I would love to be the winner of this!

Art Bead Scene

Here is just a short little blog about a wonderful giveway.

Art Bead Scene

Art Bead Scene is having a wonderful giveaway, and I'm not going to lie, I hope I'M the one to win it. OH!   MY!   GOODNESS!!! There are all kinds of goodies to win. Well, instead of me telling you about it, why not just hop over to her site and see for yourself! Click here to get there.

Art Bead Scene

Doen't it look yummy?

Art Bead Scene

WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE MARRIED!

I've been talking to a close friend of mine lately about marriage. The couple is wanting to live together first before jumping into this big commitment. As I listen to them, I understand where they are coming from, but I also know what I have been taught all my life; "Wait until you are married."

My mom and dad were married in 1956. My mom was 18, and had just graduated from high school. My dad was a bit older, and had just finished his basic training in the Air Force. The couple never lived together before they were married. They will be celebrating 57 wonderful years together this August.

My husband's parents were also married in 1956. My mother in law was still in high school, and my father in law had just joined the Army and was heading to basic training. Sadly, my father in law died this past September, but they spent almost 57 wonderful years together.

My husband and I met in August of 1982. He was in Florida vacationing and had come to church, where we met for the first time. About two weeks later, we literally bumped into each other at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. We started dating, got engaged in December of 1982 and married 4 May 1983. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary in a couple of months, and have been and are still very happy.

Today, it is very popular for couples to live together before they make that big commitment. They want to see if they can get along together before they actually get married. As I said before, I can understand their thinking, but if they look at statistics, they might be surprised. 

Michael McManus, author of the book, Marriage savers, says, "Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce."  He goes on to give some statistics. "The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2005. Couples who do marry after living together are 50% more likely to divorce than those who did not."

On another website I read this, "Couples who live together to see if marriage is a good idea may be most prone to later disaster. It's possible that if you feel the need to 'test' the relationship,  you may already know in your heart of hearts that it's not meant to be. Cohabiters may be more apt to divorce, particularly if they've lived with several people in the past--one study found that serial female cohabiters have divorce rate that are twice as high as women who cohabited once, with the man that became their husband." I found that quite interesting.

I researched the divorce rate in the United States over the past, and this is what I found. Between 1867 and 1900 the divorce rate rose from 3% to 7%. Divorce slowly rose until the 1970's when it skyrocketed, and by 1985 the divorce rate was at 50%. Several factors attribute to the jump in divorce, one being that it became easier to get one. But something else happened in the 1970's--cohabitation was obscure and even taboo until the 1970's.  Hmmmm..., interesting that the divorce rate jumped about the same time that society started to accept living together. 

I'm not saying that just because you live together and then get married, you are doomed for divorce, or if you don't live together before you marry, it won't end in a divorce. Marriage is something that should be taking very seriously. It is also something that both of you need to work at. Both should give 100% effort. It is not 50/50. It is 100/100; your all!  

I am glad my husband and I waited, and did not live together before we were married. I believe that is one reason we have such a strong marriage. Both of us are committed to each other, and that is how it should be.

I hope and pray, that Bill and I will always be close as a couple. I also hope my friend does some real soul searching before plunging into the living together thing. Making that commitment toward marriage is a HUGE thing, but one that I feel can be decided on without cohabitating.

Bahamian Coin Necklace

Two years ago, my mom, one of my sisters and I went on our first girl cruise. We went on a four day cruise to the Bahamas; Freeport, Nassau and a day at sea. I had been to Nassau several times and was really looking forward to this trip. One of the things I wanted to do was go to the bank in Nassau and get rolls of coins. I had plans to make some jewelry. I have seen a lot of coin jewelry I like and thought I could try to design and make my own.

Bahamian coins are really cool. They have all sorts of tropical things like, starfish, boats, pineapple, and all sorts of fish. There is even a flamingo on one of the coins ;) I wasn't sure which coin I liked the best or which side, so I decided to use all the coins and show off both sides.

It doesn't look like it in these pictures (I had to use my flash), but all their coins are silver colored except the copper color penny. I used mother of pearl chips and beads and some other funky looking coiled beads. I also used some silver/copper colored sparkly beads too.

Here is a black and white photo. I thought maybe you could see the coins a lot better.

I really like it except for one thing...I goofed. Yep, I wasn't paying attention and I goofed. It really bothers me the way it lays, so I might have to take it apart and fix my goof.  If you look to the right of the picture just before the dime, you will see I left out a mother of pearl bead. That is why the coins are laying too close together. But, other than that, what do you think?

Another Foto Friday

Early this morning, Sox, our dog, needed to go out. It was about 5:30 a.m. UGGG is all I could think about. I peeled myself out of bed and headed downstairs. As I started to open the sliding glass door, I noticed a herd of deer carefully making their way across our yard. Boy I wished I had had my glasses on. Then I raced to get my camera. I was glad I still had the telephoto lens on from yesterday's shoot.

I took several pictures though the glass door, as I didn't want to scare them.

There were about a dozen of them playing Follow The Leader as they headed through our yard and into the neighbor's yard.

Even though they are going to be a pain in the you know what when it comes to garden season, I enjoy these beautiful creatures. 

After they all got through our yard, I let Sox out to do her business. As I stood their waiting, I looked around, and noticed the moon. Had to get a shot of that too.

Then I noticed the pretty colors of the sunrise. Had to get that too. Even though at first I was not too happy about getting out of bed at that hour, I am glad Sox had to go out, because I was able to see all these beautiful sights and then record it with my camera.

March has come in like a lion.

Hopefully it will go out like a lamb!

Here it is the 5th of March and we have already gotten three days of snow. We are suppose to get more snow tonight. That's more snow than we have had all season. Normally I really don't like the snow very much, but these last snows were kinda fun. The first two mornings of March we woke up to white trees and grass, but not white roads. 

I've always said I wouldn't mind the snow it if would stick everywhere but the roads, oh! and it needs to be warm. I really don't do well in the cold.

This might be the last we see of any snow, that is until next year. I'm fine with that. I am really looking forward to the warm sunny weather that is ahead for us this summer. This weekend, it will be in the 60's. YAY!!!!

OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR LIFE!

I can remember when I was young---being very frustrated with my parents. They never let me do anything. Well, at least that is what it seemed. 

Now that I am a parent, I can see where they were coming from. I thought they were just being mean, and really didn't care. But now I know. They loved me and wanted the best for me.

I really don't think one will ever know where parents are coming from until one becomes a parent. I don't think you really know how much your parents love you until you become a parent yourself.

As a mother, I feel sometimes I have been guided by my feelings. I don't know to explain it, but there have been many times that I have felt that one of my kids should or should not do certain things. Sometimes, my feelings were validated, other times they were not. I don't feel that just because they were not, that I was not guided. On the contrary, I feel that if I had not pushed for that one thing to happen (or not), that I would found out why; and that could have ended in disaster. Does that make sense? I hope so. 

I feel mothers have that certain sense (and fathers do to). There have been times when my children had not listen to our counsel as parents, and things did not work out too well for them; and it has sickened me. I hate that feeling. As a family, we have been very lucky, so far, that nothing too horrible has happened. I pray that we are continually blessed when it comes to that.

I'm not sure my children realize it, but I love them very dearly. So much in fact, that I would give my life for them. They are my life, and I hope they know that they can come to me about anything. I do mean ANYTHING! I will try my best to understand. As parents, we will try our best to be there for them...through anything.

I AM THANKFUL FOR TREES, 

PLANTS 

AND FLOWERS

A couple days ago, I was asked to substitute in Primary. The age group were the Sunbeans; three and four year olds. The lesson was, I AM THANKFUL FOR TREES, PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 

When I looked at the preparation I needed, it mentioned to obtain pictures of local flowers and trees. I moved in toward the end of summer, and most of the pictures I have of local vegetation are from this past fall and winter. It's been on the gloomy side lately too, so I decided to just display this picture I have of my youngest son at the bayou close to where we lived in Louisiana. It has lots of trees, and is very pretty; at least I think it is. The children thought so too. It was a nice picture to lead into our lesson. 

Our photography club has an ongoing challenge. Take a picture everyday and post on their Facebook. Each month has a theme. The theme for March is, Landscapes. The past couple of days I have taken snowy landscape pictures, as we have had a little more than a dusting the first two days of March. Today, although it is very cold in my book, is very sunny and bright. After I got back from church and had a little to eat, I decided to head out in my backyard and take some landscape pictures. 

I am thankful for the trees, flowers, and plants. I have always thought Kentucky was one of the prettiest states. Even in the dead of winter when all the trees are naked, it is still a gorgeous place. I bet it is really pretty in the Spring, and I look forward to photographing that event in the weeks ahead.