HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my Bloggity Buddies. Our day was filled with lots of food, food and more food. I cooked for two days and loved every minute of it! I always the Thanksgiving china that I inherited from my precious mother. It's Friendly Village and I use it everyday until Christmas and then I switch to my Lenox Christmas china. (shoulda ironed the tablecloth)

Jan and Hubs. Hmm...I believe I'm retaining a little H2O...or too much pie, perhaps?

And, VOILA! My three men, hence the name: threemenandamom :)

And of course, Ozzie. He's not quite sure if he should sit, stay or go. Of course having a manhand wrapped around your throat makes the "stay" command a pleasure.What a wonderful holiday. We ended the evening with a round of Spades. Bill and Joe get bragging rights until we play again. Hubs and I just couldn't get it together. Bill had to be at work at 5:00 a.m. today, Bless His Heart, so he went to bed early. Both boys will work off and on through the weekend while I start dragging out the Christmas decorations.

But for today, I plan to stay in my recliner and watch Joan Crawford movies on TCM all day. I have a quilt I'm trying to finish for a special niece that was born two months ago. (oops)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Jan

And the Winner Is...

Congratulations, Bellah! You won the $10 Sonic Card, bless your heart. If you will send your mailing address to my email I'll get it in the mail tomorrow.

Thanks to the other southern belles and (dare I write it?) fellow REDNECKS for playing along.

I'm headed to the church to help with Blessing Baskets today. I'm sure my dogs will be barkin' and I'll be petered out but it will be worth it. Catch you on the flipflop.

Blessings!
Jan

Tell Me I'm Not a Redneck, Please? Someone?

Okay...I checked out a book from the library this week on Southern expressions. I am using it for my second book. The description of the book also had the word REDNECK in it. I sat down last night with a cup of hot chocolate and promptly blew some out of my nose because I USE AT LEAST HALF OF THESE EXPRESSIONS ON A DAILY BASIS...

Oh my stars! I read them out loud to Hubs and he just shook his head. All this time I thought I was a southern gal, a Texan, an Arkansan--just pick one. But never a REDNECK...

Leave a comment if you are familiar with any of these. I am giving away a TEN DOLLAR SONIC CARD for those who comment. (only one of course...and it will be a random pick, I promise)


bleedin' like a stuck pig (quite hurt)

I'll clean your plow or I'll clean your clock (I'm going to kill you, son) not really...

come unglued (pretty upset)

diddly squat (none)

that dog won't hunt (that's not going to work)

petered out (tired)

my dogs are barkin' (my feet hurt)

punkin (term of affection)

shoog (term of affection)

youngin' (kid)

so mad I could spit (I don't think I have to explain this one)

this ain't my first rodeo ( I've done this before) ((let me just say that mothers of teenage sons say this quite often, yessirree))

and my sons' personal favorite: I'm headed to THE Wal-mart. Yes, I put "the" in front of everything...THE Sonic. THE Malco, THE Taco Bell

Gotta go. We're headed out to THE Marketplace for supper.

Blessings,
Jan

Hurry Up and Wait

I went out on a limb this week. I sent my manuscript to an agent. I may not breathe for six long weeks...

The crazy thing is that I've been sitting on this thang for months. Friends and relatives have read it. An editor friend has read it. Heck, I'd ask Ozzie for his opinion if he could read. (by the way he's been licking my feet for 9 minutes...I'm not kidding...NINE MINUTES...Hubs can verify this) But, back to the point of my latest random bloggable moment: I realized my problem this summer but I'm just now acting on it: I don't want the rejection letters.

I mean, how many of us wake up everyday and think, "Gee whiz, Oz, maybe I'll get rejected again today! Yoohoo!"

Of course we don't. But some rejection is inevitable, right? Lucky for us, we're never rejected by our Heavenly Father. Can I get amen, Kim? Patti? Georgia Jan?

So...I put on my big girl pants yesterday and starting writing my second book. Perhaps a best seller? Probably not, but it's great fun and fantastic therapy for this near empty nester. Oh yeah, and there's no sex or violence in my book. Just lots of southern fun in a small Texas town. (okay, Ozzie just stopped licking...it's been 14 minutes...seriously...this dog has some serious issues)

Have a good week my four or five readers.

Blessings,
Jannie

Last Post

Hey there...this is probably my last post for a while. I simply don't have the time to keep up with this blog!

On another note, if any of you read Lifeway's HOMELIFE magazine, check out the December issue--I have an article in it. It's a great Christmas issue--has a lot of tips for you younger moms out there in blogland.


Blessings,
Jan

Steppin Up

The weekend started with a tour of new newly renovated high school. They've put millions--yes, millions into the additions. This is our group standing by the school logo. And a pic of the new tower.
The new tower on the south side of the high school."Dressing Right" to space ourselves for our infamous kick routines...(is that a hoot? Not one of us could kick our legs higher than our knees)

They have an INDOOR football field now for the band and athletic groups to practice on. Not to mention a DANCE STUDIO for the drill team, cheerleaders and dance classes. A new basketball facility, weight rooms, new tennis courts, DRIVING RANGE, and they are building a new Performing Arts center named after our precious drama teacher.

It was so much fun to see how things have changed in THIRTY YEARS. Friday night we were honored at the football game before kickoff. Even after thirty years, I had butterflies in my tummy! We were all thrilled that we didn't have to kick our legs up to our cowgirl hats! The high school boy who had my camera thought the camera belonged to my high school friend, Michelle. So....I have NO pics of me, but tons of Michelle and Pat.




Those cute little Highsteppers in their SEQUINS. Hello...we didn't have sequins or cute little cowgirl boots. But we had white GO GO boots, baby...That's right. It was 1978 and Disco ruled.

Saturday night was hilarious. We had REAL MEXICAN FOOD. thank you very much. And then a style show. Honest to Pete...we were screaming our heads off. Two girls had their old Friday uniforms. Remember those? The cheap uniforms you could wear to school and keep FOREVER?

Oh yeah...flash gloves ruled...



And who could forget the wool junior high cheerleader jacket? Orange and black!!! No wonder the other schools made fun of us by throwing pumpkins.

Notice the DICKEY? It was the only part of my uniform my mother saved. Looks good with pink and black, don't you think?

The favorite part of my weekend was returning to the church where I grew up. I had not been there since my wedding 25 years ago because the church moved north as the town grew. Another church is there now. They were more than happy to give me a tour. Very few things had changed. For instance: the shuffleboard tiles on fellowship hall floor.

The sanctuary looks just like it did when I worshipped there as a little girl. I can still smell the Old English lemon conditioner on the pews.

I drove around town and took pics of the houses we lived in. One woman let me come in and look around. It's funny how small everything appeared--I remember it all as much larger.

So...there's the weekend recap. I have about one hundred pictures to sort. Gotta love digital photography...

So, now back to the real world. There are AT LEAST ten loads of laundry for today--not to mention an empty refrigerator.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Jan

Thirty Years, Huh???

Very quickly...I'm packing my bags here, girls.

I'm leaving tomorrow for a 30 (yes, thirty) year reunion of my high school drill team. THE TEXAS HIGHSTEPPERS. I am so STINKIN' EXCITED! I haven't been to my hometown in 10 years. I haven't seen any of these gals since my wedding (24 yrs, 10 mnths.) I have so much planned for the next four days.

I will have TONS of pics when I return on Sunday afternoon.

I feel 18.

Boy, am I glad my roots are done...

Just got a manicure, too.

Better check my eyebrows and search for unwanted facial hair.

Man, I gotta go...

Blessings,
Jan