Naborhood News

Want to win a tote from Thirty-One?

2011-09-09T20:24:00.004-05:00

Well, I finally decided to write a new blog post! I read several blogs on a regular basis, but seldom take the time to update mine. I have a special offer to tell you about today, though!

One of my friends, The Swanky Peacock, has just secured 1000 fans on her Facebook page and is hosting a giveaway from various vendors. She has been kind enough to let me donate a Thirty-One tote. I will be giving away an organizing utility tote in the winners choice of color and personalization. If you would like to have a chance to win, check out her blog for instructions on entering the drawing. She is posting pictures of all the vendor's offerings on her facebook page, The Swanky Peacock! There are some great products up for grabs! Thanks, Brittni, for hosting this event and congratulations on your 1000+ fans!

On another note, we are getting settled into yet another school year. I do not know where the summers go!!! It has been a very busy start, but one that has actually gone pretty smooth. I can't believe that I am in my 16th year at JO Kelly Middle School! Sometimes it seems like I just started yesterday. I am happy to say that if all goes as planned, I am in the home stretch and am beginning to see retirement as a reality!!!! I am very excited about the opportunity to be at home and able to devote my full attention to my Thirty-One business!

I can't let this post go without mentioning the fact that my baby boy was born on this day in 1988! Where have all those 23 years gone? Tanner has been such a blessing to my life since the day he made his arrival and I am very proud to be his mother! I have to say the God did bless us with 2 great kids! Neither of which is a kid anymore.

I'm not thinking of anything else to write about at the moment, so I guess this post is over. Hopefully it will not be so long until the next one!!

Snowy, snowy day...

2011-02-01T15:38:00.002-06:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written a post for this blog! I have continued reading blogs during this whole time, but just never taken the time to update my own. Now, I sit here on this very cold and snowy day and just decided it was time for an update!

My last post was announcing that I was starting on a new adventure with Thirty-One Gifts. What a great adventure it has been so far!!!! I have accomplished way more than I ever thought I would. Most of the accomplishment has been with very little effort on my part! That makes it even better. The products are so wonderful that they basically sell themselves when people see them. I now have 5 recruits who are signed up directly under me and most of them have people under them as well. My team now consists of 18 members!! We wrote over $13,000.00 in business last month alone. Thank you girls for all your hard work!

I have managed to promote once already within the company to Senior Consultant and on March 1st I should promote to Director! One of my girls will promote with me and we will get to be recognized at our national conference in July. It has been an awesome ride and I am so glad that I decided to embark on this adventure. Besides all those benefits, I have made some extra money and have an abundant supply of bags!!! If anyone is reading this and would like to get in on some of these awesome benefits, just leave me a comment or find me on facebook and message me there! My website is available, too, for you to look around and see what you think! www.mythirtyone.com/joycenabors

Besides working my Thirty-One business, I have been spending as much time as possible with my sweet little Grace!! She is going to be 4 years old in just 20 short days. Where have the last 4 years gone? She is so much fun to have around. She is very smart and talks like an adult most of the time. She is really into making up stories right now and I love to hear her tell them. I am so thankful that they live as close to us as they do so we can see her often!

We have also found a new home church that we really are enjoying. We are now attending Grace Church located on hwy. 265 next door to Williams Gymnastics Center. It is unlike any church I have ever been a part of and I love it! Taylor and her family are going there, too. Grace loves being with the kids in her class and is now quoting Bible verses! It makes me very happy to know that she is being raised in the church.

Can't think of much else to write about for now. Maybe I can be a little better about posting, not that anyone reads this but me!!

To new adventures...

2010-04-16T20:18:00.003-05:00

This is my new adventure! I am a new consultant for Thirty-One and am very happy about it. I am still teaching, but needed a little something extra. I was exposed to this company sometime ago when I was blog hopping. I ordered a bag from an online party and really liked it. I hadn't heard any more about them until Taylor came in one day with a catalog. She was having a catalog show for one of her co-workers, Stephanie, who had just started selling it. So, naturally, I had to order something! It was not hard to find something that I wanted. Actually, I wanted it all! So, I decided that I liked it so well that I thought I could sell it, too. I signed up last week and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my consultant's kit so that I can get started. Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is anything I can do for you. We have some very good hostess gifts and benefits if you are interested. I am game for in-home parties, online parties or catalog shows. You can check out my website at the address on the card above or visit Thirty-One Gifts and look around. I am looking forward to many hours of fun in this new endeavor of mine!

Another adventure that we experienced this week was Grace's first pedicure!! We found these little kid pedicure chairs at Best Nails in Fayetteville.

Of course, Friday afternoon was probably not the best time to slip in without any appointments, but she sat there patiently waiting until someone got to her. She had a movie playing the whole time and Taylor and I were in the chairs beside her.
She didn't quite know what to think about the whole process. Her feet can be very ticklish at times, so it was funny watching her as they were scraping them. Then the hot towels came out. She didn't seem to think they were too hot for her!
This picture turned out a little dark, but now she is actually having the polish applied. While we were waiting on our chairs to become available, Taylor took her over to the polish to pick out the color she wanted. She went straight to lime green! Taylor managed to talk her out of that so she ended up with "shocking pink." It is bright, but it looks great on her little toes. She even has white flowers painted on both her big toes. Maybe Taylor will post a picture of the toes, she didn't take one with my camera.

We had a lot of fun getting pedicures together and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time!

Girl trip!

2010-03-14T13:49:00.005-05:00

Some weekends just warrant a post on the blog and last weekend was one of those weekends! Taylor, Stephanie and I left town last Saturday morning about 9:00 heading to Little Rock for the George and Reba concert. We had been looking forward to it for weeks and we were not disappointed!!

Our first stop was in Alma where we picked Mom up and headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was great as usual and we really enjoyed being with Mom. After we ate, we took Mom back to the house and hit the interstate. We talked and talked as girls will do. We decided that we needed a break before we hit the big city so we stopped in Conway and spent some time at TJ Maxx and More. Of course we did spend a few bucks, most of which was for our little angel, Grace! She is soooo much more fun to shop for than anyone else. I did find a couple of new shirts for myself and ended up wearing one of the to the concert and the other one home the next day. It felt good to be wearing short sleeves for a change! After we had searched every inch of that store, we decided to head on into Little Rock and check in to our hotel. Mike had requested that we not drive home after the concert since it would be so late. We gladly obliged that request!

We got to our hotel around 3:00 and got checked in and started trying to decide where we were going to have dinner. Stephanie had printed off a book for us listing all the possibilities in Little Rock. We had discussed some possibilities on the road from Conway to Little Rock. We settled on Cajun's Wharf! It was awesome and Taylor and I don't even eat seafood! We both had a ribeye that was cooked to perfection.

Then it was off the Verizon to find a parking place and get settled. Many people!!! We found a pretty good spot to park, though, and headed in. It didn't take long to find our seats and enjoy some people watching before things got fired up.

We asked the lady in front of us to take our picture and she was happy to do so! I love these girls so much!!!!

At last, the moment we had been waiting for arrived. The lights went down and Lee Ann Womack took the stage! She did a great job. Taylor's camera had such a good zoom that she was able to get some really great pictures. Lee Ann was on stage for about 40 minutes then there was a break while they were preparing the stage for Reba.
Reba did an amazing job as well. She sang both old songs of hers and some of the new ones. She was dressed in black during the bulk of her show, but she changed into the red for her encore of Fancy. She came out into the arena in a mini-couper cab and got out in the fancy red dress complete with red high heels. I'm not a big fan of Reba's, but her part of the show was great!!
Then, the real act took the stage!! As much as I like Lee Ann and as good as Reba's part of the show was, the real reason I was there was to see George! He has been my favorite entertainer since he first began. I have been privileged to see him 4 different times in concert. I have to say, that I would go again tomorrow if I had the time and the money. He sounded and looked as good as he ever did and I am already looking forward to the next time I get to go and see him. I think the girls will be ready to go again as soon as possible, too.

I want to say a big thank you to Taylor and Stephanie for helping make the weekend so special. I am looking forward to many more girl trips with them as long as they will let this old woman hang out with them!! I love you girls!!!

Too long...

2010-01-04T14:50:00.002-06:00

When I looked at the date of my last post I couldn't believe it had been so long. There are several reasons for that, though. The first one being that our computer at home is very contrary and we never know if we are going to get booted off or not. Therefore, most of the time, I just don't get on it. Another reason being that when we have been at Mom's we have been involved in one thing or another with no time to write. Still another reason is that I just haven't had much to say. We had a pretty busy fall that began with Mom's surgery. My schedule got totally mixed up spending so much time with her, however, I wouldn't have missed a minute of it!!! As she was recovering, Mike was becoming sicker by the day. He ended up with severe ear infections in both ears. He took several rounds of antibiotics before he finally got over it. His ears are still not 100% like they should be, but at least he can hear again. I literally had to yell in his face before he could hear me for a while. Not much fun for him. By the time he was better, it was time for the holidays. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas at Mom's. Even though it was a dangerous trip to Alma on Christmas Day, Taylor and her family and Mike, Tanner and I made the drive down. I'm glad we were able to go, we had a blast! The next day, Mike, Tanner, Grace and I headed to Ft. Worth to have Christmas with the Nabors's. We had a great trip and got to spend some good time visiting with Mike's family. They especially enjoyed the time they got to spend with Miss Grace! The last few days we have just been in front of the fire watching football. The snow is beautiful, but I really think I am ready to get back into the work routine! Anyway, now my blog is caught up. With any luck, our computer will continue to work appropriately and I won't get so far behind again. Sorry there are no pictures, I will post some at a later date! Til next time...

Welcome home Granny!!

2009-09-26T18:14:00.005-05:00

If you read Taylor's blog, which I know most of you do, you all know that Mom had back surgery on the 10th of September. She was discharged from Healthsouth at 11:15 this morning!! She is doing absolutely great. Everyone who worked with her in rehab was so complimentary of how quickly she was progressing. We are all so proud of her! She is definitely a trooper.

Cathy flew in on Wednesday to be with her for the next 2 weeks. She drove up every day to spend some time with Mom and we knew that there was no telling what all she was doing down here! She spent time cleaning out the refrigerator and making sure that all the laundry was caught up and that the already clean house was even a little cleaner. She also stocked the refrigerator so that they will not go hungry. Besides being a domestic goddess, she did some of our Christmas shopping a little bit early. You should know by now that my son-in-law, Gene, built a deck on the back of Mom's house on Labor Day weekend. It is awesome!! Mom had bought a 3 piece set of patio furniture that we had enjoyed before she went to the hospital. However, it only had 2 chairs with it so we knew that we were going to have to find more. Cathy and her friend, Monica, got out yesterday and found this great piece to go with what she already had. They bought and repotted the mums into the pots that they found, which match perfectly! It is absolutely beautiful!! Before Cathy would even let Mom sit down, she walked her to the deck so that she could see her surprise. She was completely surprised and very excited, as was I who had not seen it either!

Isn't it pretty?

This is the set that she had bought. It just looks great all together!

We had a great reunion after we had seen the deck. Mom's sister, Ima, was already here when we got here and her other sister, Rose, and her husband, Jim, came in a few minutes later. Rose had made pies for Mom. One coconut and one chocolate! I had a little of the coconut, it was awesome.

Of course Johnny and Pat came up. (Pat is in the next picture.) Sorry Johnny, I couldn't resist posting your picture, we so rarely get one of you!

Here you can see Pat on the sofa and Mom's other sister, Ima, in the chair. It just made Mom's day for them to all come to see her on her first day home. She was very pleasantly surprised!

We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and had lunch on the deck. It was so very good to see the three Martin girls together again and hear them laughing together. What a wonderful day!!

Don't they look great all together? I am so thankful for the wonderful family that I have been allowed to be a part of.

I didn't get any pictures of Cathy or myself, but we were both here as well and enjoying every minute of the family reunion!! Cathy had gotten a vegetable tray, some fruit mix, cheese dip and of course, Pizza Parlour pizza! What a homecoming!!!

Trip part 2...

2009-08-06T14:06:00.002-05:00

As promised, below you will see Miss Grace really telling Mema something of utmost importance! Mema hung on her every word all weekend long. She called last night and was talking about all the things that Grace was saying while we were there. She is definitely hooked on that sweet little girl! But then, who isn't?

Fun weekend trip!

2009-08-05T18:35:00.006-05:00

Wow, it's almost another weekend! Between traveling home on Monday instead of Sunday, a very slow computer, and a workshop all day on Wednesday, I am just now getting around to completing this post about our trip to Fort Worth.

Mike, Tanner, Grace and I left on Friday morning headed to Texas. We had not been to Mike's folks since April of 2008. Needless to say they were all ready to see Little Miss Grace! She traveled pretty well, thanks to the DVD player. She really only slept for about 45 minutes on the last leg of the trip. She doesn't have her paci anymore so it was not as easy for her to fall asleep. We made good time, though, and pulled into Mema and Papa's at about 3:00 p.m. Grace went to the door by herself, with Tanner around the corner, because Papa didn't know we were coming. He was very surprised to see that little girl at the door and at first didn't know who she was! It didn't take him long, though, and he was thrilled to see her. It was okay with him that we were there too, but she was the one he was really wanting to see.

Here he is just watching every move she made. He couldn't believe how big she had gotten and how verbal she was. She talked nonstop once she got comfortable in her surroundings!

There was a picture of her with Mema right here, but I accidentally deleted it! I will put it in another post later. She also was thrilled to see Miss Grace. She had seen her in February when she came up here for Grace's 2nd birthday but she was really ready to spend some more time with her. She, too, was amazed at how much she had grown and how much she was talking and making sense.

One of our all time favorite places to eat in Ft. Worth is Joe T. Garcia's. Mike craves it all the time, so I know we will eat there at least once any time we are in town. We went there for lunch on Saturday and it was just as good as it always is. Mema, Tanner, Mike, Brenda (Mike's sister), Grace and I stuffed ourselves to the hilt. Everything was fresh and hot! I had to send Taylor a picture of our table since she didn't go with us. She was not too thrilled!
After Joe T.'s, Brenda, Mema, Grace and I went to one of Brenda's friends and picked up their little girl who is the same age as Grace. We then went to Forest Park to ride the train. It was a lot of fun. The train was a little bigger than the one in Ft. Smith that Grace, Granny and I had ridden. The ride lasted for about 45 minutes and we saw some pretty scenery. Brenda was excited to be able to take Grace on the train. She remembered when she had taken Taylor and Tanner on the same one.

This is Audrey. She was more bashful than Grace at first, but she finally came around. Grace wanted to hold her hand and sit by her on the benches while we waited. She wouldn't even look at Grace at first. Grace couldn't quite understand why she wouldn't have anything to do with her. It was fun watching them interact. Grace is never around kids her own age. By the end of the train ride they were best friends and hugging each other. When we got Audrey back to her house she didn't want to go in! Don't they both have beautiful blue eyes?
Back at Mema and Papa's we had gotten popsicles from the ice cream truck. Grace obviously got a red popsicle! We stripped her down to panties and kept her outside and she had a ball.
When she finished it, Brenda got the water hose after her! She loved it, too. She loves the water as much or more than any kid I know. She stood still for a while and then she ran off. It was funny watching Brenda go after her with that hose.
On Sunday morning we left Ft. Worth headed for Lake Texoma to spend the day with Chadd, Jeannie and Brett. We met up with them at their boathouse. Immediately we put the life vest on Grace. I was a nervous wreck when we first got there. Grace is not really afraid of much and we were surrounded by water! They kept telling me that she was okay, even if she fell in her head wouldn't even go under water because of the design of the vest. She got pretty hot and kept wanting it off, but all in all she did pretty well. Jeannie got out the little fishing rods and let her fish right up there where we were sitting on the dock. She caught 2 almost immediately! She seemed to enjoy seeing them, but didn't really want to have much to do with them. Ranger, the dog, on the other hand was very interested in them!
After we snacked on some sausage stuffed peppers, we took off on the boat! Grace really enjoyed that. I was very nervous once again, trying to keep her still! We went off a ways and let the boat drift while Tanner, Jeannie, Brett, Chadd and Grace did some lake swimming! Tanner took very good care of his niece! The boat drifted quite a ways away and Chadd ended up going out to help bring Grace back. She was not so crazy about swimming with Chadd! It all worked out fine, though.
She did okay with Jeannie as long as she stayed close to the boat!
Tanner and Jeannie had to 2 seats at the front of the boat that they fish from so of course Grace wanted to be up there. She is pretty crazy about her Uncle T anyway, so she likes to be with him.
We had a great day at the lake! After our boat excursion we headed back to the boathouse for some delicious fajitas. When everyone had their fill we headed into Chadd and Jeannie's to spend the night. We were all pretty tired from the sun. On Monday morning we headed back to Arkansas! We stopped off in Alma to spend some time with Granny and then took Grace home. She didn't want to go home, she wanted to go to our house! We, however, were ready for her to go to her house! I love her dearly, but it was good to drop her at her house after having her for 4 days straight. I am reminded every time we have her for any length of time like that why we have our kids when we are younger!

We really did have a wonderful trip and I hope we get to have many more with her!!!

A little of this, a little of that...

2009-07-23T12:18:00.004-05:00

Well, I guess I will just start out with this cute little thing! We were playing with the camera one day at the house and this was how she chose to pose. We never know what we are going to get with her, but I think it is adorable. (No prejudice here.)

We had to get Papa involved with the photo shoot that day. He really LOVES to have his picture made!

Now, on to some summer fun in the pool. We bought a new pool for Grace this summer and Mike decided to put it more in the shade instead of on the deck. It really only stayed there for one afternoon and then we went back to the deck with it. (Too many bugs while on the ground.) Anyway, this was her first day in it, she loved it.

Then, of course, Uncle T had to share some of the fun. I don't know who enjoyed it more, Grace or T. It really doesn't matter, they both had a ball that day. They took turns to see who could be the most aggravating!

Now for the inside! I don't know if anyone remembers, or cares for that matter, but last spring I got rid of all my bedding, window treatments and wall decorations in our bedroom. I had been looking on websites and in stores for months to find something that we liked to replace them with. While I was looking, Mike was slowly putting some of his western, cowboy pictures on one of the walls. I knew I had better get busy or he would have all the walls in only cowboy stuff. Not that I don't like it, but I didn't want it all that way. I was surfing one day and found a bed set on eBay that I really liked and it was affordable! He liked it too and it would go with what he had already put on the wall. So, I ordered it! While waiting for it to come in, I was shopping with Taylor at Arty Crafty in the mall and found some wall decor that I really liked that I thought would blend in just right, so I bought it and took it home. Mike liked it, too, and actually hung it for me that evening. The bedding and window treatments came in pretty quick so we now have our bedroom all decorated again. We both really like the way it turned out! I have added a couple of pictures so you can see the final result. We actually added the extra cowboy/western stuff that you see over the bed after we had gotten the bedding in. Now he has 2 walls in there that he decorated! I really think that everything works well together and we are both happy!!

I will have to say that it doesn't always look like that, I don't always get the bed made. But when I do, it sure looks nice. Mike is really bad to go in and nap in the afternoons, so he always has it unmade by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon even if I do make it in the mornings, or whenever I manage to get up! Once school starts back up, I will at least get it made in the mornings because he leaves before I do.

This is one of Grace's baby dolls that stays at our house. Her momma won't let her take it home, she says it is creepy! Anyway, she is pretty good sized but Grace seems to love playing with her. She decided that she needed to put her clothes on the baby the other day. It's amazing how well they actually fit the doll! A little big, but not bad. Once she had her dressed, she told me that we had to take their picture.

Now for the next bit of randomness, Mom had some bushes on the side of her house and in the front that she wanted taken down. So, Tanner and I loaded up Mike's big truck and took off to Alma last Sunday. He worked and worked and worked at getting them cut down. They were a mess!! The first picture below shows one of the piles we ended up with.

I didn't get a picture of the end of the house before we started, but it looked worse than this picture of the front. The bushes were bigger and all grown together. Mike had sent a chainsaw with us, but not the big one. Tanner dulled 2 blades down pretty quick with the bushes on the side and ended up using a hatchet on the ones in the front! He worked some muscles he doesn't work when making pizzas!

This is how the front looks now! Bushes cut way down to the ground. The plan is to get a handle on them from the start when they come back, if they do!

Needless to say, Mom was very pleased with the results. I do need to mention here that my sister, Cathy, was in from Atlanta and she and I did a fair amount of work that afternoon also. We hauled off the branches as he cut. Then she got in the azaelea bed and started cutting them back. Tanner ended up in that bed also with the chainsaw taking them down even farther than Cathy did. Then after we headed home, Cathy went for mulch and got it all spread out in the azaelea bed. It looks great but I didn't get a good picture.

Mom was very excited to have so much work done that day. Tanner was also going to power wash her swing, but the power washer wouldn't work. We will get that done next time. Maybe by the time we get back down there with the power washer her deck will be built off the back of the house!! We are all excited about the new deck she will be getting very soon, thanks to the skills of my son-in-law!!

Til next time...

Where has the time gone?

2009-07-14T10:30:00.004-05:00

I was looking at the date of my last post and didn't realize it had been so long since I posted last. I have some more pictures of summer activities but just haven't taken time to get them on. I don't have time to wait for them to load today, but I will get them on soon.

I got a text message from Taylor, my daughter, this morning about another giveaway. So, that is the real reason for this post. The Design Girl is giving away a blog makeover!! I have been wanting a new design for quite a while and have lists of designs that I like. Now that Taylor has her new one, it really made my desire for one even stronger. Of course, I am all about giveaways anyway, I have actually won two different ones, so I couldn't resist the possibility of winning my makeover. Anyway, check out her blog to see what she has to offer!

Hoping to win!!!

You know how I feel about giveaways!!

2009-07-05T13:32:00.002-05:00

When I started reading blogs this afternoon, the first one I read was Taylor's, for obvious reasons, and she had posted about a giveaway on a new blog that she had found. So, of course, I went there and found out that she is giving away a pair of really cute earrings! You need to go there yourself and check them out! Good luck!!

Jenna has a very cute little boy that I am now looking forward to watching grow! Hope you enjoy her blog as much as I am anticipating enjoying it.

Have a great Sunday!

Birthday week and fun with Granny and Grace

2009-06-20T16:53:00.008-05:00

This post actually begins with last weekend when Grace was over at our house. Mema Betty had sent her a package to our house and she thoroughly enjoyed opening it. There were several little things, most wrapped individually inside the box. The prizes included 2 pair of high heels, a head band, some pink hair, and a tinkerbell dress complete with wings. There were also some movies in there and a stuffed animal dressed up in a frilly dress and on a stand. She immediately started putting the shoes on and wearing them around the house and then it was on to the pretty dress. She looked adorable as some of the pictures below will attest. As far as I know, this was her first dress-up dress but I don't think it will be her last!

Digging into the box.

Front view

Back view (there was a toothbrush, too)

Head band and pink hair

and some new jewelry!

On Monday Grace and I headed to Alma to spend a few days with Granny. We always call for reinforcements when we go to Alma, Courtney! She is a lifesaver. Grace loves her and she loves Grace so whenever we are down I always call to see if Courtney is available. She is always ready to spend some time with Miss Grace, so she came up after we got in from the running around we did Monday afternoon. Grace absolutely wore her out, I think. But, if you look closely, you can see smiles on both faces!

On Tuesday we decided it was time for grilled burgers. There aren't many things in this world that Granny likes better than grilled burgers. If I am down for any length of time I always grill burgers and hot dogs for her. Courtney and Granny Ima came up to enjoy our burgers and dogs. While waiting for the coals to get hot, Courtney and Grace did some cooking of their own. I don't know how many pork chops and cookies they cooked out on that patio before our burgers were ready. It was shady on the patio and there was a slight breeze so it was not too hot to be out there. It's a good thing because Grace loves to be outside.

Wednesday, the 17th, was my birthday. Mom went over to Paul's Bakery in Van Buren and got a birthday cake for me. We were planning to go out on Wednesday so we had the cake and ice cream with our grilled burgers. It was soooo good. We have been having all kinds of cakes and cookies from Paul's Bakery since I was a little girl. Isn't it pretty?

When I was a little girl, a very long time ago, we used to have many picnics at Creekmore Park in Fort Smith. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many hours we have spent there over the years. It was a great park then and still is today. They have a train called the "Creekmore Express" that still runs most days. When we were kids, it was a steam train. Now they only use the steam train on holidays, but they run another one the rest of the time. I have been wanting to get Grace over there to ride it and we finally made it. We went on Wednesday about noon before it go too hot to be outside. It costs a whole quarter per person to ride it! Is that highway robbery or what? Anyway, we made it to the park and only had to wait a few minutes until it stopped for our turn. Grace, Granny and I loaded up, paid the man our 75 cents and waited until time to go. It was fun. Grace didn't have too much to say about it, but I think she enjoyed it too.

Waiting for the ride to start!

Of course, on the way to the train we passed all the other play areas, most of which were in the direct sun. After we got off the train, Grace headed for this slide. It was just her size and it was curvy. She had a ball. There was a swing not far from the slide and in the shade, so Granny sat down for a few minutes and we let her go down the slide.

At the top of the slide

At the bottom of the slide

She really wasn't ready to go when we were, but her cheeks were beet red and it was time for lunch. I met her at the bottom of the slide and scooped her up and started walking, eliminating much opportunity for fussing. I told her we were headed to eat lunch and since she is always hungry she gave in.

We had a great visit with Granny and came home on Thursday. I was tired, but it was worth every minute. I know she isn't going to be little for very long.

On Friday morning, I got a text message from Taylor telling me that I had plans for the evening. I was going to girl's night with her and her friends. I knew she had one planned and that they were going to dinner and then to see The Proposal. I had really been wanting to see that movie and I love to eat out so I was in. I asked her where they were going and she said that they were going to let me decide since they were helping me celebrate my birthday! Wasn't that sweet? I opted for Noodles. I haven't been there very often so it was some place different and I had a $10.00 coupon. It was great fun and the food was delicious. Taylor has posted some pictures that Stephanie and our waiter took. They surprised me with the sparkler dessert since we were celebrating my birthday. Thank goodness all the waiters and waitresses did not sing to me! It was nice to be the center of attention for a few minutes, though! Thank you girls for letting me be a part of your girl's night!

While we were at dinner, Taylor gave me my birthday card from her and Tanner. They gave me a gift card to Target so I could go get my NintendoDS!! I have never been one for playing video games but when Courtney got one for her birthday and started telling me all about it, I decided that I just had to have one! Both of my kids thought I was crazy, but they got it for me anyway!

I got the pink one, surprise, surprise! I also found the kit shown with it that has a case in it, a game, a car charger and some extra stylus pens. I looked at the games at Target, but they didn't really have any I wanted. I have been scoping out games since May! I had to go to Wal Mart for groceries so I looked at their games and found several that I want. I settled on this MillionHeir Mystery Case Files game to start with. The one that is with the case is a puzzle collection so I have some variety to start with. I was a little nervous to get it opened up and dig in, but I have played some of both games already. It is going to be easy to get addicted!

Anyway, that ends my week's activities. I do so love the summer time with very few committments! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm off to play my new games! Housework, what housework?

More giveaways...

2009-06-16T14:30:00.007-05:00

As I was blog surfing today I ran across some giveaways! This one is the Going Dot Com Birthday Bash. Check it out, there are some really good things to win!

Gotta love summer projects...

2009-06-10T19:14:00.004-05:00

Before I get to the summer projects, let me tell you that Whitney from Whitney Caroline Designs is having a giveaway. She really has some cute things up for grabs so be sure to check it out!

Now for the projects. I know that you are going to be surprised that most of these projects revolve around this precious angel below! But, surprised or not, she's the motivation behind several of them. (Some are still in the works and I will post those at a later date).

She spent the night with us last Thursday night so we had some fun on Friday. I was sitting at the computer and she climbed up in my lap so she could type. (She loves typiing on the computer). I had the camera handy, so I snapped this cute picture while she was saying "Cheese." It looks like she was winking, too. Is she not just a doll?

I have had her toys in a basket in this corner of the living room since we took down the Christmas tree. It's convenient for us to watch her and she has enjoyed them being there so handy. As you can see from the picture below, she has a few. She decided that she needed to see what was on the bottom the other day and dumped the whole thing out. She did discover some things she had forgotten about. She has this thing about dumping containers. She usually doesn't play with whatever she has dumped out, but she sure doesn't want it in the container! Same with the toy basket on Friday. Would you like to venture a guess as to who picked them up? (I didn't mind at all! Gave me a chance to clean some of the junk out.)
The first big project was to add to Grace's library. I had stored a lot of Taylor and Tanner's books in my classroom since I was out of room here. Since Grace likes books so well, I really wanted to bring them back home for here, so I loaded them up the last week of school and did just that! They stayed in the back of my car for about a week. I couldn't really do much with them until we broke down the crib that was in her room. (The one she may have slept in twice). Anyway, Tanner got a bad sunburn on Sunday so he was off work on Monday and he broke it down for me. Thanks, son!! Mike and I carried it out to the container and then I had room to work. I had bought these shelves on Sunday and put them together in anticipation of completing the room this week. So below you will see Grace's complete library now, all neat and organized! (She hasn't been here yet to see it).

Once the crib was gone, I could finish the rest of the room. We turned the bed and I bought new bedding and got it set up yesterday. This is the third bedding set that I bought. I bought one at Wal Mart that I sort of liked, then found one at Target I liked better. When we getting ready to set it up, I realized that the bed was a queen sized bed instead of full, so I had gotten the wrong size bedding. I had to put that project on hold. I felt a little silly! However, I don't sleep on that bed so I never paid much attention to it! On Tuesday, Taylor called and asked if I was going to be out. She was going to have some free time after her doctor's appointment and wasn't planning to go back home. I am always up for a day with my daughter!! We met at Target after her appointment and decided on the bedding in this picture. She hated the one I had picked out on my own. I really didn't like it that much either, but I wanted to get finished and it was pretty cheap. We both really liked this one, though, and since it is Grace's room we decided it needed to be fun! What do you think?

After finishing the bed and putting in some extra storage containers in Grace's room, I moved her toy basket in there, too. Now it is her room and all of her stuff is in the same place. Our house is not very big, so it's not like I can't keep an eye on her in her room. That freed up the corner of the living room so I bought this corner shelf to put in there. I picked it out by myself because Taylor had to go to work. I found it at Hobby Lobby for 30% off!! I plan to fill it up with pictures. I actually have added a few since I took this picture. I am really liking the way the living room is shaping up and I love the way Grace's room looks now. I hope she likes it, too!

Mike has completed a huge project in getting the garage cleaned out and organized. I don't think our garage has ever looked as good as it does now. I noticed that he marked the calendar when he finished so we can see how long it lasts! He's not very good at putting things back when he finishes with them.

We also got a new pool for Grace yesterday and a bathing suit for here. Today, Tanner brought home a big carpet remnant for us to put under the pool so we cleaned off the deck and got it ready for the new pool. We didn't set it up yet with the rain coming, but I will be posting pictures of this year's version of Graceland!

I am feeling good about the progress we have made this summer and look forward to completing a few more projects before it is over!!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer, too!

School is out!!!

2009-06-03T15:55:00.002-05:00

My summer break has officially begun! I have been waiting to say that for quite a while. I don't want to wish my life away, but it was a very long school year! Now, time can slow down for a little while. Right!!

Anyway, I am glad to have the summer break and am looking forward to spending as much of it as I can with Grace. She is sooo much fun right now, most of the time. While she was out here on Monday Tanner and Katie also came out. Tanner decided that it was time to set up Grace's pool. He went and got it from the container and blew it up. Grace was enjoying watching it come to life. It was pretty nasty after having been stored all winter, so Tanner and Katie scrubbed it down good. I was the supervisor on the scene!! I was anxious to see if it was going to hold air or not. As you can see from the pictures below, parts of it did and parts of it did not!

Mike and Tanner assured me that they could find the leaks and fix it up. We will see! I plan to give them until the end of the week to check it out and then I will probably be heading to Wal Mart or Target for a replacement. After all, I promised Grace that the next time she was over she would be able to play in it, and I can't break a promise!! I also have to find her a swimsuit to keep over here. Gee I hope I can find one I like!!

Besides spending time with Grace this summer I have the usual summer cleaning projects. Some of which will get done and some probably not. Oh well! One big project is to clean out her room at our house. We still have the crib up in there and it is currently storing some of the larger baby toys. I want to move those to the container, break down the crib and put up some more shelves in there. I brought home from school all the books that my kids had when they were small. I heard Grace telling Katie on Monday night to come to her room because she had lots of books in there. She just thinks she has a lot of books now, wait until I get these in there! She does love books, though, and I am very thankful for that. I plan to read through a lot of them this summer.

Other projects include scrubbing kitchen cabinets, cleaning out closets and completing the redecorating I have begun in the living room. I have some more purchases to make to get it like I want it. I plan to have some help from Taylor completing that project. Too much fun to look forward to this summer!

We don't have any trips planned for the summer but Mike, Tanner and I have a pretty big one planned for November. Tanner will turn 21 in September and we had told both kids a long time ago that when they turned 21 we would take them to Las Vegas. We took Taylor over Spring Break in 2006 and now it is Tanner's turn. We are all really looking forward to that. Therefore, the longest trip I will probably make over the summer will be to Alma to see my mom. Which just happens to be one of my favorite all time trips anyway!!

Til next time...

Where does the time go?

2009-05-17T20:16:00.003-05:00

I can't believe that it has been almost a month since my last post. I've been reading blogs a lot lately, but with all the paperwork I have been having to do at work, I just haven't been in the mood to post. I am finished with almost all my paperwork for the rest of the year, so now I can get back to posting more consistently. Not that I have anything all that interesting to write about, but it's fun to share what little bits I do have.

We have had a busy weekend around here. Taylor brought Grace over yesterday about noon so we could keep her while she and Gene went to the Kenny Chesney concert in Little Rock. We had such a good time with her. We love it when she is here!! Mike had to replace the floor on his trailer not long ago and had left quite a mess on the driveway. Also, the garage was filled up with junk so that I haven't been able to put my car in there for the last several days. So, yesterday was the day to get started cleaning it all up. We worked out on the driveway yesterday. He did all the heavy stuff, but I worked on cleaning weeds out of the flower bed. It was in terrible shape and we had some strawberries that we had to pick. Grace really enjoyed picking them and eating them, even before I could get them washed!! She had strawberry juice everywhere. No pictures, sorry. Anyway, I don't have it looking great, but it is much better than it was and we can definitely get to the strawberries now. My back, legs and arms are killing me now!!

Today we went to work on the garage. Part of the time we were just in the way, but I was able to help out some and keep Grace out of the way as much as possible. I really wasn't going to even take her out there, but, she would really have driven me crazy if I hadn't taken out since her papa was out there. She ran and laughed and screamed and just thoroughly enjoyed being out in the sunshine. She finally decided she wanted to swing so we went out to the deck and then I didn't have to watch so closely, once she is out there she is confined. I am anxious to see if her pool from last year will still hold air or if it is going to have to be replaced. We had her a great little set up last year on the deck! I am happy to say that my car is now in a cleaned out garage!! It was not fun, but it is done! (For the time being, that is).

While blog surfing I discovered that Lianna is giving away a Vera Bradley bag. Be sure to check out her blog and sign up!!

That's all for now! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend enjoying some very nice weather.

Till next time...

Spring!

2009-04-24T17:44:00.002-05:00

I think spring has finally arrived. What beautiful days these last few have been! I love this time of year.

It's been a while since I posted. Not much excitement around here to write about. I have been doing a lot of paperwork at school so I guess that has made me stay away from the keyboard. As a special education teacher the paperwork is overwhelming at times, especially in the spring. I think I have 10 conferences scheduled for next week! That's 10 sets of due process paperwork to complete, which means a lot of typing. I was able to get some of it ready today, but come Monday morning I will be keeping that keyboard hot.

Other than work, not much happening. Of course you know I can't post without putting up at least one picture of my angel Grace. In the picture below she was enjoying a wonderful Easter cookie from Paul's Bakery in Van Buren. They are wonderful!! You can also get a glimpse of Mom's new floor! It really looks good and I think she likes it. It feels good on bare feet, too!

In the next picture you will see my lilacs!! I am soooo excited to see them blooming and growing so well. This one is right under the big window in our living room. When the wind was blowing just right a little bit ago I could smell it! I love the smell of lilacs. I get a really good smell when I walk past them. I am really looking forward to watching it grow and produce more and more blooms every year. The more blooms, the more smell!!!

I don't really have anything else right now. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Pretty necklace giveaway...

2009-04-14T18:20:00.003-05:00

As you all know I am a sucker for a giveaway. Well, Lianna is having a small giveaway while finalizing preparations for her next big giveaway.

I was one of the fortunate winners of some great prizes in her last giveaway, so I am definitely getting in on the rest. It is also a way to help her and her husband with their IVF fund! In addition to making donations to their fund, I am praying that God will bless them with a baby.

Be sure to check out her blog and sign up!

Catching up...

2009-04-03T18:49:00.003-05:00

Where did the time go since I posted last? I cannot believe how time flies. I am glad in some ways and in others I wish it would slow down!

Anyway, my spring break was great! Grace and I spent most of it in Alma with Mom. We had a great time. We got the floor ordered for mom's kitchen and did some shopping for Grace. I'm sure that comes as a surprise! I am glad that it worked out so well for us to get to spend so much time in Alma. We got to see Granny Ima, Courtney, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Jim. Of course no trip to Alma is complete with out Pizza Parlour! We also ate lunch one day at Cheddar's in Ft. Smith. It was awesome. On Friday before we came home we had lunch at J & J's in Alma and it was turkey and dressing day. It wasn't mom's, but it was pretty good for restaurant dressing. We got back to Springdale around 2:30 that afternoon and played outside for a little while. Taylor picked Grace up about 8:30 I guess. She was really glad to see her baby girl!!

On Saturday I slept until about 12:45!! I love keeping Grace, but she does wear me out. I didn't realize how tired I was until I was able to sleep uninterrupted.

Late Saturday afternoon we started in on some indepth, unexpected spring cleaning. It was very much needed even though it was unplanned. You know how when you decide to do one thing it always leads to many other things. That is where we found ourselves. We accomplished quite a bit on Saturday evening and then finished up on Sunday. At least I thought we were finished until the weekend. When I came in from school on Monday afternoon, with Grace, I found that Mike had rented a carpet shampooer(sp) and had our bedroom dismantled! Our mattress was in the laundry room and other things were piled in various places. What a mess and with a 2 year old running around, no less! When he finished in the bedroom he said that we might as well get the high traffic areas in the den and living room while we still had soap and the equipment. So he did. It looks really good and we have gotten most everything back where it belongs.

We rearranged furniture in our bedroom and some of it in the den. They both look better and have opened up the spaces more. We have taken curtains down in both places and plan to replace them with new curtains, blinds or something. I am giving away the bedding and drapes from our bedroom and plan to get new. I also stripped the walls of all decorations so now I will have to get new ones! Darn the luck!! Taylor, get ready to help your old mom work on the bedroom now.

Now it is the weekend again. Cathy and Megan came in today from Georgia so Grace, Taylor and I will be traveling to Alma tomorrow afternoon to spend some time with them. They are very anxious to see Grace! (They haven't seen her since Christmas). Mom's new floor was put down today so I am looking forward to seeing it as well. It should be a fun weekend that will start with sleeping in tomorrow morning!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

An absolutely fabulous weekend!!!

2009-03-22T17:20:00.002-05:00

Wow! What a way to start spring break. I owe Taylor a big hug the next time I see her. For Christmas she gave us tickets to the Gaither Homecoming in Little Rock. Once they came in and I saw where our seats were, I called to get another ticket for Mom. I was able to get one that wasn't too far from ours so I bought it for her. I had been wanting to take her to one for a long time so I was thrilled to be able to get another one. She was thrilled and excited about going. The concert was last Friday night. I took off the whole day and Mike took off half a day and we headed to Alma about 1:00. We got into Little Rock and checked into the Comfort Inn and rested just for a little bit and then headed out to find something to eat before the show. We ended up at Doe's because: a) we knew it would be good, b) we knew it was close to Alltel, and c) Mom had never been there. It was awesome!! We had a 3lb. Porterhouse steak cooked to perfection, salad, potatoes and tamales. Delicious!! Then we headed to Alltel in eager anticipation of some great music. Let me just say, we were not disappointed. It was great. I highly recommend it. Mom and I sat together and Mike sort of floated around. He's known for that. Anyway, our seats were very good and they had several big jumbo screens up so we could see everything. Bill (Gaither) kept talking about an intermission, but they just kept going. I was about to decide they weren't going to have one. He finally did break, at 9:35. They had been singing for two and a half hours before intermission! It didn't seem like it. After intermission, they sang for another hour and 15 minutes. We didn't get out until 11:20. I never imagined that it would last as long as it did, but honestly, I could have listened another hour easily.

Saturday morning we didn't get in any hurry to get out and about. We had decided that we were going to eat breakfast at the hotel. Their breakfast was over at 10:00. I woke up at 9:00 and Mike was already out and about. I called Mom and told her I was on my way to her room. We headed down and got our breakfast. They had a hot breakfast complete with biscuits, gravy, sausage, eggs, waffles, and then all the traditional continental breakfast foods. I made us a waffle that we split. It was covered with strawberries, pecans and whipped cream. Fabulous! We hung out for about another hour at the hotel before we loaded up to head to Alma. It was raining on us when we left but not hard so it wasn't really much of a bother.

We stopped in Russellville for lunch at CJ's Burger Boy. It had come highly recommended by my cousin. We were not led astray! They only serve burgers, fries and shakes. They are wonderful. We will definitely stop there again sometime. Thanks for the recommendation Rick!

We got back to Alma about 2:30 which was just a little over 24 hours from the time we left. Mike went in to take a nap so Mom and I headed to Wal Mart. I was searching for a Gaither Vocal Band Reunion CD. They didn't have one. By the time we got back up to Mom's Mike was awake and said unless I just wanted to come home we could stay the night with Mom. I love to stay at Mom's so that didn't require any thinking at all. We didn't do anything but sit around and rest. I was on the computer checking blogs and Facebook so Mom came and sat with me and I took her on a Facebook tour. When we got tired of the computer we went into the den and found the Nora Roberts movie on Lifetime. It didn't take long to get hooked. We were about 30 minutes late getting into it but it didn't take long to pretty much figure out what we had missed. Mike decided he was going to bed. Anyway, we watched it to the end and then it started over again so we watched to 30 minutes we had missed before calling it a day. It was a good movie, by the way.

This morning we headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Another wonderful meal. Mom and I did a little bit of shopping there, too. I'll bet no one knows who we would have been shopping for!! It was fun as always. Mom and I had planned to go over to Lowes to look at flooring for her kitchen so we took Mike back to the house and headed to Van Buren. We think we found one that will work. Then we headed over to Wal Mart still in search of the CD and DVD that I wanted. We found the CD but not the DVD. I put it in the car immediately. I really like to listen to the Gaither Vocal Band. I am not disappointed in the CD.

On the way home we pulled into the Movie Gallery and rented Fireproof and watched it when we got in. Good movie! As soon as it was over we loaded up and headed home. It was a wonderful weekend, one we will remember for a very long time. It was a great beginning to spring break.

I hope everyone has had as good a weekend as we did! Enjoy the upcoming week!!

I'm all about giveaways...

2009-03-09T17:19:00.001-05:00

As I was blog hopping this afternoon, I ran across Lianna's. She is giving away some great things, be sure to check it out!!

Tanner and Katie-Girl!

2009-03-08T18:53:00.005-05:00

After posting earlier, I went over to Facebook to check in with everyone and noticed that Tanner had been tagged in some photos. I thought this one was so good of both Katie and Tanner that I needed to post it. I don't know if Tanner or Katie know it, but Grace calls her Katie-Girl and it is so cute to hear her say that I can't think of her as just Katie any more. Anyway, aren't they a cute couple?

Have a great week!!

Daylight savings time and Gracie Poo...

2009-03-08T18:34:00.002-05:00

Here I sit at 6:35 in the evening and it is still daylight! I really don't mind daylight savings time in the evenings, but I know it is going to be very hard to get out of bed in the morning. Oh well, nothing I can do about it except go with it.

We have had a pretty good weekend. I slept in on Saturday until 11:00!!! It was wonderful. I haven't done that in a while, but I obviously needed it. Taylor had asked me if we wanted to keep Grace overnight so she and the boys could go to the movie. Of course I said yes! She brought her over around noon and picked her up about 3:30 this afternoon. I certainly know why we have our children when we are young!! I wouldn't trade a minute I get to have with her, but, let me tell you, she wears me out!! She is so very busy. I am always amazed at what she knows and understands as a 2 year old. She has quite a vocabulary and says things that really make me wonder how she knows them. I can't think of specifics right now, but the last couple of times she has been over she has come out with something that really surprised me that she knew. She is really a smart little girl and I'm not saying that just because she's my granddaughter!! Anyway, we had a fun weekend with Gracie Poo and I am looking forward, already, to the next time she is here.

We watched several movies this weekend. Grace started out asking for Mamma Mia as soon as she got here. When it was over she asked for Mary Poppins. Fortunately those are two movies that I can watch over and over and still enjoy. Taylor brought Australia for us to watch, so we watched it this morning. Mike fell asleep and so did Grace so I got to enjoy it! It was a good movie, one that I will watch again.

I didn't take any pictures this weekend, Grace has become camera shy all of a sudden. She is still just as cute as she was in the last pictures, though!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend! Until next time...

Come on Spring!!!

2009-02-28T19:45:00.003-06:00

I am ready for spring!! Anyone else? I have been sitting at the computer for a good while now working on my new blog look and watching it snow. I really had no idea it was supposed to snow today. It was kinda pretty falling, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the warm days last week.

Anyway, how do you like the new look? I think I am going to like it.

We have had a pretty good weekend so far. We got to keep Grace overnight last night while Taylor, Gene and friends celebrated Taylor's birthday. Grace and I watched TV and played last night, Mike went to bed early since he is not feeling so great these days. It is so much fun and so much busier around here when Grace is with us! I love every minute of it. I haven't spent so much time in the bathroom since my own kids were potty training! She is doing great, though.

This morning, Mike made us a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, sausage and bacon. After that we just enjoyed being in where it was warm and read a lot of books! I'm so glad that she likes books as well as she does. I hope she continues to develop a love of reading.

I hope everyone enjoys what's left of the weekend!

More birthday celebrating...

2009-02-26T18:19:00.002-06:00

February is a busy birthday month for the Nabors. We have a niece, Jeannie, who has a birthday on the 5th, Mike's mom's is on the 10th, Grace's is on the 21st and Taylor's is today! Wow!

The dispatch crew got this cookie cake for her with a balloon. They had chips, dip and some grapes out up there, too. They take care of each other up there when it comes to celebrations. I think it's just an excuse to eat junk food!

I had not gotten her anything for her birthday and was trying to decide what to do, when I remembered the Edible Arrangements. I went by there yesterday after school and ordered an arrangement for her. I thought about having it delivered, but then it dawned on me that if I did that, I wouldn't get any of it! I told the lady in there that I would just come by and pick it up. I thought about it all day and couldn't wait until time to go get it! It was all wrapped in plastic with a ribbon around the top. I was a little concerned about transporting it since I was by myself. She put it inside a cardboard box similar to the drink carriers some places have. It was very easy to travel with. Needless to say, she was surprised! As soon as she had time, we unwrapped it so I could get a picture of it. It was just about the neatest think I have seen in a while. I did manage to get a chocolate covered strawberry or two, a piece of pineapple and some grapes before I came home!

Anyway, if you need a unique gift idea for someone this is a pretty nice one. They have all kinds of arrangements to choose from.

I can't believe my little girl is getting so old!! How does it happen that my kids get older but I don't?

Birthday Part 2

2009-02-22T10:08:00.004-06:00

Now for the rest of the story! My computer seems to be running a little better today. You gotta love dial-up services!!

Grace has decided that she doesn't really like to have her picture made any more so we really have to be sneaky to get her to pose. It was just a fluke that I was able to get this one where she looks like she was posing. This was taken right after Taylor had gotten her dressed and before anyone else had gotten there. Complete outfit including shoes, which she didn't keep on for very long. Isn't she just a living doll???

Her papa and I got this little bookcase for her. I was going to be smart and get it all put together before Mike came in on Friday afternoon, but soon got in over my head! However, it was all out in the middle of the floor when he got in, so we had to get it put together before we could even enjoy the rest of the evening. Isn't it cute? It is really going to look good in her bedroom and then she will have her books at her disposal instead of up in her closet.

The invitations Taylor found were cupcakes and so she decided to get cupcakes instead of a cake. Didn't they turn out cute? They tasted great as well. Shelby Lynn's is the best!

Mike's mother flew in from Fort Worth on Friday to be here for the party but he didn't know she was here until he saw her at the party! She wanted to stay with Taylor and her family so she would have a lot of time with Grace so she didn't want us to tell him she was here. I went with Taylor to pick her up and then we had lunch at Guido's so she could see Tanner in action. We had a great afternoon and he never had a clue that she was here. He didn't really even believe his eyes when he saw her come out of the bedroom at Taylor's. It was pretty neat to be able to surprise him like that. She thoroughly enjoyed spending some good quality time with her special great granddaughter. I am really glad that she was able to come.

Grace's other grandparents bought her this little car. She really wanted to go crazy with it in the house, but we put it in a really small space so she was limited. She did enjoy the horn on it, though! Let me just say that she will definitely be traveling all over their yard when the weather gets warm enough.

Uncle T brought his 'girlfriend' Katie to the party. It was the first time we had all met her. She is pretty brave showing up in a crowd with all the family there! She seemed to be very sweet and we are looking forward to getting to know her better. This is uncharted waters for us, he hasn't had very many girlfriends! They make a pretty cute couple, though, don't they? Isn't he a handsome young man?

That's a pretty good recap of the big celebration. There were a lot of people there and Grace had a great time being the center of attention. She got lots of new spring clothes and several new movies. Now, maybe 'mommy mommy' , aka Mamma Mia, will get a break!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Until next time...

Grace's 2nd Birthday!!

2009-02-21T18:54:00.003-06:00

I have been having a terrible time trying to get pictures on this post. I did manage to get a few from the big party to save. I will post more when the computer is a little more cooperative.

Anyway, our little Gracie turned 2 today! I can't believe she is already 2 years old. The time has just flown by. She had a wonderful party today at her house with many friends and lots of family on hand.

I have pictures of her cake and of her alone before the festivities began that I will try to get on tomorrow. These below are a few taken while she was opening presents. She had a blast pulling tissue paper from gift bags and throwing it all over the floor. She really understood the whole present thing this year. It was a lot of fun to watch.

The picture above is of the ladybug bean bag that Granny,in green jacket, got for her. It is going to look great in her room. Her Uncle T was taking pictures so she took time to send him a wave!

She had lots of help from her cousin Mitchell. Don't you just love her outfit? Her Aunt Cathy and her family sent it to her for her birthday!! Cathy, you done good! She had some brown shoes on for a while, but decided she was more comfortable barefooted. After all, she is being raised in Arkansas!

"What all do I have here?"

"Whew! I am exhausted from all that work!"

Fun was had by all and now we have a whole year to get ready for the next one!

Check back for more pics of the big day. Have a great rest of the weekend!

New Giveaway!

2009-02-20T17:23:00.002-06:00

I just saw that Whitney Caroline Designs is giving away one of their new magnetic memo boards! They are so cute that I know anyone would enjoy them. Check out their site to see what you think!

Weekend at Granny's

2009-02-07T20:33:00.003-06:00

I'm only a week late getting around to this post! Better late than never, I guess. On Thursday, the week of the ice storm, Mike and I headed to Mom's as I have already posted. Taylor and Grace came down on Friday. I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures of the activities of that weekend.

Grace got some mega blocks for Christmas and brought them with her. They come in a plastic container that she thinks should always be empty. She does the same with some containers at the house. She doesn't necessarily always want to play with what is in them, she just wants them to be emptied out all over the floor. Anyway, she did play with them for a little while with her momma. They built the first house of the weekend.

Taylor has decided to let Grace's hair grow. Her bangs have gotten very long and get in her eyes. She looks pretty cute when she brushes them out of her eyes and slings her head back. Sassy might be a better word than cute! I bought some little barretts to see if we could help keep her bangs out of her face. Before they got too busy on the floor, Taylor got her still enough to get her hair all fixed. Isn't she just a cutie pie?!? Such big, beautiful, blue eyes!

Granny was the next builder she recruited. I haven't seen Granny in the floor playing in quite a while. Grace can be very persuading!! (See how long her hair is getting.)

The next picture shows fun in the bath. Look at that hair! Think she likes bathtime?

On Saturday morning we made our way to Barling to see Aunt Rose. She hadn't seen Grace in several months and was just amazed at how much she had changed. We had a good visit with her and Uncle Jim even made it home before we left. (Sorry that I didn't get a picture of her with him.)

When we got back to Granny's, Taylor left to head back to Fayetteville. Grace stayed with us at Granny's. I called Courtney to let her know that Grace was down and she was welcome to come play with her if she wanted. Of course she did! Guess what she was conned into doing? Of course she had lots of help with what she was building.

Mike and I were there but for some reason we didn't make it into any of the pictures. I didn't because I am the one always taking them. He didn't mainly because he stayed in the bedroom with the TV and reading his book. Next time I need to give the camera to someone else for at least one picture of me with Grace!

I was very thankful that we had some place to go when we were without power. I know there are still some people without, hopefully it won't be for very much longer.

Most of you probably know by now, but in case you don't, little Harper and her family were able to go home on Thursday. To see pictures of this precious little one we have been praying for you can go to Kelly's blog. We are so thankful for God's goodness in healing this little girl and blessing this wonderful family! God is good!!

Another giveaway...

2009-02-03T21:51:00.003-06:00

I was just blog surfing and found out about another giveaway. BooMama is giving away a $50 gift card and Dave Barnes new EP. You can also go to Dave Barnes website and register to win an iPod Touch!

What a mess!!

2009-01-29T14:50:00.004-06:00

I have definitely come to the conclusion that I would not have made a good pioneer woman! Our power went off on Tuesday morning about 5:30 and hasn't been since, except for a brief 7 minutes about 9:00 that morning. We had plenty of firewood so we were warm and we do have a gas cook stove so we could cook. But, it's hard to do much cooking by candlelight. Since we have a well, though, we didn't have much water. The pump works off electricity! We had drinking water in our cooler but no water for bathing or even flushing toilets. That is what got old!!

We would read during the day and then last night we were even reading by flashlight! It wasn't the easiest way to read, but at least it was something to do.

We had talked to Mom in Alma and she told us to come down. Yesterday we would have had a hard time making it to 540, but today we didn't really have much trouble. I called her about 10 and told her we were on our way. The first thing we did once we got here was to shower! I don't know when a shower ever felt so good.

The next thing I did was check the blog to see what was going on with the Stamps. What great news when I got on and saw them holding her and feeding her. Such a blessing!

After a bit, we were ready for lunch so Pizza Parlour here we come! It was awesome as always, sorry Geren's and Taylor!

We brought laundry with us, so Mike has been taking care of that! Surprise, surprise! I am just letting him handle it, too. He said he was just trying to impress Granny. Well buddy, impress away!!!

We snapped some pictures of the area where we live to share with you. They do not do it justice. I have never seen so much devastation! It will take quite a while to clean it all up. I am just ready for the power to be restored everywhere.

This was taken of the parking lot across from Baum stadium. Looks like they are getting ready to get busy!

The next two pictures are the road we took out. Trees are broken like this everywhere you look. Part of this road was down to one lane because of the trees fallen over it. It was still pretty icy, too. I'm glad that Mike was driving!

The next two are trees in our yard. That pine tree has been there quite a long time. I'm not sure it is going to survive this. The next one is the one we heard the branches cracking off of. Sounded like gunshots at times.

Across the road from us, a tree has split and is laying across a power line. It just looks scary!

I hope everyone is someplace safe and warm.

I think we need to go get some more detergent before Mike can finish the laundry!

Whitney Caroline Designs

2009-01-25T19:32:00.002-06:00

As I was looking around on Facebook a few minutes ago, I saw where Hillary had become a fan of Whitney Caroline Designs. I have to be honest, I had never heard of it. I went to their website and immediately became a fan myself! They are having a giveaway that you might be interested in. They seem to have a variety of products including bags, stationary, invitations, etc. Check it out!

Great weekend...

2009-01-25T17:59:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. Mine has been! It was a 3 day weekend, which is always nice. I took Friday off and spent it with Taylor. We didn't even have Grace with us! We had planned a trip to Tulsa earlier in the week. We got away from Fayetteville about 12:30 after shopping for some treats for Kelly and Harper. We didn't have any trouble finding the hospital at all. Finding Kelly and family in the hospital was another story! We did eventually find them, though, and had a good visit with them. She looks absolutely amazing to have just had an almost 10 lb. baby. They were having a good day and seemed very pleased that we had made the trip to see them. What a special family!

After our visit with them, we found the Cheesecake Factory!! It was fantastic. It's a good thing there is not one any closer! After that we just looked around in a party store for invitations for Grace's 2nd birthday that is coming up sooner than I want it to. No luck there so we headed for Fayetteville. I made it back to the house right at 8:00, just in time to watch Monk. We had a great day together! I am already looking forward to another one some time in the future and I hope Taylor is, too!

On Saturday, I was able to sleep until about 10:30. That was nice, too. Mike had been up for a while doing a little light cleaning. I started laundry and did a little more cleaning before we sat down and finished watching A Few Good Men on TV. When it was over, Mike went out to get some firewood brought in and I continued to pick up and straighten up the living room. As he was splitting the wood in the front, I started carrying it in to fill up the rack. We got it filled up and the floor vacuumed and he got a fire started. He had bought steaks earlier in the week and had them marinating in the refrigerator. He had also gotten baking potatoes and the stuff for green bean casserole to have with our steaks. He got the potatoes ready and put in the oven and mixed up the casserole and then we settled in to watch a movie. As you can see from the picture below, we have quite a collection of DVDs. We play a game to choose what we will watch. I will call out numbers from each row and then we choose from only 3 or 4 instead of the whole bunch. We actually did that 3 times yesterday. It was great! We watched a variety of movies. My Fellow Americans, The Italian Job, part of The Titannic on TV and The Sum of all Fears.
While we were watching these movies, of course, Mike kept the fire going. It was so nice to be sitting in front of the fire just relaxing for the whole day. (I did get the laundry finished, too.)

I couldn't get a very good picture of the fire with the screen on so I snapped one while he was working on building it up. We also discovered that we were out of charcoal when he got ready to cook the steaks! Never fear, though, he just cooked them over the open fire in the fireplace!! They were some of the best steaks I have had in a while. We may cook them that way more often. We love to cook hotdogs in the fireplace, too!!

Today we have had a shorter version of the movie marathon, but enjoyed every minute of it as well. I slept in again this morning so we didn't make it to church, shame on us. When I got up, Mike was just finishing up making pancakes, sausage and bacon for breakfast. It was great! He had already started a movie, Crimson Tide, so we finished it as we ate breakfast. We knew we had to make a grocery store run at some point today, but he said we could put it off for another couple of hours. He went to the closet and brought out The Guardian. It makes me sad, but it is a very good movie. When it went off, he took off the to store and I started the soup. He had been bugging me since I had printed off the recipe for the tortellini soup that Hillary had posted on her blog. I got it made after he got back with the rest of the ingredients and it was very good. Thanks Hillary for posting it!

While I was finishing up the soup, Mike was surfing the TV and found Dumb and Dumber. We finished that movie, then Mike fell asleep and I headed for the kitchen. I got it all cleaned up and now I am getting ready to get showered and watch some more TV before I go to bed!

I hope everyone else has had a great weekend, too!

Keep the Stamps family in your prayers! Harper seems to be doing better every day.

Big Monkey/Little Monkey

2009-01-17T20:52:00.007-06:00

Grace was finally back at the house!! We usually have her on Monday nights, but last Monday Taylor had to work until 2:00am so we didn't. We had both really been missing her, so Mike texted Taylor on Thursday evening and told her he was going to kidnap her if we didn't see her soon. She sent me a text right after that and asked if we wanted her on Friday night. Of course I said yes!! Taylor had a shift meeting at 3:00 on Friday, so when school was out, I met her at the police department to get Grace. After a quick trip to our new Neighborhood Market, we were in for the evening. She asked about her papa and her Uncle T on the way home. I think she was ready to see all of us, too!

As soon as we got home and put the groceries away she was asking to watch "mommy mommy". She has become a big fan of "Mamma Mia". (She comes by that honestly enough, her mother and I both love it.) I put in the movie and she crawled up in the recliner and watched for quite a while when I was on the computer. I haven't seen her sit that still in a long time. When I finished on the computer I went in and sat with her. She was even trying to sing along with some of the songs! She also got down and danced with them during part of it. She is so much fun to watch!

She was probably asleep by 8:00. We sat in the recliner and I watched Monk and then pretty much slept through Psych before I got up and took us to bed. We were back up about 8:00 this morning. After she helped Papa eat his breakfast, they came into the living room where I was on the computer. Mike was planning to read his newspaper, but as you can see in the following picture, Grace had other plans for him. I just had to get a picture!

As the day progressed, we watched "Mamma Mia" yet again. At about 11:00, I guess, I took Grace in to wake up her Uncle T! She sat up in the bed with him for a little while until he decided to go ahead and get up. He laid back down on the couch until the movie was over. By that time the temperature was warmer outside than inside so we headed out. Grace played on the deck and I hung her swing back up. She stayed in it longer today than she has the whole time we have had it. She played on her little four wheeler while Tanner was splitting wood and Mike was cleaning the fireplace area up. She had a blast running around in the yard enjoying the sunshine and the freedom.

After Tanner got ready to go to work, he came around to the back of the house to find us. The next thing I knew he was climbing the pecan tree in the back yard! I don't know if I have ever seen him climb a tree before, but if I have it was a long time ago. I had to have some pictures. Grace didn't quite know what to think.

When he decided it was time to get down, he also decided that he should have thought about how he was going to get down before he ever got up!

Here he is testing that branch on the right to see if he can swing from it. He did end up swinging from it to get down. All branches and bones are still intact!

He really wanted Grace to have an experience in the tree as well. She was not at all sure she wanted to be up in that tree, at this point anyway!

However, when he said he would get up there with her it was a different story! He climbed back up and I handed her up to him. He got her onto that branch without any trouble.

She seemed to really enjoy being there with him, not at all scared of being so high up. Hence the post title, Big Monkey/Little Monkey!!

After we got them out of the tree, Tanner started chasing Grace around the yard. She was giggling so hard she kept falling down. It was fun to see them having so much fun together. What a great uncle!!

When he left to go to work, I managed to get her back into the house. It was getting a little chilly and her nose was running. We went inside to have an apple. As we were finishing our apple, she asked for "mommy mommy" again. I put it back into the DVD player and started it up again. She played around a few minutes then climbed up in my lap with her paci. I know she was tired, she had not had a nap all day. She was almost asleep when her mom and dad came to pick her up. Taylor was hoping she would go strong a little while longer and then crash early. I don't know if that is what happened or not. I do know that I was as tired as Grace was, if not more so! I wouldn't trade the time we have with her for anything in the world, though! Thank you Taylor and Gene for letting her come and stay with us as often as you do!!! Thank you, God, for blessing us with such a wonderful granddaughter!

Please keep Kelly, Scott and little Harper in your prayers!

Praise God for His goodness!

2009-01-17T11:54:00.003-06:00

I just read on Kelly's blog that things are looking better for her precious new arrival. I have been amazed at the number of comments left on her blog as well as every other blog that I have looked at this morning where this family has been lifted up. The blogworld is truly amazing and reaches so many people so quickly. As my heading says, Praise God for His goodness!

New pretties and some upcoming events...

2009-01-08T20:24:00.004-06:00

I don't know if anyone remembers or not, but several weeks before Christmas I stripped the walls in my living room. I donated the things I had in there to the Springdale Police Department for their garage sale. Anyway, I began the search for new things. I found and purchased several things but never got them hung before I started decorating for Christmas. Once I got all my Christmas decorations down I had bare walls again. Slowly, I began moving the picture, mirror and sconces back into the living room to remind Mike that I needed him to help me get them hung. I had also found a table that I wanted to put under the picture but hadn't gotten it since I was buying Christmas presents. Well, I got it on Monday! Stephanie and Mom helped me get the table. With gift cards from them, a small discount because it has some scratches on it and a $10 coupon, it only cost me $29. I was very excited! Thank you Mom and Stephanie!!

What do you think? I don't have any candles for the sconces yet and I need to get something to put on the table but I am on my way. There is a shelf on the bottom of the table, too.

I have wanted a mirror to put over the piano for a long time and now I have one. I couldn't get a very good picture, but you get the idea. I am very proud of the way it all looks and can't wait to finish. I still need something to put on the wall over the computer, but I don't have any doubts that Taylor and I can find something that will look good.

I also bought a new clock for the den that I haven't gotten up yet because I need something else to go with it as well. It's a work in progress for sure. It has been fun shopping for updated decor for my house!

I also had some fun on the computer after I got in from school today. Tanner will turn 21 in September. We told both kids that when they turned 21 we would take them to Las Vegas. We are not gamblers, but it is a fun place to go anyway. We are all about the shows. Anyway, we took Taylor and had a great time and now it is almost time to take Tanner. I can't believe he is almost 21!! Where has the time gone? I got online this afternoon looking at packages and while I was looking Mike came in. We have a pretty good idea of what we are going to do but I will wait before I reveal anything until we are sure. If it works out like we think it will it should be a great trip. Tanner has been consulted about most of what we have looked at and he said it sounded good to him. Now we have some long term plans to look forward to, and lots of money to come up with!!

Mom, Mike and I also have a date in March that we are looking forward to. Taylor got tickets to the Bill Gaither Homecoming at Alltel Arena in Little Rock for Mike and me. Once the tickets came in and I found out where the seats were, I called to see if we could get another one so we could take Mom. I was able to find one pretty close to the ones Taylor got us. Mike doesn't usually sit in his assigned seat anyway, he likes to sit at the top so he has more room and can walk around, so I went ahead and ordered the other ticket. I called Mom on Tuesday to see if she would like to go and of course she was very excited! I had been wanting to take her to one of their gatherings for a long time, so thanks to Taylor, I am finally getting around to it! Thank you Taylor!!!

Okay, I don't think I have anything else to share at this point, other than the fact the I am so glad tomorrow is Friday!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Holidays are over...

2009-01-04T17:56:00.002-06:00

Well, the holidays are over and it is back to work tomorrow! I wish I could say I was ready to go back, but I can't. Ready or not, though, here we go!

As I was reading blogs this afternoon I noticed that several had changed their backgrounds again, so of course I had to change mine as well. I only looked for about an hour before I decided on this one. I wrote down the names of some others that I may use at a later date. Do you like it?

While this holiday vacation was not a restful one, it was a fun one. My sister stayed with Mom until today, so I tried to spend as much time as possible with them. Last week I went down on Tuesday for the day and we had a great time. We picked up Granny Ima, met up with Johnny and Pat (my cousin and his wife) and went to Pizza Parlour in Alma for their buffet lunch. They have the best pizza around! We have pizza from there almost every time we are in Alma. After lunch, we loaded up and went sight-seeing. Johnny took us down memory lane. The weather was perfect and we saw things we hadn't seen in a long time. It was great! He took us to see Lake Fort Smith since it has reopened. As kids, we picnicked at that park and swam a lot. It looks nothing like it did then! The changes were amazing. It is a beautiful park, but kind of sad that we didn't recognize anything from our childhoods. I guess that's called progress!!

On Thursday, Cathy, Mom and Granny Ima traveled up the mountain to meet Taylor, Grace and me at Mimi's Cafe for lunch. It has become a favorite place of ours to eat. After we finished eating, Taylor, Grace and I did a little shopping and they went back to Alma.

Friday, I took Grace to Alma to spend one more night with Aunt Cathy. Cathy had made lasagne for lunch that day. (We did a lot of eating during this break.) She went and brought Granny Ima up for lunch with us. After we ate we just let Grace entertain us. She loves to be the center of attention!!

On Saturday, Cathy and I took Grace home and then went to a wedding. The wedding was one of the reasons Cathy stayed until today. Her best friend's youngest son was the one getting married. I decided at the last minute to attend the wedding with her. Am I ever glad that I did? It was a reunion with friends that I had not seen in many, many years. The wedding was beautiful and the fellowship was wonderful. What a great afternoon! Thanks Cathy for letting me go with you!

This morning, we left Granny's house about 7:30 and drove Cathy to Little Rock to catch her plane. Mom and I were back in Alma just before 2:00 and I left about 3:00 to come home. The trip down and back didn't seem like it took very long at all. By now, everyone should be home where they belong. Thanks Greg for letting Cathy stay in Arkansas for so long!!!

This should have us pretty well caught up for now. It was really a great holiday vacation! I hope everyone is looking forward to a wonderful 2009!!!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-31T19:02:00.006-06:00

Finally I can get online again! Our computer has been down for about a week and before that, things were just crazy, but now things are getting back to normal. I was told yesterday that I needed to update my blog, so here goes.

Christmas was fun as always. It's great to be with family that we don't get to spend much time with throughout the year. On Christmas Day we went to my mom's in Alma. Taylor and her family also traveled to Alma. My sister and her family were in from Atlanta and the Russell's and the Bazyk's were in from Little Rock. Granny Ima, mom's sister, was also there. We had our traditional Christmas dinner and everyone seemed to have plenty of it!

After lunch, Grace opened presents from the Russell's, Bazyk's and Granny Ima. Then they headed back to Little Rock. As they were leaving, Rick, Marcia, Amanda and Alex came in. Everyone was visiting and watching the clock at the same time. Taylor had to be at work at 6:00 and we still had not opened presents. We all drifted toward the living room then to have our Christmas. We have started the tradition of opening presents from youngest to oldest, after Granny opens hers. Of course, with Christmas being all about the kids, Grace got the most presents. She seemed to enjoy tearing off the paper. She didn't hesitate to ask for help if she couldn't quite get it started. She was really funny to watch!!

It isn't often that the three of us are together in the same picture! I loved being able to be with both my kids for Christmas!

Grace always had someone close by to help when she got in a bind. Aunt Cathy lent a willing hand on this one, which happened to be from her family.

On Friday after Christmas, Mike, Tanner and I met Stephanie over at Taylor and Gene's for our Christmas. Stephanie always gets me some sort of snowman to add my my collection. This year, she gave me four and each one had a letter on it spelling out NOEL. They are adorable! Thanks Steph!!

This was the best present of the whole season!! When Stephanie took her blanket out of the bag, Grace wanted in! She and Steph played with this bag until they finally tore it up! So much for presents for the little one.

We got a little four wheeler for Grace to have at our house. Her Uncle T was very excited about putting it together for her. He is extremely fond of his precious neice!!!

She rode it all around the driveway. She does pretty good on the straight stretches, but hasn't quite mastered turning yet. I think she really likes riding it. The second day she was on it she ventured a little farther out. We have 5 acres out here for her to explore so she should get a lot of good use with it. I don't expect that this will be her only four wheeler!!

We had a good Christmas and it has been great to be out of school! I am having a hard time even thinking about having to go back!

Today I got to have lunch with Leah, Kendall and Evan who are in from Kentucky and my friend Karen who teaches in Bentonville this year. Taylor andGrace, and Jennifer, Austin and Taylor Raabe were there as well. We had a great visit and good lunch at Chik Fil A. Thank you Leah for making time to visit while you were here. I hope you all have a safe trip back to Kentucky!

I can't believe that 2008 is gone! I do not know where it went so quickly. I am really looking forward to 2009! I hope that everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and a very Happy New Year!!!

Until next post....

Now it really looks like Christmas...

2008-11-29T20:40:00.010-06:00

Finally! I have been trying to get pictures uploaded since last night. You gotta love dial-up service.

Anyway, I have completed my Christmas decorating for the year and wanted to share. I have several pictures so bear with me.

Remember the frames I told you I purchased at the garage sale? Below you will see the tree after Mike painted it white and the angel as Mike and Taylor began putting the lights on it.

This is the finished angel! Just had to plug it in to see what it looked like. Even in the garage it looked great to me!

For the last several years, I have designated locations for my decorations. The entertainment center is the main snowman center. However, I do have other snowman decorations throughout the den. I didn't take pictures of all of them. I am an avid snowman collector!

The mantle has become the santa collection. I had stocking holders last year that spelled out Santa. One of my stockings hanger came off last year, and we don't really do much with stockings any more since my family has grown, so I really only needed to hang 4. I found new hangers that are santa in his sleigh and 3 reindeer, so I got them and gave the others to Taylor. This way we don't have to move a stocking every time we build a fire, which is everyday!! The wreath is really too small, but I haven't found anything I like any better yet. I will though! Mike told me last night he thought the mantle looked better than it ever has.

While I was snapping pictures last night, Mike asked me to take one of him. He likes to have his picture made more than anyone I know! Anyway, I snapped this one of him and it got the wall and the top of the tree. The angel on top is not leaning, I don't know why it looks like it in this picture.

These next two pictures are my new additions this year. I took everything off the walls in the living room and gave them away, so they were completely bare and it made the whole room look funny. The tree and all were up and looked good, but something was definitely missing. Friday when we were at Kirkland's, one of my very favorite stores, I found this quilt and knew it would be perfect on the big bare wall. I was right, I love it. The three framed words were also in Kirkland's and I was relatively sure they would fill the space above the computer. Taylor agreed so I got them too. They do look like I thought they would. I probably really need a little something else to go with them, but for now, I am happy. That completed the living room nicely. It is very homey in here right now.

The next picture is the Grace zone! There are lots of Christmas pillows and stuffed animals in this pile. She went crazy playing with them and carried them all over the house. It is nice to have something down that she can play with and not get in trouble for! She did get into the potpourri in a little basket on my snowman table and played with the tree just a little bit, but not bad considering how curious she is. She did see where the tree lights are turned on and off so she had to try her hand at that, too, but it won't be new the next time she is here!

The piano has always been where I display my nativity scenes. I also collect them, so I have several. I didn't even get some of them out this year. I am very proud of how this area looks as well. Tanner got the wreath for me several years ago and it is perfect over the piano.

Last but not least, we have the yard display. Nothing elaborate, but I am very proud of it as well. Tanner and some of his friends built the snowman several years ago and then the angel and tree are what we added this year. Mike ended up stringing the tree all by himself!! He is not really a very big fan of Christmas, but he is always very complimentary of how good the house looks when I finish decorating.

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour. I didn't share it all with you, just the highlights. I look forward to this all year long and am so pleased to have it all finished so that I can sit back and enjoy it.

Looking forward to seeing more decorations on blogs!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2008-11-23T19:18:00.002-06:00

I know it is not Thanksgiving yet, but I also know that I am planning to be pretty busy on Thanksgiving weekend, so I decided to go ahead a change my blog a little early. I spend quite a while looking for Christmas backgrounds that I liked before I settled on this one. I am a HUGE fan and collector of snowmen, so this one seemed appropriate! Hope you enjoy it.

We have had a pretty productive weekend around here. We got the lights strung on the angel frame that we had bought at the garage sale. It looks great! I will post pictures later. Hopefully we will get the tree done this week, it should be easier than the angel was. I wouldn't have been able to get it done without Mike! He had the plan. Taylor worked with us for a little while yesterday on it and then Mike and I finished up this afternoon. I can't wait to get it set up in the yard.

Well, I am off to watch the 24 movie that is on Fox. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

It's beginning to feel like winter!

2008-11-15T19:51:00.002-06:00

Wow, it feels like winter is here. I love the fact that it is cold. I was tired of being hot. It's also easier to get into the holiday spirit when the weather is cold. For the last two days, Taylor, Grace and I have been out in it. Tanner joined us for a while yesterday and then Corey was with us today. Both days were lots of fun and pretty productive as well. I am crossing items off my Christmas list rapidly! It feels great to be getting things done this early. Last year I was shopping up until the very end. This year, when I am out and in the mix at the end, I don't plan on being panicked!

I have been making some changes in decor at the house, and in doing so, have changed some of my Christmas decorating options. I have been studying on just exactly how I am going to make everything work out this year. I have been decorating basically the same way for several years now, just adding more every year, so I guess it is time for a change. I have already told Taylor that I will definitely need her help this year! I am going to have to quit looking at Christmas decorations whenever I am out, too. I have a hard time telling myself 'no', especially when they are on sale like the ones I found today!!

I have new lighted decorations for the yard this year, too. I bought an angel and a tree at the garage sale the police department had. They did not work but I got them so cheap that I couldn't resist. Last weekend, Mike and I stripped the lights off both of them and he repainted the frames so they look new. All we have to do now is string lights back on them. I can't wait to see how they look. Tanner had built me a lighted snowman a couple of years ago, so now I have 3 lighted decorations for the yard. I am ready to get it all set up! I really love Christmas time!

I have been looking at blog backgrounds, too. I defintely will be changing to a Christmas theme just as soon as Thanksgiving is over! My house will be transformed the weekend after Thanksgiving as well. My dad was a big kid when it came to Christmas, too. We always put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving, if not that afternoon. That is a tradition that I have followed. I usually am involved in setting up two trees that weekend. We, probably I this year since Taylor won't be there, will help Mom get hers up before we come home on Thanksgiving Day. She has a brand new one this year so we will have a new experience there as well. I can't wait!!

I know that Grace will enjoy Christmas more this year than she did last year as well. She is already into snowmen!! She tries to sing "Frosty the Snowman". She's such a doll! (No prejudice there at all!)

I guess there is nothing more to talk about at this point. I hope it hasn't been too boring.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

Nana's jewelry, "trick or treat" and a Razorback game!

2008-11-01T19:23:00.005-05:00

When Grace was over here on Monday or Tuesday she got very quiet while she was back in our bedroom. I called for her to come back to the den where I was and in just a few minutes here she came will all these necklaces on. She thought she was soooo pretty! Of course I had to snap a picture or two! We have lived in the same house now for 20 years and I don't remember ever having trick or treaters. Last night we had a special one come to our house! She was so cute in her little fairy costume complete with sparkly silver shoes and a wand. She even cast spells on all of us before they left.

She' checking out her loot! At this point she had not been very many places, however, she already had some pretty good stuff.

"Have it!" she said to her papa. Her mom and dad had already told her she had to wait, so he didn't give in!

I had to give you a view of the back! She was just adorable, not that I am prejudiced or anything!

One of Mike's good friends from Fort Smith has 50 yard line tickets for the Razorback games. They are also only 42 rows up!! They typically only go to one game a year and sell them for the rest of the games. The game they decided to go to this year was today's game and since they have 4 tickets, they offered to take us with them. How could we possibly turn down 50 yard line tickets! They have excellent parking as well. We had a great time. The weather was perfect, completely shaded after about the first hour we were there, and the game was awesome with the Razorbacks beating the Tulsa Hurricanes 30-23. What a great game to get to see!

One of my favorite things about the games is the band. This was right before the game started. Right after this formation, they moved into the 'A' that the players run through.

This was the view from out seats! Pretty good view, huh? Thanks Larry and Cindy!! After the game we had dinner at Doe's. What a great way to end our double date! The food was great and we didn't have to wait to be seated. Larry did a great job of getting us around and to the restaurant before the crowd got there. When we were leaving, there were people waiting outside! Our timing couldn't have been any better.

One of my favorite things about living in Arkansas is that we have a change of seasons. There are many beautiful trees in this area right now. I snapped this picture while we were waiting on Larry and Cindy today. It is not the prettiest tree that I have seen but it ranks right up there. I cannot imagine living anywhere else!

With all the excitement we have already had this weekend, we still have more coming. Mike's mother will be in tomorrow afternoon for a brief visit on her way to Branson with 2 of her friends. She has not seen Grace since April! She is very excited to see her. We are very excited to see Mema. We don't get to see Mema or Papa nearly often enough. They live in Fort Worth and it is hard for us to make connections with everyone's work schedules. They are retired, but traveling has gotten more difficult for them over the years. It should be a fun, albeit short, visit with Mema tomorrow. It will be a good way to end what has been a really good weekend!! We also get an extra hour of sleep tonight, yay!

It's finally Friday...

2008-10-24T16:02:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-10-12T16:33:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-10-11T20:27:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-10-10T16:59:00.006-05:00

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...

2008-10-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

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

An early morning phone call, an emergency room and a hen party!

2008-09-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

My weekend started a little earlier than I had planned. My cell phone rang at 6:15 on Friday morning and it never rings that early, especially when it is my mother calling. She kept saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay" but you don't call someone that early just to chat! She is usually not out of bed that early. So, I'm starting to worry a little because she was crying a little bit, too, and she is not a crier! Finally, she told me that she had fallen and her left leg was really hurting. She had made it to the kitchen to get her cell phone, but she had held onto something the whole way. Anyway, she kept saying that since it was her left leg she thought she could drive and she was going to call her doctor when their office opened and try to get in. She had actually planned to call them anyway because her headaches were not much better from 2 weeks ago when she had gone. I told her that she wasn't going to try to drive any where that I would be down as soon as I got my stuff together and put in my absence from school in the computer. I got to her house (in Alma) a little after 8:00. She had replaced the front door lock a while back and I had not gotten a key to it. Sure enough it was locked. I can open her garage door from my car so that was my next move. Well, the door into the kitchen from the garage was also locked! I pulled out my phone to call her to see if she could get to the door to let me in when I remembered that the old front door key opened that door and I still had it on my keyring. By the time she answered her phone I had the door open. I went straight to the bedroom to check on her. She was trying to get up, but I told her not to. I got her little dog taken out and then went back to her. We got her to the den and into her recliner so she could stretch out her leg. At 9:00 we called the doctor's office and they said they would have the nurse call us. I had told the receptionist that she had fallen and was having trouble walking on her left leg and that her headaches were no better. She said okay. We waited until about 12:30, which was very difficult for me, and called back. She remembered that Mom had fallen and went to see where the chart was. When she came back to the phone she said it was in the doctor's area and just waiting for him to see it and tell the nurse what to do. So, we waited again. I had told Mom that we weren't going to wait too much longer without going to the ER. We needed to know what to do. She went back to bed for just a little while and then she said, "Let's just go." So I got her into the car and went in to get the rest of our stuff and the phone was ringing. It was Debbie from the doctor's office. She didn't know that Mom had fallen, the receptionist left that part off her note, and she also had been out during the morning! She apologized for us having to wait all day, but she said he would have told her to go to the ER for X-rays. I told her we were on our way. We got seated in the waiting room about 2:50pm and were headed home by 5:20! I was thrilled that it hadn't taken nearly as long as we were afraid it might and also that nothing was broken!! So then we headed to the pharmacy to get her medicine and to the house. She went straight to bed and only really got up long enough to put on her gown before taking her medicine and bedding down for the night. I sat up and read for a little while and then I crashed as well.

I heard her in the bathroom about 6:45, surprised that she had made it so well. We both went back to bed and dozed a little until about 9:00 I guess when we got up and started stirring. She was able to move a lot better and seemed to feel better, too. I made us some breakfast and then we were trying to decide what we needed from the store when Taylor called. Mike and I were supposed to keep Grace this weekend, but things changed a little. It worked out okay for Friday night, but I knew Taylor really wanted to go to Bikes, Blues and BBQ. She had been talking about it for a long time. She was not having much luck finding something to do with Grace. I told her she could always bring her to Alma, since Mom was feeling better. She perked up then and said as soon as she got showered and clothes gathered up she would be down. Grace is usually pretty good medicine for Mom! I decided to go on to Wal Mart so I wouldn't have to take Grace. When I got home, Mom said she wanted to try to shower so we headed to the bathroom. She did pretty well. As she was finishing up, the doorbell rang. When I got to the door, it was Shirley from Unique Florist. She has been a family friend for years. She had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mom, as you can see in this picture. Cathy had called her and ordered them from all the grandkids and greats! Thanks, Cathy!!

While I was on my way to Wal Mart, I called

in reinforcements! I called Courtney to see if she had plans or if she wanted to come up and play with Grace. She looooves to spend time with Grace! She had already done what she had planned for the day so she said she would come up about noon. She did and Grace was in rare form. Mom went to lay down for a while so we just let Grace entertain us. When Mom got up, we ordered pizza, Pizza Parlour of course, and Courtney went to pick up Granny Ima when she got the pizza. We were having a full-fledged hen party at this point! We were watching the Razorback fiasco and trying to get Grace to call the hogs. She did clap and holler a little bit, but not much pig sooie.

She had on this cute little hat when she got out of the car. We talked her into putting it back on to model with Courtney. Isn't she just a little doll?

She was exhausted, but wouldn't give it up. At one point we thought she was going to crash in Granny Ima's lap. No such luck! She realized she was getting too still, so down she went!

They stayed with us until about 6:00 and it was a great afternoon. Mom had felt relatively good and certainly enjoyed watching Grace. She was surprised that she felt as good as she did. She could bend her leg better and even walk on it without holding on to something or someone. She crashed around 9 and then Grace and I sat in the recliner and rocked. She was asleep about 15 minutes after Mom went down. We actually went to bed around 10. We slept pretty well. Grace likes to be very close! She woke up about 7. I was hoping to sleep a little later, but no such luck. Mom was still in bed but was awake. She said she didn't sleep as well as she had the night before and she was hurting a little more. As we finished up breakfast, she went ahead and took a pain pill and it didn't take it long to start working. We got things moved around for her dog and her charger for her cell phone moved into her bedroom and I got her laundry caught up. She told me she wasn't rushing me off, but she was okay and for us to head on home so I could rest. We did leave there about 3. I brought Grace to the house so her papa could see her since we didn't keep her here over the weekend. She slept on the way home and has been going strong ever since!

I told Mom that if she wanted me to come down for the weekend, she didn't really have to go to such extremes. All she has to do is ask! Anyway, the weekend ended better than it started, but we are so grateful that nothing was broken and she is doing so much better already. We will keep praying for her strength to increase and the pain to be gone quickly.

I love you Mom!

Just experimenting with my camera since Grace is willing to pose on occasion now!

Style??

2008-09-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, I don't know why the whole bottom part of the last post ran together, I really had separated it into several paragraphs! I guess I still have a lot to learn. Maybe you can read it anyway. Just wanted you to know that I didn't write that all as one paragraph. I went back several times to try to get it changed to no avail. What did I do wrong?

Grace and Uncle 'T'

2008-09-23T20:23:00.000-05:00

Finally! I have to say that I really dislike dial-up internet service! Where we live it is the only thing available. I have been trying for the last 2 hours to get these pictures to upload.

On Mondays we get to keep Grace so I usually try to get home as quickly as possible from school. Mike usually watches her until I can get in. Yesterday when I topped the curve headed to the house, I saw Mike on the tractor. I was a little surprised and thought maybe for some reason we were not going to have her. When I got to the driveway, though, Tanner's truck was there. When I walked into the house, this is how I found them. I don't know how Grace could have been very comfortable or how she even got to that position, but apparently they were both comfortable. I snapped both of these pictures, with flash, and neither of them moved a muscle! Aren't they just adorable!! I am soooo glad that Grace is so crazy about her Uncle 'T' and that he is equally crazy about her.

I hadn't been home very long, just long enough to take these pictures, when I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up my medicine. So, since they were sleeping, I jumped back in the car and ran to Wal Mart to get my medicine and a few necessities. I was gone for about an hour and when I got back they were still asleep. Their positions had changed but they didn't move. I got my clothes changed and was on the computer when Grace started stirring a little. I went and picked her up and then she slept on my shoulder. I just love to hold her while she is sleeping!!

After a little while she woke up and began to play a little. By the time Mike came in off the tractor she was going strong again. We ate a bite of supper, homemade chili (thanks honey) and hot dogs and settled in to watch Dancing with the Stars. Grace watched some and danced around a little bit. She was calling all the ladies Hillary! I guess she thought they were all wearing wedding dresses like she had seen Hillary in on Friday! She was going strong when Taylor came to get her at about 10:15. As soon as they left I hit the shower and fell into bed. It had definitely been Monday all day at work trying to get ready for parent/teacher conferences.

Today was our longest day of conferences. We had to work until 7:00. Tomorrow we have to stay until 6:00. I only have to conference with 10 kids, so I have quite a bit of down time. This afternoon, instead of getting ready for 2 upcoming special ed. conferences or grading papers, I read for about 2 hours! It was relatively quiet and I enjoyed every minute of it. I actually have enjoyed all the conferences I have had thus far this year. Of my 10 huddle students that I conference with, only 3 of them are my resource students. I have not been able to tell parents very often that their kids are proficient in math and literacy or even one or the other! It felt good to tell parents that today.

This had turned into a longer post than I intended. I am enjoying posting on this blog more than I thought I would. I'm not sure that is necessarily a good thing! Anyway, I'm off to finish watching Dancing, then to the shower and then to bed before another long work day tomorrow!

'Til next time...

Fun times with Grace!

2008-09-21T14:40:00.001-05:00

Well, I lost most of the previous post I was working on with wedding pictures, so I decided to try another one with pics of Miss Grace. Most of the pictures I had on the other one are on Granny's computer instead of mine and Taylor's camera instead of mine. Taylor is going to repost some of them for me and then I will blog about the wonderful wedding.

Anyway, Grace is always fun to tell about and show off. The first picture shown is when I decided to let her eat spaghetti all by herself. She was so very proud! It was a little messy, but she did manage to get most of it eaten.

The next one is just a cute picture of her one day when she was at the house. She is getting a little better about being still while we are snapping pictures. This one definitely shows off her beautiful blue eyes!
She loves her Uncle Tanner or T as she calls him. They played on this oversized bean bag for quite a while one evening when she was at the house. Good lookin' kiddos, aren't they?
Aunt Cathy and Megan were in for the wedding and the weekend. Taylor, Grace and I stayed at Mom's on Friday night and all day Saturday as well. We had a great day of relaxation and watching Grace entertain everyone. She always gets a prize from Atlanta when Aunt Cathy and Megan come to visit. Here she is putting on her new M&M costume. She looked adorable and there couldn't have been anything more appropriate to have come from them. I think Cathy lives on M&Ms!!!
Finally, Grace loved the dance floor at the wedding. She was on it even when no one else was. The lead singer in the band came out and danced with her during one of the songs. We had a hard time keeping Grace off the dance floor for the newlywed dance and the father/daughter dance. She just couldn't understand why she had to watch!
I have lots more pictures of Grace that I could share, but will save them for another time. When Taylor gets the wedding pictures re-posted, then I will tell more about the wedding! Just know that it was absolutely beautiful in a glorious setting! Congratulations to Hillary and Josh!!!

Weekend of celebration and relaxing...

2008-09-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

Friday night was the wedding that our family has been waiting for. It took place at Mt. Magazine State Park, the highest point in Arkansas. It was an aboslutely beautiful place for a wedding. I had never been there before, but hopefully will get a chance to go back someday.

Mike, Taylor, Grace and I went to Granny's in Alma around noon. Mike took his chainsaws and cut a bunch of limbs off some of her trees. Taylor, Grace and I made a quick trip to Ft. Smith to find shoes for Taylor. We only had to make one stop, Shoe Carnival, and we both ended up buying the same pair of brown shoes. I hope they will be comfortable enough to wear to school!
When we got back to Alma it was time to start getting ready. We were leaving at 4:30 and traveling in a caravan with Johnny, Pat and Granny Ima and Rick, Marcia and Alex. Johnny had been there before so we were counting on him to get us there. We got there with time to spare!

From the minute we walked into the lodge everything looked gorgeous. Her accent color was apple green and she had green apples in huge vases all over the place. It was definitely unique and absolutely gorgeous. I don't have any pictures of the decorations on my camera or computer, but will post some when I have access to them. They also had a photo booth set up in the reception area. Everyone was encouraged to have their pictures made. It took six poses and they cut three off for a scrapbook for Hillary and Josh and we got to keep the other three. What a great idea!

I had several pictures posted earlier and some how lost over half of what I had been posting. I still don't know what happened. However, Taylor has posted some of the same ones I had so you can go here to see them. The picture below is of the view that Hillary and Josh had while they were saying their vows. There are several other pictures on this blog that one of the bridesmaids posted.

After the wedding, we headed back to Granny's. Cathy and Megan had driven in from Atlanta for the wedding and the spend Saturday with Grace! Taylor, Grace and I spent the night at Granny's, too. Mike decided to head on home, not into hen parties! He had cut lots of branches off trees for Granny on Friday before we went to the wedding. He finished what he was planning to do so he didn't have anything to do there on Saturday anyway. That left just us girls for the whole night and all day on Saturday. Monica, Cathy's best friend, came down on Saturday morning and then Stephanie, my surrogate daughter, came down Saturday afternoon when she got off work. Granny Ima came up, as well, so we literally had a house full of women. We ate Pizza Parlour pizza, some of the best around, and CocaCola cake. Cathy had gone to Van Buren to get some sugar cookies from Paul's Bakery, too. They are a must have whenever the Geren's are in town just like the pizza. Anyway, we just sat around and visited and watched Grace while we snacked all day. Taylor, Grace, Stephanie and I headed home around 7:00 last night. Cathy and Megan have the long drive ahead of them today, all the way to Atlanta. It was a very quick trip for them, but it was great that they were able to come in for the wedding and another fun day of watching Grace entertain.

My best wishes and congratulations go out to the bride and groom! Looking forward to many more pictures of the happy event!

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Now for some football!!

Wonderful cool weather!

2008-09-16T17:11:00.000-05:00

It has been so very nice not to have to use air conditioning the last few days. I love having the windows open and all the fresh air coming in. I hope we don't have to use the air conditioner again until spring gets here.

I sure enjoyed watching the Cowboys game last night. I will confess, though, that while The Closer was on we only checked on the game during commercials. I did stay with the game until the end even though I was very sleepy. Grace fell asleep in my lap a little before 10:00, Mike had fallen asleep on the loveseat and I was on the edge when Taylor came in to pick Grace up. After they were gone, we headed to the bedroom and watched the end of the game in there. It was all I could do to make it!

This morning when the alarm went off I turned it off and was going to just lay there for another minute! Right, I woke up about 20 minutes later and was behind all day!! I have duty on Tuesday mornings from 7:30 until 8:00 so by the time I got to school it was already time to head to duty. After duty, I went to the office to check my mailbox and found out that I had to go to a meeting during my only planning time today. I was not thrilled to say the least. I really had planned to get the paperwork ready for my conference that was scheduled during lunch today. Fortunately, I was able to get most of the paperwork completed during a video that was shown to the whole school before the kids were dismissed from their homebases. As it turned out, the parent didn't show up until after school anyway! Figures. Oh well, one down and one to go this week. I do have the paperwork ready for the one tomorrow!

I don't really have much else to say except that I am looking forward to this weekend. My cousin is getting married on Friday night and we are all excited about that. My sister and her daughter will be in from Atlanta for the wedding. Then on Saturday Taylor, Grace and I plan to spend as much of the day as we can with them at Mom's. Fun, fun, fun!!! I just hope Mom is feeling lots better by then.

Granny, Grace, and the aftermath of Ike!

2008-09-14T10:54:00.000-05:00

What fun we had at Granny's this weekend!! Granny got to read and read with Grace. I'm not sure how many books they read, but they both enjoyed every minute of it. I just love seeing them have fun together!

That was the fun part of the weekend. Then it got a little crazy. First of all, on Saturday evening Granny began to have plumbing issues. With women this is quite an issue, especially when there are 3 of us! Then, during the storm last night several brances blew off the big tree in the back yard and one of them was dangerously close to ending up in Granny's bedroom! We heard the wind, but had no idea what was happening outside. Next, Mike called to check on us and so I shared our experiences and then asked what it was like up here. He said that the power had been off since about 3:00 in the morning. When we got back up here from Alma around 12:45 it was still off. Taylor took a shower and began getting ready for work, then I went ahead and showered before I came home. I got home about 3:00 after staying with Grace until the boys got home, and we still were without power. Mike was going crazy with no TV so we went and had a late lunch and then went to see Burn After Reading. It was a crazy movie, but the acting was good. When the movie was over I called Tanner to check on power and he said it was still out. Our neighbor had called the electric company again and they told him it might not be on until tomorrow! Not what we wanted to hear. Mike and I were getting ready to head back to Alma for the night and had already called Mom to tell her. When we turned onto our road we saw a truck from the electric company and Mike pulled over to see check the status of our power. At the same time, Tanner was calling me to tell me that the power was back on! We were soooo excited!! I love spending the night with Mom, but I was sure not looking forward to getting up early enough in the morning to get to work on time. It was a blessed sight to walk in and see lights on in the back of the house. We have been without power before, but I don't think it has ever been out this long. My sincere thanks go out to anyone and everyone who works for the utility companies after storms!

Taking the blogger plunge...

2008-09-13T16:40:00.000-05:00

I have read and read and read blogs so much that I felt like I was missing out by not having my own, so here goes! Taylor, Grace and I are at Mom's for the weekend and we have been extremely lazy today so I decided this was as good a time as any to get started. I'm not sure I will have much to say that will be interesting to anyone but me, but it must be good therapy or there wouldn't be so many people blogging. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot! It will take me a while to get everything figured out, that's where Taylor will come in very handy, but it should be fun learning. First Facebook and now blogging, what to think?