Be Still and Know...Then and Now

After bible study on Wednesday skoots1mom and I went to lunch. We ate our salads at the out door tables enjoying the wonderful fall weather. I had commented to her a few days ago that I had purchased a pair of brown shoes, they are kind of clog like shoes and you just side you foot into them. For whatever reason my foot has increased in size with each child I brought into the world. I started with a nice size 7 and now after two children I am in a size 9 1/2. Anyway the size 9 1/2’s were way to tight so I went up a size and after walking around in them for several days in San Francisco they really are a smidge big on my feet, and seeing as I have traipsed all over Napa Valley and Fisherman’s Warf in them I don't think they would take them back. So after lunch I was on a mission to buy some wool socks on skoots recommendation, something nice and thick to help prevent my feet from sliding around in the cavernous toes of these new shoes. So I’m off the Kohl’s. Yea for me!!!! ...

Joining in with Lid over at 2nd Cup of Coffee for her weekly meme Random Dozen . 1. Candy corn: Your thoughts? Funny you should ask!!!!! Having just polished off the bag of candy corn I bought at the Jelly Belly Candy Factory I am in an official state of mourning! I love those sweet little bites of chewy wonderfulness. And funny you should ask part two. I just received this in my last Lion Brand Newsletter. Are these not the cutest things you have ever seen. In my mythical spare time I plan on making a few of these to place in a basket for my fall decorations…oh in maybe the year 2012, oh yea I just forgot that’s the alleged end of the world according to the Mayan calendar as well as a soon to be released major motion picture . Oh well it was a good idea anyway! If you want the pattern for this click here . 2. Briefly, what was the first conversation you ever had with your spouse? (or best friend, if you're not married.) (Or someone significant, like your lib...

Joining with Lid over at 2nd Cup of Coffee for this years installment of Fall into Flavor. This was served at our last bible study and it was delish. It was salty and sweet with a bit of a crunch! 3 cups Captain Crunch cereal 1 cup salted party peanuts *1 tray Chocolate Candy Quick 1/2 to 1 cup peanut butter parchment or wax paper In large bowl, mix the cereal and peanuts. Place 1 tray of chocolate Candy Quick in microwave. Process for 1 minute, watching carefully so that it does not burn. When melted, stir in quickly 1/2 cup peanut butter. You may increase the amount of peanut butter to 1 cup if you prefer. (the batch that was served to us used a full cup of peanut butter) Pour this mixture over the cereal and peanuts and stir very quickly. Work quickly and drop by teaspoonful onto waxed or parchment paper. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to harden. Store in air tight container and place in refrigerator. * Candy Quick is available at most grocery stores duri...

On our way back into San Francisco we stopped at Muir Woods . This was a suggestion from skoots1mom and I am so glad that we took her advice. One of the park guides told us that some of the trees date from as young as 200 years old to as old as nearly 1000 years old. There are moments when you experience God’s creation is such a powerful way that the only thing you can say is WOW! Words simply fail to adequately describe the experience of walking through those ancient redwoods surrounded by thick lush fern and the deep green mossy carpet blanketing the ground. It was like being transported back to a magical forest filed with fairy tale creatures.     Here is a five minute video of our time in Muir Woods, if you watch until the end there will be a very sweet and unexpected surprise, how cool is God! I have to confess that these last four pictures did not come from my camera. It was so late in the afternoon when we arrived at Muir Woods that the dense ...

  It pays to have a husband that travels on occasion. Point one: Upon his suggestion we drove to Napa Valley upon our arrival in San Francisco on Wednesday evening. He explained to me the San Francisco is a business town so the hotel rates go up on weekdays and are lower on the weekends and Napa Valley is a tourist destination so they have higher rates on the weekend and lower rate on weekdays. Confused??? well it made my head swim a bit but in all the planning with hotel points, frequent flyer miles, airline vouchers and rental car points he managed to get us all situated. We spent our first full day in Napa Valley on Thursday. As it was just past 9:00AM as we headed out of the hotel lobby we decided that our first stop would be the Jelly Belly Factory that was a few miles away from our hotel. The tour was free and the idea of a wine tasting at 9:15 AM was less than appealing to me. Confession time guys. I love a good piece of chocolate but at heart I’m a jelly bean g...

How can you tell when you are on vacation? When you leave your room wonderful people come in and clean it up for you. Your bed get’s made up everyday. You get as many pillows as you want. You have clean folded towels waiting for you by your bathroom sink and tiny bottles of shampoo and hand lotion. Dirty towels left on the bathroom floor get picked up and washed and replaced with soft white thick clean towels everyday! People bring you your food and then clear the dishes away when you are finished! The coffee is waiting on me! How can you tell when you are no longer on vacation? My bed did not get made up today, I had to plunge a toilet, prepare food, there are still three loads of dirty laundry in the hallway and I spent over two hour’s yesterday at the grocery store restocking the pantry. Vacations are a really good thing. However there are two distinct categories for vacations. There is the go and do vacation and then there is the go and do nothing vacation. ...

Well I’m back from vacation and wow did we have a great time. Keep your eyes on your blogroll for future posts about what we did and what we saw in Napa Valley and San Francisco. For today I am joining in with Linda for her weekly Random Dozen ! 1. I've always wondered why we were taught both printing and cursive. Do you prefer to print or write cursive? (Keyboard is not a choice.) 50/50. I sometimes switch mid sentence between cursive and printing. For me there is a definite connecting between my handwriting and my emotional mood. If I am agitated or angry then my handwriting will reflect it with larger iritic printing but if I am peacefully journaling how great God is then my script will flow in a beautiful calm and peaceful way. 2. Are you a dreamer or a realist? Probably more of a realist! Love having those mental interludes in my mind but then reality hits…living in the real world well it all about being real isn’t it. 3. Billy Joel or Elton John? Billy Joe...

Ok, Ok, OK…so I had a few minutes on Tuesday morning before I started my marathon getting ready to go stuff. I popped over to Linda’s for the preview of her weekly Random Dozen . So one more post an then I am really off ..my rocker or on vacation you can decide. 1. On an average, how often do you splurge and buy something for yourself? Being the shopping impaired individual that I am, I shop only for absolute necessity. On occasion I will purchase a something “just because!” I just bought a few new things for my upcoming vacation. Which brings me to one of the only times I will splurge and buy something. When I am on vacation. I am sure I will pick up a special item or two while we are away to remember the trip. I always buy a Christmas ornament or maybe a charm for our mother daughter charm bracelets. 2. What is the last creative project you began/finished? Feel free to post a pic of it. They had a 50% off sale on all their fall decor at Hobby Lobby so I bought a decorati...

Bought a black velour warm up suit to wear on the  plane, bought a good pair of walking shoes, bought some brown and black socks, went to the ATM and got cash, got my hair cut, washing cloths, making  list how many outfits I will need, bought  new purple sweater set for the trip, realizing that almost everything I have packed is purple, re-formatted all my memory cards, bought batteries, collected all the phone chargers, USB cords and various other cords I will need, paid my mortgage, my house will still be here when I get back, paid the water bill, electric bill, phone bill, wireless bill and the credit card bill and any other utility bill I could find, the DR bill will wait until I get back, just realized that I forgot to buy zip lock bags at the wal-mart, have all my travel size everything laid out on the bathroom sink, set up mobile facebook link with my cell phone so I can update my statues while we are in really cool places, tested my mobile uplink to see if it work...

  Well y’all I am sitting at my kitchen table with my windows open and the cool crisp fall breeze is blowing in, there is a pot of soup on the stove and in exactly eight day the hubs and I are off to San Francisco for a few days vacation. Whoooooo Hoooooooo!!!!!!! I’m off tomorrow to do a bit of shopping, vacation trips usually set my shopping anxiety aside, sometime ya just gotta have a little something new for a trip, if ya know what I mean. I might even go for the whole nine yards and do a manicure & pedicure for the occasion. We fly to San Francisco and we plan to spend some time in Napa Valley as well.  I am going to buy a spare memory card for the trip so I will not be hindered in my picture taking. Before my vacation euphoria travel anxiety completely takes over I wanted to get at least one more post in before I am wrapped up in packing, laundry and making all the last minute details with those who will be in charge of the DD while we are gone. Children a...

How much time do you spend blogging? How many blog’s do you follow? Do you read every blog you follow every day? Do you use your Google reader or Blogroll to follow a blog? I just counted. The number of blog’s in my blog roll is 66 the number of blog’s in my Google reader is 26. All of the blog’s in my Google reader are in my blogroll. If I unfollow someone's blog from Google reader but still keep them in my blogroll is that rude? You know us southern girls, it’s all about  being polite! With 66 blog in my blog roll I just can’t get to every one every day. I give my blog roll a once over in the morning and pick the post titles that jump out at me. If I have a boat load of time on my hands and have nothing else pressing I will from time to time try to make it down the entire list but that hardly ever happens. Do y’all use your Google reader, because I just don’t. I find it so much easier to put a new blog I find in my blog roll and then track that blog from there. How ...

Join me over at 2nd Cup of Coffee for this weeks Random Dozen   1. Please share one middle school memory. It can be good, bad, ugly, funny. Pictures or words, I don't care, just share. Just showing my age here!!! We did not have middle school. Back in the day we had elementary school from Kindergarten thru 8 th in one school. Some of my memories include having to memorize “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, and no I don’t remember any of it now! Knee socks, polyester, Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond, The Partridge Family, Lost In Space, drawing pictures of my wedding dress on notebook paper over and over and over again! My best friend lived down stairs in the apartment below us. Making chewing gum wrapper chains, mine was really really long… 2. What's your favorite Beatles song? Can’t pick, love them all!!!!! 3. If I asked you to describe your most comfortable outfit, what would it be? Pajama's 4. Would you rather host a party or be a guest? Both, I enjo...

It was an amazing discovery! Several weeks ago as skoots1mom and I were walking back to our cars after our morning work out our pioneering spirit took over. We had had a morning of rain and as we walked down to the clubhouse where the workout room is we both commented how soothing the sound of the creek was and how wonderful it would be to sit on the deck above us and listen to the babbling water and drink a cup of morning coffee. The area behind the clubhouse is very densely wooded and you can not see any evidence of the creek, you can certainly hear it but with the trees and thick ground cover  it remains very well hidden. We had finished out workout and were hiding back to our cars when through a very tiny crack in the foliage we could see something. We set off to do a bit of exploring. Within a very few minutes this is what we found! With all the rain we have had over that last few days I took the opportunity this morning before my workout to go back down to...