Goodies for sale!

Got an urge to shop for scrapbook bargains? Then hop on over to my buddy Jamie's blog...www.savannahscrapbooking.typepad.com. (follow the link on the right hand side of this page in case this link thingie in the post doesn't work.) She is selling some huge bundles of scrap supplies for BARGAIN prices. Check it out, and email her if you see something you just can't live without! It is my understanding that she will be posting more goodies in the near future so keep an eye on this blog for great deals!

Memorial day weekend

Hello again! This has been a busy weekend! Friday Jamie went back to the boat. Saturday Marissa and I began cleaning out our spare room to get ready for the whole house makeover we are planning. We got soooooo much done! Now I just gotta find a place to store all of the "keep" piles. I worked on it some more after Church Sunday, while Riss went swimming at Debbie's. Then Brenda called with a plan. It's called.....Brenda's Plan To Feed A Small Country. It seems that lately a lot of our friends, family and Church members have been sick or lost loved ones. (Let me just interject here that this seems to happen about twice a year) So Brenda offers to buy out the grocery store if I will cook the food and then we deliver it to people. I happily agreed to proceed with her plan, hereafter known as "BPTFASC" for short, so she goes shopping. She came over later with bags and bags of food. BPTFASC started with me roasting 8 whole chickens and making 4 large pans of macaroni and cheese, followed by 2 of the big cans of green beans and a big can of corn. Joe came over and we ate. We ate good. :) Everything else went into the fridge. Yesterday I cooked 15 pounds of potatoes and made them into potato salad, 2 pounds of butter beans, 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce, a pound cake, brown rice and a pan of biscuits. Word got out, and everyone came over to help....to help prepare and to help EAT! Amanda, April, Wally, Tiffers, Joe, Brenda, Debbie, Jenn, Jessie, Marissa and I scarfed down some food yesterday! Then today, Brenda came back over and we delivered food to Ginger, who lost her mom.....Sandra, who was exhausted and achy after a trip.... Mr Ron and Mrs Doris, who are both in bad health.... Janelle and her family, who lost both of her parents when their house exploded last week....and had enough left to send food home with April and Wally since April's back is out and with Amanda, who is still recovering from her last lung issue.

WHEW! It was awesome! Hard work, but so worth it. I just hope it meant as much to those who received it as it did for me to have the honor of preparing the food. See, what most people don't know, is that when Brenda and I do this, it is truly an act of hospitality and love to those around us, but it is also an act of obedience to God's nudging in our hearts to serve one another. While I cook, I pray over each and every dish I make, asking that God would bless the person who eats it and their family. As we deliver it, I pray that the person who receives the meals receive a blessing as well. Maybe they will find a little bit of love tucked under the tin foil........ and smile.

Lookee what I found.....

A few days ago, Amanda asked us to go with her to sample wedding cakes. We went to this first place, a well known bakery on DeRenne Ave, and it was AWFUL! Dry, stale tasting cake. We forged on, with Brenda insisting that she should have cake from the Cake Corner in Pooler. I have to admit, that cake is the BEST cake int eh whole world in my opinion! I had a brilliant notion that we visit the Cupcake Emporium on State Street Downtown Savannah. Jamie had taken me there once before, so we soon found ourselves completely surrounded by several flavors of yummy cupcakes. The Cupcake Emporium makes all of their creations in house, so you are assured the freshest goodies possible. We chose several to sample, cut them into pieces and went to town at tasting. We were hesitant at first. The other cake had left such a bad taste in our mouths. It was dry, yet greasy. How did they do that? So we nibble cautiously at the first cupcake. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!! It was cupcake heaven! Moist, rich, perfectly flavored, with exotic combinations as well as traditional favorites to tantalize us like chocolate raspberry, Italian cream, lemon raspberry, fudge marble, red velvet, butter pecan, peach, and strawberry. They were all very good, but I think the general opinion was that the lemon/raspberry or the fudge marble won.

If you get the chance, swing by and sample your favorite or try something new. If you have to make a special trip downtown, DO IT ANYWAY! You won't be disappointed!

Now if only they delivered.....

Unhealthy Realationship?

Ok, for all of you who have commented that my relationship with Julio was um....shall we say....a bit odd.......here is proof.

Sometimes Julio drives me nuts wanting attention and the only way I can get him to settle down is to snuggle him like a baby. This works quite well at 3:00 AM. We both get more sleep this way!

I believe this picture says it all. We are tight. He is my boy. And he thinks I am DA BOMB! I am good with that......

FREE CROP!

Hello ladies.....my good buddy and partner in gnoming April called to tell me that the YWCA in Pooler is hosting a FREE crop Friday night, May 30 from 5:00-8:00. I know that is a short time, but this is the first time they have done this and they want to see how it goes. Let's show them it will work!!!!!!

SPACE IS LIMITED! Please email me and I will put you in touch with April "Gnommer" and she will get you signed up! Tell you friends! SIGN UP NOW!

Graduation!

We are home! We flew out late Thursday afternoon basically without incident and arrived in Baton Rouge about 8:00pm. We were only bumped from one flight so we made it pretty easily with all of the folks flying out for the Graduation. Who knew LSU had so many ceremonies? There were 6 going on at the same time as Jennifer's ceremony and I don't know how many there were during Jessica's. It was so nice to have the whole family together for the ceremonies. We had the 2 ceremonies on Friday, one at noon and one at 7:30. Then, Saturday my sister hosted a lovely reception in their honor at her home. We had a really nice time. Lots of food, lots of friends, and lots of laughs. Sunday morning we attended Church with them and the graduates were honored there as well. Mix in eating at some FABULOUS restaurants and you have a weekend that was simply wonderful! We got up at 3:00 this morning to get to the airport by 5:00 to catch our flight home and we really lucked out. We got on both flights without incident and were home by 11:00am.

I am exhausted but so glad we were able to go!

Way to go girls! I am soooooo proud of you!

Flying the friendly skies....

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Overbooked flights.
Why are all these people trying to get to New Orleans this weekend? Could it be that the major university there is having graduation ceremonies all weekend long???? GRRR! Just had to change our flight plan. That was a major undertaking. Tried to go through Memphis instead of Atlanta. Computer glitch makes that impossible. (??) Then tried flying into New Orleans instead of Baton Rouge. Nope. Not gonna happen. There was an interesting flight plan that caught my eye...try this on for size....

Leave Savannah and fly into Cincinnati. Looks good. Not overbooked. Then...brace yaself Effie....fly from Cincinnati INTO Atlanta, then Atlanta to Baton Rouge. HUH? What kind of nonsense is that????

Kind of makes me think of an old saying my Mom used to use...even if you are going to Heaven you gotta go through Atlanta and wait.

Finally, it looks like we have a flight with decent chances of getting on, first class even. :)

I will let you kow how it goes....if we EVER get back!

Off again......

Ok everyone, we are on the road again, or I guess technically "in the air" again. We are flying out tomorrow to go to Louisiana to see my twin nieces graduate from LSU. We are so excited! We will be staying with my sister and her family and my Mom and Papa are already there. My sister commented the other day that this will be the first time since they moved to Louisiana about 10 years ago that the whole family has been together at her house. We all go at different times, so this will be a real rare opportunity to do some family stuff. She is hosting a party for the girls Saturday and I am excited to get to help with that. Please say a word of prayer that we will get there safely, with no travel problems (such as getting stuck in Atlanta again!) and that I will feel better with this allergy/sinus thing I am fighting.

I will be posting pictures of the two most beautiful graduates in the whole wide world as soon as I return!

My Wonderful Mom

It's Mother's day weekend, you know. Time to honor the special Moms and those who have been like a Mom to us. My Mom left Thursday to drive to Louisiana to spend this Mother's Day with my sister and her family, so we celebrated early with dinner at Cheddars Wednesday night. Cheddars is a new restaurant that opened here in Pooler less than a month ago, and I had not been there yet. Jamie's boss took all the guys to lunch there the week after it opened, but I am not a Delta chick so I didn't get to go. :) Jamie said it was very nice and the food was excellent and the prices were reasonable. We all strode in Wednesday night about 5:45, and had only a 5 minute wait. We started with onion rings, which were good, but not Carey Hilliard's onion rings! Jamie got a ribeye, I got grilled chicken, Marissa got spaghetti, Mom and Papa got the half rack of ribs. All of the food was wonderful! It all tasted very fresh and we were very happy! I gave my Mom a framed picture of our little family that was taken by my Brother in law at my birthday, and she was happy with that. It is hard to get a picture of the 5 of us together, someone always has to hold the camera you know?

So tomorrow is actually Mother's Day, and I hope you all have a very special day whether you are a mother, will be a mother, or have a mother! :)

The Rest Of the Layouts

Ok, I am posting the rest of the layouts from our weekend scrapbooking retreat. These are all 2 page layouts. Also, I am not sure why all of my layouts look crooked on the little easel.....who knows what I did! Must have been the angle I was taking pics at, trying to avoid the glare from the kitchen light! OOPS!

Bible Study

It is time to start a new cell group cycle at our Church. I will be leading two groups. The first group, which meets Tuesday mornings from 9:30-12:30, will start with a brief devotional and prayer time. Then everyone can work on whatever project they have going on at that time. Some of us will be assembling the books that we compiled the information for in our last study, others will be working on new projects. This group is open to everyone. If you are interested in joining us, call me! Childcare is provided for just $5 per child per Tuesday. Since this group runs through the second week of August, you may know of someone who would like a morning out with childcare provided!!!! Hey, these days, $5 is a bargain!

Also, on Tuesday nights, I will be repeating the study from last cycle. It is called "This Is My Story" by Lisa Whelchel. Remember her? Blair from "Facts of Life"?????? She has written many books on Christian parenting and she is an avid scrapbooker. This study focuses on documenting YOUR life, from childhood to present. No scrapbook experience is necessary to join this study. We will meet Tuesday nights from 6:00-7:30. This will allow Moms with kids to get them home and get baths, dinner, homework, etc, and also not take too much time away from family life. All of the information compiling part is done on your own time. The Tuesday night group will have a 20 minute DVD and then a discussion/prayer time. You won't need to bring anything except your book and maybe a pen. Childcare is provided again at $5 per child per Tuesday.

If you or anyone you know is interested in joining us for either group, please let me know! We would love to have you!

Of all the layouts I did this weekend, my favorite would be the black n white one about the pandas or this one. When I first saw the new Boxer line from Basic Grey, I knew this paper would be perfect for a layout about Jamie. I was right! It worked out beautifully!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok on these guys, I have to journal about the family tradition of the bunny cake (All hail bunny cake!!!!!) and also on the page about Marissa's Easter basket. This was the first year of knowing the ....eh em......truth about Mr. E.B. :(

More layouts!

Ok, here are more layouts from the weekend. The "Ready To Ride" and the "Mary's" need journaling. The "Mary's" one I want to write about how the building used to be Steak and Ale, how they served the frozen bon bons for dessert, and how I loved the beautiful stained glass effect windows. Made me feel like I was in a castle. I didn't know Mary's had closed, so I was quite shocked when I drove by on Abercorn and saw the heap of rubble. Made me sad.....

Layouts!

Ok, here are some of the layouts from this weekend. We started cropping about 6:00 Friday night, and we cropped all day Saturday and most of Sunday. I completed 28 layouts. Not a bad few days!

Home again, home again, jiggity jog.....

WHEW! We are back! We had such a great time on our trip! I really wish I could post pics now but April has my memory card, so that wouldn't work out. I will post them soon! For now, I will make a list of things we learned this weekend:
1. Four women can eat a whole lotta food in one weekend.
2. We all snore.
3. Piglet is made our of pork (sorry April)
4. The Church trailer holds a lot of stuff and goes over speed bumps and curbings pretty smoothly.
5. The little scrapbook store in Statesboro is great!
6. Alligators open their mouths R-E-A-L-L-Y wide.
7. Molesting alligators is punishable by a $500 fine. Really. There is a sign.Who knew?
8. The state park requires that all people staying in the park observe "quiet hours" between 10:00pm-7:00am. We felt that this TOTALLY did not apply to us.
9. If you are over 5 feet tall you will need to sit in the shower at the park.
10. It is a good thing the kind housekeepers leave a plunger in the bathroom.
11. Cheese. That's all I gotta say about that.
12. Four women can go out of town and all bring hairdryers but not remember a single bottle of shampoo.
13. It is against the rules to move the furniture inside the cabins. OOPS! Hope the powers that be in the state park world don't see our pics.
14. It is possible to survive on 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Not so cheery when you all do that though.
15. Women's bodily functions are just as gross as men's. I admit it. I am serious....if it could be done, it was done this weekend. Eww. FeBreeze is quite effective.
I promise to post pictures and more details soon. It was a great weekend and we will do it again soon!!!!!!!

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we leave for our trip. I packed my stuff into the Church trailer today, and then my hunka hunka burnin' love drove it over to Amanda's to load her stuff as well. April picked up the trailer at Amanda's and took it to her house, where Wally will load her stuff tonight. We are meeting at April's house at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and picking up Sandra at 8:45ish.

I really wish I had made pictures today of us piling the trailer. It was so funny! It is a good thing we have it to tote our stuff, 'cause it would have been a very long uncomfortable ride for us ON TOP of April's SUV to make room for all of our stuff if we were not fortunate enough to gain the use of the trailer.

So WOO HOO! We are off!~

I will be taking pics tomorrow when we load Sandra's stuff......then you can see all this foolishness for yourself! :)