More friends...

Sorry Matt, it was the only pic u would let me take... Next time smile, you'll like it better.
Kayla would have let me take another, but I forgot to ask so this will have to do.
Josh saw me coming, and wanted to look nice!! And you do Josh!
Terry and Anita, and Terry didn't break the camera!!! It's a miracle...(I love you Terry, and Anita too!) No Heather is not that tall, she was sitting on a ledge.
Interesting fact, Matt is 5 mos older than Heather, and Heather is 8 mos older than Nana
Tymothie is 5 mos older than Aaron, and Aaron is 9 mos (to the day, October 3 to July 3) older than Anny.

K love to all!!! Happy New Year!

Good Times, Good Friends

Tonight we went to Sylacauga, Pastor Greg and Sister Tammy came up from Cape Coral, so we went to hear him preach. Then a large group of us went out to Ryans. You have to understand, Pastor Greg was our senior pastor, (aka boss) for about 6 years... So, given the opportunity to mess with him... I DID! I went and told the peeps at Ryans that today was October 25... Pastor Greg's birthday!!!

So they came to Sing to him, He was so grateful, that he gave Q a kiss, wasn't that sweet!!!
Here are some of the people from Vincent that came to have dinner with us.

Linda, Butler, Ms Karen, Terry and Anita, Matt, Robert, Josh, and Kayla

Then of course, Pastor Greg, Tammy, Amber, Heather, Arron, Me, Que, Matt, Nana, Tym and Anny

Nana is still bigger than Heather, even though Heather is older than her...

Pretty Pictures...

These were just so pretty.
I couldn't bear to separate them into separate posts.
So I decided to just post them all.

Enjoy. Happy New Year!

DaNella

Raindrops on roses...

Ok so it isn't roses, but I thought this was so pretty, raindrops on the trees... It reminded me of one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite movies... Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Crisp apple strudel and warm woollen mittens, wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings, these are a few of my favorite things... I like God's art work. He's my Fave.

You and Me...

" When I'm with you everything and everyone else just fades away..."

I love my husband. He is so precious. Here is a picture of us at Christmas 2001. We were youth pastors, in Vincent Al. We had four kids, 5, 4, 1, and 5 mos. Yeah, you read right. We were living in a little 800 sq ft house, a parsonage. No we weren't rich, but we had love... and lots of fights over money, or lack there of. We fought because I didn't keep the house clean enough... (duh with 4 little ones, anything I did was undone in record time. Not to mention the fact that I was breastfeeding the littlest, and I was sleep deprived. )

My point is Love is a choice. We choose to love someone or choose to hate someone by the choice thoughts we choose to think about someone. Tonight as my husband was leaving to take the boys to wrestling practice, I asked him to put his bowl in the sink. Did he? No. Is the bowl even at this moment sitting where it was when I asked him? Yes. Will I forgive him? I already have. I forgave him before he forgot to do it. Why? How? When I asked him to do it, I choose that even if he forgot I would not be mad. Why? It makes my life easier. Why waste my time being mad at him. Just put the stupid bowl in the sink, and go on with life.

I Choose to love my husband.

What on earth is a Meme?

Me and My sis Shannon, Naughty, it fits her... lol

So what is a Meme? Pronounced in a way to rime with Dream, it is when some one finds a set of questions made by someone else, and answers them with their own information. My spacers call em polls. So here is a interesting one. I am supposed to just use one word answers, but... sometimes it is hard. I am a lady of many words... Oh and Thanks to Deanna Shrodes, I swiped this meme from her.

Yourself: Quirky

Your Partner: Precious

Your hair: thick

Your favorite item: Milly!

Your favorite drink: Mountain Dew! (Hey that is one word)

Your dream car: SeatSeven (that is a new word, don't worry it isn't in YOUR dictionary)

Dream home: Larger

Room you are in: bedroom

Your ex: GONE!

Your fear: unsure

Where you want to be in 10 years: healthy

Who you hung out with last night:Kids

What you're not: Red Supremest...(ask Shannon)

Muffins: Yum!

Something on your wish list: Manicure

Time: slipping

Last thing you did: Blog

What are you wearing: PJ's

Favorite weather: FOG!!!

Favorite book: Bible

Last thing you ate: Smarties

Your Life: Improving

Your Friends: Heroes

What are you thinking about right now? Sleep

Your Car: Stretch

What are you doing at the moment? Blogging

Your summer: hot

Relationship status: forever

What's on your TV?Leno

What's the weather like? crisp

When's the last time you laughed? tonight

Guess What I Got!

Have you ever heard that old song "I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas"? Guess what, I got a Hippopotamus for Christmas! I have always loved that song. While we were living in Cape Coral Florida, we "adopted" a older child... How old were you when we got you Sam? 16? All I know for sure is she almost Killed me trying to teach her to drive... Anyway, She sent us a care package for Christmas, and among other things she sent me my hippo... I named her Milly after Samantha Miller.
I love you Sam!

Hey It's better than what my sister got... (13 mo twins...)

Pictured here with my Dad (at the top of the stairs) and my brother in law.

Christmas Shoes

If you have read any of my blogs yet, you know that my husband and I are... well, let's just say mischievous. We enjoy life, each other, and our kids, and we like to smile a lot, so that means a lot of jokes...

Our most recent feat, is the picture you see here. In case you can't tell, it is a present, um... hanging... on the tree. LOL it is a pair of shoes, and I tied the shoe strings together, and wrapped each shoe individually. There were enough presents I felt I could play with this one. LOL

Siblings...

Now don't get me wrong, I am not endorsing this kind of behavior... As a parent, you realize that as long as the kids are loud and can be heard they are probably ok. When you don't hear them, that is when you worry... When I could no longer hear any noise coming from the living room, I began to wonder what Tym and Anny were doing. But, foolishly I didn't go to look... When I did this is what I found. I learned long a go not to cry over spilt milk, take a picture...!

Kids...

Pray for my mom, she went to the Doctor, and they said she has a tumor in her abdomen. Right now we don't know a lot, there is an 80-85% chance it is non-cancerous. Right now I am not concerned, Just pray.

She had a non-cancerous tumor on her foot, that she just had removed, and minor complications from that revealed this one. That one was caused by years (10-12) of wearing high heels everyday in the corporate world. Price to be paid for beauty huh?

So, anyway, I sat Matt and Nana down and told them all of this, and that we don't know a lot, but we need to pray for Grammy. When I finished, Matt silently got up and went straight to my closet and said "That has to go, that has to go, and that..." I said "Matt, what are you doing?" He was throwing away all of my high heels... LOL

Christmas presents

We aren't mean parents, I promise... We just take advantage of an opportunity when given one. Today I was blessed. A local church asked if they could help us with Christmas this year. Being that we are VERY tight this year I readily agreed. I got to go pick up their presents today. I almost cried. Mineral Springs Baptist Church in Jemison were wonderful to my family this year. They even gave me and my husband some stuff. One thing that I can write about... (my oldest daughter reads my blog pretty regularly) is we got Clue. The funny thing is we just bought Clue, and gave it to the kids. So all night long, we were holed up in our room, and one at a time wrapped presents were being handed out the door, to be put under the tree. At the end of the night, the kids were begging us to let them open just one present. With a glint in his eye, Q said, "I know a present they could open..." I knew exactly what he was thinking, so I said "What ever Daddy thinks." So Q directed them to one certain present. They tore into it, only to shout "Daddy! Yall are mean!", when they saw the Clue box! It was funny.

About that time Matt came home from his drama team Christmas party. As they were going off to bed I heard Nana ask him about his party. The conversation went something like this...

Nana said "Was there anything dirty there?"

"Like what?" Matt said."Dirty underwear of something?"

" Yeah," Nana said, "Why is it called 'Dirty Santa'?"

LOL

Green Couch Night

On the left there is my late Granny Jones... She had a large green couch that had a hide-a-bed in it. When I was little, anytime, like Christmas, or for whatever reason we would spend the night there, often our Aunt Teannie, and cousin Terry were there too. She lived in a little three bedroom 12 wide trailer. There was one bedroom built on, so who ever slept on the couch, in the front room, and in the built on, were all about 10 ft from each other. We would lay there at night when we were supposed to be going to sleep, and talk. It is one of my fondest memories of Granny Jones, and her house. Now that she is gone, I cherish it.

Last year my sister and I decided for our mom's birthday, we would have a spend the night party. So, we each got sitters (husbands... grin) and went back "home" for the night. It is the house I grew up in, and Shannon lived there from the time she was four. It was the first time in 18 years we had both been home for a night. It was so much fun we decided to make it a tradition. This year, we were about to go to sleep, and we were laying in the living room talking, and it reminded me of Granny Jones house, so I started calling it Green Couch Night, in Granny Jones' memory.

DaNella

Haircut

Before...
After...

My husband is still not happy with me... But Oh well. He will get used to me... I wanted something different.

The really cool thing is how I got the hair cut. After my final final, I sold my text books. Since I had some business to do in Clanton, I was gonna see if I could get a haircut. I had heard that a friend of mine from a long time ago worked at this certain salon. So I went there.

The name of the salon was Miracles it is in Clanton, on Highway 31. The name of my friend is Christy Wilson Woods.

She and I became friends when we were 4 or 5. We were best friends up until we were 11 or 12, then we went our separate ways. I even named my first daughter, Christeonnah after her, and all the other Christies in my life. Her favorite thing to do was convince me fallacies were true... LOL I remember her telling me that being mature meant acting silly and irresponsible. I remember thinking that was not right, but Christy said it, so it must be true. lol I hung on her every word, and she knew it... Too funny. Now they are happy memories. We were like sisters.

Long story short, when she finished cutting my hair, I said "What do I owe you?" and she said "Nothing. Merry Christmas!"

Thank you Christy!

Rudloph

Look this is my beautiful Deck/ front porch my Darling Hubby built... He is so good.

Lol, LOL!!! Tonight at the Celebrate recovery Christmas party, during praise and worship, Michael called all the children up to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Yeah well not exactly praise and worship...

When they started singing it, I started cringing... Why? My children have developed this awful habit. Where you are supposed to say Ho Ho Ho ( u know, the fill in's "Santa Came to say...Ho Ho Ho") they say "In his underwear!" I was silently praying, "God please don't let them say it !!!! When we got to that part, Matt was good, and Nana was good, and Anny Yelled, YELLED... "IN HIS UNDERWEAR!!!" lol the whole place died laughing... It was funny. I had to laugh.

Yeah, I got a hair cut... you aren't seeing things. Let me know what you think, I like it...

My husband.

14 years ago this may...
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? He is so totally awesome! He knew I had a hard day today, I had an Art History final at 10:30 am, and then an Algebra final tonight from 4-6. When I got home, he took me by the hand, swept me past 4 loud rambunctious kids, all yelling " Mommy's home!," straight to our bedroom, where there were candles lit a around the tub. The water was running, and all that was left to do was for me to climb in... I love my Hubby!

Lead Poisoning... yeah.

Just a quick funny note, I am in the middle of finals at college... I am knee deep in Art History.... Yeash...

Anyway, we have a digital thermometer. Since I worked in a daycare for so long, I got used to using it under the arm. It was just easier. So I still take temps under the arm... unless I am using my ear thermometer... but that is a whole nother blog. So my story was, with all of the recalls on toys lately, Tymothie (7)came to me the other day and said..."If we put the thermometer in our mouth will we get lead poisoning?" I thought he meant because it has a metal tip on it... No, he had just realized it was made in China... lol

Christmas cards...

Somebody pass the milkshake... A long time ago, a wonderful couple from Lakeland Fl, Susan and Larry Hilla taught me and Q that when something bad happens you go out and get a milkshake and celebrate how God is gonna fix this one. We got a Christmas card today... It wouldn't' be Christmas without cards right?? Well I am afraid we get this one most every year. From Alabama power... Saying we need to pay our bill... Lol seams like we are always having our power threatened around Christmas time... Oh well, we called them and worked out a deal. No use crying over it, may as well laugh, and enjoy life... It will get better one day.

Praise The Lord! I had my last class for this semester today... I still have the exams to go, but the classes are over... I am so glad. This has been a really hard semester, I took a class I didn't have to take because I didn't check with an advisor before I made my schedule... and well I have paid for it...

All of our money had to go to rent this week, so we had no money to buy groceries... I was kinda worried, but I prayed, and God hooked me up with a food bank. It is so funny, how God even works in things like that. They gave me a turkey, Q has been really wanting to cook one "his way" lol For thanksgiving, Mom and I overruled him, and we had a smoked turkey. He pouted for 2 days... ok not really, only to me. Now God has given him another one.. So, I think we are having thanksgiving again this week lol. I have to make some dressing.

No one really responded about the food posts, so I just decided to cut it out. I am still trying to cut back, and watch what I eat.I hope soon to get some sort of exercise paraphernalia...

Christmas!!

I love Christmas time. I love my Christmas tree! Every one of my ornaments has a story behind it. Here are a few. I collect nativities, so a friend of mine saw this nativity ornament and bought it for me.

Another dear friend, Kathy, from Fl. gave me this snow flake. I am a snow flake fanatic. I love them, they are so pretty!! When I went over to Kathy's house one year at Christmas, I saw this ornament hanging on her tree, and I exclaimed over it. "Oh! I love this! it is so pretty!" so she took it off of the tree and gave it to me.

Another tradition we have is we try to buy a ornament for every family member each year. As you can see, this one says Mom and Dad, and 2004 Q and I usually try to get one that show us together, like this one...

I just love this one, we look so in love!!!

I love my Que!

Love you too,

DaNella

Confession time...

The food is taking up tooo much space in my blog. So, let me know what you think, I'll put up another poll.

Should I keep posting my food every day, or is it boring you to death. You can also leave a comment, or email me at Godlyspice@yahoo.com .

In the mean time...

1. a Mt Dew (see a trend here?) a 3 musketeer, and a serving size bag of bugles


2. a double cheese burger (Mc D's) and Dr P


3. Taco stuff. only one helping, and a small one at that... with a Mt Dew


4. another Mt Dew while working on home work.

It has helped me to think about what I eat more, but it has confirmed what I knew, I already don't really over eat. (couldn't prove that by my waist line)

Love ya!

DaNella

Sweet Gum Leaves and Acorns

All of nature reflects the nature of God. I love nature. I am absolutely obsessed with sweet gum leaves, they have such a pretty shape, and turn such pretty colors. God is so creative... lol Yeah, my husband wasn't surprised either... I picked up a acorn the other day, and showed it to him, I wanted him to see all of the lovely little stripes. So, I pointed them out, and said earnestly "God did it!" lol he looked at me like DUH! But to me it is really neat. If He cares enough to take the time to paint stripes on acorns, surely he cares for you.

lol God is good. I know He is in control, and I know He has a plan. He has not forgotten me. I may not see where he is, or what he is doing, but I trust him. I know he will see me through, no matter what happens.

So, if you are going through a hard time, something that is discouraging you, don't give up. God Has A Plan!

Love to all,

DaNella

This is becoming a food blog...

Ok, today...

1. 1. Um a Mt dew and a piece of breakfast pizza for breakfast... and then I had to drive to Clanton, past Cakes and Candy...


2. 2. Not good but I only ate a chess square, and a half a piece of peanut butter chocolate cake.


3. 3. Then I had some taco helper for supper. with a Dr Pepper.


4. 4. And, Mom and I got a whopper Jr... later.

Yeash I am not eating a lot, but I am not loosing... I am not active enough, I know that, but when do I have the time? I am just gonna have to make time some how.

Mom and I went to a work from home seminar tonight. It was legit, and pretty good, but to do the program, you have to pay $3000.00 to get a certificate to be a medical transcriptionist.

I simply can't afford that right now... I need to get paid to work from home now...

Well btw, update on the hamster. Itsy seems to be adjusting to life as a solo hamster. We never found Bitsy. We haven't started smelling her yet, so hopefully she escaped into the woods behind us. On a crazy note, to get Nana back for naming her bunny, Bunny Stew, I taught Anny a little song...

Little Bunny Stew is hopping thru the Forrest scooping up the Bitsy to bop her on the head!

ah the joys of children...

Love ya, DaNella

It's Sunday

What a wonderful way to start the day!!! My children made me breakfast in bed!! Wasn't that sweet.The really good thing is they are old enough that we could actually eat it! They made us pancakes. It was nice.

Then we got up and got ready for church... We had a good service, Pastor Mark talked about peace. The peace that passes all understanding. A timely message indeed.

I need lots of prayer this week, next week is midterms. I can do it!!! That is what I tell myself.

The kids were playing in the leaves today... this is a moment where Anny saw a butterfly in the clouds... I love this. Thank God for kids...
Ok, ok confession time.

1. For breakfast, I had a pancake (in bed) with a cup of milk.



2. At church I had a cream cheese pastry, with a Dr Pepper



3. For lunch, a hamburger and some fries. with Dr Pepper



4. then for supper, some cheese peanut butter crackers, and Dr Pepper



5. also a piece of white chocolate.

Not too bad... I am still trying. My goal is to loose 70 lbs... I know that sounds like a lot, but that will only take me down to 160, 135 is supposed to be "ideal" weight for my height. So I think 160 is reasonable.




Peace out.... DaNella

Confession time...

Ok confession time... today I ate...

1. One pancake and 2 scrambled eggs
2. a doughnut
3. a dew... and another...and another... and another... and a root beer (wrestling match all day today, I got thirsty.)
4. small bowl of veg soup and cornbread
5. 10 Mandarin orange slices
6. a fourth of a grilled cheese and a small bag of chips

That's all not too much, maybe toooo many soft drinks...It did help me to think about what I ate, because I knew I'd have to write it down...

Matt and Tymothie had wrestling matches today... Tym won his first one, and should have one the second, but got beat by the score keeper, and lost his third. Matt lost both of his and came in third place... lol

Hi Melinda, thanks for reading... Yall don't forget to click on the adds, if they interest you, I get paid per click... It hasn't paid anything yet, but I figured it was worth a try.

Love to all!

An exercise in futility? Humility? Public Humiliation....

(photo not by DaNella Auten Photography)

I have to loose weight this year... 2008 I mean, but I have to do it for free... cause I ain't got no money... so, I thought if I post what I have had to eat everyday on my blog, maybe it will help me to cut back...Maybe.
Or just humiliate me in public... or not, because I only have three readers right now...(Andriea, Vickie, and Nana) (Oh, Nissa too! Exponential growth!!!)
Ok so here goes, and I am not going to eat anymore tonight.

1. No breakfast, just a 12 oz Mountain Dew


2. At 10:45 I went to Subway for a study meeting, and had a 6' chicken terraki and bacon sub with a root beer


3. at 2 I refilled my root beer before I left and ate 3 or 4 chips...didn't like the way they tasted.


4. for supper I had a hot dog with mayo and ket. two hash browns, one with cheese, and 4 stalks of broccoli steamed, with salt.
5. For the sake of honesty, I had a Doctor Pepper on top of that Dew before bed, cause I had A LOT of homework to do. And, I forgot about the two pieces of butterscotch, and 4 small pieces of wt chocolate...

That's not a lot right? I will probably have another Mountain Dew before bed.

K love ya!!

DaNella

Here is my before picture...
230 lbs

I am special...

One lone car parked facing the wrong direction...

That pretty much sums up my life... and the funny thing is that is my car that is parked the opposite way... lol

I have always been different. I have always seen things differently. I think that is why I am able to write Microbursts. Something that is just a cup of hot hot cocoa so someone else, is a spiritual lesson to me.
God has been dealing with me a lot lately about preparation. Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." He has prepared me in advance... I am not just quirky or silly, I am created special. I was a special order that God put in, because He knew exactly what he wanted me to do, and He thought..."DaNella would be prefect for that..." and you know what? I am.

DaNella

Hamsters...

Please if I ever go to get another Hamster, STOP ME! The saga continues. QM decided it would be funny to let Bitsy go under the bathroom door to see Nana while she was using the restroom. Well Bitsy decided to take a detour, down the vent...

Yep, the vent... Do you know how hard it is to catch a hamster that has been released into a maze of vents? No? Well if I knew I would tell you, but we haven't caught her yet. We are praying. We bought a "humane" box trap, and baited it and we are waiting.

That was just the Icing on the cake of my day...

It began with rain. Don't get me wrong, I like rain, I consider it liquid sunshine, but today, it wasn't a nice thing. It was messing with my head. No, literally, I had a splitting headache, sinus pressure. Then on the way to College, I sorta turned a corner on a wet road too quick, and almost met myself on the way in... It was interesting.

When I did finally get to class, I realized I had homework due, that I hadn't done yet... and, I had no paper to print it out, and no jump drive to get it from my computer to the printer... When I finally got it all fixed and printed, I had to borrow paper and a jump drive...I realized I had my jump drive in my pocket... Lovely huh? Then as I was getting ready to leave school, I had left my jacket in my first class... Yeash....

So, I went home, and laid down, took some medicine, and was starting to feel better, when Nana came in and woke me up with "Mommy, one of the hamsters went down the vent..."

I need a bubble bath and a good book... see ya.

DaNella

Life Goes On...

Our darling Nana lost her little pet Hamster Kati yesterday... It was sad, Kati got stuck in her ball on the hot air vent. Today, we went and bought two more. Itsy and Bitsy... I named them, but Nana thinks it was her idea... lol

Later tonight, she got to thinking about it, and realized, I have pretty much named all the pets. Misty, Trixie, Angel, Kati the dog... they were all my idea....

Well, Nana decided to return the favor.Anny got a new stuffed rabbit this weekend, Anny calls it Bun Bun, Nana named it Bunny Stew... Lol Guess which name stuck? You got it, Bunny Stew!

DaNella