This Is Fascinating!!!

I'm not much of a football fan...but I find this fascinating and just had to share!!!

One thing that this story fails to tell you is that the officials names' for the Steelers vs. Broncos game were Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.

NO JOKE.

While I don't believe that God has a hand in who is going to win the football game...I do believe that Mr. Tebow's unfaltering confession of his faith is completely admirable.

All the Glory to God!!!

Fun Fact Friday

Thanks to this girl...I decided to do things a little different for you this Friday evening.  Here are some fun facts for you...

1.  I have been kicking butt and taking names on my house.  I mean wow.  So proud of myself.  I guess it's all the extra time I have now that I'm not on facebook.

2.  My husband and I are movie lovers.  We watch a movie almost every night.  We like all kinds of movies, but watch mostly "older" ones.  By "older" I'm talking not new releases.  I've wanted to do a blog post/review on some of the recent ones that we have seen, but...have chickened out.  Maybe someday I'll get the butterflies out of my stomach. What's your favorite movie?

3.  One of my favorite things to do is read to GT before bed.  I crawl into his bed with him and we read away...often 3, 4 or 5 stories.  We both love it.  I look forward to Vadyn joining us soon.

4.  The Blaze is my favorite websites, my main source for news and the home page on all of my computers.

5.  I've had a pretty awesome six days.  2012 has been wonderful so far - I am excited to see what this year has in store.

6.  GT is participating in his very first 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk tomorrow evening at Our Lady of the Snows.  My sister, Stephanie, is an avid runner & GT loves to run, too - so we thought this would be fun for him.  It is right up his alley.

7.  Speaking of my little runner, he is starting gymnastics at The Little Gym this week Thursday.  We are super excited about that.  Thank you Mimi & Papa for this very awesome Christmas present!!

8.  I'm almost over my Nacho kick.  Almost...

9.  I grew up in a small town called, Red Bud, IL.  It's in Southern Illinois about an hour south of St. Louis.

10.  Vadyn eats everything!!  I haven't found a kind of baby food that she doesn't like.  Today she had juice for the first time.  Of course, she loved it!!

11.  My husband and I will be married 10 years this year.  See...I told you 2012 is going to be awesome!!

 (If I had a wedding picture of us on this computer,

this is where I'd insert it...)

That was fun!!  Hope it was for you, too!!  Do you have any fun facts to share???  : )

70 Degree Weather In January

Makes for lovely scooter weather.

I Finally Filled My Locket

I finally filled my locket.

Now it holds my heart.

I got a little choked up last night when I started thinking about the special moment that I knew would occur in the morning, when I'd tell GT that I had something special to show him. He didn't disappoint. He's only asked me about 100 times today to look open it.

When One Attempts To Organize

I am a piler.  I am a stacker.  I am a bagger.

My husband calls them "Dr. Seuss stacks".  I can promise you that I don't mean for them to be boobie traps...that's just how they turn out.  I don't know exactly what is in the stack, or bag, or pile...I just know it's important & that it has a place.

I've decided that this is the year that I'm taking my house back!  As I've been putting together my Home Management Binder, I've come across a bunch of useful links.  But this is one I definitely wanted to share.  It's a 2012 Declutter & Organize Calendar. You can download the entire year calendar or just month by month, depending on your preference.  It was put together by MySimplerLife.com.

Happy Organizing!!

Happy New Year!!

The confetti DID NOT make it until midnight...
Heck.  It didn't even make it home!!!

(For the record, the confetti WAS NOT my idea.  My mom gave it to GT as a surprise...I knew the second I saw it that it was a BAD idea, but I allowed it into my car anyway.  I thought the reason GT was being so quiet in the back seat on the way home was because he had fallen asleep.  I was incorrect.)

Christmas Three Ways - Part 1

Our Christmas celebrations started on the Sunday before Christmas with a get together over at my Mom's house.  My sisters, Stephanie & Leslie, Leslie's husband, Zach and my Mom, Carol were there.  Gordon had to work...again...the company had an install that weekend & things are too tight for us for him to miss any work.

For lunch we had baked ham with all of the fixin's.  I brought homemade cranberry orange relish and whole cranberry sauce for my dish(es).  Dinner was delicious.  As a standard rule ever since we were growing up, the table must be cleared and the dishes have to be washed & dried before we can start opening presents.  Not that big of a deal nowadays that we are older, but when we were kids, it always seemed like it took forever to get those dishes done!!  And how rude of the adults to just sit there & watch us work & not even lift a finger to help....Geesh.  Those days are long gone & now my Mom has an actual dishwasher, so things go much more quickly!!!

Mom's tree

 GT couldn't wait to start opening presents, and once he did...he had a BLAST!!  My sisters (mostly) and my mom spoiled both of my kids with their very first taste of Christmas for the year.

This was his reaction almost every present...he sure knows
how to make a gift giver feel good!!

Pretty girls

The real surprise of the day came when my little sister, Leslie, opened a teddy bear that my older sister, Stephanie, had restuffed for her.  When Leslie was in college (it had to be at least 7 or so years ago now) her dog, Koda, tore all of the stuffing out of Leslie's favorite childhood teddy bear while she was at class/work one day...Leslie was devastated.  She was going to school in Rolla, MO at the time and the only thing she could do was call us (me, Mom & Steph) and cry...and cry...and cry...  We told her to gather the pieces and we would get him back together.  The "pieces of Teddy" were in my basement next to my sewing stuff for a long time after that.  It was a very intimidating project, to say the least, and while I knew that he could be put back together, I wasn't so confident that I would be the one to do it.  Cut to this year and to make an even longer story short....my Uncle George is dating this woman who...was able to fix the teddy bear!!  So for Christmas this year, Leslie unwrapped her bear.  For the second time in her life...on a Christmas...

She was THRILLED!!!

I'll have to get a picture of the teddy bear close up.  Stacie, the woman who fixed it, did an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G job.  I mean...when my grandma saw the bear for the first time after it was fixed, SHE almost cried!!!

So, needless to say, Christmas with my Mom & sisters was a success.  We've had a very eventful year between the four of us; a birth, a marriage, a divorce & a marathon...hopefully 2012 will be a little slower paced for all of us.

While we are not able to always buy gifts for the people that we love, we do try to give special gifts that are handmade or that we have put special thought into.  This year, I was struggling with what I was going to give my mom & sisters.  Until I came across this.  So, originally I was going to make one for my mom, but then I decided that my sisters would probably also like one.  Here they are with their presents.

I am very happy with the finished products and I think they were very pleased, too.  I let them each pick which wreath they wanted.  Pretty sure they are all already being proudly displayed at each of their houses, too!!  Success!

Our second round of celebration came on Christmas Eve when we met Gordon's mom, Wanda & her husband, Dr. Lowther (OK - I feel really weird here for explaining who they are to you like this...I call them - Wanda & Jer.  aka - Mimi & Papa) for dinner at Andria's Steakhouse in Chesterfield, MO.  Gordon's sister, Regina, her boyfriend, Chris & our neice and nephew, Morgan & Mason were also there.

(Ok...so...if I'm ever going to get of this posted...I'm going to have to do it in parts...You just read Part 1 - Parts 2 & 3 are a work in progress.  : )  I'll leave you with a few snapshots so you will definitely want to come back for more!!  LOL

Christmas Three Ways - Parts 2 & 3 to come...Stay tuned!!