Spring Has Sprung

I love Spring in Florida. I know it is going to get blistering hot in a very short time so I spend as much time as I can outside right now. I took some photos today of all that is going on here. Things are blooming like crazy and growing inches in a day. I love all this new life everywhere. My little birds will soon be gone, but flowers and butterflies will take their place. Hope Spring has sprung at your house too. Want to share?(if you get bored with plant stuff you should just skip this post)

This year I tried planting some bulbs. These are Freesia. They are supposed to be very fragrant flowers. I hope to enjoy them all season. I'll post a bloom photo later.

These are my 2 pots of Gladiolas. I planted 3 bulbs in each pot. So far only 2 in each are sprouting.


We moved all our Day lilies this last year and they love where we planted them. I am excited to see all the blooms we will have. I'll post a blooming photo later.

This is my almond tree/huge bush plant. It has the most fragrant blooms and the butterflies love it. The only thing bad about it is that it is HUGE and it took over my front butterfly garden. I've adjusted to it now, but it was sort of a shock at first.

This doesn't look like much, but this is a healthy, growing, coveted Paw Paw tree. It is the host for my favorite butterfly, the Zebra Swallowtail. These are hard to grow and this year mine is getting huge. I'm so excited about this one!

This plant is called a Hercules Club and it is food for the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar. It has wicked thorns on it and is slow growing.

These plants are food for Black Swallowtails and White Peacock caterpillars. You can find host plants at Biosphere Nursery on the west side of town or Lucus Nursery on the east side. To have butterflies you need nectar plants and host plants.

This is my crazy gone wild Lady Banks Rose Trellis. We didn't trim it back this year at all and it is absolutely filled with fragrant little white blooms.


This is my honeysuckle vine. It went crazy this year and did not freeze like everything else. I'm going to have to get another trellis for it to grow on. I planted it for hummingbirds...no luck so far. The yellow sulfur butterflies like it though.

Another reason I love spring. The flowers are so beautiful. This is by my front door. I love lots of color!

This is my latest butterfly project. My sweet husband indulges my passion for butterflies and helped me to set up this new area in our back yard. I shook seeds from a specially designed bag over the ground he and Matthew had prepared. It is supposed to be flowers for butterflies and hummingbirds. If anyone knows how to attract hummingbirds I would love to know. I've planted stuff, hung feeders and in 7 years I've seen maybe one or two.

Cute Catherine and her cute friends. Ours is the 3rd one from the left. She'll soon be 13...she is growing up and will soon be Sarah's Maid of Honor..."da moh" according to Sarah..."da pain in my bootie" according to the momma sometimes, but I wouldn't trade my girl for anything.

Davie ran 25 laps in her first "Race For Education". She did a great job. Unfortunately I said I'd pay $1 per lap. Bummer.

Hope the weather is lovely where you are. Spring has sprung...now get outside and enjoy it. Love, js

A Book Review from Jackie Sue

Now isn't that the catchiest title ever? I KNOW! Ok, while I hate to preempt Sarah's lovely face with a new post, I find that I must. I just finished the most amazing book. It is called "Riven" by Jerry B. Jenkins. I've never read anything by Mr. Jenkins before, but my friend Lisa recommended this one and because I read whatever Lisa says to read, I began the journey. It started sorta slow and it certainly wasn't a happy book, but b/c the afore mentioned Lisa said it was good, I kept on. I finished it this morning, in the wee hours with tears streaming down my face. LISA WAS RIGHT! YOU SHOULD SO READ THIS BOOK. I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU ANYTHING ELSE...JUST READ THIS BOOK...AND THEN COME BACK AND VISIT ME AND TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS. I will stop yelling now. Seriously, read it. You will not be sorry. Love you, Jackie Sue

Exciting News for the Wimberly Family

So this is my first born. Notice her ring finger? Yesterday was her 22nd birthday. Honestly when old people say time flies, it really does. I can't believe 22 years ago I was in labor(it was a long,hard one by the way)and the result was this beautiful little red headed bundle. I still remember the doctor putting the internal monitor on her and saying,"well, your baby has hair" and me wondering, "hair??? I never thought about hair". Our Sarah was everything you would want your first born to be. She was such a delight to us. Here, 22 years later it has not all been delightful, but it has been a wonderful journey and I am so blessed to be her Momma. So, yesterday her beau of nearly 3 years proposed to our baby and asked her to be his wife. We knew it was coming. He,Chris, aka "the boy" talked to David, aka Eddie "the father" on Monday and asked for permission to marry her. I've known it was coming all week and didn't tell anyone!(Isn't that amazing???) David saw the ring on Monday, but I hadn't seen it. We had her birthday lunch at home yesterday and then they headed to the beach. I was at my Bible study small group when my cell phone rang and so I put her on speaker so all my "peeps" could hear her news. It was fun. We waited up for her to get home and I got to see her ring. It is GORGEOUS! I'm so happy for Sarah and Chris. We have had our reservations about their lack of future plans, but honestly God has so confirmed in our hearts that this is His plan for them and we are just thrilled to watch what He is going to do in these two peoples lives. As they commit their lives to each other and again to Him it is going to be quite the adventure, as all us married folks can attest to. I am so pleased with their love for Him and each other. It is a sweet love story...two young people committed to Christ first and then at ages 23 and 19 began their very first relationship that has blossomed into a forever love. Sounds like a happily ever after to me....Congratulations Sarah and Chris and "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."(ephesians 3:20-21)

Davie is 6 and Ellie puts on her own diaper...

Here's my baby...now 6 years old! Davie turned 6 last week. We had a party with her friends from school. Her favorite thing was that I wrote on the windows of the van about her birthday. Isn't that funny? She is such a precious gift from God and I am blessed to be her momma! Happy Birthday Davie Doo! Momma loves you all the way past Heaven. You are my girl for good.
Ellie only wears a diaper for bed and tonight she was anxious to get her diaper on. This somewhat captures her efforts to diaper herself. What a funny girl!






Anything in your life that has made you smile this week? Given the bad news we are constantly hearing, I'd love to hear about your happy moments. Don't lose hope...God is on His Throne and He is not sleeping or unaware...as best as I can tell from His Word, He is actively in charge...Much love, js

Happy 92nd Birthday Grandma

Happy Birthday Nana! These are photos of my Grandmother's 92nd birthday. We all traveled up to Deland for Sunday afternoon where we enjoyed some good ol' family time. I love my family! They are so funny. We know all kinds of funny stories about each other from the past. I was so selfish! I am still selfish, but oh how far the Lord has brought me. They knew me when. They always make me laugh. Grandma seemed quite pleased to be the belle of the ball and posed for tons of photos. I needed to get one with me and all my cousins....next time. Just wanted to publicly thank God for my sweet Grandma and her funny ways. She has lived through so much and she has survived more than I hope to ever survive. God certainly made her resilient. I don't know that I have half the character that she does. Anyway, thank You Lord for Nana and bless her and in Your perfect time take her home to her Heavenly reward. You blessed me with a family that knows me and loves me anyway and I'm forever grateful. Yours, js

Daytona 500 Fest-Ode to Sprint

So, hey there. Right now I'm in a black SUV with a police escort leaving the Daytona 500 with some pretty intoxicated folks and I'm not even kidding. Doesn't that sound like fun? Thankfully none of them are driving. David and I are away for the weekend in Daytona as Sprint's guests. David received the invitation through work. It has been a fun weekend that culminated in our attending the Daytona 500.

We arrived on Friday afternoon to a lovely room on the ocean. There was free food and drinks all weekend. I told David that this would be the weekend to start drinking and he said, "that's fine as long as you can quit by Sunday night." So, I drank like 450 free diet cokes. With lots of ice. Just like I like them. As Sprint's guests we had some fun activities planned. David went by bus to Disney's Driving Experience and was on the winning racing team. He had a ball. I stayed back at the resort and received a massage at the hotel's spa. It was really nice. The problem with a massage is that you are supposed to lie still and enjoy it. My problem was that I had an itch. I laid there trying to decide if I could scratch my itch or not...finally I did. Anyway, it was a really nice treat. Last night we had a nice dinner where they presented the ladies with a small bouquet of roses. We sat and ate dinner with strangers. There was one guy at our table who calmly stated that he had driven 162 miles an hour in his BMW on the turnpike. To which I replied, "excuse me? did you say you drove 162 miles an hour? on the turnpike?" He responded calmly and I held my tongue...at least I tried to. I think I might, maybe, have calmly said, "are you kidding me?!" with an "oh my goodness" thrown in for good measure. It was at that point that I just shut my mouth and smiled across the table at the idiot...sorry for I offend any of you speed demons, but wow...that could so kill someone. Anyway, after a lovely dinner and very stimulating conversation David and I headed up to our room.

This morning we got up and David had to attend a sales meeting in order to receive our tickets to the race. The exciting thing was that at the meeting David won a pass to the "Driver's Meeting" at the race. I had no idea what a driver's meeting was, but people were congratulating us so I figured out pretty quick that it was a big deal. I'm no dummy you know. There were 2 buses of Sprint people and our buses had a police escort to the race. Your tax dollars hard at work or maybe Sprint paid for the escorts, but it seemed a bit extreme to me. I kept thinking that the people we were passing had been waiting for a long time. Just didn't seem fair to butt in line like that. I felt like a fraud. You know, like I should be someone important to receive a police escort and all. It was weird. Since Sprint sponsors the race we had wonderful accommodations in a suite with more free food, drinks and headsets where we could hear the drivers talking to their pit chiefs and such. Don't I sound like a race fan? We also had tours of the pits. Lots of tires in them there pits I tell ya. I decided to root for Jeff Gordan and so I was listening to him on my headset. At one point he had some choice words to say about car no. 2 who didn't have a bumper anymore for him to bump up against. Thankfully his language didn't shock me. I'm a southern girl...I've heard some language. Oh, I forgot...Keith Urban was the entertainment and he sang 3 whole songs. Are you kidding me? And Tom Cruise was there 'cause he's a race fan don't cha know. I was about 15 feet from him when we were all inside at the Driver's Meeting and HE HAD ON HIS SUNGLASSES. It was the Top Gun look I'm thinking. Oh, I digress...from our suite the view was lovely and the noise was not bad at all :). Ok, as an aside, the drunk gal in front of me is yelling into her phone trying to order a pizza...oh my goodness...she is just drunk enough to be funny. She yelled into the phone..."I'm staying at the nicest hotel in Daytona" when the people asked her where she wanted the pizza delivered to. Oh my goodness. That's all there is to say. Oh, and bless her heart.

Well, we are back at the hotel and our racing experience is nearly over. The race ending was very anti-climatic since it was called due to rain. Bummer. All in all it was a great weekend and I'd do it again if I was asked. I'm such a martyr. It's back to the old grind tomorrow, except tomorrow we are having family photos taken. I sure hope my hair decides to co-operate. Today was like the worst hair day I've seriously ever had. I have no idea what happened....I was seriously bothered by my horrible hair day. I could hardly get over it. I kept thinking that people were looking at me thinking, "that poor lady with the bad hair." And then I remembered the days when I used to get tons of compliments on my hair. And then I wondered what has happened to my hair. I tried to watch the race, but my deep thoughts kept getting in the way. Seriously, it was a fun weekend and I would like to publicly thank Sprint for the memories. We could have never done it without you. Love, JS (I'll post pictures later)

A Photo Session

So, I decided I needed some new profile photos and I asked my 12 year old, Cat Jo, as she is affectionately known, to do me the honors. Normally she is a good photographer. This assignment offered her a bit of a challenge. Me being the assignment. It is difficult to make a very middle aged overweight woman look good in a photograph, but that was my desire. I have recently become active on facebook and all kinds of folks that haven't seen me in years may view my profile. It's alot of pressure to look good 30 years after high school...I wish I had held up better, but hey, it is what it is. Still, I want a flattering photo. That began a 30 minute laugh fest. She would snap a photo and then laugh at the hideousness of it. She enjoyed the bad photos far too much. She mocked my squinty eye. She mocked my cleavage. Oh how she mocked her momma. I am happy to report that in the midst of our photo session we laughed and laughed. It was hilarious. I asked her to take a photo looking down on me a little. She stood on the SOFA to get the angle she wanted. I asked her if she needed to be SO far away. Maybe she should have gotten on the roof! After a half hour of this a kinder photographer appeared. My oldest is a gentler soul, more like her daddy and took a few photos...most of which are in this series. Enjoy and feel free to laugh. Really. It's good for you. I heard that even from God Himself. "Laughter is good medicine"Proverbs 17:22a...my paraphrase :) love, js

the mean little thing and me
funny faces







This is me trying NOT to squint...a deer in the headlights is more like it.