Grandmommy's 100th Birthday

Today Grandmommy would have been 100. I wonder if she is having a party in heaven. I'm sure that if she was still alive she would have no idea it was even her birthday. She would just want to go home and be wondering where her purse was. I really hope that she is having the best birthday ever with Jesus!!! Well, that's all I have to say today.

Diet

I have been on this diet since February 1st. I haven't been perfect but pretty darn close!!! Up until now, I have realized that I am losing weight in my fingers, yep my fingers!!! That was my probem area!!! Now today, someone actually has said that they think my face is getting smaller. YIPEEE!!! Maybe this is finally starting to work. I need to lose some of these chins!!!! I realize that it took a long time for this weight to come on and it is going to take a long time for it to come off!!! It was a lot more fun going on than it is coming off though. Wish me luck.

Katie's Prom Outfit

Katie wants to go to her Junior Prom. She has expressed this for months and has also expressed that she is NOT wearing a dress, she wants to wear a tuxedo. I'll bet you know how happy I was about this one!!!!! I did my usual let me think about it routine, hoping that she would come to her senses but not this time!!! She continued that she wanted to wear a tuxedo - she wanted to go the prom and NOT in a dress. Why couldn't I understand and on and on and on!!!! Finally, I told her that tuxedos are made for men and it would be very difficult to fit her. I explained that she would look awful in a men's tuxedo and that women's tuxedo's are made for little people! Then and this was hard to do in the first place, I talked her into a women's pant suit. Well the day comes when we set up the schedule for shopping - I have been dreading the pant suit shopping for about 5 weeks already and now we have made a date. I realize that I have absolutely no idea where to take her shopping so the day before we were to go shopping, I talked to a lady at my office to find out where she would suggest we go. She says City Place and then she told me that she had a black and white long dress that would be a perfect tuxedo dress. She asked if I wanted it? She told me that someone had given it to her and she wanted to give it to Katie. I told her I didn't think Katie would go for it, but I would try.

Well, the next day, my friend brings in the dress, it is a strapless (really pretty) black and white satin dress. It is very pretty!!! I put it in the back of my car and I go to Katie's school to pick her up. On Wednesdays she attends a club (a club of people like her), so I pick her up from school. Well, it just so happens that she has asked me to take a friend of hers home on that day - so she and her friend get in the car. Almost immediately, Katie asks what is in the backseat, I tell her it is a prom dress. She says "NO WAY" - the girl says, why don't you try it, it is pretty!!! This goes on for a few minutes, I keep my mouth shut!!! Katie agrees to try it on and we take it home and it FITS!!! It looks really good on her!!! But NO WAY - She has her heart set on a pant suit now so off we go (Katie and I) to City Place to find her a pant suit.

After trying on several pant suits for approximately 2 hours - one after the other - this shirt, that shirt, this jacket, that jacket on and on and on!!!! (This is what hell is like) Each one looking worse than the last and I could hear my checkbook clinging, she looks at me and says "Mommy, I think I looked the best in that dress!!!" Well, my eyes brighten up and I realize I need to be calm. If I look too excited, if I act like it is my idea, then there is no way that she will go for the dress. I say, yep, the dress looked the best on you! So we bought a black strapless bra and a jacket because she is not sure of the strappless part of the dress and we went home. Katie will now wear a dress to the prom.

See below....

I have a cold

I have a cold!!!!! Got it one week ago today with a sore throat, not just a regular sore throat but the kind of sore throat that I really thought my throat was bleeding! Everytime I talked, swallowed or breathed my throat would kill me. Now 7 days later, I have a stuffed up head, mucus in my chest and I am miserable. When I cough, it hurts!!! You would think that I could stay at home and rest but no, my life is not condusive to such things. I did leave work at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, got home at 1:15 p.m. and went straight to bed! No more slack time for me though!!!!! Why do we as mothers and wives have so many duties in our lives that we can't take the time to get better? Why are our lives to hectic with work, meetings, children and other things to do that we can't just step back and rest? Something has to give!!!!! I don't know what it is but it is clear to me that this is NOT the way that we were meant to live. I have named my blog "Enjoying the Little Moments" because it is important that we "ENJOY" life. When I am old (older than I am now) and I look back at it all, it really won't matter if my house was clean, it won't matter if I spent every day in this stupid cubby that I work in, it won't matter if I went to church every Wednesday and Sunday. It will matter that I lived the type of life that God wanted me to, that I spent time with my family, spent time with myself, and that I cherished this wonderful "life" that the Lord gave me. Just something that I am thinking about... Your thoughts?

My children are growing up!!!

My Sarah will be 15 tomorrow. I can't believe my children are growing up so fast!!! It really seems like yesterday that they were little and they believed everything I said. I tell them something now and you can see the skepticism cross their minds. You can see that they are beginning to realize that I really am not that smart.

I look back on it all and I realize that I would have done so many things differently. I might have not insisted on moving to a house (we could have stayed at the town house) and I would have been a stay at home mother. I might have baked cookies with them and read to them more. I would have picked them up from school and discussed their day face to face instead of by cell phone every day. Oh, who am I kidding??? That would have driven me crazy! I would never have been happy staying at the town house with no money.

John and I have worked very hard for our lifestyle. It has taken sacrifice on our parts, some luck, and hard work!!! People often say that the reason that they have problems is because of their messed up childhoods! Well I say - Get over it! Parents do the very best that they can - Yes, we fail a lot but not because we want to fail, we fail because there is no book that tells us what to do - we do what we think is best at the time. Hopefully, our children will raise our grandchildren a little better than we raised them. Hopefully, our grandchildren will get it a little better and our great grandchildren will turn out even better.

Saying all of that, I know that I have the BEST parents in the entire world. Even as an adult, I turn to my parents for guidance. I can only hope that my children feel the same way and turn to John and I for guidance when they are adults.

The following is a part of my devotional today and it went directly to my heart:

"To make a decision to have a child, it's momentous. It is to decide to have your heart go walking around outside of your body for the rest of your life." That is how our Heavenly Father feels about His children!

We are so lucky!!!

My Grandmommy - Remembrances!!!

I remember the big BBQs in the backyard and Grandpa's Manhattan Clam Chowder. I remember flying kites in the park at the end of 36th Street and going to Singer Island beach. The sand was sooo hot. I remember the picnics that Grandmommy used to pack. I remember Bette and I sitting on the floor in her "office" while she taught us about the Lord's love for us. She taught us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and if we believed that - we would go to heaven. It is because of her that I have a personal relationship with the Lord. She loved the Lord and it was so clear that He loved her. She would teach us children's stories from the Bible. She could make the Bible come to life. She so loved the Lord!!! I'm so thankful to her for taking the time to teach us the truth. I remember wheat germ which she swore we could not taste but we could. I remember wonderful birthday parties and birthday cakes that were not only beautiful but incredibly tasty! I remember chocolate cakes that were absolutely incredible with tables that were set just perfect. I remember salads with apples in it (yummy). I remember her singing church songs in the kitchen while she cooked. She would use every pot and pan in the kitchen for a family dinner. What a mess!!! I remember her sweet voice that would tell me that everything would be OK - "My Beautiful Bonnie". I remember her singing.. My Bonnie lies over the ocean..." I remember her telling the "pea" story over and over again. I remember watching slides of her trips with Grandpa in the living room. I remember waiting at the airport for her and Grandpa to return from Thanksgiving in Jamaica and being so exciting when they walked off the plane! I remember Christmas dinner at her house. I remember her taking us to the Super Slide. I remember Morrison's Cafeteria and brunch at the Breakers. The yellow desk that she had delivered from a furniture store for my 10th or 11th birthday! WHAT A SURPRISE!!!


I remember when we were moving to Orlando (Longwood) and we went to her house before we took the 2 1/2 hour drive to our new home. I remember us all crying and crying - Momma especially. We came back a year later because Momma couldn't stand to be away from Grandmomy! I remember when Beth was to be born - 2/23/77. What a day!!! Of course, Bette and I waited it out at Grandmommy's house and Grandmommy took us to McClaren's Florest where we got the flowers in the snail planter because Beth took sooo long to come, then she took us to Good Samaritan Hospital where the three of us (Grandmommy, Bette and I) counted fingers and toes. We were sooooo happy!!

I lived with her through college up until I married John. She nursed me through my gallbladder issues, cooked all of the right foods and I lost weight. That in itself is a miracle.

I am so thankful that she lead me to the Lord and that I will get to see her agin. I am so thankful that she is with Jesus! She has a perfect body now. Both legs are the same length - her hearing is perfect and she remembers and knows everything.

Grandmommy loved me unconditionally! She loved me with her entire heart. I always felt so special when I was with her.

Beth wanted us to put the following on the card for Grandmommy. The florest couldn't fit it on the card but it is so perfect:

"You taught us the way to be a lady, the way to love unconditionally, and the way to be close to our Lord. We know you are with Him now, watching down upon us with a clear mind and an open heart. We love you, Grandmommy."

I will miss you Grandmommy!!!

The Fair - 2011

I love the fair. Every year I get more excited about going to the fair than just about anything that happens throughout the entire year. We always go at least two times. We go on the very first day it opens with our best friends, Joe and Val. We eat and eat and eat and eat and have a great time walking around. We go to the animal tents and I always think that I am going to get a baby bunny, a baby goat, a baby chicken (some sort of animal that we just don't need). Well, this year was no exception!!!! This year I decided that the baby goats were the cutest things I had ever seen and we really needed a goat (even though Val explained that they ate everything)my goat would be just like a pet, he/she would be the perfectly sweetest goat in the entire world. Who knows what I was thinking but one look at those precious babies, and I had to have one. John always says that God makes all baby animals cute so that they will be taken care of.

Well, John and I went to the fair last Saturday, just the two of us. We walked hand in hand - we laughed, we ate, we had a great date! Toward the end of the night when my feet were killing me and I was moaning and groaning about how I needed to get home, over the loud speaker I hear that there is an auction of the live stock - Oh dear - I am going to get my goat!!! For some reason, my feet, which had been killing me and were preventing me from walking at a normal pace, stopped hurting so that I could pick up the pace and get clear across the fairgrounds to the other side where there was a tent that held the auction. As I was approaching, I could hear the auctioneer - he was talking fast and loud - $1.25 - $1.50 - $1.75 and on and on. My mind was thinking - how can these animals be so cheap? I will actually be able to afford this! How am I going to explain a goat to my family - they will think I am crazy!!! I get into the tent, which is full of guys in cowboy hats and boots, and I see on the stage - a big steer! The lights come on in my head. They are selling that poor steer - per pound!!!! This was not an auction for cute livestock but an auction for meat.

With my hopes of a baby goat gone and my head low, I walked out of that tent. Now I know I don't need a goat - I don't need a rabbit - I don't need any chickens- I don't need anything else to feed but to be completely honest, if I could have - I would now own a steer. I would never have made it on a farm!!!

I still love the fair though! Can't wait until next year.