The Ultimate Blog Party!

Thanks for visiting my site, and I hope you will join in the fun this week at “The Ultimate Blog Party” (see link on right side bar). You can get all the details at “5 minutes for Mom”

My name is Lisa and I am the wife of Rodney. We live in Franklin, TN., a quaint town just south of Nashville (we are a “suburb” of Nashville, I suppose). We live in a wooded area on an acre of my parent’s 7 acres of land, where they built a home in 1974. My Mom and one sister still live there; my father passed away 8 years ago. My other sister lives with her 4 children about a mile away, so we are very blessed to have family in close proximity. We are close to the city, yet still in the country, with deer rambling here and there, turkeys strutting around the yard frequently, and lots of other critters, as well. We have 2 dogs, 3 cats and one Balled Python named “Princess” (she belongs to our son.) Rodney is Engineering Manager at A.O. Smith Water Products in Ashland City, TN., and enjoys riding his motorcycle 45-minutes one way to work each day. This June we will have been married 27-years; our relationship has gone through highs and lows, ups and downs, good times and bad. Yet, day-by-day we have made the decision to do what we can to nurture our relationship in honor of the Lord, ourselves, our children and now our grandchildren.


We are extremely proud parents of 2 daughters: Janna, who is married to Mike, and is the mother of our 2 granddaughters; Britney, who is a NICU RN at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville; and Benjamin, who is a freshman at Christ Presbyterian Academy. We have 2 gorgeous granddaughters, Carleigh, age 3 ½ and Macie, age 4 ½ months, who bring us so much joy! They live exactly 10 miles from us, so we are incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with them often. Our family has also been blessed to be treated to a family vacation with my family every year since I was born (with the exception of the year my father died, and that year was just to difficult to consider it). Below is a family photo just before Macie was born in West Palm Beach, FL. Then photos of our grandchildren. BTW~ I am “Lolli” and Rodney is “Pop”, so together we are “Lollipop”; and my children and my grandchildren are my priceless pearls; thus the blog name “Lollipopandpearls”!






I am a daughter of the King, a child of God; that is first and foremost. I love to attend Bible studies and teach studies, as well. I am currently teaching Beth Moore’s “Esther” and am teaching a study that I am writing as I go on “Acts”. I co-lead a women’s group in a study of Max Lucado’s “He Chose the Nails”, which is an absolutely incredible study. I am a member at Cross Point Community Church, where for the past 7 summers my family and I have gone on an annual mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Our church sponsors a Haitian pastor in the Dominican, Moises, who is trying to bridge the gap of hatred between the 2 countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, who share the island of Hispanola. We are building him a church and feeding center and hope to have it complete by this summer! Through this experience we have come to love the people of the DR like family. In fact, we have a Dominican “son” and “daughter”, both of whom have married in the past year or so. It started out as a sponsorship when we first met them in the DR; then turned into a true feeling of family, with them calling me “Mom” (even though both of their biological Moms are still living). Vivianna married a dentist in Arizona and they recently had a baby boy named Luke (see photo below). Because her Mom could not leave the DR for her wedding, I was honored and privileged to serve as “Mother of the bride” in their wedding; Britney (aka her sister, my daughter) was one of her bridesmaids. Our “son”, Amaury, married within the past year to Catherine, one of the FT missionaries through GO Ministries (www.go-ministries.org). Their picture is also below with us on our trip last summer.






I love to water ski, snow ski, read, write, play the piano, sing, scrapbook, doing anything artsy, and am a watercolorist. I have included a couple of my paintings below. I enjoy having the creative outlet; just cannot seem to find enough time to use it. I also love to travel, and have privileged to travel to several other countries, and many places within the US. I hope to return to Ghost Ranch, NM in September with my watercolor teacher, gail Mcdaniel for her last hurrah teaching workshops there. I have been 3 other times, and absolutely cannot get enough of God’s beautiful creation out there. If you ever get a chance to go to this part of the country where the famous watercolorist, Georgia O’Keefe, lived and painted, please do so! You will not regret it.






So, that’s me in a nutshell…a BIG nutshell. Thanks, again, for stopping by, and please join in the fun of “The Ultimate Blog Party”.

And, oh by the way, I love to win things, though I rarely do. So my top picks for prizes are listed below in order; beyond those I would be happy to win anything!
#17~Fire polished Czech Bead Bracelet by Jenna's Jewels
#21~$50 Target gift card from Agoosa
#1~$100 gift certificate to "A Horse to Love" provided by 5 Minutes for Mom
#2~Bracelet from Sidney Andrews
#19~$50 Target Gift Certificate by Shoot Me Now
#USC21~ Free Fotomural from Fotomural.com

Blessings on your week,

Lisa (aka “Lolli”)