Mississippi girls don’t change their ways

Grandma Sandy hasn’t blogged in a while because I’ve had to keep a secret.

And no, I’m not pregnant, thank goodness, so don’t even go there.

I usually blog about my family and our life but when the majority of what’s going on in our lives is something I can’t talk about, it’s hard to come up with something else to say, so I just haven’t said anything!

Obviously.

But the secret I’ve had to keep since January does not have to be kept any longer.

This Mississippi girl is heading back home!!

That’s right. Grandma Sandy and her family are moving back to south Mississippi at the beginning of the summer and we’re really excited.

The Chef has taken a position in a church in south MS. The pastor of the church there is the pastor that we started out in ministry with 20 years ago.

It’s a long story, but there’s no doubt that this has all been orchestrated by the Almighty God that we serve. To see how He’s been working the past several months is none other than amazing.

This church is also opening a counseling center and The Chef (who is also a marriage and family therapist) will have the opportunity to do therapy once again.

Sooooo........because the move is just around the corner, it was necessary for me to make a trip down south during our Spring Break this week to find a house.

Pastor Margaret, Peanut and I headed south on Sunday to meet......

.....Rebecca McCollough, our fabulous realtor!

Isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

She’s just so smart and cute and petite and stylish.

I just know that when I die and go to heaven and I’m a figure skater, I’m gonna look just like her.

I got in touch with Rebecca back in February to let her know what we were looking for, and bless her heart, she was gonna have her work cut out for her.

You see, not only is Grandma Sandy, The Chef, our 5 kids, 2 dogs, ginormous cat and Monty, the fish, moving to south MS but we’re taking Pastor Margaret with us!

We were looking for a house with either a guest house or enough acreage to build a guest house. Pastor Margaret needs to be with us but not WITH us, if you know what I mean.

Actually, we would’ve loved for her to be WITH us, too, but for her own sanity’s sake we determined that being with us would be good enough.

So, Rebecca started her hunt for the perfect house which would look something like this: a main house with at least 4 bedrooms and either a separate guest house or enough acreage to build a guest house that also wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Guess what she found?

A main house with 4 bedrooms and a separate guest house.

Unfortunately it cost an arm and a leg.

Actually, more like two arms and two legs and the word was that the owners were pretty firm about their asking price and were not expected to take more than a few thousand dollars less.

But we didn’t let that discourage us.

So, Rebecca lined up several houses for us to see on Monday.

After looking, and thinking, and looking, and analyzing, and thinking and praying, and calling in an expert from Gulfport to come give us her expert opinion on the 2 homes we’d narrowed it down to, it was determined that we would make an offer on the house that cost two arms and two legs.

Actually, after looking at the 2 homes, the expert (who is my smart and talented Aunt Sarah, an interior designer, who is also married to my Uncle Thad, an architect) quite frankly stated,

“I’d jump on this house in a red-hot minute. Don’t even think about that other crummy house. It’s not built well, the owner has tried to take on too many home improvement projects and has halfway done every one of them, and furthermore, The Chef would kill you if you bought a house that needed this much work and he’d have every right to do so. That other house costs 3 arms and 3 legs and isn’t even worth half of that.

Make an offer on the 2 arm/2 leg house because the owner is a former builder and he’s used top quality everything throughout both homes. He knew what he was doing and he did it right.”

Aunt Sarah advised us on what she thought a good offer would be which was within $500 of what smart and stylish Rebecca The Realtor suggested.

So we made an offer.

They countered.

We countered again.

Then smart and stylish Rebecca the Realtor put a little muscle behind our counter by saying to the other realtor, “Look, this is a unique property that will require a certain kind of buyer. You have the perfect buyers and they’re gonna stand firm with this offer. They’ve put their best foot forward.”

And guess what?

The sellers accepted!

So, the Grandma Sandy family has found their home in south MS!!!

Now, I must state that with this new home comes 2 things I never thought I’d have and 1 thing I swore I’d never have again.

I’ll start with the thing I swore I’d never have again because swearing I’ll never do something and then having to eat my words is not an uncommon practice in my life, unfortunately.

This house has......

.....a pool.

Our last house had a pool. It was fun, we loved it, but the expense and upkeep on that thing was a killer and The Chef and I said never again.

Oops.

But it’ll be ok. Our last pool was 45,000 gallons and required loads of chlorine and chemicals. This pool is only 15,000 gallons thank You, Lord,

and its a saltwater pool which is supposed to be much easier and cheaper to maintain.

I HOPE.

Now on to one of the things I never thought I’d have, mostly because I’m still not sure what it is......

This is Grandma Sandy’s new shower. And apparently tub. I’m not quite sure.

Here. Take a closer look.

What on earth?

Have you ever in your life?!?

If I’m honest, I’ll have to admit I’m kinda scared of this thing. It looks like if I punch a wrong button I might be zoomed into outer space or something.

And the seller, bless her heart, was so proud of this thing. She couldn’t wait to tell me all about it.

It has a remote control, why the heck do you need a remote control for a shower..why would you want to turn anything on from outside the shower and if you want to turn something on from inside, can’t you just lean over and turn it on?!? honestly, the remote control feature strikes terror in my heart because I see hours of entertainment in The Chef’s future as he experiments with the remote control while I’M trying to bathe.

It’s supposed to be some kind of steam shower or something or other. As long as it gets me clean and doesn’t zoom me into outer space then I’m good.

And the other thing on this property that I never thought I’d have......

......a barn.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with a barn but I’m sure I’ll figure out something. I was just about to say I know I definitely won’t get a horse but because I have a history of saying I definitely won’t do something and then later doing it, I’ll just leave that part out. Now I will hopefully never get a horse but if I do, it won’t be because I said I definitely wouldn’t!

But the best thing, the very best thing is that here’s my back porch....

...and right across the pool....

...is Pastor Margaret’s house!

We can wave at each other from our kitchen windows!

Pastor Margaret joked that one of her favorite things about her new house is the fact that she won’t have to mow her front yard. She can swim in it instead!

So a big thank you to the smart, cute, sweet, petite and stylish Rebecca the Realtor for not only finding our perfect house for us but also.....

.....and here’s the best part....she helped us get our new house for $34,000 LESS than the asking price!

So instead of costing 2 arms and 2 legs, we found our new home for an arm and maybe half a leg!

She may be petite, but she’s tough.

I’ll be sad to leave my friends and especially my other Kindergarten teachers here in TN. Thankfully, we won’t be so far away that they can’t come visit and I’m counting on them to do so!

But in the end......

....this Mississippi gal is glad to be going home.

Christmas canes

The Chef’s grandfather, Grandaddy, was a man of many and varied talents. He grew the most beautiful roses and a lavish vegetable garden.

He was of the generation of southern men that didn’t do housework, but he vacuumed, cleaned, and cooked.

Grandaddy even cross-stitched!

But one of the things that impressed me most was his ability to work with wood and one of the most special things that he did was to make Christmas canes.

Each year after Christmas after the family Christmas tree was taken down, Grandaddy would take the Christmas tree trunk and make it into a walking cane.

We have canes from many years ago.

Each one is different.

There are different handles and different etchings.

On this cane he recorded some of their many travels.

He would burn different etchings and designs and on each cane he would record what everyone got for Christmas that year.....

...as well as any special family events or announcements that had occurred during that year.

This is the cane from the year that The Chef’s dad got into law school.

The Chef’s nickname was T-3 and this is the cane from the year that The Chef was born.

I love each and every one of those canes. I can only imagine the hours he spent designing and making each one, reflecting on the past year and thinking about his family that he loved so dearly.

Love and miss you, Grandaddy.

Week in Review

Sit down and put your feet up. This is an incredibly long post!

Whew! What a week! The last week of school before Christmas is always crazy-busy and this year was no different.

Sunday started off with a light dusting of snow. Snow flurries were in the forecast but when flakes started falling, and kept falling, and kept falling and then started sticking, we were all excited and pleasantly surprised! It wasn’t much but it was still pretty to see.

Falling snow never ceases to amaze me. There’s just something so magical about it! Makes me feel like a kid again!

Monday morning I took some time off work to serve The Boss’s birthday snacks at Playschool. Remember the birthday girl, Julia? Julia and The Boss both have birthdays within a few days of each other so Julia’s mom and I decided to do birthday snacks for both girls together.

The Boss didn’t know I was coming.

....I think she was pretty surprised and excited, don’t you?

Here is The Boss with Ms. Penny, the Playschool director. The birthday girl gets to stand next to Ms. Penny while her classmates sing a special song to her and then she chooses the number that represents her age to put on the birthday chart. VERY, very special, I tell ya.

Here are the beautiful birthday girls. I can NOT believe they are five! Where does the time go?!?

Tuesday night I had a veryimportanttopsecretmission.

Let me give a little background...

The Playschool that the birthday girls attend has been around for years. In fact, Julia’s own father attended this very same Playschool when he was young as well as many other parents of their current students. It has a waiting list a mile long and it’s an excellent preschool program.

Each year the children do a Christmas program. Grandma Sandy even takes a day off school in order to attend. The fellowship hall is always packed with parents, grandparents, siblings. Folks try to get there early to get a good seat. Or to get a seat at all! The children are dressed in their Christmas best to sing their songs that they’ve worked so hard on.

So you get the picture. The Playschool Christmas program is a big deal!

Well, this year there was a twist. Rather than have two programs....1 for the Monday/Wednesday/Friday children and a 2nd for the Tuesday/Thursday children, they decided to combine the 2 and have one big program!

Parking and seating are an issue with 2 programs so you can only imagine the scramble for seats that would ensue.

Soooooo Julia’s Mom and I made a plan.

(ok so the plan was actually mine. I won’t put the devious part off on her, but she did confirm that it was a good idea!)

It just so happens that I’m a member of the church that houses the Playschool.

It just so happens that The Chef is on staff at the very same church and you know what that means......

He has a key.

So what if , just what if Grandma Sandy used said key to sneak into the fellowship hall the night before to uhhh....er...well......

Drag a whole bunch of coats out of her closet and save seats on the very front row for my family and Julia’s family!!!!

Now....before you cast judgement, let me say that there can be a few nice perks when your profession is working in a church. A pricey salary is not one of them. But utilizing a key at an opportune time is! At least in my opinion.

The Chef was reluctant to let me do so because he didn’t feel it was fair to the other families until I texted him a picture of this....

Apparently someone else had the same idea I did! Only she’s NOT a member, does NOT have a key but that certainly didn’t stop her from saving SIX seats for herself! And they were on the very side that I’d planned to save!!

WHAT!?!

(by the way I have no idea when or how this lady pulled this off but that’s beside the point)

When I texted this picture to The Chef, he suggested that I save not only enough seats for US but for all our neighbors, people we’d ever met, and every one of our dead relatives. HA!

Of course he was kidding.

So the next morning I dropped kids off at school and drove straight to the church to make sure my coats were still there (they were) and got ready to hear The Boss and Dogos sing!

Here is Dogos. She loved jingling her jingle bell bracelet and was proud to show it off!

Now this next picture will show you how very different The Boss and Dogos can be.

Dogos is having the time of her life. Singing, jingling, smiling.

The Boss, on the other hand, looks like she’d rather be standing in front of a firing squad.

The Boss is painfully, painfully shy.

Dogos just goes with the flow.

Three years worth of Christmas and end of the year programs and I’ve taken a day off work for every single one.

Do you think The Boss has ever even entertained the thought of singing even one tiny little note?

NOPE.

But bless her heart I can’t blame her. The apple does NOT fall far from the tree. At that age, I seriously doubt Grandma Sandy would’ve even stood on stage. In fact I know I wouldn’t have. My own grandmother used to have to go to Sunday school WITH me.

So, go ahead and be shy, Boss. I’ll still take a day off work to come see you in every program even IF all you do is suck your thumb! You just keep right on singing your heart out at home!

Here’s a picture of the whole group. Aren’t their Christmas outfits beautiful? Each and every one was to die for.

Seriously, you’ve never seen so many smocked outfits in your life! If one were actually able to total the amount of money spent on the boutique-purchased ones and/or the hours spent smocking the hand-sewn ones, I’ve no doubt the grand total would be absolutely shocking!

Wednesday night was the children’s pageant at church.

Thursday was Polar Express Day at school. All K, 1st and 2nd grade students AND teachers wore pajamas and watched the movie in the gym!

Thursday night was the Kindergarten teacher party at my house.

Earlier at school that day, we decided that we were so comfortable in our pajamas that there was no reason to change so everyone wore pajamas to the party, including two of our retired friends who still celebrate with us every year!

Now remember the bedsheet on the window?

And remember how I was going to make some drapes?

And remember how I was a few days away from a full-blown panic attack?

Well, as time for the panic attack got closer and closer, I said forget making any drapes and ordered some.

Thanks, nearby department store!

The picture above is one that I took after my K friends left and to replace the picture I intended to take while we were all eating and having fun.

Oh well.

The Chef made shrimp and grits and oh my mercy, was it good!

After we ate, we all went back downstairs for an ornament exchange.

I LOVE the ornament that I got!

It’s just beautiful. On the other side it says....Prince of Peace.

It’s absolutely perfect.

After my K friends left I had to make a Gingerbread Man for school the next day.

If you recall, our class Gingerbread Man has been on the run since Thanksgiving.

Well, the time had come for the Gingerbread Man to finally return to our classroom. We knew that since he’d been on the run all over the U.S. that he’d have to find some clever way to get into the building and the only way is through the office so we alerted the secretaries early Friday morning.

Sure enough, Ms. Ellen caught him trying to sign in and get a Visitor’s Pass so she caught him and she delivered him safe and sound to our classroom!

He sure did taste good!

Next up? The Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade Christmas program!

As you can see, one of our little K friends was a little tired during the 2nd grade part of the program!

Friday night The Chef and I went out to eat to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary!

On Saturday, after such a busy week I did absolutely nothing but sit by the fire, enjoy the company of my family, and watch videos of Survivor contestants once they’d been voted off and gotten to Ponderosa.

Sunday night was the youth Christmas party at our house!

And that’s my week!

I can’t believe it’s already the week of Christmas.

I’m looking forward to family and friends coming in town.

I’m really sad that our North Carolina crew can’t make it this year. This is the year that they should be coming. It won’t be the same without them. But I’m hoping for a visit with them during the spring or summer when things won’t be so busy and we’ll have time to enjoy their company more.

Now I’m off to finish addressing Christmas cards. I took the picture in early October. Good thing I’m just now sending them out! Oh well.

Merry Christmas!