Favorite Cords & Favorite Shoes

Okay, maybe the title isnt ENTIRELY true, my Tory Burch flats are by FAR my most favorite shoes (in my whole entire life time.)

The hubby suprised me with them last October when he got back from his annual fishing trip. Which I think is very healthy for every marriage. Spending time a part is a must! The time you are spent away from each other makes the welcoming feel like you have butterflies again. Back to my shoes (I am working on a blog about marriage, so that will be at another time), I was TOTALLY shocked. I had mentioned them to him before when we were at Nordstrom in Durham but didnt think anything else about it. Now, Hal & I both love NICE things but these were not a necessity and I could definately wait. (Ps, building a house is no joke.) I do have the sweetest husband and I probably thank him everyday for these shoes :)

ANYwho, back to the title, my favorite pants/cords in the whole world are my red cords from Belk. They are a dream. I wish I could wear leggins everyday to work, but unfortunately, I can't. My red pants are the next best thing. The last time I was in Belk they had every color for $15, it took all I had in me not to buy them all, sigh.

I love love love red and leopard together so these shoes are probably my second favorite for winter! (Note: leopard is my favorite print right now) I scored these shoes from Target last summer for $10, regular $29 (I think.) Enjoy :)

Catching up my weekend

Just now getting to write about my weekend....oops. I was debating whether to write about it or not because it wasn't the best of weekends. For those of you who know, my mother keeps Hayden while we work, which is a BLESSING. Thursday I got a call from Ma Dukes & you always think the worst, especially when its not normal for her to call during the day. It was my stepdad & he wasn't for sure, but thought that my mother had a mini stroke. Explaining the sypmtoms to me, I knew thats what it had to be. Mothers house is easily 35 mins from my work, I think I broke the world record & got there in 16. I know I want always have my mother around but I am just not ready to even think about those days yet.

When my grandmother (my mom's mom) was 58 she had a mini stroke, followed by a massive one which caused physical damage. That's all I could think about all day until I heard word from my stepdad. I have had many enjoyable years with my mother & could take on full responsibility of taking care of her if need be but that woman is too young, only 49 & she has alot of years to go with being healthy & playing with her grandbaby. After the hubs got home for work I went on over to the hospital & stayed with her Thursday night. WORST SLEEP EVER. I forgot how bad a hospital stay was, but its the WORST. Heaven forbid you get any sleep, & I know nurses are just doing their job but geeeeez. She got to come home Friday night, with lots of medication to get her back on track. They diagnosed that the blood pressue probably spiked the mini stroke, I think it was 191/119 when she got to the hospital. INSANE. I know she was excited to be home, in her bed.

The rest of the weekend I dont think Hayden & I came out of our PJ's. Which I am not complaining....Icy weather = a pj day.

I want to end the note on if you dont have family, you dont have anything. This weekend showed me just how much people really admire my mother. Not only our family & friends of our family but Hal's family also called, texted & facebook'd asking about mom. It makes you smile. I know if any of us needed anything all we would have to do is call & they would be right there. Any of them would drop their whole day to watch Hayden if we needed them. We are trying to give my mother time to rest this week, she did watch him Monday but the rest of the week Mema & his Daddy will be watching him. Mema usually stays in Greensboro all week helping out with our cousins children. Just so happened that she is home this week, crazy how God works things out for you. We are definately giving all the praise to him for this past week/weekend. Two things you should always keep close, God & family.

A brand new Sister In Law & a brand new Niece

So one of my new year resolutions is to blog more often, our computer decided to take a turn for the worst so we are in the market for a new one. I love to share exciting things going on in my life & my families lives.

Christmas is exciting all in itself but this year was extra special! We found out in August last year that Hal & I were going to be aunt & uncle and Hayden would have his first baby cousin. Here is mommy & daddy to be, arent they just precious?

Those who know me, know that I was freakin stoaked. Of course, number one, I hope the baby & mommy stay healthy but for real, lets be honest, I was hoping & praying to the good Lord that it would be a girl. Now dont get my wrong, I love me some Hayden and all his boy traits but I am so ready to buy pink, well purple, (mommy is not a fan of pink) and BIG bows. We all took a vote in January on what we thought the baby was, I think the final voto was 4-2, girl to boy. Mr. Daddy Chris was on the girls side saying girl. We found out on January 3 that Baby Powell was going to be a ....

GIRL!!

We will welcome Miss Abby Rae in May!!

Lord knows she needs to hurry up (of course not to soon) because I am going to go broke. I think I pick her up something everytime I go in a store, should be a sin. We cannot wait Miss Abby Rae :)

Another exciting thing that happened over Christmas, my brother got ENGAGED!

Of course, all the decorating was MY idea. Miss Lisa didn't have a clue & that made it even more special. I dont have a good picture of the ring but it is just geogeous. I am so happy for my brother that he finally found someone worth his time. Some of you may know that he suffers from Anxiety Depression & people may say "oh thats not a big deal," but really, it is. Seeing the person that it changed him into was scary. We didnt know what was going to happen next but this goes to show that LOVE changes everything. I've never seen him so happy with someone & just life in general, Lisa keeps him straight & up to par so it was really a blessing for them meeting. They are so precious and cant wait till the big day!!