Andrew Fisher Morris

Andrew Fisher Morris (he'll be called Fisher) was born on 9/17/10 weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 oz. There's no relation by the way. I have to say that because their last name is Morris, but they're just really good friends of ours. Sam went to high school with Justin and I and I met Shelly when me and Justin started dating. Fisher has a big brother, Vaughn, who is 2 years old. Shelly said that she was getting Vaughn ready for school on Friday morning and Vaughn and mom and dad all got in the car to take him to school when Shelly said she couldn't wait and that she was in too much pain to wait the 10 minutes to take Vaughn to school and then go to the hospital so she asked Sam to drop her off before taking Vaughn to school. Shelly waltzed up into the Women's Center at Shelby Baptist and the nurses were like "you're by yourself??? Did you drive yourself??".

Fisher is the most adorable little baby ever! Justin and I got to go up to the hospital on Friday night to visit the little guy and spend some time with the second time mommy and daddy. Here's some of the pics I got of the day:





All the boys! What's funny is that everyone in this picture is a Morris except for Rob!



Sorry this one is a little blurry, but it's the only one I got of me and V-man.







The next day, they didn't get a whole lot of visitors because a lot of their friends went to the Auburn game. I was going to go with Justin, but I decided against it and let Rob take my place. So instead, I went up to the hospital again and hung out with all the Morris' for about 3 hours. Fisher slept most of the time we were there Friday night and on Saturday he was sleeping some more, but I did get to see him open his beautiful eyes and he even cried for about 3 minutes of the 3 hours I was there. He's such a good boy! Congrats to Sam and Shelly for another healthly baby boy in the family!

Prayer Journey and Psalm 20

I haven't blogged about this yet, but I figure now is a good time! I recently finished reading a book called "Confessions of a Prayer Slacker" by Diane Moody. My old pastor at my church in Nashville, Pete Wilson, referred to this book on his blog. Pete wrote the Plan B book I read and blogged about some here, so I completely trusted his opinion when he said that this book was a good read.

I highly suggest this book for anyone who struggles with prayer. Before you respond by thinking that you don't struggle with prayer, think again. Do you talk to God every single day? Do you take time out of every day not to just pray for yourself and other people, but to learn more about Him through His word? Most importantly, when you pray, are you just going through the motions or are you genuinely having a conversation with God? Trust me, we can ALL work on our prayer lives.

This book completely inspired me to go on a new prayer journey. I have purchased a new journal. Not the kind that has half a page full of a devotion and only a couple of lines for you to write on, but a fully blank journal (well there is some scripture sometimes written at the top or bottom of the pages in my journal, but you get the point). For the past several weeks, I have started making time in the morning before I come to work to go into our spare bedroom and spend time with God. I write all kinds of things in the journal. Any issues I'm dealing with at that moment, prayers for others, my thanks to God for His blessings in my life, etc. I also read scripture every morning. In the book, Diane Moody suggests starting with the Psalms, which is what I did. I have read one of the Psalms every morning and then write about it in my journal (I still have over 100 Psalms to go). It's amazing how it affects your day when you take the time to spend with God at the very beginning of your day. The book has also changed the way I pray. I can't really explain it, you'd have to read it, but it is certainly for the better.

The other day was my day to read Psalm 20 and I fell in love with it. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I really enjoy praying for other people, but sometimes I'm left without words when I'm trying to pray for them. I know they need prayers, but not for any one thing in particular. I know that God knows your thoughts and prayers before you even speak them, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't pray. And David has the answer in Psalm 20 for how you pray for someone when you're not really sure of what they need prayers for:

"May the Lord answer you when you are in distress.
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May He remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
May He give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
He answers him from His holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
O Lord, save the king!
Answer us when we call!"

That's a pretty powerful prayer. David sure can write! This is also a good prayer to pray for someone when they ask you to pray for them and a situation they're in, but they don't want to inform anyone of the specifics. It's just a great prayer overall. I love it and hope you do too.

Football Filled Weekend

This weekend was a weekend full of football for me! My friend, Ashley Matherson, and I decided to go to the Hoover High School vs. Spain Park football game. Hoover plays all their games at the Hoover Met (and no, I will NEVER refer to it as Regions Park), however, we found out the day of the game that this particular game was going to be at the high school because the Baron's were also playing that night. So we go to the opportunity to go to our old stomping ground and see if it has changed in the past 10 years.

Not much has changed, except the football field. It's apparently a stadium now. And a big one. Hoover mutilated Spain Park. Ash and I ended up leaving in the middle of the 3rd quarter because the score was 44 to 0, so the game wasn't even interesting anymore. I got to catch up with my buddy Shane Martin, who is the HHS cheerleading coach. He was the JV coach when my sister was the Varsity coach. I did some choreography for both squads and got to know Shane in the process. I hadn't seen him in since doing choreography for him back in 2002 and then the MTV show Two-A-Days came on TV and I got to see him...with some RIDICULOUSLY long hair (which he later cut for locks of love). I saw him last year when Justin and I ran the Race for the Cure. I promised him I'd come to a game or pep rally sometime to watch his girls. They are FANTASTIC!!! It's amazing the things that the cheerleaders are allowed to do now-a-days! They even have a guy cheerleader who is pretty amazing himself!



On Saturday, Justin and I went over to the Lobdell's to watch a few games in the afternoon. Around the time the Auburn and BAMA game came on, Justin headed back to our house to watch the game with Yarbrough while I headed to my mom's to play with the kids. Got a few fabulous pics of them....













I'm so glad it's a short week! I so don't want to go back to work tomorrow! I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday for my first round of Africa shots. Hopefully it won't be too many :)