Veteran's Day! Today is a day to thank all of those who have served and are still serving...

My sweet hubby has over 21 years of service in the United States Air Force.  It hasn't been easy, it hasn't been fun at times, but it has kept a roof over our heads, food on our table and the Pride we feel makes up for so much.  I am definitely proud of my Airman....  Thank you to all of you out there who serve, have served and thank you to the families for having their backs.

                                     

I like goats...

I have developed a love of goats, yep... ya heard me right...goats!!  The first place Rob and I lived (for a very few short months) had goats in the fenced yard behind ours.  At first I was thinking, oh great, nasty flippin' goats.  They were actually fun to watch and they would eat most anything, they loved watermelon rinds.  It was so funny how they scared our little 4 pound beagle to death.  He would bark at them, but not get near the fence.  LOL  They had a huge tank they liked to jump on and eat leaves out of the trees.  That was little bit of a pain because of the noise.


My Grandmother had goats below her house for a while.  She spoiled them rotten with food.  All you had to do was walk out back and rattle a bag and they would come running....in single file.  It was too cute.  I can't find my pictures of them.  They loved her. 


Now I read Chickens in the Road and her goats are adorable and I love the stories she writes about them.  I hope to one day have goats.  I asked Rob if we could get privacy fence and get a couple of dwarf goats...nobody would know.  HAHA  Anyway, this picture cracked me up and I thought you all would enjoy it.


A very "out there" post I know, I am struggling today. 

Digital scrappbooking...digital elements... etc...

I found a great site a year ago with free digital items, it makes doing anything digital so easy.  You can find it here..  DigiFree  I love free templates, you just pop your pictures into the open spaces. Most of the freebies you will need WinZip to open them.  Then I use PhotoShop Elements to make layouts. The one I used for my family tree layout was found here Harvest Tree Freebie  You just click on the picture of the tree and it will take you to the download page. 

After all of this I opened the template in PS Elements.  I then opened each picture I wanted to use in their own window.  Then I would drag the picture I wanted to the template, resize to about the size of the area I wanted to put it in.  Then I would drag the picture over the spot I wanted it in.  I then hit ctrl and g at the same time and it places it in the spot.  You can move it forward or backward to make it fit with no overlapping, by right clicking. You can still resize by clicking on the photo you are using at that time.  Then click on the green check and you can move on to your next one.  I did the same with each picture.  I hope that makes sense. 

Enjoy the freebies and play around. Digital scrapping is so easy, I do not do anything really fancy.  I just play, as long as you make a copy of your photo when you take it to PS you will not mess anything up.  Or just don't click on the save or save as button when you close out PS. 

I am not the greatest "teacher" in the world, but I hope I could help a little.  The Freebie site updates almost every day.

Support our wounded Soldiers and bring a smile to a kid's face....

As I have mentioned before my husband, Rob, has been in the Air Force for a little over 21 years and we are still going strong.  He has been very lucky with all of his deployments to have not been injured, but there are many that have not been as fortunate.  Rob is in a new Squadron this year and they do a Christmas trip to Walter Reed to distribute gifts and spend some time with the wounded.  There are many that do not have visitors and I am sure you can imagine how lonely they are, especially at Christmas.  If you would like to send something to these men and women it would be so appreciated.  They will be leaving the base on Dec 5 and delivering these items.  Cards are welcome, just please leave unsealed.  They had an incident a few years back where a group sent cards with mean letters inside of them, so now they check them.  Cards, books, playing cards, games are a few ideas.  If you are interested in sending something please e-mail me at cecelia89@yahoo.com and I will provide you with my mailing address.  I will post pictures of the trucks being loaded up and moving out.  Due to patient privacy I can't post pictures of the men and women receiving their gift.  I do promise as many pictures of them packing and pulling out as possible.

I have also talked about Rob being a member of the USAF Action Pistol Shooting Team. Each year he participates in a Toys for Tots shooting match.  You can read about it here Toys for Tots all of the entry fees are donated to the program and they also accept toy donations this day.  Last year was a huge success and we are hoping this year will be even better.  If you would like to send a toy for this match please e-mail me and I will give you my mailing address and Rob will take them with him to the match.  If we need to we will take two vehicles to get the stuff there.  I will provide pictures of the match, toys, and the Marines (in full dress uniform) accepting the toys after match.  

If you are able to help with either of these it will be greatly appreciated and never forgotten.  If you would like you can post this on your blog also or link back to me.  The more the merrier for the children and for our wounded Veterans. Thank you for your help, your contribution, your prayers for our Veterans, you positive thoughts and your support.

A little digital fun... my beautiful family....

                                  

The Halloween Mummy......

Todd was a Mummy this year, I found a jersey sheet set on clearance at Wal-Mart for 5 bucks.  We snipped and then started ripping.  He made it to all of 4 houses (maybe) and decided he would rather hand out candy than get it.  This normally happens every year with both boys.  They would prefer to give it out than get candy.  I guess because they aren't huge candy eaters. We have one sweet neighbor that makes a special bag for Todd every year and that one bag is enough for Todd and Steven for a month.  LOL  I had to get a picture of the cute teenager.  He decorated the bag of his truck with light up bones and a big Boo sign. 

                                                   

Hackey-Sack fun on Halloween..... my guys at it again..

I love watching my guys playing around and having a good time, these are the times I could not ask for more.

A few little tidbits from my Thursday.... a.k.a. I love my simple life....

Steven rode to school with one of his buddies this morning, hard letting go.  This is one of those boys I adore though and I trust him.  Steven has these eyes that make it so hard to say no to anyway.  LOL  He has become attached to a pair of house slippers that belonged to his Dad's Dad, "Papa Jessee."  They are trout slippers and he wears them all the time in the house now..can you say cute?!?!


I drove Todd to school this morning, I treasure these short trips.  Todd is a talker and I normally get the best conversation from him in those 10 minutes.  He is completely rotten, but abundantly loved.  Todd is a ham and can have you cracking up in two seconds flat.  I fixed them pancakes this morning for breakfast, but he was tickled to death to we made it in time he could eat breakfast at school also.  Nutty kid.   If he EVER slows down he will be as round as he is tall. HA


I wanted to show these tiny cloches I found at Goodwill a few weeks back.  I couldn't figure out what to put in them and then finally decided to put my WV dice in them...I think they are cute.  LOL  I also wanted to show a few fall things.  I plan on showing the rest of it tomorrow.

I am a bad doggy Mom, I didn't notice the dogs were out of food until tonight.  I feed them Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, it is very good for them.  I am picky about what they eat.  So I cooked them up some low-fat hamburger, with peas and carrots and chicken stock.  They are stuffed and laid out right now.  LOL 

I want to say thanks to all of you who take the time to read my simple little blog, thank you for the comments they are treasured and thank you being a blog friend.  :-)

"Chickens in the Road" is one of my favorite blogs because I can live vicariously through

Suzanne.  She has a small, but growing little farm in West Virginia.  So, that encompasses two of my favorite places.  She has the cutest names for her animals and takes the best pictures of them.  She is an Author of Romance Novels and could be a great children's book writer.  She writes dialogue for her farm animals that will seriously make you laugh out loud.  I honestly can't pick a favorite animal anymore, it used to be Clover ( a goat), but now she has so many more cutie patooties.  She is a strong, personable, honest and loving single Mom doing all she can to make it work.  I admire her for that.  She is currently trying to get a "paying" job by writing for the SAM-e Website.  The job would involve writing about ways to motivate oneself to have a positive outlook on life.  If anyone does, Suzanne does. 

She makes me feel better just by reading her blog daily.  She gives encouraging advice, great recipes and many, many other things.  I encourage you to go visit her, I promise you will not be disappointed and I am almost positive you will be hooked like I am.  And please go give her a vote here Vote for Suzanne and you can vote daily!  Now hurry over and fall in love with Chickens in the Road I am positive you will enjoy.  Tell Coco, Clover, Dookie, Pocohontas, Nutmeg and the others WVU Chick said HI!  Hey, I will even give a shout out to the Mean Rooster (behind my rake, of course). LOL

Quiet, warm and non-productive weekend....lol

I had plans for the weekend, BIG plans... a long list of things I wanted to get done and there aren't many checkmarks on my list.  LOL  Oh well, tomorrow is another day.  I ended up taking a Sunday nap today, that lasted longer than it should have.  I got to watch my Mountaineers play a very good game against UCONN yesterday.  It was definitely one of those "good" games, I did a little yelling at the tv, a little pacing and a lot of grinding my teeth.

I am also very proud of the way WVU treated the team with the loss of Jasper Howard last Saturday.  Coach Stew is a very caring and family oriented man, I don't agree with some of his coaching choices, but when it comes to his love for his State, his team and others he is a great man.
The Mountaineer crowd gave the UCONN Huskies a long standing ovation as they took the field. As the UCONN players took the field they walked past a huge banner that had been signed by thousands of WVU students throughout the week that simply read, "Today we are all Huskies."

Skeeter has become such an entertaining little rascal.  He loves to just attack Roxi, of course she loves to chase him.  Ralphie is just worried about any food being left in his bowl after he eats.  HA  Skeeter loves to box with Roxi and she is so good with him.  I am so glad because she could bite his tiny head off in a second if she wanted to.  They were all asleep on the couch with me Friday.  I knew if I got up to get a picture someone would leave.  So I snapped this one, it only shows some of Roxi, she had her head in my lap.