Gratitude Tuesday

It's Gratitude Tuesday again, brought to you today by the letter I:

Ice Cream - 'nuff said.

Innocence - I'm inexpressibly grateful that our daughter still has this in abundance, although it kills me every time I see life chip a little bit of it away.

Imagination - okay, I admit that sometimes mine can run a little wild, but for the most part imagination is a wonderful thing!

Ireland - although I'm a bit of a mutt, my heritage is primarily Irish, and it's my dream to someday be able to see the land of my ancestors.

Illustrations - from the time I was little I've always loved illustrations in books, just so long as they didn't shorten the story to put them there!

Ideas - that's what your imagination is for!

Identity - it took me a while, but most of the time these days I have a pretty good grip on mine.

Income - we wouldn't get very far without some form of it!

In-laws - I've been very blessed with the ones I have, and I think Nick would say the same (most days).

Intercourse - of course!

Happy Gratitude Tuesday!

New toys

Last night I went and had dinner with a girlfriend, and we stopped at a toy store afterwards. I was very happy to finally find one of these:




I've been on the lookout for a Taffy Tickler ever since Eva posted about her find on their trip to LA. I had also heard very good things about this:

Several friends had interesting things to report about these little disposable Screaming O cock ring vibrators, and at $7 I figured it would be worth trying. It was.

The taffy tickler was very cool too, although the egg was huge compared to a regular silver bullet. But the silicone knobs made for some very nice sensations, and I'm happy with both purchases - as is Nick!

We also stopped at Target and I found this little cutie:
I've never seen a Little Miss Naughty with hair, but I think she's just as cute this way.


It was nice to have an evening out. Morgan has been having problems getting all her daily schoolwork done in class again, which means it comes home with her for homework, which in turn means that I've had to spend 2 hours every night dragging her through all of it. It's been no fun at all, leaving me both frustrated with her and at the same time feeling like a mean mom for staying on her back about it. I know in my head that I can't just let her get by without doing it, but it's hard to see her have to spend every evening tied up with monotonous spelling and writing exercises instead of playing.


This is not a situation where she has real reasons for not getting it done in class - she just doesn't want to focus on it. She's SO smart, an excellent speller and reading at a 9th grade level, so it's not an issue of not being able to do the work. In fact she brings home all A's on her report card, with the exception of a recent B in math. And she doesn't have an attention deficit problem. We've looked at all of those potential issues, because we didn't want to assume anything. I think it's just a matter of being tired of the school year at this point. But I know that if we don't make her finish the work, then those A's and B's are going to slide into C's and D's, plus she'll get the clear message that school is not important. I'm hoping and praying that sometime very soon something will click with her and it will get better.



Anyway, today is a family Saturday, so I'm off to have fun. Have a great day!

The Trouble With Being Truthful...

...is that sometimes it doesn't leave you with any good stories to tell. Unfortunately that's the case here. I'm afraid there's not been much excitement since we got back from Hawaii. Mostly just the mundanity of work, laundry, and helping with the ever increasing load of homework Morgan brings home.



Let's see, we did go bowling with some friends last week - that was pretty fun. And Saturday was my cousin's wedding. Originally they had asked me to do the photography, which I was pretty excited about - my secret dream is to be able to someday do portraits and wedding photography professionally. But when I got there, they had hired someone, which was kind of disappointing. I still took a number of shots, which I'll put together into an album for them as a wedding gift, but I kind of got the feeling they weren't sure I'd do a good job.



Spanking has been nonexistent, not so much as mentioned. Nick, I'm fairly certain, has no desire to get back into it, and frankly I'm not feeling much interest myself. I guess it all goes in cycles. Maybe spring will bring a rekindling with it. Hope you guys are all well!

Gratitude Tuesday

Happy Gratitude Tuesday!

House
Home
Honey
Hairbrushes
Hope
Happiness
Hammers
Heroes
Help
Heat
Hands
Humanity
Hello

Gratitude Tuesday

The grinning grandparents gracefully gave the grateful growing girls gifts of God's green grapes. LOL - that's how I remembered my Gratitude Tuesday list today.

Grins - a grin is more than just a smile. A grin is a little mischievous, a little knowing, a little triumphant. Yeah, I like grins.

Grandparents - grandparents are by and far pretty wonderful people, aren't they? My dad's parents were both nearly 70 be the time I was born, the last girl in a long line of granddaughters, so they were always pretty "old" to me growing up. But my mom's parents were in their early forties when I came along, only the second grandchild on that side and the only one who lived close by. They pretty well doted on me, and they were ever present when I was growing up. Unfortunately I lost my last one when my mom's dad died a year ago. Now that my own parents are grandparents, they fill the role with enthusiasm, and my daughter is blessed to have them.

Grace - I just love my friend Grace, and we have her to thank for bringing back Gratitude Tuesday!

Giving - I am always grateful when I have the opportunity to give something to someone else, even if it's just something small. My dad is one of the most generous men I know, and he taught me well the joy of giving.

Gratitude Tuesday - What a wonderful idea this is! I'm ever grateful to CeeCi for coming up with it and sharing it with all of us!

Growing - Growing is hard sometimes, but I'm always grateful when I feel like I've done a bit.

Girls - Girls are awesome. Especially baby girls (all that pink) and girlfriends (um, maybe still all that pink)!

Gifts - As much as I enjoy giving, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy getting gifts too!

God - This if course is a biggie. I'm afraid I can't adequately describe how much I love and appreciate God, but without Him, my life would be meaningless.

Green - I love the color green. It can mean go, it can refer to money, it can indicate spring is here!

Grapes - I really enjoy grapes, especially red grapes. My Mamaw and Papaw grew grapes when I was little, and I'll never forget how sweet they were right off the vine.

I know, I know, three posts in one day - you guys are going to have a heart attack! Happy Gratitude Tuesday!

Fun mobile blogging...

Just thought I'd show you the cute hand lotion I found in the Target dollar bin. It's grape, which is a little Kool-Aidey for my taste, but how could I pass it up?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Would you believe that Wal-mart had ANOTHER spanko card this year? One of these days I'm going to get up the courage to wear one of these buttons in public!

Gratitude Tuesday Double Shot

So I missed Gratitude Tuesday last week. Well, I didn't actually miss it - in fact, I looked at my computer with great intentions, but we had been to the PCC that day, I was just too jetlagged to put up a post! But I did have plenty to be grateful for, so today is going to be a double header!

E:

Earth - what a beautiful planet we live on - the evidence was all around me last week! And we live in a beautiful part of the country as well, so coming back home was just as lovely in a different way!

Elevators - how wonderfully handy, and you can bet they were a godsend with a load of luggage!

Early morning - we got to see some fabulous early morning skies, especially on the plane ride back!

Easter - I love Easter and all that it means - what an amazing gift God gave us!

Elvis - Sunday night Nick and I caught Elvis' Blue Hawaii on TV. What was really neat was that part of it was filmed at the hotel we stayed at. It was so cool to watch it and say "Hey! We were right there in that park!" And of course Blue Hawaii has a great spanking scene!

F:

Friends - I have some truly wonderful ones, and I wouldn't trade them for anything!

Family - they might not always be what we would choose, but I sure am glad I've got mine!

Flowers - Who doesn't love flowers? We sure saw some amazing ones in Hawaii!

Happy Gratitude Tuesday!

A wonderful vacation

Well, we're finally back from Hawaii! It was truly lovely, although I have to admit that I'm glad to be back home - I missed Morgan terribly! We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which was truly amazing. The room was beautiful, and it looked right out over the harbor! There was even a rainbow on our second day there!

We got to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was really quite fascinating. As the website states : "Many South Pacific nations are represented at the Polynesian Cultural Center, where recreated villages, exhibits and hands-on activities highlight eight of them: Samoa, Aotearoa (Maori New Zealand), Fiji, Hawaii, Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga and Rapa Nui (Easter Island)."

In fact we learned that in the New Zealand, or Aotearoa culture, there is a carved wooden weapon known as a patu, used in hand to hand combat. The patu is basically a wooden paddle, as seen here:

The performers did a warrior dance with them, and I have to tell you, shirtless men waving paddles wasn't a bad show! Even the carvings of Aotearoa gods feature the patu!

When I found a patu for sale in the gift area, I fell in love with it! At $59.99, it was a little steep for a souvenir, but it was beautiful, and Nick insisted I get it. Anyway, when will I ever have another chance to buy an authentic Aotearoan paddle? We haven't had a chance to try it out yet as we didn't want to raise any eyebrows at the hotel and we've been pretty well crashed since we got home - 10 hours on a plane will do that to you!

Anyway, it's great to be home - now I just have to get rid of this jet lag!

Friends Award

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.”

The Rules to accepting this award: “Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Bethie honored me with this lovely award, and I'm happy to pass it on! As Bethie said, it's very hard to pick only eight, but here are my choices, with hopes that you all know there are many more of you that I love!

Grace of A Day in the Life

Bonnie of My Bottom Smarts

Hermione of Hermione's Heart

Dave and Cindy of His to Spank, His to Love

Iris of Through Iris' Eyes

Joannie of Joannie Writes About...

Natty of Natty's Spanking Blog

PK of New Beginnings