I'm All Jazzed Up

Please make a note at where we will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This is a wonderful festival we drove down to experience last year with our oldest daughter, Carly.

It is a free festival held annually in Denton, TX and is filled to the brim with wonderful jazz musicians. Some of the musicians come from University of North Texas, one of the top music universities in the United States. Other groups and individuals come from across the country to play in this festival.

Lots of food, arts and crafts and entertainment stages will be a fun family event if you are in the area.

The Headline artist for 2006 is Joshua Redman (Friday night) and The Robert Cray Band (Saturday night)

Anyway, if any of you Texans reading this decide to go to the festival, don't be shy, come up and say hi! You'll recognize me....I am the gal with the guy in the Batman suit.

HATS

Hats

I was driving back to work Monday after lunch at home (the hottest day this year 96 degrees!) and noticed a lot of people wearing all sorts of hats. In my short 1 mile drive back to work I saw: a baseball hat, a fishing hat, a visor, and an outback looking hat. By the time I got back to work I was laughing.....

Hats are very important to men I have discovered over the years. Men lacking in the furry head covering department must utilize head wear or lots of SPF 50 sunscreen to keep from getting a scorched cranium. Joe's fave hat I believe is a green baseball hat with an "orange" team on it. At the moment, the name of the team escapes me. I have also learned that my bootie is a hat magnet. When he takes off his hat in the vehicles, that hat will invariably end up under my butt and get smashed. I'm thinking we need a special suctioned hook in the cars for his hats.

Got me thinking: what kinds of hats to y'all wear? Do you have an activity that requires special headgear? Does Foo have a cycling hat? Does Meow have a Down Under hat? Does Saur have a hat with a mask? Does Emma have a hat with coffee cups on it? How big of a hat does Gobhole need to hide her hair on bad hair days? Is Leslee an OU or OSU fan? Does Jamie Dawn wear a big Southern Belle bonnet? Does Anne wear a do-rag? She is a motorcycle Mama you know......
Slick has a cool hat. (maybe I can catch him in it and take a picture)

Our church has a fun tradition. Months that have 5 Sundays we proclaim the 5th Sunday, "Hat Day" All the ladies of the church wear a hat to church. It can be any hat: funny like a chef's hat, or serious like a beret, it can be playful like a baseball hat. I have seen jester hats, graduation hats, big funny garden hats(me), cowgirl hats, baseball caps and even visors. This is a fun day and you should try it in your church.....be the catalyst and get the funniest hat you can find. :o)

I have asked Uncle Joe for assistance with this post in the way of locating some good pictures to post.....so stay tuned if you are reading this post with text only. I know he will come up with some good ones.

So there you have it folks, my silly thoughts for the week. ~AJ

Here is CarlyJo and CassiJo in their Easter finery.

I am having Blogger woes trying to post additional pictures, so please check back again for updated photos. ~AJ

Hello Peeps!

Here is the cutest thing I have seen this spring.....stuffed Peeps! We went on an outing to KMart yesterday and came across these adorable rabbit peeps.

They are named PinkiePie Peep and Penelope Peep. They are happily living with The Joe Family.

Stealing Cassidy

Today, after a 4 hour ordeal that involved 4 stores to get all the Joes a new Easter outfit we arrived home and Cassidy wanted to ride her bike on the driveway. I had already told the girls that I needed a rest before we colored the eggs for tomorrow and Cassi wanted someone to stay outside with her. She said, "Carly, will you stay outside with me? I don't want anyone to steal me." and just laughed and started riding her bike.......

(I realize this is a serious thing, but it struck me funny the way she said it)

She was also singing "Jesus Take The Wheel" today, except she had made up her own words.
"Jesus take the week, I can't do this all night long" This girl keeps us laughing every day....

Today at Payless Shoe Store I had a sad revelation. Carly and I may not have the same taste in shoes! Shoot! I was looking forward to sharing all those shoes!! Maybe she will change her mind and start picking out some cute shoes that I like. heehee!

We also ran into my friend Greg and his wife Melissa and their 10 month old baby, Logan at the mall. That was a treat....it was the first time I had seen Logan since he was a newborn and he had grown so much! His cheeks were just full of sugars. (that of course i had to kiss!) He was fascinated by Cassidy, who had put on some sparkley face gel at Bath and Bodyworks. He kept reaching out to touch her face and tried to poke her in the eye. He also tried to pick her nose. Cassi didn't quite know what to think of that.

Now I am off to rest for a bit before the hoo-haa continues as we color Easter eggs.

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday weekend. :o) Are you eating Peeps? I personally don't like them. Too sticky and sugary for me. I am a fan of Reese's Eggs and Jelly Belly's :o)
I found something really cute for the girls at KMart. We will post a picture of them later. I looked all over and couldn't find a Cadbury creme egg...the one that looks like a real egg when you break it. Do they still make those? Joe likes them and I thought I would surprise him with one. (The first time I saw one of those I gagged. It looked like a real raw egg yolk inside and made sick!)
******************************************************
Praise God for the resurrection! I am glad we serve a living God, one that will return someday and take us home to Heaven.

Help! I am blogging and can't stop!

I have posted four posts today...help!

Here I leave a post up for a week and today I post four!

Oh well hope you have a few minutes to read them.

I hope you all enjoyed your Sunday......we had a wonderful Easter Song service at my mothers church and I understand from Joe that the service he attended with Ted was excellent as well. I am amazed at the messages these preachers have for us every week. God is so good. He knows exactly what we need to hear and leads us to those messages. I actually had my own private service while listening to the music. I took advantage of the quiet time and just prayed for things that were on my heart. At one point I looked over at Cassidy, all snuggled in Papa's arm and had to look away because I was starting to tear up. My grandmother, and my mother (and I and many other family members too) have prayed for many years for my dad to get back into church and to see him there with his baby granddaughter was a wonderful sight.

Right now Cassidy and I are watching "Elf" one of my favorite movies. There is no one like Will Ferrell to make us laugh! Who says we can't watch a Christmas movie in April? ;o)

Y'all have a great week and I'll see you around the blogosphere.

Bestest Pizza in Oklahoma

We crown Sam & Ella's Chicken Palace, Tahlequah, Oklahoma the winner of the Bestest Pizza Award.

Sam & Ella's serves our favorite pizza, Rock Island Red. It is a hand made crust topped with large chunks of ham drizzled with honey, red onions and lots of pineapples and of course red sauce and mozzarella cheez.

If you are ever out this way, you must stop by and have a slice or two. We always get enough to have a slice for breakfast or a midnight snack. Did I get any of the left
overs you ask? Well NO. I am still pouting about that. :o( There are apparently One-Eyed-One-Horned-Flying-Purple-Pizza-Eaters in the Joe House. I need some repellant or a new place to hide left overs.

Fun Day at the Parade

Here are some pictures of CarlyJo and CassiJo at the Azalea Festival Parade yesterday. The weather was very nice...sunny and chili...oops I mean chilly. :o) It was also the annual Chili Cookoff. We sampled some chili, some hot links, and bbq. Who won you ask? We have no idea!

Uncle Joe and the band played an intermission for a local church band. There wer SO many other bands playing in such a small area that they had a hard time hearing themselves. They were not happy with their performance, but to the audience it sounded fine. Hopefully, the next performance will be more to their liking. Uncle Joe came home a little sunburned too....my cold hands felt good on his hot sunburned cranium this morning. :o)

We all came home smelling of smoke and I had to take a shower to get back to my vanilla-scented self.

This Thing Really Sucks!!

When Joe and I were off Thursday we had to go to Sears, here at our local mall. I decided to check out the vacuum cleaners and LOOK what i found!! I found this Bissell vacuum regularly $180 on Clarence's Rack for $32.99!! Can you believe that? I surely snatched that up. I had a great Panasonic vaccuum but somehow, after 10 years of faithful service it decided to retire.

I love the retro look and the color if fabulous! Another great thing is the motor is a detachable canister too. It is also a bagless so I can forget about making a special trip to the vaccuum cleaner store 30 miles away to buy a gross of bags. (it seems that NO ONE in our town stocks Panasonic bags, wouldn't you know)

I know you all are coveting my vaccuum cleaner right at this very moment, but you will have to find your own. This one is MINE!!

Painted Piggies In Sandals

Missie Anne over at Hubbadoo had a great idea: post a picture of our favorite summer sandals.

Here are my favorites. I got them at Payless two summers ago and I wear them all the time in the summer. When I am not wearing these, I like flip flops in all colors. I am so glad that flip flops are cheap. My daughter and I will be wearing the same size shoe before too long and that will be kinda nice....our shoe collection will double! (sorry Joe!) :o)

As you can see i wear an anklet too. It is just a little bead thing I made and I have lots of those too. It may look silly, but I like it in the summer. I don't have it on right now, but I also like to wear toe rings. Do you? Nothing fancy, just a small gold band.

If I ever had a tattoo, I would want one on my toe. ;o)

If you want to see some more painted piggies in summer sandals go here

I am secretly off work today and Joe and I are gong to eat some Thai food for lunch.......yum!

I have camera in hand in case we encounter anything interesting or funny or just down right weird.

Deal of the Day

Here is the deal of the day I found at Walgreens....ain't it the cutest!? It will hang on the wall soon, because I found CassiJo carrying it by the bell handles. It really rings too!

I have been coveting it since Christmas waiting for it to go on sale. Got it for $4.99!!

Think it will inspire Joe to cook more? I hope so. He is a great cook. He likes to add secret ingredients as we all know from the SPAM
incident.........

Here are some updated photos to demonstrate the size of the clock against my favorite coffee cup. ( a gift straight from the gobhole!)

The clock also has a neon light I forgot to mention! Here is a neat picture of the light on. :o)

Flat Forks

I hate it when you go to a restaurant and you get a flat fork.

I like my forks to have the proper degree of curvature so it will
aid in the consumption of food material.

Don't you agree?

Smart Glasses and Green Things

If you want to be smart, just wear Smart Glasses says CassiJo. (don't mind the chocolate on your mouth!) Don't you wish you looked this cute AND smart in YOUR glasses?? :o)












This is a picture of the house around the corner from us. The yard is prematurely green and has been for a few weeks. The single man that lives there puts the same old rusty chairs at the end of the driveway every year to act as guides for backing out we have decided. I don't know why he doesn't go ahead and invest in some posts or something.

We won't be talking about our yard that still has leaves all over it. We are waiting for them to mulch. haha






Blogger is locking up and I am having problems posting an embarrassing picture of CarlyJo. Please check in again later.

Simple Saturday

Today was a good day...
I got up fairly early and had a little bit of work to do at the office. Got that done and came home to tend to the Princesses of Hiney while Joe and Ted practiced for tomorrow's praise and worship at Ted's church.

While Joe was gone I promised the Princesses I would take them to the mall. CarlyJo had some money in her pocket that was burning a hole in it so I indulged her. Her treasure for the day was a small Beanie Baby lamb, just in time for Easter. She named the little dear Chloe The Lamb. All her animals have names and I have also learned to night that they have feelings too. If she does not sleep with Skiperdee the Dog he gets his feelings hurt. Poor Skiperdee. Maybe she should just sleep with them in a big pile around her every night.

My treasure was found in a bookstore....a bargain bookstore!! I am not sure if it was Borders or Waldenbooks.....don't they own both?? I found a book of poetry and a Thai cuisine cookbook for Joe and a sticker book for CassiJo. I hope he will cook something from the cookbook....it is the real deal. The best we have done so far is the little boxed ones from Walmart, which are very tasty by the way!!

My niece, AlliJo came over for a play with CassiJo while their sisters went to sell Girl Scout cookies at Walmart. They were so good!! Sometimes (unpredictably) they get their feelers hurt at each other and won't play nicely, but today was wonderful!! They were so very very good and I had a laugh or two listening to them play. AlliJo loves to pretend they are animals. She told CassiJo, "You can be a Dalmation or a purebred." CassiJo said, after looking at her like ....what??!! "ummmmm I'll be a dalmation."

We went to Mom and Dad's for dinner...a simple dinner of meat, potatoes and veggies. Mom is a meat and veggies kinda gal, and since Dad wasn't there to make her over do it, it was easy for her. Dad likes to prepare for an army, and always prepares TOO much! :o) One good thing about that is the left overs that get sent home with all the family though......

CarlyJo and CassiJo got to play with one of their cousins, SalaniJo. They are always a hoot to listen to. Nana actually tried to suggest they sit still for 2 whole hours and watch a movie....wrong!! They hadn't seen each other in a while and there was too much fun to be had!!

I just love weekends like these....not a lot to do but just enough to keep you out of boredom. Tomorrow should be fun too....we are going to lunch with the Ted Family. Last time my mouth was cramped from smiling and/or laughing so much!!! (That was the time Cassi asked Patti and Ted, "So you are the Mom and you are the Honey?" so you can see why I laughed so much!)

Changing the subject:
I was surfing around on the google videos tonight and people record some of the silliest things!! My favorite was the quadruplets laughing at their dad. You can find it here . There is nothing sweeter than the laughter of a baby is there?? You cannot watch it and not laugh!

I Had a Little Pity Party

One day last week, I was having a little pity party for myself. I was at work feeling all alone in an office full of people. I was praying, "God please let me know you love me today. Please let me know in a way that I know it's you...."

A few minutes later, as I was filling out paperwork for the umpteenth patient, the cd I was listening to caught my attention. The following song was playing and speaking to me in this moment. I smiled and laughed to myself.....God was speaking to me through this song.

Something Beautiful
Written by Matthew West, Chance Scoggins
Performed by Natalie Grant

This is a song for anyone whose ever been
Knocked down and can’t get back again,
Stuck in the corner, can’t move forward
All alone and you think you’re going nowhere
This is a song for anyone whose ever stood
Underneath the sun
And felt so small, two feet tall and so out of place
He sees you – He knows you- He loves you
And He wants you to know that

The life that you’ve been living, the days that
You’ve been given
Were made for something beautiful
Life- don’t let it pass you by
Because you were created for something beautiful

Heaven holds a dream that’s just for you
And there are things only you can do
So step by faith put the past away
It’ll take you to a better day

Second to minute to hour to life
Time always seems to fly
It’s on the go and before you know
Your days are through
But He sees you- He knows you- He loves you
And He wants you to know

The life that you’ve been living the days that
You’ve been given were made for something beautiful
Life-don’t let it pass you by
Because you were created for something beautiful

What are you waiting for?

There’s something beautiful.

Java Cabana

Here is one of the "perks" of working in a medical facility:

Today some drug reps "catered" in a really neat treat for the employees of the clinic. It was a Coffee/Smoothie Bar! The gentleman had a traveling wet bar and made us our choice of smoothies, coffee or frozen coffee treats. It was a very cool set up.

I wish I had thought of it. Does that sound like the coolest job ever? Traveling around making people happy with coffee and smoothies, two of God's wonderful creations!!?

I had to call Joe and say, "If you just HAPPEN to be out about 10:00am, come by....." ;o)
so he got one too. I take care of my UJ.

Pet My Peeves

Believe it or not I have some pet peeves. ;o)

I work in a medical clinic at the front desk. I am the meeter/greeter/checker- inner. My desk is also known as "The Hot Seat". Come watch me work through a day like yesterday and you will know why. (originally written March 10th)

Here is a short list of the stuff I see at the front desk that just pets my peeve.

1. Smokers that exhale their smoky breath in my face. (am seated lower than the counter)
2. Truckers that come in calling me Hon, Sweetie, Dear etc. I reserve that right to sweet little grandmotherly ladies
3. Drug screen donors that try and pull one over on me. We know the tricks, just stop, and don't do drugs.
4. People that get mad at me personally for what goes on in the clinic. It is not my personal
fault that you have to work. Every scheduled appointment was not scheduled by me. I
do not take responsibility for, nor will I take a cussin' for anyone but me and my actions.
5. I cannot stand to hear other staff members gripe about working. I like my job. I am
grateful for my paycheck every week, and I am going to make sure I get one next week, and
that means getting off our duffs and treating patients!
6. The people that come in at 4:30pm deserve to be treated as nicely as the ones that came in
at 8:30am. They are working parents. We dont' know what they have been through to get
here at this time. Just be compassionate. We are patient advocates and here to serve them.
7. If I don't know you, don't touch me. EVER.
8. It freaks me out when strangers call me by name. It makes me think I should know you and I don't remember your name! :o) I hate wearing my name tag with my first and last name on it.
9. Don't try to grab my pen out of my hand when I am showing you what to fill out. Patients have germs and I don't want them!

On a lighter note:

I saw this joke on Jamie Dawn's blog I believe and I laughed out loud. :o) I love to laugh. And someone please please tell me why farts are so funny!?

An elderly woman leaned over to her husband in church and said, "I just let a silent but deadly fart. What should I do? " He leaned over to her and said, " Get a better hearing aid."

Name The Band

Uncle Joe is needing some help naming the band he is currently playing with.

Can y'all lend a hand??

Go to his blog and put your two cents worth in please?

Y'all hurry because their first gig is coming up in April at Muskogee's Chili Cook Off/Azalea Festival.

Meet My Good Friend, Michael Buble'

Meet my good friend, Michael Buble'! You can see him in the center of this photograph taken from our seats in the balcony section (sometimes called the NOSEBLEED section) of the Tulsa PAC.

Mr. Buble' encouraged lots of photographs and on a whim ran down the aisle and out the door and into the elevator to the mezzanine section and much to our surprise to the balcony where we were seated!!

The concert was wonderful! He has a wonderful band and put on a fun show. (aside from some potty mouthed humor) He and his sax player had a Zoolander style Cat Walk-Off cracking the audience up. He also had a Johnny Cash impression as well as a pretty good Michael Jackson! He sang wonderful songs from Ray Charles to Tulsa's own, Leon Russell. He was exposing a new generation to music they would have never known existed if it weren't for him.

Joe was seated between me and a stranger, a young woman who shared my ability to whistle....loudly! I wanted so badly to get out in the aisles to dance with my sweetie but the balcony was very steep and made me a little dizzy when I stood up. Toward the end of the concert, Michael invited people to dance in the aisles and the floor area quickly filled up with screaming women and a few men who were dragged down there by their sweeties. One granny lady cracked me up...she was reaching for Michael when he walked by and he stopped to shake her hand.

My great MIL brought along two pair of binoculars so I was able to look at him when he sang to me. He looked at me a lot....right into my eyes, crooning just for me. It was very sweet. It was a weird feeling looking throught those binoculars and him looking right at me.....

One thing that made me laugh was his shoes. I am sure they were very expensive Italian shoes, probably eel or something, but they had the longest pointy toes!!

Another thing that made me laugh was the "Mysterious Gas Passer". I kept getting olfactory sensitory input that someone in our vicinity was passing gas. I know it wasn't Joe, cause he is proud of his and announces them, at least to me anyway. :o)haha

A great night!
Great company!
Great concert!
Great memories!

If you ever get the chance to see my friend, Michael Buble' in concert, please do. It will be worth the wait.