Christmas...finally

Okay, so my pictures are uploaded backwards. But here is my Christmas post...finally! Here is Rudy enjoying the Christmas tissue paper. He sat in the middle of us unwrapping gifts in awe...and when we were done, he had a ball tearing the tissue paper to shreds.
Here's the Christmas mess. And we actually tried to put most of the trash in a big box as we went. My daddy used to pick up the paper and throw it in the fire place in the middle of our gift opening. It's a wonder he never threw any gifts in there by mistake too!

Ah, here's our Christmas "before" pic. We never put gifts under the tree. Santa brings them all Christmas Eve night when we are sleeping. I just wish I could have been there to hear Paige when she first saw the gifts under the tree...but she got up at 5 am to peek, then laid in bed til 7 before the rest of us got up to open them.

Another view of the tree and gifts. My mama always used a code instead of names so we couldn't compare (or open) our gifts ahead of time. I use a code too. This year's code was a numerical one...and it bit me in the butt because I miscoded a couple, lol. Paige opened one of Jake's by mistake. She was wondering why she got a knife from Santa!

And here are my very favorite gifts....

And yes, those are underwear....everybody gets underwear, socks and pjs for Christmas. But no, Paige did not get a clothes basket, she was just using it to carry her stuff to her room. And if you are wondering like I was...that is a hat on Paige's head. (courtesy of her brother) My baby girl is not wearing a doo rag on Christmas morning.

We had a wonderful Christmas (other than being sick). We ate too much and got way more presents than any of us deserved. Paige's favorite gift seems to be her laptop, Jake's is definitely his Xbox, Frank's seems to be a UGA golf bag, and mine is my Kitchen Aid mixer...or maybe that is all of our favorites! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas as well!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We started celebrating Christmas a couple of weeks ago. My sister and her family came to have Christmas with us. We had the big traditional country Christmas meal then. And it was good! But I knew I didn't want to do that again soon!

Last night, our pastor's family, our youth pastor's family, and our servant leaders/SS teachers came over for barbecue and the fixings. And once again, it was good! (I had every intention of taking pics of both of these events for my blog, but forgot!) After dinner, Frank took the kids for a ride on the mule to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. We had a wonderful time, and hopefully were able to let these families know how much they mean to us.

Tomorrow night, our best friends are coming for a lasagna dinner. We don't get to see them nearly enough, and I am very excited about spending some time with them...I won't promise pics because we know how that goes.

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas plans are pretty laid back. We will probably go see a movie. We are going to have a nice hearty breakfast Christmas morning, but I'm hoping we can survive on leftovers and Christmas goodies for the most part. (I don't want to cook anymore!)

We will be heading south the day after Christmas to spend some time with Frank's parents and then on to my family in Florida for a few days.

I'm so excited about Christmas morning. My love language is gifts, so I am anxious to see what I get, but most of all, I can't wait to see the kids' faces when they open their gifts (and Frank's!). When I say my love language is gifts, I know people assume it's all about what I get, but it truly is more about giving gifts to me. I love to see everyone else so excited!

And of course, the greatest gift of all is the gift Christians were given...the gift of Jesus. Merry Christmas!

SHHHH! It's very, very quiet!

Frank and the kids are in Alabama for the weekend.

School is OUT!

The house is very, very quiet, with only the sound of the dogs snoring.

What is a girl to do?

Well, Friday after work, Sharon and I went to Macon to do a little more shopping.
We had sushi at Taki, and it was Soooooooo Good!
We were yawning as we finally headed home...at 7:30!
Saturday morning I went to the Jewell Box in Jewell, GA for a high tea with the ladies at much church. It sure made me miss Tara's!
Saturday afternoon I went to Walmart for even more shopping.
I came home and wrapped gifts...this year I've been wrapping along the way so that I don't get swapped with wrapping on Christmas Eve like I usually do!
Sunday morning we had a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our 4 and 5 year olds in Sunday School. That was a lot of fun with those sweeties!
I have a little more wrapping to do today, and a lot of cleaning. But right now, I think Food Network needs me to do some watching and I may need to rest my eyes on the couch a little while.

My family will be coming home tomorrow...I have to be rested up and ready to bake cookies!

Taco Soup

Since I had a request, here's my Mama's recipe for Taco Soup. She always made this on Christmas Eve along with ham and cheese poppy seed sandwiches. I was supposed to make this yesterday when my sister was here, but we had so many leftovers from our big Christmas dinner that I saved it for tonight. And since it is soooo cold, that was a good choice.

Original Recipe:

Taco Soup

2lbs ground beef

2 cups chopped onion

2 tbs cooking oil

1 pkg taco seasoning mix

1 pkg ranch dressing mix

4 16oz cans of tomatoes

1 15oz can of kidney beans

1 15oz can of pinto beans

1 16oz can of whole kernel corn

1 4oz can of chopped green chiles

1/2 tsp of salt

Saute onions in oil. Add ground beef and continue stirring until browned. Add seasonings and then all other ingredients (undrained). After mixture begins cooking, simmer for 2 hours stirring occasionally. Serve with doritos, grated cheese, and sour cream. Makes a gallon so use a large pot.

I did a little tweaking to the recipe. I only used 1 lb of lean ground beef to cut calories. I did not use any oil. I just browned my ground beef and onions together. I used 2 big (24oz I think) cans of petite diced tomatoes because I don't like hunks of tomato in my soup. I used more beans than the original recipe to replace the other pound of ground beef. (It's an easy way to make it more healthy without the people in my house realizing what I'm doing.) I also used two packs of ranch and taco seasoning because I like things heavily flavored.

This is one of my very favorite soups. I HATE canned soups, and can be pretty picky about soups in general. As much as I would like to load it up with sour cream, cheese, and doritos, I simply ate my bowl with a little Texas Pete and some non-fat plain yogurt that I try to convince myself tastes just like sour cream. And I lusted after my family's bowls. No, not really, I actually went ahead and packed up a bowl to take to school tomorrow. My students will flip when they see me eat something other than a frozen meal, lol.

I also made the dough for Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls tonight. I'm not so sure of it. I put the yeast in when my liquid was too hot. It was much hotter than I thought it was, and I am very impatient. It didn't rise like I thought it should, so I did a little research online and decided to add another packet of yeast to it. It did finally rise a little. The dough is in the fridge now, and I will attempt to make the cinnamon rolls tomorrow. If they turn out, they will be Christmas presents. If they don't turn out, I will be making a trip to the grocery store for some Pillsbury Grands.

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We left Wednesday morning to go to the Florida panhandle to visit with my daddy's sister and her family. As soon as we got there we started eating and ate the whole time! My aunt is a phenomenal cook and her cooking is just like my granny's was. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and sausages Wednesday night, and we got into some of our Thanksgiving desserts a little early. When we got to my aunt's house, her daughter and her grandson were cooking together, and it was so sweet! They had made magic cookie bars which I loved when I was a little girl, and they are still fantastic! We spent the night at my cousin's house because another aunt and her family were coming in and they were going to sleep at my aunt's house. When I got up Thursday morning my aunt already had her stove full of Thanksgiving goodies. You can not imagine how much food we had. We filled the dining table with the real food, and filled the kitchen counters with the desserts. You couldn't put another plate down anywhere! And it was so good, I mean, SO GOOD. We ate and visited, and ate and visited, and ate and visited some more! We had at least 30 people there, and it felt so good to be with family. Friday we went to visit my daddy's best friend. They seemed so happy to see us. He was sitting in his recliner watching tv when we got there and he reminded me so much of my daddy. We had just eaten breakfast when we went over there, and they insisted we eat some dessert with them. When we got back to my aunts we ate bbq and leftovers. (I told you we ate the whole weekend!) Saturday morning we left after breakfast to go to Callaway to spend time with Frank's best friend. I hated to leave my family because I enjoyed being with them so much. They want us to come back for Christmas, but we think we are going to wait until the day after Christmas to go back and spend the week between Christmas and New Year's with them. We went to see the lights at Callaway, and visited in the hotel room with Heath and Andrea. And yes, we ate a bunch with them too. We took a long, lazy route home and enjoyed some fall foliage and lots of old houses along the way. Since we got home, Frank has been writing a paper, and I've been catching up on laundry. Tomorrow it is back to work...but only for 3 weeks!

Super Saturday

So, I survived the shopping! Yay! I actually had a good time. Sharon and I left about 9 and went straight to Kohl's. The sale wasn't as good as I was hoping, but I did find Paige a lil something and Frank some things. Then we dropped into the Goodwill store to waste a few minutes until Taki opened. We had some fabulous sushi at Taki, then we headed across town to Ulta. I love Ulta. There I bought the only thing I bought for myself today...some make up primer. I can't survive without primer and am always looking for the ultimate one. This time I'm trying the Olay kind. Yea, I am that old. Then we went to Bass Pro because Frank needed some wood chips for the turkey he is smoking and apparently was unable to drive across the street to Walmart by himself. Men! But the joke's on him because we had the best time at the Bass Pro! Sharon did not know that they have women's clothes at Bass Pro and she bought as much there as she did at Kohl's, lol. And I may or may not have gotten a few Christmas presents there myself. After all the excitement of Bass Pro, we were pretty whipped, and headed back to Milledgeville. I am attempting a 12 layer chocolate cake for tomorrow night's Thanksgiving dinner. Please pray for me. I baked 4 layers tonight using two cake mixes and a yummy recipe from the cake mix dr. I am a firm believe in the cake mix dr. This recipe is a white cake mix, 1 cup of whole milk, 3 eggs, 1 stick of melted butter, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. The batter whips up really thick. I baked the layers tonight and will split them tomorrow using my handy dandy Wilton's cake leveler. It is awesome! I plan to make 3 layers from each layer and I am going to ice them with homemade chocolate pan frosting...my favorite! If this turns out well, I will look like quite the baker. If it doesn't, I will be picking up some Paula Deen caramel pecan pies from the Wally World!

Shop til I Drop?

Tomorrow I am doing something I never, EVER do. I am going shopping with a friend, without Paige, for Christmas gifts in a real store . I always do most of my Christmas shopping online. And if I do go real shopping, I take Paige with me. It gets even weirder though...I have no idea what I'm shopping for. I always have an idea of what I'm looking for when I do actually venture into a real store. I make lists, lots of lists, of what to get everyone on my Christmas list. And the reason I make multiple lists is because I usually lose the lists. But tomorrow is a new day for me. I'm going to go to Macon, to real stores, with no real ideas, and just look around and see if I can actually purchase Christmas gifts. I may not make a lot of progress on my Christmas shopping, but I know I will enjoy some girl-friend time, and I am hoping to get a good lunch out of it. I just hope Paige isn't forever scarred by me going without her. And vice versa.

Thursday Date Night

Tonight was date night. We went to Down South and I had grilled shrimp and grits. YUM! Some wonderful friends of ours happened to end up there tonight too, so we got to visit with them. BONUS!

I am happy report that I have made it through the week. There were times I didn't think I would. But tomorrow is Pajama Day, and I bought popcorn for my class. I'm hoping we can treat the day like a big ole pajama party. (After finishing all of our work, of course.)

We are having Thanksgiving dinner at church Sunday night, and I am so looking forward to it! I love my church home and family, and I am excited about joining this tradition. We had an old fashioned Sunday a couple of weeks ago where we had dinner outside and an old tyme worship service complete with an Amen Corner. It was so much fun, so I know that our Thanksgiving dinner will be another wonderful time. We have Wed night suppers every week, and all this church eating is not good for getting these last few pounds off...but it sure is fun!

Well, that's a recap of my week pretty much so far. Hope yours is going great!

Fantastic Friday Night

A couple of weeks ago I came to the realization that Jacob never picks out his own clothes to buy. I do all of his shopping, and if it meets his approval he will wear it. And if it doesn't, he shoves it in the back of a drawer and just keeps wearing the same things over and over. I figured that now that he is 14, and seems to finally be taking more care in his appearance (he takes a shower without being forced to now) I should offer to take him to buy a few outfits. Uh, except guys don't wear "outfits". They just wear clothes. At least that is what I was told. So Frank made a whirlwind trip to Ohio with Rickey Wedgeworth this weekend, and I decided this was a good a time as any to take Jacob shopping...for clothes, not an outfit. Jacob is not much of a shopper. We only went to one store. Target. I had to make him actually go into the clothing department...he was much more interested in showing me the video game stuff he wants for Christmas. We finally made it to the men's department. And it was quite pitiful. I offered to go somewhere, anywhere, else, but he refused. What other store was gonna have the video game stuff too? So, we perservered and he found 2 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts. He couldn't believe I made him try them on. And he refused to come out of the dressing room to show me, so I really am not sure he did actually try them on. But we got two outfits, I mean, two sets of clothing, and he was completely over the whole clothes shopping thing. Paige only stuck her lip out once because I refused to buy her a Coca Cola shirt that looked completely worn out. So all in all, it was a very successful night. The best part of the evening was the ride home. Jake's ear phones are messed up so he had to have a conversation with me. It was great! He even joined in when Paige and I were belting out "My Redeemer Lives" in true Frank Meighan fashion. What a fantastic way to spend a Friday night.

Six Months

In 6 short months, my baby boy will be getting his learner's permit. Wow. Time sure has flown by. In a way it will be cool to have him driving...I will never have to go to the grocery store again (I hope). But then again, I sure don't think we are ready for this!

He has really grown up in the last six months. He has become a lot more comfortable with himself, gained a whole lot more confidence, and is an over all happier kid. I know in six more months he will be totally ready to take on the world from behind the wheel. But will we be ready for that?

The Mom Cave: A Metamorphosis

This is what most of my house was covered in when it was built in 1971...dark, ugly panelling! I had what must be one of the ugliest laundry rooms ever! It is a real room, with a door, and that door had to stay shut at all times. I think it's pretty obvious why the door needed to stay shut!
But it is a laundry room not a closet, and I thought it might have some potential...at least the potential not to be quite this ugly!

So, goodbye to 1971...

...and hello to the new and improved Mom Cave!

My friend and I primed and painted the panelling and cabinets. The paint color is a custom blend we like to call "Magical Mist". It was a mixture of some baby blue and fern green paint that I had sitting around the garage.

The whole project was done on a very tight budget. I already had the curtains, and I printed the botanicals on the computer. I even spray painted old picture frames for them! My biggest splurge was the mirror that I used to cover the panel box...and it was about $20 at Walmart.

I bought the big basket at Walmart on clearance for $7.00 and the little basket came from Big lots for $2.00. The flowers on the wall hung on my front door last spring, so it is being recycled. I decided to cover my sink with a piece of plywood because we really don't use the sink very much, and if I do need to, I can just slide the plywood off. I used some more leftover curtains to make the skirt that hides the trashcan.

I love the way my laundry room turned out, and now, we keep the door open!

The Man Cave

As you probably know, we always either have a project going on, just finished one, or are dreaming up the next one. Frank has been great about working on the house, and 90% of the changes have been what I wanted. I do the dreaming, he (and his dad) do the work. It was finally time for Frank to get one of his wishes. We finally fixed up the Man Cave! As usual, I have no "before" pics which is a real shame. Some of you have seen the "after" that came before the big transformation, but hardly anyone has seen the REAL before from when we first moved in. Let's just say, it keeps getting better! The screen is "where the magic happens" in this room, and I got it for Frank for Christmas last year.

Frank and his dad hung pine ceilings which I think are BEE YOO TI FUL! Frank did the decorating which for now consists of flags that represent his two favorite sports teams that he got another Christmas.

The furniture is the set we got back in 1996 but is still in really good shape and quite comfy. There is a good chance you either had the same set or know someone who did.

More of the purty ceiling. Behind that door is storage and mechanical stuff like the a/c unit and the hot water heaters.

The carpeting consists of rugs from Walmart.com that were only $20 each! Great bargain and definitely the most economical way we could carpet the floor.

On the other side of that door is Jake's room. I couldn't take pics because it was not up to my cleanliness standards. Frank built Jake's room the same way as the Cave, and he also has a bathroom and a huge closet.


We have already watched several movies down in the Man Cave, and hope to use it a lot. The big chair is Frank's, and the little one is supposed to be mine...but I much prefer napping on the love seat while Frank watches a movie! Keep an eye out for my upcoming post on the "Mom Cave".

Standing In His Presence

WOW! I know I've said over and over how much I love Lakeside Baptist Church, but I can not adequately express how much I love my church home. Tonight was a very special night. Our church family voted unanimously to call Greg Moon and his family to Lakeside as our new Associate Pastor. I have seen for months the human side of a monumental search to find the right man for Lakeside, but tonight I saw God's hand in choosing the right man.

We met the Moon's several weeks back when they came for their first interview. We had the privilege of having them in our home for dinner. Frank and I liked them as soon as we met them. We spent several hours getting to know them, and we really wanted them to be the ones. Frank was even more sure after Greg's interview. He said that he didn't seem to try to give them the answers the committee wanted to hear, but they both just spoke from their hearts and it was obvious they were a team.

Greg came back for a second interview, which further solidified to Frank that he was the man, and then they came to spend some time with the youth that Saturday night. We just sat back and watched Greg interact with the kids. When we got in the car, Jacob told us how much he liked him. In fact, Jacob said Greg was almost as cool as he is. So there you go, it just had to be!

Sunday we got to see the rest of our church fall in love with this family. Frank said they could just see what we saw, but I knew that our church hasn't seen the half of it yet! Tonight, our church service was devoted to hearing God's will. And it wasn't a whisper...it was a shout! We sang the song "Standing on Holy Ground" and it was amazing. I know that there were angels all around, because we were definitely standing in His presence. There were tears and hands raised all over the church, along with shouting and pure joy.

All I could think was how unbelievably happy I am to be home. Lakeside is our home. And I am thrilled that the Moon family will be here with us soon. In our church there is a banner that reads "The church is at peace." Peace, joy, and home...thank you God for my church, my pastors, and my church family.

We Are Weak, But He Is Strong!

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Yum Yum Tuesday

Frank and I decided to reschedule "Date Night" to Sunday afternoon because he has so much going on with school and I'm worn out from my school and the kids will be playing Laser Tag Sunday afternoon so we have the day to ourselves. Since it's not Date Night, I got a wild hair and decided to cook something new to make it a special Tuesday anyway.

Sunday afternoon I found a great website with WW friendly recipes. www.skinnytaste.com I saw a good sounding recipe for feta chicken and decided to try it for dinner tonight. I actually did some tweaking and expanding and I hope it turns out as delicious as it smells. Paige is already turning her nose up at the thought of artichoke hearts and Jacob is wary of the spinach, but I'm looking forward to a Greek inspired dinner. Opa!

A New Way of Doing Things

This past week I have been blessed to see things done in a different way. Our church is in the process of doing two things that can cause a lot of problems...start a building project and hire an associate pastor. Where I have come from, these two things were not done well, and things were done behind closed doors, and a lot of people were hurt because of this. Thank God we are at a new place that does things in a much different way.

We are about to undertake a building project. Our church needs a bigger sanctuary, a dedicated fellowship hall, and a place for the youth. After much prayer, the church has decided to start with the youth. WOW...that decision proves that our church has a heart for its kids. Another cool thing that I've found out about our church is that it doesn't believe in debt. But what has perhaps impressed me the most is that the members are making these decisions. The committee has done the leg work, but our church had a "town hall" meeting to discuss the project.

Tonight we had another town hall meeting. This one was to allow the church to ask the candidate for the associate pastor any questions they had. Frank is on the search committee so I know how much work has gone into finding the right man. But tonight, I got to see God's handiwork. Next week, we will vote. Our pastor isn't hiring a youth pastor. Our committee isn't hiring a youth pastor. We, the members will vote whether or not to hire him. But God chose the man for our church. How awesome is that?!

Once again, I am so glad we are at Lakeside. It's not the church we chose, it's the one God chose for us. I sure didn't like how He sent us there, but I know now that it was all for good.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

Weekend Wrap Up and Date Night 3.0

This weekend Frank's parents came up. He and his dad worked all day for two days on the media room that the basement is becoming. They got most of it done, so Frank only has to trim it out and put down the floor. And then it's time to put the electronics back together and my favorite part...decorate! While they were working downstairs, his mom and I went to Senoia, GA to the Southern Living Idea House. It was beautiful, and makes me want to do so much more with my own house. Frank doesn't need to know that or he will never let me leave the house again!

I did decide I am definitely redoing my laundry room during Fall Break. I've roped Sharon into helping me, and we think we can knock it out quickly. Frank has agreed to help me with the flooring. I don't want him to help with the rest of it, because I am going totally against his wishes with it. But it's the laundry room, so if it's a total failure, I can always just shut the door.

It was a nice, busy weekend, and I was really looking forward to jury duty this week. I know, that sounds crazy, but I liked the idea of not having to be anywhere until 9:00 and sitting around with nothing to do but read a book! I worked my tail off to get everything ready for a sub and to get my report cards ready in case I had to be out for several days, and then found out at 6 last night that I didn't have to go!

Instead of jury duty, I did get to go out with my sweet husband for our third date night. We went to Gray to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant. I chose Gray because I wanted to go to Ace Hardware to buy a baby gift. Ace Hardware? yep If you haven't been to their gift shop, you are really missing out. I had a ton of fun looking for a baby girl gift, but I don't know the baby's name so I was really limited. They have the CUTEST Christmas stuff for babies. I ended up getting these cute wooden dividers for the baby's closet. They have the sizes on them so you can separate the baby's clothes by size. I'm sure Amber and Brad will get tons of sweet clothes for their sweet baby girl, so I thought it would be a neat thing to have. I also got her some cutey-patootie socks and a sweet toy. I am going to keep looking between now and Saturday for some more pink and green things to put in her bag of gifts. I love shopping for baby girls!

Now I am just waiting for The Good Wife to come on and wishing I hadn't eaten so much Mexican food. I will be much better tomorrow...only 12 more pounds to go!

I Did It!

I have blogged every day for 30 days. I've enjoyed sitting down and thinking about my day, my life for a few minutes every evening. It's not exactly an "exciting" life, but it's a life I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I definitely plan to keep up with my blogging better, but it will be nice not to feel like I have to say something of meaning every day.

I have loved reading blogs for a couple of years now. The blogs I read now are not the sames ones I used to read consistently. I'm into decorating blogs more than anything right now. I love to see the pretty things they do, and every once in a while, I get inspired enough to actually do something too. Right now I am thinking about fixing up my laundry room. It is only utilitarian and not pretty at all. But then again, I just took a look in there, and I'm not sure if I am that inspired after all, lol. But if I do get a wild hair and decide to beautify the laundry room, I will be sure to blog about it...with before and after pics!

Burger-less Burger

I have been dying for a hamburger. A good, juicy, bad for you hamburger. I tried the Boca burger thing, and it wasn't bad exactly, it just didn't have any real taste at all. Today Frank made burgers for him and the kids and I wanted one too! I thought about trying the turkey burger route, but at 4 points, didn't want to waste them on disappointment. Instead I got some portabello mushroom slices and sauteed them and used them as my meat. Oh wow. It was so good. REALLY. I made my hamburgerless hamburger just like I would a real one (without cheese) and served it on a zero point bun, and it was so daggone good! I happen to like mushrooms, so I'm sure that's part of it, but it was juicy, and messy, and perfect. Yay! I'm blogging with a pleasantly full belly tonight.

PS. Only 13 lbs to go!

Date Night 2.0

Tonight was Date Night. I met Frank over in Macon so that he didn't have to drive over there twice today. He used the quiet time to study for tomorrow's midterm so it worked out good. We went to Fish n Pig for dinner. This is one of the places Oprah ate when she was in Macon. We've been there a couple of times before. It is owned by the same people who own Jim Shaw's and Satterfield's BBQ. It is right on Lake Tobesofkee and there are tons of ducks and geese that hang out there. I had broiled shrimp and Frank had catfish filets. The best thing about this place is that they serve our favorite appetizer...boiled peanuts! After dinner we went to HH Greg to look at freezers and ended up spending more time looking at gas stoves. I hate our glass top stove, and Frank really wants a gas one. We are definitely just looking though, not ready to change it out. Then we went to Michaels. I am going to make a pumpkin topiary for my front door similar to Hollie's. I made one last year with my address numbers, but it didn't look as good as I wanted. As I was shopping for pumpkins, I remembered that I still have last year's pumpkins, and I really couldn't find but two shapes and needed three, so I decided just to buy some leaf garland and work with what I have. I will be working on that later in the week. We are going to have to adjust our date night because Frank will be working the lights and sound board for GMC's fall play and starts practices Thursday. He will have to work Tuesday nights, so I'm not sure what night will be our new date night. I do know we are going to keep this up though, because I really look forward to our date. I was plum giddy on the drive over to see him. And he's so nice on date night, lol. He didn't complain one time about traipsing all over Michael's with me. Can't beat that! Next week he has to plan the date...remind me not to complain when it involves a sporting goods store!