It's moments like these....

Life can get you down, people can get on your nerves. Things have a way of coming at us from all directions that make us just want to scream.

But in the midst of all the turmoil and toil, a little 5 year old granddaughter can hold your hand and say "This is going to be the best day." And when you ask why, she answers "Because I'm spending it with you."

Melt my heart!!! I love my grandchildren. It's moments like these that make everything we do and everything we are worthwhile.

Thank you Alexis Caroline for making my day. I love you.

What will they think of next....

Well, I bit the bullet and upgraded my cell phone yesterday. OH MY GOSH! It is one of the hottest new ones on the market with US Cellular. There are so many bells and whistles that it will probably be obsolete before I figure it all out. It is one of those touch screens and it slides open to expose a full QWERTY keyboard, just like a computer. No more hitting function to type my numbers in text messages. It is a Windows phone. So not only do I have a "My Documents" folder, I now have Outlook, Excel, Word and yes...even Power Point. ON MY PHONE! Is that not awesome. Owning my own business, it's a dream come true. I am totally mobile. I can sit at the beach and sign up new clients, check emails, type contracts, everything. And the best part about it...it was on sale if we renewed our contract AND had a $70 Visa Card rebate. You know I love a bargain. It accesses the internet just like a computer does and even has a tilt screen so it feels like a mini little laptop. Am I high tech or what? Of course, I'll have to call in the Brain, my nephew-in-law, Eli. He's our family techi and he helps us with all our modern techonology. It just amazes me that we have such technology right at our fingertips.

Seafood

As we think of summer and thoughts of the beach, many turn their minds to seafood. They love the all you can eat crab legs, lobster tail, shrimp, not to mention the many varieties of fish available. I have never been a seafood lover. If we go to a Calabash style restaurant, I have chicken. If we go to Long John Silvers, I have (you guessed it) chicken. I'm sure fish and crab legs are delicious for those who can stomach the thought of eating something that lurks below the murky waters of rivers and oceans. However, I have loved Mrs. Paul's fish sticks since I was a little girl. I realize this is not considered as seafood to those who love the many creatures of the deep that are created into culinary delights. But to me, Mrs. Paul's products are the epitome of seafood for my soul. Now you might ask how I can eat those "cardboard" fish sticks when such succulint seafood is in abundance? You might wonder what makes them acceptable when other fish will not do. The answer is simple, I believe that sweet, little ole Mrs. Paul raises these fish in a cute little aquarium at home just to make fish sticks for picky eaters like me. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. Please do not burst my bubble.

Thoughts of whimsy

Do you ever like to do things just because you can? I am 53 years old and I still love to swing, jump rope and play jacks. Now, these may not be great achievements, but I have been known to get all the way to my "tensies" most of the time. I was cleaning dresser drawers, cabinets and toy boxes yesterday. I found what we knew as super balls back in the day, but are now referred to as bouncy balls. I loved when we got bouncy balls when we were little. We would take them out on the patio and see how high we could get them to bounce. We would try it in the house, but inevitably one would knock something over and we would get the old "No playing ball in the house" lecture. I remember one time, we went to our friends house and were playing jacks in the kitchen. We snuck and used a bouncy ball instead of the regular jack ball. It bounced so high it went in the pot of stew Helen had on the stove. That ended that pretty quick.

As I was doing my cleaning and I found two bouncy balls in the toy box, I had several thoughts in succession:

"I need to throw these away before somebody breaks something."

"There are only two and I have four grandkids so there will eventually be a fight over these."

"Oh, but I love bouncy balls and these have such a pretty design."

You guessed it, the bouncy balls did not get thrown away. I could not force myself to do it. However, I tucked them in a spare drawer for safe keeping and to keep my stuff safe. One of these days when we go outside to play, I'll drag them back out for the kids to enjoy. But I better buy 2 more first.

In honor of our fallen soldiers...

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis Courage: a mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty Hero: one that shows great courage Thank you to the men and women who have given thier lives so that we may enjoy the freedom we so often take for granted. You may be gone, but will never be forgotten.

From my sweet niece

I've been feeling a little blue today. My whole family is at a big camping weekend at my sister's camper. I wasn't able to go since I'll be visiting them in just a little while. My kids both had their own plans and my husband is at work.

I was sitting here thinking about visitation to the cemetery and how I figured there would be a lot of people decorating today. That led me to think about how I never get to decorate Daddy's grave on Memorial Day because I don't live there any more. I was kind of sad about it until my sweet, precious niece, Lori, sent me some photos to my cell phone of the decorations on Daddy's grave today. What a very pleasant surprise. Thank you Lori Beth, I love you.

Sunday morning smiles.....

This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

These are cute and will bring a smile to your face.......

An exasperated mother, whose son was always getting into mischief, finally asked him, "How do you expect to get into Heaven?" The boy thought it over and said, "Well, I'll just run in and out and in and out and keep slamming the door until St. Peter says, 'For Heaven's sake, Jimmy, come in or stay out!'" Finding one of her students making faces at others on the playground, Ms. Smith stopped to gently reprove the child. Smiling sweetly, the Sunday School teacher said, "Bobby, when I was a child, I was told that if I made ugly faces, it would freeze and I would stay like that." Bobby looked up and replied, "Well, Ms. Smith, you can't say you weren't warned." A child came home from Sunday School and told his mother that he had learned a new song about a cross-eyed bear named Gladly. It took his mother a while before she realized that the hymn was really "Gladly The Cross I'd Bear." A little girl from Minneapolis came home from Sunday School with a frown on her face. "I'm not going back there anymore," she announced with finality. "I don't like the Bible they keep teaching us." "Why not?" asked her astonished mother. "Because," said the little girl, "the Bible is always talking about St. Paul, and it never once mentions Minneapolis." And my all time favorite A little boy opened the big and old family Bible with fascination, he looked at the old pages as he turned them. Then something fell out of the Bible and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf from a tree that has been pressed in between pages. "Momma, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" his mother asked. With astonishment in the young boy's voice he answered: "It's Adam's suit!!!"