Hey You! :o)

Time 2 Soar

2009-09-08T08:20:00.018-05:00

When I went to the St. Jude crop last October I saw a chipboard wing album by Maya Road that absolutely made my breath catch & I knew that if I didn't buy anything else that night that I HAD to have That album! :o)
It was too perfect, too Devan. He's all about the edgy, tattoo, goth, emo look. And I knew that it would go perfectly with all the Marah Johnson papers & embellies that I've been collecting & hoarding.
I decided to make this album a celebration of Devan turning 18 ... graduating ... becoming a man ... time to spread his wings, to find who he really is & where he wants to be in life...

... this is the front of the album

one of Marah's transparencies, doctored a little by me. I painted over the Hardcore to darken it up a little so that it would be more visible when the album is closed. Then I
stamped the bird frame with paint & added a few of Marah's rub ons.

I just couldn't help myself, had to outline the wing with some stickels! :o)

The title page ... Time 2 Soar (Dream Big) ... my wish is that when you spread your wings you soar high & always dreams big ...

all of the photos were taken in the spring & early summer of 2008 right after I got my new camera ... I hope that you will "Sieze the Day" & always remember that you hold the key
to my heart ...

This was the first photo that I took of Devan with my new camera that when I uploaded it & saw it ... it took my breath away ... I hope that you always lives with Courage ...

the first photo of him after he got his hair cut! He was so proud of this hair cut & it looked so good on him (but I have to admit that his hair is sooo pretty when it's long that both Jim & I missed it & were glad when he let it grow back out). I made the flower with scraps of Marah's paper & my quikutz silhouette. I just Love the dragonfly sitting in the center! :o)

... i do Not remember the last time I did sooo much stamping & embossing. Seems that once I get going I just can't stop!!! lol. I totally embossed this entire page. :o)

... a photo taken on the caboose at the fairgrounds on the day that I was taking Sierra's Sr. photos. Just love this one. :o) The button in the flower says Dare to Dream ... I most certainly hope you do.

.. this is a Quickutz exclusive die & when I saw it I KNEW that I Had to Have IT! If you had seen the look on his face when he saw it in this album you would know that it was worth Every penny. :o)

... another photo from the day I photographed Sierra & lots more stamping & embossing.

... this photo also makes me hold my breath a little when I see it ... Time to spread your wings my little one (the time on the clock is the time he was born).

... more stamping & embossing ... I hope you are always able to Express Yourself

... we had sooo much fun shooting at this little falling down rubble of a cabin, sad to say they've come in & "fixed it all up" ... totally ruined a prefectly good thing ... I hope you
always Believe in yourself because I DO!

... I wasn't really sure why I left this last page blank, but looking at it now I think it must have been so I would have a place to put some of my thoughts for him...

... The End! Thank you for stopping by & taking a peek &
sharing this special time in our lives with us.

* on a side note, dad called late this afternoon & said that
mom is back in the hospital. Seems to be her kidneys &
heart again. Hoping that Jim will be able to take off work
for a little while tomorrow so that I can ride over & see her.
Positive Thoughts & Prayers please ...

hmmm ... so That's where she was going ...

2009-06-08T11:18:00.004-05:00

we were out working in the garage a few weeks ago & there was this swallow that would fly into the garage. If Jim would close the garage she would circle madly, screaching the whole time. I was afraid that she had a nest of babies but when we would open the door she never went to a nest, she would fly up towards the light & dart back out. I tried to get Jim to leave the door open for her but he wouldn't.
Yesterday he went out to ride his bike, after just a few minutes he came back in & said "I know where she built her nest now". When I looked up this is what I saw ...

Trust me, he was NOT a happy camper. :o(
However he did NOT let it keep him from going for a ride, lol.
He did mention that nest are known to have lice in them & that if he gets that we'll know where it came from, geesh.

As you can see she didn't get very far before she had to stop. I guess it was a good thing that he didn't leave the door open for her, she definately would have finished. You know she wasn't a dumb bird at all ... just look & think about it ... there the helmet was, hanging so nicely upside down on the wall ... looking so welcoming & like just the perfect/secure place to build a nest & keep you babies ... I wonder where she's gone now???

New Neighbors :o)

2009-05-23T10:46:00.004-05:00

About a week or so ago Jim came in & said "come here" & led me outside to a tree beside the garage. When I got there I was pretty excited & said "why didn't you tell me to grab my camera" & immediatley ran back in to get it. Seems we have some "new neighbors" ...

aren't they Cool!!! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I truely was! I've secretly had a desire for quite a while to learn to be a "Bee Keeper". After all there's 6 acreas here for them to live on. :o)
Wonder where you go to take a class or learn how to do that??? Anyway believe it or not ... THAT was All BEES!!!
It doesn't look like that now, there are only a few left. Jim thinks the others are out "working" while a few have stayed behind to "build". One can only Hope!
I think my "new neighbors" are the Coolest & hope they stay around for Quite a While! :o)

4 wheelin' fun! :o)

2009-04-29T23:15:00.002-05:00

Wow! I can't believe how long I've had these pics uploaded here, just waiting for me to add the text to go with it. I tell you when I'm working I just don't seem to have much time for blogging, although summer break is just around the corner. Sooo hopefully I will get better about it.

My BFF Tammy & I went to a crop about a month ago. It's always nice when we get the chance to go & reconnect with some old friends! :o)
At the previous crop there I found some 4 wheelin' paper that I just HAD to have! Well my new rule is ... if I buy it then I must USE it NEXT! No more hoarding for this girl ... so I dug out the pics & took them with me & I actually used my papers!!! Yeah! (I'm sooo bad at buying things & then holding on to them forEVER!)

Needless to say the pics are quite old now (2003), but it's still a memory that I wanted to record. When Devan & Zach discovered riding the 4 wheeler, well you just couldn't keep them off of it. :o) They would get on & basically ride till they were out of gas, lol. On this particular day Zach was driving & got a little too close to the fence row & as a result Devan got the worst end of it, ouch! Originally I didn't plan on using the pic of "the injury" but Devan asked where it was (he remembered that I photographed it, lol) so I decided to add it as "Proof" for the title. ;-)
The title is a play off of one of my Favorite "Flair" buttons on FB! The flair is one that I've sent to a few friends & it says " a best friend rides in your car no matter how many times your nearly killed them". I sent it to Denese cause I nearly killed her when we were 16 & I sent it to Tammy ... well cause any time you get in the car with her ... well ... lol ... in all seriousness there are people who Scare the Crap out of me a Whole Lot more than she does!
So anyway the title is a play off that piece of flair & it says "a best friend rides with you even when you've injured them", lol.

I also started my 1st chipboard mini album at that crop but unfortunately I haven't had the time to finish it & with the way things are going I doubt I'll have any time for such a thing until summer break comes. :o(
Tomorrow night will be opening night for Devan's last play, he came home tonight and all he could say was "this was our last rehearsal ..." , I had thought about sneaking up there to photograph it but now I'm glad that I didn't ... I don't think I could have handled it. He said that everyone was upset & crying ... hell I can't even say that this will be our last time being backstage parents without losing it ( & I have tried) so I know that I would have fallen to pieces tonight. Anyway, hopefully I'll have new pics & the time to post this weekend ... but with my track record lately ... I wouldn't hold my breath! ;-)

new goodie :o)

2009-03-20T08:34:00.002-05:00

just a quick share today. (having to sit at the desk to use my laptop right now, long story but I hate it sooo I won't be on here long, lol) Back in January I found a little something that after walking away I thought about it several times. Enough that at the beginning of this month I finally broke down & went & got it for myself! :o) A few years ago my bff's youngest daughter came back from a vacation with a really cool new wallet, it was made different from any other that I had Ever seen. Tammy & I both immediately fell in Love with the design & began to covet it, lol. But you know me ... not only do I have to LOVE it, it has to be the Right price too!
While on the quest for a new lipstick case in January I ran across one in the Ed Hardy style! I'm the kind of girl who believes that there is a time & PLACE for Everything. And in MY book the Place for a tattoo is on my Accessories! LOL!
Devan & I actually got matching Ed Hardy sunglasses on Christmas Eve (it was really a strange Christmas) & now I have a Really Cool New Ed Hardy wallet!!! sooo Happy!!! :o)

So here is my new Treasure! ;-) sooo Cool & just $19!

this is what the inside is like, I wasn't really sure how well I would like the functionality of it but so far I LOVE it! :o)

LONDON UPDATE!
Sad to say today is their last day :o(. They're having sooo Much Fun that even though I miss him very much, I hate to see it end for them. I only talked to him for a few minutes last night (I was at Photo Club when he called). His Big Excitement for yesterday was that he bought a leather jacket! Thankfully Chris was with him at the time & "jewed" them down on the price or else he probably would have been poundless at that point & time ... I guess for the Most part he has done much better tha we thought he would with the money ... not sure if I really want to know how many times she put the breaks on for him. Anyway, they're coming home tonight! We'll pick them up at the airport around 6 pm Tomorrow!!! I can only Imagine what awaits me ... my son ... pierced ears ... new Ed Hardy hat (yes that was one of his major purchases while there) ... leather jacket ... hehe... I thinking he will probably look like a real London "Punk"! :o)

last month my baby ...

2009-03-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

turned 18!!! :o(
How is this possible when ALL the details of his delivery are still sooo Fresh in my mind??? Seriously it really seems like it was yesterday. I stop & think about all the "plans" that I've mentally made of things to do with him over the years & the truth is now it's like the "timer" has gone off & time is up ...

we recently discovered that Dairy Queen now makes Blizzard Cakes!!! :o)
They are available in ANY blizzard flavor you like, of Course he chose cookie-dough!

The Number Sparkler candle thingies seemed like a really Cool idea when I saw them. I got a 1, a 8 & a star because he was turning 18 & of course he's our star. :o) Uh yeah, lol ... like you can tell all that when you look at the pic! Smoke ??? Yeh, can you imagine Just How smokey the kitchen was??? Thank Goodness that we were in the kitchen, I turned on the vent to the jen-air and it was gone in just a few minutes. :o) (but it is a pretty cool looking shot if you ask me)

Yeh, of Course he did this! LOL. You really have NO idea how many shots I have of him when he was little with his mouth open like this (and usually the tongue was OUT too, lol) But I think that he really just HAD to do it this time with the sparklers. I'm sure it goes back to his wresteling days ... he was probably imagining that he was Goldberg or something, lol. :o)

He chose to keep it small. A few close friends at home. Pizza, salad & cake.
From left to right his cousin Alex, Alysa, & Sierra. His best friend Zach did come but he was late so he didn't make it in time for the cake picture.

Of course since we had just gotten the PS3 back from being repaired they had to do a little RockBand before the evening was over. ;-)

Since Zach was late getting here he stayed a little later than the rest of them. Devan wanted to "Pop" the balloons but I suggested that instead of "popping" them that they inhale them! (yeh, yeh I KNOW, but you've done it too ... go ahead & admit it, just too funny to pass up) They had a Blast & of course they Sounded Hilarious! :o)

Of course before it was ALL over they had to do their signature "Special" pose, LOL! I swear they LOVE doing this, for a while they Both were using this shot as their profile pic on FB, hehe.

LONDON UPDATE!

Last night when we talked to him he was excited about having seen Stonehenge! He told us that he fell asleep on the bus trip back home & apparently slept on his ear & irritated it & it had started bleeding, keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't end up with an infection. Our group has hit it off with a group from Memphis so Chris was having the group from Memphis over to her room last night & they were going to "hang out" & visit. :o) They are having Such a Wonderful time & growing leaps & bounds personally, I know when he comes back (to a certain degree at least) that he will not only look different (the ears ;-) ) but will also BE a different person (in a Good way). Right now they truely are creating Memories of a Lifetime & I am sooo Grateful that he's there. :o)

holes in his head???

2009-03-17T09:05:00.004-05:00

LOL! Yep, that would be our son.
He called this morning to get permission to get his ears pierced. My first answer was "I'll talk it over with your dad & then send you a text". He was sooo appreciative & excited you would have thought that I had said "tomorrow is Christmas morning". His actual reply was "thank you for your openess". Okay ... say it with me ... Awwww. :o) It really is quite sweet when you consider that he turned 18 last month so technically he's legal & doesn't have to ask. But do NOT fear that we have washed our hands & there are no Guide Lines, cause there are! ;-)
Anyway, we discussed it & the answer we gave him was ... ears only, single piercings & NO plugs! It's no surprise, he's wanted this for a loooooong time. We were not against him having this done, I've just had it set up as a reward type thing and as close as he's gotten in the past he's never quite made it the whole way. When we weighed things it really would have been hard to say no ... consider the following .... Spring Break, Sr Year, with the Greatest/Coolest Teacher EVER in a Foreign County!!! Too sweet of a memory to pass up, he did promise that there would be LOTS of pictures of it being done for me! ;-)
The last time I talked to him today it was a done deal, my kid now has two holes in his head, lol. Today was a down day so they weren't on tours, spent the day shopping, piercing, you know mingeling with the locals. Tonight's destination was the Jack the Ripper tour! That sounds like Fun! Can't wait to see the pics. :o)
Now I thought that I would share with you the pictures & comments that the tour director has posted on the tour website.

This is from yesterday (Monday) This is what the tour director said
"We loved parliament square on the London sightseeing tour."

Also from yesterday: "Here we are enjoying our visit to Windsor the weather was fantastic! "

The last of the pics that the tour director posted for yesterday: "Enjoying London tour we are in front of the famous tower bridge!"

This one is actually from Sunday, their first day there! "WE arrived safely in London here we are in Covent Garden. The weather was nice and sunny."

Well folks that's it for today, just wanted to update you on my kiddo's world travel adventure. :o)

Two Hookers & a Transvestite ...

2009-03-16T13:20:00.012-05:00

that's what Devan was excited to have seen & photographed on his 1st day in London when we talked to him last night! :o)
As a friend of mine pointed out we Could have sent him to New Orleans a whole LOT cheaper & achieved the same results, lol. Oh well, I do know that he's having a Blast!
I thought I would fill you in on what we Know they've done so far & share some pics I have of them leaving.
Yesterday after arriving & having 2 hrs down time (Devan didn't sleep on the flight so he was up for Over 30 hrs!) they headed out on a walking tour. That's when he saw the two hookers & the transvestite, they also did a little shopping. After the tour they went out for dinner, he had Fish & Chips & a beer! :o) When we asked what kind of beer he had he said "a Corona", LOL! Only my kid would travel to England & order a mexican beer! When I asked why he didn't try an ale he said "we're only aloud to have beer or wine" too cute! I did tell him that ale falls into the beer category so maybe next time he'll get a little bit more "local" with what he's trying. ;-) I think they were all pretty exhausted after dinner so they returned to the hotel. He didn't do too bad on his roomates (you're not guaranteed to be with the people in your group) he got Jeffrey & a guy from Memphis (of all places!) in his room.
He called shortly after 6 this morning, they were already at Windsor Castle! He actually got "locked out" of the castle tour, lol. (leave it to my kid) He had gone back outside to "get a good shot of the changing of the guard" & when he tried to go back in the castle that's when he found out that once you leave you can NOT re-enter. :o( Poor guy, he was probably trying to get the shot for me. Good news is that I think he had already seen everything inside (at least I hope he had).
Tonight after dinner they're going to see "Wicked"! :o) I was really hoping that he would call & tell us about it when they were done but I'm thinking that we probably aren't going to hear from him tonight since as I type this it's almost 12:30 pm there.
Now a few of my favorite pics of them while they were leaving ...

the "Fab Four" & their "Drama Mama"
L-R Jeffrey, Erin, Chris (drama mama), Devan & Lindsay in the front right corner

two thumbs up on the trip to the airport! lol

okay, so yeh we had been on the road for about 50 minutes! lol
you KNOW he slept on the plane!

I had to have a bathroom break just as we got to Memphis
(we always end up taking pics at a McDonalds, lol)

yes we are paying attention & following the rules to "check in" at the airport

check in is sooo Cool! You swipe your passport & it tells you where you belong & prints your ticket for you. :o)

Chris is laughing & pointing out that in just a few more steps I'll have to stop shooting their picture cause they will be going through the medal detectors, lol.

everyone having to "strip off" their stuff for the medal detectors

This was our last shot, they had gotten to a point that I had a hard time seeing them so I handed the camera to Jim & had him shooting while I stood there waving like an idiot with tears running down my face. After a few minutes a security guard came over & said something to Jim about the number of pics he was taking & stating that he was probably getting shots of the security equipment. Jim appoligized & I turned & looked up to appoligize too, that's when he looked down & saw my face ... poor man ... all he could say was "ohhhh, it'll be okay". Poor guy I kinda felt bad for making him feel bad, lol. :o)

I don't really know why I was crying, I wasn't sad at all just the opposite very excited for them. I guess there may still be a little military brat in me, enough that says goodbyes are always a sad/crying time...

Finally!!! :o)

2009-02-17T07:54:00.003-06:00

I have to tell you, I'm a Very Happy Girl Today!
I Finally finished one of the quilts for Devan's bed! :o)
My goal was to have one finished by Christmas & I almost made that goal, but then mom went in the hospitol. After that I was just typical Sheila ... when I'm working on a big project & it gets near the end I tend to let the little details overwhelm & sidetrack me :o( .
I finally decided Enough! Just do It!
I feel bad that I let it ride as long as I did ...
last night when Devan came to tell me good night I was working on it & told him that it was almost done. He got sooo excited & asked how much longer. When I told him about 15 minutes he sat down excitedly to wait :o) . When I finished he was like a little kid & he kept saying ...
"thank you, thank you, thank you , thank you". :o) Sooo appreciative!
But I have to tell you as sweet as it was ... it made me feel REAL Guilty ... Guilty that I hadn't made it a Bigger priority to get it finished. He was very sweet & told me that I had been working on it & very busy but the truth is that I haven't worked on it for quite a while. Sooo now it's time to start the second one, YES a second one (he has 2 twins) & I'm going to have to make it a Real Priority to get it done Much Quicker!

Here's a pic. Not a fancy quilt at all, very guylike. We collected old jeans, some ours-some not. Each denim square is backed with a square of red flanned (I used a set of flannel sheets). The seams are sewn to the front, I can't wait for them to start unravelling (that's what they're supposed to do). Then it's all fluffy looking around each square (just might have to take it to a laundry mat this weekend to help it along :o) ).
He definately Won't be cold at All in his bed!!! I can't begin to tell you how HEAVY this thing is & the fact that it is backed with flannel ... Sooo Warm!
Hmmm ... not sure about summer ... maybe if we flip it (flannel side up) in the summer it will be cooler... anyway we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now he's a Happy Kid that I finished one of his quilts & I'm a Happy Mom that I have ONE done & out of the Way!
Have a Good One! :o)

couldn't help myself ...

2009-02-16T08:37:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to share a quick Laugh, hoping to get lots done today. My SIL sent me this video this weekend. It called "Where Crescent Rolls Come From". Warning ... it's a Little Gross along with a Lot of Very Funny! Enjoy! :o)

time for a little PSA ...

2009-02-15T10:46:00.004-06:00

While I am happy with the result in the end I was NOT happy with the way that I was treated & all the Crap that I had to go through to get to the end result. :o(
As a result I thought I would take a few and share a little Public Service Announcement with you so that you may avoid such unhappiness in the future.
As you may remember I took the plunge on New Years Eve & purchased a new laptop! (for those of you that know me you Know this is Not something that I do lightly, I do NOT replace things that are perfectly Good for NO reason!)
My laptop had in fact been a pillow top for the last year because you had to prop it open with a pillow because the hinges were broken (which meant it was NOT portable, but ok it was still usable) & then while going back & forth to the hospitol when mom was in ICU it literally melted! Time to bite the bullet & replace it, not the best timing in the world but still pretty exciting since this would be my First time to have a computer ALL MY OWN! :o) A Very Big Deal For Me!!!
New Years Eve mom is released from the hospitol so we headed to Jackson to "shop" for a laptop! Yeah! Trust me when I say shop I mean shop! We went to Every possible store in that town! Looked at Every option & weighed the decission Very Carefully ( I do not just buy on a whim) So after much consideration & going back to a few places the second time I settled on my beautiful Gateway (sometimes know as Esmerelda, lol ;-) ). She was perfect for me! She had a nice large screen (better for editing pics), a built in webcam (so if I want to chat with my big bro), 3 G memory (able to run PS or any other program), & a fair size hard drive (able to hold my pics for quite a while till I'm ready to burn & remove). I was one Happy Happy Girl! Of course I handled her like a baby (even bought a special lens cloth for wiping the finger prints off). Almost 30 days after the purchase she started crashing while trying to edit pics & Jim said that the memory was bad that we would need to contact BB & have them to replace the memory.
So the following Monday he called & they said to bring it by & they would take care of it, then the ice storm hit & we didn't go Anywhere for several days. The following weekend (Super Bowl Sunday) we made the treck back to Jackson to drop her off. Left her with a nice young man who found out very quickly that I was pretty particular about the computer (it embarrasses Jim when I call her "she or her" lol). We were told that they would have to run a diagnostics on her that we would have to leave it over night. :o( (I was not a happy girl) I waited anxiously Monday for the call to come & pick it up. Shortly after Dev got home from school the call came & we headed out to pick it up.
The minute the young man laid her down (not the same young man a different one) I saw tons of finger prints (no big deal) & SCATCHES!!! I took a deep breath & told myself "probably the kind that buff off, it'll be ok. Then I reached down & touched it to see & I COULD FEEL THE SCRATCH- IT WAS THAT DEEP!!! I was sooo upset I almost cried.
I won't bore you with the rest of the story but what I want you to know is that I was told that they wouldn't do anything about it because there was NO PROOF that they did it, there was NO documentation. To which I said "are you kidding me??? do you really think he was going to note Computer is in perfect condition, no scratches!!!" the woman I was dealing with at the time said "those are minor scratches & we wouldn't have Noted minor scratches".
FYI - in my humble opinion it stops being a scratch when you can feel it & it becomes a Gouge!
The first thing they tried was to give me Gateways # (to see if I could get them to replace it!!!) & a small gift card ($15!!!) for my time! Anyway here are a couple of pics that I took of the scratch/gouge before I took it back to swap out, the quality isn't very good- I was in a hurry ...

I know it doesn't look like much here but it was really quite deep

Here's another shot, do you see that??? I wish you could feel it, then you would understand how upset I was. Long story short, I was put off, treated like an idiot & ignored till I called Corporate, then amazingly there was All kinds of Managers for me to talk to & after a day the decided that they would swap it out for me ( so now I'm reinstalling everything).

Now here's the PSA ... please know that when you drop something off to have it worked on Make Sure They Note The Condition of Your Item ESPECIALLY if It's in Perfect Condition!!!

Hoping that none of you Ever have to go through what I did but just incase a little bit of information about how to handle things, oh & yeah be sure you Note EVERYONE'S name to you come in contact with.

Found a Steal! :o)

2009-02-13T14:54:00.004-06:00

Yep! Found me a Steal sooo Good yesterday that I just had to share with You!
After all you might want one too ; ) ...
We are Turkey fryin' people around here & we've had a fryer for a while but this year we got a look at my younger brother's fryer & we felt inadequate to say the least.
His is top of the line. What makes it top of the line???
Well to start it has a spout on the front to drain the oil back into the container! It also has a basket (not sooo much to me but Jim really liked that idea) & it has a lid with a hole in it so you can place you thermometer in the hole & still read the temp! It's really cool I tell Ya!
But if you know us you know that we're not the kind of people to just replace something that works just cause we like another one, but this is sooo Cool that I was determined that I would find Jim one.
Yesterday I went to Kroger after I got out of school & I was in the meat dept to see what was on sale this week & looked down & there were 2 fryers & when I looked at them They Had the Spout on Front!!! I was pretty excited so I asked the guy putting out the meat if he knew how much they were (they weren't marked) & he asked the woman back there to get the gun & shoot it ( I knew that Jason said he paid about $50 for his a Bass Pro). When she did it came up ...
$22.50!!! According to Kroger that was 75% off!!! It was originally $89.99 there!!! Wahoo!!!
Love me a Steal of a Deal!!! Can you say early Father's Day?!? :o)

here's a close up of the box so you can see the spout, do you know how much easier that will make things?

and here's a pic of the box, just incase you were interested in getting one for yourself ; )
Remember they were in the meat dept & make sure that your store has clearenced them Before you go to the register!
Happy Fryin' Ya'll :o)

OMG! a Happy email Surprise!!!

2009-02-06T20:25:00.003-06:00

Sooo if you look down to my last post you will notice that I have TWO comments.
If you were to read the comments you would see a post that I received today from Tania Willis!
I had visited her blog back in January when she was helping to preview the winter CHA releases for Karen Foster Designs. She was showing the cute new Easter line & anyone who knows me KNOWS I'm a Sucker for Easter! I couldn't help myself I had to leave a comment & let her know how much I liked the new line, then I got swamped with work, mom, trying to get sick you know ... LIFE & totally forgot about & lost track of the blogs that I read.
Today while the kids were at lunch I decided to check my email & was surprised to see that Tania had left me a comment! :o) So are ya wondering what she said in the comment (not like you couldn't click on it & see for yourself, lol) ... she said ... I WON!!!! That's right MY comment was randomly picked & I WON the ENTIRE new Easter line from Karen Foster Designs!!!
I have to tell you that I felt pretty crummy today (been using the Zicam for about 3 days now) & I've had some pretty rough classes this week but after seeing my email I was practically dancing (well ok I actually did dance in the hall with the kids for a few minutes this afternoon, lol) in the halls for the rest of the day! :o)
I don't remember when was the last time that I won something & this line is just too cute! Can't wait to get my hands on it, oh ... want to see it ??? Follow this link to view the entire Easter line.

http://www.karenfosterdesign.com/shop/index.asp?c=2726

So that's it for today, happy about a scrappy surprise, having the hubby help me cram tonight for a photography workshop in the morning (ok I DID procrastinate but he also CHANGED the assignment on Monday after I had Already completed the assignment!)

a little Scrappy shopping & a Sweet Surprise ...

2009-01-20T11:09:00.008-06:00

So My tradition while at the Thespian Conference is ...
while the kids shop at the mall I head on over to my favorite Scrapbook Store! This year I also made time to go to Archivers ;-).
I have to tell you that I'm not sure what it was ...
if it's that after a year of toning down the shopping I'm just not into the shopping part as much (YEAH RIGHT!) or if the store inventory was down because of pending CHA (but they hadn't started the "clear the shelves" sales yet), I really think it was that I haven't scrapped since November & I didn't really have a LO in mind sooo I just couldn't think of how I would use the stuff. So things just weren't Jumping out at me. But Have NO Fear ... I did NOT walk out Empty Handed! :o)

I took the plunge & purchased the New Quickutz binder! I also got a package of the 4x4 pages & 1 of the magnetic pages. I found the cutest little megaphone chipboard album, a package of cheer embellies, some graduation rubbons (they were clearanced so All the Much Better!) a couple of New stickels, & 2 double sided pages of BoBunny paper. That's It! That's ALL I bought!!! Can you believe that it came up to $61! I had even used TWO 30% off coupons! I know the binder was quite a Huge investment but still ... the cost of scrapping supplies have gone through the roof. :o(
I Love the few things I did buy so it's All good! :o)
When I got home from conference & got the mail on Tuesday (cause the was NO mail on Monday) I found a little Scrappy Surprise from my BFF Ruth! Seems she saw a little something that made her think of me while she was out shopping :o) ...

OMG! Isn't it Great! Think of ALL the Rockband pages that I haven't even began to tackle!
THANKS RUTH!!! :o)
I just got a call from my aunt in SC a little while ago telling me that she was headed out the door headed to my parents house. (she's very worried about my mom, she's home but still not doing so well) So I guess I will be headed to mom's tomorrow, it will be the first time I've been there since the attack. From what I heard from my SIL she hasn't calmed down any & is Over the top with Control over Mom & Everything around her or having to do with her ...
I just can't even tell you How much I dread tomorrow, but I want to see my mom & my aunt sooo ...
I'll be getting up at 6:30 to cook dinner so I can leave here by 10am, so I can be there buy lunch time to feed them because mom doesn't know they're coming & I'm sure dad hasn't thought of anything like that.
So please keep your fingers crossed for me that somehow (against all odds) tomorrow can be a peaceful (not asking for happy-just peaceful) day.

Travel Time & a Little Shopping ...

2009-01-20T10:27:00.011-06:00

Sooo ... today I thought I would thrill you once again by sharing some more pics from the Thespian Conference! Wahoo!
Will the excitment Never end ??? ;-)
While the rest of us were gassing up the vehicles for the trip Jim went back to the school ...
(cause a couple of the guys in his truck were completely scatter brained & FORGOT ALL their stuff for an audition! isn't he Sweet!)
When he came back he had another passenger ...
it was ... well see for yourself ...

LOOK Closely! In his front seat is ...
Barack Obama!
(I have NO idea what the skit was, we didn't sit in on the audition)
when I looked up saw that I had to Grab the camera but don't worry we were sitting still waiting for everyone else to finish getting gas.
After we get to Memphis & check into the hotel we head over to Wolfchase for a Little shopping,
this time we had about 4 Hours to Shop!

a few of our girlies Anne Marie, Anna, & Whitney

Chris' car front left to right: Aaron, Anne Marie, & Mary
back row: Sara, Erin, & Devan
Before leaving the mall we had Everyone jump on the Carousel
(these pics were A Lot harder than I thought they would be!)

Whitney, Susan, & Jordan

Deanna, Sanibel, Erin, & in the back in the glasses Cody

Devan

Our usual Group photo in front of the Carousel !
I'm pretty sure that we had ALL 31 kids in this Shot!
(I can't begin to tell you what a Great group of kids these are or How much I LOVE getting spend this time with Them!)
On the way Home I couldn't resist ...

I had Deanna Grab my camera & take a few pics of the one's who crashed out! lol
That's the price you pay when you stay up Sooo Late that you can't stay awake on the way home & leave your driver sitting in Silence fighting Sleep ;-)
(thank Goodness I was able to keep the girls up front Awake to talk to me!)
... Good Times with Great Kids! :o)

Breakfast at McDonalds ...

2009-01-20T10:10:00.012-06:00

It is a Long standing tradition that when we are on our way to Memphis for the State Thespian Conference that we stop at the McDonald's in Ripley for breakfast. While there we pull out our cameras & start snapping adorable pics of ALL our kids. :o)
This year however we got started a little early snapping ...
BEFORE anyone had food or was seated ...
we just couldn't HELP ourselves ...
you see there was this GUY ...
well I really can't do it JUSTICE ...
have a Look for YOURSELF ...

OMG!!! :o)
I haven't seen a Mullet like that since the 80's!
Have You ?!?
Remember yesterday when I told you that we weren't trying to get a pic of me but trying to get a pic of someone else ???
Well this gentleman was the someone else,
you really have to admire the dedication it must take to keep that style. :o)
Now I'll share a few of my Favorite McD's pics of this year ...

The ever Famous "Uncle Jim" (my Guy) & "Uncle Jeff" (my Bud)

Lindsay, Jordan G, Jessica, & Jordan M

The Fabulous Miss Chris & Nat (her BFF) :o)
( I Love these Girls!)

Devan & Eric

Me & "My Guy" better know as ...
"Aunt Sheila" & "Uncle Jim" :o)

Erin & Deanna
So that's it for today,
just wanted to share a little part of our "Thespian Conference" tradition
-Pics at McDonald's !!!
These tend to be some of My favorite pics of the weekend ;-)
Hope you day is Fabulous! :o)

in Love Again & a New do :o) ...

2009-01-20T10:07:00.009-06:00

Well I have to say that the older I get the More I embrace my Girlyness & the more I have to be In Love with what I'm buying. If it's an investment (which for me means more than $10, lol) it has to Scream Sheila for me. ;-)
As you know I made a jump on New Years Eve & bought myself a new laptop. After getting her home we discovered that she didn't fit into the laptop bag that was already at the house (I had gone with a larger monitor for picture editing). In D'burg our Only place to shop is the all sooo Lovely Wal-Mart (I actually typed that without gagging, lol). When I went to check they only had one bag that Essie would fit into ... it Cost $41.88+tax ... & it was FUGLY!!!
So I turned to the wonderful ETSY site & found exactly what I was looking for! :o)
I was able to order & get it in just in time to take Essie to the conference with me last weekend & I have to tell you that made me very Happy!
So here's my new Lovely bag ...

That is a Lovely Huge zippered pocket across the front there & inside are 3 nice roomy pockets & it has the thickest padding inside & just incase you are in the market I found her here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=78675

On another note I thought that I would share my New Do with you!
I got my hair cut 2 weeks ago tomorrow ( a big change for me, she cut At Least 5 inches OFF!).
Since I'm the one that's Always behind the camera I just haven't had a pic to share, but when we were headed to Memphis for the conference & stopped at McD's for breakfast I gave the camera over to one of the kids & they snapped a pic of me. We really weren't trying to get a pic of me, we were trying to get a pic of a guy in there & we just didn't want to make it obvious that we were taking his picture so they took my picture first, lol.

So that's my new hair, what do ya think ???
It should have plenty of time to grow out before "convertible hair" time (it's actually easier for me to take the top down with long hair). But I hadn't realized that my hair had gotten sooo Long! Not until we went to see The Lights of the Delta & I got a Good look at my hair in the pic with Santa (see previous post "Family Traditions"). When I saw the picture I asked Devan "My Gosh! Is my hair Really That LONG ?!?" To which he replied "Yeah Mom, you've got Pentecostal Hair" ...
While there is Nothing wrong with Pentecostal Hair or the Pentecostal belief ummm ...
I'm NOT Pentecostal sooo it had to GO! LOL (my hairdresser got a real laugh out of that story & was very glad for his comment, needless to say it had been a Looooong time since I had been in to see her)
Hope your day has been a good one! :o)

Uncle Jim !!!

2009-01-20T08:24:00.009-06:00

Well he's FAMOUS ya Know !!! :o)
At least at the State Thespain Conference he is. ;-)
On Saturday after lunch they have a Guest performer on the main stage,
this year is was a trio of women called
The Aerial Angels & they were Fabulous!
They call their show "Quirk Du Soleil".
That pretty much tells you what their show was like.
They are very good at what they do & I have to say personally they are by far my favorite Guest performer so far.
At one point of the show they announced that they needed an assistant & that they wanted the guy in the 4th row (we were shoved through the doors at record speed & catapulted down to some really great seats this year) with the Grey Hair & Beard! (OMG!)
At that point I looked to my left at Jim there was NO mistaking who they were talking about!
Being the trouper that he is he got up with a smile (I'm sure it was one of embarrassment) on his face started making his way to the stage.
While he was coming up they asked him what his name was & about 20 of our 31 kids yelled ...
"UNCLE JIM" !!! (that's what they call him)
So I thought I would treat you this morning to some pics of "Uncle Jim" on stage at the state thespian conference 2009. Please remember that as always there is NO Flash photography (actually you're NOT supposed to shoot at ALL), so the photos are very blurry & have lots of noise. Sorry. (this is definately a case of any shot is better than NO shot! ;-) )

Uncle Jim with Isabella (on the left) & Flame (on the right)

ummm... yep, he might have enjoyed this part a little. lol.
saftey check! they removed Everything from his pockets & brought them to Mrs. Jim,
cause like they said...
she's going to end up with it ALL anyway!

Isabella, Spike, Uncle Jim, & Flame
"Assume the Position!" LOL
do you have any idea how many kids (& adults)
came up to him after the show & said ...
"Assume the Position" ??? lol
& being the Good person that he is ... he Would!

You have NO idea how many times he heard "Uncle Jim!" after that show.
He's Famous!...or at the very least Infamous! ;-)
Chris is sure that he'll still be hearing calls of "Uncle Jim!" next year when we come back!
(that made me smile to know that we'll be coming back even though Dev won't be there :o( ,
I can't tell you how much we enjoy this weekend with this group of kids! They're totally Awesome & ROCK!!!)
So that's it for today, a funny little story about "My Guy" & what he'll do for our 31 "kids" (even though he'd rather crawl under the seats & die). lol.
"He's a Good Thespian Charlie Brown!" ;-)

the Best Birthday Present :o) ...

2009-01-13T21:40:00.008-06:00

My BFF - Ruth was given absolutey THE Best Birthday present EVER this year!
On December 18th (her birthday) she welcomed her New Grandson to the world! :o)
Sooo without further ado (even though this is terribly late) I would like to introduce you to ...

Augustus Van Askea
born December 18th 2008
12:02 pm
7 lbs. 4 oz. & 20" long

Peter (the Proud Popa), Auggie,
& Kadin (One very Proud Big Brother)

Kadin (I'm sooo sure that I'm misspelling that)
& Auggie (totally my nickname for him)

Such a Sweet Boy :o)
Even though it's very late I wanted to say ...
Welcome to the World sweet Auggie,
I'm sure there are many Great things ahead for you
& I can't wait to actually "meet" you!
Love Ya!
"Aunt Sheila"

Family Traditions ...

2009-01-12T09:42:00.012-06:00

Wow, I really can't believe how far behind I am here. Sorry about that (again).
First an update on Mom, she seems to be doing somewhat better. We still don't know the reasons for her symptoms that put her in the hospitol but she seems to be doing much better (at least the last time I talked to her she was). They are supposed to have home health start coming this week to help her get dressed & get around. I'm not sure how long that's supposed to last but I'm thankful for it just the same.

front row: Austin, Santa, Logan
second row: Sheila (me) & my sister in law Tonya
back row: Devan, Jim, & my brother Jason

A few years ago it became a Christmas traition of ours to have my little brother & his family to come & spend the weekend before Christmas with us. They come on Friday afternoon & after dinner the kids exchange gifts. After that we ALL put on our Santa hats, load into the van, put on some Christmas carols & head over to Blytheville, AR. to see The Lights of the Delta.
This is a HUGE Christmas light display that you drive through. It's hosted by the local high school FFA & it is just the sweetest! :o)

When you enter they have their very own radio station that you can tune your car radio to for Christmas music & half way through there's a stop! On Friday & Saturday this seems to be where Santa hangs out ; ) . While there you can have your photo taken with Santa. They do NOT charge for this but they do have a donation bucket set out. They print your picture immediately & they also upload it to their web where you can download it for free! There is also a small building that sells souvenirs, popcorn, & hot chocolate. It's really the sweetest & we ALL look foward to it.

Austin

Logan

Devan

After we get back from the Lights we start our Gingerbread! We have always done the houses but this year I decided to go with the trees instead, I think the boys liked them much better (they're easier ; ) )

isn't he a good uncle! he made SIX batches

(1 white - 1 green per boy) of icing!

they are concentrating sooo hard! :o)

Logan made his tree striped.

Devan hard at work ; ) ...

Three of the cutest guys I know with 3 of the cutest little gingerbread trees! :o)

By the time we are all done it's usually about...

1 am! Whew! (no wonder they LOVE it at Aunt Sheila's, lol)

saying "Sooo Long" to an "Old Friend" ...

2009-01-01T08:10:00.004-06:00

well this has been a very Long - very Exhausting Christmas season. Devan says it's been "Our Un-Orthodox Christmas" , lol.
I'll try to keep this somewhat short ...
on the 23rd they put Mom in the hospitol (we didn't know where-dad didn't call & let us know where). She was in ICU till this past Monday (29th) . Yesterday (Wednesday 31) they let her come home. This morning she fell & hit her head, they called the ambulance & took her back to a hospitol & I am now waiting for an update. I'm trying to keep a hold on things from here, I can't be anywhere near them anymore without male escort/body gaurd- SHE attacked me Monday evening both physically & verbally in the ICU waiting room. The people in the waiting room & my parents don't need that so I came home. Apparently covering her butt meant more to her than mom's recovery cause she made up some kind of crap & told her. :o( There was NO need to do that, I wasn't telling anything because I didn't want to upset them & set her back.
Anyway, we came home last Saturday so I could shower, do laundry, & get a good nights sleep before heading back out @ 4 am to pick my brother Harold up & take him to the hospitol. That's when I discovered ...

that my beloved lap/pillowtop had officially bit the dust! :o(
As you can see from the pic above is was kind of ... ghetto, as the kids would say.
The hinges broke about 2 years ago (that's when it became a pillow-top, you had to prop it open with a pillow,lol).
Then about a year ago the fan went out, it would work sometimes but then it would quit, the laptop would over heat & shutdown. It had gotten to the point that you would have to "jiggle the cord" to get it to power up. Saturday that wasn't helping so I tried unplugging it & that's when I discovered ...
that the cord had Melted inside the computer! Truth was that was dissapointing but I didn't really have time to worry about/or fool with it with mom in the hospitol.
Since I was no longer able to be with her & had to come home & we got word yesterday that she was on her way home we decided to head over to Jackson to investigate the laptop market & this is what I decided to "Treat" myself to ...

She is Mighty Pretty! She's a Gateway with a 15.4" monitor & built in webcam ;) . Of course I'm not excited that I have to deal with Vista, ugh, but I'm pretty excited about my new toy! Right now I'm calling her Esmeralda, lol.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree ...

2008-12-20T21:03:00.007-06:00

Once again it seems like ForEver since I've updated, sorry.
I really thought that I would have had time to update last week (especially since we Didn't go to school for THREE days due to ice storms!) but it was Very busy, busy, busy around here.
Devan & I made it to Jackson last Sunday for our "annual holiday shopping trip" & this year we even managed to "drag" Jim along for the trip. ;-)
We didn't have much to finish up mainly my nephew Logan (his list came from American Eagle- so it had to come from a bigger town) & some "filler" things.
One of the things on my list was new ornaments for this year...
I've always gotten Devan a new ornament every year (this will be his to take with him when he leaves home).
About 3 years ago I realized that when he Does leave he will be taking quite a bit of the ornaments with him. At that point I started a New tradition of Everyone picking out a New ornament (no theme trees here, they are Beautiful but I prefer more of a "traditional" mosh posh of ornaments) .
I thought I would take a few minutes to share a pic of our tree with you this year & pics of our new ornaments ...

Our tree! I personally had The hardest time picking an ornament this year, usually there are several that "speak" to me but this year it was Not so.
We had been to Macy's & Every other store in The mall & I was empty handed.
After we had dinner at Red Robin (this was Jim's first time & I think he enjoyed it!) we headed over to Kohls to look for ornaments, nutcrackers (we may not get nutcrackers this year-haven't found any yet that "talk" to us) , a new Christmas frame (for the pic that I "knew" we would would be taking with "Santa" at the "Lights of the Delta") stocking stuffers & little "go with" gifts.
When I went to the ornaments & looked once again I didn't see Anything that "spoke" to me. When the guys caught up to me & we started looking at the other decorations I finally saw something that made me go "hmmm". When I started looking around that display I finially saw one that made my heart kind of smile :o) ...

this is the guy that I hesitantly picked up thinking "could this be the one???" . I looked all around & he was the only one left & he was perfect - no breaks or cracks. :o) The more I looked at him the More I fell in Love with him! He's sooo vintage-y (hmmm I'm sure that's not a REAL word, lol) looking, he has bling glitter & even has flocking around his mittens- did I mention that he was on sale too ??? Yep, he cost me all of $2.64 & he Couldn't make me Happier he IS "my" perfect ornament this year! :o)

This was Jim's addition for this year (he found him at Macy's) . Another vintag-y looking one. He's pretty Cute I think, he reminds me of those little milk carton/Santa ornaments we used to make in Kindergarten (do you remember those?) .

Last but not least here is Devan's ornament for this year (he also found his at Kohls) . It has become a Huge part of our Christmas Day to watch "A Christmas Story" at Least THREE times! lol. I guess it was pretty easy for him when he saw this one & when he realized that the door opens, that it lights up, & plays scenes from the movie it was a Sure thing! ;-)
I guess that's it for now, hopefully I'll be able to post a little something tomorrow.
See-Ya!

sneaky ... who ME ???

2008-12-10T08:32:00.009-06:00

hmmm, I guess I could resemble that remark, lol.
Last night the choir concert was held at the High School & being that Devan is in choir this year we were there, along with HALF of the town! No kidding I could not believe how Crowded it was! I pulled into the parking lot at 7 thinking that I was plenty early enough
( concert was to begin at 7:30) only to find that I had to park ALL the way in the BACK!!!
I was sure that there Must be a basketball game going on till I entered the theatre! OMG!
You would Not believe the amount of people!
Turns out they were doing ALL the choirs!
Yep! You heard right ALL 6th-12th!
So I guess pretty much EVERY parent in town was there! LOL!
The advanced choir (Devan's) was the last to perform on their own ...

truth is we didn't even Recognize HIM! Do you? It honestly took me a few minutes to find him, still not used to the dark hair (will be glad when it's gone). He's on the back row - last guy on the right! Yep, that HIM! Right now his hair is about the color Jim's was when we were dating, lol.
(They've had a LOT of fun with it at school, they check it daily to see what colors are showing through. Someone told him yesterday that it had some pink- I personally didn't see it but it could be, lol.)

When Devan's choir had finished singing they brought ALL the choirs Back in for a couple of songs.
They didn't put the kids on the stage (not sure why, it sure would have been a lot cooler in there if they had) they placed them ALL around the room about 3-4 deep! You literally felt the temperature in the room increase as they came in & took their position!
Mr. Patterson & Mr. Coffman were stationed in the isles - directing.
It really was quite nice being surrounded by the music that way. :o)
They had made a announcement before the concert started that they wanted ALL choirs to stay after the performance for a group photo ...
can you guess where my mind was going ??? lol
At the end of the performance my mind went into over-drive & my light bulb went off, lol.
The BEST place to get that photo would be ...
up on the CAT-WALK!!! ;-)
Jim was like "I bet it's locked" , when it became apparent that I was going to try it he told me to be careful & not break my neck on the staircase & promptly left (some night in shinning armor, what's up with that ? he could have been my "partner in crime"!).
As soon as I could get through the crowd I went to the door in the hall & tried the door & ...
I SCORED! It was unlocked! Wahoo!
Sooo I climbed the spiral staircase (first time I've been up there) & while I was going up I was thinking things through ...
*be sure you turn off the flash- if they see the flash they'll know you're up there, make sure you're positioned where they can't see you*
(I was sure that they would be upset with Me helping myself to the cat-walk.)
Once I got up there I was trying to find my position & Mr. Coffman was talking to the kids
"Who said their mom could do this? Someone said their mom had a big camera & could do this who was it?".
I'm standing there frozen thinking *did Devan say I would do this? he would think that my camera is big- he wouldn't know the difference*.
THEN Mr. Coffman starts asking "Do we have Someone up on the cat-walk who can do this for us? Is there Anyone up there for us?".
Now my mind is going *are you kidding me? they want someone up here & they don't sound like they care who, guess it's time to come clean* .
Sooo ... that's when I stepped foward & waved to let them know that I was up there, lol.
At that point I became THE photographer! :o)
I hope they weren't expecting too much. I'm still very much a newbie, still keep it on auto, & I've never been on a cat-walk & have NO idea about what kind of settings you would use for that (some day I really have to make time to "study" more about the camera & setting but I honestly just haven't had the time). But honestly it's not like they had approached someone personally ahead of time & set this up so I guess they get what they get, the shot is definately not perfect but I had to deal with the lights & like I said not sure about settings & I was sooo Nervous when they knew I was up there & now they seem to be relying on ME for the shot!!!

Anyway here is my fave. Not sure what the deal with the "ghost/glare" of the light at the corners is??? I guess maybe something to do with the lights right beside me?? Not sure but they have several to choose from, maybe they'll like one of them. ;-)

p.s. things have been sooo busy crazy around here between work (this is the first day off I've had in a week and a half & I'm scheduled for tomorrow) the play (has completely controlled our life for a week & a half) and now the concert. I am spending the day nice & warm in my flannel pajamas! :o)
Going to get as much done a possible ... or maybe not, lol, just depends.
At any rate I plan on thoroughly enjoying my FIRST pajama day in ELEVEN days !!! ;-)

a transformation in the process...

2008-12-04T07:48:00.013-06:00

I feel like I've been neglecting you but it hasn't been intentional, things are just crazier than you can imagine around here.
When we got home on Thanksgiving I set to "staining" Devan's hair for the play that starts tonight (Thursday). I didn't really want him to have Black hair in the Christmas pics so I decided to go with a temporary stain.

So this is just before we begin...

the first application of the stain & I have to tell you it smells like ...
Grape Kool-Aid!!! You know the little packets from when we were kids that you had to add your own sugar to. It's really wierd how strong it is & it last a couple of days, lol.

getting a little deeper into the process ...

finally done! I have to tell you that the next morning when I went to get him up I kinda Freaked Out! lol. Only thing about this stain is ...
it was Supposed to last for 3-4 weeks (that's why we did it on Thanksgiving-trying to give it time to fade before Christmas celebrations) , but ...
well it Imediately started fading. A little on Friday, a little more on Saturday, & then ...
a Whole Lot More on Sunday! It was actually quite noticable in the sunlight. Oh & did I mention that on Sunday Green streaks had become visible??? LMBO! Yep! He was afraid that he would get in trouble at school for having green hair- I told him that if Someone had a problem with his hair that they needed to call Chris is the drama dept. it was Her idea to have us color his hair.
By Monday it was even More blond. I t kind of upset him cause his character is supposed to have jet Black hair.
We had about 1/2 a bottle of the stain left so I made arrangements to get him checked out about 10 minutes early yesterday & to drop my kids off with the class next to mine about 10 minutes early yesterday so I could rush home, restain his hair, & send him back to the school by 5 (with dinner) in time for the last dress rehearsal! And I made it !!! whew! :o)
This week has been like that All week. I had a 4th grade class on M,T,W - they thought the teacher had chicken-pox. (this is pretty much the class from he... well you get the idea) Tuesday after dealing with them all day I was up at the school providing back stage food, then ran to the project graduation meeting (ugh, just about as usuless as usual) , then back to rehersal to photograph their first dress rehearsal. (you know they only have one more play after this one so I'm even More sentimental than usual) Once that was over I discovered that I Had to get gas Before coming home so it was almost 10 before I got home. Then I had to wait up for Dev to get home long story short I didn't get to bed till 11:30! Up at 5:20 & bed at 11:30 I am too Old for this crap!
So yesterday they cancelled today on me & I did a little happy dance I have to admit (I was More tired than you can imagine), so today I was playing catch (had just started writing this blog) & decided to go get in the tub & noticed the answering machine flashing. My heart sank & I played it...
it was Mrs. Newbill our principal, she had called at 6:11 this am & No one had heard the phone! I felt horrible & called the school to make sure they had covered the library (that's where they had wanted me) & to appolagize for not hearing the phone & Liz immediatley asked if I would do ISS (in school suspension) tomorrow, ugh - I hate it but it's hard not to do it for Jennie & I need the money to help pay for Dev's trip. The bad thing is I already know that I will be starting the day with 7 kids! The good thing is I get to bring a book so I can do some serious reading (I broke down & bought Twilight!). Then she asked if I would come in today, they had a teacher sick & "she has a student teacher so you don't have to do anything" . Oh yeah, joy! Have I ever told you that I HATE being with a student teacher!!! I am too much of a control freak! I can't handle it when they let the kids walk all over them! Then she tells me it's on the 5th grade hall!!! Ummm... I don't DO 5th grade! and she knows this sooo she must be pretty desperate & I have begged for all the work I can get sooo ...
Yes, I went in. But you know it wasn't as bad as usual, she's kinda strict like me so I wasn't ripping my hair out, lol.
So I have run all day & now it's time for me to head out to the opening night performance of "Hard Luck".
Thought I would share a few of the pics I took at the dress rehersal ...

this is Jeffrey Dycus, he plays this nerdy guy & he's putting the moves on Sanibell -Dev's secretary who's in love with Dev

Dev as Graven Slade - a sleazy con-artist & Sanibell Wilson as Lotta

Pretty much the entire cast, I happened to be there when they were posing for the reporter from the paper! :o)
Well folks gotta run or I won't get there in time for the Best seats in the house (cause I Need more pics ya know, lol). I'll try to check in again soon.
See Ya :o)
UPDATE!
We just got back from the play & everyone there seemed to have really enjoyed it! I really was a wimp of a mom of a senior, I wasn't able to say anything to anyone 'cause I was afraid that I would start bawling... I guess we haven't seen the last of the senior year "mommy melt downs" yet. lol. He really did a good job tonight & I couldn't be more proud!!! :o)

alone & multi-tasking ...

2008-11-29T11:09:00.003-06:00

well all my guys are gone...
Jim is at Steve's cabin hunting ( don't know if he'll be home tonight or tomorrow) ,
Devan & Zach are gone to drama meetings (techie & wrap up crew) today, they'll probably be out till about 2 am.
Sooo it's just me today, trying to play catch up.
Yesterday we did get the main tree up before I was abandoned (Jim left for Steve's & Zach came over), but there is still much to do...
The small tree in the kitchen, the silver tree in the dining room (they didn't even get the ornaments out for this tree) & putting the nutcrackers out EVERYwhere! I also wanted to
hang the ornaments in the bay window this year, hmmm don't remember those being brought in yesterday.
So that's the decorating part (I'm down sizing this year), I still have laundry, cleaning, the quilt (I am sooo determined with this), editing, converting, & uploading pics! Whew!
So much to do, One person to do it...
I am not the busy bee worker type who enjoys doing lots of things by herself so how do I handle a day like today???
One small job at a time, rotating through the jobs till one by one they get completed & knocked off the list.
That means I'll edit a few pics, then prep a row of the quilt, pick an area to work on the nutcrackers, do a few decorations, & so on & so on.
Is this the Most efficient way to tackel my day???
Probably not, but at least it will stay interesting since I'm having to tackel it all on my own & I won't feel guilty working in a little rotation on the laptop doing a little "catching up".
Wish me luck on getting lots done today & I hope you have a Wonderful Saturday! :o)

holiday delusions, hmmm....

2008-11-28T08:38:00.004-06:00

maybe- maybe not. Okay now I've just gotten cocky, lol!
I have finished cutting all 896 sqares! Wahhoo!
So theoretically I could start sewing tomorrow & have One of the quilts finished by Christmas...

well that is if we can get all the decorating (cause we don't decorate for Christmas until after we pay homage to the turkey) done today. That's a pretty tall order, I don't know if we've Ever gotten it All done in one day. Maybe that's the delusion at this point, Jim wants it done today so he can go back to his bro's cabin hunting again- I want it done today so I can move on to other things like sewing, Christmas baking & so on.

Well obviously I'm not going to get all that accomplished sitting here talking to you sooo I guess I had better get off my behind & get busy, keep your fingers crossed & wish me luck - it's a pretty tall order but maybe just maybe we can pull it off! :o)

pj's & baking, baking in pj's

2008-11-25T13:07:00.005-06:00

that's the way I'll spend my day! LOL! :o)
Well today is the first day of Thanksgiving break for me (no work for subs the day before a break).
I decided to make it a pj day (my Favorite day of the week!)
& to play catch up.
So far today I have baked Six Pumpkin Pies, one Pumpkin Cheesecake, & two pans of sweet potato casserole.
You know what that means ...

that this is what you see in my kitchen ...

& it's warm in there ...
& it Smells wonderful! :o)
The kitchen does look like a bomb went off in there, lol.
But it's all good ...
that's why we have detergent.
I only bake like this once a year
& it brings a smile to sooo many of my favorite people!
I wasn't able to get a pic of the cheesecake ...
Jim took off with my camera.
WHA! Yep I let him take it hunting with him, after all like I told my SIL "it's insured",
besides I would Love it if "the bug" bit him too. :o)
Maybe I'll have time to snap a pic of it when he gets home tomorrow, we'll see.
Tonight he's gone to his brother's cabin hunting so it will be just Dev & me (when he gets home from rehersal). Tomorrow when Jim gets home we'll load up & head to my parents ( I know, I know... I'm not thrilled about her but it's Dev's sr year & he misses seeing his cousins & I miss being with my parents-maybe she'll behave-one can hope anyway).
My brother (Jason) & his wife (Tonya) are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. I'm in charge of pumpkin pie, deviled eggs. sweet potatoes, & I threw in the pumpkin cheesecake (we tried it for Thanksgiving last year & fell in Love with it) for good measure. It's a Paula Deen recipe, I'll post it after I get it entered.
On another note I'm still busy cutting squares to make the quilts for Devan's beds (that's what I'll be doing now that I'm done with the baking). It's been a loooong road but I'm beginning to see an end in sight.
Started out needing 896 squares & now I only need ... 217! :o)
Hoping to start the sewing process shortly after Thanksgiving (lol) & to maybe have One of the quilts finished by Christmas (LMBO) ...
anyway high hopes & Holiday dilusions are a Good Thing, right?!?
So if I don't talk to you again till after Turkey Day I hope that you & yours have a...
Very Happy Thanksgiving!
I know that I have my fingers crossed that we'll have a peacefull Thanksgiving - now That would definately be something to be Thankful for!!! :o)

the road of life is very rough sometimes ...

2008-11-19T20:11:00.009-06:00

so for those who know us this comes as NO Suprise!
After all I've said it from the very beginning...
"within Six months of getting his license that kid is going to put the van in a ditch!"
yep that's what I've said and it has finally come true, I would have prefered to have been wrong on this prediction but I wasn't :o( .
Tuesday night he had rehearsal, when it was over we got the text that he was on his way home.
When his headlights approached the drive the dogs started "barking" their welcome, after a bit I told Jim "Callie sure is barking for a long time" to which he replied "nah, she always barks long".
A while later Devan finally came through the door & qiuetly said
"I need some help"
Us "help, with what?"
Dev "I'm not sure what I hit but something knocked me off the drive"
Us "what? off the drive? how fast were you going???"
Dev " not very fast, only about 25"
Us "25!!! are you crazy! you should barely get up to 10!!!"
blah, blah, blah- you get the picture.
Soooo Jim goes out & after quite a while comes back and says " it's going to take a tow truck to get it out & I'm not sure that it won't end up in the pond" - great just great ...
So Wednesday morning I handed over the money that Devan was saving for the London trip to pay for a tow truck.
Turns out that we weren't even able to get up the drive ourselves, to get to work we had to drive across the nieghbor's yard (thank-goodness that the house is empty right now) & go up their drive.
Jim felt bad for him & kept thinking about it that morning till he realized that his cousin has a diesel dually & a great big chain. So he borrowed the truck, came home, & after a lot of pulling & sweating was able to get the van back on the drive. :o) (Devan owes his dad Big Time! I would have just paid the tow truck & let it be their problem) He said that more than once he was sure that it was going to tip over & end up in the pond before he got it up on the drive again.
You know the kid just hugs the shoulder soooo bad I knew it would happen, thing is since he did it the drive in much narrower now so he has no margin for error- geesh that really doesn't make me feel better.

just before driving across the neighbor's yard to use their drive so I could go to work I jumped out with my phone & snapped a couple of shots just to show you :o)

I appoligize for the glare, it was early morning. The photos don't really do it justice - I'm not sure that you can really tell how far off the drive his tires were but Trust me it was pretty bad!
Ultimately though if this is the worst that he ever does driving I know that we will have gotten off easy ... hey a girl can hope :o)

had a blast!

2008-11-15T12:16:00.004-06:00

well we survived last night & actually made it home & to bed Before the sun was completely up, lol. My butt is actually dragging the ground pretty bad right now & I probably have No business typing (seeing the amount of times that I have hit the "back" button to "fix" things, lol).
Tammy is still in bed crashed but I got up 'cause my time is limited here today.
We had a Lot of fun last night & I actually did TWO LOs if you can believe that!!!
Maybe I'll be able to snap a few pics tomorrow after the boy's last shoot (till spring) & maybe I'll actually even get them posted Before the month is up, lol.
I have now "scrapped" Devan taking his permit test,driver's ed, & his taking the driving test- Subject Complete! :o) Hmmmm.... can you tell that I'm pretty dog-gone Glad he got his license! :o)
The girls that scrap at my friends store in Newport were Sooo Sweet! We really had a Blast! And at the end of the night Vaniessa took 40% off your Bill! No Exclusions! Sweet! You would not believe the amount of goodies that I was able to pick up/use for $19.01!!! :o) Definately worth the trip! :o)
Next week is a pretty full week (I'm already scheduled to work Every Day, except for Monday) so I probably won't be worth much for anything else.
I need to get dressed & get my car packed (I have to head home this evening) so that's all for now.
See Ya! :o)

girls night out! :o)

2008-11-13T10:49:00.009-06:00

Wow! I can't believe that it's been sooo long since I updated!
No one Ever told me how busy your life got when you have a Sr.-
for those of you who aren't quite there yet let me tell you ...
You won't know wether you need to wind your butt or scratch your watch! lol
Since Devan is going to London over spring break I am begging for & working every day I can get to help pay for it.
I have also become the sr photographer for Devan & his best friend Zach. Do you know what that means ??? EVERY spare minute that I have seems to be sitting in front of a screen editing pics, I am sooo sick of editing pics!!! LOL I really would have LOVED to have handed it off to a real Pro & let them be responsible for making him look Fabulous, but since there is the trip to pay for I get to do it.
I realized today that I haven't updated since the St. Jude crop & that I NEVER showed you any of the stuff that I worked on while there, so here goes ...

this is a LO that I did about Devan Finially getting his license!

yes mom-a-ratzi was in real form that day! you should have heard me ask the woman to let me take her picture "I'm a scrapbooker & I've have the paper to do this Layout for 2 Years! blah blah blah" LOL!

splurged for the qk road die for the border across the top, love it!

and I finished up my nephew Austin's egg colorong LO that I have been working on

between the new Jolee's easter embellies that came out & the new qk egg die I think it came out just perfect :o)

I also did a calendar, but you know me I'm still trying to figure out how to tweek it- something's just not right yet.
Now about "Girls Night Out!" I'm pretty excited!
I used to do this every month!
...Once upon a time long long ago there was a wonderful lss that had a monthly crop till 5 am saturday morning. All the cool chicks (lol) would go and stay out till sunrise & run a "tab" hehe, sounds fun huh!?!
But this lss kind of went down the drain and doesn't really exist anymore
those of us who went really really miss the "all nighters" a lot :o(
But a friend of mine (one of the cool chicks) has been able to open a small store & she now does "all nighters" for her people! I have been wanting to go to one of her crops for a year now & it has finially worked out to go & I couldn't be MORE excited!!! :o)
This also means that I will be seeing my bff Tammy in November! Wahoo! that NEVER happens, it's always too busy with the holidays & everything.
It will be a short trip, Tam has "on call" tonight so I won't leave till tomorrow. We'll be at the crop tomorrow till 5 am Saturday then we'll go back to her place to CRASH! Saturday evening/night I'll need to comse back home so I can take the guys out for hopefully one last "shoot" (till spring at least, lol).
Well that's it for now, sorry it took sooo long to update. How's it going at your place?

juicy cooters ???

2008-10-27T18:19:00.004-05:00

OMG!!! Let me just tell you I have No Idea when I have had sooo much fun! I know for sure that I have Never laughed as hard or as long as I did at the St. Jude crop @ Eclecitca this past weekend. :o)

The group of women that go to their crops are just awesome & definately know how to have a Good Time! Apparently they liked us too :o) , they asked if we would be coming back for the 12 hour crops.

Now about the "juicy cooters"! One of the girls was telling us that last year she told her brother-in-law that she wanted some "JLo Glo" for Christmas. When he went to the Macy's perfume counter to buy some he was approached by a woman who was clearly old enough to be someone's MeeMaw & the sales lady proceeded to tell him that they had a new fragrance and asked him "wouldn't you like to smell this juicy cooter?" OMG! what did she say??? Then her brother-in-law looked at the bottle ... it was ... Juicy Couture!!! Okay that's pretty funny :o) , I wonder who finally broke it to her that it wasn't cooter ?!?

A couple of our new friends decided to break up the night with a little game of ring toss ...

this is Julie after she was "ringed"

here's Ann trying to get "ringed", lol! Can you see how tickeled these women are ??? We were All laughing our butts off! (look at Jennifer in the back!)

this is our little motley crew @ 4:30!

a few of us weren't exactly bright eyed & bushy tailed ALL night!

i don't really suggest sleeping in your car in Memphis ( not know for being the "safe" city) especially with you window down!

Last but definately Not least I thought I would share with you where Ann & Julie got the idea for their game! It's a youtube video & it's not called ring toss, it's called women of whippoorwil & it IS The FUNNIEST thing I have Ever Seen!!!! But before you click play let me Warn you their are a few things you need to do...

1. go to the bathroom, trust some people found this out the hard way :o)

2. do not have anything in your mouth, it won't stay there & you may choke

3. watch it more than one time, you will not be able to hear what they are saying the first time, lol

4. be sure you have the volume up!

...ready ... set .... play

hope you enjoy! I know it's been the best therapy I've ever had! :o)

and the clouds are gone :o(

2008-10-22T21:20:00.006-05:00

i know that it needed to happen but it's sad all the same.
We got home from my parents Friday -that was yesterday right, lol. I swear I don't know where the time has gone.
Saturday we went to Jackson for the medical career day program (that was ummm... interesting). Later that night Jim started "cutting in" Devan's room- while doing so apparently he wanted to play a little. But what the ....

okay do you see that ??? Like what was he thinking- he was there when we named this kid so when did he Forget how to Spell His Name!!! lol

going, going, gone ...

at first I was worried about letting Devan be a part of the color decision (his best friend had suggested Dark PURPLE!!!! Ugh) . But when I sent them to the store to pick out samples I was pleasantly surprised :o)

the room is FAR from being done but it's livable & the furniture is back in there instead of ALL over the house...

I couldn't find any comforters that I like so that has started a new project. I'm making him jean quilts for his beds. :o) Uh yeah I hope ...
1. that I have enough jeans ( I only need 448 - 6" squares)
2. that I get quicker at the prep part and
3. that the actual assembly part goes much quicker !!! :o)
This was our first week back to school after fall break & I will work 2 days this week (not bad).
Tomorrow my bff Tammy will be coming over after she gets off work & then I will start packing up ALL my stuff. We are heading out bright & early Friday morning (no work for me that day) for Memphis. Eclectica (the best scrapbook store in this tri-state area) is having a 24 hour St. Jude crop & we are going!!! :o) The crop doesn't actually start till 5 Friday evening but she called & we can go early so we ARE! LOL! Cause everyone knows that 24 hours just isn't enough! Plus we need to make sure that we have plenty of time to hit ALL the stores & spend ALL the money that we Don't have! I don't get to Memphis much anymore with the price of gas the way it is so I need plenty of time to pilfer through all the new goodies :o)

better late than never ...

2008-10-19T21:40:00.002-05:00

seventeen years ago when I had my kid No one ever told me to be sure and take a picture of my
doctor with my baby (we didn't have scrapbookers back then so we weren't thinking about shots for possible LOs, lol).
Last week went I went for my "yearly" check-up I decided to take Devan with me (not in the room - just to the appt., lol) & I finally got the pictures that I should have gotten 17 years ago-better late than never! :o)

Devan & Dr. Melton, I will tell you the nurses were a little more than confused when they looked up & Devan was back there, lol, I guess Dr. Melton didn't think to tell them he would be coming back

look at that! My baby is Taller than the dr. that brought him into the world. I really can't believe how fast the time has flown by ...

... come on buddy :o)

2008-10-18T22:06:00.002-05:00

last weekend when Devan & I got to Tammy's it took "the guys" all of about ummm... 5 minutes to get rock band set up down in Sky's room, lol.
After about an hour they had come upstairs for a drink & a few minutes later I heard Weston (Tammy's grandson) say "come on buddy" to Devan :o) (he was ready to go back downstairs to play again). Devan is so good with little ones when they are around, I hope he never loses that quality ...

new buddies Devan & Weston

just being Guys & Rockin' out!!!

we're back, well for tonight ...

2008-10-14T23:33:00.002-05:00

we had a fabulous 4 days visiting with Tammy & her family :o)
Devan "Rock Banded" with Weston & went to Church with Bees
I scrapped with Tammy(worked on the rolodex that I'm doing with Devan's drama pics from last year), did a little shopping & went to the Dr. for my yearly.
We stayed up late & ate too much, lol, you know the usual bad habbits for time spent with those you are closest to.
We came home today to do laundry & repack, heading out in the morning to my parents for a few days. Going to take the nephews on our "fall picnic" tomorrow and just hang out with my parents for a few days (if it works out).
We'll be back Friday to get ready for Saturday. Devan has been invited to attend a "medical career day" in Jackson.
So tonight I'm trying to do a little catch up while waiting on the laundry, I had promised that I would post the chicken recipe that I tried last week when I had a chance to enter it on the computer- here it is (hope you enjoy) :

PAN SAUTE`ED CHICKEN WITH VEGETABLES & HERBS

4 CHICKEN BREAST
1 TBL. ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
2 TBL. OLIVE OIL
2 SMALL RED ONIONS, CUT INTO QUARTERS
8 OUNCES FRESH WHOLE BABY CARROTS (ABOUT 16)
1 LB. NEW POTATOES, CUT INTO QUARTERS
1 ½ C. CHICKEN STOCK
3 TBL. LEMON JUICE
1 TBL. CHOPPED FRESH OREGANO LEAVES
1 TBL. CHOPPED FRESH THYME LEAVES

Heat oven to 350.

Season the chicken as desired. Coat with flour

Heat oil in large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until it’s well browned on all sides. Remove chicken from the skillet.

Add the onions & potatoes to the skillet & cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrots, stock, lemon juice and oregano and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet. Cover the skillet.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover pan and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with thyme.

... and away we go

2008-10-10T08:08:00.005-05:00

so this had been the first week of Fall Break & it has been a very Busy week!
Devan has been taking an ACT prep course this week & we've been working on his room little by little ...

as you can see the guys took down the chair rail this week ( he didn't want it anymore)
the walls have all been scrubbed and prepped for painting (if only we can get the time, lol) .
I finally got around to having Devan design his Sr. ring
(I know, I know... better late than never)
& it has been ordered-should be here in about 4 weeks ...

here's a pic, I really like the way it turned out. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen- at first he wanted some really strange stuff on it that had NOTHING to do with His time in high school. His dad & I both insisted "that in years to come someone should be able to look at your class ring & know something about your high school years". So this is what he came up with.
Zach (my weekend kid) showed up unexpectedly on Wed. & I knew something was wrong ...
I told him to sit & when I sat with him he broke down. After a few minutes I asked if it was Sierra & he said they broke up !!! You could have knocked everyone over with a feather, their relationship began 3 years ago - here on our property at a bon-fire Devan had.
Zach stayed the night that night & went to church with Devan.
Sierra called crying, a wreck & so I went & met her down the road at one of the churchs & we talked for a few hours.
my goodness this job sure can be hard:o(
We Love them both & we don't want to see either one hurt, but they were very young when they started dating & it's hard to think that they would "stay together" for ever at that age.
Now on to the Good Stuff!!!
I have got to get busy & start packing ... Dev & I leave bright & early in the am to go to my bff's -Tammy !!!
I have my "yearly dr. appt." on Monday so we'll be heading on to Batesville from Jonesboro (sooo much quicker & easier when you already have 2 hrs. of the trip behind you), and we'll come home Tues. evening. So that gives us Sat., Sun., & Tue. with Tammy :o).
Tuesday evening to unpack, do laundry, repack, & head back out this time to my parent's on Wednesday.
We'll come back from there on Friday & then we'll be in Jackson bright & early on Saturday morning. Devan was invited to attend a "medical career day" at on of the hospitals there and one of the areas they are "shadowing" that day is radiology (which just happens to be an area that we have been trying to steer him towards). At least he can kind of get a taste of it & see if it really appeals to him at all.
I also tried a "new" chicken recipe this week. It was very easy & sooo Good! I'll post it later after I get it entered on my puter.
whew, busy busy busy times. Guess I had better get up & packing :o)
hope you'll have a Wonderful Weekend (I know I will ;o) ...

and the zoo adventure continues ...

2008-10-07T09:10:00.011-05:00

when we went to the zoo the last time Sierra said "I've never been to the Memphis Zoo" & I promised that we would make the time to take her. It was like pulling teeth to get it all together but we finally got all the schedules worked out and this past Sunday packed up the car & off we went :o)

isn't this little guy the cutest ?!? he looks like that really feels good :o)

Sierra, Devan, & Zach pose with "Budda"

the butterfly garden was closed :o( , I guess it gets too cold for them - what do you think they do with all the butterflies when they close the garden ??? Sierra found this one while we were on our way to the garden

isn't he Beautiful! Sooo Majestic

a little tongue action! hehe, can't resist a "cat" with tongue :o)

he looks sooo wise, kinda like Rafeki

one last shot of "my peeps" before we left

... so Zach bought these roasted- flavored-larva-YES! WORMS! before we left & the guys are fixing to EAT THEM!!! (while posing for this one of the boys said "our worms are touching!" , I 'bout laughed my butt off)

do you SEE this!!! That is MY son!!! The ONE who WON'T put ANYTHING in his mouth that has the name PEA or BEAN !!! But He WILL eat a WORM !!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!
It was a nice afternoon spent with "peeps" who are close to my heart :o) , the weather was sooo much nicer that the 94 degrees that we had last time, lol. And somehow NO one managed to fall/jump into the fountain this time :o)
So how did you spend your Sunday afternoon...

Once upon a time there was a very pretty little Princess ...

2008-10-06T13:53:00.014-05:00

and I had the privilege of spending the day with her this past Saturday. :o)
This is our cousin Meleah's daughter "Princess Jenna" & this is her very special "Princess Tea Party" ...

our "tea party" was supposed to have 2 princesses, but 1 of the princesses had a melt down instead :o(
so we went on with the tea party as best we could & tried to make it as fun for Princess Jenna as possible

it was a tough go we had the melt down & then BOTH of my batteries were dead after about 6 set up shots! Meleah called a neighbor & borrowed a camera so all the tea party pics were taken with Shelly's camera instead of mine (thanks Shelly)

here is Chewy at the tea party, while he wasn't totally comfortable in the chair it sure made for a few cute shots :o)

Princess Jenna has a pleasant conversation with her guest Chewy ...

being the ever gracious hostess Princess Jenna makes sure her guest has plenty to eat ...

after everyone left Princess Jenna found a special bottle of bubbles ...

isn't she just the cutest ???

After we were through with tea parties & bubbles we changed clothes & jumped in my car ( it was Jenna's first time to ride with a top down!) & headed to the local "pumpkin patch" at the church. Of course I had to have this shot ...

a pic of Jenna & Meleah together, aren't they just the cutest together :o)

while spring time is my favorite time of the year I just LOVE the way the fall colors photgraph

Miss Jenna had made her coice of pumpkins

I swear I think she is just the "coolest" 4 year old I know, just look how well she pulls off wearing mommy's sunglasses! She's workin' it :o)

whew, it was a very full day! tea party, bubbles, pumpkins, & first time riding "topless" ( yes we taught her how to raise her arms in the air and scream!!! ) hehe . She was just wore out & fell asleep on the way back home, of course I couldn't resist grabbing my camera (it had charged in the time it took to have the tea party) and snapping one more shot :o)
So that was my Saturday... I got to spend it with one very special 4 year old & her mommy :o)
So how did you spend your Saturday ???

a sweet surprise ...

2008-10-04T22:26:00.003-05:00

around Thursday Devan started telling us that come Friday he had a surprise for us. We really had NO idea what he was up too, but he seemed to be getting great joy from it. :o)

When he got out of school Friday he text that he was on his way to get the "surprise", when he got home I was on the phone with Jeff. I thought he was going to wear a hole in the carpet pacing back & forth waiting for me to get off the phone, lol.

When I did get off the phone he proudly told me that I had to wait until after dinner but that I could have a taste!

Seems that one of the girls at his lunch table works at Dairy Queen & Monday she was talking about all these really good Blizzards that they have right now. Devan decided to "skip" lunch for the rest of the week & use his lunch money to go get everyone Blizzards on Friday, he got me strawberry cheesecake. :o) (he did take lunch from home on more than one day, lol)

Sometimes he's just too sweet & he really makes me glad he's mine!

a very busy morning ...

2008-09-30T14:02:00.003-05:00

well I had meant to do this yesterday when I got home from work, but after sitting down for a few minutes to check the answering machine I realized how tired I really was & decided to "take the night off". I guess it was a good thing, turns out that I slept almost 12 HOURS last night!!! I really didn't realize that I was that tired, lol.
This morning after everyone left for work & school I spent the morning up & down on the ladder "sanding" the ceiling in Devan's room. After a couple/three hours I was rewarded with this ...

a nice smooth ceiling just waiting to be primed & painted! I was also left with this ...

yep, just in case you ever wondered what a person looks like after sanding a ceiling! LOL.
Oh well I guess it's time to get moving again ...

and it came tumbeling down ...

2008-09-28T13:05:00.009-05:00

the only place that I like popcorn is in my bowl, so last year I tried my hand at taking in off the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. I Loved the result sooo much that I decided that whenever a room is going to be painted that the first step was going to be to take down the ceiling. Last night we emptied all the furniture out of Devan's room ( I guess we can't let him go off to college with toy story clouds still on his walls)

& bright and early this morning I started the process of taking down the popcorn...

this is what I started with, and after 2 hours & 14 minutes & 8 spray bottles full of hot water ...

this is what I was rewarded with! :o)
Not bad time wise I had even taken a little break to put dinner in the oven. When it's finished drying I'll have to sand, then prime before painting but it's oh sooo worth it!
Now for a little update on our fundraising adventures, lol. Well it wasn't quite what we had hoped for. We worked the talent show on Thursday & the Main Street Fall Festival on Friday night and all day Saturday.

Friday night was real slow (it was also Homecoming) so we got real excited when we finally emptied our 1st 1 liter!

See I told you we were excited! These were my partners in crime Friday night that's Tina on the left & Bridgett on the right. :o)
Saturday was much busier but I guess when you are selling for just 50 cents a piece it's hard to make much.
In the end we were all rewarded with a whopping $35.47 each for our efforts. Well except for one kid. He chose to do it himself instead of getting parental/family to come & help out. (trust me this was his choice he wants for NOTHING) He did show up at the talent show & after 2 minutes went "to take a peek". He didn't return until the entire show was over & we were breaking down. He showed up yesterday at 12:00 & promptly left "to look around" within the first 5 minutes. He stayed till 1:00 & during that time left 3 times. We figure he worked about 45 minutes total so we gave him $5. It's actually pretty generous NO one else made $5 for 45 minutes of participation.
We are not giving up on our fund raising efforts though, we just need to get more creative.

I have NOT forgotten about you :o) ...

2008-09-26T21:52:00.004-05:00

you just would not understand how incredibly busy this week has been!
First of all I have worked EVERY day!
Every day there has been a ton of things to do after school & we have THREE, count them 3 days of fundraising in a row for the London trip! (I'm sooo looking foward to Sunday & finally sleeping in).
As far as the fundraising goes I just don't know how much more we can stand! We worked the talent show last night (would have liked to have seen the show but we sold refreshments) & this evening we worked the "Main Street Fall Festival" selling drinks. You know I was a little worried about how we would be able to handle the cost of things, well after the last couple of days I'm not even worried anymore. So far each family has a profit of .... are you ready ... $11.89!!! WAHOO!!! I just can't stand anymore, lol. Oh well, you don't know unless you try. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, tonight was homecoming so it was an awuful night to try to do something like this.
Other than the fact that I'm sooo tired I don't know what I've been doing this week (lol, & I do this with your kids) I don't really have much to share other than my SIL (Sherry) sent me a video and I laughed my butt off! I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did :o) ...

first ever "Jacobi Fright Night"

2008-09-20T12:40:00.006-05:00

yesterday Meleah & I spent the day together, we went to Jackson to get supplies for a fund raiser (for the London trip) I have coming up next week. While together she started talking about getting together to watch scary movies (she doesn't really like watching them by herself) so we started making plans. As it evolved it turned out to be more of a small family gathering so it was dubbed the first ever "Jacobi Fright Night".
We got together at Meleah's after Devan sang at the football game (he came with me it wasn't a good night for him to be out driving on his own it was kind of rainy & foggy besides he was my dd, lol, that means mom had 2 wine coolers instead of 1).
Anyway we had Meleah & Jenna (her itty bitty, playing in her room), Becky (Meleah's SIL) & Spence & Alissa (her two itty bittys to help keep Jenna happy & play in her room too), Mark (Meleah's big bro), me & Devan (my not so itty bitty-except in my heart).
Meleah provided the place, movies, sodas, & popcorn. I brought the peanut M&Ms, Doritos, & Mike's Hard Lemonade-Pomegrante -Yumm !!
It was a bit of a trick keeping the itty bittys from seeing & hearing things (thank God for pause buttons) but we managed with a little patience & some extra time. Most of us finished the movie.
It took long enough (waiting for Dev to get home & hitting the pause a few times) that we only watched one but it was still a lot of fun & I hope we do it more often! :o) (who knew you could laugh so much during a horror movie !?!)
The movie we chose was Rob Zombie's Halloween Unrated, it was pretty cool. If you like the Halloween movies it goes back & explains why Michael Myers is sooo "messed up". Although they did kind of change some of the background from the first movie it was still pretty good.

this is Chewy (short for Chewbaca) he's Meleah's & he is the sweetest thing ever! Every time I go over there I am rewarded with more Love than I deserve. I would definately bring him home with me if they would let me :o) ...

Becky & Alissa (the movie was paused) notice the mask ? How appropriate since we were watching Halloween, LOL ...

Devan & his cousin Mark enjoying the movie & maybe doing a little male bonding.
We had a Great time! (thanks Meleah) And hope to do it agian sometime soon :o) , hope you find a little fun family time this weekend too ...

the end is coming ...

2008-09-19T07:12:00.003-05:00

well for all pratical purposes we have attended our LAST parent/teacher conference & while they aren't something that I jump up & down about it, it is a signal of things to come.
We did leave with a very Happy-Warm feeling, apparently ALL his teachers this year really like him! :o)
When they would ask who's parents we were & we would say "Devan", they would say "Oh, I LOVE Devan" & smile!
It was really nice, much better than "oh, yeah Devan" not that-that has happened , lol, but there hasn't been this amount of smiles in the past.
He must really be charming them this year ??? Does he know how to charm ??? Hmmm, I don't really think he does- but... oh well at least I think we're in for a good year.
Even the class he's doing horrible in seems to really like him (good thing since it's their second year together, LOL). And he actually had a pretty decent grade in math (well for him at least).
I hope that ALL the changes yet to come this year can end on a positive-happy note like they have this week: no more driving to & from school or to activities- etc., no more parent/teacher conferences, whew ...

omg! my baby is ... DRIVING !!!

2008-09-17T19:40:00.007-05:00

so I need someone to tell me how in the hell you all seem to stay so calm ALL the time!
I got sooo nervous this afternoon around 2:30 that I couldn't take it anymore & headed to town.
To do what I'm not really sure, I went to the high school and sat in the parking lot & waited for school to get out, lol. How pathetic is that! His appointment wasn't until 3:30 but my stomach was in knots & I swear I could have thrown up.

filling out the paperwork ...

waiting for Miss Powers ...

she was sooo cute, when they got back & she got out of the van she said "well your insurance just went up" lol (I'm sure it has but we haven't asked how much yet-we chose to just be happy and enjoy today)

after the pressure of taking the test was over Devan wanted to take a minute with the ducks that live outside the testing center

his first time driving by himself, he drove to church tonight (he text that they let church out early so he was going to Hastings until 8, then at 3 till 8 he text he was coming home, lol, he couldn't have done anything other than get there & come back)

if you look real close you will see a woman (a politician that stopped by wanting to talk) walking up the drive - she had NO idea that she was taking her life in her hand walking in the drive while he was heading out, lol!
Well he's home now safe & sound :o) with a big smile on his face!
I think a whole new world has just opened up for him ...

a little helping hand...

2008-09-15T18:57:00.002-05:00

small moments like this are what life is made of ...

yesterday while we were outside trying to clean up the mess from the storm & trying to cover the roof of the garage before any rain hit Ryan (our cable guy-remember I mentioned him yesterday) came by to see if our phone was working yet. When he drove up he took one look at Jim up on that roof & he didn't say a word. He just climbed up that ladder & started helping :o) , he stayed up there till Jim got things the way he wanted it then he came down & started in on the cable.
This is what I LOVE about small town life! If you're in need you don't have to say a word- people just roll up their sleeves and start helping when given the chance. :o) It really makes me all warm & fuzzy inside. :o)
Did you get a good look at that sky in the pic, it really was that ugly. We were sure it was going to rain & it's looked like that all day today too, but we still haven't gotten the first drop.

a teeny tiny visit from Ike last night ...

2008-09-14T15:38:00.008-05:00

in the wee hours the tail of Ike blew through our area. A little rain would have been appreciated here but we seemed to have gotten just the winds. Once again we are Lucky, we did recieve damage (like when don't we) but what hit us is minor compared to what others have gotten. I haven't heard of any serious damage in the d'burg area.

the garage seems to be what was hit the hardest for us

shingles & siding

a little siding on the south end of the house

and we lost a total of 3 trees, this was one of our biggest pine trees on the back of the property behind the garage (you can't really tell by the pic but it was quite big)

one of our bradford pears on the front of the property, it was split into THREE pieces!

this is the trunk of the bradford pear, it's amazing to think that was done with wind

this is the third tree, down at the pond. It took out several limbs in the surrounding trees with it.

So everyone here is good, nothing major just some clean up & going to have to deal with repairs, maybe insurance (ugggh, dread that).

The cable did go out, oh yeah remember we just upgraded so that meant NO tv, NO phone, & NO internet!!! Oh joy, but it's ok Ryan came out (my fave cable guy) and everthing is almost back to perfect now. Seems they may have to run a new phone line tomorrow.

So how are things your way? Have you seen Ike? I hope not, I hope you all have had a wonderful & safe weekend.

yummy, yummy, yummy i've got pie in my tummy :o)

2008-09-11T08:41:00.003-05:00

yep, I couldn't stand it anymore. I busted out a jar of pie filling last night & had Jim pick up some vanilla ice cream on the way home-yum! :o)

It came out a little browner than I like but it was still very good.

and here's a pic of my favorite finds from this past weekend.
HL has Prima's "Say it with Crystals", when I saw these I knew I had to have them! Even went back on Saturday to get the second one with my 40% off coupon. :o)
Aren't they gorgeous! I'm all about a little bling on my pages. :o) I also picked up the new K&Company easter chipboard set (too cute) & some Jolee's, not too much-I was a good girl. :o)
This has been one busy week since I got home from Tammy's, Ive worked EVERY day till today ...
Yep I slept in today!
Well till 6 anyway, Devan needed some help "cooking lunch" this am. The "kids" have decided to have "pot lucks" every now & then. (they really enjoyed it when they did it last month) They decided that today was "pot luck" lunch day & the "theme" was mexican. (can you believe this, hehe) Devan was in charge of making "taco ring" & bringing it. You don't think he actually had a clue about how to do this do you ??? He did do it, but you have to be there to show & walk him through it. They had a blast last month. They had venison burgers (Dev's contribution), rotel, chips, pb&j sandwiches, cheesecake, & cookies. I think some of them are in charge of plates & such. (they have made the rule you have to contribute or you don't share, lol)
I'm scheduled to work again tomorrow, whew busy week. Truth is I haven't even unpacked my stuff from this past weekend, I've been so tired that I haven't cared. Fell asleep last night trying to catch up on my "blog reads", lol.
I guess I'll be going to the game tomorrow (for a little while anyway), the choir is singing again.
Well I guess I'm off to try to catch up on some things (I'm sooo far behind), oh yeah today is a pj day! ;o)

... a few pics from this past weekend :o)

2008-09-09T20:20:00.004-05:00

I thought I would share a few pics from this past weekend with you before I head to bed, it's been quite a day & I'm bushed. I've been working PE for the past 2 days, we have a new coach & I've really enjoyed working with him. He's great with the kids. Let's just say PE rocks, lol, but after 10 or so classes rotating through there each day I'm wiped out. Good news is I don't go in till 11:30 tomorrow (PE again) so I do get to sleep in tomorrow. :o)
Well that's if my darn cat alarm clock doesn't decide to go off at 5:14 am again!
You know Stephanie has always been able to tell when it's 10 pm and she starts yelling for me to come to bed, well this school year she has decided to be my 5:30 am wake up call only she tends to be a bit early (you know those lovely last 15 minutes that you enjoy sooo much).
Anyway back to the pics...

this is Tammy's husband Kenny. (I don't remember what I had been taking pictures of just before this shot) All of a sudden Kenny had both boys in his lap and he said "well this is a picture that needs to be taken, I have both boys up here". Now that's one PROUD Grandpaw :o) Aren't they cute...

this itty bitty is Gillen, isn't he a doll!

and this is a pic of Tammy with her b'day present I took her. Today is actually her birthday but I knew I wouldn't get to be there. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY, I LOVE YA!
Well folks I guess that's about all for today, too tired to remember if I had anything else, lol.
... later :o)

this past weekend was my turn to go play with my "bff" Tammy :o) ...

2008-09-08T19:19:00.009-05:00

Friday was fair day here which means No school-so no work to miss out on.
We don't actually go to the fair on fair day cause ... there's no school and you can stay up late the night before so we go to the fair on Thursday night, it's much cooler at night anyway.
I was hoping to leave early Friday since there was no school but I was delayed by the lovely cable company. They came out Thursday to upgrade us to cable internet & phone (yeah I've been on dial up ALL this time, aren't you impressed? do you know HOW long it takes to upload pics to this blog on dial up) & Friday morning we got up & the phone wasn't working.
They did get it fixed before lunch but then I was waiting on the mail (hoping Tammy's b'day present would get here in time to take it with me & it did! :o) ) .
I was sooo busy Thursday with grocery shopping, fair, & working the photo club booth at the fair that I hadn't been able to gather & pack all my "stuff" for the weekend.
I finally got to Jonesboro around 4:30 Friday afternoon and of course my first stop was HL, it was 40% off coupon week so you know I had to go. :o) Wow! They had lots of new stuff, I'll have to post some pics later of my new treasures.
It was sooo nice to get away for a while even if it was just a short trip ( I usually leave here on Friday & come back the following Tuesday) but I had to work today so that means I had to come back yesterday. I've never gone for such a short period of time but it was still a good time AND I was actually very productive ... well for me anyway, lol.
I finished a LO & 1 page of another LO. I don't usually do one page & then add the other page but the second page wasn't coming to me. I have put this LO off for a long time, I tend to do that when the subject is something that I really want to be special or the product is something that I dearly love. It was both for this particual LO, but it was worth the wait I really LOVE the way the first page turned out. Now I need to come up with it's companion.

the first LO I did was a lift of this LO posted in the Aug. 2007 Ck by Audrey Lewis.
For some reason when I was going through the CK I saw this LO & I thought of the pics I shot of Sierra for her "Senior" pics.
She was my little guinea pig. :o)
We spent 3-4 hours shooting that day. Different locations, different outfits, she's sooo easy to work with-absolutely one of my FAVORITE subjects to work with ( she can really flirt with the camera sometimes).
I decided to print some of my faves from that day & do a LO.

all the papers & the flowers came from HL,
Tammy helped me pick the papers (thanks Tammy!)

strangly enough the photo of her walking away is one of my faves :o)
IF I enter the "shoot Dyer county" contest I think this will be my entry (think I'll have it printed on metallic paper) .
Kind of represents her going out into the big ol world, striking out on her own adventures...

here are both pages together, aren't her eyes BEAUTIFUL???
The next LO is of Devan, the pics are from Oct. 2006 ( I told you they were old) .
For spirit day he wanted to be Davey Havok (his idol) the lead singer of his favorite group AFI. I can't begin to tell you all the planning and money he put into this thing. :o)
This was the first time he wore make-up & fingernail polish to school . ( when he was born & they said it's a boy I never thought I would get to shop for these items with my child but it's oh sooo different in today's world) When we finally got everything just right I had to grab the camera and snap - well almost a roll of film, lol.
And when Marah Johnson came out with the Love Struck line I knew I had to have it & have it ALL. :o) The papers are all sooo cool, especially if you have someone who is more abstract and doesn't follow the expected path in life. This would be my child. :o)

this is what I came up with! :o)
I scanned the pic in, made a duplicate layer,converted it to black & white, and erased his arms to let his "tatoo sleeves" show, then I printed it on a transparency. (this is something that I saw in someone's gallery on 2peas, sorry I can't remember who) I then cut "him" out & layered him on a sheet of "reflection" paper. Under the transparency I applied a bleeding heart rub-on under his hand (where his heart would be).
His wings are Tim Holtz grunge board (I recently saw this set at HL). I painted them with a silver paint with a little purple glitter paint dry brushed on. I then stamped them with Heidi Swapp's clear wing stamps. I used embossing ink and black embossing powder. I LOVE how these turned out! I placed them under the tranparency and then took an craft knife and trimmed around his sholders and removed the excess so the transpancy would lay flat.
On top of this is the "Follow Your Muse" transparency, I really love the way the transparency looks layered over a pic that is printed on a transparency, over a graffic background.
The hinges are also Tim Holtz grunge board (from the same package) and they are also heat embossed black. They are held in place by Marah Johnson's skull brads & I don't remember where I got the little heart brads but I sure do love them & I'll be sorry when they are all gone.
There's a couple more rub-ons (dare 2 dream & hard core) & then a couple of the cardstock stickers.
So this LO has been all about layers, I think I've counted 6!
It's one of my favorites that I've done in a while, now I just need to come up with it's companion ...

as promised ...

2008-09-03T10:34:00.003-05:00

I know you have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of my apple pics that I promised. I'm sorry they weren't here yesterday ( it was one busy day) , but here they are now...

66 lbs. of apples will get you 20 quarts of apple pie filling, 6 pints & 10 quarts spiced applesauce :o) ...

the laundry room has a set of shelves over the washer & dryer that are just perfect for storing your canning. Look how they fill the shelf, isn't it pretty!
You know I haven't canned a lot after moving out here. You would think that moving to the county I would have done it more but it turned out to be the opposite.
I'm so glad we were blessed with this little "harvest", there really is something very comforting about canning your own food.
Yes it's a long process but there is something that makes my heart happy when I hear that "pop" that each jar does when you take them out of their "bath" that lets you know they have sealed.
I just have to smile at all our jars lined up waiting to be used, just think about it -I have 20 apple pies just waiting to be made at a moments notice :o) , all you need is a pie crust & a little spice and you are in business!
One of the many things on my list yesterday was to attend our first project graduation meeting (we missed last month because I was out of town) . Project Graduation is a big "lock in" party the night of graduation for the kids, it keeps them from driving around drinking (all the things we were doing at that age). I was a very smart girl & drug Jim along for the pleasure, hehe.
Let me just say " OMG!!!" , I now remember ALL too well why I quit going to this cra... umm stuff when Devan got to high school.
They have an "excutive committee" with 15 people on it! Are you kidding me, can you say over-kill ??? I took one look at that table & wanted to bolt! Half of the people at that table are sooo power hungry that I'm surprised they are able to get anything done. There was a lot of eye rolling & groaning going on at our table ( & not just from me - everyone at the table participated in this). We couldn't wait for this meeting to be over. After the meeting we talked to some of the parents who have had seniors before & they said this is all a big joke, yeah! Thanks so much self appointed power hungry people!
I don't know why they even bother with a "public" meeting, they made it very clear that they hold a "private" little meeting each month before the "public" meeting & that THEY vote on everything, then they are NICE enough to tell us at the "public" meeting what THEY have decided to do! In other words we have NO say what-so-ever.
I hope they don't turn what has been a fabulous last night together with friends into a joke because of their issues & make it more about what they want instead of what the kids want.
The "chairman" spent 5 minutes about the beginning of the meeting telling the seniors who were there "there are only 9 months of your sr. year & one month is officially gone, gone. You can't go back & get it back..." she went on and on. Maybe she meant well but it doesn't matter how much you say this you are NOT going to pound this into their heads, geesh. ( I personally think she is inserting a lot of her own feelings here, I worked with her when I first moved here & let me tell you she was a piece of work then. Apparently things haven't changed much for her, she has always wanted to be "someone" in this little town. I guess after not being accepted in the "Big" social clubs here she finally found a way to "be someone", Lord help us all! )
...enough ranting for today, have a good one :o)

it's apple pickin' time in Tennessee ...

2008-09-01T12:17:00.007-05:00

well I never would have guess how I would spend this long "holiday" weekend.
I thought I was going to play around & be productive with some "scrappy" goodness, but when Jim came into the house after mowing all that changed.
We bought this house in May 1997. The people we bought the house from had over planted everything (we've spent years moving & eliminating plants) & all trees were planted very close to the house instead of spreading them out over the property (there's 6 acreas, there's no reason to crowd the house).
After we took possesion we did move a couple of the trees ( 2 apple ) to the back of the property. One died and one survied, it has never done much of anything as far as producing ( & we never really thought that it would without it's mate) .
Three years ago when our sweet Lula died we burried her under that tree (we thought she would like it there) .
About a year ago my SIL Tonya was here visiting and went walking on the back of the property. When she returned you would have thought she had won a great prize! In her hot little hand she was holding an apple. :o)
Apparently the tree had produced 1 apple that year & it wasn't very big but Tonya was happy as a clam she sat down with a knife & had a ball with her "find" for the day.
Yesterday Jim went out to mow & shortly he returned holding an apple, he said that our tree had apples & that it was time to pick them ( he was so proud) . He offered me the one he had & said "they're good & sweet". I grabbed a laundry basket & gave it to him & told him I would come help.
On my way out the door I grabbed my camera of course (we've never had apples before this needed to be documented! :o) )
I was completely surprised at what I found when I got out there ...

here's a little pic of Jim picking the apples :o) ...

would you LOOK how FULL the tree was! It was about to break the branches they were sooo loaded!

I never guessed when I handed him a laundry basket that it would FILL the basket, Jim was just as surprised as I was ...

aren't they pretty! :o) You are looking at 66 lbs of goodness from our back yard (yep that's right 66 lbs!) . Since it was in our back yard & we didn't really expect anything from the tree they are all organic too! hehe

Once I got everything gathered I couldn't resist snapping this pic, there's something very comforting & homey :o)

So since yesterday afternoon I have been doing something that I haven't done since we moved out here, we have been making apple pie filling & spiced applesauce! Yum :o)
The last jar has just come out & now I have to go get ready, I have to work the photo club booth at the fair this evening with Alex.
Tomorrow I'll share a pic of our finished products ( I know you are dyeing to see that, lol) .

movie night :o) ...

2008-08-31T13:29:00.003-05:00

yesterday "the girls" (Alex, Alissa, & Susan) came over for dinner & movie night (complete with popcorn & peanut m&ms, yum!).
Alex was the only one who got to see the end of the movie - Alissa & Susan had to be home by dark, Alex had till 8:30! It's a wild crowd hanging out over here! :o) We watched "What Happens in Vegas", it was cute - I wish everyone had gotten to see the ending.
After they left we started watching the other movie I picked up (I'm really splurging this weekend-it's a holiday weekend) - Jodie Foster's "The Brave One" ( love me some Jodie Foster) .
We never got to see the end last night. The outside dogs started barking like someone was here, sure enough when we looked out Jeff was coming down the drive in the ice cream truck (yep, my best bud is the ice cream man :o) ) , Zach & Sierra were with him! It was so nice to see all "my peeps" in one night that hasn't happened in a long time.
While they were here I got the urge to pull out some home movies... hehe, one in particular...
June 2000 Zach was spending the night, they boys were 9 & they put on a musical show for us! The boys immediately bolted for upstairs and the rest of us laughed till it hurt, at the same time I was fighting tears( I wanted more than I can describe to turn the clock back, back to when they were small like that again & life was much simpler & easier ).
But it was good. I for the life of me can't imagine how we didn't laugh at them when they were "performing" but we managed to keep straight faces at the time. I wish you could see it, maybe if I ever figure out how to upload a video to this thing.
We had synchronized head banging, butt slapping-horse riding dancing & Devan even did a stripper cat crawl across the floor up to the camera. Oh yeah he did, then he kissed the camera! OMG! It was too funny, if you ever need a good laugh stop by & I'll pop it in for you, hehe.
After that we watched the video from Dev's 12th birthday. We had a sleepover, 6 -12 year old boys & we turned them loose with the video camera ( can you imagine?) Devan told Zach "oh this one's ok we can watch it, about 10 minutes into it they bolted again. :o)
I would have never played those in front of the girls here earlier, but this was different. Zach & Sierra will soon be together 3 years, she can handle it & after that amount of time she's entitled to see it. :o)
I can't tell you how much fun that was! :o) (I still want to turn back time though)
We finally finished watching "The Brave One" this morning & it doesn't dissapoint if you want some tough Jodie kick some butt movie :o), she does that sooo well!

fabulous friday ???...

2008-08-30T10:47:00.006-05:00

well I don't know if it was fabulous, but it was quite a day.
The class I had yesterday was a challenge, the teacher had warned me about a particular student when I had talked to her the day before. At first I thought I had gotten lucky and he wasn't coming to school, but he was just late.
The morning started off good but when I picked them up from activity the art teacher said "they have lost 5 minutes of their recess today, they wouldn't quit talking & disrupting".
What !?! in the SIX years I've been doing this I have NEVER had any activity teacher take recess from a class of mine, especially THIS teacher (she has more patience than I can imagine) !
When we returned to class & I handed out the next assignment the problems with this one child started. He claimed I didn't go over the paper with him (he wanted the answers), when I told him it was a test and that I wouldn't go over anymore with him than I did the rest of the class he got angry & started disrupting those around him.
At that point I moved him. Then he refused to do any work. When I asked him if he wanted my to call the assistant principal he told me "NO, if you have any problems YOU'RE supposed to call my momma". Okay are you kidding me ??? Does he really think he can tell me how to do my job ???
I told him that I wouldn't be calling his momma that if he didn't change his attitude and make better choices I WOULD call Mr. Cupples & he could deal with the consequences of that. He grabbed his papers & started marking answers without reading the questions, after I told him that was unacceptable & he would lose the privilage of going to the library unless he did his work he took his pencil and started stabbing at his genitals! At that point I called Mr. Cupples (this is not something I do easy) & he was gone for the rest of the day.
Later when I was talking to one of the teachers they said he had Mike French last year ... OMG!!! He was the kid that walked into Mike's class & said "you better be ready I have anger management issues!". Never before have I ever heard Mike raise his voice, but last year I heard him slam his door & yell! (I couldn't believe it). Then teachers started telling me I was lucky, that he had decked a couple of the teachers at the primary school! What !!! Whew, I guess I was one lucky girl yesterday.
When I got home from school yesterday there was a message on my machine that they have put our Miss Chris back in the hospital! Bless her heart now she has gall stones! They can't do surgery on her because of the blood thinner she has been on for the blood clots. So please if you could send a few more possitive thoughts & prayers her way I would appreciate it.
Last night the choir sang at the football game again, so being the good mom I am I went toting my camera :o) (aren't you lucky, lol).

Okay look in the middle of this pic, see my sweet niece in the middle (the t-shirt with "Love" written on it) ? Look carefully she, Alissa (behind her to her left-brown hair) and Susan (directly behind her- red hair) have all spotted me up by the press booth with my camera & they are making faces at me, lol. Poor Dev (last guy on the back row far right) is totally cluless as to what's going on.

Now they are posing for me, lol! Alissa is kissing Susan, Susan is sticking her tounge out & I'm not sure what Alex is doing she's hidden behind Mr. P & the microphone. I wonder what he would have done if he had noticed them ???

Here is a better pic of Susan. I think my child has a crush on her & I'm pretty sure she has a crush on him. He posted some of the zoo pics on his myspace and she commented that she wanted to go with us to the zoo. :o) I think he really messed up last night, after they sang he, Alex, & the rest of his group headed out for Java & a night out. Susan had to stay to cheer. At half time she came and sat with me & Sierra (he should have been there). While talking I asked if she wanted to go to the zoo with us sometime & she didn't miss a beat or blink an eye, she said yes. hmmm...

last but not least this is a pic of my weekend kid (Zach) on the field, # 37. Sadly this is the best pic I got of him.
I really have quite a lot more to learn about using my camera. I don't do so well when the sun starts going down, apparently there is something I'm not getting and I need to figure it out.
Well I think that brings us up to date for now, trying to figure out what I'm going to tackel today. I need to go to that dreadful place. You know W-M ( shhh don't make me say it) but ... well ... I don't really want to, can you imagine it's labor day weekend on top of every thing. Ugh...

it's been a long day...

2008-08-28T21:00:00.002-05:00

when the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I kept wondering why Jim didn't turn it off ???
...then I realized it was MY alarm & I was the one that needed to turn it off, lol.
This is the first full day I've had this year & I'm just not used to 5:30 anymore.
The class I had today was fantastic :o) , but I'm basically wiped out anytime I work.
Devan & I ran a few errands after school & got home around 5 . I was starving so I had a sandwich and within 30 minutes of sitting down to "surf" I was asleep for the next hour and a half, lol. (that's par for me)
I was able to schedule another class for tomorrow so that will bring me up to 3 days this week ( 2 - half days & 2 full days), wahoo I'm in the money. lol.
The coffee is set to turn on, my name tags are made & my bag is packed. Now I just need to figure out what I'm wearing & I can go to bed. :o) night all ...

surgery cancelled

2008-08-27T18:16:00.002-05:00

for now mom's surgery (double knee replacement) has been cancelled. I'm not sure why they cancelled for now but I do know that she'll be taking a stress test Thursday and they'll decide after that where to go. She's very disappointed.
I worked another 1/2 day today, it was a really nice afternoon. Except for one little glitch, seems one of my kiddos got upset on the playground and said.... umm... well he took the Lord's name in vein (4th grade). I asked him if his mom knew he talked like that & he said she did (sadly enough that's probably true) .
Twenty write offs, -5 minute recess time for tomorrow (yeah I leave notes for teachers) & no candy from Miss Sheila's bag today.
Do you think he'll do that again when I'm in there ???
Other than that it was a pretty good day! :o)
The class I have tomorrow will probably wear me out, I dread this class & I know the only reason I have it is that the full time sub told them to find someone else to do it. This teacher has NO control what so ever, you know they are in the hall without ever looking out the door. They make that much noise, well unless the very mean Miss Sheila is in there, lol, then you don't even know the sweet angels are around. :o)

best phone EVER! :o)

2008-08-26T09:30:00.004-05:00

Do you see this phone??? It's the phone that Dev & I have.
Some of the kids say it's crap, I say it's the best phone ever! :o)
(of course I'm knocking on wood while I type this, lol)

When Devan got to Panama City last month it mysteriously stopped working (it would ring but he couldn't hear anything & you couldn't hear him) except for the text, he was still able to send & receive text (really strange this is exactly what happened to the last phone).
I immediately started checking ebay to replace it (we are NOT up for renewal for another year).
The Monday after they returned I had Dev gather laundry for me. On Tuesday morning I was taking clothes out of the washer & a pair of his shorts seemed very heavy... (remember he's the one that had gathered the laundry??? that means he had already picked these up) so I looked in the pocket ( I do NOT empty pockets that is YOUR job not mine).
Can you guess what I found???
Yep! You guessed it... his PHONE!!!
As those of you who know me know I was furious!
I'm sure you could see steam coming out of my head!
To be that irresponsible is unacceptable! :o(
I took the phone into the kitchen & opened the back, removed the battery & propped ALL the parts up to dry.
When he got up you can imagine it wasn't a pretty sight and he was told that I wouldn't pay 1 penny towards replacing his phone he would live without a phone till he found one & paid for it.
Well around 2 that afternoon out of curiosity I tried putting the battery in... it started popping & sizzeling and trying to fire up??? I was afraid it would short out so I quickly removed the battery and left things open for a few more hours.
Around 5 I put everything back together & it seemed to fire up!?!
So I plugged it in to charge & when it was done charging I had Jim take it across to the other side of the house & I called it.
Ya know what ... it WORKED!!!
Can you believe that?!?
I know people who have dropped their phone in water for less than a minute and it never works again, this phone went through an entire wash cycle & now it's fixed?!?
Wow, he was one lucky kid! :o)
(he must have had someone watching over him)

1st day back...

2008-08-25T18:55:00.002-05:00

Some of you have asked if I will be subbing this year & the answer to that is YES!
I got the call at 9:20 this am to be there at 11:30, not bad I like 1/2 days. :o)

So here are my kiddos for today at play. (Yes! I made it in time for recess!!! :o)
I have 2 more days booked for this week, my mom is scheduled to have surgery Friday so that's all I'm booking for this week. Hoping to get a few more days for next week.

the end of an era...

2008-08-24T09:12:00.009-05:00

CK was the first scrap magazine that I ever subscribed to.

About a year and a half ago I noticed that it seemed to be shrinking & sadly there was more & more advertising.

Then last summer the whole HOF controversy started.

No, I'm not bold enough to enter these contest. But I have friends who are & they should have the chance to win. (it kills me to think of ALL the time & work they put into their entries & they don't even have a chance to win?!?)

I was sooo dissapointed that I decided to drop my sub of CK, I just can't support a company that isn't fair & truthful. :o(

Lately I've been on a mission to condense & straighten up my scrap room some, I thought it would be good to start with the magazine/catalogs.

So for the last week I have concentrated on the CK & Scrapbook Answers (they aren't around anymore) areas.

this is what I was able to eliminate!

look it's empty :o( it was a tough decision but I think it was the right one...

this was my magazine/catalog area ...

and this is where I am now, just 6 sections.

I think I like it much better this way! :o)

Miss Chris Update

2008-08-23T22:08:00.002-05:00

They released Chris from the hospital yesterday! :o)
Dev & I made her some food (homemade chicken pot pie, salad, & kiwi-lime pie, comfort food) & took it to her & Bobby today. We only stayed a minute but she looks good for all she's been through.
She had just had her first shower since Wednesday, you know she had to feel better.
They're not sure why she developed the blood clots, she will have to be on meds for the next 6 months. She won't be able to return to work for another week at least.
That's really about all I know for now, like I said we didn't stay long.
Thanks to everyone for the positive thoughts & prayers. :o)

prayers & positive thoughts please...

2008-08-22T07:55:00.002-05:00

This is our sweet "Miss Chris", Devan's drama teacher.
She started having problems with her left foot last year just before school ended. (as a result she wore a boot all summer) When school started back up the boot just became too much with all the moving she does in a day so she went back to the dr.
They discovered that she has a blood clot the length of her leg. Immediately they started checking her respitory system & discovered one in her lung too. (they told her that if it had gone undetected in 3-4 days she would have probably just dropped dead!)
Wednesday they took her to the hospital in Jackson & began working on the clot in her lung. They had hoped to start working on the one in the leg yesterday. When they looked at her lung again they discovered that it hadn't disolved like they had hoped so they are still working on the lung for now.
Please send prayers & positive thoughts Chris' way, she means sooo much to these kids (& us too)... they are so lucky to have someone as wonderful as she is in their lives cheering them on.

our little songbird...???

2008-08-21T08:10:00.006-05:00

For as long back as I can remember Devan has wanted to be a singer.

But in the past he has tended to take after me, Jim can sing - I can't!

We tried voice lessons when he was younger & few years back he did do the musical with the band/choir at school. He loved being in the musical! He was not a Lead, mainly a background so kind of do-able.

Last year when I pulled up to pick him up from school the choir director was talking to him.

Curious if something was wrong I asked "what did Mr. Patterson have to say?" when he got in the car.

He replied "he was asking me why I never joined choir", ???

And then I asked (sorry I know it sounds cruel, but I don't want him hurt)

"did you tell him you can't sing?" & he said "yeah I did & he said I should sign up" !?!

(Okay, he's worked with him before if that's what he wants then okay)

Devan has been really excited about this, it would mean that he would have a class with Alex. All seniors are in advanced choir & that is the class Alex is in.

You know what???

He really does seem to have gotten better over the last year?!?

Can you train yourself to have "an ear"?

He seems to be working really hard & trying so maybe this will work out for him & be a good experience.

He did say when he got home from school one day that Mr. Patterson had told him that he had a nice voice. :o)

They had their first performance last Friday at the football Jamboree. Being the good parents we are we trudged out in the rain, paid our entrance fees, waited for the choir to sing the nation anthem, packed up our cameras & left! LOL!

Sorry I hate jamboree in the first place let alone in the rain.

Here's a little pic for your enjoyment. :o) See our guy- he's on the very end of the right (green striped shirt)! Mr. Patterson seems to be looking at him in this pic (hmmm... wonder why?) Alex & Alissa are on the front row the are the first two girls if you work your way down from Dev towards the center (the ones without the umbrella!). I have to tell you that when they began to sing it was absolutely beautiful!:o) I almost started crying, do you know how hard it is to get a good shot when you are crying??? lol. I hope his only year in choir ends up being a good experience for him. :o)

time well spent...

2008-08-20T10:38:00.007-05:00

Yesterday Alex (my niece) brought Dev home from school & spent the evening hanging out with Aunt Sheila! :o)
She hasn't been around a lot lately.
She actually sent me a text last week that said "Yeah I guess the whole driving thing has kept me pretty busy lol".
I guess this is part of me getting ready for next year when we are just another couple of old people with nothing interesting or fun going on in their home.
Anyway, we have a photo club meeting tomorrow (she's in photo club with me) so we wanted to do a little evening shoot to see what we could get.
We left the house about 4:30 and headed over to the county high school, they have a Beautiful "english" type garden over there (this month's club topic was flowers).
We were able to get a few good shots but it's kind of late in the season and most of the flowers are kind of "spent" looking. Here are a couple of my faves from DCHS yesterday...

I LOVE this fountain...
After DCHS we headed down to the "mighty Mississippi", our goal was to try to get some sunset shots on the river. Maybe even catch something worthy of entering in the upcoming "shoot dyer county" contest.
The first road we turned down didn't exactly bring us to the river, but Alex liked the way it looked and wanted to stop & take a couple of shots. She always comes up with the neatest ideas (she's good at thinking outside the box) and she liked the way the road seemed to go on forever. She wanted me to shoot a couple of shots of her with the road visible in the background...

I kind of like the way this shot turned out, it represents Alex well.
She tends to "pick the road less traveled" in life (hmmm... kind of sounds like a LO coming on doesn't it :o) lol)
After taking a few shots here we did find a road that took us to the river.
Before I progress with the story any further let's stop and take a little lesson in southern culture... the "mighty mississippi" has a substance that is referred to in these parts as "gumbo". It is a mud that is like quick sand, once you take one step onto it you are pretty much doomed and... it STINKS like you would not believe.
Okay, now that the lesson is out of the way we can go on with our story.
Once we were in view of the bridge (this was our goal) I started to "scout" our location to see what kind of shots we could get &...
can you guess what I did???
yep! I stepped right into the "gumbo"!
Did I mention I was wearing sandals???
My Favorite sandals!
I was just glad that I wasn't holding my camera, it can be hard to keep your balance when you are trying to pull one leg out of the "gumbo" and your other is sinking deeper as you do so.
It's kind of a non-ending battle, I did however manage to finally "free" myself after sinking into the "gumbo" half way up my calves!
I also had to fish said sandals out of the mud and make my way to the water to "freshen up" a little. :o)

Cute pic huh? There were a couple of men down there fishing (the poles belong to them) and they were kind enough to direct me to an area that would get me out of the "gumbo". I'm sure they were dying laughing inside but they were kind enough to not do it in front of me.
(When I got home a took a very LONG bath before going to bed and scrubbed very well, but you know what??? While working with my pics this am all I could think was "I still smell like "gumbo!". This stuff is REALLY strong & smells like muddy-dead fish! Lucky girl huh? :o)
Needless to say I have already jumped into the shower again today.
Jim now assures me that I don't stink anymore, lol.)

While we were waiting for the sun to break out from the clouds I spotted a couple of rocks & couldn't resist having Alex pose for a couple more shots. :o)
We were finally rewarded with a sunset, but I'm not the one with the sunset shots. Alex had the camera at that time & she was busy shooting her little heart out.

A small geography lesson for ya'll that aren't from around these parts.
This is a shot of the Tennessee/Missouri bridge.
(Dyersburg is located in the very North-West corner of Tennessee)
We are standing on the shore of the Tennessee side (left) & if you were to drive over that bridge you would be in Missouri.

shhhhh ... can you keep a secret ???

2008-08-19T07:38:00.003-05:00

So last week my sweet little one came out of school excited & wanting two things.
First -the baseball coach's "field cat" had kittens and "he's willing to unlock the field house & let us have one", so that was a very quick "NO". We already have a cat & she's more than enough to take care of, there will be NO more cats in this house until she's gone.
Then he says "well Miss Chris finally told us the real reason why were are not having a spring play this year, it's because she's going to London over spring break & it only cost $2,313" :o).
OMG! I about fell out in the floor of my car! ONLY $2,313!!!!
After the shock wore off & I was able to breath again I started trying to make a plan to make this happen. This is a once in a lifetime oppertunity, Chris is an excelent teacher & the "coolest" one you could ever have. :o) (Chris & I actually go Way back, back Before there was even a Devan- I used to work for her first husband. I love Chris very much & I would love for him to experience something like this with her)
We have never let him go on any of the Big trips with the schools over the years. He didn't go to Washington when he was at the intermediate school & he didn't go to Europe with the band when he was in band. This is his sr. year & we want this for him very much, so somehow I Will find a way to make it happen. Right now I'm thinking another job (I know this doesn't usually work out too well for me but I'm going to stay positive).
Last night Chris had a meeting for the parents of the kids who want to go, during the meeting she leaned over & whispered I want to talk to you. It took for Ever to get everyone out of there (cause she's cool you know & all the other parents want to tell her their problems). When everyone else was gone she told us that with a min. of 6 students she goes for free, if she were to have 12 students she could take another adult for free...
wait for it...can you guess???...
She wants to take... ME!!!!! OMG! I probably wasn't too cool at that moment, lol. Right now we probably have a solid 7 maybe 8 going. Not enough for me to go, so I'm hoping & praying that other parents see what an oppertunity this is for their child and come sign them up!!! :o)
I have to admit as much as I don't want to get excited that there is the slightest of possibilities -I am! Had a hard time sleeping last night, lol. The ability to be able to share something like this with my one & only kiddo before he "leaves me" would be totally awesome, especially for someone who's been having "mommy meltdowns", lol. (by the way I've been much better about those, no more meltdowns so far).
So please keep your fingers crossed for me. :o)

Scrap Alert!!! :o)

2008-08-17T08:49:00.008-05:00

Okay, raise your hand if you LOVE Thickers, go ahead raise it - you know you do!
Do you know how much you pay for a package of Thickers???
Well I checked at HL they range from $2.99 - $3.99,
not bad especially if you catch them on sale.
Now...
Raise your hand if you have the Quickutz Revolution...
Raise your have if you have a Quickutz font...
Last but not least raise your hand if you have a Xyron (any size will do really).
Stop & think about ALL the qustions I have just asked you,
go ahead I'll give you a minute...
Can you figure out what I'm going to tell you next???
Yep, if you have the above items that I have mentioned you have the ability to make your own Thickers for a fraction of the cost!
You are only limited by the fonts that you (& your friends) have. :o)
When I was at Ruth's I ran out of white Prima flowers, so I bought some felt to run through the revolution, it worked I just wasn't as happy with the results.
Ruth wondered about the foam (remember those BIG packages of foam I bought on vacation, remember I said I would tell you what they were for later?).
So Ruth bought a sheet of adhesive backed foam. When we got home she ran it through the revolution with one of her new 4x8 alphas (Chemistry) and it cut and looked Perfect!
That font looks just like Thickers & you get the entire alpha on ONE sheet of foam!
So Cool!!! :o)
Now I don't have any of the new 4x8 dies, so we weren't really sure how well I would be able to do this.
I tend to like thin, swirly fonts, but you know what ???
It works like a DREAM !!! I would NOT however try this with the hand tool, I just don't think the results would be as good, that thing has a hard time cutting through bazzil for pete's sake.
So here is one of the LOs I'm working on (I know I'm very slow, lol) and on this LO is my HOMEMADE Thickers!

See that font??? You won't find that in any Thickers package.
That's Sophie!
You really can't get any SKINNIER or SWIRLIER than Sophie.
I figure if it worked with Sophie...
it will work with ANY of the fonts! :o)

Below is a close up so you can see, it's got the dimension & texture that you've come to love from Thickers.

So here's the bottom line & how it breaks down.
Package of thickers $2.99-$3.99, limited to the colors available and fonts available from Thickers.
Now if you make you own:
Fonts-you are ONLY limited by the fonts you can actually get your hands on
Colors-you are ONLY limited by the color of foam you can find
Cost- there are packages that are 5 1/5" x 8 1/5"
in the adhesive backed you get 20 sheets for $4.99
in the NON-adhesive you get 50 sheets for $4.99 (I will tell you that I bought both and you DO get MORE colors is the package WITHOUT adhesive)
or you can take a completely different route and go for the 12x18" sheet that is just $.79! :o)
Now there are many other places to get foam besides HL. But if you are lucky enough to live where there is one you know that every other week you can go online and print out a 40% off coupon!
What did I pay for my cute little Thickers title on this page??? About $.08 at MOST (& yes that includes the adhesive)! :o)
Don't you just LOVE a good Scrappy bargain.
Now a little info about the LO, this past Easter we were able to spend Easter at my parents home (she was out of town at a wedding).
We had a blast & I took EVERY advantage to enjoy my time there as much as possible!
I did lots of things with the nephews and took TONS of pics! :o)
I still have "things" that aren't finished or just right about this LO, but I wanted to go ahead and share the "Thickers" with you. :o)

sights we see when we go out for a walk...

2008-08-15T09:05:00.010-05:00

So I thought I would share some of the "country life" with you.
Here are a few pics from last night's walk, this isn't the route to Cujo/McGraw, this is what you see if you take a left at the intersection before "Cujo's" house, this is the way to "Fernando" (my favorite baby bull) . Only thing is they seemed to have moved him to another field, :o(. I was really looking foward to petting & talking to him.

Here's Dev riding a little ahead of us, he's been joining us this week. It still makes me smile to see him ride a bike (it took us sooo long to get him there).

This cool looking piece of old farm equipment is just "parked" randomly under a tree next to a field. I think it's really cool.

Well the cows weren't there but there was a couple of sheep. I don't think they liked me approaching the fence. I literally scared the p.. out of one of them, well you get the picture. The one on the left seems to be whispering to the one on the right. He's probably saying "what is that?? do you think it's dangerous??" They are cute, even if one of them "stomped" at me, lol.

Yep, I have hay bale envy! I want one of these bad, lol. I have tried many times to convince Jim that he could just "roll one down the highway". Some of my favorite pics that I have shot of the kids has been sitting in front of a hay bale, I want one of my own to put on the back of the property.

See this house??? Well we used to see people outside, coming & going, you get the picture. Well ALL activity at this house seemed to stop this year! Look at the house, it seems that no one is tending to it either. The lawn does mysteriously get mowed, but other than that nothing changes. No signs of people, blinds & curtains never raise. I have been telling Jim all the time we've been walking, each time we pass this house "there's dead bodies in there". I know, I know - but really it's that creepy how deserted this place is now.

And finally home again. This is the view of our pond when you're coming back down the drive way. I never really get tired of seeing it. :o)

deceptive?...who me???

2008-08-14T10:20:00.007-05:00

well... umm I don't know what you're talking about. Oh ok, yea I've been at it again & this is what I've figured out.
First of all my sweet neice WON'T eat it if she knows there's something extra in it, so this means don't tell Devan cause he just can't keep it to himself.
Second I'll follow her suggestions about what to add to what kind of dish. Like her lasagne recipe has cauliflower in the ricotta mixture & sweet potatoe in the red sauce. So I took this idea and used it in my manicotti & it was delicious! No one could tell!
Third all recipes in that book are NOT created equally! I tried her mac-n-cheese recipe yesterday, let's just say.... it left a LOT to be desired. :o( I'm not saying that maybe I didn't get something wrong but I usually follow a recipe pretty well). When I finished the "cheese sauce" it had the consistency of... well umm silly putty! You know the stuff you used to get when you were a kid, comes in an egg- very rubbery and bouncy- able to lift print off a newspaper (hmmm I should have tried that). Or maybe slime, remember that one? It was one huge rubbery glob and it had a bit of a strange flavor.
So what have I learned? I think I'll stick to my recipes and just add her suggestions, that seems to work. :o)
Before I go I thought I would share a few of the pics I took when we went walking last night.

This beauty was in one of my neighbors front yard. We have a photo club meeting next week and our assignment for this month's meeting was "flowers" so I just couldn't resist this one. I'm sure the neighbors don't know what to think about me crouching around with my camera, lol. It's not like were social, they probably don't even know that I'm their neighbor!

We met this sweet guy at the beginning of our walk last night. His name is Rickett & he's very sweet. Do you see that toungue??? Well let me tell you, it is EVERY bit as LONG as it looks & it is JUST as WET!!! I can tell you this because in one quick lick I was wet from my hand to my elbow, lol. Seriously! :o)

meet Cujo...

2008-08-13T13:45:00.008-05:00

Pretty ferocious huh!?!
Yep this is what we have to encounter in the name of trying to get healthy.
You see back in the spring Jim & I both found out that our cholesterol is a little on the high side. Not through the roof but high enough that we need to do something about it. So we are working at it and one of the things that we are doing is going for a 40 min - 1 hr walk in the evenings after dinner. (If you have any tips about lowering cholesterol please let me know, we would love to know.)
Needless to say we don't really like walking down the side of the highway, but we did find a nice little side road just a bit up the highway to walk down. Only problem is there are some pretty mean obstacles.
The first obstacle is a black lab he would charge at us barking, the owners always seem to be there in a flash & then it's okay. One day a kid riding by on a golf cart said "don't worry about him, just yell NO BO! at him and he'll leave you alone. But you have to yell". Hmmm.... we weren't sure what to think but it was worth a try (this happens EVERY time we walk). So the next time we're walking here comes the dog and Jim says "now Bo, hush", he didn't yell just said it real gruff. Ya know what? You could almost see Bo shake his head (as if to say hmmm I didn't remember them, but he knows my name) & then he walks away! It has worked like a charm every since. :o)
Our second obstacle is a boxer about 5 houses down from the lab. This dog is pure EVIL!!!! I Love dogs and normally never wish them harm, but if this dog mysteriously disappeared.... anyway. This dog crosses yards, intersections, roads all in the attempt of scaring the cra.. out of us or maybe really trying to take a plug out of us. We have found nothing to solve this problem, we do however literally carry a big stick and walk very very softly when we pass this road.
And our third possible obstacle was Cujo! This dog is friggin HUGE! I can't begin to explain how HUGE he feels when you are next to him. The first time we had walked that far down the road he very slowly, very purposely came out to the middle of the road, approached us & stopped us. You could have knocked us over with a feather, we were sooo scared (think about the other dogs we had already gone through). We very carefully held out our hands and said hi. Then we slowly, carefully & with the greatest of respect began to pet him. He seemed to be cool with this, when we began to walk away he took his body and pushed against Jim's legs as if to say "not yet buddy, you haven't talked to me long enough". After a bit more petting & talking he would finally let us pass. :o) This became the routine whenever we would venture that far down the road.
When the temp rose to 80 and above we put walking on hold. This week the temperature has been much milder so we began walking again. On the first night when it was time to make the decision (the bulls or Cujo) it was no contest, we had missed Cujo and were ready to see him.
This time when we got to his house his family was outside. I couldn't help it, I had to meet the owners of this cool dog. You may already know what kind of dog he is but I didn't, turns out he's a Great Pyrenees. And well his name isn't Cujo (although I still like that, hehe).
So let me have the pleasure of officially introducing you to McGraw....

Oh yeah, see how mean he is ? The guys give his head a little tickle and you are rewarded with a big ol grin! :o)

Can you get any idea of how incredibly huge this dog is? His owner does admit that he's very territorial when another dog comes around. Seems he doesn't like the boxer down on the corner (imagine that), he would kind of like to eat him (hehe, ok ok not nice but if he acted like he was going to bite your bumm you would feel the same way).
He was so glad to see us and to have to extra attention that instead of pushing against Jim for more attention he high fived him! So cool we didn't even know he could do that. :o)
His mommy said we might not see him for a few day. He's going to have a hair cut, this doesn't make him happy. She said he usually spends about 3 days pouting & hiding in the garage after a hair cut. Poor baby. :o(

He's such a good dog, really just a big ol teddy bear (unless you're a nasty boxer, hehe). Isn't he handsome!

on a quest....

2008-08-11T08:59:00.002-05:00

okay, so I have ALL these LOs that I've been working on.
Multiples on the same theme.
I've been having trouble coming up with different titles on my own.
Ruth sent some help my way, but I needed more. I did locate the book she has, "Top Title & Tips too!", and ordered it.
I turned to the net and found some sites that offer title suggestions. :o)
So I decided to add them to the side bar, just in case you might need some title help too.
If you know of a different book or another site that you find helpful please share! I would LOVE to check it out. :o)

Wow! There's a lot more than I thought...

2008-08-10T08:53:00.002-05:00

Okay, I really didn't think that I had bought that much stuff. We went out at least once a day, sometimes twice to several places.You pick up 1 or 2 things here, 1 or 2 things there. You use them or store them to take home, then when you pull them out you see this...

a HECK of a lot more than I thought! LOL.
So what did I get? Here's the break down...
Quickutz - Flourish 12" border die (I fell in LOVE with this when Tammy was here, I REALLY wanted the vine but this is the one they had)
Basic Grey- Recess chipboard & Travel Rub-ons (picked them up at Big Lots no less)
BoBunny- Ornamental clear stamps (this was the splurge- nothing particular in mind but LOOK at that corner stamp! isn't it gorgeous!)
Stickles- turquoise, aqua, yellow, & orange peel (it's about time I get a few & I thought these colors would be perfect for summer LOs-that's what I'm working on)
Me & My Big Ideas- bling skull & music notes ( clearance $1!)
StazOn - mustard (it's our school color & I've watched the stamping on transparencies at 2 peas, they didn't use colors but I think I will)
Studio G- small clear stamp sets June, July, October, & flowers (from the $1 spot at Michaels!)
Meri Meri- Easter die cut
Jolee's - Rock & Roll (this was a gift from Ruth) & Concert
Sandylion- Owls (another gift from Ruth), Circus, & Grad
Spare Parts- assorted bright, summer colored brads (for the LOs I'm working on)
Making Memories- die cut Road sign (Ruth saw a LO at Studio Calico & lifted it, she did a Fabulous job & I can't wait to lift her lift! LOL)
Craft & White cardstock
Clear binder covers ( from Staples $13, for stamping on - told you I watched the videos)
Creative Cafe'- 6 felt ribbons (only got 1 yard each they were $2 a yard! do you see that itty bitty bit of green???? that's ALL I have left! I've used up the rest of it! :o) )
& LOTS of foam ( I'll tell you about that later after I've had a chance to play with it myself)
So that's it, that's EVERYTHING I bought on my vacation except for the papers that I have already cut & put on LOs! Most everything here has a plan to be used in the very near future.
Since I'm working on sooo many LOs that are the same design and same subject (just different people) I'm trying to come up with different titles.
Ruth sent me some that I really like, she got them from a book she has called "Top Titles & Tips Too!".
I also googled and found a few websites that have title suggestions but if you know of another book out there I would LOVE to know what the name of it is.
I think this would be a GREAT investment, one that I would use again & again.

had a FABulous time! :o)

2008-08-09T10:02:00.008-05:00

Well I made it to Ruth's about 1:30 Monday afternoon & I had a fabulous 4 days with her!
I didn't take as many pics as I had hoped, we were just too busy.
I did however take a pic of their dog Riley & Ruth's tomato plant the first day I was there. (he's the best dog!)

Seems that Riley likes to "think" that he likes tomatoes, so he picks the red ones and takes ONE bite out of them.
Apparently they must not taste as good as he remembers because that is all he eats, then he just leaves them on the ground to rot. (this does not make his owners happy, I personally think it's cute :o), he's getting old).
Well I shot the pics in raw (that's where I tend to keep the camera set recently) and her card reader doesn't read raw so Tuesday I changed the setting & shot some more pics of Riley. Ruth then said "I need pictures of my tomato plant too" (she has plans for a LO), so I went out to shoot the plant & what do you think I found???

I stood there laughing to myself as I took the pics & I felt bad as I picked them up- I knew he was going to be fussed at when I took them in. But honestly it's so dog gone cute!

Tuesday we shopped & scrapped.

Wednesday we met Ruth's friend Lela in Knoxville for a day of shopping & lunch.

Lela is really a cool person & I enjoyed meeting her a lot.

Below is a pic of Ruth & Lela shopping in Big Lots. It is not the pic I wanted to post! :o( There is a MUCH cuter one, one of them goofing off with some coconut & seashell bras (use your imagination) but....... Ruth was a spoil sport and said she would never speak to me again if it ended up on the blog so you get this pic instead.

Not a very good pic for pete's sake, you can't even see Lela's face.

Thursday was spent scrapping & getting new meds for the ear infection I mentioned in an earlier post. I took the last of my med on Wednesday & I woke up at 4:30 am Thursday, it was worse! I knew I was leaving Friday am & that I had to go through the mountains on the way home! I didn't want to face that the way it was hurting, so I was burning up the phone line trying to get the pain level knocked down to where I could stand it. It worked I was able to make it home without dying. :o)

I know you won't be able to believe it but...... I worked on 9 LOs while I was there!!! Okay, okay before you fall out & die let me tell you that they are ALL the same LO style. I know not very imaginative, but I do like the style. It lets you use a series of 6 verticle 4x6 photos. I was able to find cute paper while I was there.

Speaking of finding paper... the price of supplies has gone through the roof! I have not shopped much in the last year

( resolution I made to use what I had when I could- to quit stock piling) but I didn't have any paper that would work for the LOs I wanted to work on. OMG! I didn't expect it to be as much as it was. But it's ok, I have already used ALL the paper, a Huge amount of the ribbon & have plans for all of the embellishments! :o)

The only things I splurged on were I did break down & buy 4 bottles of stickels and a set of stamps (they are sooo pretty). There is a set that Ruth bought that I wouldn't mind having too. I'll post pics pick later of my new goodies & a really cool trick Ruth came up with while I was there.

we ate spinach! :o)

2008-08-03T20:01:00.004-05:00

and it wasn't bad! LOL. Okay if you hide it it's not bad. I tried the first recipe from "Deceptively Delicious" yesterday. I made the blueberry oatmeal bars. It seems the trick is to allow the food to cool completely, this way the flavors mix well and you don't taste the yuc... umm the stuff that's good for you. :o)
This recipe has 1/2 C. spinach puree, I made a batch yesterday & then went to run errands. When I came home "someone" had cut into them. When I asked Devan if he had cut them he said "I admit I ate this part". When I asked him if he liked it he had two things to say. "Yes" & "was it one of "those" recipes?". Then he wanted to know what was in it & I told him spinach - didn't seem to phase him much.
When he ate one after dinner we did notice him trying to take it apart & he said "well I sure don't see it". LOL. He thought there would be a layer of spinach instead of it being mixed in with other ingredients.
They really are quite good, so much so that the guys requested that I make them another pan for while I'm gone this week.
Speaking of being gone this week, I head out bright and early 8am tomorrow to go to my friend Ruth's! She's just outside Chattanooga. We'll be scrapping, working on a few projects, & I'm sure we'll do a little shopping while I'm there. :o)
Today I've been very busy getting ready. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, gathering supplies & pics. I think I have all my supplies (probably more crap than I need & I probably left out something important) they are packed & in my car. I've finished cooking and done all the cleaning that I'm going to, lol. I have my directions & atlas, I've packed some snacks, coffee maker is set to go off early tomorrow. Now I just have to finish getting my clothes ready & in a bag.
Hope to have some pics to share when I get back. :o)

.... it's just not fair :o(

2008-08-02T20:30:00.007-05:00

How could it have happened?
In the blink of an eye time has gone by , things have changed, & soon life will never be the same.
This has been a very tough week for me.
You see Thursday was the first day of school, the first day of my baby's Sr. year.
All week all I can think is "how can I remember every moment of his birth, bringing him home, his first smile so vividly... like it was yesterday and he's going to be a Sr. this year".
I know I'm supposed to be all excited, & I am for him but..... my heart is breaking.
It started Wednesday afternoon.
We were in wal-mart of all places & I ran into another one of the Sr. moms. She was sooo excited "I can't believe we finally made it here!" she says (I guess maybe you feel different if you have twins, I guess you feel different if you still have Another baby at home).
I can only imagine the look on my face, all I could get out was "I'm not ready".
She goes on all excited about this year. All I can say is "I'm not ready". Repeatedly this is what I say. And then it starts.....
a mommy melt down in the middle of friggin wal-mart, great just what I need to labeled a complete kook Devan's Sr. year.
She realizes that I'm losing it & quickly says "well you have a year to get used to it" & runs off.
At this point I want to grab her & shake her and scream at the top of my lungs "I've been trying to get used to it for the last year & this is as good as it has gotten!!!".
( yes I'm the mom who was so depressed when my baby rolled over because "he's growing up too fast" that my girlfried sent me flowers to cheer me up) Anyway so this is mommy meltdown #1.
Thursday everyone is in first day of school mode & I grab my camera and this is what I get....

(isn't he a cutie!)

... and this is what my heart sees and remembers....

(his first day of preschool, don't you just want to eat him up)

As I hugged him bye my mind is reeling, remembering that first day of preschool. How nervous I was about having him leave me. My heart breaking & I ran.... I ran out to Jim's Aunt Linda's. I spent the morning crying, drinking coffee, and being comforted by another mom who had already been there and lived to tell about it. In an instant I had the urge to run to Linda's again, but I didn't it wouldn't have been the same.
Later that afternoon I had to go see our Nurse Practioner (I have an ear infection?!?) and as I'm leaving her office she is also excited (her daughter is a Sr. too) and again I start having a mommy meltdown (#2). She is kinder about it though and admits that she has some pangs herself plus the luxury of having another kid at home.
As I leave her office I call my sister-in-law upset with myself that I have had another meltdown. Can you guess what happens??? yep (#3) another meltdown about having meltdowns, lol.
Then I go into the pharmacy for my rx, can you guess what happens??? Yep, you are very smart! (#4).
So let's sum this up- 2 outings, 4 meltdowns and it's ONLY the first day of school!!! It's not even the first full day of school, it was just registration! Yep have I got my stuff together or what??? You know he is one lucky kid, lol.
As this year progresses I'm really not sure how I'm going to handle things, if I seem a little emotional or short I appolagize - please be patient with me .... my life is changing , my heart is breaking, I'm losing my baby and things will never be the same again...

i did it, i did it, i did it !!!

2008-07-27T09:00:00.005-05:00

Yipee! :o) I am one happy girl.
Now I get to hang with the "cool girls". LOL.
Okay, okay enough silliness...
over a week ago I developed a case of "slideshow envy". ;o)
I noticed that most of the other blogs I read have a slide show, it's a nice way to show your LOs. I clicked the link to make your own & it was a snap (really even on dail up it wasn't hard at all).
The problem has been getting it added to the blog. I wanted it added to the side bar, but the add a slideshow button wouldn't let it show up- hump. :o(
If I added it from slide.com then it would be added as a post, which would mean as I add new post it would move down the page and eventually disappear.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I have fooled with this & how messed up I have gotten this blog in the process.
Last night I found a posting on the help board where a little bell went off. :o)
The person posting wasn't using the add a slideshow button, he used the add a html button (yeah, yeah I don't know what that crap means either- I just know it WORKED ) .
So now I have a "cool" slideshow over in the sidebar! :o)
Does this make me one of the "cool chicks" ?!? LOL. )
Now I need to figure out how to adjust the margins, 'cause it's all scrunched up over there. See..... it's not supposed to look like that. There's all that extra room to the right I want to use it so you can see a whole page at a time.
Well.... if it took me OVER a week just to figure out how to get it over there, how long do you think it will take me to figure out how to adjust margins??? (pssss.... if you want to see a page larger click on it, this will take you to my pics at slide.com and you can click on the pic to enlarge)

lots of rain, high humidity, soggy ground... it's beautiful :o)

2008-07-26T16:01:00.003-05:00

I haven't lost my mind, lol.
When Jim got ready to go mow this afternoon I told him it was probably too wet. He poked his head out and confirmed that it was too soggy , humid, & hot. Poor baby :o(
I then pointed out that if he was really wanting to feel productive and to get something checked off his list that there was something he could take care of inside the house, without the heat & humidity.
Can you guess what it was ??? well....... of course I suggested that he change out the other light, he he. Of course he acted as if he had completely forgotten about the whole thing.
So drum roll please.......... here goes a little before & after action for your pleasure.

I

This is before - butt ugly light first thing when you came through the kitchen door. And after.....

my new reduced down from $34 to $5 light from Lowes! Wahoo! I'm not really sure what's into him, I must have really been a real b..... anyway I'm loving the new lights! :o)
I think I'll go make him a special burger as a reward.

bright light, bright light :o) !!!

2008-07-26T08:27:00.004-05:00

gee, it sure is BRIGHT in here! LOL. Yep, you guessed it, the light is finally Up AND Working!! :o)
I have to tell you it was NOT an easy thing, & it got pretty ugly around here Thursday night.
I finally told him that when his paycheck came in I was calling our electician and having him fix the light (thanks Ruth).
That combined with acting like a complete ...... well you know, finally got it done.
He was even able to accomplish it on his LUNCH BREAK!!!!! I know the light itself is butt ugly (I tried for something else but NOTHING else in this town would work there) but the fact that I have a working light and I'm no longer cooking in a bat cave is a beautiful thing. :o)

Yesterday I took Devan to Jackson to pick up a couple of new things for this Gosh Awuful uniform/dress code they have installed this year. :o( (remember we start back to school Thursday)
We started the day at Old Navy, they have what we need for really Cheap, which is good when it is NOT what you want to be wearing.
When we finished the school clothes I headed over to .... you guessed it Hobby Lobby! I was sooo excited! I know exactly what pics I want to scrap next, what layout to do, what colors I need & .... I couldn't have been more dissapointed. :o(
Apparently they had a HUGE paper sale last week-the paper isle was HALF empty! Then there were some Jolees that I needed for another LO I want to lift from Lorrie, do you think they had a single one??? NO! they didn't.
I did get a couple of new goodies, but not the things that I was desperately needing to get some work done before school starts.

See the pink box??? Tammy had a box like this when she came, she said that Rhonda (the owner of Eclectica) uses this to keep her 12" platform for the QK revolution in. So when I saw it in Pink I had to go ahead and pick one up. :o)
It's a ruler box & the tag says stuff managment - cost $3.27 if you use a 40% coupon just $1.96! Can you see how perfect my platform fits in there???
Tammy even had her 12" border dies in there. (I used one of them on the "my guys" LO - the black vine)
Clear stamps were on sale so I couldn't resist this set.
They're by .... hmmm Marah Johnson. LOL. Didn't even notice that until just now (should have known) , how I LOVE her stuff!!! Thought they would be perfect on some "rock band" pages, a concert page, or even a page just about my kid.
They now carry "doodle genie" templates by Chatter Box. I love me some doodle genies. :o)
They had quite a few and it was a tough choice. This one won out because you know how I love birds & swirls.
Did you even notice that 2 of the birds are owls??? Remember I still have another Hooter's LO to go when I can figure out what to do.
They are just $4.99, with a 40% coupon just $2.99! (remember Dev was with me so I gave him the $ to pay for this one with a coupon)
Then we went to the mall.
Dev picked him up a few things at Spencer's and was thrilled that they were all marked down. LOL. gotta love it he's learning well. He also bought a "I love boobies" bracelet! LOL. The proceeds go to breast cancer so how can you say no. :o)
After that Books a Million.
He got a new biography, another Kurt Cobain - he's really into him lately.
I bought "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. Saw it on Oprah and thought I would give it a try.
Who am I trying to deceive you ask???
That would be Devan & ME!!!
I'm sorry I just can't stand the flavor and texture of most of that healthy crap, lol. But maybe if it's completely hidden I won't notice it, LOL.
When you start to zoom in on pics and edit them you really notice the eyes. I have noticed that quite a few of the people I have shot have a yellow tint to their eyes (I end up whitening them). That is a sign of poor nutrition, this is the reason I am trying to "decieve" us. Plus I was hoping to help lower our cholesterol. Anyway I need to go get a steamer basket and some of the healthy cra..... um I mean some fresh veggies! yeah that's it! :o)
Our last stop was a quick dash into Cinnabon (yeah I know I was just talking about healthy, lol, look I said I was going to try to eat healthier not that I had lost my mind) to grab some cinnamon rolls for a surprise for Jim (he hung the light you know). We had no sooner stepped into that building and it began a downpoour! After about 10 minutes we gave up and made a dash into the rain & left. We were drenched, it was really coming down-hard to even see the road until we got outside of Jackson then it was clear as a bell.
And you know what else??? They have changed the cinnamon rolls, they are not as good as I remember. The icing is different and the roll is sticky, you know I'm all about texture. So while it's a nice memory with my kid I don't know how many more times I'll be tempted to splurge the calories for them.
I'm not sure about today, I know Jim had mowing on his mind but it rained a lot here last night so I don't know if that will be possible. Do you think I'll be able to get him to change out that other light?!? LOL.

hoot, hoot....

2008-07-23T09:51:00.008-05:00

First things first, I went to court today. The judge entered the court room informally without his robe & once again appolagized. A witness who was subpoenaed didn't show! He was not a happy man, when the case is reset she will be arrested and held as a material witness until trial.
All other cases set for this week settled! :o)
Turns out this was my LAST week soooo.... I'm FREE!!!!
Now the LO I did yesterday was another lift of dnksmommy (Lorrie). I lifted another one of her halloween LOs, this one was called carving pumpkins and you can find it here:
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1312145
I used it for some of the pics I took when we took Devan to Hooters to celebrate his 17th birthday.
Even though this LO doesn't look typical Sheila I like it, it's funny. :o)
My only problem is I didn't get all the pics on the page so I need to come up with another one, got any ideas???? Let me know, here's what I have so far....

he he, don't you LOVE the pic on the second page?!? He actually made that face on the way home, the guys were being goofy!
I told them they had better stop or they were going to be cursed with kids who really looked like that.
Did you notice that I used both of my new sets of stamps? (you can click on the pic & it will enlarge if you want to see better detail) I used the stamps Ruth sent me for my b'day and I used my owl stamps that I bought last month in Murray, KY. I also used my new Martha Stewart paper that I picked up at wal-mart Sunday. I can't believe that I used soooo much new stuff, usually it sits around for at least a year or so before it gets used. LOL.
When we were at Hooter's I saw the "follow me to Hooter's" bumper sticker & bought it for the LO, then Zach saw the "Hooter's girls dig me" bumper sticker & thought I should get it to go with the pic of Dev & the girls. When he made this face on the way home all that changed.
Funny thing is I forgot and DEV reminded me!!!! I had already enlarged the pic with the girls when he told me, gotta love it when they are able to laugh at themselves.
We had a good time that day, the food was good, the girls were nice, Dev was... well Dev. LOL!When he was flapping his wings ( menus) he ended up smacking a complete stranger in the head that was walking by, he was laughing so hard he wasn't watching what he was doing (typical Dev). The guys thought for a minute that they might have to intervein, but the guy ended up walking on, guess he was thankful that he wasn't the one having to stand on a chair in front of everyone. LOL.
After lunch we went to the mall. The boys & I got run out of Spencers! Apparently they don't like it when you take pics in the um hum... "fun" section. LOL. The boys were being goofy and posing with things & I was snapping when the manager came up. He was nice about it but it put a damper on it. I have since found out that they don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to taking pics but it wouldn't be worth making a scene honestly.
Well that's it for now. Think I might "play" some more. Don't really have anything in mind for the rest of the Hooter's pic (I hate it when that happens) so I might move on....... easter, rock band (she had a pretty cool rock band) , gotta go see. :o)

busy, busy, busy.......

2008-07-22T19:59:00.010-05:00

Whew! It was one busy weekend, so many new things to tell. :o)
Tammy & Bees got here Saturday morning around 11:00 & when she came through the door she was carrying this great big ole bag! :o)
Yep, she brought me a birthday present. Want to know what was in the bag ?????

Here's what was in the bag. A couple of peter rabbit tablets ( I love peter rabbit ) , a set of drama & tradgy face mask earings and pendant ( you know my kid is the drama major ) , a new Basic Grey Magnectice cutting matt!!!!!
Now I have one for each page when I work! Yipee!
Last but definitely not least my birthday card. Can you see it???
She always gets me one of these, she looks till she finds one that has the little blond girl & the brunette. They represent the two of us when we were little, well if we had actually known each other when we were little this is what we think we would have been like. :o)

Jim & the kids spent Saturday night playing a little rock band.

When Tammy came she told us that Sky ( her son ) had bought his girlfriend Mallory a ring! He was taking her to Memphis for their anniversary.
He's such a little romantic he had it all planned, he had already contacted the carriage company and told them what he was planning.
The driver was in on the whole thing. When she got to a certain area she stopped the carriage & told them that it was a good place to take pictures & asked if they wanted her to take their picture. After she took the first one Mallory was focusing on the camera so she didn't notice that Sky had gotten down on one knee until he started to talking.....

Of course she said yes! :o)

Here's a pic of Bees driving my car.
One of the kids in the youth group had a pool party on Sunday ( just a couple of houses down the highway from us ) so Devan & Bees went & hung out there for a while.
While the kids were at the party we ran to town to pick up some pics and check out the new Martha Stewart line at wal-mart ( that's the only place here to get scrapbook supplies ) .
When the kids left the party my niece Alex came home with them and we all spent the rest of the night watching "Across the Universe".
See one very busy weekend and No time to scrap until Monday, but I'm on a roll now! Believe it or not I actually finished another LO today.
I have to report for jury duty in the morning. :o( If I don't get picked and get to leave I'll get my LO uploaded, it's another lift from dnksmommy. Thanks for the inspiration Lorrie! :o)

I've been at it again.....

2008-07-21T21:31:00.009-05:00

This past weekend my friend Tammy & her daughter Bees came for a visit, the house was super busy! Kids in & out all weekend.
Sometimes it felt like we were Never going to actually "play" because she was having to cut her trip short. She usually comes on Friday and stays till Tuesday (wahoo! lots of girl time!) But this time she didn't get to come till Saturday and she had to leave today.
I had a few ideas about what pics I wanted to work with & I had seen a few layouts lately that sparked my interst, but there was LOTS to do this weekend.
Finally this morning we were able to sit down at the tables and REALLY play! :o) I realized that I had never done a LO that features Jim.
On my birthday while in Paris (Tennessee not France, lol) I was shooting some pics and discovered beautiful lighting under one of the trees on the courthouse lawn and quickly grabbed the guys and started shooting. I LOVE the way they turned out and decided to do a LO about "my guys".
I ACTUALLY finished a LO in one day! Before 6pm even! LOL! This is a HUGE thing for me, I'm soooooo slow when I "play". I had lots of help though since I "lifted" this LO from dnksmommy. She's one of the blogs I read - over on the right (Ramblings from a slightly demented SAHM's mind) , go on give her a try if you haven't checked her out yet. :o)
She recently added a slide show to her blog that shows her work. I saw this LO & knew I had to try it. Here's a link in case you want to check it out:
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1312139
and here's what I did with it......

I hope I did her design justice. I know I enjoyed working with it & I love the way mine turned out.
It was definately a first for me. In addition to not having done a LO about Jim before I've never done one with valentine supplies, although I have thought about it, planned for it, & bought for it for YEARS. :o) I decided that the pics I scrapped about "my valentines" didn't actually have to be taken on valentine's day they just had to pics of the ones I love.
Now why didn't I think of that before???? It sure was liberating & I think it made Jim feel good to finally have a page about him. :o)
There's sooo much More to "show & tell" about this past weekend but it's getting late & I'm very tired (we didn't go to bed till almost 5 Sunday morning!) so it'll have to wait till later.

my baby Loves me....

2008-07-18T10:46:00.003-05:00

Sometimes he's just soooo sweet. :o)
We spent a week at the lake for vacation this year. While at the lake "my thing" was sunsets.
Every evening I would be home in time to go down to the water & shoot the sunset, they were soooo gorgeous!
Well last night while at photo-club I look down at my phone and it says that I have 3 messages.
When I start opening them this is what I find.......

My baby was sending me the sunset. :o)
I wish I could have been there to see it with him, but it's sure nice to know while he was looking at something so beautiful there was a moment that he stopped and thought of mom.
They are on there way home right now, can't wait to catch up when he gets home tonight & to find out why he bought 5 bucket of bracelets at camp?????
Okay, enough gushing, LOL. I've got a pretty busy day & weekend ahead.
need to go to walgreens and pick up pics, they weren't ready last night :o(
go to kroger and get groceries for the weekend, remember Tammy & maybe her daughter Bees are coming
then I need to finish laundry & working on the house
This weekend will be full of "girl time"! :o) Hoping to get something scrapped this weekend. Not sure what yet, it's been a while since I've pulled out supplies so it's hard to get an idea. Guess I need to go rummage.
Hope you have a Great Weekend! :o)

Thanks Ruth! :o)

2008-07-17T08:20:00.004-05:00

So when Jim came through the kitchen door yesterday this is what he had in his hands.

When I asked him what he had he said "it's for you, from Ruth".
Ruth is one of my very best friends. :o)
During the last year she moved near Chattanooga, which I think makes her a little closer to me than she was this time last year. We thought that I would get to go visit her during summer vacation, but this jury duty thing has put a damper on all traveling for me.
She called Monday and said that she had mailed my birthday present (my birthday was last month) because she didn't know how much longer it would be till I got to visit. She said she had ordered it at Eclectica! That's our Favorite store! It's in Memphis, TN. If you're a scrapper and you're ever in Memphis you have got to go in! You will be In Love!
I had forgotten about the phone call when I saw the package in Jim's hand so it was totally a surprise. I Love Surprises! :o)
When I opened the package this is what I saw.......

oooooooo pretty :o)
.....and inside that.........

OMG! These are soooo cool! They are the "for the record2 by Katie Pertiet" for AL. They are sooo cool maybe I'll be able to use them this weekend! (my girlfriend Tammy is coming to "play")
There is a memory record, day record, checklist (oooo the posibilities), celebration record, photo record, travel record, and a blank one. They will be sooo cool for journaling or adding a little snippet to a LO.
It also gives me a reason to pick up a new ink pad next time I get the chance. I was reading the other day that AL has come out with a new line of ink just for clear stamps! Everyone who has used it says you get really crisp & clear images from your clear stamps. No beading up on the stamp when you ink it! That is definately worth a try cause I just LOVE my clear stamps. :o)
So again I have to say "Thanks Ruth, they are sooooo COOL!"
Love Ya!

So on my list today:
place walgreens order
(they sent a new coupon code yesterday - love me some discounted printing!) :o)
make something to take for snack at the photo club meeting tonight
(we are starting a photo club here - it resulted from the class I took)
pick the pics for club tonight - we're supposed to bring about 4 or so of our work
(I'm thinking about a couple of the sunsets I shot on vacation & some zoo pics, the flamingo for sure, maybe the aligator, gorilla, a giraffe shot? just not sure-kind of nerve wrecking)
fix dinner
pick up pics
meeting @ 6:30
stop @ wal-mart on way home-supplies for the weekend
whew, that's a lot for me! LOL

"Our Sweet Sierra" :o)

2008-07-16T13:45:00.006-05:00

It will be 3 years ago come October that Devan had a bonfire during fall break. Sierra came to the bonfire and has been a part of "our family" every since. :o)

This is one of the pics I took of her this past spring, she's so easy to work with. :o)
Last week when she came over to "play" I told her that she would need to take pity on us this week since Devan was going to be out of town.
Wouldn't you know it, she didn't forget us. She came over last night & had dinner with us. She brought her "bag of games" with her & spent the evening with us. :o) We started out playing"In a Pickle" in the kitchen because Jim was working on a project in there & I felt that I NEEDED to be able to SEE him (I'll tell you more about the project later).

When Jim gave up on the project Sierra called him over for some help, yes they noticed that I had grabbed the camera and they didn't do very well "pretending" that they didn't know I was taking their picture, LOL.

When we finished "In a Pickle" we moved to the den and let Sierra teach us a new game "Pig Pile". This is a game she was pretty excited to show Jim because as she says "it's all about the strategy, so she just knew Jim would really like this game. :o)
Well.......... I'm not really sure about the strategy part, I guess there may be some. If there is Jim didn't seem to be able to find any! We played 5 rounds and he came in dead last 4 out of 5 rounds. :o) Needless to say there was much grumbeling coming from his area of the carpet, hehe.

See, this is a guy that's ALL about the strategy after a game that's supposed to be ALL about the strategy and he just couldn't find the strategy. He looks thrill doesn't he?
Anyway, our sweet girl came over and spent about 4 hours keeping us company :o). I wonder if there will be anyone left to keep us company when Devan is gone for good :o( .

Now about "the project" ughhhhhh! Why does even the simplest of things that you ask a guy to do have to turn into " a project"! Okay so Friday I told Jim that we needed a new bulb in the light over the sink, it's never been changed since we moved in so I figure that's the problem. Jim looks at it and declares "I think it's the balance" (sp?) . Ok, whatever I just want the light fixed where I can see in that area. So he goes to Lowes on Saturday and he calls me and says "for $6 more that the price of the part I can get a whole new light". So I told him that's fine, if we were replacing the light I would have preferred something different than the flourescent light that was up there but ok. So he starts sending me pics of light choices, we talk, I tell him what I kind of see in my mind. He finally sends a pic I like & it's on clearance! He brings it home and it doesn't fit the area right :o( . So we box it back up and Sunday we head to Lowes to see what I can find. Well I find a light that was $34 and it's clearanced down to $11! But..... we can't find it on the shelf, I ask Jeremy about it. He takes one look and says they don't have anymore but they'll sell us that one. He says the brace thing you know the things you attach to the box won't be there but that they have one we could buy. We talk it over and decided to go for it. He starts to take it down and when he squeezes the clamp in the display the clamp BREAKS! So he say's they have to get it down that night the display is being changed & say's if we want to come back Monday for it he'll have it waiting with our name on it AND he'll take ANOTHER $5 off the price! WOW! OMG! How could we pass that up! We're a couple that's all about the bargan! $34 light for $6! :o) So Jeremy calls @ 5 Monday and Jim goes to pick up the light. He spends OVER 30 minutes trying to find the missing parts to buy AND $5 on the missing parts! So much for $5 off.
After dinner he removes the old light and......... the only hole in the ceiling is just big enough for the wire to come through. Aparently this is a bad thing, "it's supposed to be bigger, it's supposed to be around "the box"". So he takes a screwdriver and starts feeling around in the hole and declares "there's NO *?!* Box!" Again, apparently this is a bad thing.
So we decided fine, the light is still a steal and we'll use it to replace another light that I can't stand. He'll simply go BACK to Lowes and get ANOTHER flourescent (sp?) light to replace that one.
So yesterday he goes BACK to Lowes and buy another light just like the one he just took down. After dinner last night he set about replacing the light (this is why I wanted to be in the kitchen, just incase something went wrong with the electricity). When he gets the light installed and turns the power back on, flips the switch and VIOLA we have light! :o) For 2 seconds! :o( and then it goes out! He checks everything 3 times and can't figure it out, this is when he abandoned "the Project".
Now my girlfriend Tammy (Hi Tammy!) is supposed to be coming this weekend, and as EVERY woman does I used that to my advantage to get him to fix the light in the first place. Now I'll just be happy if the thing isn't hanging from the ceiling on Friday, LOL.
Last but not least I had to report for jury duty this morning. When we arrived the courtroom was locked. When they finally let us in the judge said that he owed us an apology. Seems the lawyers had come to an agreement @ 4:30 yesterday. But the defendant had caused so many problems in bringing this case to trial that he couldn't be trusted to plea out this morning. The judge felt that our presence in the hallway was the reason that he went through with the plea. They didn't tell us what the case was about but they did tell us that it resulted in a 12 year prison sentence. Good news is that I'm now done with jury duty this week until time for call in Friday evening.

I'm in LOVE!

2008-07-15T07:43:00.009-05:00

So for Christmas I got my New Super Cool Camera! So that meant that I needed a wonderful camera bag to protect my new baby. You know I'm a very patient girl when it comes to figuring out what it is that I need & where to get it. So in the mean time I stole the bag from the camcorder. :o)
I knew that I am only going to buy ONE bag so it has to be what I want & what I will be happy with, NO upgrades!
It needs to be large enough to hold all my STUFF (I'm a girl who's all about the stuff :o) & I like having it ALL with me - you never know what you're going to need) , to have ample padding to protect my baby, easy to use, and Last but not Least it has to be "Sheila" .
Well I found it!!!! It's a Tracy Renae Design and you can find them here:
http://shop.tracyrenaedesigns.com/main.sc
I asked for $ from Jim & my mom & dad for my birthday, and then I chipped in the rest.
Yes it is an investment but like I said I'm only going to buy ONE bag.
I ordered my bag on June 9th and it arrived on June 16th!
Wow! Super fast for a custom made bag. You pick your bag, you pick any extra features you want, & you pick your fabric.
It was supposed to take 2-3 weeks and it came in ONLY 1 week! Wahoo!
So I've had her for a month now. I've used it twice now for 2 ALL Day events and I'm in LOVE!
I chose the EX bag:

Isn't she pretty! :o) I really wanted pink & black, but she didn't have a pink & black choice.
I made a couple of flubbs with my choice in the beginning but Tracy was very patient & sweet working things out with me.
I ended up choosing this black & white, it's classic and will go with anything.
Best part is IF I get tired of this look I can order another flap (just $20) and change it out, they just velcro on. :o)

She is HUGE, but that's what I LOVE about her! She holds ALL my stuff including my reflector that Devan got me for Mother's Day (see there it is fits perfectly inside). I also put my car keys/wallet thing Cristi got me for my birthday here when I go out for the day.
See the little outside pocket on the front? It's great!
There is actually a zippered pocket inside it too. I have all my photo software and tutorials in the pocket, when I'm going to be gone for the day I tuck my lipstick case in here too.
The zipper pocket has Alex's chapstick that I bought her for shoots cause she doesn't want to keep up with it, LOL.

Okay, so this is without the reflector. There are two really good pads that cover the three padded compartments, you are also seeing my matching wallet I bought for my memory cards (it kind of blends in cause it matches).

This is below the top pads. The compartment on the left is where my baby lives when she's not in my hands. :o) The two padded middle compartments hold my extra lens & hood and all my filters. On the far right I have my cover thing that Jim got me for shooting in the rain or beach & my charger, I also tuck my brush & hair clamp here when I'm going to be gone all day.

The inside of the flap has a zippered mesh pocket! I have my lens cloth and extra battery in here.

Last but not least there is a HUGE pocket across the back. Great for manuals, glasses, gum, note book, whatever. :o)
I chose to add 3 features to my bag. As I mentioned earlier I got a matching memory card wallet & a ring to clip it to. I also added feet to the bottom of the bag that way I don't have to worry about setting in on the ground and wearing out the bottom or getting it dirty.
So she is big enough to hold everything I have for my camera & to tuck my essentials that I need for the day so that I don't have to carry a purse. :o)

I lifted the Fabulous Debbi T! :o)

2008-07-14T09:04:00.010-05:00

"Who's Debbi T???" you ask.
She's one of my Favorite "peas" at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ . (sorry I'm really new to all this & I don't know how to do the cool link thingy)
I discovered her about 2 years ago when I noticed her scraproom in a post. She had the cutest sprice racks that she had used for storage and I just had to send her a peamail and ask where she had gotten them. She replied soooo quickly & even included a link! I thought "wow! she's really nice. :o) " and I started to notice her post more and more. Of course I checked out her gallery and fell in love with her work and her "life story" (it's really pretty cool). About a year ago I noticed that she had a blog and quickly bookmarked it and I've been lurking every since. LOL. (I even have her blog listed on the right over there, go ahead and look at it!)
This winter she posted a layout "Go elf yourself" and I knew Instantly that I had to do it!
She had gone online & "elfed" herself - I had too! But she had figured out a way to SAVE it, print it, & ultimately Scrap it! It was instantly a hit in her gallery and I wasn't the Only one who wanted to know "how did you save it?". Being the sweetie she is she quickly posted directions for saving & it was EASY.
"Elf" was such a Big part of our holiday season I just had to do it! We are such "Elf" dorks around here that Dev & I have "Elf" ringtones on our phones during Christmas & we've been known to quote lines from the movie at very random times! :o)
So I set out to "lift" Miss Debbi T, of course my biggest challenge is the same as always. She does a 1 page LO usually and I always do a 2 page LO. But I think I did ok. If you want to check her's out (and you should) it's here (I think)
http://debbitscraps.blogspot.com/2007/12/we-were-elfed.html

Sorry, I'm new to this photographing LO thing & I'm not very good at it. If you have any tips for doing it better please let me know.
The Christmas balls across the bottom are "our" favorite quotes from the movie "Elf".
There are 3 journaling cards in the library pocket - they read:

card # 1
subject: Buddy the elf our new tree topper!
date: 12/07
Our new tree is soooo Tall that we couldn't get our Santa on Top! When I was looking for a new toper I couldn't find one I liked. But I fell in LOVE with this little guy & had to bring him home. He was adorable sitting at the top of our tree! When it was time to name him, Buddy was Perfect! :)

card # 2
subject: "ELF"
date: 12/7
Last year we saw "Elf" for the 1st time! It instantly became our New Holiday Favorite! Below are some of my favorite lines from the movie! "I like smiling, it's my favorite!" :)

card # 3
subject: http://www.goelfyourself.com/ Hot online trend of the season
date: 12/7
Everyone was doing this! So much fun - load your pics & watch your Goofy Elf dance! (I lifted this layout from one of my favorite "peas" @ two peas in a bucket - Thanks DebbiT for the inspiration & instructions on how to save this fun trend for the future! :)

CHURCH CAMP UPDATE! Devan called just before 8:30 last night, they had made it to their destination safe & sound. :o) He sounded very excited and like he was having a GREAT time. He had already made it to his cabin and "claimed" his bed, he said "it's very square looking & it looks real comfy". They had a "meeting" scheduled so we didn't have long to talk. He's enjoying sending several photos from his phone, can't wait to see what he actually has on the camera when he gets back. Hopefully Alex is taking plenty of photos and is going to share with Aunt Sheila when they get home.

...... and they're off!

2008-07-13T07:34:00.012-05:00

Bright and early this morning (7am) we dropped Devan off at the church.
The youth group left for church camp today, destination Panama City, Florida! Wahoo! :o)

It's been a few years since Dev's been off to camp anywhere.
This is the first time that neither Jim nor myself are one of
the chaperones. :o(

Look at them side by side. :o) I swear they are sooo much alike it's Scary!
They get BOTH Jacobis this week, I hope they are blessed with LOTS of patience.
NEITHER one of these kids are know for thinking ahead.

Okay, yes I am the dork mom who goes in for the pic when everyone is trying to be cool, lol.
In this pic: my sweet niece Alex, Jonathan, Devan - he looks sooo Cool,and in the back Taco.
They should be back Friday night. :o)
UPDATE!
He sent me a pic of his "seat buddy" - "the Koola" LOL!

Linda's 60! :o)

2008-07-12T13:16:00.015-05:00

Well not quite yet, but she will be one Tuesday! (For those who don't know she's Jim's aunt - she's married to his Uncle Larry.)Her kids decided to pull together a small Surprise Party for her yesterday afternoon down at Mark's office.
We all gathered at his office shortly after 5 and waited for the Birthday Girl to show up.
The room was covered with ALL kinds of "over the hill" type signs & her daughter in law Becky got her a Wonderful "over the hill" walking cane!

A pic of Linda (far left), her sister Dinah (far right), and I'm not sure who the woman in the middle is.

In this pic you have Linda and her girlfriends (check out the crown it says 60 on it!) from left to right Joyce, Linda, ? not sure sorry, & Gloria.

YUM......... check out this georgous cake that Mark ordered for her! I can't remember who he said made it but I sure hope Jim does, I told him that's what I want for my B'day next year (minus the 60 candle). It is layered: bottom layer strawberry, middle layer devil's food, top layer strawberry again! Strawberry frosting, fudge decorations and chocolate dipped strawberries on top! :o)

Not sure who got Linda the Lovely glasses that go so well with the crown but she sure looks CUTE in them!

Yes! They are soooo COOL even Miss Jenna had to give them a try. Isn't she just the Cutest! :o)

Just before the party ended we had a couple of rounds of arm chair races with the kids. (Okay so I may have started the whole thing when I kind of challenged Devan, LOL). Anyway, it sure was fun, and the giggles were so sweet.
Oh yeah, Devan ended up drinking booze! LOL. He didn't realize that the punch had champagne in it! As soon as we got there he grabs a cup & downs a cup like he's about to die, then he finds out that it has champagne in it. I told him that it was ok he wasn't driving, but he said "it's against my beliefs". That's my kid! :o) (at least for the moment)
It was just a small party, but it was sweet and everyone had a nice time.

Small Blessings! I'll Take Them :o)

2008-07-09T13:02:00.007-05:00

So about 3 weeks ago I had the privelage of going to visit my parents and actually getting to spend a couple of nights with them! :o) This is a big deal for me because I haven't been able to do this for years now.

My first stop was to go by Jason & Tonya's to wish Tonya a "Happy Birthday!"

Well when I first arrived it seemed that it was NOT going to be in my favor to be there. "She" pulled in right behind me and blocked ANY chances for escape!

I was immediately trapped by "her" presence. But I tried to remain calm, took a few advil for the instant head splitting head ache, and stayed in a different room until "she" left.

Wheh, so far so good, disaster averted. :o)

After quite a while had passed and I was SURE that "she" wasn't over there I ventured over to mom & dad's. I have to tell you it was quite nerve wracking waiting for "her" to come back & the drama to begin. But after a while it was becoming apparent that "she" wasn't returning that night! :o)

As a result I enjoyed spending the night with my parents! My nephews Logan & Austin spent the night too, and we all had a good time. We spent the evening playing Uno attack, watching movies, & just hanging out together. :o)

The next morning "she" came up to the house, but apparently changed her mind & never came in.

The kids all went with my parents bowling and shopping for the day, while Tonya & I headed to Murray, KY., to do a little shopping of our own.

We started our day shopping at The Peddler's Antique Mall,where I was able to find a few "treasures" for storing and organizing some of my goodies that I like to play with. :o)

Then we stopped of at Taco John's for lunch! Yumm.....I wish we had one here.

Last but not least I ran into their LLS "Remember When". I did splurge and buy just a few things in there (my resolution this last year was NO more buying it just because I like I. I need to have a plan to use it). I couldn't resist this cute set of stamps by sassafras lass, I thought they would be PERFECT for doing a layout with the pics I took when we took Devan to Hooter's for his birthday! :o)

That evening Austin asked me "are you going to stay again?" and when I told him yes he replied "then I am too!". He's so stinkin sweet sometimes- you just gotta LOVE him! :o)

That night we spent our time watching movies and playing Uno attack again (Austin LOVES Uno attack, he might only be 8 but watch out! He will beat your butt, LOL).

My last day there Tonya had to work. So I packed up a picnic lunch (mom & dad needed a break), loaded the boys & the lunch into my car, & put the top down!

We then headed into Paris to the park for a picnic (we've never been to the Paris park before and thought we would give it a try). When we got to the park we quickly discovered that this park was NOT up to our standards! LOL. I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of pics of the boys in front of the Eiffel Tower, then we jumped BACK into the car & headed back to Paris Landing State Park! We like it much better there. :o)

There is an area away from the equipment, closer to the water that we like to get when we go. We quickly found "our spot" and no sooner had we unloaded our lunch and began eating when we were surrounded by visiting "creatures". :o) They were so cute, and the kids really enjoyed seeing & feeding them.

We were surrounded by blue jays, squirels, & wood peckers and the kids couldn't have been happier! I kept hearing "Aunt Sheila, look! Take a picture!" LOL! Can you tell they have been "conditioned" by being around me? :o)

After we had finished our lunch & cleaned up we headed over to the pier.

We always end up here! The boys start out picking up shells and then they end up under the pier usually talking quietly and SMASHING the shells! The first time they did this it kind of upset me, but I've gotten used to it. They are boys, they do NOT want to keep them, bring them home and put them in a pretty jar to look at, or make pretty things with them! THEY WANT TO SMASH THEM!!!!! LOL! There are plenty of them around so I guess a few smashed once or twice a year isn't really a big deal.

Well when we got to the pier we were surprised!

We are not sure what happened since we were here in October but the pier was demolished! Do you see that water just below where they boys are standing??? Well that's where they usually sit to smash their shells & it was ALL under water! It was sad and confusing, the wood on the pier didn't look to be that old so we couldn't figure out why it was tore up the way it was?!?

After we had explored & taken a few more pics we headed back to "our spot" and we were just "hanging out" and watching the squirels when this little guy fell from the tree above us. :o(

He was soooo cute and fuzzy, but the poor little guy couldn't even move. He just sat there "cheeping". We looked around for a ranger but we couldn't find one. It broke our hearts to leave him sitting there on the ground, but we knew that there wasn't anything we could do about it.

When I got the kids home it was time for me to pack my things back into the car and head home.

So I only spent two days and nights, but that's two more than I've had with them at their home in years. It was a small blessing and I made the most of every moment and enjoyed it very much! Will there be any more???? Who knows, that's the one thing I can tell you after a lifetime of dealing with "her", NEVER count on ANYTHING. But the time I had was definately a blessing, & I'll take them whenever I can get them. :o)

They're ALL Animals I tell Ya! :o)

2008-07-08T09:07:00.016-05:00

My little brother & his family went to the Memphis Zoo (we're about 74 miles north of Memphis) about a year ago and declared that Sunday mornings were THE time to go to beat the crowds, everyone is in church! Well I kept waiting for the perfect time, you know no hunting season nice weather- not too hot not too cold - but it just didn't seem to be happening. (You know I got this cool new camera for christmas & my only baby is 17 and heading into his SR. year, if I didn't get it together soon it just wasn't going to happen. )

So Saturday I decided it was time to move on with this plan. At first Jim didn't seem too excited but he quickly said "yeah" he wanted to go & he went to town to get supplies for a picnic lunch. When first told Devan said "I can't". When asked why he said "drama" (he's in a drama group on Sunday night at the church). I told him" drama doesn't start till 6:30, we'll have you back in time". So now I had everyone commited, I had supplies for a picnic lunch, & I had already checked the internet and I knew that the zoo opens at 9:00 and that the high Sunday in Memphis was going to be 94 degrees!

So this was my plan everyone up & out of the house by 7 am. Stop at Daylight Donuts on the way out of town to grab breakfast (this is a treat, not something we usually do). Be at the zoo when they open at 9 am. Leave by 4:30 to get Devan home in time for drama.

So here's what happened, Devan slept through his alarm for at least 20 minutes - until I stopped getting ready and went & woke him up. We made it out of the door by ummm...... about 7:20. Then we had to stop by the bank and get gas, ooops didn't factor in those stops! Then to Daylight Donuts. We pulled out of D'burg around 7:40! Woops.

We made it to Memphis around 9:20 and after a few wrong turns,which has always been a tradition for us when we go to the zoo! We arrived at the zoo just before 10, okay so much for being there when they open the doors.

We enter the zoo and immediately begin our journey through the zoo @ cat country (this is the closest exhibit to the entrance. As we are working our way through the exhibit we come across an "older couple" (she was at LEAST 55!) that made me have to threaten both of my guys( it was all they could do not to loose it). Let's just say she wasn't dressed in the most appropriate attire for a woman of her age and years! She had on a bra-less, halter, strapless top thing that barely stayed up enough to cover her ummmm........ well let's just say her code name was "nipples"! The girls were definately on a southern vacation (as you would expect at that age) and just shouldn't have been "showcased" in such a way! For a while it seemed that no matter how much we tried to slow our pace we just couldn't get away from them, have you ever had one of those situations?

While we were going through the zoo Devan's cell phone rang and it was the drama co-ordinator from the church telling him that drama had been cancelled for that night! Wahoo! No time constraints we could stay as long as we wanted!

We really had a wonderful time! Most of the animals co-operated, except for the bears. We broke for lunch around 12 and except for Devan's "spill" with the water (I'll tell you more about that later) we had a wonderful time. :o)

At the end of the day I had taken 621 pics! I am half way through the deleting and editing process (I had to report for jury duty yesterday so that ate up a huge chunck of my time). I thought I would take a break this morning and post a few of my "favorites" so far on here. Hope you enjoy! :o)

Okay, so when we broke for lunch we chose a couple of benches conviently located under a cover next to a trash can that just happened to be next to the water fountain. While eating Devan happened to notice that there was a couple of itty bitty's playing in the fountain. When we told him that it was okay that they wouldn't get in trouble (they didn't have this feature when he was little) his eyes got big & I knew we were in trouble! LOL! No sooner were the words out of our mouths and he was finished with lunch and ready to "jump" in! Okay it was 94 degrees and we were getting pretty miserable so I tried to think of a compromise that would keep things under control and everyone (ok ME) happy. So I told him "take off your shoes & socks, roll up your jeans and what ever else you get wet you will have to deal with it and live with it until it's dry - NO complaining!" I was trying to make it sound like a BAD thing to be wet above the ankles, LOL. Anyway I stopped eating and grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics of him wading into the fountain, he seemed to be treading calmly. My big mistake was thinking that him sticking his face into the water was enough to satisfy his urge to get wet above his ankle! I had just sat down to finish my sandwich and the NEXT thing I knew he was WET from Head to TOE! Upon seeing the look on my face he starts telling Jim that it was an accident. Okay how dumb do you think I am? He said "it got slippery when I jumped", well duh! You aren't supposed to be JUMPING! (No I didn't take a pic of that!)

Anyway we had a beautiful day and the best part was........ late last night while I was editing pics he came downstairs and sat with me for a while and said "you know the zoo was pretty cool, we need to go back sometime". OMG! Isn't that what we do all of this stuff for as parents?!? Little comments like that, that let us know that even though it wasn't a BIG production, that there wasn't anyone outside OUR family involved it was STILL a good time! (YES! :o) ) So maybe before he's totally "grown up" and "leaves me" for good -I still have a few "special" moments to look foward to! :o)

Mystery Solved!

2008-07-05T17:10:00.009-05:00

Well there has been some strange things going on around here that we just couldn't explain.

The first thing happened while my nephews were here visiting. We were sitting in the den watching tv one night when suddenly there was a bang at the window over the chair that Logan was sitting in we all jumped and when I looked up there was a SNAKE on the window over his head!!!!!!! I was panicked & screaming (don't like the things) and sent Jim out with the mission of "get that thing of my house!" & "I'm locking ALL the doors behind you & you aren't coming back in till I see your hands!". Jim said it wasn't poisonous (like I care) and that it was OVER 4 foot long! It was so MAD that it shook the siding on the house and made it rattle! Anyway we couldn't quite figure out why it was one the house (unless it was after the bugs on the window?), this has never happened before & we've lived here for 11 years.

Second thing that happened was last week-end when Jim & Devan were pulling weeds in the bed around the porch and some swallows went absolutely CRAZY dive bombing them! Hmmm..... that has never happened before either.

Then this morning I went out to hang up a humming bird feeder and again the swallows started going CRAZY! I was only out for a couple of minutes but that resulted in the birds frantically swarming the north end of the porch for over an hour! When they had finally setteled down we looked out the window and discovered the reason for all the strangeness lately.......

Apparently today was the day for their little ones to spread their wings & take flight! :o) I didn't even realize that we had little ones around! They seemed to be doing a fine job of flying on their own & I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and sneaking out to take a few pics. I only took a couple of shots when mom & dad discovered me & announced my pressence to the rest of the flock and everyone scattered & took off. :o(

Oh well, it was a welcomed surprise to be able to watch the whole "family" interacting on the porch right under our noses. :o)

Family Gathering & First Pic!

2008-07-01T13:37:00.008-05:00

Well we all had a Wonderful time @ the family gathering Sunday & I had the privilege of being the first to take a picture of GranPolly with ALL 12 of her grandchildren! :o) Everyone enjoyed getting the chance to know Paul (he is a wonderful addition to the family) and getting the chance to play catch up with each other.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and the kids had a blast zooming around the property on the golf carts (which came very close to going into the pond on more than 1 occasion, but thankfully never did) & 4 wheelers, fishing, shooting skeet, & even running through the sprinklers! Such fun! Watching all the "teens" reconnect again was a beautiful sight and listening to the giggles of the "itty bitty's" made me very Happy!

As usual Mark outdid himself & totally Rocked the grill! I'm telling you what the man does with chicken, ribs, & even venison is absolutely sinful.(I was lucky enough to get to bring some home!) Thanks Mark. :o)

Last but not least, this is probably my favorite picture of the day. I caught this "itty bitty" sneaking into the greenhouse & I couldn't resist sticking my lens through the crack in the doors and snapping this one. :o)

So it is plain to see (as we like to say here in the south) "A good time was had by all!" :o)

Jumping In

2008-06-29T09:45:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about doing this for a while. I'm not really sure why, lol, but I have decided to quit "thinking" about it & to "jump in" and give it a try.

I don't really have the time to "play" with this right now. We have a family "gathering" in a few hours, so I need to start getting things ready to go.

If I get time later I'll check in with an update and maybe even some pics from today! (as long as I can figure out how to do it, lol)