Christmas Tea

Last week was one of the busiest weeks of my life...

but such a good one!

Through one of our homeschool groups, I was invited to attend a local Christmas Tea.

It was a lot of fun.

I even volunteered to decorate a table.

I loved the chance to use the Christmas china I've been collecting over the last few years.

Don't get me wrong, we use them at the house, but I never get to see them on a 'set' table.

One day, I WILL have a true dining room that I can make beautiful.

Who needs functional, right?

And the very, very, very best part of the day?

It would have to be that I was able to share it with The GodWoman!

I'm Back! Birthday Edition

It has been forever since I blogged, but...

-Today is my birthday!

-I was told to relax and enjoy the whoooooole day!

-So here's my chance to get caught up in the blogosphere.

(And, oh my word- Blogger sure has changed while I was away!  I couldn't even figure out how to move my pictures around the easy way I had used before, so all of these pictures are completely out of order.  Oh, well!)

I've had friends and family tell me how far behind my blog is, and all I could say was, "I've been so busy living, I haven't had time to blog about living!"

And that's the truth!

This boys has kept me on my toes.

It's been in a great way!
But, I am NOT a fan of this growing up thing!

We've been able to spend time with friends.

This night we were enjoying the drive-in movie.

The boys have been busy with karate.

We survived a HOT summer.

This photo was the end of May... hotter weather was ahead!

We spent a week with the grandparents at the beach.

Stayed at our usual place.

Love the fireworks there!

Enjoyed a night with good friends.

The kids had a great time.

But, we sure hated to see one of the families head back to Tennessee.

Began a new school year.

Figured out that using Friday afternoons for Math Bingo was a fantastic motivator for the joys to finish up their work!

Had a quick visit with The Baby brother.

:(

Wish he could have stayed longer.

Love that he has to come to my town for business a few times a year!

My first-born became a teenager.

I cried!

Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of this whole growing up thing???

And my baby turned 11.

How dare he?

Because, in my mind, I'm still only 23!

There's no way I can possibly have an 11-year-old!!!

Aside from crying over my children growing up on me, we did manage to squeeze in a little more during the summer.

We ate our weight in tomatoes straight from the garden.

Have you ever eaten a tomato still warm from the garden?

If you did, you'd become a tomato snob like me, and not dare to eat tomatoes in the off-season.

They just taste like mush once you've eaten true, fresh ones.

These beauties came from our neighbor.

He was always bringing up tomatoes and cucumbers from him garden.

They were incredible!!!

We spent a few days at the beach with Little Miss Priss.

Lord knows, I love that child!

We spent a few more days at the beach with The Godfather and The GodWoman.

We made some serious changes to the house.

I'm loving it!

Superman is awesome, as usual!

I'll eventually get all the before and after pictures together so that I can show you just how many changes we made.

And early in the summer, when we stayed at the beach with the grandparents (but stinkin' Blogger won't let me move these pictures up there without making me pull my hair out) the boys were able to swim with the stingrays at the aquarium.

On that same trip, we celebrated Grammy's birthday.

She's pretty amazing at spoiling the joys, so we had a chance to spoil her back just a little!

365: Days 23-29

1/23/11
Cameron still loves Legos.
I see no end in sight!
And, I must say, that makes me happy!
I love them, too, except for when I step on one.
1/24/11
On his way out with our carpool to karate.
So glad that he enjoys karate now!
Incredibly thankful for good friends that make karate even more fun.1/25/11
I've found a new favorite at our local Chinese take-out place...
Vegetable Mei Fun with no mushrooms or broccoli.
One order of this can literally feed 3 of us.1/26/11
I spent today helping Wyatt DEEP CLEAN his room.
This was when we were almost done- 2 of the 3 bags of trash.
Who knew one child could make such a mess?

I had promised him 30 minutes of help, which turned out to be more along the lines of two hours.

We rearranged some things, took out some furniture, brought in some other pieces.

It's looking really good now!
I need to make a couple of curtains for his room, then it will be finished!

1/27/11
We had a surprise visit from Grammy & PawPaw today.
They were on their way home from a meeting at the beach.
Love that our house just so happens to be 'on the way' to so many of PawPaw's meetings!

1/28/11
Thanks heavens for these two!
While The GodWoman and I were working on a picture video, we had issues with some of the music files.
Superman and The Godfather fixed it for us.
Add that to the list of reasons we're thankful for them.

1/29/11
We traveled to Raleigh this weekend to celebrate Natalie's 40th birthday.
She is some kind of wonderful!
You know how there are sometimes people in your life that you truly feel blessed to have had an opportunity to know?
Well, Natalie is one of those people.
She has special needs, and I learned this weekend that she wasn't expected to survive the first year of her life.
I'm so grateful that God chose to keep her here on this Earth for a lot longer!
I'm a better person for having known her!

Day 212~

I'd never had a pedicure until a year ago when THE GodWoman took me as a treat!

We went again this weekend, to have a little girl-time.

Add that to my running list of reasons that I'm thankful for Superman in my life!

If it weren't for him, I'd never have know THE GodWoman or THE Godfather.

I'm supremely blessed to have such a wonderful set of friends... friends that will be in our lives forever!

Blessed!

Day 211~ Chelsea Handler

I love this man!

Have I ever said that before?He took me to see Chelsea Handler's comedy tour this weekend, bought me a COSLOPUS t-shirt, and
had us spend time with THE Godparents!
They are crazy-funny!
And I love them!

Day 17~

Day 16~

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We spent this weekend with THE Godparents. When they are in town, there is always lots of fun to be had!

Superman's business helped sponsor the Power Pro Wrestling event held at one of the local middle schools. So, of course, we went!

(More on Hacksaw here.)

That particular gym just happened to have been Superman's and the Godfather's high school gym 20-something years ago. It was a nostalgic night. tee-hee!

Wyatt was in rare form! He loves spending time with THE Godparents, but in order for me to get this picture, I had to first get this one:

and this one:and this one:Thank heavens the Godwoman knows how to handle him!I love these two!
They are the best friends a couple could ask for!


I managed to get one more pic that I really must share! Maybe it should have been my picture of the day...Yes, ma'am! This wrestler's behind really does say, "AS SEEN ON TV".