We participated in a Kids Ornament Swap over at full circle blog. I purchased some ceramic ornaments at JoAnns for Jessie & Jack to color with markers.
Hard at work concentrating on their color selection.
Jack colored the mittens and Jessie colored the snowmen.
And here are the packages all ready to be taken to the post office on Monday.
It was a really fun project for the kids over Thanksgiving weekend. We enjoyed our day of crafting (my project to be posted soon). We sure hope all our fellow ornament swappers are having as much fun as we did.
10:00 pm Thanksgiving Day
I finally got time to review the sales flyers from the paper and online for tomorrow Black Friday. I didn’t see any great deals on anything we needed or wanted. I had already purchased all the toys our son could possibly need for one day over the last year.
The only thing I saw was a 750GB HD for $79.99 at MicroCenter. We decide that after a long day of cooking and turkeying that we’d NOT go out on Black Friday, we were too tired and really wanted out sleep. Waking up at 4 or 5 or 6 am just didn’t sound appealing, even though that hard drive was very tempting.
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A very sound sleep knowing that we could wake up as late as we wanted.
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5:50 am
We awake to the sound of our ringing alarm clock??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The whole house is woken up by the sound of MULTIPLE helicopters flying overhead.
Jump out of bed what is that is there a fugitive on the loose?? The swat team moving in on a tip? What on earth is going on?!?!?!?
After wiping the sleep from our eyes and our minds. We realized today is Black Friday (muwahhahaha) I told Ken, I bet they’re news helicopters headed to the malls quick turn on the news!
Sure enough there were the malls in our backyard on the news. “Local Mall parking lot at 40% capacity…..50% capacity, surrounding shopping centers are buzzing. It’s Black Friday Y’all!”
6:00 am
Ken and I look at each other “Wanna go? Aunt Jessie is here to babysit.”
“Let’s GO!”
You probably don’t know this about my husband but he is the SLLLLLOOOWWWWEEESSTTTT getting ready person in the history of earth. It is amazing how slow he is in the mornings. Me I’m done with my whole routine, ready to go out the door in 20 minutes or less.
So this morning I knew there was urgency about getting out the door and getting out there we were technically already late LOL! I kept saying “keep moving let’s go we need to leave in 2 minutes, you don’t need to shower…you don’t need to put contacts in… oh a coat okay sure” Meanwhile I’m tapping my foot impatiently in the passenger seat of the car with the engine running for him.
You may not know this about me when it comes to sales I get really fidgeting and anxious LOL. I just don’t want to miss anything! LOL
6:05 am
A RECORD getting out the door for hubby. He should get a medal for that one. We’re out the door down the street. I’m calling my sister Rosemary to come meet us. We’re going to MicroCenter and Target.
6:12 am
We arrive at MicroCenter there is already a line! Ohh honey stop the car!….(((screech)))….drop me off I’ll get us a spot in line while you park. I get in line there is probably already 80 – 100 ppl in line at the front they’re in sleeping bags and heavy winter coats. I start making small chit chat with the other people in line. I read online that they are giving coupons out to the first people in line and you could only get 1 door buster deal per household. I wasn’t sure that I’d be one of those people getting a coupon being so far back in line.
I thought it was strange that it was after 6 am and the doors weren’t open. Sister calls.
Sister: “Where are you?”
Me: “I’m in line at MicroCenter. Hey you’re in front of a computer right? What time does this darn store open?”
Sister: “Uh…8 am.”
Me: “WHAT!!!! 8 am?!?!?!?!?!?!?! What kind of weirdo store opens at 8 am on black friday?????”
Ken walks up.
Me: (still on the phone) “This store doesn’t open until 8 am! I don’t think it is worth it. I might not get a coupon then all my time is wasted.”
6:20 am
We all agree. Ken and I leave the line. We all will meet at SuperTarget. On our way there Ken wanted to stop for breakfast. I said absolutely not we’ve got to get over to target NOW! LOL
6:35 am
After stopping at every red light. We make it to SuperTarget. They’d already been open for a bit and so there was no line and people were leaving with their purchases. I really wanted a portable DVD player for Jack in the car for our road trips. It certainly wasn’t a need anytime soon and I was fully prepared to wait to get one. There was a 2 screen 1 player portable dvd player at target on sale yesterday for $88 I felt that wasn’t a bad deal and that it was worth heading over there to see if they had any left.
There was one left on the shelf and I got it!! WOO HOO!
I remembered that Target also had a 750GB HD on sale here for $88 I started looking around…we found a few left. Ken and I agreed it was worth the extra $9 LOL so we we got one!!
It was BUSY BUSY BUSY. We walked the store a bit to see what was going on…and to wait for the checkout lines to die down.
6:54 am
We were out of there. We all were having fun, even Kenny! I remember that in the Sam’s Club flyer they said they were offering free breakfast. So we went and go our free breakfast at Sams Club and walked around a bit while we ate.
7:15 am
We were ready for our next store. Ken had been mentioning how he only had 2 pairs of jeans and one of them had a huge hole in a not so nice place and how he’d like to get some new jeans. I was needing more long sleeve t-shirts too. So we thought what better day to go to Old Navy than today. We shopped for about 1/2 hour and got Ken 3 pairs of new jeans a bunch of new t-shirts to replace his old ones that I’ve been trying to toss for a year or so. And I picked up some long sleeved shirts in a bunch of different colors.
7:45 am
Rosie and I headed off to a few different grocery stores to check out their fresh turkey sales. And Ken went home to get ready for his 1/2 day at work.
All in all it was a great Black Friday sale. We got a couple things didn’t spend too much $$ and mostly enjoyed the fun of being out there together. Hope you all had great Black Friday Adventures too!!!
I sure have so much to be thankful for this year.
- I am thankful to God for His Word and how I can claim his promises each day and live an more than Abundant Life.
- I’m thankful for my husband, and our God centered marriage. I’m thankful for our 5 years of marriage and look forward to 50 more.
- I’m thankful for my wonderful son. He is a blessing to my life. I’m especially thankful for the big big hugs he gives me!
- I’m thankful for my family, how supportive and close we are. I’m thankful for each opportunity to spend time together.
- I’m thankful for my friends and all the laughs and fun we have together.
- I’m thankful that my husband and I have jobs and my family members too.
There is so much to be thankful for every day. I give thanks to God each day for all the blessings in my life.
1 Chronicles 16:34
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 30:4
Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Psalm 30:12
To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
Psalm 106:1
Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Today we will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday just Ken, Jack, Aunt Jessie, and myself. I am making a pretty traditional meal with turkey and the extras. I will try to remember to take pictures. I am believing for you to have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy spending time with people you are thankful for and love.
On Sunday, I had a great time reconnecting with an old friend Candace as we went on a photo walk at McDaniel Farm Park. We enjoyed the walk and shared our enthusiasm and passion for photography.
Here is a layout I completed with my best photos taken during the walk.
Click on the layout for a larger view and credits.
Here are the full images that I’ve posted on my flickr photostream.
I completed another layout this morning. I was so focused I’m late for work!
Click here for a larger view & scrapbook product credits.
I completed this layout for an upcoming blog feature at DSP (look for it dec 10th). Found this picture from this summer and thought it was a great starting point. While searching in picasa by color (have you tried that it is awesome!!!) If you have picasa go to: Tools—>Experimental—>Search For and pick a color. I’m enjoying use this for my scrapbooking because I often find that a color is a good inspirational starting point for putting a layout together.
Hope you all enjoy this layout as much as I do! Now to get myself to work!
Click here to see larger & for scrapbook product credits.
My latest layout, called peeky boo. Jack just now has really gotten into playing peek-a-boo. This was a picture I took at Panera Bread on our last day in Florida visiting Ken’s parents. He played peeky boo with grandmacoy at the table. We all were very entertained.
On our way home we stopped at the Georgia welcome center/rest stop used the facilities, and dh and our kiddo ran around the grounds to release some energy and stretch our legs. I made a sandwich lunch that we ate there in the parking lot. I took some pictures of dad and son playing around I even managed to get a layout done today. Here are some shots and also the layout.
I have a couple other shots I really loved from the rest area shots and hope to get a layout done soon of those shots too. Right now it seems like I’m getting one layout done a month (YIKES!) Enjoy!
We got to the beach a bit earlier than our photographer, Lori Robison, so I snapped a few shots while ds discovered the beach for the first time since he was an infant. Here are some of my favorites:
Of course the good shots are yet to come. Those will include picts of the 3 of us and grandmacoy and papaw.
Jack was really well behaved the whole weekend which was a blessing to me especially since his nap and sleeping schedule was so off. We kept getting compliments from strangers and family on how well behaved he is. Wow that definitely makes a parent feel good especially after that incident a few days ago.
This trip definitely was much too short but we packed a lot into it and we felt it was worth it. I think it was a blessing to get away from the day to day for even a short time so we could spend some quality family time together.
We used priceline.com for the first time for our hotel room and I was very blessed by the whole process. We got our room at a really good rate and the hotel was super nice too! I will definitely be using priceline.com again.
Anywhooo sure appreciate all you coming along with us on our trip.
Hopefully ds will take a much needed nap.
Last night was another story. Dh woke up this morning and said how'd he (ds) sleep and I looked at him confused "weren't we all in the same bed??" Oh the advantages of a king size bed! So dh slept soundly as ds tossed and turned all night pushing me to the edge of the bed and waking up frequently all night!! I did not sleep soundly last night LOL!
I told ds that he gets to "cuddle" with daddy tonight LOL.
Ds wants to blow out the candles on the table LOL
We're almost to our destination.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
We’re headed out of town this morning for a short weekend little trip. We’re excited to be getting away for even a short little bit. Watch out for some blog post along the road. DS is sooo excited about our road trip. He keeps telling everyone I’m going on a road trip. We’ve packed a dvd player, toys, snacks, oh and clothes and such. We have a busy weekend. A party tonight, a party tomorrow, a photo shoot tomorrow afternoon, then we travel back home Sunday.
Yesterday we got a new kitchen/dining room table!! I’m so excited it is pretty and the chairs are more sturdy than our old set. What I like is that it is solid wood and also has a leaf that makes it expand into a little bit bigger table!! That is a picture from the store where I purchased it. It is new to us but not brand new. Dad and Dan picked it up from the store and brought it over to the house yesterday afternoon.
Recently I’ve been trying to figure out whether or not we were using our minutes and if we could reduce the cost of our cell phone bill some way. Last night I came across BillShrink.com in a magazine.
Today I went to the site and started with their cell phone plan evaluator.
What was cool is that I already had an online account with my cell phone carrier (T-Mobile) and BillShrink.com was able to log in and download my latest usage information. No worries if you don’t have an online account you can answer a series of questions:
After a few seconds BillShrink.com had analyzed our cellphone usage and calculated all kinds of stats:
Previously with my cell phone statement I just couldn’t get this same information without lots of work and calculating and figuring. And they separated our statement by phone number (of which we have 2 on our plan) and didn’t give very clear totals. I loved that I could see exactly how many free minutes we’re using and how many plan minutes we’re using.
After playing around in the statistical results and seeing all the fun pie charts and bar graphs (don’t you just love graphs?? I do!!). You then get to the money saving part. BillShrink.com then suggests to you the best plan out there that meets your needs. BillShrink.com’s goal is to save you money so if there is a better plan out there that is with a different carrier it will suggest it.
The results confirmed my thinking that we are able to change our plan to a plan with fewer minutes and save $106 per year!
If you like to save money like I do you should go check out BillShrink.com and see if you can reduce your cell phone bill. Then after that check out their Credit Card Module and see how you can save in that area! I really hope they open a module for cable/internet/phone services too.
Let me know if you try out BillShrink.com and tell me if you can save any money!!
Yesterday I had a really rough day. Got my feelings hurt in the beginning of the day and just couldn’t completely get over it.
I felt like this person was saying they didn’t think I was a good mother. And when I shared this with another person and how hurt I was they didn’t even encourage me and say that I was a good mom. And that is something that I really struggle with each day.
How do you know you’re a good mom???? I know I love my son and I try to tell him that 100 times a day along with lots of kisses. I try to provide for him the basic necessities of life as well as those luxuries that make life so much fun. We raise him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, looking to The Word for guidance. So by those standards I’m not a horrible mom right??
Most days I just feel like I’m not the BEST mom I can be. I know I'm NOT a good “playing” mom. I have a hard time just letting go and enjoying playing kitchen or cars or trains or watching the same kid song movie for the 1000th time. I’m constantly thinking about all the things that need to be done or how tired I am or how I should have done this instead of that, etc. We haven’t been on a play date or interacted with kids his own age except for a couple birthday parties and chance meetings at the playground.
I’m not much of a house maker, a cook, etc. Right now it is hard to see anything I do as a wife and mother that I am good at.
I definitely can see the areas I can improve on LOUD and CLEAR. I feel like I’ve been working on these areas for a while and slowly chipping away not making any great improvements just little ones.
I really have a hearts desire to be a good mom and maybe one day a GREAT mom.
So I’m looking to you all to see what you do to that makes you a good mom? Or what are the qualities you see in other moms that make you tell them they’re a “great mom”. What do you admire in these women? I look forward to hearing your sharings :)
We took out some time today and headed over to McDaniel Farm Park and have a family photo shoot. We were there less than 1 hour but got some great shots including the one for our holiday card (that one’s a surprise). I’m glad grandma and grandpa b were able to join us for a few shots and my boy actually SMILED for lots of them!
Here are a few of my favorites:
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| Family Photos 11-9-08 |
Photograph by Tina Chambers Published with permission
Did you know you can SEE the end of a rainbow??? I didn’t! My friend Tina showed me in her incredible photos of a rainbow she took this week. She was so excited at how vibrant the colors were and it is truly amazing.
Go check our her blog and take a look at more of her awesome pictures of this beautiful rainbow.
http://tinasdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/11/amazing-rainbow-i-caught.html
Don’t forget to leave her a comment!!
It has been bothering me lately with how little room is left in the garage. There is one area that is full of boxes and has been neglected for a long while. I knew if we took some time to go through the boxes we'd be able to find some stuff we could sell at the next garage sale.
Today I am in a big purge purge purge mood and just want to get rid of EVERYTHING! Ah Ha! The perfect mind set for going through these boxes.
We've already emptied a bunch of boxes and have consolidated the keep items, thrown out trash and have a big box for the garage sale.
Hubby has gone out to get us lunch and we'll break for a moment and then press on. I hope we're able to make lots of room.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Just wanted to show a final picture of my kiddo in his Super Why Costume. He enjoyed the costume party for kids that the Cardinal Lake neighborhood put on. 
CHECK OUT MY FRIENDS HALLOWEEN POSTS
- the BIG day in the Lundy family from Margie
- Halloween Pictures! from Meg
- Halloween from Amber
- Halloween Slideshow by Lisa
- A Halloween to Remember by Becca
Here we are with our awesome stickers!! Send me a link to a picture of you with your sticker on.
I hope if you’re an American (and a registered voter) you get your vote on today! I’m headed out in a couple hours to cast my ballot for the candidate I feel will best lead this country in our current times.
I will be mobile blogging my voting experience today during this historic election.
Exciting news! The DSP Store is now selling my font for only $2.99!!! YIPPIE!!! Go grab it and now you can write just like me!
So you don’t like my handwriting and much prefer your own? No problem get yourself fonted!
