New Orleans Cont'd......

12/14/12

Since we flew in a day earlier than most of the other families attending from our dance school, Gidget and I though we wanted to go out sight seeing, decided to hang around the Hotel and wait for our fellow dancers. We had breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, Then we went back to the room where Gidget had to do her school work, where instead she bounced off the walls with excitement waiting for her friends.
We did check out our hotel lobby where the cooks from the hotel had made and set up a Gingerbread Village. Which by the way was absolutely amazing. I have pics for you, but they don't do this Village justice. Then like a light switch organized chaos ensued.
Wow what a difference a day made. That Thursday 11/29 dancers and their families from all over the southeast descended upon the Mariott. It was crazy. There were kids everywhere. There were 1660 dancers that competed in the regional competition that weekend if it helps you to picture the craziness in the hotel on the main arrival day.
Being we homeschool allowed us the luxury of spending extra days in New Orleans. [Having that flexibility is what afforded us being able to buy 2 plane tickets rather than driving. It was actually cheaper to fly for us than drive. We got our tickets through Hotwire.com, and they gave us an awesome rate. Our flight times were at the crack of dawn which kind of stunk, but other than that the whole experience was pleasant.]
We did finally start seeing kids from our school. We went to dinner with some friends at Huck Finn's. The service was stellar, the food was good, but a bit on the expensive side, and the Daiquiri's were very strong. I actually gave mine to my friend Diana to finish because it was so strong. Which normally I would enjoy, but with my pain meds I was catching a heavy buzz and thought it better not to finish my drink. Usually one drink is fine, but not that night. Made me feel like a light weight. Man I am just getting too old.
We made it an early night because we had a long day on 11/30. COMPETITION day. Before retiring to our room though, we did go up and visit all the vendors tables, and had to buy our Oireachtas program book. Veteran moms highly recommended that this book was a must have. They were right. Gidget also need new ghillies as her toes were blowing out of her old ones. Ghillies are their soft shoes. Normally it is not recommended wearing new shoes on a competition day, but ghillies are an exception because the are still tight and give the foot a nice arch and point. 
After jamming with her friends, and me dropping over $100.00 in less than 15 minutes, it was time to retire to our room to get ready for the big day.
TO BE CONTINUED......

Doing her school work

Unable to concentrate

Getting silly

Falling off the bed

Stuck between the bed & wall

Breakfast with a view of Canal St.

In front of part of the Village

The Gingerbread Church

Part of the Village

Dinner at Huck Finn's (Gidget & friend Delaina)

GB Village ingrediant List

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The Oireachtas HandBook

Wow, I have been Naughty........

I have been so very naughty..... I have been very neglectful of my blog. All those months of being regular, talking about wanting to get better and try and grow my blog just went....POOF!!!! Now I know I can get it back with some work.

It has been a very crazy busy few months. Gidget and I just went to New Orleans 2 weeks ago so she could compete in the Southern Regional Oireachtas (ore-ock-tus). It was her 1st time and though she didn't get a spot at Nationals this year, she still danced amazing. The trip was lots of fun. New Orleans was awesome. I would love to go back again. There were only 2 minor incidents while there that may have traumatized my 12 yr old for a while. 
After our amazing lunch at the Palace Cafe, and a very long nap, (our morning started at 3:45 am) we were walking about 4 blocks from our hotel to get something for dinner and she got to see her first drunk peeing on a wall. At this point she wanted to turn around and run back to the Marriott. After that shock subsided we decided to go into a gift shop and look around. It was called Voodoo. Sounds interesting, right? Just your typical over priced gift shop. Though not your typical wares. They had actual voodoo dolls, back scratcher made out of an alligator paw, (claws and all), they had decorative alligator heads, Beignets mix, Chicory coffee, t-shirts, post cards, ashtrays, shot glasses, coffee cups, Mardi Grais masks. and beads. 

Now some of these beads should be wrapped like the X-rated magazines, because we came around a corner and my 12 yr old ran into a rack of beads, and was presented with a 6" plastic penis hitting her forehead. Can you say AWKWARD. They look on her face, I wish I had my camera. We left. I then had to spend the next 15 minutes explaining why they would dare expose a penis in public like that. They had ones with the lady parts too, which she saw, but that's not what hit her in the forehead. Though as I sit here and recall this event, I am trying rather hard not to laugh out loud. It should not have happened, but how often will one actually ever tell or hear a story like this????

Outside the beads fiasco, we had a very nice time. We got our pictures sketched by a 79 yr old street artist named "Too Loose". He was a very sweet old man. He sketched us while were at a cafe having Coffee and Beignets. Which BTW are absolutely DELICIOUS!!! The birds would sit right next to us and eat right out of our hands. 

Our first meal in NO was at the Palace Cafe. It was amazing. I had the Fried Oyster Loaf, which is actually an appetizer, but eats like a meal. Best meal I have EVER eaten hands down. I also had the Sweet Potato and Lump Crab Chowder. A little spicy, but I loved it. I'm not usually one for spicy food either. Gidget went with what she knew, The All American Cheeseburger. That was not a typical burger. The fries were handmade and yummy.

Well that was day one in New Orleans, I will be back tomorrow with more of our trip and more pics. I'm glad to be back on my blog. Look forward to catching everyone up over the next week or so. Hoping this finds you all well.

God Bless, 
Kimmie

!st Plane ride. Had a small anxiety attack upon her 1st landing.

These beds were the most comfortable.

Palace Cafe

Palace Cafe

Fried Oyster Loaf...YUMMY!!!

Gidget and her Burger

In Our Hotel Lobby

At The Cafe Beignets

The Very Friendly birds at the Cafe

The sketch that old man did. There is some likeness, not a lot. Love it all the same.

With Faith All Things Are Possible

10/03/12

Well I have to say I am happy to have September over. I attempted to try and blog daily, and I failed terribly. I did great the first 2 weeks, then I got sick for a few days and didn't blog those days. After that I fell out of sync. I feel defeated, and am disappointed in myself for not being able to do it. I need to put it behind me on move past it. It is a new month and I am not promising a daily post, but I am going to work on improving my skills.

That being said, I am also working on improving my crafting skills. My ultimate goal is to have a blog that is solely related to my craft of choice, which is paper crafting and art journaling. I follow some really great sites. Tonight I came across a new one which I enjoyed very much. It is called  "Expressing from my Heart and Soul" @ http://kerentamir.blogspot.ca. Keren, the blog owner is very talented in mixed media and scrapbooking. She designs and has been published in a few different scrapbooking magazines. If you are into this type of crafting I recommend hopping over to her blog and checking her out. She is currently hosting a giveaway with some really great supplies.

I love when I find a great blog like this. It is a great source of inspiration for creating my own works of art and mixed media, and it also helps me in learning all kinds of  new and different techniques. I have a great idea for a line of scrapbooking themes that are hard to find online or otherwise, and I am hoping to learn all I can so I can actually design my own line. I know, BIG dreams, but I believe that is how most things transpire and come to be, it all starts with a dream. Maybe I am crazy to think I could possibly design a line of scrapbooking supplies, I mean I can hardly figure out how to work a simple blog. With faith all things are possible, even big and crazy dreams.

I recently watched a video on Netflix, and also read the book called "The Secret". The theory is if you think positively, and you believe in certain things you would like to happen in your life, that those things can actually happen. I don't know if all that is true or not. What I do know is that as a person of faith, if I pray on it, and I have faith in God and myself that all things are possible. So why can't my dream be possible?? I guess time will tell.

God Bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 28: Today I Smile Because....

09/28

Day 28 Today I smile because... It has been a good past few days. The biggest news is my son Michael got his learner's permit. Though that should make me feel old and scared, the pure excitement he got when I let him drive home from the DMV was priceless. Now I have to say I am not generally a good teacher for driving as my older 3 kids can attest to. I don't usually make a good passenger even when my hubby drives. I feel defenseless because I have to relinquish total control to the driver. Now I have to admit, Michael,aka Meat, did a pretty good job. He needs to work on not riding the shoulder (a big pet peeve of mine) and he needs to work on curves and corners, but he did fairly well much to my surprise. 

Now he is my 4th child to get his driving permit. DMV has implemented something brand new for the teen drivers in NC. They (meaning mom & dad) have to complete a driving log. They have to log a minimum of 60 hours with I think 20 of those being night time driving hours. I'm all for extended driving practice, but remembering to write in that log every single time will be a challenge. That's considering it doesn't get lost in the next year.  

Now I am in favor of every parent with a student driver being able to get a sign for their car that tells all other drivers that there is a student driver on board. We ended up with a few impatient drivers behind us. One guy passed us and the 18 wheeler in front of us that my son remained like 5 car lengths behind.  

I have one child left to get their permit, and I am in no hurry. I wish I could hit a rewind button and make my kids little again. Time goes by too fast. I blinked and they grew up. :(  

I hope you all had something to make you smile.

God Bless,

Kimmie <3

Look at that great BIG ole' smile on his face....
(notice he has his hands at 10 & 2)

Day25: Today I Smile Because.....

09/25/12

Day 25 today I smile because..... Quite frankly this month is almost over and I can put my disasterous 30 day challenge behind me. At the beginning of the month I had great intentions of doing this challenge. Getting sick for a few days threw me off course, in all honesty though doing a blog entry a day proved to be much harder than I had anticipated.

In all sincerity, I want to succeed at blogging, I want to grow my audience, I want to get better at this. I really question if I am cut out for this, if I have what it takes to get better at this and have a successful blog.I have been at this for less than a year, I have no clue what I am doing, and I am not very computer saavy. I know, not very positive.

I am not giving up though. I am going to keep at this until I either succeed, or I fall flat on my face. I just haven't figured out at what point do I tell myself it is time to throw in the towel.

I am going to finish out this month with the "Today I smile because" challenge. I haven't decided what I am doing for next month. Though I will not be doing a daily challenge, I need to really think about what it is I am doing with my blog. So for now I will finish what I started and at the beginning of the month I can start anew. Who knows I may give myself a whole new makeover. Until then I will keep smiling and hope you all have something to smile about too.

God Bless,

Kimmie <3

Day23: Today I smile because...

09/23/12

Day 23: Today I smile because.... We had a great time at the Feis this weekend. Bridget did get a first in her Slip Jig, which is one of the 1st places she needs to move toward her preliminary champion. She did a great job all around. I am reallly tired today, and my back hurts quite a bit, but worth it to see my daughter perform.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  Sorry to keep this so short but I have about 350+ emails I have to sort through because I haven't really been on my computer in about 4 or 5 days. Between not feeling well and going out of town I have fallen behind. 

I shall return tomorrow.

What made you smile today???

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

Day 21: Today I Smile Because.....

09/21/12

Day 21: Today I smile because.... I am feeling better. I have missed the last 2 days of my 30 day (everyday) challenge because I wasn't feeling well. I am disappointed in myself for not getting on and jotting something. Blogging everyday is hard enough when you feel well, but trying to muster energy when you don't is tough. So I just didn't.

Today I am taking my daughter Bridget and 2 other girls from her dance school to Raleigh,NC for a Feis (fesh) tomorrow. Bridget has been working really hard, so fingers crossed it pays off and she does well. 

Though I would love to chat, I have a million things I need to do before leaving. So say a little prayer for Bridget, and I will be sure to let you all know how she does.

Hoping you all have something to smile about today.

God Bless,

Kimmie <3

Day17: Today I Smile Because

09/17/12

Day 17: Today I smile because...... I'm not really sure if I smiled or not. Today was just a typical day. It was as if I went through the day on auto pilot. I believe we all get to a point because we are mostly creatures of habit that we move through our days with such routine that when the day comes to an end and we reflect back, we wonder where the time went. I got up this morning and I blinked and it was time for the kids to get ready for bed. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have a day like today rather than a day that seemed to drag on endlessly.

Even though it was a very routine and typical day, I am doing something a bit different than I have been normally doing, I am trying an experiment in "positivity". I am going to live in the positve and not focus so much on the negative things that happen. I am even starting a journal of positivity. I am keeping it as an art journal, which so far has been fun to do. I keep positive affirmations in the form art. I got the idea from Jenniebellie.blogspot.co.uk. I follow Jenniebellie's art blog. She decided to do a vision board. I then saw a documentary on Netflix called "The Secret" dually named for the best selling book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. I didn't want to do a vision board though. So in keeping spirit with my new journey into the world of Art & Art Journaling, I decided I'd keep a book and call it my book of positivity.

I took an old book I bought at the re-store and I have altered it to be an art journal. This process was really a lot of fun. It took me a few days to get the book prepared for journaling in. To alter a book for this type of journaling I first had to remove about 2/3 of the pages. This is so when you begin the actual art work, it leaves room for the book to expand without putting undo pressure on the books spine. One of the most important thing in choosing a book is to make sure the book is sewn into the spine and not glued. This is because your pages will pull away from the spine and thus ruin your journal. I then took the remaining pages and glued them together by 2's, using a glue designed for book making, preferably an acid-free, or PVA glue. This strengthens the paper and allows me to use a lot of different types of wet mediums without tearing up the pages. (I saved the ones I tore out for use in future art projects)

I am 3 journal entries in, I really looked at the cover and ironically the book title of my new positivity journal is called "Wonderful Things Happen" It was once a childrens book of stories and poems. I have made my entries one of positive things in the belief that if I think in a way that is only positive, then only positive things will happen. 

I have also dedcided that I am tired of dwelling in all the stress of what has been my life the last few years. I can't change what has happened, I can't change, control or undo the issues that have put me on disability, I can't change or control the prices of gas or groceries, I can't change or control the loss of my income, and so on, and so on. I have decided however I can change my attitude about the circumstances of how I choose to emotionally handle all these things. So I am choosing to think, act and feel positive. 

Now I am not so unrealistic to think I am going to be like Mary Poppins, strolling through parks singing songs of happiness, but now when something stressful happens I will try to handle it with a more positive attitude. I will take some pics to share with you all. 

So what made you smile today??

God Bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 16: Today I Smile Because...

09/16/12

Today I smile because...... I got to do absolutely nothing. I didn't have to run a child to sports, go to the store, or do laundry or cook dinner, I did absolutely nothing. I stayed in my pajamas all day. I even slept in. Wellactually I was up at around 6:30 - 7:00 am, but I went back to bed about an hour after I woke up and then I slept until like 1pm. It was awesome. It has been weeks since I got to do nothing. I find it is very refreshing.

Well I guess I had one thing to do today, my blog post. I am determined to follow through and make sure I do at least 1 blog post a day for 30 days. Hard to believe this month is already half over. Doesn't seem like I have been doing my 30 day day challenge for 2 weeks now. 

I did have one good laugh today as well. About 30 minutes ago I was walking into the bathroom, and I have to pass my room to get there. well my hubby was asleep so I decided to shut the door so I could keep the dogs out, as I shut the door the large art easel must have been leaning on the door because it came crashing to the floor. My hubby almost came out of his skin. It startled him to the point he jumped so high he almost came off the bed. Good thing he has a strong heart. I found it extremely comical, him not so much. So not only did I get something to smile about, I had a really good laugh to boot.

What made you smile today???

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

In Loving Memory of a loved one

Leonard P. Hogan
My husbands uncle passed away last night.This is a great loss to our family.... Uncle Leonard was the jokester /prankster of our family.  He always made you feel welcome and a part of the family. 

His presence on this earth will not go unnoticed. It is truly a great loss for the family and the community alike.

Our prayers and thoughts are with his wife Darlene and his 6 children at a time like this.  Uncle Leonard may you sing and fly with the Angels. We all love you, and we will all miss you greatly.

With a heavy heart,
God Bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 15: Today I Smile Because.....

09/15/12

Day 15: Today I smile because...... My son Jacob,(who is my 3rd child) turned 19 today. It is hard to believe he is 19. Time just flies right on by. Though there was a time when he was a child that time seemed to stand still.

Jake graduated this past spring. It was bittersweet. All the years he struggled in school with his learning disabilities, he made honor roll both semesters, and he got an A+ on his Senior exit project. At about 9th grade he mellowed out and he got less and less frustrated with school. He did decide to take a few months off and will start Community College in January. Right now he is working full time and saving every penny he can. He has an amazing work ethic for someone his age. I am extremely proud of the man he has become.

For his birthday dinner, he chose homemade mac n' cheese, fried chicken, green beans, and instead of cake he wanted apple pie. Yup that's right, apple pie. It was yummy. 

So, what made you smile today???

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

Happy Birthday Jake!!!

Kaya helping blow out the candles on "Birthday Pie"

Day 14: Today I Smile Because....

09/14/12

Day 14: Today I smile because.... I have made some progress in my Sketchbook for the Arthouse Sketchbook project. This project is for the Brooklyn Library of Art. It was started in 2006 in Atlanta and was moved in 2009 to NYC. The Sketchbook project feature's 18,000+ artists in more than 130 countries from around the world. It is open to anyone who wants to participate. Participants range from newbies like myself to some extremely talented artists. 

It costs $25.00 to participate, and for an additional $30.00 they will digitize your sketchbook. (I am having my digitized) They have a whole list of themes you can pick from to label what your sketchbook is about. Mine is still uncatorgized, I still am not 100% on what I am doing. Their website is http://www.arthousecoop.com/sketchbookproject/ There you can read all about the project, they also have message boards and forums so you can take a looky-loo at others sketchbooks.

I decided to participate when I began my journey into the world of Art and Art Journaling. I rationalized doing this by telling myself if I pay to do the project, I will not give up on this journey when it became too hard. (And believe you me, I have been more than frustrated on more than one occassion) I have only done about 1/3 of the pages so far, slowly but surely I am getting there. I took a few pictures to share with you. Remember I am very new at this, but I am pretty content with what I have done so far. I am not posting pics of all the pages I have done so far, just a few.

What made you smile today??

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

The Cover

This is a collage 

"Sometimes life turns you upside down and carries you away and takes you to places unknown....
....enjoy the ride for it may take you to your destiny. -Kim Hogan

My upside down cutie, made from 2 seperate pieces of printable ephemera. The drops of color are done with Indian Ink.

A collage, the stamp in the bottom corner is an Irish Blessing.

A handmade tag that I stained and stamped.

This isn't quite done yet. The tree is a print transfer with a watercolor backround.

Outside Links | Stossel in the Classroom

Outside Links | Stossel in the Classroom

I got this link in my email via Diane Flynn Keith @ http://www.ClickSchooling.com. ClickSchooling has some wonderful resources for homeschoolers. Stossel in the classroom offers some free DVD's with teacher resources to teach the DVD's. Is is designed for upper level middle & high school students. 

Diane Flynn Keith's ClickSchooling has tons of FREE resources for just about every grade. Each day she sends an email containg a link for sites that assist in varied subjects or virtual tours of facories, museums,etc. Each day is a link for a different subject. 

God Bless,

Kimmie<3

Day 13: Today I Smile Because....

09/13/12

Today I smile because..... First, my hubby gets to come home 1 day early and has all of next week off. It will be the first time in just about a year that we will get to spend more than 4 days in a row together. So it will either be a glorious week or we will want to strangle one another. This is to be continued.....

Secondly, I got my art supplies I ordered from dickblick.com. They are an online store that sells every art supply you can think of at really reasonable prices. I highly recommend this site to anyone who loves to do arts & crafts. They sell paints, glues, markers, pens, pencils, paper, tools... well pretty much anything you can think of. They cater to the weekend art warriors and to the serious artists. 

As I have mentioned previously, I am teaching myself how to draw and create art journals. So to assist me in my journey I bought a UHU glue stick, 4 bottles of Indian Inks, 2 little bottles of Golden paint (Golden is a very expensive product, but quality), I also got some Golden Matte Gel Medium and a package of chipboard to add to my growing list of supplies. Next to my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils (which I love) the stuff I got today is the first really high quality supplies I have purchased and I am excited to use them. 

A few days ago I also got some supplies from donnadowney.typepad.com that I am excited to use with what I got today. If any of you are into art I highly suggest checking out Donna's blog. She is not only entertaining, she is very talented. I love her tutorials because not only does she go step by step and explain how she is achieving a specific technique, she actually lists every supply she uses. That is extremely helpful for us budding artists. I can't wait to get started.

So nothing super exciting, but it getting my supplies made me smile, what made you smile today???

God Bless,
Kimmie<3

My new Bombay Indian Inks

My dickblick.com haul

Golden paints in Teal & Titanium White

Goldem Gel Medium & UHU glue stick

Day 12: Today I Smile Because......

09/12/12

Today I smile because...... of the kindness in the words of others. Debi Bolocofsy @ adornedfromabove.com sent me a really nice, but simple email with words of encouragement. I wanted to share yesterday, but I felt giving remembrance to those who all lost their lives on 9/11 was more in order. Though I am remiss in also giving thanks to all of our service members who risk there lives on a daily basis so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we do. 

Two days ago when I did my daily blog post, I had difficulty in writing it. It was just one of those days. It was uneventful, I was tired, and I just didn't feel like doing a post. It had to be done though, I am doing a 30 day series after all. I thought it would be simple to write something however small on a daily basis. Well that is not so. I have to give a load of credit to all those out there who blog on a regular basis. It is not an easy thing to do. Even for those of us who are naturally gabby people. 

I decided to do this 30 day series as a way to try and grow my blog a bit, to become more natural at it. So I chose a topic I figured would be easier for me to write about every day. I was fooling myself in thinking there is anything simple about writing every day. Don't get me wrong, I am loving this whole blogging experience and wish I was way better at it. I follow some pretty amazing blogs, and am exceedingly inspired every day by them. I am in awe over what so many of you are capable of, by what you create so others can enjoy, be educated, entertained , or inspired. 

I am definitely not any where at that point yet. I can only continue to try and learn all I can, and hope and pray that I too will achieve my goals to be one of those that also educate, entertain and inspire others.

So THANK YOU Debbie for your kind words and your show of support by following me, and also to John Taylor who took the time to email me. He is a contributing writer for 
http://www.vouchercodes.eu.com/blog/. Debbie is a strong Christian who is an amazing crafter. 

What made you smile today????

God Bless,
Kimmie<3

Day 11: Today I Smile Because.....

09/11/12

Day 11: Today I smile because..... I smile for those who can't, for those whose lives were taken and in remembrance of them and that they are missed every single day. I smile so that may always live in our hearts and never be forgotten. So let's all  have a moment of silence today in remembrance to all those that died on 9/11/2001, and that we say a prayer for them and their families who were left behind to deal with such a  terrible loss. On that day in our hour of grief as a Nation, we came together as One, regardless of our ethnicity, regardless of our religion,  and regardless of our social or economic status. We came together and  prayed united as one without prejudice. Today we honor the memory of all of those who were lost on that terrible day that will forever be etched in our memories. That in their memory we will always stand firm as "One Nation Under God" with resolve of mind, heart, and spirit. In their memory we pray, AMEN.

God bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 10: Today I Smile Because....

09/10/12

Day 10: Today I Smile Because.....  I have to. It is one of those days that I am just flat out tired, and feeling unsociable. If I could have stayed in bed and done absolutely nothing, I would have.

When I chose to do this "30 day blog series, Today I smile because..." I figured it would be fairly easy. We all smile at least once a day at something don't we??? Well as I sat down and got ready to type and reviewed my day, I realized that I didn't really have much of anything that made me smile today. I also realized that this isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I have been sitting here staring at the keyboard and the screen wracking my brains on what I am going to write today. I type a paragraph then erase it. Not only has my day been rather average and uneventful, my brain has gone to mush and my vocabulary and intellect to even come up with a simple blog post escape me today. 

So today I will say that I am grateful because... I am alive, my kids are healthy and I am loved. I guess when I think about those things and how lucky I am to have them, that is a reason to smile. :)

I should have never assumed doing this would be easy. I really almost didn't do a post today because I am really challenged on what to say, but I managed to get a few words out didn't I. I hope today you all had reason to smile about something today. 

Until tomorrow...
God Bless,
Kimmie <3

Day 9: Today I smile because...

09/09/12

Day 9: Today I smile because...... All the family members that live in NC joined together for dinner at the rehabilitation center where my brother in law is recuperating from his "Pons" Stroke.

About 35 family members, 3 generations worth  gathered for dinner to celebrate and rejoice with my brother-in-law Tom. He is making a rapid recovery. Though he has a way to go, he has come remarkably far considering the area of the brain in which the stroke occurred. With how fast life happens now days, it makes it hard to get together for big family dinners, or functions unless it is the holidays or a special occasion.

Today not only did we  laugh and have a great time as we usually do when we get together, it was a time of reflection, of rejoicing and thankfulness. Our family has much to be grateful for. There is a lot to be said for the power a faith and prayer. For it is with those two things that we were all able to smile today.

What made you smile today???

God Bless,

Kimmie <3

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:7

Day 8: Today I smile because...

09/08/12
 Today I smile because.... I got to see my granddaughter Kaya today. She is 2 1/2 and  starting to talk in full converstions. She was telling me how she got to go out on a boat yesterday. Though I had to patch together what she was telling me picking up about every 3rd word, she talked about it with total enjoyment.
my favorite time with my kids was when they were the age my granddaughter is. 
Their little personalities are blossoming, they are learning to talk, to show their independence. I just love this age. My granddaughter is very very animated, and the polar opposite of how her mother, my daughter Kady was at that age. Kady was very relaxed & easy going, mild tempered, quiet, and could sit and entertain herself. My granddaughter Kaya is very tenacious, has a bit of temper(she is extremely impatient), though she can entertain herself, she really prefers an audience. She is really a bit of a performer. She is smart as whip to boot. Though her mom was a quick learner, my granddaughter doesn't miss a beat.
I love being a grandma, (she calls me MiMi) I get all the joy of having a little one without all the work. It's awesome. Kaya makes me smile every time I see her.

What made you SMILE today???

God Bless,
Kimmie <3

Playing Shy

Slowing showing herself

The Drama Queen

You Can't See Me!!!

Thinking on it.....

Maybe I will look at the camera...

TA-DA... Look at ME......