A Recovering American Soldier & CHRISTmas Cards

Happy hump day my friends!  This was passed on to me by a really good friend of the family and I wanted to pass it along to others as well. When sending out your CHRISTmas cards this year, please add one extra to your list. Or if you're not sending any, please consider sending just this one.  There are a lot of recovering American soldiers who won't be home for Christmas this year but you could brighten their day just a little by letting them know you're thinking about them. Here is the address and please feel free to pass it along to others as well:

A Recovering American Soldier

C/O:  Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue

NW Washington, DC  20307-5001

Thanks and hope you have a wonderfully blessed day!  

Lots of love and hugs,

Happy Thanksgiving

from our family to yours. I hope that no matter how you celebrate the holiday that you have a very wonderful and blessed day.  Unfortunately for us, due to having to work on Friday (first time ever), we aren't able to go home this year for Thanksgiving, which means I also miss out on the time with my daughter. :(

On a positive note though, a friend of mine who's been a lifelong friend (since 5th grade at least) is coming to join us for Thanksgiving and I am truly thankful to have him with us and so very excited!! I am also very thankful for all of you, my few readers who do read this blog and take the time to comment to let me know you stopped by. It always brightens my day!  So THANK YOU!!! :)

I can't wait to see what all kinds of feasts you enjoyed and see the pictures of you with your family. Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!

Lots of love and hugs,

Letter to My Beautiful Birthday Girl

My Dearest Alliye,

19 years ago today..... Was one of the happiest days of my entire life!  I was blessed by God with you, my precious and adorable baby girl.   A lot of people say that you are a mini me and I tend to agree with them. You look a LOT like me.   Not sure if that is a blessing or a curse for you - however, one thing is for sure - you are WAY prettier than I could ever dream of being and that's okay by me! :)

I love that you have such a fashion sense and are always in style.  I miss you being here to dress me every day before work and telling me if my hair looked okay or not.  :)

Like normal mothers and daughters, we have butted heads on more than one occasion, but I am happy to say that since you have gotten older and grown more into yourself over the past year, we have became the best of friends and I wouldn't change it for the world.  We live in 2 different states and are 7 hours away from one another but it means the world to me when you call me every day to say hi or want to talk about your day or just things in general.  I love it that you are now at the age where you will call and ask me for my advice on something or ask how to cook something or just need direction at that very moment.

Lord knows you're not perfect (nor am I) and are already set in your ways A LOT (more than I wish you were when it comes to some things), but I am very proud of you and so thankful and blessed to call you, this young woman, my beautiful little girl and wonderful daughter and thank God every day for his entrusting you to me while we live here on Earth.

So Alliye, my darling and precious daughter, please know that I love you dearly and miss you terribly but will always be here (even from a different state) cheering you on in whatever you choose to do with your life and you can always depend on me to listen when you need an ear or a shoulder to cry on.  I wouldn't trade all the money in the world for you and our special bond.  I LOVE YOU and hope you have a wonderful and special day today.  I'm really sorry and very sad that I can't be there to celebrate with you this year.  But, we will get together very soon for a late birthday celebration, and a girls day out, just you and me - I promise!  :)

Happy 19th birthday my sweet and precious little girl!  You have grown into a very beautiful and fantastic young woman and I am SO proud to call you my daughter! I love you to the moon and back!

Love,
Mom

Under the Weather

I hope to be back in full force again tomorrow.  Have a great day everyone!

Lots of love and hugs,

Freedom to Vote

Yes, I know this post is late - so sue me!  HA!  Whether you agree with the outcome of the Presidential Election, or not, I personally am very thankful for the freedoms we do have, including the right to vote!  However, this post isn't going to be political because, I personally HATE and DESPISE politics.  But, what this post IS going to be about is the fact that we were able to vote this year with our son and I want to remember that day, so am posting it here.  :)  This was his first time to vote EVER due to the fact that he just turned 18 this past February.  

And though you can't tell it here (he was mad at us) - he was SO excited to be there and voting for the first time in his life.  He is very knowledgeable when it comes to a lot of Politics and definitely has his own personal views and will argue with the best of them about why his opinion is right - DRIVES.US.NUTS!   HA!  But, we are happy he has his own beliefs and opinions and stands up for his convictions and what he believes in.  

(Ignore my picture - this was before I got my bangs cut - they looked horrible and I'm obviously not one who can rock the "long" bangs look - sigh)  

Yes, I stepped out and away from MY voting booth to capture him actually voting.  I got yelled at by some lady who was watching over things - but I didn't really care.  It was a BIG day and I was very proud of my son for exercising his right to vote! :)  Besides, I made sure I didn't get any information in my picture, so I didn't capture someone's personal votes (including my sons).

See... he looks much happier here - LOL

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to say hello! :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Weekend Recap - Lots of CUTE Stuff Inside!

Happy Monday my peeps!  How are you?  Great, I hope!  How was your weekend?  Ours was good, but very busy.  My honey had to work all weekend long overnights, which made for a long weekend for me.  I had a lot of running around to do on Saturday all day, so I was able to get some time to myself - which is few and far between, but I still missed him A LOT.  I guess all of the retailers decided to kick off the holiday shopping season a couple weeks earlier than normal, because it was NUTS out there Saturday but there were TONS of really great sales going on.  Here are a few of my favorite things I came across and would love to have:

I love the frills and girlieness of this one

I think this would be adorable with leggings and tall boots

And I loved these sweaters

Perfect for a CHRISTmas party...dontcha think

This sounds like as good of an excuse as any, to me

Thought these rainboot ornaments were cute

Looks easy enough to make

Lots of Reds and Greens everywhere

Another cute saying on a cup

Adorable measuring spoons

My absolute favorite - may have to go back and get for myself :)

Well.... that pretty much summed up my weekend - tell me about yours!  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Lots of love and hugs,

Happy Veteran's Day

Good morning my friends!  Wow - can't believe it's been another 2 weeks since I've been online here.  Time is just slipping further and further away and I just can't seem to catch up.  It is now 5:20 a.m. here in the South and I have been up since 3:45 this morning (Sunday) and just can't go back to sleep.  So... I decided to use my time wisely and thank my grandfathers and uncles and all of the other wonderful men and women who have served, are serving and continuing to serve for our Country, along with their families for their many sacrifices and selflessness so that others like myself can remain safe. 

 

Happy Veteran's Day!

 

Have a great week ahead and thanks for stopping by!  I am hope to be back to blogging regularly now.  Hard to believe the holidays are approaching so fast this year.  Enjoy your day! :)

 

Lots of love and hugs,