You and Your Girl

This weekend Paige, Leah and I went to a You and Your Girl Conference taught by Vicki Courtney. Vicki is a wife, mother, author and speaker who helps parents and teens understand teen culture.

She studies current teen culture and the lies that our teens especially girls are absorbing. Cultures views on fashion, their bodies and what makes them attractive to the opposite sex, etc. She teaches girls truth based on God's Word and she also helps Moms with ideas to navigate and guide our daughters through these years and this culture.

Vicki's communication style is very casual, down to earth and she is not preachy at all. There are a couple of breakout sessions by age so they can talk to the girls honestly based on what they are ready to understand.

If you and your girls have an opportunity to attend one of her events, it will be a true investment in your relationship and will help equip your daughter with tools to stand firm in her faith.

Go check out Vicki's website. She also writes a great blog.

http://www.vickicourtney.com/

There is a link to her blog on there.

Here are some more pictures from the day. The church where the event took place had beautiful gardens. Leah took these pictures then I took one of her.

Vintage Babes

My Mother-in-Law Ann plays on a Women's Softball team in FL. Her team "The Vintage Babes" was featured last week on The Today Show.
Ann is the batter near the beginning of the segment getting a hit and running down the first base line. It was fun seeing her and her team on TV.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Wordless Wednesday - Paige

The "Mourning" After

Well it's all over but the crying. boohoo.

I did not win the trip to Connecticut. But I tell you it was fun trying. I want to thank all of you for your support and passing along the link to my story to others.

The final votes were Grapejuice Lady 629 and I had 488. Around 10pm last night she piled on the votes. We stayed virtually tied all day until the end and she blew me away.

So congratulations Susette. I know you and Rhonda will have a great time together.

When I found out I was in the finals, we were in Dallas on Spring Break. We had spent the day at Six Flags Over Texas. I came back to the hotel and went in the business center and found out my story had been selected because of a tie.

I couldn't believe it.

If you would have told me then that I would manage to accumulate 488 votes, I wouldn't have believed it. That number astounds me. You all are the best. I especially want to thank Keith "Buster" for all of his time he put into this helping me get votes. He's an amazing husband and so giving. You can't imagine the extremes that man went to for votes. But now all his work associates know I call him Buster. He isn't too happy about that.

Thank you Rhonda for hosting this contest.

I found your blog thru this and I'm so glad I did. I'm a fan now.

Now I'm going to resume my normal life (blogging with a little bit of housework thrown in).

By the way, my daughter Leah said to me the other day

"Mom, I know what your favorite animal is."

I said "Really, what is it?"

She answered "A Computer Mouse"

Ouch that stung.

FINAL VOTING NOW

The voting is coming to an end tonight at midnight eastern time.

If you haven't had a chance to vote yet. I would be grateful for your vote.

www.becausemomsaidso.blogspot.com

My story is So Long Smell You Later.
Click on the button beside my story then click VOTE.
One vote per computer.

Thank you all so much for helping me out with this. It's been quite a week.
I don't think my kids have eaten lunch yet and it's 5:35p.m..
I've been a tad distracted.
♥

I Need Your Vote!

Dear Blogger Friends:



I need your help actually your Vote. I made the Final Five in the Have Travel Will Story Contest that Rhonda is doing at Because Mom Said So.

I need your votes. I am attempting to win a round trip ticket to Connecticut. The story I wrote has been picked to be in the finals. If I win I get to fly to Connecticut and meet Rhonda and her family and would also like to visit my Aunt and Uncle who live there. I haven't seen them in over ten years.



Please go visit Rhonda and put in a click for me.

The vote is in the right-hand sidebar. (not in the comments)

My story was "So Long Smell You Later."

She writes a great blog too. I know you'll enjoy your visit.



Thank you so much,

What Do These Things Have in Common?

I guess the last picture may give it away. It's Dallas....the new home of Former President and Laura Bush and the temporary home of the King Tut Exhibit. Also hopefully a place with lots of fun things to do for Spring Break. Yes, it's that time of year and we'll be gone this week. We're staying pretty close to home this year.

I thought I would post some Spring pictures of what is blooming in my yard right now. It has been cold and rainy here this week. But next week promises to be drier and warmer.

I love this time of year except for this:::::

I wrote this on the tabletop on my back porch.

Someone should clean this place up.

Libby, don't look so dejected. I know you want to go with us, but you have to stay.

I'll catch up with you when we get back. Have a great Spring Break.

Advice from Mom

Twenty plus years ago my mother gave me some pre-wedding advice (not about THAT ~shudder~) about purchasing this:

She told about a lady selling her sewing machine. She suggested I buy it before I got married. She pointed out after I got married I wouldn't want to spend the money on something like this. She was right. I probably wouldn't have spent the money on it. So I parted with $125.00 of my hard-earned money just a few weeks before my wedding. I'm glad I purchased this used sewing machine. It has come in so handy over the years. I pretty much sew straight lines [ well ok. I'm stretching that one "almost" straight lines I should say ] I don't sew clothing to wear except for Halloween Costumes like this.

I usually just do mending or make projects with my machine. It is pretty basic.

I step on the pedal and it goes. --- when I have the bobbin in correctly. ;)

I thought I would share some of the projects I have done with my machine:

I had this idea for my craft table. It is just a 6 ' folding table. I made this skirt to go around it and secured it with Velcro sticky strip to make it stay on. This is in our guest bedroom.

The skirt hides all my stamping/scrapbooking/ craft supplies.

I got really adventurous a couple of years ago and made a comforter and valance for Leah's room. I could not find bedding that I liked for her room. She has kind of a "Paris" theme going on in there. So I came across this fabric and decided that was what I had been searching for.

I made the comforter and the valance. I DID NOT make the pillow shams. I left those to a professional. I knew I couldn't manage those corners. They look so much better than I could have done.

Thanks Mom for your advice. It has served me well over the years.

A Friday Funny

Kind of starting to feel this way. :) I tried on a bathing suit last Saturday. Quite scary. Just the pasty white and the cellulite......Not a good combination. Like they say tan fat looks better than white fat. I can get my tan sprayed on, but too bad the cellulite isn't as easy to fix.

Prayers for Eli

Julie and her husband Zach at My Life With Boys are facing a real trying time right now.

If you don't know her, I'd like you to take a minute and link over to her blog. Julie and Zach serve as missionaries in Hungary. Their son has developed a severe infection in his head. He has been hospitalized for several days now.
I'm not going to re-tell the story as Julie gives updates on her blog. You can read her last few post to get filled in on Eli and his diagnosis.

I just wanted to make you aware of Eli's condition and ask you to rally around Julie and support her with your prayers right now. Pray that everyone involved in this little guy's care would make the best decisions concerning him and his treatment.

Julie and her husband Zach are exhausted as you can imagine.
So please pray for Eli, Zach and Julie.

Blessings,
♥

So Long, Smell You Later.

Rhonda at Because Mom Said So is hosting a Have Travel Will Story contest . The winner of the contest will win a round trip ticket to visit her in Connecticut. Isn't that amazing and extremely generous of her. I would love to win. I have an Aunt, Uncle and cousins that live in Connecticut that I haven't seen in over ten years, plus I would love to meet Rhonda. She and her family would be a lot of fun to meet. Sooooo I'm submitting the following travel story.



First let me start with a little background. My husband and I were living in SLC, UT and we were eagerly awaiting the birth of our first baby. When I was seven months pregnant, my husband was transferred to California (YIKES!) Why do bosses and corporations do that to pregnant women???

My parents and family all live in Tampa, Florida. My husband, the new and only granddaughter and I lived in Northern California. There was way too much space in between for everyone concerned. My husband had tons of frequent flyer miles from former positions with his company so he sweetly arranged to fly Paige and I back to Tampa quite often.


When Paige was about six months old, I packed the suitcase and the diaper bag and hit the skies again for a flight from San Francisco to Tampa with a stopover in Los Angeles. Paige was a wonderful little traveler. She never cried and the change in pressure never seemed to bother her. Paige and I were fortunate to be able to sit in first class on most of these trips because of my husband’s Frequent Flier status with that particular airline.


We boarded our plane in San Francisco early one morning. I held Paige in my lap. My seatmate sat down next to me and I immediately noted (smelled) a problem. The man must have eaten multiple bulbs of raw garlic the night before because let me tell you he STUNK! I pretty much spent the entire flight leaning away from this guy and gasping for a breath of fresh air (if there is such a thing on a plane) out in the aisle.

When we landed in Los Angeles, the stinky guy left the plane, but was still continuing on to Tampa. I’m thinking OH, NO! I can’t smell this guy all the way to Tampa! I said something to one of the flight attendants. She said she noticed it too and she moved me and Paige to an empty seat in a different section of first class. They began to board the new passengers and when my new seatmate walked up and saw me and my six month old baby he slammed his brief case and coat down in the seat, ordered a Bloody Mary and then stormed off to talk to the flight attendant in her prep area. I knew right away he was ticked to have to sit next to a baby on the cross-country flight. The sweet, quick-thinking flight attendant was able to accommodate his wishes right away and moved this obnoxious, obviously annoyed, mean guy to a different seat next to…. YOU GUESSED IT….the stinky guy. HA!

I ended up with an empty seat next to me. Paige never made a peep the whole trip. I hope mean guy enjoyed sitting next to stinky guy all the way to Tampa.

My Buds

Spring is definitely in motion here in my neck of the woods. I took a stroll thru my yard this week and snapped a few pictures of buds I found ready to burst. From the top is one of my geranium plant. Geraniums are my all time favorite plant. Next picture is the hydrangea bush. It usually give us a few really nice pink blooms each year. In the middle are my green bell pepper plant that has two buds on it that I'm hoping will turn into bell peppers. Then the all time favorite southern shrub...the azalea. The bushes are loaded and I enjoy them in my yard for a short time each spring. The bottom row is a spirea bush (aka bridal wreath). I have 5 of these planted around the yard. I love these in the spring. Then last but not least is my little redbud tree. It puts off a pretty flower then turns to green leaves each spring. I'm worried about it this year. It doesn't look healthy. We lost a large Bradford Pear to a disease last year.

I am not the type of gardener that fusses over my plants. They are kind of on their own once they are in the ground so whatever buds and blooms I get to enjoy are by the grace of God. I'll take more pictures when everything starts blooming.