Moments that Keep Me Going

• That first cup of coffee in the morning
• Fifteen minutes spent enjoying a good book
• A completed scrapbook page
• A car ride in complete silence
• Watching the horses graze in the fields near my house
• A kind word from a good friend
• My kids' laughter
• Unexpectedly saving money at the register
• Problems that work themselves out
• Hearing that something wonderful happened to a loved one
• Getting time to write a blog post
• Finding the perfect gift for someone I care about
• Sleeping in on the weekends
• Hearing from a long lost friend
• A good hair day
• Opening the mail and finding a "just thinking of you" card
• A worry free day

Hope you have plenty of happy moments to keep you going this week! Big hugs!

I Am SUCH a Blog Slacker!

I'll admit it. I am a miserable excuse for a blogger. Truly. This blog is so neglected, someone ought to just turn me in for false advertisement, because I shouldn't be allowed to call this an actual blog, really. Sigh. More like a slog. What you get when you combine a slug and a blog. That's my page. Slog, slog, slog. Fellow bloggers, I'm really a slogger. Sad, but true.

That being said, how the heck are ya? Good, I hope! I have been stopping by my beloved friends' blogs, I just haven't been maintaining mine. What is this world coming to? ;)

I do have exciting news! Josiah's 4th grade team won the Western Ohio Junior Football Conference Superbowl this past Sunday at the Dayton Welcome Stadium! Woo-hoo! Our pee wee Rams were undefeated in all fourteen games, allowing only four scores from game one through the championship game.

There were 36 teams in his conference. Our team was a tiny team in numbers, with just 14 players. Most other teams had 25+ kids per team. Many cities had 4-5 teams, because they had so many kids in their school system. It's truly a David -vs- Goliath tale, and just about every team we played was a Goliath compared to us! I know you can't tell, but I am soooooo proud! Just bursting with pride, downright wallowing in it. After hanging out with these parents and kids, you become like a family, so it's really neat. Tonight is their award banquet, so they'll have a participation trophy, and the Superbowl Trophy as well. ~ Smiles from ear to ear.~

In other news, Josh turned in his football pads on a Monday a few weeks back, and started basketball on the same Tuesday. Sigh. I was hoping that he would take the winter off and take driver's ed, but no such luck. Boo. But he's staying busy and I keep thinking, "This will look good on college applications." Every. Time. I. Drive. Him. The. Fifteen. Minutes. One. Way. To. The. School. I. Say. That. Literally. It's my new motto. "This will look good on college applications."

Jess is doing well, and there isn't much of anything to report with her right now. No news is good news, I guess. Perhaps. Maybe.

I'm thrilled to have a four day weekend ahead! Woo-hoo! Last night Robert took Josh to basketball practice, and I picked him up. Since Jo no longer has practice, I had time to make some Christmas cards. I had such a good time, listening to Christmas music on our local holiday station and making the cards. I plan to finish up the whole process the day after Thanksgiving.

That's what I usually do every year on the day after Thanksgiving. I don't join in the shopping extravaganza. I assemble, apply labels to, and get ready to mail Christmas cards. I was a little late getting the family pics taken this year for the cards, but as we speak, the pictures are being printed and all I need to do is go pick them up. Insert big sigh of relief here. I actually took the kids' pictures in about 5 minutes, right before the bus came one day last week. I was waiting for all of us to be home in the evening, but that never happened, so I gave up. The kids will represent our entire family on the cards this year. They are the ones that people want to see, anyway, right? ;)

What are your plans for the holiday, my fellow Americans? Are you traveling or staying home?

While Robert does most of our cooking (99%) throughout the year, I do a large share of the cooking on Thanksgiving. Jess and Jo pitch in to help, and it's a lot of fun. We let Josh sleep so he doesn't wake up cranky. We'll cook way too much food, and we'll all sit around feeling overfull, watching the parade and football. I'm getting sleepy just thinking about the Thursday afternoon nap!

I've been blessed to see a lot of my friends here lately! I went to Holli's for a a mini reunion over a month ago, which was cool. There were a couple of girls there that I haven't seen since high school. Catching up was fun.

Sheila and I had a great visit at a crop recently....a privilege that is becoming rare since she moved close to an hour away.

My friend Wyn was in town for nearly a week recently due to her mom's unexpected illness. Her mom got better pretty quickly, so Wyn and I were able to have some quality hang out time.

Two Saturdays ago, I saw my friend, Mary Jane, who recently had a crochet book published. The local library held a show showcasing the fashions in her book, which Jess, my niece, DeeDee, and I attended. I just barely made it to the show, as Josh had a 90 minute basketball scrimmage in the morning, Jo had a tournament game in the afternoon. I felt privileged to be able to make it.

As a side note, Mary Jane's book is called "Positively Crochet" and is sold on Amazon.com, if you are interested. Her name is Mary Jane Hall, and the book is full of adorable designs. I don't crochet, but I am going to try some of the basic projects, just because they are so darn cute! I used to attend church with Mary Jane, where her husband was pastor and my brother, Eric, was assistant pastor.

My fun month continued, as I got to have dinner with my friend, April, and her daughter last week. We caught up over salads at Applebees'....though we've both pledged not to let so much time elapse before we get together again.

That same week I stopped by my friend, Tracy's, house and got to see her twin baby boys and lovely daughter. I hadn't seen Tracy since our Saturday day out in July, though I got to see her kids at the local flea market on an outing with their grandma last month. Babies grow up so fast, so as usual, I snapped a lot of pictures that day.

My CM friend, Sandy, has stopped by frequently here at work the last few weeks. It's been so much fun! She's such a blessing.

There is nothing quite as enriching as spending time with my friends! They're treasures! When I don't get to see my friends in person, I've been talking with several on facebook, which I'll admit is taking up way too much of my online time these days. ;)

On that note, I'm going to close for now.

Have a wonderful week, and if you're celebrating Thanksgiving this week, have a very happy one, filled with more joy than you can contain!

Shameless Magazine Sales and Promotion ;)

Okay, I just wanted to throw this out there to you:

There is a magazine that Creative Memories puts out called "Lasting Moments." It's full of really good ideas about scrapbooking and quick and fun projects. There is an incentive for me in the month of November. If I sell 4 subscriptions by the end of the month, I get some cool album kit goodies.

Here's the 4-1-1 on the magazine:

All issues include feature stories and creative ideas that celebrate seasons, connections, traditions, travel, hobbies, heritage and more. Lasting Moments also offers photo-taking tips, technology information, success stories, new products, and a fun section called “One page three ways.”

• 72 pages, full color, six times per year

• Customers receive 6 issues for $23.97 U.S./$29.97 Canada

If you are interested in taking a look, I can send you a digital copy to peruse. Just email me to let me know, and I'll send you a link to this months' copy. If you like what you see and would like to order, I'll be happy to walk you through that, too.

Another approach is to go to Creative Memories dot com ;) (link on my side bar) and take a look there. If you decide to purchase a subscription, my CM magazine id is 18294498, which will let Creative Memories know that I am the one who gets credit for the magazine sale.

Thank you so much for letting me ramble! Have a great day!