SCRAPBOOKING!!

I love to scrapbook and so does my best friend, Robin. In fact, she introduced me to this new and addictive hobby. Yesterday we left our houses at 7:00 am and drove 2 1/2 hours to Memphis to a store called Archivers. O.M.G. It is a scrapbookers heaven. There is anything and everything you could possibly want....and many things you never even thought of. They also have workshops there. We had signed up for the recipe book workshop. It is just the cutest thing! It's a flip book on an acrylic stand and we had such a good time making it....for 3 hours.

After the workshop was over, we decided it was time for lunch. In our world, it is always time for food. lol We went to Corky's BBQ. YUM!! I had BBQ chicken with baked beans and slaw and it was absolutely divine...as was the banana pudding we shared for dessert.

Then it was back to Archivers for an afternoon of scrapping. I worked on some pictures Stephen had from Africa...specifically Morocco. He is in the Marine Reserves and they went to Morocco for their annual training this year. He is such a MAN...I got pictures of the Moroccan McDonald's, an English Pub, and Moroccan bathroom signs!! GEEZ!! There was one very good pic of the Casbah though and so I began with that. The title of the page being "Rock the Casbah" of course. I also worked on a layout for Jesse's pics from a Tennessee Vols game. We are, of course, Mississippi State fans. However, Jesse and his friends are first and foremost SEC fans and have made it their mission to go to a different MSU away game (at least 1 every year) until they visit all the SEC stadiums. I'm sure one day he will appreciate this SEC/football scrapbook album, although right now he totally uninterested.

Anyway, we scrapped until about 8:00 and packed it in for the day. Time for more food! We (Robin and I) love ethnic food and so we chose a little Asian restaurant. I had Coconut Soup and Pad Thai. Coconut soup is absolutely the best soup ever....creamy and fragrant with lemongrass...add mushrooms and your choice of tofu or shrimp. It just doesn't get any better. Pad Thai is rice noodles, bean sprouts, and either beef, chicken, shrimp or tofu flavored with and creamy sauce and ground peanuts. Very delicious.

After much driving and talking and scrapping and eating we arrived back home at 11:30 pm. All in all it was pretty much a perfect Saturday. Although, if we had spent the night (and we will next time) we would have made an appearance on Beale Street. Specifically at either the Rum Boogie Cafe or Silky O'Sullivan's for some good music and possibly a diver. I have no idea what's in a diver, and probably don't want to know, but it's good and it's fun to drink....served in a bucket with about 10 straws. Definitely a drink for sharing!!

Ok, we are REALLY gonna carve pumpkins today and I WILL post pics of them later. Looking forward to a great fall day!!

Ok still no carved pumpkins but....I painted a ceramic one! It is too cute. I painted it white with the inside orange and put a light in it. I just love it and I hope the real ones look this good.

I finally put a profile pic on here. It is me with my 2 sons, Stephen and Jesse in Gulf Shores. They got by best side...the back of my head. lol

Here are a couple of pics from that same vacation.

This is Jesse with his girlfriend, Meagan.

This is Stephen and his girlfriend, Shannon.

Aren't the handsome? Oh, and the girls look ok too. lol

Stephen is 28 and a police officer and in the Marine Corps Reserves. He has done 1 tour in Iraq and we hope there will be no more deployments (by we I mean me) but there is a possibility of Afghanistan.

Jesse is 19 and a sophomore in college. He's not quite sure about his major at this point, but is considering being a lawyer. He would be great...he loves to argue and he never gives up!

Ok I'm gonna go paint some more pumpkins now. I will post pics of all of them later.

Ok, well I've had this for awhile, but just never wrote anything. I'm still not sure what my focus is going to be, or if there is even going to be one. Today I think I will just ramble.

I love fall. I love the colors, the weather, the activities, etc. Unfortunately, here in Mississippi we don't get a lot of it! Today is cloudy, it will probably rain. We have had an inordinate amount of rain here for the last month or so. I am so tired of rain! Rain aside, it is still in the 70s and lower 80s here....and humid. We don't get a lot of fall color because of that, I assume, so our leaves mostly go from green straight to brown.

However, none of this keeps me from putting out pumpkins and mums!! I followed the crowd this year and added some white pumpkins. They are so pretty! I am going to carve my initial into one of them. Well, not really carve....scrape, I guess. You know, where you don't cut through the pumpkin, but really just scrape off the outer skin. I saw it in a magazine and it was really pretty...think I am gonna display it in my small birdbath, along with some fake fall leaves and some very real and colorful mums. I will put up a picture when I get it done. We don't carve them too early here because they mold, rot, cave in, etc. because it is still so warm.

I have painted several ceramic pumpkins this year. I even did one of them white and painted the inside orange and put a bulb in it. It is soooo cute. I'll get a picture of it on here too.

Well, I'm gonna see if I can figure out how to dress up this site now. I'll be back soon.