26 Days Until Christmas

Thanksgiving is behind us. The turkey has been picked clean, the left-overs are about gone.
Now the rush of Christmas is upon us. Only 26 days until Christmas. Can you beleive it? It feels so unreal to me right now! Didn't we just celebrate Christmas about 6-7 months ago?!

I have writter's block right now, so I will just leave you with Jingle Bell's Christmas 2008 photo! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Lord, so often times, as any other day,
When we sit down to our meal and pray,

We hurry along and make fast the blessing.
Thanks, amen. Now please pass the dressing.

We're slaves to the olfactory overload,
We must rush our prayer before the food gets cold.

But Lord, I'd like to take a few minute more,
To really give thanks to what I'm thankful for.

For my family, my health, a nice soft bed,
My friends, my freedom, a roof over my head.

I'm thankful right now to be surrounded by those,
Whose lives touch me more than they'll ever possibly know.

Thankful Lord, that You've blessed me beyond measure.
Thankful that in my heart lives life's greatest treasure.

That You, dear Jesus, reside in that place,
And I'm ever so grateful for Your unending grace.

So please, heavenly Father, bless this food You've provided.
And bless each and every person invited.












This Thanksgiving, I give thanks for my health and well-being.
For my loving husband, and each and every member of my family.
I am thankful for living in the USA, where I am free to voice my thanks freely.
I thank every military man and woman who serve so that my family may be safe.
I'm thankful for the roof over my head, the clothes upon my back, and the bountiful food upon my table.
I am thankful for the ability to go out and work, and make an honest salary.

I pray today for those family members who are no longer with us. But, I know in my heart that they are each one looking down from heaven, and themselves enjoying a bountiful feast Our Lord has set in front of them.

I pray for our military who are out in the dessert, fighting for our freedom. And I pray for their safe return home.

I pray for family and friends who I could not spend the holiday with today. But I pray that the Lord above will watch over each and every one of them, and keep them all safe and sound.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. I hope your day was as wonderful as mine was.

Take care, and God Bless.

Can I Fuss For Just One Minute?

So, Judy and I went shopping today, like we do just about every Saturday. We made a trip to Oglethorpe Mall, because, let's face it, aside from the mall, there's not a whole lot of shopping going on here in Savannah.
I wanted to go down to Macy's to look for a new purse I had my eyes on. Outside of Macy's, what did we see?
SANTA CLAUS!
Excuse me, but since when does Santa come before Thanksgiving? In the Macy's parade, Santa makes his appearance at the end of the parade. Not 2 weeks before Thanksgiving! Give me a break. It's bad enough that the stores go from Halloween straight to Christmas. It's like Thanksgiving doesn't even exist! And now, we have Santa here in town ALREADY!
Next year, he'll probably be here in October!
I actually thought about having my picture taken with Santa, to give to John. But, come one....it's November! And I refuse to think about telling Santa what I want so soon!
ok.....fussing over. I return you to your normally scheduled programing.
Have a great weekend....well what's left of it!

MEOW WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We won first prize!
Thank you soooo much to everyone who voted for us in the Howl-O-Ween photo contest! I can't believe we won! Lots of kitty treats for my Jingle Bells!
I am a proud momma today.
Thanks again!

House Progress

Who wants to see pictures of the progress on the little house?

NOBODY?!
Too bad.....so sad.....I'm posting them anyways!

HA HA HA!

So, the floors were done last week. They sanded them, and applied polyurethane. And they are GORGEOUS! I am sooo jealous of the floors! I'm ready for John to tear all the carpet out of our house, and install hardwood floors! I think we are going to start with the stairs, and the loft, and see how it goes from there.
But, I was posting about the progress on the little house, get your brain back on track!

Ok, first photo. This is a shot of the "office". On the original house this was actually the porch. Then, in a remodel some previous owner closed it in to make a room. It started out to be a shop for a beautician who lived there. But, I don't understand that, because there's no water supply in the room! How do you have a beautician's office with no water? Yea, it didn't make sense to me either! If you look close, the corners were still the concrete corners from the porch! That was interesting figuring out how to disguise those! I think my baby did a great job of that! The floor was some nasty carpet that he ripped out, and replaced with commercial grade carpeting. We are calling this an office. It's a tiny space. I guess you could use it as a nursery, but it would make a great office/computer room.



I know, the pictures are tiny, but you guys told me the big pictures were too big, so the other option is tiny little photos. [pout] So, click on them, and you can see them bigger.

The office has turned into one of my favorite rooms of the house. Especially the french door that leads to it.

The next room is the laundry room.

Oh my God, this room was a MESS! Check out the nasty paint job! The previous owner attempted to faux finish it! Friends.....don't let friends faux paint! Notice the big hole in the wall where the water connection is? Yep, big ole hole! Sad, huh? More like pitiful!

What a transformation, huh?



New fluorescent light, patched hole in the wall. Fresh coat of pretty paint. And ripped out the nasty linoleum floor and replaced with ceramic tiles laid on the diagonal.


And now the Master Bedroom. Again, check out the paint job! There must have been a sale at Lowes on crappy paint color the day she went shopping for paint! It was no lie the color of baby kaka! SO GROSS!



New energy efficient windows, new paint job, new ceiling fan, new closet door, and can you see those floors?! You can check your make-up in the shine on the floors!

And lastly, no fancy "before and after" shot, just a view as you enter the house. The beautiful floors, new light fixture and ceiling fan. The living room is in the foreground, to the right, the office, dining room on the other side of the half walls, then through the door to the kitchen. Bedrooms are off to the left.



The big work is done over there. John still has some fine details to complete, including finishing some landscaping up in the front of the house. But, we're actually starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Now, stroke John's ego, and tell him what a wonderful job he has done on the house. Who knew that nasty place could turn out so cute? We're not totally done, but I'm ready for our next flip!

So, who wants to rent out a vacation home in Savannah GA?
Or, who wants to buy a cute 2 bedroom house?
Give us a call....we can set you up!

Thanks for looking!

4's

My friend Carol sent this to me, so I am passing along to everyone on my blog.
If you want to respond, just add it in the comments.
I'd love to hear how everyone answers the questions!

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
Work
Walmart
The Mall
The internet (no particular order, obviously!)

B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
Carol
Deb Evans
My brother (lately)
Lee Ann when she's not too busy

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
Long Horn Steak House
Pearl's Saltwater Grill
Love's Seafood
Olive Garden

D) Four places I would rather be right now:
Driving my car in the mountains to see the leaves
On a warm, sunny beach
Sitting in front of a roaring fireplace in a ski lodge with John
San Diego zoo, photographing the Pandas

E) Four people I think will respond:
Deb Evans
Lee
Carol
Deb

F) Four TV shows I watch:
Ghost Whisperer
How I Met Your Mother
NCIS
Criminal Minds

We Are Desperate For Votes!

The Howl-O-Ween dress up contest that Jingles is entered in has less than 1 week left of the voting. We have been at the top of the list since we entered. Spent a bunch of days at number 1. Now today, somehow we have slipped down to number 26 out of 28 photos! I just will not stand for that! My baby is so much cuter than those other pets!
PLEASE we beg of all of you. If you haven't voted yet, would you please vote for us? Pretty please? I'll get down on my hands and knees and grovel if I have to! I am desperate! I want to win!
You do have to register with Gadzoo. But, it only takes a second. Give them your name, your email address and a password. Then, they send you an email, click on the link to confirm, and return to the site to vote. You HAVE to give us a "5 paws" score for it to work in our advantage. Then, if you vote everyone else a "1 paw" rating, it drops their ranking and moves us up higher!
So, ask your friends and family to vote. We need some more votes. I don't want to come in last! Isn't he cuter than last place?! You can vote multiple times, if you have multiple email accounts.
So vote for us.....PLEASE?!


Thanks

Howl-o-ween Pets

Jingle Bells needs your help in the Howl-o-ween Pets photo contest.  Vote Now!

Pets Name

Jingle Bells

Submitted By

Penny S.

Smaller Images

So, John told me that my pictures on here were too big, the side was cut off of them. I told him he was kookoo, it was because he has his fonts set larger. the images looked great on my 17" wide screen laptop.
Today, I was on my regular laptop, and pulled up the blog. Then I noticed with my own eyes that indeed the images were cut off on the right side. Even if I slid the slider to the right, part of the pictures were missing.
So, I changed my settings, and went back to the smaller images.
As always, you can click onto the smaller images, and view them much larger.
Thanks for voting about the size of the images. Guess it wasn't just my husband having problems. You know me, I aim to please.
Have a great evening!
Penny

More Pictures!

ok, I have more pictures from yesterday's trip to the zoo. After looking at all of them, I found that I spent an awful lot of time at the lion exhibit! But, those cubs were just too darn cute! Typically, when you go to the zoo, the animals are hot, and tired, and they are asleep. It's so hard to get good pictures. So, when you have these 6 active cubs running around, chasing each other, biting tails, it's just too darn cute to let get by. I have many more lion pictures, so if you want to see more, just let me know, I will gladly post some more! John liked the picture of the 3 together, it made him say "Aww...." :-)
Hope you enjoy!
Penny

Caution! Zoo porn in the next photo! Cover eyes of young children! You've been warned!

Don't ya just love animals in nature? They haven't a care in the world. I was walking through the zoo, and heard a small boy, couldn't have been more than 5 years old, told his momma "I know what sound the turtle makes....he goes ugh...ugh....ugh.." I ignored it, you know small kids. So, I come around a corner, and lookey what I saw! And indeed the one on top was saying "ugh...ugh...." Too funny! At least none of the monkeys were playing with themselves, or throwing their poo at people! Monkeys are gross!



I've been to this zoo mulitple times, and can never get close enough to the zebras. Here are the zebras dining on their dinner.



This guy I have titled The Thinker. Doesn't he look deep in thought? Like he's worried to death about something. Like will he have enough bananas to last him until morning? Is his girlfriend being faithful to him, she's such a hussy, over there hanging out with the other monkeys. Or,.....who can I throw my poo at today?! LOL!



Gotta love the cuddly koalas! Another animal that I would love to bring home with me. They just look like a big ole teddy bear!



We have lots of pink flamingos at all of the zoos and parks in the south. Love their pink plumage, hate their smell! They smell like urine! It's a wonder their feathers aren't yellow! I got a little creative on this one, trying to highlight those beautiful plumes.



And the elephants. Hard to get a good elephant picture. Their size number one. And they just don't pose too well for me! I love the long eyelashes. Wish I had long lashes like the elephants!



Can't forget the grizzly bear. Look at the claws on this thing! He could rip some major damage into flesh with those things! Aside from the claws, looks cute and cuddly, right?



Hope you all enjoyed my trip to the zoo through my pictures. I have some more on another camera I have to sort through. So, you might have to bear with me while I drag out a few more.

I think I have some shots that would make a great calandar. Because of that, I decided to put my name on the pictures. Sorry about that. You know, people on the internet love to steal photos, and post them as their own work. So, I decided to put my name on them. Slows people down when it comes to stealing. If I know you....and like you....and you'd like one of the original photos, just drop me an email, I'll gladly share with you.

Guess Where I Went Today?

I honestly wanted to go to Helen Georgia to see some fall foliage. But, between travel time, $$, and the fact that there's a lot of work around here to get done, it just wasn't feasible to get away. Plus, we would have had to leave Meow at home.
So, John worked in the yards, and I went to the zoo!
I LOVE going to the zoo!
And they had 6 baby lions! I stood at the lion exhibit a LONG time! And I have a ton of photos to prove it! Here's one of my favorites.



Isn't he precious? I wanted to stick one in my camera bag and bring them home to Meow. They would have gotten along ok. He would love to have someone to play with!
Ya don't think so?
Oh well........
More photos later, after I get a chance to play with them.