Green Living

I am not as green as I would like to be but I am trying. In the spirit of living green I wanted to share with you a contest to enter from HGTV for the Green Home Giveaway. I get the HGTV newsletter and I LOVE the ideas and great giveaways. Click HGTV and enjoy!

Great Coupons!

I LOVE coupons! I LOVE getting a deal and finding the cheapest prices. It is almost an obsession. I stock up on things for baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays, you name it! So I was really pleased to find this great set of coupons to print and I wanted to share with you. Click here to go to the Kraft website.

The things a Man will do for His Kid

If these pics can't tell you how much my hubby loves G then nothing will. Kris had something just come over him and he had to create this "carnival ride" in our backyard.
First, he had to climb the 2 trees to put up the rope.

Then after G patiently waiting- finally: THE RIDE!!



After a long hard day of swinging and thanking daddy for the new addition here is what we ended up with!

What a great day!

Our First Garden

Growing up I always remember having a garden. Didn't exactly love it then but as I have gotten older (and wiser) I do! Kris has always had a garden as well and we have wanted to have one way before now. But finally this year we made it happen! We rented a heavy duty tiller and our small garden turned out to be about 30x50! But boy are we excited about it! Corn, okra, tomatoes, beans.....Yum!
Gavin may be the most excited though. He woke up the next morning and wanted to know if the garden had grew! I wish it was that fast!
Here is G and daddy working hard.

The Winner (finally)

I drew a winner last Tuesday (I know, I know) for my 100th Blog Giveaway. Since then I have had a stomach bug and multiple migraines so blogging (and just anything to do with the computer) was put on hiatus!
But without further ado the winner is........Southern Fried Gal!! So as soon as I get your gift together I will get it out to you. Just get me your information (email if you would like to jlhalmes@hotmail.com)
I tried to get a picture of Gavin drawing for me but he just wanted to play with the slips of paper when he was done!
Thanks everyone for entering and for reading.

Handy Helper

I am so behind on my blogging- but I got LOTS to blog about.

We have a 3 bedroom house and the extra bedroom is used as my scrapbook/craft room and our "office". I decided to trade rooms with Gavin becuase my room was bigger and then we could get the horse and train table out of our living room and back where they belong! That was about two weeks ago and I am STILL trying to get it back to some sort of normal.
Without as much closet space and room size I am really trying to purge. But we have a file cabinet that is a must and I desperately wanted to get it into the closet. I was having a problem so I had my helper husband assist me. When he told me he was finished I was soooooo excited!
This is what "finished" looked like:

Needless to say, we put it elsewhere!

Prayer Request

Please keep the Beverly Baccus-Bewley family in your payers. She passed away yesterday of a stroke after having her baby girl. I went to HS with her and she was such a great person to be around. Always energetic and positive. (She made FHA super fun!!)
My heart is breaking for her husband baby and family. I know God has a bigger plan but sometimes it is hard to see it though things like this.

New Blog Site

I found a fantastic new blog site with the CUTEST stuff that I want to share with you. It is called Imperfectly Beautiful

She just opened her Etsy store and is hosting a giveaway. Visit her site and see for yourself!

Mother of All Giveaways!

Go check out The Meanest Mom for the Mother of All Giveways for Mother's Day!! It is fantastic!!

Giveaway Reminder

Don't forget to sign up for my Blogiversary Giveaway. Just look at my blog from April titled "Finally Made It" for the how to's!
Good luck and thanks for all who read and tell others.

So Inadequate

I had the privelage and honor of having an intense conversation with my neice about God, Jesus, and Heaven. For an 8 year old she is so smart and so spiritually connected that quite frankly makes me feel so inferior. She helps me to see that it doesn't matter what bible studies you attend, how much you read you bible, or how aware you think you may be, God through the eyes of a child is the best vision ever. I am so blessed to have her in my life and hope one day that I will be able to answer all the questions she does have. At this point,I know I am no where near where I want to be in life, and it all begins with ME!

Mean Moms

Found this and wanted to share. Enjoy!

The Mean Mother"
Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent,
I will tell them, as my Mean ole Mom told me:

I loved you enough... to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.
I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.
I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room,
a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes.

Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough...to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all.

I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too. And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was.

We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast,

we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work.
We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head.

Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them.

While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 18

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mum was. I think that is what's wrong with the world today. It just doesn't have enough mean mums!

Dibby Debils Anyone

This morning as Gavin is still lying in bed I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. First he said waffles which was a surprise. But he quickly changed his mind and said "I want Dibby Debils". Huh? I had NO IDEA what "dibby debils" was but it wasn't long until I was on my first quest of the day. He kept saying "Dibby Debils- that's what I'm talking about". I was laughing so hard and the more I laughed the louder he got. Finally, after taking him to the kitchen and letting him on the counter this is what I now know to be "dibby debils" (trademark still pending)

So after a healthy breakfast of "Dibby Debils"-no milk- and water, his request our day could begin.
And now as we are sitting outside enjoying this wonderful weather he has decided he wanted some more "Dibby Debils" and we now know that they make a great dog food as well!

Finally Made It!

To 100 blogs that is! I wanted to celebrate with cake (who doesn't) but as I was searching for just the right one I just got more and more confused!!
Should I go the over the top route and try to confuse my friends and family with something like this bride did?

Then I realized that might be a bit much since it is just a blog celebration and not a wedding celebration.
Then I found this beauty. Now let me preface showing it to you by saying that I thought a lot about whether I should post it or not. Could be offensive to some readers (all 3 of them). But, I couldn't resist. I think just to prove to myself that I didn't dream it more than anything else. (besides, who doesn't need a laugh these days)
ok- the cake that keeps on giving:

Nothing more I can add.
And then I even thought about an ode to the cute little creatures that we associate with spring: the baby chick. Until I found this redition.

Not exactly cute and cuddly!
So, here is my final pick. My perfect celebratory cake that I think says a lot about who I am.


Ok, so ALL of that to say it's my 100th blog and to celebrate I am having a giveaway. What, you may ask? I haven't actually decided but even if it's a box of Kleenex, who doesn't like a good giveaway. Here's what you do to enter. Just leave me a comment. Get an additonal entry for every person who mentions the read it on your blog that is not already a reader.
Contest ends April 20th at midnight and the winner will be announced on the 21st.
(no purchase neccessary nor will bribes increase your odds of winning (but will be accepted), not valid in the Dominican Republic or Canada. Void where prohibited)

The Easter Bunny Delivers

Gavin had forgotten it was Easter morning when he woke up. He just kind of laid there in the bed telling me what he dreamed about and wondering out loud if Daddy was home. Then he made his way into the living room and screamed "Daddy he came, the Easter Bunny came. Come and see!" He was so excited. I barely got to my camera in time before he started tearing into the loot. He got a stuffed "Snoopy" dog, candy, a fishing game, a small "Tuck" figure from Wonder Pets, and a baseball bat and tee. You can only imagine how he and the bat have been getting along. Fast friends and partners in crime!




I did make a mistake and put Easter grass in his car basket. He got that stuff everywhere. I am still finding it today!