What's Happening in MY World!

Good Morning! I guess I should say Good Morning... It is before 10 a.m. and so far my morning is going good. I AM a little groggy though, so it there are a few snippets here and there, I must have dozed off on my keyboard.

I did not, however, doze off while I was making these bad boys... Aren't they fabulous? You can check out this pair and  many more at my Make Up and Mud FACEBOOK Shop.


 I LOVE the little wings in the center behind the purple and silver bead... So far, I've kind of stuck to my comfort zone when I created jewelry, and I haven't really made any "out there" pieces. Well, that's about to end, because I keep getting requests for BIGGER pieces with more "Sparkle!" So, they're coming!

I think I may do a little painting today. I painted 6 wine glasses for a Bride and her Bridesmaids a few weeks ago, and I found that I really quite enjoyed watching a regular glass come to life.  I have a HUGE oversized wine glass that I purchased as a centerpiece for our wedding, and it has just been sitting all alone since March. So, I've started painting a Christmas piece, and so far so good! I guess I'll break all of the "Creativity Rules" and give you a sneak peak... (Remember, It is NOT finished!!)

TA-DA... What do you think?

Ok, If anyone can tell me how to turn the photos after I have uploaded them, PLEASE let me know! Even if I edit the picture and turn it upright in my program, it refuses to stay that way when I upload it to my blog! Grrr....

For now, just cock your head to the right, and you can see what is slowly becoming Old St. Nick. I'm still working on his mouth, so right now he seems to resemble a cat with his whispy whiskers... That will hopefully change a little later today. After I have completed all of the painting, I will then add one more entire layer of paint to finish him off, and then I will bake him in the oven for a while to make sure all of the paint is sealed forever!

(I have to add a funny little comment... As with just about anything, he looks so much better in person. When Evan saw him the other day, he exclaimed, "Wow! He really actually looks like the REAL Santa!") I can't help but crack up, because the way he said it is as if he was expecting him to look like a fake Santa... He was so excited! haha...

I only have one more oversized glass, and it is a martini glass. I'm not quite sure what I want to paint on that one yet. I'm thinking about painting a few Christmas glasses with some Holly or Mistletoe on them, but I haven't decided yet. I'd like to have some Christmas glasses, and it would be even better to create and paint some beautiful pieces to sell.

In the Spring, I painted two canvas's for our bedroom with one of our initials on each one. The "S" hangs over Scott's side of the bed, and the "C" hangs over mine (obviously). The problem is, I made them in Spring colors to match our Spring Comforter... Now, Fall Season is here, and I have to make two more pieces to match our Winter Comforter... Any ideas? 

Here is a picture of the current Initial Canvas's. I keep saying that I am going to hang curtains over that window...but so far, I'll I'm doing is "saying" it. I haven't bought curtains, and I'm probably going to wait a bit on that one. The canvas's look pretty cool in person, when the bed is actually made and the pillows are in place (which obviously isn't happening in this picture, and tends to not happen quite often...) Anyway, the Winter comforter I am going to switch this quilt out with is dark brown and light bluish/green... That's what is in the bathroom as well...

PLEASE give me some ideas for what to make next! I know this time I'm going to make the new pictures bigger than these are. I basically had painted two abstract canvas's, and I didn't like how they looked when I finished. Then I got the idea for "Initial" pictures above His/Her side of the bed, and I realized that the colors were similar to the bed quilt. I gave Scott the slightly darker canvas, because it looked more manly... :)

(FYI: I did not edit these pics, so please ignore the glare!)

And of course, I had to add a picture of our little princess, JoJo. She obviously loves the bright colors in our "Summer" bed quilt. It goes with her "tan" well... haha.

Ah... Yes. The Scrabble game Scott and I recently played. I beat him. Again. We actually played Scrabble three times on the very last night of our Honeymoon.While Most honeymooners spend their last night of Bliss trying to savor each moment together and take advantage of every piece of new lingerie received at the Bachelorette Party... NOT the New Beltons. No, we savored every last moment of our last night together trying to see who could come up with the best Triple Word Score... Romantic Huh?

The bottom line is: I won. All three games. And every game since then. And every Scrabble game I've ever played him in. Scott says his brain "just doesn't 'think' like that." My FAVORITE game is Scrabble, and I love it so much, that I play with myself when he's not home. I guess my left side and right side of my brain are playing each other... Seriously. I have to say, I am a word fanatic. And if Scott was trying to get me to play a "Numbers" game, I probably would have gone and put on Lingerie on our last Honeymoon night instead of playing the game. But, I do complete book after book of Crossword puzzles, and there's nothing like the feeling of being in a situation where a complex word is used and I'm the only one who knows what it means, because I had it in one of my previous Crossword Puzzles... Doing Crossword puzzles will make you a Scrabble whiz.

I can sit for hours and do crossword puzzles. Who knew? I started doing them after High School and I got addicted. I have tons and tons of those little Crossword puzzle books, because when I finish every puzzle in the entire book, I'm so proud of myself that I can't seem to throw it out. For me, it's like throwing out my High School Diploma. So needless to say, I take up wonderful space by saving all of the Crossword Puzzle books I have finished just so I can remind myself that I am smart... especially after I have one of my "Blonde" moments... Just call me the Queen Cruciverbalist!

I also love anything with Trivia. And luckily, Scott loves playing Trivial Pursuit. Now I'm going to let you in on an embarrassing secret... When the kids come to our house for the weekend, we all play Trivial Pursuit together. I'm fully convinced that kids today are being taught far more than we ever thought about being taught at ages 11 and 8. Now here's the sad part: When we play Trivial Pursuit with the kiddo's, we have to use two decks of the cards from two different Trivial Pursuit games. Why? Guess....

Yes, Scott uses the "REGULAR" Trivial Pursuit cards and Izzy, Evan, and I use the "JUNIOR" trivial pursuit cards. haha... That's what happens when your husband is 16 years older than you. He laughs constantly, because there's no way I'm going to be able to answer questions about something that happened in the 1980's, because I wasn't born until 1987. Laugh all you want buddy, but the youngins whip your booty quite a lot, don't we? (Love you sweets!)

(Also, with everything that has gone on with my MS and brain lesions, I have a lot of moments where I second quess things. I do little games, like I'll time myself to see if I can finish a puzzle in under three minutes, or I"ll get someone to call the clues out from across the room to do the puzzle without looking at it... as long as I can still do it, my brain is still working great!... even though that's questionable by many..haha. It keeps my brain fresh!)

More Photos from our Honeymoon can be found in my Facebook Honeymoon Albums.

If you decide to click on the Honeymoon Link above, don't forget to check out the other two Honeymoon albums as well. I'll provide the links to them below.

Honeymoon Album #2
Honeymoon Album #3

And we STILL have more to add so check back often!!


Moving on: here are the baby birds that used to live on our porch. They were there until mid-August, and it was so amazing to watch them grow. Then one day, they were hopping around the yard, and I got to watch them as they tried and finally succeeded in learning how to fly. They are baby miracles if you ask me...

And this beautiful Sunset was from our ONE beach trip this summer. I still can't believe we only got to go on one beach trip. Each Summer, I usually lose count of how many times I go to the beach... At least we got to take the Kiddos to the beach, and they had a great time!! This was one beautiful sunset we were able to experience together! Notice the shadow of the man sitting on the bridge in the distance on the far right of the picture... I'm thankful that I got to capture this! You can check out more photos in my Facebook Vacation Album.

Well, I'm about to get back to business. I have more photos to edit today, and I'm going to work on organizing more of my jewelry inventory. After I feel like I can take a break, I'm going to paint a little for fun. I've started setting the alarm on the stove, so I don't lose track of time. TIME MANAGEMENT is not one of my strong suits, and I'm having to force myself to exhibit some control, because if I don't I will never make it selling my work! Discipline is the key, and I haven't quite mastered it, but I'm working on it every day.

I would really appreciate your comments and ideas for any new pieces. I love seeing how many people are reading my blog, and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the numbers rise and rise throughout the past few months. It makes me feel connected to the world, even if I don't get out much anymore.  I would ask you for your feedback though. I can't give you what you want, make you what you like, or tell you anything interesting if you don't let me know what you would like to see or hear.

I'm going to try to fill you in more often on what's going on around our house. It's quite a bit more interesting than you would think, but then again, I'm so random and sporatic that it almost has to be interesting. Just as I included the baby birds above and the bedroom canvas pictures, I want to continue to show you those parts of our lives. I took the pictures of the canvas paintings in July and the baby birds in August, but I haven't taken the time to upload them until now. Why I chose now, I have no idea. Maybe I'm tired of being in the shadows, and I'm ready to mingle back in to the "REAL WORLD." It's easy to forget that the world is out there when you're home all the time... which I am... obviously.

I almost forgot... What do you think about Video Logging, otherwise known as Vlogging? I'm thinking of posting a video once a week to my blog or profile, just to keep you updated with the "REAL" me, LIVE in person... sort of. It makes me nervous, because I don't want to be one of those babbling You Tube videos, but I'm tryint to find a way to better connect to you. Should I post a few videos? Hmm.. Let me know what you think!

Well, HERE I COME!



 Again, THANK YOU so much for reading my blog... I love you all!

Tardy Thank You Note Tuesday

Hello to all of my readers... (like all 6 of you...:)

What is today? Well, at MY house, today is... (drumroll please)... "Tardy Thank You Note Tuesday".  (How lucky am I that the "T" in Tuesday just goes with the flow?") Yes, I have the "T" pattern going on, and I'm OCD like that, so there.)

You see, I got married in March (ahem.. LATE March, if that helps my cause). Nonetheless, I got married in March of this year, and I still have not sent out my "Thank You" notes. Have I written any of them? Yes. Are they still "sendable"? No. Why? Because, like a procrastinating goober, I wrote the date on them. So now, I can't send you a late "Thank You Note" with May 6, 2011 on it. Why did I include the date on the ones I wrote? Because my "Thank You Etiquette Book" said that was necessary. Polite? Yes. Necessarily REQUIRED? No.  I realize that now. I would like to give a BIG "Thank You" to Books a Million.

I'm from Alabama, born and raised, so I know that, as in most cases, there are two ways of doing things. There is the "Overall United States" thank you note etiquette, and there is the "Southern" thank you note etiquette. According to the etiquette that I should be abiding by, I should have sent out the notes before the wrapping paper ever made it's way into my cheap Dollar General trash bags. I'm admitting that I didn't, meaning obviously that I still haven't, sent out our Thank You notes, so let's get that out in the open right away.

I am a little obsessive when it comes to anything "stationery oriented," and I have indeed mailed out cards, meaning "Regular Themed Cards." Over the past few months, I just couldn't seem to get it right when it came to our wedding thank you cards. I did indeed write quite a few of the"thank you's" but then I made the ultimate mistake... AFTER I was married, I visited the "Wedding/Bridal" section of Books A Million. Why I would even set foot in that section of ANY store is beyond me. So, are you wondering what I found there? Unfortunately, I found the book titled "The Bride's Thank-You Note Handbook: The Classic Guide for Today's Bride" by Marilyn Werner.  Why didn't I just leave it on the shelf? (*Sigh*)

See? Don't the cute little "swirly" letters and creative drawings make you want to go ahead and say "Thank You so much" to everyone you pass on your way out of the store? No? Well, it did that for me! So, I bought it. Of course I did.

I realized before I even made it to my car that the "Thank You" notes I had already written were clearly on a second grade style level... This particular new book was going to teach me how to write "Thank You" notes that would make Nicholas Sparks drool... right? No. Not even close.

Let me add that I wasn't going to "copy" the examples from the book word for word, even though each example seemed to have a really great "Thank You Themed Description" for every single thing we received, every bride in town received, and probably every item William and Kate received. It definitely covered all of the bases.  For example, the thank you cards I had already written seemed to go a little something like this (and I'm going to add an item in this mock "virtual thank you note example" that we did NOT receive and address it to a fake person, just to make sure that I don't use an item  as an example that someone actually gave us and then the giving person thinks we don't care or that we are being rude or whatever.) You get the picture.

 Anyway, BEFORE I read the book, my thank you notes seemed to sound like this.:

Aunt Oprah, (she's really not my aunt, just in case you were wondering...)

Thank you so much for the beautiful Weenie Roaster that you gave us as a wedding gift.

(I have to admit that even though none of the cards included the words weenie or roaster, the first line always sounded so "awkward." I mean, Duh she already knows what she gave to us as a wedding gift, but I would get stumped here every time. I continued to write the item in there anyway, over and over..... Moving on... Thank You note continued:)

"A Weenie Roaster was such a creative wedding gift! We will definitely be using it a lot when we roast our weenies (?) on camping trips this summer. The size you bought is perfect, and I can't wait to roast several weenies at one time, which is important on camping trips. Every time we decide to roast our weenies, we will definitely think of you.

Thank you,

Scott and Chelsea Belton

P.S. Please tell Uncle Stedman that I need to borrow the lawnmower next week, but I'll give him a call before I come over. Thanks!"

(End of "Thank You" note)


Holy Cow. Second Grade Level "Thank You" note? I think that's definitely a "Yes" on that one. And I should add that it would take me about thirty minutes to decide what to write and exactly how to say it. Then you can tack on at least another twenty minutes, because I repeatedly was unsatisfied with my handwriting, so I would RE-write like every third card. Three cards could take me a whole day! 

So, as I said before, I bought "Every Bride's Guide." Standing in the store, my new book looked refreshing, and I fully expected it to save me. And it absolutely DID NOT! Then, instead of trying to decide what to write, I spent that thirty minutes leafing through the book attempting to find an item similar to the one I was writing the note for, only to read the provided example and THEN have to spend twenty more minutes trying to come up with different wording so that I wouldn't be plagarizing Thank You notes for our wedding gifts!

After I finally wrote the million dollar thank you note (three + times for absolutely perfect handwriting, or I would forget to include the title "Dear"), I would put the REQUIRED date in the upper right hand corner. After a few attempts that always seemed to go like this, the Thank You note mission started to haunt me. Each day I would tell myself that I would write a few and mail them out. And I did, write a few, but the "Mailing Them Out" part stumped me. The days passed, the written dated expired, and the months whizzed by. I am horrible at this!

In my defense, the first four months after the wedding are still a BLUR to me, because of the different medications I was experimenting with for MS, and the loss of my dear friend... I'm thankful I did write in my blog, though. If I wasn't able to read back on here, I would have no recollection of what happened except for bits and pieces for the ENTIRE months or April, May, and half of June and July. I'm not even kidding. I can't tell you one single thing that I did during that time span, and that is the wierdest feeling. A combination of the different medications I was trying and the depression that gripped me was SO strong. The ironic thing is, I do remember reading my Bible, praying a LOT, and writing in here about God. It's a miracle in itself now, because He sat with me the ENTIRE time. At the time, I knew He was here with me, but I can't remember anything else.

When you go through something like that, AT THE TIME, everything seems normal. I never realized what a haze I was in, but I really was. I am SO thankful that I was able to turn to God when I didn't even truly know how much He ws carrying me! So for all of you that have been praying for me, DON'T STOP NOW, please... It works in ways we can't control!

Back to my notes...

So, what have you learned from my mistake?

1.  DON'T procrastinate on your Thank You notes, because you will look like an idiot when you run into someone at the grocery store and they ask you if you received their gift, and you start to stammer around, mumbling something about "meaning to mail the cards out" while you turn three shades of red. (And, NO it's just not ok to get your husband to write them... I don't know why, but it's just a secret rule.)

2. It's OK if you do not include every detail that your mother did when she wrote hers 30 years ago. I think most people would just be happy to receive your card (or my card, in this case). I seriously doubt that your neighbor is going to snatch the card out of the envelope and run to her husband and say, "Ugh, just LOOK at this pitiful Thank You card!! Do you see anything missing? Something that RHYMES with LATE?... DATE! She didn't even include the DATE in her cards..."   I think the chances of that conversation ever happening are highly unlikely.

3. PERSONAL REQUEST: If you are reading this and you gave us a wedding gift, please FORGIVE my tardy Thank You notes!! I am trying to finish them now (well, technically not right NOW, because I'm writing this, but you know what I mean.) Even though they are already late as it is, I refuse to just jot down a few notes and send them out. I actually want to put thought into them, because WE really appreciated every single thing we received. SO much!

4.  And LAST BUT NOT LEAST, you're more than welcome to have my Thank You Note GUIDELINE book... I will not be using it!

Shattered Dreams and BRAND NEW SCHEMES!

Well, Hello to ALL of my super special blog readers! (And, yes I do realize that my blog is overwhelmingly followed by a grand total of TWO people). So, you don't have to point that out to me, thank you...

I hope that each and every one of you two faithful readers finds yourself in good company tonight... See now doesn't that approach make me sound so.... sweet?  Like the eerily cheerful Michelle Obama, with her "I don't even know how to spell 'ATTITUDE'" sweetness? She makes me look like a demonic witch.  I don't know why but it irritates me that she is always so freakin nice and in such a good mood ALL   THE    TIME... with the SAME smile. And you know what I'm talking about ladies... We all have numerous smiles for every occasion, ready to pull the perfect one out at just the right time. Not Michelle. She's always just so... following.

   See what I mean? Ugh.

 Ok, I have to quit, because I'm just cracking myself up.  Lately, I catch myself laughing all the time at myself. You know what that is called: Sudden Twenty-Something Dilusion Syndrome. And, that's right, I think I have it.

Now if you google this phenomenon, and you are impressed by the hundreds of articles published about the unfortunate symptoms of this illness, PLEASE let me know, because I totally thought I made it up.

May has been a month of personal transition for me. Nothing major, just the fact that I feel like my entire life has changed completely, therefore transforming me into a person even I don't recognize some days. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because I think that I have matured and found myself...kinda. I never really realized how much real precious time I was wasting before I was sick. I got up each morning and got dressed and felt nothing. I drove to work and slaved away and drove myself home each night... and felt nothing. I made detailed organized plans for my future, and set milestones all the time and... God was laughing at me. Then one day, He must have thought that I had wasted just about enough time being selfish, so he took my life and He did to me what can only be described as this: He Re-Hatched Me with a Brand New Set of Morals and Values.

God gave me a second chance through Multiple Sclerosis, a second chance to learn how what truly is most important in life. Best of all, God taught me to be THANKFUL, for just about everything. I no longer fret about my high heels matching or my make-up looking beautiful, for now I am thankful that I am able to put my shoes on by myself *most* mornings. I no longer worry about letting someone down because I cannot be there for them all the time, because now I have to focus on not letting myself down and staying the course day after day. It's like waking up each morning to a new agenda, an agenda that you have to prepare for without any warning: Will my feet be numb, will my legs refuse to move, will I be able to feel my fingers, is my neck physically going to hold my head up tomorrow, is my body trying to tell me something? But as most of you know, I am SO random.. and God gave me a random disease.

I'd imagine when God was shifting through his "Disease Binder" on the day that my name was called, He was probably frustrated. I mean, He had to give me something pretty important, something that would be challenging for me, otherwise I would always be griping and complaining to Him, whining about how "SHE got to have Multiple Sclerosis and all I got to have was Lupus?" or "Why do I have to get something as boring as Cancer when HE gets to be so cool with his Multiple Sclerosis?" God was probably sitting at his huge table with all of his sparkly angel buddies while they debated which illness I would enjoy more. I'd imagine that just about the time all of the angels started getting catty, flapping their wings, causing MY precious Heaven Papers to scatter across the room, God loudly announced, "OK, I have decided to give her Multiple Sclerosis AND a Chronic Daily Migraine, because if she only has Multiple Sclerosis she will eventually become bored with figuring out her symptoms, so the Migraine will cause just the right amount of daily fog to make her have to actually use her brain each day." And that is how I like to think that I was specially selected to harbor this disease... and I'm ok with it. In this scenario, I STILL got to be the center of attention for a little while, right?

All kidding aside, I'll briefly update you on my last visit with my neurologist. I have a *knot* in my neck that is really painful and it causes confusion and awful cramps in my neck and sometimes I physically cannot hold my head up. I have a little neck brace for that, luckily. Well, if you feel my neck, you can feel the knot. So I diagnosed myself with a brain tumor, made a will for my precious chihuahua, JoJo, and selected a nice solid Oak casket for my funeral... which will be pulled by a Harley... haha Just kidding. I seriously was worried about it though, and I had no answers. Turns out, It's JUST that I am having a chronic daily migraine in my neck, and the pain is so intense that it is causing the muscles in my neck to form a hard ball, like a cyst. The ball of muscles is pressing on the nerves in my neck from the bottom side and the top side is making the bones in my neck between my c3- c4 Spine area poke out of my neck... thus creating the hard *knot*. And I absolutely do NOT respond to migaine medicine, so I cannot make the migraine cease. The bad news is that Doctor Leganke thinks the lesions on my brain could possibly have spread to my neck and/or spine. I have to go back for like my tenth MRI in a week or so. And for those who do not know, the lesions cause pain and they mess with things such as your concentration, speech, attention span, congnitive abilities, walking, etc. It just depends on where they are. So, basically I have almost had the migraine in my neck every single day for one whole year... I totally think that on my one year Migraine Birthday, June 3, 2011, I should so get a surprise migraine party.... Just Saying.

And for the next course of action... just wait and see. Your guess is as good as mine. Treatment can control the MS, but it doesn't target the migraines. The migraines an cause lesions on my brain too. And the damage so far is irreversible. MS treatment just slows down the progression of the disease.. if it works. Doc gave me steroids to boost me, but so far the only thing it has given me is the inability to have even an ounce of patience and the rage of an old alcoholic wife beater... Sometimes I'd like to take a lot of heavy bottles and hurl them through the big den window one at a time, just to relieve some of the pressure. Then I imagine myself sitting on the couch for the rest of he day, trying to come up with a good story about how a big *animal* flew into the window and shattered it and I refrain from throwing anything but the occasional two year old tantrum.  Steroids = Chelsea is CRAZY. And the absolute best part is, they have not worked at all this time. Usually they do. This time... I think I may just have to buy stock in ice packs.

On a lighter note, while I have been "finding myself," I have made quite a few revelations about the new me. Most importantly I have realized this: I am the absolute wierdest person I know. I am not even kidding with you. Here are a few quick facts about me:

- I am obsessed with trying to find out how serial killers tick.
- I am addicted to Mountain Dew.
- I HATE to clean out the kitchen drain.
- I honestly have no patience anymore... for much of anything.
- Sometimes I get the urge to say what is on my mind... the real truth.
- I am so much stronger than I ever thought I could be.
- I have friends in places that I never even appreciated or realized.
- I am a creature of habit: I bathe with the same motions in the same order, every single time. If you walk in and say something that distracts me, I have to start all over.
- I have to have everything in balance- If there is a candle on one side, there has to be a candle on the other side... or my anxiety will fly through the roof thinking about it.
- I just realized I just may like frilly rosy feminine clothes.. who knew?
- I unplug everything before I leave the house... EVERYTHING... unless my dog is not there.
- I have a mental schedule that I may forget to share with you- But we HAVE to follow it.
- I HATE to drive.
- I think I'm a loner.

And the list goes on.  And on. And on.

Here are a few pictures of things or people that make me smile. Underneath, I'll put a little explanation...

 Our Wedding Day... this picture always makes me wonder what he was whispering in my ear. I can't remember most anything after the ceremony because I was so sick. This picture is real emotion. I love it!

 And honestly I added this picture, because while I am not SO concerned about make up anymore, I still think her eyeshadow is absolutely stunning... Just in case you wanted to know.

 I have this picture, because I think anyone with the natural ability to be so beautiful with such minimal effort should be... tagged in my blog?  I think she is beautiful all the time, in every picture. Real natural beautiful features.

And of course, the *Duchess* Kate! Sometimes I think she is so beautiful that I could cry. She is not scared to be herself, and she sets her own standards. The way she carries herself should be a guide for anyone who wants to learn how to set an example without even trying. I love everything about her, even the fact that her boobs are so teeny tiny like mine... We will take the focus away from you *trying* to tell is we are in fact female, and divert that attention to the fabulous HUGE hat on our head. If Kate can wear gaudy hats and hair clips with feathers on national t.v., I should definitely have the guts to stroll up to Izzy's soccer game with my big white Accessory on my head. Unfortunately, I have not ever made it out of the car with the hat actually on my head, but hopefully by next year I'll almost be there.

This needs no explanation... haha.

In this picture I was looking for my wedding gown. This was the dress I went in to try on... this was NOT THE DRESS. Ladies... when you pretend not to notice the price tag and bypass it to run your fingers across through the perfectly white lace... You just know. And this dress was not in my dreams.

 Neither was this dress... NOT THE ONE. .... Keep looking.

This sweet little beautiful brown baby is my chihuahua JoJo. It's sad, because I truly depend on her to keep me company each day, and I don't give her enough love in return. She may just be a dog, but this little girl has been through everything from day one. I truly love her.

I like this picture, because right after I put those fish down, my grandfather, Bop, taught me how to filet a fish for the first time... A wonderful experience that I will treasure forever!

This picture is special to me, because it is proof that I had the courage to cut off inches and inches of hair at one single time... That may seem small, but I had to know if I liked short hair better, so I made up my mind and went for it. Turns out, I hated it. Well, I know now.

This was my sweetheart, Scott, before I ever knew he was my sweetheart. That gentle smile... sometimes I wish I could give that back to him more often. A lot has changed since this picture was taken, a lot that hurts and makes you cling to each other as you learn what pain really is. We have been through it and we will stay together as we travel this road... but I will always treasure the short time we had when life was Simple. Gentle. Easy.

My husband really is so confident in his *Manliness* that he sometimes sports my BIG sunglasses when he wants to ooze hotness... Such a goofball... a wonderful goofball.

For added manliness, here is a picture of my husband in my white and pink eye mask... And he really is asleep. And yes, he will kill me when he sees this. Our house is never normal... but it's perfect.

I LOVE this picture, because it was taken when I was 16... and I was so young and free and naive and happy. I was like a freakin walking ray of sunshine all the time in my own little world. I am so thankful for that time!

This is my beautiful Grandmother, Mimi. I LOVE this picture, because it shows her battling her own fight with chemotherapy and breast cancer. I believe this is one of them most beautiful pictures I have of her, because she is real. I'm thankful that we both have been through a crazy experience, because we have an  unspoken bond... Isn't she beautiful?

My one and only tattoo... I was 19, and I went all by myself and got a tattoo. I have no regrets and I am still proud of myself for doing what I wanted regardless of if anyone thought I went from "classy" to "trashy."  It means "ANGEL." I have no idea why I picked that at the time... It was random. Now I love it because I constantly have my own little reminder that God's angels are with me all the time...

Mr. Donnie Martin, one of my old bosses at Martin Funeral Home in Clanton, AL. He has Cerebral Palsy. The doctors said he would never walk. He rode a tricycle around town until he was 8, and his grandmother had to replace his tricycle tires 3 times! But when he was 8 years old, he learned to walk.. He went on to get married, he has a son, and he still beats the odds and works his tiny little butt off each day at the funeral home, even if it just by showing support. He has the personality of an angel, and I love him a lot. He's still walking and talking and he's about 70 years old.

My first scrapbook page... I had never even met Izzy when I made this. But I already loved her so much!

I just like this picture, because I'm being goofy... This was before my head started hurting... I was completely pain free in this picture... but I'm still just as goofy...

So here it is: THE DRESS.

This picture is Izzy and Evan when they were little. This picture makes me smile, because they are so young, so sweet, and so wonderful to have in my life. But it also makes me sad, because I wish I had known them then... I wish I hadn't missed seeing them grow. But I channel this to make sure I watch them grow now... They are angels.

My first baby boy: My brother Micah. I LOVE him more than he will ever realize. He has my heart and he doesn't even know it. I am so proud of him and I am so thankful that he loves God and that he is so smart... He will make a great difference one day, mark my words. He already makes one to me now.

Here I am at an exercise at work when I worked for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences Medical Examiner's Office... I am SO thankful that God allowed me to do my dream job, cutting autopsies, for two whole years! He gave me what I wanted!!

Here we are on our honeymoon. This picture is a complete lie; In reality, we were scared out of our minds. That's why I love it. We were on our way to catch the subway in LA and it was getting dark. We were so clueless... but we were so wrapped up in each other that we made it through that crazy journey... Another time, another story...

Universal Studios... No one to worry about but us. We FINALLY made it!

The proposal... look at his shiny little cheeks grinning... LOVE IT! He had my heart way before that night, but the ring sealed the deal!

Without this little lady, I would not be here. This is my great grandmother, Annie Lee. As I've watched her grow older, I have learned that sometimes silence is the key to surviving. This littl lady has known some heavy pain and heartache in her lifetime... She has a story within her, and an entirely different world lives in her heart... sometimes I envy her for that.

I hope you enjoyed that little memory trip! Well, I have to go clean the house. Now. Scott is on his way home with the kids, and it looks like a craft store threw up all throughout my house... More later.