7 days: 2 Style

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

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.

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!

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!

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.