James Island

We had a great time last Saturday night when Papa loaded us all up into the RV and drove us to Charleston for the James Island Christmas Lights Spectacular!



While we goofed off waiting for it to get nice and dark, Marissa and her cousin Kayla roasted marshmallows and we took a scenic train ride around the lake.




It was truly awesome! Words cannot express the beauty of this dazzling display of lights!

A few quick shots

Here are a few quick shots from our Christmas morning celebration! Marissa was very happy..........



........but not nearly as happy as she was when the last present started ringing under the tree and she realized it was a cell phone to replace the old dinosaur one she had!

Yes, she is now a big kid with a phone that has a cool camera with a micro SD card, a rockin' MP3 player with headphones, games, and her fave part.....UNLIMITED TEXT!!!!! She was one happy camper!

Happy New Year!

Here is a toast to a happy, safe, prosperous and BLESSED 2009! We are packing up the family and heading to the beach for a couple of days. At midnight we will bring in the New Year watching fireworks on the sand and freezing our butts off! I hope wherever you are and whatever you do, you have a wonderful night and a great beginning to the New Year!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hello all of my bloggy friends! I hope you all have a very joyous day celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! Many blessings to you and yours!

Overheard......

Today my 11 year old and her 9 year old friend are baking cookies. I am happily emailing and Facebook-ing. (see previous post for the story of my addiction.) As they work, they chat. I listen halfway...lost in my own world. I catch snippets about what raisins are made from, why do they call it ginger BREAD if it is a cookie, etc. Then something catches my ear.
Please note:
J-the 9 year old
M-the 11 year old

J- Do you still believe in Santa?
M- Of course!
J- Me too.
M- Not many 6th graders still believe but I do.
J-Yeah, most kids at my school don't either. (Makes reference to her younger cousin who does not believe)
M- Well, they are just 4th graders. They don't know.
J- Most kids in 2nd and 3rd grade don't believe either.
M- Well, they are just weirdos.
J- Wonder how many kindergarteners believe in Santa?
M- I think all.
J- No, I think even little kids think there is no Santa. But they are so cute!
M- Well, if kids don't believe in Santa then society is doing something to their brains.

I nearly fell out of my chair. It was too funny. Society?????

Ah...innocence. We need more of it!

Facebook

I have been a Myspace junkie for quite some time now but I recently discovered Facebook. I signed on a couple of years back, thinking it would be cool and hip to be friends with my nieces at LSU. (Who was I fooling? Me???? Cool and hip?) I never did anything with it.

Well, inspired by fellow blogger friend Jamie over at Happy To Be Me Blog, I went back on. IT had been so long I had to get a new password. How pitiful is it that I didn't have a clue what my password was??? Anyway, a few mouse clicks and I was at it.

What a mistake. It is so extremely addictive. Very easy to use, quick to upload pics, fun to navigate and guess what else???? I found a TON of family and friends that I thought were long lost on the site.

Now, I bet my poor little super poke pet on Myspace is just dying for some attention. Meanwhile, I am happily surfing around, looking and profiles and catching up with people I have not seen in over 20 years. I even found a girl who was my very very very best friend in middle school. Her name is Robin and I am so glad to say I found her and we actually had a nice chat tonight on the IM! How awesome is this???? I also found two bloggy friends...Cassandra and Miranda. It is so cool!!!!!

So, go on over and check it out,. but only if you want to spend a considerable amount of time yelling "HEY! I know her!!!!!" at your monitor. :) And while I will never be cool and/or hip, I am having fun!

Christmas Tea

Our Church hosted it's 3rd annual Christmas tea last night. This year's theme was "Christmas Memories". Everything was decorated with oil lamps, greenery, tea cups and white lights. The fellowship hall was BEAUTIFUL! The men escorted us to our tables, some dressed in tuxedos and some in their military dress uniforms. All of the ladies were dressed up, and we had elegant finger foods displayed on silver and glass trays. The speaker spoke on the subject of Jesus being the light of the world. The music was nice and the doorprizes were a big hit!
Here are a few pictures that I took. I am waiting to get copies of the ones others took. Enjoy!
It's awesome to have your Mother in Law as your live in hairdresser! She took great care of me and Marissa!


Here is our Christmas princess, all grown up. She asked PawPaw how she looked and he told her she looked cute. She was quite annoyed...and responded with "Cute? Cute? Cute is for toddlers!!!!" You can thrown in your own dose of sarcasm here and eye rolling for the full effect.


This next picture is sure to cause people to take a second look. Yes, that is me...and NO, that is not my sister next to me. Steph and I always get asked if we are sisters and when I see photos I understand why. Don't hate us because we are beautiful LOL!

The fellowship hall was lovely.

This year our daughters were invited to attend with us. Our princess and Steph's princess looked so beautiful!

I invited my cousin Virginia and her daughter Kayla to accompany us. Everyone had a great time!

I was gifted with this cute award from The Fabulously Sweet Cecile. Check my blog list to see Sweet Cecile's great blog!

I am to pass this along to five blogs that I find fabulous ... there are so many that I find fabulous it's going to be hard to choose!Fabulous' Award Rules:1. You have to pass it on to 5 fabulous blogs.2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions.3. Make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

My 5 Fabulous Addictions:
1. Internet....blogging....emailing....e-coupon printing....
2. My family. They are all truly fabulous.
3. My Savior. I know many may think that is an odd thing to call an addition, but an addition is something we cannot live a day without right? Well, I couldn't live one minute without Him.
4. Chocolate. 'Nuff said.
5. Scrapbooking is definitely an addiction, although I have not had much time to do it lately. :( Hopefully that will change VERY soon.

Ok, now the passing on part.....I will choose Miranda at Keeper of The Cheerios, Heather at Wanting What You Have, Jamie at Happy to Be Me, Cassandra at Tripping Around the Sun and my daughter at The Life Of a Ladybug.

Have fun guys!

WHAT?????

Yesterday I posted about an extraordinary and very common sense article pertaining to current economic times and how people are coping. A little later I flipped the pages of the next section of the SAME paper only to find this RIDICULOUS article.

Seems this lady in LA has built a rather extraordinary doghouse. Or rather, she has HAD it built. To the tune of $20,000. This dog house has heat and air, hardwood floor, ceiling fans, lighting, a vintage dresser to hold dog clothes......it goes on and on.


Check it out here:
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-hm-doghouse6-2008dec06,0,6314671.story

Here is what I don't get. People in our own neighborhoods are starving. Kids go to bed every night hungry and cold. People can't get a job. Senior citizens have to choose between food and their medicine. I could go on and on.

Now don't get me wrong.....I am a pet lover. I have 3 cats. They eat store brand catfood. They live in our modest home, not a cat palace. This is what pets DO.

I sure could have thought of ways to help a lot of people with $20,000....plus the money she spent to move it to their new home on a flat bed truck, with the aid of a crane. (I did not see a cost estimate on that.) I am glad these folks have their wealth and love their pets. I wish them no ill will. I just wonder where their priorities truly are.

The Morning News....

I don't usually read the newspaper commentary section. I don't know what made me turn there today, but I am sure glad I did. I ran across a commentary by Boston Globe writer Ellen Goodman that really struck a chord in me.

The title of the article in our local paper is "Thrift is New Normal". The title alone caught my eye, as I blog about being thrifty on my other blog. (What? You don't read it? Shame on you! Now follow the blog list link.....)

I read the article, which is basically about the current recession and economic times and the way retailers are reacting and was amazed by some of the one liners that stood out to me. Some of my favorites are:
~~These days the media are full of people saying bye-bye to bling-bling~~
~~These days Change You Can Believe In is what's jingling in your pocket~~
~~Thrift is the new normal~~
~~Sixty percent off is the new black~~
~~Cutting back is in. Retail therapy is out.~~

You will have to read the whole article to see what I mean. It was a really good commentary on excessive spending and "keeping up with the Jonses". Check it out at
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/12/an_upside_to_the_economic_downside/

Children's Book Festival

A few weeks ago we took Riss to the Children's Book Festival downtown in the park. It was the 3rd year we have been. Marissa was so excited to find that her all time favorite children's author would be there. Marissa has been a big fan of the Arthur books since she was about a year old. She had an Arthur birthday party, we had Arthur dishes, books, posters, movies, Tshirts, stuffed animals....you name it. We even had Arthur ice cream at her party and I recently bought her Arthur paper plates (Hefty Zoo Pals) at Kroger.

Imagine how thrilled she was to not only SEE Marc Brown, the author of the Arthur books, but......

...to actually meet him and have her picture made with him!

Of course, we also saw the Arthur costumed character and listened to Marc Brown tell his story about how he got the idea for Arthur. We really enjoyed when he showed us all how to draw each character from the books!


It was an awesome day!

Decorating.....

Ok, I have not posted in a few days because right after my whole Sarah Palin experience, we started decorating the house. So far we have 2 big trees totally finished, the set of 3 Mary Joseph and baby Jesus small trees are done, Marissa has her tree set up in her room with everything except the tree topper star which we CANNOT FIND, and the village is set up. There is some greenery thrown over the kitchen window, there is a load of Christmas dishtowels in the dryer, the Christmas dishes are in the cabinet and there is a fiber optic Santa strapped to my front door.

The 6 ft tree in my scrapbook room is leaning against the wall, cold and dark. I cannot find the small tree that goes in our bathroom. The hot pink color scheme in the hall bathroom has prevented any sort of decorating in there. (Anyone want a techni-colored Christmas?)

The few gifts we have managed to buy are shoved in my closet. The 400 billion rolls of after-Christmas-sale-purchased gift wrap are leaning on my computer desk.

Yep...I will probably get it all together the day before Christmas Eve...only to have to take it all down the next week. Is it just me or does it seem like more work than usual this year?

Guess where I was yesterday?

I have never been much of a political person. I have never followed political news or polls or anything like that. I have voted every year in the presidential elections since I was 18, but never really did anything for the primaries or the local elections. It may come as a surprise then that I went to a rally for Senator Saxby Chambliss yesterday.



But I had an ulterior motive.....
Guess who the guest speaker was?


Here I am standing in front of who I fully believe will be President of our great country in the VERY near future!

GO SARAH!!!!! Palin 2012!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of my bloggy friends.....Happy Thanksgiving! Marissa has been making a paper chain with links that have some thing she is thankful for written on each link. It inspired me to make a list of things that I am grateful for....

So here they are, in no particular order except for number one and number two!

1. Jesus Christ
2. my salvation
3. my family
4. my husband, who loves me
5. my home
6. our car and truck
7. my friends
8. Jamie's two good jobs
9. my friends
10. our pets
11. my Church
12. my health
13. my computer
14. BLOGGING---it is such a way to vent and relieve stress!
15. coupon clipping--once again, a great stress reliever for me
16. those super soft fuzzy socks
17. my cozy bed
18. chocolate
19. scrapbooking
20. bubble baths
21. Gold Canyon candles
22. Cracker Barrel
23. books and magazines
24. my freedom
25. my rights as an American
26. my pastor and his family
27. high speed internet
28. my child's school, and the great opportunities it has opened for her
29. fresh air to breathe
30 Dasani water

See? I told you it was random! I promise there is no particular order on my list, I just jotted down things as they came to mind. There is no way I could list things in order of importance, there are so many things that I am blessed with and people that I dearly love.

So happy Thanksgiving my friends....I am blessed to have each of you in my life.

Bloggin'

Just so you know, Marissa has been bloggin' again! Go see her latest post and vote on her poll. She loves that!

Twas The Weekend Before Thanksgiving....

Our Church is hosting it's annual Thanksgiving tomorrow night and I am so excited. My friend Sheila bought one of the turkeys and I am cooking it. It is roasting as I type....and it smells good!
We have been at our Church now for 3 Thanksgivings, and I enjoy this dinner so much every year. The food, the friends, the warm and cozy feelings just delight me. It is sort of the official kickoff to the holidays in my book.

This year I am especially excited because my parents are driving up to go with us. That makes it even better!

I better go dig out some elastic waist pants from somewhere because I intend to enjoy myself tomorrow!

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing tomorrow night, know that I will be thanking God for each of you tomorrow night at 6:00 as we bow our heads in prayer of thanksgiving to our God on High.

Baby It's Cold Outside!!!!

BRRRRRRRRR! It was so cold here this morning! Last week it was in the eighties, this morning at was 26 degrees!!!!!!! Oh my goodness I felt so bad putting my baby on the bus this morning while it was still dark outside and it was so cold! She was bundled up in 2 shirts, a long skirt, knee highs, knee high boots, her puffy coat (aka The Purple Marshmallow) a scarf and gloves. She was not about to wear a hat, but tonight when we left for church she voluntarily bundled up and slapped the hat on her head and headed out the door.

It is supposed to be cold here all week, and although I do not relish the idea of the heating bill, I have to admit I like cold weather. I wish we got snow here once in a while, but I really do love a nice crisp cold snap. Especially with Thanksgiving coming up...it is hard to feel "fallish" when it is 80 degrees outside!

Don't forget!

Don't forget to check out my new blog, "I'm Not Cheap, I'm Thrifty!" I have listed some promotions going on as well as my latest coupon savings. Follow the link at the right and let me know what you think!
Is this a pitiful ploy to get more readers over to the Thrifty blog? You bet it is! It's kinda lonely over there......and you guys really want to follow the links posted there to great blogs like The Centisble Sawyer and Keeper of The Cheerios and Wanting What You Have. ALL of these ladies ROCK THE HOUSE!

Kids in Nebraska

Have you seen the news story about people dropping off their kids in Nebraska? Apparently, if you have decided that you don't want your child or are unable to care for the child you have, you can just go drop it off and the state will take care of it for you. No fouls, no penalties, no problems for you.

Originally, this law was created to prevent Moms from putting their newborns in dumpsters or alleyways when they can't raise them. We have all seen horror stories like that on Law and Order, CSI, and even in our local paper. However, no age limit was ever set to limit when and how the kids can be dropped off and people are driving from all over the country to dump their kids off on in Nebraska. Now the lawmakers are trying to change this law to add an age limit on the children that can be abandoned.

My question is.....what are these parents thinking???? Can someone truly be in their right mind and just casually take your kid for a leisurely drive and then dump them off at the hospital and squeal away from the curb? What is this doing to the kids? And what about the kids who hear this on the news (nationwide or worldwide)....what are they thinking? Are they wondering if their parents will drop them off someday and never return? What is this telling them about their worth?

I believe that the sanctity of life disappeared in 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that a woman can abort her unborn child. What does it say about our society now when abortions can be performed up until the 9th month of pregnancy? Call it "partial birth abortion" if you want, it is murder plain and simple! If you are not familiar with the practice of partial birth abortion, I urge you to read up and make your voice heard! Warning: the details are scary, horrific and disturbing to the point of terrifying. However, it is a real part of our world and we must be knowledgeable about these things before we can change them.

I know that life begins at conception. God says in Psalm 139:13 "Before I knit you together in your mother's womb, I knew you". The Bible also said in Psalm 22:10 "From my mother's womb you have been my God". And what about in Jeremiah 29:11 when God tells us that He has plans for us????? If God recognizes us as human beings with thoughts, feelings, abilities, a future and a spirit before we are born, then why can't society?

It is time for us to stand up and say that life matters. It is time for people to realize that life begins at conception, not at birth. I mean really, how many people do you know that have come to you and proudly announced that they are carrying at fetus and they will let you know when they are 12 weeks along and you can now join them in referring to "it" as a baby? So come on America, wake up and smell the coffee. We have allowed our government to tell us that life is a disposable commodity and that we have a choice in whether or not a BABY should have the right to be born. Is there no value in life anymore?

For those of us who battle with infertility this is a very touchy subject. An interesting sidenote, as of the last news story, none of the children abandoned in Nebraska since this story broke have been infants.

I know that there are cases where parents truly cannot care for their children, but surely there is a better alternative than tossing them out on the hospital steps. I know of several people who would be delighted to have the awesome opportunity to raise one of these discarded children and show them that they are one of God's most beautiful creation because that is what they truly are.

There's sumfin wrong here.....

We have known for a while that our kitty Julio was, shall we say....."special"???? I mean, I have never had a cat that drinks out of the toilet, likes his tummy rubbed, sleeps with his head hanging off the bed, eats cotton balls, loves Chinese food and Subway sandwiches (especially the olives) and doesn't meow. He is odd, granted, but we love him. He needs us.

But this kind of takes the cake. Riss had such a good time with him Sunday night and as soon as I regained composure and stopped laughing I grabbed a few pics.

What do you think?



Anyone know a good kitty therapist????

FREE STUFF!

One of the blogs I follow listed this freebie and I had to check it out. It's true.....it really works! I love it when that happens!
Go to Walgreens.com and upload your favorite digital photo. ON the checkout page select that you want it in 8x10 size, and then enter coupon code "freepic".
You will be directed to pick a store to pick up your print at, and you will see that it is 100% totally FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will be picking up my freebie today after 10AM. WOOHOO!
It's like early Christmas for a scrapbooker like me :)
And be sure to check out my money saver blog at www.notcheapthrifty.blogspot.com. Follow the blog links listed. This one came from "The Centsible Sawyer" and all of these ladies have great ideas! Happy shopping! :)

Time for the Fair!

Have I mentioned I have LOST my Halloween pictures? So ok, if I post them after Christmas you guys will forgive me right????

In the mean time, here are some pictures from our trip to the fair last weekend. We had looked forward to it for a while!

First of all, I just have to say how beautiful I think my daughter is, even when she is sporting her Daddy's ballcap! (She was holding this for him while he rode a ride she was NOT ABOUT to get on! Some sort of flip you upside down thing....not for her!)

I guess we all go to the fair for different things, but I go for the sausage dogs! Yes, I know how bad they are for me, but seriously...is one a year THAT bad?????

I also really love the lights.....ooooo....aaaahhhhhh.....

Of course my crew loves the rides. I get sick just riding in a car, so I can't handle any rides at all. Except the Merry Go Round, which noone will ride with me anymore...it has been deemed a "baby" ride by my child....




Another one of my favorite parts is the shows. We watched this one this year where Galaxy Girl climbed to the top of a 12 story pole and did tricks...even a handstand and hanging by one knee. I got so nervous watching her I had to walk off. But I loved it when she teamed up with her cute partners for that whole wheel of death motorcycle thing where they ride around in that wheel. That was too cool!
Galaxy girl has a website too, www.galaxyofthrills.com. This chick was awesome! Nuts, but awesome!


David wasn't feeling well enough to go with us, but Kathy went and had a great time. She is one cool Grandma to ride all the stuff she rides! And check out her new hairdo! She is one hot mama!