good mail give away Italian-style

{Kenny and I on the streets of Verona, Italy}

.....

While shopping in an Italian street market,

I picked up a little something

to give away upon my return.

I would love to send some good mail your way,

so just leave a comment and

I will choose someone at random on Tuesday, April 1st.

"I AM Dorothy Hamill"

Today was the day.

.....

Today was the day

Carly became Dorothy Hamill.

Well, minus the cute bowl haircut because Carly promptly declared "you are not cutting my hair" not that I was going to.

.....

for all of you who remember the drama from this day

The day of disappointment

because she did not get our 1st choice of characters...

all that was behind us.

.....

BECAUSE today

we were Olympic Gold Medal Winner, Dorothy Hamill

with a cute costume, cute hair, some makeup, and surprise ice skates!

.....

She stood behind the "rope" and when someone stepped on her "button" she said her facts. Parents got to visit the Wax Museum first and hear all the kids in her class. Carly did a fantastic job. She stood tall and said her 10 facts with such confidence.

wordless wednesday

SPT - "eggs"tra special Easter

Lelly's challenge for our Easter weekend....

"while the kiddos are hunting eggs, take a moment to hunt for something *eggs*tra special about your weekend."

.....

One of the things I love about Easter is family.

My "eggs"tra special thing is time with my family.

.....

{Carly and I after Easter lunch at Kacey's house}

sunday dinner

The spoils of Kenny & Dad's fishing trip on Saturday.

Sorry you missed it Dad because it was YUMMY!

Easter Celebration

{family picture - Easter morning-my parents' yard}

I love Easter weekend. Even this year which meant leaving my house 2 days after getting home from our trip to go to my mom & dad's house.

After I started blogging about Easter, I had the feeling that I had said all these things before.

That's when I realized that my very first blog posts were about last Easter.

.....

{family tradition - 35 years of egg dying in those same coffee cups or better known as the egg dying cups}

.....

{there is only one child at my mom & dad's for Easter, so you can guess who all those baskets are for?

My sister, Kacey, has a post about what was in her basket - that's hers on the bottom-left.}

.....

{Carly - Easter morning with her Easter basket - hers was so full that is was spilling out around it. There was some candy, books, card game, bath stuff, lip gloss, nail polish, and clothes for AG doll Julie}

{possibly my last chance for a sweet smocked Easter dress}

buon giorno (good morning)

We are back! Stay tuned for more about our fabulous trip to Italy - and the chance to win a little something I snagged in a street market......

{ on the streets of Bolzano, Italy}

when I think about snow I will......

always remember this snow

.....

March 2005 - Arquata, Italy

a gorgeous morning in a quiet Italian village

quiet snow-covered morning

{a beautiful morning covered in 3 inches of snow} {I am sorry Carly missed it BUT I just realized this morning how quiet a snow covered morning can be when no one is pestering you silly to get clothes on to go outside and play. Delightfully quiet but a little sad at the same time. I might have to go make a snowball to throw at Kenny!}

5 (or more) for Friday

• Finish packing sweet baby girl for her stay with MamMam and Grandaddy. What do you pack when the weather was mid-60's yesterday and snowing and below freezing today? Everything?

And what does sweet baby girl put in her "fun" bag for the trip? Julie (Am Girl doll), Snowbear (lovey), Softie (fuzzy blanket), Ipod and docking station, portable DVD player and case of movies, and several books. Not concerned about a coat or hat or mittens or underwear for that matter.

• Quick run to the grocery for a couple of necessities because prediction of wintry weather = crazy people in the grocery store + no milk, bread or other necessities like cookie dough or beer (not that I needed those things exactly)

• Take sweet baby girl to school and talk to teacher about picking her up early so I can meet MamMam and Grandaddy for the drop off before the weather gets bad. You know in Mississippi if we get an inch of snow and s0me sleet the place shuts down!

• Pedicure here I come. I love a pedicure at the spa with my friend Susan. She rocks! I don't go very often but I made an appointment 2 months ago for today before our trip. Crazy wintry weather, change of plans, laundry, packing, I don't give a flip, I am going to see Susan and get my nails done. I chose the color "Romeo and Juliet" (dark red/brown color) because we are going to Verona while in Italy. It just seemed like fate. Well fate might be a tad bit dramatic in reference to nail color but for whatever reason, I now have beautiful toes and after a therapy session with Susan, I feel like a whole new person.

• Pick sweet baby girl up early to find out they are letting school out at 1:00 because of the prediction of wintry weather. For all of you who live where you have wintry weather ALL winter, you can just keep on laughing.

Drop by the house, load the car, pick up the dog (because MamMam and Grandaddy have graciously agreed to take both gchildren).

One hour later, meet up with gparents, buy sweet baby girl lunch to-go from Wendy's (because for an hour she has been trying to convince me just how much she is starving), and complete delivery of the package. Quickly head back North, pronto, because remember that wintry weather is coming!

• Run by the courthouse to vote absentee ballot because election is while we are gone. Have to wait patiently at the counter because all the employees are having an informal meeting to discuss staff leaving because of the wintry weather...I kid you not. I could not make this stuff up.

• Pull through the library drop off to return stacks of books so the library police does not come to look for me in Italy.

• Headed back to the house now because of winter weather - just kidding there is all that laundry, packing, assorted tasks that need to be done before you leave town.

{when I got home and it has not stopped snowing since I got here. we might actually get a couple inches of snow. I'm a little sad that I just sent my child further south when we are getting our only snow this year}

• chili's made and simmering on the stove - because what screams wintry weather more than a big pot of chili!

winner winner chicken dinner

I don't every win, I know other people say that, but I don't, really! So imagine my surprise when I found out I won a blog contest on Kristi's blog.

It was during this contest about our word for the year, that I entered with my word - "know" (you can read about that here). Later that month on this blog post, I was SO surprise to find out that they had picked ME - little ole me who never wins anything.

I am sure that someone told Kristi that fact so she "let" me win so I would feel better about myself. No matter how it happened, I am SO excited about what I won and there is no way I am sending it back - besides it has a picture of my husband and daughter, it's not like anyone else is going to want it anyway, right?

Not the best pictures of a wonderful pendant. It is designed by LilyLane (lilylane.com). I just emailed a photo and what I wanted on the back which is a scripture reference "Philippians 4:8" about being thankful for all the wonderful things in your life. The rings open so you can attach to any necklace - super idea. I have gotten SO many compliments.

Thank you Kristi and Anna at LilyLane.

I LOVE IT!

speaking of reading....

beautiful afternoon

in the hammock

with Carly

reading a book

doesn't get much better than that!

february reads

• Fade Away by Harlan Coben....as you might have noticed I have read a few of these. They are the Myron Bolitar series. I discovered the series a couple of years ago and read a couple of the newer ones. A couple months ago, I started at the beginning and began reading them in order. Great characters. My MIL asked me a great question a while back "who do I think would make a great Myron if they made this into a movie?" I still can not come up with the perfect actor but I know who would play his friend Win definitely Val Kilmer. I'm still thinking about Myron. Maybe I will have an answer by the time I read the next on in the series (put away for the plane flight to Italy).

• Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker....I like this author he writes good murder mysteries. He has a couple of characters that are kind of intertwined. For example the main character in this book Sunny who is a woman private detective has a love interest Jesse Stone. In a new book I just started this week Jesse Stone is the main character with no sign of Sunny.

• Sunday Wife by Cassandra King....This author also wrote Same Sweet Girls which I really liked. Although I have been trying to broaden my reading these are outside my typical murder mystery choices. Sunday Wife is about a preacher's wife. It is emotional..sad and funny...and leaves you wanting more. That is why I like series books so much I don't want to give up characters I have grown close to.

• Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis....I read the whole series a couple of years ago and really enjoyed them. I think I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was younger but I didn't remember much about it. Carly really enjoyed the Narnia movie. When they started talking about the new Prince Caspian movie, I told her that it was based on another book written by the same person who wrote the other Narnia books. She wanted us to read it. We both enjoyed it. She has always loved to be read to and will listen forever if my voice didn't tire of reading out loud.

Title #2 Daddy Rocks

When Kenny took the top off the box and I saw ALL the pieces, I left immediately to get my camera. He had already taken all the pieces out of the box when I got back so, the back of his truck looked like this....

When I was taking this picture, he told me that the title of this blog had better not be "my inept dad" so I told him he better get busy then. He asked me to help by reading the directions. Which were pages and pages of this.....

At the beginning of the manual was a list of tools you would need and the statement "Two able bodied adults needed". I told Kenny I thought we might be a person short. Darkness brought an end to the adventure. It was hard enough reading this manual written by a rocket scientist with a mathematical engineering degree when there was light. But in the dark it was darn near impossible not to mention deciding which center locking nut was 3/8 in. and which on was 3/4 in.

But this morning, Kenny and Carly finished up the masterpiece and the new title of the blog became "Daddy Rocks"!

{Carly shooting hoops on her new basketball goal.}