We made up for the last time

Tracey and I try and set aside a little girl time about every 3 months. However, it seems like something always comes up, and I mean that literally. Remember last time? I ended up getting sick at her house on Saturday morning, and I had a two hour drive home, after I had been throwing up. Meh. 

Anxiously, we planned this trip for January, and prayed that all of us would stay healthy, and thankfully we did! Yipee! (Even though I am now battling a lovely head cold, but a mere head cold cant stop me. I'm tough like that)

It was important to me that Tracey and Brittany meet each other. It's strange to have friends, and your other friends don't know them. You know? So, a plan was set. Friday night...bum, bum, bum.......

Tracey and Brittany finally met, and I was like an obnoxious mom. "Brittany, Tracey has been to Australia and Russia on mission trips, isn't that neat!!" It was like I was trying to set them up or something. What can I say? I love them both and wanted them to like each other. 

I don't think they needed me though....

 We sat and ate and gabbed, and discussed important things, like how do you get your hair to curl like that, Teen Mom, and The Bachelor. And within no time, we decided to go shop.

Seeing that I had gift cards from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket, we mostly looked for me. And I don't even want to admit out loud, where we ended up. Sheepishly, I will admit it....FOREVER 21.

I recognize that I am in fact 37, and 21 has well since passed. But Kelly Stamps says she shops there, so if she does, then I can, right?

 I also handed off my camera while I was trying on all my outfits. Somebody was having too much fun while I was in there. My boots....

 My boots again...

 Self portrait of some pretty girls....

 Random young people who belong in FOREVER 21!

 More random young people....

 And me channeling my inner young girl, circa 1997.

 But take heart, I was not the only one playing around. Check out Brittany here, who looks like she belongs on Dallas, with a scotch in her hand. Love it! It was a fun Friday night. :))))

 So, Saturday Tracey and I were ready to do some more shopping damage. But first we had to represent that we are in fact Indiana girls at heart.

 We decided to head to Nashville to shop, the first mall we went to was Cool Spring Galleria and I did not take a single pic. Head cold was coming on strong, and I was also in the heat of shopping. Shopping, takes serious concentration, you know? After lunch though, I spotted something in the distance...something so good, that I just had to frolic around a tree....Starbucks.

 Tracey tried her first Frappacunio. Even though, I'm not sure if it counted. It was strawberries and creme, no coffee in it. Wimp.

 We, well I, was hopped up on caffeine and decided we would find the other mall that everyone had told us to go to. The Mall at Green Hills. Who needs GPS, when you have Gretchen giving you directions? And can you believe we found it???? I give all the credit to Tracey though, you know if it were me driving, right now we would be in Alabama.

 First stop. Brittany had told us to check this place out. It's packed with NEAT painted furniture, for reasonable prices! SO cool!!

 After Nadeau, we finally made it to the mall, where one of the first stores we ventured into was so fun!!

 This place was a HUGE jewelry/purse/just pure fun store. We must have looked around for an hour! JaimeMac, I took this for you. Just a very small portion of the store that was just purple jewelry. You would have died!

 Dad, I saw this and thought of you!

 And mom, I saw this and thought of you! They serve gelato!!

 After we had shopped most of the day, we headed back to BG, I was in need of some medicine. Speaking of which, I bought some NyQuil, and got carded!!! How funny is that?! Guess they think I'm going to make some Meth with it?? Who knows.

But only being able to breathe out of one nostril didn't stop us still, because there were two more things we knew had to get done before this weekend was over.

 First, we had 3 cupcakes to attend to. At 9:57 at night. Oh.my.word. We split these between us, and seriously almost died from sugar and butter poisoning. I'm happy to report that we did survive though

 And we went to church together this morning. I really wanted Tracey to see where we go now, and I'm SO happy that she could go. I felt really rough this morning, but it was so good to have here there.

This was such a great weekend!! I'm thankful for Paul and Eric, who took the kids for the weekend for us, and are understanding of letting us have our time. We missed you Jami! Hopefully next time you can join us. :) And mostly I'm happy to say that we made up for the last time. No puking, no sick kids, just pure blessed friend time.

Hope House

Tonight we had an opportunity to serve at Hope House. Hope House is a ministry that helps people in need,  with food, clothing, furniture, etc. Kinda like Goodwill, except that the gospel is given to every person that comes through. 

Our jobs tonight were to fill bags with food for at risk children.

 By the time we finished, there were 437 bags filled. (We didn't fill all 437, there had been shifts of people throughout the day.)

437 bags=10% of children here in our area that will go hungry this weekend.  437 bags that are filled every single week to be handed out to kids on Friday's.

 In fact, their last meal may be on Friday at school. So these bags with milk, bars, fruit, etc., will help tide them over throughout the weekend.

 437 bags is only 10%!!!!!! How blessed my children are.

 How blessed I am.

 And blessed to have friends to serve along with. (LeAnn and Averi)

 And I pray that we as a family can continue to serve others.

 And maybe next time I start to whine about wanting a new camera, or table, or clothes, or whatever I'm whining about at that moment...

 Maybe I'll just take a moment to think of those hungry kids, and just shut my whiny mouth.

My little hoarder

My little blue eyed, precious boy. The one that I would die for, the one that I would take on a 2 ton grizzly bear for, the one that I would scale Mt. Everest for, makes me crazy. You see, he likes to keep EVERYTHING. Any little trinket he picks up, any little thing from school, anything that is bought for him. It's all gotta stay, and it all needs to be displayed.

Example right here. Shelves are loaded with things.

 And I go through phases with this. Sometimes I just let it go, and try and ignore it.

 But eventually, I can't stand it anymore, and I just have to purge.

 And while I'm in the throws of purging and being frustrated with my precious blue eyed boy

 I come across things he's drawn or written

 And just like that I'm mush. And somehow appreciate my little hoarder and what makes him, well, him.

 Not to say that I didn't try and tidy up some of that stuff! But now in a I am appreciative of who you are, kind of way.

Back to reality

Today was a bittersweet day. Alarm went off and I knew I had to get right up, instead of my normal, hit snooze a minimum of 4 times then get up. Back to school, and Tom and Pam leaving. It's been a wonderful few weeks filled with lots of fun, but yet I'm ready for my routine. Not to mention my house is a mess! We will miss Meemaw and Grandpa though. 

The last few day, the kids have been all about this house right here. 

 One of those that you color after you put it up (like the one you have Jami)

 But Hope has especially loved it!!

 It's just her size, and she loves playing pretend in there.

 She's eaten dinner in there, and who else could convince grown ups to crawl on in. Hope of course.

 She even set up a Christmas tree with gifts for her very own Christmas. And yes, my Christmas is still up. I know, I know, get it down already!! Maybe I'll just leave it up year round....

 I thought it was great that we had just a little snow last night! Enough for the kids to romp around for a few, and right before it was time to go back to school. Honestly, I thought they would probably cancel, considering our 14!!!! snow days last year. :)

 But back to reality for these little two right here, meant saying goodbye to Meemaw and Grandpa. Sigh.

Now back to cleaning and organizing! I'm on a mission....

Scanning is addictive

When it comes to technology I am always 20 steps behind. Always. And if you know anything about my dad, he's about 20 steps in front of the rest of the world. I know my dad just shakes his head, when he has to spend 965 hours talking me through the simplest things (hi dad!) And thanks to him, I now can scan stuff. I am well aware that people have been scanning for a long time now, but it's a wonder I don't blog by typewriter and telegraph. 

So, between last night and today, I've just been looking for things to scan. If you sit still long enough, I might try and scan you. 

I started with my favorite subjects of all!! 

 Next two things, were gifts Hope made for us at pre-school.

 Practicing her name!

 One of Pierce's spelling test, that he got a perfect score on!

 And one of his journal entries. 'I like having a feld chrep and riting a bus'

 Then, I decided to move onto random pictures....Look at my sweet baby girl.

 Makes me sad.

 Oh snap!

 Waaaaa!!!!! (This is me crying like a maniac)

And how about we check me out in high school.

Holy tanning bed batman. Let's just ignore my hair why don't we?

 Photo booth at the RIVER FALLS MALL, shout out if you remember that!

 Hi-larious. I went to the Prom with a guy from NEW ALBANY high school, that was big time for a Graceland chick. Also, Hope saw this picture and said, "mommy who is this?" "Oh, just a friend from high school" "Is this daddy?" "No, it's not" (then she starts making an ugly face) and she proceeds to say, "I don't like him, and I want you to throw this picture away!" HA!!!!

 In my twenties, getting ready to go out.

 I think this was a night out in Memphis.

 During the blonde era.

 And here was my super short hair phase.

 But my two of my favorite things I scanned today, is Paul not even a year old. Sweetness!

 And my Grandad.

Oh what fun and how addictive scanning is!!!

2011 was a record breaking year for me

Those professional Olympic athletes are breaking records every year.

Regis Philbin broke records for hours on t.v.

My sister broke the record for most points in a basketball game her senior year (50 points!)

And I myself broke a record in 2011,  drum roll please......

I blogged 173 posts in 2011.

Hold your applause please. I understand, it's astounding. 

Check out my previous stats though.

In 2008 I posted 31 times, and might I add those posts were pretty darn boring.

In 2009 I brought it, and posted 125 times.

In 2010 I posted 100 times. Ouch.

And this year was a whopping 173 times. 

So, here's to 2012 and outdoing my previous record!!