The Winner Is....

Thanks to those who played along and the winner is.......

Lana!    Yay Lana!!!  Congratulations!

I have been reading Lana's blog for some time now and absolutely love her blog and her.  We have a lot in common and she has the cutest little boy and she is also a teacher!  Even better...she loves the Vols. lol

Lana picked my son Jason's pumpkin as her favorite. :-)

To those who picked the 1st pumpkin, that was mine.  I didn't think anyone would pick my pumpkin. lol

Lana, send me your address and I will put your Starbucks gift card in the mail.

Check back next week for a fun giveaway just in time for the holidays. :-)

Fun Day & A Giveaway

Yesterday was such a blessing from God.  First, it was a gorgeous Fall day.  We didn't get to have our Saturday family breakfast so we had it yesterday. Afterwards, we all headed to a local pumpkin patch and bought a few pumpkins for our yearly pumpkin carving contest. Pictures to follow.

This year we did pretty good at carving.  Mine is always the simple carving while the other three have to be more detailed. ;)

Afterwards, we decided since it was a beautiful evening we would grill out hamburgers and I made baked beans and fries.

I am thankful for the time spent with family.

Our pumpkins:

A few more photos:

 David

 Me

 G

Jason

Just to make this fun, tell me in a comment which pumpkin you like best and I will choose a comment at random and give you a 10.00 gift card to Starbucks. 

You have until Friday morning. :)

Baby It's Cold Outside & A Kindle Fire Giveaway

I know I am not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but if I did, I would highly recommend this book. The cover is beautiful, and the story inside is just as wonderful as the cover.

I realize the pain of losing someone close to me around the holidays. In fact, it's hard to lose a loved one and even harder to face the holidays without them.  The characters in this book have all dealt with deep loss but Susan writes a beautiful story of hurt and loss turned into forgiveness and the renewal of hope and the restoration of enjoying life and the celebration of Christmas. Susan May Warren is one of my favorite authors and I recommend all of her books to you.

About the book: Baby It's Cold Outside

Hope finds the hopeless when a storm hits.

It's Christmas weekend 1949, and despite the threat of a storm, the townspeople of Frost are determined to continue their holiday traditions, if only as a means to forget the war that they had all just suffered through. But the suffering hasn't ended for Dottie Morgan who lost her only son in the war. She's preparing to wallow in her isolation for the weekend, when Violet, nearly a spinster at age 29, dares to make a request that will force Dottie to publicly revive the memory of her dead son.

When a storm traps the two women at home with a strange young man who has an unbelievable confession and a neighbor with more to do with Violet's past than she would like, no one can predict how this Christmas will give them all a second chance.

Read an excerpt here and find out the story behind the novel.

About Susan:  Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder ofwww.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)

A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at:www.susanmaywarren.com.

Link to buy the book: HERE

About the giveaway and party: 

Warm up to Christmas early this year with Susan May Warren's Baby, It's Cold Outside! To celebrate the release of her new Christmas book with Summerside Press, she and the publisher are giving away a Kindle Fire and hosting an early Christmas Party on Facebook!

Read what the reviewers are saying here.

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. Giveaway ends on 10/26!

One festive winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire
• Baby, It's Cold Outside by Susan May Warren

But, wait there’s more! Join Susan May Warren on 10/27 for merriment and a few early Christmas presents at her Baby, It's Cold Outside Christmas party! Grab your Christmas sweaters, socks and pj’s and join Susan and a few friends for a fireside chat about her recent books (Heiress & Baby, It’s Cold Outside), holiday traditions, favorite Christmas recipes, a trivia contest and more! Invite your friends and don’t miss the fun!

RSVP here and we'll see you on October 27th at 5 PM PST / 8 PM EST!

Blog tour schedule:  HERE

Disclaimer:  I was given this book for review. 

Raining in the Hills

My Simple Pleasure for this week goes along with the title of this post.

Today it has rained all day.  The soaking kind of rain and we are in the 50's today! Amen.

I decided to put a roast and carrots in the crock pot for dinner tonight. Good choice. The house smells so good and I cooked green beans and yeast rolls and mashed potatoes to go along with it.

We also decided to spend the day in our pajamas and veg on the couch watching Body of Proof episodes.

This has been a laid back rainy day and that is my simple pleasure for the day.

Added to that, watching the birds enjoy the rain.  A blue jay landed in my tree that is outside of my kitchen window and it was soaked, it's little "mohawk" was soaked but the bluejay was enjoying the rain. Made me laugh watching it.

I hope you have enjoyed your day!

Sunday Catch Up

Did you all have a great weekend?  Can you believe it's almost over? Me either.

We are sitting here watching Sunday night football.  Yesterday's game was awful. The end.

I wanted to come on here and give God some praise.

He blessed us with the most beautiful weekend!  I don't think that any picture I could have taken would have done it justice.  This is such a beautiful fall season.

Yesterday we cleaned house and then out for lunch and then did some more shopping. We came home and my bff and one of her daughters came over and we watched the game and we had the best time despite the outcome.

Today we went to church and we are discussing Randy Alcorn's book, Heaven in Sunday school.   We had a great discussion and our worship service was in a word, sweet.  Sweet fellowship and sweet move of God.

Afterwards both my sons and friend Georgia went out to eat lunch at Ruby Tuesday. It was such a great lunch and conversation.  We went to Kohls again and got a few more deals.  Afterwards we came home and I had time for a nap before small group. :)

Our small group is discussing the book Radical. Again, a wonderful and fun time of fellowship.  I cannot believe the food we had to eat afterwards.  Baptists know how to eat. lol

I am thankful for the blessings that God gave us this weekend!!!

I am thinking of going to the mountains tomorrow.  I am hoping it will be less crowded.  Hopefully, I will have some pictures to share with you.

Have a great and blessed week. Praying God blesses each of you with a special blessing this week.

God is Able!!!

Sweet Home

We are back from our trip to Alabama and I am happy to be back home.  Sweet Home Alabama,  Tennessee!  :-)

We had a great time and everyone was so nice to us, from the hotel front desk clerk to sales people at any store we went to.

I came home and took a long nap on the couch. Luggage is still on my bed.

Another thing that was cool while in Alabama, there are a lot of U.T. Vol fans.  The Bama fans didn't appreciate our orange and white shirts. lol   They kept saying to us, Um, Roll Tide, to which I replied, Go Vols! ;)   This is one of many reasons I love living in the South, we love our football.

While there we ate a restaurant that I have never eaten at but I have heard from a few friends how much they loved this place and they were right.


Cheddars! The best french fries and I tried the Philly Steak and Cheese. Delicious!  We also caved in and tried their croissants drizzled with butter and honey. So good.

On Sunday we drove to Murfreesboro for a visit to my favorite bakery and I have missed this place since we moved back, Julia's Bakery.  My word.  Her cakes are the best I have ever eaten.

We decided to stay in and get takeout and watch the Vols play. They lost. :(   It was a hard game to watch and we lost our QB. :((    Gonna be a hard season now.  

I am so thankful for the time away. Thankful for the blessings in each day that God gives each of us.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!! 

I hope you had a great weekend!

A Little Ahead

Good morning!  It's already Thursday and it will be the weekend before we know it!  This week as flown by and I like that because it's a big weekend in our neck of the woods. :)

Until then, I am drinking my first cup of coffee in my Christmas mug and getting ready to work on my Bible study and read some in my newest book from Joyce Meyer, Living Beyond Your Feelings.  It' s a great book and I recommend it to anyone.

This is why it's a big weekend in our area:

The VOLS play:

The Georgia Bulldogs!! 

I would love to lay down some smack talk but I will keep quiet until Saturday night. lol 

I had a friend trying to sell her tickets to this game. I was sooooooo tempted. Did I say sooooo tempted? If we had a stronger team I would fork over that kind of money but after going to the Bama/UT game last year and experiencing seeing my first loss in Neyland Stadium, I don't think I can. :) The end and amen.

Lastly, I just have to give God some praise.  We have been blessed this Fall season. I know we are only a few weeks into it but the weather has been gorgeous.  The mornings are cool and the colors are beautiful.  I cannot wait to head up to the mountains soon. 

AND

Next week we will be celebrating my oldest son's 23rd birthday!!  No words.  Life moves too fast.

A Holiday Giveaway

I want share again about a blog that I have recently began reading.

Matthew Mead is having a holiday giveaway.  A 500.00 Visa giveaway!




Head on over and read all about it HERE.

You may also buy his holiday magazine HERE.   You can get hundreds of inspired ideas for the holidays and recipes and so much more.

Here is a video with a sneek peak of Matthew's Holiday Magazine:



Christmas will be here before you know it, so what are you waiting for, head on over to Matthew's website and look around, order his magazine and enter his generous giveaway!

Happy Holidays!  ;)

Welcome October

October is here and this month is full of activity.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy this time of year?

I love Saturdays.  A day that runs at a slower pace. A day where I can be somewhat lazy if I want to be and this day is full of great SEC football games!  Cheering for my Vols today!

Usually, one of my Bff's comes over with her family and we cook great food and watch the game together but this Saturday we don't play an SEC opponent (but every game is important) and in our area this day is set apart for Old Time Saturday.  Our church has a booth set up to sell various things to raise money for a mission trip for next year. My friend  will be there most of the day and I have a few things I would like to get accomplished today.  SO, no Saturday menu for the game.

Tomorrow we are having a church wide study on Radical by David Platt.  I have a trip planned for next weekend.  The week after that my oldest turns 23! Yikes!  Oh, and next week I am starting my Christmas shopping.   I can't believe I just typed that last sentence.

Having adult children kind of takes the fun out of Black Friday shopping. They want techie things and gift cards.  I do like buying their stocking stuffers. I spend too much money on stocking stuffers but that is their favorite thing to do on Christmas morning.  Amazon was my favorite place to shop last season.

Just to throw this out there for those who like to watch Christmas movies etc... I follow a blog that I absolutely love, It's A Wonderful Movie.   She just put up this years schedule for all the holiday movies. Check it out. :)

I hope that whatever you are doing this Fall weekend that you have fun. We all need some fun and relaxing moments on the weekends.

If you happen to be reading this and are going through a difficult season,  I pray that God will show up for you in a BIG way today. I pray that all your needs will be met.. I pray that you will feel God's presence surrounding you and that you will have a peace that floods your heart and soul! God is faithful, good,  &  He is your help and Deliverer! Trust Him.