Christmas in September??!!

I was at Sams club today and I know stores start early with their Christmas sales, but September?! They had a display in the front of the store with a big tv and christmas songs playing for everyone in the checkout to hear. I cant take it!!! I want to put a stop to earlier and earlier Christmas sales. Dont get me wrong, I love Christmas but not until after Thanksgiving or maybe even a week or so before Thanksgiving. But September? Give me a break Sams club, you are on my bad list. If I didnt love your deals so much I would protest your store.

The Queen mother

I am starting to get the big head. My middle daughter, Alisha has been voted to be on homecoming court for Queen. This is a new area for me but I think that I could learn to like to be royalty. The other day Tom's prison band went to our church youth group to lead the service and we were enjoying a home cooked meal that one of our friends had prepared for them. All of the sudden one of the men called me the first lady. Everyone started calling me that. I guess that makes Tom the president, but only of the prison. So maybe that isnt an honor after all. Oh well, I kinda liked it. First Lady and now maybe Queen mother. I should get some new clothes and a few pieces of Jewelry. I am very proud of Alisha. If anyone deserves to be Queen of Appalachian State University it is her. She is definitely a faithful appalachian student. She is a trusting, loyal friend. A very beautiful girl inside and out. She loves Jesus! I think she will represent her school wonderfully. I really thank Jesus for giving her this opportunity. (And I really would like to be the Queen mother.)

help Tom is tearing out a wall for real

We are no longer just talking about tearing out a wall. It is gone! Tom started this week and now our house upstairs looks like a house being built that is not done. There are joists up but no wall. Next he is going to pull the wiring up to the attic so he can cut the joists out. He is going to put can lighting in the ceiling and then do some drywall to remove a door. Then fix the ceiling where he took out the wall, then replace the carpet where the wall was. I think it will be nice when it's done. I just think Tom isnt happy unless he's tearing something out or changing something in our house. I love that he likes these projects but he becomes a little obsessive about the project and that is all he wants to do. I think he will go slower this time. But then I dont want him to go too slow cause I cant wait until the room is done. It will be a loft at the top of our stairs. It is going to be very nice. I hope we will love it. It's almost like getting a new house. Without all the moving!

being a mom

Being a mom is one of the funnest things I can think of being. Does that make sense. I had all three girls come home this weekend and Andrew and Matt. I just love being around my kids and their husband and boyfriend. Maybe I'm boring but to me there is nothing better than sitting around the table together reminising about past fun times or talking about what's happening now or what our plans are for the future. We just have a really good time together. Sometimes I laugh so hard I almost pee my pants. ( pardon the expression) But it's true. Well if laughter is good medicine then we should be a pretty healthy family. I think laughing about silly things really is healthy for a person. We all have serious times enough, lets make light of things now and again.

I am so proud of my girls. Sheila, thanks for being who you are. You are so beautifully unique. ( and very chic with your new haircut),I am glad that you took a stand early in life about who you were in Christ. You are so much fun when you arent sleepy. Thanks for choosing Andrew. I love him just like he's my own. He is so fun and it just seems like he's always been a part of our family. Alisha, thanks for being so loving and for not having the" B "factor as your sisters call it. I think you are an amzing girl for God. I hope we can call you queen Alisha after this month. You certainly look like a beauty queen. I think that Matt is a very cute and nice boyfriend. He has been fun to be around and I think he is very talented. I want him to put on another concert for us with the real violin. I appreciate that you have high standards and stick to them. Emily, I think that you are such an amazing cute girl. You are very smart and also have an incredibly high standard. You know what you want and are very determined when you choose to be. I know God has great things in store for you, take time to listen to Him. I know I will love your future boyfriend too. I cant wait until I meet him.

So anyway. I had a great weekend. I had my yardsale and I think it went very well. I got rid of alot of stuff and made some money. We sold Emiy's car to Alisha and Emily's friend from college and she is so excited about it. I pray that car will bless her for many years by getting her from point A to point B without any problems. I just feel blessed. Tom's Bills won so he is really happy. We had a great service at church and I feel full of life. God is so good to me.

teaching

I teach 2nd grade on wednesday night at my church. I have done it for many years and we just started back up for the 2006-2007 year. It is always so interesting to see the character of the classes because each year is different. I teach with my best friend Wanda and we have got this down to a science. Kids are so fun to watch and evaluate. We had 25 students tonight and it was really a good class. We always start with the rules. No talking without raising your hand. 3 strikes and your out to Pastor Melvin! which means your parents are going to find out you have misbehaved. (not usually a good thing) Then we have a lesson and some games and craft or fun lesson thing to do. I usually have a hard time picking what I will do, because there is so much to choose from and we only have 60 minutes. I do love teaching. I have Colby Neimeyer in my class this year. She was the flower girl in Sheila's wedding. I gave each of the kids a chance to share 1 thing about themselves and she said, " I was the flower girl in your daughters wedding." Well after that every girl wanted to share that they were in someone's wedding. Arent kids great? I think that this will be an interesting class and hopefully they will love me and Ms. Wanda and they will learn more about the Lord.

a fun picture

hiking with my girls, andrew and matt

(Emily, you should be able to comment now!)

having a yard sale

I am planning for a yard sale in the next week. I have done many in the past but kinda got to the place where I thought and Tom thought that it was too much work to take all the things you dont want anymore and put a price on them and then let people come to your house and start looking through all your stuff and try to get you to take less for it. Plus they always want to buy what you are not selling in your garage. BUT we have been cleaning out and organizing our house since Emily went to college. (I guess you would call this our empty nester projects) We have some big ticket items that I think will do well in a yard sale. We have 2 desks, bed sets, lots of miscellaneous stuff that I took out of the attice, etc. It's amazing how this thing can snowball. We just bought a new desk so I have to sell 2 old ones. Does that make sense?? Now I want to sell our family room sofa and love seat and my dishes that I have had for years. All of the sudden I just want to change everything and get a bunch of new. That is dangerous because you never sell your old for what the new will cost. YIKES help me somebody! I was going to have this sale this saturday but Sheila (My firstborn) has invited us to come to her sweet little town's festival. She really wants us to come so I will prolong the agony of this yard sale to another day. Hopefully it wont be raining next week. I have to get this stuff out of my garage, cause that is one of our next projects!!! Clean and organize the garage. Isnt life fun?

getting a cold

I dont like it when I am getting a cold. I cant be like Tom who is just sick for maybe one day or two. When I get a cold it lasts for a good week(or should I say bad) week. First I start to feel a little tired then I get some congestion, then my throat feels tight and then I either need to blow or cant blow my nose because it is running like crazy or all stuffed up. Then my ears feel stopped up and then I have drainage down my throat and start to cough like crazy and feel like I am gagging. It is a miserable feeling. I wish I could see in my body to see what those little nasty germs are doing to me to cause that miserable stuff to happen. Anyhow, I hope it wont ruin a fun Labor day weekend. My Emily is home and Matt and Alisha are coming tomorrow. Sheila and Andrew have their own life this weekend. We will miss them. We are having steak and shrimp. I hope that I can taste it with my cold.

Do you have dust?

I thought when Emily left I would be sitting around with nothing to do. I cant even take time on my day off to rest. I am busier than ever.

I love cleaning things out and I out to be the happiest person in the county as Tom and I are cleaning like crazy. Do you find that after six months or so things get a little dirty and dusty if you dont take them off of shelves? Boy are there a lot of dust bunnies living in the Burger house. I love how it looks, smells and feels after it's clean.

Guess I better get back to my cleaning and organizing, besides it's raining and hurricane Ernesto is coming what else is there to do?

saturday fun

Today is our first saturday at home as empty nesters. We have had a pretty busy week and it has gone fast. At this rate Emily will be graduating before we get everything accomplished that we have set out to do. We decided to make a list of all the things we are wanting to do, not just with our house but fun things we have talked about and never do. I hope that our expectations are not too high for our budget. If it wasnt for money we could do anything but unfortunately we have to plan for our fun.

I dont know why but it seems that since we are empty nesters everyone is talking about it. We are hearing it on the radio and it just seems to be in the air. I guess that is just because it is happening to us we are tuned into that info. It was suggested on a empty nester website that Tom was looking at that you immediately do something with your childs room. Either make it a nice guest room or an office or fun room that you have always wanted. Well we are ahead of the game. It is, as we speak being turned into a beautiful guest bedroom.(And the guests are Sheila, Andrew, Alisha, and Emily.) I think they will love what we're doing to the room. We have great ideas and taste. (if i do say so myself)

We went to a church yard sale this morning but unfortunately Tom didnt understand when I said that I wanted to go that we go early. He got up early but didnt wake me up. I woke up after 8 and was not too happy. He said that I confuse him as he gets in trouble if he wakes me up and now he was in trouble because he didnt. I can see we need to make more concise plans. When we got to the yard sale it was a zoo. I think everyone in the community was there. All the good items for the most part were gone. If they had any. I imagine they had the bookcase that I wanted and the nightstand. " DARN" (That is only in my imagination though. ) We then had breakfast at bojangles and then came home and Tom painted and I did a little shopping for the items we are looking for. Basically no luck.

I stopped to get lunch at one of our favorite places and I couldnt remember the sandwhich Tom normally orders for us. Well I ordered what I thought was it and it wasnt. The place changed their name and obviously some of their food items too. I wanted to cry, because I knew he would love my idea. Tom ate it anyway and I made a turkey sandwhich. The wrong sandwhich didnt look good to me. So booooooo for Red Brick Pizza that changed mine and Toms favorite sandwhich!! Tom painted some more and I decided to lay in the sun as I am looking a little pale. I hate that at the end of the summer when you loose your good summer vacation tan, because it's so darn hot outside that you melt if you sit in the sun for more than 10 minutes. I am looking forward to a beautiful fall. I talked with all 3 girls today and feel satisfied with life as they are doing good and I love them so dearly. It was a good saturday!

Well here I am again. Today is my day off at my normal job as a chiropractic assistant , but I clean house for a very neat lady every other week. She recently moved into this gigantic beautiful house. It's really fun to clean for her now. Then the rest of my day off, I usually do stuff around my house or shop or anything I want. I used to have Emily home and we would go shopping watch a movie, eat food that dad doesnt normally like, like tacos. Then in the evening we would watch Survivor. Emily got me started on that a couple of years ago and now I am an addicted maniac. But this year I will be watching alone. It will be kinda sad.

Tom has been in a cleaning out mood. He is dealing with the empty nest in his own way. I think he wants to get things really cool in our house so that when the girls and Andrew and their friends come to visit, they will really enjoy it. And want to come back often. He has some neat plans but I have to keep him in line. I think this saturday I am going to make him go to a yard sale a church is having and look for a piece of furniture I have in mind. I am bribing him with breakfast at Bojangles. Dont get me wrong. I am still feeling a little sad about my girls growing up and being away from us, but I am making it a purpose to have some projects, try some new things and have a whole lot of fun with the man I have loved for 26 years. Well off to have a good afternoon.

Well here is my first posting on my blog. My oldest daughter Sheila started my blog for me as I am now an empty nester and she thought that I needed something to fill my time. Maybe she's right. Anyway she says this is a way for my girls to know what is happening with my life. Maybe it will be fun.

I left my baby Emily at Appalachian State University on Friday the 18th of August. I didnt cry when I left her but Tom and I were going to stay in the area in a mountain cabin and I was pretty excited to do that. It made it easier to leave her. We had the best time there. We had a great meal and relaxed and sat in the hot tub for awhile and talked and laughed and planned a little of our life without our girls. We had a great lunch on Saturday and did a little shopping and then I felt really icky and all of the sudden I knew that I was getting sick. It put a little damper on the weekend, but it still was a wonderful time.

Now we are into our first week without kids and so far so good. We are cleaning out some things and painting Emily's room and tearing some things up. In the end, I think the changes will be good. It helps to stay busy so we dont get sad.

Being parents is the best part of our lives. It has been so much fun but maybe that is because G0d gave us such wonderful girls. We have had our moments but not too many. I love hanging out with my family and laughing and eating and of course playing games too. I think that we have the most fun as a family. We love our new son too. Andrew is Sheila's husband and he is great. He fits like he has been a part of us forever. I love him. And now Alisha has a boyfriend and I am liking him pretty well too. I know that some day Emily will come home and say "mom and dad, this is my boyfriend so and so....." and I will love him too. You see Tom and I have been praying about who our girls marry since they were born. So I cant help but love them.

Anyway, I will probably not have the most exciting blog but hopefully interesting to some.

the beginning

I am making this blog for my mom to use. :o) Her last birdie has just flown from the nest, and she needs a mommy blog to keep us updated on her adventures without kids! I know she'll have plenty!