Woman to Woman Encouragement

I received an e-mail on Friday and it made my day... so I thought that I should pass it on...

Woman to Woman Encouragement

Someone will always be smarter. Their house will be bigger. They willdrive a better car. Their children will do better in school. And their partners will fix more things around the house.

So let it go and love you and your circumstances.

Think about it. The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart. And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children. The richest woman you know -she's got the car, the house, the clothes - might be heartbreakingly lonely.

So, love you. Love who you are right now. Tell yourself, "I am too blessed to be stressed."

"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world."


When I think about all the wonderful women in my life- I knew that I just had to share! I'm not sure how many people read my blog... but I know the women who have told me that they read- and I love them all dearly!!

I wish the best for everyone in 2009 and hope that we can continue to encourage each other.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

December has been a busy month of making cookies, going to parties and celebrating Christmas with co-workers, friends and family!! I don't have all the pictures from the holidays yet- but I'll share a few from our cookie-baking experience...

Here are pictures of Marissa and Abby making cut-out cookies (best part is playing in the flour)

James and I had a huge Christmas cookie making party. Lisa, Abby, Marissa, Audra, Sklar, Clayton, my mom & dad and Grandma Hembree came over to help us make five different kinds of cookies- which we are still eating (three plus weeks later). James gave me one of my Christmas presents the night the night before- a new Kitchette mixer- which I love!!!!

Here's a picture of some of the cookies before they went into the oven- notice the "hot dog" that Marissa made... so creative. Of course it didn't look the same when it came out of the oven.

Even though Audra, Clayton and Skylar came over to our house- they weren't very interested in helping make cookies- they decided to cuddle up and watch tv instead.

James and I attended several parties- including our work party, Lewis family party and traveling to Wisconsin to spend a week with the Moseley family. It has been a very busy Christmas!!

We are both looking forward to a quiet night at home- just the two of us- for New Year's Eve. We both worked all day today and, after traveling so much over Christmas, are looking forward to staying home.

Our Holiday cards will be mailed out soon (for those of you that have been wondering)- so that we can wish you all of the best for 2009.

Best wishes and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

I've been TAGGED

Denise "tagged" me so I need to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder from our computer on our blog. The only thing about this is that James has many folders of pictures on our computer from before we were dating...

This is a picture from 2000. It's Christmas morning at James' parents' house. In the picture is James' brother Bill, Ben (who will be 9 this year), Julia- James' sister-in-law, and of course Sieben and Nitney (James' parents' dog). This picture was taken 4 years before James and I started dating.

The funny thing to me about this picture is the fact that this living room and the "Christmas morning" scene looks exactly the same as it does every year that I have been at their house (which has been every Christmas morning for the last 3 years) though Nitney has now passed- sadly.

I'm going to "tag" some of my friends- but you'll have to look for their posts on Facebook not blogs. Enjoy!!

10-YEAR COLLEGE REUNION!!!

Over a week ago James and I drove to Milligan College, TN for my 10-year college reunion!!! I can't believe how quickly time has passed... I feel like it was just yesterday that I graduated.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend- we had a blast!! I was so glad to see lots of friends from our class- and of course a few friends that didn't graduate with us but have a special place in my heart!!!!!

After our small gathering- we enjoyed a parade, which is new since we graduated, but quite fun!! The students make floats or ride in a car or truck and get to entertain all of us. They even threw candy for those who brought their children.

On Saturday night a group of us went to Cici's for dinner and enjoyed catching up, laughing and (you know me) crying a little. I enjoyed so much seeing everyone!!!! The highlights of the weekend (for me anyway) were getting to spend time with "the gang" (Beth, Brian, Emily, Misty, Kyle & Megan, Ladd & Emily, Adam & MaryEllen and everyone). Thank you for being so kind to James and allowing him to feel welcome into our "family."

One of the strongest bonds that I have are to my friends from Milligan. I love that we can go for years and not see eachother- but every time we are together it is like no time has passed. I love you all... and you will always have a special place in my heart.

And- Denise, Danielle, Amy and Kerri... I missed you all soooo much!!! We'll have to get toghether soon.

We had a great time and were sad to leave. Hope to keep in touch with everyone- and see you all at our 20th (if not sooner!!)

Cute Ballerina

Tonight I went to watch Marissa at Dance class. She was dressed up in her Ballet outfit with her cute little Ballerina slippers (she's on the very right in the picture below).

Here are a few pictures... they are a little blurry- but soooo cute!!!!

Here's a picture of Marissa on her tippie-toes holding onto the bar. She was so excited to show off and dance around in her beautiful pink Ballerina outfit.
Marissa kicked higher than all of the other girls in the class... she was so excited!! I can't wait to go again and see her dance. She loves dressing up and being a "princess ballerina." We had a great evening!!!!

What's in our back yard?

I noticed that Beth posted last week about the beautiful creatures and flowers she found and took pictures of in her back yard. After looking over it- I thought that I would share a few pictures of our back yard... after Ohio felt the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

This is one of the four trees that we lost during the storm last week. You can see that the tree just literally broke it two (half of the tree was still standing).

Unfortunately we didn't think to get pictures of the other trees until we had cleaned up most of the yard (which took us four days).

Here is a picture of part of our fence that the neighbor's tree fell on. This is the same part of the fence that we have had repaired two times already for trees falling on it... still waiting to hear back on that quote. The neighbor was kind enough to clean up the tree from the fence- mostly because I'm sure he wanted the firewood.

It's amazing to me that Hurricane Ike was so strong that it caused such damage in Ohio- which is many miles away from Texas... Even though we had plenty of damage and lost our power (and water- since we have a well)- we are still lucky that we didn't suffer any real loss.

I'll try to post some more pictures in the fall when leaves start to change- we really do have a beautiful back yard and I'd love to share it with friends are family that have yet to see it.

Walk for Autism

Over two years ago (on April 5, 2006), Christopher Kuhlmann was diagnosed with autism. Chris is the son of my friends Ken and Kate- who I have known and grown very close to over the last 10 years. Chris is a wonderful 6 year old who is planning to start the first grade this year. He loves learning the alphabet and writing letters, he loves reading stories, swinging and especially watching movies. He is a very special boy with some challenges.

Here are some facts on Autism that you may not know:

- 67 children are diagnosed with autism every day
- A new case is diagnosed almost every 20 minutes
- Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of less prevalent childhood diseases


James and I have joined Ken and Kate’s relay team to walk on Sunday, September 28TH. If you feel led to help, please click on the website below and click on my name (Susan Moseley) and make a tax deductible donation.

http://www.walknowforautism.org/c.mrKQIUPAIoE/b.3619331/siteapps/teampage/ShowPage.aspx?c=mrKQIUPAIoE&b=3619331&sid=arKJK0NMLjLRJ2OGIsE

Thank you in advance for any donations or words of encouragement you can offer me and/or our team.


Susan