Louie Gigliano

Ever heard of Laminin? My boss sent me to You Tube to watch this video, and it really spoke to me. I love it! I've always known that Jesus held me together, but WOW!

I AM…

I am, A WIFE, A MOTHER, A DAUGHTER AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LOVE, A SISTER, A GRAND-DAUGHTER, A NIECE, A COUSIN, A FRIEND TO ALL. I AM A TEACHER, A STUDENT, A YOUNG GIRL AND A GROWN WOMAN. I AM CONFIDENT AND SCARED, TERRIFIED AND EXCITED. I AM LOVING, AND CARING, THOUGHTFUL AND HOPEFUL, OPEN AND HONEST. I AM SICK AND TIRED AND FULL OF ENERGY AND LIFE. I AM SHY AND FRIENDLY, AND CAREFUL AND CARELESS. I AM BROKEN AND WHOLE, I AM MISUNDERSTOOD, AND SOMETIMES NIAVE AND MISLEAD BUT I AM LOYAL. I AM HARD WORKING, AND DETERMINED, BUT A LITTLE SCARED ON THE INSIDE. I WISH ON STARS, AND DREAM MY DREAMS. I PRAY TO GOD-THE MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND WORSHIP JESUS THE GIVER AND SALVATION OF LIFE EVERLASTING. I CRY MY TEARS, AND SMILE ALL THE WHILE. IF I AM HURT I SPEAK IT, IF I AM HAPPY I SING IT. I LISTEN TO OTHERS AND SPEAK TRUTH AS I SEE IT OR AS I HAVE LEARNED IT TO BE SO. I WALK THROUGH FIRE FOR THE ONES I HOLD DEAR, AND I PROTECT, PRAY AND SERVE THEM AS BEST I KNOW HOW. I BELIEVE IN PASSION, BUT ACKNOWLEDGE TRUE LOVE AS THAT OF THE LORD’S INVENTION. I AM NOTHING WITHOUT MY SAVIOUR, AND HE IS EVERYTHING TO ME. I AM BLESSED AMONG CREATION AND FAVORED BY GOD. I BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE, AND DECLARE IT AS TRUTH. I BELIEVE THAT IF ANYTHING IS WORTH DOING, IT’S WORTH DOING RIGHT…BUT I CAN ALSO ACCEPT “GOOD ENOUGH” AS PERFECTION. ALL I WANT IS AFFIRMATION, AFFECTION, AND APPROVAL. I CRAVE LOYALTY, AND LOVE FROM THOSE DEAR IN MY LIFE.

I AM A CHILD OF GOD,

SAVED BY GRACE,

REDEEMED BY CHRIST.

I AM WHAT I AM…

Botannical Gardens & Pictures...

After the zoo snooze, we went across the street from the zoo to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. It has been so many years since I was a visitor at the Gardens. As a matter of fact, the last time I remember going there was for my 8Th grade prom in 1988!!!! (yeah, we had a prom then.) The girls got to work on a new "try it" patch at the gardens by planting seeds, and learning a little bit about the gardens. They did leaf rubbings, planted beans, planted seeds for other herbs and vegetables, and explored the gardens. It was actually quite nice. I enjoyed walking around the gardens and looking at all the different plants-even though I had not a clue what I was looking at unless there was a sign telling me what it was!


I know lots of people take their children there and have professional photographers take their pictures, but since we don't have the money to do that, I would like to try to get Jonathan to try to get some pics there of the kids. Since he has his pretty big camera now, he should be able to do it. I envision them in white shirts, khaki pants/shorts and big smiles. I even suggested to Jon that he do this over the weekend while I am gone to the beach...but the thought of having to fix Megan's hair just sends chills up his spine. Plus, being a dad, he probably wouldn't think to make sure they match, there is no dirt or food on their faces, and no stains on their clothes. The stains on the outfits might prove to be a bit challenging for even me-Megan has a couple of options, but Ryan is a carnivore, so all of his clothes has remnants of his meals on them. (Why use a napkin to wipe cheese curls off your fingers when you have a perfectly good shirt?). Maybe he'll do something like that for me, and then again, maybe not. (I did kinda request if for Mother's day-we'll see.) But I'd also want to do a family picture, so maybe that kinda thing is better left to when I can plan it all out and we can go together. I'm going to have to plan it soon though because it's going to get HOT before you know it and sweaty kids make bad pics! (so do sweaty moms who don't like being outside!) ha ha


Planting her seeds.










She's proud of them.











Doing leaf rubbings.









I gave her my old camera to take pics with.







preeeetty.

Brownies ZOO SNOOOOOOZE!

Well, Friday night was the big nite. The night Megan has been looking forward to every since she joined her Brownie group and her troop leader announced that they'd be spending the night at the zoo! OH What fun....for a Dad to take a little girl. But the thing is...DAD wasn't allowed to go. Just Moms. OH what joy. That meant IIIIIII had to do it! I don't mind camping. I can handle that. But at the ZOO?!?!? Excuse me, didn't a tiger get loose and attack some people over the Christmas holidays? Now, I have to go sleep in the same vicinity of these exotic and rather LARGE animals?
Calm down Jenny.
We pitched our tents in the children's play area. It actually turned out quite nice. We were able to get most of us all in the same area. We got a night tour of the zoo, and our tour guide took us over to the Lions, the White Bengal Tiger, the monkeys, the black rhino, the croc's and the camels. I think we saw more animals on the night tour than on any day light tour of the zoo! The animals were up and walking around...and yes...roaring all night long. After our tours, and our animal shows, we headed back to camp at about 11pm and lights out at 11:15. I couldn't go to sleep. Any guess why? Yep. The Lions were talking and roaring all night. One of the other Moms and I stayed up pretty late (like, 1:30 am!) just talking and trying to make it through the evening. The wake up call the next morning came really early...6am! We ate our breakfast and were out of the zoo by 7am. Then it was over to the Botanical Gardens for our troop to work on a "Try It" badge there. I will blog later about the rest of the weekend. In the meantime, here are a few pics:

American Idol Review of David Cook-HE ROCKS!

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the show American Idol...I mean, if you know me at all, you know I've been obsessed with it every since the beginning. And even though I have not enjoyed every season of the show (Season 3 and Season 6 were my least faves), I am totally in love with the current season. There is soooo much talent this year! I have literally loved everyone in the Top 10 this year...yes, even the country girl, Miss Krisy Lee Cook has a great voice...but I must say, it was definatly her time to go this week!
Anyway, I am completely blown away by each of the contestants for one reason or another, but none, and I do mean NONE of them hold a candle to David Cook. He is the one to beat! He is awesome! I admit that I was not a big fan of his in the beginning...and let me allow myself to be totally transparent and superficial....but the reason was mainly because of his hair. I HATED his hair when he first came on the show. I just didn't see the point of having a reverse comb over and having bangs that started from the back of your head, with a mass of spiked turkey feathers poking up everywhere else....
But then, he did it. He won me over during the Top 20 week where they were competing to be the Top 16. I didn't have high hopes when I first heard he was coming out singing Lionel Richie's ballad "Hello"...but who would. Then he sang, and it ROCKED:



He even did a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" which I know it was not "origional" but none the less, he still OWNED it!




And every week since, I have soooo looked forward to hearing what he was going to do next! He is the KING of doing cover songs, and making you feel like you've never heard them before! Again, I was a little worried when I heard this past week was Mariah Carey's songs, and she was the mentor...and to make me gasp even more-He was singing "Always Be My Baby"...you know, the very popular, up tempo song of hers? Yeah...well, He ROCKED it out! Had a very Edwin McCain feel to it...I totally loved it and he made my heart "swoon". He's changed the hair style a bit (thank you AI Hair and Make up team) and I am now his 1 fan! David will be this year's winner if I have anything to do with it!

Here's his performance from this week:
Alway's Be My Baby:

Girls Night at Sips N Strokes

Tonight was "Girls Night Out" and we went to Sips N Strokes in Trussville. We all had a great time, and I really look forward to doing it again...although I think I must choose a painting with a little easier skill level. It seems that we found out AFTER we had finished our painting that tonights lesson was a little higher on the difficulty scales, since we had so many paints to blend, etc. We all had a blast, and I promptly hung my painting once we got home...but it may end up in a more inconspicous place...it's not as good as it should have been. But for my first one...I like it OK.
For more info on Sips N Strokes, CLICK HERE!
Here is a slide of a few pics from our evening...enjoy!

PRAISE GOD! OUR HOUSE IS ON THE MARKET!

One prayer at a time...if you know me at all, you know how long I've been griping and complaining about wanting and NEEDING to sell our house! I've lived here for 10 years and my husband has lived here even longer than that. I am attatched to our house in some ways...its our first home, it's the place we brought both of our babies home from the hospital, it's the place I've created memories with my kids.

But, it is just a house.

Our HOME is wherever we live.

Jonathan has been promising me since last year that 2008 was going to be our year. He said we'd look at putting the house up after the first of the year, and maybe actually do it in the spring. Well, when January 1 hit, I did too. I kept bringing it up, relentlessly. I am more ready than ever, and my goal was to get him on board too....he resisted. And resisted. And finally, I enlisted the troops...whenever conversations would turn to the subject, I was able to get our friends to agree with me (it wasn't hard, haha). So, after talking with someone Sunday who recommended our agent, we emailed her, and she came over last night.

Our house is now, OFFICIALLY for sale.

We signed the paperwork, she gave us a "Honey Do" list to work on the house

....and she pounded the hugest sign in our yard.

It was really exciting!

Before she left, she hit me with a question that I wasn't really prepared for

"When do ya'll want to start looking?"

LOOKING?

Oh, wow! Yeah, well...I don't know. I would love to look now...but we have to sell this one first.

I really hadn't thought of this angle...my whole focus is selling this house, and I only dream of what we want out of a house and where we want to move. We elected to wait until we got a bite on the house before we go looking...When time comes to look, now THAT will be fun!!!

Did I mention I'm excited?

Idol Correction?????

Hmmm...tonight's show was the elimination episode. Always a heartbreaker show. But before the booted contestant get's the bad news, they always have one last number, and tonight it was the same one that they sang last night..."Shout To The Lord". Only this time, they did sing "My Jesus". I'd be curious to know why they made the change this time....was it because they had complaints, or they made a mistake, or what? Whatever the reason, I was certainly glad to hear them sing the song the correct way and proclaim the name of Jesus LIVE on one of the biggest television shows in our history.

Idol leaves Jesus out...

Did anyone watch the Idol Gives Back show tonight? First off, PRAISE THE LORD for what they are doing...it's really a great thing. Such a huge amount of money being used in such HUGE humanitarian ways. I enjoyed the show for the most part...well, the parts I watched. You see, since God gave man the knowledge and ability to create one of the most wonderful technological advancements, my life has gotten a bit easier when it comes to TV. I was not bogged down watching the entire 2 & 1/2 hour show tonight...I zipped right through most of it and only watched the parts I was interested in! That fast forward and rewind button is a beautiful thing! THANK YOU TIVO!
For anyone who did tune into the show, what did you think of the last musical number performed by the idol contestants? Were you surprised? Were you pleased? Were you aware of what they left out? For those that didn't watch, the idols were singing "inspirational" songs this week during the competition portion of last nights show...tonight, they did a musical number to "SHOUT TO THE LORD". When I heard Ryan Secreast introduce that the idols were singing that song, I shouted "WOW! I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE SINGING THAT!". And then my mind thought of all the people watching idol at that moment and how they were being exposed to "Jesus" by listening to that song! It's such a powerful song. Such powerful words. But they left out, what I consider, to be the most important part of that song....the name of Jesus! The person that the whole song was written about! Here are the lyrics for anyone who does not know them:

Shout to The Lord

Darlene Zschech

My Jesus,

My Savior,

Lord, there is none like You;

All of my days

I want to praise

the wonders of Your mighty love.

My comfort,

my shelter,

Tower of refuge and strength;

let every breath,

all that I am

never cease to worship You.

Shout to the Lord,

all the earth,let us sing

power and majesty,

praise to the King;

mountains bow down and the seas will roar

at the sound of Your name.

I sing for joy at the work of Your hands,

forever I'll love You,

forever I'll stand,

nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just the lyrics of that song say so much...and it hit me like a big brick wall when I realized that they weren't singing it to, or about Jesus. They changed the song so that it would not "offend" anyone. Why else leave out the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind, Son of God and Son of Man, Perfector of our Faith and the slaughter for our sins. Why would "Jesus" offend anyone? Hmmm, maybe because He's Truth. Maybe because He says there is "NO OTHER WAY to the Father, but by ME". Maybe because so much of the world has bought into the "me" mentality and are following in the steps of Oprah Winfrey and her Godless faith (click here to go to a video on You Tube about Oprah and her "answers")

The idols lyrics were more vague. They could fit any god. Instead of leading off the song with the first lyric of "My Jesus", the lyric was changed to "My Shepherd, My Savior, Lord there is none like you". I guess some would say I'm being a bit too picky about this...but I say to you, if I'm being too picky, then what was the harm of singing the song the way it was written and use the name of Jesus?

Without JESUS that song would never have been written in the first place!

Well, there. I'll leave it at that.

I welcome your comments, but I warn "anonymous" critics...claim your name or I won't approve your comment...that's a big pet peeve of mine. Don't hide behind anonymous if you really want to give an opposing opinion.

RYAN

These last few months have been getting a little bit emotional for me. I'm starting to realize that I no longer have "babies"! Ryan's birthday was a little more than a week ago and he turned 4 years old...which I am on one hand SO proud of! I can't believe it's been 4 years since we took a ride to the hospital to be enduced and that sweet little boy was brought into this world. It's no secret that he's had me wrapped around his little finger all his life. I'm definatly a little softer on him than I was for Megan at that age. But it's certainly not any other reason than the parenting one...I'm just realizing as I work my way through raising my children, that some things aren't as important as I once thought...even the little things kids do. Unfortunately my first born is my "trial child"...we try something and see how that works. If it comes up with Ryan, sometimes he get's the more lenient method. I also think Ryan is a "softer hearted" child when it comes to being disciplined. Most of the time, the tone of my voice is enough to send him over the edge in tears because he doesn't like me to be "mad" at him (or at least that's what he says while crying). I am so enjoying being a mother...and quite frankly, it's the only thing I can think of all my life that I wanted to "be". I do not recall dreaming of the day I'd grow up to be a career woman. Sure, I dreamed of being a ballerina, or a nurse, or a teacher. But those dreams changed with the wind, none of them were grounded. But to be a MOM! I was practicing that role very early in my life. I wanted to have children to take care of, and all of my baby dolls, and cabbage patch kids, and barbie's were all ways of "practicing" for my future MOMMY role. I've heard that a child's play with baby dolls, stuffed animal toys, etc is a good indication of how well a child has been loved and parented. I'm sure that was true in my case, and I do see it in my own children. There are certain toys they have that are their "babies"! Megan has a Winnie the Pooh bear that she got from Disney World at 11 months old and it's has spent only a few nights away from her snuggled embrace since. (We left him at Mimi and Papaw's in Gulf Shores one time, but got him back within the week because of the sheer devastation for all involved!). Ryan's love is his Mickey Mouse. There are several stuffed animals that sleep in his bed every night, but the main one that get's the snuggle spot in the bed is Mickey. Mickey also goes to school with him for nap time. Ryan will be a good friend to anyone, because he is so loyal. I see it in his play. He will be a good boyfriend and husband to a girl one day, because I am the fortunate one (for this time in his life) that get's to soak up all his hugs and kisses. He will keep you laughing, because he has his dad's sense of humor, and his laugh is contagious! It comes from deep down in his belly and when you hear it, you can't help but laugh too! He's such a blessing in my life, and I love him so dearly! He's my sweet baby boy!