What role do children play in our lives?

Yesterday my daughter Christy called me at work and told me that I probably wouldn't get off work in time to hear her sing at church. She had ask the song director to let her sing close to the end because she wanted to give me more time to get there. The singing started at 6:00 and I had to work until 6:30. Usually that means I will have to stay until 7:00 at least, to clean up my department. She said that she would understand if I couldn't make it. I cleaned and cleaned between customers and after we closed my boss told us all that we could go ahead and leave because the store looked good. I was so glad! It was 6:30 and the church was about 10 minutes away. We made it there and we had only missed 3 people sing. Christy hadn't sang yet. I could tell by the look on her face that she was happy to see us.

Her first song was "Ten Thousand Angels". I have it playing now. That is such a beautiful song to me. She sang it so pretty.

The next song was called "Mighty To Save". I have it on my playlist right after "Ten Thousand Angels". I had only heard this song a couple of times on Christian radio and it is a beautiful song. As Christy was singing it, she looked out into the pews and saw so many of her family members there and she broke down crying. I could tell that she was trying to hold it all in but I know Christy, once she gets started...there is no holding back. There was not a dry eye in the church after that. The preacher's wife got up and started singing with her and Christy kept singing even though she was still crying. The whole church starting singing as well. You could feel God's presence in that room! When I got up this morning and looked for my devotional book, I couldn't find it. I then remembered that I had left it at my desk at work. I had picked up another book on my night stand that I haven't even had a chance to read yet called...Ah, Woman! It says on the front cover...A study of personal accountability for the Christ-motivated woman. I had picked it up one time at one of my favorite thrift stores. Anyway, I decided to just open up the book and whatever page I came to that is what I was going to read for my devotion. The first sentence that I read was..."What role do children play in our lives?" How appropriate was that? I believe with all of my heart that God picked that page for me to read! One part of the passage said that it is easy to hold and cuddle our children when they are little and sit on our laps. But what about when they grow up? Even married children still need love and encouragement from their parents. This love is not connected to any deeds that our children might perform. This love is like the love that we have from God, a graceful love, given to a child simply because it is our child, not good or bad, just our child. This love lets your child know that you'll be there, loving him or her, no matter what. This love is free.

I myself am emotional today as I'm writting this post. I am so glad that I was able to get to the church on time to be there and hear her sing her heart out. God has been really showing me things the last couple of weeks that I am so thankful for. I know a lot of this may not be coming across clearly to you, not about God but about my life. He keeps showing me things, that I have been needing to see! God is good! He loves us all...

Staying positive...

Yesterday went so much better with my change of attitude. There were a couple of things that could have gotten to me...but I just didn't dwell on them. My boss had ask me to start a new project and hour before I was to get off work on Friday. There was no way possible that I could finish it in an hour so I had to finish it yesterday morning whenever I got to work. It took me about an hour and a half to complete it. My boss said that I did a great job and commented to my department manager to have a look at it. Later when my boss wasn't around my manager told me that it could have and should have waited until Monday to finish because Saturday is a busy 'sales' day. He didn't say anything positive about the project at all. I wanted to say..."Look, I didn't ask to do the project in the first place and I missed 2 or 3 hours of making my sales but I was doing what 'our' boss ask me to do." How do you make everybody happy?! You can't. I don't want to be around negative people. I just went about my business and tried to make up for my lost sales. We have a sales goal that we have to meet. (We don't get commission) Anyway...that started my morning....

Today I have to be at work at 12:30. My daughter is singing at church tonight. It starts at 6:00 and I have to work until 6:30. Hopefully I will make it to the church before she sings her two solo's. She really wants me to be there. This is a recent photo of Christy and her husband Phillip and her cousin Kim. I'm so proud of Christy. She is such a good wife and mother.

A new day...

I don't remember where I found this...it was saved to one of my files. I didn't really have any new pictures to post about today. I have been so busy with work that I haven't even taken any new ones. When I saw this, I thought it would be the perfect thing to post about today. I've been feeling a little stressed out the last couple of weeks and it has shown in my everyday interactions with my family, friends and coworkers. I just wanted to take this time to apologize to anyone that I may not have been as 'available to' as normal. I've just had a lot going on with work and getting my son moved to Tennessee and everything else in between.

I just want to thank all of my friends that have been there for me...you know who you are. I thank God for everything that he has blessed me with. When I am at work today, I plan to show each of my customers how important they are and let them know how much God loves them. So many people out there are having it hard financially. I have been working on my budget and I plan to not spend a dime on anything that is not a necessity. (Not even thrift stores!) I want to be able to have all of my bills paid at least a month in advance. Just a little cushion so that I can be less stressed out. I will still have many, many projects that will keep me busy without spending money! This will be the perfect time to clean out my storage buildings and clean out my closet and take out things and donate! I'm ready to get rid of clutter! I feel like I have so many things that are weighing me down. I hope all of this makes since to y'all.







Have a great day!

My little sis's birthday!

Today is my little sister's birthday! She is 36 years old today! I couldn't go visit her today because I'm stuck at home waiting for the plumber to come and fix the leak in my shower. One day next week I plan to go and visit her and take her birthday gifts to her. I went through some old pictures today and ran across these. This is Melinda when she was a baby. Mama had her sitting on the kitchen table. She had on the cutest little red and white dress. Wasn't she a doll?

This is us at a wedding a few years ago. (2002...I think)

This is her graduation picture. She is probably gonna kill me for putting this picture on here. She had the permed, blond thing going on with her hair. (and the 'buff') LOL I didn't get to come home for her graduation. I was living in Denver at the time. I did get to come home for her wedding though. It was a couple of months later. She got married right after high school. She and Steven are still doing great! They have 3 children. Whitney, Michael, and Chase.

Me and my sister, my best friend.

This is a good one of us! We were both expecting our 3rd baby. We had them exactly 3 weeks apart. We both had boys. Garrett and Chase.

This one is so funny! We were at our cousin Angie's baby shower and we were all expecting! Angie had a boy too. She had hers the day before Melinda in the same hospital! A boy, too.

This is the most recent picture that I have of her. (May 2009) Isn't she pretty?

This was from last year! We had been shopping all day long!

Same day. We had planned to have more days like this...you know how that goes with work, kids,etc. We are fixing to start making time for us!

The waitress took our picture. This was for her birthday last year! Where has the time flown? (That is not a cigarette in my hand!) It was a straw from my glass.

Me and Melinda a couple of years ago at Halloween. I was a lady cop and I went to arrest her and her little dog too!

We have had a lot of good times together! Sometimes we laugh so hard that we get tears in our eyes and it looks like we are crying! And when Mama gets into it, we really laugh our heads off!
I didn't even get to talk to her today. I left her a message on her phone and I even sent her an e-card. Maybe tonight we can catch up with each other.

Happy birthday, Melinda. I love you!

Bring on the rain...

I've had a very busy last couple of days...I spent Saturday and part of Sunday in Biloxi, Ms. I had a bridal seminar to attend and I also got to do a little bit of site seeing. Everything looks so different after Hurricane Katrina. They are really getting things back to normal. It did look strange though with all of the vacant lots where beautiful homes used to be along the beach. It is so sad. There are not any casinos on the water anymore. The ones that re-built are now across the highway from the beach. The Beau Rivage is in the same place of course. They had a lot of work to do and now it looks beautiful. We ate there for 'brunch'. We ate at 'The Palace' for dinner the night before. I'm not a gambler but I do like to go there to eat! I pigged out! I officially started my diet on Monday!

This is the solarium cafe at Beau Rivage. I thought this was so beautiful. It would be so awesome built on the side of a house! A dream house!

I tried to get a good picture of the front. It is a huge building. Well...getting back home felt good but I came home to a flooded bathroom! The water in my shower started leaking at the faucet and it got everywhere! I haven't remodeled that room yet....thank goodness.

This is the before picture in my bathroom. I have been meaning to get to this room for so long and I have decided to start now. I had hung my huge mirror up in here whenever I moved here because there was only a tiny mirror there and I didn't have anywhere to store it where it wouldn't get broken. I have had it for a long, long time. It went with a dresser that I still have in storage. Look at all of that green wallpaper! The previous owner's didn't even put it up correctly. You can see all of seams and the patterns don't match. I myself don't like wallpaper in a bathroom because of the steam, etc. from the shower. The counter top is laminate...dark green! It has shelves underneath that are just open. No doors or anything. If I decide to keep the counter top, I will paint it and put a skirt around the bottom. I really would like to use an old buffet that I have in storage and put the sink into it and paint it cottage white. Right now it is cherry stained. I'm gonna check into it because I don't know how much work is involved in doing that. I plan to use the same mirror...it looks 'shabby' to me.

The more I looked at the wallpaper the more I knew that it just had to come down! It was very easy too. I guess the moisture in the room from the water leaking made it loosen up a bit! Great!

This is where I started taking it down! Oh and look at the white stuff on the floor! That is where the previous owners had put that insulation stuff that comes in a tube along all of the cracks where the walls meet the floor! It puffs up and gets big! I got a box cutter and cut as much as I could away. It looks like a 'blob' coming out of those cracks! I saw a horror movie about that when I was a kid! It scared me!

This is after I pulled most of it down. I turned on my playlist and got busy! I'm gonna get help moving this medicine cabinet and the big mirror so that I can get behind them to take off the other paper.

It's looking better already! I'm excited! I'm thinking about putting bead-board up on the walls. I can see a pretty chandelier hanging here. The shower is awful! I didn't even want to show a picture of that! I bought a bathtub at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago to go here instead of that yucky shower! Of course I have to move the toilet so that it will fit along that wall! I hope that I didn't bite off more than I can chew! LOL No.....not me!

I will take more pictures as I go along. If anybody has any ideas that I might could use...please feel free to leave me some comments! I would appreciate it! I have to get ready for work now. I did all of this, this morning and now I'm tired before I even go to my real job.

Oh and I forgot to mention that my central air unit broke too! When it rains it pours!

I thought the song that I have playing was perfect for today!

Laurie's birthday party...tea party

Tammy from "Tammy's Sweet Life" is hosting a birthday tea party for our friend Laurie from "Rose cottage". Today is Laurie's birthday and I wanted to let everyone know about her. Laurie's blog was the first blog that I ever visited. I had just gotten my laptop and I was just playing around with it and I came across her blog. I didn't even know what a blog was! Computers were foreign to me and I also had 'button-phobia'. I don't even know how I ended up looking at blogs in the first place. I must have been looking up anything with 'roses' on it and her blog pulled up. Her blog was called 'Romance and Roses' and I think that is what caught my eye. Then when I started reading it and found out that she lived in Mississippi too, I was even more interested since that is where I live. She has been such a blessing to me and she might not even know it.

Please go by her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday. She would love to have a visit from you. You will love her blog...

Happy Birthday, Laurie. Be checking your mailbox for a 'happy' from me soon. Hope you have a great day!

I enjoyed your tea-party! Thank you Tammy for hosting this for her!

Doctor's visits and thrifting...

I have been so busy the last few days. Yesterday, I had 2 doctor's appointments. I scheduled them on the same day because of work. I had my yearly mammogram at 8:00....thank goodness for insurance! That is a very important test to have every year. Then at 2:30, I had my check up with my cardiologist and everything went great. He said that my heart looks excellent and he kept me on the same medicines...didn't have to switch them. The skipping beats and racing is just something that I will have to get use to. The medicine helps but it still does it a lot and mostly at night whenever I start to relax. Anyway...I had a few hours in between doctor visits to do anything that I wanted to do. So whats a girl suppose to do with a little free time on her hands? I went thrifting! I found some really nice things. I passed up so many things too because I am trying to buy only what I know that I can use. I use to but a lot of things and put them in storage for 'fixing' up later. I've got plenty of that stuff to last for years! LOL
The first thing that I found was this pretty picture of roses with the blue and white vase. My plan is to fix up my guest room with blue, yellow, and white. If this doesn't look well with everything, I can always put it in my booth and resell it. It cost me $3.00.

It is on a thick board ready to be framed or I guess it could be used just like this.

Next is this pretty blue basket. I can use it to hold things in the guest bathroom. It was $1.00.

I love this next item. It is a cookbook holder. It is enamel covered metal on cobalt blue. I have some blue in my kitchen and I think that this will go perfect. I paid $3.00 for it and we sell some similar ones where I work for $30.00 and they are made out of thin metal. I did good on this one!

I thought this sweet little frame was precious! It is a 5x7 and its a pale yellow. I'm sure that I will find a good place for it. It was only $1.00. The material under it is actually a 'Waverly' curtain panel. They only had one and it was only $1.00 too. I bought it to use as a tablecloth. I love the colors and of course the roses.

This is one of the great deals of the day!!! Its a chandelier that you put tea lights in. I guess that you would call it a 'candelier'! I thought it was so elegant looking. I haven't even cleaned it up yet. I know that it will even look better after I do that. It was $5.00. I think it will go in my bathroom.

This is a book carrier with little ribbon embroidered flowers. Its made of velvet. I thought it would be perfect for my Bible. It has a pocket inside for pens and paper.

I love this picture and the frame. I haven't cleaned it up yet...I wanted to hurry and take pictures before I have to go to work. It is signed by the artist. I paid $12.00 for it. It is going in my rose room.

I know that this picture looks strange but I couldn't figure out how to display it. I got this whole bolt of cross-stitch fabric for $5.00!!!! It has 20 yards on the bolt! I can do many projects with this!

$5.00!!! I still can't get over that! I use to pay over $5.oo for a small piece of it. Now if I can just make some time to cross-stitch a few things. I use to be really into it. It was relaxing to me. I will be sure to post some things as I do them.
Well...that's it for today! I love sharing my bargains with you! My daughter says that I'm a professional shopper! Oh well...At least I do it on the cheap!

Bridal Expo and new project...

I just wanted to show a few pictures from the Bridal Expo we had where I work yesterday. A lot of work always goes into the show and we always have a good turn out.

This is my friend and co-worker Jennifer and one of our caterers, Erica. Erica started her own business a few years ago. She makes the prettiest cakes and cupcakes for wedding showers, baby showers and birthdays. She also does wedding cakes.

This is Lisa and she makes beautiful wedding cakes. This one is gorgeous. I love the colors and it tasted so delicious. We all got to have a piece. YUMMY!

Me and Lisa.

Erica and her beautiful cake. This one is for a wedding shower or even a small wedding. You might have to enlarge the picture because her dress matches her cake making it harder to see. Her business is called "Sweetie Cakes". Isn't that cute?

This was one of our photographer's table all set up. We had three but I only got a picture of one.

This was one of our caterers. They are called "I'm Stuffed". This was before they got all of the food set up. They make the best food!

My friend Kelly has a flower shop called "The Flower Nook". She made this pretty arrangement of pink roses. (Now they sit on my desk.) You know that I love pink roses!!!

Now that is over! I'm glad!

I wanted to show you a little project that I have been working on. It was really simple and it started out with this old wooden frame.

A little Modge Podge, (I love this stuff) and some old lace. Don't you love this old chair that I picked up? That will be another project!

Anyway, I painted the frame with black spray paint and I distressed it. Then I modge-podged the lace all around it. I had found this pretty 'Paris' print and put it in the frame. I had the glass left over from another project. I papered the back of the framed print and put on a hanger. Now it is ready for my 'Paris' booth at the Vendor's Market.

This was an easy project and I like how it turned out.

Gotta go to work now.

Have a great day!