Gearing Up For Holly Jolly Week!

Hello my friends. Is everyone 3 lbs. heavier like me after eating all this food for the past 3 days? Please say yes! Even if it's just to make me feel better! LOL!
I'm really excited about Holly Jolly week coming up. I thought I better give you a run down so you can mark your calendars and prepare your posts to join in the fun.
But no matter what we do, let's keep in mind why we even celebrate. None of this means anything if we don't remember that Jesus came to this earth to be born of a virgin and to be raised up to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

Okay let's break down the week!

Monday: Quick Christmas crafts for us busy women. I made some cute ornament crafts that I want to share with you and show you how to make yourself.

Tuesday: More crafts. I couldn't put them all in one post. But I didn't want to leave them out.

Wednesday: Link up your favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe!

Thursday: Here I'm going to share my favorite Christmas Music, Books, Websites etc. and I want you to post yours and link up too.

Friday: For this weeks Friday Funnies, I want you to post a Christmas Themed funny.

And guess what? I'm having a fantastic giveaway. What is it? Well you will have to wait till next week to find out. I'll post what the giveaway is the day before Holly Jolly Week starts and how you can enter.
Trust me it's going to be good!
Please feel free to grab the button and spread the word. Just link it up to this post!

Oh and fair warning! This is when my OCD is at it's worst! LOL! So be on the lookout for some silly posts about my Seasonal OCD problem! Hee! Hee! Click here if you weren't with me last year so I can bring you up to speed!

HAVE A GREAT DAY MY FRIENDS!

I Went to the Black Friday Sales and Lived to Tell About It!

Yes, I did! My husband and I got up at 4:30am and bravely headed towards our local Wal-Mart at 5:00am. Little did we know that for what he wanted we should have been there about 3 hours earlier to get a ticket! Oh well you live you learn you do without.
It was a madhouse around the electronics department, so I tried to avoid that at all costs but somehow I ended up in the middle of it trying to get from here to there, so I decided to ask a passing employee when Mickey came out and signed autographs! LOL. I'm glad she and everyone around me had a sense of humor!

I finally made my way over to the sheets. No one was hovering over them, pushing me aside, taking the last one. Nope I had ALL the sheets all to myself. I took my time, decided on what color I wanted, picked my size and walked away with a smile on my face. I meet up with my husband and he says, "You're only getting one?" (I'm sorry, what did you just say?) "Huh?.... well...I.....uh.......(*recovers quickly here*) I mean of course not. No,no,no. I just couldn't hold two!"(I love that man!) Meanwhile I'm doing the happy dance inside. Hey for only $24.00 you can't beat that!! Did I mention they were 600 count? Yeah, NICE!
So he got a few things he wanted I got a few things I wanted and we walked away unscathed.

But wait, there's more. We went home and I then picked my daughter up and we headed out to JoAnn Fabrics. Because they had an OttLite that I had wanted forever but couldn't afford and it was on sale from $54.00 to $19.00, PLUS I had a 20% off your total purchase coupon. Can you say SCORE?
So all and all it was a pretty productive morning.
Did you go or stay home? What was your score?

Oh yeah, You want a fun tid-bit of information about me? I thought you would. I realized yesterday when I woke up and it was 41 degrees outside and I was getting dressed, that I hadn't worn "pants" in about 6 months. LOL! I most often wore shorts or capris. How many people can say that? Okay, I just knew you would want to know that!

Coming up Monday I'll be giving you a breakdown of my Holly Jolly Week. It's going to be a fun week with a fun giveaway at the end, so mark your calendars.

LOVE YOU MY FRIENDS!!

Friday Funnies!

Well how was everyones Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful. I cooked for 2 days but it was well worth it just for the left overs. I won't be cooking today! LOL.
Are you ready for some funnies today? Or are you out shopping like I will be?

Either way, I didn't want to disappoint those of you who dared not brave the Black Friday sales.
So this is for you! If you have a family friendly funny to share go post it and come back and link up!

Okay it's back and I know you've seen it before but I had to usher in the season with it. So here we go!
I wanted to put all 5 of us in this but every time I got to the 3rd person it would take forever so I gave up and just did my husband and I.
He picked this one. I think it's the redneck in him. He wishes he had these mad dance skills! LOL!

Enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

M I A

Yes folks I'm going to be Missing In Action for the next couple of days. Lots to do today and of course tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I won't be on here to much since I'm cooking everything.
I will have Friday Funnies even though you will probably be out snagging some deals that day. I'm personally going after the 600 count sheets for $25.00 at Wal-Mart. (Christy are you laughing?)

But just know that when you come back from all that shopping you'll be able to sit back and enjoy some laughs!
In the mean time, I hope that you all have a glorious Thanksgiving.
I most definitely give thanks for all of you who put up with me on a regular basis. I've really come to look forward to hearing from you each day! You're like distant cousins twice removed from the crazy Uncle that no one wanted to admit was family! LOL!

I love you my friends!!



If you need a good laugh, go here! I'm just sayin'!

I Can Sleep Easy Now!

Yesterday my husband had a meeting with some of the men from church and two of the wives came. And because we are such understanding women and we didn't want to disturb them, we decided that we should go to Wal-Mart and kill some time.
So the 3 of us head out. We get to Wal-Mart and I did actually need to pick up a bathmat, which I did, but that only took like a minute, sooooooo guess where we went? Yup, the Christmas section. We slowly walked down EVERY SINGLE AISLE, looking at every little thing. And now I can rest easy knowing that I have seen ALL that Wal-Mart has to offer this Holiday Season!

Here's where Wal-mart goes wrong.(Not that I'm complaining!) I know that EVERYTHING that I am now looking at will instantly be 50% off the day after Christmas, so if I can just hold out long enough, I'll be able to get it that much cheaper.
So what did I walk away with?

This, fake snow!
Since I'm pretty sure it isn't going to snow this year in Florida, I am going to put some of this on the corners of the windows to make it "look" like it's cold and frosty outside. Yes, desperate times call for desperate measures my friends. LOL!

LOVE YOU MY FRIENDS!

Homeschoolers this is for you!

. Notebooking Pages is having a great sale starting today!! I'll have the button on my blog all during the sale if you want to come back and check it out later!

The ABC's of Thanksgiving!

I thought it would be fun to think of a word for each letter of the alphabet for something that I am thankful for. Feel free to try it yourself.

A- Appliances
B- Best Friends
C- CHOCOLATE! (No brainer!)
D- Desserts!
E- Easter
F-Fall
G- Garage Sales! Woot! Woot! *Doing a happy dance!*
H- Happiness in my life!
I- Ice for my smoothie!
J- Jesus
K- Koffee! LOL! I tried. How about Kisses!
L- Love Notes!
M- MY MAN!
N- Nintendo Wii! What?
O- Outside
P- Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Q- Quiet Time
R- Rest
S- Salvation
T- Thanksgiving
U- Underwear! Come on you know you're thankful for it too!
V- Voices of my children
W- Working Out
X- eXtraordinary sense of humor
Y- You
Z- Zippers! Uh, huh!

Now you try! What are you thankful for?

Hugs!

My Tried and True Thanksgiving Recipes E-book is Ready!

It's finally finished. Just in time to plan your Thanksgiving Menu!
Thank you to all who shared your favorite recipes.
This turned out to be a nice little ebook. I hope you enjoy it!
After this post I'll have it on my side bar and on my cooking blog!
Please let me know if you have any troubles downloading it.

Tried and True Thanksgiving Recipes

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND MY FRIENDS!

Friday Funnies! Thanksgiving Edition

I love Fridays. Ever since I started this Meme over a year ago it just made Friday's a bit more fun. I hope your getting a little more giggle for your buck on Friday's too.

I chose this Friday to be the Thanksgiving Edition because it's the last Friday before we give thanks for our blessings. Yours doesn't have to be Thanksgiving related but it would be fun if we all joined in and found the funnies Thanksgiving giggle on the internet.

So without further ado here's my contribution!

This is for all you that plan on deep frying that turkey!
USE EXTREME CAUTION! LOL!

And this one of course I posted last year but it's still one of my favorites and I laugh at it EVERY time I watch it so enjoy once again!

Have a FABULOUS weekend my friends!!

Pretend You're Going to Move!

This is a great motivator. You start organizing things, cleaning things (you needed to clean a long time ago but have put off), and getting rid of things.

Seriously, knowing that someone might be walking through your house really motivates you to make it look 100%. It's amazing what you'll do for a perfect stranger but not your own family. LOL!
I mean who we trying to kid? I think it would be more believable for someone to walk in and see socks on the floor, dishes in the sink and no toilet paper on the roll. Then they would feel more at home. Don't you agree? Or is it just me?

I declutter at least once a year. But I'm always amazed at the stuff I weed out each time. It's like the stuff seems to multiply right before your eyes.
You start asking yourself, do I need it? Usually the answer to that is, "No, BUT......"and I can fill the blank with a 100 excuses to why I need to keep something that's been in a box for over 8 years and I hardly ever look at. It's MY stuff. My box!

Anyway, I really think that if we all pretended that we were going to move every month or so, our houses would stay a lot more organized and cleaner. The same concept goes for inviting company over but I don't think I go to the same extent of cleaning as the whole pretending to move thing.
What do you all think? Is there something to this thought?

HUGS!

Never Say Never!

It's recently been put on our hearts to try to be debt free so we have been looking at selling our house and buying something else cash. Right now we live on a half acre on a barrier island right across the street from the ocean and we are trying to move to the mainland.
We bought this house as a fixer upper 11 years ago, but in return we got a REALLY good deal on it and it will come back 3 fold. But I swore (and one should never swear) that we would never buy another fixer upper. Weeeeeeeell, it may be tongue biting time. We found a house on a little over an acre in a beautiful neighborhood on the mainland for $195,000. It's a pre-foreclosure and it needs a little love. The structure is sound but it needs cleaning, some paint and a BRAND NEW KITCHEN (which I'm not complaining about). Down the road it will need a few more things done but nothing to major. I've seen my husband turn this fixer upper of ours into a little beachside paradise and I know he can do the same with that one. But I also know it takes time and that's the one thing he won't have a lot of. We aren't letting that discourage us because if we sell ours for market value we'll be able to pay for that one and have no mortgage. Hallelujah.

Here's what we need from you. Prayers and lots of them. We feel like we are getting the green light to move forward but would like prayers for our house to sell in a timely manner and without complication and for the whole transaction to go through smoothly.

Right now we are in our comfort zone and it's a hard place to leave but we would be gaining much much more by leaving it behind. And I know that before long we would find our comfort zone once again.
This is the house in question.

This is the front of the property.


Oh and if it does go through we would love for you all to come and give us a hand cleaning and painting. I know you all won't mind. Right? Right? I'll supply the coffee, chocolate and some jammin' tunes for the late nights! LOL! You know it'd be fun!
Love you my friends!

I'm done.....Well maybe....We'll see....

(WARNING: More of me and my Christmas Addiction! It could be a cry for help! LOL! )

I need to stop. I need to stop going to garage sales and walking down the Christmas aisle of the stores. "Just step away from the Christmas items Ma'am."
My office is over flowing with Christmas stuff that I've purchased within the last 2 months. Granted most of it has been from garage sales and I've spent very little money, but have you gone into the Dollar Stores lately? Oh have mercy, it's just wall to wall fun, bright, Christmasy things that suck me right in! I need intervention. Seriously! I have Thanksgiving to plan, for crying out loud!
I know I've posted about the last few garage sales I've gone too and the Christmas stuff I came home with. Well this past weekend I bought MORE! Okay I spent .30 on 3 boxes of pretty Christmas ornaments. Did I need them? Uh, NO! But for .30 I couldn't pass it up. Oy!

You want proof. I got your proof.
Here's my office!
These are the recent purchases piled onto of this plastic tub. The bag of stuff in the back? Yeah, it's filled with Christmas stuff.
Here are my .30 ornaments and underneath in the box is my 6 wooden reindeer that I got for $2.00.
Yes this whole plastic bin is full of little metal tins, perfect for gift giving.
My problem? I don't want to part with them! LOL! I like them. But I'm going to do it this year. I'm going to give them away with little goodies inside!
Oh and not pictured is the suitcase full of Christmas stuff that I bought at an estate sale that is in the office too!
Yup! It's going to be an interesting Christmas this year. I've never had it so bad!! LOL
Stay tuned....



Oh and a reminder for this fun week! Coming up faster than I want to admit.
And YES, it has to do with Christmas. Go figure!

You're Gonna Miss This!

I always enjoy reading my friends Mimi's posts on this and so I thought I'd join in once again.

I'm going to miss walking out my back door and seeing this....


.....and this. Then wondering what in the world it all is.


And then seeing this!The great lizard hunter. Yes, my son is the great inventor. He comes up with so many inventions. Mostly made out of paper but lately he's branched out into plastic containers and tubes. LOL! What you see above is quite an elaborate invention, though you can't tell from the picture. He waits quietly behind the stump with a string in hand to catch the non suspecting lizards. You gotta love that!!
I'm gonna miss seeing these things around and him hard at work making them.

What are you gonna miss?
Go check out the host of this Meme Pam to link up your post or to check out others.

Friday Funnies!

What a beautiful day in Florida. We finally got a little cooler weather and it's feeling pretty nice!
Are you all ready for some laughs today? Well you know I love to laugh and I'm sure you do to.
If you have a family friendly funny story, joke, video or picture to share just post it and come link to it below.

Since we only have 2 Friday Funnies until Thanksgiving, I thought I would dedicate these next two weeks to a Thanksgiving theme. But you can post whatever you want. This is just me.

Most of you know that I am just finishing up my Tried and True Thanksgiving Recipes on my cooking blog. If you didn't know that you should check it out. There are some gooooood recipes linked up and I will be putting them in E-book form soon.
But one of the things I was looking for was a different way to cook a turkey.
I think I found it.
Let me know if anyone has tried cooking a turkey like this before! Hee! Hee!

How to Cook a Turkey
Step 1: Go buy a turkey
Step 2: Take a drink of whiskey, scotch, or vodka
Step 3: Put turkey in the oven
Step 4: Take another 2 drinks of whiskey
Step 5: Set the degree at 375 ovens
Step 6: Take 3 more whiskeys of drink
Step 7: Turn oven the on
Step 8: Take 4 whisks of drinky
Step 9: Turk the bastey
Step 10: Whiskey another bottle of get
Step 11: Stick a turkey in the thermometer
Step 12: Glass yourself a pour of whiskey
Step 13: bake the whiskey for 4 hours
Step 14: Take the oven out of the turkey
Step 15: Take the oven out of the turkey
Step 16: Floor the turkey up off the pick
Step 17: Turk the carvey
Step 18: Get yourself another scottle of botch
Step 19: Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass of turkey
Step 20: Bless the saying, pass and eat out


Okay here I go with my disclaimer (though I am cracking up right now reading that joke): I am in no way promoting the drinking of hard liquor, but I'm sorry, this was just too funny not to share and I'm pretty sure you all are laughing right now too!

HAPPY FRIDAY MY FRIENDS!!

It just kind of snowballs! LOL!

This was my Facebook Status yesterday!

Kim is trying really hard to find the motivation that seemed to quickly run out the door today. Anyone seen it?

These are the responses I got! LOL! I love you girls!

Mikki

I'm looking for mine too..

Kim

Mikki they're both probably out having coffee together! LOL

Mikki

that or eating chocolate somewhere in hiding..

Shirley

I think I overheard them talking about going on vacation.

Kim

Mmm hmm, I'm pretty sure you're right! LOL

Shirley

Me too, I thnk they were rtalking about the Carribean. The reason I know this is because they called mine and invited it along. You know, when it gets motivated, there is no stopping it.!

Debbie

I love you guys...I had such great prayer time this afternoon I feel fully motivated!! Praise the Lord!

Susan

Actually, Kim...I think I did see it.....whizzing past me on I-10 headed toward Pensacola....just blew right past me! Whatever will we do now???? lol

Kim

Oh have mercy, someone stop it please. I need to clean my bathroom!

Lisa

Susan, your comment is so funny! Well Kim, I thought I saw it flying down I-4 by me! :)

Kathy

You know, I think there's a conspiracy goin' on, because mine's missing too! Yup, I've looked around for it, but it's no where to be found!

Nan

You and Kathy need to have a very serious talk with your motivations. Your motivation is leading mine astray and Kathy's is too. I will no longer let my motivation play with yours if.....oooops, I think your motivation is over here playing with mine on the computer. Sorry. *blush*

Kathy

Oh gee Nan, now that you mention it,...I realize mine's been just sittin' here next to me all day! Yikes...all that lookin' for nuthin'. :)

Kim

Phew! Thank you all for keeping your eye out for my motivation, It came back when it heard I was making Banana Nut Muffins so the bathroom got cleaned too! I wonder what else I might do now that it's back? LOL Anyone want to play? LOL


HUGS TO YOU GALS!!

You Probably Really Didn't Want to Know This But Here You Go!

My husband is a list maker. I am not. But I'm starting to think I may need to convert to his way of thinking pretty soon.
I tell you, the older I get the more I forget! Oh that's a nice little rhyme isn't it?
I just end up getting aggravated with myself for not writing it down. But I've been known to write things down and then not remember where I wrote it. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.

On an up note (not really) I went for my GYN appointment yesterday and because I'm lucky enough to be turning 40 within the next year, she told me I GET to make an appointment for my MAMMOGRAM. YIPEE! Lucky me! I then I broke out in hysterical laughter at the thought of it. Oh my friends, you just don't understand the mental picture I have in my head. I really feel sorry for the ladies that will get me as a patient. LOL! Don't worry I'll be leaving the camera at home. But as I was discussing this my friend Kathy yesterday she said that she has to make an appointment soon for hers (she's already had a couple because, well, she's older than me!)LOL! Anyway, us being us, we thought it would be "fun" to make an appointment back to back so we could go "together". No I'm pretty sure we draw the friendship line at going into the examining room with each other but at least we could comfort each other before hand! LOL And then of course do lunch afterwards and laugh about the whole experience.

Anyone else having these kind of OAD(old age disease) moments?

Please share. I need to feel better about it all! LOL!!
HUGS!

It's my Favorite! And I want to win!

As you know, I'll do some crazy things to get stuff for free. I've done silly videos, took goofy pictures of myself etc., so when the opportunity came along for a chance to win 3 yes 3 Gooseberry Patch books, I had to jump at the chance. And all I have to do is blog about my favorite Gooseberry Patch book that I have. Easy Smeasy man!

I recently blogged about them because I truly am a Gooseberry Patch Book-o-holic but if you haven't gotten on the Gooseberry Bandwagon you really need to check out their stuff.
I personally am hooked on their books and this one is my favorite so far.
It's Christmas
all through the house
(Collector's Edition)
It has over 600 holiday recipes, cheery crafts and easy to make gifts for flurries of fun!
Here are a couple of pictures to lure you in! Aren't I bad? Hee! Hee!
If you had to pick just one to start with, I would suggest this one. My husband actually picked this up at Lowe's last year. Yeah, weird place to have it but it was with all their other cookbooks and such.
So if you are a Gooseberry Patch book fan also, head on over to their blog and see how you can have your chance to win 3 books of your choice.

Oh and don't forget to link your recipes on my cooking blog this week. Today it's Side Dishes!!

Love you my friends!

Reminder and Coming Soon!

This is just a reminder post to let you know that the fun week on my cooking blog starts today. Go HERE to get all the info and HERE to join in!



AND..........I've made the button for my Christmas week of fun! I can't wait for this.

I know there are a lot of blogs out there doing their own Christmas themed Meme's and there is a lot to choose from but I hope you still join me in my upcoming week of Christmas Joy!

I've been busy making some easy Christmas crafts that I will be sharing with you so you can make them too. There will also be a couple of opportunities for you all to share some things as well. Like favorite Christmas books to read, music, cookies etc. I'll give more details as it gets closer. But it's going to be a lot of fun! Feel free to grab the button and put it on your side bar for now and I'll be posting a break down of the week at the end of this month!

LOVE YOU!

Friday Funnies! The Calendar Edition!

Hello my friends! These Fridays sure do sneak up on you don't they? Well I'm ready to give and get some giggles today. How about you? If you have a family friendly funny to share, go post it and come back and link it up below.

I wasn't actually sure what I was going to post for my funny today but then I got a package in the mail and Voila', a funny was born. Such is my life! LOL!

You all remember my calendar incident at Hallmark right? Well I did end up ordering the one I saw there, online and.... well........I'll let the pictures help do the talking!

First off, this is the box that was on my door step. I couldn't remember what I might have bought that would require such a large box.

So I opened it.
Wow, packing paper. Neat!
Lots of packing paper. Neat!
What's this?
Well I'll be.... it's my calendar....... tucked underneath all that paper...... in the extremely large box.
Hello? People, it's a cal-en-dar! Not a ski jacket from L.L. Bean!
I mean look at this box compared to the calendar!
Okay are you ready?
I'm putting it out there. Here is why this calendar is perfect for me and yes this truly is the person who writes this blog.


Wait for it....













Yup! In case you forgot what the front of the calendar says and you are to afraid to click on the picture to make it larger for fear of breaking out into hysterical laughter, it says:
"Pretending to be a Normal Person Day After Day is Exhausting"
Can I get an Amen to that! LOL!
I LOVE THIS CALENDAR!
I highly recommend for all you crazy ladies!!

LOVE YOU AND HAPPY FRIDAY!