Can't take my eyes off you...

I love this song...wish I could find a real vid instead of a still picture for it...they sound so awesome singing this! :)

Is there such a thing as surfer's anonymous?

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I love to read random blogs and find out about the lives of others. I'm sitting here right now with five articles to write and boo-coo homework to do, yet I'm bouncing around looking at people's blogs. Well, in my defense I did have to update my blog since I haven't done so in something like two months.

I started online school to earn my teaching certification on August 1st, so that is keeping me pretty busy. I also started a new job on August 3, but I'm going back into the classroom to sub as soon as school starts next week. Oh, yeah...I moved in with my best friend the first of July, too, so that's been a big change for me after living with my mother for the last 11 months. My boy started college at WVU this past week. I was pretty messed up the day before and the day of, but I'm handling it better now. I know I have to cut the apron strings sometime anyway. He is at WVU and seems to think that he is going to like it, although I tell him it is a little too early to be saying that! I'll miss him...that's for sure.

Okay, enough of my rambling...gotta get my nose to the grindstone.

Trust in the Lord...

Proverbs 3:5-6 (King James Version)

⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

My high honors boy...

Dylan is graduating from Riverside tomorrow night with high honors. Everyone is welcome to attend at the Charleston Civic Center at 7:30. We are having him a graduation reception after church Sunday night at Carbondale Baptist Church for those of you who are able to attend. I just want to thank everyone for their prayers and support, especially this past year. It has been rough, but God has seen us through. Dylan will be attending WVU at Morgantown in the fall, so please continue to lift him in prayer.

Pretty unbelievable, I know!

Dylan and his girlfriend, Lauren.

Yesterday I was holding you in the crook of my arm and now you're doing Senior Prom and Graduation... :(

No worries man...

I don't have to worry about what the future holds because my God is so big he has all of the details taken care of, even the ones I don't know about yet. How awesome is that??? Thank you Jesus!

Need a party dress...

Today was definitely a fun day. I took Carly to the circus in Charleston and then we shopped for a party dress, which we didn't find. She has to have one for the finale at her dance recital on May 15. I guess we'll have to go back one evening this week or next weekend. Everything is so picked over from Easter. We didn't try Elder-Beermans, so will probably go there next. The circus was fun. It was her first time ever to go, so it was a lot for her to take in.

Next weekend is Dylan's prom. I'm so excited to see him in his tux and his girlfriend in her formal dress. She is wearing a black and turquoise dress with silver beads and he is wearing a black tux and vest with a turquoise tie. It is going to look so sharp. I can't wait! I also can't believe that my baby boy is going to senior prom and this time next year will be finishing his first year of college. Unbelievable!

Another diaper rash success story...

Another diaper rash sufferer has been rescued! Several years ago I placed an article on
Associated Content about how to heal baby's diaper rash with scorched flour. I got a comment on that article today from a satisfied reader. You can check out the article and comment by clicking on the link in the imbed below.

Strange Home Remedies: Heal that Baby's Diaper Rash!
When I was distraught over my daughter's diaper rash I was very surprised and pleased to discover a simple and inexpensive home remedy.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/228666/strange_home_remedies_heal_that_babys.html

Wear your jeans Wednesday!

Please show your support to victims of sexual violence by wearing denim on Wednesday, April 22. This day has been set aside to promote awareness and prevention of sexual violence. On Denim Day, wear your jeans as a visible sign of protest against the myths that still surround sexual assault! Visit Demin Day USA for more information!

Hats off to the Montgomery police...

My early morning call-in due to the flu cost me a passenger's side window. I was up chilling with a fever most of the night Wednesday night. I stayed in bed as long as I could stand it yesterday morning and finally got up around 11 a.m. Shortly after I got out of bed the doorbell rang. I answered the door and there was a city cop standing there asking "did you know that your window is busted out of your car?" I said, "Oh, no" and of course I immediately thought that someone had busted it out on purpose to steal something. Then the cop tells me that the city workers were weed eating on the railroad tracks and just happened to notice that the window was shattered so they stopped him. He decided to open the car door and look for a rock and that was why my car alarm was going off. He called for back up and the police chief came, who made the administrative decision that it was in fact the city's fault and he would call for a repairman to come and replace the window. Wow! Don't I just feel so important to have the big cheese swinging by to take charge of things. All joking aside, the policemen were very nice in the way they took care of the situation. The city workers could have shut their mouths about what had happened and moved on down the street. I wouldn't have been any the wiser and probably would have thought that some of the local thugs had done it and I would have had to pay for the cost out of my pocket or paid my deductible, which is pretty high. The glass guy couldn't get the window in until today so I had to drive my brother's car to work, which was okay too. So, thank God for honest city workers and cops who care enough to do what they can to right the mistakes that are made.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Look what He's holding us together with!

I thought this was nothing short of amazing and wanted to pass it along to my cyber friends!

Hello Doggie!

This is so cute...it's just like they're greeting each other or something!

Happy Spring!

Wow! I can hardly believe that today is the first day of Spring. Well, it still looks pretty stark around here, but I know that soon the mountains will be filled with trees showing green buds. I can't wait! Spring is my favorite time of year. It is the season of renewed hope...starting over. I wonder, would Spring be so wonderful if followed any season other than Winter? Probably not.

A Prayer in Spring

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Today I celebrated 43 blessed years. No, it hasn't been all roses, but I can thank God for being there at my side every step of the way. So, I ate too much pizza, cake and ice cream - in essence, fell off of the wagon. Hey! Gimme a break! It's my birthday for crying out loud! I'll climb back on tomorrow, though. So far I've lost 30 pounds and I'm gonna keep on keeping on.

This week flew by. Carly had All County Chorus on Thursday night so she was busy all day Thursday with the practice for that. Then we had to be back to the city that night for the concert. We leave Wednesday evening for WVU because she has All State Chorus concert next Friday night and has practice on Thursday and Friday. So, I get to hang out in Morgantown by myself for two days. Oh joy! I plan on checking out the university since that's where my son will be attending in the fall - that is if he doesn't change his mind. I'll post pix of All State Chorus when we get back. Pray that I maintain my sanity until then.

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope that you had a great day. Mine started kind of depressing, but ended on a positive note, nonetheless. I've had a chest cold so I woke up feeling pretty crummy. I kind of laid around until it was time to go to the memorial service for my ex-husband's twin brother. It was good to see everyone again even though it was under the saddest of circumstances. After we came from the service we went shopping for a new pair of church shoes for Carly and to Krogers. Then, I ended the day by having dinner at El Jalisco with the two loves of my life (DJ and CJ). She has been dying to eat there ever since we moved back here so we finally took her. It's such an anomaly to find an authentic Mexican restaurant tucked into an Appalachian valley. The food was pretty good and not that expensive at all so we'll probably make it a regular spot now that we've tested the water, so to speak. Hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day with the one or ones that you love!!!

money, jewelry and dish rags...

I just finished reading Twilight today. Now I want to run out and get Meyer's second book in the series, New Moon. I really like to read her stuff, although the Twilight Series is for more of an adolescent crowd. It gives me another common ground in the classroom. I don't know what I'm reading next. I probably won't get to the library to get the other Twilight book until later in the week so I'll probably re-read something that I have laying around here.

I just found out today that my son's uncle, on his dad's side, passed away so I've been pretty bummed about that. We have had so many deaths in the past few weeks. It's definitely been an eye-opener.

I was surprised by what I found in my daughter's "favorite things" bag that she had to prepare for school. I knew that she had to do it but I had forgotten about it, so when I found her little brown sack on the arm of the couch I opened it up and looked in. The bag contained a $1 bill, a necklace from her best friend in Florida and a dishrag that I had crocheted. I got so tickled! I told her that I didn't find it difficult to believe that money and jewelry were part of her favorite things, but where in the world did the dish rag fit in. She replied with "oh, I put that in there because you made it with your hands and I like to craft too." Too cute!

A Reprieve...

We had a nice change of pace in the weather today. I think it almost reached 60, or it maybe it actually did reach that high. It was so pretty outside that DD and I took a nice walk between services today. I've lost 22 pounds this year and I want to start adding some exercise to kick it up a notch.

I started a project on my new nifty knitter today, too. I've never knitted in my life but I picked the long looms up from Walmart yesterday and I'm making a scarf. I can't believe how easy it is. In only a couple of hours I already have over a foot of scarf made. I'm hold two pieces of yarn at a time, burgundy wine and oatmeal. It's going to be very pretty!!!

I also started reading a new book today. It's The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I picked up several books for the library yesterday and I really wanted to read Fair is the Rose by Liz Curtis Higgs today, but I found out that it is actually the sequel to another of her novels so I kind of didn't want to read them out of order.

I hope and pray that the snow passes us by this next week. The kids had two snow days last week and when we have snow days that means that I don't get to work and have no pay. So, if it snows I hope that they don't cancel school.

We had a nice day shopping yesterday. Dylan got a new pair of tennis shoes at Shoe Carnival and a new Nike back bag. I got a pair of Reeboks and a pair of blue Donna Lawrence pumps that were marked down to $5. I was thrilled! They were the last pair in my size and just what I've been searching for! Then we ate at Famous Daves and went to Walmart. We were supposed to go to the mall and JCPenneys to pick up some Levis for Dylan but traffic was so bad and we had to sit in it for so long that we decided to just go one evening this coming week, probably tomorrow.

I hope that everyone enjoys their upcoming week and that you don't get snowed in or rained out!

Love her, Love her, Love her!!!

I have so much respect for Martina McBride. She is someone that I've followed since the beginning of her career and I really admire her as an artist and as a person. She sings songs that heighten our awareness of things and aspects of life that we don't always find front and center. I heard this song, "Anyway", on the radio this morning when I was coming back from putting my little girl on the bus, so I just had to come in and youtube it...LOL. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Happy Birthday Wrong Way...

I got such a kick out of the look on the girl's face at Dairy Queen when she asked what name I wanted on the birthday cake that I ordered yesterday for my brother. I told her "Wrong Way" and she started to reach for a piece of paper because I believe that she thought I was pronouncing a foreign name or something. She said "can you spell it?" and I said "yeah, it's just like it sounds w-r-o-n-g...w-a-y." She started to giggle and said "oh, you mean wrong way!!!" The other girls thought it was comical too. Hey, it's the man's nickname. What can I say?

I just finished the book that I've been reading about the Hairston family. It is a historical book and I really enjoyed reading it although some parts of it made me sad and some parts infuriated me. Now I'm reading 'Between Sundays' by Karen Kingsbury.

The weather forecast is calling for a terrible storm starting tonight and carrying through til Wednesday morning. I hope that it doesn't shut everything down. I hate for people to have to travel in that kind of weather and that's one thing that I like about subbing. I can refuse the assignment or ever cancel it if I think the roads are too bad. My assignment today was shortened by two hours because of the weather. We had a two hour delay. I didn't mind because I love making the same pay for working two hours less...LOL.

I'm going to go curl up with my book and see what's happening next. I might crochet a little, too. I've been trying to re-learn this long lost hobby and it seems that all I can remember is the really simple stitches. Oh, well, I guess I can't expect this old brain to retain everything, can I?

Be Careful What You Wish For...

I had to go and open my big mouth about having unseasonably warm weather for this time of year in WV. Well, now we are supposed to be down to 0 tomorrow night. I'm sorry Lord! I really wasn't complaining! Merely making an observation! Luckily there isn't any school on Friday anyway. However, that is the day that Carly is scheduled for her first All County Chorus practice, which is at a high school about 45 minutes from here. That'll be fun - trying to drag a grouchy little bear cub out in that kind of weather. Another thing that I'm kind of worried about is that Dylan is supposed to go snowboarding at Winterplace tomorrow evening from 5-10 pm with the Extreme Sports Club. I hope that they cancel or reschedule it. I can't imagine them having a very good time out there on the slopes in single digit weather. He's pretty excited, though, because he has never been before. I would just like to keep everyone inside all bundled up when it's cold out, but I know that is wishful thinking.