I'm Thankful November 2007

Nov. 30th - And last but not least I'm thankful for the Lord who for now has blessed me with all these things and more.
Nov. 29th - For God's word
Nov. 28th - For busy times
Nov. 27th - For quiet times
Nov. 26th - For my job, which has allowed me to travel
Nov. 25th - For my nice warm and cozy bed
Nov. 24th - For date nights with my husband
Nov. 23rd - For having more than enough food on my table
Nov. 22nd - For this Thanksgiving Day
Nov. 21st- For my home
Nov. 20th - For my sweet pet Cleo
Nov. 19th - For my three sisters
Nov. 18th - For my Dad
Nov. 17th - For Saturday evening church services
Nov. 16th - For my morning walks in the park
Nov. 15th - For my morning coffee
Nov. 14th - For books
Nov. 13th - For all of my blogging friends
Nov. 12th - For my good results from my recent mammmogram test
Nov. 11th - For the men and women who are veterans
Nov. 10th - Dinner with the whole family tonight
Nov. 9th - That I spent a wonderful day with my granddaughter
Nov. 8th - That my daughter is feeling better
Nov. 7th - To have heat that clicked on this morning
Nov. 6th - To be having dinner tonight with old friends
Nov. 5th - For 31 years of marriage
Nov. 4th - For my granddaughter and the two new grandbabies coming this spring
Nov. 3rd - For my children
Nov. 2nd - For my husband
Nov. 1st - To be alive

A little of this and that

To get you in the Christmas spirit, I thought I'd post a picture of the giant tree that is at Newport on the Levee, which is a nice entertainment, dining and shopping area in Northern Kentucky. My sweetie and I like to go over there and grab a bite to eat and hang out at Barnes and Noble. I know we're really exciting.
And this is how I think I'm getting my hair cut today. That's a picture of Stormie Omaritian, she's a Christian writer. Don't you just love her name? I just don't know what to do with it anymore now that I finally got it long and I seen this picture of Stormie and thought, this is really a cute cut. I am the world's most inept person when it comes to fixing my hair. No I really am, I can never fix it the way they do at the salon or even come close to having it look like when they do it. It always looks like a frizzy mess, so we'll see what my girl says when I go today. I like her alot, she's my hubby's first cousin and I've been going to her for years and she's very honest in telling me what will look good or not. I don't know what I'll do if she ever stops cutting hair. So we'll see if I chicken out or not. LOL I know it's just hair but hey it's something I have to fix and deal with everyday.

And here's a picture of my new stockings I bought from Target this week. I had the same stockings for years and years and for some reason I really like these guys. Even my hubby and son noticed the new stockings on the mantel and they never notice anything when it comes to decorating. The stockings have little crystals with my hubby and my initials on them and our last name initial and by a weird coincidence these are also the initials of all of our kids. I swear we didn't plan it that way when we named them. Anyway, this is the extent of my decorating so far, except for the cute things I bought from Julie at Nunnies Attic, which by the way Julie, my granddaughter loves looking at them. But hopefully we'll get our tree up this weekend, it's sitting out in the front yard with frost all over it as I write. Also another little bloggy business, head on over to Debra's site at The Bunnies Bungalow for a chance to win a great giveaway she's giving in honor of her 100th post. We are going Christmas shopping this weekend and hopefully get it all done. Have a great weekend!

Is This the Face of a Criminal?

Yesterday Maddie, Mommy and I decided to go to the mall and Christmas shop. We went to the Disney Store to get one of the nieces a present and of course Grandma was blinded by the beauty of the pink princess pretend cell phone and had to get one for Maddie. Who is this chick princess named Aurora on the phone anyway? I know alot of Disney characters but she is new to me. I thought this was Cinderella. Anyway, off the subject as usual. As I was saying, I was gazing at these lovely pink cell phones, while Maddie must have been taking some Disney wash towels and putting them behind her in her stroller. I went to the counter and paid for the cell phone and we left the store and continued shopping. It wasn't till about an hour later we seen these extra little trinkets that she had taken from the store. So we head on back to the Disney store while Maddie is happily chewing on her new treasures. We told the teenage clerk that the little 15 month old took these things without us knowing it and we wanted to pay for them now. She was not amused and kind of looked at us like we were criminals. So I paid the $3.00 to Disney because we all know Disney is hurting for the money and told Maddie it's not right to take things without paying. She just looked at us and continue chewing on her new treasures. Moral of the story, Grandmas should not get blinded by the beauty of pink and Disney should not put little trinkets at kids eyes and hand levels.

Happy Birthday Stephanie (aka Lady Bug)!

Stephanie and Maddie on Thanksgiving

Stephanie when she was little. This picture is dated 1991. That's her brother Nick and her Mom, Lisa in the picture with her. Her Mom was one of my best friends and she passed away in 1995.

Happy Birthday Steph! Stephanie is my sweet niece. So everyone leave a comment wishing Steph a Happy Birthday! I know I just posted birthday wishes for my sister yesterday but in our family we have many birthdays in November and February. Anyway, hope you have a wonderful day Stephanie. You are so much like your Mom, your heart is as big as hers was and you look just like her. Love you girlfriend!

P.S. Travel Tuesday London is right below this post.

Travel Tuesday - London

My sweetie at Tower Bridge , this is such a cool looking bridge. All of the photos are from 1999.

My sweetie in a London phone booth . I just love the red phone booths, they have such character to them.

This is me at Windsor Castle . Windsor Castle was just fascinating.

And Big Ben

We went to London in March of 1999. We actually came into London and then took the Eurostar to Paris. But I did Travel Tuesday with Paris first and then on to London. Either way the Eurostar is the fast train that connects both countries. My memory of London is that it was huge, but we really did enjoy the city. So here are a few of the not to be missed sights in London. I'm only touching on a few here so if anyone reading this has any suggestions that I have missed, please feel free to leave your suggestions in my comments. First go and see the Westminster Abbey, where most of England's kings and queens were crowned and many are buried. The Houses of Parliment and of course Big Ben. We did the Original London Sightseeing Tours, which had a guide telling you about all of the sights and you could hop on and off . Go visit Trafalger Square and don't forget the Tower of London, which by the way is fascinating with it's history. And of course you have to go and see Buckingham Palace. We went by train and visited Windsor Castle. I really enjoyed my visit there and the little shops and town outside the castle. My sweetie and I stayed in the Mayfair section of London and I highly recommend it there. The restaurants were great surrounding the whole area. We also did tea in the afternoon while we were there. We are both coffee lovers but you have to try the flavors of another country when you visit. So we had our tea and little sandwiches and enjoyed it very much. Is there a difference between high tea and just having tea in the afternoon? Once again I am only touching the surface of what London has to offer, it is a great destination and one I hope to get back to some day. If you have never been to Europe and have always wanted to go, I would suggest starting with London or anywhere in England. The language is familiar and I love the English accents. So how about we stay around this area a little more. Let's head on over to Ireland next week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY

Happy 50th Birthday Judy!

This picture is of my brother Alan(who passed away last year), me and my sister Judy (the birthday girl)!

A nice non fattening cake!

My sister Judy joins the exclusive 50's club today. You know the club that everyone wants to join. LOL Leave a comment wishing her a Happy Birthday. She's not a blogger yet but I think she would love it. Happy Birthday little sister!

Thanksgiving Fun!

My sweetie and I and our sweet little granddaughter, Madison. Look at that big smile. I just love that little girl.
Here are my other three girls. My youngest daughter Christina and my niece Stephanie(who is like a daughter to me) and my oldest daughter Melissa(aka Maddie's Mom). Aren't they so pretty?
I just thought this ice sculpture of the turkey was so cool. I took about four pictures of him. LOL
This is my Dad, who takes us all out to eat every Thanksgiving and there were around 26 of us at the Thanksgiving dinner. He's with Maddie and Melissa.
And I thought this was a great shot of Maddie looking at herself in the big mirror. I wonder what she was thinking.





Well, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family. These are just a few of the photos I took. I think my family is starting to hide from me whenever they see me and my camera come around. LOL I got an early Christmas present, a new Sony Cybershot PINK camera. It is so cool and I'm having alot of fun learning the ins and outs of it. It's a touch screen and they even engraved my name on it for free. Anyway, I ate way too much food but did so enjoy the dinner with all my sisters and Dad and their families. I know alot of people can't even imagine going out for Thanksgiving Day but we've been doing it for years and the place we go to really does a nice job. Last night I had our little family dinner and that was full of fun and laughter, but that is for another post. Hope you all had a wonderful time also.

Stretch

I know just how Stretch feels today. I ate way too much yesterday. Thought this was cute! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our family had a great one and I hope all of the shoppers who venture out on this day get great bargains. Enjoy your day and happy weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Introducing.............

This is an ultrasound picture of my son's son who is due the end of March. Isn't he so cute? The proud parents just found out they are having a boy. Grandma and Grandpa are very excited to meet him in the spring. Not sure of his name yet, but I know they have been thinking of naming him Michael, which is my sweetie's name.

Photos From Last Thanksgiving

Thought I'd share a few photos from last Thanksgiving. My Dad takes us all out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner each year and then I cook a small turkey the next day so everyone can have leftovers. Anyway, here are the guys. my sweetie, my nephew, Nick, my son, Jimmy and my son in law, Jamiel. I hardly ever post pictures of the guys and it's not that I do that on purpose it's just that I don't have as many photos of them. The only one missing from the photo is my Dad.

Here I am last Thanksgiving with my sweet grandbaby Madison, she was only a few months old and was sleeping most of the meal. I doubt if she'll do that this year. But look at how little she was.

Here is a photo of everyone. My niece Stephanie and Nick are in the upper left of the picture. They spent so much time at our home growing up that I consider them part of our family. Their Mom was one of my very best friends and she died when they were little. Anyway, a few have other family obligations this year so I won't be able to get photos of us all together this year but maybe I'll get that photo on Christmas. And I've been waiting to share something with you all but one of my children has not sent me the photo yet, so maybe later on. I hope....................

A Day in the Life of Cleo - My Cat

This is an exciting post people! This is where Cleo sleeps all day. In the bassinet in the spare bedroom along with Winnie the Pooh and some teddy bears. I guess she figures Maddie(my granddaughter) doesn't use it any more so she can.
Somewhere between 4pm and 5pm Cleo decides it's happy hour and she'll follow me around until I give her some treats. Then when she's full and rested, it's time to groom--ALOT.
Then before the sun sets, she'll watch out the window for imaginary things. If she's lucky she'll see a squirrel.
Then it's time to go to bed for the night on my cream colored couch that I now keep covered with a throw.


I think Cleo has a pretty good life, don't you? I couldn't get a picture of her crazy time, you people who have cats know what I mean. It's the time of day when she runs around the house like her tail's on fire. I know you are wondering where's Travel Tuesday but it's a busy week so we'll go to London next week. If you just can't wait to go to London until next week, pop over and visit Sandy at Whistlestop Cafe , she just came home from there and has some good posts from her visit and she just has a great blog with some good recipes too. An just because I think this is so cool go here to authorblog and check out this photo, be sure to read his post.

And just one other thing, my sweetie leaves early every morning for work and he left me this on the kitchen counter this morning. It's from his little calendar that is made just for Dads. I thought it was so good:

"We can't form our children on our own concepts: we must take them and love them as God gives them to us"

I know this post was all over the place but hey you guys should know that about me now. Have a great day and I promise we will go to London next week.

Travel Show

This is my sister Judy and her husband and friends at the Travel Show. Judy's the blonde and her hubby is across from her. They are going on a Caribbean cruise this winter. I really wanted to go with everyone but they were planning this when I was planning my Alaska trip and couldn't do both at that time and now the price of the cruise has more then doubled, so now I really can't go. Wish I could because this group knows how to have fun. So think of me when you all are in the Caribbean and I'm back in Cincy freezing.

This is my good friend and fellow travel agent Alice and her group of traveling buddies. Alice is the one kind of leaning on the left. She's a hoot to work with. We tell each other that if we ever need to go into a nursing home that our kids should put us on a cruise ship instead and we can float around the seas and they can visit us in port or on the ship. Think about it, you have a doctor and nurse on board, you have all of your meals and entertainment and it's probably cheaper then going into a nursing home.

Anyway, my work had a travel show the other night. We had a pretty good turnout and it was alot of fun. I loved talking to some of our clients and finding out how they liked their trips they took. The most interesting couple I talked to had just come back from Africa on a African Safari. I've known this couple for awhile and they have traveled the world. They told me about how they came upon a lion kill while they were in Africa and that they stayed at a lodge called The Ark, where you can watch the animals come to visit the salt lick. It is a lodge that is shaped to resemble the Ark and it has balconies and decks for great views. It just sounded so interesting to me and fascinating. I also asked them where their favorite place was out of all of the places they have been in this world and they told me that New Zealand was the most beautiful of all they had seen. In fact the husband told me that at every turn they went in New Zealand that there was another beautiful sight to see. I knew Australia was at the top of my list to see but now New Zealand is up there also. This is the best part of my job talking to people about their trips and hearing how excited they are when they see new places in this world. The worst part is dealing with the airlines. Have a great Monday!

Name Tag

Julie from Nunnies Attic has a little name tag game going so I thought I'd play along. Just go to Amazon.com click on books then advanced search, type your first name in title and choose a cute and meaningful book cover and post it.

Okay so the selection for Joan consist alot of Joan of Arc or Joan Crawford so choosing between Mommy Dearest (no more wire hangers) or a saint is a no brainer. I always loved the story of Joan of Arc when I was growing up. Who knew that Mark Twain wrote a book on her? And it says on Amazon that he considered this book not only his most important work but his best. He spent twelve years in research for this book and many months in France. This is pretty interesting stuff and something I never knew.

A Little of This and That

WARNING THIS POST IS GOING TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE! But what's unusual about that? Anyway I had this post all ready telling you guys all about my work's travel show last night and all about my travel friends who went on an African Safari. A trip of a lifetime, so cool. But that'll have to wait for another time. First off go here and visit Kellan at On the Upside and read her story of her and her husband. Start with her November 14th post and work your way up to today. Seriously this girl can write and while your at it, wish her and her hubby Happy Anniversary.


Okay now maybe some of you know how to decipher dreams because last night I had a really weird one. Here's my dream or nightmare. Do you remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds? Well, I had a dream last night that these birds were attacking me and I ran behind a big wrought iron fence and for some reason the birds could not fly over the fence to get me or anyone else on my side of the fence (hey it's a dream) so we shut the door and the birds are on the other side and another person(on the wrong side of the fence) comes yelling to me "open the door they are killing me"(don't remember if this person is male or female) and I remember thinking if I open this door the birds will get me and everyone else behind the door but if I don't the birds will get this one person and then I woke up shaking. So what does it all mean? Maybe it means I shouldn't drink caffeine diet drinks at 8pm anymore and take a Tylenol PM because my back was hurting or maybe it's something deeper. Who really knows when it comes to dreams? But either way I thought it was an interesting dream because do you save the one and risk the many or do you not open the door? And you don't have any time to think it through, I would hope I could save everyone but I was spared that decision when I woke up. Too deep for my little brain!
At the very least it should make me rethink my caffeine intake anymore. Have a good weekend!