It's Scott's birthday!  Here's a picture of our birthday boy:

 

I never said it was a current picture.  He was 7 years old according to the back of that picture.  Here's a picture of Scott and his brother, Will: 

 Isn't she he lovely?  So pretty.  

I was going to write an Ode to Scott for his birthday but after googling what an ode is, I decided it is too much work.  Besides, we are going out now to celebrate.  I won't tell you how old he is (just in case he is sensitive) but I will say that next year will be a BIG birthday!!!  

I'd also like to give a shout-out to my Deanna and my Barbara who both celebrated birthdays in the past week.  OH and Jesus too. 

Christmas Past

Today has been one of those unbelievably busy days with one thing right after the other.  To top it all off, I left my phone at work (hopefully).  I guess I didn't quite realize how attached to my phone I had become.  I even use it as my alarm clock so I'll have to figure something out to wake myself up on time in the morning.

Anyway, since I haven't taken any Christmas pictures yet this year, I thought I'd share a couple from last year.

Greta did not love her Ms. Claws suit.  Her tail was just a'waggin.....  You can see the blur...

I'm excited to take some new photos this year.  But maybe not of Ms. Claws.....

Who?

The Carolina Raptor Center posted this photo on Facebook today and I had to share it.   

Owl in flight.  Awesome! 

Slack

I've been slacking when it comes to blogging lately.  My mother-in-law has been staying with us since last Thursday.  She left today.  I'm so sleepy that I couldn't possibly come up with anything to blog about tonight.  So, I'll just post a funny cat photo.  Enjoy:

Random Photos From My Phone

Habitat House

If you are an avid reader of this blog (and why wouldn't you be?) then you will remember that my church was building a Habitat for Humanity house.  You may recall the picture of my eGroup sweeping dried mud out of the inside of the home.  Well, we finally finished the house and last Saturday, Jamicka and her daughter, Armani, moved in.  Here's a picture from the dedication:

 

Photo by Sean Lyon

Sleepy Sunday

Yesterday, to my surprise, my whole family walked over to see my Christmas tree.  Here's a picture of my niece & nephew with the tree.  Oh, and that's my brother in the background. 

 

That was the best I could do.  Laura did not want to look at the camera.  Daniel, on the other hand, is always eager to have his picture made.  Here he is saying "cheese pizza"...

Every year I look forward to receiving the Official Steely Dan, Bailey & Saraya calendar from my friends Jill & Michael.  I received my calendar in yesterday's mail.  As always, it is awesome!  Thanks Jill & Michael!  

Whatever

If you've ever wondered what your pet does while you are in the bathroom, here's your answer: 

 

She's waiting on Scott.  I just happened to walk by with my phone in hand and snapped this picture. 

Sadie Claus

It's hard to believe this will be our 4th Christmas without our beloved Sadie.  We still love and miss that gentle giant.  Hopefully, 2012 will be the year we can build a fence and adopt another sweet canine. Oh well, in the meantime, here's a picture of our big, white, ball of sweetness when she met Santa Claus.

 Look at that smile.  :-)

Update

Laura did great yesterday.  She was smiling from the moment we got in the car (at 5:50 am!) until they put her under anesthesia.  It's a good thing that she was so happy because we were in the waiting room for 2 hours with no explanation.  Thank you for your prayers - they were obvious.  Here she is, excited to be in the waiting room... (Praise God for the iPad!!!)

Waking up from anesthesia was a different story.  You could hear her crying all the way down the very long hall.  I'm sure she was confused as to where she was, who the people around her were, and why her mouth was so numb.  Poor thing, she looked like one of the Desperate Housewives of Beverly Hills with her mouth so swollen. 

Her smile was just starting to come back when we pulled in her driveway.  She was back at school today and doing much better!  Rana said that she has been eating a lot today.  Thank you so much for your prayers for Laura. 

Prayers Appreciated!

Tomorrow, my niece Laura is having extensive dental work done.  Due to her age and, I'm sure her autism, she will be having it done at the hospital under general anesthesia.  My sister-in-law has asked me to come along to keep her calm.  Me keep somebody calm?  That's a new one!  Anyway, we are supposed to be there at 7:00 am for the preliminary x-rays.  Please keep Laura in your prayers!  Thank you!!!!!

 (Laura's kindergarten picture)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving!  Scott and I celebrated with my side of the family.  Here's mom cooking away in her kitchen.

And, no, I'm not out at the mall today.

PS.  I'm glad everyone seemed to like my post on the Nutcracker Ballet.  I was giggling the whole time I wrote it.  I don't really "hate" the Nutcracker .....but I do find it boring.  I do, however, find Nutrcrackers to be very, very creepy.  I think that is why I never cared for the ballet. 

The Nutcracker Suite

Driving home from work today, I heard a commercial that said, "Tis the season for America's favorite ballet....The Nutcracker Suite".  Well, I hate the Nutcracker Suite.  Not only do I hate The Nutrcracker Suite ballet, but I hate "nutcrackers" even more.  They are creepy.  One of the families that I used to be a nanny for had a collection of creepy Christmas nutcrackers.  Every Christmas I had to deal with having those blame creepy faces staring at me.  Heaven forbid I have to go to a ballet and look at a bunch of men in tights dressed up like creepy Nutcrackers and dancing around like a bunch of girls.  Namaste. 

Girls Night Out

Tonight, I had a "girls night out in the city" with my friends Sandra & Christy.  We took the light rail to the Epicentre, ate dinner at Libretto's pizza and went to the arena for a Charlotte Checkers hockey game.  The atmosphere was electric.  The crowd was so much fun and the Checkers didn't disappoint.  The game went into sudden death overtime but.....we lost.  (Frowny face)  Oh well, here's a couple of photos...

I would post a picture of Sandra and Christy but Christy did not like her picture and she said that the angle I took it at made her face look "as big as Lulu Roman's".  Now, for those of you who don't remember Lulu Roman....well, that would not be a good thing.  Christy actually looks great in the photo but I will respect her wishes!

#30daysofthanks

We're in the middle of what our church is calling #30daysofthanks.  Every day there is an opportunity or two to serve our city with one of our outreach partners.  Today, along with my eGroup, I served at a Habitat for Humanity house.  Here is a picture that I saw of us on Twitter.  It was taken by Adam Hobbs. 

 Yes, that's my group standing around (minus Jody who was at the Clemson football game).  Here we are cleaning the mud off of the floors in the house:

 

After helping, we went to Mac's Speed Shop for some awesome BBQ!  I think we giggled the whole time.  I love my eGirls so much.  If you'd like to learn more about our outreach initiative check out our Outreach blog: http://elevationoutreach.com/

The Notebook

Last night I tweeted this photo of Scott watching "The Notebook" with Greta. 

 

When I woke up this morning Scott had seen the pic and tweeted this back....

"So where's the pic of me leaving because I couldn't take any more?  Should have been a ghostly pic of me fleeing the room".  

In his defense, he did only last about 5 minutes....if that.  But my Twitter followers don't know that.....

Random Photo of Greta

I read that cats are the most common internet meme.  Here's mine:

Funny Story

So as I've mentioned before, I'm addicted to Twitter.  A couple of months ago, I got an email that one of the members of the David Crowder Band was following me on Twitter.  So, I followed him back.  Clearly, he became my favorite!  I have been lucky enough to tweet back and forth with him several times over the past week.  My best guess is that there is some sort of race between the band members to see who can get the most Twitter followers b/c within 3 days of tweeting with Mike, I was being "followed" by 3 more members of the DC*B. 

Fast forward to the weekend.  I got an email that Chris August was following me on Twitter...so I followed him back.  For those of you who don't know, Chris is the writer/singer of "Starry Night" (among other songs) which was named the Dove Award 2011 Song of the Year.  Chris also won "New Artist of the Year" for 2011.  Chris is currently on tour with the David Crowder Band. 

Well on Monday, Chris tweeted:

"I got yelled at by TSA for trying to walk through the scanner with pens in my shirt pocket...She was embarrassed."

So I tweeted back to Chris, "So you're saying that YOU are wearing pens in your pocket and SHE was the one embarrassed? ;-)"

And within minutes he tweeted me back:  :"@jlanford look at the pic...the Pens are printed on the shirt"  

Oops!  So I tweeted him back that I was the one embarrassed now.  :-) 

I thought it was cool that out of his 20,000+ followers I was one of 2 people that he replied to about the shirt. It definitely brightened up my Monday.

Here is a picture that Bwhack from DC*B tweeted of Mark, Mike & Chris August on the tour bus.  This is why me and so many others are getting messages from the guys.

I have to say that the David Crowder Band must be the nicest band in the world.  Too bad this is their last tour.... 

 

Follow Rewind

For those of you who missed this.... Scott gets baptized at the 3:46 mark. 

Follow from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

David Crowder Band

Tuesday, Scott and I went to see the David Crowder Band at the Fillmore in Charlotte.  It was an awesome show!

And through the magical world of Twitter....this is my new twitter "friend" Mike:  He told me that they would bring their "A game" and he was right! 

Have I mentioned that I am addicted to Twitter?  :-)

Photo Dump

Today is the first post of several I will be making where I clean out the photos on my phone.  One of the many things I LOVE about my smart phone, is that I always have a camera nearby!  The problem is that I have way too many photos on my phone so I'm going to post several at a time so that I can delete them.

My nephew Daniel crawling up Papaw:

 Greta and Scott sleeping on the couch:

My niece Laura playing in Papaw's closet:

 

The line to get baptized at church one Sunday in August....

I took a picture of the outside of the building later  that day....

Laura and Nana (sorry that Nana is rather blurry)

Laura climbing on her dad

Kevin gave Sophie a bath

And one more of Greta:

 

This concludes photo dump #1.  I hope you enjoyed the photos.  Now I'm going to clear them from my phone.....maybe.  

Sophie Update

Sophie is doing well thanks to Team "H".  I spent some time with Sophie after work tonight.  Here's a picture of Sophie wearing her "circle hat" as my nephew, Daniel, calls it:

Where there's a camera, there's a Daniel.  After taking a picture of Sophie, he told me it was "Daniel's turn".

Lately, it always seems to be "Daniel's turn".