1. Halloween 2. Raking leaves (we have a lot of leaves to rake every year!) 3. Pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie . . . 4. That fresh autumn smell 5. Thanksgiving

1. Wedding 2. Love 3. Happy! 4. Cherish 5. Special Moments

1. The weather cooled off this week. It was nice to not run the A/C for two days. 2. We took our pontoon boat out for the first time this year! 3. My husband has grilled supper three nights in a row. Yummy! 4. I'm off Friday for a me day--hair cut and color, massage, and mani/pedi.

My name is Mindy Sue. 1. Oh, like Mork and Mindy (for those of you who remember that show). 2. No, it's not short for Melinda. My mother wanted Mindy so she named me Mindy. 3. I always wanted a normal, regular name. I always thought it was cool to have three Michelle's in our class. 4. A couple of variations of my name are Windy Mindy and Minnie Pearl (per my brother-in-law) and Minday (emphasis on "day"). 5. I've come to appreciate the unique name I have. There are usually no other Mindy's around, although now there are two mom's on my son's baseball team named Mindy and that caused some confusion this weekend! 6. My married name is now Shirley--which causes a whole new set of issues including people being confused on how to spell it and calling me "Shirley". I love the movie Airplane--Don't call me Shirley.

1. Baby sitting (I was so excited to turn 13 because my mom made me wait until I was 13 to baby sit.) 2. Dairy Queen (I loved that job! My friends and I had a great time in high school there.) 3. Archiver's (I think I spent my paycheck every week there on supplies--very dangerous!) 4. Legal Secretary (I went to business school for a year and here I am twenty years later.)

I find that my attention is diverted by trying to do too many things at once--I'm on the Internet (Facebook a lot) and trying to watch TV. Or I'm on my phone playing games and trying to listen to the radio. I rarely watch the news--it's too depressing and negative, but there is always something going on in my life to distract me!

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie--the old cartoon. I love it! I have it on DVD. 2. Barbies--I was so excited when my daughter was old enough to play with them. 3. Legos. I loved building things with them. Still do! 4. Hot Wheels. I collected them and played with them on the stairs to the basement of our house. 5. Homemade ice cream. I just bought a mini one so I can have that taste over and over again.

1. Trustworthy 2. Leader 3. American 4. Intelligent 5. Thoughful (as in hopefully he thinks about things before acting on them) 6. Mediator (especially now since the parties can't seem to work together) 7. Patriotic 8. Determined 9. Passionate 10. Fighter

While I live "in town" it's not a big "city". I think we have maybe 4,000 people in town. I've lived in this smaller country setting most of my life although I did live in St. Louis for approximately two years. What I love about "country" living: 1. Not a lot of city noise at night. 2. You can really see the stars at night. 3. I know all of my neighbors up and down the street and on the street behind our house. 4. There are a lot of children for my son to play with on our street and I feel he can go hang out at the park or at someone's house and I'm not as worried as I would be in the big city. 5. We can walk down to the baseball diamonds in the summer time to catch a little league game any night of the week.

Our Family: 1. We both come from small families. I have two older sisters. He has one younger brother. 2. His mom passed away when he was 18 months old, but his step mom is like his "real" mom. 3. We both grew up in the same small town. 4. We attended high school together. 5. Both of our fathers are handy around the house. 6. Both of our mothers stayed at home when we were litle but then worked after we started attending school.

I hated scary movies when I was younger and I still don't care for them. I watched Poltergeist and there was a tree outside of my bedroom window like in the movie--it scared me to death some nights. I was always afraid to get up in the middle of the night because I thought someone would grab my ankles from under the bed when I got up. Spiders. I have always hated them. Crickets in our basement--they would make noise and would jump up so high. Yuck!

My favorite love song: I Swear by John Michael Montgomery (our wedding song) I'm not really a "mushy" person so I'm drawing a blank now!

I wish I could have more time to scrapbook. I wish I could protect my children from the hard times that they will face in the future.

I haven't had time to be very creative this week, and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, although I always make sure my children have candy which I will purchase this week. We had Direct TV installed this week so I'm hoping to draw inspiration from all of the great DIY shows.

Face--my husband called me that because he said I had a beautiful face. Boy-Girl--I call my daughter "girl" and my son "boy" and they answer--good thing I didn't have a third child!

My mom and dad and I took a family road trip vacation every year. I used to hate the hours spent in the car driving to Texas or South Carolina, etc., but now I appreciate all of the places I traveled to. I rode a school bus from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. I had to walk to school (or ride with my mother) after that until I could drive to school. I never owned a bike. I preferred to walk if I needed to go somewhere. I rode on an airplane when I was three. I don't remember the trip.

I'm not a big winter fan so I don't have a lot of layouts for winter (other than Christmas!). But the two I have completed are: 1. About five years ago we actually snow instead of ice, and I took pictures of the kids trying to sled down the street with their dad pulling them back up the hill and them playing with our black lab. 2. About six years ago we had an ice storm that knocked out our power, but luckily my dad had power and we spent the night at his house.

1. Heidi Swapp 2. My pastor at church 3. Tami Potter 4. Becky Higgins

Preparing for a day on our boat: 1. My husband gets the boat from the storage shed and brings it to our house. 2. Pack up the cooler with beverages and our lunch meat or hamburgers or hot dogs. 3. Pack a bag with the bread or buns, chips, snacks. 4. Pack a second bag with sunscreen, towels, water tight box for our phones and wallets. 5. Camera 6. Put it all on the boat and head out!

Today I 1. Picked up the house for the cleaning lady 2. Dropped my son off at school 3. Rode the Metro to work 4. Went to the gym at lunch Later I will 5. Ride the Metro home 6. Stop by a Tastefully Simple/Thirty-One open house party 7. Attend the Varsity Boys Basketball game to watch my daughter cheer 8. Sleep

I love to read! Some of my recent favorites: 1. Twilight Series 2. The Host 3. Under The Dome (this is the only Stephen King novel I have ever read--they usually scare me to death!) 4. The Hunger Games Series (I can't wait to seet he movie!) 5. One for the Money series by Janet Evanovich 6. The J.D. Robb in Death series

1. Cake 2. Presents 3. Family 4. Decorations 5. Adult Beverages 6. Friends 7. Dancing

1. I picked out orange and red carpeting for my bedroom when I was four--you have to love the 70s! 2. I had my own room--my two sisters were out of the house. 3. It was on the second floor. 4. It was at the top of the stairs. 5. It had two windows. 6. I had a canopy bed.

Winter means 1. Usually ice instead of snow--not sure why. 2. No boat. 3. Some random warm days just because it's weather in St. Louis--wait five minutes if you don't like it because it will change. 4. Countdown to Cardinals baseball.

5 years from now I see myself Attending my son's junior year football and baseball games. Attending my daughter's graduation from college. Taking a cruise with my husband