THE THREE STOOGES & I'M GRATEFUL for THEM

Roderick is my oldest Son/baby and he just turned 24 yrs old today - yes, this is a very current pic of him.  He can so easily pass for younger, they even ask for his ID at the pool (have to be 18 or older without an adult)  Not sure as to what we're going to do for him but I'm sure we'll think of something, lol.  I'm sure he will stop by sometime today to collect and back home he will go.

This is my middle Son/baby - Patrick turned 18 on Nov. 14 - YES!  We let him and 5 friends go out on the town in Tampa by Limo.  They had the time of their life and were very responsible (that made me proud).  Patrick decided that he didnt want a cake but want to wait for "Thanksgiving" for me to bake him 2 Sweet Potato Pies all for his lonesome - wow, now I have to make 4 instead of 2 pies but it's all good, lol.

My neice/daughter - Kiahesia turned 14 on Nov. 3, she havent had her full Birthday Celebration as of yet.  She's waiting until the weekend after Thanksgiving and then I will be taking her on a shopping Spree!  She want catch some of the after Thanksgiving sales - boy she's reminding me of myself everyday, lol.  And she want to hit the "THRIFT STORES" also, now she's steppin on my my turf - back up girlie.

Anyways, this is my NOVEMBER every year, 3 birthdays to celebrate but I am so grateful to God for allowing them to see another year.  He has also allowed me to see two of my sons become adults, my neice to become a teenage and my baby a pre-teen and I'm looking to see many more.  God has truly shown His Grace and Mercy towards my family and has shown me favor to witness it! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS & GAL!!!

I Almost Forgot

This is the grandbaby, he's getting so big.  His mom got his hair cut and he's just as adorable as can be.  He's walking really well and talking up a storm.  GRAMMY LOVE HER BABY!

HI, MY NAME IS JADEN

This is a picture of my newest "Great Nephew", he's a few days old here. 

What I've been up to Lately

First of all I'm thankful to God for all the blessings that He bestows upon me and my family, even in lack I realize how tremendously blessed we are!  God is just so awesome and is due our right now praise.  I had a life lesson today, had to counsel one of our teen girls from the church and as I talked, I realized that although chastisement must come (for acts of disobedience) it was with Love and Kindness that God drew us and this same act must be put in action when it comes to our youth today.  Chastisement mingled with Love and Kindness is a sure, sure, win.  I'm where Im at today because of this very same mixture.  I realized that as parents there are times we can be overly harsh and instead of drawing our youth closer, we're actually pushing them further away.  FATHER FOR THIS I AM THANKFUL!

Ok, now that I've got this off of my chest, I've been up to sooooo much, trying to complete our Christmas Production along with working and fine tuning our 2010 Calendar of events - there is much work to do on few people when it comes to "Small Churches/Congregations" but I'm not complaining, it's all good.  We have a major cleanup day at the Church on Saturday, I cant wait and hopefully "all hands will be on deck" we have a saying around HOGIOM, "Many Hands Make Light Work" and I stand on this 100%, so far I've had good response as to who will attend to help with the clean-up and clean-out.

The kids and I have been having soooo much fun with our "WEATHER" Lesson Plan, we've learned so much, we recently completely a lesson on "Back Yard Birds" and it was totally hilarious when it came to the project part of the lesson, they had to make a "Bird Feeder", they did not want to spend money (or was lazy about going shopping for the items) so they found items from around the house - it wasnt all that appealing but hey, the birds love it and what works for them works for me.  I guess I will leave off here, I have a couple of projects to work on by the morn.  I will update again soon, tootles!

Our Family HOMESCHOOL BLOG!

The kids and I started a "Family HS Blog", this is where we will post our HS Experiences along with other stuff, what that stuff will be I couldnt tell you, lol.  We've started blogging already and they seem pretty excited about it NOW but we will see what happens.  I will have them blog once a week unless they feel the urge to blog something extra.  They will be receiving a grade for each post, so I'm thinking they will stay current on this, lol.  Anyways, in your spare time, check it out!  Click on the link below.

Alphabet Soup For Mind and Soul

My Ramblings

Wow, time flies when you're having fun! I didn't realize that it's been so long since I last blogged. Well, I'm going to try and update in the shortest version that I can think of, lol. The grandson (Ladarian) turned one on October 12, yeah! He's walking really well and loving every minute of it. We had his Birthday Party Sunday Oct. 11 after our Sunday Service, we had soooo much fun, especially how he spread cake frosting all over his and his daddy's face, that was hilarious, I guess he was trying to feed daddy some of his cake. Sunday October 18, we had our "Family and Friends Service", we had a enormous turnout and the Worship was totally phenomenol, it was an "ONLY GOD" kind of Service, His presence was definitely in the building. The people was truly BLESSED by the ALMIGHTY GOD! We had a eating after Service and that went well also, enough food to feed everyone along with plates being taken home - God always does over and above what our puney little minds can comprehend.


This Sunday was more of a down-low type of Service, but a blessed one just the same. A calm Spirit was in the house on yesterday. I'm thankful to God because some of our "Family and Friends" visitors came to Service on yesterday - yippee! This is indeed a good sign, and they said that they would be back, God is known to cause this type of effect. We also had a first time visitor that came to be in Worship Service until it was time for her to go to work - she works at a Medical Facility across from the church, I'm looking for her to pop in more often also. After service I was able to come home and braid my god-daughters hair, while the hubby cooked Dinner (Fish, shrimp and tators) afterwards I had to take Josh to his baseball practice - still not sure how I got stuck doing this, Patrick normally takes him. I had to sit out there from 4 to 6 in the heat, hope I dont have to do that again, lol.

I wrapped up my night by watching re-runs of CSI Miami and Cold Case as I finished getting the kids school work ready for the week. I have a lot of Ministry and personal work to catch up on so I will be blogging you later! HAVE A BLESSED DAY IN THE LORD!

(P.S. My blog has updated to the new version for posting and I cant find the spell check button - I TOTALLY relied on that button, so if there are some misspelled words, just look over them, lol.)

An Awesome Weekend

Wow, I had the best weekend ever! It actually started on Thursday Evening with a surprise Birthday Dinner with the hubby and kids but what made it so special was Patrick rented a Limo - it was totally awesome, I was soooooooo excited! (Can you tell? lol). We went to the International Mall located in Tampa - I love that mall it's just that we don't get over to Tampa that often as a family. It was really nice and the kids had the time of their life. The plans were to have Dinner at The Cheese Cake Factory but the kids and I wanted Pizza instead (go figure), yep you heard me correctly, I had been craving pizza all day and so we voted and the kids and I won so we ate at the Food Court inside the mall and it was delicious. Patrick and Joshua had Chinese, Kiahesia, Patrick Jr and I had Pizza. We did a little shopping but the highlight of being at the mall was stopping in a book store. I've been wanting to read "The Shack" by WM. Paul Young and I had been on the waiting list at the library for 3 months, never thought to just go out and purchase my own but NOW I HAVE IT and I can read it as much as possible. This was one of the best birthday presents being that I love books, I hear this is a winner, I will share as I begin to read. After our rendezvous I came home to a beautiful birthday cake, balloons and money from the ladies at the church - all pink I might add. Ended my night by eating a slice of cake and finishing up The Mentalist.

Friday was good also, I ended up with the grand baby so we went and did a little birthday shopping for him, I cant believe he will be a year old on October 12th, boy how time flies! So far his dad bought him a Elmo airplane ride/car, I have him a little drum and a boom box (he loves music, just like his dad). We will finish up his bday shopping this week with a few outfits, shoes and a book, oh yeah he love books - that's my boy! I'm thinking about making his cake, he loves Elmo and I found a pretty simple recipe for an Elmo cake, we'll see how time permits and if not his dad will just be buying him one. I usually make all of my kids bday cakes and this will be a new tradition with the grand as well. I got a chance to sit with my mom-in-law and sis-in-law for a little and then off to take Joshua's Baseball Team Pictures - it was soooo hot but it was exciting seeing the excitement from all of the teams as they took pictures, and being that I still had the grand baby, it was funny watching him react to all the people, especially the children.

Saturday was also a blessed day! The kids and I finished our chores early, I ran household errands and then I had the rest of the day to relax - this is a rare happening. I took advantage by working on a blanket that I'm crocheting for myself, it's been about 3 months since I last had time to work on it - it brightened my day to work on it especially since it's "PINK", just about completed, I have a couple of more rounds and then I can put the trimming on it, I cant wait til it's finished. I've been making doll dresses, doilies, blankets and other goodies for years - I LOVE IT, it's sort of a calming process for me, lol. I also LOVE to color, so I actually took the time to color one of those giant coloring pages of a Princess for my god daughter, I will give it to her tomorrow to put on her bedroom wall, she love the whole Princess scenery thing. I was also able to complete some Ministry projects - yeah! Showered and waited for hubby to come home from his night out with the boys, (they went to a baseball game - Tampa Bay Rays against somebody), but unfortunately I was fast asleep when he got home.

Sunday was an off the chain day in the house! Praise and Worship was really good and much needed for this ole gal. I danced until I was literally exhausted but it was worth it. It was my Sunday to speak and the message was: "The Dangers of Anger", It was a really good and much needed word as I have been getting some good feed back from it. There are people that don't realize that anger can cause them to be in an act of disobedience and therefore cost them the promises God. It was an awesome Word to say the least and I needed as well - actually it was to me first. Patrick and I had a Marriage Counseling Session this evening and it went really well, this was the second one and we have two more before we're complete with the couple. There was so much laughter along with insight, there was deliverance in areas just from the laughter. God is awesome ALL by Himself. Afterwards we had supper, I watched CSI Miami and Cold Case weekends, (which were reruns) while Patrick, kiahesia and josh went to get groceries. I also listened to Patrick Jr play his keyboard a little, he's more of homebody like myself.

Well, now everyone is asleep and I just cant sleep for some reason so I'm blogging but will go and give it another try. In my closing, God is Awesome and He only do Awesome things! Sleep tight all and nightie-night!

42 Things I Love

Well, the kids and their math is doing just fine, they just decided to camp out in the bedroom - hey, whatever works. Here's a list of 42 things I love, not that it matters and trust me the list is longer than 42, just going along with the age. Ok, here goes (in no specific order):



1. God
2. Jesus
3. Holy Spirit
4. My HUSBAND
5. My Kids
6. My Grandson
7. Family members
8. Friends
9. HOGIOM Family
10. Oatmeal
11. Chocolate
12. The Color Pink
13. Purses
14. Shoes
15. Spinach
16. Mac-n-Cheese
17. Body Wash
18. Lotions
19. Gospel Music
20. Ministry
21. Books
22. Writing
23. Going to the Library
24. Bath and Body Works
25. Burlington Coat Factory
26. Beall's Outlet
27. Biscuit and Gravy
28. Having Pretty Nails/Hands
29. Blankies
30. Tea - many flavors
31. Fish - Tilapia to be exact
32. Cheese Cake
33. Preaching/Teaching God's Word
34. Meeting Ladies who are strong in the Faith
35. Blogging/Reading Blogs
36. Encouraging
37. Small cute items (doesn't matter as long as it's cute!)
38. Listening to Patrick Jr play his keyboard
39. Children in general
40. Office Supplies (this is weird but true)
41. The Wizard of Oz
42. To be Chauffeured



Ok, there you have it, some of the things I love, thank God I just list 42 otherwise it could take days and a whole lot of blogging.

Today is the BIG Day!

By the Grace of God, I MADE IT! Today is my 42 birthday - hallelujah, thank you Jesus! I am so thankful to God for allowing me to see another birthday, so many have passed away before the age of 42 but God has allowed me to live and for this I am grateful. I have received many birthday greetings thus far, thanks everyone! Still not sure what the b-day will hold, bible study tonight for sure so the celebration will take place at a later date and time.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I hoped to get a new purse, well I did, my older sister bought me one on Sunday and I LOVE IT! It's a black Nine West, I love Nine West and it's also roomy enough for all my goods, lol. By the way Joshua's baseball team (LARGO THUNDER) won Monday night, 10 to 3 - they did such an awesome job, it was worth sitting in the hot sun for a couple of hours. I cant believe they have picture day already, boy they sure don't waste any time - so this Friday that's another thing on my agenda - Team pics at 6pm, as if I don't already have a lot on my plate! Well I better go check on the kids and their Math assignments, they seem to be just a little bit too quiet, lol.

Typical Monday in Suttonsville.......

The kids and I are looking to have some fun in class today - we start our Spanish lessons, lol, this is going to be too funny but thank God for audio lessons to go along with books. We have Spelling and Writing every Monday and now we will add Spanish to the equation. A look at at typical Monday in Suttonsville.......

7:40am - kids up to shower, groom, eat breakfast and gather school supplies
9:00 - everyone in studying area for our first class (Bible Class)
10:00 - Spelling
10:15 - take Mom-in-law to Dialysis, while kids work on spelling in vehicle
10:44 - drop Patrick Jr off to High School for his electives
11:00 - back home to finish up spelling with the kids
12:00pm - lunch/break
12:30 - Writing
1:30 - break
1:50 - pick Patrick up from high school
2:00 - Spanish
3:00 - Josh and Kiahesia are finished - Writing with Patrick
3:30 - pick mom-in-law up from dialysis, while Patrick completes the rest of his assignment(s)
4:00 - start supper

Between 5pm and 10pm - I'm preparing and scheduling for weeks class work, appointments, hubby time, ministry work, quiet time, dinner plans, grand baby time, etc.

In between lessons, I'm usually working on Ministry work and some how I get it all done and this is our SLOW/EASY DAY! GRACE & MERCY!

To top it off, baseball season has started and Joshua's games are on Monday evenings, so the first game of the season is 6pm tonight. I'm looking forward to it and so is he (just as long as it doesn't cut into my CSI Miami time, lol). Kiahesia wants to volunteer at the Public library and since Tuesday is our Library day - I will look into it tomorrow. She's a reflection of me - she love books and can spend hours at a time at the library for no specific reason - hey, this might be good for me also - nay! Well, gotta go before the kids take advantage of me being on the computer - just to mention, we have short days on Friday (tests and reviews only), after we have completed our Monday - we all start cheering for Friday, lol.

Beautiful Weekend

Thanking God for such a beautiful weekend! It started with me having the grand baby on Friday, which is rare and the kids and I enjoyed him as usual. Saturday was a peaceful day for me most of the day. I was able to get my house work completed along with a few other chores, graded lots of papers and even got a little nap in before our SISTERS Dinner Date. The Ladies Ministry met for dinner at "Olive Garden", we had a really nice time and the food was great - I had some sort of Steak and Spinach dish which was out of the ord for me, I'm not too much of a steak lover, it was pretty tasty although I ended up bringing the majority of my meal home to the hubby. I mainly feasted on the salad and rolls, that was enough to suffice me. The ladies and I were reminiscing, boy did we have a hard time containing ourselves - it was some really funny stuff, we were just about to uncover ourselves BUT, we didn't, lol.

After settling in from the dinner date, my older sister and two of her grand daughters came to stay the night - boy was it a long night, we told old stories and laughed until about 11:30pm - I'm still hurting on the inside from laughing so much, lol. Around 12am my sister sent my hubby and kids out for takeout from Denny's and MC Donald's - as if I could really eat another bite, so I just sent for something to drink. We finally were able to shower and hit the sack about 3:15am - I was sooooo sleepy and hyped at the same time so it took me a little while to come down.

We had an awesome time in Service, inspite of myself and a few others dragging a little (no more long nights for this Sister on a Saturday - it will definitely have to be on a Friday). Sunday Morning Bible School was interesting, we're still on "The Exodus" everyone is thoroughly enjoying. Worship and Praise was also refreshing, as usual - I love hearing the youth break out in Worship and Praise! Some old friends came to service also which was a pleasure, it's been a while since we last saw one another. After service my sister and I cooked supper together, ate, worked on a couple projects for the Ministry. While the hubby was at baseball practice with Joshua, we were off to Burlington Coat Factory for a New Purse! That's right my birthday is Wednesday and as I mentioned in my earlier post, I was hoping for a new purse, well I have it - YIPPEE! An early birthday present from the old gal, lol. It's large enough to carry all my needs and my not really needs but wants. I saw a couple of others that I want, a "Nine West" and a XO, time to break open the piggy bank! After Sundays events I was finally able to settle in for the night about 10:30, I don't even remember falling asleep, just waking up this morning - I was more exhausted that I knew.

Loving God Inspite of and not Because of - He don't have to do it but He does! GOD'S LOVE IS BEYOND IMAGINATION! Thankful for a Beautiful Weekend!

It's Raining, It's Pouring - but I'm Not Snoring - Yet!

It is raining, thudering and lightening and I love it, hopefully it will cool off for a few days, we'll see. This is the perfect time for sleeping but I cant sleep because I'm so hyped, why I couldnt tell you but it's all good though. I saw the most beautiful Rainbow - "BEFORE THE RAIN", it was in full color, I should have taken a picture but I didnt, oh well.

Had a good day in spite of a three day migraine, pain is starting to ease up - thank you Father in Jesus name! The kids and I spent the day at the library instead of at the house. I also had the grandson today and boy was he "BUCK WILD" at the library, it's a good thing we were in the baby section or I would have been kicked out of the library - go figure, lol. We found some very interesting items to implement in our lessons, I'm so excited about that. Patrick Jr, tried out for the talent show at his school and made - yippee! He's putting together an original piece on the keyboard along with a female friend who will be singing, cant wait to see the finished product.