Friday Five Link Up #20

What a crazy, busy week. But it's always that way when we are gone the weekend before. It's like we are already two days behind on Monday morning. So you can just imagine what this week has been for us. As matter of fact, this was me every day this week at 5! (And I borrowed this from Suze!)

But, it's FINALLY Friday! Can I get an AMEN?! 

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the Sowell life's Friday five...

1) {Quick and Easy Meals} If you're like me, after working all day and having a ton of things to get finished at home before bedtime... you want dinner to be something quick and easy. Not all meals are this way at the Sowell house, but we do try to keep it simple most nights. Monday and Wednesday night's meals were really quick and easy. I mean, it doesn't get any easier than homemade tacos, and the new Kraft Fresh Takes make cooking a breeze, too. Do y'all have quick and easy meals that I need to know about. If so, I really hope you'll share them with me.

2) {Boomama's Book} I was soooo excited to receive a copy of Sophie's new book, "a little Salty to cute the Sweet" before it lands in stores, and online on June 4th. It's my next read, and you can guarantee that I'll have a post dedicated to the review of this sweet baby, soon! Oh, and if you haven't seen her lovely southern blog, well, bless your heart — now click here! And you'll want to see her trailer for the book (click here)... once you hear her voice, you know you're gonna buy the book! 

3) {A Preview Party} As y'all know, I'm the editor over at alabamawomenbloggers.com and a few weeks ago, the marketing team from Nordstrom Rack sent me an email requesting me to be at a preview party for their first store in Bham off of 280. Of course, I said yes, and took one of my girl friends, Sarah, with me to the event. You can read more about our night at the store here. Afterwards, we headed over to Logan's for dinner and completed our girl's night with great conversation.

4) {New favorite music} Since it never fails that I will get stuck in traffic at least once a day, I listen to a lot of music. So thankful for XM radio. And, here recently, they've been playing new music for summer. Of course, I fell in love with Justin Timberlake's Mirrors, and now I'm loving Crickets, too...

5) {Summer Colors} I'm going to be making time for a much needed mani/pedi this weekend for our upcoming beach trip. However, I'm trying to decide — do I stay with my traditional red colors, or should I branch out and try something new. ***Please remember I don't like pink***

Now, who's ready to link up?!! Thanks for stopping by, linking up, sharing the link up on your blog and on twitter! I appreciate y'all spreading the word more than you'll ever know!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Be sure to check out the Foodie Friday contributor on the AlabamaWomenBloggers website! 

Hey Batter Batter — SWING!

While we were back in Mississippi for Mother's Day weekend, we went to see our nieces place in a softball tournament. They aren't on the same team, but were playing at the same time. Which made things interesting running back and forth from field to field to make sure we saw both of them on the field, and up to bat. Both of them played pretty good, especially since they had only had two practices a piece with their teammates this year before their first games. Of course, there was a lotta chatter and smack talk coming from both dugouts and on the field. But hey, isn't that what you remember most about playing ball when you were younger? Oh, and you can't forget at the end of the game — lining up to shake hands with the other team. The games we saw, Emma's team won by one point, and Hannah's team lost, but not because they weren't playing their hearts out! Both of them had another game to play later that afternoon, but they both lost. However, they have many more games ahead of them this summer! And while we might not be able to make it to any more of the games, I feel certain it will be entertaining for anyone there watching!


Hannah...

Emma...

Have you ever heard the smack that's talked on the field during a game? If you haven't, just head to one of these games and listen to the chatter. You'll be giggling, and instantly taken back to your younger years of playing ball.

Play Ball!!

Marsie Belle's Birthday Bash

Our little fur ball, Marsie Belle, turned 10 on Sunday. And, she knew it was her day, too. We celebrated her big birthday with tons of presents, and cupcakes!

She opened all her presents, and after all of them were opened, we put a bow on her, and she didn't like it — nope not one bit!

 
But she did love her cupcake and ice cream!

Of course, I think the best gift she had all day was being with her mommy and daddy, and her shannie and papa!

MB — we've loved you since we came into our lives back on July 3, 2003, and look forward to many more birthdays to celebrate with you!

A celebration for Mother's Day

Sunday was not only Mother's Day, but it was also MB's birthday. So we had two big celebrations all in one day. However, today I'm going to share with you our Mother's Day festivities.

We had my mom's side of the family over to my mom and dad's house Sunday afternoon for lunch. Since the Mr and I decided church wasn't a good idea for me — mom and dad left us in charge of the grill and the kitchen. Dad had already grilled ribs, sausage, hot dogs and pheasant bites that morning and had a pork tenderloin in the crockpot. The only things left to do was to grill the chicken and burgers, and to prepare the baked beans, potato salad, french friends and rolls. I probably should have gotten a picture of all this food, but I didn't stop long enough to.

After lunch, we all gathered in the living room to see the Mother's open their gifts and cards.

Mom had a gift from Marsie Belle for me, and a sweet card, too!

And I also received two sweet and thoughtful cards from two ladies who always know how to brighten my day! Darby and RJ — (if you don't follow their blogs... head over and show them some love.)

I also want to thank y'all for your sweet words of encouragement, and your thoughts and prayers for us this past weekend. I'm so thankful for this blog community which is always uplifting, and always makes the days brighter.

Our weekend in an instagram...

It can't be Monday! Seriously, just tell me it's still Saturday. But then again, why would I be at work on a Saturday? Fine, it can be Monday, but Friday better be here soon!

We went to our hometown in Mississippi this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with our families. Oh, and Marsie Belle's birthday (which I'll have a full recap later in a separate post).

Friday...

1 — reading material for the drive time to Mississippi
2 — a Mississippi sunset
3 — the best soup in Meridian — cheese soup from Ole Farm Beef House

Saturday...

1 — morning naps with Shannie and MB
2 — on our way to see our nieces play softball
3 — Hannah waiting on deck to bat
4 — El Norte for lunch — however, it's not how we remembered it.
5 — happiness in a cup
6 — lasagna, garlic bread and salad at mom and dad's house
7 — Marsie Belle ready for bed
8 — true buddies here... with quality talks and rubs
9 — dabbling in flower design

Sunday...

1 — the sleepy birthday girl waiting to hear the word — presents

2 — celebrating Mother's Day with mom and granny

How was your weekend?!

the Friday five — #19 link up

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the Sowell life's Friday five...

1) {The Bossman's Birthday} I love any chance to have to celebrate birthdays... and usually that's because we order a cake from my favorite — Edgar's Bakery. This is their Sundae cake. It consists of a layer of chocolate with chocolate chips, a vanilla layer, another chocolate with chocolate chips and another vanilla. Oh, and there is a yummy buttercream icing with chocolate and caramel syrups drizzled all over the top! Yep, YUM! This is how we celebrated our owner's birthday this week. And I think he enjoyed it because he had two slices! =)

2) {Honey Mustard Coma} Yeah, you already know how much I love McAlister's Deli, but did you know how much I love their honey mustard. We love it so much that we order it on our sandwiches, and then we order THREE more sides of it — two for me, and one for the Mr. I dip my sandwich and my baked lays in the sauce. Trust me, if you haven't tried it, do it. You'll thank me later!

3) {Mother's Day} Can we just talk about my lack of gift wrapping skills. Seriously, I'm no good at it. The Mr usually handles our wrapping of any gifts, but this year for Mother's Day, I decided to go with gift bags. And thankfully Target has cute ones, at a steal!

4) {Happy Early Birthday Marsie Belle} This cute little chocolate and tan dachshund has a birthday coming up on Sunday. Yep, she'll be 10!! We've already picked out some of her presents, but it's tradition for her to pick out one, too! Don't worry, I'll have a full recap of her birthday celebration next week! =)

5) {A challenge has been made} You heard it here, first! The Mr has decided the next time we have homemade spaghetti, that he will be making it for us, his way. I agreed, and I'll let y'all know the outcome when this happens.

Now, who's ready to link up?!! Thanks for stopping by, linking up, sharing the link up on your blog and on twitter! I appreciate y'all spreading the word more than you'll ever know!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Be sure to check out the Foodie Friday contributor on the AlabamaWomenBloggers website! 

A Mother without a child...

I'm a mother without a child. I carried a baby for three months before he or she went to Heaven. And sometimes I don't know how to deal with it. I have good days, and then some days I just want to sit and cry. I know why it's been so hard for me over the past few weeks, because Mother's Day is just a few days away and all I can think about is how it was suppose to be this year.

I was suppose to be 34 weeks pregnant right now. I was suppose to be bigger than a house right now, and loving every minute of it. I was suppose to be feeling our baby kick and move all around. Yet, I'm sitting here 5 months after having a miscarriage, upset and feeling numb. It was suppose to be different this year. I truly wanted it to be different. But it's not. The decision was not mine, and we all know how I like to be in control. Maybe that's the hardest part for me to understand, and the hardest part for me to accept.

I know I'm not the only one who is dealing with this pain today. Many of you reached out to me in December telling me that you've been through this, and that you have grieved each and every day since your loss. I never knew that this experience would affect me like this would. Some don't understand our pain, but it's real, and it hurts. Yes, we might have only been a few months into our pregnancy, but that was our baby. That little one had us already wrapped around his or her finger with that one glimpse of that little heart beating on the screen.

And now, here we are a few days before Mother's Day. I'm so thankful for my mom, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunts and friends who are mother's. They've done a fine job raising their little ones, some of us who are now grown adults. We plan on celebrating with our families this weekend, however, the Mr and I have decided to forgo one of the traditions that I've never missed until this year. We won't be attending church with my mom and grandmother this Mother's Day. I know I won't be able to make it through the service without crying, especially during the Mother's recognition service. And with those tears will come a thousand questions, and unfortunately, I'm just not up to it this year. Because my fear is my answer will come with anger with me screaming "I'm a mother, too — I just don't have anything to show for it." And it has nothing to do with getting a rose, card or gift... it has everything to do with me wanting our baby back. Me wanting to still be pregnant, me still not understanding why this happened to us, and my longing to be a mom to an earthly baby.

We want to celebrate with our moms, and let them know that we are so thankful for them. While I'll do my best hiding my tears throughout the festivities this year, I can't promise that I won't have to be excused to avoid an emotion breakdown.

But also this Mother's Day, I want to remember those of you who, like me, are grieving because you too, are a mother without a child. I want you to know that this Mother's Day is for you, too. A day to remember that there is hope for each one of us. A hope that by next year we will have a baby in our arms. And if not next year, in the years to come. For those moms who got to hold their little ones, but it was only for a short time, you too, are thought of this year. Even though we don't know the answers to the question why, we know that He knows the answers, and He is taking care of our little ones until we are reunited again.

This Mother's Day if you are a mom spending the day with your children, take a minute and say a prayer for those of us who are longing to be you. Pray that we will get to experience the overwhelming joy you are living right now. And, also, thank God that He has given you this blessed gift called motherhood.