Happy Birthday Bro!

HappyBirthday to my bro!  Have a great day CA!  We're 20 mo. apart!  He's my only sibling... but God blessed me with a great one!  Happy birthday to you!  Here's who is in the pictures:  CA and his beautiful wife LeeAnn, Ging with her "A" team (missing Andy) and CA and me in '69!!  We haven't changed too much! hahaha!

Christmas Edition - "Getting to Know Your Friends"!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of “Getting To Know Your Friends”. 

If you are reading this, then join in the fun (not a blogger?... email it and keep the fun going! SH emailed this to me and I put it on the blog; hard up for a post, huh!)  Here's what to do and try not to be a SCROOGE!   Copy and paste these 25 questions into your blog.  Change all the answers so that they apply to you & your family. Tis the Season to be NICE!  Enjoy reading everyones answers reading from their blog!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Gift Bags; unless Andy Hayes is here - he is our “Master Wrapper”!!

2. Real tree or Artificial?    Artificial; all 5 of them!

3. When do you put up the tree?    Thanksgiving break; if possible

4. When do you take the tree down?  At least by the 27th...

5. Do you like eggnog?    Yes (especially Aric Vannoy!) Try the Eggnog Bluebell ice cream = omg yum!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?  bicycle (all 5 of us!)

7. Hardest person to buy for?   Paw Paw Kitchens and Pa Pa Floyd

8. Easiest person to buy for?    Kyle

9. Do you have a nativity scene?  Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail mail - homemade; of course!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Underwear!  “Old Family Joke”

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?  The Christmas Story!  Fwah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Dec. 15th

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Shhhh! Ancient family secret...

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Homemade Christmas Candy

16. Lights on the tree?  Clear on the big tree; multi on all the others!

17. Favorite Christmas song? anything by the "Trans Siberian Orchestra"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? HOME

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?  Maybe, (Faith Self can put anyone to shame on this - she’s awesome! ask her the 7 dwarf’s names also!)

 20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  STAR

 21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  Tricky question!  KV’s family opens Christmas Eve and mine in the morning - so our kids get the best of both!

 22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas aisles next to Halloween aisle in the stores!

 23. Favorite ornament?  All homemade ones!

 24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey or ham, mac 'n cheese, broc 'n rice casserole & cherry cream pie!

 25. What do you want for Christmas this year?  Happiness!

Thanksgiving Games

SPOONS - What game did our family play throughout the whole weekend holiday break?? - An intelligent, mind-boggling, strategic game - NO!  An old, but very fun, fast paced game of SPOONS!  My boys were introduced to how "RUTHLESS" family members can be during a game!!  We all have our wounds to show!  We played it until my brother and his family left! Paula - Andy - you better be ready... a rematch is waiting for Christmas break and you two will be here then!  Be prepared!  Notice how in the last pic, that my brother's hand is EMPTY... he blamed KV for taking the picture of the precise moment that he needed to get a spoon, hmmm!  "Sorry Charlie!"

5k Jingle Bell Run

I LOVE living in a small town!  I'm a small-town girl and not afraid to tell you!  Traditional our community always has a Treasure Hunt on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Sometimes we have a football pep rally also; but not this year ):  Everyone home for the holidays come down with their families and you get to see and visit with them!  It's either down here or at WalMart where you see everyone in town!  hahaha! This event was moved down to the Fair Park this year with the lighting of the park a grand celebration; it was exciting! Starting a new event this year - was F3's "5K Jingle Bell Run".  Almost 40 runners participated and we had a blast just watching them run, all ages ran - girls, boys, moms, dads, grandads, grandmas, music teacher, vice principal, doctor, friends, neighbors...  Our preacher dressed up as Santa and another runner was his Elf! (My brother's family is in the background of this pic!) Others were dressed accordingly to the holiday!  KV ran and came in 5th!  He's my hero!  The man has totally changed his body from a year ago - losing over 50 lbs. and running now 6 miles every other day - longest was a 10 mile run a week ago!  He's up to a little over an 8 minute mile!  We all had a blast at our small town celebration in the big C-town!  How did you spend your Friday night?

Thanksgiving 2-4-6-8 Box

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today my youngest niece and I made 2-4-6-8 boxes out of SU's Pumpkin Pie Designer paper and created a Turkey punch to embellish the front of the box.  We just "had" to make a Thanksgiving project! This punched turkey has been all over the web.  I'm not a card sender at Thanksgiving, but when I saw Dawn's blog with the turkey on this simple, but cute box - this was the project for us!  Here's a link with a video tutorial for BOTH the box and for the turkey HERE!  Little A and I had a wonderful "craft" time together!  She's 8 yrs. old and in the 3rd grade!  I love the time that I can "play" with my family!  Hope you each had a wonderful day with your family and HUGGED TIGHTLY the ones you love! (She was in a "sulking mood" and I was trying to cheer her up with a "My Space" poise with the camera... I look funny - but she did smile!)  Oh!  She's growing up and is a sweetie!  She used to be the baby - now we've got baby Gracie, who we will see at Christmas.  Counting the days to do crafts with Gracie's moma!  We have a long list of things to do, huh PC!  Yes!  I did chop all of my hair off!  KV loses weight and looks great; I have to cut hair to look different, oh well!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

We are thankful for our FAMILY!  Each family member is so dear!  This year, it was Thanksgiving with my family - we switch every-other year; even though this year all of KV's family was here too. We'll have Christmas lunch with his family this year...  We hosted the big family Thanksgiving meal at our house.Hey!  We have lights over our long table now, you can see! haha  This is my grandfather's 85th Thanksgiving!  Here are pics of the "big" table and the "kids" table.  I loved sitting at the kids table... when young!  Of course, we all ate "way too" much.  Andy, Paula and the rest of our family... you were missed!  We love you!  Can you believe how much CA ate... hahaha!  Pops & Maw Maw were very much with us in spirit!  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Glo Bird Project

Here are some cute "Glo Birds"... found the idea from the "Family Fun" magazine.  LOVE this magazine for craft ideas!  Here's the internet link for instructions if you are interested:  GLO BIRD  The boys made these in two nights - letting the glue dry for one.  The base is a glass votive cup, wooden ball for the head, "Mod-Podge" (Alex's new word of the day!) tissue paper pieces - and embellishments.  "Glo" comes from the battery operated tea lights inside!  Too cute for a table top turkey!  Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow!

6th Grade Pep Rally

     It's a CJHS tradition for a several 6th grade boys, who are chosen special,

to lead a cheer at a pep rally. Alex was picked

 this year. He had to 

wear make-up and the whole bit! "Pop 'em" is the cheer that they led... guess you can figure out why!  Several boys (including Alex) are without wigs, the wigs didn't show up until after the pep rally - The pep rally started at 8 AM!! But that didn't effect these kids in screaming and having spirit!  These 6th graders were so cute! Alex is the one at the top of the pyramid! We won't let him forget this for a loooong time!  "Blackmail" hee hee!  Have a great day!

Babysitting

We had the pleasure of babysitting two sweet kids the other day.  Aric and Alex LOVE small children!  They always gravitate to little kids, wherever we go!  Even Andy had a knack for loving little kids - just not his brothers (j/k).   Aric was thrilled to help out  this time.  He entertain these "cutie-puties" very well, along with Dallas the Dalmatian - Dallas loves everyone!  Aric even played "school" and was the teacher...hmmm, wonder where he got that idea - with both parents who are teachers, poor thing!  If KV and I thought we were young enough to adopt HA! We'll just wait for grandkids - THEY have so much energy... and we don't!  hahaha!    

3rd Grade Science Class

Here's a cute video of Miss Stewart's class singing the planets in the solar system. This is Aric's 3rd grade class. Miss Stewart has a lot of cute techniques in singing "jingles" for the kids to remember things. This is shown in the video as the students are singing! Aric is the one pointing to each planet. Miss Stewart also teaches an awesome concept in math that really has helped Aric. Aric has even completed a powerpoint presentation and presented it several times using the "Smart Board" over the planet Mars. 3rd grade! What was I doing in 3rd grade??? Playing dodge ball - remember dodge ball? Enjoy the video!

Gas Prices

OH  HAPPY DAY!  My husband filled up our car with gas.  We have a "gas guzzler" -2002 suburban.  

Gas prices have almost killed us this summer BUT yesterday - KV gave the gas attendant a $50.00 bill            

 - our gauge was almost on E and (hold on....) he received CHANGE BACK... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!  Normally we were paying at least $120 for a fill up - maybe my kids will get Christmas after all!!  (Wink!)  Have a great Sunday!

Video of Alex's piano playing

Here's a short video of Alex's performance during the 2008 Talent Show - playing the piano. This video is of his first selection - theme song from the Peanuts' Comic "Linus & Lucy". We had a post with a video of Aric and Alex has been "patiently" waiting for his video post... Thanks Ging for the video!

Roll Tide & Andy Hayes Pics

Will Bama keep the #1 position after Saturday? For you that do not know my son Andy Hayes, he is a HUGE 'Bama fan. He is transferring to Alabama University this spring; he has gotten his basics at Bevil Community College in Hamilton, Al. So, here is Andy after the 'Bama & Mississippi State game, in the locker room of the Alabama Crimson Tide - he was VERY excited... John Parker Wilson is the starting QB and Terrence Cody is a nose guard (or something like that), Rashad Johnson, another Alabama player, is from a small town close to Hamilton (Sulligent, Al) and the boys know him - it was Rashad's mom that actually took these pics for the boys! Guess we'll see the turn out after all the college games today! Will Alabama still be #1? Have a great weekend!

A new family member - the "Cricut"

Kyle and I have been experimenting with an electronic device called the Cricut (pronounced just like the insect  - cricket).  It is an electronic die cutting machine.  I was rewarded with some school money and bought this machine, tools, carrying case and cartridges  - hoping that everyone could use it making die-cut images for bulletin boards and such... teacher stuff!  It's somewhat complicated though... we're learning - the instructions say: "Just play with it - give yourself a hour the first time and just play..."  So - we are!  

Tonight, I got a phone call from a friend, upon hanging up, realized that I had forgotten her birthday.  She has plans to come up to school tomorrow during lunch - I'm going to go get a cake during my conference and we'll sing and surprise her then (for you CHS teachers - SH's b-day was the 17th... sign the card tomorrow & be there to eat cake at lunch!)  Anyways... we put the ole' cricut to use for a mission - making a birthday card.  It's the first one - using this technique!  Also is a pic of other projects that we're working on... I'm trying to make something for everyone who will use this machine... showcasing the techniques in making a name plaque or book marker or misc... it'll probably take me until Christmas to complete this mission - Christmas '09 unless I hurry!  If you have any hints, advice or suggestions using the cricut -

 PLEASE SHARE!  KV and I are planning to take a class - when?  Who knows when time will allow...  TGIF- tomorrow!  Hope you had a great day - did you hug the ones you love?  You better!  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Wish List

These are small "Christmas Wish List" booklets that I made for my three sons for them to joint down items that they would like for Christmas.  This is an idea that was cased from this sweet lady here Theresa Payne-Neal She gives a great step by step tutorial for this booklet.  Hey!  It's time for making notes and buying gifts for the holiday season.  Argh!  Guess I'm being the old scrooge... it'll be here before we know it! Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!  Where does the time go... where ever it is - it goes fast!  Have a great day!

1982

Where were you in 1982?

Do you remember "Hair Bands"... we didn't call them that then, but WOW look at the HAIR...

Can you remember these songs? These were the top five songs on the Pop Chart in 1982:

1. Physical by Olivia Newton-John

2. Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor

3. I Love Rock N' Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

4. Ebony And Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

5. Centerfold by J. Geils Band

How about the top three movies of 1982... do you remember these:

1. Officer & a Gentleman

2. Tootsie

3. Porky's

Can you remember any of these events from 1982?

• Michael Jackson's "Thriller" sells 20 million albums to become the largest selling record ever.
  
• 
  
• Ozzy bites the head off a live bat thrown at him at a January 20 performance.


• 

• Italy wins the Soccer World Cup in Spain

• The Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 4,150 of his "Moonie" followers at Madison Square Garden.

• Tylenol Scare, October 5th

• Princess Grace of Monaco dies when her car hurtles over a cliff.

• John Belushi dies March 5 of cocaine and herion.

• Prince William is born to Charles and Di.

• Delorean Motor Company goes bankrupt

• Larry Walters on July 2nd ties 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and flies as high as 16 thousand feet before shooting the balloons with a pellet gun and landing about 90 minutes later. The FAA fined him $1,500.

1982... a very good year!