11-11

Today is 11-11, a big day. Veteran's Day. HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY to all that serve us. It's also sweet Madeline Spohr's birthday. The sweet baby pictured on the left in my side bar that left us too soon. And, it was also quite eventful 6 & 10 years ago which brings us to this post (it's a re-post, but with edits!).

Many of you know that my kids were due on the same day March 31st- but I had Gavin on March 24 and Grayce, March 26. Every event was about the same with both, just 4 years apart. Gavin's US at 20 weeks had been on Veteran's Day, I think because I worked at a bank then and it was closed, so it was a great day for the Dr. When it was time for Grayce's 20 week to find out her sex- the nurse just scheduled it at my previous appointment and handed me the card. AFTER we had Grayce's, it was only then I realized their ultrasounds had the same date on them, 4 years apart, within an hour of each other. And so, 11-11 is when we found out what both babies would be.

(THIS IS PART THAT MAKES IT OBVIOUS I AM RE-POSTING!)
And, then of course, there is 11-11-08. The day Taylor Swift's new album Fearless came out. I must say we got ours (yesterday as in, 11/10/08) in the mail, because I pre-ordered. I think I talked about that before. The first ever so many that ordered, got to send in their pictures and have them in the CD cover somewhere. Way cool for Grayce. (PS This is the first time I have ever pre-ordered an album of any sort--or waited for a new one to come out. Things you do for small fans!) Okay, so below is the pull out from the CD cover- turns out its a mosaic of all the faces making up the picture. Pretty cool. You can go to http://www.thetaylornation.com/ and type in GRAYCE and find her.

Which is how we found her here below- she is in the picture FOUR times total. She thought this was downright awesome.

We do (STILL) love the CD. (Obviously, if you follow me you know we still have serious Taylor love around here, and were excited when even more new music came out from her a couple of weeks ago. And we've also been to another concert!) We had watched her on Letterman
the night before (as in 11-10-08) singing the title track. Tonight, Grayce would be constantly asking during the CMA awards (again!) when she would be on, but Gavin has a football game and we won't be here!

But, Happy 11-11, a very special day!
Here's to Veteran's, Maddie, baby gender, and Taylor Swift!

WW: FUN with Picnik!

BEFORE


AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Halloween Recap

Halloween: It was Gavin's last regular season football game against Coweta that morning. And they won. My parents and sister & husband, and nephew Hayden also came. Then later, my mom, sister and Hayden came over to trick or treat. Here's the gang. Yes, it's almost impossible to get all 3 to look decent in a pic. But we try.

Whew! That was a tough game.

Grayce aka Jessica (she changed her name last week, did you not get that memo?) aka Taylor Swift (ala Love Story)

After a trip over to the church for Trunk or Treat, then a few blocks in the neighborhood- we called it good. They all had fun of course- because they all love, love, love candy.

Need a Guide for Twitter?

I highly suggest The Smart Girl's Guide to Twitter! Twitter is more than fun, it can be a GREAT tool to use in business as well as socially. Alli Worthington is a great writer- this is a fun, helpful read!

Click here to view more details

Wordless Wednesday: JackOlanterns

Grayce's design

Dad's idea.

Gavin's design.

The gutters.

Mom's.

ODM Pageant, Broken Arrow

My friends Sally & Wendy are hosting an Our Diamond Miss pageant November 21st at 1:00 P.M. in Broken Arrow at Theatre Arts. (This is the pageant system Grayce did earlier last year in March & June) You can go to www.ourdiamondmisspageants.com to find out more about the pageant system. Wendy, Sally & Kendra King grew up doing this pageant and loved it...Our daughters all competed for the first time this past year and did an awesome job...If you have any questions you can contact me directly & I'll help you out. A preliminary is a great one to get your pageant feet wet :) http://www.ourdiamondmisspageants.com

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Card Sneak Peek

I have lots of new Christmas card designs to unveil. You email me the pic, I make for $10 and you print however many you need at your favorite pic printer. Easy peasy. All designs will be up on withasouthernflair.com after November 15th.

Brandi Carlile: Amazing Talent

For more about the amazing Brandi Carlile and the concert- CLICK HERE.

Shots of Saturday: 1970's-esque Edit

Wordless Wednesday: Spooktacular

Shots of Saturday: Bixby V Bishop Kelly Edition

This one is has a film grain effect applied. The boy doing the handstand in the middle, makes the picture. This is also the run we scored on--go Rubey!

The boy on his way in to help with a great tackle.

Little miss and her freckles.

Oh. The thrill of victory!

Join in the Shots of Saturday fun!

(Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday: It's a LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Story

On Sunday Taylor came to town.

The girls Love Story over Taylor is Forever and Always.

It's especially way over the top exciting when she shows up where you are sitting to sing. And you see her this close.
Crazy big smile on the face excited when she smiles at you and touches your hand.

Then she sings a few more songs right in front of you.

But, even this crazy Fearless five year old girl can only take so much tween screaming. There is hope for us yet.

Shots of Saturday: A New Posting Run

Each Saturday, I'll post a few of my favorite shots from our game- or whatever else we might be doing. This week it is football, 23 is still my boy!

and again, it's been too long

This time I blame the rain. Yip. Just like Milli Vanilli. I mean 15 days of rain in a month that's not even over will do that to ya. I've been in another writing funk. I've also been working on a new website. But mostly I've just been a funk.

Gavin is doing well at football. He's liking it best when he practices at linebacker. If you've seen him you know why that is stinking hilarious. School is very much a challenge for us all right now. Mrs. Wertz is very missed. We continue to pray for her and her family.

Grayce is adoring school and her teachers and her friends, new and old. This week she's been sick- still is. Going into day 5 of fever. She is beside herself about missing school. Has begged me on many occassion's to go the last few days. I'm remembering this for later when she has teenaged angst or whatever.

As many of you have wondered, this is my first year with both kiddos at school. l've been busy with making shirts & taxi-ing kids & monogramming bags and making more shirts to fill my time. I'm also the team mom for football and the homeroom mom for Grayce's class. But also I have signed up to substitute at school. I'm not done with the process, so I don't have any exciting info to share yet. Yes, I've already questioned my sanity.

I'm hoping some sunshine can lift the funk soon. But- I'm still waiting for that in a healthy dose. At least I know moving to Seattle would be a really bad idea for me. That's all I got from this, folks.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Brad Paisley, Yep.

So, last night I was twittering and I see something about @paisleyoffical- which does not even say to me "Brad Paisley". But I was intriguied and figured out it was him. Or at least looked like his account. The chatter on his stream looked as though it could be real, so I sent a silly tweet-[ajsouthern I was thinkin' @paisleyofficial was a drapery & bedspread judge of some sort. But no. It belongs to teh Brad.about 10 hours ago from TwitterFon] thinking if it was him, he wouldn't respond anyway- as most celebs do not. Unless, they want on my all important Cool Celeb's that Twitter list. And, I know they must be crazy not to want on my list. Lo and behold, I see this, this AM:
paisleyofficial I am. Very judgemental about paisley patterns. RT@ajsouthern: I was thinkin' @paisleyofficial was a drapery & bedspread judge of some sort.about 7 hours ago from TwitterFon

So, then, well- I have to investigate the realness before I get all excited. And I go to HIS official website this AM and see my little name on the front page of it. Right up there. Brad Paisely, yep. Add him to the list.



On another note of absolutely NO relation:

I have been out of blog pocket even more than my usual absence lately because of the tragic events of the past week. Please continue to keep the Wertz family in your prayers. If you've been following my tweets and FB then you know how tough it has been. There is a whole post about it somewhere in me, but I can't find it right now.