This Joy's Life: Keeps Gettin' Better

I am no longer posting to this blog. You can now find This Joy's Life at www.ThisJoysLife.com or click here to head there now.

I Love Jesus, But I Drink A Little

This is just too funny not to be share. (Sorry Facebookers to be repeating myself here):

Super Bowl Fun-day

Chad invited folks to the house to watch the Super Bowl. I'm not much of a football fan, but there's no rooting for the Steelers in the city of Seattle after the Seahawks run-in with them three years ago. So, by default we were a house full of Cardinal fans. Here's some pix of all the "excitement."

Jenny, who brought the fabulous lemon cake. That'll make a football fan out of me!
Riveted: (Rt. to lft.) Chad, Dan, Nelly:
Ryan, working the cross-word (just like his dad) during this "high stress" game:
Justenny (as Clara calls them) or, individually, Justeene and Jenny:
Finally, some excitement right before half time:
. . . and again in the last 40 seconds:
Big boo, the Steelers won. Now Seahawk and Cardinal fans can share in their hatred of Pittsburgh. Go team!

There is nothing going on. Not really. I've been nesting like I was in my third trimester, but I'm not even pregnant. Nope, this nesting, I've decided, is more like I'm in my third trimester OF LIFE. I think I'm more affected than I've realized from the car accident, house robbery and the recent sudden death of a dear friend. It's left me feeling like there is NO TIME and I'm desperately trying to - I don't know what - clean out all but my most meaningful possessions that I would want to tell some kind of story about me after I'm gone. The blue sweater I've had since high school, but never wear because it is stretched out like a potato sack has GOT to go. No special meaning there, except in the lesson that if it can't survive the dryer I should never have bought it in the first place.

Though I'm on a self-imposed spending freeze since Christmas (aren't we all), I have become addicted to Etsy and am constantly looking for items that are ME and reflect where I think my sense of style is today. (Of course, I use the excuse of finding meaningful gifts FOR OTHERS as reasoning to log on and start shopping there.)

I find I'm influenced a lot by Heather over at Dooce, though her style is very modern and I only like to do modern in moderation. I am a Pottery Barn girl at heart. I love that Heather shows us what trinkets make her heart go pitter patter in her Daily Style section and it's why I started my This Joys Stuff: What Brings You Joy? blog, but I've not been very good about updating it. And since I'm on a spending freeze right now, I mostly just saving things to my favorites in Etsy and hope that they sell before I come back and hit the "pay now" button.

Here are some of my etsy favorites at this point in time:


Nebula Mobile, in Kaleidoscope by thewonderlandstudio

Rainy Day Print by blancucha

Kiwi Conundrum (Set of 5 mini-notecards) by time2cre8

Carnival Sampler by Carnival

Deep Blue Bracelet by enticements

2009 Wall Calendar by Sugarcube Design

Soon, I'll try to share a couple of items that I have hit the "pay now" button on (shhh, don't tell Chad).

Airport Playdate

On Tuesday we got to the Atlanta airport an hour early so that we could quickly meet Nicole and Brayden for lunch. Brayden has just turned 1, which is amazing to me. Tempus fugit. Them Latins said it best!

NicoleBrayden:
Clara and Nicole:
Choy:

Salad=Mayo In The South

For all you HATERS out there who think I've lost my mind when I talk about fixin' up some yummy Pear Salad - 1 pear, sliced in half, 1 dalop of mayonnaise, sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese - I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! And, it's not just "a crazy Joy thing," either.

I give you exhibit A:

The menu board at The Yogurt Shoppe in Columbus, GA:

Here it is on the plate.


Salad = Mayonnaise in the South. Think about it: Egg Salad, Chicken Salad, Potato Salad, PEAR SALAD.

I rest my case. Yummy.

Belated Christmas

Chad, Clara and I are in Georgia visiting my family for just a week. It is flying by, so tonight we had my mom's side of the family over so we could be sure to see them all - Karen, Joanne, Hugh, Connie, Mike, Sheryl, Mark, Hammy, Emmie, Kristin, Scott, the twins - Parker and Preston - the whole gang that lives around these parts. Since I haven't posted in a while here are a few pictures from our family gathering this evening.

Hamilton and his Tennis Mortar:
The men of the family supervising the experiment:
Setup of the dart air stomper thingy:
Execution:
Mark and Sheryl:
Uncle Mike:
Not sure who this guy is:
"The Hammy":
Parker observing the antics:
Preston tinkling the ivories:
Cousins Clara, Parker, Emmie Ruth, and Preston.
All done.

Jingle Bell Twist

Another holiday video for your enjoyment. This is Clara and Jack doing their best "Chubby Checker" to a VERY '70s version of Jingle Bells a couple days before Christmas:

Fro Some Snowballs!

This is a video of Clara's first experience with snow about, oh, a week ago now. All she wanted to do was throw snowballs, make Frosties (the snowman) and make "Shadows" (snow angels).



The snow is still here, but, thankfully, the 5th snowstorm we were supposed to have yesterday didn't really come to fruition. I'm hopefully that it is all going to melt away in the next few days. We had our white Christmas, now ALL DONE SNOW.