Nice to Finally Meet You!!

As some of you know I have been doing some research on my family. I got on Ancesrty.com and started my family tree. I have talked to family members and gotten pictures, stories and names to help me in my quest. But we never really could find much on my dad's father's side of the family. His name was Horace Jewell Nevels. Horace and my grandmother divorced when my dad was very young. My grandmother doesn't / won't talk about him so information has been few and far between. My dad remembers when his dad left and he remembers his grandfather and seeing his dad once when he was around 13.

I found out after I was married that my Sunday School Teacher was in fact a cousin and knew my grandfather well. Before she passed away she did give me some photos of my grandfather and his parents. For that I am grateful!!!!!

Now here is where my story gets interesting...Last month I received an email from a lady saying that she thought her mom and my dad were brother and sister. WOW!!!! She and I started talking and I connected her with my mom on Facebook. Now we have all been visiting and sure enough it's true! My dad has a sister that he never knew about. Her name is Gloria. She is older than my dad and she never knew her father either. In fact my grandfather went to the pen and her mother divorced him and never told him she was prego. So Gloria and dad have both grown up not knowing their father. However I must say both of them did grow up with wonderful men in their lives that were a father figure.

So last weekend my dad and Gloria finally met!! It was just my mom and dad with her and her husband and daughter. The meeting went well and they had lots to talk about. My mom said there so many similarities between the two of them. I can't wait till next month when she comes down so I can meet her!!!! And she will get to meet my dad's other sisters and brother by his mom. It's nice to finally meet you!!!

my get away

Have you ever wished you had a place to escape to after a long day? Well I made my place. Before Christmas I got to redo my bedroom. I found this cream & white comforter at Target and it was on sale! Yea!!! Then my friend Leah helped me choose the wall color. We went with Lakeshore by Sherman Williams. I love it!!! I wanted black furniture but after looking a the prices of new furniture, not only was it not honing to happen. I wouldn't let it happen. So I got crafty and painted my furniture black and to give it some pop I painted the hardware Nickle. I have to say it definitely looks better than anything I found at the store. Now the only thing that needs to be done is the crown molding. And who knows when I'll get that finished with the way Blake works.... anyway hope you love my bedroom as much as I do.

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Sugar Bowl 2011 ~ Arkansas Vs. Ohio State

We were so excited about the Arkansas Razorbacks, making it to a BCS Bowl Game!!! WPS!!! And that it was in New Orleans!!! Our road hog group was going to go and rock NOLA like never before, but then we looked at the calendar! That's right they scheduled the game on a Tues. night! WTH??? Who does that? So anyway our plans got shot, but we did something even better....

Our best friends Matt & Leah Lovelis had just bough a new place and we decided to break it in right.... (they hadn't even moved in yet). The place even came with a name...."The Pondarosa" however we rename it as the "Hawgarosa". So we all brought some food and drinks and pitched a big blow up screen and projected the game onto it. It was so awesome... Here are a few pics of the night....



This is Leah, Debra, Me, Rachelle & Karen.


The food table!! HA HA HA!!!

Awesome TV!!!!

Me & Leah!!

We had such a good time. Matt and Leah and my parents and us all tailgate at the game and now we tailgate for the away games too!!!

Christmas Wonder....

What is Christmas to you and your family??? Is it a time that we GET THINGS? Or maybe it's a time to GET with FAMILY??? Or maybe its a time that you GET DEPRESSED?? Well Christmas means a lot of different things to different people but for me and my family Christmas mean that we GOT the best GIFT Ever!!! JESUS!!!!! That's right it's that simple... Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Now a days everyone gets so caught up in the decorating and the gifts that we sometimes forget what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. Now I'm not saying that we don't decorate and exchange gifts because we do and it was great this year...however I just wanted to take time and remind everyone about the true meaning of Christmas.



Now on to our Christmas..... Just before Christmas my dad decided to dye his hair and beard white so he would look like Santa Clause. The kids loved it. I also found a cute elf pajama set for Taylor. So Santa and his little elf were all ready for Christmas.

We start off every year on Christmas Eve at my parents house... we grill steaks and bake potatoes for dinner as the kids are constantly looking under the tree for their presents and wondering what was in them. Once our bellies are full and we clean up the kitchen it's time to start our gift exchange. The boys love handing the presents out but it never fails that Taylor stops in the middle and starts opening up his gifts. Typical Tay-Tay!! The boys got some clothes and board games and Blake got two batteries for his drill and a new ladder. I got a bean pot and a Shark two in on vacuum / Steamer, that I might add works great!!! I LOVE IT!!! In fact I used it Christmas day and cleaned my whole house... Blake said next year he hopes I get a couch for Christmas so maybe I'll use it all day and just sit down and rest with him and the kids!! HA HA!!!





After we get the kids settled down after such an exciting time at me-me's and in to bed we Blake and I hope into bed shortly after, because we know that it won't be long before someone is up looking for what Santa brought them. Sure enough this year was not different.... Tyler was up at 3:30 am... of course I made him get in bed with me and go back to sleep so he wouldn't wake Taylor up. Taylor got up around 8 and woke the rest of us up... he was so excited!! I think Santa was pretty good to them... Don't you think? We spent the Christmas morning with all the family at our house having breakfast together and watching the kids play with there new things. I of course cleaned all day and got ready for Christmas with friends and family the next day.

On Sunday we all loaded up and went back to my mom's for Christmas with friends and family... I so enjoyed spending time with Aunts and Uncles and cousins and friends... We played Dirty Santa and ate way too much... And needless to say I still have one more Christmas to come and we are doing it in January!!! I Love this time of Year!!

Technology 101

This picture of Tyler and his friend Matthew was in the paper showing off the EAST night out at Arkansas High School. Last year Tyler was picked along with Matthew to represent his school at the EAST Conference in Hot Springs. Tyler has once again been chosen to represent his school this year at the conference... Way to go Tyler!!

Published: 11/09/2010

Staff photo by Christena Dowsett. College Hill Middle School students Tyler Campell, left, and Matthew Roberts test new technology Monday evening during the EAST Night Out! (Environmental and Spatial Technology) at Arkansas High. The event showcased EAST student work and projects and allowed students to speak about the changes they have made through the program. The schools represented were College Hill Elementary, College Hill Middle School, North Heights Junior High and Arkansas High School.

Black & Gold

I found this hunk on furniture at the Salvation Army for $15 bucks.... And I knew I had to have it. I had first planned on painting it off white and staining it with a black stain... but the more I thought about it, I decided to keep this piece for me. So I decided to paint it black and use the Gold Stan again... So this is the before picture....








After I glazed it I tried a new for me technique.... I modge podged some cheetah tissue paper on the top... I had first bought a black and white checked (on the diagonal) but the white was too bright... so I did the cheetah and I love it... I tried to give a close up of the gold glaze but it didn't show up in the picture as good as it is in person.
Now this end table is my new bedside table..... Hope you like it.
Please ignore the navy blue curtains... I'm in the process of redecorating my bedroom...

Night Stand Makeover

On my last post, I refinished a bed for my 15 year old cousin. Last night I started her night stand, I forgot to take a before picture but this was an antique piece and it had a dark finish. I primed this piece so that the turquoise would show brighter. Then I used Kyron's Ocean Breeze and painted the nightstand.

Then I Glazed it with DecoArt Elegant Finish Metallic Glaze (Can you say LoVe IT!!)

I also put a little fun in her drawer!! LOL!!!!

I am going to go shopping for different hardware, but for now I just painted the handles gold and couldn't help but to show it off....

My new Hobby!!

So for those of you who are still holding out that I might post something new.... here you go....

We have been so busy lately and the boys haven't done much this summer and I've been too tired to post, but now that the cooler weather has come in and the kids are back in school I've got just a little more energy. And as some of you may know I get these "projects" in my head and I go with them... Last year I started quilting and made 3 quilts, I am still quilting and I have finished a top for Tyler and am now working on a quilt using the kids old baseball Jerseys. But I found a new hobby.... giving old drab furniture a new life...

Below is a bed I did for my cousin Amber for her 14th bday. I painted it a antique white and glazed it with a mocha glaze.... This was my first piece and even though it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to ....I think it still looks fab!! See what you think.


Also I just bought another bed off Craig's List for 10 bucks!! YEA!! So if you see any old wood pieces or know of someone getting rid of something let me know!!!

Mother's Day

What does Mother's Day mean to you? Well to me it means that I am blessed!! I have gotten to experience the joys of having a life grow inside me and and that I know what it means to love someone unconditionally. Being a mom is a special privilege. I know that my children have been in-trusted to me by God. It is my responsibility to raise them in a way that is pleasing to my Lord. I am to provide for them and love them and nurture them. No one ever said it was going to be easy. Sometimes it's the hardest thing I've ever done. However I wouldn't trade it for a minute. I love my boys so much and am so blessed with them in my life.

However on this Mother's Day we woke up to our freezer door being left open over night and all my food had thawed out. So I started cooking! I cooked 10 packages of sausage and about 10 packages of bacon. I fixed a ham and two deer shoulders. I also had to cook all the fresh corn and peas. Then I had to grill 6 packages of Hot Dogs....and still have 3 more to grill. So I started cooking at 10:30 and finished at 7:30. So with all this food, I had my parents and Grandmother and Blake's Mom over for dinner. I am so thankful for my mother and mother in law. They are such strong and beautiful women!!

Then today I fixed 5 steaks and a package of chicken. I've cooked enough for an army!!! The good thing is that we didn't loose any food! But believe me, this was not how I'd pictured spending my Mother's Day, but I'm glad that I spent it with my boys!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mom's~~

Field Trip to Dallas

This Friday the 5th Grade GT students went on a field trip to Dallas. They were going to see the World Aquarium and the Dallas Zoo. We were to meet at the school and leave at 6 am. Well we finally got off at 6:15 and the bus driver got lost getting out of Texarkana. I had never driven in Dallas and had only been there a time or two. So I was a nervous wreck. But I borrowed a GPS from a friend and now I'm hooked.... (I want a TomTom touch screen GPS) It was so cool. And since the bus driver didn't know where he was going, I was glad to have it.

When we finally arrived we went to the aquarium first. This place was awesome!! It was in an old warehouse and I could have spent all day there. I've snapped a few pictures of our day there......

This is Taylor playing with a bird....

I thought this was a stuffed animal, but it was a real jaguar.

Seahorses....

Stingray....
Inside the tunnel under water... way cool....

This was a waterfall inside the warehouse...

At the zoo we ate lunch and got to see some really cool animals. Below is a tiger that we saw eating. The zoo keeper put out the food and the Tiger had to hunt it!!!!

Love this picture of Haley.... just like a pretty butterfly!!

Taylor shaking hands with the monkey.... (his brother?????) Just kidding!!! :o

All and all it was a great day and I'm so glad I got to spend the day with my boys....