A Grand Sunday!

What a glorious Sunday it is turning out to be already! Our kids had a sleep-over with Grandma and I had a date with my man last night... we saved up our gift cards from the holidays and had a lovely dinner of WAY TOO MUCH FOOD at Black Angus. Ya know those Sunday coupons that have the Dinner for Two coupon? Well we used it and I can assure you that y'all better wear elastic clothing because it truly is too much food. I had a corner of the house bread they bring you, then we had the spinach/shrimp/cheese hot appetizer with toasted buttered chips (oooo delicious). Next up was soup or salad. I chose the salad because the soup was Baked Potato and I already knew I wanted the real tater with my meal. For my entree I chose the Ribeye steak and baked potato and sauteed veggies. My man had the Prime Rib. Then if that wasn't enough food already.... you get to choose a dessert. Because I love ice cream, you guessed it, we chose their famous Mud Pie! Oh-me-oh-my! I made a dent in just about everything but a family of four could probably finish this meal. Seriously!

Today we will officially become members of our new church that we've been attending the last 9 months. I can't believe how quickly time has passed already. I remember saying our goodbye's to our old church of nearly 12 years on Labor Day last year. For those of you who were there, the outdoor movie ~ Jungle Book ~ was the best I think, don't you?

So what makes today so Grand? Well the weekends are when I get caught up on all my blog reading and it was soooo nice to enjoy it this morning in quiet abandon! Since my bible study ended a few weeks ago, I've been searching for another structured study to do over the summer but it's been difficult to find something that engages me since I'll have to do this on my own until the next group bible study starts in the Fall. Well I found a blog today that hooked me! It's called the One Year Bible Blog! It includes fun, interactive links that take you around the Internet within the reading for further study and insight. And my favorite, fun pictures to help illustrate the reading.

Today's reading was on Obedience. I encourage you to take a look and enjoy God's word today!

Newlywed Game for Blondes

Makes me laugh even more!

This is a favorite of mine!

She nails it! Oh how I miss getting my nails done. I had acrylic nails faithfully for over 20 years! Someday when the budget allows it, I'll return to my favorite shop.

I'm so ready for a long weekend!

Smooth... Bold... colors!

Smooth... Bold... Colors! What could that possibly be? It is my new pen obsession for Papermates' newest pen! It's a BOLD TIP of 1.4 and I love the retractable feature (they also make it non-retractable). I've always preferred the thicker pen tips. Don't even get me started on those icko fine tip pens... nasty! Well yesterday my boss surprised me with a colorful pack of these beauties from THE DOLLAR STORE!!!!! That's right, 4 pens for a buck! Fun colors too... orange, fuscia pink, green and turquoise! Love it! Love it! Love it! Of course I have the purple, red, blue and black colored set above as well. Well..... I made such a fuss about how much I appreciated the pens, that my pod neighbors rolled over to see what was going on. Usually I only get that excited about an appliance. They noticeably rolled their eyes when they saw it was just a pen. Oh no, my friends, these are not just any pens! These are BOLD TIP PENS!!!! If you don't like fine tip pens either, go out and get yourself one of these beauties and you'll be hooked. Yes, thank me now. (sound of applause) Of course, I had to defend my new pens and displayed all their features better than Vanna on Wheel of Fortune!

Now this is funny! All this fun sparked debate on who makes the BEST pen. Zebra, Papermate, Pilot, Parker, Cross, TomBow (what the heck is that!), Orbit, Gel Rollerball, Pentel, Dr. Grip rollerball, Sensa, Mont Blanc and that's all my mind could wrap around to remember! Now don't tell me people don't know their pens! Their likes and dislikes! They are just as obsessive as me about whether they like BOLD, medium or icky Fine tip.

Tonight while looking for a picture to post here, I searched pens and found A TON of posts about people who LOVE pens. Pen collectors, OCD pen buyers, pen contests, etc. and they are willing to shell out the big bucks for them too! Some pens cost hundreds of dollars.. each!

So to wrap this up, I'll share with you my second favorite type of pen. It's a Fountain pen. Yep, that's right... the old fashion fountain, calligraphy style pen. Personally, I enjoy Sheaffer because they make the ink tube attachments for easy traveling in my purse and they are affordable. I also like the felt tip calligraphy pens but the tips tend to wear out quickly because I press hard. But I'll leave that for another post!

National Apron Day!

The day after Mother's Day is National Wear Your Apron Day! My jean apron is from Suzanne Somers and it's all sparkle and bling! It's a long apron and I love it, because I am a messy baker / cook and need to cover up to save my clothes from getting stains on them. I wear it to do dishes in to because that's usually a mess to. I really adore skirt aprons but I just can't wear them because the mess usually ends up on my blouse, thus the reason I need a fully loaded, top to bottom apron!

Aprons create memories dont they? Most of us have memories of a Mother or Grandmother wearing their aprons for cooking and cleaning to protect their clothing. Most of my generation probably doesn't even own one. We have gotten away from wearing aprons with clothing being so inexpensive... JC Penney has a huge sale going on right now, wish I could go... and a better way of cleaning our clothes with our fancy machines and dryers.

A blog that I read daily (I'm bummed I didn't win her amazing handmade apron give away!), reminded me to wear mine today and who would have thought I would be because instead of being at work, I'm home with two sick children. So what have I done in it today? Emptied the dishwasher then loaded it again, put a whole cut up chicken in the crock-pot with some flavor that will be deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious for dinner and next I need to go think up something to make for lunch. Perhaps soup?

Happy Mother's Day

Anne turns 100 years old!

Anne Shirley that is...

The book Anne of Green Gables has it's 100 birthday anniversary this year! The book by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery was published in 1908 and continued the story of Anne Shirley in a series of sequels. Like Jane Austen, could she have known the phenomenon of followers around the world she would create?

My love (okay... obsession) for the story was based on a made for television

4 hour television mini series in 1985 Anne of Green Gables, with Megan Follows as Anne and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert.

A few years later Anne of Avonlea: The Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables, another mini series followed with the same wonderful cast. This one is my favorite as my poor VHS tape will vouch for!

The last in the mini series sequel was Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story However..... this script was not based on any of the novels written by the author, so it doesn't have the same squeal for me .





I would love to go to Prince Edward Island in Canada this year as
they are hosting celebrations all year long devoted to all things Anne!
Check it out here! So to all my PG friends reading this and
perhaps wanting to know what I'd like for my birthday or Christmas?
The DVD trilogy set! (hint hint)







So how do you know if your obsessed?
(Here is a mirage of answers from other Anne obsessed bloggers!)

When you scream at the top of your lungs whenever it comes on PBS, even though you own the videos.

When you scream at the top of your lungs whenever anyone informs you that they have never heard of Anne Shirley!

When someone asks you why you like Anne Shirley so much, you give them a lecture on how awesome Anne and Gilbert are!



When you find yourself talking about the books to someone who obviously doesn't care.

When you scream "I LOVE YOUUUU" when Gil leaves with the train after he's met Anne in Kingsport.



When you have to write a paper on anything...you somehow manage to slip Anne in somewhere.



When you watch the movies to either find the bloopers and then you yell at Anne when she's a jerk to Gilbert. ha ha!

Your favorite drink is raspberry cordial.


You refer to your best friend as your "bosom friend".

You've searched every cookbook you can find as well as the internet searching for the recipe for plum puffs.


When ever you have to spell the word "chrysanthemum", you feel compelled to give "that look" to the person next to you when you say the "E".



You plan on having at least 37 doilies when you get married...because it would be impossible to keep house with only 36 doilies!


When at the supermarket, you can't help but look for "Rollings Reliable Baking Powder".


You smile, roll your eyes and say, "20 pounds of brown sugar!" whenever you see brown sugar.


You at least nod when passing a person...out of "elementary good breeding".


You would never be so greedy as to drink 3 tumblers full of anything!



You have Anne desktop or sounds or your computer.


You try for hours on end to style your hair up like a Gibson Girl.



“Good Grief” and “Great Jehosophat” have snuck into your vocabulary.


At some point you have researched why there are red roads on Prince Edward Island.

You bring the Anne of Green Soundtrack with you wherever so you can have it as background music.


You begin to look for physical and psychological characteristics of Gilbert in your boyfriend or dates.



You re-read the wedding proposals from Gilbert and want to slug Anne when she refuses.


You start crying at the site of Gil's face when Anne refuses to marry him (both times!) when you are watching Anne of Avonlea.


You want to jump on the train with Gil after he talks with Anne at the footbridge and gives her the note on the success of her play .

When you ask to yourself, "What Anne would do if she was in the same situation" before to answer something.

If you want red hair. (My niece Jackie is so lucky!) If you have red hair and you say that the are auburn.

If you called the person who always spread gossip around town Rachel Lynd.

If you create a webpage about Anne. Hmm, does a blog entry count? Yep, I think so!

Pie in the face for JESUS!

At our church, the children's ministry has a once a month event for Missions. The goal for the children is to save their Mission's Tithe to try to win amazing prizes. The top 3 givers get to put 2 pies each in a volunteers face. My daughter has been on the volunteer (to be pied) waiting list and this month her name came up! Yahoo!

The line begins!

Ready... set... PIE!!!

Yea! See the next pie piled high with whipped cream!

A gentle direct hit!

This winner opts for a different approach! Top of the head!

Ha! Ha! Icko!

Another gentle face plant with pie!

And if that wasn't enough pie, let's add the last of the whipped cream~!

All in the name of Jesus! Yahoo! That's my girl!

Getting cleaned up.

Yea I can see again! That was fun, I want to do it again!

Sunday school has never been more fun than today Mom!

Tithing for Missions ROCKS!

Amen to that!

Jenifer's Spring Tea!

Jenifer's Spring Tea!

Come and join the fun...

A beautiful table decorated with gorgeous roses greeted

us as we made our way into the dining room.

The menu was delicious! My favorites were the lemonade and lemon cookies!

(I know, I know... big surprise since I love anything lemon!)

Jenifer had us laughing at the fun games she had prepared for us.

We did Tea Bingo which was a lot of fun! She created her own Bingo boards

and for the chips, she had made darling picture pieces of different

tea cup themes! Nice Job Jenifer! Our next game was a Tea themed

word search game, but we were no match for Jenifer's darling

Mother, who finished the game first!

(brace yourself now because this is really good...

the climactic part of this blog entry really)

But a twist of fate was in my favor as she later realized

she hadn't completed the puzzle after all and insisted that

she must decline the lovely prize of these Note Cards filled with tea bags!

Do I have to tell you who got those lovely cards?

(YES!!!! God is better than He has to be!)

After the delicious lunch and a lot more laughter of funny stories,

it was time for gifts! Hostess gifts!

Well the party is nearly over and it's time for dessert but

I was so distracted by the dessert tray that I forgot to

take a photo. Instead I came up with this idea...

But it doesn't stop there because Jenifer blessed her guests

with sweet gifts of Beautiful Rose themed Post It Notes in a darling

Heart shaped jeweled drawstring bag! I love it! I love stationary... period!

At times I don't think I could overdose on sugar, but apparently I can!

I'm starting to fantasize about thick juicy steaks and salty chips!

Thank you Jenifer for a lovely afternoon! See you again in July for

my annual Patriotic Tea Party!

A Good Day Fishing!

Congratulations to my girl for catching this 2 lb Trout for dinner! Yahoo sweetie!

How quickly the days go...

Is it just me or is everyone else feeling the pinch of the economy? I'm thankful that food warehouses are not far away for my grocery shopping because it definitely saves to shop there! But a week ago my husband went fishing with friends from work and they returned with this! All the guys shared the beast and it was the best treat we've had in weeks!

When your saving pennies, what do you do for fun? Take out all the inflatable toys from storage and turn on the sprinkler!

Then you get left over birthday plates and even a cheese quesadilla and apples slices taste better!

Jump rope at sunset!

Kiss at sunset!
Trim the roses...

I've been working ALOT and in the evenings, we're doing homework and baths. My husband and I keep telling ourselves that we have only a few weeks left before summer vacation! Yahoo! But, there's been other stuff too! I caught up on my emails and blog reading. It's always fun to see what everyone has been up to and get ideas for my journal and scrapbook pages. I am SO BEHIND in my scrapbooks but I print out ideas and file them away so years from now, when my time is my own again, I'll put them out and the ideas will be fresh and new again.



Today we are going to my Mother-in-Law's to celebrate combo birthdays in the family and I'm bringing dessert and bread. The most requested and best recipe I have from the box... Creme Brulee! Remember YEARS ago when dairy and poultry farmers of America were putting ads on TV to eat eggs again? That's when infomercials were new on TV. I was watching one that the Egg Council of something-or-another created and they had a chef on it that made this recipe. At that time, I had Creme Brulee a few times in restaurants but it was always the most expensive dessert on the menu. I soon found out why... all that cream, eggs and vanilla beans! It's worth every penny... when you make it at home! You get more than one serving and I don't strain the vanilla beans because I love to see those tiny beads settled at the bottom of the dish just waiting to be eaten last!

And finally, before I go... I got an email of THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!! The Lord’s Prayer, sung by this adorable 2-year old! Here it is found in Matthew 6:9-13: Enjoy!