Random Bits on a Friday

TGIF!!!

I don't know about you, but this has felt like a really long week!
We had winter weather advisories

for Wednesday/Thursday.

Not much snow materialized, only ice and bitter cold! :(

We were hoping praying for a snow day, but no such luck!
Just near zero temps with highs maybe to 10 degrees!

And someone is still wearing her uniform shorts to school!

Way to think positive Mads - but you're freezing those little legs off!

This weekend Maddy and I are headed to the Lied Center for the

Performing Arts with my daughter-in-law and granddaughter to see the always wonderful

Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music!

High school cheer continues and Junior Varsity

is the busiest of all the squads because they cheer

for both Reserve and JV teams! 
Some evenings - they have 4 games to cheer at!
 I'm becoming quite the popular cheer mom 

(maybe because I'm the only cheer mom)

 at BB games!

Sometimes I'll try to do the cheers along with the girls!

Remember, I have no sense of rhythm.  On occasion I may

have messed up their cheers as they've gotten confused

watching me attempting to do the clapping cheers!

But, it usually gets a laugh out of the girls! 

 I'm sure they can tell I was never a cheerleader!  :)

It was "low pony" night in case you're wondering.
Mr. Tennis was surprised they all wore their hair the same way!
Hmmm -- yes, that was intentional!

I've yet to catch the decluttering/organizing bug, but

am seriously thinking about it.

Thinking is the first step, right???

Maybe I'll start with getting the rest of the Christmas stuff

put away soon.

Need organizing help immediately! ;0

Outside decorations will probably be waiting til spring to come down!

Have a wonderful weekend!
See you back here next week!

xoxo

Hello January!

Welcome to 2018!

Don't you just love a fresh, new year?

Almost as much as fresh new snow!!

We don't have any new snow here, but with the polar plunge

temps, we're keeping the snow we have!

I love our Scottish Terrier's attitude toward the snow . . . 

she tears across the yard as fast as she can and then

rolls around in the snow!  She especially enjoys rubbing beautiful large Scotty nose in it.

Pups -- so funny and sweet and yet so messy!

There are towels in various stages of wet near

every door!

Someday the floors will be clean again!

And because she is adorable and now 16, I'm adding an extra birthday photo!

Love the great big beautiful "16" balloons from Jodee! 

Those really made her day along with her favorite Scooters!  :)

Thank you sweet Jodee!

Back to school already and more cheering !

Goooooo Bolts!!!  

Happy New Year Y'all!

Happy New Year!!

Sharing another of the wonderful photos Jennifer Schultz
took for us. Must say I loved every single photo of M!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have been able to enjoy some

lovely, lazy days between Christmas and New Years! 

 It's gotten frightfully cold here just like in 

other parts of the country, so we're bundled up under blankets reading,

 watching tv and thinking about taking down the tree - thinking is the  key word here! 

 It hasn't happened yet!

  I came down with the always fun (NOT) end-of-the-year cold, 

so Kleenex and Nyquil have become my very best friends!

Maddy got her wish and we had a white Christmas!  It was so pretty

and now with these ultra-cold temps, the snow is sticking

around for awhile!  

The great thing is . . . yay snow!  

The not-so-great thing is -3 highs with windchills way lower,

those temps don't make me want to go out and
not a lot of sledding or ice-skating is happening.

Looking forward to a warm-up into the teens and maybe even 20s by the end

 of the week!

So, anyone else have a weird superstition about odd-numbered years???
I do! 
Looking forward to an even-numbered year! 
Although many wonderful

things have happened in odd-numbered years, 

I just like even numbers better!

Guess I'm the odd one, eh!  :)

Happy New Year friends!
Best wishes for 2018!!

Happy Birthday to M!

Wow -- I guess I took a little break from bloggyland and

the internet for a couple weeks!

Sorry I haven't been reading or commenting -- will try to catch up! :)

So much has been going on this month with cheering constantly,
schoolwork, Mr. Tennis being ill, feeling a bit off myself, etc. etc. etc - 

you know the drill - life is busy and stressful!

Sweet 16!

Miss M turned 16 a few days ago!

Oh my word -- where have the years gone!

She's such a sweet and beautiful girl!

We love her so much!

Am sharing some photos taken by the wonderful Jennifer Schultz!

Her birthday landed on the last day of finals - 

but happily she only had one and

was finished by 9 am!  Plus - she thinks

she did very well on that last final!  

She and I spent the day eating out at all of her favorite

places!  Krispy Kreme for breakfast; Chick-fil-A for lunch and

our local Lazlo's for dinner!  

YUM!

Mr. Tennis and Madster!

And now, we have a little bit of frosty ice and a smidgen of

snow - just she always wants for her birthday!

Minding the Clutter

Recently Miss M and I started meditating in the evenings

before bed in order to relax and shoo the clutter in our heads away

(the clutter in the house is another story), and 

quiet the noise and worries of the day.

No getting around it -- life is stressful.

 I admit it, I was skeptical and pictured meditating as 

 sitting cross-legged and mumbling "OMMMMM".

It's not -- and, of course as you would expect, there's an

app for that!

  Actually, there are probably a LOT of  different apps

(whatever did we do before apps?)

We've both found the Headspace app to very helpful.

From their site, they report they have hundreds of themed sessions

on everything from stress to sleep with bite-sized meditations for busy schedules.

We're doing a 30-day (5-10 minute) per day program and

we both look forward to listening to Headspace every evening.

So, that's it for my PSA for today -- if you haven't tried a 

little meditating and feel increasingly behind and

stressed out -- give it a try and become at least 10% happier -

according to ABC reporter Dan Harris (I like that guy)!

Hello December!

Hello December!

It seriously barely feels like December around here!

Sooooo strange -- it's been springlike since Thanksgiving. 

We broke 3 or 4 record highs!  I'm not complaining as I

LOVE temps in the 60s and 70s at turkey time!

However, I am worried about my flowers -- they must think

spring has come early  esp. with all the watering

that Mr. Tennis is doing!

Levitating!

Anywho -- we'll take this nice weather while we can because am

fairly certain, cold temps, snow and ice are not too far off.

On a recent warm day, Miss M had the idea to go

out for photos!  That girls loves to ham it up 

and comes up with the best props!

We had so much with these photos and 

she made some Christmas cards and

already sent them out to the JV cheer squad!

She amazes me with all she does and I just love

that bright smile of hers!

Cheering is super busy again with boys and girl JV and Reserve

basketball and wrestling too!  

It's a workout -- for her -- not me -- I sit in the stands

and watch the cheerleaders more than the other athletes!

Go BOLTS!

Have a super weekend friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!
 

Getting ready!

 This year we had our feast a few days early!
It was so fun and mostly yummy -- the turkey turned
out very, very dry!  Yikes!
Oh well -- the sides were delish - so who cares
about turkey anyway!

Maddy, Grace and Grace's roomie - Nevaeh!

Bonus -- this year, my sweet and adorable

niece, Grace, is at the University here.

Grace and one of her roommates also joined us and

it was great to have them with us!

I mentioned a couple of family favorite foods. . . 

strawberry jello with strawberries and cool whip marshmallow fruit salad

(both very healthy options) that we always had as kids.

Shock -- my sister has not kept up that tradition at 

her house, but she will now that Grace has 

tasted those wonderful traditional

Thanksgiving foods.

Baby Dorothy - 1-1/2 years old!

The big kids (Philip & Catherine and Connor) also joined us
with the littles!  So much fun with those 4! 
Somehow, we missed getting the oldest Jane in a photo -- sorry sweetheart!

3 of 4 of the grandkids!  Such cuties!

Maddy and I are now devising our shopping plans!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

xoxo