Monday, November 30, 2015

A selfie Thanksgiving .....

just a bunch of silly selfies from
family Thanksgiving......

















later.....

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Current favorite things ....

Some current favorite things right now......

this is def one of my favorite things .... 50% off of everything
at GAP....yes!! On Friday when the sale started, I put in my order 
which took care of shopping for my grandchildren and my daughter
huge savings!!



I always buy the big role of wrapping paper at Costco
I love using all of the same paper
and I LOVE that it has the lines on the reverse side
so that I can cut straight lines.....yes, it's the little things!!


I don't use dryer sheets....they are bad for your clothes and 
your dryer. Just way too many chemicals and they cause your dryer screen
to not work as well. So I always just dealt with the static. But now, these
little dryer hedgehogs work a miracle. They not only get rid of
all static cling but they make your clothes softer as they are
fluffing your clothes the whole time they are drying.
LOVE them!!



My Grandma Pendleton always had Christmas cactus'
she loved them so much and would just be so happy when they
bloomed at Christmas. Every time I see one, I'm reminded of
my sweet grandma. Johnny and I were in Home Depot the other day
and they had so many beautiful ones.
this one now sits on my kitchen counter 

I have been wanting some short brown boots
They opened a LL Bean in one of our local shopping centers
Found these casual ones......LOVE them!



I also discovered Zulily.com and wow, they have some great deals on there
but it's really like taking a gamble buying from them as they do no returns
So when I saw these boots on there, the price was so good that I figured
even if they didn't fit, I could find someone who could use them
Lucky for me they fit perfect
I LOVE the bling on them too



oh boy....the Olive Oil shop is a very addictive place to go
they have the most yummy olive oils and vinegars
my current favorite is the basil olive oil and the 
tomato vinegar.....on a salad, wow! So good



later......

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Sister's new home .....

My youngest sister Kandi and her husband Xel
just recently moved from way out in the country
to downtown city of Richmond

It was always a dream for them to move to the city
and in August, their dream came true

they moved to a very old section of the city
some of the homes date back to the late 1800's
the home they purchased was built in 1895 and is listed
on the historic register in Richmond
It is in one of the most beautiful sections of our 
wonderful city

They love so many things about it.....no real yard work,
walking to great restaurants, bars, the bakery
the park, meeting new neighbors

I told my sister it's like you are "living on vacation"
she said yes, and even though they have been there 
a couple of months now, she said it's still like
living a dream! I couldn't be happier and so proud for
two such great people!

here's their front porch decorated for the fall


Their new home has been totaled renovated
so really a move in ready home.

later....

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Halloween ....

Two of our grandchildren came over on Halloween
for dinner and trick or treating

Declan was a banana and Avery Grace was a cute little strawberry
Declan sure had a good time going door to door
he was sweet and thanked each person for the candy
and for some houses, he even told them he
liked their decorations...haha

Avery Grace was in her stroller and she slept almost
the entire time. It was a fun Halloween





Jake and Kayce did not come over but they
did send me a picture of them ready to go to
a Halloween party
Kayce did a great job on their makeup



later.....

Monday, November 9, 2015

Random stuff ...

here's some random stuff

I love fresh flowers and wish
I could have them every week in all of my rooms but I can't
that would get pretty expensive
but I do love splurging and keeping fresh flowers in the 
kitchen / dining room


When we re-modeled our kitchen 4 years ago I looked
for a long time for the perfect table and chairs
I wanted solid wood and that's just hard to find nowadays
but I did and we were able to design it, picking out the legs,
the backs to the chairs and even the finish on the wood
I keep the table covered most times with a protective cover
and a tablecloth
4 years and no scratches.....until now
I forgot to push the chairs in when we went out and 
Pippa Lou got on the table
and I guess in her excitement of seeing other dogs
outside, she put quite a few scratches in my table :(
We came home to this.....



I'm working on upholstering a pair of wing back chairs
I just really wasn't sure this was going to turn out to be
a project I could handle but now as I'm removing each
section of fabric, I'm feeling pretty confident that I 
will be able to cover them
here is the fabric I have picked out



Here's the fall wreath we have on our door right now


and here's Johnny prepping the yard for the fall grass seed


and here's my flower still holding on.....and new blooms every 
few days



later....

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Apraxia Walk ...

I have shared on my blog before that our first grandson, Maddox
has Apraxia. He is non-verbal
he tries, oh he makes some sounds and he really tries
but his speech is not there
his brain just cannot make that connection to give him a voice
We had never met anyone who had a family member with this
then I met someone at work and her daughter has Apraxia
it felt good to just make one connection with someone else
who understood
And this is what our daughter was missing.....someone else who understood
She tried to come up with ways to form an Apraxia community
but with privacy restrictions with doctors and teachers, how 
could you ever meet anyone.
Then she had the idea to have a walk to raise awareness and through
that would be able to meet people
She got in touch with CASANA and they told her that a couple of 
people had tried in the past to get a walk together for Richmond
but it lost steam and never came about.
But she was determined and with social media, it was easy
to get the word out. They told her do not be discouraged
if you have a small number of registered walkers and you only
raise a small amount
So imagine her surprise and delight in ending up with 175 registered
walkers and raising $11,847
this money goes directly to help children with Apraxia with speech therapy
iPads equipped with speech apps, grants for helping speech therapist
and families and research
but even more than that, she met families that are here in
Richmond who have children with Apraxia
she has made a great connection and plans to next year start
parent support groups and children play dates

We are very proud of our daughter for pulling this together
She did an amazing job. She made each child there feel special
She re-enforced to each of them that this walk and all of these 
people, it was all for them. She handed each one a medal
and spoke such kind words to them.
Johnny and I were very proud
and she also had Tyler, Gabe, Maddox and even little John
who have helped her and supported her through all of the months
of planning and the day of the event

here's a pile of pictures from the event that was held on Oct 17th
The morning started with doughnuts, coffee and hot chocolate
there was face painting, brochures and literature about services
that can help families with special needs children, 
a city fire truck came and a state policeman so that the children
could enjoy seeing those


everything started getting busy with registration and giving
out t-shirts for the walkers


here's my sister-in-law Susan and my niece Mallory ready to walk


here's Tyler, Nicole's partner in life




here's the part that Nicole was most nervous about but
she did a great job....the CASANA folks gave her lots of advice and tips
and she really just spoke from her heart so it was great




Maddox receiving his medal


the top fun raising team was given the honor of starting 
the walk and carrying the banner



my sister Vickie with Susan and Mallory


Tyler, Nicole and their 3 boys


Maddox showing off his medal



already looking forward to next year
it will be even bigger and better

later.....