February- It must be jumping

My friend SB has a blog and I love her blog header. I love her blog too.

I told my tech support about my love for her blog header and she emailed SB. SB gave her the low down on it and now I have a new blog header.

It is my goal to have a new header every month this year.

For February, I chose jumping

From L-R on the top you see Marisa, John, Kaitlin, Taylor and Andrew at Uncle T's- Marisa and John at a local park-Marisa and Taylor at the beach in NC- John, Marisa, Money, Bubbles, Taylor, Andrew and Kaitlin at the beach in FL.

Bottom Row L-R Bri, Kaitlin and Marisa in our yard- John, Marisa, Kaitlin, Andrew, Taylor in Macon, MS at Chris's house- Alex, Kaitlin, Money, Robert, John, William, Marisa and Andrew at the beach in NC- John, Marisa, Money, Bubbles, Kaitlin, Taylor and Andrew at Chris's family tailgate in AUBURN.

Enjoy!

Libraries and Mama and Friends

Grief is an interesting thing.

I wish it would announce that it is about to overwhelm you so you could get in a safe place but it doesn't.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to Not Buy as many books but I know I will still read lots this year, so, I need to go to the library.

The Library.

I love the library and I always have. My mama's water broke with me when she was in the library so my love for the place started at a very early age.

My mother was a librarian all her life with her love of books, reading and all manner of learning. She was employed as one for 10 years of her life too.

I have many of her books. I love reading them and running my hands over them as I pass by the shelf they are on. I don't have them all in one area but all over so that I can see them in every bookcase I have.

Marisa is very patience to listen to stories of my mama and Mama's books bring out many stories.

After Mama died I couldn't got to the library for awhile. It was too hard for me.

With my New Year's Resolution I needed to go back to the library. I've been twice in January. I love my library. It is Southwestern in design, all on one level, not too big but it has a nice 'new book' section. Also, I can get online and have books from all over the system sent to my library.

It was hard going back.

The first time I walked in, I had to walk right back out again- too painful.

I went again yesterday. I had ordered two books: Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson and Leaving Yesterday by Kathryn Cushman. I went in to get them and walk back out if need be. I was able to stay longer. I walked up and down every aisle in the adult section- looking and smelling and just savoring. It was wonderful, like meeting up with an old friend again.

As I got ready to leave, a lady came into the library. She greeted the librarians like old friends and they, her. She talked a minute about the bad weather that was expected here and then she said that most folks stock up on milk and bread during an ice storm but she stocks up on books.

That sounded just like something my mama would have said! I felt so at home.

My books are all 14 day books so I am planning another trip in two weeks, if not sooner. It feels good to be home again.

Box? What Box?

Do you think outside the box?

A Picture of Heaven named Evelyn, Anne and Nicole

God in His wonderful graciousness permits us to see glimpses of Heaven every now and again. There are different glimpses for different people and we should keep our eyes focused on Him and not on these glimpses lest we get disappointed when every day doesn't lead to one.

Some times these are a sunrise or sunset, a piece of music, a talk, speech or sermon that moves you, and sometimes it is wonderful fellowship.

I had one last night with a group of women from church.

Nicole is in charge of a ministry called 'table for 4'. The goal is for 4 women to meet for 4 months and just get to know each other better. The goal is to pair 2 older women and 2 younger women. My group consisted of Nicole, Evelyn, Anne and myself. I was one of the 'older women'.

Last night was our 4th time to meet. We met at Evelyn's house.

We talked about the following:

children's names

our names

upcoming events at church

recent trips we had taken

education

politics

cancer

the church nursery

the upcoming weather

weddings

church history

plus about a billion more topics

When I list what we talked about it seems so mundane but when we were talking about them the sharing was very deep and we laughed, oh how, we laughed. I came away knowing I was loved, very encouraged, and ready to get back into the daily grind because I was so uplifted.

We have been assigned new 'table for 4 groups' to begin in February and I am excited to learn from and about my new group.

Pop! We've all enjoyed it

Happy Birthday Bubble Wrap!

Project Julie!

Here are the models.

Do they look like Barbies to you? Well, they are on the Barbies on Project Runway-Julie style.

There was even a real sign!
Erin, Charles and Chris were the judges.
Chris was the main judge and asked all the questions like 'What was your inspiration?' and 'Tell me about you outfit'
The designers with their models. The designers didn't stand in correct order (silly designers) so I'll be your guide. Designers in order L-R are Kaitlin, Julie, Brianna, Marisa and Bubbles. The models from L-R belong to Julie, Marisa, Bubbles, Brianna and Kaitlin. We were to create a design using the Masquerade theme.
Here is the winner! Her prize was the boa!We plan to have another challenge in February. Our theme is recycled material. Stayed tuned.

January trip-swimming with manatees

This is Kaitlin doing her Ode To Barbara Manatee song and dance at 5 am.
At 5:30 we had our Manatee Manners video and lesson. We learned that you can only touch a manatee with one hand plus many other rules. My favorite rule is 'no giving any water to the manatees'. Wait, let me think about that a minute, they are in water and how would you give them water anyway?
Andrew in his wet suit
our group, notice the coats- it is 27 degrees
notice the darkness
notice the coats and cold looks on their faces- did I mention it is 27 degrees?
Here they are putting on vests to help them float
getting her game face on
the water temperature is 72 near the springs but colder near the surface and 27 is the air temperature. They said they had trouble catching their breath it was so cold.


John and Marisa

here are Kaitlin and Taylor. They found out early on that the Manatees like bright colored things like K's hair and T's hot pink toenails. Even with the warning that the manatees won't come around you if you are not silent, the girls squealed as the manatees pulled on their toes and the loose belts from their vests. They think they squealed on the same wave length as the manatees talked because the manatees flocked to them.
here is Money the manatee whisperer. They put their little manatee arms -ok, ok, flippers- around his legs and arms. I think they wanted to take him with them.

Here is the inside of our boat. In the back on the left is a dressing room and on the right is the bathroom. We had the whole boat to ourselves which was wonderful. We were able to bring the swimmers out one at a time and all of us could help to get them dry.

Here is my sweet brother, John and his sweet wife Elaine. The first swimmer up was Marisa. And to say she was cold would be an understatement. The captain of the boat helped with her wetsuit and then she put on warm clothes. Even with her warm clothes she was shivering, no, she was SHIVERING. Uncle John had to hold her hot cocoa for her to drink it because she was spilling it with each shiver. When Aunt Elaine realized that Marisa didn't have any socks, Aunt Elaine took off a pair of socks and put them on Marisa. Now mind you, it was still really cold and Aunt Elaine had to take off her shoes to take off a pair of her socks for Marisa. I know that Marisa got her feet warmed up by the socks but Aunt Elaine's actions warmed me up from the inside out.

Barbara Manatee!


ah! daylight
do you see John and Marisa?
our bus
our boat.
Here is Kaitlin with a stuffed Manatee. One of my friends, ElizabethT, thought I said that we were going to swim with Mannequins! We laughed so hard about that. Here is Kaitlin swimming with a manatee mannequin!

We had breakfast after the swim at a local restaurant that our boat captain told us about.
It was great. I got hot cocoa and it warmed me up.

January trip-breakfast with Jennifer

When Andrew was a student at AUBURN he met Robert and they became fast friends. Robert and his wife, Jennifer and daughter, Emma now live in Valdosta, where Robert works for the same company as Andrew does. While we were in Valdosta we had breakfast with Jennifer and Emma. I am so glad that they moved to Valdosta so that we can see them more.
Jennifer fixed us a wonderful breakfast pizza and a big bowl of fruit. A great time was had by all.

January trip -Christmas in Georgia

I am sorry you can't see Andrew's face. He really wanted to keep the bag that he gave to John for Christmas. John loves the bag and promptly packed his clothes in it.Here is everyone with their loot.


I think my favorite gift was a sheet of AUBURN stamps. That is right folks, AUBURN stamps. How cool is that.





Andrew and Taylor got Aunt Elaine this oven mitt. Aunt Elaine loves all things Disney.A fun time was had by all.

January trip

This is what the cart looked like as we checked in to our motels.
When we went to AUBURN, I got some new gloves,
we all got some great lemonade and limeade,
walked around just a little,
had a wonderful lunch,
shopped at every single bookstore, we got Carl a jacket, Kaitlin some pants, John a beanie, (we tried to buy Chris's dad a new outfit but Chris said no, I am sorry I didn't take pictures of said outfit on my camera)
drove around the campus,

We did not buy this. One of us was disappointed, the rest of us were not. She does plan to make one.
It was chilly even in the car. Any drinks left in there were frozen.