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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010

A Santa Story...

One little girl in my pre-k class recently had her two front teeth removed at the dentist.  At our class Christmas party, Santa came and after a photo op., he took time to talk to each boy and girl about what they wanted for Christmas.  When this particular girl sat on his lap his first words were, "I'll bet  I know what you want for Christmas.  You want your two front teeth!"  She replied, "Nuh Uh, I want a horse."  HaHaHaHa

I took each child's picture with Santa to make an ornament for their parents.  Several children were not so sure about sitting on the Jolly Old Man's lap but I encouraged each one that was afraid, to just come and stand next to Santa for the picture.  Some of the moms and dads were amazed that I was able to get their child to stand there or even to let Santa touch them (handshake or put his arm around them).  I was able to get all but one to take the picture.  For some, it is the first Santa picture they have of their child.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twas the night before Christmas and....
  • It's SNOWING!!
  • I finished my last day at work and am ready to enjoy a few days off
  • the presents are wrapped and under the tree
  • The wrapping supplies are tucked away
  • the groceries are purchased and waiting for me
  • Two pans of fudge are almost gone
  • I'm going to make one more pan and that is it!
  • Hubby and I will spend a quiet Christmas eve here together
  • tomorrow, we will open gifts with Daughter and her boyfriend
  • have cinnamon rolls for breakfast
  • head out to the Christmas celebrations
I hope every one has a wonderful Christmas.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010

Make The Mantel Christmas 5x7 folded card
Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.
View the entire collection of cards.
Thank you Shutterfly for making Christmas card design fun and easy.  This is the one that I picked.  It was a hard decision with so many to choose from.  I am happy with the result.  I can't wait for them to arrive.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BZOWjRmybsWJr

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Christmas is near, but have no fear...

I have a Christmas card solution for you.

Have you thought about Christmas cards yet?  I have been.  Usually I just buy a box of inexpensive cards at the discount store.  Then I just sign our names in them and mail them out.  This year I thought I'd like to do something more personal and creative like a photo greeting card.

I have used Shutterfly for a long time for different photo needs.  I have made several photo books there and I love them.  I have also ordered prints and I know the quality of their photos is very good, and the site is so easy to use. So, I thought I would check out the Shutterfly site and see what was available in the photo card category.  They have great folded and flat cards printed on card stock to which you can add photos and they have the flat cards that are printed on photo paper.  You are able to add your own photos and personalize the wording any way you like.

At first, I was thinking of going with the flat cards on photo paper.  Here is one that I really like:
Sorry that beautiful baby is not part of my family, it is the sample card from the website.  Since it is just the husband and I, I thought a single photo on our card would be the way to go.  But if you have a large family, there are many cards that let you upload multiple photos.  For example, this is a great card that you can be really creative with.
Both of these cards and many others can be found here.

But then I started wondering about the card stock cards.  So I decided to check them out too.  I really love this one.  It isn't too busy and the picture will stand out nicely.

And this one would look great with a black and white picture in it.  I hadn't thought about that but I am really liking the idea of black and white.

I can also create my own holiday address labels.  They have tons of them to choose from.  Here is one that that I really like:

And I love this one with the Christmas cookies on it.

Of course the holidays are coming up quickly and that is what I have on my mind but Shutterfly has many other styles of cards, address labels and invitations that are not holiday themed.

I will also be using Shutterfly this year to create some beautiful family photo calendars for gifts.  They have several designs to choose from.  You can upload up to nine photos for each month of the year, design each page and even add photos and text to individual dates.
I think these are going to be the best gifts and they will keep on giving all year long.

I can't wait to get started on these projects.  Now I just need a good picture of Hubby and I to put on the cards I choose.  I am hoping our budding photographer grandson can help us out with that.

This post was sponsored by Shutterfly.  I will receive a code for 50 free cards for writing this post.  But!  Guess What???  You can too!  Please go here to find out the details.

Tina

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Zzzzzzz ~ Breakfast makes me Sleepy!

My husband is a reluctant reader.  He likes to read occasionally but isn't the bookworm that I am.  In the winter when he isn't outside all day I can pick out a book I think he'd like and he will slowly make his way through it.  He always says that reading makes him sleepy.  Well, I agree with that.  If I read long enough I get sleepy too.  But he says it just takes him a couple pages and he is nodding off.  I always chalk it up to the fact that he doesn't have enough practice to make it further than a couple pages at a time.

Well.... I have discovered what he is talking about!  The current book I'm reading does the exact same thing to me.  I am reading Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo.  A blog I read regularly read it as a book club selection several weeks ago and I am just now catching up.

Every time I open the book and read a couple of pages, I get so sleepy I can't keep my eyes open.  The book is OK.  I'm staying interested to see what happens.  It isn't the page turner that I anticipated, but it isn't boring. 

I have never experienced this before.  I have gone back to work after the summer off.  It could be that I am more tired in the evenings than I thought, but I'm not falling asleep eating dinner or watching television.

I guess I can't laugh at my husband anymore for falling asleep every couple of pages.

Tina

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Book Challenge Complete!!



I'm done!!! I have completed the Support your Local Library Book Challenge.  Click here to see my list of books that I completed for this challenge. 

I had a great time with this challenge.  I love the library.  I love browsing for books.  I love reading books.  This challenge was right up my alley.

I read some great books, some not so great ones and finished a couple that I thought I would never get through.  I also gave up on a couple of books.  Life is too short and there are too many good books to waste your time trying to read a book that just doesn't "fit."

I thought when I started this challenge that I would breeze right through the 50 books I committed to, and surely would get to 100 before the end of the year.  Well, that was overly ambitious of me.   I put all other books on hold to finish this challenge and now have a huge TBR pile that I am itching to get to.  I still have my name on the reserve list for a couple of books that I want to read from the library but will probably take a break and read some of the books that are calling my name here at home.

I will definitely do this challenge again next year.  What I will do differently is that my completed list will be more of a journal than a list.  I think I would like to take more notes as to how much I liked the book, if I want to find more books by particular authors, and other notations that I think of at the time.

All in all it has been a great challenge.  I was excited to start and excited to end.  I'm looking forward to a little break and then beginning again next year.

Tina

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

What I'm Reading - July

This is my post for 5 Minutes for Books' monthy What's on Your Nightstand carnival.


I have spoken here about my magazine problem before.  I get an offer I can't refuse and so I have to subscribe to the magazine.  They arrive at my house and are promptly put into a nightstand drawer and sit there until I can't close the drawer any more.  So begins the marathon of magazine reading at which point I decide that I subscribe to too many magazines and vow to let the subscriptions run out.  Then the offers come in the mail and the viscous cycle continues.

Anyway,  the drawer is full once more so I took the mags all out to put them in chronological order because not only do I hoard them, I am a little OCD about reading them in the order in which they are received.  At the time of this post, I have 24 various mags longing to be read.  The oldest one is from July 09 and the newest one came in the mail yesterday. 

In no particular order there are:
  • Good Housekeeping
  • Ladies Home Journal
  • Redbook
  • Woman's Day
  • National Geographic
  • Guideposts
Wish me luck on getting the drawer cleaned out and ready for the next marathon!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Fifteen

We had a nice surprise this week.  Hubby's daughter and our grandson got to come visit and it just happened to be Grandson's 15th birthday.  He hates to have his picture made but I did manage to get a couple.


I made him his favorites: No Bake cookies and German Chocolate cake.  Yummy.


We all went to see the move Grown Ups.  It was hilarious.  Grandson and Grandpa played some pool and raced cows on the Wii.  It was great to have them here.  We don't get to see them nearly enough.

Here he is with his Momma.

We hope for another visit very soon.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Five

One of my granddaughters turned 5 recently. 
 Here are a couple scenes from her party.

Blowing out the candles

Her new cheerleading outfit

With her mom

It was a great party and a beautiful day.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Never Say Never

Never Say Never Never Say Never  by Lisa Wingate

From the back cover:  Kai Miller floats through life like driftwood tossed by waves.  She's never put down roots -- and she doesn't plan to.  But when a chaotic hurricane evacuation lands her in Daily, Texas, she begins to think twice about her wayfaring existence.  And when she meets hometown-boy Kemp Eldridge, she can almost picture settling down in Daily -- until she discovers he may be promised to someone else.

Daily has always been a welcoming place of refuge for those the wind blows in. but for Kai, it looks like it will be just another place to leave behind.  Then again, Daily always has a few surprises in store -- especially when Aunt Donetta Bradford has cooked up a scheme.

This is the third book in the Daily, Texas series by Lisa Wingate.  Each book stands alone but does have some cross-over characters.  This is the first one I have read and I really enjoyed it.  Each chapter alternates between Kai's and Donetta's point of view.  After the first couple of chapters, I had a hard time putting the book down.  I do have to say that although the story came to an end, it did leave me wanting to know more about a couple of the characters.  I hope that there are future books in this series that will answer some of my questions.

*The fine print:  I do have an Amazon Associates link on this page.  If you purchase anything from a link you click on, I will earn a few cents.  I do not earn anything if you only click through to read about the book.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Scenes from the holiday weekend







There was plenty of family, fun, food and fireworks too!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Happy Birthday July

Happy July 1st.  It is the month of birthdays around here. 
  1. Husband's brother ~ July 1
  2. 4th of July Holiday ~ July 4 of course
  3. My daughter's Dad (deceased) ~ July 6
  4. My daughter's best friend ~ July 6
  5. Grandson ~ July 12
  6. Step-daughter # 1 ~ July 13
  7. Daughter ~ July 26
  8. Son and Daughter-in-law's Anniversary ~ July 26
  9. Step-Daughter # 2's boyfriend ~ July 29
  10. Daughter's boyfriend ~ July 30
It will be one big celebration all month long.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Coke and a Smile

On our recent trip to Georgia to visit family,  we went into downtown Atlanta to visit the World of Coca Cola.   It is the building in the front right of the picture.
The first thing you do is get your picture taken in front of some of the decorated bottles.  There are dozens of these bottles all over the museum.  Some of them are really cool.  Here are my husband and I, my daughter and her husband and their two daughters.


When you go inside the museum there is a huge room of Coke memorabilia where the guide gives a talk.  This picture is my daughter and her family listening to the talk.

Then you watch a cute little move and then move on into the museum.  There is a 7 foot tall polar bear waiting to take pictures.  Here are the girls: myself, my daughter and granddaughters.


Then we managed to talk my husband into a picture also.


Here are the granddaughters at the replica soda fountain.


Then there was a really fun 4-D movie.  The chairs rocked, we were splashed by water, wind blew on us and other surprises.  It was great.


We got to sit on the American Idol couch from the show.


Here we are with more Coke stuff.


 It was really a fun place.  We also saw the Coke being made and bottled.  The last room was the tasting room.  There were many self serve fountains, each from a different continent.  At each fountain you could taste samples of different Coca Cola products that are made and sold on that continent.  Some were very good and some were awful.  

Finally, on the way out everyone received a freshly brewed bottle of Coke to take home.  Of course you exit through the gift shop where you can purchase the photos that were taken during the tour and many other great Coke items.

It was a fun tour.  We had a great day.