Black and White Wednesday ~ Liz's Best Friend

This is my, every bodies Liz's Stephen.

He is 15 years old and stands over 6 foot 4 inches. 

His heart is as big as feet. 

If there is water around, he is in it. If there is work to be done, he does it.

If this little girl is around....He will drop everything and do what she asks of him.

This is Mary Elizabeth's big brother...We should all be so lucky.

The Haven

March 19 Kathryn's "Little Flowers" group hosted a garage sale.  They collected things from neighbors, friends and family to sell that early, cool Saturday morning.

All the proceeds this year will go to The Haven in Spartanburg. The girls raised a little over $200..

The Haven is a non-profit organization that helps homeless families stay together. The Haven provides a warm, safe place for a whole family to live and ,most importantly, stay together while the family over comes their terrible hardship.

This year, as you can imagine, the Haven has been very busy.

Through out the year the Little Flowers try to make a difference in the lives of the people around them.

Later this month, the girls and their leader will take the money they have earned and go shopping. They will buy things like: towels, sheets, dishes, shower curtains and other items a family may need to set up a proper home. The girls will take all these items down to the Heaven and just simply... hand them over.  When the time comes for these families to leave the Haven, we hope, they will have what is needed.

The Little Flowers have learned are teaching everyone around them to Walk the Walk. At this young age they know talk is cheap and "The Walk" is what is important. They are putting people and families first.

I tell you, I couldn't be more proud of the woman my Little Flower is becoming.

Black and White Wednesday & A VERY Special 13th Birthday

I sat down to write about Kathryn and her 13^th birthday today and how I can’t believe the time has past. How lucky I feel to have been privileged enough to be not only her mother, but to be her school teacher as well.

I thought I would tell you for her birthday everyone showered her with the most beautiful gifts.

I thought I would tell you about the ring my mother had made for Kathryn out of an old earring. My father had bought a set of earrings for my mother over 50 years ago in Filen's Basement and when my mother lost one earing she held on to the other one saving it for years. I thought I would mention my mother had the remaining earring made into a MOST fabulous ring this year just for Kathryn. I wanted to say just how delighted and truly special this gift is to both Kathryn and me.

I thought I mention how Margaret bought Kathryn a beautiful jewelry box just to put the ring in.

13 for Kathryn this year will be a year to remember.

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I really have wanted to post all this for the past couple of days but I couldn’t get to it for one reason or another. Tonight I decided this post may be a great post for Black and White Wednesdays.

So now here we are and Kathryn is not only another year older, she is making advances into the cooking world.

Tonight she was trying to boil water for a nice hot cup of peppermint tea before ending her great day and calling it a night. After putting a pan on the stove to boil the water in, she covered the pan with a plastic cover that was way to big for the pan AND she walk away!

Mark and the boys were not home and before I knew what had happened the house was covered in black soot, the stove was on fire and I couldn’t get the fire alarms off…….WHAT A MESS!!!

Uuuuuuu

Soooooo, now I’m just think-en

Maybe we should take a little closer look at Lisa’s cooking posts after debate class for dinner tomorrow night……and then hit a few of my cousin Anne’s Simply Sweeter posts for dessert.

Maybe we should consider tutor. ANNE??? Lisa??? What do you think?

Snapshot Sunday ~ MAN!!!

You know sometimes you just get those shots that say,

"Oh! Wow! I can use this one for Melissa's "Snapshot Sunday".

So you save the picture and try not to forget you have it.

Well, I didn't forget!

Reiner had a birthday last week AND out of respect for my elders

I am not going to tell you JUST how old he is this year...or next.

BUT MAN!!!

Happy Birthday Month Riener!

I Wonder...Did I Blow It?

Can you get behind on blogging?

Blogging is something I do for fun; to look back and see what has really happened through the year....To see if my memories match what truly was, to see who was loved, to see how the children have grown and all the other "stuff" in between.

Now with our seasons changing I wonder, Did I blow the post I should have done about the snow and the fort Stephen built.

One February night, almost a month ago now, we had the prettiest snow fall. It was so soft, fluffy and light. The perfect snow to play in, to build forts in, have snow ball fights in and to just really enjoy the night.

It wasn’t even that cold. The best part of the snow, to me, was, IT was gone the very next day.

Those are the snows I like.

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Did I blow not posting about the “Little Flowers” volunteering at the Soup Kitchen?

They got up very early a cold February morning excited about “doing good” for their fellow man.

It really was a warming site.

The girls were a little nervous a first……

But, they jumped right in and did everything they were asked to do with warm and loving hearts.

Did you know, at the Soup Kitchen they not only give one well prepared feast, they offer; a bag that contains some food for the rest of the day, clothing, and just a few personal items, if they can.

You can only take one deodorant, tooth paste or soap …….NOT one of each…..ONE!

You must choose …”Which one do you need the most???”

AND THAT was REALLY tough to have to say.

This was my job…..and mostly, the people ,down on their luck at soup kitchen, understood; Most would just take one, and say “thank you” with a smile and then walked away.

After it was all said and done.….The six girls that came with me, giggled all the way home in the back of my van sharing doughnuts, talking about school issues, books they have read, foods they like and how they should wear their hair.

When I asked them what they thought about the Soup Kitchen they didn’t say much….Thinking about it now, I don’t know if they really knew what to think. They understood, for the most part, these are people that are down on their luck. They understood some of these people made bad choices but some where stuck in a very bad economy. They understood anyone of us could be standing on the other side of that soup kitchen line easy enough.

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So now here we are……The middle of March.

In the height of our birthday season. And, with every passing birthday the memories DO NOT fad…….The presence of our dad grows stronger and the tears still flow freely and easily when we realize…It IS true. All “that” really happened.

But somehow the “Time goes on” as I can hear my father say….and we celebrate each and every birthday and all the "mile stones" of our lives.

There are seven birthdays in our family this month.

AND the BIG surprise this year...

James in now 21!

Black and White Wednesday ~ YA Gotta LOVE George!

Did YA know?

We Celebrate SEVEN Birthdays in March.

SEVEN!

In the spirit of the BIG Birthday month, I thought I would take a picture of everyone who had a birthday the month of March and was at James's 21^st birthday party.

Sometimes George likes to steal the show...

Well, If you know George, you will know, most of the time George likes to steal the show.

That is what makes him fun.

He thinks he ruined this picture....What he never realized was as soon as he jumped in front of Reiner I thought, "Oooo! This will be a great picture to play Lisa's Long Road to China and Black and White Wednesday."

George was very pleased with himself thinking ~ He was making things difficult for his "little Sister". He is always teasing...The perfect big Brother. He plays his role like a pro.

Now here is the thing: George doesn't have a computer and he doesn't read the blog.

Soooo, let's not tell him...The joke really is on George.

I hope he will keep trying very hard to ruin more pictures.

Teasing George back is fun!

Snapshot Suday ~ "OH! I Got It!!!"

Playing Melissa's "Snapshot Sunday"

I thought I would post this picture of Kathryn playing basketball;

She was on the church team and those girls worked hard!

I took this picture last Tuesday night at one of the play off games.

I didn’t even realize I took this shot. I looked down at my camera thinking darn it…I didn't even

look.......

I missed again. But there it was.

I skillfully planned this shot.

WOW!

I am really getting the hang of this thing.

Surprise! it's Black and White Wednesday or George's Birthday

So Bill wanted to have a Surprise Birthday party for George.

It was "The" Big One.

Not that Big one. The other Big One.

NO! The one before that one.

So anyway, Bill planned the party.

Stephenie made a cake.

We all could not be leave how authentically old fashioned it looked.

And that gave me an idea....I could try very hard to get this post out in time to play Lisa's Long Road to China Black and White Wednesday.

Bill planned the party for weeks.

He told the whole family and invited all of George's friends.

Kristen came down for the fun.

There was just one problem.

George didn't know about the party.

Soooo,

George was not in a hurry to be at the party.

Stephenie called her dad and told him her car died at Uncle Bill's house,

AND

she needed him to come and fix it right away.

George figured Bill would be home soon and could fix it.

He worked all day, needed to go by the store and would not rush.

After all she was okay...She was at her uncles house.

So we waited.

And we waited

AND

We Waited

Then we had to pull out the BIG GUNS....

You guessed IT!

We used the B-A-B-Y!

Stephenie told her dad she had to get home...Aubry was out of food and she was screaming!

Uncle Bill would not be home for awhile. He just had to come.

Now THAT

Got him moving.

He couldn't believe all the people....He couldn't get over the cake.

The food was great.

The games were fun.

Most of all it was just a great time getting together having fun and laughing again.

There was just one thing.

George said "He wished someone would have given him a heads up.

"He would have gone home to take a shower and change before he was surprised."