Influenced by...Camp Wesley Pines

Not sure I'm going to be able to cover everything about Camp Wesley Pines. I began going to camp there as a camper to the younger and older elementary camps, then on to junior high camps and retreats. I began to work different camps as a counselor in training there and then on to senior high retreats. I worked several summers and I almost remember each one individually. It was in the tabernacle by the lake when I was 16 that I asked Jesus into my heart. I feel like I learned many lessons there and was introduced to many character traits. I made friends there that I still have....and even though we may not see each other quite as often as I'd like, I know we share an amazing common bond by being blessed by God through Camp Wesley Pines. I've been through several things as an adult there as well and the same remains true of my youth.....that God is faithful to meet me right where I am. When I drive through the front gates...everytime...I get the feeling of "coming home", and that feels really good. I pray our daughter will discover how special that place is. She's gone for the past two summers and can't get enough...I think she's getting it too.

Influenced by....my parents

You know the old saying, "It takes a town to raise a child.." That would possibly be very true of me. Living in a small town America it does tend to be the responsibility (and privilege) of raising others children. The friends that I was in first grade with, were the very same friends I graduated with. There were my besties parents that treated me as their own and vice versa. All wonderful role models. There aren't a whole lot of people that can say that. I was going to start now and go back but decided I better start from the beginning. I will say that my parents have been the most important influence in my life. From as early as I can remember, even though I didn't have a word for it, I had a feeling of what unconditional love was. The love that they had and still have for one another is truly an inspiration to me. The character traits that I learned from them, I am frantically trying to teach our children and am seeing that it isn't such an easy job. That patience that my mother has and still has with my father is immeasurable. The way that no matter what time he use to get in from the hospital or have to leave unexpectedly at lunch on Thanksgiving..no complaining...just keeping a plate for him and having it hot when he got home. The compassion that my father has for people when I would've been so done with them. It all comes from making God the center of a marriage. I get it now.

Complete Overhaul

Well, to be quite honest, I had thought about deleting this blog altogether but I think I'll carry it out a bit longer.... ONLY because my old friend John gave me such a good idea. John and I recently caught up with one another on where else, Facebook (another thing that's been keeping me from blogging) I've enjoyed so much reading his blog and he has given me some motivation to blog about some things. Some of his posts have really made me stop and examine some parts of my life...especially my past. Uuugghhh..don't ya hate that word? PAST.. Thank God that's exactly what it is. The Past.
Some much has happened since my last post before Christmas. I won't even attempt to go back and touch on everything. What I can tell you is that this crazy deployment that is keeping my husband away from us is about to come to a close. Less than one month away now. I've gone this long....One month is a piece of cake.
So the thing that John blogged about that has my wheels turning is People or Places I've Been Influenced By.... I've got a few important ones in mind. Still have a little churning to do...but please stay tuned to see who made the list.....
In the meantime, I've given this little silly blog a makeover and changed some blogs that I follow. Check them out! I'll be back soon...Promise.

Christmas Tour 2009

Well, I decided to branch out on my own this year with the Christmas tour. Last year's Christmas Tour post was through a fellow blogger's blog (did I say that right?) For those of you that are new to a blogger's Christmas tour...it is simply a way to stay in the comfort of your own home, in your jammies, or whatever makes you the most comfy...and tour a home or homes via internet and leave comments about your likes and dislikes..Hope I start something here. I sure would like to see some of my fellow blogger's Christmas deco! Get your snuggie and a snack and here we go....

As I said in last year's post..I absolutely LOVE nativity sets. I have many...and want more. This is one of my newest ones...cut out of wood. My parent's brought this back to me from a recent trip. Isn't it cute?! By the way, to see any picture bigger or closer, just click on it!

Another nativity in my living room...as I said last year, I have seriously considered leaving some of my nativities out all year long.

I realize this picture kinda looks boring. I took several shots and none of them really did it justice. This is on my front entry table as you walk in the front door. My glittery trees (that get EVERYWHERE!) with gold mesh wrapped around them, sitting on red mesh...can't really tell, but I've got red lights inside the trees. Looks really beautiful from the street at night.

Three Wise men. I love these. One of my favorite decorations! My mom gave them to me a few years ago from the Southern Living line. A small nativity painting on canvas given to me by a friend. LOVE this too!

Are the Santa's cute? I got them at Country Originals on Northside Drive... if you've never been there...don't go. You'll be hooked. On the right is another nativity that I got years ago from Dollar Tree..yes, Dollar Tree. Hannah played with the pieces for hours when she was little. Have you ever noticed a child play with a nativity set? They know exactly what to do with each part.

My friend Lisa twisted some of the meshy stuff and we put it on the mantel to cover all our electronics. I must say that stockings is something that I never buckled down and bought when the kids were little. My friend gets tickled looking at all of my stockings when I try to decide which ones to hang. Sure wish I had gotten special ones when they were little so I could give them to them one day you know?

This is the coffee table in the living room. Pine cones in a container with some left over Christmas balls is always easy and pretty. The stack of books is something neat I started years ago. I explained in last years post..I was going through Christmas cards one year as I was cleaning up and realized I shouldn't throw away all these great pictures people spend so much time and money on, so I started making a scrapbook of Christmas cards each year out of construction paper and letting Hannah decorate them and make a cover. We laminate each page and tie the edges together. I put all the books out each year and we enjoy so much looking at our friends and how they've changed. (Our card goes on the first page) With the regular cards, we cut out shapes and verses to glue in the book. It is really a treasure and people seem to always enjoy looking at all of our books!

Kitchen table...got these trees on Black Friday at Simply Spaces in Madison. I thought they were great! Wish i had some pretty Christmas dishes to set the table with!!

This is on the ledge as you go upstairs. Another nativity set..had for years. I really should start writing on the boxes where each one came from. The stocking garland we got as a gift when we got married. The kids use to love for me to put little goodies or pieces of candy in each stocking during the month!

Hannah put her own tree up in her room and decorated it herself. She started doing this when she was about 3 or 4 I think. I told her it was about time for a "big girl" tree if she wanted to keep doing it. She can save this tree for her little girl.

This is in the kitchen. I love this frosted fruit! I use it all the time in different things and it always looks so pretty. The plates behind them are some of the Christmas plates I have painted. I'm going to try and start painting one each year.

Since we got married, I have painted or made an ornament each year for us and do one for each child with the year. We have quite a collection and I'm so proud of all of them! They don't care too much about them like I do but they will be so proud of them one day when they have them to hang on their own tree. Maybe I have started a tradition with them. My friend Lindsey painted one for me this year. Isn't it great?!

Hannah always paints her own ornament. This one is from this year.

Matthew's....

Andrew's....

Lighted garland around the front doors with my ribbon wreaths! Looks pretty at night too.

Hannah and her friend making Christmas cookies. We do this every year also. MOST of the time they are edible. I enjoy it just as much as they do! Just realized I don't have a pic of my Christmas houses but you can see a little bit of them in this picture in the background on the counter. A few of these were also given to me when we got married. Good thing about getting married in December...get lots of good Christmas stuff!!

I've made several of these as happies this year already..German Chocolate pound cake. YUM!!!

and FUDGE with pecans!!

and last but not least the tree...Since Drew is deployed again this Christmas, I was just going to put up a pre lit one but Hannah had a fit so Andrew and Matthew got this one from Lowe's and together we got it up. After they did, I was glad because it smells SOOOO good. I don't have half my ornaments on it this year...decided to just go with all of our family ones and handmade ones.

On K Love radio the other day, they were having a time of people calling in with funny Christmas accident stories. At first I thought, How horrible! That's not funny, but the more I listened to stories, the funnier it got. One guy fell through the floor of the attic while getting the Christmas decorations. As if that wasn't bad enough, the box of decorations fell on top of him through the attic. He had broken ribs, an arm and I believe a punctured lung. His family of course after making sure he was ok thought it was hysterical..Only now, years later is he able to laugh about it. I was reading a blog that I follow last year and I was splitting my sides laughing about her mishap. She was getting decorations out and stepped on the lid to a rubbermaid box...did the serious splits...and broke her leg! I don't think we've ever had any serious holiday accident..other than we went through a period of about 5 years in a row that our Christmas tree fell in the middle of the night....except once, it did fall directly on top of the boys as they watched tv. All I could see was legs and arms and hollering...I didn't do it!!! They were fine but scared to death! I hope my holiday tour hasn't bored you to tears. It truly is my favorite time of the year. I love my family and our traditions. I miss Drew tremendously and look forward to this time next year. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

sticky notes and Bible quotes

This was the title of Hannah's second grade play...and it just happens to be what I'm relying on lately. I can't seem to write my self enough sticky notes . In fact, I may be rubbing off on my daughter. I'm looking at a sticky note stuck to my monitor that say, "Songs I want on my iPod" and then a long list. Maybe Santa needs to bring her an iTunes gift card... or me too for that matter. I actually wrote on a note today at work of something I wanted (we draw names for Christmas) Potholders was on my list. Does that mean you're old if you request potholders for Christmas? Enough of the sticky notes. On to Bible quotes. I have an array of verses that have been flashing through my head lately...only could be divinely sent, right? They come through songs on K-Love or 93.5, they come through Miss Nan (my brilliant Life Group teacher), they come through our pastor, I could list all night...but they are coming and it's what gets me through. I pray that the same is happening for Drew and he is finding comfort in it like I am.
I found several pictures I wanted to share. Most are already on Facebook, but hey, what isn't on Facebook..

Miss Hannah lovin' on her brothers. My they are so handsome, don't ya think?
I just had to take this for Drew. He's worried they aren't taking care of the truck while he's gone. So, Papaw gave them a sho nuff lesson in oil changing and other things. I think they knew it all had to be done but expected someone to take care of it for them. They're gonna do just fine.

Hannah digging out one of the pumpkins. She always LOVES to get her hands down in a pumpkin....SO much so that she puts it all back in after she cleans it out and does it again. Hmm..maybe she'll be a surgeon one day.

Here's our redneck trick or treatin' crew. No hay...just lounge chairs. Get'er done!!

Last but not least, my honey offering a little girl something. UUgghh...makes my heart hurt. OK...I need a Bible quote.

Fall Back

Among many other things...aaahhh..this is by far my favorite week of the year. The week we get to set our clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep. Mistletoe Marketplace is upon us. For those of you who live in a closet and don't know what that is..it's basically a chaotic event that the Junior League of Jxn puts on that is a free-for-all to get your Christmas shopping started...Mind boggling, yet fun and festive. Wouldn't miss it for the world. Cooking...LOVE to cook this time of year, planting stuff and getting all decorated for the seasons to come. This year will be a little different for us without Drew...We survived in 2005 when he was deployed for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suppose we can make it again. He certainly wouldn't want us all sitting around sad.
On a lighter note...here's several photos from the past couple weeks...


The state fair came and went. We enjoyed as usual. Had to get this pic. My grandfather use to sit this exact way an awful lot...just out in the yard..there he would sit.. squatting down, flat footed. Funny, Hannah never knew him, but she sits this way ALOT!!

Hannah and bestie, Olivia..

Hannah and I at Madison Central Homecoming pep rally. My word...my ear drums will never be the same again..


Buds.....and a teacher..dressed like Michael Jackson...hmmmm...

carving pumpkins....

How 'bout our patriotic pumpkin...

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

completely meaningless...

Thanks to my blog-friend Junebug, she inspired me to blog about everyday occurrences. I've got lots of those. Really too many to mention. But here goes..
OK, so some of you know I had the Lasik procedure on my eyes last Friday. Greatest thing since sliced bread. Really. And I'm weird..really weird about my eyes, but I'd do it again tomorrow. I mean, who knew there were individual leaves on trees. It's a miracle!
Also, not news to anyone that I miss my husband tremendously. But hey, we're almost at the half way mark. If you've argued with your husband today, go directly and apologize (even if you were not at fault) Life is too short for that little stuff.
I unstopped the upstairs tub last week. Huge sense of accomplishment for me. I will however need some help (I think!) getting the Christmas tree out of the attic when the time comes. He would croak if he knew I was not putting up a real tree. Just can't so that by myself..unless of course someone would like to help with that as well..
My tire pressure light has been on in the car now for a week or so. Never done air in the tires before. I know, I know...if I can unstop a tub, I can do that... I'll get around to it.
I've been cooking lately. ALOT. Anybody need some good recipes? I'm your girl.
Cleaned out all my pots and flower beds today in preparation for this weekend. Putting out pansies, kale and mums....oh and pine straw.. My eye doctor has instructed me to wear protective goggles. I don't even know what to say about that. Anyhoo..
What's up with the Silly/Animal Bandz?????????? Oh my word..they are like gold in Madison. I offered to let Hannah wear all the rubber jelly bracelets we got to wear to an 80's party not long ago and I got THE LOOK. "Not the same Mom." So, yes, I trekked around looking for someone who had some left...finally found some...I think I heard the Hallelujah chorus play when she cracked the package open.
I bought myself some fresh flowers and arranged them on my kitchen table last week. It made me feel really good.
I think I'm addicted to the sushi at Kroger. The sushi maker, I'm pretty sure doesn't speak any English, but he knows why I come and what kind I like.
Anybody seen Stepfather at the theater? I REALLY want to. We have been into watching some scary stuff lately!
I could see how I could carry on this way for quite a while but I won't. Thanks Junebug for the push!!