A CHRISTMAS TREE "hat"?

Blake is very interested in Sprout T.V. so his mom and dad took him to this promotion at a mall a few months back. I've been wanting to post this but go on to do other things and I just rememberd about the "Christmas tree hat". It's a short video and I hope you get a chuckle out of it. Turn your volume way up. http://app.wishoo.com/events/pbssprout/index.asp?gid={6A630B34-BFB5-4799-8716-3D903D2A773E}

I meet a new friend

I met Joyce (this is not her) out in Salt Lake City a few years back. *I* was there to tag along while Sam and his business partner were doing a 2 week job in the area. We (Joyce and I) were just there to enjoy the awsome beauty of Temple Square, feel the Lords presence all around us, and she was also there to visit her son who lives in the area. We met on "The Square" while waiting for a flower tour. Later that day I met her son and the 3 of us had lunch together. Joyce and I pal'd around for an entire week. I was like a lost puppy dog when she had to go back home to Oregon and Sam still had one more week of work to do.

Anyhow, her son went through a terrible, horendous car accident LAST January which nearly took his life. BTW he did end up losing a leg but yet we continue to praise God he is still with us! You can read about him through my blog. In the upper Right hand is a link to a "TRAGIC ACCIDENT" or just click here: http://davidewatson.blogspot.com/ I would suggest starting at the very beginning which means scroll down to FIRST post. And with the black background I find it much easier to highlight a few entries at a time and read them. In order to keep everyone informed of his day to day hospital struggles and progress his daughter, Nicole started a blog on him.

I contacted Joyce and asked to get in touch with Nicole (her granddaughter). I was amazed at the time and details of each post she wrote. I wanted to email her directly. Well from that day I've considered her my blogging friend.

She is traveling through from Detroit to Atlanta to her new home as her pilot husband got a transfer. Even tho we had talked about meeting once before it just didn't work out. Well yesterday was the day, we finally hooked up! We had a great lunch and conversation. I totally enjoyed meeting her and her daughter Rosie. Here is a picture of Rosie and I. We even have the same terrific haircut!

What A Scarry Guy!

Everyone has a picture with Santa so a few weeks ago we went and had the kids picture taken. Well, guess who was not for the idea, no way, no how. Jennifer took her back from Santa, got her all calmed down and we did it again, she STILL wanted nothing to do with him, not even with a big, protective brother next to her. He had his own shyness to deal with but he over came them fast. Blake was asking Santa for a skate board and all kinds of stuff before we left.

Catch up Time

I am desperately trying to play catch up on all my life lately. These posts might be out of sequence but *I* will feel better knowing I've caught you all up on us. So please bear with me for the next few post.

A Caring Congregation

Our church congregation adopted a family a couple years ago. This family consists of 6 children ranging in age from 6-16. The dad (let's call him "Mark") has adopted all these kids. Some are brother and sister who were going to end up in "the system" but a man with a very compassionate heart was not going to let them possibly be separated, I think some are his nephews and niece's. Mark has some health issues of his own and is on disability.

A couple days before Christmas I helped with taking off the name/gift tags which originally hung on the tree that our congregation chose from to purchase gifts for this family, (you chose the gift tag, shop/purchase the gift, wrap it and tape the tag to the gift(s)then return it to church.

Gifts consisted of items the kids wanted/needed such as toys, shoes and clothes. Then there were items the family needed such as lamps, cooking pots, toaster, microwave cart and the list goes on and on. We cut those tags off and just put the childs' name or "FAMILY" on the new tag. I totally enjoyed helping in this big give.

His place is the hang out for any child that wants to come over after school and with 6 kids you have plenty of friends. His rules are quite simple: 1) homework FIRST, all must do their homework. 2) ALL are welcome to stay for dinner, BUT you must first participate in the Bible lesson. No bible studies then no meal and that sounds very reasonable to me. This goes on every day. He knows where his kids are because his house is the "in house".

Our church has also done some home repairs for them. Mark, your a very reMARKable guy! Merry Christmas.

Bell Choir

Blake was in the bell choir a couple Sundays ago, he is the 3rd from our RIGHT, and Joel is next to him with the yellow bells. Blake has the orange bells. They played Joy To The World. We enjoyed watching them on their first live performance, their first of many? If you take the time to watch it, Blake gets into it at :55 seconds into the video, kinda cute how he wiggles a bit. Also, at 3:16 he decides to take a short rest. http://sharing.theflip.com/session/4453a6aea17a66daa088bd9982c573cc/video/2596100

Even Jayde gave them a standing ovation!

That was very, very time consuming!

I spent a few hours trying to get the after bath pictures of Jayde just right and into black and white. I was able to get to black and white and cut out some of my purple shirt but as far as the entire shirt being out of picture....nope it wasn't going to happen. The other one... I was totally lost, I could not cut out the bright white pillow. Determined to get those into 8x10's Sam spent about 3 hrs. yesterday and was able to achieve all I failed at. (I love you honey!)

Walgreens was offering a free 8x10 (actually they put out 2 free codes) so I printed one of each for FREE, have you noticed I love FREE? The best part...even better than the "free"...when we went to Walgreens to pick them up they told me they were professional prints and asked for the copyright. I was very flatterd and told them I appreciate the compliment but I took them with my own camera. I'm sharing these again because she is so darn scrumptious!

A lot of little things DO COUNT

As you have probably noticed, I like to go about and collect up all the bargains I can find and then hang onto them till either we need it or till I have somebody to donate it to. Well Jennifer and I have collected up a good stash and we are donating to the 2 families currently being helped out by the Bridge of Hope Organization of Butler County, Ohio. Jennifer is one of the Board members.

The mission of Bridge of Hope is to end and prevent homelessness for women with children with assistance of trained mentoring groups within church congregations. The single mother acheives permanent housing and financial self-sufficiency through employment and threfore aquires stability in the family household and improved self-esteem. The mother feels a great sence of accomplishment with all these things and BOH helps with SOME of the bills, transportation and teaches how to operate on a BUDGET. These are just some of the wonderful things that BOH does. If you would like more info please feel free to ask me. Their local phone number is (513) 330-4278. If you would like to leave a donation of supplies/food or whatever their address is: 115 North 6th Street, Hamilton, OH 45011

Thank you very much for your time. And I pray that you have a wonderful Holiday and a terrific 2009!

Little Miss. Santa Claus

Jayde looks so cute and warm in her little

Santa outfit while walking with mommy.

Who Knew 75¢ is a TON of FUN!!!

We went to see Santa last week at the mall and after lunch Blake wanted to ride this car. It was the cheapest purchase with the most excitement of the day. Jayde was giggling and laughing too.

SMILE or Not?

Blake obviously did not want to co-operate, therefore, making my face wrinkly and odd looking. Sam and Jayde did amazingly well. I could just crop us out but then it wouldn't be funny looking.

A Little Inside Fun

I just loved these pictures of Jayde, so precious and calming. I think I need an 8x10 of each, side by side. I need to figure out how to block out my purple shirt first.

Blake enjoys me reading to him and I love the snuggle time I get.

Just like his daddy

Immediately after we checked out our condo, Blake wasted no time getting that annoying tv on. Jennifer said that's what his dad does as soon as they get home from anyplace. So why not? Fortunately, we had one in each bedroom also so the adults didn't have to be stuck with kid shows. Just for the record, the guy is MY husband, Blakes grampa, Jennifers dad.

Fun in the SUN

Blake points out a big cruise ship...maybe next vacation?

We thought he was nuts till he said he's making a sand angel

I'd love to take him fishing, if I knew of an active fishing spot.

Total fun in the sun

Seth, Joel and Blake having a good time digging a hole.

Even Jayde enjoyed playing in the sand.

This is Cori with Jayde, this is a special one because nearly 13 years ago Jennifer, Jayde's mom, was posing with Cori this size in a pool also in Florida.

"Good-bye vacation"

Jayde gets her hands on some food (CULTURE)?

Here are some pictures of our little darling, tasting a variety of food, she was getting a lesson on food "culture". I used the word "culture" for Nicole, she enjoys different food cultures so I thought I'd use it. Jayde was not too crazy about any of it, but she did take a few taste of each one at her own will. So at least she gave it a good try. :-)

While waiting for dinner, Jayde keeps happy

Crab Anyone?

Poor Jennifer was forced to make a heart-breaking decison, she just couldn't tell Blake "NO" but instead purposely left it behind. We all agreed it was the best decision of the morning. He never asked for the crab leg till he was home and showing daddy the pictures. She said "it would have stunk up all our luggage and besides we have a picture so daddy can still see it"

Our Thanksgiving trip to Tampa

This is Blake saying "cheeeeeese!" :-)

We took our daughter and grandchildren on a vacation. (This is her holding the baby). We flew into Tampa and drove to Ruskin, Florida. That's where we spent our Thanksgiving week. We stayed in a condo with a good view of the beach, water and marina. Our son-in-law, Jim, was unfortunately unable to get off work to join us, however, he was fortunate enough to take us to the airport and stay with us till security. (Thanks Jim you save us a lot of $$$ for me not having to park my car.) Sam was already there (airport) since he is contracting work there, so we didn't have a big fat parking fee. We were gone for 9 days. Most days were great, those were the days we did little driving and spent a lot of time out on the beach, in the pool, playground and hot tub.

This is everyone but me heading for the

luggage carrousel in Tampa.

ALL of our luggage minus the stroller.

We are waiting for our rental van to show

up.

JAYDE'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to our special little grand daughter, Jayde who turned 1 October 28. Here she is:

NO WAY? YES WAY!!

This is from my CVS stop. Read the sign, it cost me $1.00 for all this. Yes, this is true! Before you start "no waying" me, let me say something. I did not hand the cashier $1.00. No, I handed him a lot of coupons well, actually only 6. READ ON:

When I asked the manager for the Loreal product they had for $11.99 and giving you $11.99 Extra Care Bucks back, he regrettable informed me they were totally OUT. This is the best part... so the manager said he would give me something else for free, and HE chose something valued at 16.99. I asked if I could take this instead, (same price, $16.99) and he happily said yes, get what you want. He rang me up and took off the $16.99 as a "coupon". So with my ECB I got BACK and the overage on some items and the other coupons, I made out better than a bandit.

You can do this too, Andrea at Mommy Snacks.net and Sherry atSaving Sherry will gladly tell you EXACTLY how to do this. More stuff for the pantry at church. The candy will be added to some Christmas gifts, If it wasn't for the $4.00 candy it ALL would have been free.

My husband came home from work and asked me what I bought that I didn't need today. I told him it only cost me a buck for all this. He was amazed. I don't think he was too concerned about the buck being gone anymore. LOL

P.S. I didn't even have to ask the manager for a substitute, he offered. I accepted.