Back to School

Oh, the lazy days of summer are over. Say it isn't so. No more staying up half the night. No more snoozing til noon. No more sleepovers with friends that lasts for days. No more swimming and barbecuing, vacationing and lemonade. Yes, lemonade. It's just better in the summertime.

The carefree days have come to an end.

Oh, but the things we have to look forward to. School. Autumn and falling leaves, shorter days and crisp afternoons full of sunshine. Apple picking. Sweaters. Mugs of hot cocoa and sitting around the fire-pit during a wiener-roast on a Sunday afternoon. Halloween with pumpkins and witches, black cats and spooky ghosts.

Then comes 'the Holiday Season'. Gathering with friends and family around the table for turkey, fellowship and stories of thankfulness. Discussing Christmas plans. you have no idea how much i love Christmas The lights, parties, presents and Christmas Carols, it's all so beautiful. That spirit that fills our lives during December is the best feeling. There IS 'magic in the air' around Christmas-you can just feel it!

Kids, I know you already miss Summer but get ready, we've got some great things in store for us! But for now, grab that backpack and put your Thinking Caps on. You've got a bus to catch!

Shine bright!

Ice Storms and Sunflowers in August

Sigh.

Today is the last day of my vacation. Boy does it go by fast. So how am I spending my last few hours of freedom...scrapbooking. Am I scrapping about our wonderful trip to Florida? Heck no! I got a wild hair to make a layout about this years first day of Spring. You remember, the ICE STRORM!! The one that was predicted and happened March 20th. Yes, that's where my thoughts are this afternoon.

Maybe I'll get around to putting together an album of our vacation time next Spring. No. I can't wait that long to put our beachy pictures in the super-cute, official COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA scrapbook album that I puchased at the Discount Souviners & More shop!

My Sunflowers bloomed profusely while we were in Cocoa, of course, and since my head is in an ice storm in August and returning to work, I thought a little cheering up would be nice. So I snipped a few and brought them in to look at while I work/play/create...play!

It's done the trick!

Have a blessed day and remember to always Shine.

I have no idea why that picture is sideways. And try-as-I-might, I can't fix it.

Sunflowers

Wah-Lah! My very first bloom!

These poor little sunflowers have been put to the test. I'm surprised they even bloomed for me after what I've done to them. First, I left them out and they got a little frostbite on them, but they pulled through. Then, when they were still in their little greenhouse/terrarium and only 3-4 inches tall, I set them in the sun for awhile and completely forgot about them. For two hours! Oh it was bad. When I lifted the lid, steam poured out. They were layed out on the soil looking like cooked green spaghetti noodles. Surprisingly some of them, again, pulled out of it. Others were not so lucky. Thank goodness most of them were hardy!

I can't wait to see what it looks like in a couple weeks when all of them bloom.

Hopefully it will be sooner.

Enjoy your day and remember to Shine.

:)

What color?

Not too much going on around here, other than the 'vehicle curse' that has been placed on us. We have four, yes four cars broke down at the moment. One isn't even ours! And it has all happened within 3 weeks. It's so ridiculous all we can do is laugh about it now.

I really need to start getting ready for work. But instead I'm thinking I want to paint the office. Not at this moment of course, but soon. For some reason I'm drawn to bright pastel colors right now. And would kind of like to put one on the walls in here. BUT, it's really going to clash with the rest of my house (well, except Devony's room).

Most of my house, with one exception, is painted warm dark colors. I like barn reds, mustard yellows, pumpkin orange, colonial and navy blues, browns and dirty looking greens. And black. Oh I can't forget the black. Not shiny, modern black. I'm talkin old fashion, dull and worn, wicked looking black.

So, how do you think bright meadow green is going to look? I'm thinking it's going to look funny next to all of my antiques and old stuff. I'm thinking that as soon as the painting is done and the room is put back together I'm going to say, "This isn't right. Let's repaint." And since I've done that before, a couple times actually, and know what a pain that is, I'm thinking....."How about Tan?"

Warm and Sunny

Memorial Day weekend is the kick off to summer. What a beautiful Saturday it is! I've not had a Sat. off of work in over three months-so glad I took this one off. It's warm, sunny and gorgeous outside...and the pool opens today...and we're grilling out...and visiting with family...Yee Haw!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend. Drink lots of lemonade, eat yummy burgers and hot dogs and laugh entirely to much!

And wear your sunscreen. :)

Here's the Reason

It seems that most of my blog posts, scrapbook layouts, Facebook status, etc., are always about Doug, the dogs, Devony or 'Yours Truly'. There IS another member of the family. His name is Clay. He's our son.


Many of you may not know about him. Here's why...

1. He's super-quiet. Spends a lot of time in his immaculate room listening to music.
2. He's a computer geek; always in front of the PC. I have a great many pics of the back of his head and the computer screen! We encourage this. He will probably be our meal ticket when Doug and I get old.
   
3. Metro-sexual!! He can't be bothered with non-sense like playing around or rough-housing. He might get dirty. Or wrinkle his nicely ironed shirt. (that must be purchased at Pac Sun)
4. His hair is longer than Devony's and he takes great pride in it. Therefore, after all the grooming, there is not a lot of extra time to spend with the family. you can admire that hair in the afore mentioned photos in reason #2.
5. He's very popular with the ladies. His cell phone is 'blowin up' at all times, day-or-night! All that primping pays ;)
6. He's cool...
   
7. ...so cool that, well, I don't really know where to begin or end with that.
8. He's 13. There, that's the beginning and end of his coolness!
9. He spends a great deal of time irritating his sister and freaking me out with claims of playing that barbarous sport of football next year. Apparently he's one of the fastest runners in his class and the football coach has took notice of that. Dang that stupid coach for being observant.
10. Hates having his picture taken. Which just kills me. I'm a scrapbooker which means I take pictures of EVERYTHING!! I once made a layout that had a pic of Devs closet and alllll the t-shirts she has. she loves tees with silly sayings on them.

Sunday morning before church I was snapping pics like crazy. Devony was being baptized that morning so I was already on a photo taking high. After about 10 surprise tries for getting Clays picture taken, the best one was of him and the chocolate milk glass in his face. Darn that boy. :)

P.S.

I don't know where those 'flower bullets' came from. It's suposed to be #1-#10.

Rain and Shine

I LOVE Thunderstorms. There's so much electricity in the air! I'm always energetic and very creative on days like this. And from what the forecast says, it's going to be like this most of today and tomorrow. Sounds like I will...er...should get a lot accomplished. ;)

It needs to quit raining soon though. I really want to finish planting my flowers. Hey, at least I don't have to water. Right?! Of course these poor plants look like their about to drown. I might not need to water but I should probably drain.