Gotta Remember this...

I had Gabey on my lap, and I took his pants, and he looked at his leg, and asked....
"Is it dirty, all dirty, 'n' dirty?"

My Face

I saw this on another blogger's site, and thought I just HAD to do it. Please excuse the horrible face shot of me. I can't believe I have so few pictures of my self now. Well, I'm the one who is always carrying around the camera, lol!

Happy Birthday to my Nephew

We had a mini surprise party for my nephew, Andrew. It was a great little get together at my mom's, with pizza and cake. Gabey had a blast! He amused himself and us, playing with koosh balls, and rolling cars around. Andrew is 11 tomorrow. It was good to see him, and the family. Here are some pictures.

Andrew and Gabey


Andrew, Ike (my dad), and Patty (stepmommy)


Dear Hubbie, Jeffie


The Fam


Andrew, Bob (my brother, Andrew's dad), Gabey, and Jeffie



Chrissy (my sister), and Andrew


Gabey playing with the koosh ball


Gabey playing with the rolley car

Finding your Niche

Yesterday, my dad stopped by with a little pail full of fish for my fish tank! He joked that he had gone a little overboard, and that he wouldn't tell me how much they cost, LOL. I'm quite glad. I'm afraid to know. I am just so happy with them. I had a tiny group of 6 fish that survived my first attempt at a fish purchase. Now, I have over 20 fish. I watched them last night for quite a while, and they're trying to find their niche in the tank. I can see them fussing at each other, nipping each other's fins. I'm sure it's hard to find yourself in a new tank with so many other fish. I've felt that way many times, LOL, my first year of high school, my first year of college, every new job I've had, etc. It's hard finding your niche, finding your friends. I'm just glad that no matter where I go, I'll always have my Lord. I can complain to Him, and tell Him all that's going on in my day. I never have to feel lonely with my Lord right beside me.

Mini Fred Astaire

Gabey is a little Fred Astaire, and I caught some video recently. I was mentioning it on my message board, and they reminded me that I had never posted the video, so... Here it is.

This Little Blinkie goes to.....

This little blinkie is dedicated to our fellow blogger, Tammy, from Tammy's Times. :):) She was posting a small lament about having to mend, and how she always puts it off. I wanted her to see the blinkie, and help her feel better. :):)


This little blinkie is dedicated to another blogger, Betty, (ON THE JOURNEY TO VICTORY)
who wrote about misspelling in her blog. We've all been there. (you can probably go back in my archives, and see a whole slew! LOL.)

Menace, the Cat!

I don't know who's cat this is, but I SO want to call the animal warden. I am absolutely a cat lover. I used to own 2 wonderful (indoor) cats. We live in a suburb, however, with a wonderful array of wildlife. I am always so thrilled to see rabbits, birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. I even got to glimpse a mole making it's home in the remains of our old willow. This cat is hunting all my wildlife! He's been in my yard countless times, and I can't seem to scare him out. What should I do? Should I just call the APL and have the neighbors think I'm a cat hater? It's such a dilemma. Here are some incriminating photos of said Menace, chasing a poor squirrel up a tree. The brute. LOL.
(I won't call, I'll just complain a lot.)

Little Bit O' Fall

I'm having fun running around the house getting pictures of little bits o' Autumn.
I'll be wandering to your blogs to see your Fall decorations too. If you have something posted, and you know I haven't visited your blog yet, just let me know in the comments. I adore Autumn, and would love to visit all your "houses" and see your fall festivities.

Tea? How do you get it to taste good?

I chose a tea from my Gevalia club, and yesterday, I made 3 cups....
I didn't drink any of them. LOL. I would take a sip, and toss it. I can't get it to taste good. I tried to put creamer, I tried to put milk, I tried it plain. The milk and creamer both seemed not to blend at all. Yikes. Nothing was good enough. Maybe I just won't ever like tea. I wonder if I heat up the milk first. It looked horrible going into the tea. Even my coffee needs a lot of creamer before I can get it to taste good. I do like Chai Tea, but so far, even the flavored teas are not pleasing to me. The one I have right now is Lemon Berry Breeze. It just sounded so yummy. Does anyone have any advice on how to put a creamer in? Should I warm my milk up before I put it in?

You're so dusty!

I love this game...
I look at gabey and say...."You're so dusty!!"......
and then I run over and "dust" him all over with my hair.
"Your face is soooo dusty!...Your feet are soooo dusty!"
It's a definite favorite of his, and he's constantly asking me to "dust him.

It Looks Better in the Light

I took another picture of the fall arrangement I made, and it looks better in the sunlight, lol. Here it is.

A Million Photos to Share (from visit to the nature center)

Gabey and I went to the Nature Center Monday, and it was just a refreshing way to spend an afternoon. I love our park system, and we don't visit often enough. While we were at the Center, a lady came to me and mentioned that there was a group meeting at the fireplace for a program, and that they had slots left on their signup sheet. She said I was welcome to join them if I wanted. It was about using the senses to learn about the park. She had a little box with pictures of the 5 senses, and she would have a child get the picture and show it, and that would be the next sense she'd work with. She had pictures to see, mint plant to smell, bird calls to hear, syrup to taste, and then some artifacts to touch. I felt so blessed to be able to join into the group, and Gabey did really well sitting for it. As one of my favorite actresses, Hayley Mills would say, "That's the nicest way for things to happen, when they come as a surprise."

What is your morning drink of choice?

This is my morning drink. Today it's Hazelnut. Yum.

Whiskers on Kittens

Whiskers on Kittens:
"'Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best.'
~*~ Longfellow ~*~ "


I just want to say how heartwarming it is wandering through our little Blog neighborhood. I'm finding more and more "kindred spirits". I'm reading words of wisdom from scripture, from mother's hearts, from women of gentle grace, from authors of old quoted with love. It is indeed, a pleasure to meet you all.

A Place Called Home

A Place Called Home

this lovely woman has a post about our talents and gifts, it's such an encouragement, i hope you can stop by and read it. it's her Sept. 20th post.

New floral arrangement

I went to Flower Factory today, and found some fall flowers on sale, and bought them. I also bought some dried filler to go with it. It turns out that the actual arrangement I made with the flowers needs improvement, but I used the rest of the filler for another arrangement, and I think it looks nice.




I also got some Thomas the Tank scrapbooking sets to make my first scrapbook. I want to make a book of Gabey's Day out with Thomas.

here's a cute picture of Gabey munching on strawberries today. I got them at Aldi's yesterday, and was surprised how perfect they were. Strawberries and peaches are my favorite fruits.

Produce Shoppers Gone Bad

tonight, we were at Tops looking at the produce. i glanced over, and noticed that there was a little man nonchalantly EATING the produce! he was standing there, talking on his cell phone, popping grapes in his mouth from the bags on the fruit stand! can you even believe it?? ROTFL! i wandered right over to the customer service and TOLD on him. as i got there, i found that the person at the customer service is a friend of mine from church. she said, actually, that a lot of people seem to be doing that, grazing at the produce stand like cows in a garden. i'm sure God had this happen so i could see her. she's going through a rough time right now, and i wouldn't have known. thank you Lord. now, i can know to pray for her specifically today.

your opinion

ever since i started typing emails and message boards, and stuff, i've forgone using capitals. it's always been a pain for me, and so i just never really done it....

I wonder if though, you would be able to read my blog easier if I used capitals. I notice that my sentences tend to look like long runons without capital letters. Feel free to make a comment to let me know which you'd prefer. I've been looking back in my posts, and it's funny to see me switch back and forth, lol. Maybe, it would just be better if I would just be consistant, lol.

rearranged the living room

last night, dh and i wanted to watch Narnia, and for a cool change, we moved the couch parallel to the tv, so we could see it really well. this morning, i did a little rearranging, and now, have the couch there permanently. when we first moved in, the couch was against the windows, and we also had a chez lounge that matched the set, it was just way too big for this tiny living room, so we took it downstairs. later, we switched it, and put the couch against the side wall....

so this is our 3rd generation of living room arrangements. lol.

photo from the hallway


from the front door


view of front door and china hutch


i still want to get border up in this room, and some pictures on the walls. i'd also love to get an area rug. :):)

The Sparrow's Nest: Keeping a Tidy Home

The Sparrow's Nest: Keeping a Tidy Home

I'm saturating myself with words of wisdom about cleaning house, and decluttering. This is a wonderful list of advice.

made it a great day.

I started the day cleaning, and it predictably put me in a bad mood. I yelled at gabey because i was getting so tense. He jumped and started to cry. I felt so badly. I was taking my anger out on him. I was getting bitter and resentful at my DH, because he hasn't tried to clean his side of the room since we moved in here. I cleaned it, and just kept fuming that I was his maid. But then, when I yelled at Gabey, I realized I had to stop. We got our cups, and went into the backyard for the afternoon. It saved my day, and I made myself calm down and get a new perspective.

The afternoon was gorgeous, I couldn't have prayed for a better one. There were monarch butterflies just teaming around, and blue jays and doves zooming past. I got to see that my new baby Rose of Sharon bush has flowered!

I'm throwing in a picture of my sweet little baby portulaca plants (i found the seedlings in a transplant I took from the old house, they're some of my favorite flowers.)


Gabey and I got to goof off together, giving eachother butterfly kisses, and just playing little games together. (He had fogiven me, Thank you Lord, for such a good son.)

When Jeff got home from work, the house was clean, and I was proud of that. Not long after he got home, he changed into his old clothes, and went out and worked in the yard. We moved the rest of the stones to the back, for the border.

Plus, he mowed the front half of the backyard (it's a huge task, our regular mower is broken and we're having to borrow my dad's little electric mower.) Then we made a fire in the fireplace and had a nice relaxing evening in front of it, and ordered delivery.

Thank you Lord, for turning a day I could have been stuck in a bad mood, into a great day.

Fellow Blogger's spiritual birthday

http://makingahouseahome.blogspot.com/

Sept. 19th was our fellow blogger's spiritual birthday....

the day she came to Christ and was born again.

HAPPY SPIRITUAL BIRTHDAY, TOOOOO YOUUUU.

the yellow bus