Monday was a great day!

Monday was a great day, up early... hot coffee... cool morning... newspaper dry, so far so good:) Took Autumn to school and then back home for a brief stay, not long enough to get anything done. Then off to Avery's birthday party at school. They have snack at 10AM and Cindy made a DElicious chocolate chip cookie cake. It was tons of fun to see her with all her friends and Alex got to participate too! Tracy and I left there and went shopping for a few things she needed. Off to do some grocery shopping, not my fav, and home for lunch. Had really fresh bread, don't you love good fresh bread?

Today was moving day for the home office so I was needed to help with the children which I didn't mind at all:) I was picking Austin up at the bus stop and left early so that I could get my walk in. I parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up and down this hill, swinging my little arms and feeling sooooo good about it. I have really been needing to get my booty in an exercising gear, thanks for the gentle nudge:)

Dancing with the stars, woohoo!!!!!

Love you all and let's enjoy Tuesday!

The rain is gone for now!

Well, I have really complained about the rain. We have had tournaments canceled and rain just isn't pleasant if you have to get out in it. I get out every day for some reason, if nothing else but to take Autumn to school!

Friday, the paper got wet and I had to hang it up to dry. Most people would have thrown it in the garbage, but the Howell comes out in me quite often and so I took the sections that I knew my Honey reads every day and dried it. Saturday I took a picture of the rain running down my driveway to complain about:) Then I looked up and saw the beautiful dogwood tree beginning to bloom! That made me smile and think if there was no rain then that dogwood would die:)

Then on my way to Church yesterday morning I ran by my sister, Barbara's house, to see what she was dealing with. Now... she lives on the river and most days it is gorgeous. She enjoys watching things floating down the river and on a normal day, it it just beautiful. Well here is what it looked like on Sunday. It was about 5 feet from her house that morning and it appeared to still be rising.

I know that we are all thankful that while the river rose and got close, it didn't flood their beautiful home:)

Love you all and I hope it will be a bright sunshiny day!!!!!!!!!

What a fun day!

Saturday March 28, 2009 Avery's 3rd birthday was a wonderful day in spite of the rain! I went over to give her some presents and she was having a great birthday. She opened her presents and loved everything she got. I made cupcakes for the benefit and visited with lots of family and friends. The place was packed, everyone loves Hazel:) I saw people there that I haven't seen in 20 years and more. They had bluegrass music and more singing but I left to go to the Japanese steak house for Avery's birthday. We had a ball. It is always so entertaining and the kids love the show as well as the food.

It was a wonderful day! Love you all!

Avery is THREE today!

Avery Birthday Party #1 & 2

The baby in the Parrish House is 3 years old today! My how the time has flown by. Last year on her birthday, her Mama and Daddy were both sick, so Avery and I spent the day at Chuckie Cheese's. We had a ball. She is soooo excited. I told her I had her some presents and she said "I love presents"!:) Little children say the sweetest things. She will have her school party on Monday and she ordered a cookie cake. Cindy made Alex one to take to school and Avery remembered that. This is just a random collection of precious pictures and trust me I could fill the blog up.

Avery on my steps on her 2nd birthday!


Avery on her real BIRTHDAY!

Love you all and Happy Birthday My Precious Avery!!!!!!!!!

If you want to get motivated....

If you want to get motivated for spring cleaning, go to this blog. This lady sounds like wonder woman. Go look anyway! Of course I found this thru Kelly's blog:) http://frontporches-sweet-tea.blogspot.com/ Look at the white porch lights, they are just beautiful and I believe she said she painted 8 of them. Huh? That's a lot of painting...

Well, it's the weekend of a 3-day tournament and guess what? 3-5in of rain expected. Are you kidding me? I told Autumn that it was supposed to rain and she said "don't say that Ganky, when you do they cancel the tournament". I said, "I am only repeating what the weather man said"! Oh well, maybe it will pass us by. The bad thing is they have so many teams coming from all over and hate to have them make the trip for nothing.

Marie got her nerve block yesterday and all went well. She will get to go home today and come back on Tuesday for the chemo beads as an outpatient.

My cousin's wife, Hazel (with Lou Gehrig's disease) has the benefit on Saturday! Spaghetti at First Baptist Church of Lithonia. 5:30-7:00 I think? I'll double-check the time. $10 a plate. Barbara talked to one of her caregivers and they said she can now only move her eyes. She is trapped in there and can still hear and see but can't do a thing. It is a terrible disease:(

My hair is gorgeous! I tried Cindy and Rhonda's lady, April. She was so sweet and gave me a ton of highlights, oh what the heck... I am blonde. Most people won't make it blonde because they say it looks washed out. I KNOW that my husband likes it blonde. Kinda like getting a new wife:)
OK Joyce, here it is... I took it myself so it is a little too close!

I have to get out in the yuckiness, tomorrow is Avery's birthday and while we are not having the party until next weekend... I have to get something to go with her gifts that she will open on her birthday.

Love you all and have a blessed day!

Age, Hunger, 5lbs and a hairdo...

Why is it that the older you get the hungrier you are, the harder it is to lose that 5 lbs that you have always been able to lose with ease and you can't decide on a hairdo? These are all questions that I have this morning... Food is important, where do you want to eat, what restaurant do you want to meet at and what sounds good to you? Everything revolves around eating:( Why can't you eat what you want to? What about a good biscuit and some Karo syrup, that is what I would like to have this morning instead of a low-fat bagel and Weight Watcher cream cheese. I have always been able to shake 3-5 lbs without a whole lot of trouble, but not these days. That few pounds is really hard to drop. Why, you might ask, because I am hungry!!!!! I need to walk 30minutes a day, I have been saying that and haven't started doing it yet. Weather bad, I have a treadmill... no excuse! Perhaps I should start walking for 30 minutes to a restaurant and I bet that would get the old tennis shoes on!

I have a hair appt today to get some fresh highlights and a haircut! Not the 4 hour lady but I am trying Cindy and Rhonda's beautician. I hope that I come out of there looking springtime fresh and perhaps since my hair is getting a little long, maybe I will leave a lb or 2 on the beauty shop floor:)

****First 3 comments will get something in the mail personally handmade by me****

Kelly Kelly shared this with me and it started with Karen at
Extroverted Introspection. It's very simple! The way it works is I'm going to send the first three bloggers who leave me a comment something HANDMADE by me. All you have to do is link Karen's blog on yours and send something to your first three commenters who'll do the same. I am not as crafty with the blogging as Kelly, but I am giving it my best shot!

Barbara and I visited Marie yesterday! She is getting the nerve block today and the chemo beads will be inserted into her liver on Tuesday! She has the best attitude. I left there yesterday wondering how I would handle the news and the treatment she is about to go through. Marie is certainly setting an example. Her courage is truly admirable! Please keep this family in your prayers.

Love you all and have a blessed day!

ALL day in the closet:(

My closet needed serious attention and I gave it all I could in one day! I told Autumn that I MUST work in my closet and she said if I didn't she was taking my phone. We laughed and I told her OK. That is what happens to her when she has an attitude.

It is officially springtime because I have swapped out the winter clothes for spring/summer. I keep the off season stuff in another room. It is a hassle and I dread it and time flies by so fast that I am seemingly just moving the stuff back and forth. Oh well... it is done until it starts getting cold again.

I also pulled out all the shoes and organized them. I have WAY too many shoes. I will probably buy another pair before the end of the week. What is wrong here? Look at all these flip-flops and sadly there are more. I have a box of shoes packed away from last spring/summer and I keep flip-flops in the laundry room and a pair on the back porch! I am a flip-flop fanatic:0) Wonder if there is a medicine for that?

I feel good about what I got done, ashamed that I have soooo many shoes and yet I do SO love shoes. I had a before and after picture of my closet work... but it would be like looking at one of the games "can you find what is different"! Still looks too full, just a bit more organized. I seriously need to start thinning out what I know I am NEVER gonna wear:) It's a Howell thing, we just keep too much everything...

I don't like to stay upstairs in the daytime. I seldom go up there after I come down in the mornings so for me to spend the whole day up there was a big deal for me. It needed dusting and I even cleaned the top of the light fixtures in the bathroom. Oh well, I am about to hurt my arm patting myself on the back so I better go.

If Marie is still in the hospital I am paying her a visit this morning! Please keep her and FooFoo in your prayers. I feel that she has a really tough road ahead and I know that you can't make it without prayers.

Love you all and have a blessed day!

Standin on a corner...

"you have to sing it"

Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see:)

It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me...

I was having blogger's block this morning so I decided to write about a fun trip Marc and I took a couple of years ago. I know you know the song by the Eagles about Winslow Arizona but it was really fun to go there. Just a small place but lots of photo ops. Here are a few pictures from this trip to Arizona. We went to Sedona where the red rocks are and stayed a couple of nights there and then on to the Grand Canyon. Some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We went on a jeep tour that included catching the sunset over the Grand Canyon.

Look at the Rainbow!
This was the view from our balcony in Sedona.

Prayer request: Our cousin, Marie,"my age" has liver cancer and is having a variety of tests in advance of treatment. She is currently in Emory in severe pain and we are not sure what is causing it. My Aunt, Mattie Lou (Foo Foo) is my Mama's baby sister and she is watching her daughter goe thru this extremely tough time. Please pray for Marie and her precious Mama!!!!

Love you all!

Makes you wanna dance...

Friends and Family Day 2009 at St. John Baptist Church was so good it made you wanna dance! This is Barbara's great-granddaughter, Jada "dancing in the aisle"! The place was packed!!Thanks to Barbara... we had 4 full benches of folks. Then we proceeded to the biggest, longest table of THE BEST food and the entire fellowship hall was full of JUST desserts. My, my, was it ever good. Here are a few pictures from the day. Please note the two hugging in the middle of this picture are Kelly Kelly and her bestest friend (her sister Suzanne)!

I have cholesterol check this morning so I am sipping black coffee, yuck!
Love you all and have a blessed day!

When I was a little girl...

Mama on the front porch:)

Do you have memories when you were little that are special, you pass those on to your children and they are special to them too? Then they pass them on to their children and yep you guessed it, special to them too. When I was little, my Mama would make little individual desserts in a little tiny bowl:) Precious memory:) well I made those little desserts for my daughter and she comments frequently how special that was. She makes them for her children as I am sure they will make them for theirs. She tells them of her childhood memory. What made me think of that on this particular day? I was making a dessert for Friends and Family Day at Church today and wanted to relive a memory... I am going to surprise my honey after dinner and tell him why he got such a special treat:)

Love you all and have a blessed Sunday!

Friday night at Ganky and Pa's:)

Tracy and Derek had a date night so Pa and I were blessed to have grandkid night:) Autumn spent the night with a friend so Austin, Alex and Avery came for a visit. We played outside until it got cold. They loved running down the long walkway to the poolhouse and using the potty. They wanted to swing for a LONG time and then moved on to the riding toys. They would go way up the driveway and then ride down fast and scream, again and again! It reminded me of Autumn and Austin at that age doing the very same thing. I had shopped this week and bought the girls the cutest little spring shoes and they wore them last night. Big mistake. They wore the toes off and now they are fit for the playground or the garbage can. But you know what, they had so much fun... shoes can be replaced.

We moved inside for wing night. The fun continued. I am a huge clearance shopper and could probably pull almost anything needed at any given moment. I went to my stash and got PJs for the babies. They were so excited to see their new PJs and when their parents got home, they were ready for bed. Ummm perhaps not ready for bed since they had ice cream and chocolate. Fun night for the old guys and the younguns. Austin was on the computer and then came out for some tossing the ball with Pa! Every Pa needs a grandson and that is what he has "A" grandson:)! Those two guys play hard and pick at each other, they have so much fun together.

Sunday is Friends and Family Day at church! It will be packed and more food than at Hosea feed the Hungry!

Love you all!