Saturday, January 31, 2009

Going WAY Back In the Day!

It's getting dark outside here at The Doublewide. I just took a trip back to when I was a child in my mind, and I just HAD to blog about it!
As some of you already know, I'm the oldest child of three. Our parents were really young when I was born. Mama was 18 and Daddy was 17. As a matter of fact, I was almost a year old when my daddy graduated from high school.
They had a hard row to hoe with three kids. By the time my sister, the baby, was born, my daddy was 23 years old with THREE kids. They did a great job--did the best they could. I'm proud to tell you that they're still married. On February 12th, my parents will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary. Some said they'd never make it since they were so young, but I'm proud of my parents for proving them ALL wrong! A good marriage takes a lot of hard work and I'm thankful my parents put that work into making a great life for us and for themselves.
Now...with all that said...my parents took Saturday nights and Sundays off! Hmmmmm....maybe that was their secret, ya think? hahahah
Every Saturday afternoon, around three or four o'clock, we'd start begging mama to take us to Mammaw and Pappaw's house. They just lived up the field from us, and we were ready to GO!
After getting our things together and making sure our church clothes were ready, off we'd go. If the weather allowed, we'd play all over the yard. My pappaw was an avid junk collector, so there was always an old car to hop in, an old building to roam through, an old barn to play in, or a pile of something to plunder through...ALWAYS! Did I tell you about the time, when I was about 14, I took a big handful of crisco and an old quilt and sunbathed on the hood of a 1960s model Lincoln Continental? That old car look a lot like this one---just add rust and take away that shine and you've got it!

Let's just say I couldn't walk for a day or two, so crispy was I!
Anyway....
We'd always eat something for supper. It was usually beans, taters and cornbread. A treat was had by all if mammaw fixed turnip greens too! Law have mercy! I miss those!
After supper, we'd always have to go get our showers. The house mammaw and pappaw lived in was super duper old. The bathroom had actually been built onto the back of the house and it didn't have a tub in it. There was only a stand up shower and I remember the floor of the shower being concrete. After getting our pajamas on, we'd all pile in the den to watch Hee-Haw. I remember lots of times sitting in the floor and listening to my Pappaw bellerin' laughing over something that I didn't get! After Hee-Haw went off we'd watch The Lawrence Welk Show. During these shows was when my mammaw would perform her weekly duty of rolling mine and Amanda's hair up on paper bag strips. If you're not familiar with this because you're from the city, (hee hee) mammaw would cut paper grocery bags into long strips, roll our hair up on individual strips, and then tie the ends of the strips in knots. Me and Amanda loved listening to the SWoooSSHing sound that was made by flinging our heads around.
Then we'd all pile in the bed and be ready for Pappaw's breakfasts in the morning.
He'd get up and fry country ham EVERY Sunday. We'd also have grits, toast, and fried eggs that were just a little bit runny. I can still see him in his white short sleeved t-shirt, gray work pants, and his brown coffee cup, just like this one, working in the kitchen.


After getting all of us ready for church, mammaw would usually stay home and wave goodbye as we all headed off to be the first ones at Alexis Baptist Church. I don't know what it was with my pappaw, but if you were less than 30 minutes early for church, you were late. This is an actual picture of my home church. I now play piano at Community Baptist Church, but Alexis will always have a special place in my heart!

For a fat girl growing up, Sunday Dinners were my favorite! My mammaw was the BEST cook and we looked forward to wonderful meals around her table. After dinner, we'd do a lot of different things. If it was hot outside, my pappaw would herd us up and we'd walk about a mile down through the woods to the creek. We'd play and splash and wear ourselves out. If it was raining, we'd usually sit and "watch a storm come up." Pappaw loved this and it was an awesome experience to be on the porch, safe with him, to see a good storm blow in. Other times we'd nap, sing/play piano, bake something with mammaw, or play somewhere on the farm.
I so wish the old house and all it's junk was still there sometimes. I so wish Pappaw was still here sometimes. I so wish Mammaw had her mind sometimes and could remember all of these things that I write about.
Also, I so wish that your memories of the weekends while you were growing up are as wonderful as mine.
Enjoy every moment of your weekend because you never know what your children or your grandchildren will remember when they're grown.
I thank God that I had a wonderful set of grandparents who filled each and every weekend of ours with love and fun and unforgettable memories!

Crochet Hearts




Oooh...Just thought I'd share.


I'm off to crochet these little beauties!
I'll be back later on tonight to post pictures of the Valentine's Tree and hopefully I'll have some pictures of these little hearts!
If you would like to get this pattern, click HERE!
Enjoy today!


Hellooooo Weekend!

I am so happy to report to y'all that THE WEEKEND IS HERE! It's official! Get your jammies on or get busy cleaning!
Lil R spent the night with his Pop Pop and Mimi last night and is spending time with them today. Big Daddy and I treated ourselves to a movie last night! If you've been wondering about whether or not to go see "MALL COP" I highly encourage you to go!

It was great and it's PG rated. Great to take the kids--nothing bad at all! We laughed and laughed--so get online and check your local listings, and go tonight!
If you live in Gaston County, take a trip to Lincolnton to the Carmike Cinemas out past Wal-Mart and watch it there. The tickets are only $7.00 each. I think it's right at $10.00 if you go to Gastonia, and it's worth not being so crowded. The theater is a little outdated, but in a good vintage sort of way.
Today I plan on catching up on our laundry. Man do I have piles of it here at The Doublewide!
I also will get the Kitchen Tree decorated for VALENTINE'S DAY! Yipee!
I already have all of the snowmen stuff tucked away in a big tub for next year. The tree's coming along nicely, but I'm not loving the pom-pom garland on the tree. I'm thinking I'm going to have to put it somewhere else.
My secret wish today is to get in the van and go to my favorite Thrift Stores. I sure do love me some thrift store shopping.
Big Daddy and I contemplated (wow! Big WORD!) driving to Boone this morning and eating a great breakfast at The Dan'l Boone Inn. Just check out the breakfast menu:

-Breakfast Menu -Family Style Breakfast
Scrambled Eggs
Bacon
Country Ham
Sausage
Grits
Fresh Stewed Apples
Biscuits
Redeye Gravy
Cream Gravy
Cinnamon Bread
Black Cherry Preserves
Orange Juice/Beverage
Is your mouth watering yet?

But--we'll stay here and visit Boone another time.
Have a great day today--doing whatever you choose to do!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Goodies and Great Things!

Hey Y'all!
Have you ever participated in a SWAP of any kind online? If not, I encourage you to do so soon! Man, I have and I'm glad I did! I was lucky enough to get in on the Valentine's Day Swap that was hosted by Belle. She drew my name to be partnered with her and my goodies arrived today! Look at what all she sent me! Inside of the box, just as soon as I opened it, was a sweet sweet note! I really really enjoyed reading words from a friend! As I opened the box and took everything out, here's what I had:

I can't decide on what was my favorite! I shared these with my daddy because mama had to work tonight so it was just us at supper. He thought it was neat-o and he had fun looking through everything with me!
After supper, some more family and a few friends dropped in. I promise this house is the Kool-Aid house. Remember? I just love a house full of friends and family!
As we all piled in the den, I pulled out my crochet and started working on a hat from a really cute pattern I found on the internet. Here's a picture of me sporting the hat! Man my bangs really need cutting and looking at the picture, I realize I should have put on some lipstick--but I guess you will survive!
Remember my Valentine's Day Pom-Pom's that I bought? Here's what I made with them today! Here's my Pom-Pom Garland, all wrapped up and ready to go on my tree:

And here's my Pom-Pom heart plaque that I made too!

I also found some cute heart pokes at Hobby Lobby this past weekend. I have this cute thing sitting in my windowsill in my kitchen. I'm teasing my family and friends with what's to come decorating for Valentine's Day here at The Doublewide! And I wanted to show you my polymer clay snowman necklace that I made awhile back. I always get lots of compliments on it when I wear it! If you like the blue one, you should SEE the pink one! Whoa-baby!Also, just wanted to update you and let you know that my Pink Milk Glass collection is growing. Slowly but surely!




And this is a fine farewell to my snowmen decorations. Even though this sign will come down sometime this week, my heart still prays this prayer everyday!
Here's the "January Tree" this year!
Now, let me hush my mouth and go to bed. Look what's waiting on me!!
Enjoy your night tonight and your day tomorrow!
May God richly bless you and hold you in the palm of HIS hand!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sweet, Sweet, Southern Sundays


Honestly, there's NO wonder Sunday is my favorite day of the week! I just adore me a good ole Southern Sunday--there's NOTHING like it!
Here's why:
*Wake up a little later than normal
*You have time for coffee at home instead of at work
*I get to prepare my heart for worship
*I get to spend the day with family--both church and biological
*I get to go to church WITH my family--that is a BLESSING!
*I enjoy spending time with friends at church
*I always get something out of Preacher Matt's sermons--God always uses him to speak to me; sometimes quietly and sometimes mightily
*I enjoy eating Sunday Dinners with my family.
*Me and Lil R always take a sweet nap together in "Mama's Big Bed"
*We go back to church in the evenings
*There's time spent with friends outside of the church building talking and laughing
*Lil R always gets to "show off" at church. Today his Sunday School teacher told me how smart he was
So those are my reasons I love Sundays.
Tonight as I sit here, drinking my coffee, dreading tomorrow, I'm praying that God will remind me on Mondays what a great day Sundays are.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Wonderful Day

Hey Y'all!


Lil R spent the night with Big Daddy's mama last night. He so loves going to Nanny and Grannypaw's house. They just spoil him rotten and we get a little time off.

I slept until about 9:30 today--Big Daddy just let me rest. Then he went to Hardee's in town and brought back biscuits for us and Mammaw. After filling our guts, we decided to go to The Flea Market. Have you ANY idea how many times I wish I had my camera today? Wow---I didn't realize how much different people can be! There were piles and piles of junk everywhere! We usually take a trip just to buy razor blade cartridges because they're SO much cheaper. We saw so many sights that just made us look at each other and giggle.
After leaving there, we went to Hobby Lobby and Target. Hobby Lobby has all their Valentine's stuff on sale this week for 30% off. I loaded up thanks to Belle and her swap idea! She's gonna be getting some really nice pretties!
Also, they had their pom poms for half off. I bought some pink, red, and white and am planning to string them up and make me a cute little garland for my seasonal tree, kindof like this picture but I think I'll pass on the little beads.See...I have this Christmas tree that stays up in my kitchen all year long. Every month I change the decor to match whatever holiday is near. Right now I have snowmen out, but this week the Valentine's Day stuff is coming! I can't wait! Here's a picture of my tree and antique cabinet from last year.



We had a great time doing some "shopping" and just spending the day together. My sister and I are singing at church in the morning. We've just finished practicing "I'll Fly Away." Ooohh I hope God blesses somebody through us in the morning and that we won't get too nervous in the process.
I'm going to go on to bed I guess. I hope Lil R and Big Daddy have started their little snoring party!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

To Ebay or Not to Ebay


Hey Y'all!

I just wanted you all to know that I DID get my closet cleaned out Monday like I had blogged earlier. Big Daddy helped me get 4 (not 3) huge trash bags of clothes only out of there!
Here's my question....

Do I Ebay the clothes or just drop them off at Goodwill?
There are clothes, many clothes, with the tags STILL on them in there. I don't mean Wal-Mart clothes either. Although, I do love me some Wal-Mart Faded Glory $9.96 blue jeans!!
You can really make some good money on Ebay. If you don't believe me, just ask the 3 people I've bought Pink Milk Glass from during the last two weeks! hee hee

Seriously though, it takes so much of my time. I guess I could do it at an undisclosed location while acting like I was doing some undisclosed work related activities, in an undisclosed room, while everyone else at the undisclosed location was trying to appear busy as well on a day when our usual clients are out of the undisclosed location! HAHAHAHA

Or--I could just drop them off at the Goodwill on my way to lunch from the undisclosed location.

Or not!
I'm on my way to teach a piano lesson, then church!

Y'all have a great night tonight!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Bummer Dude

The weatherman called for snow...
And here's how it all went down...
4:30 AM--Wake to Lil R coughing his head off and Big Daddy taking a shower. Got Lil R some cough syrup and remembered that Big Daddy had to report to work at 6:00 AM in case the roads were bad.
4:40 AM--Checked the TV to see if school was called off after peeping out the back door to see a mild (and I DO mean MILD) dusting. School was "still on" so I decided to hop back in the bed.
5:00--Kissed Big Daddy goodbye. Checked TV again--no such luck.
6:30 AM--Awoke to the phone ringing....Answered it, half asleep to hear our principal saying that school would be in session today! DERN DERN DERN!!
Got up and began getting ready. Got Lil R ready, had groceries (because we cooked today in Home Ec! yipee), had Lil R and BOTH of his blue blankies, his sippie cup, my purse, keys and cell phone all in one round. Set alarm and proceed to get everything and everyone out the door in 2 minutes.
Phone rings...I decide not to answer it, Lil R's hand slipped out of mine as he tumbled down 4 back steps! As I'm praying and he's falling, he finally hits the ground. He then looks up at me and says, "Mama! That was fun---let's do it again!"
Thank you Lord for keeping my baby safe, but next time--please please Lord hook us up with some snow. It was terribly painful to put the evaporated milk, the sugar, and the vanilla flavoring back up into the pantry.
Until next time my sweet sweet snowcream....

Monday, January 19, 2009

Oh Happy Day!

Oh can I tell you how excited I am? They're calling for 1-3 inches of snow tonight here around The Doublewide!
I'm making a trip with mama to the grocery store in a little bit to buy stuff for supper for the week. It's her week to buy! hee hee
I cook it and they all come here to eat every night except Wednesday nights as they're church nights.

Big Daddy and I are off today and Lil R is having a great day at daycare. He has a little bit of a cold, but isn't running a fever, so he was ok to go this morning.
After checking on my mammaw and about 3 cups of awesome coffee, Big Daddy and I cleaned out our closet. I seriously got 3 huge trash bags full of clothes I can't wear! I still have my shoes left to go through, but I already feel a little lighter!
Have a great day today and I'll leave you with Lil R's masterpiece. He was singing,"B-I-N-G-O" this past weekend while playing with his little Leap Frog alphabet thingy on the fridge. When Big Daddy saw what Lil R had spelled, he nearly had a stroke!
Enjoy!

Please excuse his dirty face....he is all boy!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Big Bump Up Friday!

Happy Saturday Y'all!
I was so lucky to sleep in until 9:00 this morning! Lil R was all snuggled up beside me in the bed and it was just wonderful!
I think the weatherman in Charlotte said it got down to 8 degrees last night around these parts. That's good snugglin' weather for sure!
Big Daddy has a friend that he works with who kills his hogs and prepares lots of goodies in the late fall. We always buy a bunch of his sausage. I'm telling you it's delicious! I was so happy when Big Daddy fried us some up this morning to go along with some biscuits!
After getting that ready, I doned on my sexiest outfit to go across the road and check on mammaw. Here's what I mean by sexy:
An old old housedress, a pair of flannel pajama bottoms, some Christmas socks, and some black flats. All topped off with Big Daddy's huge quilted flannel jacket. I still had bed head too!
You should have seen it--well.....maybe not!
I was hoping nobody would see me but Mammaw, and she has Moderate Dementia, so she wouldn't remember how bad I looked in about 15 minutes anyway!!
As I had finished changing the bandage on her back from the bedsore, and cleaning her house, my daddy walked in. You should have seen the look on his face! I busted out laughing and so did he.
After coming back to The Doublewide, I've sorted all the laundry and cleaned the den and kitchen. I really should wash the shower curtains and bed linens, but they're not complaining, so it may be Monday now! You seriously should see the piles of laundry! Ugh....
Now--for my crazy afternoon yesterday....
I left school to go pick up Lil R from daycare. I was sitting at the stoplight and heard some tires screaching. As I looked into my rearview mirror, I knew what was fixin' to go down.
This crazy lady, seriously, hit an older model Honda Accord. Then she backed up and rammed him again. It rammed him into a big Dodge pickup, which rammed the Dodge into ME! Dern! I've only had the van like 3 weeks and already got rear-ended.
Crazy part---The "crazy lady" then backed up again and sped off. Luckily, a guy in a parking lot right at us got her tag number.
I'm ok and I'm really thankful that I didn't have Lil R in the car too!
So after freezing and waiting on our wonderful police dept. to get finished with gathering his information, I went to pick up Lil R. When I walked in the gym, he was pulling up his jockies in the bathroom with the door wide open! He made it all week at school with no accidents! One of his teachers told me that he fell and his nose had just stopped bleeding!
So, I told Big Daddy I thought it was best for us to just go home and get out of everybody's way! He agreed!
My brother-in-law called and said they were bringing stuff for supper to The Doublewide. I think he felt sorry for me. He works across the street from where the big bump up happened, and he came out there to check on me. That was really nice!
So we fixed stuff for tacos and stuffed our guts royally!
After finishing supper, we just hung out and played. Lil R really had fun riding around the kitchen on Big Daddy's shoulders. He used to hate it, but now loves it!
The best thing about yesterday, aside from the fact that Lil R wasn't in the van was that my first piece of my Pink Milk Glass came yesterday!! I love it and am attaching a picture of it with one of the pink doilies I bought at the antique store last week. Since we're staying in today, hopefully I'll get something done besides laundry, and the only accidents happening around here will be in Lil R's jockies--hahahahahha!
Have a great day!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Swaps


I just signed up for a swap over at Life of a Southern Belle. It's a really fun idea, and I've thought about participating for awhile now.
You will be paired with someone and will send them a little valentine's gift. The theme is love and friendship.
I'm looking forward to gathering some things for whomever I get paired with.
If you think this is something you'd like to do, the price limit is $25.00 and she's asking that you blog about your gifts when they arrive. The deadline to sign up is tonight, Friday the 16th. Click on the quilt square above to register at her website. The web address is below too:
http://sbelle-lifeofasouthernbelle.blogspot.com/2009/01/valentines-day-swap.html
Have a great weekend!
I'll be posting again before the day's out I'm sure.

PS. You like the new picture? I made those hearts out of polymer clay. I've since then taken it and made a pendant out of it for a necklace. It's precious!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Baby It's Cold Outside!

It's 35 degrees outside right now. Tonight it's supposed to be 13 degrees and tomorrow night it's supposed to get down to 9 degrees.

Now for my friends up north, you're probably about ready to reach through your computer screens and give me a virtual smack upside my head. Especially FarmChick ! Check out her blog and look at the pictures of "The Chair" and the amount of snow she's getting!

I am really really looking forward to our first snow. Sunday's forecast for this area of NC is calling for a 30% chance of precipitation, but I doubt it'll be snow.
All I know is I'm ready for some SNOWCREAM! I absoluetly LOVE it! My mammaw used to make it for us when we were kids.

I remember one winter, while I was at Mars Hill College, living in Fox Dorm, I got the craving for some snowcream. I was sitting in the dorm room with some friends, and we decided to make a trip to the grocery store! After finding out that the roads were way to dangerous to drive on, we decided to walk. Please understand that it just wasn't a little bit of snow, it was a dern blizzard almost. It was freezin' cold!! I couldn't find my gloves or a scarf, so we tied towels around our hands and face, and put my coat on to head out! My friend Aimee D. also made the trip with me. We went just to buy a few items needed for snowcream! Stupid, I know---but it was soo worth it!
Here's our recipe for SnowCream
2 cans evaporated milk
2 cups regular sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
Mix all this in a large bowl. Add CLEAN snow and stir. I promise you won't be disappointed!
Remember that joke about yellow snow? I just went back in time, in my mind, and heard my Pappaw Fred bellerin' laughin' after telling us never to eat yellow snow. He was so much fun!
I googled snowcream and found this picture with lots of sprinkles added too! Yummy!
We're scheduled to be out of school this coming Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Holiday. I have so many things on my "TO DO LIST" for that day.
You probably could care less, hahaha, but for me to be held accountable, I'm going to let you in on my plans:
1. Clean out my closet--donate stuff I haven't worn in awhile to our local Goodwill.
2. Clean and organize my craft room/computer room. It's a horrid mess!
3. Get laundry caught up.
4. Decide to scratch #1-#3 above and finally watch those 2 movies on the top of our TV from Netflix that have been there for about 3 weeks while Lil R has a great day at daycare.
I'm thinking #4 sounds the best!
But...if I get those things done, I'll be so proud of myself!
If you're off of work on Monday, what are your plans?
Enjoy your day today!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Photo Tag

I was tagged by Tardevil at Confessions of a 40-something Mama Queen. I would really like to thank her for tagging me, since this is my FIRST tag ever! To play you must go to your 4th folder in your saved pictures and find the fourth picture in the folder. Now show it and talk about it a little bit. Then you're supposed to tag four other bloggers.

Here's my picture:

I know it's hard for you to believe, but it's Lil R! His MiMi took this picture last Easter. I believe the sailor's hat is genuine from somebody in Big Daddy's family. If I had to guess who's it is, I couldn't because I know Big Daddy's Daddy was in the Army, so....
Back to the subject of this picture. Does this adopted miracle not have the most beautiful eyes?? I cannot believe he's getting ready to turn 3 in a month! It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing him home. That's a HUGE Blog for another time, but I promise to fill you all in on how God answers prayers that were prayed for 10 years!
Thanks for tagging me!
Now for the four people I choose to tag:

Michelle at The Galyean Battalion

Amy at Hi, I'm Amy!

Farmchick at Fresh From The Farm

Julie at Joy's Hope

Lil R is doing so good at Potty Training, but only while he's at daycare! When he comes home, he doesn't want to be bothered. Please, somebody tell me that this is normal?
Y'all have a great night!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Feathers and The Potty

Just wanted to share a bit with y'all today.
First of all, I wish I could be a stay at home mama. You who are blessed enough to be able to do that should seriously thank God everyday. There are days when I miss my little man so much. Today is surely one of those days. I have it figured out though. What we need is to find us a really really really rich person or family who would just love us enough to send us like $5000.00 per month. We could make a really nice doublewide payment with that and get it paid off. It'd also get the new van paid for and we'd have lots of money just to go spend our time at Antique stores and Wal-Mart, with a trip to Hobby Lobby every now and then. Whew...a girl can dream, right?
Well...back to reality. Lil R is working on pottie training this week at daycare. Those girls, his teachers, are PROS! They do it everday and to pottie train a child is nothing to them. While I'm near pulling my hair out, they grin and get him to pee pee on the pottie with a FLAIR! What's up with that?!
Anyway--I called his daycare during my lunchbreak today at 12:00. His teacher, Mrs. Charlene, told me that he has peed in the pottie three times and had NO accidents yet. I'm so proud of him! So, again, I've saved the best for last.
As we're in bed, trying to talk him into going to sleep, he sings, chats, talks, etc. Finally he says, "Mama LOOK!". I'm like, NOPE---go to SLEEP! After about 2 more times of him begging me to look, I finally rolled over and he was pulling his eyes, like making a chinese face, and said "Mama--LOOK! I have feathers on my eyes!"
After just a split second, I lost it! He was talking about his eyelashes. Ain't that just precious? Have a great day!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Beads Make Necklaces!

I had to blog about my friend Michelle for just a minute. We went to Mars Hill College together in the early nineties and were friends since we both were in the band! We've caught up with each other and I have totally enjoyed her blog and her emails. Please read her post, that I copied from her blog. She's amazing and God is even more amazing when he sends friends our way all over again! I hope you get a blessing by reading about how her blog started something kindof big around here!
You can check her out at
http://www.galyeanbattalion.blogspot.com/ too! She's such a beautiful person--inside and out!

Here goes....
(I have copied and pasted Michelle G's Blog Post)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW....
.....how you are going to affect someone.
For instance, back in the day (my days at Mars Hill College, aka "MHC"), I had the opportunity to meet many different folks from many different areas. It was all fun, especially the "jello-snorting" that we music majors were notorious for (that's another story all together!!), but sometimes I came across some really great people that would forever be etched in my mind. Such is the case with Michelle (great name, I know!). Michelle was an elementary ed. major who played in the band. She was great fun - probably one of the very first people that pop into my mind when I think of fun college days. With her, there was ALWAYS a laugh and her country-as-cornbread ways would steal your heart in a minute. Recently I reconnected with Michelle via Facebook. We exchanged emails, blogs, etc.... She, like me, is the mother to a beautiful son who grew in her heart rather than under it. She had the opportunity to read my post "My Favorite Necklace" from several weeks back. I was unbelievably pleased when she asked if she could incorporate it into her Wednesday night women's Bible study. See below for the scoop from a very sincere email I just received:
Michelle,First of all, let me thank you for letting me borrow your blog. You have no idea how much God used you to uplift 22 women of our church tonight!We had a great turn-out and tonight was my night to do the "lesson".I told them about us going to college together, and that I always felt you were full of The Holy Spirit and could see Jesus in you. I was raised right, but like a lot of people, I didn't act like I should have during my college years. Secretly, you were always one of the people I could look at and see Christ daily. I now want to thank you for never waivering and always seeming to show Christ to others by your daily example.With that being said, and I really felt like I needed to tell you that, tonight was great.I could barely read through your devotional without losing it. I read yours, word for word, and then added personal stories to it. By the time I finished, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.After reading and talking about the scripture and your blog, I then handed each lady a strip of paper and asked her to write down what her most prized "bead" was that her parents or grandparents had given her. As they wrote, I shared mine: "Laughing beats crying." No matter what trials we go through, my family was always good at finding humor in everything. My mammaw still says, "We might as well laugh--it sure does beat crying." One by one, each lady shared a little bit about her "bead" as I taped them all together to make a paper necklace. At the end, I told each person that they'll never look at a necklace the same way again. I also said that when they remember their beads every now and then, to ask God to give them the strength and wisdom to give their children beads that they too will remember as they're older.Thanks again Michelle! Isn't it awesome to see how God uses us to help others?Here are a few pictures from tonight.
#1. Our group with our necklace, minus ME (takin' the picture!)

#2. Flashing the "I LOVE YOU" sign to thank God for you and your blog that so deeply touched us and to tell you that we love you!

(This is my favorite photo!!! Isn't it wonderful to have so many "long-saved (not LOST!) sisters that you will one day meet, person to person!?!?!?)
#3. Our "BEADS"
Thanks again Michelle!
You ROCK!
~Michelle H.
http://www.doublewidedreamer.blogspot.com/
So, my point is that you never really know who is watching, who is listening, who God might just put in your path for "such a time as this", only to be blessed years later.
Thanks so much, Michelle, you have blessed me more than I can put into words. Sometimes those blessings are long in the making.
See below of a pic of me and my Daddy. Yeah, he is the one who helped string all those beads on my necklace and bless his heart, he's still working on it!
Check back in a few days for a glimpse of our Christmas celebrations. I've got a gazillion photos to share....."

And THAT whole ordeal was a great ole big hug from God Himself! Ain't He great?!

Enjoy your day today!

Great Big Day!

My sister and I went to take down the tree at church this morning while Big Daddy and Lil R went to get their haircuts. We weren't timing ourselves or anything, but it only took us like 30 minutes to get a 9 ft. tree undecorated, down, and in the boxes and tubs and the floor area vaccumed! We were so proud that we thought we'd make a little trip to R.O.'s Barbeque in Gastonia. If you're from around here, you KNOW how good that food is, and if you ain't from around here, I apologize that you're missing out on such great food! Also, it's one of the few places left that has actual teenage/early adult guys who will come to your car, take your order, and bring your food to you. One of my former students works there and I was glad to get to see him. He's 22 years old now and the last I saw of him, he was in my 6th grade class! Wow--I'm sooo getting old. Here's a result of my google image search!
After talking to him and eating, we headed out to find a neat little shop that I'd found through Craigslist. This place is called Katy-Did Antiques and it's downtown Gastonia. I have seen furniture items they've listed for sale and I have been wanting to go for sometime now. I told my sister that I just wanted to see if we could find it--knowing the whole time I was going inside once we did!
So---we found it and I begged her to let me go in. She, of course, said, "Well...we can't stay long, but let's go."
I think we ended up staying an hour, maybe a little bit longer. I lost track of time because as soon as we walked in there we were both mesmerized. Seriously. Just look at the front of this store and tell me you don't want to go inside!

We had so much fun. I was actually BEGGING her to get her camera out, but she wouldn't. She said there were cameras in the store and they'd catch us acting stupid, so she won!
Now my little sister is NOT a huge fan of antiques. Let's get that straight right now! haha
But--my mammaw gave her some Carnival Glass awhile back. It's the blue kind and is similar to the picture below:
She was VERY happy to find a VASE for $15.00 and a deviled egg platter for $15.00 too! I found about 5 doilies and am tickled to death with them.
I also made the decision today to start collecting pink milk glass. I adore it; have for quite some time now so I can't wait to start on that!
WE had so much fun and are now planning on going "antiquing" to see if we can find more Carnival Glass for her and Pink Milk Glass stuff for me. Here's my favorite picture of a google search of this too:


We had a great day together and I got the new van cleaned and vaccumed. WOOOHOO! Me and Lil R had a wonderful nap this afternoon on the couch too. There's nothing in the world like "scroochin'" up with my little man and drifting off to sleep with him. God is so good!
I'm now off to begin reading "Twilight". I am sick of hearing about it, so I've borrowed a copy from a friend. She warned me that I'd be up LATE...We'll just have to see about that! haha Have a great night!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

False Alarm!

I just had to come in my office here at The Doublewide, and share what happened this afternoon. First of all, I had a faculty meeting after school so Big Daddy picked up Lil R from daycare today. Sometimes my mama will fill in at the convenience store where she used to work before she took her big job at Wal-Mart in the deli! Today was one of those days.
Big Daddy stopped with Lil R so he could see his Nana hard at work.
Lil R helped her bag a few items, entertained the customers awhile and enjoyed spending some time with his Nana. A small busy streak occurred so she set Lil R down beside of her for just a minute. He was being good and was having a good time.
The next thing she knew, a call came in from the alarm company because the DERN SECRET ALARM BUTTON HAD BEEN MASHED BY LIL R!!!!
Here comes our wonderful Stanley Police Dept.--Chief and ALL! Big Daddy said he was about to die from embarrassment while apologizing about fifteen times. The po-po didn't seem to think it was funny at all!
Just thought I'd share that with you for this afternoon.
Enjoy your day today---with or without any alarms!