TIS' the Season....

23 days til CHRISTMAS!!

That's it.... I really could have sworn that two days ago it was 37 days! WOW, does time fly! I am excited though. I love the "togetherness" that Christmas usually brings. Usually even the friends and foes can come together on this one (I will update you on how that works @ my workplace, because that can happen here, peace on earth should be pretty dang close)!!

I have found that it seems to be much more merrier times when people really stop and celebrate the real meaning of Christmas and not get caught in the commercial aspect of it. Hopefully with times being so tough right now with almost everyone, many will be forced to celebrate it in that manner. Once you do it once, you will want to continue to do it to recreate the wonderful peace within it brings for everyone.

I talked to my brother in B'ham last night, who has three children. I asked how he felt about letting the kids draw names and that be it. He was all for it and said because we are not able to get together as often as we would like, he doesn't want the kids to relate that when we do, there always seems to be presents, instead of sharing quality family time. Not only does it lift the stress financially but I much rather have quality time with family and friends than anything else, especially those I do not get to see often. I am really looking forward to that.

This is a special Christmas for me in others too. It will be my first Christmas to spend with Nathan and Chloe and the rest of his family and I should be moved into our new little farm house the week of! Really looking forward to getting in there, although I had to pick the busiest time of the year, but HEY.... if it is not hectic, it's not me pulling stuff off. Actually come to think of it that entire week is crazy. I have all of my Christmas orders to make sure are filled, I have an event at the Guild, I have Jace's Christmas party at school to be in charge of, a banquet to go to in Alabama that weekend, a breakfast for our Board and our luncheon, plus move. WOW! This ought to be interesting. Yuck! Now what I see it in black and white.... O well! I will just brace myself and pull through it as usual. My wonderful boyfriend seems to know when to step in, although if he reads this may decide to head out of town that week (if he was thinking cleverly). LOL!

Regardless, I am just going to take it as it comes and promise myself to enjoy every moment of it. Memories is what I find to be the silver lining in it all. I will just have probably a little more of them to tell when I am old and sitting around with the other ladies in a nursing home.

I hope that everyone will enjoy the season for the reason, relax, make wonderful memories with their loved ones and avoid the stress that usually comes with this time of the year. That is my goal for the season! Maybe it will make for a great beginning of a new year as well!

Until then....

My Thanksgiving Holiday!

My Thanksgiving turned out to be much more enjoyable as I figured it to be. Not that I was dreading any of the plans we made, but it was the first year in a while not being at my Papa's and cooking. Thanksgiving was his holiday and I have dreaded having it without him since he passed away. Ironically enough, I felt very close to him that day. We traveled to Louisiana to visit Nathan's parents and grandmother. Although I have been there once before, I noticed some things for the first time which blew me away. Wednesday night after we arrived and ate, I was standing there in kitchen and putting away some food and all of the sudden it hit me what we'd be doing then if he were still alive and that would be cooking his famous meat sauce. We did this for the past three years the night before Thanksgiving. He cooked it for the girls because we loved it so much.

(this is pic of the last time we made it together 3/09)

Of course, I got a little upset and decided to go outside and visit his star that my kids picked out for him the night he passed away and what a beautiful clear sky it was. After coming in, I got ready for bed and pulled the covers down and there was a blue blanket, identical to the one my Papa had that him and fought over for the past two years and he gave me several days before he died and usually I carry that blanket with me and happen to have left it this go round. The next morning, I decided to go outside and spend some time viewing God's beauty and read his word. As I walked out on the back porch, I look around and could see my Papa everywhere. His grandmother had Christmas cactus everywhere and what I call airplane plants.

These are the same things that my Papa loved to grow and had his green house filled with them. Never had I seen a Christmas cactus anywhere else. It blew me away. I continued to look around and sit out there and just saw so many things that were him and felt such a wonderful peace about it. To top it all off, my Papa's favorite desert was a coconut cake and we had one every Christmas and every Thanksgiving, which is not the most common holiday desert and guess what Nathan's mother made.... a coconut cake. Crazy! I called it ironic, but tome there really is nothing ironic about things like that; it is all God's doings. I have to say that the first part of this year was one of the toughest in my life, but the second half, God has really done some amazing things in my life and blessed me with so much. If ever I have doubted (not that I have) that God is constantly working in my life, he has erased any doubt possible. He has been so so good to me! I spent a good bit of that time outside Thanksgiving morning, thanking him for all of those blessings. He put me where I needed to be and I gave him all the glory for it. Not only did he surround me with my Papa, he put these people in my life to share it with and I enjoyed sharing my first Thanksgiving without my Papa with them. Nathan and his family are a blessing just as well. Always remember, God is good and turn loose and let him work in your life. It seems to work out much better. I can testify to that!

We traveled back to MS that evening and got ready for our Thanksgiving dinner with my family. My mother came home from Alabama and my dad came in from Alabama too and we enjoyed our Thanksgiving Friday evening. We spent the night over my brothers, the entire family Thursday night and built a fire and sat around it telling stories on one another and the kids made smores. It was very nice and relaxing. Friday morning, my sister-in-law, my daughter and I hit the "BLACK FRIDAY" sales (which I said that I was not going to do).

We left the house about 2:30 am and headed out, with no sleep basically but coffee in hand. We got to our first store that opened at 3am and by 9:30am we had hit 7 stores and one of those twice. It was not bad at all and we had a great time. I was so excited because I got my 119.00 quilt I had been eyeing for 29.00.

Yep, 29.00!

The lack of sleep was worth every bit of that so now I have the bedspread that I truly wanted and saved 100.00 on it. It was funny because this was my daughter's first time to experience it and probably by 8:30 or so, she was literally dragging bags throughout the mall. I enjoyed her being with me though and she enjoyed it too! By 11:00 that morning, heading home we all starting showing clear signs of deliriousness and were VERY tired. I think we all took about an hour nap at some point throughout the day in between preparing our dinner and it would be safe to say that the three of us all called it an early night that night!

It was a great Thanksgiving and actually got me a bit more excited about the holiday season. I look forward to those memories being made and spending more time with the people I love.

IN SEARCH OF THE BEST BEDROOM EVER CREATED....

Well I am still on the search for the perfect bedroom...........I will be moving in December to a little farm house and get the chance to re-do my room. I want it to clean lined, simply, feminine (but not girly), and very warm. I have looked at bedspreads, covers, blankets, comforters until I almost NEVER want to even see another one. I am NOT a picky person by any means whatsoever, but I am having the hardest time finding what it is I want or have pictured in my mind. Well let me back up a minute, I am having a hard time finding what I want in a price range that is not going to kill me especially here at Christmas.

Here is the inspiration for my room though. This is a pic Nathan and I took in New Orleans. I LOVE it! NO has some of the prettiest scenery to me.

The walls are already painted an ivory, beige color and I like it unusually. I want a fern or sage color as main color and accent it with rust colors and a light beige. I have found a million different things in this color, but either crazy high in price or can't get it all to come together.

The second, third and somewhere between the forth and fifth blankets pictured are the colors I was trying to work in...

I want the lightest color to top the bed to keep it open and airy and feminine.

I just know that it is driving me nuts. I need a recommended site that sells bedding at AFFORDABLE prices. These are not expensive it is just that by the time you buy the ones you need, you still have sheets to get, bedskirt and blah blah and it really does not work out. Anyway, any recommendations are welcomed before I drive myself SO crazy and actually I would love one night not to dream about a bedspread! It's not even a big important thing either but it is stuck in my head!

New Necklace

1 Corinthians 13:13

(New International Version)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This was the inspiration of this necklace. I came across this verse (AGAIN) while reading and it really stuck in my head this time. I was working on some jewelry the other night about 1:30am and was thinking about the verse again so I put down what I was working on and this transpired. I love it. Since I have made it on a round disc that I slightly domed and made the word "love" a bit bigger and actually love it even more. I just absolutely love that verse. I gives you something to really believe in this day in time in the "prepatory world" anyway (in my own opinion).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!

Romans 12:6-9

Let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.


I get a bible verse everyday from my church and this is the one from today! Thought it was a great one to share, as they all are, but this one particularly. Very simple and to the point.

Have a blessed day!