Don't let anyone tell you that you're not STRONG enough...
(and a tag, and my latest OLW scrapbook challenge further down the post...just keep scrolling! lol)

I loved reading all of your comments from my post yesterday. Apparently, a lot of you have young kiddoes who sing inappropriate songs at all sorts of inappropriate moments (the "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" at church from Corey was my personal favorite!). And apparently a lot of us have Fergie issues, because we all find ourselves quite Licious! I even wore my "Scrapalicious" t-shirt out in public last night, thinking of all of you! LOL

But just so you think that Sydney only has a one-artist repertoire, I thought I'd share what she sang last night OVER and OVER and OVER on the way to Delaney's softball practice. She sang this line from Hannah Montana--"Dont let anyone tell you that you're not strong enough"--at least 20 times in the car. I got to thinking that maybe God was sending me a message through her, letting me know that I am strong and that I can get through whatever I may be struggling with and that I need to believe in myself!

Or if any of you are thinking that about yourself, perhaps Sydney has that message for YOU. Believe it--you are STRONG ENOUGH!!

(Susie Q--I thought particularly of you while Sydney was singing, since I know your Grace is a big HM fan!!)

Now, let me quickly get to a fun tag that Southern Heart tagged me with. The challenge was to share some uniquely Southern things with my readers, so I thought I'd join in.

For those of you who aren't from the South, let's just say that it's a wonderful place to live--a place filled with genuine people, true hospitality, great accents, great food, and fun sayings! So...here are a few Southern tidbits that I came up with (although it was hard to come up with many unique ones, after reading Southern Heart's).

* In the South, when we want tea we don't want hot tea, we don't want unsweetened tea, and we don't want flavored tea...we want good, ole, simple sweetened iced tea. (When I was in Chicago several years back, I was at an Outback restaurant and tried to order a sweet tea. The waitress just laughed at me and said, "You must be from Geogia or Alabama," then proceeded to tell me that they didn't even have sugar packets I could use to sweeten my tea. It was a good meal, but definitely lacked something that would have made it much better.)

* In the South, we take our football seriously. Saturdays in the Fall are meant for one thing and one thing alone--college football! It is an all-weekend business and we build our days around when the right team comes on tv. There are weeks when it's literally all I think about! (No, I'm serious!)

* In the South, most girls have two first names. I remember one time when Delaney's softball team played another that literally had a roster of girls with names like Mary Claire, Mary Emma, Mary Clyde, Mary Page, Emma Grace, and Margaret Rose. She has had friends named Mary Suillivan and Ann Payton (not Mary and Ann, but the combined names). My mother still has hopes that we will refer to Sydney as Sydney Faith.

* In the South, a real man knows how to hunt a deer, pray before dinner, open doors for the women, and cry at good movies. And I like it that way!

If you are from the South, I'm tagging you right now!! Share your fun, Southern habits and tidbits with us all!

And now...finally...(this is becoming a very LONG post isn't it?)...I thought I'd share a scrapbook layout I did last night. It is for the One Little Word challenge, which has become one of my very favorites out there! Every two weeks, the gals there post a word and challenge you to create a scrabook page or project with it.

This week's word was "My" and, of course, I thought of a ton of different ways to use the word. My life...my family...my loves...my all sorts of things. But I eventually went back to a simple idea and did a page about MYSELF. And once I had the idea, it came together so quickly (like in 30 minutes!!) The title on the page is "Me, MYself, and I" and it goes something like this...

The journaling, which is really all over the page, says:

"thinking about me, june 20, 2007, cheryl sloan wray

"who am I? I am a mother, wife, writer, artist (in training!), Christian, dreamer, friend...

"i want to ...enjoy each day, read a lot of books, eat a lot of good food, see a lot of cool places, be a good mother and wife, share a lot of smiles, feel closer to God, and LIVE!!

"i love...McKenna, Delaney, Sydney, Gary, my parents, my brother, my family, my friends, my God, my photos, my books, my travels, my food, my home, my life!

"i'm almost 39 and i feel like i should be more than i am...more successful, more accomplished, just more...but i've learned that age is relative, because i have so much more of life to go and i'm still not sure what i want to be when i 'grow up.' that's okay, isn't it?"

Really like how it turned out. And it reminds me what scrapbooking is all about--I want my books to share part of who I am, so that my grandchildren will read it someday and feel like they knew me just a little bit.

Well...now that you made it through ALL of that... I hope you have a Fantastic Thusday!! I'm off to spend a few hours at the wave pool, then back at it!

Enjoy!!!