Where does the time go?

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!

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...

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...

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!!!

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...

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!

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!!