Thrift store find = money!

I had to share this real quick because I am so excited!  A couple of weeks ago while I was browsing a thrift store in Decatur for my DIY: cupcake stand, I came across a lilac colored bumbo.  For those of you that do not know what that is, it's a baby seat that you can sit youngins in before they are able to sit up on their own.  It's lightweight and very handy.  Having one myself I realized the value in this item.  Brand new it retails for approximately $39.99.  When I found the price sticker on the side I about died.  $2.99!!  That's right!  $2.99!!  I know to any of you men out there you are probably thinking woopity-do as you twirl your finger.  If you are a mom you are thinking OMG!

As I sat there holding this 'treasure', I kept looking over my shoulder wondering if anyone was going to race up to me and yank it out of my hands. I already have one of these at home so I started trying to take lots of things into consideration before 'splurging'.  First and foremost, my husband's reaction.  I could hear him plain as day saying, "We already have one of those!  Do we honestly need that?"  I would then explain the fact that I could more than likely sell it and make a profit.  Even if I sold it for $10, I would still make $7!

Apparently whoever had priced it did not know a thing about baby gear so before someone else came along, I decided to snatch it.  As I walked away with all my goodies, I was soooo excited about my find. 

After cleaning it up really well I listed it on ebay.  I knew I wanted a "Buy it Now" price, but you also have to list an auction price.  I started the auction at $14.99 and listed the "Buy it Now" price at $26.00 both with free shipping.  The first night after listing, I laid in bed and realized that if there wasn't a bidding war, I would have to sell it for $14.99 and after shipping which was approx $10, I wasn't going to really make a profit.  There was no turning back though.  I had to follow through.

I am happy to announce that a couple days after listing someone bypassed the auction and bought it for $26.00!!  After shipping that left me with a profit of $14!  Now I'm ready to go back for more :)

Thanks again to Yard Sale Mommy for giving me the fever.  Haha, seriously she has some great advice on finding treasures and selling them on ebay for a profit.

Cayli's Zebra Themed Birthday Party!!

For the past couple of years, my oldest daughter Cayli, has ran with the whole Twilight theme for her birthday parties.  Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Twilight Saga and cannot wait till Breaking Dawn comes out but....there is only so much you can do year after year.  This year however she finally decided to do a Zebra theme instead of Eclipse.  Because zebra prints can be a little overwhelming, we decided to incorporate hot pink and lime green, two of Cayli's favorite colors.  I love to get my creative juices flowing, the only problem is that I procrastinate and don't take action until right before the party.



We decided to  have it at our house because we had recently had a very successful gathering there.  There was a swingset, trampoline, dirt, "treehouse" and lots of room to run and play.  At the other party we had gotten some blue lanterns from the Paper Lantern Store .com for a great price so I decided to get a couple of green and a couple of pink to decorate the tree with. (shown above)  I hung them using some zebra ribbon I had gotten on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  Woohoo!

I actually made the cupcake stand using 3 different size black plates and 2 small candlestick holders that I had discovered at a thrift store.  The idea came from one of my childhood best friends, Autumn.  She had recently done one for our friend's baby shower.

I brought out many of my clear vases that I have collected over the years from various Dollar Stores and Dollar Trees.  I use these for just about any occasion so for this I added some black and white rocks and colorful flowers to match the theme.

On most of the vases I hot glued a zebra ribbon around the middle to incorporate the zebra theme.  I made sure to only use hot glue on the ribbon so I could remove it after the party and reuse my glasses.

As you can tell the girl's, and there were many of them, had a blast and was probably one of our most successful parties.









Wow...................

Where do I start?  Hmmmm, maybe with Cayli tripping in the bathroom and slicing her toes open (gory details I will not include), or with Ella falling in the bathtub and pushing one of her front teeth up in her gum (rushed her to the ER), or how about the fact that our whole family has contracted some nasty virus that has been going on for about a week..............

Before I get into any of that though, because I know you all want to hear it :),  I am about to post Cayli's successful 11th birthday party which was "Zebra" themed.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that!!

Stay tuned!

Tire Trouble

Warning:  Long read :)

I started off Wednesday positive and looking forward to our daily trip to Atlanta with Naty and Ella.  She accompanies us on the 1 day a week that she has parent-infant with Mrs. Linda.  On the other days she stays with one of my best friends, Melissa. Unfortunately on days like this my anxiety starts to peak.  I put on a smile and pray that God will wrap his arms around me and take it all away.

We headed down I-75 and I noticed that my car was dragging a little.  This started to worry me because on Sunday, Doug had to plug one of my tires and before I headed out of town where I was all alone, I decided to pull over at a gas station to check it out. 

I exited the freeway and pulled up next to the air machine (correct term?).  Sure enough, it was deflating.  I retreived my handy dandy air gauge and found out it only had about 20 lbs. of pressure.  I started calling Doug to figure out what I was going to do but sadly Doug was at work and his phone was dying because someone forgot to charge it that night.  I finally got a hold of him and I told him of my predicament.  He told me that I would need to plug it again (are you SERIOUS?) and put some air in it.  After arguing back and forth about how I had no CLUE how to do that, I finally decided what the heck....If the tire blew up in my face because I punctured it incorrectly, then at least I would die knowing................that it was my husband's fault.

I decided to drive to my sister's house which was a few miles down the road so no one could see me yelling and sweating profusely while I was trying to shove a piece of metal into my tire.  After taking a few deep breaths I finally got the piece of "beef jerky" into the "needle" and shoved with all my strength into the hole.  I smiled and patted myself on the back and left to go back to the gas station to fill it up with air. 

After sitting at the air machine for 3 minutes I noticed that instead of it filling up with air, it was actually deflating!  This sparked a little bit of aggravation.  I said a prayer to calm my nerves and help me to have a positive attitude and I phoned my husband. 

I knew when I placed the call that there was honestly nothing he could do because he was at work but I at least wanted him to be informed of the situation and know my location in case I went missing.  Seriously, I think about these things.

He told me to put air in it and drive slowly but quickly to the tire store down the road. I informed him of my lack of quarters and he recommended that I should walk up to a complete stranger and beg.  Well, this girl ain't begging.  I will sit in the car for HOURS before I try to inform a stranger that I am a stranded woman by myself.

My sister arrived to my rescue with quarters and I filled the tire up with air and hurried on my way.

Upon arriving at the tire store they started working on my car.  After waiting 45 minutes, I was informed that my tire was irrepairable and that I would have to get a new one.  Apparently whoever plugged it (clearing my throat) pushed the steel through the tire and even if they did put a patch on it, it would still rub against the steel.  While they were putting on the spare, I made the phone call to the Speech School to let them know the reason for my absence.  By this time it was already 9:30 and after I found a tire for a reasonable price and had it put on it wouldn't be worth it to drive down to Atlanta.

I parted ways with my wonderful sister and headed to one of my best friend's Melissa's house, aka Ella's babysitter, to see if she would watch her while Naty and I went on the hunt for a gently used tire. 

The first place I stopped at offered a great price but I would have to order it and it wouldn't arrive till the next day.  Not going to work.  I then placed several more phone calls from the road and found out that my tire was an unusual size and most everyone was going to have to order it.  I went back to Melissa's feeling defeated and tried to figure out what I was going to do.  The easy thing would have been to order it and just wait till the next day when it came in but Naty and Ella couldn't miss another day of school.

Melissa's husband and brother-in-law decided to get in on the hunt with me and ended up finding a little bit different size down the rd for a great price.  I had to go pick up Cayli from school so I figured I would sit at home for just a minute and rest before heading to the tire shop.

Bad idea...........

As I was putting the girls in the car I received a phone call from Infinity which is Natalie and Ella's therapist in Calhoun.  I was too busy putting the girls in the car to answer but at the same time I was trying to figure out why they were calling.  What's today?  Wednesday? OH NO!  I had totally forgotton that the girls had therapy at 3:30.  The clock read 3:43.  I called them back and explained the situation and that I would be there in 15 minutes.  So much for going to get my tire.

As I headed to the therapist office, I called the tire store and to my disbelief they were closed :(  So much for getting my tire. 

On a positive note, God's love and grace is what kept me from pulling my hair out.  Everytime I would start to feel overwhelmed, he would remind me of my blessings and tell me every thing was going to be ok. 

We went to church that night, 30 minutes late, but healthy and the most important part.........able to.  We decided that Misty would lend me her car, even though it didn't have any air, and she would take my car until I could get home and get the new tire put on.

Even though I had to drive a car with no air 67 miles there and back, I was reminded of how fortunate I truly am.

Natalie cut her hair :(

I figured that this post took precedence over all the other posts. 

After giving Natalie a bath, Doug got her out of the tub and proceeded to come in the living room to converse with me.  We could hear her so we new everything was ok......

Or so we thought,

Doug decided to investigate and as soon as he got in the doorway he screamed "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"  I figured she had just gotten into the neon pink nail polish that she had wanted me to paint her nails with but as Doug kept saying those words, in my heart I knew that wasn't the case.

"I don't want to see it," I said, a hint of frustration in my voice.

Curiousity overcame my determination and I got up to look for myself.  I walked in to a horrible scene.  There were pieces of hair scattered everywhere and Natalie was sitting amongst them.  I looked over at the drawer where the scissors were kept and she so kindly put a clump of hair in their place. 

As I stared at her in horror I couldn't help but find this very humorous.  I covered my mouth and turned away from her as I burst out laughing.  Her hair was still damp from the bath so we really couldn't tell how bad it was.  I could tell however that she had given herself bangs and the left side was cut up to her ear.  Of course she was grinning the whole time not knowing what she had just done to herself.  Inside I was cracking up, but at the same time I was weeping.  One of Natalie's best attributes is her curly hair and sadly 3 surgeries later she has had her moments of being half bald. Considering the surgeries were complete we could let her hair grow.

Apparently we don't decide that though.

Miss me??

I'm sure many of you have been



Sorry, Ella just knocked over my entire cup of coffee.  Thank goodness I had let it cool off before I brought it over here to the computer or we might be taking a trip to the ER.  Whew.........

Anyway, the reason for the lack of posts lately is not because lack of excitement.  It has been because the abundance of excitement around our house.  But today.......today I am hoping to take a minute and blog about the ongoings of the family for the past couple of days.  Some funny and some extremely heartbreaking.  So stay tuned! 

Salad on a Stick?

As a mom, one of my all time favorite magazines is Family Fun.  They always have the most interesting reads, crafts, food ideas, etc. 

Until the other day..............

While I was ready the September issue, I came across this article that showed fun lunch ideas for kids.  "Cool" I thought.  This should be good.  I turn the page to find Salad on a Stick.  Now some of you may think this is a fun and cute thing to send your kids to school with but me?  I honestly don't know any child that would go "WOW!  Wanna trade for my salad skewer?" 

There are 2 types of versions of this you can do.  The Italian version or the Greek version.  I know........you're already thinking 'What?'  You take a skewer and for the Greek version you put olives, cherry tomatos, feta cheese cubes, and your favorite vinaigrette.  Yep, I don't know about you but those are staple items that I keep in my kitchen all the time just waiting to be skewered. 

I try really hard to be supermom but come on, I'm not taking the time, or the money, to supply my child with feta cheese cubes.  Cayli eats in the lunchroom because between you and me, it gets expensive to supply kids with homemade lunches.  Especially the ones they were talking about!  What ever happened to good old PB&J.  Oh yeah, too many kids are allergic to peanut butter.  Ham or turkey sandwiches and some chips then.  But not a skewered salad.

Side note:  I still love Family Fun and will continue to read every month. :)

Giveaway: Free Photo Shoot!!

So I have decided to go ahead and start my 2nd giveaway which to me is priceless :)  I will be giving one lucky winner the chance to be photographed by yours truly!  For FREE!!!  That's right........free.  Considering the weather is about to change (hopefully) and Christmas is coming up, this would be a great opportunity to get some family pictures for Christmas cards or even gifts! 

The photoshoot includes up to 30 minutes of shooting at a location of your choice (has to be local) and a disc containing approximately 20 edited pictures.  You can take this disc to a location of your choice and have printed at your convenience.

*Note:  Limit of 5 people.
              Shoot has to be booked no later than November 20, 2011.  If not fullfilled, prize will be forfeited.

All you have to do is leave a comment under this post containing your email and what you think about The Story of My Life and you will be entered!  One entry per person please! 

*Deadline for photoshoot giveaway will be Sunday, September 4 at 10PM.

It's Giveaway time!!!

Sorry to keep everyone waiting!  (Clearing throat) "The very first winner to my very first giveaway is........................ThisMomCrafts!!!!  Thanks to everyone who entered.  Please send me your shipping information in a Msg!!
*winner was chosen by Random.org

Who's ready for my 1st ever giveaway?  Me, me me!!!

One lucky winner will win this adorable Mohawk Hat Crochet Pattern!  (Note:This is not a ready made item but only the pattern.) 

This item is sponsored by Sew Much Love.

To enter, leave a comment with your email address on this post by Tuesday August 30th at 12AM and one lucky winner will be randomly chosen!!

*One comment per person please!!*

Thrift Store Finds!!

Are you ready for this?  Nah Nah Nah, Na- Na- Na Nah Nah- Nah Nah.  Just kidding!  Thursday morning while Naty was in school, I decided Ella and I would find a good thrift store to visit.  Ever since reading Yard Sale Mommy's blog I have had the thrift store/yard sale fever.  My husband's not too fond of this sickness but hey!  I like to shop!  And I think he would rather me buy something for a quarter than something for say, 10 bucks.  I punched in "Thrift Stores" in my Yelp app and found one that was approximately10 miles away.  "Twice as Nice" was the name of it I believe.  I entered the address in my navigator and headed that way.  The only bad thing is that here in these small towns if something is 10 miles away it usually takes about 10 minutes to get there.  However Atlanta is a different story.  This trip took me 45 minutes to go 10 miles.  "This better be good" I thought to myself. 

It was!  One of my favorite things to find is vintage children's books and boy did I find some.  They had the children's books in bundles and each bundle was $1.99.  I would see at least 2 in each bag that I would get excited about so I had to purchase the whole bundle.  Some of the books were duds but there were also good ones too.  There was a total of 63 books!

I also found 2 apple baskets, to be used in my fall shoot (Elizabeth Miltimore Photography), another basket to be used as a photo prop, and a pair of hugging vintage Smurfs from 1982.

This is everything but the 2 apple baskets.  Couldn't fit everything on the table!! 

The vintage Hugging Smurf Dolls 1982.  Paid $1.99

By far my favorite book out of the bunch.  Published in 1970.  In really good condition except for a rip on onw page.  Look at those pictures!  Love it!!

Who didn't love the Sweet Valley High Twins when they were younger!  So excited to realize I got 8 of these all together.  I found them in different bags.

3 Magic School bus books.  I always loved this show when I was growing up.

I had actually came across some of these last week at the yard sales so I was excited to find more.  From my understanding they came with a tape that followed the story "word for word."  Seriously, that's what the cover says lol.

3 Bernstein Bears books.  1 of them is a chapter book.  I didn't even know they had these!

These are 4 very old books. Love vintage!

In one of the packages of books I came across these records!  How cool!!

My two baskets that will be used as props for my fall shoot (can you guess how??).  In one of those baskets I found some coupons that expired in 1987.  Bonus!!

Going to the yard sales in the morning so we'll see what else I find!!

Giveaway??

So I'm thinking of doing a giveaway on my blog.  Would that be something anyone would be interested in?  And if so what kind of item would you like to see??  MMMM-Thanks!

Broken Heart Ranch

Saturday evening, we decided to take our Girl Scouts to the Broken Heart Ranch in Calhoun.  It is a ranch that serves children of all ages, for FREE.  You can bring your child or group out to the ranch to ride the horses, donate your time, play with the animals, bathe and brush them, and just let your kids have a great time.  The owners are founded on Christian faith values and donate their time and resources because it's God's will.  They knew that God is the bigger picture and if we will serve him, he will provide.

Saturday night, BHR (Broken Heart Ranch), had a get together that included activities such as riding the horses or pony, learning a song using sign language, dressing a sheep (hilarious), and learning to rope.  They also had free snacks for everyone and good ole fellowship. 

We had 8 girls, plus our mascots Kyler and Natalie, attend and let me tell you...they had a blast!  You know what the good thing was?  They got to be kids.  They were dirty from head to toe by the time they left but they had fun!  It was hard watching all of them because there were so many activities going on.  While the girls were doing their activities we took Ella to the stalls to see the horses.  She would only get her hand so close.  As soon as she touched that invisible barrier she would jerk her hand back and tighten up her legs.  She would smile and squint her eyes like she just couldn't bring herself to touch it.

At the close of the night they lined up all the kids at the far end along the fence and set a calf loose in the arena.  Before they let all the big kids loose, one of the owners picked up Natalie and led another little girl towards the calf so they could see the cow upclose.   That single act touched my heart.  You could tell he was exactly where he needed to be in God's ultimate plan. All of a sudden you heard a "Go!" and about 50 kids came hurtling towards this calf.  The object of the game was to grab the rope that was on the calf's tail.  One of our girl scouts was the one who finally snagged it.  She was ecstatic.  As we loaded up our vehicles we made a commitment to come back and donate our time to this organization.  It wouldn't even be work for the girls, just as long as they get to play in the dirt.

They do accept donations and I fully recommend taking your family to the ranch.  Just a little warning though.  Your kids will probably need to be hosed off before they get in the car.

DIY: Fake Febreeze!

To tell you the truth my kids are comparable to animals, like dogs.  Just like dogs they leave their odor on everything.  And just like dogs they chew on all types of household furniture, so about 2 weeks ago, I came across a "recipe" for fake Febreeze and I finally got to try it out yesterday. I just thought I would share!!  Thanks Fake-It-Frugal!!

All it takes are 3 ingredients:

1/8 tsp of your favorite fabric softener

2 Tbsp Baking Soda

Hot Tap Water- to fill the bottle to the top

*Tip-You will probably need a funnel to put the baking soda in the bottle (unless you want it everywhere)

lol "MYBREEZE"

Now shake,shake,shake! I used this recipe with a 24 oz spray bottle that I purchased at Wal-Mart.  Depending on the brand of fabric softener you may want to add a little more.  But I would caution you, wait until the mixture has cooled down.  When it's still warm or in my case hot, you really can't tell how strong it truly is. 

You know what??  It works!!  Cheap and smells just like you like it :)  I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure I would rather spend approx $.60 to make this than buy the real Febreeze for $5-6.

Have Fun!!!!

My little helper :)

Success at the yard sale!!

My sis and I decided to do a little bit of yard saleing this morning and I think we got some good deals.  My sister planned the route and we set off, with the kids might I add, at 7:30 this morning.  At our first stop, I racked up on a little plush "bowling" set,  Alphabet, Color and Natural Blocks, and 3 Polly Pocket princess outfits for $2.

Our next stop I ended up with 17 children's books, mostly vintage.  It was so neat looking through the bins and seeing so many from my childhood.  They had old Sesame Street books, Little Golden Books and much more.  I also got a Mary Higgins Clarke book, for me, and a bag of scrap fabric and pom poms, also for me.  At this location I spent a grand total of $4.

At our next yard, I managed to get a pair of jeans for my daughter for $1.

And on the final stop I just so happened to ask the lady if she had a playpen because she had a bunch of baby stuff.  She said she didn't have one with her, that it was with her sister-in-law,  so she phoned her up and after a few phone calls I got my $15 pack and play!  It even has the attachments!  I have been looking for one of these to cage in my monkey so needless to say this was my favorite find for the day!

My lovely daughter posing with our finds (pay no attention to the crap...I mean toys :) in the background

 Plush "bowling" set, Alphabet, Color and Natural Blocks, and Polly Pocket outfits.

Bag of scrap fabric and bag of pom poms.  These come in handy for the last minute craft! 

All my great books!  I had a child in a walker racing towards me when taking this photo so I really didn't get to show much detail :)

My inspiration for Yard Saleing came from Yard Sale Mommy!  If you haven't come across her website yet I HIGHLY recommend it.  She finds treasures at yard sales and then sells them on EBAY!  She has great advice and it is a joy to read her blog.  Go check her out!!

First day of speech school triggers anxiety attack.

I knew the title would get every one's attention. :)  Can I just add that the past few days leading up to today has triggered my anxiety.  I am not ashamed to admit that for the past year I have had anxiety attacks on and off.  I believe they started when I was going to the Atlanta Speech School 4 days a week.  There's always these thoughts floating around in my mind like, "Will I make it on time?  Will I hit traffic?  What if I have to stop and go to the bathroom, I'm going to have to get Naty or both kids out with me?!  I won't make it!"  Sadly these thoughts flooded my head until I would be having a full blown anxiety attack.

This year Natalie is going 5 days a week from 8:05 to 2:20.  This means I have to leave around 6:30 in the morning which means I have to get up around 5-5:30.  Some of you make think, oh that's not too bad.  It is when you don't go to bed till midnight every night.  That is not because I want to, that is because I have a night owl for a daughter who by the way sleeps with me as well as her baby sister.  I have too much to do to go to bed early.  I can't help but sit here reminiscing about the days when I would snuggle under my cold blanket and read a good book till I fell asleep.  Of course that was 10 years ago, before Cayli, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  Now my nights are spent laying under the cold blanket with my teeth clenched trying not to lose my temper as I struggle to keep Ella on my left side and Naty on my right.  Natalie also likes to play with my phone at night so just in case you get a late night phone call from me, don't worry about calling back...it was Naty.

This morning was a toughie.  I fell asleep with my clothes on, necklace around my neck, and contacts clinging to my eyes.  So when I woke up I was feeling like I had been hit by a golf cart.  As soon as I stepped in the shower, the thoughts started intruding into my brain.  All I could do was pray and ask God to stand by me through whatever the day brings.  I had all these things to do before I left and no time to do them.  As I finished getting ready and bolt out the door, already late might I add, I knew that today was going to be rough.

Today I had both girls with me which really added to the anxiety.  Knowing that I couldn't pull over if I had to go to the bathroom was making me have to go to the bathroom.  Does that make sense? 

I found a remedy while I was driving down the road that worked for a little while.  You're gonna laugh.........smiling.  Just imagine seeing a woman with sweat beading on her forehead driving down the interstate looking like a total fool.  That's how I felt but hey, it actually helped the anxiety subside if even for a few minutes.  I made it to the school and on time at that. 

After arriving everything worked out pretty well.  If you don't count Ella crawling all over the auditorium and me trying to keep her entertained while the director talked about the upcoming school year.  We finished orientation with a pizza party with the kids and left for the day.

On a good note, I got to see lots of familiar faces and reconnect with the other parents/

And no, my day did not get much better after that when I got home but I've talked enough on that.

On a more serious note, anxiety attacks are not fun.  You will not ever meet someone who enjoys having one.  They are real and more people have them than you think.  You feel like you are going to die, that nothing can help you, and your chest starts to tighten up.  The more you try not to think about the problem the worse it gets.  Believe me the drive to Atlanta in the mornings are like being in a jail cell sometimes.  Nothing to distract you but the radio and the traffic. 

But I'm always reminded by the saying "This too shall pass."  Every day is a new day and we never know what it will bring.

Baby Analeigh is here!!

I have to give a HUGE congratulations to my best friend Jada and her husband Justin.  At 3:31 this morning she delivered a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 7lbs 15oz and 20.5 in long.  And might I just add that she delivered her naturally!  That's right ladies, no drugs!  Unfortunately that was not what she had planned but by the time she got to the hospital she was already dilated to a 9.  Mom sounds great and of course dad is as happy as a bug in a rug (never really understood that saying).  I will be going within the hr to see this beautiful family so of course pics will follow!!

Banana Crunch Breakfast Smoothie (Best Ever)!!!

 I stumbled across this recipe and thought it sounded scrumptious and boy was it good!  I highly recommend it.  Even if you're not a smoothie person I guarantee you'll love it :)

Ingredients:
1 cup milk (preferably skim or 1%)
1/2 cup granola
1 banana
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup ice

You can also play around with this recipe.  For instance, I added a peach with mine.  The granola may sound a little strange but believe me, I think that is what makes the smoothie.

Enjoy!!

Want a free Slap Watch???

I just ran up on a deal I couldn't refuse!

Go to this link http://www.savemore.com/DailyDeals/National and it will take you to a site called SaveMore. 

As long as you've never signed up before you can receive a $10 credit which you can apply to today's deal which is a Slap Watch for $7!  So even after you buy it...for free....you still have a $3 credit!

 Offer ends today!!

Thanks Money Saving Mom!!

What to do today

I have a long list of To-Do's today:

Write 2 more posts on my blog
Sweep and Mop house
Make Fake Febreze (will be a later post on blog)
Get ready for GA Pines therapist to visit girls
At least 3 loads of laundry
Make dinner

Now I hope that I will be able to say I accomplished all of these things today but.......who knows.

What's on YOUR To-Do list today??

Not such a bad town after all

Funeral's are never easy to go through.  Saturday my oldest daughter's great aunt was laid to rest.  Even though the family is on her father's side, they are as much my family as her's.  Sheryl Whitmire, Cayli's great-aunt, was taken from this world too soon but as I type this, she is walking the streets of gold smiling down on us wishing we could see her.  Sheryl always had a smile on her face and blue eyeshadow on her eyes.  She would do anything for you despite the obstacles that surrounded her. 

On the way to the burial site, I was comforted to see cars pulling over on the side of the road as we passed.  Knowing that our town still had that level of respect for the dearly departed left me a little teary eyed.  So many times we are so busy with our lives that we have blinders on.  We look straight ahead and only think about what is next on our long to do list.  I am sad to say I am guily of sporting the blinders.  There are many times when I get to my destination and honestly don't know how I got there.  How did I do that?  I am so focused on my checklist and all the things I have to get done that I forget about the now.

A town that will stop what they're doing and say a prayer for the family that has been affected by this tragedy is a town that I don't mind calling home.