Things That Make Me Happy!

Tonight I was treated by my mother and mother-in-law to dinner and window shopping. We had such a great time at dinner. They let me pick the restaurant since my birthday is coming up. I picked Olive Garden since my hubby does not like it and I rarely ever get to go. I tried the new Grilled Chicken Crostata and it was delicious. It was as good as they make it look in the commercial.

We left the restaurant and headed to a nearby shopping center to walk around. We went in this great new store called Charming Charlie. I just love it. It is full of costume jewerly, purses, shoes and basically all things girls love. The best part is that the store is organized by color. All the orange stuff is together and then you move to purple, then black, etc. It is fabulous! I can not believe it, but we left there without buying anything. Oh, I am still thinking about this one necklace set I saw but I am trying to be good.

We then went to Dillards. I am not a huge fan of The Dillards because I just simply can not pay $90 for a shirt. My mother-in-law loves Dillards which was easily confirmed when the sales associate knew her by name. She does not pay $90 for a shirt either but somehow she is able to find things really cheap in Dillards. It really is a gift I am learning.

We walked around looking at clothes and laughing at various crazy things. Then we headed downstairs to leave. Before leaving we headed to look at the pajamas. You are not going to believe what I found in Dillards basically just waiting on me to take them home. Oh yes, I am wearing them right now as I type this. I found a navy capri pajama set regularly priced $70, can you believe someone actually pays that for pajamas. Not me sister because I got them for .........drum role please..........$1.99.

A $1.99!!!!!!

I didn't even know they sold anything for that price. And they are cute. I feel really special sittin here in them. I literally wanted to skip around in the store.

My mother-in-law was checking out and I walked up beyond excited about my bargain. She said "Oh, let me get those for you after all it is your birthday."

The cashier chimmed in "You are such a big spender!" Of course, this cashier also knew my mother-in-law by name and even had her phone number so she could call her when things got marked down again.

We spent the rest of our time giggling and looking for other things marked $1.99. We didn't find anything else but had a great time hunting.

I had such a great time with my mothers. God has truly blessed me beyond measure!

Randomness...

NO I HAVE NOT SHREDDED!

Just thought I needed to get that out of the way.

I am wishing that I had stayed true to my original plan of shredding that started back on May 1st because surely by now I would look a little slimmer and toner.

I am going to have lunch tomorrow with the ladies I use to work with. I have not seen most of them in a year. This makes me wish I had stayed true to atleast one of the fitness goals/plans I started over the past year. Oh well, tonight I am just trying not to get in my car and head to the gas station to pick up one of my best friends, Little Debbie. She and I have been through a lot together!

I just finished a great book tonight. The book is Same Kind of Different As Me. It is a wonderful, fabulous, moving must read. I stayed up until 2:35am last night reading. I could not put it down. My t-shirt became by tissue as I could have cried a river and did cry a small creek. Oh, it was wonderful. I would highly recommend it to you and it is a true story.

This summer has flown by. I can not believe that my children will be back in school in two weeks. I feel pressure to make some really awesome end of summer memories so they will have something really awesome to share when the teacher asks "What did you do over the summer?" I feel pressure, but that does not always equal great ideas.

I am loving the new worship CD by Travis Cottrell entitled Jesus Saves. Basically, it is all I listen to when I am in the car. I decided to give it to my mom for her birthday since she and I went to the live recording of the CD back in January. I gave it to her and told her what it was. Then a couple of days later she called and told me that she loved it and that it sounded a lot like what we went to that church and heard. I started laughing so hard. Obviously, she was totally ignoring me when I gave it to her. Apparently a mother's ability to tune out her children never goes away!

I could continue with more random thoughts, but I will save those for later!

To Shred or Not to Shred...

Or the title could be To Die or Not to Die. They are both pretty much the same. Just in case you are wondering what this Shred stuff is, let me explain.

Back in April I read a post by Vicki Courtney where she shared about a new workout she was doing. I think I have said in earlier posts that I hate to sweat and I hate to exercise.

I mean let me just get real with you!

Her post sparked my curiosity because many people signed up in the comments to be Shred Heads with her. And the beauty of it is the tape just lasts 20 minutes.

So I reasoned with myself that I could do anything for 2o minutes and I went and bought the DVD. It promises visible results in 3o days if you do it daily. I was going to the beach on May 31st so I decided to start on May 1st.

I just knew that by May 31st I would be mistaken for a bathing suit model, but I was willing! Ha, Ha!

Let me take you back to the morning of May 1st. It is forever etched in my brain because it is the nearest I have come to death in quite some time. I was home alone because my children were still in school and my husband was at work. I can not remember all the steps from memory but I do remember yelling at the TV on more than one occasion.

After completing the workout, I collasped and laid with my head hanging off the ottoman. I laid in the position for several minutes. I then made my way to my room where I collasped on the bed. I mustered up the strength to call my husband and tell him goodbye and that I loved him. I kid you not!

Well, I stayed committed to Shred for I think 5 days. Then Grandmaw's knees began to give her trouble and it was real easy to just stop.

Now I have some friends who are doing this and doing great with it and well, they make me sick. They have gotten me thinking about Shredding again. My downfall is lack of discipline to do something that I hate. So, I thought if maybe I gave a little shred update every so often it might help me to stay committed.

I would also love it if you would like to join me. We could help encourage one another. So leave me a comment if you are interested in trying this. Also, you should know that if you do this and it is easy for you, that I probably won't like you very much. Or atleast for my sake act like it is a near death experience.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Well, Look Who Has Decided to Come Back to Blog World!

It appears from the dates of my last posts that I decided to take May and June off. It really wasn't planned out. Life just got a little hectic. I have never been one to wish my life away, but I do have to admit that I was really glad to see June go. For some reason we decided to plan two vacations and add VBS in between them. It was fun by exhausting!

So, what have I been doing lately? My first answer is a lot of laundry. But that is not really fun to talk about. So on the fun front, I went to the movies this week. My hubby and I saw The Proposal. It was really funny. We went on Thursday night because our kids happened to be at their grandparents house. We grabbed a quick burger at Five Guys, which was delicious, and then headed to the movies. We were running a couple of minutes late, but I figured it wouldn't really be that crowded.

Well, I was wrong!

Apparently, everyone wanted to go to the movies on Thursday night. The line to buy tickets took forever, Then the theater was full. I walked up the aisle looking for seats, but there were not two together.

Guess where we ended up sitting...in the handicap aisle. You know the one where you have a seat and then a big empty space for a wheel chair and then another seat. Now let me say that I only sat there because the whole row was empty and I would have gotten up if someone in a wheelchair came in.

The hubs had to stop and get popcorn even though we had just finished eating. It is some rule he has that he can't watch a movie without popcorn. Anyway he just started laughing when I waved him down in the dark.

Through out the movie, he would look my way and wave. If we both stretched our arms out, our fingertips would touch. Now isn't that romantic!

Well, I hope you all have a great 4th!

This Is The Life!

"This is the life" were the words uttered by my son as he floated on the crystal blue sea looking up at the crystal blue sky. And I could not agree with him more! I think I was meant to be a beach bum.

We are at the beach this week and the ocean is as beautiful as I have ever seen it. It is crystal clear for miles. I was told it looked like the Caribbean but I can not tell you that first hand since I have never been to the Caribbean. As I walked along the ocean, I was reminded of the line in one of my favorite praise songs "Waves crash in honor of you." I just kept singing that line over and over. I love the ocean because it reminds me how BIG my God is. You know according to Isaiah, He held it in the hollow of his hand. And you know what else...those big hands are holding you and me today!

Just a side note. I am sitting in Panera Bread because the internet does not work at our beach house. This lady is sitting across from me and she keeps starring at me. She keeps trying to look at my computer screen which makes me want to laugh. I wonder if she thinks I am some sort of secret agent or something? (Can you tell that I have an 8 year old son?)

Anyway, I wanted to tell you something that will make you laugh. I bought some of the tire floats to take with us to the beach. The kids had so much fun floating on the waves and I wanted to float on the waves myself. So, I got one of the floats and slipped it on. It was so much fun. My daughter, my niece and I just giggled and floated on the waves. Well, all was good and well until I needed to slip the float off. If you know me you know that I never will or never have worn a bikini. The general public thanks me for that. Let's just say my love for all things fattening prevents me from looking like a super model. Now,back to the slipping off of the float. I lift my arms and pull the float and suddenly my stomach feels cold. Yes, you guessed it. As I pulled the float up, so came my bathing suit and for a few seconds the only things covering my upper half was the chest lining of the suit.

I snatched my suit down and then starting dying laughing. I couldn't hardly get out of the water for laughing so hard. My husband said he did not see it and he really hated that he didn't. I am hoping the other beach goers were looking away also. We will see if anyone points and laughs today when I go back.

Speaking of going back...the beach is calling my name so I will say goodbye for now. I know it is a hard life, but really someone has to do it!

Enjoy your day!

Breakfast Conversations That Explain It All!

This morning's breakfast conversation went like this:

Me: Do you want cereal, PB&J sandwich or cinnamon toast?

Max and Amelia: Waffles!

Me: We don't have any syrup for waffles. Do you want cereal, PB&J sandwich or cinnamon toast?

Amelia: Cinnamon Toast.

Max: PB&J Sandwich. No, I'll have cinnamon toast, too.

Me: I did not know you liked cinnamon toast.

Max: Well, today I think I do.

Me: Max, what do you want to drink, tea or milk?

Max: Milk.

Me: Really, I didn't think you liked milk.

(I am thinking to myself, do I even know my son. What is this? Everything he use to not like now he likes.)

So I fix him a glass of milk to go with his cinnamon toast. I go to the oven to watch the toast and he picks up the glass to get a drink.

Max: Why did you give me milk? You know I don't like milk!

Me: I asked you if you wanted milk and you said you did.

Max: No I didn't!

Amelia: Yes you did! She asked you and you said yes!

Me: You make me think I am going crazy!

Max: You are going crazy!

Amelia: Well, she is a woman!

Yes, I am a woman and some days I think the van will pull up at any time to cart me off to Loonyville!

Have a great day!

I'm Back!

I am excited to be back to the land of my own computer. We ended up getting a really pretty new laptop. It is this really cool bronze, copper color and in the world of computers color really is all that matters. I mean who understands all that mega stuff and memory stuff anyway. All I know is that I want it to be fast and of course pretty.

Now to more important things. Do you remember back in January when I attended the live taping of Travis Cottrell's new worship CD? Well, it comes out on June 2nd and I hear it is absolutely fabulous. I can not wait to get a copy of it. If you would like to hear a sample of the songs you can go to Travis' website. And BooMama is giving away 20 copies of the CD here. I hope you win one, but if you don't I would highly recommend buying it. I remember thinking several times during the taping that I was going on to Glory Land!

Have a great day!