Holly Jolly Cookie Exchange

Today I am joining Kim at Homesteaders Heart for her Holly Jolly Cookie Exchange. Who couldn't use more cookie recipes, right?! My kids love cookies and I actually use this recipe all year round. They are so easy to make and are so yummy. They are thin, crispy and chewy at the same time! Enjoy :)

Molasses Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup Crisco

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 teas. baking soda

1 teas. cinnamon

1/2 teas. cloves

1/2 teas. ginger

1/2 teas. salt

Mix all together. Roll into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes at 375*. (I always go for the 8 minutes... they turn out crunchy and chewy)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Momma dropped the ball... Boo.

I had a sad Mommy moment this weekend.... a very sad " I let my daughter down" moment. Boo. One of those that will haunt me for the rest of my Mommy life. Boo.

Last week Annalee came running down the driveway after checking the mail. She had received a letter in the mail and was so excited to find out that she was going to get to be in a Christmas parade with her AWANA group from church. How exciting.... right! I mean, I have never been in a Christmas parade before!

Her excitement grew and I keep the date IN MY HEAD for Sunday.... she needed to be there at 1:30 and the parade began at 3:00. I even called my sister-in-law to see if she and her little boy would like to go!

Any hew...... Saturday I got up early and was at Walmart shopping by 7:00. I was so proud of myself.... so organized.... I usually have not begun shopping this early in Dec. That afternoon Dean worked on his 4runner after this incident.... and me and the kids, and the sister-in-law and her son hung around my mother-in-laws house with Dean while he worked.... bored....nothing really to do.

So,,,, fast forward to Sunday morning. I get up with my mind filled with all we needed to do, and take for the parade. Blankets, chairs, camera, Annalee needed her earmuffs, jacket, gloves and ... was her AWANA shirt clean? Oh no.... ahhh yes, it is actually hanging in her closet ready to go! The morning progresses in its usual Sunday morning joy..... we get in the van and actually make it to church on time. I tell Annalee that I will find out where we need to meet for the parade. She is soooooo excited.

Meanwhile, Dean, Josh and I are in the service (Annalee is in Children's Church) and the preacher is preaching a wonderful sermon. He is preaching on reaching others for Christ when we heard something on these lines....." You have to go to where the people are.... like yesterday.... I walked in the Bolingbroke parade. The AWANA kids were on their float, throwing candy.." .......ahhhhh excuse me.... what did he just say????? The AWANA kids were what?? Yesterday???? Dean immediately looked at me.... Josh had no clue.... he ,sadly, doesn't pay attention to the sermons.... I about dropped my Bible..... The parade what,,, it's what,...not today? THE PARADE WAS NOT SUNDAY , IT WAS SATURDAY!!!!! Keep in mind from above,,,, we were at my MILs bored,,, nothing to do,,, while the PARADE was going on! Boo. Boo. Boo. Immediately I thought of Annalee.... how was I going to handle my broken hearted daughter??? And to top it all off..... it was 100% MY FAULT!!!

I went to pick her up from Children's Church and when I saw the look on her face.... I knew that she already knew. Her Momma let her down :( Boo.

I told her that I was soooo sorry and that it was completely my fault. She was bummed but said it was okay. Really it wasn't. I clearly dropped the ball. I am the Momma, it is my job to keep up with things. This was the first time I have messed something like this up for her. Dean was so sweet in trying not to make me feel like a dog. But like I told him ... this was important to her.... I just hate it.

She got over it quickly when we let her pick where she wanted to eat for lunch. She kept telling me it was okay. But from here on out the subject of "parades" will truly have new meaning here at the Scarbary house! And you better believe, Momma will be more careful :/

Boo.

Lookie, Lookie

Look what was in my mailbox today~

My FREE Christmas Cards! I ordered them from Photoworks.com on Monday and got them today. What a great surprise..... and I love them :) You can't beat free.... free Christmas Cards and free shipping! Now all I have to do is address them ~ the fun begins!

"Twelve Days of Christmas"

I have been getting great emails about Christmas that I just have to pass along. I received this one today and just had to post it. When I hear this song this season, it will have a whole new meaning. Hope you enjoy!

The hidden meaning for the song “Twelve Days of Christmas”
Many believe the words are hidden references to our Christian faith, dating back to the 16th century England when religious wars forced many believers to go underground with their faith and teachings.

The song was a memory device to teach catechism to young children. “True Love” refers to God and each of the days represents an aspect of the Christian faith.

A partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, who died on a tree.
Two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testaments.
Three French hens signify faith, hope and love.
Four calling birds refer to the four Gospels.
Five golden rings point to the first 5 books of the Bible. The “Books of Moses”.
Six geese a-laying symbolize the six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming illustrate the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Eight maids a-milking represent the eight beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing signify the nine fruits of the spirit.
Ten lords a-leaping refer to the Ten Commandments.
Eleven pipers piping symbolize the eleven faithful disciples.
Twelve drummers drumming represent the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.

So next time you sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, remember this meaning of the song!

Phone calls from Santa !

I received this in my email and thought it would be so cute for the right age kids. You can visit the Kroger website here to sign up to receive a free phone call from Santa, Sammy the Snow Man or Tony Stewart. (my kids would pass on Tony~ nothing personal) I think it would be so cool to get a call from Santa! I am going to set mine up now!

Merry Christmas!

I love Candy Canes!

There are so many things about Christmas that I love! One of favorites is the Candy Cane. I love to put Candy canes on the kids Christmas tree, put them in hot chocolate, add them to almond bark, and just eat them by themselves. One of my favorite flavors is the Mint Chocolate candy canes. I LOVE those.

I came across the Legend of the Candy cane story here and wanted to pass it along. After all the real reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus' birth!

I got mine!!!!

Okay, hold on to your seats..... this is my 3rd post today !!! ???

I just ordered some cute, FREE Christmas cards! Yipee, Yahoo!!! Hopefully some more free deals will pop up soon. If your interested go here to visit STL Mommy for more information. Hurry, offer only available for the first 20,000!

My Wonderful Parents

Today is my parents anniversary!

Alaska 2007

Here's to you Momma and Daddy.... God blessed me beyond measure when he gave me to you!!!! I love you both with all my heart and do not know where I would be with out your love and support over the many years!! May God bless you both on your sweet day!

December 1st?

I am sitting here typing this post in amazement that it is December 1st. Where has the time gone. I can remember starting school, it seems literally like yesterday. Really, my life the past three years have felt like this. Dean came home yesterday with some paperwork from work that had his start date on it. It said "06. I cannot believe that he has been at that job since '06. That seems like so long ago!!! The past 3 years have not been pleasant ones for us so I imagine that is why it feels like forever!

Anyway, I said all that to say this, With today being Dec. 1st. I plan on taking each day of December and enjoying it!! It can be in the little things or in the planned things. The kids and I have been watching the Abc's 25 days of Christmas. It has really been fun! There have been a few shows that have to throw "something" in. Why do they feel they have to do that.... is it to keep parents on their toes? We fix hot chocolate and roast marshmallows while we watch the movies. Last night Annalee got out her sleeping bag and laid in front of the fire. What fun memories!

Hot chocolate, Christmas music, Christmas trees, Christmas movies, looking at Christmas lights, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, making ginger bread houses and cookies...... what Christmas traditions are you planning with your kids. I would love some new ideas! I will plan on posting on some on ours as the month trucks on. Hold on, its going to bo by FAST! Enjoy every minute!

Christmas 2007

Happy December 1st! I hope that you feel the love of Jesus throughout this Christmas Season!

Wonderful Beginning

Well, I am sorry to report that the beginning of our Christmas season has started off rough. Annalee and I are both sick with fever, cough and runny noses. It hasn't put me in the bed yet but it is sure not much fun. Mommas aren't allowed sick leave, right? Annalee started the day after Thanksgiving and passed it right on to me. Hopefully, Dean and Josh will stay well.

We did get all of our decorating done yesterday. I would love to show you pictures, but .....no camera :( It was fun decorating this year, Annalee was a big help. Each year we buy a Frasier Fir to decorate. I love the way they smell! I am in the market for an artificial tree to put in our bedroom. My Aunt gave me some beautiful White House ornaments that I would love to put out this year. Have you priced artificial trees lately?.....not cheap. I am keeping my eyes open for a deal, hopefully I can find one before Christmas so we can enjoy it this year.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a quiet, restful one with my parents in Fla. The weather was wonderful!

Have a wonderful week..... Happy December, tomorrow!

Some people make me SAD :(

I don't understand some people.... I have had to put up word verification and take off anonymous comments due to some ugly people.... enough said :)

I have been asked to explain my Wordless Wednesday picture and I will be more than happy to oblige!

The picture is of my sweet baby girl at her 6th Birthday party. We had her party at a gymnastics studio. She is in the "foam pit" were the girls fall after doing certain stunts. Annalee loved it, she would run at full speed and jump in! She had so much fun with her friends that day.

So there you have it.... I would love to know where you thought she was!!

Have a wonderful, safe Thursday!!!

Only 8 more days until Thanksgiving! Gobble , Gobble

Wordless Wednesday

The story behind "Oh Dear"~ Dean vs. Deer

Remember this picture from last week? Were here goes the story..

First, to really appreciate this story I have to fill you in on another story. My husband and his brother were rear ended by a drunk driver about a month earlier. It was about 6:00 a.m. and they were stopped to turn right when they heard squealing tires, then POW! The guy gets out and checks on things and immediately my husband could tell that he was beyond drunk. The guy proceeds to get back in his car, front end completely smashed, and drive off...leaving my husband and brother-in-law. Thankfully, my husband's other brother was in front of them in his truck and took off following the guy. The guy ditched the car, with a beer can in the cup holder and took off. The police did come and impound the car with all the good ole evidence. They did eventually find the guy! :)

Thankfully, my hubby and brother-in-law were not hurt. The ambulance was called and they did go to get checked out. My brother-in-law's truck no longer has a bumper, it is folded under the truck. Now he is stuck with getting the truck fixed and we are having fun getting all these bills in the mail from the accident.... joy!

So, now we are ready for the story behind this.........

On Friday mornings I have a leaders meeting for a Bible study that I am doing. As I was leaving this one particular morning, I looked at my phone and notice 4 missed calls from a strange number. I called it back and the following is the conversation I had......

Man: "Hello"

Me: "Hi, I had this number on my phone...??"

Man: "Yes, Is this Dean Scarbary's wife?"

(Okay,,,,, keep in mind this is 7:00 a.m., I had been in up since 3:45 a.m. and I have no idea who this person is... my heart dropped.... I thought it was the sheriff telling me my husband had been taken to the hospital...)

Me: "Ahhhh, yes it is."

Man: "Ah, Mam, your husband has been in a little accident." (my heart drops) "He hit a deer on the way to work." ( WHAT? Now keep in mind I still do not know who this is or what is really going on at this point... all I heard was, "he has been in a little accident"? DEER? Now comes the really crazy part.) "It sure was a big en... I told him I have waited my whole life to kill one that big ... He should mount it!" (on and on and on and on about how big the deer is and all the details of it. Please don't get me wrong... I am very grateful to this nice man for helping my husband out. He was very kind to help him track the poor wounded deer and get everything back to our house.... not many people are willing to help others out anymore! In the nice man's defense,,,, it really was a BIG Buck! )

Me: "Ahh sir, sir, Is my husband alright?"

Man: "OH, yes mam, he is fine."

Me: "okay, is his 4runner alright?"

Man: "well, it is drive able. I helped him get the truck and the deer back to the house." (He continues to tell me how big the buck was and all that..... He obviously was excited about seeing that big buck!)

Me: "Well, thank you for helping him. I really appreciate it."

~End of conversation with nice, overly excited about the deer man that helped my husband!

When I got home, there was my husband waiting outside for me in his nice work clothes (with blood on them) with a beat up 4runner and a BIG dead deer! He looked absolutely pitiful! The kids were amazed! They both said "Whoa"! Just because we were curious, we took the 4runner to the body shop for an estimate and the whopping total was $4800. Dean is going to get some parts on line for about $500 and fix it himself. I told him that was enough wrecks to last a life time....no more please! We have been teasing him because, he hasn't gotten a big deer like that ever... we told him the only way he can get big deer is with a vehicle! He loves it! I am so very grateful to God that my husband was alright after both accidents and that the 4runner is still drive able! We were blessed in so many ways with both accidents. GOD IS truly GOOD all the time!

I won't post the pictures of the deer unless you want to see them.... the only ones I have have a little blood in them and I don't want to make anyone loose their cookies.... So, If you want to see them let me know and I will post them.... :)

So, there you have the story of Dean vs Deer. Unfortunately, they both lost!!! :(

Have a great Tuesday!!!!

YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...... thanks to my new friend SAHMinIL ,her blog can be found here , the mystery of my disappearing background has been solved!!!!! She left a comment giving a wise suggestion. I went back to were I got the background and viola!!!! There was a message telling what to do if your background was not showing up!!! Thank goodness!!!! All along I thought it was me.
It was so strange to post something and not be able to see it for myself! Ahhh, I feel so much better now!!!

Soon I will let you in on the story of my Wordless Wednesday picture... it's a dozy!

By the way.... I did get my computer back and so far so good!!!

Confusion

Okay,,, help or advice.... all the sudden I can't see the background layout or the words on my blog post. I can only see the pictures. Has anyone had this happen? I am at a loss!

Oh Deer! :(

Life

Another quick post on the woes of life!!!!! Now my computer has crashed and is at the doctor! Can you believe it!!!??? I am currently using a 10 year old tower we have and it is sooooooooo slow!!!!! Thankfully, we do have it and can still access my daughters school material. When I took the computer in, they told me it would be from 1-7 days...to the tune of $130! It has been 5! Hopefully they will call soon!

Hope this finds everyone well and happy! Can you believe we are 3 weeks away from Thanksgiving? Were does the time go.

Hopefully I will be back soon with my "new" computer!!!

Ho Hum

It is so hard for me to believe that it has been a whole month since my last post. School has really taken its toll on me this year, along with other things. Life has a funny way of doing that. :)

I probably no longer have readers... and if by chance you are reading this... thank you for checking in! I still try to keep up with my old blog friends and enjoy reading about what they are up to. There is not much going on here but school, church and life.

My camera broke a month ago and it is just not the same! Not having a camera is like taking one of my arms away. I love to take pictures, esp. of my kids. Unfortunately, a new camera is no where in the near future! Poor pitiful me! What will I do at Christmas?

I hope yall have a fun and happy fall season!

Can you believe it is almost Halloween?!

Happy Fall, Yall !!!

This picture was taken 3 years ago in Tenn. at the pumpkin patch that the kids get their pumpkin at each Fall. Every fall we make a trip to see my parents and then load up to go pumpkin huntin'. It is so much fun and has been a tradition since the kids were babies. They love looking around at all the pumpkins... even now at the ages of 14 and 10! To bad this year we will not be able to make the trip.... guess the farmers market will have to do !!! :(

Hope you have a wonderful 1st day of Fall!

Wordless Wednesday

Exciting, busy, weekend

What a busy weekend at the Scarbary house! Josh and Annalee were baptized yesterday! My parents came on Thursday afternoon and left this morning and we had a great weekend of visiting family and making memories! Several of our family members came to the kids baptism yesterday and made the day even more special! I thank God that both of my children are now saved! Annalee
Josh

Annalee and Josh with Bro. Jimmy

The whole gang

Annalee and Josh with Gmomma, Gdaddy, MawMaw and Grandaddy

The Scarbarys

Hope you had a great weekend!

Better Days!

R.I.P. "Johnny Deer" 1993-2009

First week

Monday was our first day of the 2009-2010 school year and I have to say that it has started off so much better that I thought it would. Both kids have worked so hard at staying on task and getting the work done without much whining! I can only hope and pray that the rest of the year will go this smooth!

I tried to get pictures of our first day but my camera battery was dead. I will try a post some later!

Happy Wednesday!

Finally Home!

The Scarbary family has some wonderful news to share...... After 2 and a half years of wandering the desert..... We have finally found a church home! We joined Bethany Baptist Church yesterday morning. We went down with the kids and they made their statement of faith and will be baptized next Sunday morning. We were very excited to finally have a church to call our home. Everyone at the church were so sweet and welcomed us with so much love!

After church I met up with my sister-in-law and went to discuss rehearsal dinner details. My nephew is getting married next month and she has asked me to help with the decorations. We have all the seating arrangements on paper and I think we are good to go. It is going to be so pretty!

We start school today~ translation.... Annalee is happy,Josh is not! Hopefully our day with go smooth!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday~ Why I am a SAHM

WONDERFUL NEWS TO SHARE~ Jesus loves the little children

This is a long post but worth reading.... thanks if you choose to do so, you will be blessed!!!!

My family moved to our current home two and a half years ago. We left SC and moved back to Ga for my husbands job. We were not thrilled to move back but put our trust in God that he had a reason. These last two and a half years have been the hardest years of my life. We were miserable, we missed our friends, old neighborhood, church and just the old town itself. We had lived there for 16 years and had our babies there. There was a lot of good memories made there.

We were very involved in our church in our old town and loved it so much. Finding a church home has been the hardest thing to do since moving. To be fair, up until recently, we have not really given it a fair chance. We visited a few churches but never felt "welcome". We knew we should be in Church but never tried that hard.

Recently, things have been getting progressively worse in our family as a whole. We could tell that the kids attitudes and our attitudes where changing....not for the better. We knew what we needed to do but had no idea what church to visit. We had hear about a little church called Bethany Baptist Church but it was about 20 minutes from our home. Our old church was 2 minutes from our home so we were spoiled. My husband has a friend that lives near Bethany and decided to call to see if that is where his family goes and sure enough it was. We met his friend the next Sunday at church. From the moment I walked into that church, I could feel the presence of God. It was amazing. And...... people were actually glad we were there! We had so many come up to us and welcome us and invite us back. We have been going for a month now and even go on Wednesday night. It is awesome!

Last night the preacher and youth director came by for a visit. It was a wonderful visit! My kids had asked Jesus into their heart several years ago but when the preacher asked them both it they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if they died tonight that they would go to heaven~ they both said " NO, sir" . He told them both to sit next to him and he began to share with them how they could know. It was the sweetest, most beautiful thing I had ever seen.... besides them being born....but know they were being born again! To see my babies sitting with that preacher on our sofa talking with them about Jesus. Priceless!

My husband and I both were a blubbering mess.... the preacher and the youth minister were the sweetest things. They have such compassion and love for people. We were a changed family when the left!

This Sunday, my kids are going to go down in front of the church and will be baptised in a few weeks. My husband and I are going down with them and are going to going the church as a family. I could hardly sleep last night! Praise God! We have found a church home and most importantly, my children have accepted the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ!!!!

MckLinky Blog Hop~ Favorite Picture

Today's Blog Hop is show us you Favorite Picture. I have so many that it was hard to choose! I decided to go with the pictures of the kids when they were babies. These are the best memories of my life!!!