Some messages from my Pap-paw

Anyone who knows my sweet Pap-paw, the Rev. Ed Self, knows that he is one of, if not the one, sweetest man that ever walked the face of this earth. Even though I have moved to Mississippi and he can no longer leave me bags with mail and goodies on my door step, he knows my address and you better believe that he continues to send those things may way, usually on a weekly basis. He sends me a few things he's printed out from his own computer and the current copy of The Upper Room. I am so blessed to have a man like him in my life. If you were to look up "unconditional love" in the dictionary, you'd see his picture (along with my mom and dad and my late grandmother) because they truly do love me unconditionally. And for that I am forever thankful to my eternal Father for that....for family.

But I digress....Pap-paw also loves the Internet about as much as I do and he sends me the best ever emails on a daily basis. I've copied and pasted one here that I received from him today because I wanted to share it with you all. It is entitled "Quotes to Live By" and I love quotes, sayings, anything inspirational and motivational. So pap paw knows this kind of thing is right up my alley. I hope you enjoy reading them and find some of these that you will apply or already apply to your daily living.

May God bless each of you and may you find His unconditional love most satisfying. We are truly unworthy of that love that He so graciously gives.

Quotes to Live By

Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.

Love...and you shall be loved.

Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.

All people smile in the same language.

Do what you can, for who you can, with what you have.

To get out of a difficulty, one must go through it.

Beauty is only skin deep.

To everything there is a season and a purpose.

You are richer today if you have laughed, given or forgiven.

If you have 2 loaves of bread, sell one and buy a flower.

You should never resist the temptations of planting a rainbow.

Take time to laugh for it is the music of the soul.

Happy memories never wear out...relive them as often as you like.

One is closer to God in a Garden than anywhere else on earth.

The heart that loves is always young.

Life's most beautiful things are not seen with the eyes but felt with the heart.

What the heart has once owned and had it shall never lose.

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.

Love is the only thing that can be divided without being diminished.

Love is not as simple as candlelight and roses, Love is day-to-day living.

Laughter is God's sunshine.

Friends are presents you give yourself.

A hug is a great gift...one size fits all.

Everyone needs to be loved...especially when they do not deserve it.

The real measure of a man's wealth is what he has invested in eternity.

You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future.

Man looks at outward appearances but the Lord looks within.

The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other.

For every minute you are angry with someone, you lose 60 seconds of happiness that you can never get back.

And this following prayer is an email I received from a lady I just met who lives in Meridian. She is the "govener" of The Civitian Club, which she called to invite me to join. But on occassion she sends out emails like this, so I'm glad to know she is a good Christian lady that I have met and befriended. I found this prayer so motivating and heartfelt (even though I'm sure it's been generated around the internet for days now) so I wanted to share it as well. I hope you enjoy reading the prayer as much as I did. Again, may God bless your day!

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day, I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning. I'm blessed because You are a forgiving God and an understanding God. You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me. Forgive me this day for everything I have done, said or thought that was not pleasing to you.

I ask now for Your forgiveness. Please keep me safe from all danger and harm. Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Let me make the best of each and every day to clear my mind so that I can hear from You. Please broaden my mind that I can accept all things. Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over.

And give the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits.

I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart. Continue to use me to do Your will. Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others. Keep me strong that I may help the weak... Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement. I pray for those that are lost and can't find their way. I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood. I pray for those who don't know You intimately. I pray for those that will delete this without sharing it with others I pray for those that don't believe.

But I thank you that I believe that God changes people and God changes things. I pray for all my sisters and brothers. For each and every family member in their households. I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes that they are out of debt and all their needs are met. I pray that every eye that reads this knows there is no problem, circumstance, or situation greater than God. Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight.
I pray that these words be received into the hearts of every eye that sees it.

Is it only Tuesday????

I didn't sleep much Sunday night since I cat napped on the way home Sunday so that left me very weary yesterday afternoon. But my house needed some work done. I have found it's easier just to do it then it is to have Sid tell me to do it. Those of you who know me well, know that if you "tell" me to do something, your chances of getting it done are pretty dang slim. So I informed Sid I was going to do some housework when I got home yesterday afternoon. We've also been having a hard time finding something to mop with that won't leave streaks on the floor. Even plain hot water streaks the wood floors. Mom told us to use some vinegar, so I vacuumed and then mopped with hot water and vinegar. IT WORKED!!!! Thanks, Mom! After that was done, and some laundry folded and put away, and a homemade pizza for dinner (that Sid cooked), we went out to play with our flowers. Oh, how life has changed!!!! Flowers growing in my front yard excite me these days. I don't know if that's good or bad. But anyway, we "fed" them, but didn't water them because it's much wetter under that mulch than I had first realized. And I also discovered that one of the flowers is doing so poorly because it never "rooted" to the ground. Wal-Mart will guarantee their flowers for up to a year, so I'm going in a little bit to get a replacement flower.

Sid's been playing text twister with me, so we played a little of that online and then I got a shower and we went to bed. I guess the up side of not sleeping Sunday night is bed early on Monday night. And Tuesday morning came around toooo soon! haha!

And boy was it a very long day. I'm not sure the reason for this though. I'm transitioning some kids to Kindergarten and 1st grade so that took up much of the morning. And one little guy I'm pottying training stayed dry all day today. First day all year!!!!!! So it wasn't a bad day - Just a long day. My assistants are ready for the year to be over with too. But you know what Tuesday coming and going means? Tomorrow is hump day....and tomorrow is pay day!!!! Whoo Hoo!!!! Me like pay check!!!!!

I've been invited to join a club here in Philadelphia called The Pilot Club. It's supposed to be an international club and they support anything that has to do with children and brain related disorders. There is a planning meeting that I'm going to tonight, which will be my first meeting. Hope it's interesting. And I hope I it's an opportunity to meet some great people. I'm sure it will be.

Welp, maybe hump day will go by faster than Tuesday has gone by. It seems like my alarm clock went off days ago instead of just this morning. I'm not wishing the days away or anything, it was just one of those days.

Friday is our Spring party at school for my class. We are having a water/McDonald's party. I'm sure the details will be something to blog about later in the week.

Oh, and one more thing....I just can't stand it when one needs to talk to the nurse of their doctor, but no one calls you back. They've got 30 more minutes, and I WILL call back, because I am my mother's daughter after all!!!!

Edited to add: I clicked "publish post" and I'll be darn if the phone didn't ring and it was the doctor's office calling back. For those of you who are wondering/and/or want to know, Sid and I are trying to get pregnant and although we've only been married 6 months, I do turn 32 in August so my time is running out and their are some concerns. But we've just realized in the past day or so that I don't ovulate when "most" women do. I needed to let the doctor's office know this so they can go from here and I really wanted to know what they had to say about it. If all that is Greek to you, it's easier to say I have a 32 day cycle and instead of ovulating in the middle of the cycle, I ovulate at the end. Which could be the problem and very easily corrected. Just keep that and us in your prayers!!!!!

Furniture Links

So this is not the official Ashley site, but it is the bedroom suit. I guess other places carry Ashley brand....or something like that. Anyway, here's a link to the bedroom suit.

http://www.furniturexo.com/Hamlyn-Platform-Bedroom-Set-p-26994.html

And here is a link to the ez glider/recliner

http://www.furniturexo.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=&categories_id=&inc_subcat=1&manufacturers_id=27&group_id=&type_id=&style_id=&collection=San+Marco+-+Chocolate&pfrom=&dfrom=&dto=&x=0&y=0

And here is a link to a picture of the sofa and ottoman that goes with that recliner. The pics make it look sort of gray and the acutal color name is chocolate, but I promise if we get what we ordered, it's black. So out of the pic here, we got the sofa and the ottoman. We got two of the recliners from the above link.

http://www.countrywidecayuga.com/retailers/countrywide_cayuga/item.php?selected_item=128626#

If you don't like it, don't tell me!!!!!

New Furniture....WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!

Man, did we have a GREAT weekend! We left home Saturday about 9:45 a.m. headed to Peeples since Sid loved my great finds so much, he wanted to find some great finds for himself. They didn't open until 10:00 a.m. and after an hour of just browsing around Peeples, we head out (in the pouring down rain) to Bama for the princess bday party. About half way down the interstate, I fall asleep, as per usual. And low and behold, I wake up just in time to realize we are going to be about an hour early to the party if we don't find something else to pass a little bit of time. And under normal circumstances, I'd have picked Target to pass that time. BUT, since we've been looking at furniture and Fultondale has a brand new Ashley store, I suggest we stop just to look. And to my amazement, Sid agrees. Sooooo, in we go.

And, it's our lucky day to have stopped in Ashley as they are in the middle of what they term "the biggest sale weekend at Ashely of the year". What this boiled down to was about 5 different buying options depending on the amount of money spent. So we look and we look and we go back and forth between some living room furniture, which I'll explain in a few. But we knew the bedroom suit when we saw it. I'll post a link to it at the bottom of the entry. We knew, after spending all day the Saturday before looking, what we wanted, and when we saw it, we just knew we had found the bedroom suit we were looking for.

So back to the living room furniture. Ashley has made this recliner that is built on a glider frame. I LOVE LOVE LOVE a comfortable glider and this piece of furniture was a glider, recliner, beautiful, comfortable chair, all wrapped up in one. And Sid loved it. The prob here was that is was only made in a walnut color leather and a black leather. And the biggest prob was that we were not looking for black furniture and the walnut color didn't come with any matching pieces. It had no couch or other pieces that went it with it specifically, but the black had a whole room of furniture that we could choose from. So as we discuss the color options, the salesman points us in the direction of another walnut colored couch that would "match" the glider/recliner. And then we realize it's time to go to the birthday party before we are late. So we leave the salesman pondering some delivery options to Mississippi should we decide to make a purchase and head out the door.

On the way to the party, we decide that we must have the bedroom suit and we'd either get the walnut color glider/recliner and the other couch that sort of matches or we'll just go for the black and add color in other ways. We were thinking that Ashley couldn't deliver across the state line, so that's what the salesman was checking on for us. But he called back, Mr. Lane was his name, to tell us that not only could they deliver across the state line, but since it was across the state line, we didn't have to pay sales tax. Whooo Hoooo!!!!! We were on our way to buy new furniture for our new house and a girl couldn't have been more happy. So we enjoy the birthday party, have some GREAT cake, catch up with an old friend I haven't seen in quite some time, open presents, and talk Mom and Dad into going back to the Ashley store to look at the furniture with us.

But, ahhh, somewhere in the middle of this great deal, there has to be a grey cloud. And that happened when I mistakenly thought we'd decided on the walnut colored leather and Sid thought we'd decided on the black furniture. But Cindy, aka Mom, aka the best home decorator in the state in my opinion, is trying to help us out with the walnut color recliner and it not matching the couch and we'd get tired of so much brown and if we went with the black it'd be a blank slate of sort to add our own color scheme to. And I'm thinking the whole time Sid wants brown and I'm trying to get that through Mom's head. When in actuality, he wanted the black and we could have had the decision made in a flat 10. Is all this making sense to you? I didn't think so, it didn't make sense to me either for a few minutes. But I finally got with the program and we got on the ball and decided we knew what we wanted. And proceeded to buy new furniture.

Did you know buying furniture was a little more lengthy than buying a new car? I didn't, but it was. It took us about 2 hours to get it bought. But the great news is.......the bed is still in creation b/c it's brand new......so we won't get our furniture til June. JUNE????? Yep, June! But I didn't get new, beautiful furniture, so what's a girl got to complain about???? Wait til you see it and you'll say "Not one dang thing"!

Ok, I wanted to post a link to the furniture, but apparently it's so new it's not on the webiste. You have to have a special password to get to the part where my pics are. And guess what? I don't have that. So you'll have to wait til we get the furniture to see it! More of a reason to come visit!

haha!

Just a few pics from over the past year

Click on the link here to go see the slideshow. I thought I was smart enough to get it posted to my actual blog but I guess I'm not.....

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/wareaglegirl30/?action=view&current=988225c4.pbw

The Beginning of the End

So today I had my very last IEP for the year and it was the biggest IEP/meeting that I've had in a long, long time. It could possibly rank as the most "included" and detailed meeting I've ever had to participate in. This meeting was for my student who has a vision impairment. As a rule, sped teachers are not trained in vision or hearing impairments. We are trained and able to teach children with any other disability, but those two domains are a speciality. So the district I've worked for has had a vision consultant come in monthly this whole year to consult with me and help to train me. Just recently, another specialist which we call an orientation and mobility specialist came in to observe this child and be able to give input on him navigating around the school campus. So at this IEP, we have these two consultants, the mom, me, the OT, the sped director, the speech teacher, and the two assistant principals. I put alot of thought and effort into writing this child's IEP for several different reasons. Number 1 I know I won't be there next year and I know how long it took me to "get used" to working with and educating a blind child. I don't want that much time to go by another year while a new teacher figures things out. So I wrote his IEP so that anyone could pick it up and know about him and know what to do with him. I also wrote it that way because that is how we are trained to write them. What if he were to move to a new district? The people in that district would need to be able to know exactly who, what, when, where and why when dealing with not just this child, but any child with special needs. But since he is such a special case, I put some extra TLC into writing his IEP/profile/goals. When the meeting was over, it was one of those reliefs where you realize you haven't been breathing the whole time and finally let out the breath you've been holding for two hours. So when the sped director walks by and pats me on the back and says "good job Barbie" and then when the O&M specialist says "that's the best IEP I've ever seen" and when the mom says "thank you for taking care of my baby's needs" it just put everything into perspective for me that this IEP could very well be the last IEP I ever do. I say this due to the upcoming job change. So I get emotional and have to excuse myself and get a grip on what life is for me at the moment. It's just frustrating that things have worked out like they have, but at the same time I'm really excited about the career change. So I realized after this IEP meeting that today is the beginning of the end of what is known of my special education career.

Having the most wonderful husband a girl could ask for, I come home and lay my head in his lap and just let the tears flow. There really were no words for what I was feeling and there were no words he could really say. It was just a time to let some emotions go. And that I did.......

When Sid was finally able to talk to me he reassured me that too many good things were happening for this not to be a God thing and that he felt like God was opening doors for me to be able to enter the sped arena in a whole new way. Actually, he's right. Because now I can talk to parents and help them out and give them all the input they need to get the right services from the school system.

And what's a girl to do when she's having such an emotional Friday afternoon......why, go shopping of course. Peeples is having a HUGE sale this weekend where everything in the store is on sale and then you get another 20% off your whole purchase. I got $370 worth of new clothes for a mere $207 tax and all. Now, Sid isn't home so he doesn't know these purchases were made. I'm sure he'll be just as happy over my savings as I am. I don't try on clothes in the store, so after getting stuff home and trying it on, some will go back and not be swapped just because I don't like the item on me. But I'm keeping most of it, hopefully! Maybe he'll see things my way and let me keep my new purchases. It really was a good deal, don't you think?

I'm trying to upload some pictures for a slide show and so maybe that'll be posted soon.

Right now, I'm still home alone and I think I'll go to bed early. Tomorrow is the princess bday party so we are headed to Bama early in the morning. Or maybe I'll watch Dateline because I usually don't get to watch it.....Sid hates Dateline!

Well SNAP!

So Sid and I went to his parents to have dinner and hurried home to be ready for the all new Grey's Anatomy. Low and behold, the phone rings at 8:10 p.m. with a number I do not recognize flashing on the screen. Because the autism walk is this weekend and parents might be contacting me about information, I felt obligated to answer. And it was a parent, but not a parent I knew. I know I've got to do an update on my new job. But to make a long story short, in the midst of looking for new jobs, I was offered a chance to consult with TEAAM. If you've been reading my posts you should know what TEAAM is and know that I'd be consulting with school district in the area of autism for TEAAM. The only problem was they only wanted to do it on a contract basis and that's just not good for me right now. But, this parent was referred to me from another TEAAM consultant because they are in my area. So I spent Grey's Anatomy time on the phone with this parent, a dad, talking about all that is going on with his soon to be 12 year old. You all know that kind of conversation is right up my alley and I did enjoy talking to the dad and hope I can help them in the future. BUT, if you got to watch it, please update me on what happened........... We don't have DVR anymore since we switched from Dish to cable, so that's a downside to having normal cable. No DVR or TiVo. That's one of those things I didn't realize I really used until I have it no more..........

Then the new ER came on at 9:00 p.m. Well, being the semi-geek that I am, and being my mother's child, I have found a new online game that I love love love. It's sort of addicting, actually. It's called Text Twist. You tell the game to start and a bunch of letters pop up, from 5 to 7 or 8 and you have to make as many words with the letters as you can. There are boxes that you fill you up so you know when you're almost done making all the words possible. BUT, if you get the last word you can make, which is the hardest and uses all the letters, you can skip the words you haven't made and go on to the next level. Here's the catch though, you only get a free trial hour and then you have to buy the darn game. Being Sid Whitehead's wife, they'll be no buying of online games, I can promise you that. But I wanted to show my new found game to Sid and he got into it. So we spent ER playing Text Twist. Google it, but make sure you have a good hour before you do so.

So tomorrow is my last IEP meeting of the year. This is the biggest one yet since it is for my student who has vision impairments. There will be 10+ people in attendance, including the vision specialist, the orientation and mobility specialist, the sped coordinator, the principal, the parent, me, the OT, the PT, the speech teacher, and whoever else they decided to reign in for this meeting. It should go OK and this mom is oh so sweet so I'm not dreading it. But I'm not looking forward to it either. Meetings like this one are usually pretty draining.

But at least tomorrow is Friday. Sid's going to serve supper at Leake Academy with the Shriner's and Jerry and NeNe are going to Talledega to the Nascar Race. Yes, I said Jerry AND NENE!!!! She swears up and down she loves it but I can't see it. Maybe there will be a pic to post of her at the race.

I'm just glad it's Friday, Sid's going to be busy, and I'll be able to have some Me time. I like Me time, and me times are far and few between lately. I'll need the R&R and peace and quiet after the big IEP meeting tomorrow.

For those of you that want more information about my new job, I promise to write about it tomorrow night. Hope everyone has a great Friday!!!!!

Her Royal Highness is turning 4.....

We got the most beautiful birthday party invitation in the mail today for Erin's 4 year old birthday party. She is having a princess birthday party and her invitation is Cinderella's carriage with a purple ribbon tied on it. It starts off saying "Her Royal Highness" and then has her name written all scrolly like. It's just beautiful and so girly.

So what kind of gift do you a get a royal highness? One of everything in the Wal-Mart toy section is what her Aunt Bah would have liked to have gotten her. From a real-deal Hannah Montana Guitar to a "my first" guitar that is real but play enough that it's ok if it gets broken, a set of 5 titanium Barbie golf clubs complete with golf bag, a few games, a Beach Boys CD, two or three shirts, a megaphone and pom-poms, a few coloring books, some writing pads and pens, etc. etc. etc. But, her Uncle Sid won out on the gift and we ended up getting a keyboard. Now, this is not just any old random keyboard that you and I played with when we were 4, but a very big, real, with 40+ different settings, complete with a recording microphone kind of keyboard that she will absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! I can't wait to hear what she composes on it. I can promise you it will be something to talk about in a later blog.

It's finally the end of hump-day and believe it or not, it's been a pretty fast week. I have one more IEP to finish writing and hold the meeting for and then I'll be done with that special ed teacher job for this year. And it could very well be the last IEP I ever have to write if the new job goes as expected.

Speaking of the new job, I spent two more hours after school today with the current director who is leaving. There is so much stuff to go over and know and learn and hear and absorb. So I am trying to go every so often and do all that. Today, I took the new schedule I'd worked on early in the week. Workers are getting all up-tight not knowing what is going to happen with the old director leaving and the new director coming in. So I felt like I needed to give some sort of input and show my face around there some before the official start date. We'll see how the new schedule goes over. Hopefully it will be fine.

Be sure to check for pics from the royal birthday party.........

7th Annual Autism Walk

This upcoming Saturday, April 26th, is TEAAM's 7th Annual Autism Walk.

For many people, this is a confusing concept so let me try to explain. There is a national autism organization called The Autism Society of America. Most states have a state chapter of this national chapter. In Alabama, the chapter is called The Autism Society of Alabama. Then, there are small chapters of the Alabama Autism Society all around Alabama. Well, TEAAM is Mississippi's chapter of the national organization. TEAAM stands for 'together enhancing autism awareness in Mississippi' and is the lead autism organization in Mississippi. So TEAAM is the equivalent of the Autism Society of Alabama.

April is National Autism Awareness month, and that pretty much extends to be a global conception. Soooo, all around the United States, and in other countries as well, states have annual autism walks in order to raise awareness and monies. In Alabama, the Autism Society of Alabama has one big walk and small groups from all over the state form teams and walk in honor of a child or children and raise money for the cause. Well, the same thing happens here in Mississippi. TEAAM sets the date for the state-wide walk and then small groups from all over the state form teams to walk and raise money that goes towards all the causes that TEAAM supports. Teams are made up of various different people. Sometimes, a family will form a team for their child and raise money in honor of that one child. Other teams, like ours, are formed from people all over the community and honor several different children. When the team captain forms the team and registers the team, they have to come up with a name. At our first meeting, we decided to name our team TEAAM Neshoba. Neshoba is the county we are from and we ended up registering 5 children with an autism spectrum disorder in Neshoba County, along with their families, friends, educators, and therapists. So TEAAM Neshoba is made up of 5 children with autism and about 50+ interested others. This is so exciting for our county. From looking at the TEAAM website, we are one of about 20 teams to be participating in this state-wide function on Saturday.

We raised a good bit of money as well. Initially, we started out with a goal of $250 and I quickly saw we were going to make that goal so I raised it to $500. To date, we have raised almost $700 thanks to a lot of hard work from TEAAM Neshoba members and people who are willing to donate to the cause. A big THANK YOU!!!! to everyone who took the time to get out and get donations and an ESPECIALLY BIG THANK YOU!!!! to those of you that donated.

My mission is to keep TEAAM Neshoba going as a parent support group for parents of children with all developmental disabilities.

For more information about TEAAM or TEAAM Neshoba, you can visit the following pages.

http://www.teaam.org/ Then click on 'get involved' and that will take you to the firstgiving page and tell about the walk and fundraising. I encourage you to browse about the TEAAM website and just read about what your donations support, as well as the firstgiving part of the website.

Also, if you will look to the right of the post, you will see a box that you can click that will take you to TEAAM Neshoba's fundraising page. From looking at the ticker on that box, you can see how much money we've raised to date. Donations will be excepted through that online giving until August 2008.

I will not be at the walk on Saturday because my sweet baby Erin turns 4 on April 30th and her princess birthday party conflicts with the walk. But thank you for taking the time to read about TEAAM, TEAAM Neshoba, and the 7th Annual Autism Walk. I intend to post pics as soon as I get some.

Oh, and by the way, the walk is being held at 100 Winner Circle, Winner Circle's Park, Flowood, Mississippi. Registration starts at 11:00 and the cermony will start at noon. Lunch will be served and there will also be activities for the children to paritipate in and win some prizies.

21 Days and Counting.....

So we've only got a limited days of school left and I have mixed feelings about this. As most of you know, I guess you do, that I will be leaving public education and taking a job as the director of childcare/kindergarten ministries at Philadelphia First United Methodist Church. But this leaves me with mixed emotions because I've always felt a had a calling to do the special education thing. However, it appears that after God uprooted me and moved me to Mississippi, that he had other plans for me. Most of you also know what a challenging year this has been for me as far as teaching in Mississippi. I won't get into that here. But after much prayer, I do feel as if God is closing a door that needs to be closed and opening one in another area where I will be just as successful as I was as a special education teacher. But I'm sad because I always get way more attached to my student's than I should and I always worry about what will happen to them when I'm not there, etc. etc. etc. But change is a part of life and so here I go.......Only twenty one more days left with my babies and then I'm off on a new adventure! Keep me in your prayers!

Not so mentionalbe Monday

Even though today was Monday, there really wasn't much happening that is worth you all wasting your time reading about. There is some crud going around in my classroom so several children were absent. I got alot of paperwork done and worked on a schedule for the staff at my upcoming job. I know, I know....I shouldn't have been working on that at school, but we have 22 days of school left, including teacher work-days, only 3 children present, and I just had the time to do it. I'm sure I'll be complaining later in the week of not having enough time to do things.

Sid went to the doctor today about his fever blisters that popped out after the recent trip to the beach. Bless his bones, they look painful, they do every time. And he usually waits until he can't stand it anymore to go. After trying everything he had at home, and then some (some lady told him that deo would dry it up) he finally went. They already look better.

I came home from work and for some reason immediately was struck with a throw-up migraine. I promptly took care of that with a little nausea med that knocked me out from about 4:00 until around 6:45. When I woke up, I smelled the aroma's of something warm and good for my tummy. Sid, in all his domestication, had fried homemade apple pies. YUM YUM YUM!!!!! I ate more than I should be he did a dang good job. It's amazing what he can do that I can't do. Oh, I later discovered he had put ant killer pellets all over my flowers and flower beds. He swears they won't hurt the flowers but he gave them a little shower just to re-assure me. He scares me with that stuff, no telling what he might be killing. HMMM, maybe I should have checked my apple pies more closely, come to think of it. haha!

So I'm trying to figure out what to get on the new laptop for work. I'm a little confused about the whole operating system difference between Windows XP or 2007 vs. Vista. From what I can tell, all the new laptops will come with Vista Home and from what I've understood, I don't want that. So if any of you have any enlightening info you'd like to give me your two cents on, I'd appreciate it.

Deal or No Deal just went off, it wasn't good. I just discovered House is on and it's not one I've seen before, so I'm off to catch some of my fav. pill popper!!!!

Lots of love, Barbie

And So We Begin.....

With the first post of 'the scoop' from Mississippi! I hope that Sid and I can keep this blog updated enough to let you know what is going on in lives enough so that we all still feel connected. If there is one thing that has been hard for me, especially, it's been not being able to see my family whenever I want to. Especially that cute little, soon to be, 4 year old niece of mine. We did, however, celebrate Mason's 3rd birthday on Friday night with a cowboy party at his house. He was the cutest little thing running around opening his presents. The cutest had to be when he opened the box with his spurs in it. I wish we'd had a video camera. So Sid and I are awaiting the princess birthday party next weekend......

We've had a relaxing Sunday with neither of us getting out of our pj's. Well, OK, except Sid did when he made his way for his daily fix of Wal-Mart. We were going to go out and water and feed our new flowers, but he did this without me while I napped. A bit irritating, but I didn't say anything. He could have waited on me, but oh well.

We spent yesterday looking at furniture, as we are in desperate need of new living room and master bedroom furniture. I think after the initial shock of how much this type of purchase is going to cost us, Sid is starting to come around a little bit. My most favorite thing we looked at was a bed by Restoration Hardware. Oh, and a bedroom suit by Kincade, whoever they are. But we'd have to take out a second mortgage to get either of them. But at least he's coming around on realizing how much things like this cost.

So now we are getting cozy on the couch as the second new show of Desperate Housewives is about to come on. Then the first new episode of Brothers and Sisters comes on next. I'm oh so excited by this. Not to mention I'm on the last leg of a book I started last week at the beach. So lots to do before I go to bed in a little bit. Sid will be out by 9:00 p.m.

Check back often, as we hope to keep this blog updated at least every other day if not every day!

Love you all, Miss you all! Barb