We had a GREAT LONG WEEKEND HERE...

What a wonderful long weekend! We only had to work a 1/2 day on Wednesday and then had Thursday-Sunday off from work!!!! Not too long ago I worked retail, and I would have been working my little tail off this past weekend!!! So, I think that makes me relish the long weekend even more! Not that we did anything super exciting, we just spent time together and that was perfect!

We did catch a movie over the weekend...we saw the new Bee Movie. It was very cute and a great movie for the whole family. It managed to keep Collin's and our interest! Of course movie popcorn and milk duds always help!!

We had a wonderful time with my parents on Thanksgiving and let me tell you the food was spectacular!!! Definitely good food and wonderful conversation! Collin was lucky enough to get to go home with Nana and Papa. They had big plans that included: setting up the new train for Christmas, attending to the horses/barn cats and dogs, and visiting the animal shelter that my mom volunteers at. Needless to say there was not a dull moment in their visit and Collin loves going out there!!!

My dad gave me an extra hard drive that he did not need anymore and on the drive were hundreds of photos!!! I was so excited to get home and start pouring over them! I think I have already used up a cartridge of ink printing pictures out! Love the older pictures of myself and family and I can't wait to scrap them! It will be nice to use feminine colors, flowers, and some bling in my layouts!!!!! In fact I did a layout over the weekend....see below! Yes, this is me at age 3!!!! Love that look!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week....have you started your Holiday shopping yet???

The week before Thanksgiving...

I can't believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving! Time has been flying by at warp speed! Don't worry, I do realize that I say something similar to this on every post! I know that I need to just accept that time flies!

This week brought some very sad news of the passing of someone that I admired as a strong, caring, family oriented, and very friendly woman. With her passing, I am reminded of my friends and how very important they are to me! I am truly blessed in my life to have friends that I can call on in times of need and in times of joy! So here is a huge "thank you" to all of my friends from the bottom of my heart! I love you all and am so proud that I can call you my friend!!!!

We are not busy at our house getting ready for Thanksgiving as we celebrate this holiday with my family. We all get dressed up and go out to a fancy dinner where we are wined and dined for hours and have great conversation. I absolutely love it!!!! After we are done, we usually stop over the in-laws house to say a quick "hello", and then off to watch some football and relax together as a family of three. It has taken our family a while to figure out what 'fits' for this holiday between the two families, but since we have been doing this for the last couple of years, I simply LOVE it!

I was very fortunate this week/weekend to get some scrappin' done! I completed two layouts for the Design Team that I am on over at Paper Popsicle . You should go over there and check it out! If you scroll down on the home page, you will see two of my layouts!!!! Very exciting! I also did a few layouts for the album I am doing for my mom and all of her animals. I am happy to report that I am almost done with the album!!! Only a few more pages to complete...which I hope to do today while watching the Colts play! When I finish it, I will post it!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week and I also hope that you know how truly THANKFUL I am for each of you in my life!

Here are the two layouts that I finished....sorry the scan makes the colors look so weird! Maybe Santa will bring me a 12 x 12 scanner for Christmas??!!??

Seems like we are busy....

but not really much going on! Does that even make sense? I can't believe that in less than two weeks we will be having Thanksgiving!!! I must admit that this is my favorite holiday! I love to get together with family and then well, the food is always a plus as well! I feel so fortunate that my family is close by and that we can be together!

This past Friday we had a surprise party for my brother-in-law as he just got back from Iraq. I am so glad that he came back safe and sound and I thank everyone who is over there serving our country AND their families! They are making a huge sacrifice for our freedom and our country!

So the first nine weeks of school has ended and Collin did very well! He made the High Honor Roll and received an award for his Christian Outlook. We are very proud of him!!!! I feel lucky that he really enjoys school! He has also decided to play basketball for the school team. The first week he had conditioning in which they basically run for two hours! I thought he would die and want to quit, but he said it was hard, but necessary....what a kid! I was tired just watching them!!!!

Collin had fun on Halloween. This was the first year that we let him be something scary and he got to go Trick or' Treating with two of his buddies! I have tried to steer him away from the scary/gory costumes, but this year we let him make his own decisions....man was it hard! Without even talking about it, he and his friends basically looked the same! Made me laugh! Guess for these pictures I will have to find some gory paper to use to scrapbook them!

Well, that is about all for now! I hope everyone has a great week...and have fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Collin on Halloween.....warning they may scare you..LOL!