Fill in the blank

1. My current favorite song is: Too many to name, but I love Rock Star

2. The last book I read was: the Bible

3. The last book I bought was: a collect of Dr. Seuss' classics and some cook books

4. The last cd I bought was: for a gift

5. Another CD I wanted but didn't buy is: Nickleback

6. Right now, I'm wearing: Jeans and a long sleeve purple shirt

7. The last gift I bought was: for my secret pal

8. The last time I laughed heartily and loudly: when I was in Mobile

9. My favorite holiday ornament is: the white doves that are in memory of my Nanny Brown and my Aunt Gwen

10. My house smells like: Pears... which smells wonderful!!!

11. The first thing on my to-do list tomorrow is: Garden club meeting and silent auction.

12. If I could sit on Santa's lap and believe that he'd bring me whatever toy I wished for, I'd ask for: Goodies for my camera or my laptop fixed

13. If I could holiday shop in ONE store, all expenses paid, I'd shop at: Crate and Barrell or Lowe's.

14. If an angel alighted on my doorstep today and said, "I'm here to grant a Christmas wish," I'd wish for: salvzation for those that are lost

15. When I see a bell ringer while out shopping, I: put in what cash I have.

Trying to stay awake

It's Monday, today is my laundry day. While waiting on a laundry rotation, I decided to watch a bit of tv. The side lights from the foyer were kind of bright, so I decided to lie down on the couch to block the view with my arm. BIG MISTAKE! I am so sleepy now. I can hardley see. The bad thing about it is is it 1:44 in the afternoon. I need to be wrapping gifts or something productive, but I have been meaning to blog for a wekk now, so I figured there was no bettter time than the present. I have Jr. Service League tonight. We are having our Christmas party at Kim's. I already have my dessert made. Whoo hoo for me! I even broke out the santa platter that I LOVE, but always forget about. My house is decorated as much as it is going to get this year I suppose. I couldn't put out the china or dining room decorations because we have a wall to mud and the dust would be yucky on my table scape! So I figured that I would skip this year... unless my wall gets mudded soon. I doubt that will happen though. The floor for the kitchen is still waiting patiently in the foyer. It looks nice in it's boxes. I bet it would look even better on the kitchen floor. Oh well, good things come to those who wait.

My Christmas shopping is done with the exception of a few gifts. I have managed not to go overboard this year on my nieces. They gave me only one request, so that is what I got them. It was all in the same price range too, so that took care of the fairness. What else is new? We had a wonderful time at church Friday night. Saturday we shopped and last night we had the church Christmas play and gift exchange. I got some wonderfully awesome gifts and one of my all time favorites. Popcorn! That reminds me, I should crack that can open and have a nice nutritious snack. I also need to work on my Christmas cards, you know the ones that never got sent last year. Last year was especially crazy as we were not home except on weekends in December. It has been nice to do things gradually and not have to haul gifts to Charlotte to wrap. I do miss that place though. I loved staying across from Paramount because it was all lit up and the way I would find my way "home" away form home each Sunday night was via the big Christmas tree that you could see for miles. We had developed a small family there in Charlotte. At night, one of our favortie clerks would bake us cookies and deliver fresh hot chocolate chip cookies and cold glasses of milk to our room. Now that is what I call service!!! Anyway, I guess I am done reminisincg for now. I shall return later. Merry Christmas everyone!

3rd times a charm

It has been said that all things come in 3's... It has been several weeks since I have blogged. Life is great... busy, but great. Lately my life has been consumed with kitchen remodeling. It all started with the new fridge. We needed more clearance, so we trimmed the counter, great it fit. It did not have enough "breathing room" though, so we were going to trim the cabinet. No biggy there. We decided to go ahead with the partial closing of the large opening overlooking the dining room since we had the power tools readily in use. So off I go to buy the material for that project. On one of those trips I saw a pantry cabinet a little less wider than the current cabinet, with much more room. I bought it. Then I had to get something to hang our microwave with. Check.... all that led to new floor, new cabinet color and new wall color. The reason I said things come in three's is because I made 3 trips for screws, 3 trips for studs,3 trips for brackets, 3 trips for flooring, 3 trips for cabinet hinges and 3 trips for curtains. Obviously 3rd time's a charm because thankfully everything worked.... well the flooring isn't in yet, but I am sure it will be fine. I love it. I couldn't wait to get the curtains hung, and accessorize my tiny space. I wanted to wait until the floor was in, but I could not stand it any longer. So last night I tried the last 2 sets of curtains. Thankfully the 3rd set worked perfectly. It was as if it had just appeared on my thrid trip because I had obviously not paid attention to them on all the other trips. I will post a finished picture when it is totally complete. Everyone loves it so far, except mama and daddy. lol Daddy says it's too dark, but he is color blind so it just looks grey to him and mama said it looked good, but she didn't love the colors. That's ok though, I like it! It looks like a totally different kitchen. It isn't but it is just amazing the transformation it has made. I took some pictures last night, but had to force myself to delete them becasue I was so tempted to email them to everyone. I realize that a lot of people think I am a freak b/c I thrive on projects like this. If you know me, you know that I can't do anything small or halfway. Needless to say my little project has leaked into the hallway and the dining room. lol Right now there are paint sample stuck on the wall. We like them all, but it changes throughout the day. Our kitchen is tiny, so I figured that walling it up and painting it dark would make it appear smaller, but so far so good. I have to concentrate on the guest bath as that has been a project goal for over a year now. We have nice slate sitting in our dining room just waiting to be put down in there. The hold up- the sink faucet and deciding if we just want a shower or if we want a combo. Oh and the money is also a slight detail that is missing. ;)

I couldn't shop this Friday for gifts without loooking for curtains and wall art for the kitchen. I was very surprised as I did not buy anything from Home Depot or Lowe's on Black Friday. My friend Jenn says that I have to go to those places to regroup and have my therapy. I drug my poor little sister all over those stores last week. To which she replied- we are so different. lol I remember when I was her age and younger, I hated, no let me restate that, I HATED Lowe's. (there were no HD's around then) It seemed like my dad would be in there for hours and it was BORING!!! Now, I am loving it and can't wait until LaGrange gets their Lowe's back again. It will be 2008, but it is still fun to look forward to. I have banana nut bread in the oven right now, so I should probably go and check it. I just wanted to take a moment to say hi. I will check back in more often now that life isn't consuming me. Ciao!

Random ramblings

I don't have much time, but I am going to try and bring everyone up to speed. OK, first off, my sister had her surgery and she did great. She is at home recovering. My brother is still working on my new website. The hold up isn't his problem, it's mine. I have to get him the requested info. So... sorry about that. Hmm, I took care of the girls while my sister was in the hospital, which also entailed taking care of the animals. I succeeded in caring for the girls- the animals, not so sure. Biscuit, Cocoa, Brook, Bree and myself all shared the bed. Cocoa had most of it.

The progress on my wall is coming along nicely. We are actually getting the cabinets in there today. Hooray! Robert's mom is coming this weekend. She will be here for a week. His birthday is Monday. He will be 33. We have tickets to go see air supply on Tuesday. I also have a service league meeting and Sis meeting. I will not be attending those I suppose. Tammy G. gave us the tickets and so I promised her that we would go. I offered to let Robert and his Mom go. He says he will see. lol I guess that is about it for now. I am exciting about the holiday season coming up. I have a few bookings that I am especially excited about and I just finished placing a senior portrait order. I cannot wait to get those back next week. The daycare order is completed and they were very pleased. The director called me to tell me that the center in Lineville was mad and wanted to know why their pictures didn't look like the Roanoke centers. Bill Miller did the Lineville centers. That was an especially good compliment. It made my day.
Oh, I had Garden club yesterday. We made Holiday make and take decorations. We were each on a team and we didn't finish ours. I did however manage to glue my thumb and pointer finger together. As did most on my team. The funny thing about that is that we didn't even use any glue!!! I really should go and help with the wall now. I can't wait until it is finished. Talk soon. ciao!

Oh, I almost forgot, Cassi won class beauty and 1st runner up in Miss Panacea. She did GREAT!

Good Monday Morning to Ya!

Today is a Bea-utiful day!!! Ahhh, I love Autumn. This reminds me of a Barney song, but I will spare you the performance. I will save that for Friday when my sister is recovering at home from her surgery and she will be in the bed and forced to lie there and listen to me cheer, dance, sing, etc... Why would I do this you might ask? Well, because it's fun to torture and give flashbacks, especially when there isn't a thing she can do about it. Isn't that what litle sisters are for? Hey, my brother will be there too, wonder if I could trap him into watching. Muhahahahah! It will just like the good ol' days. My sister will just shake her head and scream, "Make it stop!" and my brother will make fun of me. Ahh, I can't wait! How exciting!!!
Now, as I sit here eating my nutrious bowl of macaroni and cheese, you might realize that we were out of milk. No big deal, as I don't really enjoy milk like most americans. If you know me at all, you would probably know that I would take mac and cheese any time - any place. So I am not too sad about not eating "breakfast" at breakfast. Besides I have to clean out my fridge so that I can put everything into my new one.
Speaking of new fridge (this is too cool, it requires a paragraph of its own) I have the coolest freaking fridge EVER!!!! I have drank exactly 1 1/2 cups of water this morning. You know how I know? My fridge told me I did!!! It measures water in pints, cups and liters. How awesome is that!! Me, being as obsessive as I am, started my fridge journey on the internet. Then I went to Auburn and went to every. single. store. that. sells. appliances. The first store was REX, I was looking at some of their clearance items. There were some nice items and they had a fridge that was even stainless on the sides. Cool. Then I saw it. The fridge with all the gadgets. The customer rep proceeded to show me all the other cool features, and I asked him not to do that because I was a gadget person and then I would have to have that fridge. I was there for function not fun. I checked out all the others refrigerators and nothing caught my fancy, so I jotted down the information for the gadget fridge and was on my merry way. I get in the car, make a phone call to have my sister do a price check and tell her about the coolest fridge ever!! I then journeyed over to Sears, found the exact fridge, only twice the price. Great! lol They price matched for me and gave me an additional 10% off. Excellent. I jotted down that info and finally proceeded to the remaining stores. Finally, I found my fridge at Lowe's. I could just hear the chorus singing, *hallelujah, hallelujah* It was there, and it was less, but even better was they had the previous model, so it was a bit less. Then above the fridge was a big sign that had the words SOLD. So I get a worker to see if they can check another store. Guess what? They have another one in the back, untouched by grubby fingerprints. Hooray! Happy BIrthday to me! I quickly paid for my purchase, opted for the extended warranty and delivery. It would be here Wednesday. Which fridge did I get? You guessed it. The gadget fridge.
Now mind you I just HAD to have that fridge installed before my birthday. Check! Ummm, then why is the old fridge sitting in my dining room? Because I have yet to move the food. You see, I decided since I had a new fridge, I really needed to get back to work on my kitchen. So I decided I wanted to paint it. Again! Ok, no biggie. Then why did I purchase floor tile? Which then led to me getting trim for my cabinets and of course a new paint color for them. Well, one cannot have new paint on every surface and not paint the walls. So I did that too. Now, who wants to come help? Tomorrow, I will have had the floor tile for 1 week. It sits nice in the boxes by the ac return. It looks real nice! I hope it will look even better installed.
This week has a glorious outlook. Last week was kind of crazy, did everything get fixed that was going wrong? Let's take a look.
Monday- Purchase a refrigerator. Check!
Tuesday- Cassi and Casey had a wreck. Spend all day at ER. Check!
Wednesday- Ignore harrassing calls from the other family involved in the wreck. Check!
Wednesday- Johnny Carino's taking care of the big bad mistake. Check!
Wednesday- Chop up kitchen cabint to get fridge to fit. Check1
Wednesday- Put fire out that got on porch. Check!
Thursday- Go to lunch with friends for my birthday. Their treat. Good thing 'cause Johnny Carino's has MESSED me up! Check!
Thursday- Ignore harrassing calls from the other family involved in the wreck. Check!
Friday- Beg bank to take care of the portion of the mistake that Johnny Carino's did not take care of. Check!
Friday- Inform Johnny's that their money has not came through yet.- Check!
Oh the list goes on, but thankfully alls well that ends well. And well, it's just ended and I'm glad of that.
Now for the list of this week... this will be a pleasant week according to the outlook forecast.
Monday- Laundry rotations and straighting up from Sunday.
Tuesday- Painting and trick or treating with my brother and Courtney.
Wednesday- Court aginst Dan (sorry contractor who if he would have done his job, I would NOT have all this crap to do in my kitchen because my kitchen would be my sewing room.) Trick or treating with Courtney and my brother.
Thursday- Surgery with sister. Pick up Cassi's pageant dress.
Friday- Take care of sister and do last minute prep for Cassi's pageant.
Saturday- Doll Cassi up for pageant. Take pictures of her being crowned. (hey wishful thinking, but I did say the forecast looked bright) Go to the fall festival and show off Cassi's crown. (again wishful thinking, but optimisim is way more attractive than pessimisim)

Oh and I am LOVING the new time. I have to go now and work on my chores for the day and then get to work on website. First, I must call my mother. Talk soon. Love.

Today is Saturday

Well, the steak supper is over for Junior Service League. We had a good turn out. After the dinner, we went to Wadley to pick up Major. It was so funny. We busted up a party. Me, Jenn and Lori laughed about the old folks breaking up the party. The cops were called and then they blocked the road. It was too funny. So anyway, we have the fish fry at church tonight. I am trying to talk Mama into going. Mama and Courtney are entertaining me. Courtney has been practicing the piano and is getting really good at Silent Night. They all do so well. So, I guess I will go for now.

Time has flown since I last blogged.

Today is a dreary cold and rainy day, but I love it! I have a nice cup of cocoa and am just feeling good. I want to do alot of things around the house, but then I think that it could wait until tomorrow. I should enjoy th rainy weather. Ahhhh, I love fall. Let's see what all has happened since I blogged last.

My spider bite is almost gone. We (my mother, sister and younger nieces) went to Babyland General in Cleaveland. The girls adopted babies. After Baby Land General, we went to Helen for a kraut dog and german potato salad. It was Oktoberfest and we wanted to see all they had to offer for the celebration. It was very fun, a bunch of people drinking, but still fun. Surpringly, the do NOT serve kraut dogs after 5:00 in Helen. LOL Why? We have no idea!
We were going to North Carolina, but decided not to. Instead we went to a corn maze and hayride. We were able to go hay bale jumping, which to our surprise wqas VERY fun! Our car wouldn't start after we left though, so it was a good thing that we didn't go to North Carolina. We had a wonderful time, but next time we would love for the ENTIRE family to go on our adventure with us. We had fun!

I am now a member of the Roanoke Garden Club, which if you have seen my plants, then you would think that was hilarious. And it is... BUT... I will learn a lot being in the club and really enjoyed my first meeting. The topic was Landscaping 101 and that was right up my alley.

My hot cocoa is not so hot anymore, so I guess I should go and drink that. I promise it won't be as long as it was this time before I blog again. I know I have loyal fans. ;) Thanks for being patient.

Been really busy

but I thought I would take a minute to write a few lines for me fans. LOL!

So my brother bought a new truck. It's pretty sharp.
My sister is having a hysterectomy. I am worried that she isn't letting her true feelings show and I keep trying to tell her that it is ok to be confused, happy and sad all at the same time. I told her to go to www.hystersisters.com
That is a great site! When I was going through the same feelings last year it really helped me deal. If any of you guys are faced with that decision or possibility, check it out. It's wonderful!

Spider bite is healing, well I guess it is anyway. The redness seems more concentrated now rather than all spread out as before. Been taking the antibiotics like crazy. I do NOT want this thing to get infected! Out insurance runs out next week, so anything crazy that is going to happen, needs to go ahead and happen.
Not sure if I blogged since the LaGrange ER gave me sulfa drugs- which I am allergic to!!!! It is scary how incompetant people are these days, especially those which we trust our lives.

Robbie has a job interview tomorrow. This is his second interview with a marketing company. They called him back on Monday after his frist interview. He would be handling the marketing for Bell South and Quill.

Mama is sick. She has the flu or something. Her fever was 104!!! No there is not supposed to be a decimal there. Thankfully she seems to be getting a little better.

Photography is going pretty good. I delivered football shots today. I am delivering daycare proofs tomorrow and meeting about a pageant at the high school. I need the jobs right now and I figure that this is God's way of kicking me in the butt to get my business rolling. Robbie's company made huge cutbacks and so this kick in the butt couldn't have come at a better time.

Mrs. Bonnie and I started walking today. We were going to start off slow and build up to 3 miles, but we walked the whole 3 miles today. It was very nice out and the fellowship was fantastic. We hope to get some more people walking with us.

I guess that it about it for now. I shall go and try to rest. Oh!
My mama is going to try and convince my entire family to go on a day trip this weekend to Baby Land General. It is where the Cabbage Patch Kids are born. I love that place! I do hope that everyone will say, "Yes!" It will be great quality family time! Courtney's birthday wish was that she would be able to spend more time with her family, so this would be a great way to grant that wish! I just hope everyone else thinks it is a fun idea. Anyway, good night. I will blog more tomorrow.

Oh visit my new website- www.creativeimpressionsphotography.com
It is still under contruction, but it is going to be so awesome when it is finished!
Good night everyone. Love you all!!

Just got home from the ER

Apparently I have been bit by a spider of some sort. All I know is today I was at the computer and my arm was hurting when I touch the armrest. I looked, nothing there, just figured my arm was sensitive to the leather.

So we go to the grocery store and my arm hurts when it touches something, no biggie. Then I put my arm on the arm rest and man did that hurt! I looked and there is a huge area with an obvious bite of some sort. When we got home I put some cortisone with pain reliever on it hoping it would ease the pain. Nothing.

My dad came over for hamburgers for my 14 year old brothers birthday, he looked at it and everyone else spotted it across the room, in the dark!

He said it was a bite, probably a spider bite. It was warm, hard and big.

By this time it is pretty much hurting all the time and then my arm starts to tingle and kind of go numb around my fingers. So I try to pop it with a needle, nothing. So I move it and keep my fingers moving and it continues to hurt and tingle. By this time the pain is shooting up and down my arm. We decide to go on to the little incompetant emergency room here in town.

When we arrived, I got checked in. Then I sat and sat and sat and watched the nurse walk all around me. Finally the doctor walks over and takes a look. THen he asks what the scars are on my arms and legs. Then he asked if I was on any meds and listened to my breathing. Asked if I has asthma. He wanted to know what meds I was on and I told him. THen he asked how many children I had. I said, "None." He said the bite was probably pushing on a nerve and that was the reason for the tingly. Keep in mind I am still waiting in the waiting area. I have no idea why the number of children I had was significant, but he asked nonetheless. So, an hour later, the nurse finally comes and take my blood pressure and oxygen level. Then I wait and wait and wait and wait. Still in the waiting area in front of God an everybody. Finally the nurse decides to give me a shot. She takes me to a room, gives me a shot. Then tells me I have to wait 15 minutes. Over an hour later my husband goes to see what the problem is. He waits for at least 15 minutes while she is talking on the phone to a friend of hers. THen she says, "I have to go let someone go." Never asking what he needed.

She comes in and apologizes for it taking so long, then she asked if something was wrong. I had a water bottle tapping it and I had been wandering the halls. lol I said, "OH no. I'm OCD and can't be still." SHe tells me to clean the area with saline and soak it. Then my discharge papers say to do the same and cover it with gauze bandage.

Now, I am a little perturbed by this point. One- because I am restless. Two- because it is 1:00 in the morning and I have to teach Sunday school in a few hours. Three- because they gave me meds and never asked if I was allergic to any, which indeed I am! Four- I never saw the doctor except in the waiting room and for what that's worth I think it was a little inconsiderate to do all of this in the waiting area, which was more of a chair in front of the desk clerk with a screen so that people couldn't see coming in the door, but left you wide open to everyone else. Five- If they wanted me to clean and soak and wrap with gauze, why the heck didn't they do that while I was there. And Six- The did not take my discharge BP or Temp. lol (silly I know) And the big thing- I bought a water out of the machine and then I noticed on it it said NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE. lol I don't know why but that just buttered my toast. Come to find out it was part of a twelve pack.

Anyway, so I am home now and my arm still hurts. All they gave me was a steroid shot with anti-inflammatory. The dr informed my dh that I would still have pain and swelling for several days.(This was told while I was in the abck and my husband was out front) Thanks for nothing! So, again I have no faith in our health system and they wonder why we want to close the hospital! I was there a few weeks ago for a broken finger, which they did nothing for, except some drugs and now my finger will not straighten all the way and hurts like the dickens. Ok, off my soap box.

Have a good night.

Wednesday

Where shall I begin? Warning- I am going to ramble, but I have NOT ingested any medicine. lol

First of all- Today. Today was a beautiful day. It is starting to feel like autumn. I spent the early part of morning hours on my friend, Jen's porch, cuddled up in a blanket. Now, my windows are open and I can hear the sounds of nature. Ahhh, it is amazing. Such soothing choruses interrupted by the occasional car. It feels great!

We finally started the hunt for a new fridge. Ours will NOT die! lol It is old, and we figured it would kick the bucket at any moment, but nope! Instead, I think our dryer is on it's last leg. I have not been able to justify buying a new fridge when ours was perfectly fine, but I have decided that it will help our power bill and it is better to replace it before it dies so our food won't be ruined. Plus those things always happen as the most inopportune time. If you know me, you know that I could not look at appliances without checking out the furniture too. I found some comfy sofas and sitting on them confirmed just how worn out mine was. So, what shall I choose? Sofa or Fridge? Being that I am supposed to be a grown up and make responsible and well thought out decisions, I am choosing the fridge.

We had a good service at church. We with to eat with our Pastor and his family. Lauren rode with us. She made Robert ride in the back with her. When we left she was ready to come with us again. Precious! They are going to hang with us Friday night, so that will be a blast! We always enjoy Lauren and Parker.

Tomorrow- I have a football team to shoot. Tiger White 11&12 year olds will have their photos made tomorrow afternoon. I always love taking photos and tomorrow is no exception. However, I think my favorite will be Friday morning. I am shooting 37 preschoolers! It is going to be a fall background and I think I am just as excited about setting up the background as I am the shooting. Other than that I guess my day will be pretty calm. I have to pick out a paint color for my dining room. We are going to use it as a dining/living combo again. I had been thinking about it and Robert mentioned it so of course that was all the confirmation I needed. He says that we are going to turn the entire great room into my studio, but I want it to be a game room. I figure until we have the funds to do what want in there it will be a great studio. ;)

Well I just had a yummy smoothie and so now I think I am going to go to bed. Yes, this early! hehe Good night all!!

Bloginality

My Bloginality is INFJ!!!

All caked out

So my mom turned 60 on Thursday. My niece turned 6. I made pancakes from scratch and some sausage for her to share with all of her friends. I had 60 balloons in her office and decorated it with streamers and little saying about getting older. Some were sweet and some were not so much. ;) She was NOT happy about those. She had gotten kind of down about turning 60 and I wanted to help make her day a little brighter.

Friday I got in a picture order. I ALWAYS love when that happens. I know it's silly, but I love seeing my work in print. Today I spent time with my middle niece Courtney. She is hilarious! We baked the cakes for Bree's party tomorrow and she did a great job! She isn't really a cake person as she informed me today, but after licking the bowl of all three cakes, she ended up being a cake person.

She informed me that she was depressed right now. I tried to hold back my chuckle but it just sounded so growny. Then she continued to tell me why she was depressed. "There was a dog and it was pitiful at Granny's and it was gaining weight and then she was pregnant and then a car hit her and she died." I was sad for the dog of course, but was releived that it wasn't anything serious as far as Courtney was concerned.

A little while passed and out of the blue she said,"Do you like Dora the Explorer?"
I said, "Yeah, I guess."
She said, "I don't. I think she has a big head. It is way bigger than ours. Why does she have a big head?"

Then she said, "You can dress up like Dog The Bounty Hunter. I would, but it's more for adults." I told her that I wans't dressing up for halloween. We then started talking about him getting arressted and she could not beleive it. I had to tell her everything exactly and even had to show her where I got the information.

All of my nieces are so adorable when they talk. They just amaze me at the things they say. I keep saying that I am going to start a page in each of their scrapbooks so that I can jot down all the cute stuff they say. I have yet to do and it of course I have forgotten it all. :(

So I make the hamburger cake and get ready to start decorating it. Bree calls to tell me that she wanted eyes on it. then she tells me War Eagle and says, "Can you do an Auburn cake?" WHAT?!?!?!?! I told her I coudl, but I had already started on the burger, would it be ok and she said it would. Whew! Now it is time for a bath. I am covered with sugar from head to toe and I am already sweet enough. Night.

Sleepy head

I finally was able to go to sleep around 4:30 this morning. This junk sucks. I have no clue what to do about it. The night before I went to bed early, btu I laid there a long time. Then I was up by 8:00. I just knew I was going to be able to sleep last night. Nope! So anyway, I had a Junior Service League meeting last night. I had to skip it though. I'm still sickly. My voice now sounds like a man. lol Robert came in from work on Monday and said, "How you feeling?" I said, "Fine." Then he said,"I hate to say it, but you look horrible." I laughed. He said, "Really, you do." So how is that for kicking you while you're down? lol I had decided to go to my meeting regardless last night, then when I started getting ready I looked in the mirror and all decisions become null and void. I looked like death. hehe Not really, but I did look pretty ugly. So I thought my coughing and sniffing we about gone, unfortunately they're not. My mom's birthday is tomorrow, as well as my youngest niece. We were going to have my mom a party, but she said she didn't want people to know how old she was going to be. So now we have no plans really. She wants us all to go out to dinner together, so I guess we will have to plan on that one day. Bree's party is Sunday. She has placed and order for a hamburger cake. It will be cute. It is one of my favorites to do.

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, photography business is looking good for next week. I have 3 shoots. Oner family, one team and one preschool. That should be interesting. I have to get started on the background setting for the preschool. Team pics will be simple and the family session will be on the rocks at the creek. Those are always fun. Now, ask me about the preschoolers next week. There will be 37 of them!!! Oh why do I get myself into these things? hehe Of course I am kidding. I LOVE it!

So, now I just need to get pics of my niece Courtney, and my niece file will be complete. She has a hard time fitting me in. When I asked her last when she wanted to do them, her reply was, "How about Labor Day?" Umm, the child is 7 what does she know about Labor Day!?!?!?!?! Unfortunately, I was out of town on Labor Day, so we had to put it off. Maybe we should plan on it for next week. If she can pencil me in. I just love my growny girls. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/luv2crop/photobar.jpg[/IMG]

I guess I should get off of here for now. I need a bath extremly bad, so I guess I better start my water. Then I have to get some things ready for the post office. I guess that's it for now. Talk to you all later.

Countdown...

10 Things I Wanna Do Before I Die
1. Visit all 50 states
2. Wear a size 10
3. Get all the schooling I can
4. Have a successful photography business
5. Go to Europe
6. Learn to make biscuits
7. Learn to Can
8. Tell my family how much they mean to me
9. See my grandnieces
10. Have a white Christmas

9 Places I Last Spent Money
1. Online paying bills
2. Telephone company
3. Exxon (fuel)
4. Spectrum (milk)
5. Race Trac (fuel)
6. Walmart (groceries)
7. Starbucks at the Airport (Strawberries and Cream Frap)
8. ProLabs (client photo order)
9. Farmers and Merchants Bank (Cassi's school tuition)

8 Sounds I Routinely Hear Around My House
1. Computer keyboard
2. Braves game
3. Cassi singing
4. Sounds from the x-box (usually a car race)
5. Ringing phone
6. Pecans hitting out tin roof and rolling onto the porch
7. Chickens from the neighbor
8. The fan

7 Real Restaurants Where I Last Ate Out (Sonic doesn't count! lol)
1. Applebee's in Dothan
2. Cracker Barrell in Newnan
3. Replay's in Mississippi (had a Philly Cheese Steak)
4. Replay's in Mississippi (had a delicious Reuben, Yummm)
5. The Market Buffet in Mississippi
6. IHOP on the way to the airpot
7. Jon Boy's after a ball game

6 Things I Scratched Off My To-Do List Recently
1. Finished a proposal for a daycare shoot
2. Started a RAK box for unneed scrapbooking items
3. Got my hair cut
4. Embroidered a towel for Cassi's football player
5. Burned all photos to disc
6. Set out ant poison

5 People I Don't Know who I'd Like to Hang Out With
1. Some of my SS friends (but I guess I do "know" them)
2. My ancestors
3. Max Lucado (Christian Author)
4. Scott Kelby (Photo Shop guru)
5. Dr. Seuss

4 Songs That Make Me Happy
1. What a Wonderful World
2. Zippety Do Dah
3. Calvary's the Reason Why or Jump, Jump, Jump
4. Buttermilk Biscuits

3 Things I Hate To Do
1. Take medicine
2. Put away laundry
3. Put gas in my car

2 Things I'm Really Good At
1. Photography
2. Organizing

1 Really Bad Habit
1. Trying to do it all

Oh no she has a camera... again!!!

If you don't know why I do what I do, maybe this will help you understand why in some way I am always into something that involves photos.

I take pictures because I love to capture life as we know it now. It has not and will not always be the same. Things change, people change, places change-life happens. It is so important that we focus on capturing each and every moment that is so precious to us. I have a lot of photos that I don't consider good quality show photos, for instance one of my sister and brother playing fetch with dinner rolls or my nieces rolling around in paper in the yard and even the much dreaded family picture on the holidays where the fake smiles can't hide the true feelings of why does she always insist on taking this stupid picture and why does she never remember the tripod. Will I win a large prize for those photos, not likely. Will I be published in a showcase album? I doubt it. Will I be famous for it... absolutely not!
I keep those photos because they show my life! They show who I am and who makes me who I am and the people in my life who make me want to be a better person. Just because you might not think my photos are prize worthy, doesn't mean my photos aren't priceless. I revisit those photos time and again almost weekly. It is that time that I love because it instantly takes me back to that moment where everything else kept moving except what I captured on film. It takes me back to the happiness that is felt with I am with my siblings that no one else can compete with or compare to. It helps me relieve the days of my babies being babies, only to flip a few pages and see they are not babies anymore. It helps me see the love of a grandmother with her grandchildren and I realize how awesome and strong that love is and nothing in this world can ever match that depth. I am reminded of my family who has gone before me and I still remember their smile and their laughter, not because I have a photgraphic mind, but because I have photos to refresh my memory. I do what I do because one day my memory will be gone and all those photos will be erased from my mind, but I will be able to remember with the photos. I do what I do as a tribute to each person in my albums, so that when they are no longer a part of this world, their legacy will be.

Musings from a friend

With so many people using today to reflect back on a very tragic time in our history, I decided to share with you all a piece that my SS friend wrote. She has truely described why family is so important and why my pictures and scrapbooks are so important to me. Excerts from her post are listed in quotes below.

"Where were you on September 11th 2001? On 9/11 I had a Creative Memories business that was 14 days new. I hadn’t even taught my first Home Class, as our presentation was called back then. The world had stopped still in the wake of this awful tragedy. I stopped still. I kept my eyes on the news day and night. Days after the tragedy, people were walking aimlessly around ground zero and there was a common thread. Pictures. People held up pictures of their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends, coworkers. They were looking for their loved one. Holding pictures up to the news cameras in hopes that someone in the audience had seen the person in the picture and that somehow they might be reunited. They grasped onto those pictures as if the picture was the individual themselves. Pictures. People tearfully holding up pictures pleading to the camera “Have you seen this person?” Weeks later, the pictures turned from a tool to help locate someone into a way to memorialize that same person. Pictures were left with flowers and messages at ground zero. It occurred to me that becoming a Creative Memories Consultant, a mere 14 days earlier, was important. Pictures are important. The stories behind the pictures are just as important.

I was already a “scrapbooker” with cute pages of my little boy, just 15 months old. I created fun pages of me and my husband in the early years of our marriage. Suddenly, those pages were so much more valuable and as I would create future pages, I’d always be thinking that these albums will be here long after I’m gone. I prayed that I would be around to enjoy the moments with my family a long time from now, but if something should happen to me, that I’ve shared my feelings in my albums. They’d know how important they were to me. They’d have an idea of who I was as a person, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend. They would know who I loved and why I loved them so much. I had hoped that the families of the victims of 9/11 had such a treasure of their loved one, either created by the loved one or about the loved one.

When I started my business on August 27, 2001, I thought it will be fun and cute to teach people to make albums and I could make a little money doing something I already enjoyed. After September 11, 2001, I thought differently. I KNEW then that people and families NEED these albums and my resolve grew. They always needed these albums, just as my family needs these albums, but 9/11 changed my whole perspective. My business had an amazing purpose. Suddenly, I “got” the Creative Memories Mission. To preserve the past, enrich the present and inspire hope for the future. I get it! I pray that the hundreds of albums that have been created as a result of my sharing Creative Memories with others will not be valued as the result of a tragedy. I can rest in the knowledge that when the people I’ve helped create albums’ time on earth has come to a close, for whatever reason, that they’ve left a story behind. Maybe not the whole story. Maybe just a glimpse. Maybe it was a love story about their husband. Maybe it was a love story about their children. Maybe it was a story about themselves. Whatever it is, Creative Memories has helped me impact lives for the better and I am so grateful for that.


If you know me as a friend, a family member, one of my Creative Memories customers, one of my Creative Memories team members, I wanted to share this with you. This is where I am coming from when I offer to help you make albums. This is where I am coming from when I’ve invited you to my house to work on your albums. This is where I am coming from when I encourage you as a Consultant to keep helping others to create albums. This is where I am coming from when you look at me funny when I tell you I was up all night scrapbooking. I love what I do as a scrapbooker and as a Consultant. I just wanted to give you a little insight as to where some of that passion and resolve comes from."

Late night pains

It's almost 1 in the morning. My back hurts, my finger hurts, my head hurts and I'm having hunger pains. lol Enough whining? Ok, seriously though... I had a flatbread pizza for dinner tonight and it was delish, but now I am hungry. I want some fruit. Some really cold fruit. A nice big juciy pear or peach would be GREAT! Summer is almost over and I haven't even had either of them. Pineapple would be good too. Of course had I had this feeling an hour ago, I could have went to the store, but our little ghetto town store closes at 12. Atleast they stay open until midnight. So, I have been reading all of my friends myspace pages. I'm just trying to catch up on them. I have taken all meds, but can't sleep. I didn't take Ambien though
(sorry Jen) because I am still on the pain meds from my fall. They are suppoosed to make me sleepy, which they do, but unfortunately it is like a dang 15 hour delayed reaction!!! Talk about extended release! So I figured I would come here to blog because no one is on any of my boards that I frequent. I don't want to get out of bed, because I would probably end up grabbing a full of sugar popsicle and that would not be good. Yummy but not good for me.

I really need to get off of here and MAKE myself close my eyes and atleast pretend to be a sleep. Maybe I can trick my body. lol I want to get back in my routine again since school has started, but I have just been so tired. When I walked into church this morning the first thing someone said was, "You are looking pale today." The next person I saw said, "Well She'Na, you just look so tired and just worn out." Then they proceeded to show me what they meant. lol I really need to get my levels checked again and I have to make myself do that. My finger isn't improving as fast I had hoped. I stopped wearing the splint because I had hoped it might help me get the full use back soon if it weren't so stablized. Unfortunately I think this has caused more pain than progress. I am going to give it to Friday and then if it is not ANY better, then I will go see another dr about it that is not an ER doc. I'm not asking for a miraculous recovery overnight, but the pain still seems to be so strong, especially if I hit it on something. Even a pillow or something soft hurts it. The swelling has gone down a good bit and it is not purple like it was. It still looks crooked to me though and that is what I was trying to prevent by going to the ER in the first place. Ok, I'm rambling on and on about stupid stuff so I am going to get off of the puter for now. I will be back tomorrow maybe as a reward for getting my rotations done. lol
Night.... well good morning!

Advice Overload

Have you ever been encouraged so much that it becomes discouraging? I have a friend who is very burdened right now and frankly it has caused lots of people in her life to share her burden. No that is not a bad thing, in fact she needed encouragment and always got it. Well this time, she didn't ask for advice on the past situations or the big picture... but that is what everyone responded with. I think we gave her advice overload. Everyone had advice and it was all good advice, but... I think it was taken more as an attack than encouragement. So many times that is the case.

I know I am talking in circles, but I just hate that my friend has lost the only support group that I think she had... all because we gave advice that wasn't asked for. It is always better to give than to receive, but hindsight is 20/20. If she happens to read this, I am sorry that you have made the decision you have and hope that you know that noone was being intentionally offensive, even though it may have appeared that way.

My heart just aches for this family on so many levels. I don't they could ever know the measure of the love that is given in each piece of advice... it was meant to help, but not hurt. Although, I think we did more damage than we did good. Maybe it will all work out in the end.

As I close for now, at the risk of sounding like Wilson from Home Improvement, I am reminded of two quotes regarding advice:
1)In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend. ~Solon

2)Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

What Flower Are You?

A little late...

I said I would blog from Mississippi, but I didn't. I have a broken finger so I hadn't been able to type too much to blog either. Ok, so what shall I blog about. Here are a few things that happened this week.

I took my first flight. It was awesome! I have been looking for cheap flights ever since. I always love clouds, sunsets, etc... but the beauty of seeing them up close and personal is more than anyone can imagine. It was beautiful. I wanted to jump out of the plane and play in the clouds. It looked so soft, just like a huge blanket of snow. Of course we saw some "Alabama Snow" in those clouds, you know the kind that looks dirty because there isn't enough to cover the ground. To be above the clouds and see different layers of the atmospher is breathtaking. I had tears filling my eyes because it was so amazing.

Another thing that happened this week is our Alabama attorney sent a letter to our "neighbor" to have him move his fence. We shall see if he moves it. I wonder how ugly he will get in the process.

We went to Florida Wednesday for depositions and actually made some progress with the case. That was awesome, especially since we have NEVER made that much progress... even with court and mediation. We didn't even go for progress, but we did make it and even hae positive communication. So we finallly have contact with Joenesia. She is now 11 years old and is 5'1". She is going to be tall like her Daddy. We also had a few pics sent to us via email that night. It was great to be able to hear from her and actually get to talk to her. She loves math and science, so that is great. Hopefully we will see her in person soon.

I took Casey to get her learner's permit, the computers were down.... AGAIN!!!! I saw my cousin Brandy though and was able to visit with her a bit there and I also John Wellborn and was glad to be able to catch up with him some as well. So I guess it wasn't a totally wasted day.

Today there was a Sons of Thunder Motorcycle Ministry meeting. We kept our new pastors kids. We were so honored to have them stay with us while Pastor Rob and Amy went to the meeting. Robbie also went to the meeting and he really enjoyed it. We had so much fun with Lauren and Parker. Lauren is potty training and did a SUPER great job! She is sooo funny.

Robbie finally got his bike running again. Now we have to get insurance, a new helmet, a battery and a new tire. lol Let's see... Oh I have a photo shoot next Saturday at 7:30. I'm really excited about that. I got to talk to my Courtney bug on the phone today. I have not seen her in forever it seems. She signed up for soccer and seems excited about it. Now I just need to call Brook and Bree and I will have my much needed dose of nieces. Cassi made some toffee brickl bar cookies today. They are yummy. They have Heath toffee bits in them. She is turning into a great cook. She loves to bake things, especially cookies. I bought her a cookie book that is nothing but cookies. It looks good, but we haven't tried any recipes yet.

I have GOT to clean up that hobby room this week. I started going through stuff last week before the trip and man it is just horrible!!! Of course Robbie took the Steinbrooks on a tour.. yikes!!! Oh well maybe they won't hold our forest level grass, disasterous hobby room and moss covered porch against us. lol Can you tell we are behind on our home maintence??? Oh and our pool is now a lovely shade of green. I said I wasn't going to let it get dirty this year and just keep it clean so we could use it asap next season, but I digress. Sigh....

Oh, one more thing before I go all requests for more posts after I take my crazy meds are null and void. It's not gonna happen!!! hehe Ok going now. I have to get ready for church tomorrow and grab a snack. For some reason I am hungry. See ya!!

Packing my bags...

Tomorrow I leave for Mississippi. I am totally stressing about the whole security measures and checking bags, etc... I am so afraid that I am going to break a rule or something. I guess the next time I blog will be from Mississippi, and I also plan to catch up on my scrapbook journaling and maybe even work on a few pages. Anyway, I will try and catch up with everyone later. I have been just trying to heal from my fall and my meds make me sleepy. Ok, going to finish packing and then go to bed. I wish my whole family was going though. It would be so fun to ahve my brother and my sister with me too. Anyway, I love you all very much! See you later!

Today was NOT my day

but tomorrow is a new day and today will be over and I will have survived. I didn't go to sleep until 5 this morning, then I woke up at 7, finally rolled out of bed around 8 and bebopped down the steps to the great room and well, I can't walk obviously because my foot slipped and I fell and landed on my finger and bottom. (what a run on sentence!!)It hurt. I went to the er around 2 and got shot and 3 scripts. I should be able to sleep tonight because all the bottles say will cause drowsiness. Anyway, I have a busy day tomorrow, as well as Saturday, but really need to clean house most of all and will probably just chill out since the dr said I will hurt worse tomorrow. Thanks for the positive thinking doc.

So I am lying in bed and looking so forward to the chiropractor visit tomorrow. I can't wait!! When I landed today my first thought was, "Well at least I was planning on going to the chiropractor tomorrow." So anyway, just wanted to give a short update and I will write more tomorrow. Sorry it's been quiet around here lately. I will try to do better. Night.

So we got the new pastor moved in...

Apparently the alst time I posted I was drunk... or so I have been told. Now keep in mind that is so funny because I have NEVER been drunk in my life. I have medicine to help me get to sleep and I thought it wasn't working, so I got out of bed and decided to blog. Obviously not a good idea!!! I remember part of the first paragraph, but the rest is a blur, well not even a faint memory. I don't remember a thing! I feel inclined to delete it, but obviously it is bringing people quite a few laughs and once the embarrasment is over, then I will go back and read it for myself. Until then, I will just hang my head in shame. lol I should have known better. This is the same medicine that people were cooking and cleaning and driving in their sleep and didn't remember. Now, I took precautions until I saw how it affected me. We got a lock for the pool gate and I did not and still do not know where the key is so that I don't decide to go for a swim during the night and drowned. I also have my keys hidden, etc... but who the heck knew that a computer could cause such problems. Oh well!! Atleast I made someone smile. ;) or laugh hysterically...

Now, back to the pastor. They had a long drive today and we had a greaqt response to welcome them "home". They probably wanted to rest and wished that everyone would get the heck out of their house, but they were very polite and appreciative and did no such thing. Now they seem like a great bunch of folks! I am excited. I think we made the right decision and am looking forward to what God has in store for us and them. they are young, so they should bring a lot of energy to the church. We are ready for awesomeness to take place and Pastor Frank brought us this far, but he is tired and deserves a break. Finally I bet he is resting easy now. He is free! lol Oh and Amy, the new pastors wife, is a CM consultant just like me. I know most people would see it as competition, but I see it as fun. I am so excited to have a new friend- especially a scrapbooking friend! Welcome Pastor Rob and Ms. Amy!

Tomorrow is my sister in law Tracy's birthday. She will be **. Now she doesn't look that, but I don't know that she appreciate me saying how old she is. Anyway, I hope she has a great day!!

I guess that is about it for now. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow and just a busy week in general. That's ok though, I would rather have that then to sit idle all week. So I guess I will go for now and take my medicinde AND GO TO BED!!! I promise I won't come back to blog.

Oh and to those people that I sent messages to on myspace during my "drunkiness" state. Please forgive me for anything off the wall that I may have said and I am not to be held responsible for any thoughts that may have made themselves known. Now, off to take my meds. Night!

Just taking a moment to talk... well to ramble

I am in a blog challenge and I am suppoosed to be blooging about Remarkable, however I just craweld out of bed trying to do the Ambien thing to help me sleep as I thought I couldn't, but as I sit here I find that my eyes are closing ever so slightly and my fingers feel drunk. lol
If you have ever had the meds they give you before surgery that kind of make you like because you are seeing this awesome euphoric vision/aura or something... lol and pretty much you just laugh becasue everything is funny because the world is spinning and no can see what you are seeing and that is even funnier... oh it's the best. lol OK so that is how I am realizeing that i am feeling now. So, I better not get deep and emotional in my blog challenge ad just ramble instead.

Been to the parsonage a few times to work on it, it looks great! I went back over to the house and used some hardwood floor cleanser and refinisher Saturday night and it looked so much better. I am going back either tomorrow night or WednesDAY to do another coat on it.

Our new pastor will be here Wednesday night and that is very exciting!! I think we are all ready for the new ideas and a resh spirit. We are going to have a moving in service. lol That should be fun. Don't want to miss it.

So... a ball game tonight was rained out and they eventually had to quit. I was freeing up some space on my laptop, as my hair would not have lasted in that humidity.

Oh! So this afternoon Cassi comes home from school and I am on the phone with my crazy mama, and she says," Is it ok if water is coming out the water heater?" Umm, no, ok well it's hot. So we have to go figure out what to do. Finally got it fixed but all the home stores were closed daddy had som gas line and we used that.

I have been burning my photos to disc to free up some space, so finally I have like 10 cds from 2005 and 2006. I have some seniors booking appts, so I am getting the space ready for them. I have no idea if what I am saying is making any sense. So I should probably go, maybe I was sleepy and just a walk around the house was all that was needed. So, if anything happens, I was sitting the laptop down in floor and going to potty and then right back to bed in the guest bed room. So, if I haven't made it to those places in the morning, be sure to alert the authorities.
Ok, Good night sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite nighty night sweet dreams, don't forget to say your prayers and remember I love y'all!! Good night God Bless you and I love you too!

Ahh the beauty

  


A few days ago I talked about the beauty of God's creations. Here is a picture of the sky taken from my seat at the Braves game. Right beside it is the lovely Fly Delta sign and lots of bright lights. I can only imagine how beautiful it would be without all of the distractions. I have a meeting tonight, and I am tired and do not feel like going. I am hurting really bad too. Alas, I made a commitment and therefore I have to keep that promise. Besides last year when Iw as on bed rest and should NOT have gone, I didn't miss a single meeting, so I can at least go now. Cassi has a game tonight, she had one last night, but it was cancelled due to rain. And yet, still no rain at our house! Mama came to visit and it was a wonderful surprise and a special treat. I need to wash clothes and take a bath, but I thought I would drop in and say hi. OH one great thing that happened this week- my batteryt was recalled by Dell for my laptop. That is great news because I need a new battery. At least, I think I need a new battery. Oh well, I really hope it will fix the problem with my battery not charging. Soon it will be here, sooner than later preferably! Have a good night.

I'm stuffed...

After church we went out for pizza. It was delish! I had been dreaming of buffalo chicken thin crust pizza without the chicken... yum!!! It was everything I had dreamth of and more. OK, so now I am overly stuffed and don't ever want to have any of that pizza again. I had no eaten all day waiting for that pizza and of course I over did it on that and cheese bread sticks. It was great though, now if I could just go into labor I would feel a lot of relief. Oh yeah, I'm not pregnant. I guess I really did eat too much... cause I feel like I have an extra body with me right now. Enough about that, so tonight was a great church service. You know when he says, God's talking to someone, I hope you're listening. Well it was me! lol I have been so worried lately just about all kinds of stuff. The same verses kept going through my head each and everyday this week, but they were all reinforced tonight. I guess that person was me. It made me realize that there is absolutely no reason to worry about ANYTHING! God has brought me through so much already and He will continue to bring me through even more. I just have to set back and let Him. He has never failed me and never will. I don't deserve anything i have, but yet God gives it to me anyway. That is just awesome love. The thought that something so magnificant could love me so much that He would send his son to die for my life is even more awesome. God has and continues to be wonderful, there is not a day htat goes by that he doens't show His amazing power. One of my favorite things to do is to take pictures of nature, some of my favorites being sunsets. To look at a sunset and think that there is no God is unimaginable. How can something so beautiful and extravigant just happen? It doesn't. God put it there for us to enjoy. The beauty of His creations are all around us. Did you ever pick up a leaf or a blade of grass and just study it? Something so simple, yet so complex, but even more beautiful because it was created by God. God doens't always give me what I want, well at least not what I think I want... but he ALWAYS gives me what I need. There have been many times that I look back just think to myself, "Oh God, I am so glad that you know what you are doing and have enough since to know that I have no clue what I am talking about and that I am so silly for even thinking that I know what I need. Thank you for for not lsitening to me!" I guess my goal for this week is to let go and let God and to remember that I can't change things, but I can choose not to worry about them. God has not let me down yet and I know that he is not about to begin to start now. I challenge you to do the same this week. In the words of a Disney song, "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative..." Have a wonderful week! I know I will!!!!
i

Some Post Fruity Pebbles makes it all better

So I finally went to sleep around 3 this morning. I had strict orders to go to bed and stay there from Robert. He like his letter when he found it this morning. He said I need a pregnancy test. Which is hilarious inn itself, but he says that all the time I am hormonal. SO anyway, I went to sleep and woke up a little after 8. I was freezeing to death. I ran through the house trying to make sure everything was in order and that someone had not set the thermostat to Anartica. Unfortunately they had not, it was 75 degrees. So I ran back down stairs, yes I am aware of the no running the house rule, but I was freezing!!, Now back to my story, I climbed into be and grabbed every blanket I could to cover me up including an afghan my sister made. yes, I 'm aware that it is 100 degrees outside, howevver as I have stated previously I am hormonal and I think I really do go through menopause at times. If everyone else is hot, I'm cold, if their cold, I'm dripping sweat. Oh the problems of being me. So I cuddle back down in the covers and stayed there until I got warm. Robbie called me to tell me he made it and now he is on his way back home. My face is swollen and my eyes are black, so I will look real pretty at the foundation meeting tonight. Eyes are dark form levels face is swollen from the sobbing last night. I'm such a freakazoid! So I made my car payment and had me a bowl of fruity pebbels. I finished off the box, which was more than one serving, but you gotta live a little sometimes. By the time I had my car payment made it was getting a little soggy, but crunchy at the same time. Ahhh, just like I like it! It's not my usual cereal of choice, becasue there is about as much nutrition in that box of cereal as in the box that it came in, but everyone deserves a splurge now and then. On that note, does anyone have a milk cow for sale? We need one. I'm lactose intolerant, but obviously the other people in my house are not!!! You would think that we have like 5 kids as much milk as we buy. I guess it's good for them though, but last night we bought 2 gallons. This morning I go to pour just a touch to dampen my cereal and it's over half gone!!! What do these people do with the milk?!?! There was 2 full gallons when I went to bed last night, and when I woke up, there was 1 and a half! It could be worse, it could be some horrible sugar filled carbonated drink, so I won't complain. The funny thing is that they freak out when we are out of milk. Hey, we need some more milk. Already? Well yeah I guess so when you drink a half gallon in one gulp! At least it is skim milk. I am going to call my sister back now, she called while I was freezing. lol Will update later. Love you all bunches!

If there were no more snores..

Ok, so I was going to bed and I did. But then I couldn't sleep. I couldn't even relax or be still. I said my prayers and then tears just started swelling up in my eyes. I don't know why. I am a big cry baby, but usually there is a reason. This time I could not think of one legitimately. Robbie has a big trip tomorrow and I hate that he has to drive that far in one day. I hope and pray he is safe. I thought that might be it, but after I prayed about that specifically I was still crying- maybe even more. I finally had to get out of bed and grab some tissue. I have gone through almost a whole double roll! My mom says sometimes you just need a good cry and maybe that is just the case with this. This have been going on for about 2 hours though. Maybe not quite that long, but a long time. I'm hormonal... I always am. I haven't felt good and I hope this is just all the nasty stuff getting out of my system. No one has hurt my feelings, believe it or not. I am not sad or depressed or upset. I have taken all of my meds, and still nothing. I just felt the need to tell my whole family what I wanted them to know. I could go on more and more, but I just wrote a brief summary to each of them. It is on my hard drive titled, "Love notes to my family", in case of emergency.

I don't want to ever lose them. I wish the world would just come to an end before someone in my family has to die, but I want it to wait until everyone's salvation is satisfied. Last year when I was really sick, I really thought at one time that I was going to die. So did my mom, of course neither of us shared that thought until I was better. I don't feel like that now, but I felt that I should write my family letting them know how much I love them and what they mean to me, just in case. You never know I guess. I don't want to say that I couldn't stand to lose a family member, because I don't want to be tested and I know that God won't put anything on us that we can't handle . So I won't dare say that I can't handle that, because I don't want him to make a believe out of me! I am just saying I don't want to know what it's like to lose anyone else. I am scared of everyone in my family, the future, their salvation, their jobs, just everything. I want the absolute best for everyone and I think they deserve it! I wish I could give them everything they need and want. They all give me so much and have all given up so much for me. I am truly blessed. I have one of the best support systems that was ever invented- my family! I wish that we would do things as a family more and had more together time, because I truly cherish each moment that we have together. I love each and every one of them more than they could ever know.

I wanted to write more in their "letters" but I couldn't. It's hard to think and see past the tears. Tears of joy and tears of sadness. I don't think, well I know I am not as sick as I was last year, though I am not totally better, but I was just thanking God for bringing me so far. I also prayed that I would not have to go through another year like that again and I guess that got me to thinking that what if something happened to me or my family what would I want to tell them. I guess I was relieved to be alive, but yet scared to venture down that road again. One of the things that got me to thinking, is me not being able to sleep. I pick at Robert about not being able to sleep because of his snoring, but as I was lying there and he was starting to snore, it was music to my ears. I was just crushed thinking what if there were no more snores, then that led to what I would miss about each family member. I felt that I needed to put it in writing, but typing is faster. I didn't want to get out of bed though, because I didn't want to lose one moment with one that I love. All that went through my mind was I don't want to miss a thing, from Aerosmith. That song sums up all of my thoughts tonight I suppose.

You know my hormones are all out of whack, well tonight that are doing a good job of it, because I just am blubbering on like a big whale. If someone walked in they would think I was crazy, my face is swollen from the tears and I am surrounded by the tissue. Time for another roll. You know we think about the little idiosyncrasies that get on our nerves about others, yet at the same time if that person were not around for what ever reason, it is probably those very things that we would miss most.

I think all the tears are finally gone for the night. I have 6 minutes until it is a new day and just a few more hours until my husband gets on the road, so I am going to go listen to the music of the snoring Robbie and snuggle up and enjoy the time that God has given me and be blessed that I have ears to listen!

Have a blessed day! To my family and friend- I love you all very very very very very much! If I hae never told you, then know that it is true. Each of your is a special part of me and without you, I would not be complete. Thanks for making me me! Love you bunches and bunches!

Oh and Bubba- why did you not put the Bubbalicious comment on you myspace! I that you ahve to approve them! Then it's not a surprise!

I cannot tell you how much like crap I feel. My head hurts. I need to throw up, but can't !!!My head is pouding and th world is too. People don't mind telling me bad I look, lol so I guess I feel really yucky. I think I feel worse than I sound. Oh well, I am going to bed. Maybe I will feel better tomorrow. We have a founddation meeting at Cassi's school. Maybe Robert will be home in time. Cassi also has a ball game, and I'm not sure which she should attend. She needs to go to the game, but but she needs to deal with school stuff too. oh the decisions. Ok, really going to bed now, will check in tomorrow.

I cannot tell you how much like crap I feel. My head hurts. I need to throw up, but can't !!!My head is pouding and th world is too. People don't mind telling me bad I look, lol so I guess I feel really yucky. I think I feel worse than I sound. Oh well, I am going to bed. Maybe I will feel better tomorrow. We have a founddation meeting at Cassi's school. Maybe Robert will be home in time. Cassi also has a ball game, and I'm not sure which she should attend. She needs to go to the game, but but she needs to deal with school stuff too. oh the decisions. Ok, really going to bed now, will check in tomorrow.

Time to whine

I am starving! I am tired! I want to swim! I want to sleep! I need to contac the insurance companies and lawyers about our claims from a) the accident while in Boone, NC b) the fall at the mall and c) the county truck that cracked my windshield.
I need to get all the recalls updated on my truck as well as get my warranty papers so I can have all the maintence done so it won't turn into a hunk of junk. All of this needs to be done, but for now, I am going to dinner! Prepared by my husband!

All the shopping is over! I am really tired and still can't rest well at night. Then it is all I can do to stay awake during the day. Everyone had a great first day of school. I am so glad! They all seem to be comfortable with their teachers, so that is a relief. Courtney got a new kitty and named it Abby or Abbie. (not sure which way she smells it) Brook and Bree lost their turtle, they put up flyers. lol
Cassi had a flat tire on her way home from school, but conveniently it was at a diesal shop and Mr.Jack was able to take it into town and get it fixed for her. She said it was going to be a great year. She had Charlie, 4 times and she loved him so that was a good thing. She knew him from church, but it psyched that she liked him as a teacher... especially since she has him so much. I have a Jr. Service League meeting tomorrow night. I am so tired, I don't want to go. lol I know it is over 24 hours away, but still. I think my levels still aren't up. I have my appointment to follow up with my blood specialist this month. I have looked and felt a little flushed this past week and so I need to talk to both drs about increasing my meds. Oh well, Robbie just got off work and is cooking dinner. Casey is helping him. She turned 16 yesterday. She called to see if she could spend the night with us tonight, so we are excited to have her over. I guess I better go now, we need to go to Cassi and Bubba's game. We were out of town for the last one, so we need to make it to this one for sure. Have a great night!

Now time to recover

Well we just made it home and at dinner. After shopping we picked up Courtney and she is staying the night. We went to Mamacille's for JUICY watermelon. Courtney loved it, I did too and neither one of us are watermelon fans. Cassi loved it but she loves watermelon. Anyway, we all loved the enchiladas that Robbie made us for dinner. Even Courtney!!! She asked for the recipe! lol Anyway, I am going to try and get some sleep. Nighty night!

It's late. I'm tired. Been sleeping a lot lately taking Ambien, well a lot for me anyway. I didn't take it last night because I was taking Casey school clothe sshopping, so now I am tired tired tired. Not going to take it tonight since I have to do the same thing with Cassi tomorrow. I don't wake up at a normal time and when I do wake up at a normal time, I am GROGGY!!! SO, I am tired, and over stuffed. Should have stopped with half of my turkey sandwich, but nooooo I had to eat the whole thing PLUS chili cheese ranch tots. School starts Monday. My little sister will be 16 on Sunday!!! Ok, going to brush my teeth now and going to bed! Hopefully I can go to sleep at a semi-decent hour!!! Night!

Well I have been taking Ambien for the past few days and I can't wake up!!! So yesterday I woke up around 11, then this morning I got up at 6 and paid a few bills, I think, I was still half asleep. I woke Cass around 7 and asked her to run the things to town before 9. Then I crashed again. Woke up at 1:00!!! I can't take it! I'm supposed to take Casey shopping tomorrow. She will be 16 on Sunday, so we are having a sister day. I think I better not take my Ambien tonight, if I want to be able to function. Last night we worked on the parsonage, painting it. We have a lot to do by the time Rob and Amy get here. Monday night, Cassi and I went to Uncle Ervin's and Aunt Nancy's. We stopped by flat rock to take some photos and then ended up at the garden shed, old barn and the corn field. The pics turned out great. Almost as good as the delicious dinner that we had waiting for us. We have fried okra, squash, asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, roast, potatoes, carrots and green beans, oh and biscuit! Everything was DELICIOUS!!! It was so good to see them and be able to visit for a while. Ed and Melissa came over as well and Miss Erin was at home too. It was a nice treat. We have to visit more often. Anyway, here are some pics from our excursion.


  

  

  

  




  

  

I'm tired. Still having trouble sleeping. Was going to finally take my Ambien, as I have yet to try it, but Robert was too tired to listen and be alert. He had been up since 2:00 am and so he crashed hard. Needless to say several different spots in the bed and even my head at the feet and NOTHING! I think the last time I looked, it was 5:30. I did finally doze and woke up around 7:00. I really need to go cut grass and work on the pool. It is still green. My hopes of shock only, did NOT work. Talk to you later!

I want some S'Mores and a GPS

I want a GPS system.Some of my scrapping friends from the net are cachers and it just sounds neat! Nothing fancy, I just want to geocache. I constantly find myself looking at the geocaching websites and always wonder how close I could get to the actual cache, just by knowing the location. I know I need the exact coordinates, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to try. This was on my mind first thing this morning when I woke up, and I don't have a clue why. If you aren't familiar with geocaching, here is a site: http://www.geocaching.com There are even geocaches in our town. Believe it or not!! So anyway, I guess that is it for now. I guess that is all I need- another hobby to take photos of. On a side note, I have been working on our pictures from rafting. Next time I say my whole family rides in one boat. It's a lot of work wading through photos.

I want some smores!!! I have been for days! Ever since our little camping excursion last weekend, possibly even before that. We usually have them for VBS, but haven't this year yet. I figure they will have them tonight. I am also going to make some prailines. WHen I don't know, but I have the stuff for it. I have wanted some of those since we left Savannah! Of course this could be the reason for ym bad dream last night. I had a dream I have gained 12 pounds!!! Now it wouldn't be the end of the world, but since I have lost a bit I certainly do not want to gain anymore. I am racking my brain for someone who has a scale. Anyway, I am really getting off of here for now. See ya later!

Well that was fun!

We had a very busy week last week. We finished the birthday festivities and then our only rests day was Thursday, but we had to prepare for our trip, so we didn't get a rest day. We went to Tennessee on Friday morning to go rafting. It was wonderful! We had 16 people total, most of them being teenagers. We rafted the Ocoee river. It was awesome! Last year we rafted the Nantahala. It was fun, but kind of boring, especially compared to this year. We only rafted the upper part of the Ocoee, but I think next time we are going to try to do the whole thing. That should be fun. What was not fun is that I was scared to death that I was going to be thrown from the raft. I was up front and I have a broken toe and I couldn't get my foot positioned correctly. It was very fun though. My hiney hurt for a few days afterwards and my hip popped out of place, and that wasn't fun, but over all it was a great trip. I must also say that I love summer camp. I think that was the best sleep ever. I have not been to camp in ages. When I did go, we did not have air conditioning. Heck, we didn't even have windows. We had these screened walls that had wood over them that you could raise with rope. That was our air conditioning. We stayed at Coker Creek Village and it is quite a nice facility. We had a hay ride, a hoe down and huge meals every day. Oh, guess what? We saw Scott Steiner at Cracker Barrell. We stalked him pretty much. He was NOT friendly!!!! My brother spoke to him and he was not cordial to say the least. He should have just ordered take out if he was going to be so unfriendly. He kept his sunglasses on the entire time. As if that could hide that you are a buff wrestler. Umm, next time try wearing long sleeves and maybe dye the facial hair. Let's see what else, oh we went to this place up on the mountain where you can see 3 states. I can't remember the name of it, like Buck Bald or something weird like that. Anyway, when we got there it was beautiful!!! What was even more beautiful is that there was another youth group there and they were singing songs and just praising God. They invited us to join them and then everyone had a chance to give their tetimony. That was awesome not only to see the greatness of God and his abilities, but to also be able to share in that with fellow believers and just forget about the world for a while. I just sat and stared at the mountains. I took pictures, of course, but nothing could recapture that feeling of worshipping God and feeling Him so close and so magestic. God truely is an Awesome God!!
I hope seeing the fire in the youth group on the mountain will make our group get a little more serious about their faith. I hope with the new pastor our youth will be able to take a more leadership role in the church and start to become alive!!

Oh one thing that was so funny- my brother and I were both on the rafting trip together. He organized it, and did a great job btw. Anyway, so it was our sister's birthday Saturday. Well of course we had to call her since we oculdn't convince her to join us, well there was NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THERE!! So what did we do? We called her COLLECT!!! It was so funny. Of course she did not accept the charges. We simply said, collect call from, "Happy Birthday." Then we heard, click! Later we did have a bit of service on Robbie's work phone so we called her to explain.

I have found that I love books. Books of every kind. When I was teaching, that was one of the higlights of my day- reading to the children. I think my favorite kind are kids books, but I like the ones with a lesson to them. I joined a book club and have ordered some Paula Deen cookbooks lol, hey they were only a quarter a piece. I also ordered a cleaning book and a Dr. Seuss book. It has 13 stories from Dr. Seuss in it. I cannot wait to get it. I was starting my wish list and all that I was adding was cookbooks and children's books. I really had to refrain from getting all of my nieces books for every upcoming occassion. I don't quite think they love books like I do. Although the should, because everyone else in my family loves books. Oh well. I really should go to the library more, but I don't. I get too over my head when I read a book. I can't put it down. I remember even in school putting my book inside a textbook to keep reading. I guess I am on a reading fast because the last books I have read were the Left Behind series. I caught up on those and had to wiat for the new ones to be written, so I had to stop all together because I couldn't wait that long. Now I need to go back and reread them, because I don't know where I stopped. So, one of my service projects with Junior Service League this year is Knight Enloe. I was NOT happy about this. I do not like Roanoke City Schools and I certainly did NOT want to volunteer there. At least it is at the elementary school and my niece goes there. That will be nice to spend some time at her school. I don't have much experience with KES since I went there, so maybe it will be fun. Maybe I will get to read to the kids. lol

So our pool is green!!! It was beautiful, now it's not! Apparently we had a storm here while we were in Tennessee. A cup blew into the skimmer. Not sure how that happened, since the lid was supposed to be on there, but it did. water could not filter and water that sits still in the sunshine turns green! So, we have to clean it again. Ugh! A bit of shock should do the trick. I guess that is about all the I have to ramble about for now. Until next time- Ciao!

Oh, I forgot...

I wanted to show everyone Courtney Bug's 4-wheeler. IT is so darn cute, but not near as cute as she is on it! I love to watch her ride it. She was driving around the yard the other day and she would go over a little raised area in the yard and it looked so cool. My yard was looking hot! I had Cassi's car and Courtney's 4-Wheeler side by side. Both too cool vehicles. ;) Here's a pic, it's not very good, but I will have to take some better ones and repost. It is very sharp. It is pink with pink rims and flames on it. Too cool. It even has an alarm. I tried to act l,ike I was stealing it and the alarm sounded. Too neat, Huh!

I'm baaaaack...

and exhausted. I have been going sooooo much lately, well really forever, but not sleeping and bouncing off the walls aqt the samed time really tires a person. I have meds to slow me down, but I don't think they work. lol I have some sleeping meds too, but I have been scared to try it because I have had so much to do and I didn't want to be dragging, well couldn't be dragging because I had things to get done. Anyway, Cassi drove to the ball field tonight and did great. She drove home after the game, but Robbie rode with her since it was night time. We are going to Tennessee tomorrow rafting for the weekend. It is going to be fun. I hope I get more excited though. I get excited, then it goes. I just think how tired I am now and how much tired that is going to make me. I plan on sleeping like a baby Monday. It will never happen, but it is a good plan. Just enough to keep me going a little longer. I could fall asleep right now and it would be wonderful. Oh well, time is just wasting as I sit here staring at the screen. I guess I should go for now and pack for tomorrow. Not sure when I will be able to blog again. Good night all! Loves and kisses.

Cassi got her license!!

All the excitement is finally over. No more weekly visits to the DMV only to be told that we didn't have the right papers, the time or something. On the other hand, Cassi is a licensed driver. ACK!!!!!!!! So we got her insurance today. We couldn't get her tag today, but that is ok, the dealer tag is good for 30 days. Right now she is driving on the road in front of our house. She has never drove before by herself except to pull the truck around or something, but now she is ON THE ROAD! The REAL ROAD! BY HERSELF!! Yes I am screaming!! Can you believe it? I can't!!! NOt only is she on the road by herself, but she is in HER CAR! The 5 speed. She wants to practice driving kisses around because she said she is going to the ball field in it tonight. When she took her test she came in and said, "I passed! Two idiots almost hit me!" Then the man stopped and said, "I was in the turning lane." He then flashed some badge. I said, "Was that one of the idiots? to which she smiled and said, "Yes!" So we go in the office to actually get the license in our hand and the Trooper is now ranting about the "Idiot". Apparently he thought that he was in the turning lane, only he was in both the turning and the "go straight" lane as Cassi put it. So the DMV lady says, "The two worst drivers in the world. Young people and Old people." She was furious with that man. When I told her what he said and then flashed his badge, which no one could recognize and really didn't care one way or the other, she said, "I don't care. If you can't drive, you shouldn't have a license!" Thankfully he didn't hit Cassi and thankfully that she was not at fault. Cassi got some points taken off, but most of them were for being too cautious... that was funny, but at least it puts me in a nice frame of mind. I'm scared to death for that girl, but that is why we have insurance, just as long as she is ok, the car can be replaced. So, I guess I am going to step back on the porch and video her some more and swelter in the heat. At times like this, I wish the pool was in the front yard, so I could relax, get cooled off and take pics all at one time. I will post more later. There is still more excitement to come!!

Cassi's last surprise

I know I promised no more surprises, but there was one more surprise. We all gathered at her favorite restaurant tonight. Whene veryone arrived, Cassi, Sam, Carrie and Angel were all checking out a car that was in the parking lot. When we left the restaurant, there was a big purple bow on that car. It was Cassi's!!!!!! She was so excited. She has named it Kisses. lol This is one love girl. So many people put extra special touches into that car to make it custom for her. Many did not know her and have yet to meet her. That is just how blessed we are. There are still good people left in the world. Everyone loved the car. Mama was so afraid that she wasn't going like it, so she was relieved to see the joy on her face. I tell ya, I don't think Cassi could take any more surprises this week. When we got there we all ordered and ate, I think we didn't even taste our food because we were all so excited. I almost forgot to pay, but glad that I realized before I started picking up my bags. When everyone finally finished, she was brought a cake and we all sang Sam, Carrie and I shared the fried ice cream, while the girls ate some of the cake. The other adults didn't have anything, as they went to prepare the car for the big reveal. Robbie, Cassi and Angel have not made it home yet. I know they are out hot rodding. When I called to check on them to make sure they had stopped for gas, they had taken the interstate home. All of the girls played in the car for a while. Uncle Brad offered to pimp it up some more for her, but it would take a week. She said it was fine just like it was. Of course, she still has to learn to drive it. It's a 5 speed. That just makes it cooler though. I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her by the car, well that one picture turned into like 20. She even wanted her photo taken with the headlights. So I agreed. When she moved to the back of the car, I said enough was enough and we could do more later. Well I hear the motor revving in the driveway now, so I guess I will close this post. Enjoy the pics. I'm not sure if she likes the car. What do you think?

It has been a long week!! I can finally blog!

Today is Cassi's 17th birthday. Courtney's 7th birth was Friday. Cassi had her party Friday night. Nathan was able to make it AND she got a cell phone. It was all a surprise! Courtney had her party Saturday, she got a 4-wheeler. Happy Birthday to both of you!!! I love you so much! She was surprised! Wheew! That was a lot of secrets to hold in! I couldn't blog becuase unfortuntely my whole family reads my blog. Well a lot of them anyway and I was so afraid something would slip. I can finally let it all out. It is over! The other thing was Cassi's mom came to vivist her from Germany and today was the day she arriving. That was another huge secret. So now can you see why I was about to explode. I haven't slept in days, because I was so excited. I usually don't sleep well anyway, but this made it worse and it was a good kind of not sleeping. I just love it when my girls are all happy.

On another note, Bree took a fall off the 4-wheeler and had to go to the hospital. She has some loose teeth and some scrapes and brusies, but she is one tough cookie. They all looked so darn cute on the 4-wheeler and my brother said that everytime Courtney makes a lap on it she stops and says, "Thank you so much Daddy!"

Everyone is relaxing now for a bit now. Some are in the pool and others are talking, but I think everyone is just glad to be together. Robbie is takinga test and he will be home. His instructors are letting him make up his tests since it is such a special occassion.He has not seen his sister in 21 years! I told him hopefully they would understand. They usually require a death certificate in order to make up a test. Thankfully they understood. He is taking a math test today and his business law test Wednesday.

I think it is like 104 today. It is hot!I have on a dang sweater. It is a summer sweater mind you, but a sweater none the less. Whewwwww! It has been perfect swimming weather lately, but I have not had a chance to get in the pool. Maybe soon!

Courtney isn't feeling well. Her throat ahs been hurting her since Saturday and last night at church her tummy was hurting then she ran a fever last night. I hope that she gets better soon. I don't like it when my girls aren't feeling well.

I guess is enough for now. I am calling to check the progress of Robbie's test. I will blog more later.
She'Na

Tomorrow is Courtney's Birthday

This has been one busy week. I fear, well I know, it is only just the beginning. Courtney's birthday is tomorrow. Her party is Saturday. I have to go get her gift, have an idea what I want, but not sure if I can find it. Hopefully we will be able to locate it somewhere. I also have so much to do for this weekend. I hate putting things off until the alst minute, but I do work better under pressure and sometimes last minute is all the time that you get. We are going to try again today to get the girl's licenses. Maybe, just maybe. Cass has a ball game tonight, then I think she is going to my sisters. Courtney stayed the night last night. She ate 3 pieces of pickled cauliflower. 3 PIECES!!! Granted, they were small pieces, but even still, she tried it. I was very proud of her. This is the picky eater! I figured she would puke everywhere, especially on the last piece because it was bigger, and more sour. She didn't. A word to the wise: DO NOT EAT HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHIP AND WALNUT COOKIES WITH CAULIFLOWER OR AT ANYTIME CLOSE TO IT. I remember when I was a kid I wanted a pickled egg and a gingerbread man. My Aunt Gwen warned me that I would get sick. I ate them anyway, thankfully I didn't get sick. However, last night was a different story. All I can say is UGHHHH!!! Oh well, I guess we need to go sit in the hall of the courthouse for most of the day. Maybe they won't be too crowded. See ya later!

Happy Late Anniversary Sissy and Brad!! I am so sorry

I never got to wish them well wishes in print. Now, it has been a few days since I last blogged, a lot has been going on.

First of all, Cassi did not get to take her drivers test. We didn't take the custody papers with us. We didn't need them for the permit test, so why in the world would we need them for the driver's test. Guess what?!?! We did! So we will try again next week. I think she was disappointed, but a little relieved at the same time. My mother kidnapped my that afternoon and we had a delicious lunch at Applebee's. It was yummy. Then we went to visit my sister and just sat on her proch with us girls talking. It was so nice. We need to do it more often. I usually see my mom every day, but lately I have been doing good to see her once a week. I was missing her so much. We didn't talk about anything really, just picked at mama like we always do. Thankfully she didn't get mad at us. The girls were gone to my cousins house for the night, so it was just Mama's girls there. The only thing that could have made it better was having my brother there too, but I don't think he gets into our silliness much. We kept saying we were leaving, but ended up just moving closer to the car. Finally we left around midnight. Oh, I was stretching my arm and plowed it right into a cactus. It was not fun and I had all sorts of prickleys in my hand and fingers. They didn't hurt after they were in there much so I left for a few secs because I knew the pain would come after I pulled them out of my hand. And it did! Saturday, I took Cassi to babysit Cami and Brett. She had a ball. Robert had to go to the office to work on somethings, so I went with him. Well actually I met him there hours later to help. He let me sleep in after I took Cassi to Lori's. I helped and then we came home. We pretty much had a lazy day the rest of the afternoon. Not a frequent thing for us to do, but it was fun. Today I got an anniversary card from Pastor Frank and Ms. Jo and my secret pal. That was a special surprise. We had a pastor come to preach today who is the prospect for our pastoral position. He has a 3 week old baby. Too precious! Things are pretty quiet around here today. We haven't been home from church long. We had dinner on the grounds after preaching. Yummy as always! Mrs. Sue's grape salad is da bomb! It is better than my recipe and actually healthy for you! I love it! Unfortunately, it was all gone. I am just working on some pictures and updating my website. I really need to build a "real one", but haven't yet. Maybe soon. We will see. I bet it would help my business, but until I do word of mouth works for now. Hopefully I will get some senior bookings soon. I'm going back to my photos now. Check ya later!

Much needed update

Ok, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
First our Savannah trip-
It was totally awesome!! We had wonderful food, Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady and Sons was absolutely delicious and the staff was so friendly. Our waitress was Kathryn and she was just as excited as we were. She was totally awesome! We need to write them about her. Very good service! We did a tour so we were able to make reservations and did not have to wait in line. Their biscuits are the best! I don't even like biscuits, but these were so big and fluffy and light and just yummy!
I brought my dessert home to the girls and Kathryn gave us extra so that we would have enough. The girls loved it and thought they were big shots eating a famous persons cake. Last night out dinner was totally recipes of Paula's. They were recipes that I have, but just different versions, and mine just weren't as yummy anymore as I wanted them to be, but man oh man have they officially been replaced. Everything was made from scratch. I even friend chicken and even touched it. Totally unlike me, then I even had a bite of it. Of course it was boneless and skinless, but still a major deal. Casey and Cassi attempted to make dessert, it didn't quite turn out, but they attempted and what ever it was that they came up with tasted pretty good, despite their failure to read directoins thoroughly. Back to our Savannah stay, we stayed in the hotel part of the time and a bed and breakfast the rest. It was an awesome experience. Our hotel was free because we received points when RObert was in North Carolina for business. Our room was huge and very nice. The bed and breakfast was just a nice pleasant luxurious experience. It was our first B&B visit, but it is something we could certainly get used to more often. Love the decorating of the room and the colors. I have been online all day searching for their bedding. Hmm, what else... We went on a river boat dancing cruise. That was nice. We didn't dance though, I just enjoyed the ride and being on the water. One of the cooleost things about Savannah was on River Street at night there would be all sorts of musicians. They were so talented. There was even a magician one night. I wish I would have had my video camera, these people could certainly make it big time in the industry.Of course the prailines on the river were delish! Before I left several friends had said to have a prailine for them, let's just say I have had enough pralines for them for a lifetime probably. I had losts 20 pounds prior to my visit, but I fear that number may have gone down significantly since my visit south. They were giving out free samples and the samples were huge. Robert doesn't like original pralines, so I would get him to get a sample too and give me his. I couldn't resist. I have not really been much of a sugar person for a while, but I have made up for it. They were warm and fresh and irresistable. I promise that we did more than eat on our trip, but well eating is a big part of the south, so it's in my blood. We did work it all off I assure you. I was so excited that I couldn't get anywhere fast enough. I would just run ahead ready to snap pics. There are so many squares and we walked so much, so the some of the fat and sugar had to come off from sweating. We stayed an extra night and would have kept staying over and over, but Robert had to work and I have become accustomed to electricity and roof over my head, so I guess it was a good thing we came back home. We got the girls from Mama's when we got home. We cooked hot dogs for the 4th, but didn't shoot any fireworks. We usually go all out, but we were tired! So we just grilled the dogs in the oven. Today, we went to get Casey and Cassi's license. We are going back first thing in the morning, because the computers crashed today. Oh! We went to take pictures of Casey today. It was fun and spur of the moment.You can view the pics at www.creativeimpressions.photoreflect.com Click on C Brown and there she is. They are all untouched and straight out of the camera, so the good and the bad are on there. I haven't had time to play with them yet. She got her glasses and looks so darn cute. Of course she does not think so. She and Cassi are trying to decide what to do for their birthday, but aren't having much luck. We took all the girls home today. I sure am going to miss them. Bree cried because she didn't want to go because as she said, "We have so much fun." That was sweet. I told them they could come back soon, but I have a full day tomorrow and they do not like to run errands. Courtney's birthday is coming up soon. She is having a skating party, I think. She wants me to paint her room like and ocean or a water slide. She probably won't be getting either of those from me. The painting her mom and dad probably wouldn't go for and the slide, well too many birthdays here at once for that chunk of change. She really is very grateful for anything that she gets. She makes you want to get her stuff because she is so appreciative and dramatic. Even just simple things. When they ate the cake from Paula's restaurant, she said, "My mom and dad must take me there." I have brought her a big gumball before from a trip and she just gushes like it is made out of gold, her reply is usually, " Oh Sissy! You didn't have to do that. Thank you. You shouldn't have done this. I love it. Thank you so much!" Her version is much more dramatic and sincere though. I guess that is enough for now, I have "talked" your head off long enough. I need to get some rest so we can get those girls up early for their license. If the rain holds off. Cassi is trying for her drivers license and Casey is trying for her permit. I think they both will do just great, if they will relax. We shall see. We drove the route today and will practice tomorrow before hadn if time permits. Until next time... See ya~
G'nite