Sing Me A Song ...

Tuesday night Griffin celebrated the end of the school year with a singing program at his school.

It was wonderful.

Ms. Jennifer prepared a slide show of the school year for us to watch.

Throughout the year the teachers had put together a scrapbook of their school work, art work and pictures of them doing various activities. I will treasure this forever!


The social hall's walls were decorated with life sized drawings of the children. They were so cute! This is Griffin's. He's wearing the shirt that Ms. Heidi got him for his birthday ... they'll make a movie about me someday. LOL. How fitting.


Here's our little guy performing one of the songs. I have to say my favorite part of the program was when they said The Pledge of Allegiance and then sang The Star Spangled Banner.


A picture of our little family ... Griffin was being silly. Mmmmmpf ... if he'd been looking I may have been able to use this one for a new blog header. =)


Daddy and Griffin eating some snacks under the tree.

It was great fun ... thank you to the teachers, Ms. Jennifer and Pastor Tony for a terrific school year.



p.s. Ray Jr. is doing okay. They ran a bunch of tests on him and have found no reason for the mini stroke. He should be out of the hospital today. Thank you for your prayers.

Ray Jr.

Yesterday Mike's brother Ray Jr. was admitted into the hospital because he suffered what the doctor is calling a mini stroke. He's going to spend a couple of days there for observation and tests.

He does appear to be okay now ... the stroke like symptoms seemed to effect him for about 15 minutes.

Anyone that knows Ray Jr., knows this is not the place he wants to be.


Today he is celebrating his 44th birthday ... in the hospital.

He has his wonderful girlfriend Terri by his side tending to him as needed.

Can you please remember Ray Jr. in your prayers ...

Summer Break.

Eight months ago our baby started preschool ...

I was so nervous. Would he be okay without me? Would he know who to ask if he needed something? Would he go peepee in the potty?

That first day was so hard. Watching my baby get out of the car with his little backpack on his back ... not really knowing what to do or where to go. He stopped half way down the side walk and just stood there. I wanted to get out of my car (we drop them off in the circle) and run over and lead my baby into the building. Then Pastor Tony took him by the hand and led him into the preschool.

I was in tears. It was hard.


These days, he's ready for Ms. Jennifer to get him out of the car. He runs down the sidewalk into the preschool. He's soooo ready for his day to begin.

He has learned so much.
He has made so many new friends.
He has gained independence.
He has gained confidence.
He has learned rules.
He has learned songs.
He learned new words.
He has learned to play better with others.
He is learning to write his name.
He loves being recognized for a job well done.

He has experienced things such as his first children's program performance, singing in front of an audience. He's had homework. He road on a tractor and chose a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. He participated in his first charitable event by raising funds for the St. Jude Children's hospital Trike-A-Thon. He hunted Easter eggs with his class at the Easter egg hunt.

Today will be his last day of preschool in the three-year-old program. And then tonight he will perform in his final children's singing performance for this school year.

I'm so proud of Griffin.

He's my heart. He's my joy. He's my life.

Livin' For The Weekend.

Saturday night our good friends Carol, Allen, Hannah, Zachary, Sara and Sam came over for dinner.

I took a few pictures ...


Zach, Sara and Mike taking a ride on the buggy ...


Griffin with one of his favorite people on earth ... Miss Hannah.


Hannah pulling Griffin around the yard in his wagon. He had such a serious look on his face because he had cut his big toe running around the yard without shoes on. He said "ouch" for about 30 minutes after it happened. This was one of those "ouch" moments.


Sweet Sara taking a rest in the wagon ...

I didn't even get a picture of Carol, Allen or Sam ...

We had a nice time. We're going to have to do it again soon!

Cecile's New Scrapbook Store!

My amazing friend Cecile is living a scrapbooker's dream ...

She is opening her very own scrapbook store right outside of Savannah, GA!

I am so happy for her ... and so proud of her!!

Watch her progress on her blog:
Scrapbook Studio Pooler

New Tear Bear Paper Piecings.

Happy Saturday Ya'll ...

I've listed a few new Tear Bear Paper Piecings in MY EBAY STORE.

They join several cute new paper piecings already listed there ... if interested you can click here to check them out.


This is a brand new design ... I've never made this one before.


This is an updated version of a patriotic Tear Bear I made a couple of years ago. I love all things red, white and blue!


This is a fun little Cupcake Birthday Tear Bear.

I hope you'll stop by MY EBAY STORE to check out my cute and whimsical Tear Bear and Paper Piecings selection.

Treasure Finds.

I'm a bargain shopper ... I love finding a deal.

I guess that's why I ♥ yard sales so much.

When Bonnie, Jerome and I went to yard sales when we were in Florida, I found some really amazing deals.

I spent $6.25 and walked away with these treasures ...


$2.00 ~ this is my favorite find of the day. My daddy used to have one of these cracker tins in his kitchen. I'll be honest, I did not like it when I lived it home. I thought it was old and ugly. I will tell you as soon as I saw it at the yard sale ... I *had* to have it because it reminded me so much of my Daddy. It now sits proudly in my kitchen.


$1.00 ~ another great find. The children's book "America A Patriotic Primer" by Lynne Cheney. Only a dollar ... and it's even autographed!


Yes ... that's right ... an autographed copy of Lynne Cheney's children's book for only a buck!


$1.00 ~ you may recall this little wooden chair. I thought it was adorable the second I layed my eyes on it. This is the one Bonnie & Jerome "John Deere'd" up for Griffin. You can read about that here.

$2.25 ~ three movies
Finding Nemo, Shrek 2 and Ice Age. I think this is the *best* money I've ever spent. They were only $.75 each. Griffin has watched Finding Nemo almost every day since we've been home.

Finding a treasure at a really great price is such fun. I'm always on the lookout for the next great yard sale.

Speaking of yard sales ... some ladies from my mommy group are planning a multi-family yard sale on June 6th right here in our area. I will be participating again this year. If you would like information about when, where and how to get there just email me at mgmh@aol.com!!

Wall-E And Eva.

When we were in Florida, you may recall we went to Downtown Disney and Griffin was very happy to be able to bring his favorite movie character Wall-E home with him.

If you have ever seen the movie, you know the other main character is Eva. Of course Griffin wanted Eva too, but at the time we decided to just get Wall-E. He asked every single day if he could have Eva.

Seriously ... what is Wall-E without Eva?

So ... when we went to Disney World, the last store we stopped in had a huge Eva display. He asked so very sweetly and he had been such a good boy all day long ... well ... Eva found her way home with us too.



Wall-E ... $89.00



Eva ... $39.00



A very special friendship ... PRICELESS!

These little robots are amazing. They interact with each other ... it's pretty cool how they do that.

Griffin loves them and plays with them all the time.

It was a good decision.

Wordless Wednesday.

Poplar Tree Blossoms.

We have this tree in our yard, we think it's a poplar tree.

Come springtime it has the most beautiful flowers bloom on it.


I took this picture of the tree this morning ... it's pretty misty outside, so it's not the best of pictures.


Isn't this just the prettiest flower? It's bright yellow with orange highlights on it.

We've never seen anything like it ...


And a closer look at the blossom ...

Can anyone confirm this is a poplar tree?

Mother's Day.

When Mike asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day I told him I wanted to go to the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.

He said everyone would think it was his idea ... but I assure you it was not. It was completely and totally MY idea.

I wanted to do something that all of us would enjoy. We've been to the strawberry patch the past couple of Mother's Days and I think we were all past the point of wanting to go there again. So ... to the Air & Space Museum we went.

We went three years ago and there were many new additions and displays.

I have some wonderful pictures I would like to share, however Blogger keeps timing out on me ... so I'm giving up. For now. I will share them maybe later in the week.

We actually went to the museum on Saturday. It was a rainy, dreary day ... it was a great day to spend inside at the museum. My boys treated me to lunch at MiMi's Cafe and then we stopped by Outback for a delicious steak on the way home for dinner.


The reason I get to celebrate Mother's Day ... my little, sweet man Griffin and me.


I love this picture of Mike and Griffin. That's the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the background. Love the American flag there too.

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day.

We started the day with Mike cooking breakfast ... eggs, bacon and good 'ole southern grits. Yummmmm!!!

We did some yard work and some playing under the water hose. While Griffin played outside and Mike worked around the yard doing various things, I did some reading.

Mike made dinner too ... grilled country ribs. They were delicious!

It was truly a peaceful, wonderful Mother's Day.

Missy Made It!

I've been making Tear Bears for over five years now ...

One of my all-time favorite Tear Bears to make is my Monogram Letter Tear Bears.

I haven't made them in a couple of years ... but yesterday I was inspired to make them again!

I have to say ... they are so much fun to make!

Here's a little sample of the ones I've made ...





If anyone is interested in purchasing a custom Monogram Tear Bear with your custom letter and your choice of color please email me at mgmh@aol.com with your request. I would be *happy* to make one for you.

I have most any color you could want ... red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, baby pink, bright pink, baby blue, teal, dark red, dark green, navy, black, dark brown, white, offwhite ...

And as a little bloggy "Mother's Day" *added* bonus I would be happy to include the extra letters to complete the name through Sunday, May 10th. The Monogram Letter is 4", so the extra letters would be about 2" each.




They are only $3.95 each and that includes shipping.

This special offer is good through Sunday, May 10th, 2009.

C'mon ya'll ... keep me busy making some of these sweet Monogram Letter Tear Bears!



I have these and other cute Tear Bears listed in MY EBAY STORE right now.

Cookies.

I love it when Mike cooks ... especially when he bakes cookies!


My sweet husband is a fantastic cook ... and it made my day when he decided to make some cookies the other day.


Piping hot chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks ... yum!


Uh Oh ... it's the cookie monster ... ready for his share of cookies.

Happy Friday ...

Last Game Of The Season.

Last weekend Griffin's soccer team the "New England Revolution" had their final game of the season.

He really enjoyed playing soccer. He learned many valuable lessons during his time on the team.

Of course the "best" part of the whole season was getting the trophy after the final game ...


Here are our (truly) wonderful coaches presenting Griffin with his soccer medal.


Just look at his face ... he is SO proud ... and SO happy!


Our little soccer star ...


One final picture of Daddy and Griffin in front of the "soccer tree".

We had so much fun as a family participating in this season's soccer games. I'm thinking he will for sure play again in the fall.