3 days to take off...

Hello everyone!

Well, there are only 3 more days until we leave for our vacation of a life time! My baby (Jayla) is BEEside herself with excitement. I found a picture of the plane today and was able to show her where our seats will be. She has made it VERY clear that she will have a window seat...you know, to make sure the "plane flyer" knows where he's going! LOL

I am a list maker. If I don't have a list of what will be needed/required for our vacations (where ever that may be), I will, without question, leave the most important item at home. Therefore, the list has been made. I asked Mr. M. the other day to go ahead and start putting his stuff out for me so I could have them to pack. He said, "I already gave you what I want to pack!" I told him that all he'd given me was 4 shirts and his 3 swimming trunks. He said, "EXACTLY!" LOL...Men!! And Jayla, let her tell it, she's been packed now for about a month and a 1/2. She has filled her little "pully" suitcase with about 63 books! lol Guess I'd better help her out with that, huh?

Anyway, I think I've got everything we're gonna need listed. But as I'm checking stuff off, I'm seeing that I keep adding items. When does it end? One thing though, that I'm gonna make SURE I have, are my cameras. Yes, I said cameraS! My MIL told me that she wanted to buy me a camera to sorta thank me for all I do for her. I tried to talk her out of it...but she wasn't hearing it. So check out the camera she bought me yesterday...

Is that not the cutest little thing? I just love it...so far. And because it's new, I'm taking my old one as a stand-in. (this is a BIG vacation...so I can't take any chances.)

In other news, Mr. M. and I went to a party last weekend. Our good friends, V & T were celebrating their birthdays and requested that everyone wear black. We had the best time! And the food was SOOO yummy! Here's some shots from that evening.

Love you guys!!!

Also, I just have to say, FaceBook is amazing! I've been on it for a couple years and have found a bunch of people on there. I found a friend, just recently that I grew up with. She use to live across the street from me. She and I along with her sisters and brothers went to elementary and high school together. We met up for lunch this past Tuesday. She brought Jayla some flowers...how sweet is that? We came to the conclusion that it's probably been over 15 years since we've seen eachother. That's just crazy! But now we're back in touch. So cool! Love ya, Beth!

Anyway, I'm thinking this may be my last post before we leave on Sunday. However, I bought a little notepad today to do some daily journaling in while we're gone. (Yes, it was on my list!) So hopefully, I'll remember to write down all the fun we have each day.

I'll end this post with the Friday Flower Fix...you know, to hold ya'll over until I get back. ;-)

Ya'll enjoy your weekend and have a great week next week. And I'll touch base with you when we get back. Toodles!!

What a BARGAIN!!!

Ok, I don't normally do posts like this on my blog.

Alright, maybe I have done it once or twice :-).

But I just had to share this with you. Have you guys ever heard of or been to Garden Ridge? Well, it use to be one of my favorite stores. But they've changed a lot so I don't go there like I use to. ANYWAY, as you know, we'll be leaving for vacation in 11 days and I needed a nice bag/purse to carry-on. Garden Ridge has an awesome selection of bags/luggage/purses, OH MY!!!. So it was the first place I thought of. Not to mention, the prices are great. Oh, they also sell scrubs there. My daughter is in nursing school and has to wear a certain color scrubs. Well they have them at GR for $5.99 for the pants or the top. Can't beat that.

ANYHOO...I go in search of my bag today and this is what I found.
They also had it in the red color (pictured on the tag). But there was only 1 left and the zipper was kinda wonky.

Ok, so I'm looking through the THOUSANDS of bags and I find this one. Perfect! I look at the price tag (this is the good part) and I see that it was $49.99. It was marked down to $14.99. THEN I see another little orange sticker on it that has $8.00 on it. To be honest, I was sold with the $14.99! I hold onto the bag as I look a little more to make sure this one is really what I want. I make my way to the register (this is the BETTER part) only to have the lady scan it and it rings up...get this...$4.00!!! YEP! I got that bag for $4.00! I couldn't believe it.

Come to find out they are having a sale on all of their luggage and it's all 1/2 off the (orange) ticket price. The lady even showed me the sales flyer indicating the sale. Obviously this one guy knew about it. As he purchased 3 pieces of luggage, one being almost as tall as Jayla and 3 times as wide as she is. He got that thing for $15.00!!!

Anyway...I just had to share that with you. You may now carry on with your day! :-)

I got me a cold!!!

Hello everyone out there in blogland! WARNING: CUTIE PIE ALERT!!! This post is "Jayla picture heavy!" ;-)

Oh my goodness, I don't know where to start this post today. I have a few things to share with you. Well, I'm a list kinda person, so maybe that's what I should do...

1. I forgot to share Jayla's 1st grade Spring picture with you. However, before I show it to you, I have to vent :-). In the Fall when the kids take pictures, you have to pay for the package in advance and PRAY that your childs class is photographed BEFORE the infamous spaghetti & meat sauce lunch, lol. We did alright in the Fall...no worries there. But in the Spring, they just sent you the package of pictures and you pay for what you want and send the rest back. Not a bad deal, huh? Well, for the past couple of years they have sent home the form for you to fill out with your childs information on it and you get to choose one of several background colors or in this years case, one of several poses. COOL!!! I chose the pose I wanted and had THE outfit picked out for Jayla - you know, the one that would show the best in the pose that I picked. Well tell me how come when we get the pictures back, it's NOT the pose I selected?!?!? Sure, it's a cute picture, but it's NOT the pose I chose. I asked Jayla about it and she said that the "picture guy" didn't even look at the form I sent with her. He just told her to go sit down and smile. So anyway, long story short, I called the photography company and lodged my complaint. ONLY to find out that I'm not the only parent to complain (this year), however, there's nothing they can do about it. Isn't it my luck that they don't do picture retakes in the Spring? There's no time! ARGH!!! Anyway, I showed them...I sent the entire package back...after I scanned one of the photos. I HAD to have a Spring picture of my daughter. But I refused to pay for something that wasn't what I wanted. Oh well, here's the picture. Her hair looked a little crazy...but she's still a cutie! ;)

2. While we're on the subject of pictures, we got our soccer pictures back a week or so after the school pictures. Now THESE, I'm happy with.

3. Last Friday the had what's called an "Author's Tea" at Jayla's school. They kids had to write a short story and they had to read it to an audience. The topic for Jayla's class was "Sea Animals". So each child had to pick a sea animal to write about. Jayla chose the Sea Lion. She says they're "really cute and really interesting!" :). For about a week, she had to practice reading her story and she did really well. There were a few words she had trouble with. But come time for the Tea, she was READY. She was so excited to be able to wear her favorite dress to school and read in front of me, grandma and the other parents. Here's her story...

It's so amazing to see how much the kids have learned over this past school year. They ALL did a wonderful job. After all the stories were read, we had cookies and, of course, tea :-). It was so cute watching all the kids running around getting eachothers autographs in their story booklets.

4. If you read my last post, you'll see that this past weekend we were in Columbus, Ga for the Georgia State Soccer Championship. Well, this is about the 5th or 6th time our U14 boys have been to this tournament. However, they've never made it to the finals. WELL...this time, things were different. Not only did they win all 3 of the games they played, but they made it to the finals on Sunday...AND WON!!! The U14 Stingrays are not only the #1 U14 team in our league, but now, the Georgia State Champions!!! WOOO HOOO!!!

As some of you may be aware, Mister M. not only coaches Jayla's U8 girls team and the U14 boys team (both affectionately named the Stingrays). But he also coaches a U16 boys team, called Barcelona. Yes...that's THREE teams! Barcelona also went to the State Championship this past weekend. So you can imagine what a busy weekend we all had keeping up with over 30 teenaged boys! Talk about FUN!!! The hotel we stayed in was also temporary lodging for a few other soccer teams as well as some softball and basketball teams. Again, talk about FUN!!! lol

Anyway, this is first time Barcelona has been to the State Championships, as this is only their 2nd season together. But they played their HYNIES off! They also made it to the finals. However, in the last 2 minutes of the final game, the opposing team scored. Which made us #2. ARGH!!! But still, being #2 in the STATE ain't too shabby! YAY BARCA!!!

5. Now about this cold...it was FREEZING in our hotel room - let's start with that! Then it was forcasted to rain all weekend. It drizzled a little and rained Saturday evening. So that was great to be able to get those games played. Being that our first games on Saturday and Sunday started at 8am, it was a little chilly outside. But the rain held off...UNTIL Barcelona's final game. About 20 minutes into the game, the sky opened up. So needless to say, we got caught in the downpour. Fortunately, we all had our umbrellas (well, except for the additional giant umbrellas that were conveniently located in the back of the van). Anyway, we got SOAKED!!! (because all I had was the little, Jayla sized umbrella.) They will only stop a tournament game if it starts lightning. SO...that's where I (think) I got my cold from.

Alrighty, I think that's all I have for now. I'm still a little tired from the busy weekend and this congestion isn't letting up. In fact, it's worse when I sit down in one spot.

Ya'll have a great rest of the week and I'll talk to you soon.

Oh, one more thing...after spending a little over $500 we FINALLY received our passports for our upcoming trip to Turks & Caicos. YIPPY!!!

See ya!

Another busy weekend on the way...

Hey ya'll!

This is gonna be a quick post as I've gotta go pack.

NO, it's not time for our vacation. It's SOCCER TOURNEY time! We are headed to Columbus, Ga this afternoon for the Georgia State Championship. We've been to this tourney before. But THIS time it's gonna be a little different. As this time we're taking both our U14 and U16 teams. So that's about 30 something teenaged boys. Not to mention the little girls in tow. But honestly, I'm looking forward to it...not the chaos I'm SURE will be caused :-). But just the fun with the kids and watching some good ole soccer.

Anyhoo, I'll have more to post next week. Fun stuff! However, I will leave you with the Friday Flower Fix. Hope you enjoy it.

Ya'll have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

GO STINGRAYS!!!

GO BARCELONA!!

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend! Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY - HAPPY - HAPPY!!!

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Alright, alright...enough of all the happiness :-). I'm TIRED!!!

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This has been a crazy week.

~On Monday, Mister M. worked from home, so that's always fun :-).

~On Tuesday - Cinco De Mayo - absolutely nothing exciting happened. Oh, other than Jayla starting her swimming lessons. That girl is a MESS! She has been wanting to take swimming lessons for quite some time now. But I wanted her to be comfortable in the water first. The instructor having to deal with a child who's scared of the water was a bit much for me...and I'm sure more work for them. SO, now that she will, without a second thought, jump off a freakin cliff into the water, I thought she was ready for lessons :-).

I mean, it kinda looks like she's having fun, huh? :-) And what's so great is, there are only 3 kids in her class. 2 boys that look to be about 8 or 9. Love that the class is so small.

~On Wednesday (Sixo De Mayo...lol), me and Mister M's mom spent the day together...at the eye doctors (oh joy!). Then we stopped by the mall where she picked up a few things and even bought me a big floppy hat for our vacation :-D. Thanks Mom!

~Then Thursday, was fieldtrip day. Sadly, the 1st grade classes only went on 1 field trip this year. And this was it. We went to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. I'm not much of an outdoorsy type (ok, I'm not outdoorsy at ALL). So it was quite the shocker to see me out there. Anyway, we wound up having a really nice day. Although it did get quite muggy and humid out. Oh and the mud was kind of an issue too. But all in all a good day. JAYLA on the other hand, about had a coniption! As we were finishing up our little tour of nature, a "dinosaur", aka, lizard, walked across our path. Before I knew it, the girl had practically CLIMBED up me! And that SCREAM!!!!! Makes my ears ring just typing it. THEN...yes, there's more. After the dinosaur fiasco, the "naturalist" who was giving us the tour, steps away for a minute to go get her little "friend" to show us. She comes back out with a 3 - 4 foot Eastern King Snake! (impressive huh, I remembered what it was called). Ya'll, I thought the girl was gonna start hyperventilating on me! She was BEEside herself! Alright, for the record, I don't do "dinosaurs" or snakes either. So I could kinda relate with the ole girl :-). But DOGGONE!! Anyway, after PROMISING her that she/we didn't have to touch or go near the snake, she was fine...kinda! Sheesh, what a day!

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Thursday afternoon, as if the nature walk wasn't enough, Jayla had her 2nd swimming lesson. I'll tell ya, it's amazing what a difference 2 days makes. This girl was almost in fish mode yesterday. It was amazing. She just LOVES to learn new things and just absorbs EVERYthing! So yesterdays lesson was quite a treat to watch.

And NOW...for the coup de gras (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly). GUESS what Jayla got to do before her lesson was over? Check this video out...

...oh, and this one too.

Needless to say, she is LOVING her swim lessons. We still have 4 more lessons to go and once it's over, she'll receive a Level 1 Swimming Certificate. She's so excited.

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Ok, well, I think that's about it for me today. But before I go, I'd like to wish all the lovely women out there a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY this weekend. And since I can't get these to all of you individually...he's some flowers for ya (aka, Flower Fix)

Toodles!

The gig is up...oh, and Happy Friday too :-)

Good morning everyone! Happy Uno de Mayo!!
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I know, I know...you're all shocked that, not only am I posting before 8:00am EST. But that I'm actually posting on a Friday. Well, stranger things have happened ;).
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First things first, did ya'll have a good week? As always, mine has been a blur. But a good week nonetheless. Nothing really extraordinary happened...just a good week. The weather was gorgeous and I was actually very productive.
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Oh, one thing I did have to do this week was take my van by the Nissan dealer so they could look at my funky rear-view mirror. I can't even explain to you what's wrong with it. But it just looks weird. Come to find out, I have a "self-tinting" mirror. And the self-tinting liquid thingy has ruptured or something. So now my mirror looks like one of those vertical lava lamps from back in the day, with the water stuff in it. Know what I'm talking about? Well, needless to say, it's kinda difficult to use now, as "there may appear to be multiples of the same object."
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ANYWAY, Nissan wants to charge us $250 to replace the mirror. However, they have advised me that "this is normal." WHATEVAH!!
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All I'm sayin is, don't ya'll be surprised if ya'll see a navy blue Nissan Quest with several strips of duct tape wrapped around the windshield holding on a "normal" rear-view mirror. Consider yourselves warned! :-)
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OK...while we're on the subject of loveliness, lol, how bout some flowers? On a Friday, even!

Drumroll please.....

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ALRIGHTY...you guys have been SOOO patient over the past several months. And now...yes, NOW...it's time to share my little secret.

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As I mentioned, this little secret may only be ubber special to ME. But special nonetheless. How bout a little history before I go on.

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20 years and a little over 3 months ago, I married the man of my dreams. Due to us being in our early 20's, and so BROKE that we didn't have busfare to go pick up a million dollars if it was offered to us...we weren't able to have a big wedding. In fact, there were less than 15 people at our wedding and our car broke down. But that's another post within itself. :-)

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Anyway, we got married an hour later than originally planned :-) and my new sister in law drove us to our reception (because the car broke down, remember?). We had the reception at my mothers new house where about 15 more people showed up. My step-father was our "photographer" and the 35mm photos that he took for us have served their purpose...to prove Mister M. and I really had a "wedding".

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Fast forwarding to 2008...some DEAR friends of ours own a photography company and offered to do a "wedding" shoot for us. They are wanting to do more weddings/engagements and thought we were a good couple to add to their portfolio. So about a year ago, we put the plan in motion. As you may remember, Mister M. purchased me a new ring. And being that I wasn't going to get the ring until our anniversary in December, we chose to wait to do the shoot until we got our new rings....you know, to show off some BLING! :-) Well, we all know how cold it can be in December, so we decided to wait until the spring to do the shoot.

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Faster forwarding to 2009...So this past Easter Sunday was the day. And I'm convinced that along with me and Mister M., God was also ready to get this done and overwith :-). He provided us with a GORGEOUS Easter Sunday and the shoot went off without a hitch and the day was amazing!

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Allow me to give you a sneak preview of the 400+ photos that were taken that day. Oh, and for the record, this is the only photo we've seen too. So as soon as we receive the rest of them, I'll share.

SO...that's my secret! Not sure it's what you guys thought it would be. But again, this was/is VERY special to me. As I mentioned, we didn't have a big wedding and we really didn't want that. But the main thing I did want was to have professional/formal portraits done. And now, 20+ years later, we have them. And I couldn't be happier! I was almost in tears when I saw this last night. Cynthia & Lisa, you guys ROCK!!!

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Well, that's it for now. Thank you all for your time and I'll be talkin to ya later. Have a great weekend. Toodles!!