Happy Birthday to me!!

Hello friends,

Well, today is my 41st birthday!! Boy, do I feel old, especially when my kids keep reminding me that I AM old. My 10-year-old said, "Mom, you can fit 4 of me into you." I HOPE against hope that she is talking about our ages, but I'm afraid that might be true in more than one way!! You know what I mean. Those extra pounds that just don't seem to come off after 40. Where did they come from anyway? They just sorta crept up on me, almost like I picked them up by osmosis (instead of the sweet tea and ice cream). So, I am determined (once again) to "do bettah." I've bought a Leslie Sansone walking dvd in order to work out (no, I haven't used it yet; I've only had it two weeks), and I've been checking books out of the library about healthy eating. One of them was a Mediterranean cookbook, but the recipes look awfully complicated to me, so that one went right back. After all, I only have so much I can work with. I have chosen to start my "doing bettah" on my birthday. Well, I'll start this evening. I just HAD to have a Chickfila biscuit and a large sweet tea for my birthday breakfast. My hubby's taking me out to dinner tonight for my birthday. Hmmmm, I think I'll start tonight AFTER my birthday dinner. Yeah, that's probably soon enough. After all, I'll only have this 41st birthday just this once!!

In other news, I'm planning to go to the Georgia Home Educators Association Homeschooling Conference this weekend at the Georgia International Conference Center. This will be the 11th year in a row that I've been. Could I possibly have been homeschooling that long? Yeah, I guess so; it does feel like it, some days. If you're interested in finding out more about the conference, go to http://ghea.org/ and check it out! Maybe I'll see you there!

The invitations are out!!

Hello all!!

The invitations are out!! Our second son is getting married next month, and as per tradition, we will be hosting the rehearsal dinner with one small difference: there'll be no rehearsal! So, we're just calling it a Wedding Celebration Dinner. The good news is that I mailed out the invitations yesterday at the post office, posted with a pretty heart stamp. The bad news is that I ALMOST mailed out one of the invitations WITHOUT an ACTUAL invitation in it. Good news: My 14-year-old son, who was helping me attach stamps, noticed that there was no invitation inside the envelope. Bad news: I didn't get the invitation into the mail today. Good news: I'll get it in the mail tomorrow, I hope! And then I'll just sit back and wait on the RSVP's to come rolling in! Enough bad news, good news. Please be in prayer for the couple as they approach their nuptials, that the Lord would bless them and keep them, and that all might run smoothly. As my husband says, though, "In the end, as long as you're married, it was a success," though his wording is a little bit different, something about a monkey in a tux being there for the show.

On a different note, spring sports have started at my house. I've got two girls in soccer, and two boys in softball, both in Christian leagues, which is a wonderful blessing! I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Upward Christian Sports League, but they have been a blessing to us through a local church. My girls play Upward soccer. You can check them out at http://upward.org/. They provide a basketball and cheerleading league in the winter, a soccer league in the spring, and I believe flag football in the fall. You can go to their website to determine if a church local to you provides any of their leagues. I would encourage you to check it out if you have a child who would like to participate in any of these activities.

Blessings!

Funny, but true, bumper sticker!!

Seen yesterday on a car in Conyers, GA, this great bumper sticker:

I'll keep my money, my freedom, and my guns. You can keep the "change."

I must agree.
Blessings.

Field Day Happened!!

Hello faithful readers (all 4 of you!), and Happy Spring! Just a note to let you know that Field Day ACTUALLY happened last Thursday. It was a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky except the big fluffy white ones that look like cotton balls (my kids could probably name them)!! It was 70 degrees, and the competitors were in top shape. We started our field day with a prayer, and an encouraging word concerning sportsmanship and doing all that we do to glorify God. Then the festivities began!! I had my bullhorn with me to be sure I could be heard over laughing and screaming kids (this was learned from experience)!!

We started the day with some of the dry games, like relay races and team events. Here are some pics of the kids participating in the egg in spoon race, the hula hoop relay (each team must hold hands and pass the hoop down the line WITHOUT letting go of hands - first team through wins), and the balloon pop (everyone has a balloon tied to one of their legs and the idea is to pop everybody else's balloon - last one with a balloon wins - the kids really enjoyed this one).

We also played the laundry day relay, where two teams raced to see who could be the first to hang up the cloth diapers from their laundry basket. We also played balloon burst. Each person on each of the two teams was given a balloon. When it was their turn, they had to race to a chair (each team had its own chair), sit on the balloon in the chair and pop it. This didn't work too well because the chairs were the fold-up, soft kind, so they had to sit on the ground to pop the balloons! After playing the dry games, we had a snack (each family brought a snack to share), and then we had the wet games, which included the sponge relay, fireman relay, and a huge watergun blowout fight. I wish I had some pictures to post of some of the wet games, but I was too busy to take any pictures. I'll put them up if I get any! I think a good time was had by all, and I slept like a baby that night!! I just LOVE Field Day!!

Blessings!

A new granddaughter!!

Praise the Lord!! We have a newborn granddaughter!! Welcome to the world, little Charlotte Elizabeth!! She was born on Saturday at 9:23 p.m., and weighed in at 7 lbs. and 14 ozs. And I love her name, so old-fashioned! Here are a few pictures:


Isn't she precious?



















Big sister Laura meeting Charlotte.






















Laura hugging Charlotte so she'll stop crying.

























Thank you, heavenly Father, for such a wondrous blessing. I pray that you'll bless her Mom and Dad to bring her up to serve you, that Your name might be glorified. I pray that she and her big sister Laura will bless one another, and always be the best of friends, and that they will be a blessing to their parents and to others. Thank you again, Lord, for such a precious gift as little Charlotte. May You place Your loving hand upon her, to keep her and bless her.

Blessings, everyone!

Field Day and Five Alive

Well, I had to postpone field day yet again, and this time I didn't reschedule. I told my group I'd give them 3 or 4 days notice, but I was going to go by the weather report!! I know we need the rain here in Georgia, so I'm not going to complain, but ONE sunny day would be nice!

Peggy, over at The Simple Woman, has a Five Alive thing going on which encourages us to explore our five senses, so here goes:

I see my wonderful husband sitting on the sofa looking through a catalog while he awaits his dinner.

I smell the rolls baking in the oven, which are part of dinner.

I hear my son practicing his electric guitar downstairs.

I taste the last bit of my MUG root beer.

I feel a little sad that we didn't get to have field day today.

Spring blessings!

Dinner and a Movie at Sonic!

Hello friends,

Well, we are now officially extras. Today we filled in as extras for a taping of Dinner and a Movie at our local Sonic. What fun!! The cast and crew were great, but I don't think I'd want their jobs. It's pretty much a case of hurry up and wait. We arrived at 1:30 p.m., they filmed their first shot pretty quickly, and then I was done, but couldn't leave until after 5 p.m. It was still lots of fun, though, just to stand behind the scenes and observe what goes on during filming. I'm thinking the hardest job must be handling sound, because it was awfully loud out there with all of the traffic, big trucks going by on the main road, teenagers driving by and yelling out of their car windows. I'm assuming they'll have to edit all of that noise out, and that has to be some kind of job. My oldest, Matthew, is considering going into film production, so this was a perfect opportunity to get some idea of the kinds of things he'll have to learn. He reads about it all of the time already. In fact, when we rent a movie, he'd rather watch the special features about how the movie was made than watch the movie itself. For our time today, we each received a Sonic gift card, which averages out to about $2.50 an hour. Not bad for amateurs, I think! If you'd like to see our debut on television, this program airs Friday, May 22 on TBS.

I'm hoping we get to have our homeschooling group's field day, the event I had to postpone for last week, but things aren't looking very good. We have a 40% chance of rain, with some severe thunderstorms, and a high of 65 degrees. Yikes!! I'm wondering if we'll get to have field day this year!! And I'm ready for it; got all the games set to go. I'll keep you updated.

Blessings!

To Alabama and Back!!

Hello friends,

We had a wonderful visit this past weekend with my sister Kim and her family in their Alabama home! I was finally able to love all over my little nephew Kid Cade, and boy, do I miss them all now. The ride over on Friday morning was uneventful, except for the deluges of rain we labored through until we were twenty minutes over the Alabama state line. It was hairy at times, but the Lord saw us through, and we made it safely to their house, and in time for lunch, too! We ate like kings, were thoroughly entertained by Kid Cade, and learned how to play a new game that my bil Dan built called Monkey Balls. It was great fun, and so easy to learn and play!! IF I had a digital camera, I could have taken a picture and included it, but alas, I have no digital camera, YET, so no pictures. My birthday is in April; maybe I'll get a digicamera for my birthday (hint, hint!).

In other news, the kiddos and I will be extras this afternoon for a taping of Dinner and a Movie. We get to go sit at the local Sonic and eat for about 3 hours while they move cameras around us and yell things like "Take 30," and "Cut," and, hopefully, by 5 p.m., "That's a wrap!" Our payment for participating is a Sonic gift card, which I'm sure we'll be ready to use in about 2 weeks when we've forgotten that we ate Sonic for 3 hours straight! But we LOVE our local Sonic, especially their $1 menu. The Chicken Strip Sandwich is GOOD! And they have Happy Hour every day from 2-4 p.m. when their drinks are half price. And on Tuesday nights, their burgers are half price. Yaaayyyy!! Anyway, I'll try to let you know how it goes.

Blessings!