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

Growing up

BubbaLou is growing up! Once upon a time, she wasn't this tall, she was a wee babe that walked around theme parks that had rides for the little people. She is spoiled! I admit it. It is not all children that get to know theme parks like Disney, Universal, and Busch Gardens like the back of their hand.

Being an only child has its advantages when you live only a hop, a skip, and a jump away from Orlando. We rotate the seasonal and annual passes for the parks and enjoy just about every minute of it. We occassionaly take advantage of the hotels in the area-wait, maybe they take advantage of us. Hmmmm. Anyhoo, most times, we just drive up for the day or afternoon. Popsaroo has even been known to pick her up from school on Fridays(while I am at work) and take her to ride some roller-coasters. I think he is the biggest kid-maybe she isn't an only child.

Last Christmas, we went up to Universal for the afternoon. We had spent the morning with Mums and Mummy Iris, but decided to venture out and about. I know it is a little different, but it was better than sitting around with nothing to do. It was very Christmasy. They were playing carols that included Jesus and they were wishing people a Merry Christmas. We totally enjoyed it. The employees, though working on Christmas seemed to enjoy it too. Popsaroo and BubbaLou horsed around and it made for a not so bloated, sleepy afternoon. It also distracted my mind, because I was missing my Santa. They make me laugh, they are a good team!

Humor helps us to think out of the box. The average child laughs about 400 times per day, the average adult laughs only 15 times per day. What happened to the other 385 laughs?Anonymous

Lucky Lizards!

I have decided that I never have my camera when I need it. I had it in my purse yesterday and forgot I had it. I didn't really need it at the yard sale that we went to on the way to BubbaLou's softball game, but I could have used it later. I missed out on some good shots, like BubbaLou hitting the ball and getting to first base and when she stepped down on home triumphantly as she scored a run! I loved the look on her face-all smiles:)

I changed purses this morning and left the camera at home. I wished I had it, because we could have gotten some great pics of the last supper musical dramatization. BubbaLou noticed the men dressed in the funny looking costumes(biblical dress) right away as we walked into the worship center this morning. We were looking forward to the Lord's supper, I mean, who doesn't get excited to sup with the Lord in rememberance for all that he is, and all that he has done? But the costumes were creating even more excitement for us.

BubbaLou marched into the worship center and led me to a seat in the nose bleed section. She settled down with her bag of goodies-a book, a journal, and her rubber lizard. The rubber lizard was her Saturday treasure from the yard sale, and her new best friend-Ray. BubbaLou happily led Ray through song and prayer, and he looked on while we partook of the Lord's Supper. Soon, church was over and we all filed out and headed to the car.

Reenactment

We went home for a bite of lunch and then headed over to Mums. BubbaLou took Ray outside in search of her friends and soon got busy. Not wanting to leave her lizard in the grass, she placed him on the bumper of Mum's van.

Mum's had church business, so she took off and said she would see us later. The next thing I know, BubbaLou is coming through the door in a panic. Ray is gone. Once I finally had the story straight, I assured her that I would drive down the road to see if we could find Ray-the lizard. Her two buddies were all about going with us to hunt for Ray. Everyone loaded up, and off we went-down the road in the subdivision, down the highway, and finally turned into the church parking lot. Guess who was still on the back of the bumper?...Ray! Cheers! Ray had gone to church again. I don't know if rubber lizard can be lucky, but I think BubbaLou is blessed.

I thought, "I wish I had my camera!"

Psalms 127:3

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a real blessing.

Bloggy Christmas Ornaments

My bloggy friend Kate has issued forth an invitation to participate in a bloggy Christmas of sorts! Announcing!!!

The Accidental Travelers

first annual

Great Ornament Exchange!

The best part, is that you are invited and real ornaments and new friends are involved! It sounds like a great way to celebrate the season and encourage our bloggy friends with Good Tidings! You know me, all about the encouragement! Just hop on over to her site and sign up! While you are there, read some of her posts, like her wonderful post election post!

Speaking of post election, I am so glad the election is over and I only want to hear good positive things from all Americans! :) I have very good friends who range from the center on out to left and the right and they are all good Americans! I am proud of all their votes! So I am ready to celebrate the Season of our Lord's birth!

Cause no matter who ya are,

the Good Lord has plans

and He is in control-

whether you believe it, or not!

BubbaLou Wisdom

"Momsaroo, your vote could make all the difference in the election!"

It has been fun teaching BubbaLou about voting and what our freedom allows. She has been learning about voting in school and even got to cast her own vote. She was quite pleased with it. She has picked a candidate and is quite open about her choice. I however, have had a much tougher time deciding. I followed her advice, and cast my vote. To tell you the truth, I voted along with BubbaLou's choice.

This morning in the car, we had a good conversation about Democracy and how our leaders were elected. Mind you, it will require much more teaching and reinforcement before she gets the whole popular and electoral college concepts. What is so neat, is that she brings up these topics in such interesting ways.

See, BubbaLou has been listening to a book with a mean owl. His name is Mr. Arkaxe and he has informed Poppy's family of mice, that he is ruler. He will protect them from porcupines, but they must ask permission to travel and move from place to place, or they get eaten. So, BubbaLou brings up Mr. Arkaxe and refers to him being like the President.

"No,"I say, " Mr. Arkaxe was a dictator. He used power and intimidation to rule over the mice. The mice didn't get a vote. They were just told what they could do or Mr. Arkaxe got a mouse lunch. That is what is so wonderful about a Democracy, we each get a vote. We can have our say, our freedom. We can vote for the person that we each think will represent our interests the best."

This conversation then led into the whole popular vote and electoral vote thing and I sorta lost her. But this is one more reason why it is so important to read to your child. You just never know what they will walk away with!

Recommended listening-it is fantastic as the audio book. We checked it out from the local library.

Poppy by Avi

Fall Festival Fun!

Mum's is a Saint! If you only knew the kindness and loveliness of her heart, especially when many children regularly run amok in her house, you would completely agree. She looks forward to her church's Fall Festival, and so do we! BubbaLou has brought home many a fish from this festival before, and they live quite a long time. I think those fish must be blessed!

They didn't have fish that we found this year, but they did have fish bowls. BubbaLou tried her hand at this game for quite a while. She walked away with much candy for her efforts.

She also fished for toys and candy. She did this one a couple of times. BubbaLou is a great fisher girl!

The ball rolling through all these nails got her another five pieces of candy. Plus, it had an added bonus of reminding her that Jesus loves her!She tried her hand at darts and was actually pretty good aiming for the bulls eye on the ground.

She flung hula hoops around unsuspecting pumpkins. How fun is that?

She even got to meet a couple of horses. She took Lady for a ride and gave Georgia a pet. Georgia was being mischievous-she has a lot of personality!
Last, but not least, BubbaLou competed in the Pie Eating Contest. Really it was a dig the five gummie worms out of the pie with your mouth contest. She was a mess!

The Candy Crew

Costumes, costumes, silly costumes!

Candy, Candy, Candy. Q: Why did the witches' team lose the baseball game?

A: Their bats flew away

Don't be alarmed, they are play acting-especially the one with her eyes closed!
These are what you called drama spooks!


by BubbaLou

Q: What did the little ghost have in his rock collection?

A: Tombstones

The Great Pumpkin Hunt '08

We have had a pumpkin tradition since BubbaLou has been around. We started during her first October, she was ten months old and had just started walking. She loved playing with the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. We have gone every year, usually to one of the pumpkin patches sponsored by one of the Methodist churches in the area. We have gone early in the season and we have gone late. We usually find a pumpkin that is just right for carving.
This year, we were very late, we had been too busy. We should never be so late finding a pumpkin, but somehow, we let it slip through the cracks. So, October 30th, we started the Great Pumpkin Hunt. We were sorely disappointed. We couldn't find a pumpkin. At least, not one that was just right. It is hard to see in the pics, but the pumpkin patch was bare for the exceptions of pumpkins that were too bumpy, too green, too crooked, and were either too large or too tiny. We went to several patches, some were completely shut down and the rest were slim pickings.

BubbaLou, she has high standards. She didn't want to settle for what we were finding but we had to stop for the night. I encouraged her and said that Publix had Cinderella pumpkins and maybe we could stop by real quick and pick one up. She replied, "Momsaroo, I don't like Princesses! " Plus, she didn't want to lower her standards of buying one at the supermarket-it wasn't as fun or outside, she would rather do without. Except, that just as we were getting home, she decided that she would like to get one from the store. I told her that the next day, I would stop by the store and pick one up while she was at school and after Mum's cataract surgery.

Mum's and I spent 3 hours at the eye doctors the next day for the cataract surgery that wasn't. Turns out, it was just the prep exam for the cataract surgery. So after doing lunch at Mimi's, Mums and I headed to the neighborhood Publix in search of a pumpkin. Chuckling, I had to share the comment BubbaLou had made about the Princesses with Mums. We were relieved to find that not only did Publix have Cinderella pumpkins to choose from, they had painted pumpkins. They even had one with a cat. I figured this would work into our very tight schedule for the day, who knew if we even had time to carve one. If all else failed, I knew we could turn it around and carve the back.

BubbaLou turned out to be pleased, considered carving the back, but then opted to just enjoy the cat and go play with her friends instead. So, the Great Pumpkin Hunt ended and a happy child we have!

Q: What do you get when you drop a pumpkin?

A: Squash

BubbaLou's brush with Spooky Fame

Living with Popsaroo and BubbaLou is always a treat(-get it, trick or treat?) They are always finding things to do that are a tad bit, odd. This is one of the fun things about our family, you just never know what to expect from day to day.

Popsaroo and BubbaLou ventured off and met GhostHunters one day while I was at work. BubbaLou was a bit star-struck according to Popsaroo. See, Steve and Tango are her favorite Ghosthunters. I have to admit, we get a kick out of that show. People can really let their imagination get the best of them sometimes and it is fun to watch the Ghosthunters methodically debunk a lot of spooky ghosts.

This summer, when we went to Savannah, Georgia, we went on ghost tour. We got to go into the Sorrel Weed House, where the Ghosthunters actually got an audio recording. Oooooh, spooky. Especially when the desk that I had my back to, had a door that kept hitting me in the rear end after I shut it-and it was hard to close. So, I turned around and took a picture.

See the spooky orb? This is the only picture out of all the pictures I took that had an orb. It is probably dust, but I did get a good story out of it! That is the door on the desk that kept popping open and hitting me in the rear. Imaginations are an awful powerful thing! Oh, yeah, did I tell you that I tried to debunk this? I tried multiple times in similar lighting conditions and with shiny furniture to see if this was a trick of the flash. Nope. So the mystery continues.

Have a spooky, creepy, silly imagination Halloween!

P.S. I do not talk to ghosts!

A Savannah gravestone in the Colonial Park Cemetary.