Wow, it feels like spring wont get here EVER. Today it was raining and so wet and brrr cold. We were remembering that we were on our honeymoon and one of the days was like this. eyick!

I spent this day doing laundry and working in the house. I read a book and hung out with Steven.

Tonight I finally got around to planting my “starter set” for my little herb garden.

Last year I had a lot of luck with Basil and hot peppers.. my mint never “started” and the cilantro got all burnt up in the sun when they were little babies. Hopefully I will do better this year!

The starter greenhouse is so cute. They are little net bags of peat that expand with warm water. You water them and then open up the bag a little to put 2-3 seeds in and then cover them back up with the peat. Then later after the plants get a little bigger you pick all but the biggest one and plant that in either the ground or a bigger pot. I plan to put them in planters on my screened in porch.

Hopefully I will have enough cilantro and peppers to add with the tomatoes from my Daddy’s garden that I can put up salsa. Basil grows really well and I hope to combine that with onions and tomatoes as well as zuchini and make a tomato sauce to put up.

I am trying mint too.. I would love to make my own mint tea! Wouldnt that make a fun gift?

wowie! I had a lot going on today! Phew. Im afraid I must resort to bullets or I will be totally way to long winded.

* I got a new job! Steven and I hadnt really decided if I was going to look for a job, being that summer is nearly here, but a friend knew that I was unemployed and knew I was only needing to work part time…  She offered IDEAL hours as an assistant manager at our local Shoney’s! My hours are m-f 6-10 am. PERFECT. I can go in.. work hard for a few hours and be done. I am really excited about the idea of being able to make a little extra cash AND be able to hang out with my kids this summer. I will be home from work even before the sun is good for laying out! I am tickled to death with the idea. I can apply my paychecks to FUN stuff soo from now on I will be the early bird getting my worm before most people are even out of bed!

* My Dad was helping my cousin’s little boy rig up a fishing rod today and cut his hand pretty badly. It needed 8 stitches!  He seems to be much better tonight and enjoyed recounting his adventure to us this evening.Thing Two was suitably impressed with is story. It was so cute how she kept patting him and watching his hand so carefully when she climbed on his lap.

*Tonight after Thing Two’s ball practice we went to eat at a local institution Harley Hodges BBQ and Grill. It has been in Dillon for generations. My grandmother used to hang out there when my Dad and his siblings were little nearly 50 years ago. Its a REALLY old house that has been transformed into a restraunt. They have BBQ.. but thier super crispy, greasy southern fried chicken is what people come after. They also serve hand cut fries with the best onion gravy you ever had.. as well as slaw that is super sour and creamy and has celery seed in it.. That stuff is so so good. mm mm.

* I have developed a Diet Coke addiction. I have not really been a real pop addict before now. I love lemonade and iced sweet tea together so I have always tended to drink that.. or water. I have also been of the opinion that if I was gonna have a coke I wanted a COKE. The other day I thought a diet coke sounded good.. and ever since I have been drinking it like crazy. The bad thing is.. when I drank regular coke Id just drink one. With the diet I feel like I dont have limits since its calorie free. All that coke cant be good for me. I wonder what the consequenses of going through a 2 liter a day are?

Welcoming Miss Madelynn Belle to our family! My cousin Tracy and her husband Jay welcomed Maddie to the world Tuesday March 25. She weighed 7 lbs 1.4 oz and was 19 inches long.

Tracy is the closest cousin to my age on my mom’s side, so we pal-ed around a lot.. especially during our Jr High years when we went to the same school. We were youth group buddies as we grew up and I loved her to bits. I have always admired her for her organization.. and for being the person that always did it like you were sopposed to..she seemed to me to be nearly perfect. I, being the one that tends to go against the flow… its a quality that I aspire to! Tracy has such a great  infectious laugh and was so much fun to grow up with. I know she’s going to be a GREAT mom.

Four years ago tommorow, I married the sweetest man… again! I love telling people that I have been married twice… to the same man. I get all kinds of raised eyebrows. You’ll recall that several weeks ago I posted that it was our Anniversary.. and it was. Our civil ceremony was held on January 31, 2004. We were married on March 27, 2008. 

We had a really simple, but beautiful church wedding. It was so pretty and just perfect. I had my best friend from childhood as my matron of honor

My sister was my Maid of honor and it was so perfect.

Since my sister sings we had her to sing 2 songs and it was so pretty. Since we both have lost all of our granparents Steven carried in a candle and lay it on the altar in remembrance of them and that was the flame that our mothers used to light the candles representing our individual selves and then we used those to light our unity candle. I had never really thought much about the symbolism in the ceremony until we were in the midst of it.. it touched me sooo deeply.

We had a really fun reception too. We had it at a local parks building and served Carolina BBQ, chicken, slaw, beans, potato salad, and rolls.  A friend made our cake and it was SO good. It was sour cream pound cake with a vanilla buttercreme frosting.

After the recpetion, close friends and family came back to my parents house and we had a PARTY. My parents had drinks and music and people hung out and visited and had such a good time. When things wound down My matron of honor, her husband and Steven and I headed to Myrlte Beach for a few days. We spend some time together and some apart.. It was a great time. After a couple days without my babies though I was miserable missing them and Steven surprised me by going home to get them and they joined us for the last two days of our trip.

Being that its spring break this week early this morning, Thing Two and I were up watching CMT. The song by Brad Paisley “Letter to Me” came on. In the song he talks about what he might write in a letter to his 17 year old self if he could. It kind of got me thinking. What things would I tell a 17 year old me? There are definatly things I would warn “me” about.. but if I did. Would changes I might make cause me to miss out on the life I live now?

Things I might tell a 17 year old me if I could.

1. He isnt worth it. Do not walk. RUN.

2. Get someone to drive you to town to pay your insurance bill.

3. Bible school is a bad idea for you.

4. He will cheat on you.

6. Good credit is really important.

I based this desert recipe off the  Classic  English Triffle desert I tried at the Rose & Crown in EPCOT at Walt Disney World.

Michele’s Triffle

1 yellow cake (you could use vanilla or any other cake you like) prepared according to package directions and cooled and cut into cubes.

2 large packages of instant vanilla pudding

5 cups 1/2 and 1/2

1 container frozen strawberries in juice. (they sell them in most grocery stores and they usually come in a cup with a lid)

1 container cool whip

Prepare the pudding with 5 cups of half and half. It will be a little thicker than pudding usually is.

In a large clear glass bowl ( I use a punch bowl) Pour a layer of berries. Cover completely with a layer of cake following with a layer of pudding. Alternate layers until bowl is full. Top with cool whip. Refrigerate overnight and serve cold.

I have also done this with chocolate cake and pudding and used raspberries as the fruit. YUMMY

My Aunt Cindy is famous for this great simple spring-y recipe. Its so easy, but it tastes so good.

7 Layer Salad

1 head of iceburg lettuce sliced thinly

2 cups frozen green peas thawed

2 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups celery diced.

1 lb bacon fried crisp and crumbled

2 cups miracle whip

1 cup grated parmessan cheese

In a glass bowl layer the ingredients

lettuce

peas

cheese

celery

bacon

miracle whip

parmessan cheese

Refregerate overnight and serve cold.

We had such a wonderful Easter sunday today. It started pretty early as I really needed to be in choir practice today. I have missed a LOT of practices because of my pnemonia last month. It has taken my lungs a really long time to heal. Also if I get hot at all I start to cough and let me tell you.. that choir loft gets SO hot under the television lights and since our congregation has grown so much we dont move to the pews when preaching starts. A coughing fit on local tv doesnt sound like to much fun to me so I have been sitting out.. I am better now though, SO I had to be at church by 9am.

Turns out it didnt matter since Thing Two had us up pretty early to investigate what the Easter bunny left her. So we got up and got ready and took some pictures in the yard in all of our Easter finery.

I was pretty excited about my dress.. my sister gave it to me over a year ago, and it didnt fit. Yesterday when I was looking for something springy to wear today I remembered those clothes she had given me.. so on a whim I tried it on.. and it fit! Yahoo!

My girls looked so pretty. Last night I straightened Thing One’s hair (it took about an hour) and she wore a top I picked up at Cato. Last year I bought Thing One two dresses and this one was a little big.. this year it fit really well. I picked up her cute hat at the Dollar Tree! LOVED that deal.

Church was PACKED. It was really crowded. The choir music went really well and we were done by 12. After church we grabbed a quick lunch at our favorite mexican place and then came home to change. I had cute plaid shorts for all of us to wear. It looked so cute with all of us in our plaid stuff.

While we were outside we taught the kids to do the “bunny hop” and they did these relay races doing it. It was so stinking funny. Thing One, I think felt a little silly doing it, but the harder we laughed, the sillier they got.

After the kids were done hunting eggs and playing in the yard we went in and I made deviled eggs out of the eggs and helped get dinner ready.

We had a YUMMY dinner. My Mom made Ham and sweet potatoes, asparagus, rice, and field peas and snaps. I made a 7 layer salad and the deviled eggs. For desert I made a strawberry triffle. We were SO full. After dinner we all napped and layed around. Then we watched some movie with that guy from Home Improvement in it. Galaxy something? It was actually pretty funny. I love when my Daddy gets tickled watching a movie. He has such a great laugh.

Thing One made me so sad all day.. she expected her Mom to call..( it IS a holiday after all AND she hasnt seen her in almost 2 months) and she never did. Every time the phone would ring she would jump..and she kept looking at my cell phone. When we got home this evening there was a message on our machine… but it was one of my nieces. I thought she might cry when it wasnt her Mom. Makes me so stinkin’ mad.

But that aside, it was such an amazing day. I posted a lot more pictures on flickr.com if you want to go look at them!

heh heh.. I couldnt help it.

I love everything about politics. The mud, the back stabbing, the craziness. I also love that just any old body can become “somebody” just because they say whatever it seems that the poplular majority wants to hear. Its so delicious.

I havent commented much on this presidential race.. especially since my cadidate of choice dropped out of the race. ( I still think Mike Huckabee would have made a GREAT President, and I refuse to take the “SC for Mike Huckabee” button off of my myspace page) I am absolutly clueless about who to vote for. I am not sold on John McCain. He makes me squirm and want to vote democrat. He feels like his in bed with George Bush.. and as much as I try to remain respectful of our current Commander in Cheif.. I just think he isnt a good leader. Ok.. the man is an idiot. I hate listening to him talk, He makes me hold my breath.. like “ohhhh gosh what dumb thing are you going to say today?” His speaches can be fun at times though.. he makes up words like I do.. but of course Im not the leader of the free world, I can do that at my lesiure.

Anyway. back to my problem. NOT voting for John McCain leaves me a few other options.. I could vote Independant… Ralph Nader? umm Not so much.

Those two choices aside that leaves me to debate another Clinton Presidency or Mr Barack Obama.

I am going to go out on a limb here.. and risking a likely flaming.

One Candidate CLEARLY stands out above the other when it comes to experience. Hillary Clinton has YEARS of time spent in government over Barack Obama. She is also married to one of the most brilliant Presidents of our time (possibly THE most brilliant.. but he’ll never recieve the laud he is due because of the Monica Lewinsky scandall.. you cant lie to America and be considered a Great President.. sorry) It might be possible to look at electing her and getting 2 for the price of 1. Two great minds together? Yes. sounds like a good deal to me. She is poised, she is ready, and really I think the ONLY woman in American politics that could pull it off at this time.

On the other hand, Barack Obama has a fresh eye. He is newer and not so jaded. He has optimism about America and process, and even the whole world. He has REALLY big ideas and he thinks that as President he has half a chance of a snowflake in the devil’s house to implement them. He DOES want change. I can see it in his eyes when he speaks (a GREAT speaker by the way.. god knows we need one of those!) He wants to move mountains, and believes he can do it.

He almost had me… then he made his speach on race. He is just downright wrong. This race WILL come down to two issues. His skin color, and his penis. Lets face it folks, America isnt all educated politically minded people. When he made that speach, condemning the comments of his lifelong preacher.(who was abrasive? yes, also right? yes to that too) He was gravely incorrect. He forgot that EVERYONE can vote. And he hasnt met some of the people around here. There are ABSOLUTELY a LOT of people that will go to the polls this November and vote purely on the basis of either Barack Obama’s skin color or Hillary Clinton’s lack of a penis. They will I promise.

Its common knowledge, however racist or jaded it may seem, that lower class black america, for the most part just isnt interested in politics. Most of those people in my age bracket have never voted. ever. But they will this time. IF there is a black man on the ticket. Before you throw flaming spears at me. think on it a little.

There are also women who rarely vote, if ever. Also women who might have voted for whomever thier husband voted for.. who might vote for Clinton only because she is a woman. And what woman doesnt revert back to elementary school and want to shout “Girls rule and boys drool” at some point in thier day to day life? It happens.. and it will on election day, depending on who has the democratic ticket.

We can speak our speaches until we are blue in the face.But ,when it comes down to it. the deciding factor very well might be, Does he have skin like mine or does she pee sitting down or standing up?

Tonight Thing Two had her second softball practice. She was MUCH improved over the other night. She was much more relaxed and after some work with her Daddy this week she is batting MUCH better. She can bat both left and right, so the coach worked both sides tonight. He was tickled that she was so into it tonight. (so was I!)

In Dillon County EVERYONE plays ball. I believe that in the months of March-June someone could run off with the  whole court house and no one would notice because they were all at the ball feild! Its fun to be included in all the excitement this year. I think soccer will remain as Thing Two’s “sport of choice” but she seemed to really enjoy herself tonight and is excited about playing again next week during springbreak.

ahhh one more.. she’s just so darn cute

Thing One still hasnt heard anything about her league. I think they are kind of waiting a little to see if they get enough interest since most girls her age are playing for the Kiwanas or in school teams. If they dont get a group together we will get our money back and find something else for her to get into.

After the 2 hour practice we went and had dinner at our favorite Japanese Hibachi place. They have a salmon plate there that makes me so darn happy! While we were out my cousin called and asked if the Things wanted to come over and spend the night. So we are thingless!

Today we FINALLY got to book our spots on Lisa and Pete’s wedding cruise! I am SO excited that we are getting to go. This is the first time we have been ANYWHERE without the kids and while I am a little nervous about it.. I am SO excited to get to spend that kind of time with my husband. When you get married and there are already children in the picture, sometimes its easy to forget that you married a MAN and not a DADDY and vice-versa. I think doing something like this is going to be GREAT for our marriage.. not to mention a really good time with GREAT people!