Thursday, November 04, 2010

Day 4 - Be Thankful

Today, Thursday, November 4th, I am thankful for....


WARMTH - It's a little on the chilly side here in the United States of Powder Springs, Georgia :-).  And I am SO thankful that me and my family have warm clothes to wear, warm jackets to put on, heat in the car, heat in the house and warm cozy blankets to snuggle under. There are SO many people who don't have those things...for one reason or another. My thoughts & prayers are with them. 


Enjoy your day, everyone.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Day 3 - Be Thankful

Today on Wednesday, November 3nd, I am thankful for...

LAUGHTER!!! For those of you who know me, you know that I am just as silly as they come :-).  I LOVE to laugh!  There's nothing better than the sound of people (especially children) laughing!  Laughing can sometime be a good work out for the body! And we've all heard, at one time or another, that laughter is good for the soul.  Don't get me wrong, I'm serious when the situation calls for it. But for the most part, I find humor in just about every situation. I find that I laugh at myself more than anything :-).  I'm gonna be something else when I get old(er), lol.

So, do yourself a favor and have a great laugh today. And to get you started, check out this funny commercial I saw recently. Ya'll know I love me some soccer...so this was right up my alley!  :-)



Enjoy your day!! And have a laugh...on me!! ;)

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Day 2 - Be Thankful

Today on Tuesday, November 2nd, I am thankful for...

The gift of music & song. Thanks to a post on my friend Jacki's Facebook page today, I was inspired to go listen to a few music videos on YouTube from the movie, "The Fighting Temptations". I LOVE that movie! And even more than that, I love the MUSIC and singing in that movie. Ok...I love ALL kinds of music anyway and I love to sing (in the shower, in my car, at my desk, etc.) it's one of my (many) favorite past times. 

Monday, November 01, 2010

Be Thankful

My sweet friend, Miss Sue, challenged me (via Facebook)...in a round-about kinda way, to do a post every day during the month of November, telling what I am thankful for.

So, being the obedient friend that I am, :-) Here we go...

Today on Monday, November 1st, I am thankful for...
me, my family & my friends waking up this morning. God has blessed us with yet, another undeserved day. And for that, I am thankful.

Until tomorrow!!!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

There comes a time...

...in every woman's life, that she must try something new. But in MY case...I seem to try something new, in the crafting world anyway, on a weekly basis. :-)

My new craft (at the moment) is creating accessories with duct tape. Sounds crazy, but it's really cool! Some of you who are on Facebook, have already seen some of my creations.

But believe it or not, I've had several people ask to buy some of my items. SO...if you're interested, check out my new blog, http://dawncrafts.blogspot.com/.

In an effort not to bore my "Be Inspired" readers to tears, I thought it would be a good idea to create a place just for my crafts. So again, if you're interested, check it out. And if you're not, that's cool. Just keep visiting me here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Talk soon!!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Our 3rd grader

Happy Sunday  to everyone!


Alright, here I go again...being a proud momma! I just can't believe how much J'Bear has changed/grown up over the years. Today, I pulled together all of her Fall pictures since she's been in school. And wow, what a difference.

PreK-Fall
Kindergarten-Fall
1st grade-Fall
2nd grade-Fall
This years picture. 3rd grade-Fall
She is quickly losing that "little girl" face and is turning into a young lady. But she still has that sweet smile!

Anyway, that's all for now. I just had to share :-).  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Talk soon!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Commemorating Breast Cancer month with Duct Tape

Here is another Duct Tape creation that I'm really proud of. And it couldn't have come at a better time. My daughter asked me to make her a Breast Cancer awareness tote bag out of duct tape. And who am I to not take on a challenge? :-)

The first picture is side 1 (black DT w/ Pink & white ribbon)


Side 2 (white DT w/ Pink & black ribbon)


Sides of bag.


I LOVE this bag. In fact, I think it's my favorite so far.  It measures about 14"x10"x3.5". 

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your day.


Thursday, October 14, 2010

If it doesn't kill you...it'll only make you stronger...

My goodness, a lot has changed on BLOGGER since I last posted. In fact, it's looking a little wonky. Not sure how to fix it. But I'll figure it out.

ANYWAY...how has everyone been?  I can't tell you how many times I've attempted to do a post only to get distracted by something else (mostly Facebook) and totally forget.  Well, today (Wednesday, 10/13), if it takes me a week, I'm gonna post something.:-)

In my last post, I mentioned that my oldest daughter was moving back home. At the time, we didn't know how long she'd be here. And quite frankly, we were a little scared to even guess :-).  She, her dog, Diego and her attitude all moved in about a month ago. Again, we didn't know how long she'd be here. In fact, she had no idea either. But as soon as she noticed that some things just don't change at "home", she quickly started making plans to relocate yet again.  I admit, it can be quite difficult and maybe a little embarrassing to have to  move back in with your parents. Fortunately, I don't know this from personal experience. But I'm just guessing.

Needless to say, we've had our "issues" since she's been here. And I've tried REALLY hard not to be on her too much. As I know this can't be an easy adjustment for her. On her own, when she was 18, she decided to give it a go at being a "real grown up".  And I must say, she's done pretty well. Made some mistakes along the way, as we all do. But some are a little more difficult to recover from than others. Which brings us to today. At the age of 25 (almost 26 in December), she had to move back home with mom, dad & little sister. Honestly, the attitude I can (kinda) deal with. But the dog pissin all over my house is yet another issue all it's own. Don't get me started!

I could go on and on about this. But I won't. I will spare you the gory details. But I will say this, her being back home has, in NO way, shape or form been an easy adjustment...for ANY of us. I will just add that some things never change. And attitudes, ungratefulness, selfishness and down right stubbornness, are some of the hardest to get over.  Let it be known, though, that I TRULY love my daughter. I thank God for her everyday. I just pray that she gets things together really quickly so that she CAN have the desires of her heart. It's really hard to impress on someone, especially your child, that attitude is EVERYTHING! People are watching. And things CAN get worse if you don't fix those PERSONAL issues.

ALRIGHTY...enough about THAT!!! :-) On to everything else that's been going on. So hold on, cuz I'm bout to bring it....:-D

Soccer season has begun (well, it actually started back in August). Did I tell ya'll that already? Anyway...it has :-).  J'Bear and her team (Brazil or Brasil, depending on where you're from) is doing really well this season. So far, they have won 3 of their 4 games. And I'm almost positive these wins have NOTHING to do with the BRIGHT, NEON, HIGHLIGHTER Yellow uniforms they got this season. Good GRACIOUS! Those things are bright. No wonder the teams they play can't score...the poor things can't SEE! LOL

J'bear scored for the first time in a really long time, a couple weeks ago. And I HEARD that it was an awesome goal. I wasn't there.:-( I was on a girls weekend getaway (more on that later). But she did score 2 goals last weekend. Those I did get to see. So now I feel better. :-). Here she is...

J'Bear ready for the Fall season in her Highlighter Yellow uniform.


J'Bear, Gracie and Ashlee
Quick side note. Since B and her dog have moved back in with us for a while, this is a common scene around our house. Poor J'Bear can't even have an afternoon snack in peace. LOL
Trae and Diego watching J'Bear have a snack :-).

Here's another common site in our house. Poor Trae is so tolerable of J'Bear dressing him up :-).  Mister M. says I should be ashamed to show these, lol. I think it's adorable!
Trae all dressed up (and humiliated) :-)


Several weeks ago, Mister M. had his 25th high school class reunion. We had a BLAST! His class is SO close and I just love that. Fortunately, a bunch of us live in the same area and are able to get together. But the reunions are always so much fun. We can't believe we've been out of school now for 25 years! (26 for me!) But we still clean up pretty well ;-).
Mister M's 25th High School Reunion
As I mentioned earlier, the last weekend in September, me and 7 of my Girls Night Out crew decided to go on a girls weekend getaway. Our friend, Lisa, has a lake house about 2 hours from where we all live. So we decided to pack it up and head there for a much needed weekend. We've been planning this weekend for about 6 months. So we were all really excited to finally get away.   Here are a few pictures from our stay...
Beautiful view of Lake Jackson.

Another beautiful lake view at sunset.

Me and my crew on our girls weekend getaway at the lake house.




We took a BUNCH of pictures!  3 of the 8 of us are professional photographers.

One of the girls that was with us, remembered that, years ago,  I'd made some chicken for GNO one night. So back 6 months ago when we started planning this trip, she asked if I'd make more. Well, the girl doesn't forget a thing! So I had to "let my YES be YES" and fry up a batch. It was a huge hit. Needless to say, we ate pretty well that entire weekend.
The Fried Chicken is ready!
YES, there was drinking involved over the weekend!  I made sure the old beverage bar was fully stocked with my DP. :-)

A little thirsty :-).


Takin it to the head!
I kinda like Dr. Pepper, LOL.
Lastly, as if I need another hobby...I found a new craft. I'm sure this has been around for a while. But I live a sheltered life and find out about things later than the average person :-).

I've been making accessories out of Duct Tape.  How cool is that? They have SO many colors available now. When I think of Duct Tape, I think of the old silver stuff. Not anymore. Check out the colors and patterns that are available now...

My Duct Tape wallet (The prototype).

Zebra print wallet made for my oldest daughter.

Hello Kitty change purse f/ J'Bear.
And a purse to match.

Duct Tape tote bag.

Inside the tote.
Well, that's all I have for now. I know it was a long post. But the fact that I haven't been posting wasn't because I haven't had anything to share. So I just did one big dump :-).  Thanks for reading! Enjoy the rest of your week. Until next time...I'm out!!!

Monday, September 06, 2010

Never say never...

Well, a bunch has happened since my last post. (wow, that line reminded me of my old Catholic confession days). :-)

Anyway, I don't quite have all of my thoughts together right now to go into much detail about what's been going on lately. However, I will say that nothing terrible has happened and everyone is doing great. Just been really busy...as always.

BUT...the reason for my post title, "Never say never..." is very easy to explain and a lot of words are not necessary to say...

Our oldest daughter, Briyanna, is moving back home for a while.

Not much else I can say about that at this time. It is what it is!  Stay tuned.......

Friday, August 06, 2010

3rd Grade...HERE SHE COMES!!

Well, the summer is over and it's back to school for our J'Bear. Yesterday...YES!, on a Thursday, was the first day of school.  And boy was she ready!

J'Bear was so ready to start school in fact, that the following conversations have taken place over the past few days.

Convo #1

Background info: Over the summer, Jayla was doing the 2nd - 3rd grade Bridge worksheets...you know, to keep her brain sharp over the summer. There was 1 worksheet per day - front & back."
M - "Jayla, Mrs. W said it might be a good idea for you to do the Bridge book over the summer, so that you will kinda be on top of things when you start back to school. What do you think about that?"
J - Oooo, can we go get one today? Maybe we can get the 3rd - 4th grade bridge too!!" 
(Everyday, Jayla did these worksheets and read for 15+ minutes a day. Once we got the book, the conversation, went a little something like this...almost daily.)
J - "Mom, can I go ahead and do my worksheets?" OR "Mom, do I ONLY have to do one sheet a day?"
M - "Are you kidding me? :-)


Convo #2
J - "Mom, why does the summer have to be sooo LONG? No one asked me if *I* wanted a summer break from school!"
M - "Are you kidding me? :-)

Convo #3
M - "Jayla, on Sunday, you're gonna have to start back going to bed at 9pm. You know school starts on Thursday?"
J - "Awww MAN! I wanted to start going to bed at 8:30!"
M - "Are you kidding me? :-)

Convo #4
M - "Guess what? We're going to do a little school shopping for you today!"
J - "Mom, I don't mind if I have to wear my clothes from last year. But I think I will need a pair of sneakers because my other ones don't fit. I'm sorry you & daddy have to waste money on clothes for me every year!"
M - "Are you kidding me?"

And...Convo #5 (occurred this past Wednesday evening)
M - "Hey, let's go ahead and take out the outfit you wanna wear for your first day of school tomorrow."
J - "Ok! And after we do that, I'll go ahead and take my shower so you won't have to tell me to. I'm in 3rd grade now, so you won't have to tell me to take a shower ANYMORE!"
M - "Who are YOU kidding?!?" LOL
(That "promise" lasted all of one night. I had to tell her 4 times last night to take a shower!) LOL

The first day of school finally came and Jayla was up at 6:05am! When I went to wake her up, she was laying bed, with her eyes closed and this big goofy grin on her face :-).  And she says to me, "SO...you must be looking for a little 3rd grader? WELL...HERE I AM!!! Let's get goin!"  

Needless to say, the first day of school was, "The BEST day of her life!"  I picked her up yesterday afternoon and she was telling all about her day...BEFORE she even got in the car :-).  Then, she crashed and burned when we got home. Guess they worked her little brain to death.

Today, the 2nd day of school, was ALSO the best day of her life!  Not sure how that works...but ok! Lol

Anyway, here's a couple pix of our 3rd grader.







Have a great weekend, everyone!!!