Now let's see...how do you do this again...

I think I'd be doing myself a huge disservice if I didn't mention that I PLANNED on doing this post 2 days ago. However, the actual "disservice" was the fact that I'd spent well over an hour typing and adding photos, ONLY to correct the spelling of ONE SINGLE word...and I deleted the entire post! Pictures and all!!  ARGH!!!

So needless to say, I needed these last 2 days to get over my pissedoffedness! (It's a word now!) :-)

ANYWAY...I'm over it now and am moving on.

Alrighty...let's see.  As some of you may remember from my last post, I've had quite a few irons in the fire lately. But it's my own fault because I STILL have a problem saying, No! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing the things that I've said that I'l do.  It's just that I say, "Yes" to too many things at once. But I'm not complaining...I've been blessed with my creativeness and I love that I can share that with people.

Case in point, my nephew got married over the weekend (Sunday) and I was asked back in February to do all the decorations. By decorations I mean...well, tell ya what, how bout I show you in pictures?

The Programs (96)

Me and a couple of my friends painted all of the handles black. I cut to size the pink...skuze me...FUSCHIA (in case the bride is reading this, lol) mats, the solid black and black & white sides of the fan/program, the vellum "special thanks" squares, AND did all the printing of the programs.

The Front of the Programs

The back of the Programs

The Orchid strands (14)

These were for the ceremony arch 

The Card Box

The Boutonnieres

The Rose & Peony arch decorations

The Peony flower balls (14)

The initials of the bride & groom

These were for the escort card table. I hand painted and "blinged" them.

The Votive candles (48)

I printed each wrap and wrapped each votive holder. There were 4 of these per table at the reception.

The Ostrich feather centerpieces for the kids tables (2).

I also did 6 more centerpieces for the adult tables at the reception. They were 20" tall vases with White Orchids submerged in pink tinted water. I forgot to take pictures of those.

The jumping broom.

The Escort Cards (120+-)

I printed each of these, some twice and added Fuschia stones.

The Rose Pomanders (4)

Approximately 7" in diameter w/ hanging crystals. Decorations for the ceremony arch.

The Double Rose Pomander.

Approximately 10" in diameter w/ hanging crystals. Decorations for the ceremony arch.

The ceremony seating.

Peony flower balls were used to decorate the first seat of each row.

The decorated ceremony arch.

 From first mention of this wedding, which was back in February (2010), the ceremony was going to be held outside under a gazebo. From February until the day before the wedding, my design plan was for the gazebo. Due to impending thunderstorms, we had to move the ceremony inside. So I had less than 24 hours to come up with a way to decorate an arch with all the stuff I'd made for a giant gazebo :-|.  But I pulled it off and I LOVE it!!  And the bride & groom loved it too. YAY!!

The Handsome Best Man (Mister M.), me and our daughters.

The Lovely Bride & Groom

Mr. & Mrs. Murphy

SO, that's one thing I've been working on for the past few months. I think I mentioned that I've been working on the scrapbook for Jayla's school. Well, fortunately, I have until July to finish that and turn it in. I'm almost done with that too, so that'll be one more thing off my plate.

Two weeks before school was out, Jayla had "Field Day".  I use that term loosely, simply because, the "Field Day" that we all remember is no more. At least not at our school.  The kids did the "Cha-Cha Slide" and the "Cupid Shuffle" for goodness sakes!   But there was ONE event that Jayla really loved. The "World Cup Kick". That's where they had to kick a soccer ball into a goal. (See her in the picture? She's the cute one in the blue shirt that just kicked the ball with precision form!) LOL But still, it wasn't anything "competitive"...the kids just took turns kicking the ball. That's it!

This next picture shows Jayla at another "Field Day" event. They call it the "art station". WHA???  I call it the "crime scene station" :-).  Check out the picture below Jayla. Doesn't that look like a crime scene?

Yes it does! :-) LOL

Oh and speaking of soccer... some of you may remember some of my posts from back in the fall.  The little Brazilians had a rough season. I think the record at the end of that season was 1w-1t-8l.  Poor little things.

But this past spring season was QUITE a different story. How bout a record of 9w-0t-1l!!  They were AWESOME.  I think the girls even felt a little different about this season. Example, after the regular Fall season they girls went to the playoffs.  They lost both of the games they played that night.  Although the girls were a little upset about losing...again, they were more concerned about who's parents brought refreshments!  LOL  But at in the playoffs after the Spring season, they did wind up losing those games. However, one of the losses was a tighter game. And the girls were all blubbering messes!  They were SOOOO sad that they'd lost and they cried...cried HARD! Even in the midst of their tears they talked about what they "should've" done differently and how the "could've" played better. They get it now and they WANT to be the best. They'll get 'em next season.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I'm SURE there's something else I'm supposed to be doing :-).  So until next time, take care. HUGS!!!

P.S. Yay! Me!! I made it through this time without deleting the entire post :-).

Change is good...

A few weeks ago, Jayla's teacher mentioned that Jayla seemed to be having a little trouble reading the board. She is already sitting at the front of the class. But I later found out that it wasn't JUST because she was sometimes having to squint to read what the teacher had written :-)...needless to say, we have a little social butterfly on our hands. I know...you're shocked! :-)

So I put it off for a couple weeks, just so we could make sure the squinting wasn't just for "show" or for attention. Jayla is quite the people pleaser and is always wanting to impress.  And I've noticed that she squints when she's trying to figure something out.  Not to mention, she has said that she thinks it's "cool" when I squint. Huh?

Do ya'll see where I'm going with this? LOL

ANYWAY..just before Spring Break, they had picture day at school. So I'll use this as the "BEFORE" photo.

She's so stinkin cute! But she looks so BIG! :-(

Then yesterday, I took her for her first "for real" eye doctor appointment.  Low and behold, the girl is blind as a bat. Ok, I'm just kidding about the blind as a bat part :-).  But she DOES in fact need glasses. To some extent, this didn't surprise me. I mean, I wear glasses, my mom & dad wear glasses, Mister M's mom & sisters wear glasses...so Jayla was just destined to have 4 eyes too, right? :-).

Well after having the really awesome (her words, not mine) experience of having air quickly blown into her eyes and having them dilated. Jayla had narrowed down her choices of specs to 4...ALL of which were pink of course :-).

And here are the winners. The black & PINK Barbie glasses.

I think she looks absolutely ADORABLE in them.

Normally, when Jayla hears the garage door go up, she squeals with excitement, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" and runs down to greet him at the door.  However, yesterday it was a little different. When the door went up, I heard, "My glasses are home! My NEW GLASSES are home!!" LOL (I had daddy pick them up for us so we wouldn't have to wait around for the hour and  1/2 to have them made).  But now that I look back, I'm not sure why we didn't wait. It's not like she could see anyway to even get her homework done. DUH! Dilation...remember? :-)

I haven't taken a photo of her in these yet, but due to her being a soccer player, the doc recommended she get prescription sport goggles too. Again...she looks adorable in those too.

Well, that's about all the news I have for today. Subject to change within the next few hours... Jayla has a follow up appt at the orthodontist today to see if she might need braces. ARGH!!! If she does, that's gonna have to wait...I'm still not use to her having glasses yet. But let me just go on record and say that, Jayla told me that she hopes she does have to get braces..."Mom, they're SO cool! And my friend even got some that are PINK!"

You're kidding me, right???

UPDATE: 9:41pm EST
Our visit to the orthodontist today was quite...um, interesting.  They do an x-ray of Jayla's teeth and call us back to meet with the doctor. He looks in Jayla's mouth...then at his notes...then back in Jayla's mouth. He tells her to put her teeth together...then looks at his notes again. He then asks ME, "When she was here last year, did her top front teeth hit behind or in front of her bottom teeth?" Uhhh, really? I dunno! Then he says to Jayla, "You ARE Jayla Bibbs, aren't you?" Uhhh, REALLY? She answers, "Uhhh, yes I AM!" He goes on to tell me that he sees NO problem with her teeth whatsoever and seems to stop short of asking why we're even there. He then says he thinks her teeth look great and seem to be very healthy for a growing 8 year old. And that IF she does need braces, it won't be for at LEAST another 3 years or so, if at all. And sends us off with an order to come back in Janurary 2012!

SWEET!!!

And now, a word from our sponsor

Hey there!  Well, it's almost time for Spring Break!  And to make it even better, it actually FEELS like Spring now. In fact, it could ALMOST feel like early Summer...but wouldn't that be considered Spring? I dunno...I'm just rambling :-).

Anyway, now that Winter seems to be gone for good now, I thought I'd share this picture that I took of Jayla the last time it "snowed".  Ok, that and I forgot that I took it and just stumbled upon it :-).  

School let out early (again) due to the inclement weather a few weeks ago. So what ELSE would a good mother like myself do when there's about to be a blizzard? I take my daughter to Michaels! DUH!! :-) We come out of the store and as we're walking to the car, I turn around and notice Jayla catching snow(flakes) on her tounge. And again, being the good mother that I am...I had my camera with me :-).

In between snowstorms and blizzards, we had a few pretty but cool days. One Sunday after church we went to Olive Garden for dinner.  Jayla was wearing one of the new dresses that her aunt gave her and just HAD to pose for a picture.  Isn't she the cutest thing? So glad I keep my camera with me most days.

Now some of you may have seen this next photo before. But a few years ago I made this layout for my mom for her birthday. This photo of my mom was actually from the June 4, 1964 issue of Jet Magazine where my mom was featured at the Jet Beauty. How cool is that?

Anyway, I receive a monthly email from an online scrapbooking magazine. Last month they were having a "Layout about Mom" contest. So I figured, what the hay, I'll enter. I submitted my layout about 4 weeks ago and simply forgot about it. I'll be darned if they didn't send me an email last night telling me that I WON!  I couldn't believe it! I immediately thought I'd won simply because I was the only one who entered, LOL. However, I'll probably never find out if that's true, lol. Not sure what the prize is for winning, I'll receive it in the mail in a few weeks. I'll let ya know.

Welp, that's about all I've got for today. Oh shoot, I forgot about the FFF...it is Friday, isn't it? Here ya go...

Not that it would be out of the ordinary for me as of late, but I will probably not be posting anything for about a week or so. Me and my girls are heading to Alabama to visit my mom for Spring Break next week. SO, I hope ya'll have a wonderful Easter weekend and a great week next week. Talk to you soon.

Dawn

Game on...& Birthday wishes

Well, here we are at the end of March and I have yet to hold up my end of the Blogging bargain. Problem is, there's only one of me...contrary to popular belief.

Along with all the other stuff I've gotten myself involved in, it is now soccer season. And I must say, this season is TOTALLY different than the last. You may remember, Jayla's team, Brazil was the newby to the U10 "circuit". And it showed by them losing all but ONE game. Ok, that's not totally accurate...their first game was a tie :-).

This season, however, has been MUCH better. They've only played 4 games thus far (due to a couple of rain outs). And of those 4, they have won 3.  All of which were come backs from being behind by 1 - 3 goals.  I am SO loving this season. Considering the girls haven't had much practice, again due to the rain, they are doing awesome so far.

I've been saying for quite some time that I wish you all could see my Jayla play. Well, I attempted (and I use that term loosely) to video some of a game from this weekend. Check them out...

WAIT...before you look at these videos, PLEASE NOTE #1 I am using a small camera with video "capabilities".  #2  I've never used this feature on the camera before (guess this one should've been #1, huh?) #3 The sun was very bright :-) and #4 I've never used this feature on the camera before, LOL.

------------Ok, here's the thing...I can't figure out how to add a video to Blogger. Wasn't there a little button for that once upon a time? HUH!!!

Anyway, I'll go ahead and post what I've written so far and attempt to find the video adding link and I'll get back with you :-D.

Oh, and before I go, PLEASE join me in wishing my FAVORITE nephew a HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY today!  I just don't have any other words to say about that...other thank I can't believe he's FIFTEEN!!!

Markell's first Easter in 1995

And most recently (I think this was from last year) Don't have any recent pix of him. But as soon as I get one, I'll post it.

YAY...I made it to Friday (again)

Ok, can a person have WAY TOO MANY irons in the fire?

I say, YES!!!

I am seriously thinking about going to a printing place and see if they can make a few duplicates of me. Let's see, I'll need the "School volunteer Dawn", "Errand running Dawn",  "Soccer mom/Coaches wife Dawn", "Chauffeur Dawn", "Crafty/wedding planner Dawn", "Maid Dawn", "Chef Dawn" "Mom Dawn", "Blogging/Facebooking Dawn" :-).

I'm SURE there are more, but money is kinda tight these days, so this is all I can afford to make dups of for now :-). SHEESH!!!

Anyway, I can't/shouldn't complain. I'm blessed to have the health, energy and willingness to do all of these things simultaneously. So with that in mind, my life STILL rocks!!

Alrighty, speaking of all the things I have going on these days, I'd better get out of here and get my day started (again). But before I go, I want to share a sweet picture of my girls with you.

They look like a pretty slice of watermelon, don't they? :-) This was taken at Jayla's school on Special Family and Friends Day. This year, her sister, Briyanna came as Jayla's "special" guest.  They're so cute (even if Briyanna does look a little tired, lol)

OH...and my goodness, I can't let this Friday get by without the Friday Flower Fix. So here's that for ya too.

Have a GREAT weekend and I'll holla atcha soon.

Toodles!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today, I would like to wish a HAPPY, HAPPY Birthday to...

My bestess friend & buddy!
My companion!
My partner! (sometimes in crime, lol)
My soul mate!
My compadre!
My gift from God!
My LOVER!
My MAN!
My HUSBAND!

Happy birthday, Marque! I love you SO much!!!

WOW! The weatherman was right...this time :-)

Hey ya'll!

Guess what? The weather"people" of Georgia said it was gonna snow here...AND IT DID!!!

Yesterday, we got a call from the school system saying that the schools would be closing an hour early due to "impending inclement weather".  So I get to the school as I was told and I'll be darn if the flurries didn't start falling JUST as the kids were coming out of the building.

I grab my young un and we head to the grocery store along with the rest of the county. The parking lot was PACKED! And to think all I needed was apple juice and bananas :-). $50 later (yes, I picked up more than the aforementioned items), we're heading home. And when I say that we could hardly see 3 feet in front of us due to the, now heavy flurries, I mean it! It was amazing! And BEAUTIFUL!! Honestly, I was shocked at how quickly it started to stick. Jayla was BEEside herself!  Yesterday was (one of) the coolest days ever in her 8 years of life :-).

The snow continued through the night and the following are the gorgeous results...

Yes, in the picture above, our dog is eating the snow! :-)

Everytime I see this picture it makes me laugh.  Look at the smile on Trae's face! :-D

From what I understand, Georgia wasn't the only state hit with the cold white stuff!  In fact, I read somewhere that 49 of the 50 states had snow yesterday and today. That's just cool to me! I hear more is headed here tomorrow too.

Ok, so my nephew is getting married in May. This is really exciting to me because I actually introduced him to the lady he's marrying.  How cool is that? And...the news just gets "funner"...I will be doing 90% of the ceremony/reception decorating. I'm VERY excited about this too. So as I get things done, I'll share the pix with ya'll.

And speaking of sharing pix, how bout a flower fix? I haven't done one in a while.  Hope you enjoy them!

Well, that's it for today.  Hope to chat with ya'll in a couple days. Enjoy your weekend...enjoy the snow and be safe if you have to get out. Toodles!!

....Oh, I'm sorry about that...

...sorry about what, you may ask? Well, here's the thing...I am a self-proclaimed peace keeper!  However, I'm not convinced that that's necessarily a good thing.

Just recently, I had an exchange of messages with someone I consider to be a friend of mine (she knows who she is). And in those messages, I mentioned how I'd been trying to reach her and hadn't heard back from her. Long story short, I came to the conclusion that she was upset with me about something (I didn't even know what it could've been), so I "apologized" to her in the hopes of "rekindling" the friendship. She replied by saying, that I had absolutely not upset her. It was simply that she hadn't checked her messages in a while and/or she'd been busy.  That's understandable and makes since to me.

Of course I was glad to hear that.  However, I then started to question myself. "Now why do I do that?" "Why do I assume that situations (most of which are out of my control) are MY fault?"

I consider myself to be a pretty sympathetic and empathetic person.  I am also aware that I am a VERY emotional person.  It takes VERY little to make me cry or get "into" the emotion of a situation. I mean, I can be watching TV and a touching commercial comes on...and I will cry! Or at a minimum, I feel myself start to "well up".

Mister M. use to get on me about being this way. He'd often question why I was sorry or apologizing for something I had no control over. I mean, it could be something as ridiculous as me apologizing because it rained during a birthday party or something, lol. That's not MY fault!! But I FEEL sorry that it happened, know what I mean?  Other natural disasters...those are not my fault either. But I'm sorry about it. I am also an emotional person on the other side of the spectrum. I cry at weddings...I cry when a baby is born...I cry when I get flowers...and I cry when other people cry (sometimes).

There was a time, early in my marriage that if Mister M ever got upset with me about something, I'd apologize for it...whether it was my fault or not. I guess that was my way of trying to keep the peace. I do NOT like people to be upset with me. I do NOT like to make people angry. And I can NOT fight, LOL!  Maybe this is where it all stems from. I CAN'T fight! So I feel it's better to keep the peace, so to speak, so that I won't have to defend myself in a fist fight, LOL.

I dunno, this is just something I've often wondered about myself. What's really crazy is, I'm pretty sure that even though I have gotten my thoughts about this OUT in writing, I probably won't change. It's a part of my character. I wear my emotions/feelings right out there on my sleeve. I'm a very REAL person and I don't mind showing how I feel about things. As long as it doesn't upset anyone else, of course :-). What's funny is, I find that most people are caught off guard by my apologies or my emotional display. Simply because, like I said, it was out of my control. I guess I don't LOOK like I'd be an emotional person.

Yep, I'm one of those people who wants peace and equality around the world :-).  I don't think that's too much to ask!

Ok, now ya'll have read about one of my "issues". Do YOU have a little "oddity" about yourself that you'd like to share? Is there something about your "character" that you question? Do you ever wonder, "Why do I do that?" Or "Why am I that way?"  

Lie down on my "virtual" leather couch and let's discuss it...I'm listening :-).  But beware, I may cry and apologize for it....

Sorry, for rambling and dumping on ya'll. See, I did it again.... ;-D

Castle Cakes & The Liar :-)

Ok, if memory serves me correctly, on my last post, which happened to be on Christmas. I said that I was going to start posting here at LEAST once a week. WELL, Christmas was THREE weeks ago! ARGH!!! I'm such a liar & a loser!

...I have nothing to say for myself :-).  I won't use the "I'm so busy lately" excuse (although it's true).  How bout this one?..."I forgot!" lol That just doesn't even sound right.

Anyway, I have been kinda busy.  Did I tell ya'll that I'm the Historian for Jayla's school this year? What is a school historian you ask? WELL...it's the historians job to do a scrapbook of all the PTA sponsored events that are held at the school for the current school year. Once the scrapbook is completed, it will be on display in the school lobby the following school year.  That's cool!...I like to scrapbook...in fact, I do it when I find the time. But what's so strange about me being in this position is, someone actually NOMINATED me to do it. Problem is, I can't figure out for the life of me who would do this to me! I've asked everyone that I thought would want to tick me off...but no one owns up to it. :-) SO, with that...I am the 2009-2010 school historian. Having said all that, the school scrapbook is one of the many things I've been doing lately.

Also, my doggie has had some...issues. He apparently got into something in the yard (we are assuming that's what happened anyway) and it has caused him to itch like nobody's business! Poor thing turned all red and couldn't walk 10 steps without dropping to the floor to scratch. I called the vet to find out what I should do for him. Get this, they told me to give him a Benadryl!  Well, ole boy doesn't like little pink pills!  So I waited until Mister M. took his 3 week vacation.  You may remember, Trae is a big ole doggie, and I just can't handle him at the vet by myself.  We get the boy to the vet and he about chokes himself to death trying to "visit" the staff. (almost) nothing worse than hearing a dog hacking...for NOTHING really.

The vet comes in and immediately sees the redness on Trae's underbelly and now in his ears. He gives Trae a "quick" Cortizone shot in the hip, and I tell you...the itching stopped almost immediately!  We are then told that Trae "simply" has a yeast infection.

Do WHAT?

He's a BOY! And those are his EARS!

How weird!  Yep, he's got a yeast infection and it's actually pretty common in dogs. I've NEVER heard of that before, have you?  Well, that explains why his whole head has been so funky lately :-).

Ok so now I'm thinking, "What does one (vet) give a MALE dog for a YEAST infection?" I hope it's nothing crazy cuz I'm not really looking forward to having to squirt some Monistat in my dogs ears! My MALE dog at that! I'm just sayin...

Anyway, we leave the vets office with 3 prescriptions, a bottle of ear wash, a reminder card to come back in 2 weeks and a BIG OLE FAT bill for...wait for it...$596!!!

...ya know, it sure takes the paramedics a long time to bring smelling salt to a vets office :-).

Ok, after I pick myself up from the floor and apply for a small loan, we're headed home. And I just loved it when the receptionist says to me, "Well Mrs. Bibbs, look at it this way...at least you don't have to buy him a car or pay his college tuition!" And that's supposed to make me look on the bright side? Anyway, we love our doggie. Four weeks later, the yeast infection is gone (no more smelly head), no more under belly redness and not as much scratching.

Fast forwarding to today, guess what I made today? A friend of mine whose daughter plays on Jayla's soccer team, is having her 9th birthday tomorrow. And she asked me to make the birthday cake. Check it out...

Cute, huh?

I'm a little nervous though. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. So I hope that doesn't show too much in the finished product. But I'll let you know how Kennedy liked her princess castle cake. Her favorite color is purple. So when she cuts into the cake, there will be purple icing between the layers :-).

Well, that's about all I have for today. Oh, how bout a Friday Flower Fix? Hmmm, let's see if I remember how to post pictures of flowers, lol.

Enjoy your weekend, my friends. See ya soon...I hope! ;)