Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Middle Aged OCD Woman Gets A New Hobby.......




My OCD has been working overtime lately,and I have been a very busy girl...(once again in my kitchen) ....But this this time instead of making preserves I am making homemade, 100% organic soaps (which doesn't contain Lye, I might add)....My house smells soooo good....I have bowls of grapefruit and tangerine zest, pureed avocado and aloe, almonds, honey and blueberry everywhere...Pretty much anything that is great for your skin, I'm putting it in.....Adorable names like, Grapefruit Blush, Tangerine Dream, Georgia Rain (I told you my OCD was working overtime).....I got tired of breaking out from so many other body washes....That I made my own....Most of my ingredient's are things like Milk or Goats Milk....Shea, Cocoa and Coconut Butter....Aloe and Vitamin E...Lots of fresh and dried fruits and some veggies, such as avocado and cucumber...LOVE IT!!!! I feel like I might need to give a few bars away soon...So keep checking back...This stuff is so good!!!

Lavender and Yuzu-luscious Bath salt scrubs

Sunday, December 27, 2009

A Blessed Christmas..........

This has been a tough year on a lot of people, and I'm certainly ready to start over and try for a better New Year....So many painful things have happened this year to myself and my family, yet my family has been so blessed..Last Christmas my daddy was in the hospital with pneumonia that turned into MRSA in his lungs, once he started showing improvement...my momma got pneumonia also...I remember praying , "Please don't let this be our last Christmas with either of them". My brother suffered his heart attack in the fall. and my 91 yr old miracle man father in law, who has pulled through so much, now complains about physical therapy wanting him to walk two miles a day....

God has blessed us beyond measure...

Although I wont see my parents and brothers until the coming weekend, I spent a very blessed Christmas with my family here. Christmas Eve we were surrounded by all our children and lots of laughter....and lots of food. Apparently I was trying to make up for all the food that I missed on Thanksgiving....I'm pretty sure I achieved that goal....Our granddaughter was so excited, she wanted to give Santa a present because he gives to us every year...She gave him a bell for his sleigh....she tried her best to stay awake to hear any hint of it jingle...she lasted until 2:00am.....I lasted until 1:45am, that's when she woke me up whispering in my ear that I was going to miss the whole thing....I was exhausted.....
After all, I was sleeping in a bed with her my husband and nineteen stuffed animals...All sleeping on Grammies side of the bed....

She woke me up early saying, "Is it time now, is it time now".
Santa left her a surprise...A boot print...She can't wait to take the picture to school...



For years I have been telling my hubby that he has the key to my heart, even though we are as different as night and day...This year he bought me the "key" to his....



I also got this incredible gift, my old one died back in the summer and I have been using an old 35mm we still had... My daughter and son in law bought me photography lessons...I'm sooooo excited, can't wait to start those.......

I've had so many life changing things happen to me this year...I hope I learn from them all and never go a day that I don't........Count all my Blessing....


May you all have a blessed New Year!

A Wii Hangover....................

This is what a 7 year old looks like after 15 hours of Wii Guitar Hero and sports....

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas to All..................


"Let us keep Christmas beautiful without a thought of greed, that it might live forever more to fill our every need. That it shall not be just a day, but last a lifetime through. The miracle of Christmas time, that brings God close to you."


Merry Christmas to all my wonderful Friends!!!

Monday, December 21, 2009

I copied this poem from another blog I read, Dee Dee's son is fighting for our freedom and this poem is from him.....We should always remember those who serve and have served...I'm sure it's especially hard to have a son or daughter, husband or wife, fighting a war at Christmas.....For those of you and your families, I for one am proud that you have my back....



I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"

Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,

"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."



LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN

30th Naval Construction Regiment

OIC, Logistics Cell One

Al Taqqadum, Iraq

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The End Of The Beginning...............

Flakes of worn paint on an old porch...the same one I had my first kiss on, and then my first broken heart that I thought would never mend.....A window from a empty room that has been looked through at least a trillion times, with thoughts like, Who's going? Who's coming? And "what in the world are my children doing know"....A rusted washtub hanging on an outside building, that gnarly old walnut tree that we climbed a thousand times...These are the thoughts that kept going through my mind as I walked around my home place one last time....the ones I will hold in my heart....

The walls are empty now in the old house, nothing left but a few odd and ends....After months of agonizing pain for my parents and and all of us, the gas company finally "settled" with them...I promise you, they wont be retiring on a beach somewhere......I made the 475 mile trip once again to help, along with my brothers and sisters in law we packed up what was left of a nine room house and tried to move it into a four room house.....As far as real estate goes in that area pickings are slim.....They do have the potential to build on to the house they are buying, we were just hoping that they could find something and not need to work on it.....

We did managed to laugh at ourselves a little bit...You can't look at your old annuals (especially from the seventies) and take yourself serious.....Who ever came up with the fashion for the decade should be found and punished severely.......Found an old box of eight tracks tapes.....You know those are gonna make a big come back...Right!!!!

And a lot of tears....
I saw my Daddy standing in the yard looking at the house...I went up to him and put my arms around him , he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "We had a good run of this ole place didn't we buddy". He put his arm around me and kissed me on top of the head....My heart broke into a thousand pieces....
You may say people move every day, and they do, I did.
But not mountain people, My people.
Especially with family land...
They believe you should be born there and die there....
That is what has made this so hard for my parents..

But the gas company owns it now, and they will put up a gate and bull doze it down, I will need to think long and hard before I make the trip back, to support my parents and stand with my brothers and watch as the old home place is demolished...It will be hard to watch something so special be destroyed by someone who doesn't have a clue how magical the old place was to us..

My grandparents built the house from another old house that was being torn down...So I guess you could say they built an old house out of an older house....I had my brother cut me a piece of the original floor....A beautiful worn piece of chestnut...My husband is going to engraved the word HOME on it for me....I will hang it in my kitchen...

I am going to try to get my own life back on track, I have neglected my family here and they need care too....I just put my Christmas up today, and I have no Christmas shopping done at all....But as I set and reflect on the things that myself and my family have overcome this year, I realize how richly blessed my life is.......I thank God......
I will try to get back on track and stop by my wonderful friends blogs soon....I know I have missed so much...
Still Stressed, But Blessed Beyond Measure
The Queen

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Yet Another Qoute...........


Whatever else be lost among the years,


Let us keep Christmas still a shinning thing:


Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,


Let us hold close one day, remembering


It's poignant meaning for the hearts of men.


Let us get back our childlike faith again.




~Grace Noll Crowell

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Quote........


"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world and behold,everything is softer and more beautiful."

-Norman Vincent Peale