SouthernBelle

Alabama Birthday Weekend

2010-08-19T18:51:00.008-05:00

Last month we had our annual birthday bash in Alabama. We celebrate my cousins Lisa and Mark's birthday as well as their spouses. As we do every year Mark takes us out on the boat for the afternoon. This year as we prepared to go w were all shocked when my 90 year old grandfather said he wanted to go. We never dreamed that he would want to go so we had never asked him before. He told us that he never went because we had never asked! So we helped him on to the boat and got him situated in the back with his life jacket.
So, we headed slowly out of the slew in to river. Mark was taking us all on a leisurely boat ride. All of a sudden my grandfather said, "Can't this thing go any faster?" Once again we were shocked! Mark sped up a little but that wasn't fast enough! He told Mark to floor it! So, he did. We were all afraid his hearing aids would fall out. Actually I think the sound of the air whipping by was a little loud, so he took them out. Then Paw Paw decided he wanted to take the captain's chair.

He looks like a natural. He really had a good time. We took a lot of pictures of him because he wanted to show all of his walking buddies what an adventurous man he was. Good memories. We headed back to let the older crowd off the boat and then the younger ones went out again. Please note that I am included in the younger crowd. We took out the SeaDoo as well.

We then headed back to the house for dinner and the opening of presents, or money as it ended up being.

Thanks Susan for a fun weekend ad for being a gracious hostess.

Jerry's Sno-Cones and More

2010-05-28T14:04:00.004-05:00

Last night we went with our neighbors to Jerry's Sno-cones for some Memphis favorite sno-cones. All summer long you will hear people talk about going to Jerry's. This was only our second time to go, but I swear that place makes a killing. We got there about 7:30pm and the line was all the way to the street. This place is not in the best of neighborhoods and you have to watch your back while there. Just kidding...not really! This was our neighbors first time to go and they followed us out there. We followed our directions obediently from Sha-nay-nay, our GPS (What? Don't you name your GPS?). I know they wondered where we were taking them when we turned on to a residential street where the men hanging out in their front yards were wearing wife beaters and cars jacked up on bricks loitering the yards. Yep, deep in the heart of Memphis! This place sits right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They have about 25 different flavors to choose from. One of which is called Wedding Cake. I haven't been brave enough to buy a whole cup of it to try but people swear it is wonderful. I opted for a safe blueberry. My neighbor quickly whipped out his camera to capture my unknowing blue lips and teeth! Other flavors chosen by our group were, cherry, grape (yep, we're adventuresome!), green apple and wedding cake. Mind you, wedding cake was ordered by our neighbor. He mixed it with green apple. Odd combination, but whatever. As we sit outside and eat our sno-cones, I observe the different walks of life around me. To our right was a family with 2 kids sitting on a hill with the kids taking turns rolling down that hill right at our feet. (No, thanks, not a problem Ma'am.) Then to our left, two teeny boppers who are obviously on a date. She was sitting so close to him, I swear she was sitting in his lap. Then, THEN to our far right there were three girls that were...interesting. One of the girls had tattoos adorning all the way up her arms (attractive) and another girl had a earring in her nose. Now to round out this little group, the other girl was wearing a little yellow damask dress and yellow shoes looking like she stepped right out of Leave it to Beaver! She was only missing the pearls! I think we were the only normal people there. I wonder what they were thinking of us?

Being that this is Memorial Day weekend, what would the weekend be if you didn't have a cook-out? Tonight we have plans to get together with two other couples and cook out ribs. My mouth is watering already. We are excited to get together with these other couples. I think we have a lot of things in common with them. One of them is the family of Drama Queen's boyfriend. I hope our friendship can withstand it if they ever break up. They are actually approaching their one year anniversary together.

That is the only plans we have for our weekend right now. I plan to relax and maybe do a little cleaning and a little wash. Maybe we will get out the paddle boat and paddle around our lake.

So, what are your plans for the weekend?

Creative Movement

2010-03-29T10:37:00.002-05:00

Creative Movement
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Yesterday the evening service at church was led by the students Worship Arts. The drama, creative movement and choir all performed. It was really good. Drama Queen performed with the Creative Movement team and they did really well. Unlike her name, she does not do drama! The church always loves it when they perform. The last song they performed, Amazing Love, always brings people to their feet. Good job girls!

Shopaholics

2010-03-27T17:48:00.001-05:00

Shopaholics
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Today we battled the mall to go shopping. The intent of this trip was to get Easter dresses. We went to Justice for Hurricane A and needless to say she found a lot of clothes but no Easter dress. We ran into her friend there that tried out for cheerleading with her. She made the team. We were excited for her. Hurricane A seems to be feeling better about not making it today.

After going to several stores in the mall one girl found a dress and the other one didn't. One found shoes and the other one didn't. That always seems to be the way it goes. We, howevver, came home with way too many clothes!

Not the picture I wanted to post

2010-03-26T22:13:00.002-05:00

Not the picture I wanted to post
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

This is not the picture idea I had planned for tonight. My daughter tried out for cheerleader today after having clinic all week. Tonight we went to the school to see the posting of the ones who made it. Well, she didn't make it. :( So, I decided to take a picture of me and my girls. You can probably guess which one didn't make cheerleader.

7 Days Day 6

2010-03-26T14:56:00.002-05:00

7 Days Day 6
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

This picture was taken at our volleyball game. Our Sunday School class has a team and we play on Thursday nights for a couple more weeks. It was a very horrible night, and not just for me, but the whole team. It literally was like watching the Bad News Bears! We missed everything or we stood there and stared at the ball thinking someone else was getting it! It was rather comical. I could not hit ANYTHING! It was quite embarrasing. I'm sure the other players were wishing I would just sit out.

Next week can only get better because it certainly can't get worse!

7 days day 5

2010-03-26T14:52:00.002-05:00

7 days day 5
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Day 5 our theme was dinner. You could interpret it anyway you wanted. I tried to get a picture of just my food but I kept getting a blurry picture and not the nice pretty bokeh. I finally put the camera on the kitchen counter and went for this angle. I cropped it down a bit but you can still see Steve leaning over to get out of the picture. I wish I could have cropped out my flabby arm but then I would have cropped out the food!

By the way, we had sausage casserole and green beans. YUM YUM!

7 days: day 4

2010-03-26T14:41:00.002-05:00

7 days: day 4
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

I titled this picture "Gettin my hair did". This picture is also rather unflattering. Wet head is never my best look. Leslie has been doing my hair since we graduated from high school. We have known each other since we were in 9th grade. That is over 30 years! Wow! That is hard to believe.

7 Days: Day 3

2010-03-26T14:38:00.002-05:00

7 Days: Day 3
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Day three of the 7 day run. At lunch I went to Burger King to get a drink to go with the lunch that I brought from home. Our ice machine at work is broken, so unless you want to drink a hot drink or drink from the can, which I do not like to do, you go buy one. I took this with my IPhone while the workers had turned around to get my drink.

If you look closely at this picture, you will see that my hand looks like crocodile skin. I was in desperate need of lotion!

7 days: 2 Style

2010-03-26T14:35:00.002-05:00

7 days: 2 Style
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

This is the picture for Day 2 of 7 Days. It rained all day long on Sunday March 21 and it was quite chilly for the first full day of Spring. The day before was warm and beautiful and then the rain brought in a cold front. It was unwelcome!

So, today my original thought was to get a picture of me in the rain and so that you could see me standing in puddles. Well, since it was raining, I couldn't take my camera into the rain so I set my tripod up in the garage and then I couldn't get a picture close enough for the detail. So, this is what we get. I really need a longer focus lens! Hint hint.

The theme was style for today. I was styling the rain gear. I am actually wearing Drama Queen's rainboots and they were like two sizes too small. My toes were literally curled into them. I need to get me a pair of rainboots!

Spring 7 days 2010

2010-03-26T14:28:00.002-05:00

Spring 7 days 2010
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Today is the first day of my Flickr 7 Days group. In the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter we have a 7 day run where you take a self portrait a day and post it to the group. It is a lot of fun and I love seeing what creative ways people find to take a self portrait. Here is my picture for the first day, Saturday March 20, 2010.

I am not crazy about the way I look here, but what can you do? Chloe kept trying to jump up in my lap so I just picked her up and let her be a part of my self portrait. You can see in the reflection behind me that Steve and the girls are practicing ball in the backyard.

February Birthdays

2010-02-10T13:57:00.008-06:00

This past weekend we celebrated my nieces 12th birthday. Time should not be able to pass this quickly. It is always fun when we get the family together to celebrate such occasions. Her birthday usually starts them off for the year and then Anna's is the next one in May and then it is a monthly occasion after that.

In addition, we had cute babies to play with and watch explore. They are both 9 months old and crawling everywhere. Following are pictures of the cuties.

Lisa and Ella Marie stayed at our house so I was able to snap a couple of shots of Ella Marie. These are straight out of the camera with no editing.

More pictures to come later.

Photo Shoot

2010-02-03T15:55:00.004-06:00

I mentioned that I am trying to improve on my photography skills. I really want to be able to take great pictures like people I see on Flickr. They inspire me to get better. My oldest daughter likes to pose for me and she is really photogenic. I like to use her for practice. We recently did a photo shoot of her and our neighbor Megan. I am posting some of those pictures below.

In my quest to get better, you may be able to tell that I need help in certain areas. Mainly, lighting. I have bought some heavy duty lights and also used a powerful light from the garage, but I can's seem to get the lighting right so that there are no shadows. I still need to work on that. Also, as you will see in some photos I have edited them. I got Photoshop software for Christmas and I have been practicing my editing skills. I can only do the basics so far. Look for improvement there also.

Now, here are a few photos from a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago with my girls, one of the neighbors and my neice.

Ice Storm 2010

2010-02-01T14:30:00.003-06:00

Hello, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kelly Metaxas and I am the owner of this here blog. I find it kind of ironic that the last post was of a significant snow because we get so few and that is what I am posting about today. This year however it was primarily ice with a little snow thrown in. I didn't get any pictures of the snow/ice or the girls in it because we didn't really get out in it because ice is just no fun. Instead, I am including a picture of what happened to our house as a result of this ice.

We discovered this lovely huge spot in our garage that was leaking about 1:00 Sunday afternoon. My daughter saw it when she was going outside to shovel the driveway! That would have lasted all of five minutes if she had gotten there. As you can see in this picture, this hole is about the size of a sofa in length. It was just dripping when we noticed it and we were clueless of where it could be coming from. There are no bathrooms or anything to leak in that wall. The playroom is directly above that. So, we called our neighbor over because he used to do some plumbing work when he was in the service. We cut the sheetrock out so we could track the source of the leak. Apparently it is from the weight of the ice just sitting on the roof. Our gutters are clogged up with ice and so nothing was really draining so I guess the melted ice had to find somewhere to go. We really don't think we have a leak per se because we have never had any problems with that in the past. We have decided to just patch the hole and wait for another rain storm to see if it leaks anymore before we file a claim and search our roof for the leak. If we were to file a claim our insurance will likely go up because it will be our third claim. We filed for damage on our other house from Hurricane Elvis and then electricity hit our house about a year ago. We think our deductible is about $500 and it should be less than that to repair the hole.

So, that is my storm story of the Ice Storm of 2010. The schools were out on Friday because that is when the ice storm came. They are out again today even though the sun melted a good deal of it yesterday. The rural roads in the northern part of the county still have ice on them so we get a day off. The girls are excited. It is going to be hard to get them back in the groove because I don't think they have gone a full week since Christmas and they have a day off next week for President's day.

I am trying to take more and more pictures to improve my photography skills. I am going to try and post some of those pictures so I can track my progress. I hope to be able to see an improvement over time. So, for the future that will be my sole purpose of posting on this blog. Let's see if I can keep that up!

Winter Wonderland

2009-03-02T19:27:00.009-06:00

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

2009-02-25T16:01:00.003-06:00

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

2009-02-16T19:05:00.004-06:00

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?

2009-02-12T18:15:00.003-06:00

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

2009-02-10T19:20:00.005-06:00

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

2009-02-09T19:10:00.007-06:00

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

2009-02-06T15:25:00.005-06:00

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

2009-02-03T14:58:00.002-06:00

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?

2009-02-02T10:32:00.003-06:00

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

2009-01-31T11:24:00.004-06:00

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

2009-01-30T12:59:00.002-06:00

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

2009-01-28T10:00:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-01-27T13:35:00.006-06:00

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.

Growing Up

2007-12-21T15:05:00.000-06:00

The other night Drama Queen and I were finishing up wrapping some Christmas gifts. She looked at me all sheepishly and said "I need to tell you something." I asked her if she found my hiding spot for gifts or something. She told me no but she was afraid to tell me what it was because she thought I would get mad. After gentle prodding she finally leaned over to me and said "Momma, I know that you and Dad are Santa." I just looked at her, all the time thinking that I thought she had figured that out a long time ago, and said "What makes you think that?" She said " Well, like duh Mom, everyone knows! People at school are talking about it all the time. I have known it for awhile but didn't want to tell you."

Well, I'm glad it lasted this long. She is in 7th grade for pete's sake. I thought she knew since 4th grade because we had a discussion about it then but I had told her then that if she didn't believe then she wouldn't receive. I guess it worked!

Things on my mind

2007-12-20T11:23:00.000-06:00

Here is a bulleted list of things I am thinking about during this busy season.

I need to go grocery shopping

Clean my house for Christmas Eve Dinner

Did I remember to invite all of my guests (If you are reading this and you are in my family...you are invited)

Do I really need tackle the chore of trying to make homemede rolls for the very first time for Christmas Eve Dinner? Nah

Where do you draw the line of who to buy for...teachers, co-workers (who bought for you-oops)bus drivers, hair stylists (unless I make my appt after christmas)

I really need to start next year buying a couple of extra gifts and having them wrapped under the tree for those unexpected gifts that you receive. (Thanks to my deceased MawMaw for that idea)

Night and Day

2007-12-19T16:29:00.000-06:00

How is it that you can give birth to two children and they can be like night and day? Drama Queen, my first child, is basically a shy and quiet child who loves attention. I know, shy but loving attention? But REALLY she does. Hurricane A can be wild and rambunctious. Drama Queen is a complainer and Hurricane A is not.

Drama Queen has been home the last two days with a virus. She was so excited to be staying home "sick". However, at the mention of going to the Dr. she gets ballistic. Monday afternoon she started running a fever and said "Finally, a fever!" She also wanted to know if I had called Nana and Bo (my mom and sister) to tell them that she was sick. Uh, no, the world does not stop revolving because you have a few sniffles! She must take after her daddy, isn't that the way most men act? Then I noticed that she put on her away message to her friends, "trying to sleep...sick" PLEASE! LOL. I have to laugh at her because when she is on the phone with her friends, she will walk through the room and give this very exaggerated cough or will say "Mom, do I still have fever?" Even Hurricane A will tell her to stop showing off to her friends. It cracks me up. She just wants someone to show her a little attention. I don't know, maybe I don't give her enough attention.

Hurricane A will not complain unless she is actually sick. When she complains then I know she isn't feeling good. How can they be so different? I pass the sames genes on to each of them. The only thing I can think is that she must have gotten her daddy's sick genes!

Christmas shows

2007-12-04T19:51:00.000-06:00

We are sitting here watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Well, some of us are watching it. I am on the laptop reading my blogs that I subscribe to. My family is a little annoyed with me because I never watch it. I watched it when I was a little girl I told them. They don't understand why I don't watch it over and over each year. Because I don't like to watch anything over and over. Never have and never will. Does that make me a dud? They started asking me questions like, Which elf wanted to become a dentist when he grows up, What island did they land on. I DON'T KNOW AND I REALLY DON'T CARE! Call me a bad mother or whatever. That is just not fun to me. Do you like to watch christmas shows or any children shows each year?

On another note, Hurricane A is Star of the Week this week. I had to send pictures of her and her family yesterday. Today I went and ate with her and read to the class. We read Lyle the Crocodile and Where's Chester? I took McDonald's for us to eat and we ate up on the stage. On Friday I am supposed to send a treat for the class. She wants a large cookie. I will be glad when the Star of the week thing ends. My sister teaches 3rd grade also and she no longer does that. This teacher does but hopefully this is the last one I will have to do. No more finding family pictures etc.

Drama Queen is just growing up before my eyes. She is really turning into a beautiful young woman. Where did the time go? Her friends are already starting their cycle. She hasn't yet and I don't expect she will for another 2 years maybe. I was a late bloomer and did not start until 9th grade. She seems to be following in my footsteps in that regards. So, I have another couple of years on that one.

That's the latest on this southern family.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T15:50:00.000-06:00

Today I only had to work until 12:00. We had some thunderstorms this morning and I really did not feel like going out in it. But I did and now I am home. I have started making one of my dishes for Thanksgiving day. I have also cleaned my guest room for my cousin and her husband. The girls have been "supposedly" cleaning their rooms and play room since I got home from work! Amazing how it takes so long. I think there is more playing going on than cleaning. I am really just wanting to sit on the couch tonight and watch tv or work my suduko puzzle.

Happy Eating and Happy Thanksgiving!

Perimenopause - Oh what fun!

2007-11-19T14:45:00.000-06:00

Today I want to talk about something that has been plaguing me for a while. It is something that I feel I am too young to be experiencing. Perimenopause, in other words, symptoms of menopause before the actual "menoapuse". What is so comforting, is the fact that this can last 7 to 10 years before you actually go through "menopause". I am only 42 years old. Doesn't this see awfully young? Since I turned 40 I have been having all of these little symptoms that keep adding up. I have trouble sleeping, headaches, crabby moods, irregular or missed cycles and night sweats. Those are the worst. The past 2 nights I have not taken my Lunesta to sleep as I am really wanting to get off of them. Saturday night I woke up about every hour because I was sweating profusely. The back of my neck and my chest were soaking wet. I would throw back the covers to only minutes later pull them back up because I was cold. This was very annoying because I feel like I could have had a decent night sleep if it weren't for that. My GYN is prescribing me a low dose birth control pill just to level out my hormones. It will take about 4-6 months to level out. I hope this works because my family is going to kill me if I don't change the attitude.

Pre-teen Back to School shopping

2007-07-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

Think back if you will, to that time when you were in Junior High. Remember the discussions you had with your mom about the current styles and what you would and would not wear? I was in Junior High back in the late 70's and early 80's. I can remember vividly telling my mother that I refused to wear those shirts with a bow tied all nice and pretty like at your neck. Ewww, gross, no way! Another thing I refused to wear was the preppy look. No one was going to get me in those Izod shirts, Khaki or plaid pants and those horrible penny loafers with the nice shiny new penny in the center. You want to know the funniest thing about that? When my husband and I went on our first date, do you want to know what he was wearing? Picture this in your mind... A guy that looked amazingly like Steve Perry of Journey wearing khaki pants, button down shirt with a sweater tied around his neck (Awww) and penny loafers with a penny! I am so not kidding! Anyway, if you have noticed, the plaid shorts are in style right now. I think they are cute! Who woulda thunk it?

So, now it is that time for me to be the parent shopping with my pre-teen for school. She is going into 7th grade. I remember that being a really tough year when peer pressure is really big. We went shopping this weekend and I noticed how much peer pressure influences what you wear. I also have a younger daughter who is going into the 3rd grade. She is just now able to wear clothes from the Limited Too. She was excited to being going in to buy clothes where all the cool girls buy clothes. No more Gymboree for Hurricane A! (sniff) So, we are looking around and Hurricane A is picking out clothes left and right. I notice that Drama Queen is only holding a shirt. I mention that shouldn't she be looking at jeans. She desperately needs some more jeans. She gives me this look and says "Mom, no one wears Limited Too Jeans in 7th grade!" Oh well, please tell me what jeans they do wear I ask her. She said "Abercrombie or Hollister" I informed her that she can also wear some jeans from Limited Too because I refuse to buy her 3 or 4 pair of $60-70 jeans. Especially not the ones with the worn out holes in them! (I vaguely think I might be sounding like my mother!) I make her try some on and she comes out and I think she looks all cute and the jeans fit perfectly. Her first response is "These are too big in the leg!" I say "What do you mean too big in the leg? They look fine." She says, pulling at the material on her legs, "Look at all this? They are too big." I said, "What, you have maybe a half inch of room? I am not buying you skin tight jeans." "But, that is what everyone wears! Mooomm, you just want me to look like a baby!" (Have I heard this conversation before about 30 years ago? UUGGHH!) After a few more exchanges of words and looks I made her buy one pair of jeans from there. So, we proceed to Abercrombie where she picks out several pair of jeans to try on. I put my foot down about the ones with holes. I bought her a pair last year that were about $70 and after the first washing she had to wear leggings under them every time she wore them! That is ridiculous! She goes to the dressing room and tries on the first pair. I hear her say "These are perfect!" She comes out and the jeans look like they are a second skin. When she walks the jeans crease into her legs like a sausage link. "Those are too tight" I say. She informs me that this is the way everyone wears them. I have already learned that by everyone, she actually means maybe one or two girls. I all of a sudden notice a pattern in what she is trying on. She is trying to look like this girl in the neighborhood who wears her jeans that tight and her shirts revealing two perky "girls" that seem too perky for a girl in 7th grade. I say "I'm sorry, you are not going to go out of the house looking like A. I can't believe her mother lets her go out of the house looking like that." (OMG did I actually say that? NOOOOO!) She assures me that isn't what she is doing and I make her try on some other style jeans in the same store. After much discussion we buy one pair of jeans and several t-shirts. After that I decide I have had enough for the day and we go home.

Do you want to know the biggest lesson I learned that day? I have turned into my MOTHER!

New Journey

2007-07-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

Today marks a new journey in my blog world. My goal is to share my crazy life with you. I hope to look back one day and laugh at all the craziness and share this journal of life with my children so they can laugh and remember their childhood. Without further ado, so it begins.

Saturday was cleaning day in Southernbelle's house. The last time the house was cleaned was a month ago (yes I said a month ago) and it was cleaned by my mother! Thank goodness for mother's. They are always there when you need them. I decided to start cleaning in the girls closets. It is back to school shopping time and I have no idea what they have or need. Recently it seems as though clothes seem to be disappearing. Drama Queen's (my oldest daughter) closet was not that bad. That is amazing in itself. I then moved on to Hurricane A's (my youngest daughter) closet. Oh my goodness. Now I know why she has been getting her room picked up so fast. Her interpretation of picking up her room is obviously to gather everything up and throw it the closet. This is what I found in the bottom of her closet:

Dirty clothes
Clean clothes
Dirty underwear (eewwww)
Toys
Videos without the case
Odds and ends to who knows what

Now I know where all her new clothes were and the new underwear that I only remember seeing once! It seems they were growing gross things in the closet. I don't think Hurricane A needs any more clothes. She has enough to dress for nearly 2 weeks without repeat.

Next on to the playroom closet. This one was so bad that it took our entire family of 4 to complete it. In here we found:

More dirty clothes
Mismatched socks
Ponytail holders that also seem to magically disappear
Game pieces
Polly Pocket dolls and itty bitty accessories
Bratz dolls
Barbie dolls

During this time together we had glorious fun of laughing and fighting. HA! Anyway, at one point you could hear this conversation between SoGent (husband) and myself.

SoGent: Are we done yet?

Me: I wish. This clutter seems to be growing.

SoGent: I really hate spending my weekends cleaning up the house. (editors note: PUHLEEEZ!)

Me: Tell me about it. By the time I get home from work the last thing I want to do is clean and I want to spend my weekends doing fun things.

SoGent: Would your mother really like to clean our house?

Me: Yes! She loves (exaggeration) to clean. She also would love the extra spending money since she retired.

SoGent: Well, let me think about it.

Doesn't he know better than to dangle such a thing in front of me? I will go after that like a dog to a t-bone?