Another Little Blessing

Sometimes in our lives things happen that aren't planned. It doesn't mean they are a mistake because I do truly believe everything happens for a reason. About 4 weeks ago we learned of something that wasn't planned but ready our not "she'll" be arriving in January. My son and his girlfriend are expecting. They kept the pregnancy their little secret for a long time before telling anyone, so we have short notice to get ready for this baby girl.

The situation is different than anything I have ever dealt with but I know with love from both families everything will be ok. My son is a senior in high school, his girlfriend is a home school senior. They have dated nearly 3 yrs. I don't think they are even talking about marriage right now due to the fact that both need to finish with school and have jobs before it's time for marriage. I know the road won't be easy for them, they both have a lot of growing up and learning to do but with love and faith I believe everything is going to be ok. Her name is going to be Bailey, she is due January 23. If you remember my daughter and her husband are expecting a little boy (Judslee), due January 15. Two new grand babies in one month for this first time Nana, wow!

Below is Bailey's picture

An Old Stereo

I just had to share a picture of this big beauty with y'all. Well, this ole stereo may not be a beauty but either way she's mine now. This stereo was a favorite thing of my grandmothers, she passed away in 1975.
Since we have a big house now my grandfather told me that he knew my grandmother would want me to have this. (I'm not so sure she would though seeing how big the thing is now compared to modern electronics, ha!) So here she sits in a extra bedroom. I will admit it does sound good and I am looking forward to getting my dad's old albums I used to listen to as a child and giving them a spin.

I couldn't help but laugh at our cat, Sara. I was playing an old album and she acted like she was amazed, she kept sitting there tilting her head from side to side. Silly Cat!

Flour / Meal Bin

Things are slowly coming together in the house. We still have things to arrange in more permanent places, you know how it is, stick something here for a while and a few days later realize you'd like it better over there.
The picture above is a flour/meal bin that belonged to Steve's Mammaw, my mother-in- law said she learned to make biscuits as a little girl on top of this bin. Sitting on it I have a little collection of ironstone. Oh, don't you love the yellow paint...it's so cheery. We also painted the dining room that color. The name of the color is "butter".

A Little Paint

Amazing what a little paint will do, isn't it. Below are pictures of our new living room before and after we got started painting. Steve and I stayed at the house until 2am this morning working on it. We got the living room all painted and got started on the dining room. I've got such a wonderful - hard working husband, it's 10:30 pm now and he's still at the house painting. I'll try to share pictures of the dining room with you soon.

We have been busy cleaning and painting. It is taking a lot longer than I thought it would but we are shooting for this coming Friday as our day to start moving our stuff in the house. I'm gonna be so tired from all the work we've been doing I hate the thought of moving heavy furniture. I can also tell you the size of the house is a little overwhelming to me, I spend lots of time walking around in circles pretty much wondering what to do or where to begin.

At Last!

Yesterday was the big day, we finally closed on our house! Woohoooo....... 

Well Gahhhhh

I was informed yesterday afternoon that the closing won't be on Friday now, instead one day next week. So they say! We'll see I guess.
Don't they know we're anxious and ready to get this over with. We're ready to get moved!

Closing

After such a long process we finally have a closing date on the house - Friday. YAY! We haven't started packing yet, guess I will try to get started today. I just know it isn't going to be fun so I keep putting it off.

I am thinking about the little things we want to do to the house, mainly paint. Below are pictures of the kitchen and living room. I love the big country kitchen, I have such cute ideas in mind. And the living room, love those big windows.

Get Ready

Get ready cause in the future (January) you're gonna be hearing a lot about this precious little fellow, and seeing lots of pictures of him too I'm sure.

Mr. Judslee Kale, I love him already ...

Maybe you can make out the picture. This is a 3d picture from yesterday and it does sorta look fluffy as Tiffany said. But you can make out his right eye, his little nose, mouth and in all the pictures it looks like he has chubby cheeks. Awwwwwwwwww isn't he just precious!

Appraisal In

We heard back faster than we expected on the appraisal. It went good .... there should absolutely be no problem there. Waiting on a transcript to come in now, as of now the closing will hopefully be around the middle of Sept.

More good news! Tiffany had her ob checkup today. She's at 20 weeks and doing great.
All of the blood work she had done her last visit came back fine. The baby shows no sign of birth defects and no CF. I am so excited to go see Judslee's new pictures tonight and watch the sonogram tape. :)

House What House

Ok, yes we do still want the house but after yesterday I'm too excited to even think about it. Molly's checkup went G R E A T ! Seriously, for the first time in years her lung function had actually improved without a hospital stay. Yesterday it was what it usually is at the end of her long hospital stays. I am guessing the sinus surgery she had back in June really helped a lot.
More exciting news! There is a new inhaled antibiotic on the market for CF'ers. I have only heard great things about it and so far everyone I have heard that has started it has had their lung function greatly increase. I hope and pray it works that well for Molly.
Hopefully we will receive her's by the 1st of the month, if not she will start it on Oct. 1st.
More great news, instead of going back to Birmingham for another checkup in a month, she doesn't have to go back until Nov.
I am just so thankful to the man above I could bust! :)

Today

Today as I head off to Birmingham to take Molly to her doctor visit as usual I'm worried about how things are going to go there, I am worrying about the house, I just feel so stressed. I have decided I'm gonna listen to my favorite music while driving (think I'll be doing some singing along with Tim McGraw - so Molly take your ipod so you won't complain about my music - hehe), try to think happy thoughts and know that everything is gonna be alright. :)

Our House - Hopefully

Just something about old houses with big front porches.

Appraisal is tomorrow on this 1921 cutey, if all goes well this will be our very own front porch for rockin'.

Oh the fun we're gonna have decorating...but that's after lots of painting.

Ok, now that I've spilled the beans I'm gonna put a big ole "X" here so I won't jink anything. :)

Color

Well since the photo in my previous post was black and white you couldn't see the great color of the car, here she is. Don't you just love this color?

Isn't turquoise great!

Hello Out There

I really do feel so bad that I have been neglecting my poor blog like I have. Seems I just never have anything exciting to talk about that I feel will interest anyone.

We have been staying busy, the kids are back in school and something big is in the process of happening (but I don't wanna say too much because I don't want to jinx anything) and most exciting I have a grandson due in January.

Hopefully I'll do better with my blogging, if not I will try to pop in every once and a while just so everyone knows I'm still alive. About the photo above, it's just a car that belongs to a friend who lives near us, she's a very sweet elderly lady and I thought it'd be cute to take Molly's picture in front of the car. By the way, the car is for sale, immaculate condition and all original.

Have a great weekend everyone ...

Scare Of My Life

We are home from the hospital now. Molly was released on Saturday (19th). At that time she was still having a little bleeding from her nose due to her sinus surgery.
Well let me tell you, Sunday evening her nose started bleeding like you wouldn't believe, it was happening so fast it was draining down her throat, she threw up blood a couple of times! Seriously I have never been so scared in my life. I have never been in such a panic before, I wanted to just stop and scream but knew I couldn't. Steve carried Molly to the vehicle and we rushed her to our local hospital. There the bleeding finally got better and she was given two units of blood. To see your child so scared and to hear her crying "I don't want to die" was just horrible and something I will never forget. I just hope it's something we never have to experience again.
We got home Monday morning from the E.R. a little after 4am. Monday afternoon we took her to back to Birmingham so she could be checked out by a ENT Doc. They put a little more packing in and suctioned her nose out (which was all very painful for Molly).
Yesterday she had traces of blood still oozing but I can proudly say now I think the bleeding has stopped and hopefully for good. She is still sleeping right now but all looks clear. Praise the Lord!

Summer

Well, many people are off enjoying their summer break on vacations but I'm at the hospital with Molly right now. She came in yesterday, this was a scheduled stay so we were half way mentally prepared, still doesn't help the boredom at all though. Of all things this time we ended up in a tiny room, I mean really...it's super small. This isn't a good thing because we invested in an electric cooler to bring with us, my in laws bought us a small microwave not to mention all the other things Molly and I brought with us. We are on the list to move to a larger room, I just wish they'd hurry up!
Molly will be having sinus surgery next Wednesday. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there are no problems with that and that we'll be able to get out of here on the 19th.
We are still in the process of discussing our vacation, not sure where we're going but we're sure looking forward to that time.

Still Here

Not sure if anyone out in Blog land has missed me or not but I'm still here.
Spring has been a busy time and with all going on I just haven't taken the time to blog, I do get online often though to keep up with everyone else's blog.
Last week was the kid's spring break, we spent 9 days camping at the river. Had a blast!

Tannehill Trade Days

This past weekend Steve and I enjoyed a trip to the first Tannehill Trade Days of 2010, trade day weekends are held every third Saturday and Sunday from March to November. The event takes place at Tannehill Ironworks historical park located in McCalla, AL which is near Birmingham.

We bought several things but most importantly we had a great time just spending the day together. The weather was just beautiful on Saturday (which is more than I can say for Sunday, ughh).

One little bit of advice for anyone thinking of attending trade days, go early! By the time we got ready to leave there were so many people it was hard to look at anything. The road in to the park is just a two lane road which is small and very curvy, we left the park Saturday at 1pm and people coming in said the traffic was backed up so far it took them two hours to get in. There were cars backed up for 5 or 6 miles. Below are some of our finds and a few pictures of us.

We did not buy this piece below, but would have liked to.

This piece below isn't something we bought Saturday, it's something Steve pieced together. He had bought the base a while back, Friday he found the top at a yard sale. Cute isn't it, I love the short size of it.

A Welcomed Sight

No, I'm not there yet, the cemetery isn't the welcomed sight I'm talking about. It's the beautiful flowers. I visited this cemetery yesterday near our home to get some pictures of my husband's grandparents and great grandparents headstones, just thought I would share the pretty flowers with you all. They are just everywhere now it seems. It's amazing to drive down the country roads see clusters of these pretty flowers where old homes once stood. Ahhhhh I just love spring!

Birdhouse Surprise

Steve has built a couple of new bluebird houses so yesterday I decided to have him take down a birdhouse that has been up a couple of years but has never had any birds to nest in it. This birdhouse used to be a mailbox, Steve put a divider in the middle and holes on each end, we knew bluebirds wouldn't use it but thought maybe some other type of bird would. Anyway to get on with my story, he took it down yesterday. We noticed what looked like nesting material in it and thought that was weird. He was looking in the hole, then all the sudden he says "What the *$&%&"! This is what we saw, if I'm correct it's a flying squirrel. So cute isn't it! (Don't forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

We decided to put the house back on the post where we got it from, hopefully the little critter will stay.

Maybe it picked this house because of the bird feeder next to it, I figure maybe it eats the seed from the feeder.

2010 Jerry Brown Arts Festival

This weekend was the annual Jerry Brown Arts Festival http://www.jbaf.org/ which is held in Hamilton, AL.

Molly and I attended the festival yesterday. It's fun going seeing all the great Southern artist with their work on display and for sale. Of course headlining the festival is the man himself, Jerry Brown.

For those of you who aren't familiar with him or his work he's a ninth-generation potter.

He's a Smithsonian potter as well as the recipient of the 1992 National Heritage Fellowship and the 2003 Alabama Heritage Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Brown's work is hand-turned and he still uses a mule to power his clay mill. Most of his work is still fired in a brick kiln.

He produces many neat items from rooster teakettles, crocks, bean pots, mixing bowls, jugs, etc. but I believe he is most famous for his face jugs. Most people who see them think they're ugly and wonder why anyone would want such a thing but with Jerry Brown being a local artist and living in the same county (Marion Co. Alabama) my mom was born and raised in I just love all his work.

On Valentine's Day 2007 Steve told me to get in the truck that he was taking me somewhere but wouldn't say were. I was beginning to think he was hauling me off somewhere to kill me (ha-ha, just joking, he would never do that) but seriously I thought where in the world are we going on these country roads. When I saw the sign pointing to Jerry Brown's shop I knew where we were going. Oh I was so excited. I think Mr. Brown got a kick out of me telling him that he was my Valentine's Day gift.

Steve was able to write a personal message for me on the bottom of a face jug that was still wet and Mr. Brown signed and dated it, of course it had to be fired so I couldn't bring it home that day but I did get to pick out another face jug that had already been glazed and fired to bring home with me that day. They were my Valentine's Day gifts that year. Here are my two face jugs.

In all we probably have at least 30 pieces of Jerry Brown's pottery, we have things ranging from candlestick holders, bowls, pitchers and even a large churn.

Goodbye February

This is how we spent the last afternoon in February 2010. It was a relaxing afternoon.

Estate Sale Shopping

Today Steve and I went and did a little estate sale shopping. We arrived a few minutes before 8:00, there was already a huge line waiting to get in. As you could imagine the inside of the house was crazy, not a huge house and a bunch of people in a state of panic worried someone was gonna find something neat before them.

Steve and I split up, I told him to go one way, I'd go the other. I headed for the kitchen (which was tiny and already packed with people). Up in a cabinet I spotted something, there were a few people between me and what I was aiming for, I could hear a woman beside me telling her husband to get them. I thought to myself no way, those are mine so I made my way to the cabinet and saw the price and that even made me happier! I got a 3 pc Homer Laughlin Co. (Apple tree/Orange tree pattern) nesting bowls from the 1930's for $18. They are in pretty much perfect shape. How exciting!

We also bought a bunch of old souvenir pennants.

Driving home we came upon a yard sale, found this neat thing which would be great for someone's mud room for $3. Of course it needs a good cleaning and some paint and a few new hooks.

We didn't find as much as I would have liked to but we had a fun day, guess that's all that matters. :) I hope tomorrow afternoon we can go put our finds in the antique mall and maybe do a little rearranging in our booth.