Halloween of Yesteryear

I'm working on Christmas presents and one of them is a calendar for some family members. I'm pretty certain the ones in question never read my blog, so I'm safe in posting this one pic. Mom was very creative in using available resources for various costumes. I was the witch multiple years in a row and mom made that one. The other costumes were borrowed from friends or came from our own wardrobes. I don't recall ever shopping for costumes or anything like that. Isn't Kelly the cutest little puppy???

Incidently, the calendar is a free template from Creative Memories. You can download it for free and just drag 'n' drop your pictures into the spaces. They give you three different template options for each month. You can insert text into the image area and then also onto the calendar. All possible family birthdays will be included in this gift! You can download the template from my website. Once you're finished you can upload it to the Creative Memories Digital website and order yours. Shamelessly I will tell you that calendars will be 20% for orders of 2 or more from Nov. 1 through the 15th. Just in case you need some quick Christmas ideas!

Halloween Nostalgia

This week has me reminiscing of last year when we took the boys pumpkin picking, carved and painted them at my house, then we went trick-or-treating with them. It was a special time. We miss the boys more than I can express. We haven't seen them in three months and we have roughly a month to go before we'll see them again. Pray for patience for both us, and them. Here are some pictures of the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating.

Fun Times!

So after that melancholy moment I shared with all of cyber-world, I had a fantastic weekend. Jason and I went walking around an awesome residential area near the Ocean Springs Harbor and ended the evening eating at their Bar and Grill. I had some of the best gumbo I've had so far and a fantastic crabcake sandwich. The evening was brisk. The air was clear. It was just divine. It was one of those "nothing" nights that just makes you happy. You know?

The next morning we participated in a benefit walk for a little girl named Sohia. Her parents own a place called the "TatoNut shop" in downtown Ocean Springs. The tato nuts are wonderful and can be identified as a type of doughnut, if you're wondering. Anyways, Sophia has brain cancer and is receiving treatment in Texas. This has meant closing the shop to be with her. You can imagine what kind of financial strain that can bring to a family. The benefit walk seemed like a huge success. We didn't really know anyone, so we walked the bridge and then went home. But it still felt good to be out with the community. From the bridge we saw these amazing views.


After the walk I double-timed it to be ready to join a group called "Craftyscrappers." They held an all-day benefit crop. If you don't know what a crop is, it's when people bring in all of the scrapbooking or crafting supplies and work for as long as time permits. In this case, 8 hours. I last about 7 hours, but met lots of people and got a party booked out of it. Fabulous! Great ladies. The benefit was for the organizer's granddaughter. She's on a dance team and they are raising money to go to Disney World for a competition. The little girl was a sweetie and I happily helped the cause!

Sunday was church and then I did a "Digital and Dessert" event for a group of ladies. It was a fabulous time as well. I made this and it was awesome!

Happy Fall Y'all!

I'M WEARING A SWEATSHIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited it's dropping below 60 tonight! I'm going to an all-day crop tomorrow and I have a CM digital event on Sunday! Life is looking much better than it did two or three days ago. It really does come in waves.

Thank you to all who commented, called and texted! I'm so thankful for friends around the world!

Blessings y'all! (You know, 10 years ago I swore I'd never say that and now it's natural!)

Ramblings

I have not been in the mood to write. I'd love to say it's because I've been too busy, but that was in another life. Life is Biloxi is very different than in SA. It's not bad, it's just different. The kind of different I'm fine with for awhile, but then I'm hit by something that rocks me into homesickness. Sometimes it lasts for an hour, a day, or longer. I'm on a week-long kick right now. I wish I could pinpoint why, but I can't. It may be checking up on friends via their blogs or Facebook and realzing what I'm missing--who am I kidding, I KNOW that's what it is. But I don't want to not check because then I'd get too out-of-the-loop and that hurts worse.

Getting into the subbing system has proven more difficult than I anticipated, so I haven't begun working in any schools as of yet. My Creative Memories business is picking up quite steadily though, so I'm excited about that! Really, it feels like the Lord is blessing that venture in so many ways, so I can't complain.

I wish I knew more people. I long for a group to meet up with on a Friday evening to have margaritas or wine with, but we're just not there yet. This past Friday we went to the new mall they've opened up...it has TARGET!!!! Unfortunately that's the most exciting thing in South Mississippi right now. But at least civilization hit!

So what do I do with my time? I run, I go to yoga and pilates classes on base, I've joined the Spouses' club--which is recent, so not a lot of connections yet--I scrapbook, I cook and bake. I hang out with Jason. That's it. No running from this, to this, to this. Which, as many of you know, is VERY different from my life in SA. Although, in looking back, that type of lifestyle built up after a few years of living there and really kicked into gear in 2005, so it wasn't always that way.

Again, it's just different. We're still looking for a church. We are NOT in Lutheran Land, so the churches are very small and generally "gray."

I know I'm just in a "down-week." I have been given a gift of time right now that I probably won't ever have again. So I'm trying to take advantage of it, hence working on my high school album. I just wish there was just a little more going on.

Not to depress you too much, I'll leave you with some photos of the Ocean Springs Bridge. It's a bridge we drive to get over to Biloxi, where the base is located, from where we're living. Over and back is about 3.8 miles with a killer hill. I run it about twice a week.