Tuesday, January 29, 2008

She's Running Away


My 3 yr old just informed me that she is going to run away. What awful thing did I make her do to elicit such a response? I peeled an orange for her then told her she had to stay in the kitchen to eat it. She argued with me and I told her that if she left the kitchen with it she would be disciplined. She then said, "fine. I'll just run away." I told her I'd go pack her bag. She just looked at me like I was crazy. I explained that at night it would get cold and dark and she would be scared. She quickly although somewhat reluctantly changed her mind.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Secret Sister's 2008

Admittedly, this post is more for my sake than for anyone else's - especially since I didn't take even ONE pic!!! I want to have this as black and white reminders to me.

Anyways, tonight we (the ladies of the Keepville church) kicked off our first "Secret Sister" attempt. We had alot of fun eating, playing games and laughing tonight here at the parsonage. Plenty of perfect Kodak moments but I was so busy being hostess that I forgot to even get the camera out. We had 9 ladies here but there are 13 ladies actually participating this year. I am SO excited!!!

Weekend Fun!!

This past weekend, my sister and her family came to visit. It was the first time they've been here forever. Anyways... we LOVED having them (see Byron's blog for his perspective) and there were many tears from the children as they left. Here's some pictures of the fun we had together.



While she was here, Shandra did a couple sewing projects for me. I may take pics and show the final projects later today.


Sisters


Mom had sent cookies for the kids to make for Valentines Day. She also sent a dozen sugar cookies from Eat n Park restaurant. Well, Shandra and I have a serious love for their cookies so we schemed together that we wouldn't tell the kids about the Eat n Park cookies and would eat them ourselves. So, I called mom and told her of our scheming and she told us to go ahead and eat them since she had sent the other cookies for the kids. So, here's the picture of us enjoying our cookies- for mom's benefit. The following pics are of the kids making their cookies from Mama & Papa Wallace.









Eating the finished product.

My Political Thoughts

I just read this letter that was a response to an article in the Birmingham paper (online version). This writer says it exactly how I feel.....

OFF THE FENCE. In the past few months my wife and I have struggled as to who we would support in the rapidly approaching presidential primary. We, like many, have been frustrated at the fact we have not found the "perfect" conservative candidate. After Hunter endorsed Huckabee, and Thompson dropped out, the decision became clear. While we have had some red flags, there was only one man left standing who has not waffled on the most crucial moral issues to conservatives. Mike Huckabee may not be Ronald Reagan but he has not wavered on the right to life, the sanctity of marriage, or on the first and second amendment.

In the past two weeks I have asked scores of like-minded friends what they thought about the upcoming election. I have never seen such a consistent, yet conflicted answer. Without exception every person, when asked "If you had to vote tomorrow, who would you vote for?" has said, "Huckabee, I guess."

We had all gone through the same frustrating thought processes. We all had the same legitimate questions, and had all heard every political pundit tell us that the one conservative candidate we could live with doesn't have a chance. Without exception, every person wanted to hear someone say, "Its all right to finally get off the fence and speak up for your candidate of choice."

Saturday Mike Huckabee was expected to draw a crowd of 400 people at Samford University. 2,200 showed up. There was much talk of Huckabee running out of money after the South Carolina primary. A goal was set to raise a million dollars in a week. The goal was met and surpassed in six days. A day after Huckabee decided to scale back his efforts in Florida, one poll had him within five points of the leader. (No wonder he got back into the Florida race).

As I write this, Mike Huckabee is tied for the lead in Alabama, leading in Missouri and leading by fifteen points in Georgia.

Once in a lifetime the perfect candidate appears. The rest of the time, voters have to find a candidate who best embraces the values they know to be right. I am but one of many who have decided the paralysis of analysis must come to an end quickly if conservatives are going to have a candidate in the general election. Looking around the country, it appears as if there are a lot of us getting off the fence and into the game.

I'm supporting Mike Huckabee because I believe he is the best candidate.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Vincent Raises $202.00!!

Today we took the money for St. Jude's to school for Vincent. We still have to collect $25.00 but he raised $202.00 total. We are SO proud of him. I have scanned 3 pages of the work he did so that you can see examples of the problems he had to do. He did all the problems COMPLETELY by himself. I was VERY proud of him. Thank you SO much to each of you who donated money and helped him out. We sure do appreciate it!!



Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Fixed!!

I finally fixed the pictures in this entry. Sorry about that!!!

Misc. pictures that make me smile

Here is a comglomeration of some of my favorite miscellaneous pictures from last week.






I am Married to the BEST man EVER!!


Several years ago my mother in law gave me her kitchen aid mixer. I use it - on average - 5 days a week. I LOVE the machine. Well, in September the beloved mixer died. Byron told me he'd look at it and see if it was fixable. Well, between then and now, Byron has not had a spare minute to work on it. I've been hobbling along without it. Thanks to a wonderful neighbor who so kindly has lended me her mixer multiple times. Somewhere along the way, I purchased a "cheap" handheld mixer and it promptly died a couple weeks later.


Fast forward to tonight.....


I got home from picking up a few groceries and my darling husband walked in the front door carrying my old faithful kitchen aid!!!! It's FIXED!!!! I am SOOOOO SOOOO happy!!!!!!!! We figure that this "old faithful" is approximately 50 years old and now... GOING STRONG!!!!


PS... the mixer pictured above is NOT my mixer. My mixer is QUITE old and looks its age. That mixer pictured above is my dream mixer. :-)

Fun In Pittsburgh (Part 2)

On Friday Stephen & Byron went skiing(see Byron's blog for pics). Shandra and I took the gang to the mall to play in their indoor playland. We even managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of shopping. Then we took them back home. When it became apparent that they were getting a bit of cabin fever we bundled them up and took them to the park. They had alot of fun even though it was inhuman temperatures!!! See Shandra's blog for more pics.

This is the apartment building where Shandra & Stephen live. They are on the 19th floor and have an awesome view!!!



The girls on the tire swing



The Cousins



My favorite Sister and nieces


The Frozen Mother and Children



Downtown Pittsburgh



Eating a treat after riding the subway



I thought we had trained her not to kiss scary men!!! (But then again, I thought my parents had taught my sister that too!!! (snicker... sorry Stephen, couldn't resist.)

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Fun In Pittsburgh (Part 1)

We got to Pittsburgh - my sister's place on Thursday night late. Friday afternoon, my sister kept my kids and Byron and I went for a much needed - long overdue date. Thanks to my sister and brother in law for the restaurant gift certificate!!!

Anyways... after we got home from that we took the kids and rode the Pittsburgh subway. It was really neat - and FREE!!! :-) Anyways, we didn't have a working camera with us so Byron snapped a couple pictures with his cell phone. After the subway ride we took the kids for a ice cream cone at McDonalds. Pictures of that bit of fun to follow (after my sister gets them off her camera).