Are you ready for some football?

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for the FSU game in Tallahassee!  So happy about this because we bought all kinds of FSU apparel to wear.  And of course watching the game is pretty fun too.

Tonight is lazy night for the Smiths.  It has been rainy all day so we are just hanging near the house.  

When will it not be cool to spend time with mom and clean out her purse?  My dear daughter loves to clean out my purses and find out what kind of goodies I have inside.  I remember doing the same thing with my mother's purses.

Other than that, not a lot going on today so I am going to sign out and eat some porcupine meatballs that my husband made tonight.  This is one of the favorite recipes that his mother has handed down.  

Have a great night!  :-)

And just because I love this picture, I thought I'd include it.

Ramblings.....

Have you ever had that time in your life that you just reflect back on the past and look to see how far you have come or what you need to accomplish still in life?  I recently went through a life changing situation.  I have yet to write publicly about it because I guess I just not want to acknowledge that it happened to me, a born again christian that by every definition, this should not happen to.  I mean I believe in God, I try to give him the stresses and worries in my life but there are some times that it just is not enough.

The last few years have been a tumultuous time in my life.  I can put on the smiles, I can lift my hands in worship on church on Sunday and give the Glory for what is going right but it has not been an easy road by any means.  It has taken a lot to get where I am today.  On top of all that, God has been trying to deal with me one and one and when you have other people who try and intervene and put their two sense in that has no clue, it certainly does not help any.

To suffer a mental breakdown before you are 40 and people who are surrounding you that have no clue, and the people that can sense something is wrong just don't know what to do.  I have never been in a situation though that people just try to overlook it.  They know you have suffered a mental blow of some sort and they just look at you like you have a third eyeball. This all happened at a place I was employed at several years ago and employed at now.  When it happened, everybody just tried to act like nothing was wrong although one of the people that was considered a friend said I was not acting like myself but yet no one ever approached me and asked if I was ok or if something was wrong.  I went to several churches trying to reach out and I was shunned in every sense of the word.  Being raised in churches and knowing and believing with all my heart that God is about love and loving not only sinners, backsliders, prostitutes, liars, thieves, he still loves them beyond belief.  To expect that from people I understand is a little much but I guess I see it somewhat differently.

What if you go to a church that does not know how to handle a spiritual gift that you have?  Not only was I suffering with a mental setback,  I was also dealing with a spiritual issue that I know God was using through this situation.  I have pulled back from going to church and distanced myself somewhat from people.  Not the right way to handle it at all but I am just not sure what else to do.  What do you do in a situation like this?  I pray that God can soften my heart a bit and let people back in.

On a much better note, I was able to visit my son's classroom today and sit with him and get a good feel of his classroom and how he participates. I was quite pleased in the sense that he raised his hands quite often to answer questions. I like his teacher and I know she works with him but I am somewhat worried.  He is not performing at a rate that we would like at this point.  I just need to work with him some more.  His intervention teacher has given me some laminated sheets of letter sounds that can I can work with him on so I am excited about that.  Here's  a picture taken just leaving is classroom.  We were able to have lunch with our students and then check them out early so that was nice.

This was just for kicks.  I also follow another blog, Big mama.  On this blog several days ago she posted how to do a chignon on the side of your head.  I loved it!  So I tried it out today since I was going in to James classroom.  I thought I would do something different with my hair and keep it out of the way.  Here was my attempt.

Was able to get to the gym first thing this morning!  So happy!!

Nothing can refresh you mentally like working out and sweating it out!!  

Last but not least, I have to share about how I love my cat!!  He just keeps me company and follows me all throughout the house.  Here he is waiting for his mama to get off the laptop.  

Meal Time:

Tonight, we are having linguine with ground beef and prego sauce.  Can you tell Prego was on sale BOGO?  I am sure my family will be tired of pasta by the end of this week.  Ha!

That's about it for now, make it a great one folks!  :-)

Flag Football

And yet another season of sports for my kiddos.  Flag Football is the sport of choice for these little ones this season.  Susan and James were both on defense tonight.

Loving this candle!  I took it to work today and it stayed lit pretty much the whole time I was in the office.  I only work part time so it was nice to have it smelling nice and cozy in there.  Love the scent!

This mug was full of chai tea that my husband brought home to me today.  Love chai tea!!

I had to post this picture. I was taking a picture of my outfit this morning (my new thing :-)) and noticed my cat in the bath tub.  That is his favorite spot while we are getting ready in the morning.  Don't know what I would do without my cat.  #lovehim

Meal Time:

Made a quick meal.  No fancy recipes tonight.  Made Rigatoni Pasta with Prego Sauce, ground beef and Bruschetta french bread (This bread was unbelievably good, It had tomatoes, cheese and onions on it...so yummm!)  Just popped it in the toaster oven.  So, so good!  

And that's all today folks!  :-)

~ Sherry

Happy Birthday to me! (Insert musical notes)

Happy Birthday to me...and yet another year closer to 40!  I took the day off and just relaxed around the house.  Actually, I ran a couple of errands, went to the gym without worrying about who was going to watch the kiddos and then cleaned house.  I enjoyed every minute of my day!

We just finished up cake and ice cream and now I am ready to take a nice warm bath and settle in for the evening.  It was a nice day and it would be a great evening to wear those nice fur slippers that we ordered a few weeks ago. It turns out restoration hardware was out of stock on the size that we selected so they sent us the wrong size and in return we had to send them back to get the correct size in a different style.  I can not wait to get them.

First thing this morning my daughter suprised me with a gift bag that she had put together.  Now keep in mind these are gift bags that she goes around the house and finds something she likes and re-gifts it.  I don't care, I think it is adorable and love to see what she is going to come up with.  This is what she had this morning waiting for me.

The suspense element...what's in the bag?

oh look, the scented sea rocks my son made me for mother's day that I never used.  Clever idea.  Thank you for reminding me Susan!  lol  I really need to use those and maybe tonight I will!  :-)

Susan also had a envelope that she had made puzzle pieces along with pictures.  I loved that.  She wrote a caption with each picture.  The pictures started as far back as 1995 up to present.  Thank you to Miss Susan, she made her mother smile with her gift bag.  

Alert:  Splurge items upcoming

My first Christmas purchase of the season.  New Silver and white snowflake pillows.

Just because purchase.  I was able to get this shirt for about $6 on Clearance at NY&C.  Very comfortable and will look great under a jacket of some type.

My second purchase at NY&C.  A nice nautical and white striped shirt that would also go great with a nice pair of shorts.  I also purchased this shirt for under $10.


Wish List:

An item that I would really, really , really like for my kiddos next year is flannel Christmas sheets.  I was able to find some at Pottery Barn that I have to have.  Wish list for next year though.  (Deep Sigh)

And with that, I am out!  Spending time with my family on my bday!  :-)

Here's hoping for the best year yet!  :-)

~ Sherry

Just because...it's Saturday and we wanted to get our fashion on!

Today is such a random post.  For no other reason than I don't have a lot on my mind and fashion is something that the Smith girls always love and could use more tips on.  Tonight we wanted to get our fashion on so here we go.

(Please excuse the carpet, it shows every spot and blemish.  Mind you, I just steam cleaned the carpet about a week ago.   My future post will be how I went out and bought a new rug to cover the problem area. ugh!)

With the temps being a little lower than normal it brought about the question, how many jeans do my kiddos have that fit for winter?  Turns out Susan wears one pair of Justice Jeans over and over and they are her favorites so I though we are in desperate need of a shopping trip for Susan.  The above pants are plain old skinny jean Levi's that never go out of style.  Her canvas shoes we picked up at Goodwill for under $4.  She loves them and I am happy that she loves them for that price!  We are all winners on that one.

Aeropostale was having an amazing sale...30% off clearance so we were able to buy these jeans for Susan for under $10.  AWESOME!!

Plaid is timeless and will never go out of fashion!  Worn with some JCPenney skinny jeans.  Bought these skinny jeans at a doorbuster sale for under $15.

Here goes mom on the runway..ha!  I wanted to post a picture of these shorts because mom got a good deal.  I was able to get these nice bermuda shorts at Goodwill today for under $5. Thank you, thank you...yes I was impressed too.  I am not setting any fashion trends here but I can still be amazed at the thriftiness of the whole outfit. The shirt was a piece from Cotton On that my niece no longer wanted so I snatched that right up.  The tank was from target for $12.99 so the whole outfit was under $20.  Sweet!

This dress I just love and would love to wear it out of the house sometime.  It is a strapless dress and at the current moment, it shows a little more curves than I would want.  I wore me some spanx underneath at least for our photo shoot but really want to lose a few more pounds before I go out in public.

That's it for the fashion show.

It's a rainy night here in Florida so us girls have been cooped up at home.  My husband is with my brother watching the FSU game.  Gave us a few minutes to just be silly and dress up.  ha! 

We took the kids to see Santa!  Couldn't believe he was at the mall already and there was not a single person in line so we we were able to get pictures of the kids.  They're getting a little big to be sitting on Santa's lap but they enjoyed it.  

~  Sherry

Mix and Match Mama: Dinner Tonight: Beefy Cornbread Casserole

On one of the blogs that I peek in often they post recipes of every and any kind of recipe.  Well, last night I made Chili Cheese Cornbread w/ velveeta cheese.  It was one of those Kraft recipes that you have in the box and it pretty much comes with everything and you just have to buy the meat seperately. Well, this morning I peeked in mixandmatchmama's blog and what was she posting, the same exact meal I made last night.  I love it!  I just thought that was pretty awesome, great minds think alike (when it comes to food, obviously!)

Here's a link to her recipe.  I would love to try it this way as well.  Next time, I definitely shall!


Mix and Match Mama: Dinner Tonight: Beefy Cornbread Casserole: I love, love, love a good casserole!  One of my most clicked recipes is my Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Casserole  (you people love tha...

Here's a picture of what it looked like, kinda hard to see a clear picture of it but you get the idea.  It was so good!  Tonight we are having the rest and I bought some nachos and sour cream to go with it!  Yumm!

Negative Nelly

Well heres the lady that usually looks at the cup half full is being a little negative.  It is that time of year that my kiddos get there school pictures taken.

Here's exhibit A of my negative attitude.  Do you spot anything askew?  Oh my goodness, my poor son looks like he was born with one eye bigger than the other.  Who in their right mind while editing these pictures thought that looked ok?

Then we have exhibit B

My daughter somehow developed a sunburn or a deep tan like bronzer before her pictures.  Again, very disappointed!

Retakes day, where r you?  We'll get that fixed right up. 

Also today is freezing!  It is 58 degrees with the winds up near 20 mph.  Needless to say it is sweater weather.  

 

Just so I won't end on a negative note, I thought I would include a positive, quirky kinda quote!

Well, that's about this morning!

Make it a Great one, I know I plan to!!  :-)