Birthday, Rodents and Bible Girl

This morning marks the last winter catch up post.

February arrived with a flurry of activity. Starting with our Deara Kyra turning 7. We found ourselves a bit unprepared for the bout of melancholy that struck the child during her last week of six.

The child really enjoyed six. Six had been good to her and she was not so comfortable setting six aside.

With much assurance that seven held a wealth of potential and should be given a chance Miss K decided to give it her best grade school try and so the celebration commenced.

The morning she turned 7 it was pouring down rain, but we had sunshine in our hearts. The girl surrendered her aging insecurities and with much fanfare we began a day of celebration as any good birthday should with a big dose of carbs covered topped in icing and confetti sprinkles.

Kyra's actual breakfast included a side of milk and not coffee as pictured above.

We must after all have some golden carrot to hold out there enticing the child to turn 8 next year.

Dutiful parent I am, at school days end I delivered juice boxes an assortment of flavorful cupcakes covered in rainbow icing and more even more confetti sprinkles to Kyra's classmates. The better to send them home sugared up don't you know.

Before dinner and games at Dave and Busters,

a few gifts.

oh the Birthday joy!

Yes that would be more Star Wars!

Our eldest baby grand was born and raised in Georgia. Mr. B and I hail from the Midwest. We love Georgia, but anyone who knows me knows how I adore snow. We do not get much 'real' snow in Dixie. The severe winter weather we have experienced since moving south would be a dusting up north. To be fair you should know Atlanta has a half dozen 'sand' trucks and one deicer at the airport. When a dusting hits Atlanta, the city virtually shuts down.

So my baby grand thought she knew snow.

A few days after Kyra's birthday we both received a gift,

about 3 inches of snow.

We were happy girls

Kyra got to build her first snowman

This photo was taken when we had about an inch and a half of snow,

which explains so many the leaf accents.

The next day mid winter break was on. The snow caused our flight to be canceled but we would not be denied, fearlessly we piled in the ol crossover and we headed for sunny Florida.

Besides spending all available time in the sun, on the beach and poolside, we took a day trip over to Tampa to spend some time with our good buddy Mary.

We had a fabulous lunch at Frenchy's on the beach. By days end we made our way back to our hotel home having collected treasure of cool shells, a real sea sponge

and a new friend.

Thank you Miss Mary.

Her name is Sugar

We were staying in Orlando so of course we visited another popular Florida rodent

At winter breaks end we took our rested sun burned tanned bodies home.

After a week, this was all that remained of our frosty friend.

This past Sunday evening Miss Kyra was part of 197 First graders honored to receive a new Bible and highlighter from Pastor Johnny.

This was the most beautiful and excited group you would ever want to see. Were they ever thrilled to have their new Bibles.

The next day after school this is who emerged from the sun room, none other than

'Bible Girl' Armed with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and highlighter at the ready.

Tuesday of this week Dr. Seuss's (had he lived) would have celebrated his 106th Birthday. In his absence and remembrance Kyra's school planned to celebrate by allowing everyone to dress as a Seuss character, have a big read-a-thon and fun snacks like green eggs and ham.

Her Seuss day celebration was cut short due to a dusting of our favorite winter treat.

This marked 10 days of snow in Atlanta this year, love it!

soooo

Wednesday arrived, the snow was gone and we belatedly celebrated the good doctors birth.

Our little Whovillian

So there you go dear blog, you are pretty much caught up.

It's now Friday, and I plan to join many others volunteering at the Casting Crowns concert being held at our church tonight. I go with great anticipation, expecting a blessing.

Just for today

It's been a little busy around here lately.

Last September I was pleased to discover the church choir I am honored to be a part of would take part in a live CD/DVD recording by Travis Cottrell.

For anyone not familiar with Travis or his music, he leads worship for Beth Moore's LPM and he is outstanding to say the least.

At that time we knew there were tentative (pretty sure) plans but details had to be worked out. I promptly sent emails out to some friends of mine in the blogging community who share a passion for Jesus and I met by way of Beth Moores Living Proof blog. Several ladies went about saving the date in hopes that we could set up a weekend with several of our Southern Siesta's (as Beth dubbed us) once this event was confirmed.

Right before Christmas it was confirmed.

This past weekend a bunch of sweet Siestas converged on Woodstock Georgia and in particular my home church the First Baptist Church of Woodstock to take part in the live recording and have another Siesta meet up of many folks in our blogging community.

The complete CD and DVD will be available later this year, in the meantime you can get a taste of our weekend and watch the morning service by clicking here.

We experienced an amazing time of worship,

fun and fellowship

the details of which will require more time than I have right now.

For today I want to post a few photos and links and hope that if you were there, please attach a link to this post so we share the joy ladies!

l love and miss ya'll!
tammy aka: Inga

are you packed yet?

In less than 24 hours I leave for the great state of Texas to spend about a week with my sweetie. For Mr. B, this trip means work. For myself and some other blessed ladies around the country, it means a few days and nights fun and fellowship doing all kinds of girl stuff.

Less than 24 hours-gone for a week.

You would think a gal would have a bag uh....or two packed, right?

Not this girl.

I am thinking about luggage quite a bit lately.

Due to various airline machinery chewing up the family Eddie Bauer basic black set (this last set was wrecked in record setting time), I found myself searching high and low then high again for a new travel bags.

In my quest to find new bags I stumbled upon the luggage of my dreams.

My friend Donna of Your Hearts Desire Boutique creates some beautiful as well as practical fabric creations. Low and Behold she was selling the unique three piece set above at a very competitive price, so my bags could be cute, distinctive (not likely to be lost among the 'black upon black here's red ' luggage carousal) and once I painted them with a heavy armor of Scotch Guard...I was sold.

Like I always say, 'Nothing like a good rationalization'.

I admit to a few hesitations prior to purchasing such lovely totes. Considering the way our old bags have suffered through the years, seems unlikely these would fare any better.

In making this purchase I had to be willing to either pack all my wears (whether a day or a weeks worth) in the carry on.

Not possible - where would I put my make-up and hair products?

Instead the question became how might I wrap these bags in a virtual force field of protection.?

For starters-Scotch Guard, every mothers friend. Supposedly this set was created with soil resistant fabric, but hey, I don't think you can be over-protective...with your luggage that is.

After thoroughly coating my bags with a couple of cans of SG, my next worry was leaving my lovely cases with baggage busters handlers.

As luck would have it, the first time I traveled with my new cases the female baggage handler measured,weighed and wrapped it in a red ribbon...really!

The ribbon had an Italian word repeated all over it-'Fragile'.

Of course she could see, the bags were most delicate and needed to be handled with care.

My luggage arrived in pristine condition. I was beside myself with joy! (did you notice I kind of LOVE my luggage?)

Since that first trip I make a point to give the handlers an extra tip and always request exotic stickers or tape that mark my bags for the dainty darlins they are, 'Fragile'!

So far, still lookin good.

Oh, another thing about that first trip?

Once I arrived at my destination and unpacked, I immediately began tallying numerous things I forgot...most probably due to my waiting until the last hours to pack.

Well, I better get a movin, I think I hear my luggage calling me!

and it was very good!

A few weeks back I was given a vicious bug from several preschoolers in the Sunday School class I teach. I pretty much know the exact moments they shared their precious gifts as more than one repeatedly coughed directly on my face....we then spent a few minutes learning and executing the proper way to cover and cough into ones elbow.

This lesson was too late for my benefit.


Two days later the yuck had set in. In the four weeks that followed, things went from bad to worse culminating with a diagnosis of pneumonia just days before Thanksgiving.


Those who know me well understand I'm a fairly high energy-on the go caregiver and not one who easily sits back and allow others to pitch in and help out...I'd much rather do it myself.

I can be a real control freak at times.


As Thanksgiving neared, my breathing and energy wained. I was ready to abandon any thoughts of business as usual.

Reluctantly we cut out all the fluff foods, decorations and preparations leaving us with the bare boned holiday essentials. Truth be told, were it not for my determined little family, I would ordered a pizza or two and called it a day.


Instead, a few of my resident angels rolled up their sleeves and saw to it that some semblance of Thanksgiving would grace our table this year.

Paw Paw and Kyra did the grocery shopping which included raw and prepackaged food stuffs.

This was okay with me.

We made a few phone calls and delegated some side dishes.

This was okay with me.

Then there was the pie.

I don't know about the rest of you, but in our house besides the bird, celebration of this holiday must include pumpkin pie.

Now Madame Publix is a mighty fine baker, but let me tell you, she has nothing on Miss K.

At 5 years old, Thanksgiving 2008 marked our baby grands first solo baking experience.

And she did good!

Actually, little Miss did very, very good!

Using her radical reading and math skills, she gathered all the necessary ingredients and proceeded to make pies.

First, Baby Grand measured and mixed the sugar and spices...

lots of spices.

Next, she broke some eggs...

Eggs can be messy!

with only a few pieces of shells

Then little Miss beat the eggs...

After which she added some pumpkin...

and more pumpkin....

Next up adding the wonderful sugar and spice...Yum!

and mix!

Mixing can be hard...Sometimes, this requires two hands

BG added some milk

(one of only 4 things Maw Maw got to do help with) More mixing...

then pour!

It was as easy as pie!

and of course, you've gotta lick the spoon.

Ready for some heat

Into the oven

(another of the things Maw Maw was allowed to do)

While the pies baked,

we set to work tending the turkeys...yes, I said turkeys-plural.

LOT'S of turkeys!

Then

we cleaned up...

made bubble sundaes....

Until the pies were done...

to perfection.

With requisite goodies prepared, we headed off to bed.

Early Thursday morning we wrestled the other bird and had him in the oven all of an hour before a power outage struck our section of town. After an hour and a half, as we readied the grill-planning to smoke our fowl (stuffing and all), the power returned.

By the time our family gathered later in the day, a few more plans had fallen by the wayside,

but nothing we could not do without.

The bare essentials were in tacked.

Football was watched, kiddos played, the grownup caught up trading stories and laughter.

We spent Thursday and few days more

giving thanks for the bounty of that is our lives.

and it was very good!

I hope you and yours were blessed in similar ways during this time of thanks.

Spook'n a Ride and 'Hallelujah Parade'

After a long hiatus of Lovin Loud, Trippin, Treating, get'n out the vote and a week of yucky cold I thought it is was about time to post a little something.

So as I wait for the beginning of a week immersed in the Word with one of my favorite Bible teachers, I give you the following photo journal that chronicles a few of the more colorful happenings of me and mine. Enjoy!

For starters:

Our neighborhood hosted a

'Spook Your Ride Halloween Parade'.

Children and some adults walked and rode various rides while parading through a segment of neighborhood.

One of the not so spooky rides

At the end of the route an assortment of games and treats awaited, including hot dogs, s'mores and inflatables.

What's not to love?

For our crew it was more like a 'Hallelujah Parade'

as you may have noticed from the costume choices.

The cool thing is, these kids choose their own dress

which resulted in an adorable collection of Biblical Super Hero's.

The eldest Angel and a Snow Princess

Check out those accessories!

In attendance at this years festivities were 3 angels, 1 Moses and 1 Joseph and an assortment of princesses, ninjas and the obligatory Hanna Montana. Honestly, each one sweeter than the next.

Our little man was not available to trick his ride,

but Mommy brought him by Halloween eve where he had a howling good time.

He and big sis doing a bit a bonding

and a bit more.

This would be some of the howling started.

Free at last!

Now we're talk'n! Where's the candy?

Sister had the best luck at getting Mr. K to smile

a real charmer

Um....was that due to her stellar photography skills,
silly head dress or cool camera?

As expected the real thrill came as the two went door to door displaying much cuteness in hopes of filling their bag and pumpkin with goodies.

One of our more creative neighbors in the 'hood'. How cute are they?

True to form, our little man was most enthusiastic at the realization he was being encouraged to walk by himself, through leaves, up stairs and we about lost him all together when we encountered a motion activated spooky sound machine hidden in a rock. That one really cracked him up!

Unfortunately for him, his night ended early when he tripped on a driveway and bonked his little head. After failed attempts to get him to hold a Little Pony ice pack on his noggin, his Mama took him home to wind down from the nights excitement.

By the time it was all over we had learned a few things:

• Magic carriages can be just about anything and come in all shapes and sizes.


• Little monsters don't bounce very well on pavement no matter how cute they are

and

• You can do just about anything in angel wings....just plan on leaving a trail of feathers in your wake.