The World According to Leslie

April 1st, 2018!! It's April Fool's Day, but I haven't played any jokes on anyone, yet.  I haven't had time. The Easter Bunny did show up at my house. This morning, we had to be at church early to practice one last time for the Easter choir. Then I taught Sunday School.  Then we had service (choir included). Then we pied the Pastor! (I'll post the Facebook video of that as soon as I can!) Then lunch.  Now how to do some stuff before we head to hang out with the family for Easter! We did a family pic at church with everyone who was there today... missing one! Now... I'm writing! Tony is making mashed potatoes (yummy homemade ones) for the family dinner later. Chasity is doing her laundry and coloring/drawing.  Typical Sunday now! Through Paparazzi, Chasity and I have been challenged to do a few things.  Since we did not meet our March Challenge, we are given the same one again, but they are adding a new on also! First, March Challenge ...

Now that it's 2018, I thought I'd look back on 2017 and see the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. January: It was mostly boring. The "after Christmas" blahs hit. Since today, is a SNOW DAY in NC, I thought it appropriate to include my post about the first snow in 2017 here .  In January 2017, I also decided it was time to move on from things I had been waiting for.  I cleared out some space in my office (and my mind) by Making Room For God's Plan . Being the awesome Girl Scout mom that I am, I had to figure out how to fix the mess my made by melting CRAYON onto The Princess's brand new Cadette vest (which is light khaki)!!!  Read about that here . February: I got older... just like I do in February every year. :) I was also singing on the Praise Team at church, working in Children's Church, and helping with some big projects (still doing all those too)!! I was working out consistently and getting my mile time down so I could try to do a 5...

Today, I have no pictures to share. I have no funny stories. I have frustration. I have anger. I have a desire that the world my daughter, my brother's kids/grandkids, and my sister's kids are growing up in was different. Earlier this week, in less than 30 minutes, the lives of my sister and her kids changed forever. My sister works in the office at a child care facility. She has the privilege of having her kids in classes there while she is at work (mainly before and after school for the middle one!)!! A couple of days ago, she had to run an errand for work.  When she got back to work, it was time to go home.  In the 20 minutes or so that it took for her to gather her things from her office and get her two youngest daughters from their classes, someone busted out the back passenger window of her car and stole her purse. Yes, we are thankful that she and the girls weren't in the car. No one is hurt..... physically. Luckily, she keeps her ID and stuff with ...

I'm getting a little (sometimes a lot) slower with age. I didn't forget that my child had a birthday. I just didn't post anything here about it. On Friday, August 18, The Princess turned 14. She stayed up until midnight on Thursday just to be able to say "It's my birthday!" NO! I can't believe she's 14! What did we do for her Birthday?  EVERYTHING she wanted to do!! After getting up later than normal (she wanted to sleep in), we ate pancakes for breakfast. We went bowling. She's in a bowling league now and wanted to practice before the first games on Saturday morning! We met my parents at Sweet Frog for fro-yo. (YES! She got Birthday Cake flavored fro-yo!) Then we picked up her best friend to spend the night (after she got out of school). We picked up my parents. We went to Remedy Church for Kidz Krusade.  At the end of the night, they silly stringed her as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!  (It was AWESOME!) Then we all (my...

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present." Bil Keane Over the past couple of weeks, I have still been on autopilot . I have just been going through the motions. Mother's Day is bittersweet for me. On May 9, 2002, Tony's mom passed away. That was on Thursday before Mother's Day. We buried her on Saturday, May 11. Now, every year, it's hard to face Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong, I love my Princess! This year, she got me an awesome card.  It said to relax and have time for myself. Then on the inside it said, "for about 10 minutes because I need a sandwich!"  Loved it!  We got together with my parents on Friday night for Dad's birthday!  Then on Saturday, the whole family was together for Mother's Day.  All of us, including my brother's kids were there!  Papaw Paul even got to come hang out with us! The quote I chose for today is one we h...

I guess it's better late than never, right? HAPPY EASTER! Spring Break started here on Friday.... Good Friday.  The day care was also closed, so the Princess and I didn't even have to set an alarm!  IT WAS AWESOME!  She's out all this week.  That means NO ALARMS all week!  So nice! It also means that when she goes back to school on April 24, there are only 34 days of school left! You all know how I love my countdowns!  (Yes! I still do them...even though I'm not in a classroom full time!) I may even put it up on the wall in the house.... this has been a tough school year! Anyways.... Saturday, we went to a few yard sales. Then we went to find the Princess a semiformal dress for some stuff she has coming up. Sunday, EASTER, we went to church. Since everyone was all dressed for Easter, the pastor had it set up for one of the ladies at church to take pictures of families. Since my parents and my sister and brother (and all most of our kids) we...

I took a few days off to spend time with my family for Thanksgiving!  I hope you all enjoyed your time with family/friends/co-workers--whomever you spent Thanksgiving with! There are links to all the other Writing Challenge posts on Day #7 . I know in the beginning I said there are 60 days to this challenge.  However, I have thought about it, and I think I'm going to do the first 10 days. I have started writing on a regular basis.... which was the point. So, now, I'm going to write about other things.... not just the challenge topics. Today's Challenge is actually quite appropriate.  It's about Thanksgiving. Today's Challenge: "Make a list of 10 things for which you are thankful." Making a list is easy. Leaving it just in list form is hard for me. :) I'm Thankful For.... 1. God--He is so awesome. He supplies everything I need. He is there no matter what and loves me no matter what. I have failed Him so many times, but He has never fail...

So…I’m a day late on Father’s Day.  But….that’s because I was with my Father!     There is a running joke in our family.  I have an older brother and a younger sister.  We tell everyone that Donnie is the favorite.  DUH!  We all know that!  Then Lisa and I “fight” for favorite daughter.    Since I do a lot of stuff for my parents, more than my siblings, I tell them I know I’m the favorite.  I don’t do it because I want the attention.  I do it because I know they need the help.  I get a couple extra drinks at the store and take them over because I know my parents can’t carry them.  Mom’s knees are bad, and Dad is on a walker. (But…that’s a different story!)   So yesterday I posted on Facebook a Happy Father’s Day message to my dad and said it was from his “Favorite” daughter.  One of my friends accused me of trying to start a fight in the family.  I had to explain that it was all a big joke...

Went to church yesterday.  Loved it.  Visited my brother’s church.  Their new pastor rocks!  (Might have to go back!!!!)   Went to Mt. Airy to take flowers to Tony’s mom’s grave.  Beautiful day.  Stopped at my favorite place in Winston-Salem to eat!   Put the flowers on her grave.  Started for home.   I started to dose.  I had all intentions of sleeping the entire drive back.    All of a sudden-----*BAM*!   I sat straight up!  “What was that?!” Tony said, “Something hit the car.” I said, “You just hit something?” (Still a little dazed!) T said, “No.  Something fell from the bridge and hit us!”   We got out to look.  There is a chunky crack in the front of my van.  YES!  The van I haven’t even had for two months yet!  It’s only where a license plate would go in the front though.  (If we had been driving any faster, it would have shattered the windshield ...

As of 11am yesterday, I am on SPRING BREAK!  One rule for Spring Break is DO NOT WAKE ME UNTIL THE SUN IS UP (except Easter Sunday when we go to SONrise service)!!! This morning, I slept until 8:15!  It was so awesome!  The sun was coming in my window!  The alarm never went off--wasn't even set!  Now, we have softball at 11am! We have an Easter egg hunt (with a local church and 20,000 Easter eggs!) at 2pm!  Then we have to come home and get cleaned up to go to my parents for dinner.  Supposedly all the kids (Donnie, Lisa, and me) and our families are going to be there! In between those, we might go help my parents with some yard work if they want us to (if they are ready to do it today!)!!!!  It's going to be a busy day!  Can't wait to see the WHOLE family! :)

Here is Part 1 of this story. Now we are up to May. In May 2012, Tony and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. The last time we really went anywhere (like a trip) was in 2002—our first anniversary. The only reason we went anywhere then was because my best friend was getting married the day before our anniversary. So Tony and I took off to Kentucky (or West Virginia, I can’t remember). Anyways, we haven’t been anywhere since then for our anniversary. So this year, our anniversary fell on a Saturday. That was the first time it has been on a Saturday (since we got married)!!! So after the softball game that day, we left for the beach. We took all the stuff with us in the car. We changed clothes in the bathrooms at the ballfield. We left! The next morning, before we headed home, we walked on the beach for a while.    School let out on June 8th. On June 14th, we had to take Chasity to the ER. She couldn’t breathe. She...

WOW! I can't believe everything that we did this weekend. Saturday, Chasity and I slept in. Tony had to work; Chasity and I didn't even hear the alarm clock. Then, Saturday afternoon, we went to the park. My mom's family--all of her siblings that are still with us (two sisters have passed already)--met at the park! We were celebrating my 91 year old grandma! We were there for about 3 hours. Then we came home, cleaned up, and chilled out for the rest of the night. Sunday morning, when I got out of the shower, Tony and Chasity surprised me with pink roses. Chasity also made me a little mouse of clay and painted it. (I'll try to put up pics of this stuff.) And I had TWO cards! I was so excited just to be a mom! At church, my Secret Sister (who will be revealed at Christmas) gave me a bag of goodies... mostly scrapbooking stuff! :) Then the church gave out prizes for the oldest mom--it was a lady from our church who doesn't get to come often! I'm so gla...

…my true love gave to me…my 8 favorite people to see. 1. My parents 2. My siblings 3. All 5 of my brother’s kids 4. Himself 5. Our Daughter, Chasity 6. My Grandmother and Papaw Paul 7. My Grandma Edwards 8. Our Pastor and his wife So…that’s a “few” more than 8 people. I couldn’t stop at only 8, so I had to group them together! Who are YOUR favorite people to see during the holidays? Until next time……..

Day 6 is coming to a close.... WOW! Only 2 days left of vacation, then it's back to the real world! lol So this morning, we got up and cleaned the house so that it would look great when my family got here. My sister, niece, and two other teenagers got here about 1pm. They went to the beach and Tony, Chasity, and I headed to downtown Myrtle Beach. We bought me some cute salt-and-pepper shakers.... I'll try to put pics of those up here. We went to the arcade. That's something we always did when I came here as a kid! Then we picked out an airbrush shirt for Chasity. We have to go get it tomorrow. The guy had a lot of shirts in front of ours to do! :) My sister sent me a text message with a list of things to get at the store on the way home. So we stopped for a few groceries and headed back to the house. My brother and his family were already here and were getting ready for the beach. So we put the groceries up and changed to go to the beach. We got down there onl...