33 HA

I am so sorry I didn't take a picture of the article in our local paper saying that July was a banner month for my library system. They checked out more books than ever.

EVER

Remember this post

I take a little credit for the increase circulation, I'm just saying.

Are you crafty???

Kaitlin and I had a craftcation or a staycation with crafts or a craftlapaloosa! We randomly picked a week out in August and decided that we were going to dedicate that week to crafts. When Kaitlin got her work schedule we were stunned that she had three days off in a row that week. She has never had that. How perfect!

In my preparation for our week, I cleaned off my desk so I could scrapbook in the same room as Kaitlin sewed and I found a gift certificate for Mt Fuji- thanks JenniferW! We used it one day for lunch.

I did all I could on my scrapbook called 'It's all about Kaitlin'. That is the scrapbook about her senior show, graduation and fun party afterwards. I then ordered pictures to finish it up and they should be here soon. I then started on the wedding albums for Marisa and John's wedding. I am doing an album for them and me too. I got all the photos culled for the first album which will be mine. I did this with Taylor too. I get all the kinks worked out on my scrapbook and then the second one is much faster to do.

Kaitlin sewed, tye-dyed, went through lots of pictures she has taken, and then she sewed some more. She sewed bags and pillow cases.

We bought Step-Up 3. It is a dance movie that we both enjoy. When all the books fell off the sub-woofer we realized that we might have it a wee bit LOUD. We just moved the books and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

NCIS season 8 was delivered on day 2 of our craftcation. It took us 6 days to watch that season mainly because of the Hurricane and our obsession with it.

More than just making things we laughed and visited. Several of my friends shared that they wished that their daughters would want to have a craftcation with them. I have on my to-do list to pray for all the mamas and daughters I know. I am praying for a spirit of unity. If you have this unity now, thank God for it, if not, please know that I am praying for you.

So now for pictures!

Here is Kaitlin holding a shirt of mine that I got a stain on. I could not get it out and I was ready to throw the shirt away. She said that she would like to use Rit dye on it. The last picture on this post is the final project. Just beautiful- Right ElizabethT??????
not only did she make bags but she decorated some too.
Here is a page from the wedding scrapbook- it is Marisa's shower.
lots of bags and a few pillow cases.
my very cool, one of a kind shirt. I wore it to church yesterday.We had a fabulous time! We hope to have one more before Christmas. Maybe we'll watch the next season of Castle during that one. I'll let you know!

Some more during and the finished project

Majel and Wade loved that the laundry room had to be all hand painted-NOT

but having a blue laundry is life changing. I just love it!
Here is a 'floors going in' photo. The white panels on the right side are the cabinet doors from the laundry room.
Isn't it just beautiful?
I am blest to have lots of artists in my life- Kaitlin, Marisa, Ross, Sara, Mindy to name a few. I have their art to hang up. I think that is on Carl's honey-do list for this weekend.I am very pleased with the work. I feel like I have moved into a new house with not all the stress of moving.

More Before and a little During

The Cabinet Doors were off in the laundry room.

Lots of beige is what you see with a few splashes of the new color!
Can you say LOTS of BEIGE
Before the doors were off
Here is Wade doing some prep work. All the carpet has been pulled up at this point.
The wallpaper is gone!It took about two weeks for all the work. We had a laughing good time with Wade, Majel and Majel's wife, Jody. We learned that Wade loves to sing to country music, even Taylor Swift! Majel loves to eat catsup on everything and a little rice goes a long way with him. Jody is very sweet and calls everyone either baby or sweetheart.

The Before

Here are the before pictures.

The dining room with a paint swatch.

The dining room with wall paper.
The beige living room
The living room with a paint swatch.The painting is all done but the rooms are still empty. After the rooms get cleaned, we will start putting the rooms back together.

This is exciting!

A week of fun!

Lots has been going on here. We've had some painting done.
I've been on several trips with Carl.

In June I went with him to Dallas. I had a wonderful visit with my cousin Vicki. We had supper one night with Vicki, her husband, Alex, their daughter in law, Julie and 3 of their 5 grandchildren, Melina, Sela and Lili

In July I went to Kansas City, MO with Carl. I had a great visit there with my friend, LindaG. Here she is with her daughter in law, Angie and 2 of her 3 granddaughters, Grace and Elizabeth.Kaitlin and I plan a vacation of sorts for this next week. We can't decide if we should call it a staycation or craftlopaloosa. We plan to stay home and create. I hope to finish the scrapbook on Kaitlin's graduation and make great headway into the one on John and Marisa's wedding. Kaitlin plans to make bags and maybe even me a pillow case :)

More paint pictures and finished craft pictures to follow.

I hope you have a great week planned too!!!!

I do love lists!

Here is a great article from Michael Hyatt. He talks about leadership skills. Here are three that really struck me.

Worrying is temporary atheism. Rid yourself of worry.

Retreat and Rest—if ships don’t come back to the harbor, they’ll eventually sink

Spend time reading and receiving the Truth every morning, because the world will only lie to you the rest of the day.

A shout out to KimT for this!

I got that crystal football!

WAR EAGLEIt has already started. We have not even had the first football game and several fans from not the AUBURN TIGERS have already started in on me.

I hear things like you know that "we" will beat you this year. ( I want to say "we"???? Did you suit up?? but that is another fight for another day) or they start in on Cam Newton or how AUBURN isn't going to win very many games this year at all.... Blah Blah Blah Blah

Andrew gave me my answer and it has worked quite well, so you may use it too, if you need too.

Let them do all their talking and then when they stop to take a breath, calmly tell them you can't understand them because you have a crystal football in your ear. So far it has worked every time. They usually smile and are speechless and we go onto another subject.

If those same folks, and I have no doubt they will, come back to me, if perhaps AUBURN doesn't beat their team, my second answer is that I will cry myself to sleep that night on my National Championship Sheets! If they are really rude then I'll tell them that I have 3 Heisman Trophy pillow cases!!

Kaitlin was at Panera the other morning and she saw a man in an UnderAmour AUBURN shirt. She stopped by his chair and gave him a cheery WAR EAGLE, He greeted her with his WAR EAGLE and then a lady in a booth that was close to them gave them both a WAR EAGLE. They both shared their stories about how the fans of a certain state have already started in with the smack talk. Kaitlin gave them the above answers to those smack talkers, they both laughed and thanked her profusely.

If you have any smack talkers that come your way, please use the above if you need to!

SEC Football!!! Are you Ready??

T’was a month before football, and all through the South
Rabid fans everywhere were running their mouth.
The recruits were all arriving to show off their wares,
In hopes that playing time soon would be theirs.

Here's the rest of this Wonderful Poem about SEC football.

WAR EAGLE!!

I am thankful

I decided last December to mark my months differently this year. Since this is 2011, I have been marking the 11 of ever month. I try to take time on this day every month to breath deeper and just pause.

I have also tried to write down or take pictures of things I am thankful for. Here is this month's list.

I am thankful for the job I have and the job Carl has. I am very thankful that I don't have his job. I have been able to go on a few trips with him this summer and I was worn out and Carl just kept on going. Whew

I am thankful for electricity. When Andrew started his field work in the power industry, he was instructed to wear only cotton because if he gets burned the cotton is better for his cute little body than polyester. Really, Really- I could have lived my whole life without that knowledge. Andrew is dressed for work in cotton and covered in his mama's prayers for his safety. A man died a few days ago in the line of work that Andrew does. He left a wife and children. When you flip a switch today, pray for all the men and women that are working so that you have that ability and ask God to protect them. You can pray for Andrew too!

I am thankful for a long to-do list. meals to cook, scrapbooks to make, schedules to keep track of, friends to visit with, laundry to fold, prayers to be said, windows to be looked out of, sons to talk to as they drive from one meeting to another...

I am thankful for those that are gifted in areas that I am not. I have known this for awhile but I am ready to reveal that I missed getting the housekeeping gene when I got my DNA. I have read books on it and made lots of lists but I just don't get it. With my back injury I have been instructed to not sweep or vacuum - not that that was happening around here anyway! Heather and Sandy bless my life with their love of cleaning and laugher along the way. We all say "AHHH, Heather was here today!" or "Super Sandy sure made this beautiful"

I am thankful for rain.

I am thankful for my cel phone. I love having the four square app, I love the camera, I love that I can text and chat at the same time, I love the I can check my email and twitter from my phone.

I am thankful for Wade and Majel. They are my wonderful handymen. I am getting a few rooms painted in our house by them. Wade came last night and painted the ceilings. He ate supper with us and we had a laughing good time. His only draw back is that he is a BIG hog fan :) I'll post pictures soon!

I am thankful for Carl and all the furniture he moved for the above thankfulness to happen. I really thought we would have a piano next to the kitchen table which would be next to the hide-a-bed but we don't. I still have room for folks to stay the night even.

I am thankful for the joy Kaitlin brings to life. She recently had a team building meeting with about 60 work colleagues. They had to have their pictures made by groups that work together. Kaitlin pulled her group together and suggested that their group jump. They all agreed. When the BIG Boss got ready to take their picture, Kaitlin asked her to count to three, she did and then they jumped. BIG Boss loved it!!!

I am thankful for the new little life that Marisa is carrying. How exciting is that!

I am thankful for good books. I will blog some new ones soon. I only have 25 check out now!

I hope you have a thankfulness day each month!

I really hate sin

In my quest to learn about friendship, I came across this

Forgiveness is straightforward, but the issues related to forgiveness certainly have layers. We are to forgive 70 x 7 times, but that does not mean the relationship will look the same at forgiveness #1 as it does at forgiveness # 499. Sin is the destroyer of relationships. And forgiveness can be extended, yes, but there will still be consequences. Sometimes the consequences include divorce, broken friendships, or just a distance where there was once closeness. The Bible says that we are to be at peace with all men, as far as is possible with us. Sometimes, no matter what we may try to do, or what we actually do in forgiveness, it is simply impossible.

Read the whole article here. It is by Nancy Wilson

His name was Bill but I called him Daddy.

1976

35 years ago on August 9th

where were you?

were you even born?

I had just graduated from high school in Alabama in May and I was headed to AUBURN in September. My daddy was sick but he would get better, surely.

He died on August 9th. It seems like a million years and then again it seems like yesterday.

When my daddy fought in WWII, he was injured and sent to a hospital. While there, he memorized all the poems in a poem book called 101 Famous Poems.

I think I shall set aside some time today to read some poetry from that book and thank God for my wonderful daddy.

I now have a new reason to love Oreos!

This blog is for you and for my friend, Julie. She recently shared with me her desire to learn more about the moon. I came across this on Pinterest and thought of her. What a fun way to learn about the moon phases.

sciencebob is the web site this came from.

Enjoy!

Do you have a daily reading list??

I love to read.

And honestly, I get tired of folks who find out that I love to read and proceed to tell me, with great condensation, that they don't have time to read, but what they are really saying is, that I shouldn't have time to read either.

I love to read.

I have come to realize that life is full of choices and I choose to have time to read.

Here is a daily reading list that KimT sent me. I was encouraged. I hope you readers are encouraged too.

A Reading List!