An update on Aubrey

Hey!  I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and well wishes for Aubrey.  Y'all are truly the best! and . . . She is doing better. 

~ as we say in the South at times like these ~ 

"PRAISE THE LORD!" 

This is the scoop as of today: Aubrey is out of ICU and is eating and drinking on her own now. Even though this baby girl of ours is still on dialyses, the doctors feel her kidneys should start to function within a couple of days.  We are told her stay in the hospital will be a long one but . . .for now. . . her doctors say she seems to be out of danger.   A BIG Yay!!!!!!


again ~ Let's keep praying and I'll keep you posted.


xoxo. . . Lisa

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

Playing along with Ni hao Y'all ~  this photo was taken with natural light on a Fujifilm S1000 and then edited in black & white

She's very Sick. . . very sick

You remember Aubrey don't you? She is my nieces baby. 

George's Granddaughter.  

Aubrey is sick. Very sick! So sick that when her mother called 911 for help - 911 called for help and had this sweet little child airlifted from her home to the hospital. 

From what I know today: her kidneys have shut down and she is on dialyses.

If your the praying kind - pray for her.  

I'll keep you posted, 

xoxo. . . Lisa

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Friday Fragment,  Favorite Photo Friday,   In the Studio

6 now

She turned six yesterday

and now she calls me mother. 

She tells me: "That's what big girls should call their mothers when they love them very much." 

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

About this photo:  It was taken only with the light of the candle. I brighten it just a little bit and tried to get rid of the granny look but couldn't., Even though it's not what I would have wished for I like the photo anyway because of the joy on her face. 

Long Time no Post

Did you know it was 108 degrees in Simpsonville last weekend? 

108! ! ! 

Man it has been hot! 

I know, it's been a long time since my last post, and my music REALLY needs an overhaul. BUT . . . I read some where that one should never work on a blog in the pool.  I think the article said: it would be best to take a camera and leave your computer at home.     You never know, you might miss a cool shot! 

Happy Fourth Y'all! 

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Our World Tuesday  :: Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day::  In the Studio

An Early Flight

I know this picture is terrible. It's just not good at all: the lighting, that I couldn't get right, the angle, even Stephen's hair is a mess. But, it is my favorite photo of the week. 

 ~ My little boys ~ 

Looking at them makes me happy I held them as much as I did. I believe in waking a sleeping baby just to hold them. After all, they grow up so fast and what's a few hours of lost sleep when the years just fly bye. 

 Anyway ~ Matthew, Stephen, Liz and I jumped in the car early Tuesday morning,  at 3:45 a.m., to beat it down to Atlanta so these guys could meet an 8 o'clock plane. 

We had to be at the airport by 7. 

Long story short ~ They went to Michigan to an Acton Institute conference for a week long study of religion, liberty and economics. 

It all makes me wonder. . . Who are these kids. . . and how in the world did they  become so fantastic get so boring!!!  

NOT!!!

Until Next time. . . 

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 Our World Tuesday  ::My 3 Boybarians 

ALL Y'all

Hey, Y'all ~ even ALL Y'all ~ 

That's what we say in the South when we want everyone to know the news and we don't want to leave anyone out: 

He did it again. 

He's on the Dean's list again this semester.  I'm just so proud of him I had to tell all y'all the good news.   

The South

The South 

/thə ' sau'th/, noun 

The place where. . .1.) Tea and accents are sweeter  2.) Summer starts in April.   3.) Macaroni and Cheese is a vegetable 4.) Front porches are wide and words are long.  5.) Pecan Pie is a staple  6.)  Y'all is the proper noun. 7.) Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy. 8.) Everything is Darlin'  &  9.) Someone's heart is always being blessed. 

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

Playing along with Ni hao Y'all ~  this photo was taken with natural light on a Fujifilm S1000

bubbles & halter tops

Nothing says summer like . . .

bubbles and halter tops. 

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Friday Fragment, Favorite Photo Friday 

Under a cloudy sky. . .

I think I told you last week that I am reading this book on photography and light. I told you I read how the human eye looks toward the brightest part of a picture. 

and we all agreed that was true. 

So the past few weeks I have been concentrating on light and the direction of the sun. Infact whenever I see that something is light up by the sun, I grab my camera and take a picture of it. 

This week I read you could minimize sun flares by cupping your hand  around the lens to shade the sun from flaring into your photograph.  But, most of the time I like the sun flares ~ so I leave them. 

 I also learned . . .when clouds roll in and 

  the sky turns dark in one area and bright in the other

 that is the time to point your camera to the things on the ground.  You just may discover birds have made a home in the your  front yard. 

AND 

Your flowers look great under a cloudy sky because there aren't any shadows from the sun.


and if . . .


the sky gets really nasty -

 it may just be a great time to shot the sky it's self.  

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

Playing along with Ni hao Y'all ~ all of these photos are unedited and taken with natural light on a Fujifilm S1000

a boy and his Tadpoles

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Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day:: ABC Wednesday

Sneaky Light

I have been reading this book of photography that talks about light. The book says the human eye naturally looks towards the part of a picture that has the most light.  

Well, this makes sense to me. 

So yesterday when I was picking flowers in front of my house, Liz put them in her bike basket.  The bike just happened to be in a lot of sunlight and looked so pretty sitting there. Like any good blogger/photographer wanna be, I grabbed my camera and took several shots of this pretty little scene.   

But! here's the thing!!! 

I can't tell if these pictures are any good or not because SOMEONE . . .by that I mean my teenage kids . . sneak on the computer late at night . . . They turn the computer light way down so their dad and I can't see they are up.  

Sneaking! 

You know, it's not that I mind the sneaking so much. I kind of expect that. . .the thing I mind is they don't seem to be smart enough to turn the computer light back to a normal light.  

~ Then we might never know. ~ 

 AND The most frustrating part is: I don't know how to adjust the light on the computer and they won't show me. Because of course, they were never up turning down the light in the first place. 

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Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day:: :Wordless Wednesday but with Words  :ABC Wednesday

It's Finished!

Remember when I told you Stevie Wonder was making a bench for me? 

I told you how he cut trees down in our woods, stripped the bark and designed this bench all on his own.   He worked on it . . .well. . . forever! 

You remember don't you ? 

I told you how big this bench was and how it would comfortably fit Stephen's 6'5" frame. 

and then. . .We laughed and decided we should call it "the Paul Bunyan" bench.  


So we did! 

Well. . . It's finished! and it's just wonderful! You have to come over and try it out. 

I'll make coffee. 

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

Playing along with Ni Hao Y'all ~ the first photo is unedited. I had my camera set on "natural light". 

Black and White. . .& RED

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: Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day::  live and love . . .out loud::Wordless Wednesday but with Words  :: ABC Wednesda

And then . . .

Remember when  I said "until next time", the last time I  posted? Okay then,  Do you remember when I said the last couple of weeks were a little crazy around here?

~ WELL ~ 

I'll tell you. . . it must have been wild wilderness week or something last week because the madness didn't stop with snakes.

~ Yes, It's true ~

Yeah, so anyway: Tuesday,  my sister Lucy *** aka Margaret *** fell by tripping over her sandals. Yep! right over her sandals. The bad news: Lucy stopped her fall with her face. 

On her face y'all! 


Right on her face! and here is where I have to say, "Bless her Heart". That is exactly what we say in the south if someone falls on their face. So, I'll just go ahead and say it again for all of us. 

"Bless her heart!"  


You know it's one thing when you think someone will fall on their face but when they actually do it. . .It's just bad.


Poor Lucy! 

The best Nana ever took her to the doctor and thankfully or shall I say . . .as we say in the South "Thank the Lord!" Nothing was broken. Lucy had bruising and swelling and lots and lots of soreness. 

But! the fun didn't stop there.

The very next morning I called to see if Lucy was okay and she wasn't! She was not good at all. She said she felt terrible. Being the good sister that I am I went to check on her with my concerned face. .. and concerned I was. I found that she was swollen and groggy and just a little bit loopy. . . more so then usual. But then I guess when you fall on your face your going to be swollen and groggy and  just a little bit loopy. So I left her to rest and told her I would bring her back some homemade soup that I had made for my son number one. . .the one that just had his wisdom teeth pulled Monday.           

As I pulled my dented car out of her drive way  ***remember last week the best Nana someone hit my car*** the best Nana ever call and whispered into the phone with alarm. "There is a squirrel in the house!"  

Okay, what???  


I thought I heard you say: "There was a squirrel in the house".   

and the best Nana ever replied 

There is a squirrel in the house! 

I quickly went to help. . . Someone had to do the screaming and I already had practice with the snakes.

It just happened with luck that Big Brother Bill was there. Without a thought to himself, he shinned up his armor, threw it on and became the hero of the day by battling this wild animal that had invaded his mothers home. With nothing but skill Sr. Bill the Knight trapped the creature into the fireplace. Bill would defend his mother to the death. . .  Bill's first thought was to have that little varmint run back up the chimney. . . the same way he came in. 

and just so you know: this is where I helped again because new dishes caught my eye!  


I just love dishes. So I said "Oh! new dishes." and with the squirrel safely trapped in the fireplace I started to unwrap the new dishes and look. Bill said "hey! let me have that paper the dishes were wrapped in."  So I gave it to him . . .and that's when the excitment started. 

With the fireplace safely wrapped in plastic and duck tape. . .Bill lite the paper I handed to him and stuck his arm behind the plastic. He started to take the cerramic logs off there settings . 

THERE!!! the varmint was hiding under the logs! 


In the fireplace you could see the little things heart beat in a panic as a giant arm came closer and closer . . . and smoke filled his secret hideout. 

this wild thing went crazy and scrammebled to get out. 

To bad for him he didn't didn't run up the shoot as planned. Instead he tried to run up the wall and got trapped in the plastic and duck tape. 

This is were Sr Bill the knight caught him with his bare hands. I helped here too by screaming and throughing a towel Bill's way. Bill wrapped this wild creature in the plastic and quickly took him outside. Secured the fireplace shoot so cousins and friends of this crazed critter could not come into the house and avenge their brother squirrel. 

When I told Stevie Wonder about all the excitement at the best Nana's house, he turned himself into one of the Clampetts *** this was a time you needed to be a clean shot! Buck eyes and the whole nine yards! *** 


Stevie Wonder knew the best Nana ever wouldn't want big holes in her walls - he knew when he patroled the property he had to be a clean shot! I even think I heard him say "Hot dog!" when he grabbed his pellet gun and "com-ents to a-runnin"

However, much to Jethro's disapiontment the best Nana ever was not going to turn herself into Granny and cook up sqirraul for dinner. 

And the week ended as it began. . . With a birthday. . . this time it's the Best Nana'a big day. 

Happy Birthday Best Nana! 

Happy Mother's Day Y'all! 

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Unknown Mami

 Ni Hao Y'all

bring your sense of humor

It has been decided by the board . . .that would be me. . .if you step into my life  you need to bring your sense of humor. .  .

For this is my life in a nut shell. . . 

 and I often wonder why  the number one blogging rule is if you have something interesting to blog about you just don't have time to blog it?

Last week the week started off with a bang: It is now official my baby boy, Matthew, is 20! 

20  y'all!  20!!!

Now that I have said it out loud and everyone knows I have a 20 year old son, I really don't think I'll ever say it again.

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The very next day, I allowed, Stevie Mike, my new driver to drive himself and his sister to their science class.  Not 15 minutes later the phone rang. When I saw it was Stephen calling I distinctly  knew something was wrong.

This new driver of mine had driven over roofing nails. That would be 18 roofing nails to be exact. Two tires later I thought all was right with the world   . . . and then . . . a few days later someone hit my parked car.

 Don't ask who it was because I will NEVER tell.

 I promised the best Nana I wouldn't say a word about who did it and I won't. You guys know me. . . when I say I'll keep a promise - I keep it! and that is that!

Speaking of the best Nana . . . she and I took Roy Orbison and her BFF strawberry picking and nothing seemed to happen that day. We just had a good time.                            

At least that is how I remember it.  

It just so happened that last week someone actually (( other then the best Nana ))  found my blog interesting enough to recommend it as a blog to see. I was so thrilled about all this but I didn't have the time to post about all that excitement and then I completely forgot about it  . . .and it appeared as if I didn't care at all,   but I did and do. . . very much.

The weekended was wonderfully quite with the three older ones gone spending time at my sister in law's house.

 Mark and I were able to recharge.

That was a good thing because Monday was coming and around here you never know what an ordinary Monday might bring to the life of a homeschooling mother.

I knew Monday morning I had to be at the oral surgeons by 8 with son number one to have four teeth removed. I was told everything should go smooth and thought okay good. I could use nice smooth Monday.  When we were leaving  the nurse just happened to mention how I should switch the ice pack every 20 minutes keeping both sides of his face iced for a full 12 hours and just replace the gauze every hour on the hour with a fresh  pad until 6 tonight.   . . .Okay! there goes my easy quite day this one told me I was going to have.

Little did I know how true THAT would turn out to be. 

As soon as I got Matthew home Stevie Wonder tells me how much his knee hurts and he thinks he needs to go to the doctor. I take a look at his knee and see that it is hot and swollen. I tell him we can't go yet but, we will go as soon as we can.  We have to wait until I get his brother settled and I know he will be okay. 

As Stephen and I are reviewing our his school work ~ Liz said she wanted to play on the front porch. She came back in in a rush saying . . ."I can't play out there! There are four snakes in the yard!".

 FOUR SNAKES!!!!!!!!!! IN THE YARD!!!!

 Stephen springs into action and runs out the door. Matthew is groggy still on the couch and says "what??? who??? oh okay. . . " and goes back to sleep. I on the other hand . . . I panic!!! Okay! that's not really the truth  . . .

I TOTALLY PANIC!!!!!!!!!!! like in. . . I FREAK OUT!!!!!!

Stevie Wonder turns himself into Indiana Jones (( minus being afraid of snakes )) and battles the snakes in our yard. He captures them and wrestles them into a bucket and completely saves the day. . . NO! He TOTALLY! saved the day! 

My mighty Matt. . .still groggy on the couch. . .wondering why is mother his mother is screaming at the far in of the house but not with it enough to find out goes back to sleep.

My oldest daughter Kathryn causally walks out to see what was going on and then goes back upstairs to finish her math test.    As all this is going ~ the best Nana, my sister Margaret ((sometimes I call her Lucy)), her boys, Brian and Alex, swing by the house to see the patient who just has his teeth removed. Little did they know what they would be walking into.

The boys are thrilled and want to find out how they can move into our little house in the woods that seem to attract so much excitement.

Their mother . . .my sister Lucy. . . TOTALLY PANICS !!!! NO! SHE TOTALLY FREAKS OUT!!!!!!  She throws her soothing gift of ice cream at my oldest son and jumps on the couch screaming. 

In the end. .  .

My savior Indie takes his two cousins, his sister Kathryn and  three snakes to another home releasing them into the wild. When he get back to our home he says . . . "Mother, I really need to go to the doctor now. My knee is killing me."

 and I wonder. . .how can I get my savoir to the doctor today if I can never leave the house again. I mean after all . . .Lizzy said she saw four snakes. 

Until Next time. . .

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Tone on Tuesday  :: Our World Tuesday  ::My 3 Boybarians :: Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day::  live and love . . .out loud::Wordless Wednesday but with Words  :: 

Way older!

 Did you know that next week my oldest son will be way older then I am?

Way Older then I am! 

WOW! How did that happen?  It's hard to believe time has gone by so fast. . . 

He tells me he wants to earn a Doctorate in philosophy  from a Catholic College.       In a couple of weeks he will have four wisdom teeth removed. All this makes me wonder if one can major in phylosphy without wisdom. . .  teeth.

BYE!!!


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THIS OR THAT THURSDAY ::   Embrace the Camera with the Anderson Crew ::  Favorite Photo Friday

Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom from an Alpaca. . .and Voltaire 

"One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say" ~ Voltaire

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Black and White Wednesday with Me as a Mother ::  Black and White Wednesday with like Christmas every day::  live and love . . .out loud::Wordless Wednesday but with Words  :: 

A Question???

Here's a question for ya ~  

Have you ever seen anyone happier then this . . .

 carrying a chicken? 

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 FAVOURITE PHOTO MONDAY photo challenge:

 :: Our World Tuesday ::   ::My 3 Boybarians ::      ::  Communal Global :: 

Just Because

 For some reason when I look at this photo it reminds me of  The Great Gatsby.

Maybe it's her haircut, her short skirt or maybe the exotic animal that give me the Gatsby feel. I don't know. I just look at this picture and think F. Scott Fitzgerld. MMMM maybe it's time for another break from all this schooling we are doing. 

Happy Weekend Y'all!!! 

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Playing along with NiHoaY'all and the Sunday photo challenge: I took this shot with my camera set on natural with Fuji S1000.  I only cropped this photo and didn't change anything else about the lighting.  

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Also linking up with ~ Happily Mother After :: Favorite Photo Friday ~ The Paper Mama photo challenge 

Me and my Little Boy. . .Embracing the Camera

I took these picture months ago. MONTHS AGO!!! way back in February right before Stephen went on one of the many retreats he has gone on. The kid loves retreats!   We had so much fun taking these pictures because I kept cutting off his head. We just couldn't get right. 

That's what he gets for being so tall. . .right???

Anyway, I have been following this blog  anderson crew by emily anderson. This is a mamma of 6 small children. Her Thursday meme idea is to embrace the camera: to get in the photos with your kids, husband, mom, friends, whoever. Like a lot of us, this is hard for me to do. I like to be the one on the other end clicking away, making everyone else uncomfortable. 

 Stephen is the most easy going kid you would ever want to meet and I knew he wouldn't mind playing along. Without any make up I grabbed Stephen before we left for our early morning road trip to the camp and we started taking pictures.  Then, I held on to those pictures for months because I thought: "what was I thinking???" " I don't have on any make up and who in there right mind would post pictures of themselves looking like that? Plus, my nose looks huge!" HuGe!!!  and then Stephen was looking at my blog on day and asked why I didn't post those photos.  He said. . .

Put them up mom. You look great and it was fun. 

So here they are: The picture I took of me and my little boy. . .Stevie Wonder. . .embracing the camera. 

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