Happy Valentines Day (and anniversary!)

Just wanted to stop in and say Happy Valentines Day to YOU!!!!!!!!!

and Happy 10,228th day anniversary to my hubby! (better known as 28 years together!)

Hope you all have a wonderfully sweet Valentines Day!

Missy

It’s My THIRD Year Bloggiversary!!

Hey ya’ll! :0)

As of February 4th, I have been blogging for THREE years!

In some aspects, it doesn’t seem possible it could be three years since I started this blog, but as far as friends go, I feel like I’ve known some of you forever!! (and that would be forever in a good way!)  

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who takes the time out to read what I have to do say, to see what project I’m doing, or to stop and pray for my family when “not so great” things are going on.  I can’t begin to tell you how much you mean to me.  You are SO special!

Since I’m on here, I thought I’d give you all a little update about my hubby’s surgery.  He had back surgery on Jan 22nd….it’s called anterior discectomy and fusion.  They basically made an incision about three inches long, on the front ride side of his neck.  They went in, through the neck, and pretty much took out the herniated disc, put in a bone and connected the two vertebrae together with a plate and screws.  We never dreamed it would be as difficult a recovery as it’s been, but praise God, he’s doing so much better now.  He had a terrible time swallowing, and would get choked on just about everything he ate…he even got strangled on his own saliva, but he’s not doing that as much now.  He is getting stronger everyday, and I want to thank you all for your wonderful positive energy, thoughts and prayers……..it has all been such a blessing!  I take him back to the doctor on February, 25th and hopefully they will say everything is perfect and he can go back to work. (although I have thoroughly enjoyed having him home with me!)    We will be having our 28th anniversary on Valentines day, and it will be nice having him home then!  Hopefully he’ll feel like getting out of the house for a nice dinner, but I don’t think there will be any dancing! lol  (not like we ever go when we are healthy either! ha!)

Just wanted to share what’s going on around here, and again, say thank you for reading my blog, and being my friend! I love you guys!

Blessings
Missy

Technorati Tags: anterior discectomy,fusion,blog anniversary,valentines day

What a Week!

I have been away from the blog for a bit because of all the things that have been going on around here!  Is it just me, or is Christmas time the nuttiest, but most fun time of the year?! Just this last week alone, we had church on Wednesday night, Thursday night was an ornament exchange party, Friday night was ANOTHER ornament exchange and cookie exchange party, Saturday night was our annual Music Ministry Party at our house (we had 35 people in our home!),  and then Sunday was church with my hubby (the music leader) and our choir performing “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.  It was such a crazy busy week, but I thought it might be nice to share this song..especially in light of the mass shootings in Newtown, CT.  This song was written when the composer lost his wife on Christmas day, and also found out his son was wounded in the war. Listen to the words and be blessed.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day with the Trinity Choir

Here are the words…

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Only the God of  Heaven can bring peace.

Blessings
Missy

If you’re reading this through RSS feed or subscription, you’ll have to click over to the blog to watch the video. :0)

Christmas is Coming!

Hey Everyone! Are you getting ready for Christmas?! 
I'm finally not feeling so totally overwhelmed! My decorations are up, my gifts are almost completely purchased, and the ones I do have are wrapped. I'm finished with Christmas cards, and have mailed out the ones I can't hand out at church. I feel like I'm at least on track. :0)
We're having a big Music Ministry party at our house on December 15th, so I have to start focusing on that.  My house is SO dirty! (ok, maybe I am a smidge overwhelmed on that part, but it'll be ok...I just keep telling myself to breathe...there's lots of time) I also have a friend coming over to help me the day before the party, so that will help a lot. :0)
We have some Christmas traditions we do every year that we haven't exactly started on.  We ALWAYS make a gingerbread house, and of course bake cookies.

This is my little man, age 4, making cookies with me :0)  (I can't believe he's already 11!!!)


 We also always get our boys advent calendars.  This year, I got my little guy a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar...he'll love that...just not sure how I'll incorporate the Bible into it yet! lol  Gonna have to use my imagination!
What traditions do you all do every year?  I 'd love to hear from you and maybe even use some of yours to start new traditions in our home.

Blessings!
Missy

Mermaid Cottage Vacation, Tybee Island

I HAVE to tell you what an amazing vacation we just had!  First I have to thank Layla Palmer, from The Lettered Cottage, for pointing us to the most wonderful little cottages on earth!  I love you Layla! I’d also like to give a shout out to Diane and Denise from Mermaid Cottages, two of the nicest ladies you’ll ever have the pleasure to speak to…thanks gals for such a wonderful week!

Our family has been wanting to get away on a vacation for quite some time, but we haven’t been able to make it happen.  Thanks to some great friends and a long car trip, this year we got to go!  We left on August 11th and used some of my hubbies Hilton points to stay in Asheville, NC…which was the halfway point to Tybee Island.  We had our free continental breakfast the next day and his the road to this fabulous destination!…

Don’t ya’ just love that sign?! 

We drove a little bit farther into Tybee and were greeted with our wonderful little cottage!  Here she is….

We stayed in the Jensen Cottage….she was built in 1920 for the Jensen's when they were married. The current owner is only the 2nd owner of this little gem, and she is precious!

There were so many wonderful things to see before we even went in the door…….

The side yard, complete with a koi pond!

Koi fountain…

Beautiful Adirondack chair…so welcoming!

and my, oh my…check out the HUGE screened in back porch! I spent a LOT of time out there!…………..

Here are some more shots of the back yard…

Be still my heart…hydrangeas!

There’s just something about old signs…..just look at that aged wood!…

Doesn’t this just say welcome home….

and this just made me giggle…..who wouldn’t love riding a purple bike to the ocean!! ……

Here’s that wonderful screened in porch…see how huge it is! I lit those candles and laid on that sofa more times than I wanna confess!……Oh, and they had all kinds of magazines to choose from too!

This little sign on the porch summed it all up for me…..

I’ll show you the inside of the house on my next post, so stay tuned!  You have to see why, the minute we walked into the house, we knew we were supposed to stay there!  I’ll show you next time!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: Tybee Island,Mermaid Cottages,best vacation getaways,Jensen Cottage,Ocean vacations

I’m Baaaack!! :-)

Hey girlfriends!!!!!  I finally have a computer again, but boy oh boy, am I ever having a hard time getting all my pictures moved from one place to another.  My loving hubby tried to help me move them all at once, but it only moved about 25% of them, so now I’m having to go through each folder and transfer them one folder at a time.  This is going to take FOREVER!! 
This is what I look like right about now!…………..

We did buy a terabyte, external wireless hard drive so all my pics will eventually be on there and in order.  Someday.   That thing says it holds 750,000 pictures! I should be good for a long, LONG time….or at least until Sweet Pea comes again, then I can’t promise how many pictures I’ll take. :0) 

I have so many things I want to show you all…if I can ever find my pictures that is.  I have a TON done on my window seat, I’m building a new project that’ll be going in my dining room (if it turns out right, that is), and we went on a wonderful vacation a couple of weeks ago that I can’t wait to tell you about!  Be patient with me…it’s all coming!  I just have to figure out where all my pictures went first. :0)

Blessings and HUGS!

Missy

Technorati Tags: I'm back,computer problems,transferring pictures.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Valentines Day!

Hey everyone!  Guess what?!….

 
Today my hubby and I are celebrating our 27th anniversary!  Yep, we were married on Valentines Day 27 years ago today!  I was 17 and he was 19…and no we didn’t “have” to get married, we were just head over heels in love.  :0) 
Our wedding day was one I’ll never forget!   First off, my poor hubby-to-be had to work…his boss wouldn’t let him off for his own wedding day….who does that to a person??!!  To top that off, he was SICK…I mean really sick….he had a fever and everything. He was so sick, his groomsmen had to dress him! 

So you’re probably thinking it couldn’t get any worse right?  WRONG! 


We got a HUGE snow storm…I’m talking over a foot and had to send 4 wheel drive vehicles out to pick up people in our bridal party.   

We finally got everyone to the church (and unbelievably had a good turn out in the pews too) and got it all underway.   My love was up front waiting for me, and my daddy walked me down the aisle.  You’d think everything would have been smooth sailing from there on out wouldn’t you?  Nope, not exactly.  I’m a singer, so I sang  the song, “You are flesh of my flesh” to my honey and someone was supposed to hit the record button so we’d have this precious moment in our lives on tape….but did they? Nope…we have no audio or video of our beautiful day….hope he was listening good to me singing, cause it was a one time deal!  lol       (if you’d like to hear the song, go HERE and click on the first song)

We were also supposed to have someone fill our glass up with grape juice so we could take our first communion together, but they forgot, so we had to “pretend” to drink the juice, cause the glass was empty! Oh well!

Then there was the kiss. (this is a good part of the wedding!)  :0) 
Apparently, according to our pastor at the time, the stage got about 15 degrees hotter when I laid THE kiss on my honey! 
(This isn’t our wedding pic, but I’m thinking it was something like this……you know, fireworks and all!) :0)


Our pastor said of everyone he’s ever married we still hold the #1 spot for the best kiss!!  He’s performed a LOT of weddings…including his own kids, and we still hold the top spot!  I think we need some kind of trophy for that don’t you?! lol   OH…our pastor was also performing our wedding on his anniversary. He and his wife were married on valentines day as well!

The wedding was finally finished and everything that could have gone wrong, pretty much did, but we were still married….and were were over the moon happy!  We were supposed to go south to a nice little place in TN for our honey moon, but the roads were impassable so we had to spend our honeymoon in Northern KY in a Holiday Inn!  Some day we’ll have a real honeymoon to make up for what we didn’t get then, but even if we don’t, we’re still married and we’re still happy as larks.  This just goes to show you that even when things seem tumultuous and aren’t going quite right in the moment, they can still turn out beautiful in the end.   It’s kind of like that with life too.  You may be going through some terrible things right now, but God sees the big picture and knows the outcome.  We only see the back of the needlepoint picture of life….the knots and the hanging threads, but God is using all those moments in our lives…good and bad, to weave a beautiful piece of artwork.  He sees the finished side….he sees the beauty.  We just have to trust him and know that “all things work together for good to those that love the Lord”.  Romans 8:28.

 

So, I’d like to take this moment in time  to wish my beautiful and loving husband a happy 27th anniversary! I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life making new memories with you!

Blessings
Missy

PS…I forgot to tell you…I hadn’t eaten anything all day the day of our wedding except the bite of cake at the reception, so I was starving!! We arrived at our hotel at 10:05…..room service closed at 10:00 and TJ was too sick to drive to get me anything and I couldn’t drive a stick shift…. I called my mom to say hey….they were eating hot pizza. 

Par for the course.

Technorati Tags: valentines day,anniversary,perfect gift

Another Birthday!!….It’s busy around here!

Today our Lincoln turns 20 years old! 

Where does the time go?  It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital!

Just watch him grow up right before your eyes…..

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

We love you!
Mom and Dad :0)

Happy Birthday to a Special Guy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

I’d like to introduce all of YOU to my daddy….he’s a special guy!

Won’t you all leave him a birthday wish or two…I know my mom will show it to him, and I’m sure it will make him smile.  He’s given our family so much to smile about over the years!

Thanks so much!

Love you guys!
Missy

Things you don’t know about me…

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s 2012 already…time goes by so quickly and the older I get the faster it goes.  Does it seem that way to you too?

I thought, to start off the new year, I would tell you some things about me that you don’t know.   Not sure anyone will be interested, but these are things that made me who I am today, so you might know me better if you read them. :0)

In the hospital where I was born, I was the last baby to be born there.  There was a set of twins, then me….then the hospital was torn down and I believe there’s a Kmart there today. lol 

I was pretty poor growing up, but I don’t think I ever knew it, my parents always tried to make my childhood special.  I remember my daddy coming home one day with a box…it was a baby alive doll box.  I thought it was just a box because I wasn’t used to getting toys out of the blue, but my mom and dad took their last $10.00 in the bank and bought me that doll.  I kept it for a LONG time, but if you remember baby alive dolls, you could feed them real food….let’s just say I fed mine and it didn’t come out, and baby alive doll food stinks when it’s left inside the doll.  YUCK!  

I grew up in a little house out in the country…..we had an outhouse, a smokehouse, a pigpen, (with a pig named Arnold),      a garden, a well and a pond.  I remember one time I was playing with dish liquid, trying to make bubbles,  and I spilled the bottle and it came within inches of dripping in the well…oh boy did I get in trouble!  I would have ruined our drinking water if it had gotten in the well….. God was looking out for me even then! lol

I learned how to ride a bike when we lived in that house.  A purple bike with a banana seat and a high back.  It looked sort of like this, but with a high bar in the back…

I had to learn how to ride my bike in the grass….with a hill….and a fence.  I can assure you I hit the fence more times than I can count trying ride around the house and flying down the hill. I finally figured out how to ride my bike and ran in the house exclaiming, “I rode around the house nine times”!  I was so excited.  

I recently went back to the old farm to take pictures of the house, but it had been torn down and big barn is there now.  I sat in the middle of the road and cried…..it’s hard to see your childhood home torn down.  BUT our pond was still there.  I had a pet duck that used to swim in the pond…my dad was skimming rocks in it and hit the duck in the head by accident. I thought sure he had killed it because it’s little webbed feet went up in the air and it was down head first in the pond. I suppose it was just addled a bit, because it eventually came back up and was ok.  I sure have a lot of good memories of that old place! One summer we had a chicken disappear, we couldn’t figure out what on earth happened to her. One day she came strolling back to the farm with a trail of baby chicks behind her….now how fun is that?! I kind of miss living on a farm.

We eventually moved from there into a trailer park….my mom made it into the prettiest home.  She has a knack for that.

I made a lot of good friends living there….one of which was a boy named Michael Todd Johnson.  We got along really well (ok, most of the time), but I remember one day he stepped on my foot with football cleats on and cut my foot open. I mean really OPEN.  He picked me up and carried me to Mrs. McCall’s house….she was a little old lady that lived in the park, she used to be a nurse, so she cleaned it up and put steri-strips or butterfly bandages on it.  He apologized to me for years for doing that…I still have a scar.    Ok….you remember I said Michael Todd and I didn’t get along ALL of the time?  Once before school, he took my umbrella at the bus stop, and was poking me with it..then he hid it and wouldn’t give it back.   I can’t believe I’m telling you all this, but I punched him in the nose….he went home with a bloody nose and missed school that day.   He never took anything of mine again, and we were very good friends for years!  LOL  Oh…and I’ve never punched anyone in the nose ever again!  :0)

We lived in that trailer park from the time I was about 10 until I was 15.  I met my hubby (TJ) right before we moved from that trailer park into our first house…a real house that was ours.   I remember he came over to visit us in the trailer and we already had everything packed up…I think he thought we were REALLY poor because when we eventually got moved into the new house, he looked really surprised to see pretty things all set up in the house.   I only lived in that house for a short time because my hubby and I were married young.  I was only 17 and he was 19 when we got married.   We had our first son 3 1/2 years later, and 2 more sons later on.   We’ll be celebrating 27 years of marriage on Valentines Day….I told you time goes by fast.  Now here we are celebrating New Years Day 2012…not sure where all those years went, but I know I enjoyed every single one of them. 

I am so grateful to have a nice home and beautiful things now, and to have a husband that goes to work every day to provide for us. I guess I just wanted to start off this new year with a grateful and happy heart while reminiscing about what’s made me who I am today.

I hope the new year holds peace, prosperity, health and happiness for each one of you!
May God bless you in this new year~!

Missy

Technorati Tags: 2012,Happy New Year,vintage baby alive,banana seat bike,farm animals

Sweet Pea turned 1!

Can you all believe it, my Sweet Pea turned 1 on Sunday!
It really can’t have been a year since she was born…time sure flies!

I thought I’d pay a tribute to her and show you a pic every month over the last year….you  can watch her grow up right in front of your eyes!

Here’s the day she was born…..11-20-2010

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months (thought this was funny) :0)

10 months

11 months

12 months….or 1 year old!!!

Yep, she enjoyed her day!

I know this picture is blurry, but she was so excited over the soft little dolly her daddy bought her, I just had to show it to you anyway.  He was so happy she liked it.  She kept giving it hugs and kisses!

She also got a lot of clothes and a singing Elmo…what  a blessing she is! :0)

Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday! (I’ve been baking all day long…pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake and a strawberry cheesecake! I feel a diet coming on already!)

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: 1st birthday,Sweet Pea,Elmo