Well we've had a great Christmas so far! We are currently in Florida visiting the 'Roe' side of the family, but we had SO much fun with the Warnock side and had quite the eventful few days. Jordan and I spent the night up at my mom and dad's on Christmas Eve, which was so fun to be there with Mom & Dad, Dylan and Robby & Ferris. We all woke up on Christmas morning and had a great time opening gifts, laughing and the best things in life: family!
We had a relaxing afternoon, playing games and cooking and then the Moore family and Stacee Strickland came over for a fabulous Christmas Dinner! We had a great time playing with the kids and getting frustrated playing "Are You in Cahoots," although Dylan and I figured it out (it took me a while) Mom and I went shopping the next morning to Target first to get gift wrap for next year, and I found some great stuff! The next few days were fun and relaxing and then on Sunday, one of the MOST exciting things happened! Dylan (my brother) proposed and got engaged to Meaghan Davis!!
We are SO excited and I am SO pumped about having Meaghan in the family!!! We had such a fun time eating with them at Opryland and getting to be with Meaghan's parents and sister who drove in from Atlanta to surprise her. SO FUN!!! I love Christmas and I LOVE my FAMILY!!!

I have the cutest niece in the world!!!

Need I say more....

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! I pray that everyone is enjoying already their Christmas time with friends and family. We kicked off the week Sunday with the dinner with our best friends, then had some high schoolers over on Monday. Last night was family night with Jordan and the girls. We ate, wrapped presents and watched "White Christmas." Adam and Sarah Hubert have paid us a visit on their way to Evansville, so they got in around 9 last night and we all stayed up too late talking and I enjoyed holding baby Graham for, oh, 2 hours :-)!! hehe.....I'm the only one up at this point in our house, of course I'm sure Adam and Sarah have been up NUMEROUS times already, but I just want to wish everyone the best for the rest of your Christmas holiday. May your cup be full to absolute overflow and may your fellowship be rich and wonderful!

God is awesome- praise His name and glory to HIM and HIM alone as we celebrate.

i *heart* Starbuck's

So yesterday, I totally got blessed by none other than Starbuck's! No, I do not think Starbuck's is the "ENEMY" of the local coffee shop- I actually like the fact that Starbuck's has made coffee and tea more readily accessible around the world and yesterday, I had even one more reason to like them!

Over a month ago, I had stepped into the one in downtown Franklin and as I was leaving, I noticed the Christmas wreath on the door. I thought it was SO cute, and considered trying to make one like it. Then, a few weeks ago, we were down there again and I asked one of the workers I knew what they did with their Christmas decor once Christmas was over. She directed me to her manager, Kelly, and told me to ask her. I chatted with Kelly and she told me that they usually just give it away or sell it. She took my info and promised to call me after Christmas.

Well yesterday, I got a call from Kelly, who proceeded to tell me their Field Manager had come in and taken down the Christmas stuff. "It's not even Christmas yet," I stated! "I know- it's crazy," was Kelly's reply, "but, you can come down and get whatever you want."

After work, I headed down and look what I ended up with:



I was pretty pumped! And she wouldn't let me pay for any of it! Moral of the story: Just ask! You never know what you might get! :-)

Had a great weekend! It seemed to fly by, but it was great. Friday night we had dinner with the fam: Robby's parents came in town and his brother Jeff and fiance Heather joined all of us for dinner at my parents. We got take out from PF Chengs and enjoyed eating, laughing and playing Cranium before all heading to bed. Saturday I had to wake up to do some rehearsals at church and then had an incredibly relaxing afternoon....I got a lot done, but it was relaxing and fun...not hectic and stressful. I enjoyed sitting by the fire and working on some things...I am so thankful for laptops and wireless internet :-) Yesterday, (Sunday) we had an incredible service: it was our New Song Family Service, where we celebrate the season together as a family....we had some hilarious moments via video and some touching moments via song..it was great and turned out SO well. I am thankful for everyone who was involved. We had lunch with the girls and then I prepared the pork tenderloin I was making for dinner and got that in the oven. Watched a little football with a sleepy Laurel and a sleepy husband....kept checking my fantasy team, and then took a long bath. FABULOUS! Then last night we had 8 of our good friends over for dinner. The Clingers, Hughes, Owens, Kellums and of course, the Roes. We had a yummy yummy meal, everyone contributed, and SO much fun talking and laughing with everyone. I LOVE all those people and the opportunities we get to see them. Ended up staying up until almost midnight with the Kellums. I know- we're crazy, but it was totally worth it!

SO, here I am. I can't believe it's Christmas week!!!! WOW! Dylan is on his way here- YAYAYAYA!! We have some of Janel's friends coming over for dinner tonight, so I'm sure that will be interesting.....in a fun way!

Enjoy your time with friends and family and don't miss the little things!

So, I know she's been out for a long time (I first heard her through Kelly when she was in Frou Frou), but I have recently been listening again to Imogen Heap. There's a website called MyPlay where you can click and listen to lots of different artists, and I've been listening to Imogen and LOVING it! I added a couple of my favorite songs at the bottom of the page, so take a listen, ("Hide and Seek" has to be one of the coolest songs I've ever heard) and if anyone still needs a Christmas idea for me....you know what to get me :-0)

We are going to meet up with family tonight for dinner and have an exciting weekend ahead of us, which I am looking forward to. I just love Christmastime and am loving this year!! Last night, Jordan and I were desperately trying to watch our Colts play the Jags on the NFL network, which is a paid channel we don't have. We were switching back and forth from nfl.com to Jordan's phone and then back again. It was funny and a serious game, and we both breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as Freeney sacked Garrad and took us into the playoffs!!

We also found out we get to see Adam and Sarah Hubert and little baby Graham on Dec. 23! We are SO excited!!! Well, whatever your weekend holds- enjoy it and don't miss the little moments!

Highschool infestation

We had a great time last night. Janel had a party and had most of her friends over. Even though it's exam week, most of them are exempt from exams and didn't have school at all this week since they are seniors. I cooked a whole bunch of homemade pizzas, hummus, sausage balls, tea cakes, buffalo dip among other things. They loved the food and spent most of the evening playing catch phrase, eating and talking. Then Janel and several friends BEGGED me and Jordan to play and sing. SO funny.....but they said they really wanted us too. We did, and then that kicked off some time of different people playing and singing. It was awesome for Jordan and I though- to have 20+ highschoolers in our home, only 1 of whom goes to our church. Totally our dream- to reach this community and kids who don't know the Lord...many of which were here last night. God has opened so many doors with the girls living with us. It was great for them, and great for us to see what God is doing!

Happy Thursday!

We had a great weekend! It was full, but good. Saturday, I actually wore myself out so much I had to leave U-turn early because I'd made myself tired-sick, but I got rest so it was fine. Some of the biggest news is that Jordan and I have both come from behind and made each of our respective league's championship game! WOO HOO! We were both 4 seeds that beat the #1 seed to play in the Championship games. He's playing my dad and I'm playing Patsy Bass who I played last year for the championship and lost- so maybe this year is my year. Three years of Fantasy Football- three playoff runs....not too bad, if I do say so myself.

(I'll be offering draft advice for a small fee next year- haha! Just Kidding)

First day of Nutrition Data Update:

My first day went well! My calories could actually be higher, but I certainly had plenty of fat...haha, which didn't surprise me since I tend to gravitate towards dairy products! I was actually surprised by my protein levels and got PLENTY of that, which is great! All my vitamins were GREAT except for Vitamin D, so I need to find a way to get more of that! Folate was good, but could be a little higher (more spinach and asparagus!!) And I only had 135mg of caffeine which is well below the recommended maximum intake of 400mg. So- so far so good!

I found something I really like! It's a website called nutritiondata.com. I have always been more interested in making sure I am getting the proper nutrients in my body, than watching my fat or caloric intake. I am of the belief that if you focus enough on the GOOD things to eat, you'll fill up on that and won't eat too many of the BAD things. So, each day, if you so desire, you can input the things you eat and it will track all sorts of levels so-if I am trying to decide what to have for lunch, I can see what I need more of nutrient wise. I like it too, because I am not too worried about tracking over a period of time, for weight loss or anything, but rather day to day to keep my eating habits in line. So, I've begun today and I will let you know how it goes....

Quite a day yesterday! It was a good day....just would have rather avoided the event that happened at approximately 4:45pm on my way to the grocery store. See, I have been VERY mindful of my driving lately. I WILL not text in the car while moving (stopped at a stop sign or stoplight is fine with me) and I have been conscious to not speed AT ALL...not even 5 miles over. I've tried to be responsible, but yesterday, I slipped a bit. RIGHT before I made my right turn into my first stop: Walgreen's, I glanced down at my grocery list on my lap, knowing we were stopping, but thinking I had more time. I looked up, only to see myself barreling down on a Chevy Tahoe SUV much too quickly. I slammed on my brakes, but it wasn't enough the keep me from hitting him with a pretty good force. DANG IT! I wasn't "shook up" or startled or hurt...I am usually pretty even tempered in times like that, but I was MAD at myself. It was a completely avoidable accident and I was so annoyed. The guy I hit was SUPER nice, had no damage to his car and really didn't want to take the time to file a police report and claims. A policeman pulled up and we all chatted a bit, I called Jordan and all went on their merry way. But still- a few hundred to a thousand dollars on auto repairs that could have been avoided is NO way to start your holiday season. Oh well! I have learned a lesson..Lord, help me not forget it and THANK YOU for your protection!

This is crazy!! Here's my tale...so far:

So, this is the third year I played fantasy football. The first year, I did pretty decent and finished 5 out of 10, the second year I did even better and finished 2 out of 10 or 4th out of 20. This year....it's been weird. We split our league into two: the "Premier" League, or bottom tier, and the "Championship" league, the top 10 from last year. I have been in the Championship League with many others: Robby, Ferris, Tres, Chris, etc. (My dad (by his choice) Dylan and Jordan are in the other one) So, my season has been weird to say the least. I won a few, lost a few, won one, lost one, it's been back and forth ALL season. BUT, what's so odd is that our league is SO competitive, that at one point we had SIX people tied for first at 6-4. SIX! Crazy. I've hovered around 6th, 7th or 8th all season, but been only one or two games off.

Last week I looked at the total points tallies for the season and realized I had almost more points than anyone else in our league thanks to my star RBs Westbrook and Williams. (top 2 scorers in the NFL last week) despite still being 7th in my record due to my matchups.

But last night....the impossible happened. We had 3 people who had clinched playoff spots with their record....and then three more at 7-6 vying for that 4th spot. I was rounding out 7th with a 6-7 record. I won my game (unless Patsy's kicker goes NUTS tonight, which CAN happen) and the three ahead of me ALL LOST! WHAT?! You are kidding. That put FOUR of us at 7-7, vying for the 4th playoff spot, and guess who gets it becuase of my total points: That's right ladies and gents! I am making the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.

CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY and totally why I love fantasy football!

Sorry I haven't posted lately....I've been busy with my baby niece!! More later....

What a great weekend we had! I think yesterday (Sunday) was the best part. I got to served in nursery/two's for first service and just had a great time with all the precious wonderful little kiddos! They are SO precious! And then second service was wonderful...GREAT time of worship and an awesome teaching! It was our Thanksgiving service so we showed a video of three families talking about what God had done in their lives over the past year and that was wonderful. I had a meeting for the upcoming Kid's production after second service, and got home around 4:00 and we started the super fun decorating process! All four of us- Jordan, myself, Janel and Laurel spent the next few hours decorating and pulling things out! So fun!! We still have a few things to do but the main things are finished and I LOVE it. And then, we watched a SUPER exciting game as the Colts beat the Chargers...SO MUCH BETTER than the game last year..that was horrible and SO sad...so I was VERY happy about that. Today promises to be a great day and this evening we are going down to Green Hills to go to California Pizza Kitchen, and do some shopping at amazing stores like Anthropologie, Trader Joe's and Teavana! YAY! Have a great day!

Okay, so I know I JUST blogged about food, but this is hilarious and I HAVE to share it. I've been working hard today, and accomplished a lot, but I was totally craving something sweet just now and since I don't keep snacks or candy or soda of any kind in the house, usually the only option is to whip up a batch of cookies. (which I do more than I ought) But, no time for that in the middle of the work day....so I quickly googled "5 minute desserts" and voila! Up popped something Nathan had talked about before: 1 minute chocolate cake, except this recipe was even more simple and quick, so I figured...why not and gave it a try.

I combined 2 tbs. flour, 1 tbs. sugar, 1/4 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, 2 tsp cocoa powder, mixed that and added 2 Tb milk, 3/4 tsp oil and 1/4 tsp vanilla, mixed it up and microwaved it for 1 minute. WHAt?! I got a bowl of chocolate cake!!!

Absolutely astounding...I topped it with a little fresh whipped cream I had...and can't finish it...apparantly it's too much even for my current sweet tooth.

GREAT SOLUTION for those quick fix moments!

Pantry Cleanse Week!! That's the name of this week in the Roe household. This has been an expensive month for groceries so I decided that this week and next would be our "pantry cleanse" weeks in an effort to not spend more money at the grocery and to stay within our budget. So far, so good and it's actually been yummy! We're going through things in our pantry and freezer that I've had for a while. Monday we had chicken pot pie (used frozen veggies I had) leftover green beans and canned pineapple (the first time I've EVER done that) with fresh whipped cream. Not too bad. Last night I made Ritz chicken with sweet potatoes and spinach salad which the girls are eating tonight b/c Jordan and I are meeting a couple for dinner. Currently I'm snacking on a dip I made with some leftover cheese and cans of corn, black beans and diced chiles. Tomorrow I'll probably heat up one of the three homemade soups I have in the freezer. And for the weekend, we've got tilapia and pork chops in the freezer as well, ready to be made. So, there's actually plenty. Of course, next week is T'giving so we should have plenty of leftovers from that. I'm going to see how long I can make it without a grocery trip.

It's really funny how since the girls have moved in with us, I actually find myself with less to blog about. Though I thought it would be more, it's actually be less. I can't figure out exactly why. I know part of it is time....I just don't find 5-10 minutes honestly to sit and write out recent events or blogs quite as often, and maybe it's because so much of our life for the present time has to do with them and what's going on with them, and less of what's going on with us. Whatever it is...not really sure, but that's what's happened.

Life has been great lately, even if I haven't blogged about it! I am really really looking forward to Christmas decorating. I've been looking forward to that ever since I put up my fall stuff in October. I think I am going to start it this weekend. I did my decorating the week before Thanksgiving last year because we were going out of town, and I really enjoyed that, so I think I just might again this year, especially with thanksgiving being so late this year. So that's very exciting! I'm also close to done with my Christmas shopping, which actually shocks me. With everything that's been going on, I've been feeling very behind in many things, my Christmas shopping being one of them. But, when I stopped the other day and charted out everything we've purchased and what needs to be purchased still, I realized I was WAY more ahead than I had previously thought. I've just been getting stuff as I've been seeing it and slowly but surely I'm making progress- so that was exciting!

That's about all the time I have now. Hopefully I will get some pictures soon, because I know those are the most fun :-) I'm just really really bad about taking pics. Oh well! Have a wonderful week!

I am posting this video today in honor of the fact that David Archuleta's new album is out in stores as we speak. Maybe these girls can get some consolement from that fact.

Hilarious!



(Hint: do not have your volume up too loud)Poor girls- their fingers were probably almost worn off from texting in their votes for 2 hours straight the night before.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

-to Ben & Michele Christy on their recent discovery of being pregnant with their first baby!

-to Barry & Shannon O'Neal on ther recent discovery of being pregnant with their second baby!

-to Kyle & Janelle Kellums on their recent discovery of having a baby BOY!!!

YAY FOR EVERYONE!!

We had a great weekend!! Sadly, I took NO pictures...yes that's right....not a single one. I am horrible at that!! Ferris and I spent Friday and Saturday night in Cleveland, TN with Dylan and had SO much fun! We went out to eat, went running, watched football, met lots of his friends, talked, got coffee, walked around campus, got tours, went to a play, watched 'The Office,' made food and so much more! It was a wonderful weekend and I enjoyed being with Meaghan and Dylan so much!! Exciting things ahead!



I dropped Ferris off at her apt. in M'boro around 2 yesterday and got back home just in time to run to the grocery store and do shopping for the week. Jordan and I went over to the Gill's house to watch the Colts/Steelers game with them and had SO much fun cheering on our Colts (who WON!!!!!!!!) and playing with their little baby boy Reeves! It was so much fun! Too bad Jason's a huge Steeler's fan and they lost...oh well :-)



I fully CRASHED last night.....was SO SO SO tired! I went to bed around 8:30 and slept SOLID until 6am. Guess I needed some sleep. But, I am fully rested and ready to go for an awesome week!!