Winter Wonderland

Do you want to know when the last time was that we received a significant snow fall? By significant I mean more than and inch or two. It was in 1968. I was three years old and we had somewhere around 18 inches. Yesterday we had anywhere from 5-10 inches depending on what part of town you live in. At my house we got approximately 5 1/2 - 6 inches.

The Kids had an absolute blast playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, trying to make snowmen and sliding down hills. We bundled up and headed across the street to our neighbors where they have a huge slope in the backyard. The only downfall is that at the end of the hill you either stop or land in the lake. Thankfully we did not have anyone end up in the lake but we got close a couple of times.

I hope you enjoy this entry of photographs. Sometimes pictures tell the story better than words do. All I can say is that I am so ready for spring!

D-Now

Just a quick post to say boy have things been busy over the last several days. This past weekend we hosted nine 10th grade girls at our house for the whole weekend. It was for Disciple Now at church. They were a great group of girls which I was surprised about. I figured my house would get trashed, they would stay awake all night long etc. However, they left the house immaculate when they left and unlike other groups I heard about, they did sleep. Steve and I not only hosted but had to drive them back and forth to their worship location Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. One of the girls that stayed at our house was saved during the event so that made it all worthwhile. Of course that had absolutely nothing to do with me. Their was a college age leader that also stayed at our house with them that led independent bible studies with them in addition to the worship segments they attended. Drama Queen stayed at someone else's house because they don't like to put your own children in your home. She really had a good time. Hurricane A was home for half of the weekend and now she is ready to participate in one herself but you have to be in 6th grade so she has a couple of years.

Sunday afternoon I took a nap because I was so tired. It's not like I didn't sleep or anything because I did. I guess with age you just can't be on the go that much and have the energy you did at that age. My wash got so behind because I did not touch it at all the entire weekend. I spent all day Tuesday washing clothes and finally got caught up.

I had drama practice last night and have it again tonight and tomorrow night. We are getting ready for our performance of Hee Haw on March 7. At rehearsal last night we laughed until we cried. I hope the performance ends up being as funny as we are trying to make it.

I give honor to my hometown of Loverlip, Mississippi, population of 1200. S-A-L-U-T-E!

Valentine's post

It was another exciting or rather busy weekend. Thursday night something rather unfortunate happened as one of the houses in my neighborhood caught on fire and is a total loss. It started about 2:30 in the morning and they had to call the Arlington and Memphis fire departments to help. Some of the firemen were hurt and sent to the hospital. The good news is that the homeowners were able to get out and are safe. I heard rumors that the family was actually getting ready to start packing the house because they were moving to another house in our neighborhood. I guess that means that the house had been sold to someone else. I don't know how all of that will workout but what a pain! The local high school will be doing a fundraiser for the family and our neighborhood association is also going to help them out in some way.

Friday night Steve and I went out for our Valentine's dinner. We went to eat at Hunan Pacifica a local chinese restaurant. I really like their food. The girls stayed home because Drama Queen was having two of her friends to sleep over. After eating we went to rent a movie that ended up not being very good. We stopped watching about 20 minutes in. I can't even remember the name of it. So, we watched a couple of episodes of King of Queens. We love that show!

Saturday I spent most of the day at my sister's house. My mother and I helped her to swap the kids room around and make room for the new nursery. We emptied drawers, shelves and closets, moved furniture from room to room and I even cleaned carpet. I was exhausted by the time I got home.

Sunday we went to church and then met our care group at Jason's Deli for lunch. I then took Libby to the movies to see Confessions of a Shopaholic for her birthday. It was a cute movie. Sunday night we went back to church to see the christian magician David Garrard. The place was filled with kids who were constantly raising their hands to be used on stage. Neither of my kids were picked this year. I think Hurricane A was picked last year. Drama Queen was sitting with the youth. She appears to have her first boyfriend which I am so not ready for. This boy asked her to "go out" several weeks ago and I know she told him no. ("going out" does not mean to go on a date, for those of you that asked "where are they going?" like I did. It just means to become one's boyfriend or girlfriend.) Well, yesterday he sat by her in the morning and evening service. He also brought her a box of candy, a poem that he supposedly wrote for her and a coupon for a free ice cream cone at a local ice cream place. Isn't that sweet? This boy even started chatting with Steve and I on Facebook this weekend! I think something is up. It embarrasses Drama Queen when I try to ask her so I have to figure it out by myself! UUGGHH! ( I am waiting on the phone to ring because I have not told my mother this yet!)

Today and tomorrow the girls are out of school for President's day. We had to work so they spent most of the day with friends. So, like last weekend, I had to go back to work to rest and rest I did because it was incredibly slow today!

Teachers and Doors can break my nose?

Last week I got one of those phone calls that as a parent you hate to receive. The dreaded, "there's been an accident". My heart drops when I hear those words from an assistant at the elementary school. Then she goes on to tell me that Hurricane A was hit in the nose by the Art teacher. Apparently Hurricane A's teacher had lost her spelling test and so she was out in the hall taking it again. She needed to go to the bathroom so as she walked by the Art teacher's room she was obviously walking to close to the door and when the teacher opened it to let her class out she hit Hurricane A in the nose. My sister is a teacher in that school and told me later that the Art teacher said she could hear it crack and just knew the nose was broken. Also the teacher was so upset that this happened that she had to leave and go home early. The office assistant that called me said that the nose was very bruised right away and was swollen. They put some ice on it and had her wait in the office for me to arrive. When I got there the swelling had already gone down and I did not see much bruising. It appeared that the ice had helped quite a bit. I looked at it and decided not to take her to the doctor since it looked a lot better than they had originally described to me. The next morning my sister called me before school started because the teachers were having a faculty meeting and the Art teacher was so concerned that the nose was broken. She was surprised that I had not taken her to the doctor because she "heard it crack!" Saturday when we were at the pediatrician's office for Bronchitis I had him look at her nose and he said at first glance it appeared to be fine but to bring her in again once all the swelling was down. It looks to me like it is just ever so crooked at the very end of her nose but I could be wrong. Dr. said it looked straight to him. So, I guess we will see.

Yesterday was one of those marathon days where you leave the house in the morning and don't come home until almost bedtime. After work I went to Wal-mart to buy valentines for Hurricane A to take to school Friday and also some for the kids. After that I went to church to eat and then to Drama. We are trying to work out all the details for our Dessert Theater coming up the first of March. We are doing Hee Haw. I am in charge of finding jokes to be used in the cornfield scenes. I have found some pretty funny ones. I am going to be in the Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me scene. I think it will be funny. I can't sing worth a flip but think about it, neither could those guys! So, I ought to be perfect.

After Drama I had a Personnel meeting to discuss some insurance changes. Nothing exciting there, actually pretty boring.

Today I met my mother for a quick lunch at Chick-fil-a. When you only get 30 minutes you have to throw your lunch down which is not a problem for me but for my mother who is a slow eater, it was hard to do. My mother is going to be helping my sister for a couple of days this weekend to get things finished up and ready for the new baby to arrive in April. With the recent passing of her father-in-law and all of the things they are having to do to help her, they have gotten behind on some things. I might try and help them out. They are literally moving all the kids around to different rooms and losing their playroom. She needs to get this done before she just doesn't have the energy to do it.

Bebe is on the way!

Political Outrage in the SouthernBelle home

You like the title of this post? Well, you will have to wait because I am going to wait an talk about that last. It's called the teaser. Ha! Well, there really isn't much going on around here but I wanted to post so this might be rather boring. We are having some rather warm temperatures this week and it is also pretty windy. We are expecting some severe weather tonight and tomorrow morning. I hope we don't get any tornadoes or straight line winds.

See that wasn't much of a wait was it? My husband is pretty passionate about his political views. We are republican and needless to say not so happy about our new president. OK, so you know President Obama has this stimulus package that he is working on right? Well it is all over the news that America is now getting nervous about the direction of all this. Well Steve is VERY angry about the whole thing. When I came home from work tonight he was on the phone with his brother who gets just as excited about things as his brother. I could tell by my end of the conversation that they were furious with things. He was so worked up that he was talking to anyone that would listen including our girls. So, we decided we were going to Baskin Robbins after dinner. Steve changed clothes and put on his Palin 2012 t-shirt. This was going to be the first time he has worn it outside of the house. When we arrive at Baskin Robbins there are two other men talking. One was African American and the other was Caucasian. They obviously both work at Federal Express as does Steve. I kept waiting for him to join in on the conversation because he talks to EVERYBODY. I even said as much and he said that he wasn't in the mood to talk. It must have been all the yelling he was doing earlier about Obama. Well all that changed when the African American turned the conversation to politics and the stimulus package. He was talking a bit louder than he had been earlier. He was saying things like Obama was going to turn this world around and how great the Stimulus package was going to be. At this point I looked at Steve and said "Don't join the conversation now!" Well for what good that did. All of a sudden Steve is saying "Palin in 2012, Palin in 2012!" The African American says "Ain't gonna happen dude!" They said several things back and forth and I don't even remember it all but I just glared at Steve and gave him my look of "ZIP IT!" Thank goodness the conversation did not last long. The Caucasian guy finally said "Well I am Republican also." So, the African American says that he voted for both Bushes but was sad for our economy and wanted to vote for a change. After that he said he needed to go.

I guess time will tell what happens to our country. I just hope it will be good for my kids!

Weekend Whirl

This weekend was a busy one. It started Friday night with a Valentine's party with our Sunday School class from church. We went to the Monday's house where we had a really good meal catered from Coletta's. It's funny to look back now, but I had Coletta's twice this weekend and it was totally unplanned. Actually it was an Italian weekend. More about that later. At the party we played some games after dinner. The first one was really like an icebreaker. Each couple had to fill out this sheet once they arrived that told about how you became engaged, where you spent your honeymoon etc. They gave away gifts to the couples that had the most interesting stories. I didn't think ours was that interesting but I guess someone did because we won a prize for the way Steve proposed to me. I guess instead of interesting it was more funny. We dated for nearly 4 years so we talked about marriage a lot in the last years. One night we went to the mall and went into a jewelry store and I found a ring and Steve found a ring so we bought them. Later when we left the mall, we pulled up to a stoplight in front of the mall and Steve said "Well I guess I should propose to you now. Will you marry me?" I just laughed and said "sure". That was it. Very exciting huh?

The next game we played was Family Feud. Steve and I both played but nothing very exciting happened during that game. As a matter of fact both of our teams lost. Next we played our annual "Not so Newlywed Newlywed game". Steve and I were chosen to play. As usual all couples have arguments about their answers. We were not disappointed during this game either. One of the questions asked to the wives was "Which of these does your husband hog from you? Covers, remote, computer or bathroom?" My answer was covers because I seem to yank and pull all night long. He does also steal the remote but most of the time I watch TV in the bedroom because we like to watch different things. So, I didn't count that very much. So, of course his answer was the remote. We got into a friendly discussion about whose answer was correct.

Of course we did not win. We had several other friendly discussions on other questions that he got wrong again! When will he learn that I am always right?

Saturday I began the day by taking Hurricane A to the doctor. She had bronchitis. After having pneumonia a couple of months ago I was hoping this cough had not turned into pneumonia again. It seems like I have heard that once you get it you are more susceptible to it. I will have to make sure and not let her colds or cough go too long without medicine.

That night we went to Mommas to celebrate my niece's birthday. She turned 11 and was so excited. She got a whole new spring wardrobe in one sitting. That's the good thing about having a birthday in February. Spring clothes have just come out and you get the first pick of them before they are picked over.

That night Hurricane A slept over at her best friend's house and Drama Queen had her cousin over because she wanted to go to church with us on Sunday. After church I had a Lead Team luncheon where we also had Coletta's catered in. Yum Yum! And this was after we had spaghetti Saturday night at my mother's.

This weekend was warm outside so the girls were playing outside a lot. We played softball in the backyard . We pitched and threw balls to the girls for practice. Hurricane A wants to play ball this summer so she needed to start practicing.

Well, after that I needed a nap on Sunday afternoon and it felt good. Now back to work to rest!

Ho Hum Friday

Today has been the longest day. It has drug on forever. We have had a little excitement going on in my office though. I am playing middle man between previous owners and new owner of a 5 foot corn snake. A girl I work with has a family member that has owned this particular snake for about 14 years. They are unable to keep it and were giving it away. I know a guy who has a personal snake and also teaches 5th graders and is going to take the snake to keep in his classroom at school.

I am transporting the snake home after work where the new owner will pick her up. How do I get myself into these things? The snake is named Nina and has been treated like a family pet for years. They even filled a tub with water and let her swim in the tub for a while. The life of Riley I tell ya.

Last night I had Bunko which is always fun. We have played together for over 12 years. Our group has 12 players so we only have to host one time a year. Last night we played at a girls house in Collierville. She had spaghetti, a delicious salad, dessert and of course the sinful table snacks. That is my downfall. I absolutely pig out on table snacks. Next month I am the host and we are going to have a surprise baby shower for my sister who is due in April. So, that will be fun.

That is really about it. It has very boring the last couple of days. Hopefully there will be more excitement next week for me to share.

My Memory is Failing and it Won't Come Back

Okay I am curious about something. How many people have actually gotten to the point in your house where you are completely out of toilet paper or your wash is so backed up that you have no towels and washcloths to take a shower with? Be honest, has it happened to you? It happens to me more times than I care to admit. This past weekend it happened again. What made this past weekend so special you ask? Well Drama Queen had a friend sleeping over. Yep I had to succumb some other poor child to my poor house upkeep. Saturday night when the friend was sleeping over, we had gone to the Grizzlies game. I got a call on my cell from Drama Queen and she told me that we were almost out of toilet paper. We had about a quarter of a roll left. I told them I was sorry and to use it very sparingly, only one sheet per person! If that ran out they could use the paper towels from the kitchen. Whew, won't that feel good? Yes, I knew we were almost out but come on, you don't expect me to make a trip to the grocery store before the weekend do you? When I got home Drama Queen had resorted to her own measures. She found a pack of pocket tissue to use.

The next morning before church we were taking showers. Yep you guessed it, I needed to wash clothes. I had to give the poor girl a beach towel and a very holey washcloth. To my poor children, "Use your hands!

At breakfast I ask the girls what they would like to eat. Now on Sunday mornings, to be honest with you we usually do not eat breakfast because we do good to get out the door on time and then are usually still five minutes late. They first say that they would like some cereal, then I remember that on Wednesday when the girls were home by themselves they left the milk out on the counter all day instead of putting it back up. Cereal was out, waffles were the next choice but we did not have enough time for that. I did have everything for that though! Finally I told them they could have 1 slice each of Banana Walnut bread that I had bought for our Sunday School Class. It was our week to contribute to the birthday breakfast. So, they had 1 little slice each. Drama Queen told me that everyone could hear their stomach's growling all during church. I said that made for good entertainment!

So, what are the chances that this girl's mother will let her sleep over again?

Wherefore art thou Spring?

This weekend was so nice. It was a little windy but otherwise it was beautiful. The sun was out and the temperature was in the 50 and 60's. Yesterday I even went for a walk around the neighborhood with my neighbor. It was nice to be able to get out and exercise and enjoy the sunshine. I am so ready for spring and yet Punxsutawney Phil did not have the same feelings. He says six more weeks of winter! I say Phooey!

Saturday night we went to the movies with our friends and their kids. We went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop. It was cute and funny. It was the corny, silly kind of funny. I really like Kevin James anyway so I laughed a lot. What I thought was strange was the fact that Kevin James' character, Paul Blart was really a lot like his character on King of Queens. I thought you usually tried to play different kinds of characters so as not to be typecast. Anyway it was a good movie and you should go see it.

The girls and I went shopping on Saturday for my niece's birthday. She will be 11 this Saturday. She had picked several things out at Justice so that makes it easy to shop. We also went to the library so Hurricane A could a biography book on Laura Bush. She is doing a book report on her which is due February 12. After getting the errands out of the way Steve and I went to dinner with our neighbors before going to the Grizzlies game. I had given Steve tickets to the Laker's game for Christmas. We ate on Beale Street at a place called Miss Polly's. It was very good. They are known for their Southern Fried Chicken. They served chicken with waffles. Now, this is the first time I have heard of this but apparently other people have had this before. I was a rebel and had their catfish sandwich. It was very good. We were full when we were done so we decided we would go back another time just for dessert which was skillet fried pies! YUM! From their we went to the Grizzlies game where they again lost their 10 point lead in the 2nd half and lost the game. Merry Christmas Steve!

Steve is feeling kind of puny. Yesterday he felt achy and tired all day with a low grade temp. During the night he felt just clammy and then sweaty. He went to work today but who knows what the day will bring. Now if we can just keep the rest of us germ free.

25 random things you need toknow about me

1. My middle name is Lynn

2. I have scoliosis

3. I like a clean and organized house although it always isn't that way

.4. I have 2 beautiful daughters that I love very much.

5. My oldest starts high school next year, however I am not old enough to have a child that old!

6. I got married when I was 22.

7. We have been married for almost 22 years.

8. I am addicted to the computer and Facebook

9. Not many paople know about this blog as I have not been updating regularly.

10. I would like to be a real estate agent before I retire.

11. Drama Queen also wants to go into real estate so I can see a mother daughter team in our future.

12. I wish I could afford an interior designer to do my entire house.

13. I really would like to go to Hawaii just once!

14. I am not a night owl.

15. I enjoy reading.

16. I did not finish college. I went for 3 years.

17. I was in Delta Zeta at Memphis State University

18. I had my 2nd child completely natural (no epidural) and it was NOT planned!!

19. I am woman, hear me roar! (because of #19)

20. I waited 8 years to have my first child because I HATE pain! Go figure.

21. If my 2nd child had been born first, she would have been an only child.

22. God is one smart cookie.

23. Only 2 more to go.

24. I love American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

25. Finished!!

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday we went to the funeral of Pop who is my sister's father-in-law. He was a real sweet, christian man, He has had a weak heart for several years now but actually had emergency surgery for a stomach aneurysm and never recovered from that. The family decided to take him off life support when they realized they were unable to take him off and have him breathe on his own. It had been his wish to not be kept alive by machines. Regardless of that, it is very hard to make the decision to do so. Gran said that she would feel like she was murdering him. I can certainly see her point because you are basically taking away the air that is keeping him alive. I know it would be extremely hard to have to make that decision. The funeral service was very nice. Dr. Ken Story did the service who was long time pastor at Germantown Baptist. It was good to hear him preach again. After the service we went to Germantown Baptist where Gran and Pop's Sunday School had all brought food for the family and friends. There was enough food to feed an army. You know Baptists and their food!

After we left there I went home to walk all that good food off on the treadmill. I seem to be doing pretty good on the diet that I don't want to call a diet. I have just lost about 4 lbs. but it is enough that I can tell it in my pants. That is what matters the most because most of my pants had gotten real snug not mentioning the unbuttoning that was going on after eating!

Last night me and the girls crawled in our bed and watched American Idol. It was the last night of auditions and Hollywood week begins next week. This is when it starts to get good. I get kind of tired of the auditions of people who obviously can't sing yet come anyway. I think they just want their moment in the limelight.

I am looking forward to this weekend when we are supposed to have warmer weather although it will be short-lived. They are prediciting snow again on Monday night. Ugghh! Bring on the spring weather!!

House to House

This past weekend our Neighborhood had our first annual Progressive Dinner. We had about 20 or so couples to participate. We had 2 houses for appetizers, 4 houses for dinner and 2 houses for dessert. Our house was one of the appetizer houses. We really had a good time getting to know neighbors that we usually do not get to see. By the time we got to the dessert house I was stuffed but the desserts looked so good that I had to try a couple of them. So much for the diet!



I am on the social committee for our Homeowners Association and this was our first event. We plan to have one every quarter. The next thing we are planning will be an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. I think that will go over well and hopefully we will have a lot of kids participating.



As I write this we are under a Ice storm warning. Snow I don't mind, but ice? Not so much. We had a major ice storm in 1994 where our power was out for several days. It is really difficult to make meals and stay warm when there is no electricity. At that time we had no children and now we have 2 kids and a dog to have to take care. So we will see what happens.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

I'm back again. I posted here on this blog about a year and a half ago. I then moved to Wordpress because I had heard several others using it with good results. Me...not so much. I did not like the fact that I was very limited in the page design. I plan to load some pictures and get this design to reflect a little more of my life.

This title also has another meaning. I am going to try hard to post on a regular basis. It probably will not be daily but hopefully enough to keep readers. I know I need to alert everyone who read my last blog that I have changed sites. I also am going to try and just write about what is happening in my life and not try to write like an expert, because I am not an expert. This is a amateur writer so therefore an amateur blog.

Now, for what is going on. Today is a little bittersweet. My sister and brother-in-law are grieving as Mr. Hallum was taken off life support yesterday afternoon after a week long recovery period from a stomach aneurysm surgery. He did not do very well and basically was not able to get off the respirator. He passed away about 3:30 this morning. He was not in the best of health anyway and everyone knew the chances of his surviving this surgery were not the best. My sister is pregnant and due with her third child in April. It is sad to think Pop will not get to meet his new grandson.

As far as my immediate family, not much going on. Drama Queen is in 8th grade and will be going to high school next year. They have recently had meeting at school with their counselor to discuss routes they may want to take out of college. That will help them determine a direction to go in in high school as well. She is thinking she might like to go into Real Estate. I would like to do that one day before I retire. Maybe we can make a mother daughter team. That would be fun.

Hurricane A is in 4th grade and doing pretty well. I can't believe next year is her last year in elementary school. My babies are growing up.

For now, I guess that is all I have to report.