Pickin' up the Pecans

Hello All!
What a wonderful day it is that God has given us today. Don't you agree? For the past few days now I have been bombarded with school work, so I have found that my release is to go outside and pick up pecans. I used to do this as a child with my famil and it was so much fun searching for more pecans to add to the bucket. I have already picked up a phenomenal amount of pecans, and there are still many more left to pick up! Guess who I found out also loves pecans....Crimson! But he doesn't love just any old pecan, oh no. He only likes to gnaw on the ones that are in my bucket that I have already picked up. I'm thinking to myself "Are you kidding me? All of the pecans laying around on the ground and you are wanting to eat the pecans i've already picked up and put in the bucket? Good gracious!" That dog is smart, I tell you. And so then I decided to give him the pecans that are bad and let him chew on those, but of course he doesn't want those, only the ones in the white bucket. Oh well, what can I say...the dog has good taste!

Isn't he just so stinking cute?!? He just wants me to give him attention I guess, and the only way I will give him attention while I am picking up pecans is if he tries to steal the good ones away. Oh, by the way, I just want to throw this out there that I say pecan like (PEE- CAN).....NOT (PU-CAHN). People that say it that way are wrong. I am sorry, but they just are. Either that or they didn't grow up in the south, because if you say it the (PU-CAHN) way you just aren't Southern. That's kind of like hating sweet tea or fried chicken. It's just not normal. Anyways, I am having a ball picking up pecans everyday. It makes me want to grow pecan trees and have a pecan grove. I wouldn't even have to hire anybody to pick them up for me because I would be happy to do it myself!

Happy pecan picking upin'

Until Next Time,

Tiffany

Football!

Hello All,
I trust that you are all enjoying this Fall weather as I much as I am. I love the cool gentle breeze that Fall has to offer. Clay and I are always on the go, and this past weekend was no exception. We decided to go see my little brother, Caleb, and watch him play in one of his tackle football games. He did so great, and we had so much fun watching him from the sidelines. He is such a "rough and tough" little boy, so tackle football fits him well. He plays on a team with Jaben and they are just the cutest things out there on that field together. It looked questionable at first, but our guys (The Green Bay Packers is their team name) pulled through and got a win out of the deal. We were so excited for them, but not as excited as they were!

                                       

                                             Caleb is on the left, Jaben on the right.

                                                        Mom and I at the game. (If you look
                                             real close you can see Mr. Rem and Mrs. Joyce
                                                     ....actually watching the game!)

We also went to our church's Fall Festival the same day. It was so much fun, they had a hay ride, candy apples, caramel apples, popcorn, cotton candy, and even prepackaged candy bags for everyone to take home. There weren't near as many people there this year as there was last year, which is so sad to me, but everyone that went had a fantastic time, and I guess those that didn't just missed out! :) I would have to say that my favorite part was the cake walk. It was my favorite partly because I won a cake on my first round of walking, and also because I won a half of a carrot cake! Yum! It is SO good too, let me tell you. I actually had chosen the blondie brownies, but when Mrs. Debra offered me to have a bite of hers, I quickly traded my brownies in for the cake. I mean afterall, how many times a year do you get to eat homemade carrot cake? Not much! I can tell you that, unless you live by my Aunt Nancy, then you do I guess. She makes the best carrot cake I have ever tasted, but since I don't live close to her, my cake walk carrot cake will have to do! I pray you are all having a fun and festive time during this Fall season as we are. It is all about your attitude, your perspective, and the way you look at life. I choose to look at the glass half-full. What about you? I hope you have a marvelous day today, and that God is with you.

Until next time,

Tiffany

We have a BABY!!!

Hello All,
Please read before you go telling people about my new post (I don't want any misconceptions here)! Clay and I do have a new baby, but he is in the form of a puppy! They always say try your hand out at parenting on a dog before you try your hand at the real thing, so here goes our good 'ole adventure. Our beautiful new addition to our family is a redbone coonhound (Clay's pick) and we named him Crimson (as in the color). We were originally choosing between two names: Crimson and Copper, but chose Crimson because we thought it fit him better. Overall he is a good puppy. He does howl at 3 a.m. (I know our neighbors just LOVE that!), and has had "accidents" on the carpet when he runs in the house unexpectedly, but he is so loving and sweet that we try to overlook the bad (Kinda like real kids, right? Overlook the bad because the good outweighs it :) ) Anyways, Clay has already taught him how to sit, but I told Clay that if you were dangling my favorite foods in front of me that I would sit if you told me to, too! Apparently Crimson likes the pepperonis on Domino's pizza the best. Clay loves that dog, and so do I. We call him our baby, kind of jokingly, but seriously too. Eventually we are going to teach him to roll over, fetch (he still hasn't mastered the whole bring-back-the-ball thing yet) and more cool tricks. His mom's name is Daisy and his dad's name is Wrangler, so we had to name him something original, yet something that still had flavor and zest. I think we picked a pretty good name out. I will post pictures of him as he gets older and bigger.

Aren't they so cute? Man and his best friend. :)

Until next time,
Tiffany

Happy Birthday!

Hello All,
And welcome back! Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day and very special to me because it was my Daddy's birthday. I am and always have been a "Daddy's Girl", so even though we went this last weekend to see my family we still had to go again yesterday to celebrate his birthday. He is so special to me and I love him very much. I always said that I wanted to marry somebody just like my Dad and I got as close as I could when I married Clay. My Dad has characteristics that every man should have. He is loving, sweet, giving, teaching, and a Godly man. He turned 48 yesterday, but he doesn't look a day over 47! (Just kidding Dad).He actually looks younger than that, and so does my mom. Dad told me a few times that when Mom and Dad were dating that people would ask if they were brother and sister because they looked so much alike. Isn't that funny? I'm sure people think that about Clay and I, they think he is the older brother babysitting the much younger sister...but hey, I don't care. Anyways, I am so blessed to have a Dad that has had such a positive impact on my life. He has always given me advice that I could "take to the bank" as he would say, and it's true. Daddy never led me in the wrong direction growing up, always gave me good avice, and I am so blessed that I still have him in my life. We often take for granted the things that we have until we no longer have them, but I am so thankful for both of my parents because I would not be who I am today without them. Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you had a great day yesterday. You are loved by many, especially by me. I love you.

Until next time,
Tiffany

Pots, Pans, and Lizards, OH MY!

Hello All,

It is a wonderful day today, isn't it? Even though it is rainy and cold here, it is still a wonderful day because we needed the rain and because God allowed us to wake up another day and praise Him. I talked to my mom on the phone this morning for a while, which was great. I miss my family dearly but I also love living the life of a wife. She has done so much around the house to decorate for fall with little scarecrows, pumkins, and hay adorning the front porch. I guess I need to take the hint and start being festive for fall as well. We had a good talk and she caught me up on the latest info I needed to know about the family.

(The next paragraph is about my family, so if you don't care about reading about my bragging on my family, just skip this one and move down to the lizard paragraph. It is sure to give you good laughs.)
Hanna was recently voted "Best All Around" in her senior class, which is a great honor. I am so happy for her and her accomplishments in life so far. As my Dad would say, "She has her head screwed on right"...which basically means she is doing the right thing and has her thoughts on the future and how bright it looks. She is also in HOSA which is a health care organization for high school students, and she is going to have her CNA license before she graduates high school. How neat is that? I couldn't be prouder and more excited for her. Caleb is doing well in school and is becoming a star on his football team. I can't wait to be able to attend one of his games. Dad says he is quite the football player and has blocked the quarterback and tackled him at least 4 times in the last game alone! He is all boy, after all, boys are supposed to be tough, and Caleb is the epitome of a boy. Dad is still working on my car that I wrecked, and he said it should be done by this weekend or early next week. My dad is so talented, I used to say when I was a little girl that "my daddy could fix everything but a broken heart, and sometimes he can even fix that". Mom is trying to get my Grandma's affairs in order. We all miss her, but we know she is in a better place.

So that is just the first part of the morning. I decided to get up from my chair after doing my Bible study and straighten up a bit, and what do you know I see a LIZARD on the floor! First off, how did a lizard even get in here? Second off, HOW IN THE WORLD am I supposed to get this thing out of here? I don't want to just leave it there, because it might come over to where I do my school work and crawl up my leg or something....we can't be having that. Of course Clay is working, so he can't do anything about it 30 miles away. I had to take action, and the only thing I could think about was to catch him. I got a pot out of the kitchen and slowly crept up on him and of course he started moving his head around and looked straight at me when I was standing over him with a pot. I won. He is in the pot as we speak, waiting for the lizard killer (Clay) to come to my rescue. I know that must sound stupid to you, but hey, what else am I to do? At least you have something to take away from my post today.....if you have a lizard in your home, catch it with a pot if you don't know what else to do.

I must get going now. I am wasting time and that is something I simply don't have time for today! Come back and see me.

Until next time,
Tiffany (the lizard catcher)

P.S. I haven't forgotten about my craft project I started, I just haven't had alot of time recently to finish it. Imagine that!?! Anyways, it is still a work in progress, but I promise to keep you updated when I finish it.

Skinny

Hello All,

Today I will discuss with you my viewpoint on "skinny". So many people come up to me on a regular basis and tell me that I am skinny. Some of these people are old friends, while some of them I have never even met. They come up to me and tell me that I am SOOOO skinny. In my head I think to myself "Really? You think I'm skinny? I didn't even know!" I know that is a very sarcastic way of thinking, but it gets tiring hearing people tell me I'm so skinny. It's like, I know I'm skinny already! It is the way God made me, and I have embraced that. I am glad that I can eat whatever I want to, whenever I want to, and never gain a pound, because I am sure once I start having kids the pounds will come. They always do (or so I hear). The thing is, I never go up to people and say "Hey! Oh my goodness, you are SOOO fat!" How horrific would that be to somebody? I would probably get knocked out by somebody if I said that, especially since they would be bigger than me, they would be able to! I have never been big, and I think the most I ever weighed in my entire life was 102 pounds. I count that as a blessing, not as a curse, even when people say "you poor thing, you look like you are 14 because you are so tiny". I just smile and say thank-you. Do you want to know why I smile and say thank you? I do it because I am confident in who I am. I thank God for letting me be just the way I am, and I praise Him for that. Everybody has a little quirk about them; some think they are too tall, too short, too skinny, too fat, have too many freckles, don't have straight teeth, have to wear glasses, I mean the list can go on and on and on. The point is that God gave us all one body while we are here on this Earth. Sure, we could go through procedures and change things about us, but then we wouldn't be unique and specially made like God intended for us to be. He loves us, and we should love one another. I hope you all have a restful night tonight and a wonderful day tomorrow. I will, and I will praise God for everything He has done for me. I might not be richly blessed in monetary value, but where that lacks, love is there. God has blessed me richly in so many ways, as He has done for you as well. Thank God and praise Him for His goodness, because He is So Good!

Until Next Time,
Tiffany

Full

Hello All,
It has definitely been a FULL week for me. If you only knew, you would wonder how it was all done. I will start from the beginning of the week and let you in on my wonderful, crazy, sorrowful, yet blessed life. It has definitely been a whirlwind, and I have told so many people about everything that has happened to me that I figured my followers would want to know as well. On Monday I did the usual, which is go to college and then the unusual which was go to revival. This last week was revival at our church, but I only got to go to Monday night because of everything that has happened. As soon as I stepped out of church on Monday Hanna called Clay's phone, and to make a long story short, she told me that our grandmother had passed away. I was so upset that I hadn't been able to tell her goodbye. I went to see her while she was in the hospital just a week before that, and I thought she was going to get better. I never said my goodbyes to her because I just knew I would see her again, but at home next time. I loved to play cards with my grandma, and she loved it too. Really she just loved to do anything. She was so lonely that everytime I went to leave her home she would stand at the screen door on her porch and her eyes would follow me until I was out of sight. That killed me, because I knew she was lonely, so it made me want to visit her even more. I wish I would have been there to tell her goodbye, but living so far away crippled that ability for me. She knew that I loved her, and I know that one day I will see her again, so I am happy about that. On Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed at grandma's house all day to catch up on some much needed family time with cousins, aunts, and uncles. There was so much food brought, and we were so thankful to everyone who was so thoughtful. Thursday was the day of grandma's viewing. I woke up and had tremendous amounts of pain in my lower left back, so much that I couldn't sit, stand, or walk without the pain being there. This also happened on Monday, but I blew it off because it was a one time deal. Now that it had happened twice I knew something was wrong, so I went to the doctor and ended up getting a C.T. Scan at the hospital because my doctor thought I had kidney stones. She called me and told me I don't have kidney stones, so good news is I don't have a problem, bad news is I still have to pay the medical bills (blah!). I also had planned a jewelry party on Thursday, and had this planned for the last few months with Mrs. Debra. She is such a sweet lady and I had been looking forward to having this party for her to make some extra money, so I decided not to cancel it. I had to skip my grandma's public viewing to go to the party, but because 82 people were invited to this party, I couldn't just 'not go' and I wanted to be responsible and stick to my prior obligations. My back was still hurting, so Hanna went with me to the party to help me. When we got to Mrs. Debra's house I realized I left some jewelry at my house, so I got in my car and ran down the road to grab the pieces I had forgotten. I was only going about 40 mph, but my car's tires slipped on the limerock that was just put down and I started swerving everywhere on the road. I had lost control, and instead of doing the sensible thing of stepping on the break and holding the wheel straight I kept pushing the gas and turned the wheel this-way-and-that trying to make the car go straight. (future reference to everybody- that's a bad idea). I ended up on the side of the road in the ditch upside down, I had flipped my car and was now stuck upside down with no way to get out. I started honking on the horn hoping someone would hear me and come help me while all the while praying that God would help me get out of this mess alive. Thankfully people started coming to my rescue one right after the other after only a minute of being stuck in the car. I am convinced that my Grandma asked God to send me a guardian angel to protect me in the accident, because I walked away with only a little scratch on my knee (my car wasn't so lucky, but thankfully I have a Daddy who can do wonders). So let's recap, shall we?

Monday: Grandma passed away
Tuesday/Wednesday: Stayed at grandma's house visiting with family
Thursday: Woke up with pain, went to the doctor, got C.T. scan done at the hospital, went to grandma's private viewing for a minute, went to jewelry party (but before I got to actually do the jewelry party)....had a wreck and flipped my car.
Friday: Grandma's Funeral, sore
Saturday/Sunday: Sore

Good news is I made an 83 on my accounting quiz without studying at all this week! I will say that I was telling one of my friends from college everything that had happened to me this last week (trying to explain why I made a B on the quiz instead of the usual 100) and my teacher overheard and asked me to repeat to her what had happened. When I got done she said "Tiffany, it's amazing that you say all of those things have happened to you, yet you still have a smile on your face". That made me feel good, I like to leave impressions like that on people. I want to be known for being a good example of a Christian woman, that I smiled, laughed, and had a fulfilling life, and that I brightened others' days. My grandma was so giving, she would the shirt off of her back to someone if they needed it. She was a saint, and I love her always. I know I will see her one day in heaven, so I will cherish the memories I have of her until then. This week has been a FULL week, but God has been good to me. I know that He saved me from the accident I was in because I still have something to do for Him. My time has not yet come, and I want to be the guiding light for others to come to know Him. I want to fulfill God's will for my life. I hope that this week finds you with great happiness, and not as much craziness as it did me last week. If by chance, your week is as crazy as mine, just remember that God is with you, He knows what is best for you, and He has a plan for your life.

Most people say "Thank God it's Friday" but this week I am singing "Thank you God it is Monday", because Monday means the start of a new week. Have a great week, and tell the ones you love that you love them, because tomorrow might be too late.

Until next time,
Tiffany