Until Next Time...

 This year my reading goal was 104 books.  That roughly translates to 2 books a week.  That is considerably less than previous years goals.  But, I knew that with working full time and going back to school there was not much of a chance of reading a whole lot more than that.  I managed to finish 113 books for 2020.  Not bad, all things considered.   When I was going through the list of books I read this year to pick my top 3 favorites, I realized I might have to do it a little different because there were quite a few that I loved and several of them were in the same series or stand alones, but by the same author.  These are in no particular order cause I loved them all. First up is the books I read by Ilsa Madden-Mills this year.  All three of them were added to my Favorites list on Goodreads.  I read The Revenge Pact.  I have the review posted here .  River and Anastasia killed me! There was also I Promise You.  Dillon and Serena's story was amazing!  You can check out my review h

  December has been busy!  Between work, preparing for Christmas, and Covid quarantines, I have not had hardly a minute.  But, I did want to pop on here and wish you a late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We spent Christmas day with all of the girls, even if it wasn't all at the same time LOL  Ashley and Grant and the kiddos got to the house around supper time when we were just getting ready to go on round 2 of the ham and yummies that we had for lunch.  Even though we decided to keep it simpler this year, lots of gifts were exchanged, including some AMAZING blankets - we opted to do a blanket exchange this year.  Billy got a baby Yoda one and I got a snuggly grey one.  I think we all were happy with what was received. It is my hope that you got what you wanted and that you were blessed enough to spend time with family and friends. Until next time....

Thanksgiving Dinner last week was missing Ashley and her bunch. Living in Louisiana makes it hard to visit on the regular. But, she and Grant got some time off this week and came for a surprise visit.  It totally made my heart happy! Ash and I planned to stitch and hang out. We did on Tuesday.  Well, we didn't stitch but I did work from home to be able to see them. And then I went to the office Wednesday.  When I came home, I found another surprise...she and Lauren had put a Christmas tree up in the dining room for us!  The walls still need to be finished, but we have a little Christmas going on here.  They also put out the replica of the ceramic tree that my grandma use to out on her piano every year. I bought the deer this year at TJ Maxx, a couple weekends ago. She is vintage looking so she goes perfect with the tree.  I might get around to putting up the wreath and taking the fall stuff off the porch bow that I do have Christmas stuff up.  Until next tim

 How was your Thanksgiving holiday?  Ours was great!  The Squirrels were home from Tuscaloosa and Lola and Agent J (that is what we call Lauren and Jarrett LOL) came over.  We went simple this year - fried turkey, obligatory veggie casserole, green beans, mac and cheese and Lola made homemade rolls and a pumpkin ganache for dessert.  Over the long weekend we got Jenna mostly moved into her new apartment.  I think we just have the dressers and mattress left to move.  We unpacked most of the boxes and got things put up on the walls.  There is a nice new gate at the top of the stairs because Emery wanders 😂 We still need to put the one at the bottom, but that is an easy fix.  The top one had to be screwed in the wall because we are sure that she would walk up to it and push and then she and the gate would go tumbling. I got lots of stitching time and reading time during the break.  I finished stitching Town Church by Little House Needleworks.  It was a fun stitch.  I looked at the tutori

Since I am finished with classes I will have more time to get some stitching in. But I don't want you to think I haven't been doing any LOL  I am almost finished with Pumpkin Cottage and I'm still working on the September truck from Stitching with the Housewives- yes I know it's November.  I started the December truck and will work on that next month when I take part in the #jollyhousewives stitch along. Oh! I did finish the pig stack! I'll post a pic when I find a frame.  I started Town Church by Little House Needleworks for the November/December SAL in their Facebook group. It's called A Holiday Village SAL. I'm doing this on fabric I dyed. Mallory named it Roslyn. I was thinking Twilight.  I'm still working on Kringles by LHN. I haven't picked it up in a couple weeks. But I started going down the building to the first floor. The next portion I plan to finish is the name.  These Secret Santa ornaments by Hands on

  I am doing a happy dance right now!  I am finished with fall semester classes!  This semester saw Organizational Behavior - it was labeled a management class but was secretly a psychology class.  This semester also saw International Business.  While I enjoyed both classes, I liked the International Business one better. With this being over, now I can focus on the holidays.  Billy was working on the wiring in the living room and front porch yesterday so that I can put the tree up in there.  I am soooo behind in my holiday decorating.  I just took the Halloween wreath off the door LOL  We will get the living room straightened out before Thursday.  Hopefully. On a positive holiday note, I do have my new Christmas comforter on the bed.  I've been making my bed daily since changing over to it.  Eliza likes the comforter.  Of course, she just likes my bed.  But she escaped yesterday and came home wet and managed to get muddy paw prints on the bed so now I need to wash the c

 Helllooooo!!!! I've got the computer on, sample papers pulled up, papers printed out, webpages pulled up on Brazil and their coffee exporting.  I'm ready to write!  And what am I doing?  Typing up a blog post 😁  You know, procrastination at it's finest. I really do have the outline done - turned it in this week.  And I will get to the paper.  I have no choice.  The class ends on the 24th.  I have to do the paper and another 2 modules.  I will need to take a day off next week to work on school stuff. Speaking of taking a day off to do school stuff, I did that this week.  I took Wednesday off.  That's when I got the outline done.  But, I did not get to work on school stuff all day because Mal called and said she has COVID Bless her heart, she was crying and upset.  Not over the fact that she was sick, but over the fact that now her closest friends need to get tested.  Billy and I called our work teledoc thing and they said we were not in danger of getting it since we sa

   That is how I am feeling right now.  TIRED.  But, here I am with a smile on my face at work trying to act like my head doesn't hurt and I'm not ready to put my head on my desk and nap.  And to be honest, I don't think I will be any less tired any time soon. My International Business class is wrapping up quickly and I need to spend the weekend working on the final project.  I've decided to do something for that that I am considering starting up business-wise for myself.  More info on that at a later date LOL   On top of the school work, I am trying to meal plan again.  Since it's just me, Hubs and Jenna and the baby at home, meal planning and cooking should be easy.  SHOULD BE is the important words there.  I need some quick and easy meals for weeknights.  Do you have any suggestions I can add to my menus?   I'll be around this weekend, after the school work is done, to share my updates on my stitching.  I've started a couple new things that I want to shar

 Picture it, New Iberia,  Louisiana, 1982.  It's a hot and humid day, as is normal at any time of the year in south Louisiana.  But on this particular day, you are looking at a group of 5th grade girls at North Lewis Elementary.  It is the HEIGHT of Valley Girl times and Robin Tipton is throwing "like" and "for sure" into every sentence.  While Stephanie Breaux and myself going crazy over Hello Kitty erasers  and these amazing lip glosses. and these... OK, so Robin was crazy for them too.  We all were.  That's the point.  Mrs. de la Houssaye must have given us so many demerits over pulling out the lip gloss and applying it.  But you know, we were 5th graders.  Lip gloss was important.  Even if we didn't have air conditioning in the classroom, we still needed our lips to shine LOL At some point we stopped wearing this glamorous shiny gloss and lip balm.  It was probably some time in junior high when we got to start wearing "real" makeup and aspi

This has been the week from Planet Crapola. Seriously. Work was chaotic and let's not mention that I worked from home yesterday and today because I have an ear and sinus infection with a migraine on top of it. Thankfully the headache is gone today but I honestly think I'm having an allergic reaction to either the antibiotics (which I have taken before) or one of the two shots I got. My arms hurt and feel like they are on fire. My cheeks too. I am also almost two weeks behind on my next class for my MBA. And I'm being a big whiney butt. Sorry.  So, with that paragraph explaining all my woes, you can imagine I got very little stitching done this week. The pictures look like I have stitched up a storm, but it's been a while since I shared lol So, let's see what I've done.  This is where I am on the pig wedding gift. It's what I am working on today as a matter of fact. Since taking that picture several hours ago I got the hill started, the pink on th

 I've told ya'll how wonderful it is to do a book blog with my bestie, Amanda.  The perks are amazing.  We get more books than we know what to do with. I have discovered lots of new authors while doing the book blog.  One of them is Ilsa Madden-Mills.  She quickly became a favorite of mine.  She is one that I will always recommend when people ask for book recommendations.  Ilsa writes the best combination of angst and humor in her books.  They always make me smile 😄  Ilsa Madden-Mills has a new book out today....I Promise You.  It's Dillon McQueen's story.  You may remember him from Ryker's story, if you've been reading the unofficial series.  Well, let me tell you, Dillon is my favorite football player from Waylon University.  This starts with Dillon at one of the legendary bonfires at Waylon during his freshman year.  Legend states that if you kiss a girl at the bonfire when you are freshman, she is THE ONE.  Dillon kisses a girl and then loses her.  But have

My cousin got married about two weeks ago. I knew he was getting married beforehand. I got a pretty invitation and am friends with him and his now wife on Facebook. I got to see all their plans and loved her hashtag #becomingborel That's how I know they have a pet pig. Knowing all this, I decided I wanted to make them something as a wedding gift. And besides, Nikki said they didn't really need anything since it's a second wedding for both of them. So, I found this adorable cross stitch pattern by Plum Street Samplers called Snort Stack and I knew it would be perfect for them.  Which leads me to this post and the sentence I started it with - my cousin got married a couple weeks ago. I am not finished with the cross stitching to give them their gift.  So, my weekend stitch goal is to at least finish the bottom pug and the flowers on the side.  I may not make those goals though since I am going to Tuscaloosa to see Harley and Mallory today.  I'm mak

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that one of my girl's friends had asked me to do a candy bucket for her daughter for Halloween.  Well, it's finished and ready to go! Kasey said she wanted it girlie, so girlie is what she got! I love the ribbons on the handle! You can't get much girlier than a bow on a ghost 😂  Now, I need to make another one for the newest granddaughter, Emery. Em has decided she wants to be a chicken for Halloween.  Now keep in mind Emery turned 1 in August. I know, you're wondering how she let us know she wants to be a chicken. Well, her mom was holding out a couple costumes for her to look at and she went for the chicken.  Jenna tried really hard to get her to pick the unicorn, but Emery kept going back to the chicken one. So we bought the chicken one.  Until next time!

I started this post yesterday. Several times.  But, I got busy doing other stuff and this got pushed to the side.  I finally have a few free minutes today so I figured I would come back to it LOL  Really, I am procrastinating on doing my last case study for the management class I am taking 😉 So, this is titled WIP Wednesday.  I decided I would start sharing my cross stitch WIPs with you.   I started cross stitching MANY years ago.  I've done pieces and given them as birthday, graduation and wedding gifts.  I made the whole family matching Christmas stockings.  Even got two of the three grandbabies stockings made after a long break from cross stitch while I sewed children's clothes and went to school.  But, I picked cross stitch back up a couple of years ago and quickly remembered why I love it so much.  It's almost mindless work for me.  It keeps my attention just enough to make ignore all else, but not enough thought has to be focused on it to make it hard.  However, I do

 So, for those of you who are new to my blog here, let me give you some background info.  My bestie and I run a romance book blog called Two Girls with Books.  You can check it out here . Sometimes we write these long, rambling reviews, sometimes it's short and sweet - or maybe that's just me that rambles 😂.  We are fortunate enough to get some really great books before they're released to the public to review. At the beginning of the week I got a copy of Scandalous Prince by Rachel Van Dyken.  This is the second book in her new series, Mafia Royals, which is a spinoff of her Eagle Elite series.  Don't worry if you haven't read Eagle Elite, I haven't either.  So, I am jumping into Mafia Royals without knowing anyone LOL  But truly, you don't need to read them, she gives you some background information on the Eagle Elite people - they're all grown up here and are parents!   Well, I read Scandalous Prince and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!  I really didn't doub

 Last year I made hand painted Halloween buckets for the grandkids and several other children.  These are a few of them. They turned out great!  So great, in fact, that I had a young lady I know ask me if I could do one for her daughter for this year.  I am so excited!  Now, should I do the witches feet or the ghost?  I am kind of leaning toward the ghost since she said the girlier the better ;)

  Once again I have been MIA for several years.  Life happens and when it does, my blog evidently doesn't.  But I dreamed of  this blog last night and woke up with it on my mind.  So, here I am! Let me catch you up....the oldest daughter, Ashley, is back in Alabama, but only for another 2 weeks and then she and her two babies (who are 10 and 8 - can you believe that?) are going back to Louisiana.  Daughter number 2, Jenna, and her precious baby, who is 1, are living with us for the moment.  Daughter #3, Lauren, is still in Huntsville, no longer with The Walking Company (I miss the shoes).  She and her beau have a precious kitty named Ridge.  And most shocking is that Daughters 4 and 5, affectionately known as The Squirrels, live together in Tuscaloosa and both attend The University of Alabama.  Harley is a junior who just changed her major to Marine Biology and is in the Million Dollar Marching Band while Mallory is a freshman who is majoring in neuroscience/psychology.   As for me