Dear Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

My son says if you'll send him your address, he'll get your check right in the mail!

When he came home from work and saw that I had cleaned his room, he could be heard singing the Hallelujah Chorus a block away! In fact, now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if HE wrote that anonymous comment just to get me to clean! He's sneaky like that!

So here we are again, looking into his room from the hall......as you can clearly see, I've organized (I use that term loosely) his dresser and dusted!

His Gator clothes hamper is now holding his dirty clothes and his makeshift desk is dusted.

Now he'll be able to actually see his t.v. even though he should be studying and not watching t.v. You can also see my grandmother's rocking chair and quilt clearly now that all that dust is gone! Oh, but that door??? That leads to his bathroom.......I didn't clean there!

Oh, his sheets are clean, his bed is made! The blanket on the end of his bed is one he bought when he was on a missions trip to Guatemala, the red and yellow pillows were sent to us from my niece when she was in Japan. I need to put something on that wall, but haven't gotten around to it yet. He also has that pretty window, I did NOT dust his blinds....I didn't have a week!

Mikey and Jack are saying, now that's more like it!

And this pillow???? Well, anonymous, this is especially for you!

Once again, let me say how much Matt appreciates you for spurring me to clean his room!!!

Seriously, I'm not mad! Matt was never mad at me for the first set of pictures, he really did think it was funny.

The serious things of life, we take very seriously, the others......we just have to laugh! Try it, it's contagious!

Friday.....Show Me Where you Live

O.K. then......on this edition of Show Me Where You Live Friday, hosted by Kelly , I'm combining two rooms.....I missed the guest room and before I show you the "child's" room, I want you to see the guest room so you'll know we aren't complete animals! You'll soon see what I mean.


Ah, this is a very soothing room! In the mornings and evenings, if you look down into this room bathed in sunlight, it looks a little like a sunrise or sunset....I love the color of this room......it's also the color of the kitchen and bathroom on that side of the house.

This is looking into the guest room from the hall and the bed, all the bedroom furniture, belonged to my husband's grandmother. I have a love for all things family, so I was so happy to get this bedroom furniture. This room is actually called my mother's bedroom. When we put it together, we told her it was for her and she gets very jealous when she hears someone is staying in "her" room! The little indentions on the bedspread are the pitter patter paw prints of little cat feet. Try as I may, THEY think it's their room!

If you click on the picture, you'll see a picture of my grandmother on the night side table and on the left wall you can see a teeny little bit of a painting of my husband as a child.




This is the chest of drawers with some of my other favorite things, pictures! The picture above the chest is of Russell's grandmother and Russell's dad and his dad's sister.

This is actually a dining room bureau and is my favorite piece of furniture in the house (although I tend to think I have more than one favorite!). We had it in our dining room for years until we got a china cabinet, then we moved it into this bedroom. Again, pictures! And in the corner is one of our bar stools that I only get out when we have company.

Looking from the bed side of the room at the dresser and into the hall leading to the kitchen. The closet is to the right. The little ceramic owl glasses holder is one my grandmother made at the Senior Citizen's Center. I treasure that owl!

My husband built this house before he ever knew me and he did two of the smartest things! He put doors going outside in the guest room and our bedroom. This door goes right out to the pool.

Lastly, for the guest room is my favorite picture/saying. Mainly, because I've had to do this myself so many times. Click on the picture to read what it says.

O. K. then, now on to a child's room. Our youngest is home for a few months while he does some pharmacy rotations at our local hospital. Before he got home, this room was spotless! It's a really pretty room and I'm sorry you won't be able to see it at it's best! But this is how he lives at home. Especially note that he has a Gator clothes basket......you'll see why in a couple pictures. He has to set up a makeshift desk for his computer while he's home.

This is his dresser....he actually can't be blamed for the gator and turkey decanters! They came from Russell's dad's office and I stuck them in there to hopefully put them in the garbage eventually! In the corner is my grandmother's rocking chair and quilt, along with Matt's drum set that goes with one of those music type games.

The open closet door and the boxes.....who knows???

This is where his clothes and shoes end up. The clothes seldom make it into the Gator basket! Even Mikey is intimidated! I'm sure he's thinking, hey man, clean up this mess!

In a few months, this room will be back to it's status as an extra guest room and I'll dig in and clean it up again.

I wouldn't dare post pictures of his bathroom!

Yesterday

Yesterday I did two posts, the last being Happy Birthday to sister! If you didn't read (and go listen to Rachel's speech) that first one, please do. It may have gotten lost among the days posts, but it is so inspiring and well worth the time it takes to listen to her.

Not to mention, a great opportunity to lift someone in prayer!

This was on my E-Word Today......


CHARLES H. SPURGEON QUOTATION
"You cannot see the stars while the sun shines. Wait till it is dark, and then you shall behold them. And many a Christian grace is quite imperceptible until the time of trial, and then it shines out with great luster. All this supposes that grace is there. But if it be lacking, trial discovers the lack. You know not what spirit you are of till you have been under tribulation."

Have a wonderful day all....I'm off to try and be busy!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Cathy!

Guess how old she is today!

Hurry, cause she's going to kill me for asking you to guess!

What is death to you? Or me?

A friend sent me this video. I encourage you to set aside 55 minutes in your day and watch this testimony from a beautiful young wife and mother. It is well worth it and believe me, it will seem like 10 minutes.

Rachel says what we all as Christians ought to know, but probably seldom think about. I'll just let her say it, she does it so much better than I do.

http://deathisnotdying.com/ You'll have to copy and paste this link into your browser. Turn on your speakers, sit back and prepare to be deeply moved.

Babies, babies everywhere!

I've been attempting to write this for two days, so I'm not getting up until it is finished......I hope.

Saturday, Russell, Carol and I went over to Pensacola to Katie's baby shower! We had a wonderful time but missed Katie's husband Beau who is on a ship defending us....thanks Beau!

I've had a strange time downloading pictures, so these are really in no particular order.

First, our host Grady met us at the door. He had been working all day to get things ready so we could party! Is he the cutest little boy? His mama, Katie's sister, and daddy actually hosted the shower! Katie is living with Mikey and Mary Grace, Grady and Ellie (the dog child), along with Katie and Beau's two dogs Belle and Lilly.



Lots of Katie's friends came from all over. Here's Katie with Katie and Christie.


Here's Katie and Mary Grace's brother, Brian and his wife Robin who just found out they are having TWINS!!!! Everybody is so excited for them!!!



Mary Grace with Grady and Elaine, Mikey's mama.




AWW! This is so sweet. This welcome mat is in front of Katie's room. For now it is her home, but before you know it, she'll be living in California and her family will be together.



Beau's Aunt Cindy sent flowers to Mary Grace, aren't they beautiful!?? They were the centerpiece of the food table.


> Sister Emily couldn't come from Austin, but she made these darling cookies and sent for the shower. They are delicious cookies in the shapes of baby bottles, onesies and baby carriages. I'm ashamed to say, I was so busy cramming them down my throat eating them that I didn't notice the monogram on the baby carriages! They were so cute and good, Emily, and we MISSED you so much!!!


Here's Robin and the twins!
Mary Grace and Roxanne, who is ALSO pregnant, fixing all the goodies for us to EAT! I did mention there were babies everywhere?




Here's Carol with Katie.


Anna Cross got lots of presents! She is a very blessed little girl already!

Katie's dad, Tony and his wife Charlotte. They are getting lots of grandchildren at one time!

Here's Katie with Charlotte and Marie, Beau's mother.




The mama! Isn't she beautiful?!



Lloyd and Marie.


The food table. Looks good huh??



And here's host Mikey outside in the heat and humidity cooking. He's very good natured, can't you tell? The humidity was extremely high.....it had been raining all morning, but the sun broke out during the shower! Mikey never complained though, he just cooked lots of good stuff!




Mary Grace, Roxanne and Grady.



Russell and Tony talking.....probably solving the problems of the world.....well, at least I HOPE so.


We are all anxiously awaiting the birth of Anna Cross. It looks like she's going to have lots of cousins to play with. It was a great day and I'm so glad we could be there to enjoy with them!








































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Get a way girl's vacation

From young women to, hmmmmmmmm, a bit older young women....we three have been friends through it all, the good, the bad, the sad, the ugly....not much we three haven't been through together. We watched as our children went from sweet babies to troubled teens.......some turned around, some died and some are still struggling. But each of us loves the other's children, so it's o.k. to talk about them.

SO, last weekend, we had a long needed girl's get a way. Our goal? Relax and reconnect.

We did lots of this.....

And this.....leaving to go shop and eat!

this......actually eating!

A little of this.

And this!

We might not be the bathing beauties we once or never were, but who cares! The young man who took this picture was humoring 3 senior citizens!

It was really nice to get together and talk and laugh! We three know how to laugh. We reminded each other of things that happened in the way past. We each remembered things the others had forgotten and vice versa. We commiserated over our children and husbands, (surprisingly or maybe not, each of us has had 3 husbands with me being the only one to have had the same one twice, so I've really only had two, but who's counting? Oh, we were!) reminded each other of things long past, sorrowed with one another over the tragedies in our lives and laughed, laughed, laughed as only women who know each other to the core can laugh!

Ladies and gentlemen, as Scripture says, laughter really is the best medicine! We came home tired and refreshed at the same time!

CHARLES H. SPURGEON QUOTATION
"A man who should live and die without trials would be like a setting sun without clouds. He would have scant opportunity for the display of those virtues with which the grace of God had endowed him."

So, so behind!

Well, after a really fun few days, I'm home catching up with reading all your blogs laundry and cleaning and all the housewifely kinds of things! So this Monday morning, while the sheets are in the wash, and with a steaming cup of coffee on hand, I'll recap part of last week!


Monday and Tuesday are lost memories, but Wednesday, Katie and family came to visit and spend the night with me. I was so excited to see her, since I hadn't seen her since Christmas, when she surprised us with the news she and Beau were having a baby! Although I've seen pictures on her blog of her growing Anna Cross, I was delighted to see her in person! It was a great visit and I love having Katie and her sisters with me. Sigh, the sisters are all spread out now, so they don't get to come together often anymore!


Here I'm trying to feel Anna Cross moving. She was having her quiet time, but later she did do a few flips and kicks for her Aunt Nancy!

Here is Katie at 32 weeks!

Katie's older girls came with her to visit.......Belle loved Mikey's chicken and Mikey really didn't know what to do! Lilly is looking on as Belle plays with chicken. Between Katie's two dogs and our two dogs and two cats....it was a zoo! But that's how we like it!




Jack and Mikey were clinging to their daddy. They let their girl friends intimidate them!





Auntie Carol came too and we all had a good time visiting!



Thursday morning, Katie was very patient as I ran around like crazy getting ready for Bible study and a girl's trip out of town! The beautiful mama posed one last time before she got back on the road and headed back to Pensacola where she's staying with.............

Mary Grace, Mikey and Grady! Katie's staying with them while her husband, Beau, is deployed. What a blessing to have a sister you can live with and who can support you through those last few weeks of pregnancy! Soon the little cousins will be playing with one another.

Just look at that sweet baby Grady! AND his beautiful mama!

So after a wonderful visit, I headed into the next few days with a girl's trip to Destin. More about that tomorrow!