Contest Entry

I just love contests, so when my friend Debra told me about Deb's contest, I just had to enter. Follow this link and you too can be entered to win the most gorgeous Christmas box. Good Luck.

And I sure hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Congratulations Matt!

Saturday, December 13th, 2008 our son Matthew graduated from college with his Bachelor's degree in Business Marketing. He has been attending North Georgia Military College and State University. The first two years Matthew was in the Core of Cadets. Frog week seems so long ago. That is the first week of initiation into the Core. He had to shave his hair off and go through boot camp. I honestly didn't think he would survive, nor did I think I could survive. I really wanted Mitch to go up and bring him home. However his junior and senior years we were able to move him off campus and he attended as a regular student. NG has been a great college environment and experience for Matt. The campus is small and located in Dahlonega GA. This is where gold was first discovered in the United States. If you ever get a chance you should take a trip up to Dahlonega for a visit. There are some wineries there as well. Lots of hiking and river rafting and canoeing.

The ceremony was very nice and lasted only an hour and a half. The graduation speech was given by a professor from Australia. His speech was the top 10 tips to survive as a new college graduate in a recession. It was a very entertaining speech. A few of the tips are as follows:

10. Move in with your parents. It's free!

7. Join the military. You get to blow up stuff and rebuild nations.

6. Live off the land. The Appalachians around NG have plenty of game to hunt and feed yourself with.

and number 1. Go back to school. :-)

After graduation we took Matt out to dinner at Fogo de Chao, the Brazilian restaurant in Atlanta. The kids really enjoyed it and so did my mother. All in all it was a great day. This was by far one of the best meals I 've had in a long time. The service was fabulous and the amount of food was overwhelming. The waiters come by and the meat is sliced right at your table. If you desire your meat cooked a certain way and they don't have that cut on their skewer, they will go back to the kitchen and return very quickly with the type of meat you chose. Be sure to go hungry if you decide to try Fogo de Chao.

Congratulations Matt, we're very proud of your accomplishment.

Music, so soothing to the soul

This morning as I got into my car, I realized how much music has an impact on my day and probably my life. Work has been crazy this week. I've been working every night this week until at least 7, and either a very late lunch or none at all. So you can imagine how excited I was to be getting into my car this morning to head to work. NOT! But as I started up the car, there was Keith Urban on the radio singing in his most wonderful voice “You’ll Think of Me”. What better way to start your morning than with Keith singing to you? Wow, is Nicole Kidman one lucky lady. Instantly I was in a better mood and ready to start my day.

While at work this week I’ve been listening to Christmas music. This has been helping me maintain a good attitude as well as putting me in the Christmas spirit. Since my IPod is in “the shop”, my music selections have been coming from this awesome new site called Pandora. You can select from your genre of music or choose an artist. The site then randomly selects music based upon your genre or artist choices. It’s great. You can also combine music genres by choosing the QuickMix button. It’s like satellite radio, but better. Check it out sometime.

Are there special songs or types of music that impact you and how?

Quote for today:

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

~Berthold Auerbach

P.S. I picked the title to today’s blog before I found this quote. And actually, this was the very first quote that popped up when I typed in music in my quote search. How is that for coincidence?

Picture was taken by Nichole in Houston at the Keith Urban concert.

Congratulations Mitch!

Just a real quick update. As many of you know, Mitch has been unemployed since we returned from our anniversary trip to Hawaii in July. Well, today he received a verbal job offer from Sun Trust Bank. We are so relieved and excited. It is a permanent position and to my knowledge will not require much travel, if any. The recruiter was so nice and called to say the formal offer would come on Monday, but that he wanted Mitch to have a nice weekend. Well, we certainly will.

We are off to get the Christmas Tree and then to drink that champagne we have chilling in the refrigerator.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Quilt is Finished

Well, today I was fortunate enough to have some spare time to finish up Ava Marie's quilt. Ava Marie, was due to make her debut this weekend. I'm not sure when and what time she arrived, but I'm hoping all is well. Can't imagine why her mommy or Mimi haven't posted on their blogs yet. ;-)

Making Ava's quilt reminded me of why I got into quilting. I just love the colors, patterns and textures of fabrics. This quilt was made from a jelly roll pack and a fat pack. These are new to me since I've been away from quilting for so long. Jelly rolls are 2.5 inch strips of fabric and contain all the color and pattern variations in an entire line. The fat packs contain 40 fabrics cut into 5 inch squares. The fabric line I chose to use was from Moda and is called Simplicity. The Simplicity line is just so sweet and shabby chic with the cutest chenille flower at the bottom. Since this quilt was so easy and fun to put together, I will be making more with different lines of fabric. However, next on the quilting agenda is Noah's airplane quilt along with Matt and Joshua's t-shirt quilts.

Here are a few photos of the finished quilt. I know it will be well loved and used at the Payne Family residence.

Welcome Baby Ava.

Family Time

Family time . . . these days my family has very little of it. But last night Jessica suggested that we do our annual shopping for Operation Christmas Child. Actually, I think she snowed us into thinking she wanted to spend time with us when in actuality, she wanted to get the 4th and final book in the Twilight series. Whatever the reason it worked and Mitch, Meghan, Jessica and I went off to shop for one boy and one girl. The shoe boxes of goodies are overflowing with our purchases. It was so much fun to all have an input on what we should get for a little boy and little girl in a far away land. We are never quite sure where the boxes are being shipped, but it’s usually war torn countries, or other countries suffering great famine etc. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we may bring a small amount of joy to a child in need.

In the end we had a wonderful time shopping and yes, we are now the proud owners of Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in the Twilight series.

Quote of the Day: “When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinessess.” ~Dr. Joyce Brothers

New Look at Autumn

Autumn has never really been one of my favorite seasons. To me it has always meant that Winter was on its way. However, this year has been different. The colors of Fall have been outstanding this year. I overheard someone mention that it was due to the drought. Whatever caused the colors to be spectacular this year really doesn't matter. What does matter are the colors and all the beautiful scenery caused by the changing leaves and the awesome photo opportunities.

With a trip to Connecticut for the photography retreat I attended, along with the spectacular colors in PTC, I've been very lucky to get some great shots. I've attached some of the best for your viewing pleasure.

Quote of the day: "Autumn is like a second Spring, where every leaf is a flower."

Meghan's Birthday

Meghan turned 24 on the 22nd of October. I know, it was a almost two weeks ago. But you know, I've been busy with all the cheerleading drama. We were lucky enough to have Matt come down and join us for Meghan's birthday celebration at Mr. Fuji. Mr. Fuji is one of our favorite places to go for birthday dinners. Here are a few shots taken while celebrating Meghan's big day.

Homecoming 2008

After much ado, Jessica and her friends decided to attend the Homecoming dance. So glad they did. They all had a wonderful time. And I got to take some beautiful pictures. Pretty girls and handsome boys always make great photo subjects. Enjoy.

Can you imagine all these kids descending on Nikko's Japanese Restaurant for dinner? Eight boys and 15 girls. I believe Jessica and Brandon were the only ones who were a couple last night.

Quote of the day: Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.

~Thomas Jefferson

Lunch Today

My dear friend Debra is always taking time on her lunch break to go out and take photographs. She and her friend spend a few days a week at the pond close to work and end up with beautiful photographs. Today I decided to do the same thing. However, my photography stop was at Starr's Mill. I've been out there several times to take photos, but never tire of it. The park and waterfall are so beautiful and always fun to look at. Here are a few photos that I took today. Hope you enjoy them.

Photography Fun

Hi Friends and Family,

Today after shopping at BJ's for the wedding I'm helping to cater next weekend I decided I wanted to try my hand at photographing moving water. Really wanted to practice slowing it down. Here are a few shots so that you can see how I did. It was fun and I had a little extra surprise while out shooting moving water.

Quote of the day: Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Enjoy. . .

My Sweet Meghan

Most of the time I talk about our other children and Meghan gets a little left out. So today I wanted to write a little bit about Meghan. As you can see from the photo above that Meghan just loves Noah. She lights up when she is around babies and little children. In days past she would be happy wherever she was and always made her own fun. But lately she hasn't been herself and isn't happy unless she is with babies or little children. With the onset of more seizures and other issues, she just hasn't been her usual self. Right now Meghan is going through some adjustments with new medications. We are hoping that soon the doctors will get everything squared away and she will return to being a happy go lucky young woman again. This has been a really challenging time for all of us as we adjust to all the mood swings, seizures and other issues. We all just love Meghan so much and want her to get better soon. Hang in there Meg and keep working with your doctors so you can get back to doing what you like to do most.

Quotes

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
~Mother Teresa

I just love quotes. In a brief sentence or two you can really be inspired or moved. That’s why you’ll see at least one quote on my blog entries. Lots of times they will go along with my entry for the day, but others they won’t. Today I was inspired by the quote above. It really is true. So many times we remember the kind things that people say about us. Kind words or a compliment can make us feel so much better about ourselves and some days it may just have been the only nice thing that happened to us that day. Maybe, just maybe, this quote will inspire me to say at least one nice thing to someone each day.

To my family, friends and fellow divas. . . Thanks for blessing my life and making me feel special. Not sure what I would do without each and everyone of you.

Noah, Kenny and Keith

Hey!

Well, I'm back from Dallas, Houston, and Austin. It was a whirlwind trip, very short, but very sweet. Got to see Noah for a few hours. He is really growing and still the same little happy baby boy. This weekend he learned to pull himself up in the crib and greeted Adam with giggles and smiles after his nap. Fortunately, we didn't take the new camera with us to Houston, so Adam got the "shot". This is Noah at 9 months, standing for the first time in his crib.

The concert was great. My sister, Shelley, Nichole and I had a wonderful time. Keith Urban was fabulous as usual. He is so nice to look at. I was pretty sneaky and managed to slip by the lady checking tickets and snuck down in front. I was pretty proud of myself for that move. It was wonderful being so close to Keith! No, I didn't have my camera. Shelley and Nichole convinced me to leave it in the hotel room. What a mistake. I never seem to have it when I need it most. :-) Well, I'll just have to go see them again!

Kenny Chesney was great. I have wanted to see him to experience what all the hype was about. He has won entertainer of the year 4 of the last 5 years. (The losing year was to Keith, who we all know is really the Entertainer of the Year!) Kenny was very good. His stage was set up nicely and had great lighting effects and big screens to make it easier for those in the back (us) to see him. He looked like he was having a good time and put on a great show. I can see why he sells out and people really seemed to enjoy the show. Keith is still my favorite, but Kenny was indeed very entertaining.

Quote of the Day: "Country music is three chords and the truth." ~Harlan Howard

My Very First Award

Several weeks ago, July 25th to be exact . . . I received a very prestigious award. The Brilliante Blog Award. My dear friend Debra Rector did the honors. She has the most awesome blog and you can view it here. Debra's blog contains funny and memorable stories as well as fabulous photography. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

There are several rules to follow once you receive this award. I might have a little trouble with number 3, but I'll try to complete it.

1) Place the logo on your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on yours

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Here are my favorite blogs:

Jamie Payne's Our Crazy Life: Jamie is such a wonderful mother, friend and scrapbooker. She also happens to be Debra's daughter. Her blog is lots of fun to read and reminds me of those days when my kids were young and life was crazy all the time.

Chere Mortensen's Miss Priss' Follies: Chere is such a fun loving adventuresome woman. What a dear friend and always so giving and helpful. Check out her blog for some great tips from her favorite handyman.

Pam Griner's Pam's Little Blog: Pam is the perfect southern lady. Always fun, happy and a great joy to be around. So glad she has joined our diva group.

Marlee Mortensen's Miss Marlee's Blog: Marlee is Chere's daughter. While I don't know her very well she is a darling young woman. Loves to have fun, just like her mother! Keep up the good work Marlee and blog about all your fun times.

That's all the blogs I can think of to nominate. Hopefully all of you will enjoy reading the ladies blogs as much as I do.

Quote of the Day: "The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." - Abraham Lincoln

More on Hawaii

Today I"m writing a little bit more on our Hawaiian vacation. It's actually a good thing, because it helps to remember what a great time we had.

Our first stop was the Island of Kauai, also known as the Honeymoon Isle. Kauai is the oldest island in the Hawaiian chain. This has got to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and Kauai can truly be called paradise. Believe it or not, this island has not changed much in 24 years. Mitch and I actually spent our very first anniversary there, along with my sister and Nichole. The lack of changes can be attributed to the hurricane they had in 1992 and the fact that much of the island is inaccessible by car. The island has the famous NaPali coastline that runs along one entire side of the island. All of the beaches there are only accessible by boat or hiking. The scenery is quite breathtaking with steep cliffs and waterfalls all along the coastline. If you ever get an opportunity, take a boat ride along the NaPali Coast, it is well worth the time and money.

The first adventure we took was to sail on a katamaran along the coast. The day was a typical Hawaiian day, but lacked a lot of wind. Our sailing trip was perfect with a very calm sea and clear water. We saw dolphins, a monk seal, lots of waterfalls, beaches. We were even fortunate and saw and swam with a sea turtle on our snorkle adventure. (We really need to purchase a decent underwater camera for our next trip.) The scenery was as spectacular as we expected and was a great way to begin our trip. Click on the photo below for some scenes of the NaPali Coast along with some other shots taken on the Island of Kauai.

Finally!

I know it's been quite awhile since I last posted. Things have been extremely busy. The trip to Hawaii, working late and catching up with the Cheer Booster treasury have taken up valuable blogging time. However, tonight that's changing. I think I'm finally ready to post a few Hawaii pictures. They are going to be out of order as the visit to the volcano park was on the last portion of our trip. But these are the shots I’ve been working on in Photoshop Elements.

During the 4 years we lived in Hawaii we were never able to see an actual volcano eruption. Fortunately for us, while we were on vacation this year there was a rather large eruption taking place at Kilauea. After much cajoling I was able to convince Mitch to take a hike out to the viewing spot to watch the lava flow into the ocean. We had to stop at the hardware store to purchase flashlights since it would be pitch black and a short walk on the lava to return to the car. It was absolutely amazing to see the power of the steam and heat as the 2400 degree lava flowed into the ocean.

The photo above is truly amazing to me. Walking out along the lava you notice that it has killed everything in its path. However, there are places where the ferns are starting to poke up through all that rock. Hard to believe this is what the earth may have looked like millions of years ago.

Quote of the day: I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done. ~Lucille Ball

Has it really been . . .

Almost a week since I posted last? I must admit though that I have been a little under the weather. Just found out today that I have a nice little case of Bronchitis. Hopefully tonight I'll get a little sleep with the codine cough syrup the doctor prescribed. Between that and working late every night last week, it's been a little challenging getting the blog up.

The big news is that Jessica did not pass her driver's test. She is going to retake it on Thursday. Wish us luck. The lady in Fayetteville who tested her was very rude and actually yelled at her in the car. If anyone needs to take their driver's test the word on the street (unbeknownst [SP?]to me) is not to take your test in Fayetteville, but Newnan or Griffin. Jessica failed on account of her bumper being over the white line and that constituted running a stop sign. No problems parallel parking or backing up into her parking spot. So, hopefully Thursday will go well in Griffin.

Speaking of Jessica, it's amazing to see how much she's grown over the last 16 years. Don't tell her I posted the picture of her with blue lips.

Quote of the day: "Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward."

Two More Concerts:

If you’ve spent anytime with me these last few months you know that I’ve been to quite a few big concerts. So far I’ve been lucky enough to see Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood on my birthday. I’ve missed Keith the last two times he’s been to Atlanta so imagine my joy when he was here just for my birthday! The Wednesday after Keith Urban was Bon Jovi. I’m telling you seeing two great looking guys who can sing and play guitar in 5 days was fabulous. The Friday after Keith was Huey Lewis at the Fred in Peachtree City. There was another concert at the Fred the following Friday, but for the life of me right now I can’t remember who it was. You can tell I was excited about that one, huh? The following week was Kansas at the Fred. Mitch and I were lucky enough to get passes to the after party. We were excited, but it turned out to be more like a meet and greet with some of the band members. It was interesting getting to know some of their backgrounds and how Kansas got it's name.

The biggest for me and the one I looked forward to the most was on Saturday, May 17th . That was the long awaited return of The Eagles. I have wanted to see them for years and was never able to secure tickets. It was so worth the money and was by far the best concert I have ever been to. They were so professional and didn’t miss a beat during the three hour show. The sound system was outrageous and the big screens were very clear. The weather was perfect and the sun setting in the background was amazing and made the perfect backdrop for some of best music I’ve heard live.

Well . . . as the title mentions there are two more concerts for me coming up this summer. Nichole has never let me live it down that I took her sisters to see Keith and Carrie without her. So since it’s her 30th birthday in September she asked that I take her to see another concert. So what can I say to that? It hurt when she twisted my arm so I had to give in. We will be seeing Gary Allan, LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney in Houston on August 15th. We’ll be picking up my sister Shelley in Austin and having a girls weekend. We are so excited. That means I will have seen my favorite singer 3 times in 13 months! Sweet!

The second concert will be to see Trisha Yearwood at the Fred on Sept. 12th. We have 8th row seats as a friend who has owned these seats for years just doesn’t want to go any longer. He purchases the tickets as long as friends want to buy them from him. It’s a great set up.

So Debra, you’ll have to tell me how the show is this weekend. I’ll want the full story and photos as well.

Quote of the Day: Life's music is ever-changing, but how beautiful the dance.
~Unknown to me.

Finally Friday

TGIF Baby! Don’t you just love Friday’s? Best day of the week for me. However, this weekend will be very quiet. Just working around the house and getting a haircut. Nothing too exciting. That’s a good thing. I may even get to work on my concert scrapbook that I started last week at Scrap Club.

As promised earlier in the week, I did do the ring on the string baby test. They say it works for babies that you’ve already had. And for me the old wives’ tale was true. All the tests for the 4 kids turned out like they should. Circles for the girls and back and forth for Matt. It’s at least a fun thing to try.

Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend.


Quote of the Day: “A diamond is a piece of coal who stuck to it’s job”
~j.c. Penny

Perfectly Normal Day

It's unusual, but aside from having to be to work before 7 am, I've had a perfectly boring normal day. A little busy at work, but otherwise normal. This really doesn't happen very often. After yesterday it was a welcome relief. Also, thanks to all of you who read my entry from yesterday and left such wonderful comments.

As many of you know, we will be going to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary. The 4th of July will actually be here before we know it. We've been busy discussing the logistics of Meghan's air travel to see Nichole and where Jessica will be staying. But we have also been discussing some of the things we will be doing on our visit to Hawaii (the Big Island) and Kauai (the Honeymoon Isle). Scuba diving at night with the Manta Rays (no stingers), sailing and snorkeling along the NaPali coastline, visiting the beaches and possibly stargazing on top of Mauna Kea. Would love to see some real lava flows since Kilauea is still erupting. That's been one of my dreams. Maybe this trip it will happen. Even though we lived in Hawaii for 4 years, there is still alot of new things to see and do. Can't wait to take photos and Mitch bought me an 8gb memory card to hold all of them.

Speaking of Hawaii. . . here is a recent photo of Noah in his surf gear ready to go into the pool.

Quote of the day: "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
~ St. Augustine

What a Crazy Day

Well today was one of those crazy days again. Another logistics nightmare sprung on me just before going out the door for work. Here’s how things went. Thinking that Jessica needed to work at 9:00 it was no problem to drop her off on my way to my cute little cubicle at NCR. (Not an accurate description actually) Little did I know she meant she had to wake up at 9:00. Aghhhhh! Thank goodness my 23 years of past experience came to the rescue again and allowed me to solve the dilemma in record time. Jessica was to take the golf cart to work. Then I was going to pick up Meghan at 11:30 and take her to get the golf cart. To reward her for her good behavior (she hates for anyone to use her golf cart) she was treated to lunch at Beef O’Brady’s. Meghan was allowed to pick the restaurant with no argument from me. That’s probably a first!

Tonight, I have to leave work at 3:45 to pick Jessica up from her job at Flat Creek and take her to the first day of cheer practice. Of course I realized this morning that her physical is expired. Totally forgot about that. Had to schedule an appointment for that. We can’t stop there, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Turns out the physical is scheduled for the same time as her driver’s license test. Had to reschedule the driver’s license appointment for the 12th. Now I have to break the news to her that we had to push that back two days. She won’t be happy. Oh and she couldn’t do it on the 11th because of a dentist appointment. However, the good news is she may have her little car by then and can take the test with her own car. Do you see scrapbook and photo opportunity potential? It’s really funny how I look at things from the angle of “can I scrapbook this?” these days.

Hopefully tonight I can relax a little. Oh wait! Forgot that I have teach myself to use Quicken in order to keep track of the Cheerleading Booster Club treasury monies. Always something . . . . And who said “ . . . Summer is fun and the living is easy . . . ?

Quote of the Day: “Sometimes a good quote is the best advice you’ll ever get.”

I did it!

Well, I finally did it. Started a blog. A few of my friends have blogs and I really enjoy reading them. Thought it would be fun to start one of my own. As if I don't have enough to do with the booster club treasury, a full time job, 2 girls still at home, scrapbooking and all the daily chores of running a household. But maybe it's a good way to just write and have some of the events in our lives recorded for later. It should help with those journaling spots in the scrapbooks too.

My friend Jamie is pregnant and by doing the ring on the string test decided she is having a girl. I so hope it is. Promised her I would try it too to see how it works out with my kids. Will post the results tomorrow.