I LOVE a good giveaway!

I bet many of you do, too! Run on over to Frugalissa Finds and enter for a chance to win a Petros reusable mug and 2 coupons for free Petro's! Their hint of orange tea is spectacular and so is their food, so hurry and enter now! The giveaway ends at noon today, so don't waste any time.

Go Tenn-ssee!

This weekend was the annual Orange & White game. We had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time and were very excited to take E back to Neyland Stadium for his second spring game. He loves football, and Mommy's love for UT has recently really started rubbing off on him! Just last week we were having an indoor picnic in the sunroom. I had spread a UT blanket out on the floor for us to sit on. In the middle of our meal, E stood up, walked over to the "Power T", and announced, "I sit on the Tenn-ssee!" Then he sat down right on top of the T.

We went down to campus on Friday to purchase tickets for the game. We didn't purchase our tickets ahead of time last year, and we waited in line for a very long time! I took E with me of course, and he was very disappointed when we realized the game wasn't right away. He actually cried when we got back in the car and headed home. I tried to explain to him that the game would be the next day. He talked about the game the rest of the day.

Game day rolled around, and his excitement continued. We got dressed in our Orange and headed to the stadium. He was so ready to cheer for "Tenn-see" and "The Big O-wange."

He wore an adorable hand painted shirt that I found at consignment for $2! And of course he wore his Tennessee hat that we bought for him last year at his first Orange and White game.

It was nice to see football action again, even if it was only a scrimmage. Oh how we have missed it!

Several minutes into the game, he discovered the jumbotron. He was quite enthralled and kept calling it the big TV. It's definitely big!

Papa S got some popcorn for him. I think he probably ate a whole box by himself.

He figured out that he could lay his head on Papa S's arm and shovel the kernels right in.

And he also discovered that he could use one hand to eat and the other hand to make sure the popcorn holder didn't go anywhere.

There were countless smiles.

And laughs.

And lots of cheering! Daddy bought him a new shaker. He had so much fun with it.

It was a really cold day, so we ended up leaving early. But we certainly had lots of fun while it lasted. I think E will definitely be looking forward to next year!

Yes, I Know the Muffin Man

The rainy weather outside forced us to spend our entire evening inside, but it didn't dampen our fun!Earlier today, E was watching one of his favorite DVDs of children's songs. One of the songs on the DVD is the muffin man song. He loves this song. Any time we see cupcakes or muffins or anything of that sort, he starts saying "the muffin man" over and over and over again. Today when we were watching it he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want cuh-cake!" We didn't have any cupcakes, so I replied, "Honey, we don't have any cupcakes. Maybe we can make some later." And so we did.

After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, pulled out our aprons and made cupcakes. I had discovered earlier in the day that we were out of yellow cake mix, and we had purchased two huge containers of strawberries at Sam's earlier today, so I Googled for a recipe for strawberry cupcakes from scratch. Most of those recipes called for you to puree the strawberries then strain out the seeds. We didn't have time for that! So I went with a plain cupcake recipe and added small strawberry pieces.

We had so much fun making these cupcakes together, as you will see from the pictures below!

As soon as the muffin tins were brought out, E started yelling, "The muffin man!" As he put the liners in the cups, he continued saying it, so we asked him, who is the muffin man. He told us that HE is the muffin man!

They were delicious! The basic cupcake recipe can be found here.

The muffin man himself approved!

It was a wonderful night of family fun and tasty cupcakes!

The Hope of an Iris

Earlier this week, I noticed that my Irises are about to bloom. This caught me by surprise. I was thinking that they bloom much later in spring. But it also made me smile. Tomorrow marks what would have been my Grandmother's 73rd birthday. And when I see an Iris, I always think of her. She always had tons of Irises growing in her yard. They were, and are, beautiful, just like her.

There are still days when it doesn't seem real that she is gone, even though we sent her on to be with Jesus over two years ago now. I miss her as much today as ever. But the promise of the coming bloom that will bring beauty and new life to my yard in the coming days reminds me of the beautiful new life that she is experiencing with Jesus. Cancer had made her so very weak in her last days. It was painful to watch such a strong woman decline. She was so brave. But while it took her health and even her mind in those last days, it never took her hope. And it's that same hope that I am reminded of as the earth comes out of the deadened state brought on by winter, springing up into new life all around. It's the same hope that comes with the empty tomb which we will celebrate in a few weeks on Resurrection Sunday. It's the hope that she has passed on to others through a life lived for Christ. And the hope that lets me know I will see her again some day! It's the hope I will share with E as he grows and learns about a loving God who gave us Jesus, God's only begotten Son, so that we could experience true life, everlasting life.

Thank you God for the life of my Grandmother. Those who knew her were truly blessed. I pray that the life I live will leave the kind of legacy for others that hers has for me.

Earlier today I introduced a new devotional blog that I have been working on for some time now. The first post talks about my Grandmother's legacy. The blog is called Your Traveling Companion. If you have a moment, I encourage you to check it out. It talks more about her legacy. I hope it will inspire you to live a life that will light the way for others.