Fourth Fireworks

We had a wonderful Fourth of July...went to church that morning, went home and ate yummy leftovers of some fiesta chicken (recipe coming later this week - not sure that's what we're going to call it, but whatever), took a delicious nap, ate some more yummy dinner that Sound Man grilled (chicken with Cavender's Greek Seasoning - YUMMMMMMY!), then filled up the cooler with some banana pudding (or as we say here in the South, 'nana puddin') and drinks, and headed off to Snowden Grove Park to watch the fireworks.

Sound Man and Kiddo played football while waiting for the sun to set.

Then joined me in the back of the truck for some 'nana puddin'.

Ugh. Did I really have to post this pic of me? Blech. Anyway, see the tripod set up by the truck? Sound Man was preparing for the show to come.

Kiddo!

I love the sense of community this celebration creates. Love the community, not the traffic. There must have been 10,000 people or more in and around Snowden by the time the fireworks started. I loved it! Having to go to the non-existent bathroom the whole time, not so much.

Sound Man is a master at taking fireworks pictures with our point-and-shoot camera. This year he got some great shots, as well as some pretty funny ones, too.

Are these not gorgeous? I love just looking at them! They were exploding right over our heads and it was AWESOME!

This one we almost deleted when we loaded them off the camera, but Sound Man noticed that if you look closely, you can see the shape of stars in the little pinpoints. Aren't they pretty?

No, this is not Photo-shopped. It's a smiley face! This is something I hadn't seen before this year. I've seen stars and hearts, but no smileys!

Speaking of no smileys, what does this picture remind you of?

Anyone...anyone? Maybe.....

These guys? It's the first thing Sound Man and I said when we saw the picture!

The last picture is not a really good photo of fireworks, but I wanted to show you what was going on when the LOUDEST fireworks I had ever heard were firing off.

I love to feel fireworks, not just see them...well, feel them I did! It was great!

I hope you had a great weekend, too, and were able to celebrate our country's independence with your loved ones!

I Love America Tassel on Etsy

Happy 4th of July!

Silhouette Craft Cutter Giveaway!

See, this is why I love reading your blogs. If I hadn't read this I wouldn't have known to read this. And THAT is what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Thrifty Decor Chick is giving away over $300 in Silhouette merchandise. So, go over there and enter. Wait...no, don't. 'Cause I want to win. Okay, I'll be nice. Go enter. Then when YOU win I can say "I knew her when..." after you become a famous vinyl letterer-er.

Or something like that. Good luck! Giveaway ends Tuesday, June 29th at noon!

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

I know y'all sweet people who follow me and read me via email think I've fallen off the face of the earth. Well, I haven't. There are just seasons in our lives when blogging has to be put on the back burner. For the past month, I've been smack dab in the middle of that season. With Shadow's death and mom's hospital stay, I entered into a depressed state. I'm not completely through it, either.

Along with the drama around those two events, I also have been dealing with some health issues. I thought I had nodules on my vocal chords...something a singer dreads with all her being. It wasn't nodules, thank the Lord, but it is acid reflux...bad enough to cause me to be on some heavy duty medicine. I go back in a couple weeks to check on it.

Along with the acid reflux, my wonderful Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, Dr. Lim, found that my thyroid was enlarged and ordered an ultrasound. I have nodes in each side of my thyroid, which means I go tomorrow to have some blood work done to see how my thyroid is functioning. Then I will go back to Dr. Lim to have those labs looked over when I see her about my acid reflux.

Thyroid problems are hereditary, so I knew this was probable sometime in my life. It's just really inconvenient right now.

Now, we just found out this week that Momma will be coming to live with me, at least temporarily. It's a long story, and one I'm not really at liberty to share.

All of this is so very overwhelming. I appreciate your prayers as my family and I work through all of this. I know the Lord has promised that He's here, no matter what I go through. How others who don't know Him go through life...I just can't imagine.

I am still working on tassels, believe it or not. My Etsy shop has been sorely neglected, poor thing. I will be adding more to it in the coming weeks, AND I will be giving a couple of tassels away in the next few weeks with two different blogs. I will let you know when and where when the time comes.

Confession...THESE are not the ones I'm giving away. But you can ask me for some if you'd like to purchase them! They are not loaded on Etsy, so really, if you'd like them, just email me at butterflygenes at yahoo dot com.

This one, too!

I Miss My Shadow

When Sound Man and I got married, we didn't have a pet. In fact, it was almost a year after we were married before we inherited Ike the Cat from my former roommate, Tammy, who was moving to Belize. We decided to get a dog after we moved into our house 14 years ago. After wondering and searching, we decided to get a Sheltie, or Shetland Sheepdog. Sound Man had had a Sheltie when he was young and knew how loving they could be.

We got Windi in 1996, and about a year and a half later, we got Steele. He was a blue merle Sheltie, and was Sound Man's dog, through and through. In a freak incident, we lost Steele while he was in recovery after having been fixed. Kiddo was just a couple months old, and we knew we wanted him to have a dog to grow up with. Rebounding from the pain of losing Steele, we asked our breeder to give us another blue merle as soon as she had a litter with one in it.

Sandra, owner of Critter Camp in Hernando, MS, called just weeks after that to tell us that our favorite of her Shelties, Bethany, had had a litter and there was a blue merle who looked to her like a carbon copy of Steele. We told her we wanted him sight unseen.We went down there the day after he was born and weekly after that. Here's Kiddo and Shadow when he was just 5 days old. How tiny! We formally named him Vogue (the kennel name) Shadow of Promise to go on his papers, but just called him Shadow. Here we are at 3 weeks. What a precious baby!

Finally the 7 week mark hit, and none too soon. Almost the day after we took Shadow home, the other puppies Sandra had (she had no less than FOUR litters at once. One in each room of the house!) were ALL struck with parvo. She lost a few, and the others were very, very sick. We were so thankful Shadow wasn't affected.

What a sweet face!!!!

This is Shadow and Windi's first meeting. We weren't sure how she would react, but she tolerated his puppyness quite well, and over the years was his constant companion.Over the months his personality formed and we knew he was most definitely NOT Steele. Steele had been almost subdued...very different from Shadow. No, he was his own dog, very happy and noisy. He loved to climb on the back of the couch like a dang cat. Crazy thing!He was also NOT Sound Man's dog. No, Shadow had one person he shadowed...me. He loved his Momma.Well, when we taped his ears down to try to get them to tip so we could show him, I don't think he loved me, but he got over it pretty quickly when we gave up on the duct tape and ear glue. Did you know they even made ear glue? Ugh. Poor baby.

Hello!

He normally liked to have his picture made, except when we really wanted him to, like for our 2005 Christmas card. Sheesh.
Windi looks so pretty, and Shadow looks like his fixing to break and run!

He was not the favorite dog, neither when it was just Windi and Shadow, and especially not when Jonathan came along. The Golden One most definitely put him in the non-favored status. As he got older, we started calling him the grumpy old man. But we loved him, nonetheless. He was part of our family for ten years. Kiddo had known him since he could remember.

As much as I say he wasn't the favorite, you'd think I wouldn't have been so very sad when we had to say goodbye to him. He had had a cough for several weeks, which we all (including our vet) thought was an allergy thing. I had given him all his meds, and he was no better. But he was still Shadow...still the happy, loud, hyper Sheltie that inhaled his food like he wasn't ever going to be fed again.

Then, one day, he didn't want to eat. The next day, he refused to eat. His breathing became very labored and I took him to the vet. I noticed while waiting for the results of the x-ray that his tongue was blue. I knew that was not a good sign. Thinking she would say that he had pneumonia, put an iv in him and keep him overnight, I was overwhelmingly shocked when she took me to look at the x-ray. Tumors covered his chest cavity. Under his heart, around his lungs. So bad they bent his windpipe. Which is why he was having so much trouble breathing. There was nothing they could do. His quality of life was already greatly compromised. He had gotten so bad that his tongue and the inside of his ears were turning blue.

She was so very kind, allowing me a few minutes alone to call Sound Man to help me make the decision. I just couldn't do it myself. Even after talking to him, I never could say "euthanize."

We decided for me to take him home and spend a few more hours with him. Sound Man came home to take him back up to the vet's office. I just couldn't bear to do it. As Sound Man was holding him, through his labored breathing he gave me one last kiss. The last I saw of him was his beautiful face looking out the window as Sound Man drove off with him back to the vet's.

He brought him back in the box the vet's office gave him and he and Kiddo dug the hole to bury Shadow. I was so very proud of my Kiddo. He cried, of course, but was so very grown up when they called me to come outside. He prayed over the grave and thanked the Lord for Shadow and said that he knew that he was getting to meet Steele. I went back inside the house after the "funeral," crying like a baby.

Jonathan met me at the door, wagging his tail and smiling up at me, as if to say, "It'll be okay, Momma! I'm here!" I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have Jonathan. Windi is still with us, but she is so old she isn't quite as huggable and snuggable as JDog is. And we all three needed hugs and snugs that night.

I still have my moments, like when I think about how quiet it is in the back yard now (Shadow would bark his head off almost the entire time he was outside to go to the bathroom). Or at night, when I think about the funny things he used to do (like how he used to want me to get up in the mornings and come breathe on my face to wake me up).

He had his quirks, but I'm so very glad God gave this little dog to our family. Goodbye, Shadow Pup. We will miss you!

Vogue Shadow of Promise
March 20, 2000 - May 20, 2010

Update - short and sweet

Just checking in so you don't think I've jumped off a cliff or anything. Although...no, it's not that bad, but we've had such a bad week after seeing what God did at the A'Fair weekend...

A week ago today, one of my beloved Shelties, Shadow, went to doggie heaven. I have been in the pit of despair ever since. I will post a memorial in a few days when I get home, but right now I'm at Mom's.

Tuesday morning her husband called at 5:15 a.m. and said they were on their way to the hospital. Mom couldn't tell him who he was, didn't know who her girls were, and didn't know who her grandsons were. Of course, the first thing we thought was a stroke.

After many, many tests, it was determined it was not a stroke, and they released her today. She will have many, many more tests as the weeks go on. She is doing great now and is mostly back to normal. My sister and I were quizzing her every once in a while just to make sure she was and still is on the mend.

Please pray for my family. It has been a very hard week. Some of you know, and have been praying (crying as I'm thinking about y'all, Teri Lynne and Brandi!) for us, and for that I'm so very grateful.

A'Fair 2010

As promised, here are more pics and some stories of Saturday's A'Fair around our county's courthouse square. In addition to seeing two specific prayers answered, we had a lot of fun. This was Kiddo's first venture in helping out his parents at 6:30 a.m.
What? Doesn't he look like he's enjoying himself? I know, I know...he's still half-asleep.

He did perk up and was a big help to Sound Man and me.

When I was designing my booth, I kept wondering how I was going to show people how you can use tassels. There are so many ways to hang them. Originally, I wanted to take my china cabinet but my husband forbade me to take my very heavy, very cherished china cabinet out of this house. I kinda see his point. Whatever. But that meant I needed a really great center focal point in my booth.

I came up with the idea of a window. Sound Man built this little gem out of scrap wood, then painted it with spray paint about a bazillion times. Or maybe just three or four. Then I took just some cheap sheer fabric and cut it to make the curtains.Drat me I didn't take pictures of the tops of the curtains where I just put the fabric over the top of the dowel and tied a pretty white satin ribbon around it.Then I put these cute little tassels on the curtains and the gorgeous cross tassel in the middle of the frame like it was hanging from the window latch.And then these goobs showed up. Just kidding. On the right, that's my sweetie pie, Sound Man. On the left, that's his best friend, Jeff. Jeff and his wife, Lisa, and two of their kids helped us all day. Well, M, their middle child, helped. J, the youngest, and Kiddo kept themselves entertained all day. Not an easy task for two boys for 10 hours. K, their oldest, was and still is at the beach in Alabama. Hate her. Just kidding. I love her to pieces! Just not while she's at the beach and I'm not.
Here's Lisa helping me tag the tassels. I think M was, too. Please forgive my hair. I was going to just pull it back for setting up then let it down, but it was so hot I forgot to. And drat me again, I forgot to take a picture of the finished booth. But you can see this:My new floor lamp from Kirkland's. I lurve it! The tiger didn't sell, and when we got home I liked the way it looked next to my living room curtains so much it's still there.

Speaking of tassels, here's the last one I made at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning (after promising I wouldn't do that this year!):Ironically, he was the first to sell! The cardinal, not the rooster. I can't believe no one has grabbed that rooster. Love those colors.

A close-up of the cross tassel that didn't sell Saturday but did by Sunday morning. A friend saw my pictures on Facebook and said, "I WANT THAT TASSEL!" Not really, but almost. I love this picture because you can see out the window to the courthouse beyond.
Speaking of the courthouse, we had lots of music to keep us awake during the day. Several bands played at the front of the courthouse. The first band that played was Jett Case, in which my friend Kim's son Josiah plays drums. They are a talented group of young men!
We had a lot of fun just being with each other for the day. Only sold three tassels (one to my friend, Donya; one to a family member; and only one to a new customer I didn't know) and three bookmarks. I haven't put my bookmarks on Etsy yet...I wanted to see how well they'd do at the fair. I might put them on, but still not sure.

Monetarily speaking, I did horribly. Didn't even cover my booth fee. But I had a great time, just like last year, got to spend the day with my family and friends, saw several extended family members I only get to see once every two years or so, got to visit a little while with Kat while her kids, Moose and Fep, played with Kiddo and J, and saw God work. What a great day!

I wanted to focus on not having one customer before 1:00. I wanted to feel sorry for myself and wonder why in the world these people didn't see their need to put a tassel on their lamps, forgoodnesssake. And I did focus on this, until I realized what God DID give me. My view of the day has totally changed.

I can't wait for next year!

God is Good! (As if I needed a reminder!)

Yesterday was the annual A'Fair at our county seat court square. As it was last year, we had a great time. Didn't sell many tassels, but we had a great time.

That's not my point for this post. My point for today (I will load pics and tell stories and such in another post) is to tell you this.

GOD. IS. GOOD.

I really don't have to tell you that I think God is good. But I'm doing it. Again.

See, I prayed that God would do two specific things Saturday: First, that He would hold back the rain. It was forecast that we were going to get off and on rain and thundershowers all day. Second, that He would give me sinus relief. Since Wednesday I've battled a sinus headache that has made me feel like a...oh, I don't know...whatever you feel like when your head really, REALLY hurts!

Yesterday morning, as we loaded up the vehicles for our trek to Hernando, there were only pretty clouds in the sky as the sun rose and tickled them pink. Sound Man prayed before we left and got choked up thanking the Lord for the beautiful start of the day. I was thankful, too, and knew that the Lord would take care of us and my stuff if it did rain later on. But, miraculously, it didn't. Not. One. Drop.

ALL DAY.

I cried on the way home. What a loving heavenly Father we have! He cares so much about the minute details of our lives!

As if that weren't enough, when I woke up that morning I was expecting (oh me of little faith!) a sinus headache and snotty nose (sorry, y'all), but instead I was almost completely clear and no headache at all. And this, after having gone to bed at 1:30 and up at 5!

My sinuses didn't start bothering me until on my way to eat dinner, after the day was over. As soon as my head started hurting, I realized that God not only answered one prayer, He answered TWO!

However, there was one request that I forgot to ask...paying customers!

More about that later.

Concentrate on how good God is today!

Adding this to Emily's "Tuesdays Unwrapped" post at Chatting at the Sky...

Dear Crimson Crustacean (a Rant),

*names of the not so innocent have been changed because I don't want some weirdo coming after me*

Dear *Crimson Crustacean,

I had many establishments from which to choose for my Mother's Day dining out experience. Because I suddenly had a craving for your cheddar-garlic biscuits, we chose your restaurant. Let me repeat...your cheddar-garlic biscuits were the ONLY reason I chose your restaurant out of the plethora of restaurants we have in our fair city.

After being seated and greeted somewhat haughtily by *Sheena, she took our drink order, repeatedly asking us to repeat ourselves because she would not literally stoop to our level to hear above the din of the packed restaurant. She then asked us if we wanted to start off with an appetizer. We decided no, we just wanted our cheddar-garlic biscuits (that I had been craving and were the only reason I came to your restaurant). She informed us they would come out with our salads.

When she brought our drinks out to us, I decided I really wanted the cheddar-garlic biscuits (that I had been craving and were the only reason I came to your restaurant) right then and didn't want to wait for my salad to get them. We had not had time to make our meal choices yet, but because those darn cheddar-garlic biscuits ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY COULD NOT be set on the table without those darn salads, she forced us to order our salads. My husband wanted to wait to order his, but no, SHE had to have the last word. To appease me, he ordered his salad with no dressing, since he would decide what dressing he wanted AFTER he decided on what meal he would be having.

Sheena brought out the darn salads with the cheddar-garlic biscuits (that I had been craving and were the only reason I came to your restaurant) and there the salads sat until we were ready to eat them (after devouring the cheddar-garlic biscuits that were the only...oh, you get my point).

After confronted with "why can't the customer decide when to get their food?" type questions, she blamed YOU. "Corporate," she said. "They have really been on us about putting the biscuits on the table before the salads."

Really? I mean, REALLY? My Mother's Day meal was all about those biscuits. I could have gone to Outback for better shrimp. But I didn't.

But I will next time.

Happy Mother's Day!

I love you, Momma!

God's Provision...Continued

Yesterday I teased you with some amazing stuff going on in our lives. Didn't tell you what, but told you my friend Jennifer was about to tell me something big.

To recap, I had no car due to a wreck. She let us borrow hers. She needed to come tell me something. She came over.

How's that for a synopsis?

When she and the kids got to my house, the kids immediately started playing with Kiddo on the Wii and she and I went into the kitchen. Sound Man was home, but decided to let us girls have some private time to talk.

Jennifer: "So, the Lord started telling me that I needed to just give you my van. Unbelievably, He was telling my husband the same thing."

Me: *stares with wide eyes*

Jennifer: "But I kept saying, 'God, it's got so many problems! It would be like bringing them a disabled puppy!'"

Me: *busts out laughing*

Jennifer: "But God wouldn't get it off my mind. I just kept thinking about how many problems it had that needed to be fixed and what kind of blessing would a problematic van be?"

Me: *nodding, wondering what in the world was coming next*

Jennifer: "So, out of the blue someone who I NEVER talk to called me and said, 'My husband got a bonus this week and as soon as we got it we knew that we weren't supposed to keep it but give it to Sound Man and Heathahlee (of course they don't call us that). But we didn't know how to get it to them. We thought of putting it on the doorstep and ringing the doorbell and running off, but then I might trip and fall and she'd know who it was. We also thought about putting it in the mailbox but knowing them they'd probably take it to the police. So we knew that you talk to her and thought maybe you had an idea of how we could get this to them.' So I told them EXACTLY what God has been telling me about giving y'all the van, and now HE HAS PROVIDED ALMOST THE EXACT AMOUNT TO GET IT FIXED!!!!"

Me: *eyes wide open, along with mouth* "I'm.....overwhelmed....overwhelmed....I don't know what to say!"

Jennifer: *hands me envelope with money in it*

Me: *counts money, mouth goes wider* "SOUND MAN!! COME TO THE KITCHEN PLEASE! *hands him the envelope, has Jennifer repeat her story, we both start crying*

Me: "I just don't know what to say! I'm so overwhelmed!"

Jennifer: "So...here you go. See what God did?"

And that's how we came to be the new owners of a really nice looking Dodge Grand Caravan.

We all love it. Knowing we have the money to get it fixed up brings me so much peace. The Green Big Van had a lot of problems, too, but we never had the money to get it fixed the way it needed.

God has blessed us so much. There are other ways Jennifer has blessed me this week that I won't go into now, but I mean, come on...THEY GAVE US A VAN!!!

And whoever it was that sacrificially gave us their bonus, THANK YOU! Know that you have truly been used by God to bless our family. We now have a car that we LOVE and have no worries about getting fixed. Having so much love showered on us has truly overwhelmed me.

Knowing that my heavenly Father loves me so much that He understands my problems and wants to bless me through them makes it so much sweeter. I don't think I can completely convey what I'm trying to say. I'm just so thankful for His faithfulness and for those around me who listen to Him!

God's Provision

So, you know I've been quite inconsistent with my blogging lately. I've had a little bit going on. I know that a gajillion people have wrecks every day much worse than mine. But it just takes over every aspect of your life, so you focus on IT. That's what I've been doing. Worrying over how much we were going to get from the insurance, wondering what we were going to do about a car, praying way too little about it. Whining way too much about it.

My sweet friend, Jennifer, and her husband, Mark, allowed us to borrow their other van since they bought a new one and didn't need it until they sold it. That was a worry off our shoulders.

But we still needed to find a vehicle. I mean, we couldn't borrow their car forever! Sound Man scoured places like eBay, Craig's List, and places like that, but nothing worth following up came to him. I knew we didn't want to go to a dealership, since anything they had in our price range was most likely to be a clunker. Our best hope was to find an elderly person who wasn't driving anymore and who had put very little miles on their 14 year old car and wanted to sell it. Yeah, right.

But that's exactly what we found. A friend of ours has a grandmother who is not able to drive anymore. She had a '96 Dodge Stratus with 77000 miles on it. Whoa. We just knew it was the answer to our prayers.

Then she changed her mind about selling it. Trusting God again.

Then she changed her mind back. This HAD to be God's will! We test drove it, loved it, wanted it right then. Only it had a mechanical glitch that needed to be looked at. So we had to wait.

Then, on Friday, my friend Jennifer texted me. "I need to come see you!" I was out and wasn't sure when I'd be back, but she insisted we meet that day. So, that afternoon, she and the kids came over.

What she had to say is the most amazing thing anyone has ever said to me.

But this post is getting long, so you'll have to wait to see what she said until tomorrow.

I am sooooo mean!