Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Taking a break for a couple of weeks

HEllo all~ Merry CHRISTmas to everyone and Happy New Year. I am going to be taking a break from blogging till after the first of the year. It is now Wednesday and I still have not seen or heard from Mattie. I am still hoping and praying that he will show up Christmas morning.
Roger and I will be taking a small vacation to the happiest place on earth and my all time favorite vacation destination for NEw years. So come New year's Eve I will be standing on Main Street that has snow on it and watching fireworks in Disneyland!! I am so excited I have already made a list of everything I want to see and do. The park is opend until 2am that day. Winnie the pooh is my favorite character and MInnie mouse is my least favorite. So hoping to see lots of Winnie the pooh and hoping to avoid Minnie :)
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, I may be back shortly after Christmas to post some pictures will have to see.


Blessings,Joann See you all in 2K10

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

BA HUMBUG NO MORE!!!

I am choosing to not be in the ba humbug mood and instead choosing to be cheerful and in the Christmas spririt! I really thought quite a while about the circumstances that led me to feeling so out of the Christmas mood and after some wonderful words from my very good friends and a chat with another friend I have decided that I am not going to let anyone else dictate how I am feeling. I am very happy to have a wonderful husband, very good friends and some very nice family members. I am still mad at Matthew but have decided I am just going to overlook it for now. I will not cause any uproars on Christmas day. I was even considering cancelling his ticket back to Kentucky but figured that would only get him in trouble with the Army and I don't want that. I have decided to take the high road and not let it bother me, well we all know that it will bother me deep down inside but I am not going to let it show. I plan on having a wonderful Christmas morning when Jennifer and her husband Chris and the kids will be coming over bright and early and if Matthew shows up then it will be even better and if not my grand kids will still be here.
I have been praying quite a bit lately and talking with God a lot it seems like, some days it is non stop. I have been thanking him for things that have happened in my life lately, some of which I didn't like in the beginning like this problem I had with my friend but I am now realizing that God knew she was not a person whom I could trust or even count on so he made it to where we are no longer friends. I am rejoicing in that fact know because I have made so many new and wonderful friends since all of her baloney started. I feel very sorry for her and I am praying for her daily that she will one day find the love of God and ask him into her heart. It is so apparent that she has no relationship with God and for this I pity her. Please keep this woman in your prayers, she has a family that takes advantage of her, children that do nothing to help her out in the house and a husband who does even less. They only have a house not a home...I am sure you all know what I mean!

Talking of homes we have made a small change to our entry way, I had a rack that I wanted to use as a coat rack for the longest time and Roger was so nice and put it up for me this past weekend..Also please note that I have been changing over all of my picture frames to Black ones. I have also picked out a new wall color though Roger says he is not doing any painting...We will see!! :)

The new look for our entryway~







I also have a small update for the craft room, I organized the shelving above the computer and also went through a few boxes. Came out with quite a bit of garbage and a large amount of things for goodwill


Shelving above computer before~






and after~



I still have many hours ahead of me in the craft room but it will be so much nicer after it's all done.

I also went through a bunch of fabric that was either laying on the table top or piled in a box and came up with a large see through bin with all the supplies needed to make purses.Isn't that snowflake fabric just too cute...think it will make a pretty lining in a purse. I am working on two purses right now, one is almost done and will be shipped out to it's new home and the other will take a little longer as I decided to change the top part so I have to re embroider the top before I can put it together.



Roger had a good idea (I didn't tell him at the time it was a good idea) but he said why not get out all the supplies that you need to do like 6 things and just put everything else away..wow why didn't I think of that!!! Excuse me but that is what I did have out and we all know what my craft room looked liked..okay well it was maybe more than 6 things but probably only about 10 and it was like a bomb went off. I do plan on scaling back things quite a bit. I am working on things much more slowly than I used to so maybe 6 should be my limit and when and if I complete the 6 I could start 6 more..We will see how it goes.

Blessings,Joann

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Ba HUMBUG!!!

So Sorry dear friends for the title but all of my Christmas spirit has been taken away, you wonder who would take my Christmas spirit.Well I bet you will be suprised to find out that it is my one and only Son Matthew who is only here in CA because we bought him plane tickets.
I have been waiting for so long for him to come, he had a friend pick him up at the aiport which really bummed me out,now it is Sunday night very late and I still have not seen or heard from him. What a nice Christmas gift for me. I am very mad at him right now and even madder at myself that I am allowing him to ruin Christmas for me. But now I am just so sad and heart broken that I just dont' feel in the Christmas mood anymore. Roger is very upset with Matthew too because he knows that he always breaks my heart like this and he is just tired of it.

I did have some fun things happen this past week and for that I am truly happy. First my pen pal Vivian from Columbus Ohio sent me some goodies in the mail. I wasn't expecting anything and she was so genorus with some very nice gifts

Here are some pictures of what I received~

This one is of me holding the things she sent~Sorry that I look horrible in the picture :)




Here is a close up of the shelf sitter and apron, the apron fabric is just beautiful~




She also sent this cute little bag with a gingerbread man on the front and a package of gingerbread mix inside of it along with two very pretty towels and a large red jingle bell and a wooden spoon~



I also received another package in the mail, it was a small package but what it held was enormus amounts of love and hard work. I love homemade things

THis next picture is of the little mini quilt that my dear friend Bren made, I just love it and look and feel it everyday~




I too had things to send to people and here they are all packaged up waiting to be taken to the post office~



I am just waiting for 2010 to get here, I have so many things that are going to be changing, the first on the list is after being a mom for 28 years I will finally be putting myself first!! I have always put my children and their needs before my own and they turned out selfish and self centered so no more!! IT's going to be ME, if this sounds selfish to anyone out there frankly I don't care!!

I don't have any updated pictures of the craft room but I did work in there for a couple of hours today. I put all the things needed to make purses into one large clear bin and it will be labeled so I will know where to find what I need.

Well it's almost midnight so I guess I better go to bed, I will try and have a more merry attitude in the coming days


Blessings,Joann

Monday, December 14, 2009

It's 1500 and I have already deviated from my plan!!

Well hard to believe but my plans went out the window shortly after I posted this morning.
MY plan was to get the computer area cleaned out packed up and looking good, what really happened....

I found the cutest little wrapping paper organizer:) It is of course red (one of my favorite colors)


The new wrapping paper organizer~





This is what I was using to store wrapping paper in~




The inside of the new organizer~




This is the top part of the organizer~




And did I say it was RED!!

But I didnt' deviate too badly, I did actually get some things done other than sit here and look at that pretty RED wrapping paper organizer :)

Here is what the computer section looks like right now,~




I haven't used the vacuum in here yet to get all the dust picked up but it's the first time in months that I have seen the table top in this part of the room!!


This picture is just funny, it's of some of the books I have on cleaning/organizing both your home and you life and so far I haven't had luck with any of them. Oh I love all these books especially the ones by Elizabeth George~



And here are the boxes~




I loaded up with "stuff off of the table top" luckily Jennifer is now selling Avon and gets lots of boxes, they will come in mighty handy I think!

Well I better get going, still need to make a salad for dinner. I am not liking Roger woking over time as he isn't even getting home until around 8pm or later, he leaves at 4:30AM and is gone so many hours...I just hate that he has to work so far away.
Mattie comes home this Friday!!!

Hope everyone's Monday has gone well for them, I got a wonderful package in the mail today from a very nice lady I met over at the Sugar Pie farmhouse forum. We have been pen pals for a few months and she is oh so generous. When I opened the large box it smelled like cinnamon~ Just like Christmas time~ very wonderful gifts she sent, thank you very much Vivian:)

Blessings,Joann

0420 and I have started....

Okay I am ready to get this room done...I have assigned each area in my craft room a section number and letter. All the table top sections are labeled 1-6 A, under the table top is 1-6 B, and the shelving is labeled 1, 2 and 6 C since there are only 3 sections with shelving.

Today's objective is the section 6 A, B, and C~





It is a big section but it's where my computer is so figured I should start there. I am thinking of moving my computer to another area but will have to see if it will work out. So today I will be packing up everything in those sections into these bins and boxes~




I won't actually pack up the computer or printer as they are too big, but everything else has to go!!I seem to have lots of clear plastic small bins that either have nothing in them or very little so will have to decide wether to keep them or maybe find some that are smaller.

I am hoping it doesn't take all day :) If it goes smoothly and doesnt' take too long I will move onto section 2 A and B, that's right below the window
I am also making a trip to the library to pick up books on hold.


Okay onto the actual working on the room, will be back with an update if I make any progress

Blessings,Joann

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Major, Major cleaning going on....

Starting Monday the 14th I will be doing a major deep cleaning and organizing of my craft room. This room started out so nice, my husband did so much nice work on my table tops and painting and it has gradually turned into a crap room not a craft room. I bought some bins at Walmart and plan on just boxing up everything I can and cleaning out the entire room, then I will clean everything really good and then go through the boxes and the only things coming back into the room are things that have a spot to go. Everything else will either go to giveaway or the garbage. I am so tired of this room being the dumping ground for everything that doesn't go anywhere else.

I will try and post daily my progress with pictures if I can find time.

Hope eveyone has a wonderful week

Blessings,Joann

Friday, December 11, 2009

What faith can do....

I just love this song and wanted to share it with everyone. YOU have to listen to the lyrics.

I've seen dreams that move the mountains, hope that doesn't ever end even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
silent prayers get answererd
Broken hearts become brand new, that's what faith can do




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

This and That

I did the last of our Christmas shopping this past weekend and yesterday now i just need to wrap everything, I really don't care for wrapping presents but will do it anyway.
Yesterday I also got to talk with my very good friend, she moved to the midwest a few years ago but she sends me lots of pictures and we talk all the time so it's nice.She will be having all of her grandchildren home for Christmas this year and she is excited about that, so I am excited for her.

I finally remembered to a take a picrture of our front porch


I also took a picture of my craft room shelves, boy do they need to be organized~





I have a whole bunch of cotton yarn and have been making some dishcloths for Christmas presents~



ANd of course I am still counting down the time until Mattie comes home, today marks 10 days till he comes home :)

Blessings,Joann

Sunday, December 6, 2009

MY weekend....

Well this weekend was a kind of lazy one for me. I have been working on s few Christmas presents while watching tv. I watched "It's a wonderful life yesterday while Roger was putting brakes on our van. We are thinking of taking a small vacation next weekend. It may or may not happen so I am just praying and hoping that it does.
I got to talk with my son today. We were out at the mall and he called, said he was packing things because on MOnday morning at 3:00AM they are headed out to the field for 5 days. It will be very cold and they will be doing the tear gas thing again so he isn't really wanting to go but he has to. Any prayers for Mattie would be appreciated. He is excited about coming home!! So am I, his flight gets in on Friday the 18th at about noon unless there are any delays because of weather.
Speaking of weather.They are talking about the possibility of snow here. Very little chance as the last time I remember there being any snow here was when I was in 8th grade it was Valentine's day 1976!! They~The weather people say that the town my sister lives in may get 6" of snow, I would be suprised if they got any at all. Even 1/2 inch would suprise me.

HOPe everyone is enjoying their Decembers so far.

Blessings, Joann

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Catching up....*very photo heavy*

Well so many things have been going on since my last post. November is always a very busy month for us. We have 6 birthday's in the month of November, our anniversary and then Thanksgiving and then onto the getting ready for Christmas.

So let me back up to where my last post before Thanksgiving left off

Roger and I got a new comforter set for our bed, we had been looking for one for the longest time and we just happened to see this one at Walmart one day and it was a King size, most comforter sets out here are California King size and they are different sized than a regular King. We just love it, the picture doesn't really show the real color it's a beautiful chocolate brown with some pretty gold accents on it and I loved the fact that it came with some accent pillows. My favorite pillow is the one that is a roll, it is so nice to see the bed all made with the pretty pillows on it.

New comforter set~




close up of the pillows~




On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I drove over to Brentwood where my daughter lives to go to a little play that Dylan's kindergarten class was doing it was called "No Turkey for Perky" it was real cute, they sang lots of songs and I was so happy that I was able to attend and so was Dylan.

My drive to Brentwood started with fog,not bad fog but a little~




The whole class~ (sorry they are so dark)









Dylan with his Turkey hat on~




Katie with Dylan's hat on~




Katie in front of their Christmas tree~




Katie in the ACU outfit from Mattie~ (he actually sent it for Dylan but we put it on Katie cause it was just too cute)



I also did my Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving this year, normally I do it right after Thanksgiving but this year since I am very paitently waiting for Mattie to come home on the 18th of December the quicker I put the decorations the quicker I think the 18th will come, I know kind of dumb but hey all I have to do is fool myself into thinking the days are going by quicker and I am pretty easy to fool :) :)

Our Stockings on the fireplace~



Our living room decorated~



Our tree~



The garden window~




The dining area~




Thanksgiving

As I mentioned I do a very easy, non stressful, basic Thanksgiving. Roger loves it and so does our family. About 3 years ago we (Roger and I) decided it was time to start doing our own family holidays. We had up till that point always gone to someone else's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we did our first Thanksgiving at our home and it went well, the turkey even turned out pretty good for it being the first time I had made one :) we had Jennifer and Matthew over for Thanksgiving at our home and then we went over to my Mom's for dessert, that was nice in two ways, we still got to see our family and have yummy pie but we also had no left over pie at home!!

Then came Christmas, we had our first Christmas morning at our home when Dylan was little, we did kind of the same thing as Thanksgiving, we had breakfast at our home and present opening and then went over to another family members house for a late lunch.

This is what our Thanksgiving consisted of this year~



Our Turkey ~ Yes it was over 23 pounds but I did not pay $23 dollars for it, I got it for $8.99








Our Homemade?? rolls and butter :)~





Potatoes and Homemade??? Gravy :)~




Things to make green bean casserole~



And of course some Homemade??? stuffing :)~




all served on this fancy dinnerware :)~





Here is the Yummy turkey~



Our Table all ready for Thanksgiving~



Everyone sitting at the table~





Like I said it was very easy and basic!!



I took this picutre of Jennifer and her family for her so she could get some Christmas photo cards made~




This is Roger with Katie at my Mom's house~




Yesterday the 30th was Roger's 50th birthday, I bought him one of those GPS Thingy's~




And I also got him some new DVD's~





We had pizza and salad for dinner and watched New Orleans beat the Patriots on TV. It was a very nice Birthday for Roger~ any day when the patriots get beat is a good day for him :)

I also received in the mail yesterday a new book to review from Thomas Nelson it's called NKJV Greatest stories of the BIBLE~

Front cover~


Inside pages



I just read one part so far and really like it, I will post my actual review later but it does seem like a very nice book for a gift.

Well I guess that is all for now, didn't mean to end up writing a book but wanted to make sure I included all that's been going on. I hope I remembered everything and put them in the right order.....

Blessings,Joann