CRAIGS 49th BIRTHDAY

the man of the hour

Craig and Daniel

a Guest, seems to always be at these family events...*sigh*

craig enjoying his standard celebratory dinner, STEAK, with a side of APPLES and a POTATO

daniels standard dinner, a BURGER with BACON on it, and "no stuff" with a side of fries.

paris bought his own dinner. a BURGER, with allot of ranch...

my dinner: SEASONED TALAPIA with a side of  SEASONED VEGGIES and Steamed BROCCOLI.

daniel and paris having a conversation...

craig chose NOT to have deseet, mainly because he was filled with dinner...so he let daniel have the dessert hed have gotten, an APPLE something, topped with a scoop of VANILLA ICE CREAM and drizzled in CARAMEL

of course that meant that paris also HAD to have his own dessert, he opted for a cheesecake.
folks, let me tell you, that was the LARGEST slice of cheesecake i had ever seen, period! hard to tell in the pic, but it looked like it was an 8oz piece, seriously.

GIFT GIVING TIME! sorry about the bag they were in, it was what was handy at the moment, lol

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE..towel. this man LOVEs trains, so it was fitting for him to have this for a gift.

craig fancies himself a kind of HIPPIE, mostly just for the tie-died stuff, and the music...so when i found these towels, i HAD to get them for him..

MORE GIFTS!

PENS! the man NEVER goes WITHOUT making sure he has a pen in his pocket, a true nerd, except he DOESNT have the pocket protector...lol (im working on that one,,lol)

PURPLE (his fav color) NOT BOOKS the size of his pockets.
one of my pet peeves about my wonderful husband is, the fact he carries around a buch of loose papers torn to the size of his pocket to write notes on as he needs to. THATS not the pet peeve, its associated tho.
when craig bends over with that massive  bunch of papers in his pockets, they ALL fall out and...scatter, and it takes craig a minute or two to gather them all up...frustrates me.
so, this was a gift  out of frustration for watching the happles smess over and over and over again...
USE THEM HONEY! i dont want too see those silly loose papers falling and blowing and getting wet anymore...

mans an eagle scout, and he also, never goes without a flashlight in his pocket. PURPLE at that!

he also, can juggle! my hubby is versitaile, lol...
so, i found these  balls, thought, well he collects them, hers some more.
ENJOY HONEY!

MICHELLE

QUOTE - GETTING READY -Henry Ford

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.
~Henry Ford~

THE FATHER - By: Unknown

The Father
=======

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's
pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit, and before he
gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest
minister who was in the service that evening.

In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the
guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that
he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and
share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.

With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to
speak.

"A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the
Pacific coast," he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked
any attempt to get back to the shore. The waves were so high,
that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could
not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the
ocean as the boat capsized."

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two
teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began,
looking somewhat interested in his story.

The aged minister continued with his story, "grabbing a rescue
line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of
his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the life
line. He only had seconds to make the decision.

The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew
that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could
not be matched by the torrent of waves. As the father yelled
out, 'I love you, son!' he threw out the life line to his son's
friend.

By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the
capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells
into the black of night. His body was never recovered."

By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the
pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old
minister's mouth. "The father," he continued, "knew his son
would step into eternity with Jesus and he could not bear the
thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without
Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son's
friend. How great is the love of God that he should do the same
for us.

Our heavenly father sacrificed his only begotten son that we
could be saved. I urge you to accept his offer to rescue you
and take a hold of the life line he is throwing out to you in
this service."

With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as
silence filled the room. The pastor again walked slowly to the
pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the
end. However, no one responded to the appeal. Within minutes
after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's
side.

"That was a nice story," politely stated one of the boys, "but I
don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his
only son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a
Christian."

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied,
glancing down at his worn bible. A big smile broadened his
narrow face, he once again looked up at the boys and said, "it
sure isn't very realistic, is it?

But I'm standing here today to tell you that story gives me a
glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up his
son for me.

You see ---

I was that father and your pastor is my son's friend."

~Author Unknown~

LOVE ISLAND - By: unknown

Love Island
============

Once upon a time there was an island where all the feelings lived; happiness, sadness, knowledge, and all the others, including love.

One day it was announced to all of the feelings that the island was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
So all the feelings prepared their boats to leave.

Love was the only one that stayed. She wanted to preserve the island paradise until the last possible moment.

When the island was almost totally under, Love decided it was time to leave. 
She began looking for someone to ask for help. Just then Richness was passing by in a grand boat. 
Love asked, "Richness, Can I come with you on your boat?"
Richness answered, " I'm sorry, but there is a lot of silver and gold on my boat and there would be no room for you anywhere."

Then Love decided to ask Vanity for help who was passing in a beautiful vessel. 
Love cried out, "Vanity, help me please."
"I can't help you", Vanity said, "You are all wet and will damage my beautiful boat."

Next, Love saw Sadness passing by. 
Love said, "Sadness, please let me go with you." 
Sadness answered, "Love, I'm sorry, but, I just need to be alone now."

Then, Love saw Happiness. 
Love cried out, " Happiness, please take me with you." 
But Happiness was so overjoyed that he didn't hear Love calling to him.

Love began to cry. 
Then, she heard a voice say, "Come Love, I will take you with me."  It was an elder.

Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that she forgot to ask the elder his name.

When they arrived on land the elder went on his way. Love realized how much she owed the elder.

Love then found Knowledge and asked,
"Who was it that helped me?"

"It was Time", Knowledge answered.

"But why did Time help me when no one else would?", Love asked.

Knowledge smiled and with deep wisdom and sincerity, answered,
"Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is."

~Author Unknown~

CHINESE FORTUNE COOKIES

CRAIG: You discover treasures where others see nothing unusual.
MICHELLEYou will inherit an unexpected sum of money within the year
(remember that..cause im interested in knowing from whom, and how much, lol)
DANIEL: Now is a good time to try something new.
(try to make it no so expensive. :)

CHINESE FORTUNE COOKIES

CRAIG: A New Pair of shoes would do you a world of good.
funny, cause hes always saying he needs a new pair of shoes..lol

MICHELLE: You will enjoy something different this coming weekend.
really? cause  the event of my anniversary was something different..lol

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

well we made it 5 years! and it went SOOOO fast too. hard to believe that 5 years ago (on this date) we were married.

life has been good.
it has had some bumps, but nothing that took us out as a couple.
it all, actually, i feel, made us stronger.

we used to go out to ON THE BOARDER for our anniversary.
to pay homage to our meeting on the 1st day we met, and going you to a favorite spot of Craigs in Columbia, SC (Mexican).
but i have had gastric surgery, so that entire meal at On The Boarder, would be a waste...even though i could bring it home.
but what we went for was the FREE sedert you get when you say its your anniversary.
they had never asked us before to show proof, so wed do 2 trips, one on the day we met (Memorial Day), the other on the day of our anniversary (8-7-2006).
but my surgery has put n end to that place as a place to celebrate because i dont need the sugar in the desert.

som we went and did our other favorite restaraunt...POBLANOS GRILL
and celebrated there.

we had out usual.
and  we took pics.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! MAY YOU HAVE MANY MORE TOGETHER!

MICHELLE

HUMOR - PARENTHOOD

If it was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor!

Shouting to make your children obey is like using the horn to steer your car, and you get about the same results.

The smartest advice on raising children is to enjoy them while they are still on your side.

Avenge yourself ~~~ live long enough to be a problem to your children.

The best way to keep kids at home is to give it a loving atmosphere ~~ and hide the keys to the car.

Parents: People who bear infants, bore teenagers, and board newlyweds.

The joy of motherhood: What a woman experiences when all the children are finally in bed.

Life's golden age is when the kids are too old to need babysitters and too young to borrow the family car.

Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

Grandparents are similar to a piece of string ~ handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of grandchildren.

There are three ways to get something done: Do it yourself, hire someone to do it, or forbid your children to do it.

Adolescence is the age when children try to bring up their parents.

Cleaning your house while your kids are at home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm.

Oh, to be only half as wonderful as my child thought I was when he was small, and half as stupid as my teenager now thinks I am.

There are only two things a child will share willingly: communicable diseases and his mother's age.

Adolescence is the age at which children stop asking questions because they know all the answers.

An alarm clock is a device for awakening people who don't have small children.