Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my sweet Momma's birthday. 

Even though she doesn't yet read this blog, she may one day, and I don't think she would appreciate me telling you her age.  So I won't.  But I will share some pictures with you.  They may even be slightly extremely embarassing, but not for her, for me.  :) 

Speaking of birthdays, this first picture is of my mom and me at her 40th surprise party.  Mmmm...there are sooo many things wrong with this picture.  I mean look at that mullet!  The patterned turtleneck, index finger ring, and light washed jeans aren't great either, but really, who cares when the guy is sporting a braided leather belt and mullet.  Can you say 90s?!  P.S.  This man is a great person, and we love him all the same, mullet and all. :)

Mom and me at GA Mother/Daughter weekend at Camp Cordova

My high school baccalaureate

Panama City, FL

I was blonde and sunburned.

Atlanta Braves game

Four generations of women

Loxley, AL

I love this picture. 

This year the little token of love my sister and I chose to give mom for her birthday was this beauty, found here. 

Happy Birthday, Momma!  I love you. 

Weekend Projects

This weekend I had a little streak of craftiness. Months ago I bought three Ikea mirrors from a thrift store in Canton, MS. When I purchased the mirrors they were hunter green in color, not a color I often use in my decorating. At some point I painted them to coordinate with the colors in our bedroom. For the past several months they have been hanging on a wall that leads from our bedroom to the bathroom. I haven't been satisfied with them for a while but couldn't quite decide how to improve on them. Finally, after seeing some different projects on other blogs I decided to go with a quatrefoil design for the mirrors. I ended up having to hand paint the pattern. Had I thought this project through from the get go I could have cut my work in half by using spray paint and the stencil I created. Oh well, live and learn, and make it up as you go. :)

I'm satisfied with the overall look now. Will likes to point out that the pattern is not centered on any of the mirrors. It's interesting how different the same pattern looks when positioned differenlty.

On top of my craftiness, I had a Martha Stewart moment. I made a batch of strawberry freezer jam. It's actually my third batch of the summer, but we're eating through it pretty quickly. It feels good to know all three ingredients that go into the jam I put on my pbjs, biscuits, etc. The hardest part of the whole process is cutting and mashing the berries. This go around I had to use a fork to mash the berries. As Alton likes to say, having the right tools makes things much easier. Let's just say this will be my next kitchen gadget purchase.

How did I not receive a potato masher as a wedding gift?

Despite my mashing travails I will continue to stock my freezer with this goodness...

I expect to get a few more projects accomplished this week. At 5am this morning I saw Will off for a 10 day trip to Sheridan, Wyoming. He and a group of youth are going to do VBS and face to face witnessing at the rodeo there. I'm going to try to keep myself busy and find ways to get out of this little apartment as much as possible. But since 4:30am is not something I'm used to seeing I think I'll start the week by taking a nap.

Good morning and good night.

Jamie