Spring has Sprung

This morning I had a lovely surprise waiting for me! As Marissa and I loaded up to go to Church this morning, we found that several of our amaryllis had burst into full bloom. What a glorious sight! Although they bloom each spring, they never fail to amaze me with their grandeur! My grandmother planted these long ago, and each spring when they bloom I always think of her. She loved her flowers!

Tattoos

Ok, I, like many of you, am not particularly fond of tattoos. However, several of them came attached to the man I fell in love with and married, and a few more have become attached to that same man during the 11 years we have been married. Although they are not my thing, I can appreciate quality artwork and a nice tattoo when I see one. I just don't want one on my body.

I actually contemplated getting a very small angel on my hip at one point in my life. Then I became pregnant, and after thinking how distorted and stretched the angel face would have become, I decided against it. I remember the worst tattoo experience of my life...Jamie was getting the American and Confederate flags on his arm. I was watching, and the whole time red ink was running down his arm. It looked like blood. I promptly went into the parking lot and threw up. I returned to the waiting room of the tattoo parlor where I sat as far away from said work in progress as possible until all was said and done. Since then my desire to get a tattoo has been completely erased.

Now this same man that I married has started his own blog. His subject matter? You guessed it....tattoos. He started by posting 4 of his tattoos and having people pick their favorite of those 4. Then he posted 4 more, then the remaining 5. Now the semi-finalists are all in the running for your favorite of his tattoos. When you get a chance, go on over to his blog at www.akabutcher.blogspot.com and check out his tatts. I still say his mama must've kept the color books and crayons away from him as a child, otherwise his fascination with this would be gone by now. But it isn't. And quite frankly, I don't think it ever will be.

Also, a link to his all time favorite tattoo parlor, Low Tide Tattoo is on his page too. He got a lot of work done there while he was stationed in Guam. Check it out!

My myspace page

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! I can't believe that the weekend is here already. Jamie is back at work on the boat and Riss and I are trying to get everything ready for Spring Break. We are ready to GO!!!!!
I uploaded all of our Easter pictures and a lot of pictures from Brenda's birthday dinner to my myspace page. If you are interested you can see them at www.myspace.com/scrappygypsy
Have a great weekend!

New blog to follow

Just to let you know my baby girl has her own blog now. It is www.thelifeofaladybug.blogspot.com. Check out her blog sometime when you get a chance! And do me a favor please, if you ever see that some weirdo has posted something on her blog that shouldn't be there, let me know ok? THANKS!

Happy birthday to my BFF!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday was my BFF's 50th birthday! We had such a good time! We had a girl's only birthday dinner at Fettuccini's and it was very nice. Debbie and I planned it all out, we had everything in place.
First of all, Debbie arranged for our Pastor to pick Brenda up in his 1930 Model A and chauffer her to the restaurant. She looked like a princess getting out of the car, all decked out in her tiara and her Cinderella dress. We ate the yummiest pasta dinners and watched as she opened cards ranging form sweet to sentimental to downright hilarious. After dinner we ate birthday cake from Cake Corner. YUM YUM YUM....that is the best cake in the whole world!
The only thing missing was Brenda's husband Joe. He had to work out of town, and so Pastor Leonard delivered her flowers for him and escorted Brenda to her birthday dinner. It was a fun night for us all!

Charles Clary

Ok, I met a super cool guy while working at Savannah Scrapbooking. His name is Charles Clary, and he is a Grad student at SCAD. He came in to buy LOADS and LOADS of cardstock from the store and when he came in, we had some very enjoyable conversations. He gave me his myspace name and when I got home I immediately went in and added him as my friend. In the past few weeks he has been chosen for publication in Juztapoz Art and Culture Magazine and is preparing for SCAD's Spring Open Studio Night. I am amazed by the variety of works he has displayed on his myspace page, and I have plans to attend the Open Studio night. Hopefully I can pull Amanda with me and we will have a blast! So, first off, let me encourage you to go to Charles' page on myspace, at www.myspace.com/percusiveart and look under "my pics" to see some of his work. He is a talented painter, drawer, and collage artist. I feel so honored to have met this young man! I was excited when he told me about the show and mentioned it to a couple of people, but I did not have any concrete info to pass on until today. Then this morning, I opened my Savannah Morning News and found a very nice advertisement by SCAD for the Open Studio with a large picture of one of Charles' pieces. (I personally think it lost something being printed in black and white, but that is just me).
So here are the official details:
SCAD Spring Open Studio Night
Alexander Hall, first and second floor
668 Indian Street
Saturday, April 5, 5-8pm

By the way, Indian street is between Bay Street and River Street. If you take MLK you will turn left on Indian Street.

The ad states there will be live music, refreshments and pieces by more than 65 artists on display. The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

I certainly plan on attending this event, and I hope some of you will to. It looks like fun to me!

Middle School

I just can't believe it. My daughter was accepted into Coastal Middle School's International Baccalaureate program! We are so excited! This is something we have prayed and prayed about and we were so excited to get the letter saying she had been accepted. What a girl we have!! We have been so abundantly blessed to have friends and family that have prayed with us about this, and we are planning a party to celebrate her acceptance into the program sometime this summer, before school starts back. Thank you all so much for your support!

I went today to formally register her, and it all began to sink in. My baby is going to middle school, 30 minutes away. My baby is growing up. I am so proud of her, she is growing into such a fine young woman. We know she will excel and we are excited to watch her take this step. Way to go Riss!

Strange.........

Ok something weird happened. We had to go to Jacksonville yesterday to the SIU union hall for Jamie to get his paperwork and go get a physical for work. We left very early yesterday morning, even before sunrise. (Anyone who k nows me just fell out of the chair reading that)and so I did not notice much when we left except that the newspaper was in the driveway as we backed out. Well, we returned home after dark last night, and Jamie went to get the mail. He came back and said "Our mailbox is gone." I did the whole head cocked to one side "HUH?" thing and he said, "Yeah it's gone". Not on the ground, not just knocked over, but gone. Without a trace. The we noticed the newspaper had been put on the front porch. Interesting.........
We called Pooler's finest to file a report, since tampering with the mail is a big deal, and we had to go to the Post Office to file a report as well. Turns out when Jamie went in to the post office our mail guy was there and happily we learned that the box was already missing before the mail ran, so our mail was not actually stolen. We got our mail from yesterday and today and arranged to have our mail held until we get a new box put up.

Well, today as I drove up from Bible study, a truck pulled up in our driveway. It was my neighbor on the corner. Jamie came outside to meet me, and found me talking to our neighbor, who sheepishly admitted that he ran into our mailbox pole and knocked our mailbox off, but did not realize that the box had fallen off because his big truck sits so high, so as he drove off he RAN OVER our mailbox. Hearing the crunch he stopped, came back, and picked up said crushed box and put it in our trash can. (Apparently he also picked up our paper and laid it on the porch) He thought we were on vacation.) He had showed up today with a brand new mailbox and a big ole apology for us. IT was truly no big deal, just an accident, and he did not have to buy us a new box! Things happen right? But he insisted, and we appreciated it very much. So the mystery is solved, and once again, my faith in the general goodness in people was renewed. What a nice guy. How lucky we are to have this family as our neighbors!

Just one of the wacky things that keeps life interesting!

Easter weekend

Happy Good Friday everyone. Today was a good day! Went to Michael's and snapped up a couple of bargains, then came home. Also searcher a couple of thrift shops trying to find my honey some pants he can destroy at work, but noone had any navy blue pants built for my tall handsome stud muffin. There is a shortage of navy blue pants in a 36x36 I tell ya!

Speaking of shortage.....did you know there was a banana shortage? Seriously. I was in Piggly Wiggly and they actually have a sign up that warns of a banana shortage due to inclement weather conditions in Coasta Rica. WHO KNEW???

Tomorrow we are going to take Baby Girl to the egg hunt at Gleason Park at 11:00, which incidentally is being proceeded by a Pet Parade at 10:30. Marissa wanted to dress Julio up in bunny ears and take him, but I reasoned with her that he has enough issues and we probably should not add cross-species dressing to his list of abnormalities. Poor guy.

I am so looking forward to Easter this year. The music is gonna be JAM UP and the men are serving us breakfast at 8:30. My parents are coming for lunch, and I am very excited about this! Hope you all have a great Easter.

A couple of more incidental things to mention, my honey also posted round two of his tattoos for people to see and vote on. Hop over to akabutcher.blogspot.com and see what you think. And if you wanna get your blood pressure up a little bit, go to my friend Stacy's blog at myscrapstudio.blogspot.com and read about Martha Stewart and her scrapbooking business and see what some people had the nerve to say! Some idiot actually called us scrapbookers "white trash" can you believe it???? Now granted, I like Martha, not gonna say I love her but I like her. I personally do not care for her scrapbook materials but I do like her albums. Her style is very formal, very prim and proper and that just doesn't work for me. However, her albums ROCK! When you get done with Martha and the white trash issue, scroll down a space or two and follow the links to see some of the most AMAZING scrapbook rooms EVER! I was drooling!!!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!
He is Risen!
CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!

Now yer cookin"!!!!!!

I may not be Martha Stewart but I can cook up some food! Brenda came over and dropped off a grocery store's worth of food for me to cook for her friend Carol, who's son was in a tragic accident. I am busy today, cooking spaghetti, Texas Hash, macaroni and cheese, roasted chickens, and some vegetables. It feels good to do what you can for someone when they are going through a rough time. You can't always fix stuff in people's lives, but YOU GOTTA EAT!!!!
So, Martha, I am trying. Although I am sure Ms. Stewart would have three heart attacks and a stroke because all of my food is going into tin foil pans and the tea will be in a Piggly Wiggly milk jug, but hey, it's how we do things around here! I might not be Martha, but I am pretty happy being Michelle.

Stuff

WHEW! It has been a busy few days! I last posted Friday, after our adventure at the park. Saturday I worked at my church doing the Angel Food distribution. Angel food is this really cool program where you can buy a box of food once a month at a fraction of retail price. Basically, the value of the box is between $60-$75 and you only pay $30 for it. It is all first quality, very tasty stuff. If you are interested in participating, email me or leave a comment. For more information, go to www.angelfoodministires.com. This program is open to EVERYONE.

Sunday was a great day. After worship Sunday morning, we had a potluck lunch and then we had an Easter Egg hunt or the children. Marissa had such a great time finding the eggs! I think these things just get better as she gets older.

Monday was a normal day...back to school. Riss came home all happy and excited because her science fair project won an honorable mention. Her project was on "Can people really tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi in a blind taste test?". Surprisingly, most people could. Who knew?

Today was good. Started off with Bible study/scrapbooking cell group at church, then went shopping for a dress for Amanda to wear when she marries Mac Daddy Rod this summer. She found some amazing things! I don't know how she will narrow it down to just one! I have my fave of course, it is a beautiful ivory halter style with a sash in "Victorian lilac". Simply stunning and makes her look like a BARBIE DOLL for sure! I would so love to have a figure like she has, I am telling you the girl is STACKED!!!! Oh well, not in the cards for me. We ate at Cracker Barrel and it was tasty, but we had some really bad service! Guess you can't have it all huh?

Then tonight, one of the coolest things ever happened. My pal April has really been going through some stuff lately, really bad stuff in fact. She had another thing happen today that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. So what happened? Debbie went and picked her and her girls up, brought them to my house, and hung out. Brenda arrived with trays and bags of food, and we started chowing on just about anything we could get our hands on. Amanda came over, and we all sat around just laughing and talking and crying together. April and Debbie had the funniest contest to see who could fit the most puffed Cheetos in their mouth and April won. Who knew her mouth was big enough to cram in 12 Cheetos???? The best part was when she put one in each nostril. Now that is some quality entertainment there!!! Debbie quickly forfeited when the nose became involved.....EEEW! Smart girl that bean countin' pal of mine! :)
You know, it may seen odd that in the midst of all of the chaos and bad stuff and tragedies that have happened in all of our lives lately that we could act the fool and laugh so hard tonight. I got to thinking about this and it reminded me of a saying that my Mom has used my whole life. She says "You may as well laugh as cry" and she is so right. It took me a long time to really understand what she meant by that phrase, and I am so glad I finally understand it's true meaning. Basically, laughter and tears both relieve stress. There is a time to weep and a time to mourn, but also a time to laugh. None of us could FIX April's problems and concerns, but we could sure laugh with her and cry with her and ease the pain she is in. That's what friends do. It reminded me of that scene in Steel Magnolia's where Shelby's mother is encouraged to slap Weeza and then they all broke out into hysterical laughter right after Shelby's funeral. It's how we cope. We laugh. We go on. And we get through.

I am so incredibly blessed to have my circle of friends. April, Brenda, Debbie, Amanda and Sandra....you guys mean more to me that you will ever know. Thanks for being there for me. Just know that I will be there for you when it's your turn to need someone. I love you guys!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St Paddy's day......it is here again. Here in the big city of Savannah we celebrated the holiday on today, the 14th, this year instead of Monday the 17th. The main reason it was changed was that Monday is smack in the middle of Holy Week, and I suppose all of the partying and reveling and merry making would not be appropriate during such a reverent time. However, I can't help but think that someone had some dollar signs in their eyes when the thought about how the tourists would flock in on Friday,and then stay and party through the weekend. Pretty smart way to milk the tourist dollars huh?

So, as usual, we avoided the parade. Jamie headed back to work on the boat this morning, and Marissa and I joined my Bible study group at lake Mayer for a picnic. It was a lot of fun, although it was quite chilly. The forecast said it would be 80 degrees today, so I foolishly believed the forecast and put Marissa in shorts and a t-shirt. I myself even wore a pair of capri pants, blinding all of the people in a three county radius with my glaringly white legs. But guess what? My legs did not stay white long, they quickly turned three shades of blue because it was freezing cold out there! Something was wrong with the weather today. Didn't the sun know it was supposed to be out and making things warm? Didn't all those clouds know they were not supposed to be up there blocking the rays? Didn't the wind know it was supposed to settle itself down and not blow more than a slight breeze? I mean, come on! The forecasters must have told them what to do right?

But in spite of the frigid wind and sub-zero feeling temps, (HA) we had a great time. This is one group of ladies that I am so thankful to be a part of. I am absolutely PRIVILEGED to say that these ladies are my friends. Thanks girls, we had a blast! :)

Kumquats

I was delighted when my Pastor gave me a whole big gigantic bag of kumquats last fall. I was a bit overwhelmed, I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but I was thrilled! I began searching for recipes, and I made several batches of marmalade and kumquat bread. I was so impressed with myself that I also put up several quarts of kumquat puree in my freezer to use later. I found a recipe for a kumquat cream pie that uses the puree, Cool Whip and heavy cream. I thought that would be WONDERFUL in the hot sticky summer time! But really....I thought my attraction to kumquats was rare..........
UNTIL TODAY!
I went onto the Martha Stewart blog today. It is listed on my page under "blogs I stalk" just FYI. I was so happy when I saw her lengthy blog about, you guessed it...KUMQUATS!!!!
I just can't believe it! I think I stumbled onto a "good thing"! hee hee

I've been tagged!

Ok, Cecile got me. I have to write a six word memoir. What exactly is that???? According to dictionary.com, a memoir is:
1.a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation.
2.Usually, memoirs.
a.an account of one's personal life and experiences; autobiography.
b.the published record of the proceedings of a group or organization, as of a learned society.
3.a biography or biographical sketch.

Ok, so basically I gotta sum up my crazy life in 6 words? Hmmm.....
GOT IT!
I am a princess of God.
That just about sums up everything about me. What else could one want to say? I am privileged that through my salvation I am a child of God. I am blessed beyond measure. What more could a girl want?????

Now I gotta tag peeps? Hmmmm.....ok, along with Cecile I have limited blogger pals so I tag Jamie and Amanda.
Go for it girls!
Here are your instructions....
The memoir rules are:

1. Write your own 6 word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration,if you like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.

4. Tag 5 more blog buddies.

Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
So let's see what y'all got!

Doggone size limits....

Ok, if the blog can't take this many photos at one time then why does it give me the option to continue to add photos? I don't know. But for whatever reason, it takes 2 posts to get these all up. So here are the others. Oh yeah, I guess you will read this post first, but actually the bottom one should come first because ti was the engine in my train of thought. Oh well, this its it. And in this batch, my faves tie for the "LOVE" page with dollface April and Big Daddy Wally swappin' some spit, and the double page layout with Riss and Lucas at Valentine's day. Be sure to enlarge and read the journaling on that page!!!! It's a great read! :)

New layouts!

Ok, a few thoughts here..... First of all, I am waaaaaay too tired to be doing this. Secondly, I really think the clarinet stand works better than the small black easel. Thirdly....what was third? Oh yeah. The kitchen light works way better than the light over my scrapbook desk/war zone for making pics of layouts. Anyway, here they are. The latest batch of cutting and pasting. :) My fave, hands down, is the "Sometimes You Just Gotta Get Away". I think. Oh well, Go with that for now. I can always edit this tomorrow.

icanhascheezeburger.com

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
My pal Lauren turned me onto this website with all of these totally hilarious pictures of animals, mostly cats in fact. Marissa and I love to look at page after page of these and laugh our butts off! You should check it out!
For some reason, if you type in www.icanhascheezeburger.com it won't come up, but if you do a GOOGLE search and type in LOL cats it comes up that way. Go figure. Another idiosyncrity in my world.....

I've been tagged!

Ok, Beth-ole-buddy-ole-friend-ole-pal tagged me, so here we go......

7 random facts about me:

1. I eat my food one item at a time.
2. I do not let my food touch other foods.
3. I always have my toenails painted.
4. I am scared of dogs, birds, cows and horses.
5. I am a Martha Stewart junkie.
6. My house is always a disaster....(sorry Martha!)
7. Clowns creep me out.

Ok so how is that for random? Ok, now the fun part....
I get to tag some buddies....
Ok....Manda, Jamie, Cecile...YOU'RE UP!

A Very Nice Person!

Ok, I always try to look for the good in people. Then, sometimes, I get surprised because I can't find any good in SOME people. But once in a while, a very nice person who I have found a LOT of good in, does something so so super nice that it just makes my whole day, or in some cases my whole week. It happened like that for me today.
My friend Cecile, who I think is a TOTALLY groovy person, has a blog that I like to frequent. You can find a link to it on my blog home page. She makes uber cool totally delicious scrapbook creations that are unlike anything I have ever seen before. Anyway, she posted a layout a few days ago that used the grooviest paper...it was all blue with red swirlies on it and I HAD to have it. I asked her where she got it, and she said at Michael's and gave me the name of the company that made it and the line it was a part of.. SO...equipped with knowledge, I trucked on in there today to buy myself some of this lovely paper. Guess what? It's not there. Nope. Nada. Gone.

Sigh. I was depressed. But, I went on to work and who should be the very first customer at Savannah Scrapbooking today but the lovely Cecile??????? I tell her of my adventures, and she says she will check at home to see if she has another piece. I was impressed.

Then, a little while later, Cecile calls me to tell me that yes, she has a piece of it, and not only is she willing to let me have it but she wants to mail it to me! Then she goes one giant leap for mankind further and offers to cut out the red swirls I like so much on her Cricut machine and mail them to me as well!!!!! I was just flabbergasted. It was just so nice!

I truly love it when someone just goes out of their way for someone else. Kind of renews my faith in human kind. It was just an awesome thing. I was truly touched by her generosity and kindness. I think I see the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.....

So trot on over and check out Cecile's blog. It's at www.scrappincecile.blogspot.com. Also follow her link to the ebay site to see the super delicious album she made!!!!

You deserve a shout out Cecile, thanks for being wonderful, fabulous, beautiful YOU!

A Celebration!!!!!!!

It started out as an ordinary day. Marissa called me at work after school today and wanted to read me her grades from her progress report. She started listing..... Language Arts (93),Reading (94),Science (100), Social Studies (95)....but I noticed that Math was left until last.. She has been struggling a little bit in math, in fact her math grade has been in the high 80's this school year, which is very good, not complaining about that at all, but it did keep her from making High Honor Roll for the first tine EVER, since kindergarten started. We have always told her to do her best and we will be thrilled with that. If a "C" is your best, we will rejoice over a "C". So, I think the not making High Honor Roll thing was a little bit bigger deal to her than it was to us. It had to be frustrating though; and just a few teensy points keeping her from making it ! Well, the progress report today lists her math grade at 92. WOO HOO! That's HIGH HONOR ROLL baby! We were so proud that we wanted to go out to eat tonight to celebrate and I let Risa pick the restaurant. She chose the Super Buffet and we were delighted that Debbie and Jennifer could join us!!!! (By the way did you know you could eat ice cram with chop sticks????) It was a good day tater.....

Ok crazy bloggy thingie would not let me upload them all at once. If you click on the picture you can blow it up really big and read the journaling. These are more that I finished today, and my favorite of all is still the one of Jamie on the big rock.

Recent layouts

Ok, I am going to try to post some of my recent layouts. Actually, I put the finishing touches on all of these today. I hope the pictures turned out ok, I tried something new. A clarinet stand makes a good perch for layouts! Let me know what you think. My personal favorite is probably the one of Jamie at Lake Jocassee on that big ole honkin' rock!