Pumpkin Carving Time....the tradition continues

Our family tradition has always been that Daddy carves the pumpkins with the girls. Mommy just snaps the pictures. The funny thing is that the pictures look the same year after year with the same poses and carving stances....I was thinking as I was taking the pictures that I will never be able to distinguish which year is which if I ever get around to scrapbooking them with the exception of the fact that my girls look older and Todd gets grayer each year. LOL

We always carve the pumpkins the night before Halloween. And the girls look so forward to it. It is like a major deal here at our house. Daddy actually has to be sure he schedules himself off the night before Halloween as well as Halloween night. So tonight we are going to head over to Ms. Beth and Mr. David's house for the hay ride and trick or treating. I will post pictures of that tomorrow.

Although it is fun watching my children at Halloween, and I now get to be the "I need to check your candy to be sure it is safe" parent who really just does it to get first dibs, Halloween is more to me. I was actually reflecting on my childhood and the happy memories I have of trick or treating in my Gramma's neighborhood after we did our neighborhood. Man, did we bring home the loot! Trick or treating has always been a favorite of mine, probably because my parents made it fun for me and my sisters. And even as an adult, I always have called my Gramma on Halloween because she always made it special for us as well. This will be the first Halloween that I won't be calling her, but I know she is shining down on all of us, putting handfuls of candy into our buckets each day....they are just not candy anymore, they are blessings.

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! And I hope you get lots of handfuls of candy each and every day.

Celebrity Waiter Night

Yesterday was a big day for Todd at the restaurant. He hosted a huge fundraiser for the Foundation for Education Excellence. He hasn't slept for 3 nights in anticipation of this event. He wanted it to go as smoothly as possible in hopes that this will be an annual event as it brought in not only money for the foundation, but good money for the restaurant as well. For those of you that are not from Tifton, you have to understand that the "pretty people" as we are now calling them, run this town and that is where all the money is. So if Todd can smooze with them, then that just is a good business move on his part. And believe me, we are not part of the "pretty people", but for those of you who know us, we can b.s. with the best of them, and believe me, I wouldn't want half of their lives because they are all for the most part the fakiest individuals you can imagine. But as far as the restaurant was concerned it went off without a hitch. Everyone seemed very pleased and happy and the head of it already has booked the restaurant for next year, so Todd got what he wanted out of it.

Basically what it was about is all the "big wigs" in town were the waiters/waitresses and they waited on all the other pretty people in town. They were tipped for their service with all the tips going to the foundation. To give you an example, one lady made $1450 off two tables and Todd said one individual wrote a check he saw sitting there for $1000 himself right at the end of the evening....I don't even think I want to know how much they brought in from all the people there. There was 150 people there and if each one tipped comparably, then I am absolutely sure that it was a success for the foundation! I wish I had that kind of money to just give away.....that one check would pay my house payment for the month!!!!

I did help out Todd all night, and I have to tell you I was tired at the end of the shift. And I didn't even do much besides fill drinks and dish out pie. Just being on your feet for that entire time was a lot. I told Todd now I know why his legs are always in good shape, cuz mine were killing me.

So the picture I am posting here is for my friends Susan and Jay because it gave me great pleasure to see this person as a server....it was priceless as he stood by the dish pit and had to scrap plates. The look on his face was worth a thousand words. Although I would have loved to get a picture of him at the trash can, I didn't have my camera close at that time. But maybe just seeing him in a 'blue collar'/servant position will make you giggle.....

For those of you who don't know who it is, all I will say is he is our State Senator.....for Susan and Jay you know I love ya both!

Have a great day!

Fall Festival

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Besides just not being home a lot, the few times I was home, the internet has been down.

Sunday night was our Fall Festival at church, so I have sent pictures of the girls in their costumes. Bailey was a snow princess, and although I am biased, I think she was beautiful. She looked soooooo cute. Sarah is getting to the age that she really doesn't need to be trick or treating, but she did put on Moses' football jersey and paint under her eyes for the fall festival because the youth were assisting with the booths. Now tomorrow night for trick or treating is gonna be a different story. She thinks she is gonna dress up etc, but I told her already she is getting too big for that. I don't know about you, but I don't like when older kids come to the door trick or treating...I just think that should be reserved for the little ones. Call me mean, but that is just how I feel. Anyway, back to the festival, Bailey had a good time hanging out with her friends. She did the hay ride and the big blow up slide and all the fun game booths, but she was most excited that she won me a candle in the bingo game room. She kept putting it under my nose saying, "Mommy, doesn't that smell good? It smells like our house, doesn't it". I kept saying yes, but she just kept putting it up to my nose, and reminding me the candle was for me. I thought that was very sweet.

We went out to Longhorn afterwards with our friends, the Langston's, and we had a good time. The kids were exhausted by the time we got home, and were a bit grumpy in the morning when it came time to get up for school. My children have set bedtimes, and if we miss them, they are grumpy bunnies in the morning. (I call them that because when they were little, they both loved the book "The Grumpy Bunny")

Well, I will be posting another post about last night in a moment as I have a picture to add to that as well.
Have a great day!

I love my job!!!!

Okay, I think I have had probably the worst day today than I have had in a long time. Above you will see a picture of my class....for the most part they are all good kids, and funny a lot of the time. There is always a story that I have to tell after a day of work. Normally it is about something funny a kid has said, or how aggravating my coworker is....depends on what my mood for the day is as to whether I even want to talk about her. But anyway the kids are always surprising to say the least. Well today had to be to icing on the cake for stories. I am going to prewarn you that it is a gross story, so if you take offense to bodily functions, don't read anymore.

I was "forcing" my coworker to do circle time today because she doesn't like to do anything extra much less the daily tasks it takes to teach and control 16 three year olds. I was purposely making myself busy to force her to take over when one of the kids tells me he has to go potty. I proceed to take him out to the bathroom and he tells me he has to poop. I say, okay that is fine, and go to get another student who has to also go. I get him situated in the other bathroom and I come back to check on "poop boy", only to find him with his hand behind his back in the toilet. I tell him to move his hand because there are germs etc. I go and check on the other child, help him wash his hands and walk him back to the class. As I pass the first bathroom where poop boy is, his hand is back there again. I tell him once again to move his hand. Get another child to go potty, get him situated, come back to check poop boy again and lo and behold his hand is back there again as he is turning beet red because he is pushing.....need I say more...we go through the routine for a third time. Check back on the other child and he finishes up and I walk him back to the class. I peek in on poop boy again and yes you guessed it, hand is behind him still. I let the other child in the class, turn around and start to really fuss at the child. As I am telling him not to touch his bottom, he pulls his hand around and it is full of poop which he proceeds to wipe across his butt then onto the toilet seat, up onto his clothes and then proceed to head toward his mouth. I yell "don't" all while trying not to puke, and ask him what he was doing. He tells me he couldn't get his poop out so he was "fetching" it from his butt hole. I mean talk about wanting to puke, and laugh at the same time because I am totally astonished that this child has gone digging for gold in his butt and admiting it on top of it. I mean I almost died. The director of the preschool heard me yell, and came down the stairs to see if I/poop boy was okay. I tell her what he has done and she is just as amazed/repulsed as I am. After I got him totally wiped up and the bathroom cleaned up, I tell him we have got to really, really wash our hands, I look at his hands and he has poop under his nails and embedded in his cuticles, which says to me, he was digging deep. I am about to die because I don't want him to touch anything. I am looking all over for a nail brush, which I couldn't find, but you can bet I will be buying at Walmart later to bring to school to keep in my cabinet. I am so aggrevated at this point. We go back into the class, and it is now snack time. The child pulls out a 20oz. bottle of Mountain Dew and an extra large Kit Kat bar for his snack....need I remind you he is 3......the drink alone is enough caffeine to put a rocket to the moon, much less the sugar in it and the candy bar. He tells me it is his healthy snack!!! I am really questioning why this parent even had children? I mean we wonder why the kid is constipated......HELLO???!!!!
So there are two morals to this story....one....then next time you are constipated, skip the fiber supplement, and just go fetch it out of your butt yourself.....and two......parents, please appreciate your child's teachers because if you can't raise them right on your own always know there is a shmuck teacher out there that will teach your child it is not okay to dig their poop out of their butt and that Mt. Dew and Chocolate are not healthy snacks!!!!!

Okay, now that I have shared my lovely day with you, I am going to head to Longhorn for a drink.....because it may not be 5:00 yet, but it is 5:00 somewhere and I am going to partake in a beverage with alcohol.....LOL

Getting Back to Normal

Many of you have asked me how Moses is doing. Well, you can see by the picture, he is back to his smiling self again. He is healing slowly and is still out of school. They are hoping he will be able to start back to school in two weeks. He does have a tutor that comes every day for a few hours to keep him up on his work. He started physical therapy this week to start bending his leg again. Isn't it amazing he has no cast? He has been out in his yard a lot, walking around with the girls, just to get out of the house. He has a lady that sits with him during the day, and she is like a old bitty. She literally follows him every step he takes. He said, "she even follows me to the bathroom, and I am like, I got this thanks". She is not friendly at all. She just stares at you and never cracks a smile. I feel so sorry for him during the day when he is stuck there with her. He gets excited when the girls get home from school so he has someone to talk to. He said she can't even cook....she burned his hot dog for goodness sake....I just laugh at him when he is telling the story. So I got him a hot dog from a place here in Tifton called Shady Lane (which is his favorite) and he was grinning ear to ear when I walked in with it. So he is healing well and hopefully on the mend. He can't play football or any other sports for at least a year, which he is not happy about, but being he is just too young to understand the consequences if he messes up his leg again, he will just learn to get over it.

As you can see in the other picture, Todd enjoyed fishing in the pond this afternoon. Reilly, our dog, was hanging right by his side the whole time. He caught one small fish but that was all.
As you can see in the picture, our back pond water level is way down....you can see the rust on the fence post as to where it normally is at. Although we are not in such a severe drought like Atlanta is, we are still low on water. When we went up there this past weekend, we went over one of the main lakes up there....not Lanier that you hear about on the news, but Lake Allatoona which is another corps lake that supplies water to the metro area. Let me tell you, they are not joking on the news. The lake was literally empty....with new grass sprouting on the floor of what should be a lake. In the 15 years we were in Atlanta, I never have seen the lake like that. It was kinda scary. Although, there was still water flowing in the mountain streams, the lakes were literally barren land. I am sorry, but the mussels and whatever other wildlife they are trying to save in Florida with our water in Atlanta can die for all I care....people are more important. And after seeing what I saw, I would be very nervous if I lived up there!

Well, I guess that is all for now. I need to get the kids to church for choir etc. I hope you are all having a good week!

Home at last

I have no pictures of us from today because we basically just came home. So I will share a shot of the falls to help you all feel like you were there with us.

We woke up this morning and decided to head home since we were all so tired. We took a leisurely drive back, stopping at a few of our favorite stores in Atlanta that we don't have in Tifton or anywhere remotely close. Once we got home and unpacked, I headed to the store to restock the refrigerator. I am now already in my pajamas, and I am gonna go crash on the couch after I am done posting this message. We have a busy day tomorrow with orthodontist appointments, parent conferences, and other errands. I am gonna make this short and just sum up our girls weekend away with one word.....FUN!

Talk to you all soon.

Walk a mile in my shoes (or two or three or......)

Okay....I can officially say my girls wore me out today. We walked more today then ever! We started the day off by heading to Dahlonega for the craft show. That picture is directly above. I didn't take the picture to show you all complete strangers, I took it to show you the amount of people and the size of this thing. This is just one small side street of the thing. They literally close down the entire downtown area. We covered all of it which took us about 5 hours. This is one of the top 10 craft shows in the South, so you can imagine the size of the crowd! We saw a lot of cute stuff, but once again I was too cheap to buy any of it because I always say "I can make that myself", but then I never do....but I am gonna this time!

After we walked all of the streets of downtown Dahlonega, we were going to go panning for gold, but the traffic was unbelievable going the direction we needed to go, so we kinda just drove around for a bit and then we happened upon Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze. It is a huge corn maze! The paths within the corn field cover 4.2 miles, and we did them all! You can see from the pictures the girls disagreed many a time over which direction to go. This maze had 12 stations you had to visit to "punch" your card to get out. I have to say, Sarah has really impressed me with her sense of direction and map skills. She actually got us through the entire maze in approximately an hour and a half, which is pretty good time if you saw the size of this thing.

We finished up our day at Sarah's favorite event of the weekend...shopping at the North Georgia Premium Outlets. She was so funny....she was plotting her attack on the stores. I personally wanted to plot my butt in a chair and relax! LOL She found some great deals at Aeropostale.....shirts for $1.80, hooded sweatshirt for $4.50, and more shirts for $3 each. She was a happy camper to say the least!

We just got in at the hotel and it is almost 8:00 at night. I am ready to crash. My legs are hurting from all the walking, but we truly have had a good time. I really don't know what the plans are for tomorrow, and that is okay. That is what has made this trip fun. We are just doing what we want as we happen upon it, if we want to. The only definite for tomorrow is that we will head back to Tifton in the afternoon. Bailey actually was crying at the outlets because she didn't want to "leave the mountains". I told her I loved it here too, but that all good things come to an end, and we would come back again next fall.

Well, I am gonna sign off for tonight. I hope you all are having a good weekend.

First Day in the Mountains

Wow! Are we tired. We had a blast though! We started off our day by going to the Yahoo Farm in Jasper, Georgia. We saw a bunch of animals, did the corn maze, and shot the corn cannon! We walked through a butterfly garden also. The maze was really fun, and Bailey was the one to get us out! The picture above was at the beginning of the maze. The corn cannon is fun too. The girls shot corn cobs out of a cannon toward targets. Sarah didn't even come close because she shot over all the trees! It was fun. We then headed through Tate, Georgia where I showed the girls where Todd used to work and where we both lived at the Tate House. They got to see the marble quarry also. Sarah thought that was cool because she has Georgia History this year for Social Studies, and she has pictures of all of that in her book, so she felt like she actually knew something about the quarries.

Then we headed to the the best pumpkin patch in the state of Georgia....Burt's Pumpkin Patch in Dawsonville. We immediately got some apple cider, pumpkin bread, popcorn and fried apple pies....yes, that was our brunch.....healthy huh? They were soooooo yummy. We sat by the stream and munched on our goodies. After eating, we went in search of our pumpkins. We took so many pictures it was crazy. We found our picks, as you can see in the pictures.

Once we loaded up our pumpkins, we headed up to Amicalola Falls for a hike. We hiked to the bottom of the falls and back up again......we were soooo tired, but it was so worth the trip. I absolutely love waterfalls. I think they are one of God's greatest gifts to us. I just love to sit and watch the water flow over the rocks, with the noise drowning out the whole world. After our hike, we went and just sat by the river. Sarah and Bailey rolled up their pants, took off their shoes, and played in the river....jumping from rock to rock.

Finally, we headed toward Ellijay, Georgia and stopped at Hillcrest Orchards. We got some cider for Todd. We decided to skip the Apple Festival tomorrow, so we needed to be sure we got the cider for him. So we stopped to eat some "linner" (lunch and dinner) in Ellijay, and then headed back to the hotel. We are very tired but feel like we have had a really fun day! We are gonna relax the rest of the evening, and head out early for Dahlonega tomorrow. They are having the Gold Rush Days which is a huge fall festival/craft show. We will do that in the morning and then attempt panning for gold in the afternoon. The leaves in the mountains are still in the turning process, so it is definitely not peak yet, but there are some pretty colors already. Lots of red and gold leaves.....I hardly see the oranges that you see in New York, but it is still beautiful. I am so happy we came up here this weekend. The only thing missing is my honey, but he is having a good time sitting in a tree looking for deer......not my idea of fun, but that is what makes the world go round, and what makes us work so well together. We both support each other in our likes and hobbies.

Well I guess that is all for now. I am sure I will have lots more to share tomorrow.
Have a wonderful night!

Girls Weekend Away....Let the fun begin!

Well, our first night in Atlanta has been so fun already. We checked into the hotel and then went to the mall which is right down the street. Our main objective was to get something to eat at the food court. After we ate we decided to go into Libby Lu which is a very "girly" store that has everything bling you can imagine! Well, Bailey got to get her hair, nails, and make-up done, and then glittered from head to toe. She got the "princess" package complete with tiara. She was grinning ear to ear and thinking she was "all that". She walked around the mall struting her stuff! It was the cutest thing. I wish I would have had my camera with me in the store, but like I said we had just gone for dinner. She was flitting around the store like kid in a candy store....literally! Sarah was being the great big sister, helping her choose things and letting her be the "star" for the night. I told her that was her special treat for her accomplishment of reading and having to give up the "football game"....she said, "this is WAY better than that!" As you can see in the second picture, Bailey has beautiful eyes, which most people don't get to see behind her glasses. She chose that picture for me to put on the site. She wanted everyone to see the jewels they put next to her eyes. Hope you all enjoy seeing her all dressed up!

We are off to the mountains tomorrow in the morning. I will post more pictures tomorrow!

Ramblings.....

Well, I don't have any pictures to post today, believe it or not. I actually have had a quiet few days, which is new and different in my world.

Saturday, we did go to Valdosta and got the needed outfits for Sarah for 4H and band, and Bailey found her Halloween costume. She is going to be a Snow Princess, which is kinda funny if you think of the fact that we live in South Georgia. It is a cute costume though, and I will obviously post pictures of her in it on Halloween.

We went to church on Sunday, and then came home to finish up laundry and finish up the wedding invitations I am making for my nephew, Aubrey, and his fiancee, Krystal. I finally have completed 170 invitations, and I hope they like them. I am in search of a good sturdy box to ship the invites to them hopefully this week.

Yesterday was kinda quiet here, as well. The girls had school and Sarah had 4H Jr. Crew after school. The 4Her's picked up trash along the highway that the 4H Club adopted. She said several people came out and thanked them kids for cleaning up the ditches/roads in front of their homes. Sarah got a first hand account of how much people litter. I thought it was a great learning experience for her. Todd and I snuck off for a little bit for a milkshake date in the evening. Nothing better than ending your day with a caramel apple shake from Steak and Shake!

Sarah got her 1st nine week exam grades back and her end of quarter average is a 94....which with Algebra in that mix, I am extremely proud of her. Bailey had to make a big decision this weekend as well. They had a "challenge" put out to the kids in the county to get a certain number of accelerated reader points in by a certain date, and if you completed the task, you get the opportunity to walk out on the field at Friday's football game, you get your name on the score board, a tee shirt and a wrist band. She was a little behind in AR points than normal, so she had to read a lot of books to get there. Well she did it, and I was so happy for her. Well, then she figured out that the day she is supposed to walk on the field is at the same time that we are going up to the north Georgia mountains for the weekend...which happens to be this coming weekend. I told her that if she really wanted to stay home and walk on the field for her accomplishment, then we would stay and not go up to the mountains. I told her it was completely up to her. She said, "Mom, I think we should go to the mountains. I know I worked hard for my points, but the football field thing is only 2 minutes long, and the mountain thing is 4 days....so duh, that is a no brainer." I cracked up! So we are off to the mountains this weekend.

The girls have fall break and get out early on Thursday. They are off Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We are gonna head out on Thursday afternoon and stay until Sunday. We have to be back by Monday because they are having parent conferences at school, and Bailey has an orthodontist appointment as well. It is just gonna be just me and the girls because Todd is going hunting at the hunting land, as it is openning week of shotgun season. I am going to take the girls to get our Fall fix in. We will go to get our pumpkins, go to a few apple orchards, do a corn maze, visit a dairy farm, go panning for gold, and hit a few of the fall festivals that are going on. I am excited to be going because I get to go to the mountains, where I am most at peace. Hopefully, we will get to take a hike up to a waterfall as well. It is funny because we are going to the same places we had spent most of our falls with the kids when we lived in Atlanta, but Bailey doesn't even remember them. I sometimes forget that she was only 4 when we moved to south Georgia, so her memories of our life up near Atlanta are sketchy. Sarah keeps telling her how fun it is, but Bailey, I think, really doesn't get it.
Well, I guess that is all for now. I don't want to bore you all with my ramblings. I have decided that this site is, in a way, my personal journal. I have looked back on some of the posts, and I have realized that this is a neat way to just document our everyday life and my feelings that go along with it. I hope some of you enjoy getting a small glimpse into our lives, and maybe understanding who I am as a person, a mom and a wife.
Have a great day!

Blue Devil Brigade

Last night, Sarah got to march with the high school Blue Devil Brigade marching band. It was Eighth grade night which is where the high school invite the future Brigade to join them on the field to do a spirit march. They spelled out the word Tift (which is our county name) and played 3 songs as they marched. Sarah was nervous but had a blast doing it. She said she really is looking forward to being on the Brigade next year. You can't really see her in the letter T because she is behind a "fluffy hat" as she called it. If you look at the intersection at the top of the T, there is a white banner in the background. If you can zoom in on the picture, she is a small spec behind the fluffy hat, not the person to the left in the white banner. I did get a shot of her when they were coming in from the field. It is kinda hard to take a picture of her and video the whole thing....I only had my two hands to do it. Bailey was cheering her on as she came off the field. It was a neat experience for her. We are heading to Valdosta today to get some pants for Sarah that she needs for her 4H competition, and also a pair for a band concert. Bailey is gonna get her Halloween costume while we are there as well. I hope everyone else is doing well.

I will post more later in the week.

Sarah....my soloist

As a mom, there are times when you are bursting with pride, and tonight was one of those nights. Sarah had been asked at the beginning of the school year to do a solo on her flute with the chorus. She was extremely nervous about it, but tonight was the performance, and she did fabulous. She is so talented, I was grinning from ear to ear. But I am entitled to be....I am her mom and she could have played like doo doo and I would still think she did great, but in all reality, she played it perfect. I was saying prayers the whole time for her, and God must have heard them cuz she pulled it off.
On a sad note when I got out of the concert, I had a message on my phone that my dad and Sharon's dog, Ozzie died. I feel so bad for them, as some of you know that Ozzie was their constant companion. I will even admit to calling her my furry sister at times. I hurt for them and the loss of Ozzie. Bailey and Sarah got very upset. Bailey was almost unconsolable for a while there. I told her that maybe my Gramma Walty needed Ozzie in heaven to take care of her up there. I think that made her feel a little better. You don't think the loss of an animal could affect a family the way it does until you go through it on your own. So Dad and Sharon, if you are reading this, I am so sorry for your loss. I know she is irreplacable in your heart!
Well, I will sign off for now. I have to get the kids tucked in bed.
Have a good day tomorrow.

Bailey's Field Trip

Today we went on a field trip with Bailey's class. It was in Valdosta at the Grand Bay Wetlands Wildlife Management Area. It was a very fun field trip, and for my teacher friends I recommend it. The lady there, Ms. Hon, was so thourough with the kids and very kind. The kids got to climb the 54 foot tower overlooking the swamp after walking quite a way out on a boardwalk, and Ms. Hon showed the children all the different plants, explaining how the indians used them for medicines etc. and they got to see a carnivorous plant with the bugs inside it. Then the children went in the discovery center and got to look through the microscopes at different species, play interactive games, and see and touch lots of different animals. Then she took the kids in one room and let them see a snake eat a mouse whole.....I had to look the other way, as I am deathly afraid of snakes. Bailey thought it was sooooo cool. Then they went to another room and each child got to hold a live alligator (without it's mouth being taped shut) and then touch another snake. She then took them outside where they got to see her feed a bobcat some deer meat, and she fed a snapping turtle a very large fish. Then she brought out a barbed owl, and the children all got to pet it. She then took a few of the children into the owls cage to feed it some mice, and the gopher turtles some salad. It was so educational. Bailey was asking questions like crazy. I really think this is one of the best field trips either of my children have ever been on.

Have a great day!

Fun at the Fair!!!

We had a great time yesterday. It was our anniversary, and my surprise was that Todd took off for the day, which is totally not what I expected because he just got back from vacation, and technically is a big no-no, but he got it cleared with his boss, and took me to the fair. We thought we would get to ride on our favorite ride together which is the scrambler, but they ended up not having one, so we just ate our sorrows out in fair food....awww poor us. The Georgia fair is about an hour and a half from here, so we headed out in the morning and spent the entire day there. The girls had a great time on the rides and holding the animals. This fair is like the Erie County fair, complete with rides, animal barns, food and exhibit buildings. We were so tired by the end of the day, but we had a great time. The girls favorite animal was the Nigerian Dwarf goats which is what Bailey is holding in her picture. They are the cutest things, and they don't get much bigger than that. They both were begging to get one as a pet, which to be honest if it was allowed in our neighborhood, I would have probably caved in on that one cuz they are sooooo sweet. However, our neighborhood has covenants that we can't have livestock, so we had to leave the sweet things behind. Todd was relieved. They also enjoyed holding the chicks.

Although most women would be appalled if their husbands didn't get them a gift for their anniversary, this was probably the best gift Todd could give me, a day with him and the girls, uninterrupted by outside forces, just having fun together. I guess as the years together go on, you realize that the monetary gifts are useless. I don't need jewelery, perfume, or other things like that. I just want time.....quality time making memories.

Todd and I were talking in bed last night about how much our lives have changed over the past 17 years together, and how much we have been through. We talked about my grandparents, and how much they must have been through together in their 71 years of marriage. We both said we can only hope and pray to have that much time together and to have a love like theirs was. I know they had some wonderful memories, and in the end, I know they didn't hold grudges over whether or not they had gotten "stuff" from each other....they just had love and each other, and that is all each one of us needs. I have wonderful examples in my life of lasting marriages and sticking it out through thick and thin, no matter what....and I thank my family for providing that for me. I believe that is part of why I am where I am in my life. Todd and I hope to provide that for our girls as well, and I think we are well on our way. Although there are times when we both go....AHHHHH!....we know we both truly love each other in the deepest possible way. I hope you all find that sense of serenity in your own lives.
Be safe this upcoming week, and for now I will close, as I go and get ready for the day, I will have to step on the scale to see how much of that fair food went to my hips.....LOL

He's Home!!!

Yeah! My honey made it home safe from his hunting trip. I missed him so much, and we are all glad he is home. He didn't even see a moose, much less shoot one. He said it was 70 something degrees up there, and the moose don't move when it is that hot. He packed a lot of cool weather clothes, thinking it was going to be "fall" weather. Boy was he wrong. He did say that he caught a few good size fish though, and that they hunted in the mornings and fished during the days....just what he wanted to do. He said they had a great time and laughed constantly, which I am so glad for that. And now I can do a happy dance that I don't have to figure out where to put a moose on my wall in the house....YAH!....I mean....awwwww.....NOT!
Well, I am gonna cut this post short so I can spend some time with him. Tomorrow is our 17th anniversary.....it is hard to think that it has been that long ago. I would do it all again in a second, knowing that this is where my life is now. Hugs to all!

I See a Raccoon Looking at Me!

Bailey had to do her school Science project on Raccoons. She made a diorama of a raccoon's habitat, and then she had to write a few facts about raccoons. She was proud of the finished product, and I must say I was just as proud. She came up with all the ideas for it on her own. The only thing I had to help with was the hot glue gun. I think my child has gotten a creative gene in her somewhere, which thrills me more than you know. Although, now I realize nothing in the house is sacred anymore. Notice the "moss" that is part of her tree top...she took that out of my plants I have in the sunroom, and the rocks in the river came out of a candle dish set-up that I have. At the rate she is going, she is going to strip me of all my decorations....LOL
Enjoy your day!

These are the projects we are going to be doing at Stampers Ten this Friday. Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I would do some cute containers to hold candy....boo bag and pumpkin box....and then a card. I had time this weekend to get the samples made, so it looks as if I have been really ambitious in stamping out a bunch of stuff, but it was just a matter of me having to get it done in the time that I had this past weekend since I have such a busy next few days!

Decades ago....

Doesn't she look cute? Today was the start of Homecoming week, and today was decade day. She went for the 80's, and we have a cross between Madonna and Baby from Dirty Dancing..... Her hair was really poofy in the back, which you can't see it very well in this picture. She was laughing so hard when we took the hot rollers out of her hair and teased it out....she just couldn't believe we had that 'big of hair". She just kept telling me how weird we all dressed way back then.....decades ago. I explained to her that just like I think some of the stuff she wears is weird, my parents probably thought the same of me. I told her not to laugh too hard because the 80's styles will be back before we know it. Although, I have to admit when we were doing her hair, I thought to myself, "goodness, I can't believe I did this everyday". Well, I just thought I would share her snapshot. Moses came home late yesterday, and he was very glad to be out of the "cold" hospital. He will be out of school for a bit, but hopefully he will be back sooner than he thinks!