It's finally Friday...

What a week this has been! I know it has been a while since I posted, but there really hasn't been anything special going on with us. I have been really tired this week and not spent much time on the computer at night and since we can't blog at school, I haven't been on. I hope everyone has had a good week!

On Tuesday night, 6 of us from school drove over to Tulsa to listen to Erin Gruwell speak. She IS the freedom writer the movie was made about. One of our teachers was invited to be a part of the Freedom Writers conference in California this past summer. We watched the movie at school on the last day of our before school inservices. It is a powerful movie! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is amazing what she was able to accomplish with those kids. Anyway, she is an awesome speaker and we had some laughs on the way over there and back, so it was a great trip, but I have paid for it all week. We didn't get back until about 10:45 so it was almost midnight before I got to bed. I'm way too old to be staying up that late on work nights!! But. we made it to Friday and now I am looking forward to the weekend!

Mike, Grace and I are headed to Alma tomorrow morning!!! (At least I think Grace is still going. I haven't talked to Taylor today to confirm that, but she told me last night we could take her.) Mom always looks forward to our visits, but she especially likes it when we have Grace with us. Mike is planning to spend Saturday afternoon watching horse races with a friend of his in Ft. Smith. I was invited, but declined. I am going to make a big pot of chicken and dumplings, Mema's recipe! They are wonderful, if I do say so myself! I haven't made them this year yet so I thought this would be a good time. They are definitely a cool weather food. I don't cook much when Grace is around, but there should be enough distractions tomorrow that I will be able to get them put together. I invited Julie, my cousin, and her mom (Granny Ima) to come and help us eat tomorrow. None of them have ever had my homemade dumplings. I sure hope they turn out good!

On another note, our son, Tanner, moved out again this week. He had been staying over at the house he is renting with his friends for a while but hadn't taken his things. He took some on Sunday and the rest on Monday. This is the second time he has moved out and I will admit that this time it was not as hard to see him moving everything as it was the first time. He is my baby, though, and I am not one of those parents who can't wait for their kids to be gone! He is very excited and proud of the house they have found. It is a nice place and I am not nearly as concerned/worried as I was when he moved into the apartment down in Fayetteville. I just hope he doesn't forget that he still has to come see us once in a while!!

Going to check in on other blogs now! Have a great weekend!

New look!

Wow, I managed to create this new look all by myself! I didn't make one phone call to get me out of a jam. What do you think? Keep in mind that it is only a temporary look because Christmas is coming and I know I will have a new one for that holiday. I'm already looking for the right one. If you know of any good places to find free templates let me know! I'm all about the freebies since I will probably be changing it all the time now that I know I can.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I certainly am. After being out all day yesterday, and having a lot of fun, I am in today. Mike and I did go to Sunday School and church this morning. It was good to be back, I've missed a lot lately. Since then, though, we have been right here. He has already had a nap and I have been working on laundry and playing with my blog. Now we are watching the Cowboys. He and his mom usually talk several times during these games but so far today he hasn't been able to get in touch with her. I know he will keep trying, though. It's just now halftime and the score is tied. Neither team has done anything special so far.

Gotta go fold clothes and get the next load in. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Grace and Papa's new toy...

Pardon the photography, they were on the move, but Mike and Grace had a great time yesterday afternoon with the lawnmower and new red wagon. I got a real bargain on the wagon, $10.00, at the garage sale the police department had last weekend. Grace had played in it already while they were setting things up so Taylor knew she enjoyed it. Taylor was going to buy it, but then someone offered to give them one, so I bought it to have here. As soon as I told Mike about it he knew he was going to hook it onto the lawnmower and they were going to get busy! That is exactly what they did. He told me that I would probably have to walk along side of her when he first started up. Not necessary! She was happy as a lark and not one bit afraid of the noise.



He stopped just long enough for me to snap this picture, and as you can see, Grace was trying to make it go! She was rocking back and forth in the wagon. She was pretty funny.
I almost cut Mike's head off in this one, but it was hard to get a good enough angle to get good shots of both of them. I predict many hours of riding in the wagon behind the lawnmower. It is sure easier than pulling her by hand. I did a little of that before he hooked it up-I'm too old and out of shape to be pulling a wagon. The things we do for our grandkids!!

Grace spent the night with us last night so Taylor could finally go to a football game to see Colt march in the band. We always like it when she is here. We were actually in just after 10:00 last night. Grace sleeps with us when she is here so sometimes it makes for an interesting night, but last night, I think we all slept pretty well. I know I did!

We were up around 8:00 this morning and Mike made us a good breakfast of bacon, sausage and pancakes. It was yummy! He then went out to mow because he was planning to watch football this afternoon. I had scheduled an appointment for the second half of the massage that Tanner had given me for my birthday for 1:00 this afternoon. When it was over, Taylor and I had planned to do a little "shop looking". We did a little more than look! I have done some Christmas shopping, though, and am I glad about that! Taylor did some as well. Poor Taylor won't have much under the tree this year, but she is getting to start decorating their house. We really had a lot of fun. We really, really like Kirklands!!! When we finally finished at Kirklands, we headed to the mall. We were there for quite a while as well. We sort of like Lane Bryant, too.

We didn't leave the mall until almost 7:00! Of course, we didn't get started until a little after 2:00. Since we had gotten some pretty big stuff for Taylor's house it wouldn't fit in her car. I took her to pick up her car from Old Navy, which is where we started our shopping adventure, and then headed all the way out to her house to drop off her stuff. It was after 8:00 before I got home. It was a very fun day! Poor little Gracie was very tired, but she was good considering what we put her through. Taylor just sent me a text a few minutes ago and said that all her new stuff looked very pretty and Grace's new clothes all fit! I am so glad that Taylor now has Saturday's off!

Pretty tired myself, so I don't think I will be up much longer. Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

Handbag Give-Away!

When I got in from school this afternoon I started blog-hopping while I was waiting on Taylor to drop Grace off. I'm not even sure where all I went, but I found one advertising a website that is giving away 24 handbags on Oct. 15! They are giving away one every hour! I am a sucker for contests, so naturally I had to check it out myself. The bags look very nice and very trendy!! If I post their website on this blog, then I can have more opportunities to win. The site is http://www.handbagplanet.com/. Check it out!

Vera's new spring '09 line...

I know there are a few Vera Bradley fans out there so I thought I would send this along. I stumbled onto it on Facebook. These are the new spring '09 patterns that will be available in January.

I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Cathy and Megan for getting me hooked on this addiction!! Now I even have Taylor looking the Vera collections over whenever we are at the mall.

It's amazing to me just how addicting they can become. I will have to say that I am not as crazy about these new patterns as I am some of the older ones, but I do enjoy seeing new ones. Which one will be added to my collection next?

Click on the link below, look for lila's post (I had to scroll up to find hers) and the first site on her list will show all 4 of the new colors/patterns.

Facebook pictures of 2009 patterns