WHY I LOVE MY BIKE!

Soooo happy! The sun is back! The temperatures are better too. There was a teeny tiny hint of Fall in the air this morning. A tease 'cause I know we've probably still got another 6-8 weeks before I can pull out my jeans, sweaters and boots. It really felt good riding our bikes this morning.


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

SURROUNDED BY DRAGONS

Dragonflies that is.

Would you believe we've had yet another rainy day?! I did manage to get my tennis match and bike ride in (just barely) before it started again. Ugh! Thank goodness they are predicting sunny days the rest of the week. I was beginning to wonder where our Florida sunshine was.

I've noticed an influx of dragonflies everywhere. Some were buzzing around the tennis court again this morning but I encountered A LOT of them riding my bike, especially around the lakes and ponds we have in our neighborhood. They made me nervous because there were sooooo many of them. I found a dead one in the garage that was HUGE! And gross.

Someone in the paper called them “skeeter hawks.” The name fits since a dragonfly’s main meal is a mosquito and thankfully they eat thousands of them. And because they are BIG. The paper said the reason for the explosion in population is directly related to all the extra rain we've had.

Everything is nice and green and the lakes and ponds (and our pool) are full thanks to Mr. Rain.

But enough is enough, thank you very much.

I'll be looking for YOU tomorrow Mr. Sun.

You have been missed.

"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

CHEERS TO CHURCH

I love my church. I mean I r-e-a-l-l-y love my church. I love our minister...his messages...our musicians...and my church family. I honestly leave every Sunday saying the say thing "WOW!". I don't take it for granted either. I KNOW how blessed I am. We know each other. We love each other. We care about each other. We support each other.

The last song we sang this morning was a bit unusual for church, but let me tell you, we all sang LOUD and PROUD and with smiles on our faces.

If you think about it, the lyrics to CHEERS is (or should be) perfect for our church family too.

Loved the show...the cast...the comedy...the music.



I double dog dare you not to sing along!

CHEERS
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.
You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

Guess what I'll be humming all day?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was tagged by a new blog friend Carol at The Gardener to answer EIGHT DEEP QUESTIONS, so here goes:

1. What do you think was the most important lesson your parents taught you? To be kind and respectful to everyone.

2. Do you think you can be in love with more than one person? My first thought was yes...because I love so many people. But IN love? That's different, so my answer is no.

3. What is your favorite kind of music? Who is your favorite singer? Now this is hard. It's kinda like asking me who my favorite grandchild is. Someone asked me that one time. She asked if I had a favorite and I said yes. She looked shocked. My answer - the one right in front of me. And it's the truth. When one of my grandchildren are with me, they ARE my favorite...until the next one climbs on my lap or sits beside me. Know what I mean? So...back to the music question - I love so many that I have to say the one I'm listening to at the time I'm asked.

4. What is your favorite memory of your Grandparents? It would be my mother's daddy, Granddaddy Brown, holding my hand and walking me to the corner store for goodies, telling jokes and riddles as we walked. It was a neighborhood store with the swinging screen door, hardwood floors and the high (to me) wooden counter holding the old fashioned cash register...the kind that dinged and the door popped open when they put the money in or gave you change. We would buy an RC cola and little bags of peanuts that we would pour into the cola. With every sip you got a few salty peanuts. Heaven. He was a sweet man. My Daddy called him Mr. B. They were best buddies.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why? Italy. Why? Why not! Why don't I? I could never live that far away from my children and grandchildren and my family.

6. What is your favorite color? all shades of blue

7. Why did you start blogging? I didn't even know what blogging was until my son Eric and his wife began blogging. It looked like fun so I thought I would give it a try, never ever dreaming anyone else would read it. I thought it would just be a way to journal my thoughts.

Would you believe this post is my 1,857th post since I started in August of 2005. I'm so thankful for my blogging friends.

8. What is your favorite meal? When we were little Mom would always make sure she made our favorite meal on our birthday. Mine was...and still is to this day...my Mom's pork chops with rice and tomato gravy and a pear salad (the kind served on a bed of lettuce with mayo and grated cheese). And cornbread and sweet tea, of course. My Mom still makes it for me almost every time she visits, whether it's my birthday or not.


Okay...now I'm tagging YOU! Don't hide. It's fun.


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

I DIDN'T PLAN IT

But...
I spent the day in my jammies. The.whole.day!

We woke up to rain again (we've had more than our share!) so that meant our normal Saturday morning routine of riding bikes with our friends to breakfast wasn't gonna happen.

I thought about doing lots of things, but decided "nah, not gonna do 'em".


I did make my bed and do a bit of laundry, but otherwise I just chilled.all.day.long.

It was so nice that I would do it again tomorrow except I never like to miss church unless I absolutely have to.

Hope your Saturday was a "do nothing" kind of day too.


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

UNBELIEVABLE, BUT TRUE

I mentioned in my post earlier this afternoon that we were attending a birthday dinner tonight for a sweet friend who goes to our church. You're not gonna believe this, but I swear it's the truth. Hilda (in the black and white striped dress) is 85! Yep, you read that right. 85!

George, Me, Hilda, Larry, Kay, Dick and Linda
Hilda has 4 children. In this photo she is with her 55 year old daughter. I would say they have good genes!

Hilda was telling me tonight that when she was younger she would go to the NCO club to dance with the soldiers and sailors and when her father came to pick her up, the military guys would ask her why she was leaving with a "draft dodger". She would tell them "that's my father" and they wouldn't believe her since he looked so young. She said both her mother and father never showed their age.

If only I could look like that at 85!!!

Happy Birthday Hilda!



"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

A CASUAL EASY WEEKEND

Not much planned this weekend. We're going out to dinner with friends tonight to celebrate a birthday. It's pouring rain right now though, so I'd almost like to stay home snuggled in with a good book. In my jammies. If the rain does ever stop, we might get in a long bike ride tomorrow. And then church on Sunday. Nothing exciting planned. But you know what? I'm looking forward to just a casual easy weekend.

How about you?

"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

SLAP YO MAMMA GOOD

I had a great time in Jackson with Bree and Jay. I'm missing them already and I just got home this afternoon.

BAM!
Jay made Chicken Etouffee last night that was "Slap Yo Mama" good! Oh.My.Word! I didn't take the time to take a photo of the finished dish because by the time it was ready, we were all dying to dig in, but I did sneak a quick shot of him as he was making the roux. Dinner was wonderful big bowls of rice covered in serious deliciousness (is that a word?) and hot crusty garlic bread.


Watch out Emeril 'cause our boy can cook!

Speaking of Emeril...he recently bought a house in our neighborhood. I haven't seen him yet, but George saw him last night at Publix. Several people stopped him to get photos with him before he hopped on his golf cart and escaped. LOL George said he was very nice to them though. Hmmmm...wonder if he'd like to come over and give me some cooking lessons.



Speaking of Jay...tomorrow is his birthday.

Happy Birthday Jay!



"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

OH MY!

My son-in-love Jay is a good cook. He loves to cook and everything he cooks is wonderful. . Tonight he cooked a pork tenderloin on the grill. Oh.My.Goodness! So yummy. So tender. So delish!
He also cooked some squash and onions and I cooked some sweet potatoes. Yummy!

A baked sweet potato, squash and onions and the tenderloin with a horseradish sauce and a nice glass of red wine was all we needed to make us smile :-)

Lord, there's just nothing nicer than a man who can cook!!!! Can I get an amen?!

I'm having fun in Jackson. It's wonderful getting to spend some time with Bree and Jay. I must admit that I do miss George and Miss Daisy, but that's okay because I'm having a good time here.

"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

SING WITH ME

The song WE ARE FAMILY should be my theme song this weekend. I'm in Jackson for a few days to visit Bree and Jay. Since Bree had to work until 7:30 last night, I met Jay's mom for a glass of wine and dinner. Just the two of us. It was wonderful to just sit and chat over glasses of wine and dinner. We went to a wonderful restaurant called Mint. We both had the Arugula Salad (Alabama goat cheese, peanut brittle, granny smith apples with roasted garlic-balsamic vinaigrette)...yum...the crushed peanut brittle added a nice touch. Our entree was the Mint Julep Chicken and Waffles (mint sweet tea brined and then fried chicken on top of a Belgian waffle served with George Dickel syrup)...yummy and something I have never even heard of before.

For the last year, any time Tee and I have been together we were planning the wedding. It was always fun, but there was no time just to "be" together, but now that the wedding is over, last night it was just two friend spending time together. Very nice. Love her! Teresa (aka MTee aka Sweet Tee) is not only Jay's mom and Bree's mother-in-law, but my friend too. How blessed I feel!

Love you my Sweet Tee! Thanks for a special night.


So happy to be here with my sweet girl and her new hubby.


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

MEET ME ON MONDAY

My friend Java at Never Growing Old has a good idea so I thought I'd play along. Every Sunday she post five get to know you questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post. It's a great way for us to meet new friends and for others to get to know us better. Here's what Java had to say:

"Blogging is a funny thing...we tell our most intimate thoughts for all to read and yet most of the time I find myself sitting and wondering, "who is this person!?" I know them...but yet I don't know them! I want to know who the person is behind all those words so I thought of a great way for all of us to "meet" each other!"

Questions:
1. What is your favorite kind of doughnut?
2. How often do you pray?
3. What is your favorite kind of music?
4. What do you order when you eat Chinese food?
5. Would you rather snowboard in the winter or swim in the summer?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Answers:

1. What is your favorite kind of doughnut?
This probably won't surprise anybody that knows me and my love of chocolate. My favorite doughnut is a Krispy Kreme chocolate iced doughnut! With a glass of ice cold milk, of course. Yum!
2. How often do you pray?
All the time! I love to pray when I'm riding my bike alone or when I'm in my car alone. When I lay down at night I try to do my serious praying and pray specific prayers for specific people, but sometimes I fall asleep. It used to make me mad at myself, but I know the good Lord knows what's on my heart. I'm trying to spend more time praising God too for his many blessings.
3. What is your favorite kind of music?
I love all kinds of music...except rap and hard rock. I guess if I had to name just one, I'd have to say country. NOT the old timey twangy kind. You know what I mean, right? I love Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Amy Grant, Martina McBride just to name a few.
4. What do you order when you eat Chinese food?
My favorite place to go for Chinese is P.F. Changs which is a more Americanized Chinese restaurant, in my opinion. I love their Kung Pao Shrimp.
5. Would you rather snowboard in the winter or swim in the summer?
I would have to say swim in the summer, although I don't swim much. I'm usually just on a float and laying back and enjoying myself. Until this summer. As most of you know by now, I've had a few snakes that think MY pool is their pool. Shivers!

Okay, now I'd love to get to know you more too so be sure and leave your answers in a comment.






Go by and visit Java too...you'll love her.





"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

DON'T GO

Rain rain... please DON'T go away! (at lease for awhile longer)

We did our normal Sunday morning routine...$tarbuck$ on the way to church and then lunch after church with friends. The morning was perfect. But now that we're home and planning to snuggle in for the rest of the day, the rain is welcome to hang around! I love the sound of rain, especially as I drift off to sleep. It's raining buckets and buckets and buckets right now and I'm loving it. I know my flowers and grass are loving it too. Everything will look so luscious and green tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow...I'm so excited ' cause I'm going to go spend a few days with Bree and Jay.

Can't wait!


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

AIN'T IT THE TRUTH!

I did a little shopping this afternoon. It's pretty scary to look around and see who is looking at certain lingerie pieces, if you know what I mean. Good golly!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've had a very nice Saturday. We did our usual and rode our bikes to breakfast with our friends and afterwards got in about 15 miles. We ended up stopping by $tarbuck$ in the village and sat outside and played cards for awhile as we sipped some deliciously cold frappacinos before we rode home. I got my hair trimmed this afternoon, did some shopping and then picked up some barbecue for dinner. A nice and easy day.


I already have my clothes laid out for church and my jammies on. Soon I plan to prop up in bed and read and maybe sip on some of this until I get sleepy.

I'm reading THE HELP and can't seem to put it down.

Hope your weekend is nice and easy too.




"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

SAY CHEESE

Me, George, Carl, Jackie, Garrett and Jeanette

We had friends over for dinner tonight. Celebrating LIFE! Our friend Carl (in the baseball cap) is fighting cancer...again. He will be starting chemo and radiation again soon and will be needing a stem cell transplant. Please include him in your prayers.

It's not a great photo of me...cheese-y smile because I set the camera on the tripod and ran around to jump in the photo. I said "say cheese" right when the camera clicked. Ugh! (Plus my hair looks awful...tried a new shampoo and a new gel and it wouldn't cooperate at all.)

But, hey, tonight wasn't about me. Well, it was actually (kinda/sorta) because Carl and I are SURVIVORS and tonight WE were celebrating LIFE.

And every.single.day is worth celebrating!



"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

PROUD TO BE A SURVIVOR

Tonight I attended the kickoff for this year's American Cancer Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk that will be held locally on Saturday, October 30th.

It felt good to stand up with a group of SURVIVORS.

Breast Cancer will touch someone you know...a friend, a neighbor, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a child and maybe YOU. My world changed in 2006.

Please, pretty please, do your self breast exams, get your mammograms and support the American Cancer Society.


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

HELP - HATING MY SCALE

Good Golly Miss Molly! You would think I would be a "skinny minny" with all the exercise I do.

Yesterday, I walked one hour on the treadmill and rode my bike 15 miles. Today I played 2 hours of tennis in this heat and then rode my bike 12 miles. I do something every.single.day. I play tennis at least twice a week. I ride my bike almost every day. I use the treadmill, etc. I feel like I'm doing my part to keep in shape and burn lots of calories. But....damn...I still feel like I need to lose a few pounds.

What's a girl to do?



It can't be the wine, right?





"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

BLOGGING - THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

I saw this on facebook tonight and it's true for blogging too:

“Contrary to popular belief, not everything that pops into your head needs to be shared on facebook" (or blogs)

I had to laugh 'cause sometimes I try visiting blogs that I've never visited before and I just can't believe what some people put on their blogs. Oh.My.Word! Has that happened to you?

It's amazing how different blogs can be. I visit some and move on quickly because they are not for me. I don't like whiners or those that use ugly language or crude jokes. And then other times I visit a new one and just don't want to leave. They make me smile and they make me feel good. Love it when that happens!

It's always fun to find a new great blog. If you have one that you really enjoy, please let me know so I can check it out.

I love blogging. I really do. I've said this before and it's the truth - I started blogging because it looked like fun and I wanted a place that I could record my days...never ever dreaming anyone else would want to read my blog. And through blogging I have met lots of really great people.

I'm not sure why or how you found my blog, but I want to say THANKS for your visits and your comments too. I love hearing from you and I love getting to find your blog through your comments so I can visit you too.



"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

DRENCHED...WITH RAIN AND MEMORIES

Today I got caught by a heavy quick rain when I was out riding my bike. I was too far away to make it back home, so I ended up finding shelter under a big beautiful magnolia. Thank you Lord for no lightning and thunder. Just big fat drenching rain drops. I was soaked by the time I found refuge under the tree, but it was nice to watch the rain for awhile and keep my iPhone dry. It was zippered in my bike caddy, but even that was getting soaked.

As I stood there and watched the hard rain, I remembered how my sisters and I loved to play in the rain when Mom would let us. We would lift our faces to the sky and open our mouths to catch the rain. We'd dance around and stomp in puddles and laugh at all the mud that splattered on us. When we had enough, we would undress right by the door and Mom would bring us towels to wrap up in and we would head straight to the tub for a warm bath.

A nice memory.



"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."

WINED, DINED, PLAYED AND READY TO CRASH

The napkins Sherry brought for the weekend was "right on the money"!

We started Mama's weekend long birthday celebration on Friday night with games and a little CHOCOVINE wine. Chocolate wine? Yes ma'am. It's dutch chocolate and red wine. Good, but very sweet. A sipping wine, for sure. We jokingly called it our "adult yoohoo". LOL I learned about it from DeeDee at Fiddledeedee.

Mom knew that her baby sister Sherry and I were coming for the weekend to celebrate her birthday, but she had no idea there was a surprise birthday lunch planned for her on Saturday afternoon. She just thought we were taking her out to lunch at Ezell's Catfish Cabin, her favorite place to eat catfish. Boy was she surprised when she walked into a room filled with 26 family members! I tried to get photos of the whole group, but failed. Not one good photo of the whole group! Believe me, someone in every photo would have been mad at me if I posted the group photos. @$%&!
We definitely surprised Mom. She doesn't look 79, does she?
Mom with all of her children

On the left - Pete and Teresa. They joined our family 30+ years ago when their sweet father Ken married Mom . We don't use that ugly term "step" in our family. They ARE our brother and sister.

On the right - Kim (the baby), Karen (the middle) and me (the oldest first born)

Sherry, Mom and Bet aka "Other Mother"


After lunch, lots of us went over to Kim's house to...surprise, surprise...play more games, eat more food and drink more wine.



Kim never sits and plays with us. She said she'd rather watch so she could be ready to fill our glasses and check on the food. I teased her and told her we needed a bell so she would know when we needed a refill. And quick as a wink, I got a bell.
I only rang it a few times (???) and suddenly this appeared!
No one actually got up and did the chicken dance (thank you Lord), but we did play chicken foot dominoes.


We took Mom to breakfast this morning and then I hopped in the car and drove home....in the rain.

I talked to my sister Kim a few minutes ago and they are still celebrating. She and Terry cooked a steak dinner for Mom tonight.

Mom sounded so happy, but said partying all weekend is hard work. I'm sure she's gonna crash as soon as she gets home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

You are loved!


"Father, help me to be a blessing to someone today."