my cup runneth over

Wanting to blog about my most special day yesterday,

but honestly cannot put my feelings into words.

I was totally overwhelmed with birthday wishes, gifts, cards, and even surprises!!!

I really do have the best family & friends a girl could ask for.

I don't think there was one moment that I didn't have a smile on my face or a tear in my eye yesterday.

My friends at work had a nice lunch for me and mom came to eat too.

I got beautiful flowers from Nancy & Dan.

I was showered with fun gifts & cards.

I had dinner plans which turned out to be a surprise party!

I got 40 thoughtful gifts and 40 reasons they love me sentiments from my friends.

 

I got a Seaseme Street cake!  (we are the same age you know?)

All in all in was the perfect 40th birthday and I was Queen for a day!

39

Since today is the last day of my life in the decade of my thirties,

I thought it fitting to make a list.

You know us bloggers, always a list of some sort!

I call this list 39.

1. dog person
   
2. wears knee highs
3. manly hands
4. aura of Cherokee Indian
5. facebook addict
6. homebody
7. pretty junk mail collector
8. tries to be organized
   
9. reformed smoker
   
10. no prescriptions
11. hard worker
12. worry wart
13. prays-a-lot
14. people pleaser
15. frightened of mice
16. recent texter
17. camera lover
    
18. common sense
    
19. bad singer
20. tattoo
21. ugly toe
22. simple
23. college grad
    
24. map reader
25. not responsible for violent actions when poked in the midsection
26. ferrero rocher hoarder
27. puppy breath sniffer
28. war movie hater
29. stepmom
30. crafter
31. creature of habit, yet spontaneous
    
32. fruit eater
    
33. never liked to talk on the phone
34. ocean/sand/sun 
35. music lover
36. wants to learn to quilt
37. family-oriented
38. country girl
39. going to Heaven

I am going to Heaven...someday, but God willing not today!

When I turned 30 I was totally distraught and depressed.

I'm grabbing 40 by the horns.

So here I come 40, ready or not!

Sassy Seventeen

That is what this girl is today:

I'm so very proud of the the person she is
the possibilities she has.
the good sense God gave her.
the beauty she has inside and out.

the sassiness? Well that makes her Alex.

I love you Alex and pray for a fantastic year of 17 for you!

so many birthdays!!!!!

December is heavy in birthdays for our family.
Beginning on the 1st with mine....ending on the 31st with Alex's....
...and seems like one a day in between.
Sometimes two!

Yesterday was a celebratory day for many of those birthdays.
Granted some were not actually on the 12th, but we there's no rules anywhere in any official "birthday rulebooks" that you cannot celebrate your day of birth on another date.
Is there?
I hope not after I've made such a bold statement.

Anyway....
I spent a great day with several important women in my life, two of which are having birthdays this month. (three if you count me.)
I know I've blogged about mom's birthday but I did want to share this lovely photo of her.

My Granny DeShazo will have her 87th birthday on the 15th.
She was amuzed over something when I took this picture.
I love it!

We (mom, Granny, Judy & I) were sitting around Mom's kitchen table enjoying a delicious piece of mom's fresh banana cake and a cup of coffee (or milk for Mom).

It was a good moment in time.
Especially seeing Granny laugh and smile.
So glad I spent the day with those chicks!

Fast forward to the evening....
we had a little get together at my boss's home.
Great food and friends.
I didn't get many good photos though unfortunately.

Except for this little cutie patootie:

Ms. Annie Grace, who was attending with her Gram Karla and PawPaw Fred.

I just had to share this photo of George and Nancy listening ever-so-intently to a Fred Rush joke.

He is quite the joke teller.
Fred can make the dumbest jokes hilarious.

As Nancy said, it's his "delivery".

After leaving Dr. J's, we drove over to the Tally Ho for this chick's Big 3-0!!!!

And it was her official birthday I might add.
I love her hat!
Brandi is so photogenic I think!
Apparently that is where Molly gets her photogenicness.
(Yes, I realize that's not a real word)

There was like 30 people at the surprise dinner.

I have converted all these to B&W because of the weird-dim lighting in the restaurant.

It was also this guy's 30th birthday
Happy Birthday John David!

Molly had to help him blow out his candle!

She also helped him eat his cake.

It was too funny!

I tried to get photos of everyone but was not successful.

I will share some of the ones I took starting with

John David & Tiffany:

Cody & Amy:

Cline & Ashley:

Alex & Tracy:

Alex, Gabby & Tracy.

(Gabby is so pretty I think! Actually, they are all three pretty, I think!)
Gabby is an exchange student from Brazil who is staying with Tracy & her mom, Toni.

I love this shot looking down one end of the birthday table.

You can see Molly's little face sticking up above the table.

When we arrived back home, I knew I wanted to capture a photo of the moon since it was at it's biggest and brightest for the year.
Mind you this photo doesn't do it justice.
It was so bright last night.

So bright in fact that there were deer out EVERYWHERE!
We drove really slow on the way home because they were all over the place.
We made it without a hitch.
One of my co-workers was not so lucky.
As he was taking his niece home, who had been babysitting, a deer came through their windshield and she is in the hospital.
Pray for her speedy recovery.

Amazing the damage these beautiful creatures can do.

More birthdays to celebrate this month.
stay tuned.

happy hump day

This week has been one of those short yet long weeks, KWIM???

I have failed to photograph the December Daily, but I assure it is pretty well caught up...well except yesterday and today.
Not bad for a chronic procrastinator, huh?

Just a short blog recap of the past two days.

Yesterday was the "best-mom-in-the-world's" birthday.
Yes this woman:I was happy she got to just relax and hang out at home, watch movies, take a nap, put up Christmas decorations, have lunch fixed for her, and have tons of calls from everyone who loves her.

She is deserving of that and so much more!

{ Love you mom!!! :) }

FFWD to today:
freezing dang cold!
icy windows - chance of snow....no go!
Christmas reception at work in Melbourne.
These chicks who make my work life a pleasure:
They are awesome and fun and I'm blessed to call them not only my "department" but also my friends.
Observation for the week: I'm living up to the woolly mammoth look in every group picture. Case in point today and the previous post.
GEEZ!!!

Thanksgiving #3

Finally completed the Thanksgiving circuit!
This time close to home - at Mom's.
We pretty much all get together for Sunday lunch every Sunday after church.
This Sunday we simply celebrated with a Thanksgiving dinner and my birthday!

I wanted a picture of myself with the little cousins, Joe & Jake.
I'm obviously not "picture worthy" for Jake.
He seriously freaked out and cried!
Oh well...fickle men!

Here is Joe & me.

He is precious!

Those kiddos gave me some fantastic gifts!
Seriously I collect a particular yellow pottery made by a local potter.
Here is a post I did earlier this year from Ashley Wren's Overlooked project regarding said collection.
Jake gave me a set of six napkin rings and Joe gave me a cute little toothpick holder...both were items I needed!
I was stoked about receiving such great gifts with so much thought.
I could actually list every single gift I received and say the same thing.
I am so blessed to be surrounded by such awesome family & friends.
I'm blessed and sometimes I wonder if I'm worthy of such generosity & love!

Anyway....on to the TG#3 pics:

Another Matt & Alex photo.

Aren't they adorable???

My Aunt Kathi (who just celebrated her birthday) and Uncle Robert or "Ra-Ra" as I called him when I was a little girl, prior to the feast.

Mom & Joe acting like a couple of clowns!And here's my fave of the day:

I am thinking Joe is loving Aunt "Khacki's" mashed 'taters! :)

Here is a little "post-Thanksgiving meal photo.

We've all been there Robert!

I captured the elusive Jake while he was playing.
Check out the new "ink" we put on his forearm.
He's a rockstar ya know.All-in-all it was a fantastic ending to a Thanksgiving holiday.

I have so much to be thankful for.

I thought it only fair to post another picture of Nutmeg getting (or giving, whichever way you look at it) some love from her new Mommy, Joyce!

How precious is that???

And I would be remiss if I didn't post a picture of Schatzi.
Schatzi is Meg's "big brother".
Schatzi is a rescued long hair dachshund that Joyce adopted several years ago.
He is so sweet & loves the camera I might add!
He was abused at one time, but is now living heaven on earth! What a great day it has been. I've had so many phone calls, emails, Facebook messages and cards wishing me a Happy Birthday. I love birthdays...even though I'm facing exactly one year until....ssssshhhhhhh the big 4-0. ugh.

I've also taken a couple of photos and have some thoughts for my December 1 daily for little album.

good times....good times!

Say Anything

One of my favorites from the eightes.
I still get butterflies when I hear Peter Gabriel sing "In Your Eyes".

If you didn't fall completely in love with John Cusack after seeing this flick, you just didn't have feelings!
(or maybe you're a dude, I don't know)

Anyway, I just took one of those silly little quizzes on Facebook called "Which 80's movie are you?" and
I am Say Anything.

I really should watch that next time it's on TNT or one of those channels that shows the "classics" (which is totally weird to think about it being a classic, but whatev)

So I'm a little freaked out that my 39th b-day will be here in less than a month, which leads to the next milestone birthday a year from now. The four-o. shhhh don't say it too loud.

Anyway, I have set myself a new goal to get my butt back in shape.
Seriously, how does it happen? How does one let oneself go?
It just happens I suppose, and it's not like you don't know how to solve the problem...I mean Hello! It's simple, it just takes willpower and energy.

By the time I'm shhhhhhh four-o, John Cusack will be waking me up outside my window with his boombox blaring "In Your Eyes" as loudly as possible.

It could happen!

It's Birthday month

July is quite a busy month for the Whitten household when it comes to birthdays.
Today is Amy's big day - Happy Birthday Amy! If she is reading this...your gift is on its way. You know me - I have had the perfect gift in mind for months now, but the procrastinator in me didn't get it on time.

On Wednesday there will be another birthday: Cody. If he is reading this...{NOT}....you know your Dad is in charge of your gift! ;P

Then a week from today will be the hubs, James.
(Any help with this one is greatly appreciated!!!!) :\
Why are men so hard to buy for?????

Crapola that is a lot of birthdays crammed into such a short span of time.

Another birthday passed by on Saturday, July 12th: Case Lee Whitten,
Cody & Amy's son who was an angel on earth for five days.

Case we still love & miss you - you are always and forever in our hearts.

July has always been a great month - one I have always loved with the 4th of July, sunshine, camping, vacations, barbeques, and all the fun of summer, but it is also hard for our family...
My prayers for Cody & Amy and all our families is for positive thoughts and continued healing; and mostly for the chance of having another child in the near future.

I have tried to be positive and focus
on the blessings of the day-to-day
instead of harboring the "crud" of life
that we all face.

I have enjoyed my little daily blessings
and it gives me a feeling of thankfulness
using my creativity in the process, which is so satisfying.

I hope you will also check out Lynne's "Simple Pleasures" . Lynne is a high school classmate of mine from Conway High School - Class of '88 - Go Wampus Cats!! Seeing as it's been 20 years since graduation we are going to have a proper reunion...finally...in October.

Lynne & I made a connection by discovering each other's blogs through our reunion website - pretty cool I think! Lynne has a lovely family and now lives in Illinois. She is choosing to record her "simple pleasures" each day through photography as a way of recognizing the things she deems precious in her everyday life, much like my daily blessings! I'm stoked to see her work, as she has some gorgeous photography on her blog.

Oh, and the little stinker tagged me for six random things....I promise to post those this week. Most of my family & IRL friends know I'm an open book and pretty random as well..we'll see what I can come up with for that. :)

Here are the past few days of DB's.




over & out....

Finally Friday!

I thought I would start this post off with a little some'in some'in for Jeanie. I snapped this photo of Amy tonight at Pizza Hut just for you dear. Sporting her new glasses...I think she looks rather smart!


Tonight was Walker's 9th Bday and they held a typical Pizza Hut Birthday party for him and several of his closest friends. Then Jennifer and Tony were brave enough to have all those little guys to their house for a sleepover.

BLESS THEIR HEARTS!!!!

Here are the guys; Cody, Tony and James hanging out before we ate.



Of course Alex was there and helping her "BFF Jennifer". Notice, there is no possible way to scoop neopolitan ice cream unless your tongue is slightly sticking out of your mouth. It's just one of those strange phenomenons that no one can explain. Seriously, Alex, you can try to play this off all cool and stuff, but we know you just cannot scoop neopolitan - or any flavor - ice cream, for that matter without the tongue...it's just not possible, even if you had a Pampered Chef scoop and not this cheapy one. Good try though, trying to play it off. You're real cute and all, but we see the proof up in that other photo.

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

WALKER!

We seriously think you are one of the coolest kids around and we are glad to share in your birthday celebration.

daily.blessing.12.2.07

Ace of diamonds - celebration continues with my family of my birthday. I love receiving thoughtful gifts that are filled with love!

daily.blessing.12.1.07

queen of hearts - yes, it is my birthday! A wild, weird, crazy day this year...many ups & downs.

I have so much to be thankful for - just making it another year is plenty, but one event happened today - bad event, that could have been much worse. I caught the yard on fire. It was very windy and it moved fast into a scope of woods between our house and the neighbors. The good Lord was definitely watching out for us on this day as the fire stayed at least a foot or two from our house around the back, side, and partially around the front. It was crazy. God sent Brandi by to notice the smoke and let us know what was happening as we sat inside the house.

She was my guardian angel of the day.

I'm thankful for so much and when something like that happens, it makes me realize how precious and fragile life is.

The Christmas parade went well, except for another bad event with our friends that I don't wish to publish on the Internet. I pray that things will turn out okay on that front, as some of those affected are like part of our family.

The day (which completely mentally and physically drained me btw) turned out superb as my hubby and I along with several friends went to Batesville to eat to celebrate my birthday. We girls sent the men and kids home and shopped for a little while and had a blast. Sometimes it just feels good to get away and have laughs with the girls!

I

am

truly

blessed!