Why now?

Ok so Sunday night I began to plan my menu for the week. I knew that if I did not plan I would fall off of the wagon and my attempt at trying to eat healthy would fail. Monday was great. Eggs and grapefruit, chicken salad for lunch, triscuits and cheese for a snack, and sweet potatoes and salad and grilled chicken for dinner. I was so proud! So you can imagine my bitter-sweet reaction when she came to the door. The sweet little girl scout had arrived with all FOUR of the boxes (samoas, thin mints and peanut butter & chocolate) I had purchased just six weeks before. That totally sabotaged my intentions and I have been off the wagon since Tuesday afternoon. All of them are gone. Now that they are gone, maybe I can get on with my plan.

Tonight me and the kids and family went to the Flounder (since I was off the plan and all.)
Nick is off on a men's retreat (we miss you) and so I decided to take the girls to Krispey Kreme for dessert...and the "Hot Now" sign was on. Ahhhh!!

Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night!!

Addresses and Valentines

I am sitting here watching the Address and trying not to throw up...from the nausea...the knot in my stomach. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the future of our country as we know it. How can I sleep at night??

God is bigger than him...bigger than this mess.

on a much lighter note...



Because I think Martha is the greatest...I had to make things hard on myself and buy some

Mod Podge (you know that stuff we called "paper mache") i cannot spell. New to me, but I thought my kids would love it. We had to make boxes for the sweet Valentines the girls would get at school. They turned out really cute...but I am still scraping that stuff off of my table!!

Anna is big enough to sign and assemble her Valentines (yessss!!!!) so she wasted no time.

Addie decided she would like to do hers too...


can you see the chocolate under her fingernails??




not sure where the "M" came from


Addie's Valentine's Day Party


Addie and Ella Kate



I tried to get one picture of her but everytime I snapped one, she was eating. Just like mama...


This is the only picture of Anna. She was out of school and we got to go to Addie's party together which is something she never gets to do because big sis is always in school.

Archeologist

My nephew, Reid came to play today with Anna and Emma, my little sister, who spent the night. He was so excited to show the girls some very old bottles that he had "unearthed" deep in the woods behind his house. The girls thought it was so cool and decided to go behind our house and dig for their own treasure. Low and behold...they found some old bottles. About 4 to be exact. 30 min later this is what I find on my back deck...

Well I freaked out because they thought that they had found old antique bottles. They were old alright. Old orange juice bottles, listerine bottles and of course a few liquor bottles. There was still some mysterious funk in some of them. I tried to explain to them that Reid's bottles were antiques and that all of these bottles were someone's trash. Behind our patch of woods is a trailer park and apparently this is where someone discarded their glass????
Here is Reid pleading with me to let him take all of these bottles home. At last count it was 42. I was really afraid they would get sick or something. Emma even tried to go green on me and tell me that they had to get them because it would take a million years for the glass bottles to go away. I was proud of her for that and told them we would recycle them.

My sweet Anna who has now asked me to call her "Ann"

(not ready for that)

Blizzard '09

And finally...snow pictures...and a lot of them! With news of the upcoming snow storm, I ventured out to Walmart with all the rest of the crazies in Spartanburg. Not out of fear, but necessity. We were out of everything. I also had to get snow food. Hot chocolate, cookies and muffins for baking in the morning since I was sure that school would be canceled. So we made hot chocolate and waited and waited...like little kids, Nick and I were at the door every hour checking for the first flake...

and finally it started to snow and as you can see not for very long. Just enough to get school called off and just enough to get the girls excited about the "dusting" we had.

Squint has some hot chocolate

making muffins

My Snow Angels

Oh happy day!!!!

Confessions...

I am sitting here watching the Bachelor and staring at my treadmill that my husband so graciously moved into our bedroom yesterday (against his better judgement). Should I hop on or go get a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Frosted Flakes just seem so much more appealing to me...and more satisfying. Maybe I will walk off my Frosted Flakes tomorrow.

Wow it has been a while. What moments have I not posted? Too many to think about or I would become completely overwhelmed. The fact is I have been having computer issues. Still having computer issues. Why can't they figure out why I can surf one minute and be staring at the
all-t00-familiar page that tells me it cannot find server. Where's the server??? If you find it please give it back...

I have also had a rough week. I hesitate to say that because there are so many people that have way more reason to call their week rough than I do. It started with a headache of Addie's. It ended up lasting for a week...or so she said. I took her to the dr two times and it was decided that she needed a CT scan. More for my piece of mind than anything. It was scheduled at our appt on a Friday. For the entire weekend I was in a trance. Paralyzed by the fear of "what if." Looking back, it was a complete lack of faith in what my God has promised me. My every minute is in His hands and Psalms 28:7 says the Lord is my strength and my shield. Needed to tattoo that on my forehead. We went on Monday at 2:30 (longest day of my life) and got the results at 6 that night. Praise God she is fine. Some inflammation in her sinuses was all. Then the very next day, we put my grandmother in a nursing home. Like a roller coaster. The hardest thing I think I've ever had to watch. I just couldn't bring myself to blog a whole lot. But I am back and ready to catch up.

What about that weather...in the 70's...in February. What a tease!! I am so ready for the summer. I read on facebook where a friend said she was ready for warm weather because you wear less clothes...less laundry. Amen to that!!

It happened on Tuesday...

I read a post on a friend's blog not too long ago and it was about her putting her grandmother in a nursing home and my comment to her was that we were not far behind her. It happened on Tuesday. My grandmother spent her first night there. She seemed fine. She has Lewy Bodies disease. A combination of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and it is fast and furious. And she was fine because she really wasn't sure where she was or why she was there. I know this is part of life, but I can't help but wish and be a little angry at what life sometimes does to you when you come to the end of it. I am afraid the end is soon. It will be a blessing. The world is strange to her...full of people she doesn't know and places that seem unfamiliar to her. It is the saddest thing I have ever witnessed. I am not so sad for her because she doesn't know that she doesn't know. My heart aches for my grandfather who can't seem accept the fact that she will not be coming home. He has not taken her medicine bottles there. He brings enough for the day. He has only taken a few changes of clothes. I guess in his mind he is putting off the inevitable as long as he can. My heart aches for my mom who is has now become her caregiver. I have no idea what to say to her...how do I comfort her as she watches this dreaded disease take pieces of her mom, his wife away. She was the best cook and she loved the Price Is Right. I used to watch that with her...you know back when cartoons weren't on 24/7. She was a huge Braves fan. We watched a lot of baseball together. Saturday mornings...she made breakfast for us every Saturday. We lived just down the road and would ride our bikes to her house. You know back when it was safe to do that. What is the silver lining? She has lived a full life. 5 children, 16 grandchildren, 30+ great-grandchildren. She is a born again Christian and she is a child of God. When she leaves this place, she will meet Jesus! I hold on to this...I hold tight to this. Love you Grandma!