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Monday, December 11, 2006

Blogger Challenge:Fill in the Blank

1. My current favorite song is: Tim McGraw by Taylor Swift or Next time he cheats by Carrie Underwood.

2. The last book I read was: Can't remember any names, probably a short romance novel.

3. The last book I bought was:Days and nights with Elizabeth and Darcy. Continuing story of Pride and Prejudice.

4. The last cd I bought was: Rascal Flatts

5. Another CD I wanted but didn't buy is: Sugarland

6. Right now, I'm wearing: soft pants and sweatshirt

7. The last gift I bought was: Cd players for my kids

8. The last time I laughed heartily and loudly: I am not sure I remember, which is sad.

9. My favorite holiday ornament is: The margaritaville ornament. One of the first ones Chris and I bought together.

10. My house smells like: a tree candle I had burning.

11. The first thing on my to-do list tomorrow is: I have not thought that far ahead.

12. If I could sit on Santa's lap and believe that he'd bring me whatever toy I wished for, I'd ask for: Anything? A new truck!

13. If I could holiday shop in ONE store, all expenses paid, I'd shop at: I am not sure if I could only pick one store.

14. If an angel alighted on my doorstep today and said, "I'm here to grant a Christmas wish," I'd wish for: The war to be over, troops to come home, and my husband not to have to go to Afghanistan in January.

15. When I see a bell ringer while out shopping, I: Try to put money in.
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Sunday, September 10, 2006

Blog Challenge: Countdown

10 Things I Wanna Do Before I Die
1. Learn to Sail
2. Go to Italy
3. Live in the Carribean
4.publish a book
5.learn to play my papas fiddle
6. Finish my degree
7.Run a marathon
8.live abroad
9.Own a farmhouse with a garden in the northeast somewhere.
10.Find a long lost friend from College

9 Places I Last Spent Money
1.Walmart
2.Taco Bell
3.Target
4.Bashas
5.Frys
6.Shutterfly
7.Post office
8.Michaels
9.Safeway


8 Sounds I Routinely Hear Around My House
1. The kids
2.The fan in the bedroom
3.the sliding glass door to the back yard
4.my cell phone
5.the t.v.
6.click of the keyboard
7.crayons rustling in the box
8.Hotwheels running across the walls/tables


7 Real Restaurants Where I Last Ate Out
1.I have not ate out in so long I do not remember!
2. Several months ago, Red Lobster
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.


6 Things I've Recently Scratched Off My To-Do List
1.Pull out the squash in the garden
2.Start on 2006 scrapbook
3.Start recycle bins in the garage
4.sent out thankyou notes
5.Vacumed under all furniture and baseboards
6.Organized scrapbook stuff/room


5 People I Don't Know by would Like to Hang Out With
1.Jimmy Buffett!
2. Lots of people from Scrapshare
3. Janet Evanovich
4. J.K. Rowlings
5.

4 Songs That Make Me Happy
1. Come Monday
2.Kryptonyte
3.Me and my Gang
4.Survive

3 Things I Hate To Do
1.Laundry
2.Going to the bank
3.Making phone calls to businesses/apts.

2 Things I'm Really Good At
1. Organizing
2. scrapbooking

1 Bad Habit
1. Biting my nails

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Blog Challenge: What is in your purse?

I carry a small black purse. It has a silver belt buckle for the handle. The zipper tag says SELF. That is because I got it when I subscribed to SELF Magazine. This has been a couple of years ago, and all though I did not hang on to any of the advice from that magazine, I hung on to the purse. Its just a cute little black purse. Goes with everything. I can dress up or down with it. I do admit that I change purses quite frequently. It is probably my favorite accessory. I have a black SAK, a small brown and pink bag, a big hippie over the shoulder tie dye number, a big pink bag with a B on it, and I am sure others that have been lost in the darkness of my closet. But the black purse is the one I use the most.

What is inside this bag? Lets see.

Red paisley wallet( Its so pretty!) I went back to get the purse that matched this wallet, but they were all sold.

Pink check book

Pink change bag with a B on it. This change purse goes with the B purse I mentioned. I quit wearing the purse because I had a couple of comments about why I had a Barbie purse.

Thera tears eye drops- I had Lasik Surgery last year and I always get dry eyes. Come to think of it I was looking for eye drops last night!

Empty Lemon Sucker wrapper my daughter got from the bank last week.

Her carebear sticker she got at the doctor on Friday. The sticker is stuck to a idea sheet from Joanns. You know those free sheets that hang on the shelf. Well there was a really cute idea about making a purse from scrapbook paper. She stuck her sticker to it.

A few of my new business cards

Mary-kate and ashley lip gloss collection. Don't laugh- I liked the colors.

A magnet business card for the pediatrician. I am taking this out right now and putting it on the fridge.

An old grocery list of the best deals in town and what coupons I have for each product. This has become a habit. I do not do coupon sense anymore, I just figure it out for myself. Which leads to alot of lists. Then again I am a list kind of girl.

Walmart reciept(48.07), Post office reciept(6.08)- I sent something to someone on Scrapshare

paper clip
Carmex
A coupon for a 1.50 of popsicles
A sticky note of the things I needed at walmart(the reciept mentioned above)

And that is what is inside. I have always heard that you can tell a person by whats in their trash but I never thought about a purse. When I look at the list of items, I see a reflection of my life. I picture events in my life or daily activities I did with my loved ones. Nothing remarkable to anyone but me!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

What is your favorite color?






"What is your favorite color?" I remember getting asked this several times as a kid. Like every other kid I would blurt out my favorite color of the moment. It would hardly ever be the same color I said the previous time the question was asked. I still do not know the answer to this question. I have colors that I love, others I hate, and some I really have no opinion about. That is because I associate colors with feelings, moods, or moments in my life.
Blue and green always calm me down. They both remind me of the ocean. I can not really say if the ocean is more blue or green though. It is ever changing into a mix of blue, green, white, and gray. When I see these colors I almost always see a certain ocean, The Gulf. The beaches on the Florida panhandle take my breath away. There is nothing better. I can feel the warm, white sands beneath my toes, smell the salt in the air, and see the blue-green water swell up into waves that crash along the shores. Those are the things I think about when I see blues and greens.

Green can also makes me think of grass. I love the color of grass. Every time I pass a field of grass I have the urge to take off my shoes and run through it. The chance to do this does not come often living here in the desert, so when I go home to Alabama that is what I do. I walk through my parents huge yard barefooted and I beg my dad to mow. I love to mow grass. The smell of freshly cut grass is intoxicating and it reminds me of home.

Blue is the color I painted my bedroom. It is a soft sky blue that can almost look white. It calms me just walking in there. We decorated the walls with pictures of the ocean. Those pictures were carefully chosen and all are black and white. I love black and white pictures. Black and white photographs decorate my home. When I paint I almost always use black and white. I have been painting since I was a child. As I got older I took to painting portraits of famous people and you can guess what two colors they were painted with. It is amazing to me the depth and character you can capture with just dark and light.

Red makes me feel warm and comforted. I enjoy all shades of red. When I sit down to color with my children, I only want to use the red crayon. I have no explanation for this, except I love it. I put an old red tricycle in my garden. On the seat I set a pot of Impatients. What color is that tricycle? Its a red radio flyer. It makes me smile every time I see it. It reminds me of carefree times as a child. It also reminds me of this little red tractor my dad has on his porch. The same little tractor he rode as a child. He has kept it all these years so that his grandchildren can enjoy it. That is exactly what they do when they visit.

The sun makes wonderful colors of red,orange,pink, and purple. If I were watching the sun set I would tell you that those were my favorite colors. When the sun goes down out west the sky is glorious. There is no way to pick one of those colors as my favorite, they all are.

I believe a child should be allowed to choose what color he paints his room. My parents always let my sister and I do this even if they disagreed. When I was six years old I chose mint green and my sister chose fushia. When I was twelve I chose hunter green walls and a cranberry red ceiling, my sister once again chose pink but this time it was Pepto Bismo pink. To this day I can not pick up a bottle of that medicine without seeing her room. It was horrible. To each his own. I loved both my rooms equally but the hunter green/cranberry room was amazing. It gave the most comforting feeling in the evenings and was easy to wake up to in the mornings. A couple months after I had painted my mom brought me a article from one of her magazines. It stated that you could induce a calming effect with dark green walls and red ceilings. How funny to discover this on my own. That is just how I am though. I always go with what feel right to me at the moment. My friends have been joking with me lately because everthing is pink and brown. My new jewelry box, my notebook which I carry everywhere, and even a couple new additions in my wardrobe have been pink and brown. I am not going to do anything drastic with these colors though. I still can't get those pink rooms my sister had out of my head.

There are other colors I love as well. The inside of a seashell. The color of my lavender and salvia. The yellow bow I put in my daughter's hair. I could never choose one of these colors as my favorite though. What is my favorite color? I guess it depends on where I am at and what I am doing. You can always expect a different answer from me.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Lessons from a Marigold

I have a marigold sitting in a pot outside. I put the pot on a table that is situated between the two chairs that my husband and I frenquently sit in during our evenings. This marigold is very healthy and has 3 or 4 flowers bursting to open up. Patiently I have waited for the new blooms. Needless to say these are one of my favorite flowers. My parents have always had marigolds around the home. On the porches, in flower beds, and especially in the garden. My dad would surround his vegetable garden with them to keep critters at bay. Now that I am grown and attempting to grow a few vegetables myself, I do the same thing. I keep a few of these flowers around my squash, zucchini, and baby pumpkins, but I like to put a few in pots to display around the yard. This one plant is holding my attention though. It is because of the bulb this plant is supporting. It is huge and by far bigger than any of the others. For days the bulb has gotten bigger and bigger. I keep thinking it is going to burst open and produce this beautiful flower, but alas it does not. This has been discussed nightly by my husband and I. We have a bet to see how long it takes to open up. Regardless of when it happens I know that it will open up and be a huge and beautiful bloom.
I feel that way sometimes. That I am just bursting at the seems and ready to bloom. When I do, I know I will be huge. Yet I know that the things that I am doing may seem insignificant to some, but they are big and significant to those in my family. Doing chores around the house, walking my son to school, talking or playing with my children, or listening to my husband's day are all part of what makes up this family. Sometimes I feel like it is not enough. I should be part of something bigger, doing something more, or contributing to a higher cause. We all get thoughts or even glimpses of something greater, but I know that there is no greater accomplishment than taking care of my family.
Some people believe that the marigold has culinary and medicinal uses. It has been used for centuries to comfort the heart and soul. That marigold bloom will open up in a few days and be everthing I expect it to be. I am content knowing that I may not ever do anything great by the worlds standards, but like that marigold, the things that I am doing will comfort the heart and soul of my family.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Refraction of the sun's rays


Yesterday evening my husband and I went out into the backyard for some quiet time after dinner. We have come accustom to doing this since are move out of the desert and into the mountains. Chris says we have sat more in our new backyard than we have in all of the 5 years we have lived out west. It is so beautiful up here. The climate is wonderful and every afternoon this summer we have been given thunderstorms. These big rolling clouds roll in and with them come the rain and even cooler weather. But yesterday they brought a new gift. The most beautiful rainbow. The colors were so vibrant and it seemed like you could reach out and touch it. We called the kids outside and told them to look up. As they did you could see their eyes widen with the beauty that was before us. I am pretty sure my children have never seen this before. Yes they have seen little rainbow spots(as we used to call them), but never a fully complete, cascading across the sky rainbow! You could even see those streaks of the sun's rays radiating from it. How glorious.
I guess I will always be amazed at the wonders that are in nature. We have such beauty before us, if we only take the time to notice. Everytime I see a rainbow I think back to a time in my childhood. I can remember walking home from the water park that our small town sported. I was alone crossing a huge field that lead back into the suburbs. It had rained that day and the sky was cloudy, but over this field was a rainbow. I remember it being huge, spanning the entire field. And there I was alone to enjoy it. I must have sat there in that field until it disapeared. The feeling I remember was contentment. I had that same feeling last night. Maybe not as deeply as I did in my childhood but it was still there asking me to let it out. As adults I think we let to many things get to us and we are unable to fully appreciate the small things. Such a shame when something like this is before us. I hope my children can feel that same feeling you get when you witness one of God's wonders. And never forget to LOOK UP!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Trying to Reason with the First Day of School

Our family is starting a new chapter in our lives today. We have been building up to it for a while now and for the most part we were ready. I have decided to walk to school with Lulu in the stroller and Rye on his bike. It is one mile to the school. So it will give us all some great excercise. This morning we got up, Chris made breakfast and I packed up the brand new Superman lunchbox. I talked Rye into getting the retro metal lunchbox. I am not sure he understood my fascination with this. We got ready and headed out to the garage to load up on bikes and stroller. But it would not be a first day if we did not forget a half a dozen things. One mile later we were ready to head into those double doors and start this adventure. Chris waited outside with Lu(she was crying). She is really going to miss bubby! Rye and I walked into the school and found his classroom, we waited our turn to get into what seemed like the busiest Kindergarten class in the hall. Hmmm, I try to not look into the classroom and notice there already seems to be to many students in the room. We find his seat and I take pictures of the class. The students all have the deer in the headlike look. Rye said I did not have to wait around. He is ready to spread his wings and me standing there will only hinder the spread. So with a heavy heart but dry eyes I walk back out of the school thinking about the time it took to get to this stage in our lives. I meet up with Chris and Lulu and we head back home with a short detour to the park. Just outside of the school parking lot I ask my husband if he could believe 5 years ago this day would ever come. He just smiles at me the way he always does and shakes his head no. My my, how we have changed so much in these several years.