There are proposals and then there are PROPOSALS

I saw this on facebook and I just had to document it, in case I ever need to give anyone a hint of how
to win a woman's heart and hand.   I love it.

Remembering the reason for Memorial Day

Today as we celebrate Memorial Day with time at the beach, picnics, barbecue and family get-togethers, lets remember the reason behind the day.

Thank you to all the military service men and women who paid the ultimate price for our safety and freedom.  This country was built on their lives.   Thank you to all the police, firemen and rescue workers
who gave their lives trying to say ours.  Thank you to our everyday heros who in  the act of trying to
help save someone's life, lost theirs.

A personal thank you to my husband, dad and nephew who served in the military.   Thank you to my brother who is a correctional officer (and my sister-in-law who use to be one).   Thank you to my
brother-in-law who is a police officer.   Thank you for all you have done to keep us safe.


Mike and I went to the perfect Memorial Day movie yesterday.   " Battleship  "    It was such a
great patriotic film.  Being retired Navy and on many ship tours, Mike really appreciated the fact
that it was based on that branch of the service.   Keep in mind the it's an alien invasion that they are
fighting but moral of the story is the same.  If you like that kind of movie, this one is fantastic.

Leaving you with a great youtube video honoring our heros.





                                                     Now off to get ready for a cook out.


                                            Be thankful this Memorial Day


                                     ***************************** 




                                          Remembering to be greatful for:


                                      691.  our fallen heros
                                        692.  time with family today swimming and eating
                           693.   Makenzie's call yesterday saying "3 more days" until my visit
                      694.  my personal hero removing 4 young armadillos and a hugh oppossum
                                 695.  a lesson on contentment in the life your living now
                                                      696.  my inspirational playlist
                                                     697.  homemade banana bread
                                  698.  the enjoyment Mike gets out of the History channel
                        699.  the book "Bloom" that I bought to read on my upcoming flight
      700.  Carrie moving back home with us  (it's so nice to have one of my babies back for a while) 
                           701.  safe return of family members after a stormy boat ride
                                               702.   planning a trip to see Janet 




                                  Joining Ann's place for Multitudes on Mondays.

Wordless Wednesday

Living in the wild....

I never thought that living in Orlando could be considered living "in the wild".  After 13 years in this house it has become apparent that it's exactly where we live.  Or it seems by what's been
going on in our back yard the last two weeks.   Mike discovered a hole in our back yard right next to
our pool enclosure.  After several attempts of filling it up with dirt, bricks and tin only to have it dug up
the next day he put a "hav-a-hart-trap" next to the hole.    Let's just say we've had quite a few visitors
in the past two weeks.

Oppossum #1

Opposum #2

Raccoon #1

Cat #1

Armadillo #1

My brave husband loaded them up and drove a few miles away

to a heavily wooded area to release them.  Several of them

didn't want to leave the cage and I'm sure a few passerbys

got a laugh with the sight of a grown man trying to shake

a not-so-happy animal out of a cage and stay far enough away

from it so it didn't come toward him when it finally came out.

(which did happen to him once by the way).

FYI:  even though we didn't recognize the cat and were pretty sure it

 was a feral cat he let it go in the neighborhood just in case.

And why are you wondering do we feel the need to catch and 

release these animals far away.

One of the sweet little guys decided to put a hole in our screen.

Has this ever happened to any of you?

The last thing I want to face in the morning walking on our back patio

is a wild animal.  

                                          I'm hoping we've had (and by we I mean Mike) all

                                   the visitors we're gonna have for a while.  Just in case, he's

                                                          baited two traps in our back yard.

Here I go.....

I'm having a bit of a "brain freeze" when it comes to blogging lately.  I just can't seem to get it together.  Lots happening and getting ready for what appears to be a busy summer.     Before I forget I wanted to share some fun we've been having around here lately.  

First.....

I got my birthday gift (money from my parents  and Mike).  Love, Love, Love it.  I know many of you have seen Tara's  Family Rules signs.   I've been wanting one for quite a while.   Well I finally got it and I am so happy with it.

                                                          (wow, obviously I hung it a little off)

I put it above the couch in our upstairs grandkids play/tv room.  I love it so much that I'm contemplating  which one to get next.   Right now I'm leaning towards the "You are my sunshine".   You really need to check out her beautiful work here.   Thanks Tara.  LOVE IT!!!

                                            **************************************

I've been working on a few creations of my own.  I've mentioned before that I recently took two online
courses from Jeanne Griffen Oliver.  Creatively Made and Building a Creatively Made Business.  I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed and learned from these classes.  Jeanne is such a sweet and gifted person who shares all she has learned about building her business.   Her belief is that God has given everyone gifts and you just need to find out what yours are and make the most of them.  She's offering a Summer Art Course.  

Some things I've been working on:

This piece is inspired by Laura of Pitter Patter Art and her use of word and colorful papers 

and Ashley of lil blue boo with her "choose joy" attitude towards her fight with cancer.

There are some amazing bloggers who give me great inspiration in art and life.

Both amazing artists and inspirational women.  Definitely two blogs to check out 

(if you haven't already) 

Coasters I made for my mom from a Pinterest Pin.  What I ever did before Pinterest came

along I don't remember.  I'm just totally smitten with it.

Two pieces I'm currently working on:

I found this sweet ballerina image on a free clip art site.  

I decided to see if I could "triplicate it".

 I'm making it for Kelly's ballet studio that's she's opening in June.      

Still working on it and I plan to frame it in white.  

My nieces' saw it and have put in a reqeust  their room so I think I'll be making another one.  I'm

pretty happy with it so far but I think it's missing something.  Anyone have any ideas?

This is the other piece I'm working on.

I have a thing for trees.   They make my heart skip.  Is that weird?  I've started this

but it's a work in progress.  So far I'm liking it.

***********************************

 Mike has gotten into the creating act and made me a dish soap liquid despenser

in my favorite canning jar.  It turned out great.  I filled it with lavendar scented dish

soap and it really made it over the top for me.  Thanks Babe.

I posted recently about a beautiful gift Melissa got for my birthday.  A cake platter and matching candle
holder.  It came in gray and was beautiful but I decided (with Melissa's permission) to make it white.  Since I like to entertain and throw parties, I've been trying to go with white serving pieces that can
basically go with most any color theme I'm going with.  No one can handle a spray paint container like Mike so I put him to work.  Just loving the way it turned out and I'm already planning a party so I can use them.  ;-).

I'd better come to a close for now. 

 I've got trips to plan, art to make, a business to start,

grandkids to hug,  afternoons at the beach to spend with Mike,

swim lessons to teach, books to read, new recipes to try, more closets to purge,

parties to plan, dinners to freeze, an herb garden to plant and blogs to read.  

Here I go.......

*************************** 

Remembering to be greatful in all things

681.  visiting with my mom three times this week. :-)

682.  spending two days and nights watching Taylor and Dylan.  So happy!

683.  Makenzie's phone call telling me she misses me "so much".  I'll be there in a week baby girl.

684.  two nieces spending the night on Friday.

685.  American girl movie marathon.

686.  a delicious dinner out with my sweetie.

687.  two daughters who are giving up cigarettes.

688.  my husband who courageously catches critters in our yard with a "have a heart" cage

and then drives them to a wooded area far away to release them.

689.  steak n shake orange freezes.

690.  God's grace.

Joining Ann for Multitudes on Mondays

Happy Mother's Day

To all our mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters who have been blessed with 

this best and hardest job in the world, Happy Mother's Day.

                             

Thoughts on Tuesday

"The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."—Mother Teresa

The well is up and running!

       I wanted to let you know that the Trees of Glory well is now complete and is up and running!

Photo and link are from Karen at  Family-From-Afar Blog
Click on the link below to find out all about it.

http://family-from-afar.blogspot.com/2012/05/clean-water-flows-at-trees-of-glory.html


Thank you so much for everyone who prayed for, worked on and donated to this precious project.


Thankful for:


681.  TOG well
682.  water
683.  much needed rain
684.  Taylor Time:  shopping and lunch this weekend
685.  making a few checks off my to-do list today
686.  homemade mother's day gifts
687.  new tires 
688.  phone time with Makenzie
689.  first time potty training success
690.  a letter from Muri

Past few days

While I'm getting use to my life as a non-worker (outside of the home) I've noticed I'm not getting as much done as I thought I would.   I'm gonna try a new approach.  For those who've been in my house before you probably think I'm a pretty organized person.   That's what you'd see in most of my house.  For some reason when it comes to my closet, dresser and pantry storage, that's just not the case.  I decided to take on my closet.  Let me warn you, it's not pretty.  Here's a little before and after.

                

                                                                      Before

I'm not sure why I let it get this way and I'm not proud to say that it was not the first time.

I just seem to take care of everything else first and run out of steam when it comes to my

things.  I also tend to run my life that way as I'm sure alot of women know what I mean.

I'm happy to say after 9 hours, 4  (big) bags of trash and 3 big bags for goodwill...

(imagine a drum roll)

After

End results:

everything is purged and organized

inventory of contents:

clothes

shoes

art supplies

gift/re-gift box

my kids school records and drawings 

(can't get rid of those even though they're all grown)

year books

sewing machine and box

baby books

my year books

my old record albums

purses

The biggest plus out of cleaning my closet:

I found my white gold hoop that I've been looking for and may or may not have

accused one of my daughters of losing it.

I also found my (previously mentioned but not named) daughter's rare, treasured and expensive poster

that a boyfriend gave her and she has not been able to find for years.  I may or may not have

lectured her several times on being a better steward of her things.  Ummm.

Yes, there was an apology involved.

*******************************************

Dylan broke in our pool for this season Friday night on his sleepover.

(Loving Instagram)

*************************************

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I made a special dinner

Menu:

Bang Bang shrimp tacos  (copy cat version)

fresh grilled lime corn

chips and home made queso

strawberry/peach sangria

flan (publix)

I found a recipe for a copy cat version of Bone Fish Grille's Bang Bang Shrimp.

I changed it up a bit and I thought it turned out great.  It was so easy.

I also found a recipe (actually my sister Kim found it for me) 

for the strawberry peach sangria that I had to change up a bit too.

I'll post those tomorrow.  

Purple Baths

I'm was in the midst of spring cleaning (before summer gets here) when I came across

my container of Japanese bath powder.  My best friend's mom is from Japan

and almost everytime she would go  for a visit she'd bring us home a container of

purple bath powder.  It began when Taylor was about 3 (she's 15 now).  Every single

bath revolved around the purple bath powder.  It makes the water purple and smell

heavenly.   Well obviously bath time for Taylor ended a long time ago and I'd completely

forgotten all about it until I came across the half full container.  Now my little man Dylan

is all about the baths.  He loves them....stays in them until he prunes up and I eventually 

have to drag him out.  I decided to give him a choice of Woody/Buzz bubbles or

the "purple" bath.  You can see what he picked.  

The smell took me back to all the special times I had with Taylor when she use

to spend about every weekend with her Nana.  I miss those days......

As the bible verse says (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  To everything there is a season....

So now I got my sweet little buddy to have sleep overs with.

And luckily he loves the "purple" bath.

I think I'm gonna have to put in a special request on Bachan's (Kimiko) next trip.

:-)

****************

I'm sending out a prayer request for Janet's dad, Donald who is in the hospital

for chest pains.  

*****************

Thankful for:

670.  checking off a few spring cleaning projects in my house.

671.  purple baths.

672.  my little sister, Tammy, for her birthday today.

673.  a wonderful afternoon Sunday with my sisters and mom to celebrate her birthday.

674.  birthday pedicures.

675.  big boy beds.

676.  blogging friends.

677.   caring teachers.  

678.  memories.

679.  Jeanne and her Creatively Made Business class.

680.  red box movie nights with Mike.