Awkward Family Photos

Kelly's Korner is having Awkward Family Photo Day and I thought that would be something that I could participate in since I have tons of VERY awkward family photos.

Kelly will probably look at these and wish she had thought of some other subject for today!!   Sorry!

In my eyes, the kids always looked cute.  I was always the awkward one!  I had spiral perms, huge glasses and weighed about 10 more pounds than I do now in most pictures.  Who in their right mind thought huge glasses were fashionable?

These pictures are self-explanatory.  Enjoy!   And let's see some of your old pictures!

Circa 1976

My personal favorite awkward family picture complete with mini-van in the background!!

Mama-ma and Pap-pa in the background. 

I found this and just had to include this.  Apparently Hubs found a black wig and put it on and son Chris was putting his underwear on his ears and Kelly was laughing hysterically.

Such was life in the Martin house!

Now it looks awkward but then it was just lots of fun!

Feed My Sheep

Every year Hubs and I look forward to spending a few days in Florida at a pastor's conference.  I'm not sure what people think pastors do at a conference but mostly it is listening to some wonderful preaching and great music!

It is where the preacher gets preached to!!  We start around 9:00 a.m. and finish around 9:00 p.m.  We absolutely love it!

We drove down a couple of days before the conference and stayed at Destin. We love it this time of the year because it is somewhat desolate and we pretty much have the beach to ourselves.  No, we don't swim or sun ourselves!  Just a walk on the beach together is our cup of tea!

And, yes, we did have coats on!  It was the coldest it has been in years while we were there.  The wind was cutting and a coat felt good all week!

The theme of the conference was Feed My Sheep.  

We look forward to seeing our friends we went to seminary with over 30 years ago.  I didn't get a picture of the men but here I am with Debbie from Oklahoma and Pat from Georgia.  Our kids all went to school together during our years in Fort Worth, Texas.

The church always has a beautiful pastor's wives luncheon and this year's was so very nice.

The tables are always so pretty with fresh flowers and gold orangza bows tied on the chairs.  Reminds me of being at a fancy wedding reception!  The food was delicious and we got gift bags with books (yea!) and a necklace from Premier Jewelry.  

Thank you to FBC Jacksonville for making us all feel special!

We heard many great pastors preach. We were convicted, up-lifted, encouraged and filled with joy by all of them!  On Sunday evening Tim Tebow preached to thousands crowded into the sanctuary to hear him.  Although he is not a "preacher", he delivered a great message.  He loves the Lord and is very humble when speaking about how the Lord has been working in his life.  It was a great way to end our conference.

We like to drive back to Arkansas on the "backroads" and enjoy a little Americana.  We drove through Plains, Georgia and even though I don't agree with Jimmy Carter's politics, I wanted to stop and see what Plains was all about!

Downtown was very old and I loved it!  

This was one of the first things we saw as we parked our car downtown: a trailer full of peanuts!  So we knew we could get some fresh peanuts!

We walked into this store and the lady started feeding us peanut ice cream and fresh boiled peanuts.  Seriously, it was great!  

We couldn't take home the ice cream but we did get some delicious peanuts and some of the best tasting brittle I've ever had!

As we drove home toward Arkansas, we got into a little snow between Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis but missed the huge snow storm that came the next day.

We had a great trip and came home with thankful hearts at all we had heard and experienced!  It is always fun to travel but always great to get home!

And then Sunday we got this as we drove home from church on our little gravel road.......

And more freezing rain and snow due tomorrow!!

How many more days till Spring??

BEFORE AND AFTER

For several years now I have wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets.  I love my kitchen and my cabinets but really wanted a change.

I have read so many decor blogs, made my Pinterest collection of kitchens and finally decided to carry through with my thoughts on going white!

My cabinets are maple and are custom cabinets.  I was having a little water damage on one side of the built-in dishwasher where apparently I sling water when I am at the sink.  I knew we would eventually have to do something to repair the water spots.  Also all my woodwork and crown moulding is white and I thought it would be an updated look to have them all the same.

Who knows how things will turn out.  It's kind of scary to change things up after many years….especially important and expensive things like your kitchen cabinets.

Here is the before:

It took two painters approximately 4 days to paint the kitchen. They took all the drawers and cabinet doors to their workshop to spray and hand painted the rest at my house.  

So here is the AFTER:

So that's my new look for the next few years!  I like it.  It was a good change for us. 

What do you think?

THE BIG 4-0

I haven't blogged since August.  Nothing is wrong other than I was not motivated enough to sit down and write about the probably very non-interesting things in my life.

BUT…..today is different!

I could not let this day go by without remembering back forty (Is that right? How could that possibly be right?) years ago today.

December 22, 1973 was the day that changed my life from a young woman to someone's mother!!

Kelly was our first baby and she was born to very inexperienced parents for sure.  I didn't know anything about "birthin' babies" nor had I been around babies much.  I never baby-sat when I was growing up.

So Kelly was raised by much love and very little experience.  She got those long naps, rocked for hours and ridden around Dallas in the car in the wee hours of the morning to get her to sleep, rice cereal that was too runny and too many Cheerios at one sitting.  But, boy, was she loved!

And still is to this very day!!

Kelly, You are an awesome woman and we are so very proud of you!

It has been said that you will never know the results of your parenting until you see your children's children raised.

You are doing a great job being our grandchildren's mother!

Happy Forty Kelly!  You wear it well!

Wasn't this just a couple of years ago?

The Reward

I cross-stitched this when I was twenty-five years old for my parents.  They were about to become grandparents for the first time and I thought this little saying was apropos for the coming event. 

So now, forty years later, it hangs in my upstairs guest room that also houses my "baby things" (baby bed, rocker, little Tyke car, tricycle, toys, etc.).  It was one of the things I kept from my parents' house after they had both passed away.  

I am certainly finding out that the little, maybe trite, saying is certainly true.

I haven't blog lately but I did want to write a post about the fun week we had with our oldest granddaughter last week.

I had been trying to find a time to have her come and stay all summer.  But there was always something coming up to prevent it.  We have had a busy summer and her parents are busy also, so it just hadn't happened.

But I finally found a few days that we could all make connections and this girl was ours for a few fun days! 

 Four-and-a-half year-olds are the perfect age I have decided!  As a grandmother who is feeling the "where-did-my-energy-go?" part of life, this age child is not as hard to keep up with as a two or three year old!  (Although I did keep my one-year-old baby girl for a week in July and did fine!)

I would have loved to have Harper's little sister also but I have not ventured with two of them at one time.  Hollis is precious and I am planning on keeping her by herself soon.  I don't think you can get to know your grandchildren's personality unless you keep them yourself.  

So this little post is about our week.  It may be of non-interest to you but as I said before, I wanted to make a post to remember this special time with her at this marvelous special age!

Harper is a dog-lover.  She never fails to ask about our two dogs when we talk on the phone and she always remembers them when she prays! ( I love that! I don't even care that Nonny/Papa's names are called AFTER the dogs!)  

She spent so much of her time outside on the porch with our golden lab, Bobber.  She would just sit and "talk" to him.

She like to sit out on the porch in the rocker early in the morning and watch a movie. She DOES have a blanket.  It was in the 50's!  Such a mild summer we have had!

Yes, she has lipstick on while riding her horse!  Every time I turned around she was in my bathroom sampling my lipstick!  Oh me!

 She still had her PJ's on because it was early in the morning and she couldn't wait to get outside and ride!  Who am I to say "no"?  I love to get outside early in the morning in my PJ's too. (We do not have any close neighbors by the way!)

Papa and I were all set to go buy her a bike to have at our house but her Mom remembered to send hers!

These pictures of Harper with her Papa just warm my heart.  As soon as he got home from work everyday he was outside playing with her.

Country-girl-at-heart wanted to drive Papa's tractor which he was more than happy to let her!!  What next, Papa?  Let her drive your car??

We also did some more "cultured" things: we drew pictures, colored, water-colored and blew bubbles! (very creative)

We also went to the movies (3-D of course) to see "Planes" and ate Chinese.

I got so tickled at the Chinese restaurant after we ate.  The waitress brought us our bill and our fortune cookies.  Harper opened her little cookie and ask me what it said.  I told her it said "Harper is a wonderful sweet little girl."  She took that little bitty piece of paper and rolled it up and put it in her new Hello Kitty purse her Aunt Linda gave her and took it with her wherever she went!  I hope she never discovers that it said anything otherwise!

I feed the deer nearly everyday at our house.  I can "call" them and they come running out of the woods.  (You would too if you were hungry enough!) I was so hoping I could get them to come so Harper could help feed them.  They came.  We fed!

To top the week off with a big treat we spent Friday at Silver Dollar City, along with thousands of others I might add!  It was a cool day for sure and the week-end before school started around these parts, thus the masses.

WE HAD A BALL!

Papa rode all the rides and I was the official photographer! 

The faster the better for these two!

Nonny did get one picture with her sweet girl on the train ride!

Time to go home!!  Harper, well, really, Nonny and Papa were pooped!

And she slept quite well on her Mama's "antique" Sesame Street sheets!

So the little saying"Grandchildren are God's Reward for Growing Old" seems to ring true.  Papa and I are blessed more than we deserve!

Sweet girl you are next!!