ITs TIME FOR A GIRLS NIGHT!!!!!!!

Let's do a MOVIE night at my house on Saturday night. This Saturday April 26th at how about 7:30. I have a cute movie that we can watch and we will just break out the popcorn and munchies.

EVERYONE is invited. Please do not wait for me to name you individually. I really would like EVERYONE to come hang out with us and I do not name names because I do not want to leave anyone out. So.....dont think too much about it. Just put on your PJ's and come join the fun. Being with the girls is always a good time and the more the marrier.

PLEASE shot me a note if you are coming so I know how much junk to get. I look forward to seeing YOU ALL here!!! Oh and yes you can bring a friend. Lets get a big group together this time.

What is in a name?

I called my mom today. While chatting we got on the topic of past memories. She was telling me some things about her childhood, and leading up to meeting my dad. We then spoke for a while about my dad. How he was. Things he did. How he looked and acted. She reminded me that I look verymuch like my dad. For me, I love to hear these stories. I was very young (almost 4) when my father was killed in a coppermine cavein. When I talk with mom and she tells me about my dad's personality and traits, I am very much like he was. We both have that quite and very loving personality. Good listeners and very understanding. We both love hugs and touching. We both were shy but when on a comfortable topic, we love to talk, show, and or explain all we know about it. Love to share things with others that we are very comfortable with. Having these talks with my mom brings be closer to my mom but I also feel very close to my dad. I love and miss him very much and still think of him often.
While thinking of him, I often remember that I was named after him. His name is Lonnie Joe Titus. (meaning Noble and ready/ prompt) He was named after his father who's name meaning the same thing was Alonzo Titus. So between the two of them came my name Alona. My name with the Hebrew meaning of Oak (hum....maybe I am a tree. lol no no, we will say I am strong. Yeah lets go with that. lol) or the boy version of my name is Hawaiian meaning Excellant/ high mountian. Well I am tall like a mountian, was big like one too. I am just sticking with the Excellanet part of it.
I think names are very important. While naming a child, so much love and thought must go into giving that child a name. This name will be this child. This name will be what this child lives with and is known by. Some parents look in a book and just pick something. Others really give it a lot of thought and ponder for the full 9 months or more before they decide on a name.
As a child, I did not like my name. It was too original. No one pronounced it correctly and I was always embarrassed about having to correct people. As I got older, I learned to appreshaite my name. I have a name that is original and for that i stand out just a little. When someone calls my name I know they are calling me and not 20 other people. Think about it, how many people do you know named Alona? I hear this name now more then I ever did as a child. A few years ago, I had a girl scout troop with an Alanna, Alaina, and Elana. Then me as a leader. That was kinda cool for all of us. Now as an adult, I think my name is pretty and I think about how close it puts me to my dad. I have a brother who passed away from illness before I was born. His name was Lonnie Joe, JR. So, I am the only one now of 11 kids who was named after my dad. That is speacial to me. I even treasure giving my pets a name. That is why I decided to change the original name I had given my puppy. Remember I had introduced Tinkerbell to all of you a little while ago. Then after getting to know her, I felt the name Molly fit her better. She is a great dog but not a Tinkerbell. She is my Molly.
With my kids each one tells a story. I looked up the meaning of all of their names today. So, for Paul's kids I do not have their stories. I will have to get that from Paul sometime. Next is DJ. His full name is James Daniel Rollins III. His name means Supplanter. (huh? not sure what that means but whatever) This is the child that I agreed to let their father name. He had always wanted to continue the tradition, as he was James jr, he wanted a 3rd. Well, during my pregnancy I had the chance to meet James, Sr and decided that although they had the same name, I wanted my boy to be his own. I wanted him to be a different type of person and to not want to be like the 1st 2. So, we call him DJ. I know it should have been JD but since we do not live in Texas or Utah and we are not on a ranch, we will go with DJ
Now, we have Keely. When I was expecting her, there was a girl on tv and her name is Keely Shay Smith. I thought she was a pretty girl but most of all, I just fell in love with this name. It was original but not crazy. I just love the way it sounded and it just felt right for my baby girl. Origin: Gaelic Meaning: Beautiful; handsome . Now learning the meaning of the name I totally agree.
Now my final creation Alyssa. Alyssa was almost Jessica. For me, knowing this would be the last one, I wanted something close to my name. We had a James and without having another Alona I wanted something close. I think Alyssa works well. Too well sometimes. When I have to complete school registration forms I am always starting to write Alyssa and ending up with Alona and visversa. Anyway, with the situation I was in while I carried her, she was my way of being selfish. Thanks for the donation James.
Gender: Girl Origin: Germanic Meaning: Noble kind
This was interesting to me. I do not dwell much on the meaning of a name. I feel like when you have a name and carry it from birth to adulthood and further though life you give it your own meaning. The reason I was given my name means far more to me the what the dictionary tells me my name means. So, with that, what does your name mean? http://www.babynamesworld.com/

Weekend at a glance

I hope everyone had a great weekend. For me it was a good one.

We started by Paul and I going out on Friday night. My sisters invited us to join them at the Comedy house. It is amaizing what you can learn from comedians. I mean the first guy helped up ponder about politics. The second guy posed the question.....Do you think it smells different in elevators for Midgets? Makes you think huh? lol Then the last and main act taught us something about blonds doing handstands, hamicks can be haserdous and what it means when girls wear lots of big jewerly. Im just saying, sometimes its better to keep it simple. I also learned that I love my own grandmother more from the things I seen there. ......You had to be here. lol

So Saturday morning, Alyssa left early to go with Aunt Caroline to see Disney on Ice. She had an awesome time. Told me about all of the different princesses and characters that were there. Thanks Aunt Caroline, that was a real treat for her.

I got up and Michelle, Hunter and Anna came over, so we all went to see the Elgin Centinnel year parade. It was fun. Lots of cool tractors.....go figure, its Elgin. lol

There was a lot of booths from people selling or advertising their businesses. We stopped into say hi to Christy Peake's booth. She had a great setup of dresses, bows, and other stuff. I wish my kids were still small so I could dress them in the cute dresses she makes. She is so talented.

Next we went to drop Keely off at her babysitting job, we went back to the house where I cleaned the yard and starting planning for my garden pond. I hope to have it put together bythe end of May.

It s going to be some work for what I want to it will be worth it. A garden pond is something i have always wanted. Now that Paul and Grandpa Ron (Paul's dad) has build me such a nice deck out back (along with all of their helpers), I can move on to the next step. The deck we have is part one of some big changes we are going to try to get done this summer. More will come as I blog our way through our changes.

It was great having the deck when the missionaries came over for dinner last night. We sat outside it the beautiful weather and chatted. Paul made burgers and sausagedogs on the grill and we had a great visit.

Well then I made it to church today. visited with my friends and after being volunteered, signed up to go to youth conference with the kids. I am sure its going to be fun. If nothing else, Valencia and I will have a good time. I even got a nap in this afternoon and played with our fat puppies.

Now I am getting ready for the new week. Its been a good weekend.

Try this one out.

How many people have your name. I know you are all thankful to hear that there is only One of ME. Not sure the USA needs more then one. lol

Try it and let me know what you find out.

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Could be the good bad and the ugly, but for us...

For us it was " the Food, the bed, and the spooky"...

Ok this is a long one. sorry. it was a long weekend.

Most of you know that last weekend, Paul's Mom, Dad and sister Cheri were visiting from Utah. We decided to take a family trip with them and go see some sites and stuff.

We left Friday morning and drove down to Savannah, GA. What should have been a short, trip sent us about 45 mins or more out of our way because I was unsure and stopped and asked someone which way. I am not sure what drugs that guy was on but he was totally not correct.

So by the time we finally made it to the hotel we were all frustrated and tired.

We made the most of it, got things together and ended up having a great day. We shopped at some local malls. The guys found the Bass Pro shop so they were all happy. The ladies found a book store and me and my girls found a cute jewerly store. IT was good times for everyone. So when everyone was in bed that night Me, Paul and Cheri went to go check out the big cemetary in the center of Savannah. We found a lot of interesting stuff. You see the circle in the picture. That is what you call an ORB. There was nothing in the air to make that circle. It was just someone hanging out with us. Then, look beside my head in that picture. I named him Bob. He was walking around with me. There is another big one and a tiny one right inside the fence. We were talking to them and they were responding. Not in words but we knew they were there. It was so awesome.

On Saturday, our main goal was to go to 'Lady and Son's Resturant' . Owner is the famous, Paula Deen and her sons. For those of you who have never been, it is a job just to get in there. The line starts at around 8 am. The hostess arrives at 9:30 and you make your reservations to come back for either lunch or dinner. Many people do not get in. Many people who show up at lunch time or dinner time are turned away because they sell out early in the mornings. I hear that this is normally just for the weekends and that during the weekdays you can get in much easier. On this day, they were sold out for the day by 10:30 that morning. Lucky for us, we had looked into it from home and knew to make reservations ahead of time. If you have more then 9 people you can reserve a table ahead of time. We had 8 people. So to keep our table we went to the line that was hoping for a table and found a nice couple to join us. They were very happy to help us. lol They had been waiting for an hour and a half and were ready to leave. So we had some time to look around Savannah while we waited for lunch time. We walked a block or so down to the river and there was a lot of cool stuff to see.
My kids were being so good. For DJ and Alyssa to be nice to each other, we were having a very good day.All the Ladies. (Check out my fro. From the wind off the water, and me forgetting to bring my straightener, I was not having a good hair day. LOL I look like I was trying out for an 80's big hair band!!! LOL)
We were undergound. This is where they transported cotton and other goods to put it on the trains and the ships to send it out. What a cool old place. Then we headed back to Lady and Sons and waited for our table. Even with reservations, we still had a long wait. We shopped in her little store. There is no shortage of ways that family is making a dollar in that place. lol You could buy a menu for $5. I mean come on. lol Then we waited and waited. By the time our table was ready, we were totally ready for the meal. Here we are munching out. Our table was on the third floor of this three story resturant. With a seperate buffet bar on each floor. That tells you the number of people in that place. We all agreed that it was well worth the wait and the trip. The food was wonderful. Alyssa cleared out their mac and cheese while DJ and Paul were trying to find out really how many racks of ribs they could consume in one sitting. The best part was that is was the food was always hot and fresh. I guess with that many people, they know to just keep the fresh food coming. Every trip anyone made, everything was fresh and hot. That is my kinda buffet bar.
After eating, we all left happy. Some were ready for a nap while others wanted to shop and some wanted to tour. This is when DJ went with the ladies on a tour. Just as we dropped them off, the rain poured and poured. We pulled off and this horn blarred that we could hear all over town. I had an idea of what it was but was hoping it was not what I was thinking. It was just what I was thinking. A tornado warning!! While those of us in the car were trying to find a safe place to be, DJ, Grama Harper and Aunt Cheri were being shuffled to a safe room in the museum for lock down. While talking to them on the phone, I asked if they wanted us to come back and get them. They said that they were not going to be able to leave but they did not want to. This was their excitement time. lol Boy the stories they took home with them. The tornado hit about 2 hrs away and so we were all safe where we were.
Once things settled down, and the rain cleared, everyone met back and decided to go to the City Market. A cute little area with shops and stuff. This is where we passed yet another wedding. During our stay I bet we passed at least 20 weddings. about 15 or more of those were on Saturday. Tuxcedos and flowers everywhere. Then at the market Paul hung out with Marilyn a little. lol We found my fav candy store in the world as of right now. They had so many candies that are hard to find, they sold ice cream. They made Pecan pralines right there in fround of you. Giving free hot fresh samples along the way. That would be my fav part. Then they were making taffy right there too. Here in the pics, the man is making speriment taffy. Again, giving us samples. How about fresh still warm taffy. Soft and yummy.

It was really awesome to watch them make and to taste the different flavors. Seeing how even the wrappers go on. It was so cool.

We seen a lot and did a lot and had a blast. Then we left and drove over to Charleston. Stopping at Hunting Island on the way. Showed them the beach. Picked up some shells. Got our feet wet. Then drove down to Folly Beach. Shopped in all of the beach shops. Paul and Grandpa walked down the peir where they watched a guy catch a 3 ft shark, a huge sting ray and even a pelican who got tangled in the fishing line and the guy had to free. Now Grandpa is going back to Utah with a farmers tan. lol We showed them the sites of Charleston.

After a long day we got back to our hotel. We had some problems with the rooms. They were gross!!. Then they gave us new rooms. These rooms seemed better. We could breath and they seemed so much cleaner. BUT......what we did not see and would not know until we woke up the next morning, is that while we slept, we had bed bugs biting us. We all woke with bites all over us and seen the bugs. It was the worst!!! I let the hotel have a little piece of my mind before I left. Took pics and showed the guy at the desk. It was really bad. But lucky for us, that was on our way home and so at the end of what was a great trip.

I hope Paul's parents and sister had as much of a good time as we did. We sure enjoyed them being here.

Tagged.....7 Unknown Things about Me....hummm....

Ok, Michelle tagged me. Let me think. What would people not know about me. I think there are many things but not sure which of those things would intrest anyone.

Ok, 1. I can not eat ice cream. Ice cream is one of my fav desserts but it makes me very very ill when I eat it. So ill, that if I have more then a bite I have to go to bed.

2. I am part of a Ghost hunters group and I have seen and heard paranormal beings.

3. I love love love roller coasters. The bigger and crazier- the better. I have to say though that now with kids and age, I choose not to ride them as much.

4. My dream is to one day be a foster mother. Very hard job...I know, but it is what I want to do. There are too many children out there who need love and no one is giving it to them.

5. I am a Grandmother. I prefer to be called YaYa which is a name one of my daycare babies gave me about two years ago. Paul's daughter Kendra made us grandparents. I can not wait to meet Mariah. She is two this year.

6. Most of you know I am from a big family. For those who do not know....I am the 8th of 12 children and my mom has 39 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

7. I have the best "new parents" anyone could ever dream of. I call them my new parents, not to replace my parents because that can not be done. I love my Mom dearly and although my dad died when I was a child, no one will ever replace him. I call them this because "in-laws" is usually looked upon as a negitive word. There is nothing negitive about Paul's parents. From the first time I met them, I knew they were awesome people. I love being around them. I have had them here to visit and they finally met my children and now I just love them so much more. I am sooooo lucky to have them as new parents and to be part of their family!! I hope to be that type of in-law someday(but not anytime soon btw).

There you have it. Hope you learned something. lol Now I am tagging Cheri, Valencia and Darla. I wonder if this will get Darla to update her blog. LOL

HAPPY SWEET 16 KEELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!