30 days

The time is getting closer, 30 more days and my first baby (Tiffany) gets married. Having your first child get married really makes you stop and think doesn't it. Life is short and time goes by so fast. I am so happy for them though and I'm looking forward to grandchildren.

Tiffany's 1st birthday

my soon to be son-in-law (Dustin) & Tiffany

Good News

I just had to share our family's good news. Recently my brother in law and sister went to court in an attempt to gain full custody of my brother in law's son (Austin Todd). We call him by his full name because my sister has a Austin also, he's Austin Lee, they are a happily blended family....one of his, one of hers and two of theirs. Anddddddddd they're all boys! Very confusing I know with the two Austins and his and hers, etc. Anyway the good news is my sister and B-I-L were informed today they have been awarded full custody. This is such great news, the poor child didn't have a good home life at all with his mom. Now with two parents who love him and do their best to take care of him things should get much better for him.

My sister and Austin Todd

Instant Ancestors

Yesterday as I was browsing blogs I visited Stacey over at http://theblessednest.blogspot.com/, I just loved her post on instant ancestors. I shared something with her I had done a couple of years ago with my "instant ancestors" and I thought I'd pass the idea along to everyone else. I used ribbon, wrapped it around the photos and used them for Christmas ornaments on our Christmas tree. I wish so bad I had a picture of my tree to show just how cute it was but thanks to my old computer kicking the bucket I lost those pictures along with many more. (ughhhh!) Luckily the box with the photos is stored in my laundry room so I just got them out and took a picture of a few so you can get the idea of what I'm talking about when I say I wrap them with ribbon. After I had my tree decorated with them I said I wonder if these people ever dreamed their photos would be stuck in a Christmas tree in Alabama so many years later, probably not, haha ... Also, I have decorated a Christmas tree in one of our antique booths in a mall with pictures like this that I had for sale, just do the ribbon the same and hang your little price tag from the ribbon. (I have had people ask me why I like old pictures of people I don't even know, I guess I feel sorry for these people in the photos in a way....I mean what kind of person could get rid of ancestor's old photos, I just can't imagine. The way I see it is their family didn't want them anymore so I will gladly welcome them into my family, haha....so that makes them "instant ancestors". )

Here's something else cute (I think anyway) that I have done in the past, I believe I used these as decorations along with the old photos, they were simple to do, I just used old fabric I had on hand and who doesn't have red thread.

While I'm on this theme might as well share something else I have decorated my tree with before, alot of you have probably seen this or maybe even done it yourself, but it's with small parade flags. Who hasn't seen these for sale by the bundles at yard sales or antique shops, they were just precious stuck all in the Christmas tree. Ohhhh just think if you had lots of vintage photos of soldiers and used those pictures along with the flags, wouldn't that be just precious.

I guess you can tell I am not your normal person, I love having and using different things for decorating, not only with my Christmas trees but with my home also, I guess this is why I have always just loved antiques. I am not sure where I got this love of antiques from, probably was from my paternal grandmother though, I was so close to her and you could imagine with her being from Alabama and not from a wealthy family she always had to make do with things she had, I love the challenge of decorating with things on hand or things found at yard sales, flea markets or auctions, it's so much more fun than just running to Walmart or Kirklands to buy something. I'm lucky my husband is like me, or worse maybe, he loves antiques and has a great appreciation for them. Most women you see out junking or antiquing are with friends, I'm lucky...I have my husband/best friend who loves going with me.

Almost That Time

Yep, Almost that time, guess you're wondering what I'm talking about. I'm talking about football season. And I wouldn't be talking about any other team than ALABAMA!

Rolllllllllllllllllll Tide ...

I just wanted to show you something very neat, now isn't Ms Molly just special to get such neat things. What kid that likes Alabama wouldn't just love this! Heck what grown person wouldn't love this! Molly's Granny and Great Aunt Alice went through alot of hard work to get these autographs, we surprised Molly with them on her birthday. She loves them both BUT you can bet the one with John Parker Wilson's autograph is really special to her. In case you can't tell the first football is signed by Nick Saban, neat how he even addressed it to Molly. The second football if you look to the far left you'll see John Parker Wilson's autograph.

Won't she be sharp on game days wearing her pink #14 Alabama jersey that her Granny and Grandaddy gave her.

Bird Living The Good Life

I want to introduce everyone to Buddy the cockatiel. I'm not sure of Buddy's age or where he came from originally but Buddy once belonged to me. Of all places we bought Buddy at a yard sale. (he was already named Buddy when we got him) He didn't look like he had a very good home there, his cage and food bowls were really dirty, etc. I just couldn't resist taking him home.
We kept Buddy a couple of years and due to Molly's CF I felt it was best if Buddy went to a new home. So for the past couple of years Buddy has been living in Three Sisters antique shop. What a life, living in a antique shop, how fun that must be! Pam takes really good care of him there. He has a really big and beautiful cage from the 1800's to live in and he has several roommates also. Below are a few pictures of Buddy in the antique shop.

Fall Purse Giveaway

Just wanted to tell everybody that Bonnie over at http://calamityjanescottage.blogspot.com/ is giving away a gorgeous purse, deadline for entry is August 28th so hurry over and tell her how great you think her purse is for your chance to win it.

Tracy

Molly's Birthday

Wow! It is just so hard to believe that our baby is now 12 yrs old. Where have the years gone?!?!?! Friday (15th) was Molly's birthday, it was a bummer she had to get up and go to school and we couldn't spend the whole day with her but we did have a fun evening/night though. We had lots of friends and family over, we rented an inflatable water slide from Jumpers, Steve with some help from Heath grilled burgers, I made cupcakes and my f-i-l made homemade ice cream.

Molly got lots of neat gifts also over $100. Her favorite gifts were a Jonas Brothers pillowcase Tiffany ordered for her and a football signed by the Alabama football team, this child just loves John Parker Wilson so she said she'd be sleeping with that football right along with her Jonas Brothers pillow. She also got another football signed by Nick Saban, that was really cool I thought. We owe my m-i-l and Aunt Alice for their hard work getting the signatures on the footballs for Molly. Now we're looking forward to Nov. 15th, we get to go the Bama/State game. I will try to take some pictures of her two footballs and get them posted sometime soon.

Duck, Duck, Goose...I'm it.

My blog friend Kim tagged me so here are 6 unimportant things about me that make me,ME!ENJOY!
1. I turned 38 this year, the fact that I'm getting older doesn't bother me as much as my children growing up on me does. So hard for me to believe my oldest baby is getting married in Sept., I get sad at the thought of all my children grown and gone from home. Hopefully by then I'll have grandchildren to keep me occupied.
(Kim don't freak out too bad about turning 30, you will survive it I promise. haha.... 30's are fun years)
2. I always look so forward to my husband's off days so we can spend time together, it's so great being married to my most absolute best friend in the world.
3. I love going to thrift stores.
4. If I could have one wish in this world it wouldn't be for money, it would be for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis so Molly and other people with CF wouldn't have to go through everything they do.
5. I could spend hours on Ancestry researching my family, also to get to go out of town to take photos of ancestors grave sites is so exciting to me, in a way just makes me feel closer to them if that makes sense.
6. An ideal day with my husband wouldn't be going out to eat at a fancy restaurant, etc. it would be packing a picnic and spending a day on the river together fishing and talking.
Well, these are just some of the unimportant things about me. Now, I tag Amy, Brenda, Kori, and Melanie.

School

It's just so hard for me to believe the kids are back in school already. I have had alot more trouble adjusting than the kids have I think, maybe because my baby (Molly) is in 7th grade this year. Wow, that is so hard to believe. I guess I also worry about her to much also because of her CF, we always try our hardest to let her live her life as normal as possible BUT I want her always taken care of too.

7th grade is considered high school at their school, so she's over in the other side of the school, it's 7th - 12th graders together. She has classes upstairs and downstairs, and her locker is downstairs. Yesterday she brought every book she had home because she says she doesn't have time to go to her locker, I sure hope she adjust to things and will have time because believe me those books are too heavy for anyone to be carrying around. Thank goodness Wesley rode the bus yesterday instead of driving his truck so he helped her carry them home. I am going to ask for an extra set of books to keep home, for when she has hospital stays, etc. I am seriously thinking of talking to the principle to see if Molly can just leave her text books in each class.

Another really big adjustment is in high school I guess the teachers think the kids can hold it all day and not go to the bathroom. The first two days Molly was about to die when I picked her up because she had to use the bathroom so bad. They only allow the kids one bathroom visit per six weeks , per class. Is that not crazy! And how are they supposed to make it from one class to another and visit their locker in between with only 4 minutes? The second day of school this year Molly said one of her teachers told them "Going to the restroom is a waste of valuable time". Well I bet this teacher goes when she has to. I get so very frustrated each year that I print off CF information sheets for each teacher, and do you think this ever does any good? Nope !

There have been so many times she's needed to go to the restroom or started coughing and needed water and they wouldn't let her go. I'm telling you this year is gonna be different or else I'm gonna be up there pulling me some people's hair out! haha ...

Thank goodness our new school nurse is a good friend of ours so I'm hoping between me talking to the teachers and principle she can help see to it that Molly is taken care of correctly. I have thought more of homeschooling this week than ever before. We have never wanted to do that because Molly is such a people person and we really want her to have the social interactions with other people at school, but the way things have been and as ugly as most of the girls in her grade act, what's the point! It just all seems so negative. Girls sure are different at 12 and 13 yrs old than they were when I was that age, teachers are totally different too! Molly has had some really great teachers but we've had some not so great ones also. I guess I shouldn't expect anything different because it seems the whole world is going crazy anyway ... I guess the changes in how things are at school and how children act these days just goes along with all that.

I am totally amazed that I can see girls at the school that Molly has gone to school with since kindergarten and I can speak to them and they'll just look at me like I've lost my mind for speaking to them. Ohhhh goodness it burns me up to see little girls acting so snotty. I like to think and I sure hope Molly never has that attitude. Well I guess I have rambled enough, as I said ... it's just been a long first week and I could go on and on and on....

Tracy

Back To School Time

Oh goodness, so hard to believe it's time for the kids to go back to school. I am gonna be lost and lonely when they go start back on Monday, I'm already looking forward to next summer!
Last week as a treat for Molly and her best friend Penni we took them to Geyser Falls water park in Choctaw MS, they had a blast. You get those two girls together and I'll tell you they are something else, they keep us laughing!

Today Molly went and got a haircut, she was ready for something different. Well it is different, she had basically worn her hair the same all her life and now she has some side bangs, I think it is really cute on her and makes her look older also, not that I'm in any hurry for her to look older or anything. Goodness so hard to believe my baby is almost 12 yrs old!

Tonight was open house at school, I ordered Wes and Molly class shirts the end of last year for them to wear the first day of school this year, well tonight we picked them up. Anyone who knows Wesley knows he's such a nut about hunting the sophomore shirt really fits him, Molly's 7th grade shirt was really cute also.

I have been doing a really bad job posting on my blog, hopefully soon I can get back in the swing of things. Things just seem to stay so hectic.

Tracy