oil) and then he'll have to make the decision to continue to swim and not be distracted.

6) The curb rester- This one didn't realize how hard it was going to be. They got tired of swimming and said they would just hold onto the curb for a little while to catch their breath. While hanging onto the curb they look around and see how much "fun" everyone is having. They forget that this suffering is just for a little while and then he will restore us and make us strong, firm, and steadfast (1 Peter 5:10). They look at Him and then look at the world, and they jump out. They forgot that this world is temporary, that this is nothing compared to eternity, but God will wait patiently for them to return to Him once again.

7) The swimmer- This one is the mature bride that is talked about in the end of Song of Solomon. This one is the one that pushed through. They jumped in flailing but ended swimming neat beautiful strokes. They worked hard and kept their eyes fixed on what was before them (Proverbs 4:25). They didn't sway to the right or the left, but they continued to press on (Philippians 3:14). Even when it was hard they kept their eyes on the prize and swam in such a way to get the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24).

Although we may want to quit and give up remember "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. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)" I encourage each of you to swim so that one day He will hold you in his arms and say "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:21)

~~Ashley

posted by Kristin @ January 12, 2009 0 Comments

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Maddie's 8 Weeks Old Today!

A glimpse into the first 8 weeks of our Maddie girl!


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posted by Kristin @ January 10, 2009 1 Comments

Friday, January 9, 2009

Our First Anniversary

As I mentioned last month we celebrated our first anniversary on December 15th.  The Lord blessed us with an amazing week away together in the middle of nowhere!  And I mean the middle of nowhere.  We were near Hot Springs, North Carolina where cell phones did not work and internet could be found at a teeny tiny little coffee shop in town (which we opted out of!).  


The week was absolutely amazing.  We spent the week in the hot tub that was on our front porch, reading the Word in front of the fireplace that was our main heat source in the cabin (which means I had the cabin at about 80 degrees all week--fireplace is one of my absolute favorite things!) and we discovered a new game called Skip-Bo and played lots of it!  When it wasn't raining, we went hiking.  We ventured into Hot Springs to use our free gift certificate here and even ventured to Asheville for a day and used our Christmas money to visit the Biltmore Estate (at Christmas time--absolutely amazing!!!!)  

Here are just a few pictures of our much needed vacation together!

Upon Arrival sitting on our front porch...ahhhh....




On our actual anniversary:

I was suppose to stay in bed while Robert cooked breakfast...but I snuck out and took this picture:



Then came the gifts.  We gave each other a $20 limit and the traditional anniversary gift is paper--so we had to get creative!  :)

I made Robert a card out of construction paper (I got him a real card too) but his card that I made described his gift which was 12 months of paper--he's been reading mens health lately--so I got him a one years subscription.  I thought I was creative until I opened my gift from my lovely husband--which made me cry--he got me a journal and some note cards (I have a slight addiction to notecards that really I think only my friend Amelia can understand!)  
Here is inside the journal, which made me cry.  
And then the beautiful gift from mom--who did not obey the $20 or paper rule--a sugar bowl for our fine china (I had the creamer (thank you Jac!)  but not the sugar bowl--which we all found out on mothers day last year!)  Thank you mom for such a beautiful gift!!!  I took this picture once we got home--we have pictures of me opening this gift--but the hair is not attractive, so we'll show you those pictures later! :)

We spent the rest of the day hiking--and it was really, really cold!!!!

This was at the top of Max Patch where we saw a little bit of snow.  The weather was getting quite bad, so we didn't stay up top for long.  We wanted to go back later in the week, but it rained all week, making the dirt roads you had to drive till you got to where you can hike quite impossible to drive on.  We'll have to return to this spot as it is absolutely beautiful!





On our way down we pulled over to take some cool pictures!


We found another hiking spot that was not so cold and was along the river:



Back to the cabin we went to celebrate!

Robert cooked dinner on the grill (I know great anniversary for me!  He cooked breakfast and dinner!!)


We brought our toasting flutes along!

And broke out the top layer of our wedding cake along with our serving pieces that we used at our wedding that match our fine china (the flutes were from our wedding and fine china too!)







One thing that Robert and I had wanted to do at our wedding was wash each others feet--but since I had to wear heels--so that I could be tall enough to be in the same picture as Robert, logistically we just couldn't figure it out--so we saved it for once we left the reception and got to where we were staying for the night.  I had gotten a towel and washcloth monogrammed with our new monogram on it to make the moment special--so I brought it along on our first anniversary and we washed each others feet once again.



Here are some pics from the rest of the week:

Our cabin:

View from our cabin:




View from the hot tub:
The wonderful fire place inside:

Our trip into Asheville:

 We visited the Winery at the Biltmore and did the behind the scenes thing:





Then on to the house/mansion/museum....we weren't allowed to take pics inside...so this is all we got:



View from a balcony on the back of the house:


We enjoyed the town of Asheville--found a great little Thai restaurant to eat at and loved touring the little not chain stores (one of our favorite things to do while traveling--we try to not eat or visit any store that we can visit at home!  Makes for a great adventure!)  in the Biltmore Village!  It was a great day!

On our last day we hiked to a waterfall to take communion together.  Communion is really important to us.  It was the first thing we did as an engaged couple and it was the first act we partook in as a married couple.  We had wanted to do this on our anniversary on the top of Max Patch, but the weather turned bad really quickly...  so we opted for the water fall later in the week:




Our way of doing communion while hiking--yes that is grape juice in a Nalgene bottle.


Did we mention we took Abigail with us?  She wasn't much of a happy camper for most of the trip, but we were glad to have her!  

Please don't leave me:

I would love to know what she's thinking right here:

This place was very pet friendly--if we ever get to return, we would absolutely love to take our little hound dog, Maddie with us!

On our ride home we found the McRib--oh, if you only knew!  While we were in the Hill for Thanksgiving we kept driving by the McDonalds sign that said McRib is here!  But my mom feeds us very well while we are there, so Robert never got his McRib.  So we got back to Atlanta and he called every McDonalds within about a 20 mile radius and they did not have it!  But we found one in North Carolina!  The simple joys in life...
Upon returning home I had a package waiting on me from my dear friend Haley from Pottery Barn with these beautiful monogrammed M napkins!  What better way to close out our 1st Anniversary trip!!  

Thank you for letting us share these special moments with you!  Thank you for making our first year of marriage so wonderful.  Each of you played a vital part.

I know this blog was long, but thank you for reading!  This blog turned out to be so long that I now have a hole in my pj pants while Maddie was letting me know that I was not paying any attention to her!  So...now on to the puppy! :)

posted by Kristin @ January 09, 2009 2 Comments