Busy Weekend....say a quick prayer

We have a busy, but fun, weekend on tap. I wanted to ask everyone to say a quick prayer for Sarah tomorrow. She is headed at 6:30 am to Brooks County to try out for the State Honor Band. She tends to get nervous, wouldn't we all, for these things. When she is nervous she doesn't tend to play as well. This is for the state high school honor band, which as you know she is in 8th grade, so she isn't really in high school yet. We are hoping she just gets lots of experience with this tryout....and if she makes it, that is just icing on the cake. Her band teacher just wanted her to get the experience of doing these tryouts. I just ask that you think of her and pray her nerves don't get the best of her. As soon as she is done with that, they are headed back home to participate in the Hometown Holiday parade here in Tifton. While she is at Honor Band, I have to take Bailey to the church musical practice, and then we will meet up with her at the parade. After the parade, we will head to the Hometown Holiday celebration down town. It is just a big street festival in the downtown area. It is fun, and the kids look forward to it every year. I am looking forward to spending the day with the girls at the parade and the festival. It made getting all my Christmas shopping done early worth it! We will probably get our second tree sometime this weekend too, if time allows it. If not, we will do it a the beginning of next week. I will let you all know how Sarah makes out once we hear.
Have a good weekend!

My Favorite Sesame Street Skit

Okay, I know this is not the most mind pressing post here, but I just was on the internet doing a search on a new DVD set that has been released, and now I know I have to get it eventually just because this skit is on it. As many of you know, I LOVE Sesame Street!!!! It is probably the best television program ever for children and blows today's kid programs out of the water. Classic Sesame is the best and there will be nothing ever to come close to it! Well I found out that there are two DVD boxed sets that have come out (vol 1 and 2) called Sesame Street Old School. They are classic Sesame Street from the first seasons of the show.....pre-Elmo years!
My all-time favorite skit is the Kermit the Frog Newsflash.....Rapunzel skit. I laugh every time I see it. I just think it is so funny....Todd doesn't understand me on this at all. I told him I could be having the worst day ever and if I see this skit, I laugh. I don't know what it is....the Brooklyn accent, her bald head,the fact Kermit annoys the prince, or the fact the prince tells her to shut up because he lost his horsie.....it is just one of those things for me. So for those of you who have never seen it, or for those of you who want to relive your childhood, or for those of you who just want to get a glimpse into my warped mind, I have posted a link to it. I found the skit on YouTube....it is a bit fuzzy and the sound needs to be turned all the way up to hear it, but it is priceless. I had to post it on my blog because Sesame Street is a part of who I am.

The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFOm-ngFbMg&search=1970's

If you can't click on it directly from this blog, just copy and paste it to your address line.

I really think I am gonna purchase the DVD's that came out, but I am gonna wait until after Christmas, just in case someone wants to surprise me with them ....Hint....Hint.....Just kidding!

Well, I know this is a strange post for tonight, but I have had a strange day, so it is only fitting. Hopefully tomorrow will be better! If not, I can just watch Sesame Street! Hugs to all!

Back to the routine

Hope everyone had a nice break during the Thanksgiving holiday. We definitely did. I hate to even think about going back to work tomorrow. I have really enjoyed just doing whatever. I am thrilled to say that I am done with my Christmas shopping!!!! I can't believe it. This is the first time that I have been done this early. I really am happy because I will be able to enjoy the holidays without the stress of having to get stuff done. I am going to wrap presents this week while the girls are at school, so I can get that out of the way as well. I am even mailing out Christmas cards this week as well.

We had our friends visit us from Atlanta on Friday to Saturday. It was good to see them, and we had some fun laughs! Brian and Maryann, if you are reading this, we are so glad you came to visit us, and welcome to my blog! Today, I had to run to Albany for Todd because the restaurant had a very busy weekend and ran out of a lot of things. After I got home, I did a few things around the house, while I made the girls work in the yard picking pine cones out of our flower beds and wash the van....what a mean mom I am! But I redeemed myself because I played Rummy with them when they were all done. I did make them all go to sleep early though because they are tired from all the fun of the long weekend.

Well, I will close with this post by just saying goodnight to all, and I will talk to you later in the week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a very full day...no pun intended. We had a very relaxing day. We started the day off with watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV and decorating our tree in the sunroom. It is huge tree. I actually left one section out of it because it would have put another 2.5 feet on it, which as you can see from the picture, that would not have fit. The star is already scraping the ceiling. We actually did have enough ornaments though. I was a little nervous that we wouldn't have enough, but then when you collect all the ornament from 17 years of marriage, you tend to have a lot! The girls look forward to doing this every Thanksgiving. I guess you could say it is a tradition for us at this point. After decorating the tree, we finally got dressed and had a light lunch, and started the turkey. We played Scabble and watched football for most of the afternoon. We just got done eating and everything was really good. Our turkey was sooooo moist. It was scrumptious! We will now spend the rest of the evening relaxing and just hanging out. This is the kind of Thanksgiving I like....no pressures!

The mighty hunters didn't come home with a deer, but Todd did say he saw a doe. Sarah enjoyed herself and asked to go again, so I guess it was a success in itself! The amazing thing is that Sarah sat still from 6:30 am until 10:00 am!

Well as I close this post, I just want to tell you all how thankful I am for all of you. Each and everyone of you has blessed my life in your own special way. I hope you all take the time before you close your eyes tonight to say an extra thanks to God for all you have. There are so many that are less fortunate than us. I truly hope this upcoming holiday season will be one of joy and thanksgiving each and everyday. I love you all!

The Mighty Hunters

Well, they are off on their great adventure. Todd and Sarah just left a few minutes ago for their day of hunting together. I pray all goes well for both of them. Todd made her take a shower to get all her smelly girly stuff off, so the deer won't smell her.....please.......like I would have thought of that. I guess that is why I don't hunt. Next thing you know he will be putting doe pee on her so she smells like one to bring in the bucks. Whatever works I guess.....

Sarah got good news today. She was accepted into the TALK program which stands for Today's Aspiring Leaders....Kids. She had to apply to the program and get recommendations from her teachers, as well as having good grades. She will get to participate in quite a few programs. Next week she will go to the Chamber of Commerce for a congratulatory luncheon put on by the Chamber. She will get to attend a conference up at the State Capitol where she will meet with the governor as well, sometime later in the year. She will also participate in a lot of "community service" programs as well. She is very excited to be able to help with the Special Olympics and Relay for Life! I am so proud of her for doing this.

Bailey and I are going to hang out at the house tomorrow and put up Christmas decorations. We will do everything but the tree.....we are waiting for Sarah and Todd for that. We will probably do the tree on Thanksgiving, since it will be a quiet day at home for all of us. I ended up getting a head cold, which started yesterday. So I am not going to push myself too much.

I had my physical today, and I got a pretty good report. My cholesterol is good, as is my blood pressure. Overall no major problems. He did say I was severly anemic so he has me on a multivitamin with iron and an iron supplement, which could attribute to my constant tiredness, so maybe that will help. As far as my stomach problems I have had for so long, he thinks I do have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and has given me a prescription to take before meals that I know will trigger it. We are going to see if it helps. I will have to modify my diet a little bit too. And finally my glucose level was borderline high, so he is just gonna monitor that for a bit. I am gonna go back in a month to have these things checked again. He seemed pleased with my overall health though and told me to keep up what I was doing. I told him I was following Dr. Oz's plan, and he said it was a great one and that I would probably see good results......I just need to start exercising which I absolutely hate....but I gotta do what I gotta do.

I guess that is all for now. I hope you all have a good day tomorrow.

A flock of turkeys

Aren't these cute? I made some for my children at school and some for Bailey's class today. They have a peppermint patty in the center of them. Some friends came over today and we worked on some stamping projects for our children's classes for Christmas. We made 104 Gingerbread man decorating packets. They turned out cute. Other than that, it was a quiet weekend. The girls and I went to see Fred Claus at the movies....it was cute, but if I were you, I would wait for the rental. I did attend a holiday market yesterday that was a waste of time, and took Sarah to get boots for hunting. I have to work tomorrow and then I am off until next Monday. The girls have to go Monday and Tuesday, and then they are done until next Monday. I am hoping to start putting up Christmas decorations over the break. We have a 12 1/2 foot Christmas tree to put up in our sunroom, plus our real tree in our living room this year. Setting up all of my Fontanini, which is a collectible Nativity scene (like the villages people have) takes a day in itself, so I will be busy over the holiday.

I guess that is all for tonight. I will post later in the week! Have a good start to another week!

Good reports

Hey everyone....sorry it has been a few days since I put anything on the site. You know how busy things get this time of year, and to be honest I don't feel like I have anything to show for my busy schedule this week! But I really have been running a lot. I am trying to get all my Christmas shopping done early so I can enjoy the holiday season this year. I did get a majority of it done this past week, so I am grateful for that. Sarah had a list a mile long and Bailey hardly has given me anything to go on, so she is the one I have to figure out a few more goodies for. And Christmas will be here before we know it!
The girls got their midquarter reports and are both doing so well. Sarah is maintaining a 95 average, and Bailey got all "4's" (which is good because they are graded on a scale of 1 - 4) except in penmanship where she got a 3. The poor thing tries so hard, but she unfortunately inherited her daddy's penmanship, and he will even tell you it stinks. She just rushes when she writes. If she would slow down, she actually does well with it. But needless to say, we are pleased with both of their progress this year so far.
Sarah is actually going to go hunting with Todd for the first time this coming Tuesday. She asked him if he would take her, and you would think she asked him for the world...he is so excited. He even lost sleep the other night cuz he is laying there thinking of what tree stand they will sit in, what clothes she needs to wear, etc. He told me he hoped one of his girls would want to go with him sometime, but I never realized how much he wanted them to want to go. I just hope he doesn't get too disappointed if she hates it. I just keep hearing her in my mind saying, "I'm cold, I'm bored, I'm hungry" etc. And the thought of either of my girls being quiet in the woods for more than 5 minutes will be a miracle in the making!!!! That is the unfortunate gene they inherited from me! LOL
Well, I guess that is all for now. We will head into the weekend with chores to do, errands to run, and hopefully a day of working on Christmas presents that I need to stamp. I hope you all have a good weekend!

Random Thoughts

Not much to report on our end.
Moses started back to school yesterday and was very happy to be back in a routine.
Todd and I attended the Relay for Life Kickoff luncheon today at the UGA Conference Center. Hopefully Team Longhorn will have another great year like we did last year. For family and friends who are not here with us, Tift County placed #1 in the nation for the last Relay. We hope to kick off all the fundraisers for it starting at the beginning of the new year. As many of you know, cancer has hit our family hard, and Todd and I take the Relay event very seriously. I hope you will continue to support us and the American Cancer Society this year. I will send out more information at a later date.
I found it kind or ironic that the kickoff was today, which was my mother and grandfather's birthdays, both of whom lost their battles with cancer. I sometimes feel like that is God's way of keeping their memories alive with me, and the desire to help the fight in finding a cure for this dreadful disease. It is hard for me to believe that my mom has been gone 20 years this month, as it seems like yesterday...everyday of my life. And to know my grandfather has been gone for two years now just seems so unreal. I miss them and my grandmother, whom I lost this year to cancer as well, so much! I know they say time heals all wounds and life goes on, but for me it has been a very spiritual journey that has had some tough moments in it, and all I know is that my mom, my gramma and my grampa are all looking down on us, proud of all of their family and living in eternal happiness with Him. I wish mom and grampa were here to sing happy birthday to together, as we always did. But then again, for those of you that know the story, grampa fooled us all, and it should have been sung a month ago! Anyway...Happy Birthday Mom and Grampa....Happy Birthday to you!
Hug those you love tight and tell them you love them!

P.S. Dad....41 days left to see smiling faces......LOL

Wreath Fundraising Project

Okay, besides me looking like I am constipated in the picture....actually it was the sun in my eyes, but boy can you see my face aging, ahhhhh......this is a picture of a wreath I made for Longhorn for a fundraising project here in town. The Agrirama is a local tourist attraction that is a working farm town set in the late 1800's. The Agrirama Foundation does a fundraiser/silent auction on decorated wreaths. The local businesses buy an empty wreath and then decorate it. The silent auction takes place on 3 different times where all the wreaths are on display. The first is at the John Berry(country singer) concert on Nov. 17th, the second is at the actual Agrirama, and the final is at the Hometown Holiday celebration here in our town. I did this last year as well and my wreath placed 2nd out of like 110 wreaths, and sold for $105. I am not thinking I am gonna do as well this year because we only had this weekend to get the wreath ready, so this was a rush job, and I didn't get to put as much thought into it as I would have liked to. It still turned out cute if I don't say so myself, but it is definitely not my best work. You get to pick any theme you want. I already did a western theme last year, and was hoping to be able to do something different this year, but after having to run to the craft store last night, I had to get what I could get, and unfortunately they didn't have enough of the theme I wanted which was a "it's five o'clock somewhere/Jimmy Buffet/beach" theme. I thought since so many people here either have beach homes and/or go to the beach, it would have been a good selling item, but I won't get to find that out now, will I? I still think this one will do well, and since it is for Longhorn, I guess it is okay that it is a western them again. We will see how it does.

My house is a mess from crafting this and other stuff, and I have laundry to get done as well as other chores, so I better get off the computer to start cleaning up. I just thought I would share this with you, and once in a while I will get in a picture instead of being behind the camera...although this picture tells me I am better off taking the picture, not being in it.....I hate getting old!

Have a good weekend!

PS Dad, the girls have decided to boycott talking to you until you give them the answer they want to hear!!!! LOL

4 H Consumer Judging Contest

Sarah had her 4H consumer judging contest today. The competition is sponsored by the Cotton Commission, so she had to do a presentation like a mini commercial on the use of cotton in an everyday activity. Then they do a series of judging of consumer products as to their quality etc.

Tift Co. 4H competed against about 10 other counties in the South Georgia District. Tift Co. placed 2nd, and Sarah was one of the top scorers in the competition. You can see her getting her award in the picture, which was a quick action shot cuz she was walking too quickly. Then I made her pose by the poster at the end....you know the old..."Mom, please, do I have to?"..."yes, get your butt over there cuz I am proud of you!" We were proud of her because there is a lot of work that goes into preparing for this!

Next year, she will be in the senior division, and she would go onto State Competition, and then if they win that, they go onto Denver. For the junior division, which is what she is in now, she just goes to the District level which is what this was. She was shocked she was a top scorer. Her face was so cute when they called her name. She had this look of total disbelief. Her comment to us when she got back to us was "I think the judges smoked crack, cuz I didn't think I did that well." She doesn't ever think she did well in anything....gotta work on that confidence bit with her! I just thought I would share this with you all.

Have a great night!

Busy Week

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. We have just been keeping busy with our normal day to day things. Sarah has had a busy week with practices for her consumer judging competition on Thursday for 4H. She also has had a lot of after school club meetings too. Todd took the girls out to eat last night for their daddy daughter date night, and to give me a chance to have a break as well. I "kidnapped" my girlfriend, Susan, and we went out to eat dinner. We had a pleasant evening, but are now thinking that our Ruby Tuesday's here in town is the new gay man hang out. Not 100% on that, but there were an awful lot of men couples coming in and hanging at the bar together....not in a so manly fashion. And what is up with plaid shirts....it seemed like every man had one on. We laughed about it quite a bit last night. We think we should send our husbands there to scope out the situation....or get hit on.....LOL
I finally got my haircut yesterday as well, which I need desparately. I was feeling like the Shaggy DA for a while there. I, of course, am the most style challenged person on the face of the planet, therefore my hair never looks like it does when I come home from the salon, but that is okay too because sometimes she makes me a bit too poofy!
I got to go through Bailey's closet and get our winter clothes out. I need to do some shopping for Bailey for a few things and Sarah is in need of some warmer clothes as well, so sometime this weekend coming up I am gonna have to do that. The temperature here has finally gotten where you feel chilly. I even turned on the heat this morning cuz the house was so cold. It is supposed to get down to freezing tonight. I hope Todd keeps warm enough. He is at the hunting land, and I am not sure what he has to warm himself up. I think he has a heater, but I don't know if it is actually with him. He will be home tomorrow before the kids get home from school. My chore for tomorrow is to attempt to go through my closet too.
I finally have made all my doctor's appointments that I have been putting off. Us moms tend to put ourselves last when it comes to taking care of ourselves. Todd has been on me to get myself checked out etc. So I have a doctors appt. for a complete physical in mid-December. I am getting my eyes checked at the beginning of December. I am doing the gyno thing at the end of December, and finally I am getting my foot looked at again next week. I have been having pain in it again, and I am assuming it is scar tissue built up, but we will see. So for all of you who have been fussing at me to do this, I am finally doing it. I should be starting off the new year with a whole body check up. Hopefully I can then start the new year with a resolution of doing whatever the doctors all tell me I need to do. I have really been into Dr. Oz from Oprah, and as many of you know that is how I lost the final 20 lbs of baby weight that I carried for 13 years. I am now at my married weight, and proud of myself for getting there. I love Dr. Oz and I love his books...You: The Owners Manual, You: On a Diet, and now his new one is You: Staying Young. I really understand him and agree with all he has to say. I really am committing myself once the new year starts to follow his regime religiously. If you haven't read any of his stuff, I highly recommend it.
Well, I guess I have rambled enough for now. I have to get my girls and shuffle them to choir practice at church. Hope you all are having a good day!

Starting Early

We decided to start early on some of our Christmas crafts during our relaxing day. We made all kinds of ornaments. The girls had a good time doing the glitter reinker ornaments, which they are holding, and the hand painted ones which you see laying up front. I must say I am very impressed with my girls artistic talent. They come by it naturally! LOL
I got all my students Christmas gifts done, as well as 3/4 of my Christmas cards made too. It was a very productive day!
Todd got home late last night, as he ended up getting a flat tire on the trailer that his 4 wheeler was on. He was not a happy camper about that, but at least he made it home safe. He did see lots of deer, but my husband is a "big buck" man. He won't shoot a doe or a young buck....he wants it to have a rack.....six points or higher. And besides seeing the big deer the day before for a brief few minutes, he saw lots of doe and a spike. So he didn't shoot. He is headed back hunting again tomorrow and part of the day on Wednesday. I hope he gets what he has been searching for. David, who went with Todd this weekend, killed a coyote while he was there. He took the tail home to show his kids.
Well, I guess that is all there is to report today. Have a great day!

Quiet Weekend

Nothing exciting to post this weekend. We have had a quiet weekend at home. The girls and I just hung out, slept in, and had fun. I think we are gonna skip church today....I know not a good example for the girls...but I just feel like we sometimes need to do this. PJ days seem to help us all get back on task and refocused.
Todd went hunting for the weekend. He did call me yesterday and said he had seen a huge buck for a few seconds, and didn't get a shot at it because it was so quick, but that he was all excited he actually saw something! I hope he gets another chance at it. I think he will be home early this evening.
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and have a great week.

Halloween Hayride

We had so much fun on our Halloween Hayride at the Langston's house. We had two trailers full of kids and adults. Beth and David did a great job being hosts with a yummy dinner for us to eat before we headed out to get our loot! The kids had so much fun, and I had fun getting them all singing "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll just pull down your underwear!" I am sure all the other parents appreciated my input on this, but who really cares....the kids and I thought it was fun! Sarah was sweet enough to help the little ones on and off the trailer and helped them get up to the doors. Bailey said she would share her candy with her sister, since she couldn't trick or treat. The pictures show Bailey with a friend she reacquainted herself with. This little girl was in Bailey's preschool class when we first moved to Tifton, so she was excited to see her. Sarah is with John Thomas Langston in the picture. Sarah babysat him and his sister, Mary Catherine, a lot this summer. Sarah and John Thomas have a special "bond" between them that I think is very sweet.

Bailey got lots of candy and was still wanting to trick or treat when we were done. We headed home, but on the way home we stopped at Sarah's band/flute teacher's house for a quick trick or treat. She was so excited we stopped because she had only 3 kids stop by, and she had tons of candy. She was loading up Bailey's bag and Sarah's pockets to get rid of it. Somehow, I ended up leaving her house with a bottle of white wine that she gave me. That made the stop worthwhile right there! LOL We really did have a fun night and we hope you all had a great Halloween as well.

Thanks so much to Beth and David for a wonderful evening!