I'm hooked now

It's all about mom
Okay, now that I finally got pictures to post, I want to share more. The black and white picture is a picture of me and my mom. She looks so young, I know, I know. I hear it every day at work when I say "Mom" and some customer has a coronary because she looks young (or I look old).

Look who's mommy now...
The top picture is me and Livi at an Olive Garden in Shreveport, LA. My husband's family is there and we go there every 4th of July for a reunion. Why July you ask? No idea! I've suggested going some other time when it's not 400 degrees outside, but so far my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The worst 4th so far was when I was 6 month pregnant. I literally thought I was going to have a heat stroke and die. Did I mention we detoured through Nawlins and spent a couple of days wandering around. We were so stupid! We walked 4 miles in the 100 degree heat. We we got to our hotel that evening, I laid down "for a couple of minutes" before we went to dinner. I woke up 3 hours later. My sweet husband didn't have the heart to wake me. If I am ever pregnant again, I will not repeat that kind of trip.

Anyway, have a great Saturday! Don't forget to go to Sunday School tomorrow (spoken like a true Sunday School Secretary)!


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

I DID IT!

Taa-Daa
Well, I finally got pictures to upload. The first picture is a rather dated picture of my little family. It's a little grainy, I think it's a scan of a 35 mm pic. It's the only picture of the three of us I had on the PC. The second is sweet Olivia about a year ago when we were in Cancun. The pose is priceless, you can tell that she is photographed often.

Was Mom on this trip...
Have any of you moms noticed that you are an invisible presense in vacation photos. We actually took a trip about a year and a half ago to Florida. I took about 4 rolls of film the week we were there and I was not in one picture. It never occured to Mike to take a picture of me. Fortunately, Mom and Dad were with us in Cancun, so there are some pictures of me there.

Anyway, just wanted to share some pictures in my "not annonymous" blog.
Have a great night everyone!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

I'm not annonymous!

At least one reader has expressed concerns that I am an annonymous blogger. Though my first blog introduces who I am and what I'm all about, I'll give a quick recap for those of you who missed the first few. If you have any other questions, let me know:)

Wife, mother, daughter, sister, amateur computer tech, interior decorator, taxi driver...
My name is Andrea Nerren Bell and I live in Henderson, TN. I am married to Mike Bell and we have one daugther Olivia who is 5. We have been together for almost 10 years, since I was 18. I attend church at www.pentecostalsof. I work for my family's business, www.nerrensfloortoceiling.com. I have lived in West Tennessee my entire life, though I do occassionally venture out of this great state with my family on fabulous trips.

Famous Family
Here's something I did not mention before. My uncle Phillip is Southampton, the blogger you all knew and loved last year. He and I are very close (according to some, we share common personality traits and a sense of humor). He is only 13 years older than me, so he's more like a brother. I love him!

Pictures
If you want to put a face with the blogger, I invited you to visit everyonesconnected.com. I am listed as Andrea Nerren Bell. As of right now, I cannot get any pictures to download to this blog. I know it's a user error, but I can't overcome it. Maybe I'll call Uncle Southhampton:).

Anyway, I am not annonymous and I welcome thoughts, comments, and observations from any and all!
Please feel free to E-mail me!

Is domestic help gauche?

I HATE CLEANING!!!
I confess, dear readers, I am an incredibly messy person. I hate to clean. I hate to pick up after myself. I leave a trail of stuff wherever I go. Did I mention that I am married to a neat, organized person. The poor guy is so discombobulated by me. Therefore, I am trying to mend my messy ways and clean up.

Which leads me to an important question...
Can I afford a maid? I know that I can't, but that doesn't stop me from running the numbers. What can I live without in order to have someone clean up after me? It looks like I could afford one if I could stop buying gas for the car. Which would mean I could never go anywhere. Which would mean I could stay at home and clean. ARGH...I hate circular arguments.

Musical Confessions
Do you ever find that you like music that is decidedly not Christian. For instance, you hear a song on the radio and you really like the beat of it, so you download it...ummm...I mean go out and legally buy the CD, and you realize that this song is TACKY! I won't mention the song that is stuck in my head, but if anyone else likes Kanye West even though you know it's probably wrong, let me know. We can start a support group.

Another Confession
Despite my soul searching entry about making our daughters to looks-centric, I am watching What Not to Wear again. I can't help it, I just love this show. If I could get out of the drastic haircut/make-up part of the show, I would so nominate myself. Not that I think that I am a fashion victim, but I would love that $5000 Visa card.

Well, our revival at church begins again tomorrow night. If anyone is near Henderson, TN, stop in. It is an awesome revival, you can really feel the annointing of the minister (Bro. Thiason) when you walk in the door. It's back to cleaning for me, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Family Business=Always Working

Oh, is it that early?
Don't you hate it when someone calls and wakes you up because they didn't realize what time it is? My dad called this morning at 6:40 a.m. to discuss what I would talk about on the radio (I do a live ad on Thursday mornings). I should also mention that I usually get up at 7 a.m. See the problem? He thought I got up earlier. Anyway, it got the day off to a rough start.

And then...
I get to work and my mother "suggests" that I go home this afternoon and change into some grungy clothes so that we can work late rearranging some fixtures. Sure, I can do that. Really, I don't mind. I'm salaried, not hourly, so I know that they get the short end of the stick sometimes. At 9:30 p.m., I threw in the towel. If you consider 6:40 a.m. when I started working this morning, then I put in an almost 15 hour day. Whew, they won today. We had a lot of fun though.

Not a good domestic engineer
I tried being a stay at home mom for almost 2 years. I stunk at it. I was always bored, Olivia was always bored, and the house could only get so clean. None of my friends had kids yet, so I didn't have anyone to hang out with. I divided my time between shopping and hanging out at mom and dad's store. Therefore, I went to work there eventually and brought Olivia with me. She has her own playroom attached to the offices and it couldn't have worked out better. I am so blessed to have such understanding parents who have tried so hard to make my life easier.

Well, I'm rambling (could it be the 15 hour work day), so I will holla at you guys later.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Revival is doing me in :)

Apologies and excuses
My sincere apologies, my dear readers, for forgetting to blog last night. After getting home from revival a little before 10 p.m., doing some laundry, getting everyone's clothes ready for the today, and collapsing into bed, I completely forgot. That is, until 2 a.m. this morning, when I remembered.

Free time is on the horizon
There is no church tonight, so I will have more to write later today. I am currently watching the Alito hearings, I think I will have formed an opinion by this evening. Have a great day!!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Lazy days of winter

I can only imagine...an entire day in bed
For anyone in or around West Tennessee today, it was a perfect day to spend the day in bed. I got up and got Olivia ready for school. I drove her in my pajamas (would have been a perfect day for a flat tire) and picked up breakfast on the way home. Mike and I are both off on Tuesdays, so he was still asleep. After breakfast, I crawled back in bed and stayed until after 10. Work only called twice:) Then, I got up and behaved like a responsible adult. I would have loved to stay all day!

Mining in the news again
I was amazed to hear there was another mine accident today. This time a roof collapsed in a mine in KY killing one miner. What a strange coincidence. Maybe these accidents are pretty common (after all, it is the 2nd most dangerous profession) and it only made the news because of the recent W. V. tradgedy. Whatever the reason, it's still very sad. My prayers are with the man's family and all the families in W.V.

Hibachi chef in training
Tonight for dinner I made one of the families' favorite dishes. Benihana style chicken, steak, and shrimp with fried rice and dipping sauces. The recipe is from the Top Secret Restaurant Recipe Cookbook. If you have never seen this book, it's worth a look. The recipes are not difficult and they taste just like the restaurant versions. Or at least that's what everyone says, personally I think my family is just amazed when I cook at all.

Nurture vs. Nature
I was talking to my best friend today and we were discussing our kids (duh). She has a little girl and boy. We both had girls first and her little boy just turned one. We are so often amused at what a "man" he is. He turns everything into a car or weapon. The funny thing is, he spends a lot of time with his sister, not any other little boys. It's like he came out of the womb, grabbed a receiving blanket, fashioned it into a pistol, and started making shooting noises. On the reverse, our girls came out loving shoes and babies.

No, play with this car!
What is so funny about this is that I gave my daughter boy and girl toys. I was determined to be a "progressive" parent and not pigeon hole her into being a frilly girl. Her nursery wasn't even pink! Anyway, I would buy her girl toys and throw in boy things like matchbox cars and bows and arrows. Even got her a little tool set. Know what? She didn't even play with those things. I don't know what my point is, I just think it's strange how babies are already born with these distinct personalities and opinions.

I hope everyone has a good night and if I don't see you tomorrow, have a good morning, good afternoon, and a good night (my homage to a great little movie called The Truman Show).

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

So tired...

All right kids, today's post will be short and sweet. We are having an awesome revival at church. However, when you work, have a child in school, and have revival at night, there's not much time for anything else. I do have a couple of questions to ponder of you, dear readers...

Faithfulness to Church vs. Good Parenting
How does everyone out there feel about long services on a school night? This year is my first experience with this dilemma and I am torn. As an active member of my church, I feel it is my duty to be there when there are services. As a mother, I know my child needs to be fast asleep 1 -1/2 hours before service is even over. Though I know in the long run church is more important, it's hard to balance the two in the here and now. I'd love to hear how other parents do it. And don't tell me to put her to sleep at church, she's a VERY light sleeper who requires total silence most of the time.

Healing
I want to hear some stories about healing. The preacher who is holding the revival right now focuses on healing. He has some pretty amazing stories, but I would love to hear some first hand from people who have been healed. So often, we hear these great stories, but never from the "horse's mouth". I think it would help a lot of people if they could hear first hand stories of God's amazing power. If you send your story, let me know if it's okay to publish it.

Duct Tape (or is it Duck Tape)?
Just kidding, I'll leave that to the expert. I do love those duct(k) tape stories, though. I think I'll e-mail Ms. Duct Tape and tell her about the duct tape wedding dress I saw a picture of...

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!