Something to Prove

I love fortune cookies!

This one from lunch with a great friend or "prend" a couple of weeks ago 

really struck a chord with me, so I held on to it.  

{It annoys me that they put a web address on fortune cookie fortunes...kind of takes the mystery and fun out of it.}

Nonetheless, this is my new mantra!

Oh and another thing that came from that lunch was that my friend and I decided we shouldn't have to work, but should be "Ladies who 'do' lunch" instead!!!  :)

What do YOU have to prove? 

Moxie Mandie

I must tell you about my friend Mandie's very cute wares in her brand new Etsy shop called Moxie Mandie.




First of all, she is just an awesome person. Seriously! Read just a few of her blog posts and you'll see!

Second, she has worked hard to attain some mad sewing skills and is making these adorable zipper pouches.

Third, Her generosity and spirit of helping others truly amazes me. 

Take for instance how she has decided to donate 10% of her sales this month to something she is passionate about.  She is doing this for another adorable girl on the interwebs, Emily over at the Anderson Family Crew. Her photos are splendid, by the way!  They are adopting a little girl from Africa and need to alleviate some of the costs. 

I encourage you to head over to her shop and do a little Christmas shopping this month - Don't forget to put "Adoption" in the notes to seller so she'll know to deduct 10%!

Also, you might want to check out Moxie Mandie on Facebook and "like" her.  (BTW, I'm so glad FB has not put a dislike button on our profiles and pages - that would be rather humiliating, huh?)

So many pretties around the internet lately - I will share more this week.

Mandie! Gussy! Giveaway! Oh My!

What do you get when you combine two awesome chicks, freestyle ruffles, and a blog?

A giveaway! That's what.

Go to my dear friend, Mandie's blog and enter to win a $30 credit to Maggie's awesome Gussy shop. How much better could it get?

Hurry, the deadline to enter is Sunday at 10PM!http://maggiewhitley.bigcartel.com/

www.mandiesmumblings.blogspot.com

www.maggiewhitley.com

It's about the Shoes!

The following text belongs
to this award:
“The world of blogging is amazing.
Through blogging I made friends
of places I never heard of before.
I experienced kindness and caring.
I hope my blog friends will pass
this award to only three caring
and kind people from anywhere
who touched your heart.”


How cool that I got an award with shoes!  Not just any old shoes though...red wooden polka dotted shoes!!! ;)




l was excited to see my name over at Marit's blog.  So cool to "meet" people online with similar interests out of all the bazillion people in the world, but even cooler to reacquaint after losing them in the hubbub of the world wide web!  So glad to reconnect Marit. :)

I will now pass this along to some of my most faithful blog friends.

Mandie She just rocks! She has become a true friend that I cherish as a blessing from God. She is seriously a gem... and even though we have never met face-to-face, I know someday we will!  :) 

Julie. wow, this woman is amazing...I honestly think maybe she is two people. :)  She has more energy than all get out!  She is the queen of smilies and can scrapbook like none other. She is always positive and just makes me happy. :)

Deana. What a doll. She is the most adorable and talented thing! Another one who amazes me with her energy.  PLUS, she is quite the fashion-plate and has awesome taste in shoes!  You can't go wrong with good shoes. ;)

There are many others who I could go on and on about...seriously, it is awesome to connect to people who have similar interests and passions.  I probably take that for granted, but I do appreciate all the wonderful blog friends I've made!

And since this award is based around shoes and Deana is the shoe queen, I leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the over 1400 I took at a wedding on Saturday:

Week 34

Sorry my blog has been pretty much quiet lately.  

I got through these phases...hopefully I will feel more inspired soon.

Meantime, I must share my Week 34 selfie:

These girls are my "prends"...."prends", you say?

There is a story....my prend on the right, Judy's grandson couldn't quite say friends yet several years ago so he called them prends.  It has stuck! Judy's fun website can be found here.  You can learn all about her grandchildren!

My prend on the left is Karla.  You can find her blog here and she and her husband's new project website here.

We had a little pool-time date today and I knew I wanted to include this memory in my 52 week project! These girls are are awesome!  We have made so many fun memories together over the last 8 years.  We met through work and our friendship just grew.

I can always count on them to make me laugh, give me encouragement, pray with me, let me cry on their shoulders, complain to, eat with, inspire me to be a better person, and mostly to be friends without any hidden agendas.  People, that is hard to find!!!

Thanks my prends for just being who you are and true to yourselves. I hope we have many more hairy-legged pool-time dates. :)

I'm a weiner!

Or in real English language, a winner!

How cool will I be wearing this adorable creation???

Thanks to a fabulous little giveaway over at Mandie's Mumblings, 

we'll see just how cool soon!

Thanks Mandie. Your creativity is amazing and I'm very blessed to call you FRIEND!  :)

For those of you who have not ever visited Mandie's blog, I highly recommend it for some inspirational photos, crafts, thoughts and stories from her life with sweet hubs, Gabe!

Mosaic in Gray

This should catch up to the current week for our mosaic summaries.
(Credits underneath as usual)1. gray trunk, 2. Nail in the deck, 3. DSCN1406, 4. Ice Chest, 5. Culvert, 6. retro kitty, 7. DSCN1409, 8. P4150017_1, 9. gray brushpile, 10. Alicia's Gray Sleeve, 11. DSCN1411, 12. grey fountain, 13. truck interior, 14. Baby, 15. DSCN1418, 16. trout babies, 17. DSCN1289, 18. diptych 1-11-09, 19. DSCN1413, 20. My cat before he lost ten pounds, 21. Shop and shed, 22. gray bunny, 23. DSCN8493, 24. P4160004, 25. DSCN0134, 26. Old bed frame, 27. Gray Kitty, 28. deck, 29. Hoof and shoe, 30. DSCN0046, 31. Taken by Rock House, 32. DSCN9388, 33. Fence, 34. trout feeding, 35. crossing the dam, 36. DSCN3738

Glad this is caught up, now if only I was caught up at work! Speaking of work, tomorrow could be the beginning of a new era at work when our Board members interview final candidates for our new President. Saying a prayer tonight that the right person is put into that position.

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore my family & friends? Well, I do, so there!
Random, I know, but sometimes I take those relationships that are closest to me for granted, so I just felt like putting that out there.

okay, enough random brain stuff.

peace out.

ReCap of 2009

Not much to recap I suppose since it's only been 4 days, but anyway, here goes...

NYE a/k/a Alex's Birthday was fun - a small gathering of friends in our shop.
The guys shot pool and us girls just sat around and laughed and conversed.
Alex and company just had fun hanging out.

They had bought the cute New Year headband/crown thingies and the girls made a quick trip to Wally World for some for the guys...they were good sports wearing their yellow-New-Year-too-small-top hats!Prior to the hats everyone seemed to be sporting this red bow from one of Alex's gifts...Here is Matt being a REALLY good sport about it....bless his heart!

Tracy wanted them to Walk Like Egyptians...yes, just like the 80's Bangles song.
Colby looking adorable!
The infamous chocolate chip cookie pizza that Alex requested instead of a cake...don't ask about what my oven looked like after. I'll just say there is a pan under that cookie somewhere.
Hello lovelies!
I just had to include this picture of Tracy and Charlie because this face the Tracy is making cracks me up! I've seen her make this face more than once.

I include these pics because this soiree lasted until after midnight...those kids were wound up and I didn't think they would ever wind down!

okay, onto to the first official day of January - I pretty much was worthless!
nuff said.

The second day of January I spend getting all organized for the new year.
Planner in order,
Bill & receipt files cleaned out,
some crafting,
and I did laundry and such.

The third day was a little shopping trip to Melbourne...hit the scrapbook store that is closing.
40% off everything...including Thickers...who can resist???
I also began the Team Diptych project with this lovely chick, Mandie
Our word for the day was "change"
Here is what we came up with...
I'm on the left...I took this because of the wacky change of temperature we've been experiencing the last few days. Mandie did this cool ATC card.

Check out other diptychs on the Art Slam Flickr Pool.
I do love me some Flickr!
Thinking of doing the Pro account.

Brings me to today...the fourth day of January.
Church and a little scrapping and art journaling.
I did this page from Jann's Stash Diet challenge.
The idea is to use what you have in your scrapstash.
The theme was "this time next year" and extra points for a handmade title.
I cut mine out of woodgrain contact paper...man I luff that stuff!

Okay, so there is my recap of the year so far....

I still need to post some Christmas pics...I'm just so lazy and there are just so many!

Back to work tomorrow. ugh
I'm a little excited to see all my friends and colleagues but not looking forward to being all structured again.
It will be difficult to get my buns #1 in bed at a decent hour and #2 even harder to get them up at 6AM!

over and out.

is this thing on?

Just checking in to make sure the old blog will still let me post...it's been a little crazy getting prepped for Christmas. Still lots to do but I hope to post something later tonight.

for now some photos from yesterday:

Alex & Matt wanted some pictures together and of course we HAD to do it on the coldest dang day of the year! They turned out pretty good I think.

I especially love this one:
Also had our annual mother-daughter lunch - Here is a group shot. We had so much fun and were already planning next year's get together.
My prend and I are standing with our mom's sitting. Left to Right: Judy and her mom June, Karla and her mom Joy, and me and Mom!

Okay, back to gift wrapping!

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!!!

Banquet teaser

Definitely one of the better pictures from the night (minus the wacky-wonky color).
That Molly never ceases to amaze.
I told the girls to "strike a pose"
What does she do?
Turn to see what Alex & Colby are doing and proceed to do exactly what they are doing.
I mean they must be cool and know what they're doing right?
Check the leg action & the head tilt.

She is a total crack up!
More HHSA stories and fun tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait for this one.

I've been given an award!

One of my favorite bloggers and a friend from school, whom I have connected with via the world wide web, awarded me as a Kreativ Blogger!
What can I say except:
"Wow and thanks Lynne!"

You must check out Our Piece of the Pie, Lynne's blog and see her gorgeous kiddos!
While you are at it, look at her breathtaking photography.
Stunning, I tell you!

Now, apparently I'm supposed to list six things and six blogs I love. Well, obviously I could just give the award right back to Lynne, as she does have a blog I love to check out several times a week, but I really don't know the proper manners for such awards, and it seems a little silly & redundant to give it back.

Therefore I'll award the following blogs:
Karla Marla
Another Day
CandiMandi
Old Lady in a Teenager
Dandelion Wishes
Jeanie's blogs
I also adore Kayla Aimee's blogs, her Shifting Sand is one of my faves but she has gone private for awhile, so I've been missing her faith based & inspirational posts.

Gosh there are so many it is hard to narrow down to SIX!

Things I love:
1. God & my faith.
2. my family
3. friends
4. capturing the little moments in life.
5. Spring
6. my furbaby Angus!

Some pre-Halloween love

This weekend was chock full of Fun Fall/Halloween events. Saturday was the 4H Fun Day - Alex was in charge of the flag football. I cannot believe she actually let me take this picture! She was being a good sport I suppose!

Love this action shot!

Take note: you have to hold your tongue just right in order to jumprope with a hula-hoop! :DA few shots from the annual Orr Farm Halloween Bash!

Gotta love a countrified Tinkerbell!

Completely precious kiddos!The BFF's posing for a shot.

I simply love these get-togethers. It makes me feel blessed to live in a place where we can enjoy hayrides, bonfires, roasted hot dogs, haunted horse barns, and pumpkin stew!

My famous witch's brew, complete with brain matter, toenails & worms!

The vampire blood cupcakes (from a recipe I found online. I would link if I could "re-find" it!)
I'll be glad to share the directions though.

Tara found the candy corn/peanut mix.

That stuff is addictive!Of course the party would not be complete without our hostess with the mostess: Nancy - she makes it all possible and I think she secretly loves it more than the little guys!

Alex & friend, Matt getting ready for the haunted hayride.
I hear there was even a headless horseman!Tomorrow is our Fall Festival at work. I hope to have more fun Halloween pictures to share!
till then....

over & out