BLESSINGS!

I had the most wonderful visit yesterday from my Junque Syster, Sharron and her girls. I had decided not too long ago that one of the battles I was chosing not to fight with all of my purging and packing was to have a yard sale. I just couldn't find the energy. So, before sending all the stuff off to one of the local thrift stores, I invited the girls out to pick through the boxes and take what they want. I don't know about them,but I had a great time. We were able to relax and talk. We had a little comedy side show when we introduced my little doxie Brigitte to the much smaller and much younger chihuahua Phoebe (aka Bebe). I found out that I was the lucky blogger to receive
a scrumpdilicious pound cake, fresh strawberries, whipped cream AND two of my favorite magazines!

You just don't get this kind of treatment at a yard sale!

I got to spend time with my "syster" and her girls. I had the honor of meeting Ms. Bebe and receiving some sweet puppy kisses. The girls had fun digging through the boxes and leaving with an armload of treasures. But, I think the best part of the whole day was the look on my sweet hubby's face when he walked into the kitchen and saw the sweet goodies sitting on the dining room table!

Instead of counting my yard sale dollars, I spent time last night counting my blessings. I certainly feel rich beyond measure!

Blessings y'all!

Tag! I'm It!

I have been tagged by Grace to write a six word memoir about myself.

Hmmmmmm. This is hard. It involves thinking.

OK. Here goes!

CONTENT

It took me years to get here, and my life certainly isn't perfect, but I can't think of a single thing I'd want to change about my life right now.

SENSITIVE

I should own stock in the company thant manufactures Puffs!

LOYAL

Now I'm sounding like a golden retreiver.

SHY

I'm a behind the scenes type of person

CREATIVE

Not artistic by any means, but i like to repurpose things.

QUICK-WITTED

Not to be confused with nit witted.

Although I have been acused of being a nit wit on more than one occasion.

Now, the rules are to tag five people. If you've been tagged, here are your official guidelines:
Write your own six word memoir
Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
Link to the person that tagged you in your post
Tag five more blogs with links
Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I'm tagging:

Sharron at Vintage Girl at Heart

Adrienne at With a Grateful Heart

Dawn at ~The Feathered Nest~

Colleen at Mainstreet Memories

and Kathy at Kathy's Klavier

Whew! That was tough! This old, technologically illiterate lady actually had to figure out how to add links to a post!

I only hope they work.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Blessings y'all!

HAPPY SPRING!

At Christmas time, so many of you in the land of blog shared pictures of beautiful little bottle brush trees in various shapes, sizes and colors displayed amongst your decorations. In honor of the beginning of Spring, I thought I'd share a picture or two of my bottle brush tree - decorated by its Creator.

For a large part of the day, this tree is literally alive with the sights and sounds of bees buzzing and birds singing and butterflies of all sizes, shapes and colors fluttering through the branches and blossoms. Even the occasional hummingbird comes to feast on its nectar. And when the sun is in just the right spot in the sky, you're likely to see a feisty little black doxie chasing butterfly shadows across the grass beneath the tree. She's too short to chase the butterflies, so she amuses herself for hours chasing their shadows.

A BLESSED EASTER TO ALL!

When He Was On the Cross . . .

I’m not on an ego trip, I’m nothing on my own
I’ve made mistakes, I often slip
I’m just flesh and bones.
But I’ll prove some day just why I say
I’m of a special kind
For when He was on the cross
I was on His mind.

The look of love was on His face
Thorns were on His head
The blood was on His precious robe
Stained a crimson red
Though His eyes were on the crowd that day
He looked ahead in time
When He was on the cross
I was on His mind.

He knew me, yet He loved me
He whose glory makes the heavens shine
So unworthy of such mercy
Yet when he was on the cross, I was on his mind.

Sunrise Sunset . . . .

I'm still on the roller coaster! I tried desperately to jump off, but I just wasn't quick enough.

Today I dropped my son of to meet his recruiter for a ride to Tampa. He decided a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to join the National Guard. That definitely wasn't my first choice, but the handsome, talented and extremely stubborn one inherited my logical mind. His logical mind told him that in order for him to complete his education it would take X amount of time and cost X amount of dollars that would take X amount of years to pay back. By joining the Guard, his education will be paid for in full. He'll get more intense medical training than he would have been able to achieve on his own. Because of the EMT training that he's already completed, he was able to join at a higher rank than normal. Plus he's serving his country. I see the logic behind it. I see that he'll be able to go further in a shorter time. But hey, that's my baby we're talking about. He just graduated from preschool, didn't he? OK. Maybe that's a SLIGHT exaggeration. He'll be 19 in less than 2 months. So today I drove my baby to meet his recruiter and I watched as a grown man got into an official National Guard car on his way for his testing, physical and induction. He'll be back tomorrow. Basic training doesn't come until May. Somehow, though, I don't think he'll ever be my baby again!

SiMPliCiTY

It seems like forever since my last post. I've actually tried, but AOL has been on the fritz, my Comcast connection has been interrupted too many times to count and the last time I tried, Blogger "ate" it.

I've been on an emotional roller coaster ride for the past couple of weeks. A good old fashioned E-ticket Disney ride. Fast and furious. Full of bumps and turns, ups and downs. And just when I thought the ride was over - when the lights come on and you're meandering through the tunnel with all the pretty music - whoosh! it starts all over again. I think I've possibly come to the end of the ride for real this time. I'm just waiting for the car to come to a full stop and for the seat belt and shoulder restraints to loosen their grips and for the nice young man with the pasted on smile to offer me his hand so that I don't fall on my face as I exit the car.

We went to my "niece's" wedding in Knoxville this past weekend. The wedding was simple, yet elegant . There wasn't a lot of "fluff". The music, although traditional, lacked the stuffiness of the big church organ and was played by a very handsome, talented young flutist. The flowers were simple bouquets of yellow and white tulips. Even the mother's and grandmother's corsages were single white tulips. Both the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom had chosen very understated, yet beautiful dresses for the occasion.

Kristen (the groom's mother) told me she had battled for months over what to wear to the wedding. She had bought several different dresses, then returned them all. She kept coming back to a very simple dress she'd had in her closet for years, but wasn't sure if it was "dressy" enough for the occasion. Her beautiful little mama came to her rescue one day when she told Kristen all the dress needed was new buttons to dress it up. They went through her mama's button box and found just enough beautiful rhinestone buttons that she'd saved from different dresses over the years to replace the buttons on Kristen's dress. She told me that the best part of the whole adventure was the time she spent with her mother sorting through the button box. Time she might have missed if Miranda and Chris hadn't insisted on keeping their wedding simple. Time she'll hold forever in her heart. Time she will surely pass on to her grandchildren in the form of a story one day as they're looking at the photographs from Miranda and Christopher's wedding.

Tag! I'm It!

I've been tagged by Adrienne at With a Grateful Heart to share seven weird or random facts about myself.

First I have to post the rules. Then I tell you about me - what you may (or may not) want to know. The rules are:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

OK. Here goes!
1. I eat ketchup on my macaroni and cheese. Doesn't matter if it's homemade or from the blue box, I put ketchup on it. My son thinks this is hilarious - this coming from a child who was 16 before he'd eat green beans without a side of barbecue sauce!
2. My first "real" job (other than babysitting) was a combination lifeguard/dishwasher at a summer camp. There were two of us who would alternate every other week - one week at the pool, the next week in the kitchen. We made a whoppin' $15 per week plus room and board!
3. While I was working at the camp, I got to sing "on stage" with Kenny Marks. This was back in the dark ages when contemporary Christian music was in its infancy. He was making a name for himself by singing at camps and Christian coffee houses and for church youth groups. You can imagine the group of starry-eyed teenage girls ready to swoon when he asked us to join him on stage for a couple songs. He actually borrowed some sheet music from me that summer but forgot to return it. I went to see him later that year at a church in my home town. He actually remembered me and asked me to meet him at the stage after the concert so he could return my music to me!
4. I used to make costumes for Medieval Times Dinner Theater. Not the beautiful costumes that the king or queen wore. Once in a while I did get to make an occasional costume for the knights. I made costumes for the BIG stars of the show! The horses! I'm not sure exactly HOW I got stuck doing the horse trappings. I think it could be because I had the only sewing machine that would sew through the pleather they used at that time. Hey, I needed a second job. Beggars can't be choosers!
5. I dated John Hancock when I was in high school. Really! OK, I dated the guy who PLAYED the part of John Hancock in our high school presentation of the musical 1776.
6. I'm the youngest cousin on my dad's side of the family. I had first cousins who were up to 60 years older than me. Daddy was the youngest of 7 children - actually born on one of his half sisters' 30th birthday. I was a "surprise" when my parents were 43. You do the math. It was definitely a novelty at family reunions.
7. I met my husband on a blind date. We had a mutual friend who'd had a stroke. Terry couldn't remember his name half the time, but he did remember that he wanted to fix his fishing buddy up with that friend of his wife's who worked at the hospital (couldn't remember my name either). After several weeks of playing "dodge ball" figuring he'd eventually forget about it, we all decided that the best thing to do was to all go out to dinner together and get it over with. I was a year out of a bad 15 year marriage and had absolutely NO interest in dating. Tony had come to Florida to work for his parents after being laid off from his job of 7 years and was ready to pack up and go back to NY because he hated it down here and he wasn't really interested in meeting anyone either. But, we all went out to dinner - just to make Terry happy. That was on August 19, 1994. On November 19, 1994 Terry walked me down the aisle on Tony's and my wedding day!

Well, that's about as random as I can get. It's probably not as weird as I can get, but we won't venture down that path.

Since nearly all of my new friends from the land of blog have already been tagged in the not so distant past, I won't officially tag anyone except for
Sharron at Vintage Girl at Heart. For the rest of you, please feel free to leave a random, weird, or little known fact or two about yourself in my comments.