How we got Mallory's name

When Paul and I were dating (we might have been engaged by this time) I was working as my pastor's secretary at Evangel in Montgomery. I would always get the visitor cards so I could send out a letter from him. One came across my desk with Mallory St in the address line. I emailed Paul and asked how he liked the name Mallory Matte. He said he liked it and we would call our yet to be born daughter Mallory every time we talked about having kids. The day we found out we were having a girl little Mal was finally going to be. We stopped by the street while we were in Montgomery on vacation last month. There's a Michael Blvd here in Frankfort. I need to get Michael's picture by that sign! Incidentally, he was named after Paul's grandfather, not the road!

Birthday Sneak

The kids, and Makayla from the church, helped me surprise my friend Kimberly on her birthday recently. I made her a little cake and we picked up some balloons and flowers at Kroger. Then we drove to her house the kids walked up to the front door a la Publisher's Clearing House to surprise her. It was sweet.

Here are Kimberly and her daugter Sutton with Makayla, Mallory and Michael.

Grandpa Billy

Billy Franks is a long time pastor friend of Paul's and was his best man in our wedding. He has been sort of a mentor and father figure to Paul throughout his years in the ministry. We always get to spend the week with him at the Church of God convention and it really is one of the best parts of the trip. The kids call him Grandpa Billy. We love him dearly and consider it a real privilege to get to have so much quality time with him during camp meeting. I think he has the best smile!

The Lemon Drop

We discovered this fun little restaurant in Anderson this year while at Camp Meeting. It's been around for years but Paul had never been there. I always sniff out the new places to try and had seen it on the internet before we left for the convention. It had the best burgers and we ate there two or three times it was so good. There are only about 5 booths and 10 counter seats and is always packed. There's a neat train that goes around a track at the top of the walls. Try it if you are ever near Anderson IN!

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McDonald's makes a come back

You might remember when our McDonald's on the East side of town burned down last December. I wrote about it here. Well it recently re-opened and everyone in town was excited to visit the brand new shiny Mickey D's...including us:) I took the kids and a friend from church to breakfast the morning it opened. We got there around 8 which was not nearly as extreme as the group of kids who had camped out all night to be the first at the counter when it opened at 5:00 am.

The Hills are Alive

The Grand Theatre downtown was playing The Sound of Music last Friday night so I wanted to take Mallory. She had never seen it and we had such a good time. I love that movie and could almost say each line before it was said on the screen. I wanted to sing the songs too! Mallory enjoyed it and has been watching the DVD since that night. I told her she reminded me of Gretl.

Growing Up

We met Patsy and her husband Ron back in 2005 when they came down to New Orleans after Katrina to help with the rebuilding. They were from Wyoming and brought their camper and stayed for months along with several other couples we grew to love. We get to see them every year at the Church of God convention. They all were so great with Mallory during those post-Katrina days and she became their adopted little grandchild since most of them were missing their own grand kids. I happened to find this picture lying around the house and took it to Anderson so we could recreate the shot with Patsy and Mallory. Patsy said, "This time I'm not going to pick you up!"