Happy New Year 2009

This past year has had a lot of bumps, and I am looking forward to many good things in 2009. I am going to make sure I eat black-eyed peas tomorrow-We are need of as much luck and as many blessings as we can get this new year. We have a had a year of Murphy's Law and I have just about had enough! We have had plenty of good laughs and joy in our hearts as well.


So, in an effort to look back at 2008 to laugh and find the joy, I have picked through my blog posts for highlights....

Friday, January 25, 2008

Too much JOY in her heart

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Something Great!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

A Seahorse and a lawyer


Saturday, April 12, 2008

High Tea

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Music Appreciation-the 80's

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A stained glass beauty

Sunday, August 3, 2008

So they loaded up the truck...

Monday, September 8, 2008

BubbaLou for President!


Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Chalk Artist meets New Turtle

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Lucky Lizards!


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Marshmallows

May your family be blessed this new year!

Someone's in the kitchen

Popsaroo and BubbaLou were in the kitchen again. This time they didn't steal my new cookie sheets for home base. This time they were cooking. Or, at least, attempting to cook. No, maybe they were really melting, trying to melt caramels. Notice that I wrote trying. He had found the sack of caramels that were left over from the caramel apple night a few months ago and suddenly thought he was Ronald McDonald. McDonald's is there for a reason Popsaroo!

I got a call on my way home from work, it was Popsaroo warning me that he had been trying to make apple dippers for BubbaLou. He told me that he sorta burned some caramel in one of my little dishes. I was in the midst of driving into a bit of traffic so I said, "Okay, it's all right." I hung up and worked my way through the construction and traffic.

I got home and found a ramekin dish covered in dried caramel. This isn't so bad I thought, a little soak and this will be good as new. It was at that moment that BubbaLou came into the kitchen telling me that "Popsaroo ruined one of your dishes! He burned the caramels when he was trying to make me apple dippers. Let me show you." So she turns around and went out into the GARAGE, and came back in with a ramekin dish with what looked like a piece of lava attached to it. Burned was an understatement. I grabbed a knife, and just about bent it. I decided that to go on chipping away would only leave me with a dull or bent knife and possibly a missing appendage.


It is only a ramekin dish, I guess the easy thing to do would have been to throw it away. But you see, it came from a yard sale, it was a bargain-I got 3 for 1.50, and I like the stupid little thing-so many uses. I was determined to save it. A large squirt of dish washer detergent and hot water with a three day soak worked. I didn't even have to scrub, it just slid right out. I didn't even have to ask Heloise!

Merry Christmas!

Now with your best English accent....

What we need now is a little holly! The prickly leaves remind us of the thorns our dear Lamb of God suffered with silent fortitude, and the red berries remind us of the drops of healing blood he shed for us. The tree remains green all the year round, and the leaves never die- which shows us the way of eternal life for those who love the Savior.

Friar Tuck

Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead

Angels, from the realms of glory,

Wing your flight o'er all the earth;

Ye, who sang creation's story,

Now proclaim Messiah's birth:

Come and worship, come and worship,

Worship Christ, the newborn King.

~Angels, from the Realms of Glory by James Montgomery

Merry Christmas from me to you!

I'll be home for Christmas

I have fond memories of putting up the Christmas tree with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Santa had the uncanny patience to put up the tree and string the lights perfectly, winding them around each limb so that you could barely see the cords. To this day, I have not figured out how he did it.

He also had the talent that only elves and Santa have, he could string the lights back into the box perfectly when Christmas was over. He enjoyed it. I on the other hand do well to get them off the tree and throw them in a plastic sack until next year.

Mrs. Claus and I would then decorate the tree. The ornaments were packed safely away in boxes. Each year, we would pick each one up and place it on the tree while talking and laughing together about this or that. The elf below is one from that time so long ago. He still is shiny and bright and looking towards Christmas with happiness. The moose is one that I painted after Popsaroo and I got married. The penguin is one of two, part of a wooden collection of Noah's animals given to me by my Mums-in-law.

This is one of Mum's ornaments that she painted. She was painting lots of pictures on canvas during this time and took her talent to Christmas balls. Unfortunately, this is all I have left of this ornament. BubbaLou accidentally knocked this one off the tree and it shattered. This has been the Christmas of broken ornaments, and Erith Sappy hasn't fallen over once like Fat Charley.

Mum's also painted these Christmas mice. I love Christmas mice. The goose is one that I painted, and the lamb is one of my collection.( I collected sheep once upon a time-but my pasture is full.)

I placed tinsel on the tree this year too. Santa would keep the tinsel packed away very neat and tidy each year, he treated each piece with respect. He must of used the same pack for over a decade.

Memories of my Santa are sweet and dear to Mrs. Claus and me.

Favorites

When Popsaroo and I first got married, I decided that I was going to make some ornaments for our tree. I can not tell you how I threw myself into this. I had been cross-stitching during the winter we were married, but do you know that although I finished them, I never made them into an ornament. They are still at the bottom of my cross-stitching basket-safe and sound. I have good intentions.

The ornaments that I did finish, were the ones that I painted. They have been put on our tree every year since. I have several favorites from that group that I painted. A gingerbread house, a sleepy mouse in a cup, and a church with a red door. The gingerbread house takes me back to Hansel and Gretel. I loved that tale as a child and every time I see a gingerbread house, I have to think of them pulling treats off the witch's house to fill their hungry tummies. This mouse was probably my first Christmas mouse of my very own. Mum's had made several mice for the tree while I was growing up- I always loved Christmas mice. I think churches can be so beautiful at Christmas-and even though my church doesn't have a red door, I love the vesper service on Christmas Eve.

I just love unwrapping these ornaments every year, ahhh...memories. This year, BubbaLou has been more interested in the ones that I made and the ones that Mums made. It is always fun when BubbaLou actually wants to listen for the answer and hear about our traditions of Christmas.

Mum's ornaments will be the next post. Mums let me raid the ornament box at her house and I brought home some of my all time favorites from my childhood.

Last year, BubbaLou and I made snow flakes. We wrote prayer requests on them last year. We placed them on a piece of red yarn and strung them around the tree. I really love the snowflakes and the memories of the prayers that we said. We checked the names twice to make sure everyone was accounted for this year and celebrated those prayers that had been answered.

I have also had silver bells hanging on the tree for many years. They are the inexpensive ones, but I sure like to see them on the tree. The carol silver bells always runs through my head when I untangle them and put them on the tree.

Silver bells, silver bells

it's Christmas time in the city

ring-a-ling, hear them ring

soon it will be Christmas day!

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
dressed in holiday style
in the air there's a feeling of Christmas!

Children laughing, people passing
meeting smile after smile

and on every street corner you'll hear . . .

Silver bells ( silver bells! ) silver bells
( silver bells! )it's Christmas time in the city

ring-a-ling ( ring-a-ling! ) hear them ring
( hear them ring!! )soon it will be Christmas day!
~Silver Bells Carol

Cookies and Home

BubbaLou had a brownie party to attend not to long ago, and I needed to send cookies for her to decorate. I was short on time and planned to run by Publix and pick up some sugar cookies from their bakery. This turned out to be the one and only time Publix let me down, they didn't have any made. In their defense, they offered to make me some but it would take about twenty minutes. I couldn't wait, I figured I would just pick up some of those Pillsbury sugar cookies-you know, the ones that are already cut and you just have to plop them on the cookie sheet. I picked up 3 packs since they were on sale and headed home. Popsaroo had tagged along, so I asked him on the way home, "Have you by any chance seen my cookie sheets?"
"Yeah, they are in the back yard, " he said.
"In the back yard?!"
"Yeah, we were using them as home plate." He said this like this was an everyday occurrence to have your wife's cookie sheets out in the back yard for softball practice!
"What am I supposed to make cookies on?" I asked. I knew at that point what the answer was, Mum's cookie sheets!

I took those cookies over to Mum's house and baked them up and sent BubbaLou off to her Brownie party just in the nick of time. She had fun decorating them with her friend, Bubbles who had fun decorating the cookies that she brought(I don't know the story behind her cookies.)

Now, I am still without cookie sheets. I am not bringing those things back in the house! So, I was looking in the fridge this morning, and noticed that one of the packets of Pillsbury cookies was not lying just right, so I picked it up, and it was EMPTY, except for one unbaked cookie! BubbaLou and Popsaroo(I don't think either one of them was in it alone) had eaten up a whole package of cookie dough! c'est la vie....I popped the last one in my mouth and laughed!

It's Christmas time...

Christmas time has come to our wee family's house. I have been working hard the last week to get our decorations up and boxes put away. Our tree this year is not Fat Charley, but Ereth Sappy, named after Ereth the Porcupine from the book Poppy. Ereth is sappy, we got sap all over us on the way home, and Ereth is prickly-but not dry. Mums, BubbaLou, and I decided on his name on the way home from finding him.

We thought that finding a new tree would be a chore. I mean, we all came to have a special place in our hearts for Fat Charley. It turned out to be really easy and quick. BubbaLou picked him out in about five minutes and bonded with him right away.

We got Ereth home and couldn't find the stand. So he stood out on the carport in a bucket of water until Popsaroo got home and found the stand. We stood him up, buckled him in, and filled up his water trough. Then we didn't get back to him except to water him for a couple of days-we were busy celebrating BubbaLou's birthday.

Finally, we got around to decorating him. I have a strange sort of theme, I don't really have one. I have a mix of ornaments that I painted when Popsaroo and I got married back almost 19 years ago, most of them or assorted little woodland critters. I also have a collection of ornaments that I have found in antique stores and at yard sales and then I have ones that have been given to me.

The santas on the bell is one that I painted after Popsaroo and I got married. The vintage angel is one of four instrument playing angels(I even have the original box) I found at an estate sale-I think.

The Mary and baby Jesus are part of an entire Nativity set that is hanging around the tree. I got them from our Global Impact Conference at Church. A missionary was selling these as part of World Crafts. The money goes to help support the women that made them.

This was one of my finds last year at a Christmas store or sorts. Every thing was on sale and it was just exciting:) He is my Irish Leprechaun Santa.

What usually happens when you uncover your real past to strangers? You show, for instance, to your neighbor a photograph of the old farmhouse where you were born. When you look at it you can smell the clover in the fields, you hear the cows lowing, you know that your mother is weeding in the garden yonder. You see yourself and Jack-two big, freckled boys, leaning from that attic window at night planning your lives out in the world, full of fighting and glory...

...All of these things are in that photograph for you. But your neighbor sees in it only a common frame house and barn that need repair badly....

~Some Old-Time Christmases

by Rebecca Harding Davis

Family Meeting

BubbaLou called a family meeting the other day. She made sure that both Popsaroo and I were both seated before she would tell us what it was about. She had her music stand in the living room with construction paper posters. She had graphs and everything. She announced that she was going to discuss "Going Green" and " Eating Better." It was classic!

She had a couple of graphs that showed that Momsaroo and BubbaLou were doing pretty good when it came to eating right and going green. Popsaroo, not so good. She lectured him a bit and asked him ways he could improve. He needed some suggestions so she provided them.

I will have to let you know how her next poster presentation goes. You never know, we may just see some improvements. Well, maybe not until after Christmas on the "Eating Better" one, cause right now, I am on the Santa diet! I just got my season stash of Bob's Christmas Candy canes! They are all mine! No one else likes peppermint except me and Santa! Hahaha, I mean, HoHoHoHo!

~Momsaroo, why do you like Peppermint?~

~BubbaLou

Happy Birthday BubbaLou!

BubbaLou is 9 years young! I can't believe it. Popsaroo and I spent the first 9 years of our marriage with a twinkle in our eye, the second 9 years we have had the most wonderful little girl we could have ever imagined!

BubbaLou is full of personality and spice! We always look forward to celebrating her birthday with gusto. What other way could their possibly be when you have a BubbaLou???

This year we started off with a present or two leading up to her birthday. We like to have birthday week in our family! She made out with a Taylor Swift CD and an Idog named Icey.
She was thrilled!

Since school must go on whether it is your birthday or not, we celebrated with cupcakes during lunch. Mmmm...vanilla! We even slipped one to her best friend that isn't in her class. The other kids were so jealous! Hey, there are perks when you are friends with BubbaLou!

After school, we went to Mum's for a cookies and cocoa sidewalk gala. I brought the cookie and Mum's made the cocoa-spicy! We had to cut it down a few times because BubbaLou and her two taste testers where running around saying, "My throat is burning..." It had a dash of cayenne pepper in it.

We wanted to keep the gala simple-no gifts. Mum's had a great idea- the kids could bring food donations for the homeless and she could fill her basket to take to church. BubbaLou was all for it. She delivered her flyer invitations Sunday afternoon(nothing like last minute)-almost everyone came. She ended up collecting two grocery bags full of food! She was quite impressed with her friends food cans!

BubbaLou's Party Hints

Party hint Number 1 - Have the party guests blow up the balloons!

Party hint Number 2 - Include chocolate, whipped cream, and marshmallows:)

Party hint Number 3 - Have lots of napkins, you are gonna need them!

After the party when all the sugar had peaked and the meltdown was taking over, it was necessary for Popsaroo and me to take BubbaLou to a steakhouse for a birthday steak and some version of a cow-poke birthday song to be loudly sung to her in front of lots of strangers. She loved it! It is one of the things she has wanted to do for a long time.

Her final gift was the Littlest Petshop -she has been wanting one so bad!!!!

Believe it or not, she doesn't know what to ask Santa for. She is going to ask for Santa to bring her a surprise, just like she has every single year she has been willing to talk to him!

Happy Birthday BubbaLou-you live in a zoo!

Thank you God for my BubbaLou!

Hay Dog!

Thomas the dog has officially lost his mind. We think that he believes himself to be a rabbit. Before the rabbit- Patrick Poopers the lop eared rabbit came into our lives, Thomas the dog would eat just about anything. He liked any meat-still does, loves apples, bananas, tangerines, green beans, steamed broccoli, peanut butter and just about any sort of yummy kids cereal(although he wasn't supposed to eat any.) He would snub raw carrots and broccoli.

Guess who begs, I mean begs for raw carrots and broccoli now? I have even given him some kale at his insistence. I had to hold it and it would tear away at it bit by bit because it would fall out of his mouth-but he was certainly making an effort.

Now look who I caught gobbling up Timothy hay from under the rabbits cage. That's right, Thomas the dog who thinks he is a rabbit. Hay. The dog is eating hay. We caught a pic with it sticking out of his mouth. We had a good laugh over this one!


On Green Acres this would be considered normal!

Marshmallows

No food speaks of holidays as strongly as the marshmallow. It is one of my favorite foods. Of course it belongs in that very tiny portion of the food pyramid that you can barely see. One big marshmallow is bigger than that little allowable sweet tip of the pyramid. Oh, I forgot, I was never that good at geometry or fractions. I think I will just move the marshmallow down to the base of the food pyramid for the time being-it is Christmas time ya know!

BubbaLou and I just watched Rudolph on t.v. We have the movie, but there is nothing like watching Christmas specials on t.v. We enjoyed cocoa, whipped cream , marshmallows, and of course some green Christmas sugar sprinkles. Magical!

It was the second time this week that we enjoyed marshmallows. Thomas the dog only got them the first time. Popsaroo built a bon fire the other night when I got home from work. Nothing says "Welcome Home" like a warm toasted marshmallow and hugs and kisses from the dog, the daughter, and the big hunk of man that built that roaring fire!

Okay, so he had a little trouble getting it started, but he succeeded and came through with hot dogs and marshmallows. Did I mention that Popsaroo had to scour several grocery stores earlier in the evening to find the big marshmallows. BubbaLou blamed it on the Thanksgiving rush and Popsaroo went along with it.

Mmmmm. Toasted Marshmallowy goodness! You better watch out, Thomas the dog will eat them right off the stick when you aren't looking. However, he does spit them out because he burns his mouth and then gobbles them all up! A burned mouth is no excuse for not eating a marshmallow.

I love the fact that God gave man the idea for fire, and then for marshmallows, and finally the common sense to put them together.

~me

It's Christmas time and I have been goofin off

I have decided that I have been goofing off. Mesmerized by games on the internet, I have gotten behind in my encouragement blog.

I write this blog, not because I am a writer, I'm not, but because I am an Encourager. I have just gotten lazy and run down. Life has thrown me some real curve balls lately, and I have zoned out in my efforts to cope with them. No more, I vow to limit my search for words amongst scrabble tiles-my vocabulary is quite limited so it has been pretty useless anyway.

I need to be encouraged and writing this blog encourages me and some other members of my family and a few friends. When I write a post, I try to look for the silver lining, the part that God intends for me to either learn from or to cherish.

That said, it's Christmas time- my favorite time of year! I laid in bed yesterday watching Santa Claus movies and eating Chex mix. BubbaLou and I sang Christmas songs in the car today and tonight, it is Rudolph.

"Mom, it's 8:00pm, Rudolph is on, Come on!!!

~ BubbaLou