Me and Nicholas Sparks have this "Love/Hate" thing going on.....

Hey y'all!  I hope you've had a wonderful weekend.  The weather was GORGEOUS here in North Carolina this weekend.  It's still nice and I love a good strong breeze!
I keep wondering if we're going straight into spring early, or if more bad weather will be here again....hmmm...we'll have to see.

Last night I didn't go to sleep until 1:47 this morning, thanks to one of my favorite author's new book, Safe Haven.  I had to be at school this morning, on post, in the cafeteria by 7:30 AM.  I was 5 minutes late and Robbie was meaner than a cock-eyed snake this morning.  It was so hard to get up and get it together.  After dropping Robbie off at daycare, in-between bringing him with me to breakfast duty and then dropping him off, I sent Big Daddy a text that read...."Oh Man.  We are shutting down The Doublewide early tonight.  Your son was a meany-head this morning!"  To which he replied, "Haha God love you Was it bad this morning?"  Then I sent him another text that said, "Bad doesn't even come close, but we are ok"  So.....Me and Nicholas Sparks....I love him...but I hate that he writes so good!  I don't have it in me to put down one of his books once I get started!  
If you haven't read it, please do.  It's an awesome read!!

Tonight's the big night for a class I'm teaching!  On Facebook, I created a group called, "It's Cool to Crochet" and we're meeting for the first time tonight.
I am very excited about being able to teach folks in my community how to crochet.  There will be more people that already know there...so I look forward to it!
I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures!

  Have a wonderful Monday!

Birthday Party Fun!

Hey Y'all!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and I hope wherever you are, you are as lucky as we are, here in The South, to be enjoying this beautiful weather.
I love opening the windows and letting the house "air out".  Makes everything feel cleaner and smell better, plus it gets all that stale air out and brings freshness in.  This makes me ready for spring in a tremendous way!
Below are some pictures of Robbie's 5th Birthday Party this past Saturday.  Hope you enjoy!

We began by playing the Wii! 

 Robbie wanted to create a Mii character for everyone while Lulabelle kept up with everyone there!

This is Robbie and Matthew.  Robbie is 6 weeks older than Matthew and look how tall Matthew is!  Matthew is our preacher's son.  We have a feeling these two are gonna be partners in crime later on!  hee hee

Obviously there were way more adults than kids at the party!  We had LOTS of fun!  That's my mama in the white and Big Daddy's mama in the blue.

The next few pictures are of Robbie and Cydney.  He tells everyone that she's his girlfriend.  Cydney just turned 4 in December, and her and Robbie have been buddies since they were in the nursery at church together.

I know, adorable, right?!

We made our own crayons.....

Decorated our own cupcakes....

Opened presents....

and played MORE Wii....

But more than anything, we had such a great time, celebrating such a special boy, with around 30 friends and family at The Doublewide for the day!  Thanks to all of our friends and family for sharing this day with us and thanks to YOU for being my little bloggie friends!  Have a beautiful day!

Trash to Treasure

 Hey Y'all!  HAPPY FRIDAY!  The weather today is supposed to be beautiful--so warm and breezy--makes me wish I was at home, in a hammock underneath my favorite shade tree, with my quilt that my Mammaw gave me a long tie ago, reading a good Nicholas Sparks book, sipping on some coffee and resting comfortably.  Whew....excuse me....just went away in my La La Land for a few minutes. 
Do any of you have big plans for the weekend?  We'll be BUSY at The Doublewide!  Robbie's 5th birthday was this past Wednesday, but we'll be having his party tomorrow from 11 to 1.  We're having pizza and the kids will be making homemade crayons, decorating their own cupcakes to take home with them, and playing Birthday Party Bash on Wii.  It's so pretty we may even go outside instead of staying inside.  We have a picnic table out there and Robbie has a playground.  We'll see what the weather does...
Also, just wanted to let y'all see what I made this past week.  I had some scraps donated, like BOXES AND BOXES that are already cut into 6x6 and 7x7 and 8x8 squares.  I took a few of them and created a flower.  The doily on the inside was in a junk bag that I bought at a yard sale awhile back.  The backing is an old table napkin, and the center of the flower is an old clip on earring that I popped the back off of and hot glued into the center.  I bought the frame at my favorite hometown junk store for $1.00. 
I think I may have $2.00 in the WHOLE thing---if even that.
Anyway....hope you have a wonderful weekend!  Please remember to leave a comment and let me know you were here!

Can't Even Believe It!

Hey Y'all!  Hope you're having a good morning so far!

Just wanted to stop by and say that our Little Man is 5 today....WOW!  Time is flying!
We'll be celebrating with friends and family on Saturday, but he was so excited when he woke up this morning!
He walked into daycare and told one of the ladies, "I just got older this morning!"  We laughed and laughed....

I am patiently, nervously, anxiously, awaiting the arrival of this:

Please Mr. UPS MAN, hurry and hook a fat girl up! 
Y'all have a wonderful day!

Happy Valentine's Day Y'all!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!  I am thankful for all of my blog friends and hope your day is filled with those you love!

Something STINKS

Hey Y'all!  How's your Thursday?  Mine....shew!  That's about all I can say....
This past summer when my daddy was in the hospital with Guillian Barre Syndrome, I had gone to spend the morning of my birthday with him.  We kept smelling something that stunk really bad, but couldn't figure out what it was.  Later that afternoon, my little sister dropped in to visit and replied that my shoes were rotten!  Me and daddy just laughed and laughed because THAT'S what the smell was.



And by smell.....I mean SHEW-WEE smell!  My feet used to not stink, but here lately, they're horrible!  I kept smelling something earlier this morning and looked down and remembered being at the hospital with my daddy and knew what it was immediately.
Most people that have any sense, would have thrown them away by now, but they're so comfy!
We were hoping for a SNOW DAY today, but we barely got a dusting so I had to rush around and get ready this morning and on went the stinky shoes.
I have bought another pair, but they're not "worn in good" yet, so I keep putting these on...then whenever I'm at school, I pay for it all day.
Today, these puppies are going in the trash.  I usually don't wear tennis shoes to school, but today was a "hurry up and get ready day" in more ways than one.
Remember my post yesterday about my crochet flower I made on a whim?  Well now...you can run to my Etsy shop and buy it because I put it on a gorgeous headband last night.  Here's a cute little picture of it now:

 

Also, here are a few other pictures of more headbands I will have for sale:

Hope y'all have a great day today!  Remember to go HERE and enter the YO-YO-PUFF giveaway.  You have until tomorrow afternoon around 3:30 to enter!

Something I Just Whipped Up!

Hey Y'all!  Hope your Wednesday's been great so far.

Here's a little something I made on my lunch break

today:

 And here's the little pattern for it in case you want to 

make one for yourself:

Ch 6.  Sl st to form a ring.

Ch 2.  Do 23 sc in the ring and join to 2nd st of ch 2.

Ch 2.  Skip next stitch, sc in next st (repeat and do 

this all the 

way around until you have around 12 loops)

{Sl st, ch 3, 3 dc, ch 2, sl st} in each loop around.

Finish off and weave in ends.  Add button, old earring, 

etc. as embellishment.

Now...don't forget my giveaway that ends Friday! I
only have two people that have entered so make sure you enter!
Hope your day is wonderful!

I'm Co-Co for Yo-Yo Puffs!

Hey y'all!

 Before I do ANYTHING, I want to thank all of y'all for the comments you sent me last week.  I was really having a hard time and it means so much when you have people taking you to the Throne of God in prayer when you need it.
The women's program went fine.  We had a wonderful time together!  26 women were there--that's a good sized crowd!
So again, thanks y'all!  I love my bloggin' friends!

~~~ XOXOXOXOXOXOX ~~~

While browsing the internet this weekend during some down-time, I found a website called Craft Passion.  She has some WONDERFUL tutorials and how-to's (wait---aren't those the same thing??!!) on her site.
I found something called a YO-YO PUFF and was like, "Oh...I SO have to learn how to make this!"
So, I grabbed my new FAVORITE crochet hook,
Size G, by ADDI

(Hurry over HERE to get yours) and some yarn, and followed her directions and ended up making one really quickly.
Here it is:

So then I got to thinking....These would be so cute as a "flower" and I could use some buttons for the centers.  They'd also be good hot glued on a headband, made into a hair bow, a brooch.
Also, they could be crocheted with cotton yarn and would make great baby washies and also little facial cloths to take your make up off with. 
So I played a little bit, dressed her up a little bit, and here she is now:

Simple, yet dah-ling!  Wouldn't you say?  I say!
If you have any creativity to you, you're thinking other things that could be made using these, right?
So...let me know what you're thinking and I'll make YOU one--any color you want!  If you don't have a color choice or preference, just leave me a comment to be entered.  Drawing will take place Friday afternoon and I'll notify the winner via email and here on Saturday morning!
Tell all of your friends...send them my way!
Here's how to win:
(Enter as many times as you'd like!!)
1.  Become a follower of my blog.  If you're already a follower, just remind me when you enter.
2.  Blog about my giveaway (and use this here picture that is linked to come back to my blog)
3.  Send me a comment letting me know what you'd do with your yo-yo puff if you had one!

Robbie will draw the winner this Friday (2-11-11) when we get home from school.
Make sure you enter!
Whatcha waitin' on??!

Emotional Overload

I don't know what's wrong with me lately.
Seems I have 9 billion different emotions that seem to come as quickly as I can force them to go.
I feel as if I'm going crazy, as if I should be medicated, as if I'm beginning to slowly come unraveled at any moment.
Just today, I've felt:
Grief, Loss, Happiness, Anger, Betrayal, Aggravation, Fear, Pride, Jealousy, Guilt, Self-Pity, Anticipation, Depression, Excitement.

How is it that we can be feeling a certain way, in the moment, and then suddenly something else happens and can morph everything into something totally different?
*I have a secret that I have to keep quiet and it's hard. *I have about $4000.00 in medical bills that taunt me monthly as I work to make payment arrangements due to recent gall bladder removal surgery. 
*I lost something (before I ever got it) that was supposed to be coming to me.  Someone else whined to who was in charge and ended up with it instead.  When I asked the powers that be about it, they looked at me like I was nuts. 
*Sometimes, I feel like I'm the mama and the daddy and that I shouldn't have to ask for help in my own house when the laundry is still in the floor on his side of the bed and he's whining because he has no clean clothes to wear to work. 
*I have always been somebody who would rather just do it than ask for help, but that can be overwhelming.   *I get aggravated when very smart students sit right under my nose and copy someone else's paper and then act like they cannot believe I would call them on the carpet for it and that they cannot believe I am making them take that paper home and get mama to sign it because they are getting a zero for cheating. 
*I love my son--he's amazing, intelligent, and wonderful as well as stubborn, short-fused, and all boy. 
*I miss my mammaw a lot this week.  She left me her costume jewelry (by way of a sweet hand writen note left in her jewelry box) and yesterday afternoon for some reason or another, I found comfort in just sitting on my bed and playing with the old necklaces clip earrings, and bracelets. 
*I feel a little guilty because I bought an extravagent item Saturday night at Michael's.  I've been wanting it for awhile, but haven't bought it.  I've not made anything with it yet and it's still sitting on my dining room table with the small flowers that I cut out of fabric (a total of 4) lying beside it.  Why do I always do this?!
*I am nervous because I have the women's program at church tomorrow night, and even though I know what I want to do, I haven't taken the first step toward actually doing it--except for getting some cardboard delivered to the fellowship hall. 
*I am pathetic. 
*All I want to do when I get home from work is sit around and play mind-numbing games on Facebook or sew--being all by myself, in some type of self-created  cocoon where I don't want my husband to come.  I don't want him to touch me, to look at me, to hug me, to want me to kiss on him---nothing.
*I want my mama to stop calling me between 7:00 and 7:15 every morning while I'm in the shower wanting to know what I'm going to make for supper.  Who cares mama??!  How about this...what are YOU fixing?  Now, can I finish my shower?
*I know I'm not very stable right now--that's obviously obvious.  I know that my only way back up to the top of my emotions, is to grab hold of God's hands and beg Him to pull me out of all of this.
I have a grip on myself--I know when I'm about halfway gone.  Please pray that I have good climbing gear on for the next couple of days---I'm sure going to need it.