Holiday Weekend, "Celebrate"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love holidays, even the little ones.. Especially when there is a day off work involved...haha Our family tries to find something special to celebrate each holiday. Speaking of celebrating, "Celebration" is going on in Shelbyville as I write, if your not from Tennessee, " Celebration" is THE Walking Horse Show, my extended family is away, our little guys (Jalen and Jensen) are competing this weekend in several events for quarter horses at the State Show...wish them safe riding....We are going down tomorrow to watch them and hopefully dinner and shopping will be included in this event....I will post pictures later......My husband is going to the game tonight, but I am a little under the weather so I am staying in for the night. Don't want to miss dinner and shopping tomorrow night, (Oh yeah and the boys riding)....haha Well Good Luck Pioneers. I will be listening and keeping a close connection on the action.....Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.....Enjoy Labor Day Holiday and "Celebrate"!!!!!!!!!

Boys Will Be Boys!!!!!!!

I thought maybe I should give Ethan some blog time space. He will probably kill me for posting about him. Eighteen year old boys don't really care for being the subject of their mother's blog site..haha. Ethan is a senior as I said earlier. I am so proud of him. He has a tender heart and a sweet disposition. Brett Warren came out to the farm several weeks ago and made pictures of Ethan and Brittney (slide show to come), I thought I would share some solo's of Ethan. I hope you enjoy.....

Don't you just love boys and barns This picture scared me at first, Ethan with his Papa's gun.
It is interesting to say the least!!!! I hope no one is offended!!!!!

Ethan's true personality quite and thoughtful.
Ethan and Dancer

ALL GROWN UP!!!!!!

Oh My!!! She is really 20 years old today, and she is no longer a teenager.
Was it really 20 years ago, where does all the time go. Today is her birthday,
a day to celebrate and to recall all the milestones and memories, but it is also
a time to look to the wonderful plans for the future ahead of her. I really never
thought of her "being all grown up" a young lady, she was always my little girl.
My firstborn, the one I waited so long for. She is coming into her own.
The journey ahead will be filled with laughter and tears, successes and some
things that will not always turn out the way she has it planned, but I pray that
she will always stay true to who she is. We are so proud to see her strong and
even in her weakness she shows strength and her love for God.

Brittney you are one of the greatest blessings in my life. Thank you for being
"our" girl and for the example you are as a christian, the kind of christian who is
strong enough to admit your mistakes and strive to be stronger, and have the
relationship with the Lord that keeps you in his safe harbor. Thank you for listening
to me say "and one more thing", overlooking and forgiving me when I tried to hold
you to close, or protect you a little to much. Thank you for your friendship, and being everything a Mom could ever want in a daughter. I am so proud of you and I hope the years ahead are filled with laughter, love and kindness given and received by you.

Happy Birthday Beautiful....All My Love, All My Life.....
MoM

Lump In My Oatmeal.....

I want to share a short story with you. This is a good lesson
on not "sweating the small stuff". It goes something like this..
there are moments and situations in life, or lumps as Brittney
and I referred to them.
1. There is the lump in your oatmeal, (small everyday things that come up)
just stir up oatmeal,and lump goes away.
2. There is the lumps in your throat you get when you see
a newborn baby, or witness a couple exchange wedding vows
(lumps that make you appreciate life)
3. There is the lump in your breast,
(serious things that need our undivided attention)
these are to be taken serious and with much thought
and prayer...

Today ladies you decide, as you go through your day, which lumps
you are dealing with,and when those lumps in your oatmeal appear,
thank God for his blessings, and realize others are dealing with
the serious lumps...
God Bless you all and I wish you many lumps in your oatmeal...

P.S. Remember to pray for all of our sisters who are dealing with serious lumps in their lives...Have a blessed day!!!!

Junior Auxiliary News!!!!

I just wanted to share some of our news with you....We had our August meeting last night and I was so impressed with our members and our officers. We have several new projects coming up this year (you will hear of those later). It is so rewarding to work toward goals and exceed those on many occasions. We participated in the back to school kick off at the Mall earlier this month (posted earlier about this) we had a book drive and we gave away over 600 books, next year our goal is to give away 1,200.. This was a new project and Ms. Stephanie Ward was the chair, she put a lot of hard work into this effort. We are very proud of her. I hope you enjoy the slide show of our day...

Eight Is Enough!!!!

Eight things about me..hmm pretty boring but here goes...

1. I have been blessed and try to
let God's light shine to those around me.
I wish everyone could have joy and be
truly happy.

2. I am blessed with a godly husband,the best
friendship I have ever shared. He is my hero.
I try hard to live up to his example.

3. I am always running late, there is always one
more thing to do before I walk out the door.
This drives my husband crazy. Once he took the
broom out of my hand and lead me to the vehicle
to get inside to leave for vaction..hahha

4. Sundays are my favorite day. Granny's Sunday Dinner,
yum.."the day of rest".

5. I love to read, anything, everything, especially
Nicolas Sparks.

6. I live by list!!! To do list, grocery list,
project list, you name it. I can't do anything
without planning and writing it down...haha

7. I wish I could lose weight as fast as I put it on...
I am working out and eating healthier.

8. I am working on "not sweating the small stuff",
this gets better with age.

Ok if your are reading and haven't fallen asleep
You have been tagged, your it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a blessed day.....

Friday Night Lights!!!!

Football Time In Warren County

Please come out and show your support for the team, GO PIONEERS, there will be booster club vendors downtown...like..hmmm "PROJECT GRADUATION" ..(booth by courthouse on side of Regions Bank) stop by tonight sometime between 6:00-9:00 pm and buy strawberry shortcake or hot fudge cake and a balloon.....Your money is going to a good cause....show our team some love and support...

Exercise!!

Hey Girlie's just wanted to let you all know. Gilley Pool is having evening class in water aerobics. The class is on Monday and Tuesday from 4:00-5:00pm, Carlene said if enough people were interested she would let us have the class the complete month of Sept. we would have to commit (we would have to prepay). So if you are interested be there Monday....
P.S. The best and fastest result of any exercise Program I have ever done...

Make A Wish, or Lets Go Swimming!!!!

Having Fun Together.....

Summer Time Fun !!!!!!!

Learning Is Fun

OMG, Brittney taught me how to load a slideshow onto my blog...I am feeling really proud of myself right now, until I stop and think how much more younger people know about technology than us older folks, (and I pride myself on being pretty good with my computer and its programs)....hahaha .....We are never to old to learn something new and it can be quite fun...Hope you enjoy my first attempt with slideshow...work in progress.....

Angel In Disguise

Oh my how precious this little girl and her two big brothers are to me.. she is Miss Karigan Smith (my niece) and I waited along time for her...she is just beautiful. Her brothers are Jalen and Jensen and I am their Aunt Gimme (as you heard in an earlier post).

A few weeks before school started we spent a Sunday afternoon at Riverfront park an the fountain downtown, (I wanted to take pictures of them) We had a great time...My family has been truly blessed by these little ones. They remind us to be young at heart. I am desperately trying to get a slideshow together....help anyone!!!!!!

P.S. more pictures of our day posted below.

Please... I will buy you Ice Cream......

Ok, so I want to take pictures of my niece and nephews at Riverfront and by the fountain....so what do I do? Sorry to say, bribe them with ice cream...haha but it worked and we had lots of fun. Here are a couple of my favorites...

School is in Session!!!!!

I haven't posted in forever, my life has been so busy lately.
I have been asked to fill in for a short time at one of our local Elementary Schools. I say sure, so I head out to the school to check things out, and WOW was I blown away. I had forgotten how much work teachers do during the summer, and how much I have missed being a part of one school, (I try to help all 11 schools in our system). I was so impressed this week by the staff. Their welcome for me and their dedication to their profession and their school. Anyone who says teachers don't work in the summer need to visit Morrison Elementary School. They have a new principal this year, although she has been a mainstay there for quite awhile. The staff is so enthusiastic about the coming year. They have worked so hard on their rooms and it shows. The registration was sooo successful. They enrolled 49 new students and I am sure there will be more. As I, a stranger to this community school, sat in the office (trying to be helpful to parents) I was overwhelm with the respect and the joy the parents had for their school, teachers, principal and staff. The loyalty is very evident from any ones view. I am so looking forward to this journey however long it last. I think they will have to run me off...haha.
Seriously as school is about to begin, stop and thank our teachers and school staff for all the hard work and training they do for your child.
I hope all have a great weekend, my husband is begging me to go whitewater rafting with him and the teenagers from church tomorrow. We will see. God Bless until next time.

P.S. Say a prayer for a safe and healthy school year for our children and our schools and the dedicated professionals who are molding our children's future!!!!!

Friday!!!!!!

TGIF means Thank God It's Friday...It has been a long week. We have a big weekend planned with "Back to school Kickoff" happening at the Mall this weekend. Warren County School System is once again promoting this event, last year it was a huge success. I am sending a shout out to Mrs. Bonnie Collier for all her hard work and efforts in organizing this event (there are many people involved as Ms. Bonnie will tell you). So if you are a parent or student come on out. Junior Auxiliary will be giving away a free book to the children. So I am planning on working with this project, our work in Junior Auxiliary is so rewarding!!!!!
On the home front my husband is playing in golf tournament this Saturday, hopefully we will be able to do some shopping for Ethan (at least that is the excuse I am using) haha. I may be able to take advantage of this tax free weekend. Anyone who has shopped with teenagers lately realize every little bit of savings count...haha..
I Hope everyone has great weekend. Get out of the house, do some gardening, go shopping, visit a friend or just sit outside and enjoy some quite time...God Bless till next time....

M.I.A= missing in action!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't you know there is a direct comparison between a computer and a mother. As you may or may not have notice it has been several days since my last post. My computer decided to come down with a virus. She is currently in Ben Lomand Internet hospital undergoing major surgery (reformatting)...haha I cant remember the last time we didn't have Internet in our home. I was lost couldn't balance my checkbook, do my online banking, or check email or even BLOG!!! OMG thankfully Friday she will be coming home healthy and she will be right back at it again. She is kinda like a mom does all these functions and services and no one really appreciates her until she is out of commission... maybe I will go a little easy on her the first week...haha...
Wow what a week!!! It has been SO busy at home and work...the driveway is still in the process of being paved would you believe they are also paving the drive at Central Office only in my world does that happen at same time...hehe Several changes have happened since last Monday. The Lord truly looks out for us even when we think we are taking care of it all...I have been evaluating my life the past couple of months and I was realizing maybe changes were in order...I have been offered the opportunity to make a departmental change which I think is going to fit with my mother and wife duties better. So I come home last Monday, sit down with Richard and discuss this change and how it will affect our lives (hopefully allow me more time with my family) and after much talk and prayer, we decided that it is a good move for me. Only moving down the hallway but you know females any change is major...So keep me in your prayers and wish me luck. I am very optimistic about this next year. Ethan is a senior this year and of course you add in Junior Axillary, church, home, family and friends, this makes for very busy year ahead. My motto this year is to take things one day at a time...remind me of this in March 2008!!!! Who knows before this week is over I may need to be reformatted!!!

Thank you God for the opportunities to live full lives and be productive and I thank you most for your love and guidance in my life.