The Prodigal has returned

So many years ago Scott and I decided we wanted an addition to our Taylor family so we prayed about adopting a dog... we took 3 months to look at the decision from every angle and see if it was the right thing to do for us and after 3 weeks of non-stop 5 hour visits to SPCA, Scott found the perfect one- the one he wanted and the one that he thought was right so we made the leap and brought home:

Rocky Taylor

A year later life really sped up for us and Rocky was spending soooooo many long hours at home alone in his crate that it really started to make us feel like abusers but lucky for us we had some friends who loved him and would faithfully keep him and love on him while we would take vacations and such so naturally when we begin to look for him a home they wanted to keep him and it was going to be a join-custody kind of thing since we still wanted to be able to see him and spend time with him.

Over the past 2 months for me (and the past year for Scott) for some odd reason I found myself missing Rocky and wanting to see if the new family would let us re-adopt him so Scott and I talked about it since we are in a much better place in our lives (time-wise) and we have very much improved the amount of family time in our lives... we actually have most saturdays home and most evenings free-> here in the very near future. Anyways we talked about it and begin to pray about it and sure enough we received a call last week asking if we would be interested in taking Rocky back! I think Scotts heart leapt out of his chest... haha.

My first thought was, "sure we would love to" but when we signed our lease at this townhome, the owner had a really bad experience with the pet and owner that was here before us so when we signed our lease they had us sign that we would NEVER have a pet here and since we didnt think we would have another one, we signed it..... so, with Rocky needing somewhere to go and us needing the owner to bend we prayed and prayed and then we made the call and no questions asked they agreed, Rocky was going to be able to come home!!!!

And so with much excitement I would like to announce:

THE PRODIGAL DOG HAS RETURNED!

Welcome home Rocky Taylor..... he is a few years older (the hair around his snout has turned white and he's a bit fatter) but he fit right back into our life and oh my gosh he is sssssoooooooooo well behaved! I must say the fit is perfect and I even petted him for the first time this time around :) I think this is going to work nicely (not to mention my hubby is glowing) and Bubba will be so happy we brought his best-friend home :)

I love how God moves in the small things that matter to us.....

Have a great day all,

Missa

Pops out the wa-zooo!

I love to cook and bake and not to toot my own horn but I think I am pretty good at both of them.

The thing about loving to cook and bake is that during the holidays you end up doing so much of it. In my case I always end up doing some for us, some for family, some for friends and some for church, usually my big project is the church events but this year, my big project was: Texas PRN!!!

I made hundreds of cake pops over the last 2 days and I am happy to say they are all packed up and delivered!!!!!!!!

YUM! Now for some down time before the next couples days just fly by and Christmas Day is here!

So much fun to make and even more fun to eat!!!

Have a wonderful night- Im off to have dinner with the owners of our company and the bosses! Pray for me because they picked a sea food place. I checked the menu to be sure there was something I could eat and they have chicken but all of the food is prepped in the same place so sea food and "safe for me" food is all cooked together so please pray I do not have a reaction and get sick in front of everyone. Thanks!

Missa

I heart Austin!

I love Austin!

Living in Austin always makes for spontaneous fun and there is always something enjoyable to do even if you don't party.

Over the weekend we took a few minutes to go walk around down town at the farmers market and a little street vendor/food trailer/ just about everything festival and it was so fun!

We ate some food from food trailers, walked around the shops, did some people watching (which is always interesting here in Austin).

We also stopped by a little shop and watched a guy blow glass and make some really cool art.

Late Sunday night we put on our pj's on...grabbed a hot chocolate and went to look at a few christmas lights.

Enjoy your day!

Melissa

Random Sweetness and reminiscing.

You know that old phrase:

"Talk a walk down memory lane"..... well, last night while me and my hubby where home eating dinner I saw a commercial where some boys open their Christmas presents (guitars), they saw it and all 3 of them fainted. So naturally I over think it :)

I asked scott if he had ever had a christmas present that he felt that way about... not the fainting but just something that he was sooooo excited to open and that question led us to a conversation to about the Christmas's we experienced growing up and some of our favorite Christmas memories.... We both had several memories to share, we also begin to share random experiences as a kid that where we had something super cool happen. I shared one time when I came home from school and my mom had 2 rabbits..... big... stuffed rabbits sitting on my bed.. they had velcro hands so you could wrap their arms around your neck etc. The big velcro rabbit was hugging the little one... the big was for me and the little one was for my little sis. I just remember it was sooooo exciting to me.

I felt so loved by this random gift given on a random day.... no holiday..... no special occasion..... JUST BECAUSE...... just because I'm loved- it meant the world to me!

So I thought I would challenge you with something that I have been challenged with:

1) Take a stroll down memory lane, remember how sweet and precious life is, think about your favorite holiday memories and share it with someone over a cup of coffee- I will be asking everyone one I can from now till Christmas, Im super curious.

2) Do something spontaneously thoughtful for someone you love just because you love them - no one ever overdoses on random sweetness.... I dont think we take enough time to just show someone we love them just because we love them.

Have a wonderful day - hope you take the time to do this :)

-missa

Emery Grace....

I absolutely love the holiday season. I love all of the festivities..... all of the wrapping of gifts, shopping, coffee and the christmas tree is a plus too.

This year we had another special little treat, my niece Emery had a christmas program last night and we were able to go see her. It was so cute! She did a great job, such much so that I didnt even notice all the other kids :) The cutest thing: she kept look over at all the family and spontaneously waving to everyone during the performance. It was so sweet to see so many kids singing about our savior Jesus Christ.

I hope you are taking time to just marinate in this wonderful season!

Emery is in the middle, she waves at 3:11

Hope you enjoy!

Missa

Hello Again!!!!

I have had several moments where I miss writing in my blog- I have had times where I think I go through withdrawal and after much thought and much prayer, I feel like it is time to make a come back and get back at writing. I really enjoyed having this as an outlet and really miss that I no longer have a place to vent, celebrate, just jabber and most of all I miss showcasing the randomness that makes me..... me!

So to do a quick catch up- since I have been gone:

We have been fishing a few times and I caught my biggest fish so far at our special little lake.

We took the youth on the Fall Retreat - we took 17 youth and it was so awesome!

We held an awesome dinner called the celebrity dinner. It was so much fun- we had lots of people show up and dressed up for the evening as different celebrities and the pastors did a dance off... haha! SMH can really get down huh.

(the walk of fame- it had some of the church leaderships names on them)

(the red carpet leading into the event.. the huge cameras had strobe lights in them so it gave the effect of flashing cameras -tttoooooo coooooolllll)

We had an awesome progressive dinner with the Womens ministry we split the meal up and had one course per house, lots of fun!

We went to visit family in Dallas and then on the way home we went to visit my mom and my nieces and nephews too. This was a first for us to get to spend time with both sides of the family- so fun! My mom made some killer enchiladas.

My tomatoes and peppers on my patio are growing.

I almost have my christmas shopping complete (just 2 more to go)!!! Thank you Jesus for online shopping bc I have no time to go to an actual store right now.

hmmm what else can I share in a nut shell:

I saw the following 2 bugs just outside of my front door:

More catching up and updates coming soon......

Im so happy to be back!!!

-missa