"My Colors are Blush and Bashful"

Now, who out there doesn't love the movie Steel Magnolias? I fell in love with that movie the first time I saw it, and just knew I had to name my son Jackson, after "Jackson Latry, Jr." well, I got the Jackson part didn't I?

When I travel to the little one light town of Chatham, Louisiana I take 59 all the way into Lufkin, then I take the loop to the East and hook a right on Highway 103. I then follow it all the way over the border and straight into the town of Natchitoches (pronounced, "nack a tish"). http://www.natchitoches.net/index.php This is where Steel Magnolias was filmed and the home to Northwestern Louisiana University, the Demons!

You must take your family or your spouse or just a group of girlfriends and stay, shop, and stroll down the brick road on the riverfront and see all that Natchitoches has to offer. It is like stepping back in time. Oh, and did I mention the Christmas Festival they show in the movie is true? We are going back this fall to take the kids, Cash has never seen it!

Here is a small peak into a little town about 3.5 hours away that you have to visit one day!

50 Years Anyone? I'll take it!

This past weekend, the kids, Eric, Joanne, Tori and I traveled to Chatham, Louisiana for my grandmother and step-grandfather's 50th Wedding Anniversary. My grandmother is a funny lady and reminds me of my mother so much! HA! There are six kids in the family and they were all there along with all the grandkids, great-grandkids and more. The dinner was held at their church and it was an honor to attend. I don't get to see my extended family very often, but when I do it's always fun.

Betty and Billy Head

50 Years Anyone? I'll take it!

Three Sisters, Julie Siteka, Mary Jeanette (my mom), and Susan Meranda.

The party was very nice!

Gorgeous Great Grand Daughter!

Eric and our cousin Dana (she lives in Germany right now

where her husband is stationed).

All Six Kids!

A kiss from my baby boy!

Cash and the cake put on quite a show!

Four Generations!

Terrific Tuesdays!

For Today Outside my window... not sure yet, it's still dark!

From the home office... FINALS FINALS FINALS! I have a major Algebra Final on Monday! ;o(

From the Kitchen... Shrimp Tacos tonight for Lance and I, Annie's Ravioli's for the kids and Chocolate Pudding cups for dessert!


I am reading... East of Eden


I am hoping...to get through this semester in one piece! Ha! Looking forward to the summer break!


I am creating... a set menu plan to make things easier around here! I need to go back to menus and lists. The house is running off course lately!


I am hearing... silence, my loved one's are still asleep.


Around the house...I am trying to get closets cleaned out and organized! It's not going well!


One of my favorite things...Is talking to Taylor about Twilight! It's so much fun!


A few plans for the rest of the week... Get ready for Kerrville this weekend. Taylor and I are going to Mother/Daughter Weekend at Kickapoo Kamp, the camp Taylor attends in the summer.


Prayer Requests (new for my Terrific Tuesdays)- for my walk with God to become closer. For attending church to not be about who we see, or don't see, who is wearing what, or what activity I can sign up for, but for it to be about me and my family and if we are learning God's word. That's all that matters!

Winners Winners Winners!!!!!

The Winners of the Mother's Day Contest Are

Sarah Lett and Sarah Smith

The first winner to respond will have their choice of pendants.

I also need your mailing address Sarah Smith

(you can email me at juliejackson1975@aol.com)

Congratulations!

I wanted to say thank you to all those that submitted entries! It has been a pleasure to read each and every one. You are all awesome and amazing mothers!

Party Ideas!

Here are a few ideas I have for having a casual gathering at your home

(Easter ideas as well). When you are having a party that will have you, the hostess, inside and out, you may not always be standing there to answer questions, like, "where is the ice" (place a cute handmade sign or write on a pretty napkin and hang it on your fridge with an arrow pointing towards the ice maker or directions to ice), "where are the drinks", "is this sweet tea", etc. you get the point! Place little chalk boards around with directions, or take cardstock and fold over so you can make it stand up. Write little notes or directions to make your guests feel right at home!

Make a seperate area if you are going to have LOTS of dishes or if your kitchen/dining is small. This is a side table in my entry way that I decorated and it added color and excitement as people walked in and also took some of the traffic out of the kitchen when they wanted to grab some dessert. Also, see how I used an old Easter pic of Taylor and the Easter Bunny as decoration. (frames are very inexpensive and using pictures is my favorite way to decorate).

This Southern Living Bucket is my favorite item of all time! I own three if that tells you anything. It is the Entertaining Bucket. I have one on my back porch with the stand and its all old and worn out with a plant in it! LOVE IT! Then I have this one that sits in the corner of my dining room, on the stand, and do you know what sits in it that no one can ever see? My iron and starch! Yep, I grab it to iron my table cloth or to iron clothes on my bed. It's the perfect place! Then, when I have guests I hide the iron in the pantry and pull the stand out,put ice and drinks in it, GORGEOUS, right? Well, for Easter this year I put all the filled eggs in and sat it at the back door for decoration. Then, when it was time to hide them, we grabbed the bucket and me, Aunt Debbie and my cousin Jenny hid them in the front yard! Now the third bucket sits on the floor beside my tv with all our Wii equipment and games!

We have lots of older kids that hunt so we hide money in our eggs because the Easter Bunny and class parties brings them PLENTY of candy! Well, take the time to count with your kids and/or teach to roll their money. The kids enjoyed telling each other how much they found.

Pick one color and go for it everywhere! Patterns can get too busy and one color is easier to mix with the pieces you already own, like the blue platter you see. I used this green everywhere this year!

Use the objects, like baskets, presents, cupcakes, etc. as part of the decorations. These buckets were placed on the other side of my entry (5 in all) as people came in they saw lots of color and the kids were excited!

Mother's Day Contest!

I have been thinking about Mother's Day and what it means to me, to be a mom! I have a new found obsession with www.etsy.com so I thought I would add a little fun to my blog. I have purchased these awesome tile pendants and they could be yours! All you have to do is leave a comment to this blog and tell me what it means to you to be a mother. Anything you want to talk about, a funny story about being a mom, or the day you became a mother, or being a mom now, having little ones, having grown children, whatever you want to say about being, I think, the most important person in the world to your family! I will close this contest on Monday, April 27th at 6:00 P.M. I will then take the names and draw two out a hat for these necklaces. They can be for you to keep, or to give to someone special! Just share your story with all of us.

Terrific Tuesdays!

For Today Outside my window... sun is shining! Gorgeous Day!

From the home office... Just took an Algebra test, put my TECA Portfolio together and now I have to write a reflection paper about the semester.

From the Kitchen... Country Style Chicken, Red Mashed Potatoes and green beans.

I am reading... Finished Breaking Dawn, now I am taking a break from reading to focus on school work and skimming Twilight to read the parts not in the movie.

I am hoping...to get this house in order this week and get ready to go to Louisiana on Friday.

I am creating... a special place in my bedroom/sun room for our family to be lazy on a Saturday morning, eat our favorite Kolaches from town and watch cartoons while daddy usually keeps snoozing or until we all jump on him to wake him up! The kids, Lance and I lay around in my bedroom/sun room every weekend it seems lately. Oh, and it looks all pretty in these pics, but on the weekends we throw all those pillows on the floor, get blankets out of that ottoman and make a big pit bed on the floor! ;o)

I am hearing... Lance talking to the Sprint guy!

Around the house...My Cilantro and Peppers drowned I think in the heavy rain. They look horrible!

One of my favorite things...Is making a 2 do list and actually doing it! It feels AWESOME!

A few plans for the rest of the week... Clean and organize mine and Cash's closets.

Prayer Requests (new for my Terrific Tuesdays)- Prayers for strength always!

Built for Defensive Purposes

wall
(wôl)
n.

1. An upright structure of masonry, wood, plaster, or other building material serving to enclose, divide, or protect an area, especially a vertical construction forming an inner partition or exterior siding of a building.
2. A continuous structure of masonry or other material forming a rampart and built for defensive purposes. Often used in the plural.
3. A structure of stonework, cement, or other material built to retain a flow of water.
4.
a. Something resembling a wall in appearance, function, or construction, as the exterior surface of a body organ or part: the abdominal wall.
b. Something resembling a wall in impenetrability or strength: a wall of silence; a wall of fog.
c. An extreme or desperate condition or position, such as defeat or ruin: driven to the wall by poverty.

I have been so busy lately I haven't really blogged about me, my strengths, weaknesses, and just everything. The kids are in bed, dishes are done, my homework is done, the house could be picked up but the trash is taken out and we all have clean clothes for tomorrow, so what more could you ask for? As soon as I sat down to start typing, the word "wall" entered my mind. When I think of walls I think of many that I put up on a daily basis. There are so many people I don't let in or forgive, especially myself. There are so many walls I put up to serve as a a divide to protect an area, my heart. I want what so many others have, I don't mean I am jealous, or envy them, I mean I want to knock down my walls and let people in. I hold my tongue with my true hurts and needs with everyone except Lance. He and I have no walls, I literally mean that. In any given situation I can express my feelings, needs, desires and pure selfish wants with him. He and I knocked down our walls long ago. Now, I feel like I need to start knocking down some more. One wall I want to force to the ground is getting my degree. Not many people know that I didn't graduate from high school. On the last day of school I was told I was .5 credits away from walking due to my tardiness and absences (I used to skip school all the time or go in late). My dad was raising Eric and I so he never knew till it was too late. He was always at work and I was a good liar. Well, that lie came to a screeching halt when I didn't show up for graduation. I was mortified, but the one person that picked up my tattered and torn heart was my new boyfriend of two months, Lance. He swept me off my feet from the beginning, drove me to and from San Jacinto College every day for a week so I could get my GED that summer and I never looked back, well almost never did. I still look over my shoulder from time to time yearning for my Senior year back so I can do it right. But, no regrets, right? That's my first wall, feeling like this Bachelors Degree will open my heart to places I never knew existed so I can let that past pain finally, completely, go away. Walls, remember they crumble, so we should go ahead and knock them down before they hurt someone.

MNO anyone?

I am in the most awesome playgroup, in case you didn't know, and we went to an Italian Restaurant Tuesday night in Kingwood, on the water, called Zamitti's. It was fabulous and so are my friends! ;o)

Terrific Tuesdays!

For Today Outside my window... it's a cold start! But, I bet it warms up!
From the home office...just working on taxes! I am always working on taxes!
I am thankful for... my long weekend with the kids and Lance! We had a great Easter!

From the Kitchen... I am going to HEB this morning (the holiday weekend kind of messed up my shopping) but I have Moms Night Out tonight, so I think I will make a pot of spaghetti for the kids and Lance!

I am wearing...black pants, grey tshirt and tennis shoes! I look ready to clean!
I am reading... Breaking Dawn. I am sad I am almost done and must say that I get bored with any page that doesn't have Edward on it. I hope the author does bring out Midnight Sun because I will LOVE IT!

I am hoping... to keep working on getting my life in order!
I am creating...special times that I just sit and hug and love on Cash! I do this already, but I want to do it more!

I am hearing... birds chirping outside, it's pretty cool actually!

Around the house...we are just getting back on schedule. I can feel summer right around the corner!

One of my favorite things...is loving Lance!

A few plans for the rest of the week... well, today I have to take my car to the shop and get a rental (just some maintenance issues and new brake pads. Then I will clean the rest of the day. Tomorrow I am working all day at Newport Elementary in a 4th grade classroom. I am subbing for the first 1.5 hours alone, while the teacher is at a dentist appt. then I am observing the rest fo the day. I need these hours for school. THEN, Thursday we are going to look at beach houses (Holly, Cash and I) to rent this summer and Friday Lance has an Astros game! This Saturday I have Andi's 30th birthday party, and church on Sunday!

Prayer Requests (new for my Terrific Tuesdays)- as always prayers for Madison Brown (her link is listed in my favorite links, take a look)

Easter Morning 2009

I always forget my pictures load backwards on my blog! HA! So these are in reverse order! But you get the picture! The Easter Bunny left these baskets here this morning, Cash comes in, shows us his naked self, then shows the baskets and then opens it and becomes "Bottomless Diego". I love my little naked man! Happy Easter Tay and Cash.

A New Jackson Tradition

We started a tradition a few years back that our plastic eggs would be filled with money. Change that we had saved through out the year and out of 125 eggs this year we filled 12 with $1 and $5 bills! Doing it this way adds excitement when you have older kids and the younger kids really just want eggs! HA!

I decided that this year I would add the tradition of a pinata so the kids can also have candy and toys.

Cash was the first one up to bat! The other's patiently waited!

This is how you color eggs!

Taylor Set up this "Egg Coloring Station" in our backyard for our big gathering on Saturday! The kids had a blast and their hands were very messy!"Sissy, are we coloring all these eggs"?
Taylor and Cash got a head start and colored a few first!

My little girl, Miss Planner, a chip off the old block!

Taylor Nicole