Firstly, thanks for all of your input on M's picture. It seems #1 and #3 are the most popular, although quite a few liked #2 as well. I'll have to decide shortly and send something in. I think I'm leaning toward #1 for the smile and how it shows her goofy personality at the same time.

Also, I have a few questions that I will be answering in a post tomorrow. I have about 5 questions to answer and would love to have more 🙂 I was informed my link wasn't working properly before, so if you tried to click it and it didn't work you can give it a shot now. Click here to ask anything 🙂

This weekend has been quite the enjoyable one. Yesterday afternoon we headed out to drive down to Atlanta to my parents' place for some family time. We did have to make a pit stop for a shopping excursion on the way though. We hit up the mecca of baby stuff (Babies R Us) to pick up our gifts for my good friend's baby shower which is coming up fast.

After that, we quickly made our way through a ton of Atlanta traffic to a fun afternoon with my family. The afternoon hours were spent laughing at all of M's attention hogging ways...

...playing some cards....

...laughing...

...and getting a good family picture.

I love them!!! Although I can never get over the fact that I am the oldest of the siblings by quite a few years and look younger than my sister. I know I'll appreciate it more about 10 years from now. Right now it's no fun to be in your mid-upper 20s and people to think you're a teen mom.

Onto dinner though. We went to my all time favorite Mexican restaurant. Tijuana Garage.

This place serves great Mexican food. And what I love about it is that it's not the same old stuff you find in other Mexican restaurants. There is a lot more variety and I love the various sauces, slaws, and toppings for all their food.

We enjoyed dining on the patio with some chips and salsa and margaritas...my 2nd favorite thing to drink. Surprisingly though, I didn't have any. I try not to drink when working on the baby. I know it probably does nothing for or against our chances of conceiving, but I prefer to play it safe for my own peace of mind.

I ate lighter in the day since I was fully planning on indulging here. I ordered a trio taco plate for my dinner. My choices - 2 fish tacos + 1 BBQ pork taco. Sounds odd, but oh so very good! The fish tacos had a chipotle jicama slaw and the BBQ had a pickled jalapeno slaw. Fun, interesting flavors and delicious.

Today has been a bit of a pain. I woke up feeling AWFUL again. Not stomach sick this time, but with a severe headache and that deep to the bone type of bodyaches and a sore throat and foggy head. (sigh) Maybe it will be a one day thing. It hasn't gotten any better though. So, I went and just taught Sunday school and then went home to curl up on the couch.

And that brings us to our Good Life Sunday lesson. The lesson today was about the prophet Elijah and how he lived a life that demonstrated his faith in God's power. Elijah was a prophet who testified to King Ahab about a drought that was a consequence to King Ahab's actions of worshiping other gods in detestable ways (like sacrificing people's children detestable ways). Ahab refused to believe Elijah and sought counsel from 850 prophets of the other gods in the region.

Eventually, Elijah was distraught with the King seeking advice from these other prophets and the fact that all of the people weren't being faithful to God. So God sent Elijah to Mount Carmel to basically challenge the other prophets in a test of which God had the true power. The 850 Baal prophets brought a sacrifice to the mountain and called to Baal to accept the sacrifice by fire but the fire wouldn't come to their sacrifice, despite their calls. Elijah's sacrifice, however, did carry through with the fire and was so strong the other prophets finally claimed their belief in God.

The lesson from this is that we are to live as examples of trusting God, following Him, and expressing our faith and commitment to God. It won't be easy and there will be numerous people against us, but if we stand up and proclaim our faith then God will be on our side and carry us through. It is easy to get confused in our culture and turn to other things that seem to have the answers for a fulfilling life. We have to work hard to continue to be a living testament to trusting God and not follow other paths that may seem easy, right, or justifiable.

Tags: dining out, dinner, family activities