What? Did I miss something?

Oh my...dear friends I discovered something today that made me sad.  I have missed several holidays and I can't believe how far behind I am.  I have missed July 4th.  I have missed Labor Day.  I have missed Halloween and even Thanksgiving!  Do you know what?  I am behind on my shopping because according to Hobby Lobby....

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

Darbee and I were walking thru Hobby Lobby today minding our own business and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this...

Oh yea...there were several aisles of it!  Gah!  How crazy!  Not yet....let me enjoy my summer first please...I mean...I could let it pass if it were pumpkins or fall leaves but CHRISTMAS???  Wow....

Anyway...got a good chuckle and just had to share with you all.  

Might as well leave it out all year!

Today was the last day of cheer camp for Darbee Rae.  She was totally excited this morning because the parents got to come and watch them perform.

She was excited about her new outfit, so of course we had to take a picture.

All I have heard all week is about the bows the big girls wear in their hair.  Darbee loved them.  So...I surprised her yesterday and took her in Michael's and let her pick out some paint and ribbon.  We came home and this mama got busy and made one.  Yes...I had one happy little girl.

Here's the final product.  It matched her shirt perfectly today.

Nana came and she and I went to watch them perform.  It was the cutest thing ever.

I was so happy to see her laughing and having such a good time.  They had changed all of their shirts and put them in matching cheer camp shirts.  They had also put matching bows in all of their hair!  It was so cute.  

They were waiting for their turn to perform and watching the "big girls."

They called them up by grade level, so pre-k got to go first!

I love it...all of their shirts were bigger than they were!  Smile...

They looked so tiny out there!

"Go go go...go blue!"  

They did a quick dance/cheer routine to music to.  It was adorable.

Yes...I got it all on video too!

Darbee said this was her "favorite big girl."

She had to show off her shirt.  

Love them...

And her official "big girl bow."

She even got a cougar backpack!

It was so cute.  I am so proud of her.  She was such a big girl and she has already told me she can't wait to go back next year!  Yay!

We went out to lunch with Nana afterward and did a little shopping.  A good day...

Until next time...

Isn't It Monday?

Good afternoon everyone!  Has anyone else been confused today too?  It's been a Monday all day to me!  Ugh...It's been a good day though.  I had a very excited little girl when she woke up this morning.  

Today was her first day of cheerleading camp!  She wants to cheer so bad but isn't quite old enough to sign up for our recreation dept. flag football cheer team.  You must be 5.  So....when I heard about this cheer camp that allowed 4 year olds, I knew I had to sign her up!  It is held at the high school right up the street from us.  She was so happy.  Me...I was a little anxious, but excited for her.  You see, she's never been to any sort of camp.  This one lasts three days and is 3 hours/day.  I dropped her off this morning without a hitch.  She was very excited to be there with the "teenager girls" and learn some cheers.  

Here she is before we left this morning.  She was so happy!

When I went in to pick her up, she was still with her little group and seemed to be having a good time.  

On the way to the car, she began talking about her day and hasn't stopped since!  She had a blast.  She has shown me several cheers, shown me several exercises and talked about their activities they did.  

They got to use sidewalk chalk, color a picture, go outside to cheer and even got their own personalized water bottles!  What a fun day! She is thrilled to go back tomorrow.  The adults are invited on Thursday morning to watch a performance.  I can't wait!  Plus...a little extra bonus...she gets to ride on a float in the homecoming parade in the fall AND she also gets to cheer with the big girls at one of the high school football games in the fall!  Yahoo!

I hope all of you had a happy long weekend! 

On Sunday, We enjoyed a cookout with hubby's family.  Darbee Rae enjoyed pool time with Kelly.  

It was a lot of fun. 

On Memorial day, we enjoyed a day at home.  We worked around outside and ended  the day with a cookout with my family.  It was a fun day.

Darbee decided to help daddy wash the car and then decided to was her ride also!  

How cute!

It was also a perfect day to open up her new Barbie pool and have a pool party! 

We fired up the grill.... 

And enjoyed some homemade icecream!  

Nothin like it...delicious! 

Darbee and I went on a fun lightning bug hunt before we headed inside for the night.

A perfect day!

I hope all of you are having a great week!

Until next time....

Happy Memorial Day...Remembering my Papa

Good morning friends and Happy Memorial Day!  I hope all of you are enjoying a nice holiday weekend and are getting to spend time with the ones you love.  We went to a family cookout with hubby's family yesterday and are hosting one at our house this afternoon.  I am looking forward to that!

I wanted to tell you a little about another special  man in my life....now don't go gettin any ideas!  Hubby and I are fine.  This man was in my life from the day I was born.  He was my Papa.

If ever there was a man I looked up to other than my daddy, it was him.  He was an old time preacher man who loved the Lord and everyone around him.  Some of my fondest childhood memories are riding my bike around their paved driveway while he sat under the shade tree smiling.  I can vividly take myself back to those times and remember the way I felt.  I was close to him and was there when he passed.  I would give anything to talk to him again and smell that fresh scent of Old Spice aftershave.  But...I know one day I will.  Smile.

He was also a WWII veteran.  No, he didn't win any major medals.  No he wasn't a Sergeant. No he didn't rescue millions or capture a bad guy.  He was a military police and had great stories to share.

In my 10th grade year in high school, I was in an advanced history class with a teacher who had a passion for WWII.  He was an awesome teacher who brought lessons to life.  One of our assignments was to record and interview a WWII veteran.  I thought nothing of it really and was grateful to have one in my family.  I remember so vividly taking my "Talkboy" over to their house (right across the street) and asking him these questions.  I could tell he was nervous, but it turned out well.  I got an A on the assignment.  It was forgotten about.  Our teacher asked to keep the tapes and nothing more was thought about that.  I was glad to have an A.

Later after my Papa passed away...years later...i thought about that tape.  I often wondered if my teacher still had those but quickly dismissed the thought thinking there was no way he would keep all those year after year. One day about 2 years ago, I thought about it again e-mailed him just taking a chance.  Guess what?  He still had it....12 years later!  Oh my...luckily, he is still teaching at the high school and luckily again, it is only 1/4 mile from my house.  I went the next day to pick it up.  What a treasure.  I was shaking when I picked it up.  I was scared it would mess up if I played it and I didn't want anything to happen to it.  It was several weeks before I got up the nerve to play it.  There it was....his voice.  I could hear it again.  What a wave of emotions it was but good and happy ones too! I had to preserve it.  I got busy and came up with this video and burned several copies onto a DVD.  I wanted to share the interview with you and a small glimpse into my Papa's life.  Enjoy and Happy memorial Day!

And here is the interview...

A Little Sprucing Up to a New Treasure!

Good evening friends.  It's been a very HOT day today here in the south.  The air is so thick it seems hard to breathe!  I am not one who likes hot weather.  I had much rather have chilly temps.  I don't like to sweat! Oh well...better get ready for it because summer's on the way!  

I did a bit of sprucing up this evening for the holiday.  I have a brand new to me dining room table.  

I had a green tile top table that I loved.  Hubby and I bought it when we first got engaged.  I remember being so excited to find it.  I still liked it, but it wasn't prim perfect for me.  I wanted a wooden table that I could decorate.  The green tiles didn't match everything you know?  

I mentioned in conversation to my mother in law several weeks ago that I might sell it and look for me and old wooden table.  Kind of like an old farmhouse table.  Well, when we were at my father in law's house several weeks ago, he told me that she had mention it to him, and he wanted me to see an old table he had upstairs.  Immediately, my heart began racing.  He said I could have the table if I would just get it out of his way.  Ooooohh!  I practically ran up the stairs to see it.  I couldn't believe it when I saw it.  YES!  I was almost screaming!  It was perfect!  

It found it's new home in my dining room last week and I couldn't be happier.  

Just look at the details!

He had even found chairs that match.

It has such a neat history too!  The table is over 100 years old.  It came out of an old church here in our town.  It was given to my father in law's dad over 75 years ago.  It has been in the family ever since.  The chairs came out of the old post office here in our town.  What a neat piece of history to have in my home!

So of course, I had to get it spruced up for the holiday!

Here it is now.  It's not exactly how I want it yet, but this will do for now. 

Can you see the scuff marks and rough places in the wood?  My FIL told of how he remembered his dad taking the sausage grinder on numerous occasions and nailing it to the corner of the table to make sausage.  He would then pull it back off and do it again the next time.  There are marks on each corner from the nail holes and the grinder.  I also found hubby's brother's name carved near one end.  Hehe...how cool!

Here are my simple place settings.  Nothing fancy.

I just love it and am so grateful to my FIL for giving it to me.  Turns out, we just swapped tables!  Perfect swap!

Here's my little prim tree that I leave up year round.  I decorated it for the holiday and will leave it up thru July. 

I guess this weekend is the official kick off of summer huh?  Darbee Rae sure thinks so.  We had to get out her pool this evening and clean it up.  She had to "test it out."  Hehe...

So...here's to a good holiday weekend. 

I hope all of you have a great weekend!  

Trying to be a bit creative and a new "love"....

Good evening everyone.  I hope all of you are doing well and getting ready for a good long holiday weekend.  We sure are.  We have no major plans, but it will be nice to officially kick off summer.  Although I am no longer teaching, the end of the school year still sends excitement thru me.  The library summer programs kick off and lots of fun summer activities are planned.  I am excited.  

We have been busy over the last few weeks.  Mostly fun activities but a few appointments that we are glad are over.  

First off, we have been a bit creative.  Darbee Rae LOVES Barbie dolls.  She has a million of them!  She wanted a Barbie house for Christmas and I was thrilled when I found a small one that would fold up and store. She was very excited, but you know...it's not really big enough for Barbie's to stand up in.  It's not the big Barbie mansion.  So....thanks to Pinterest...don't you just love that site????? I found a cool Barbie house that you can make.  So what do I do?  Of course...I get busy.  This required cleaning out my entire craft closet just to clean off one bookshelf that I could use to make it.  Just look at this...This is the one I found on Pinterest.....

Isn't that so neat?  Your very own Barbie house to personalize as you wish.  I had to make it for her.  We headed out to our nearest craft store to pick out the "wallpaper."  She chose all of it on her own. 

Then we got busy.  She even wanted to help me paste it on.

We started with a plain bookshelf.

And here is the beginning.

We are nearly done with the walls and need to start on the floors.  I am about as excited as she is.  I can't wait to add cute decorations to it.  And the good thing is...Santa brought a huge furniture set.  So....we are set for a living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom and bedroom.  

Will update you soon on the progress!

Now on to more creativity.  I have a Cricut machine and I LOVE it!  It was a wonderful present I bought for myself when I was working.  I used it in my classroom and loved it and also made all kinds of personalized stuff for Darbee.  

Darbee was invited to a birthday this past Saturday for a little boy in her preschool class.  They haven't seen each other since I left work, so she was beyond excited to go.  What to buy for a little boy turning 4?  I had no clue.  So....I pulled out my handy dandy Cricut machine and got busy.

A sand pail with his name on it.....

A water bottle with his name and a wagon....

Personalized shovels and rakes....

A personalized box of sidewalk chalk...

and personalized bubbles.  

We also included an inflatable sprinkler.  We put it in a cool basket and headed to the party.  

It was a big hit!  It turned out so cute!

To say the two of them were glad to see each other is an understatement.  They were so cute.  Adorable.

Buddies...

They held hands everywhere they went.

At one point, she climbed out of the princess castle jumpy and she ran up to me and said, "Mommy, we are playing and Cooper is the prince and I am his princess."  So sweet.

They played together on everything!  

His mommy wrote me the next day and said all Cooper had talked about since the party was his and Darbee's wedding.  How funny!  You never know.  

While I was being creative with my Cricut, I had another request to fill.  The rodeo was in town on Friday and Saturday.  We love going to it.  Darbee Rae put in a special request.  "Mommy, I want a cool rockstar cowgirl shirt to wear to the rodeo."  Oh my...what a big request.  So..what's a mommy to do?  Get busy again of course!  I had to make the perfect shirt for my little girl.  

I am so thankful my Cricut will also cut fabric!  Here's what I came up with.

I went back and added sparkly jewels on the boots, hat and badge.  I also

bought sparkly letters and added her name at the bottom.  I was pleased with how it turned out and most of all, I had a VERY happy little girl.

Here she is at the rodeo sporting her girly cowgirl hat.

We had so much fun with Aunt Maudie and Leonard at the rodeo.  Some more family joined us and it was a fun evening.

Are you still with me?  Sorry for such a long post.  Can you tell we've been busy?  

Last, but not least...the bad part.  Darbee Rae has to have some dental work done.  She is allergic to milk and other than the calcium she gets from cheese and pudding, that's it.  We tried soy, almond, vanilla, strawberry...EVERYTHING! She wouldn't drink any of it.  She is healthy as a horse and her doctor has advised us not to worry.  She eats well.  

However, it has left her teeth pretty weak.  She is prone to cavities no matter what.  She had to have some work done yesterday.  I will just say...ugh.  I called my mama and told her...."I wish you were here.  This would be one of those times when I would lay on your shoulder and cry and say I didn't sign up for this when I asked to be a mother."  I wanted to curl up and cry.  I was a nervous wreck and Darbee Rae was fine.  She had one filling and one crown.  The dentist she goes to goes way above and beyond.  They are absolutely WONDERFUL! The entire time they were working, they were "drawing a princess on her tooth."  She chose Aurora.  The entire time the dentist was working, she was telling Darbee each step that she was taking to draw a beautiful Aurora.  The last step was to apply her "crown."  She explained to Darbee that she could not see Aurora if she went home and looked in the mirror, but the tooth fairy had special glasses so that she could see her.  All Darbee would be able to see was the shiny crown.  Now let me tell ya....I have one proud little girl of the "crown" in her mouth.  She can't believe she has a princess in her mouth that has been drawn on her tooth.  She did so good and was so brave.  She only whimpered once when she got the shot.  

I took this photo as soon as she was done...

She was breathing in oxygen to reverse the effects of the laughing gas.  

I love this one...she is giving me one thumbs up and one thumbs down...perfect.  

Her gums are a little sore, but she had done GREAT.  A toy afterward at her favorite candy store made things a lot better.  

Whew...that's a lot!  Sorry if I bored you.  

I promise to try and keep up with my blog and post more frequently.

Until next time.....

The Rest Of The Trip and Happy Mother's Day

So when we last visited, we had just entered our hotel room.  As soon as we unloaded the luggage cart,

Darbee Rae was ready to change clothes and that's just what she did!  She got right into her bathing suit and was ready to play in the sand.  

That's right where we went.

She had so much fun.  The weather was perfect!  It wasn't 

too hot and a nice breeze was blowing.  

After playing in the sand for a while, we headed out to explore our hotel.

It was huge and we wanted to see all it had to offer! 

We found a HUGE beach chair.  Of course, we had to take pictures.

We even found a mini golf course!  How neat.  We never made it here

to play...we stayed too busy in the sand and the pools.  Our hotel had 5 pools.

Plenty to choose from!

We headed out to Hammerhead Fred's for supper.  It was a really

neat atmosphere.  Darbee loved it.  Had to have her picture made with the shark. 

She wanted to do something fun, so we headed to Pier Park.

It was an open air mall with lots of neat shops.  They were closed, but the ride park

was still open.  She was able to get in a few rides.

She rode the big carousel by herself.  She was so happy to be able to ride alone.

Her favorite was the giant inflatable "pillow."  It was so neat.  It was really a 

giant pillow that you jumped on!  We had to visit here several more times before the end of the trip!  Smile.

She enjoyed the hand crank cars too!  They were a lot of work though.  She said, "Whew..my arms hurt!" when she got off.  It was cute!

The airplanes were a lot of fun on another visit.  She had so much fun at this park.  

It was so much fun to watch her.  Made me happy.

The next day was the best.  We spent the better part of the day here....at Gulf World.

It was the neatest place.  

We were able to see so many animals.

And soo many neat shows!  We watched a sea lion show, a bird show, a reptile show, and a dolphin show!

The dolphin show was my favorite.  It is amazing what those trainers can make those animals do.

Darbee Rae enjoyed this place too.  

Another fun activity was the arcade.  

I am a kid at heart when I go into an arcade.  I love them!

Darbee does too!

She is so fun to watch.  

We went back to Pier Park for shopping.  It was so neat...lots of cool shops.

Of course, we found something good to eat!

Do you think the icecream was yummy?  Oh yea.!!!

The evening was a good time to walk out on the LONG pier.  

It was nearly a 1/4 mile long!  Whew!  We were far out into the ocean!

I love this picture.  My loves.  Smile.

We spotted a HUGE something in the water.  We think it was a giant stingray.  It had to have been about 

6 ft. wide!  It was really big. Ugh....scary!

I couldn't believe all of the folks fishing out there!  It was unreal.

We enjoyed sitting and just watching all of them for a bit.

We ended the second evening with supper at Margaritaville.  What a fun atmosphere.  

We had a blast.

On our last full day, we took a ferry boat out to Shell Island.

It was so neat! 

Darbee Rae was so excited to hopefully find a lot of shells!

We were even lucky enough to spot a dolphin on our ferry ride out to the island!

It lived up to its name.  There were shells EVERYWHERE! 

They were not too big, but plenty of them to find!

Boy was it hot though.  

This is as good as the shade got....NOTHING.  

Good thing we loaded up on SPF110 sunscreen.  LOL!  

Darbee borrowed daddy's hat for a while to make sure her head didn't get blistered.

We only spent an hour out on the island.  We were too scared of getting cooked...literally!  hehe....

But...we did make it back with nearly a 1/2 bucket of shells and one happy little girl!

We had one final beach afternoon to enjoy... 

And some fun pool time.

The kiddie pool was lots of fun

But the lazy river was the BEST!  

WE enjoyed supper at Pineapple Willy's the last night and boy was it yummy!  

The best ribs ever.

We were up early to head home...wah...

Such a fun trip with my precious family!  It was so much fun.  

I want to wish all of you fellow bloggers a very happy Mother's Day!  I hope all of you have had a wonderful day.  I spent the morning/day with my mama and enjoyed a wonderful country breakfast with my favorite...home fried taters.  Hehe!  IT was such a fun day.  We have been going around all evening visitng with hubby's mom and my aunt Kakee.  

I am so blessed to be a mommy and to have a mama that I am so close to.  Many don't understand the relationship that we have and how close we really are but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  It is one I cherish and hope Darbee Rae and I can have one day.  

Until next time.........