Thanksgiving 2008

Lewis trying to go as a "stowaway" on Poppa's and Bubba's hunting trip.

"E" checking out how the deer antlers would look on her!

Poppa getting excited about wearing all of his "get up" !

 

Bubba donning the antlers, too.

"E" loving her some "Callie Boo".

Do you remember THIS guy?  Look how BIG he has gotten!

Champ playing some "keepaway" with Turk. Cutest "cousins" ever, huh?

Josh is always appointed to be the carver.

Mimi's Making Meals, of course!!

Sisters having some "Girl Talk". (Moms not invited!)

Finally.....ready to call everyone to the table! (Note: Fancy jug of sweet tea already waiting!)

Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of great family memories!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)

An Award and FIVE FABULOUS BLOGS!!

What a great surprise! I received this award from Jodi at Live Today, Cherish Yesterday, Dream Tomorrow. I have just recently discovered her blog and have really been enjoying it!

The rules of accepting this reward are that you have to list 5 favorite addictions and then pass along this award to five other fabulous blogs!

Now...let's see if I can narrow it down to just FIVE favorite addictions...hmmm:

#1 would have to be DARK CHOCOLATE. I LOVE dark chocolate! My absolute favorite is this:

And this would have to be a close second:

But, don't get me wrong, I'm not above settling my craving with a good ole' H@rshey's Speci@l D@rk from the grocery store!

#2 addiction - BIG SEXY HAIR SPRAY AND PLAY hairspray. There is no substitute! I have tried all kinds of cheaper alternatives and I don't even waste my time (and money) anymore. This is the only spray for me!
# 3 addiction - VINEGAR. I wouldn't know what to do without vinegar. I use it to clean absolutely EVERYTHING in my house. It's inexpensive and it works great!

#4 - MUSIC! I love all kinds of music! I have approximately 5000 songs on my IPod and they cover pretty much every genre of music.

#5 addiction - DISHES! I have a dish "fettish"! I have sets of dishes from both of my grandmothers and my great aunt, plus dishes that I have acquired during my married life. I cannot even get them all in my cabinets! My newest set are these beauties that my husband and kids gave me last year! I had always wanted Christmas dishes, but I decided on these instead because they are "Winter" dishes and can be used much longer than just at Christmas.

Another one of my addictions would have to be reading the following fabulous blogs that I would like to pass this award on to:

Jenna at These Are The Days. This girl is funny, witty and wise beyond her years and God has given her a great gift of storytelling. She is part of the most wonderful family and after reading her blog for awhile, you will begin to seriously wish this girl was your daughter, daughter-in-law, sister or best friend.

Megan at Tales of the Trees. She is a newlywed who has also been given a great ability to capture her audience with her words. Her and her husband, Luke, are just the absolute cutest couple and you will wish that you lived close enough to them to be able "hang out" with them.

Dawn at Dawn's Cottage Corner. This girl is one of the sweetest people I have met since joining this blogging world. She and I just hit it off almost from day one and I feel such a kindred spirit with her. She just recently got back from The Mayo Clinic having some major knee surgery and is going through a difficult time right now. Please pray for her as she gets her staples out this week and begins her Physical Therapy.

Faith at Walk With Me By Faith. As many of you know, Faith is my oldest daughter, but if she wasn't I would so want to be her friend! God has given her a remarkable faith (HE named her appropriately, huh?) and such a sweet spirit. She is funny, witty and very talented. Her and her husband are struggling with infertility and we are excited about the miracle that God is preparing, even now, for her and Chad.

Cindy at Army Brats and Me. I met Cindy just a few months ago as she began her battle with Stage 3 Breast Cancer. You have to meet this remarkable young lady. Her strength and faith is incredible. She is such an inspiration to me and many other ladies that are right alongside of her on this journey she's on. She is going through a difficult time right now as her white counts are very low and she has the flu. Please visit her blog and let her know that you are praying for her.

**Note: I do not want Cindy and Dawn to feel pressured to have to list 5 fabulous blogs and link to them. I know that they are not up to that right now, but I love reading their blogs and wanted all of ya'll to visit them and "show them some love" during these diffult times they are facing right now.

OWLS ARE MAKING A COMEBACK!

I spent the day Saturday with my 2 daughters and my granddaughter.  During the course of the day there were several things said in conversation that made me think about my grandparents that have gone on to be with the Lord - MaMa and PaPa. They were both so very special to me. I was fortunate enough to live within walking distance of them growing up and, as a result, I spent quite a lot of time with them.

No one could cook like my MaMa and I think she is definitely responsible for the love that I have for cooking.  (And the love that I have for dishes/china.) As we were eating lunch, my daughter was talking about how much she loved lima beans and it reminded me of how much PaPa loved them.  Many a night he would tell my grandmother (he called her "Baby") that he just wanted a bowl of cornbread and "pot liquor".  (For those of you that weren't born in the South, that's what us southerners call the juice that the lima beans were cooked in.) He would crumble up his cornbread in the "pot liquor" and eat it and, I must agree, it was DELISH! That was one of PaPa's favorites.

That conversation somehow led us to talk about MaMa's love for OWLS!  She collected owls and I was blessed to have received a couple of her owls from my Mother on my last trip home. I thought that I would share a couple of them with you.

This one sits on the floor in my Dining Room. I love the way he is so"weathered" looking.  He just looks so wise, doesn't he?

This one is actually a little sachet holder. It has a ribbon on it so that you could hang it, but I keep him inside my china cabinet.

 
This little guy is actually a napkin holder and he resides on my kitchen table all the time.

Over the years, I have added a couple of owls myself and would very much like to collect more. One of the ones that I have added is a Swarovski crystal owl that my husband gave me. He's a tiny little fella, but so pretty, especially when the light hits him.

By far the most special owl that I have been given is this one made out of soapstone.  My daughter and son-in-law brought him all the way from BRAZIL. They got him for me while they were there on a church mission trip. Isn't he handsome!

Faith has decided that she would also like to collect owls.  She also has a couple of MaMa's owls that my Mother gave her. She told me about a piece of owl jewelry that she was hoping to get for Christmas. She also told me that owls were making a resurgence in popularity! They've always been popular with me!

What about you?  What do you like to collect and why?  What sentimental items do you have that belonged to one of your loved ones?

Holiday Cheese Balls

Thank you for all of your interest in the Cheese Ball that I posted in my last post.  Just wanted to let you know that I now have the recipe on Mimi's Making Meals. 

This is a great recipe for the holidays.  The cheese balls make great gifts or a great hostess gift to take to your holiday parties.

I hope that you enjoy them as much as my family does.

Mimi's And A Movie

"W" and I had such a great day today!  We went to church and after church we decided to go out to eat. (Since he has been out of work, we have not been eating out very often and so it was a real treat to get to go out.)  This Sunday, "Mimi's Kitchen" was closed, but "Mimi's Cafe" was open!

Faith had given me strict instructions prior to going there, that I HAD to try the Carrot Raisin Nut Muffin and let me tell you...It did not disappoint!  It was scrumptious!

We decided to order from the breakfast menu since it was still only 11:30 am, and this is what we split - Mimi's Original Pain Perdu Breakfast.

It came with French Toast stuffed with cream cheese and orange marmalade! 

Here's a picture of "W" humoring me by allowing me to take yet another picture.

After eating a big breakfast, we decided that we probably needed to "Move It, Move It, so we caught a matinee and went to see this.

It was so cute!  I think that we were the only adults in the theater without kids with us and I think we laughed harder than anyone else.  There was a lot of adult humor and I think it is probably one of those movies that every time you see it you would hear or see something that you hadn't caught before!

When we came out, "W" said, "Wow, we've had more fun THIS weekend than we've had in a long time!"

We headed back home to "Mimi's Kitchen" and started making some Holiday Cheese Balls. (Some of the girls I work with have been after me to make one of my cheese balls, so I finally got it done this evening!)

I will be posting the recipe for these little "gems" on Mimi's Making Meals in just a few days, so be sure to check them out! 

A Bible In My Hand

This past Sunday our Pastor preached an awesome sermon from 2 Timothy entitled "A Bible In Your Hand".  I was reminded of just how important it is for me to keep God's Word close by me as I go through this life.

The Bible is how God speaks to me.

His Word will make me complete.

His Word will give me everything I need to do anything that God asks me to do.

His Word contains everything I need to live a life that pleases God.

God's Word helps me to obtain His wisdom and to get from this earth to Heaven.

This message really got me to thinking throughout the week about whether I truly treasure God's Word. In many parts of the world, people do not even have a Bible. They may feel fortunate to have just one page torn out of a Bible, but most of us in this country have multiple copies of God's Word, in various translations, in our homes. But....do we treasure it? Do we place great value on it?

God really began to convict me this week about how, many times, I seem to place more value on even my cellphone than I do on God's Word.

If I leave my Bible at home when I leave out in the morning, do I turn around and go back home to get it?

Do I glance at it all throughout the day to see if God has sent me a new message? Or, if I have missed a call from God?

Do I carry His Word with me everywhere I go? Do I keep it right beside me throughout the day?

Do I open it as soon as I wake up each morning to make sure that I haven't missed anything?

I am in God's network. I have a better plan than free mobile-to-mobile; it doesn't cost anything to talk to God! I don't have to wait until after 7 p.m. at night, either. I can talk to Him any time of the day or night with perfect reception! There is no such thing as "roaming" with God. I can have unlimited minutes with Him! And, unlike our cellphones, I don't have to worry about having service disconnected because God has already paid the bill.

Lord, help me to cherish your Word more than I do. Help me treasure it in my heart so that I might not sin against You. Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law. Make me to understand the way of Your precepts, so I will meditate on Your wonders. Help me to rely on Your words to see where I am going and to look to Your words to throw a cast of light on my path. Amen.

THE MAC IS BACK !!!

A couple of weeks ago I started having a problem with my MacBook computer. The fan was running continuously and, as a result, the laptop would get very hot.  After trying everything recommended by Apple Support, I took it into the Apple store last Saturday and had to leave it. I picked it up late Tuesday night and unfortunately it was completely void of any of MY information.  They had to do an "Erase and Re-install" -  which means that my computer is back to factory settings.   )-:

I am in the process of trying to set up email again and restore some of my information from a previous backup from my IMac Computer.  It's a slow process, though, because I haven't had much time to work on it.

I am behind on posting, as well as, reading all of my friend's blogs, but I hope to get caught up over this weekend.  Just wanted you to know why I haven't commented on your blogs in a few days.  (I just looked at my Google Reader and it says I have 154 posts to read!) YIKES!!!!

I may have been "out of pocket" for a few days, but THE MAC IS BACK!!!

Thermometer or Thermostat

My husband and I were talking yesterday morning about our values and beliefs in light of the election results and he told me, "Honey, we're a dying breed." I refuse to believe that! I believe that there are millions of people that share our same conservative values and beliefs, but we've all been silent for too long.

A while back I  heard an illustration comparing Christians to thermometers and thermostats. It got me to thinking about what the differences in these two items were?

A thermometer rises and falls with changes in the temperature. It measures and indicates temperature. Thermometers never CHANGE the climate -- they just gauge the temperature. In other words, a thermometer simply tells us what the temperature in the room is.

A thermostat, on the other hand, automatically regulates temperature. The device is activated when it reaches a certain point. It's purpose is to maintain the temperature at the desired set-point. In other words, a thermostat dictates the temperature in the room. 

I wonder, do we rise and fall based on our environment, or are we setting the "temperature" for our surroundings? 

Are we like a thermometer that simply records what's going on in our environment?

Or, are we more like a thermostat setting the desired "temperature" for our surroundings?

Do we "adjust" to the crowd or do we choose to change the crowd?

The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 15:33, "Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits."  I can't mess around with people who weaken me and expect to stay strong. (For more on this subject read this post.)

We are commanded in Matthew 5 to be "the salt of the earth" and the "light of the world"! We are to be vessels of change in our world. God calls us to separate ourselves from others (both Christians and non-believers), if we find ourselves being influenced rather than being an influence. 

God is calling each of us to be thermostats in our world! He wants us to live in such a way that our lives set the tone in our families, our neighborhoods and in our workplaces.

We should be the pacesetters. We should influence rather than be influenced. We should be thermostats rather than thermometers.

So.... am I influencing my surroundings --- or am I being influenced by my environment? 

Definitely something to ponder today.  

What about you? 

Thermometer or thermostat?

Fall Festival Fun (Part 2)

As you recall from my previous post, this little ladybug "landed" at my house on Halloween night. 

We headed out to Fall Festival at our church.....

With Uncle Josh and "Shell" (Michelle).....

Nana and Bubba....

** Note: Faith was worried about looking like she had horns in this picture, but it was actually E's antenna on her ladybug suit.

Hangin' out with Thomas The Train (her friend Hayes)....

Shooting the paint ball gun with Bubba....

Bubba adding some MORE candy to her collection!

Shootin' some hoops with Bubba....

And FINALLY, riding the train .......

With her friend from church, Sage......

Mimi's girl !!!

Almost time to head for home!

But not before a quick "ride" in the backseat of the Police Car! 

Cutest ladybug behind bars that I've ever seen!

Fall Festival Fun (Part 1)

Last night I had the cutest little LadyBug "land" at my house!

After donning all of her "bug attire", we were off to the Fall Festival at our church. 

"Flying" out the gate to head out to the Festival!

First Stop -----Ste@k and Sh@ke for a Chocolate Milkshake.....

Some fun times with Bubba ..........

And of course, a Jr. Ste@kburger and shoestring fries!  YUMMO!!!!

Stay tuned for a recap of ALL the fun times at the Fall Festival in my next post!

Hope you and yours had a Happy Halloween!