blakely kate....

on tuesday katie went in to the hospital to be induced to have blakely! allie and taylor were so excited to meet her.

ready to be big sisters!

last pic as a family of four

me and katie

blakely kate was born around 1:00 and weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces. she has the cutest little chipmunk cheeks!!!

ready to go home!

the new white family 

medical mission trip...

i am so excited to tell everyone that i will be going on a medical mission trip in october of this year! it is kind of crazy how it happened...about a year and 1/2 ago i was really feeling unhappy with my job and just felt like i needed to do something more. i started looking around on-line and found an agency that offered short-term mission trips to south america. i turned in an application but never heard anything back...then i ended up switching positions in the hospital and just making some changes in my life and i didn't think about it for a while.
at the beginning of this year i started reading the blog http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/. then i read her new book "kisses from katie" as well as the book "the forgotten children". both of these books were amazing and really got me thinking and praying about missions again. literally about 2 weeks after i read this book, the agency that i had looked into over a year ago called me out of the blue and asked me if i was interested in going on a mission trip! i couldn't believe it! i called them and got some info on a trip to tijuana, mx. i just didn't have a peace about this though because i couldn't find out anything as far as credentialing on the agency as well as safety issues in mexico right now. but...i was thinking about missions more and more now so i went to katie davis' blog again and it led me here http://www.visitingorphans.org/.
this agency is based in tn and takes multiple mission trips to a variety of places each year. i looked for a medical trip and found one to ethiopia in october of this year. i wanted to sign up immediately but didn't want to rush into something so i prayed about it for several days and then put in my application and my deposit. i have been accepted to go on the trip and am very, very excited!! we will be working in an orphanage and out in the city while there.
right now i'm in the preparation stage so i'm working on filling out all of the paperwork. i'm also working on getting my passport renewed because mine expires in june of this year. the cost will be between $3200 and $3400 depending on the cost of flights and that will include the airfare, 3 meals a day, lodging, transportation while there, and translators....basically everything except any souvenirs i might want to pick up. i've put a fundraising thermometer on my blog to show how much i've raised for the trip and how much is left to go. i'm asking for everyone to please pray for me as i prepare for this trip! please pray for me physically, spiritually, and emotionally as i get ready to go minister to these children. i'm so excited to see what God will do in ethiopia.

laundry room redo...

i recently decided that i wanted to fix up my laundry room and make it look a little cuter. with a little help from dad and stacy, i'm so happy with the results!!

so, this is basically what it looked like before. a really cluttered, really plain room. it didn't have any storage except the cabinets over the dryer and i can't reach those without a stool. i wanted to bring some storage into the room and also some color. my first thought was to make a cushion to put on the little bench which up until now has been totally non-functional. after i started thinking about putting a cushion on there i decided to do a curtain to match it as well as paint the bottom of the bench.

i bought this piece from pier one (my fave store!!)

dad built this little shelf that i can reach over my washer and dryer

to hold all my laundry things, and then he hung my

ironing board over the back of one of the doors.

i got this idea off of pinterest on how to store cleaning products

my favorite part of the room!

i painted the bench red and got the letters and fabric from hobby lobby.

dad made the cushion and stacy made the curtain for me.

i absolutely LOVE the way everything turned out!

everything ties together perfectly and my laundry room

is so much prettier than when i started!

going to the chapel...

this past weekend was meagan and trey's wedding weekend in corinth, ms. melissa, eliza, alison and i left memphis around 3 on friday for the rehearsal dinner. there were some interesting match-ups as far as the bridesmaids and groomsmen...even though it was all done randomly. after the rehearsal we left and went to the dinner. the food was delicious and it was great to be able to hang out with friends!
we had to be at the bed and breakfast the next morning at 9:30 for the bridesmaid brunch.

our bridesmaid gifts were button-up shirts with our initials monogrammed on them and navy pashminas with our initials monogrammed as well. the brunch was given by meg's aunt peg and was really nice. as soon as we were done there we headed to the salon to get our hair did.

wearing our shirts meg gave us

meg's mom paid for us all to get our hair done! so nice!!

the beautiful bride with the memphis girls

melissa, alison, eliza, me, becky, charlesy, pj, kayla, meg, and guy

we had such a fun time at the wedding!!!

secrets...

a few weeks ago i started going to a class that bellevue baptist church offers called "secrets". katie, julie and christinann went last year and all really liked it, and i went to a couple of their craft nights and had fun. when i heard that kimberly had gone to the first semester in the fall i decided i wanted to sign up to go to the second semester! it has been so much fun! it is led by 5 middle-age to older women who are all extremely nice. we meet at one of the lady's house every week. we start out with a devotional and then move on to our topic for the night. basically, it's a really practical class for younger women.
the first week we talked about organizing your house...everything from your closets, to you pantry, to your cabinets, to your drawers. i was all over that!! they brought all kinds of organizational things they used in their own homes and gave us handouts and websites. what i really like too is that they are really conscientious about helping us stay on a budget.
the second week we talked about fashion. steve gaines' daughter came and talked to us about how christian women should dress and then talked to us about "shopping your closet". that was really fun too! she had gone on-line and found a bunch of the new spring trends and then brought a lot of her clothes from her own closet and showed us how to rework what you already have to go with the new trends! she challenged us to pull out 25 items from our closet...belts, shoes, scarves, tops, pants, etc. and then try to make 25 outfits out of them. i haven't done this yet but i'm looking forward to trying it! sounds like fun!! she also talked about budget shopping.
this past week was our third week and we talked about etiquette. the main things we discussed were social conversation and writing thank you notes. after that we went in the kitchen and mrs. diane had made mini-cheesecake bites. mrs. julie showed us how to use different sauces (raspberry, chocolate, white chocolate and caramel) to decorate a plate and then top it off with whipped topping and fruit to make a really pretty dessert presentation! it was really fun and then we got to eat them which is even better!

this was my dessert with raspberry and white chocolate sauce.

it had a raspberry dipped in chocolate on top.

this was kimberly's dessert with chocolate and white chocolate sauce.

i love the hearts! they were so cute!!

i have really enjoyed going to this class and even though it's out of the way on a tuesday night, in cordova, and it runs late on a work night...i'm so glad i signed up for it! i've met some nice girls and women and i'm learning some really neat tips!

kisses from katie

i have been reading the most amazing book. it is called "kisses from katie" and it's the true story of an 18 year old girl from nashville, tn who moved to uganda and started a ministry for women and children there.

this girl first went to uganda on a 3 week mission trip when she was a senior in high school. while she was there she worked in an orphanage and absolutely fell in love with the country. she convinced her parents to let her take a year off before starting college and went back to be a kindergarten teacher in the school there. she was planning to have 12 students...when she got there the school had decided to open up to the children in the village so she had 138 students!! she has been there since she was 18, back in 2007. over that time period she has adopted 14 children, all little girls. the country will not allow a single woman to adopt little boys. she also started a ministry that she named amazima. she realized that the best way these children could be helped was through providing them with an education. when someone sponsors one of these kids they are providing them with school for the year, medical treatment, and food. it's so amazing to read her stories!
one thing that she says over and over is that she knows she can't help everybody, but she can help one child, one woman, one baby. she would become overwhelmed if she thought about the huge numbers of people living in poverty so instead she just focuses on the one that God puts in front of her each day. one thing really stuck out to me:

"even though i realize i cannot always mend or meet, i can enter into someone's pain and sit with them and know. this is Jesus. not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. and so i continue to enter."

i need to remember this when i'm overwhelmed at work and can't seem to find the words to say to a family or to a patient. sometimes people just want us to be there to listen with them and to feel their pain with them. 

i have loved this book and only have one chapter left. the author has a blog as well, it's kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com., as well as amazima.org where you can learn more about her ministry.  

sweet and sassy...

well, i can't believe that 2012 is already here. i have been really sick for the past week and pretty much haven't left the couch...so i'm going to try to catch up on some things that i wanted to blog about! i really didn't get many pics from christmas because i wasn't feeling well, but i did get a few. today i want to share about a couple of weeks ago when taylor came to spend the night with me. i had been wondering what we would do because i know she's not really into movies and that's what i usually do with the girls. then a few days before she was supposed to come over she told me, "aunt mamie, you have NEVER taken me to sweet and sassy. not EVER!!" so, i knew what we were going to do.
when we got to sweet and sassy taylor was so excited! she picked out what color she wanted her nails painted (blue).

after her nails were painted tay kept saying that she wanted some "makeup", so the girl who painted her nails let her put some glittery stars on her face. she loved it! she was fixed up and looked so cute!

when we left sweet and sassy we went and ate at chick-fil-a, then we went home and played for a few minutes before going to bed. taylor was really good the whole night and i had fun hanging out with her! (except for that she woke up at 5:50 in the morning! i told her to go back to sleep...we needed out beauty sleep.)
she brought her mischievous elf with her and while we were sleeping that elf climbed up on my christmas tree and got on top of my star! it's a good thing she didn't knock the tree over!!