Country Living Southern Style II

Thanks for all the prayers/good thoughts going up for Brice! They really paid off. He does NOT have meningitis and will be going home tomorrow. PRAISE GOD! We have been truly blessed. Happy New Year!~ Susan

We have been told my new great nephew, Brice, may have meningitis. He has been running a fever. Please keep him in your prayers. Also keep his Mom, April, in your prayers. She is very depressed over this. Will keep you updated as I find out information. Thanks so much in advance! Blessings!~ Susan

Happy New Year!~ Susan

My new great nephew (1st great on my side) is here! He was born today, December 27th, at 1:24 PM. His name is Aiden Brice and he will be called Brice. He weighed in at 7'11" and was 20 inches long. He is beautiful! I will be posting pics as soon as I can remember where the camera cord is. On a sad note, the baby's paternal grandmother, Bonnie, died just a few days ago,so she did not get to see him. We believe she has a good view from Heaven though, but please keep the Conway family in your prayers. Also, pray for mother and baby. Pray for April that she will heal quickly and for Brice that he will stay healthy. If you do not pray, you can hold good thoughts for them all. Thanks in advance!~ Susan

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Ours has been very nice. We hope all of you had a nice one too. We recieved yet another CHRISTmas miracle. We had a visitor yesterday morning. He and his wife said God had been dealing with them and told them we needed money and He wanted them to give us some. He handed my husband a wad of $20.00 bills. It made our Christmas much nicer because I had not bought anything. I was able to buy my daughter a few things she wanted and I was able to go to the grocery store to buy food to take to first my MIL's and then to my cousin's for my family's Christmas. It was a very nice day. I do have pictures. Will post them soon!~ Happy New Year!~ Susan

Our family, tonight, was the recipient of a CHRISTmas Miracle. We were watching TV, the story of Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon, when we received a knock on our door. It was two of my nephews and a great nephew with two HUGE boxes. I asked them what they were doing, they said, "Delivering your CHRISTmas." It was so unexpected, I didn't know what to say. Nobody really knows the extent of how bad things have been for us lately. We have lived off of boxed mac and cheese mixed with tuna or Rice-A-Roni mixed with a small can of chicken. Some nights, we might have pasta, but without the meat. We have had egg sandwiches and grilled cheese sandwiches. I have actually lost about 8 pounds, which I needed to lose, but I do not recommend doing it this way. I hugged my nephews and told them thank you. They told us Merry CHRISTmas and left. It was just that quick. When I opened the boxes, there were wrapped gifts. I did not have one gift under our tree for either of

I was tagged by a friend on Facebook. I'm not tagging anybody here, if you want to do it, just do it and send me a comment that you did it so I can read your answers. Rules:Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you and if you've done this already I want you to know me. 1) I'm a night owl. 2) I'm kind of OCD about certain things. 3) I want all my closet doors closed in my home before I can go to sleep. 4) I loved Twilight and am glad my daughter got me to read all four of the books. The movie rocked. 5) I bite my nails almost every hour of every day..and have done so since I was old enough to chew! 6) I want to finish my book. 7) I can't stand it when people don't like me or when I make someone mad at me. 8) I love listening to music. 9) I devour

T'was the month before Christmas When all through our land, Not a Christian was praying Nor taking a stand. See the PC Police had taken away, The reason for Christmas - no one could say. The children were told by their schools not to sing, About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things. It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say December 25th is just a ' Holiday '. Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit, Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it! CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod, Something was changing, something quite odd! Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa, In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda. As Targets were hanging their trees upside down, At Lowe's the word Christmas - was nowhere to be found. At K-Mart and Staples and Penney's and Sears, You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears. Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty are words that were used to intimidate me. Now Daschle, Now

Thank you Missie from http://missiesupsidedownworld.blogspot.com/and Liz (bethjunebug), for passing this wonderful blog award to me! Now, it's my turn to pass it along. Here are the rules:- 1. Please put the logo on your journal - Real People - Real Blogs. 2. Place a link from the person, from whom you received the award. 3. Nominate at least 7 if you can. 4. Put the links of those on your journal. 5. Leave a message on their journal to let them know. 6. Put the award on your sidebar/journal. It was very hard to pick from all the great blogs out there, but I narrowed it down after much hemming and hawing. So, without further adieu, here are my picks: 1. Amy from http://amysaysmeh.blogspot.com/-I picked Amy because she keeps me in stitches with her wit and when I am down she is awesome at giving me advice. She loves animals like I do and was one of the first friends I met in J-Land. 2. Lori from http://lorislaurel.blogspot.com-Lori always keeps us entertained with her busy life.

We were supposed to decorate our tree today. Hubby and I went to our storage unit earlier to get it and couldn't find it only to remember that we had donated it to charity last year. ::sigh:: It had been well used and had a bit of a hole in it, but we always turned that part toward the back. Neither of us are currently working, so no income. We decided we would go to the woods on our family's land to look for a tree. I picked Carebear up from school and drove to my MIL's house and she and I got out to walk through the woods to see what we could find. At one point, there was a nice wide path through the woods, toward the back of our family property, which led to somebody else's land, and it was soooooo pretty back there. I've never noticed it before even though I have walked by that same path numerous times. I guess it is really only visible around this time of year. My Carebear stayed on the regular path on our land, but I veered off and followed that wide

I have discovered just this morning there is a reason they say that cleanliness is next to godliness. I have been sick with a pretty bad upper respiratory infection for the last 2-3 weeks. It's amazing how something like that can really beat you down not just physically, but emotionally as well. Yesterday is the first day in about three weeks that I have had any energy at all. I tend to be a bit of a neat freak and being sick, things had gotten so out of order it was making me feel really depressed, so when I got up yesterday morning, I got up with a mission in mind, to get my "castle" back in order and I commenced to doing just that. I started with my daughter's room, which is on one end of our mobile home and worked my way forward. I reorganized her bedroom to hopefully make it easier for her to keep clean, I reorganized her bathroom and cleaned it. I skipped over my office because I knew that was going to take a while, so I saved it for last. I moved on to

Thanksgiving day wasn't a total loss. Although I spent part of it in bed and the other part on the sofa, the end of the day was quite nice actually. I got better, so I was able to finally hold some food down. My family went on to my MIL's without me. It is the first Thanksgiving in I don't know when that I didn't fix anything to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner, but I just wasn't able. After my husband and children went to my MIL's for food and fellowship, they brought me back all kinds of goodies. I ate very lightly, so as not to "lose" my food yet again and we spent the rest of the evening watching Newhart reruns in front of the tube as a family, so the end of the day was quite nice for me even though I didn't get to participate in the family festivities at my MIL's. She is very fragile and I didn't want to take the chance of making her sick. ****************************** Tonight, I was in my office on the computer and I hear scr

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Been quite sick for a couple of weeks now. Will be back ASAP good Lord willin' to fill you in on the going's on in our household. Just wanted to pop in long enough to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and even my friends in the U.K. can use tomorrow as a day to remember what you have to be thankful for. Blessings!~ Susan

My daughter and I attended my niece's baby shower last Sunday. While I forgot to take pictures of the baby shower, we did stop in several places to get some pics of the beautiful Autumn foliage. My daughter took most of the photos. I took Autumn Gold and Bartlett Pear tree changing. Click on View All Images for a better view. Because my journal background is translucent, it kind of makes it hard to see the photos well. :-( Happy Thanksgiving!~ Susan

Just wanted to pop in and take a moment to honor our veterans and our troops currently serving. May I say thank you to all of you who have served our great nation. Thank you for your sacrifice in helping to ensure the freedom of my family and I. May we pause for a moment of silence for those lives lost. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."John 15:13 Some families have experienced the ultimate sacrifice in losing their loved ones. My heart goes out to you. I will be eternally grateful for their sacrifice. Blessings, Susan

AUTHOR'S NOTE : This entry is in memory of my father-in-law, a proud veteran, all deceased veterans, and in honor of other veterans, as well as our current military who are presently serving our country whereever you might be, but most especially those of you in Iraq. You should have turned 86 today, Dad. Instead, we are mourning your death. At the same time, we continue to rejoice that you are no longer suffering and have gone on to a better place. I still feel so honored to have been the one out of our very large family to have stayed by your bedside all night long the night before you left us. I adored you and I know the feeling was mutual. I also feel honored to have been holding your hand when you took your last breath on this earth the next night. Leslie, one of your many granddaughter's, was holding your other hand, and some of your grandchildren and another daughter-in-law were also gathered around you with other family in the living room and kitchen. Those of us in y

I am a republican and I am proud of it. I did not vote for Bill Clinton when he was elected, but neither did I bash him while he was in office like a lot of Democrats have done who did not vote for President Bush. President Clinton had a rather likeable personality with lots of charm and charisma. Even some of the Republicans who voted for President Bush have changed their tune since he has been in office and are blaming him for everything that has gone wrong in our country. I am sick to death of the Bush-bashers. Let those who have bashed him walk in his shoes for a little while and see how easy it is to run a country! I do think President Bush has received a lot of the blame for policies President Clinton put into effect while he was in office that are still in effect now. Am I saying I think President Bush did everything right? No, I am not, but I do think he deserved us, as Americans, to be on our knees in prayer for him that he would make the right choices for America. After all,

very disappointed in America and this election. I feel like she has turned her back on God. I just have one thing to say: GOD HELP US!~

Today was such a nice day weatherwise and otherwise here in the deep south. I am a homebody and don't really get out that much. I have written about moving several times, but in case you are a new reader, I will fill you in. We moved back to our home state of Alabama from Colorado in March of 2005 to help our son pick up the pieces of his life after his wife left him. He had bought the house we previously lived in before the move from my father-in-law (we had rented it from Dad, we never owned it). We moved in with him per his request after we moved back from Colorado to help him deal with the pain he was going through after his wife walked out on him. He sold his house last November and now he is living with us in a very nice mobile home park just down the road from where his house was. He had sold the house to his supervisor. His supervisor was letting us still store things there because our storage unit is full, but he is not keeping the house, so we are having to get the rest o

Writing is my way of working through things. The way I wrote this entry will probably not make sense to any of you and for that, I apologize in advance. Approximately one year ago, my family was betrayed by a young man we took into our home when he had nowhere else to go. While my daughter, my son, and Hubby have seemingly moved past it, I have not. I am trying, but there is such pain there, I am still trying to work through it. I tend to be a fixer, a peacemaker if you will, but through all of this, I have learned that some things just cannot be fixed. If you are still interested read on and I hope it makes some kind of sense. It does to me and that is what matters, I guess. I let someone influence me not in a good way. I usually make up my mind about people on their own merit, not because of somebody else's opinion of them. I am sad to say I let myself be influenced by someone's opinion of another. All I knew of her was what I was told by him and he happened to be on the outs

I just have to take a moment and tell all of you how much I appreciate your taking the time to comment me and let me know I was in your prayers and good thoughts. I cannot tell you how much that means to me. You are the greatest friends one could ask for and I treasure each of you. Part of the problem has been resolved. I hope the other part goes as smoothly. To make a long story short, I had a major tif with two family members, one being my sis and the other being my 1st cousin who is like a sis to me because my Mom helped raise her. My sis and I worked things out last night at my daughter's Halloween party, so we are cool. I took all the blame, hugged her, told her I didn't want any major problems with her like that again, and that I loved her very much. Haven't seen my cuz yet to work it out with her, but hope to real soon. I am confident it can be worked out. Last night, we had a Halloween party at my Mom's on the lake for my daughter. She invited 30 kids. Six showe

I'm the mouse here. I have had a most emotionally draining day and could so use prayers and/or good thoughts. I thank you in advance. Susan

I have learned why I have pretty much become a hermit and keep to myself. I obviously don't have sense enough to socialize or be in public. I never seem to say the right things. Is there not anybody out there that understands me and won't judge me? Is there anybody I can talk around without fear of saying the wrong thing and being misunderstood? That knows me well enough to know I do not have a mean bone in my body, and that knows I am a good person, a person worth knowing. I am repeatedly told I get too involved. If I do, it's because I care. Why does that always have to be such a bad thing? We went to Wal-Mart today to pick up a few things. My son and daughter were with me. He kept getting on to me for getting in people's way. I was oblivious. They were getting angry with me. It sux to be sick and not have a brain anymore. I will be driving and have blank-outs. Notice I did not say black out, I said blank-out. Everything I know will just leave me, my mind just goes bl

Graphic courtesy of my friend, Anna ( annalisa135@aol.com ). I have spent a large portion of my life taking folks with needs, mostly kids, into my home. The first one was a family member, he was the oldest one. He had fallen on hard times and had nowhere else to go. This kid grew up knowing what it was like to have to live out of a car with his parents and four other siblings, so it really blesses my heart to see him be so successful financially now, especially in these hard times. I took a cousin's child in when she had fallen on hard times. I actually went to court and got physical custody of her son (with her permission), mostly to keep him out of the clutches of alcoholic grandparents. I happily returned him to her after she met a decent man even before they got married; however, they did go on to get married, and have now been married for 20 years. They own a beautiful place in the country and have went on to have a daughter and they attend church regularly. Their son is old e

Graphic courtesy of my friend, Linda (fasttrack58) Conversation between Hubby and me: HUBBY: "Where is my wife? I want my wife back." ME: "I don't know. I want her back too!" Since this thing called menopause has settled into my life, I am so not the sweet humble person people are used to. For several years now I have been "losing" myself. Menopause has made me evil, and the kicker is I really cannot help it. Not only has it changed my personality, but I have the mouth of a sailor. I am sure my minister Father has turned over several times in his grave. Even my own mother has commented on it. I am so not proud of it. It has gotten to where I am afraid to leave my house because I am afraid I will go off on somebody and live to regret it or greatly embarrass myself. My husband went with me a little while back to the vet to pick up one of our animals. I had gone off on the receptionist earlier in the day, but profusely apologized to her late

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought I would use one of Sugar's graphics. Hopefully, it will remind us to do our self examination and bring about awareness for breast cancer. I got all my journals transferred, except for my photo journal. Doesn't look like my photos transferred well in any of my journals so I didn't see the point. I will redo it at some point and time when I have a few minutes, but don't hold your breath! The one thing I did like better on AOL was the cool way we could display our photos. Wish they would to that here. I still have a few things to figure out, but have settled in quite nicely. The main thing is I have to figure out how to merge my Old Country Living Southern Style with my new one. I had already recreated it over here before I learned they were going to figure out a way to transfer them and it didn't automatically join with my new one. They sent me instructions on how to do it, but I don't understand them. Do

Thirty years ago today, October 7, 1978, I was in a white dress and veil walking down the isle to say I do to the love of my life, Donnie. Just months before, I had broken off an engagement with another guy that I had dated for probably 1.5 years. Donnie had also just been through a prior fairly long relationship where there had been talk of marriage. It is at this time of my reminiscing that I am glad that those prayers I prayed to God to be with the one prior to Donnie went unanswered. Donnie, too, had prayed and prayed about being with his prior girlfriend. They had planned to grow old and gray together and he was quite devastated when she broke things off with him, but you see, God had another plan… It started one night when my sister wanted me to go with her to her boyfriend, Melvin’s church to meet a friend of his. She was telling me how goodlooking she thought this guy was and how she felt we would be perfect for each other. I still wasn’t over my boyfriend, but I went along wit

Aunt Mary took the photo of Mary Jane posed so pretty on the Victorian-looking sofa in our living room in our house in Broomfield, CO while she was visiting us from Alaska (wish I could have brought that furniture back with me to Alabama, but it would not fit on the moving truck ::sigh::). MJ's previous owner had in her records that she is part Siberian Husky and part Australian Shepherd. Her right eye is half brown and half blue while her left eye is totally brown (you can tell somewhat in the head shot pic). Sadly, she has developed glaucoma in her right eye, so it is hard to see the color now. ::sniff:: I have had people argue me down that she is a Border Collie. Border Collies usually have more white in them than MJ does. I have looked up both the Siberian Husky and Australian Shepherd and have found dogs of Mary Jane's coloring in both breeds. She loves having her belly rubbed, as you can see in the photo of my daughter and her. Lemme tell ya, this is one spoiled mutt (I

Pardon me, if you have already read this entry in my original journal on AOHELL. This is a favorite personal entry and I don't want to lose it, so I beg your pardon making you have to read it again if that is indeed the case. The original post is as follows: My baby girl was supposed to be going to her homecoming dance tonight, but she didn't make it because she was having trouble breathing and did not feel like going. My Mom had spent some money to outfit her. It breaks my heart she didn't get to go. Tears rolled down her face. It tore me up. Maybe when she is feeling more up to it, she can dress up in her outfit and I can at least take pictures of her. Her dress is gorgeous and fits her like a glove. The theme was Hollywood and all the kids were supposed to dress up like a Hollywood star. I have been tending to her and my husband since his work accident a few days ago. It made me think about what I have to leave behind when it is my time to go and I leave this world. My

I have been urged by some of you in J-Land at AOL to please continue my Country Living Southern Style journal, so per your request, here I am! It really sux that AOL is doing this to us! I have been a part of AOL since 1997! I have had journals on AOL since 2005. I started my first journal while living in Colorado. It was called Susan's Shenanigans, but then I had to delete it because of an online stalker. He eventually found me again at CLSS , but I just made my journal private. I decided to come on over like everyone else since several of you have urged me to. I like AOL much better, I think it is way more user friendly, but guess they don't feel us journalers bring them enough revenue. ::big sigh:: Nevertheless, I have made some wonderful friends in J-Land from around the world. I hope to stay in touch with all of you either through email or blogging. I apologize that I have not had the time to stop by and keep up with every entry. Life keeps me busy, for sure! I look forw