My very talented kiddos

In the last couple of weeks, both of my children have become involved once again in their Theatre groups and band. Sarah was given 2 parts plus once again is serving as Assistant Stage Manager in her University's Fall Production. She is minoring in theatre and had thought to change that to a major so that she would receive two degrees, but after much thought, decided to just stick with a minor in Theatre and finish her degree in Child and Family Development, take some time off from school, get a real job and then go back and get her Master's. I think that's a wonderful idea and if she so wants to continue with Theatre, well then, she can look for some local productions and go for it.

Will started his sophomore year a few weeks ago, and with that began Marching Band Season. This year, he has decided to play mellophone with the marching band and his beloved trumpet in Symphonic band. He loves playing both, and with this years production titled "Rhapsody 3", he is really enjoying the mellophone. The band is performing 3 rhapsodies, one of them being the Bohemian Rhapsody and their on field marching is way over the top. I am really excited for him and the rest of the band. He also started up with Theatre again, he is serving on the Drama Club Board this year, and they have had a couple of meetings to begin preparations for their One Act Play competition. Will is trying out for a part this year, and is very excited.

So, where in the world do these kids get their talent? Hmmmm, switched at birth maybe? Even so, I love them dearly and am so proud of their accomplishments.

Why "Skipping Pebbles"??

Hmmmm, after much thought and making a genuine committment on my part, I decided to start up the old blog again. When I started this sometime ago, I didn't really have the time or the desire to keep it going. Now that I have tons of extra time (yea, right!!!), I decided to take on this project with 110% committment. I hope to provide some insight into my family and also into my life on a daily basis.

I had someone ask why I chose the name I did for this blog, so here goes - When I was a kid, my dad would take my mom and me (and my sister when she came along) to this very out of the way lake for fishing. I hated going there, we had to park on this back road and then hike thru an overgrown wooded area. I loved to go fishing with dad, because I knew at some point he would take some time to skip rocks with me. But boy oh boy, did I hate going to that particular lake. At the time, I could not appreciate the beauty of that area on an early morning and overlook the walk. Dad would fish awhile and then take a moment to play with me. We would pick pebbles to skip along the water. It is one of my favorite memories. Sometimes my pebbles would skip right on across, but sometimes they would just sink. I would get so frustrated. Dad would always encourage me to keep trying, he would say that sometimes you pick a pebble that just will not skip, and then there are the times you have the perfect rock that just skims its way across the lake. He said I always had to keep looking for those good rocks and not think about the bad ones. I would continue skipping pebbles, and everytime I would get one to go and go, I would be just thrilled, and that made me forget about the bad skips. So when choosing a name for my blog, I decided on "Skipping Pebbles" because with any family, you will have the bad times, but those bad times fade away to the good times. You always keep looking and striving for the good in all you do for your family, and don't dwell on the bad. With my family, I never know when the pebbles are going to skim across the pond just right or when they are going to skip once and sink to the bottom, but either way, I keep skipping those pebbles.

Remember folks, sometimes we pick stones that aren't right for our lives and they go no where, and sometimes we pick up that rock that just flies across the water and we smile.

Little Bites of Heaven: Spring Fling Giveaways

Little Bites of Heaven: Spring Fling Giveaways

My Mamarazzi Favorite Things Swap partner, Rachael is having a great giveaway on her blog. But of course you need to stop by there and check it out before midnight tonight. But if you miss this giveaway, she has some great things going on with the March of Dimes you should check out. And then there are those adorable triplets you will want to keep up with. Rachael is a sweetie and you will enjoy reading her blog as much as I do.

So Glad It's a New Week

Last week was a week from hell. I am so glad its a new week. I have been so sick with tracheaitis (if you haven't had this nasty, don't ever wish it) and then along came a terrific tummy virus and this was after Will woke up one morning with a rash covering his upper body-still don't know what that was all about, he's allergic to life. And on top of all that, I ended up at the doctors office Saturday morning only to find out that the pain I was experiencing in my neck for which I thought was related and was told was related to my tracheaitis is really a compressed disc in my upper spine and that I needed to be hospitalized. I was like NO NO NO, too much going on to do that. So the doctor relented and sent me home with pain patches and informed me that I had to be seen by a specialist this morning. Oh goody and they are going to probably want to put me in the hospital. I don't think so, no one is going to be messing with my spine. Just keep me doped up until it feels better and we will all be happy. So I'm really glad its a new week and hopefully I will be better and I can enjoy this nice weather.

My Thoughts on My Life

Have you ever stopped and thought about where the years have gone, what you have accomplished in your life, what is still to come? I have been thinking alot of this lately. I am almost 43 years old, and I really feel that I am missing something major in my life. Yes, I have an absolutely amazing husband and two children, a family who loves me very much and a career I love, but there is something missing. I have thought alot of this lately, and I know what is missing is me accomplishing something amazing with what God has given me and that is my ability to relate to children, to teach them, to assist in their success in life and I don't mean here, I am thinking somewhere like Africa or Pakistan. I want to know that when I'm gone, that I leave something more to this world. I want to know that my life means something, that I took my abilities and brought something amazing to someone. I have just really been battling this for sometime, and time is slowly slipping away, so I have to do something. I recently read a book, "Three Cups of Tea" written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book is written about Greg Mortenson and how he built schools in the Middle East. Reading that book, really got me to thinking about actually going there to teach for a few months. I have been giving it some serious thought and have even talked with my family about it. I still don't know what I am going to do, but I do know that I need to do something where I feel I'm being of service somewhere. I need to know that my life counted for something.

It's Been a Really Long Time!!!

My life has been turned upside down and shaken lately. So much is going on, that I hardly have time to think anymore, and so the one thing that has gotten tossed to the side is this blog. But I'm going to try to better, get in here each day and post. I love reading everyone's blogs, and hope to someday have a number of folks who enjoys reading mine (got alot of work to do first). So ladies who do stop by, I'm back and beginning tomorrow, will keep up with my posting. Love to all.

Mamarazzi's Favorite Things Swap!!!!

I'm really excited about this swap. My friend Marla from Two Peas has the wonderful content on her site and participates in the most fun swaps and other events outside of Two Peas that I get so envious. I have been hesitant in participating myself as I'm new to blogging, but this time, I can't resist. This is a swap hosted by Mamarazzi @ Dandelion Wishes and I get to choose some of my favorite things to send to a partner. I love sharing and meeting new people and I really love shopping. If you haven't already checked out Mamarazzi's blog, you better do so soon and sign up for this fun and unique swap, not to mention see what a lovely site she has.

Time Flies When You Have Children

As next week approaches, I sit back and think of how time has flown by for this mom. My son, Will will celebrate his 15th birthday on the 30th and my daughter, Sarah just celebrated her 21st birthday on the 16th. Wasn't it just yesterday my babies were just that babies?

Baby Sarah

Baby Will

And now here I am, a mom of a 15 year old and a 21 year old and I am thrilled to have such amazing kids, but bummed that I no longer have babies. They are all grown up, independent, smart, well-mannered (well to some extent-WILL!!) and just constantly amaze me everyday.

Will is an amazing musician with the trumpet, piano, piccolo trumpet and any other instrument he can get his hands on. He loves playing lacrosse, extreme frisbee and is an amazing actor in the drama class and performances at his High School. He is a funny character. I love talking with him, he is so smart and sometimes just floors me with his language skills.

Will playing the trumpet with the NCHS Marching Band

Ready for the Winter Formal

Sarah is in her final year of college at GSU. She is majoring in Child and Family Development and minoring in theatre. Sarah recently became engaged to Kevin Zorn, who she met at GSU and has been dating for two years. Sarah is an awesome student who is on the President's list and not only does well in her classes, but she holds down an almost full-time job and participates in several plays on campus each semester. On top of all that, this semester, she has volunteer work to complete for her major.

Sarah and Kevin

Sarah's Birthday

So yes, my kids are grown, time has flown and I'm going to be all alone!!! Not really, I know my kids will always be there for their mom and I do still have Paul. And hopefully one day I'll have babies in my life again and I'll get to watch time fly by once again, but this time when time's get rough, I'll politely and with a smile, hand them over to their parents.

My Tuesday Morning Treasures

I love the store "Tuesday Morning", but up until recently the nearest store was like 30 minutes from my house and I just never made it there to shop. Right before Christmas a TM went in the shopping center a mile from my house and I love to visit it often. Last week during one of my visits, I found lots of scraproom treasures. I have been looking for a new paper cutter system, and found this one, regular $49.99, Tuesday Morning price, $19.99

Love this Fiskars System-it has many wonderful features.

And I also found lots of storage baskets and boxes to use in the scraproom. These will make it much easier for me to stay organized (I hope).

These baskets are Natural Willow and very flexible - $3.99

I fell in love with this little suitcase box, I use it to store my alphabet stamps - $2.99

Cropper Hopper storage containers (bought a ton of these) - $2.49

I bought a ton of stuff, but only shared a bit. I am so pleased with my treasures and the fact that when said and done, I only spent $57. So if you have a Tuesday Morning, go check it out and let me know what goodies you got.

Scraproom finally reorganized-YES!

After spending a couple of days pulling everything off the shelves and out of boxes, I am finally back to working order in my scraproom.

Before reorganizing!

After Reorganizing!

I still have ALOT! to do, like redecorating, but at least I'm a little more organized. I would love to move the twin bed out, but if I do, Sarah would have to sleep on the floor when she came home, so the bed stays.

It's been a Happily Wild Morning with lots of Positive Energy

My wild morning actually began last night, well actually maybe last week. It all began when Sarah's cat, Bob turned up missing last week. He loves to be outside, but has never just took off and not returned, but this time he decided to go on an adventure. After a few days, we became worried and started looking for him. We went to the local Animal Shelter, posted pictures of him around our neighborhood, and posted a lost pet ad on our neighborhood website.

Still no signs of our beloved "Bob" and we also had to break the news to Sarah. Then last night, my computer decided it was going to shut itself down and not let me log back on with my password. The darn thing kept telling me my password was wrong. I immediately thought my dear sweet son, who never plays jokes on his mom, had changed the password, but he swore on his xbox 360 that he did not change the password and even tried to help me get back into the system. I had to wait until Paul came home to have him try to get me logged back on, but he couldn't get the system started either, and he is an IT person. He worked for several hours and still no computer for Rhonda. So I spent the night tossing and turning, worrying about my computer, but worrying more about my pictures on my computer as Paul told me that if he had to wipe out the hard drive to get the system up and going again, he didn't know if he would be able to save anything. Yes, I have been bad and have not backed up my pictures in a couple of months (well that won't happen again). This morning I woke early and took some time to just lay there praying and thinking of how I needed a break. How I need something positive to happen. Paul is without a job, our cat was missing, my laptop was not playing nice and I have had one set back after another with my surgery. I just really needed some positive energy today. Paul gets up and immediately starts tinkering with my laptop and after about an hour, gets it working again with no problems, good as new. We don't know what happened, but he is going to run a full diagnostics to try to find the problem. Then he had a phone interview with Home Depot at 10am, and he comes to me afterwards and is telling me that they were really impressed with him to the point they want him to come talk with them face to face early next week, and while he was telling me all of this, he looks down from the top of the stairs where he is standing and exclaims "Oh my gosh, Bob is at the front door, he's home!". I started screaming and we both went running down the stairs to find one tired, skinny, starving cat waiting to be let in. We were so happy, I began crying, Paul, began crying and Bob began eating. So as you see, it was a weird, but very happy and very positive morning.

Welcome Home Bob!

Another "New" Start

My hubby is always telling me the only reason I scrap is so that I can buy all the fun supplies and then spend time organizing and reorganizing. Well I am beginning to think he is right. I love to buy supplies and I love to organize them. It makes me happy!!! So after sometime not organizing (hey noticed I didn't say not buying supplies), I have decided to really make some changes in my scraproom. I have purchased some new inexpensive boxes and baskets at Tuesdays Morning and I have my scraproom upside down. I'm even making a change in the colors, not totally, not changing wall colors, but just "accent" colors. I have never really had a color theme to the room, but noticed that I had alot of pink and green. I decided that I really wanted a less "little girl" room and so I'm going to try to go with a more bold but yet fun palette. So this is going to take me sometime to do, but I'm going to go with the colors of chocolate browns, greens, pinks, blues. Since this room also doubles as Sarah's room when she comes for a visit, I have to think of the twin bed and buy new bedding and of course that means new window treatments. Oh yippeeskippee, its a shopping trip. But I guess that might have to wait a bit, like until Paul gets a job. Like I said, this project will take some time, but will be well worth it. Ok folks, keep a check back for the work in progress. I'm excited, Paul on the other hand is giving me that look "I told you".

Welcome All!

As I said in a previous post, I am inaugurating my new blog. Still have lots of work to do, but I am excited to join the Blogworld!!! Please leave comments, advice, etc. I will be using this blog to post updates on the family, scrappin' info, and just daily tidbits I want to share with everyone. Hope you enjoy.

It is an Inaugural kind of day!!!

Today we inaugurated our 44Th President, but also stepped into history as he, Barack Obama, is the first African-American to hold this office. As I watched this historic event, I began thinking of what this means for our country. I had chills and many many tears. Tears for what this means to many African-Americans, knowing what they must feel, knowing what those who lived thru a time when they couldn't even drink from certain water fountains, ride the bus or be served a sandwich in a cafeteria, must feel, but also to what it means to me as a mother trying to raise her children to have no hatred in their hearts for anyone, trying to teach them that we are all equal in a world where many are still trying to put up barriers. I grew up in the South, grew up with a father who although has a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone no matter their race, still had a hint of racism in his heart. I also grew up in Clinton, Tennessee the location of its own historic event, when we took a handful of young black students and integrated them into our local high school. This in itself set off a series of events that ended in our high school being bombed. You see, we were the first high school in that area to be desegregated. Sometime when you have a chance, google, Clinton Senior High School, Clinton, TN and see what we were about then. This is not something I am proud of. I had racism all around me growing up, and today watching the coverage of this event, I knew that this was turning point for us all, that this meant as much to me, a white, 43 year old, middle class wife and mom. I can hold my head a little higher, feel a little safer, feel a little more hopeful about the future of this nation and feel that this nation will be a little stronger for my kids. I am proud to have Barack Obama as my president and I am proud to say as an American, my President is an African American, but most of all, he is a strong American, and he will make much needed changes in our nation. So today, in honor of President Obama, I am inaugurating my blog. Here's to you Mr. President, I am honored to have you lead this country.