If you have visited the blog lately you may have been disappointed - or excited - to not know the latest news from the Bailey house!! I can only imagine that so many of you hang on to the ins and outs of our lives over here in Mississippi.

The truth is, I have no excuse for not blogging the last week. No games, no major events. Our family spent the last week settling back into the routine I love most...home, meals not from fast food places or concession stands, laundry put up and time to just slow down. So, I took a break from the blog as well.

But, I have so much to share with you now that it may take a few postings to be certain that I have you all caught up!!

First of all, we were so happy to see my little sister and her family this past weekend!!

As you can tell, there was plenty of cousin love to go around!! This was our big introduction to sweet little Carrie Kay and oh my goodness! Did we just love to have a baby to hold and pass around!!! Gracie was most likely more excited to see our dogs than us....

....but I like to think we were a close second. OK - I admit she was excited to see Kamdyn, too, but I know I was pretty close to the top of the list. And maybe I used food and or candy to bribe her, but when you only have 14 hours I think you should live it up!!!! So, the more goldfish the better!

Brendan had a big week last week in his Biology class. The teacher let me come in to take some pictures for our school website and I was amazed to see him dissecting his frog and taking dissection so serious!

I do remember doing this myself but I would have never put one hand on the frog!! I was the "identifier" and my partner was the "dissecting person". I am so thankful those days are long behind me and to be honest I am also grateful God did not lead me to be a science teacher OR surgeon!

I also have been reminded that kids will always be kids -apparently someone slipped an extra frog into the desk and it was later discovered by a distraught Study Hall student. I guess some parts of high school are truly fun!

Brian and I have been cooking some yummy jalapeño appetizers here lately.

We both love them and we have friends that love them but our kids don't so much. Anyways, all you do is split the jalapenos in half and scoop out the seeds. Then we fill it with cream cheese and wrap it in bacon. Sometimes we add a little brown sugar on top of the bacon and sometimes we put a little shredded cheese on top of the cream cheese. It's never exact with us and our cooking!! But we bake them for about 30 minutes and man are they amazing!!!!!

I came across this article on a blog I follow the other day and wanted to share it with you here. If you have a chance read it! Jen does a great job commending teachers and I really appreciated what she had to say!

 (If I was an organized person I would have put this after the frog dissection part of this post, but this is the kind of random thinker that I am!)

(This random thinking pattern also explains why I have many half finished projects in my house)

Anyways, here it is so read it when you get a chance:

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2013/04/30/dear-teachers-everywhere

My mind has been on teachers and others who invest so much into our kids this past week. I think some of this is because we just celebrated "Senior Sunday" at our church for the Class of 2013. As our youth minister recognized each soon to be graduate, I had lots of thoughts coming and going. One is that in a very short year, that will be our oldest on the stage!!! But, looking at the kids this year I realized that so many of them have been kids that Brian and I have personally invested in. These were kids that have been in our home, eating our food, listening to our advice. We have been on trips with these kids and prayed for these kids. And I had just had a moment where I realized there were some important people who did that very same thing for me growing up. I probably never thanked them with a proper "Thank You" like I should have! Adults who stayed up late when they had already worked all day. Women who listened to me spill my guts and then offered prayer. Family who loved me and disciplined me and encouraged me to see hard times through. Faithful Christians of Faith Baptist Church that encouraged me and prayed for me and fed me and other youth on Sunday nights. Some of them are home with the Lord now and I won't get to thank them this side of eternity, but know that in just a few minutes Sunday morning those faces flashed through my mind and I was grateful that God used them ALL in my life. I wish I had the ability to tell each one thank you for the difference they made.

After our graduates told the church where they were going to college and received their gift they sat in chairs in front of the pulpit and we had to the opportunity to go to each one and pray for them. What an honor and blessing!! I am confident that the Lord will finish the good work He has began in each of them and I am thankful to have had a small chance to play a part in their lives.

Finally, I am still working my way through the book of Nehemiah in one of the best Bible studies that I have ever walked through. I never would have thought this book would strengthen my faith in the way that it has. I've been working in chapter 9 this week, reading through the longest prayer of the Bible. Here is a short part of it that has really stuck with me:

Nehemiah is confessing what a great God we serve and he says in verse 17.."But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not dessert them [the Israelites]." I am so thankful that God does not dessert me when I fail Him and let's be clear I fail Him daily. But Nehemiah praised God for being gracious and compassionate. Thank you Lord!!

Hope your week is great!! We will be celebrating Brendan's 17th birthday later this week so I'll be filling you in on that and lots more....