Happy 15th Birthday Ethan!!!

Ethan Mark Henry is 15 years old! June 4, 2009 was a great day in the Henry house. We surprised Ethan with a Wii! He is a pretty hard boy to surprise - he has been picking out his own birthday/Christmas presents since he was about 5. He was totally shocked and overjoyed when he saw that box! And, so far, this is the best present we have ever bought. The whole family loves it - Daddy, Granddaddy, Sean and Allie have been enjoying it just as much as Ethan has. We are so glad that Shannon, Sean, Silas, Grandmommy, Granddaddy, and Gram could be with us to celebrate - it made the day extra special! They all gave him lovely gifts as well - Wii games that he has been DREAMING of!!:) We all love that precious boy and thank Jesus for him every day!

Opening Day for the Henry Pool

We LOVE summer!!! And it was finally warm enough to get in the pool! Ethan and Allie were beside themselves with joy. We didn't have the deck last summer so the new "thing" is jumping off the deck into the pool. They are such little fish - it's a good thing I love fish!!!

Locks of Love

Our sweet Allie has been talking about donating her hair to Locks of Love for quite a while and she finally decided that June 2, 2009 was the day for the cut!! We are so proud of her selfless gift and her kind generous heart. We all LOVE her new short "do" and I think she might love it the most. I am so glad!!!

41 Years of Love

My precious parents celebrated their 41st Anniversary on May 24, 2009. Mother and Daddy are such a blessing to all of us and are the most wonderful parents (and grandparents) in the world! We were so glad to be with them that day - we all went up to Rabun County to the Dillard House. Only Gram had been there before and it was gorgeous scenery and amazing food. It is family style - they bring bowls of yummy country cooking to the table and keep refilling the bowls until everyone is satisfied. We definitely were!! I bought a Dillard House Cookbook and the history of the Dillard House and that whole area is very interesting. I highly recommend going there for a special occasion sometime!

Green Works

Now I am not exactly the "greenest" person you will meet. But Allie is determined to "greenovate" me. She asked if we could buy this cleaner that is supposed to be more "green" than the old cleaners I have used since the dinosaur age of the 80's. So, we bought it (very sceptically, I must admit) and it really is an OK cleaner - no big prizes!

BUT, I discovered a FABULOUS use for this stuff that is not really what it is intended for(sorry dangling preposition!). Wanna know what? .............. It kills flying bugs!! Now, FYI, I cannot rest when there is a fly in my house. It drives me nuts, and sometimes in the spring and summer, it seems like there are millions! (maybe 5 or 6) Back in college, in the good old aerosol (told you I wasn't green) hair spray days, I found out that you could spray flys with hair spray (in my mind this was better than spraying pestisides everywhere and I CANNOT stand fly swatters - squished bugs - YUCK!) and it would slow them down long enough to scoop them up with a paper towel (more waste, I know) and throw them away with no mess............ WELL, one day it occured to me that instead of wasting my hair spray and getting the whole house gluey, there must be something else I could spray on them to slow them down. VOILA, Green Works, works!! You wait until they land, spray them, and it totally makes them slow enough to squish!

I know this is a crazy subject, but it is the small simple joys that make my day!:)

Happy Mother's Day

It was a very happy mother's day. I am so privileged to live in the same town as my precious Mother and grandmother(Gram). I don't even have the words to say all they both mean to me. All the memories of happy times are such a gift that they both have given to me. All the money in the world can't buy parents and grandparents who adore you - it was simply a wonderful merciful gift from God that I received gratefully. I am a very VERY blessed girl to have Mother and Gram as examples of all that a mother should be. I love having this photo of the four generations. May 10, 2009

My Love Hate Relationship with Ebay

I started selling things on Ebay about a year ago. Some days I am super motivated and feel like listing tons of items and I get a strange thrill out of making the listing perfect and beautiful. I love making the font color match whatever I am selling and taking a million pictures until I get some that are just right. Can you say "control freak?"

And then they start changing the rules on me. Now you can no longer use a picture from another website(at least not from J Crew) in your listing. GRRR!!! Using those professional shots used to make my listings so much prettier. sigh. I mean the money is nice(of course!), but I think it is just the student in me that needs to do a little project and (in my mind) if the item sells well, that is my good grade.

I haven't had a real job or a real grade in about 15 years so I guess this is about as close as I can get. Maybe I should get Ethan and Allie to give me a report card on mothering. No nevermind. That would not go well.

Cooking - not so much
Cleaning -"who's coming over?" asks a kid.
Laundry - THAT I can do - anything involving clothes is kinda fun.
Gardening - I killed my fake plants
Grocery shopping - only once a day (can't remember to bring the list)
Loving them - OK I rock at that.

Maybe I'll go back to school someday or get a job that involves a paycheck but for now it's back to Ebay :)