A Big Week of Events & YOU'RE Invited!

So next week brings TWO amazing events for Be Free Revolution!! If you are in the Memphis area - you DON'T want to miss these!

1) Share My Story

This event brings Maggie, our BFR Kenyan mission mum, all the way from Nairobi to Memphis in order to share her story of God's plan for her life. Not to get all gushy-mushy on you, but Maggie is a true inspiration. BFR will also be sharing information on our mission, mission trips and the new BFR Kids Program as well... so it'll be a night of humbling enlightenment. Plus, there will be food! #score! 

You won't want to miss it!

If you'd like to buy tickets, let me know in a comment and then head over to pay for them online.

*Proceeds of the event will go towards Maggie and her family as well as BFR Mission Programs.

2) Shop to Give Back

Recently I hooked up with Christin, who just happens to be a fellow blogger and as well as runner. She works at the Memphis Fleet Feet store and we got together not too long ago about Be Free joining them for an AWESOME event they're hosting on Thursday, the 28th.

Get this... it's a 'Shop to Give Back' Happy Hour!

Now, who doesn't like some good shopping and happy hour??

I know, right? Genius on their part. Wine and wallets together in one place? Normally, this could lead to a disaster for the old pocketbook, but in this case... it is ALL for a good cause! Fleet Feet is wanting to support companies like BFR that give back to those in need, so we are joining alongside them, Janji apparel and Billy Moore Folk Art to help give back. As well as drink a little wine in the process....

Not too shabby a deal, right?

So if you're a fellow runner or non-runner, come shop, snack and have a glass of wine while helping give back to others! This event is FREE and open to everyone!

Date/Time: February 28, 6-8pm

So be there or be square!!!  :-)  Can't wait to see ya'll then!

A KFun Q&A For You

So I was stumped on what to post today, so I went ahead and took the liberty of stealing this Q&A from Sarah.... Thanks!  :-)

A - Available or Married?Almost 7 years of blissful marriage. I know my hubby would agree that every moment was sublimely happy... Right, hubby? ...... RIIIGGGHHHHTTT?!?!? 

B - BookIn the middle of Sons of Encoragement, by Francine River, and Elijah for my bible study. The following are stacked up ready to be read next: Unglued,  A Voice in the Wind, & Say Yes To God

Image courtesy of Allie

 C - Cake or Pie?CAKE!!!!!!!
D - Drink of Choice?Mimosa, for shizzle! Except this baby in me is requiring I stick with just the OJ for now... #lame ... Oh yeah, and creamer with a splash of decaf coffee. 
E - Essential Item?Phone. I know, I know... Shameful... But my whole life is in that precious, precious phone. 
F - Favorite Color?Ummm... Clear? I've always hated this question. I don't really care. I guess the closest would be yellow. 
G - Game to play or watch?Things! Love this board game! To be honest... I'm a complete dork and love all kinds of board games. As for sports, I like all kinds, though I don't really watch them very much anymore. Not that I don't want to, it just never seems to happen.  Bummer.
H - Hometown?Elizabethtown, KY..... Yes. As in the movie. Remember it? The God-awful one with Kirsten Dumat & Orlando Bloom? Yeah... That God-awful one. 

I - Indulgence?

Getting massages. I would do this every-damn-day if time and finances allowed.

J - Job?Full time mom, wifey, writer and Be Free Revolution Rep. Oh yeah, and the local Funston laundry-doer, make-up-the-bed'er, Ramen-Noodle-maker and pick-up-after-yourself-yeller. 
K - Kids and names?McKenna Rayne, Age: Almost 4Meda Grayson, Age: 0... Coming in MayBryant Hughes, Age: Almost 31
L - Life is incomplete without?Mom.
M - Music group or singer?I'm a sucker for any truly talented musician. So there are lots.
N - Number of siblings?Two. My sister, Katie, who is 28 and my long lost brother, Stuart, who is 38. Literally. He's long (roughly 6ft 3in?) and lost. I haven't spoken to him in years. He won't have anything to do with me for some reason. Sad, I know. 
O - Oranges or apples?Green apples to eat, but definitely orange juice over apple juice. 
P - Phobias/Fears?Spiders. For real. This isn't like an "ew, spiders are creepy" kind of fear. It's a full blown, my body tenses and locks up when I see one loose. Bryant thinks it's funny, but it's really not.
Q - Favorite Quote?I have a new one every week... or at least a new one for every season of my life. Right now, it is "The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still." Exodus 14:14
R - Reason to Smile?

MK telling me she loves me out of nowhere.

S - Season?

Fall.... changing leaves, cooler weather, football, Pumpkin Spice Lattes... enough said.
T - Tattoos?Um, yes. Multiple. 
U - Unknown fact about me?When I read books, I unconsciously manipulate the pages in weird ways. I fold, bend and sort of fan the pages while reading. So strange, I know. I've done it since I was little because I loved the smell of books and fanning them out the way I do allows me to smell them while reading. Now, it's just become habit. #weirdo
V - Vegetable you love?Brussel sprouts.
W - Worst habit?

Cursing. I really need to watch my mouth. My three year old is known to correct my language. Oops.
X - X-Rays you've had?On my hand, back and hips. Fun times.... Oh yeah... and at the dentist once a year. 
Y - Your favorite food?I don't have just one. I go through phases with this as well. I'm on a big cereal kick right now.

Duh!

Z - Zodiac?Taurus. I'm the stubborn bull, I guess. Not sure what this means, but Bryant is a Taurus too and Meda Grayson will be as well. Poor MK is the only non-bull in the house.

Week of Projects

Well, these past couple weeks were a doosey for "To-Do" list completion. My mom came into town to help watch MK while both Bryant and I were out of town last weekend, and in between travels, we did a re-haul around the house. I'm basically all project-ed out. Below are the details on what was done.

1) We moved McKenna into the guest bedroom so Meda Grayson can have her old one.  (This way we can convert MK's current bed, back into a crib for her little sister and $$save$$ on purchasing all new nursery furniture. Besides, I love MK's nursery furniture.) MK was pumped to switch to a different room and now be able to fit all her toys and shit fun stuff into her own room, instead of strewn about the house.

Okay, okay... maybe that's just ME who's pumped about that last detail... but who can blame me? :-)

Anyway, so this change in rooms leads to project number two....


2) Sort and organize ALL baby/child clothing in our house and attic. We stored what MK has outgrown, pulled out hand-me-downs from cousins that will soon fit, and then did the same for Meda Grayson. Luckily there is plenty of stuff Meda will be able to wear, but there were also tons of old outfits and clothing that wouldn't be good to re-use. So we had to decipher all that as well.

Okay, okay... my mom may have done this almost solely by herself... because this part of Project Week almost did me in. I kind of wanted to bash my head into a wall while sorting clothes.

I don't know why I hate this process so much, but it royally sucked. Maybe it's because my child has soooooo many clothes.... #jealous

Thank God my mom and Molly were here to help... or I really might have thrown myself into a shattered pile of glass and enjoyed that way more.

I would share a picture here, but I don't want to scare you off looking at the ridiculous amount of baby and child clothing we have.

3) Re-do/arrange dining room. I inherited a piano from my 99 year old Aunt Chris... (Yes, I said 99 years old. And she is still kicking too! We'll celebrate 100 years in October!) There was no other room in the house it would fit in, so that's why I chose the dining room. My Aunt Chris taught me how to play bang my fingers on it when I was little... and I'm so excited to have it now and be able to teach MK and Meda Grayson someday!

By the way... I bet none of you are lucky enough to have your own personal nude pianist at your becking call, are you??

4) Somehow, someone... either myself, Molly, or my mom... decided that our built-in bookshelves needed a little something extra. So we decided to paint the back wall of them. And I must say, I think it looks so much better. It was starting to get cluttered, as well. During this whole process I also went through and decided what books, knickknacks, etc. that I could get rid of. I ended up removing about 20 books from the shelves and listing them on Amazon. Everything from old textbooks to John Grisham. Feel free to check them out! (Hint! Hint!) Though looking at these before and after pics below, it looks like the bookshelves are still cluttered... but I promise they aren't nearly as bad! It's a iPhone photo illusion, I swear.

Before

Paint Job

After

So yeah... in between all these things we did, we swept, vacuumed, dusted, did loads of laundry, changed bed sheets, organized, etc.... all in between playing games with MK and entertaining her. 

It was a good week and I can't thank my mom enough for being the spearhead behind getting everything done!! She rocks my face off! Thanks Mama!

Happy Any-Excuse-For-A-Holiday Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

I've never really been huge into V-Day.... because let's be real.... it's quite awkward.

Either you're single...
You've been with your significant other for eternity...
Or you're in a brand new relationship...

Which of course equates to....

You're pissed off...
You're lucky to get a kiss or a hug that day...
Or you're stressed out whether to get your "Valentine" candy hearts, flowers, or just a card because you are not sure what they would like.

Am I right, or am I right?

Anyway... Bryant & I stopped celebrating Valentine's ON Valentine's Day long ago because of the crowds out at dinner or the movies or wherever it might be "romantic" to be that one day a year. And we normally skip out on super romantic evenings and just do dinner and maybe a card.

So my mom is still visiting, and she offered to stay home and watch MK, which was nice. So last night we went out to dinner at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Nom, Nom... me love curry and veggies!). This was the family pic we snapped before leaving.

After dinner, my husband proved how well he knows me and suggested we go "hang out" at Barnes & Noble. Which proves we are makes us sound like total Lame-O's... but I was in heaven. And so was he.... don't let him fool you...

After an hour and a half of getting coffee in the coffee shop and browsing, I ended up leaving with a new address book (definitely NOT needed) and a writing book and the husby got some sort of history book on the Constitution.  #nerds

So that was our early Valentine's Day.... Happy 11th Valentine's Day together husby!  I love you!

I hope the rest of you have a great one!

Meda Grayson

So we finally decided on a name for Baby Fun Numero Dos.

After a couple months of Bryant shooting down every name I threw out there deliberating, we came up with it.

Meda Grayson.

"Meda"... (Pronounced Mee-dah)... was The husband's great grandmother. We both immediately loved the name because its got that "old" sound to it and it has family meaning.

"Grayson" comes from Grayson County, where my entire family hails from in Kentucky. I love, love, love this name for a girl, but Bryant pictures it more as a boy name, so we decided to pair it with Meda to give it more of a feminine feel.

True to our baby's soon-to-be Southern heritage, we toyed with a list of double names as well. In fact, I like the sound of "Meda-Grace" and may end up calling her that. I call McKenna, "McKenna Rayne" all too often also. Though we never intended for MK's to be used together all the time. Habit on my part, I guess.

Anyway, so there she is.

Baby Fun #2 = Meda Grayson.

Below is a photo of her from our 3D ultrasound we had last week.

Journal FREAK!

So if you know me at all, you'll know that I am the QUEEN of journals. It's getting kind of out of control too. I can count at least 5 right now off the top of my head that I have going on...

Wait, no...

Make that 6.

Unless, of course, you count this blog as another type of "journal." Then that would put me at 7.

I know, right?

Ridiculous.

Here's the proof...

I'm also missing my "mission" journal from this pile as well... So never mind. That puts me at 8, including the blog. Freak.

And guess what?

I just added TWO MORE to the immense KFun Journal Library.

I'm telling you. I'm obsessed. But I am excited about the two new ones I just bought because they are QUICK and EASY to fill out. I literally only have a couple lines to write in before I am forced to stop due to lack of space. That is, unless I wanted to cross over into the next year's designated "spot."

Ugh! And who would want to write outside the lines?? Who does that??  Definitely not this O.C.D chick, that's for sure!

Anyway, I'm hoping I stay pretty consistent with this and write EVERYDAY for the next 5 years. If I do, they'll be GREAT memory books!

Do any of you all journal on a regular basis, as well?

Going Through the Terrible Two's

So I thought I'd share what my typical day looks like these days living with a three and a half year old who is going through the Terrible Two's....only a year late.

7:00am - Get up and head to the kitchen to start making MK's lunch and breakfast and get myself dressed and ready for the day.

7:30-7:45am - Go wake up my teenage three year old who would sleep until noon if I let her. This should be mentally pictured much like what a nervous and shaking victim unwillingly entering a dragon's lair would look like.

8:15am - Finally convince the dragon to roll out of bed and go into the living room for some cartoons and a possible side of breakfast. After, of course, she yells at me to leave her alone because she is still sleepy and breathes fire directly into my face, singeing my eyebrows with her non-teeth-brushed breath.

8:45am - Begin demanding that she eat the breakfast that has been sitting next to her untouched for the last 30 minutes while she sits in a zombie-trance during Dinosaur Train, Super Why, & The Cat in the Hat on PBS.

9:00am - Begrudgingly initiate the daily morning show-down. A wrestling and yelling match normally ensues upon me trying to get MK to put on her school clothes, brush her teeth, and allow me to brush her rat's nest hair. This wrestling match always ends with tears and screaming and often the time-out chair. 

9:20am - Gather school bags, lunch box, and the still-crying and screaming kid to load into the car and head to school. 

(Sounds like a fun day thus far, eh?)

9:30am - Drop MK off at school.

9:45am - Head back home or to Starbucks for at least one - two hours of writing.

10:45am-12:00pm - Anytime in between these hours, depending on if my writing is going well that day or not, I head over to the BFR office for a few hours of work there.
*This would be the part of the day that I used to get in my runs as well.... until I got knocked up, and the fetus inside of me would bounce on my bladder every run, giving me good reason to believe I should start purchasing Adult Depends. Hence the lack of runs happening in my life this past month or so. TMI? Sorry about that...

2:00pm - Leave BFR, home, or Starbucks (depending on where I went for the day) and head back to school pick up MK. Practice breathing exercises on the way, calming and relaxing myself in preparation for the promised battles I was to face within the next hour.

2:30pm - Load MK back into the car to head home or to run errands... IF her mood allows. (More often than not, her mood does NOT allow).

2:45pm - Unload child, school bags, and daily artwork and head into the house and try to convince MK to eat a snack before her mood doesn't allow much else besides screaming and crying.

3:00pm - Put MK in time out for yelling and screaming at me for no good reason. Besides maybe the reason that she is obviously starving but refuses to eat anything... including the breakfast and lunch that is still available for her since she didn't eat them earlier in the day.

3:15pm - If MK has stopped crying in the time-out chair, I remove her and allow her to relax and have some chill-the-F-out time on the couch with Princess & The Frog or some other Disney movie playing. This chill-out time of hers is the most peaceful she is all day (at least in my presence), so I start laundry, doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, the house... whatever needs to be done. If MK is willing to allow me to sit with her for a few minutes and she's still not too mad at me for trying to force nutrients into her, I'll read her a book or two during this time as well. Either before or after her movie is over. But always a movie... Princess I-Get-What-I-Want always gets a movie! Once must remember that...

4:15-4:45pm - Bryant usually emerges from his cave office in the corner of the house, scavenging for food... which he normally has to figure out on his own due to my lack of culinary skills and energy from the battles I've barely survived throughout the day.

4:45pm - Bryant leaves to work with clients, leaving me to fend for myself against the holy 3 year old terror who is just finishing her movie and chill-the-F-out time and ready to re-enter the world of mama-hatred and demon-possession.

5:30pm - I normally make MK and myself an easy meal. I can sometimes get her to "help" me, which engages her and keeps her from screaming and yelling in my general direction for at least 45 minutes. Sometimes, however, this doesn't work... in that case, picture yet another battle between mother and daughter.

6:15pm - Unsuccessfully try to get MK to eat the meal we just prepared. This leads to more screaming and yelling, which most often leads to time out for the rudeness she has thrown my way. 

6:45-8:15pm - Grasp desperately for whatever activities will keep MK happy and me sane during this time before Bryant gets home.

8:15pm - This is when I relinquish all parenting duties to Bryant as he arrives home from work for the day and I disappear into a dark room or closet somewhere deep within the house to hide decompress and work on breathing exercises, trying to harness my chi. Nervous sweats tend to break out if anybody comes too close or demands any attention during this time.

9:15pm - Climb into bed with a book, refusing to look anybody or anything in the eye for fear of having to interact. Bryant is in charge of putting MK to bed (even though I don't think he fully realizes this yet due to his grumbling and complaints about it... #toughluckdaddy-o), so I don't have to deal with another fight that day.

I don't know if my pregnancy hormones are contributing to the immense amount of impatience I have and the sheer brutal-ness of each day, but geeeeezzzzz.... whatever it is.... I'm OVER this. And I'm exhausted.

Mama needs a damn vacation already.

*images courtesy of Google Images

Want to Join The Revolution?

It'll be a BLASTY!  

No matter where you are located, just shoot me an email and we'll go from there! 

Step 1: Acceptance - When Your Child Dresses Better Than You

Just some visual proof that my child definitely dresses better than me...

She is as girly as they come, and me? Well, I'm just lazy....

Her = Cute

Me = Ridiculous

Her = Fabulous

Me = Lazy 

Her = Adorable

Me = Hobo 

Her = Charming

Me = Awkward

Her = Delightful
Me = Blah 

Her = Darling

McKenna-isms

So I was sitting here tonight with MK, listening to her blabber on about who knows what and I decided to share some of my favorite McKenna-isms and quotes.  These are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I know there are more, but this will have to do for now. :-)

"You can eat all the gummy bears because you have a BIG mouth just like daddy!" 

"When you see a yellow light, say 'Whoopsie!'"  *said to me after repeating what my mother said to her as she ran a yellow light... and so often does.

"I'm going to drop a GIANT poop ball so you can see it!" *Oh, the joys of potty training...

"Put your hand up to your ear and listen to me drop a giant poop ball!" 

"Don't get dookie on your hands when you wipe my butt." *When they talk like this, you know they should be wiping their OWN butt!

"When I'm a grown up can I wear this huge booby holder thing that looks like a zebra?" *yelled across Target while holding a well-endowed bra.

"Mama, I just called all the princesses and put them on my Facebook so we know their birthday is January."

McKenna: Did you know I really want a butterfly? A purple one with purple on its wings. Did you know my caterpillars have turned into chrysalis and will come out like butterflies? But not purple ones. Painted Lady's. But I really want purple ones.Me: Oh yeah? McKenna: Did you know I know everything?? 

And my all time favorite.... (said to her dad while demanding chocolate milk before taking a nap)....

"I need some chocolate milk. It's a f**king problem!"