This summer's going out with a bang!

1) A few trips to the Mt. Vernon pool & one to Republic
2) Float trip with Jerry, the kids, Dad, Jamie & Chris
3) Eating & wearing dirt at the stock car races
4) Another float trip - just the 4 of us plus Chris
5) Silver Dollar City tomorrow
6) Probably one final float trip before school starts (August 12)

I just wish this month wasn't flying by. There's so much more I'd like to have time to do before we get back into the school routine.

Grandma

I will never forget her big hugs, tasty desserts, Skip Bo games, and her loving heart. Always a tough woman and always in control. We will miss you so much Grandma.

At least now she's in a better place and no longer has to live suffering. And as much as that is a comfort, it's still sad to think of a world without her in it. She will always be in my heart and on my mind.






Rest in Peace Grandma. We love you.
July 1, 2009 - 93 years old

I love warm weather!

I cannot believe we are already into June. We are definitely loving this weather. Warm enough for fishing, swimming, and getting a tan. :)

Here's a few pictures from a couple weekends ago:

New layout

I've done a little cleanup here on my blog. It was time for a new summery feel to it. I'm thinking I like it, so this is how it will stay for a while. :)

Not a whole lot to report on....mostly it's work, home, cleanup, blog surfing, bed & then the cycle all over again. I've become a tad bit obsessive over blog surfing lately. There are so many gorgeous decorating/home blogs out there & not even enough time to find them all.

There's so many posts on how to revamp old things & make your home gorgeous. In fact, a few of my favorites are listed on the side bar in my blog roll. Joys of Home, Just a Girl, Centasational Girl (you've got to see this post) & Southern Hospitality are just a few amazing sites. Seriously I have spent hours looking over these beautiful blogs/homes (sorry ladies but I love..errr stalk your sites). Now if I could just create a smidge of the look they've got goin' on, I'd be set!

And I know it's not Monday, but I'm super excited to participate in this week's link up party @ Southern Hospitality!



In all my home decor searching, I finally found something I've been wanting to find for a long time - old locker baskets. Today was the city-wide garage sale in several nearby cities (needless to say I didn't get to go to many) but found the 3 locker baskets at a garage sale. $3 each & they were SO rusty. I bargained with the guy & only gave $2 each & brought them home to revamp. Yeah, the rust gave them character but I didn't want all that character flaking off on my other furniture.

Here's the newly painted baskets:


The entertainment center before with the green baskets:




And after with my new locker baskets (please excuse all the messiness - I really need to rearrange):


And here's some other garage sale finds from the last few weeks:




Loved this photo thing & the sack of old photos I picked up at a sale. Did you happen to see who was in that one photo?

John Wayne - how cool is that?!?!

Biloxi, MS

Here's my late posting of our trip to Biloxi. We had a wonderful time. The weather was awesome. It was a wonderful little break from our everday life.

Here's some shots from the trip:










The shots with the brick background were on our excursion out to Ship Island which is where the Fort of Massachusettes was located. It was a little cool taking the 12 mile trip out on boat (it took a little over an hour) but we warmed up a lot coming back & even managed to get a little sun burnt.

We were amazed at the beautiful homes that had been rebuilt after Katrina. Purely amazing! It was just odd to see such beautiful homes & then see empty lots from where the hurricane wiped away whatever was there before.

Since then, we've once again be pulled into the everyday routine. Yesterday we made a trip to Bolivar for their city wide garage sales. I didn't end up with a lot of things but did get a good deal on some hanging candle displays (now to just find a good place to put them), a couple white glass vases, & a summer outfit for Kalli.

Today we went and visited Betty & David and went to their church's Friends & Family Day. It was nice to go visit and we hope to do that a lot more this summer. And now for tonight - I'm thinking we may prep the backyard for a weiner/marshmallow roast to get a little more fun out of this weekend. :)

Where have I been???

And why haven't I blogged?? Good question!

On February 13th, we were introduced to this sweet little guy. James Matthew, Jr. weighing in at a whooping 6.5 lbs & 21.5 in long.




Look at all that red hair!


Little frog legs!

Makes me miss those days - you know the ones back when your kids were sweet little angels & didn't talk back, or trash their rooms, or drive you absolutely bonkers!

Also, here lately I've been on a painting kick. I was able to turn the kitchen into something I love....but seems my oops paint for the entry/living area is looking a little too adobe for me. I wanted more of a khaki but it's got a different - almost pinkish tint - not something I care to leave that color. I just hope my other 3 cans of paint, work out better (hit the jackpot on the oops paint!).

Before kitchen:


After kitchen:


Oh, and I am getting a bit excited for this:

Our free trip to Biloxi in April!

Snow day 1.28.09

Winter wonderland

Here we are on day 2 of this week's snow/ice days. It's absolutely beautiful looking out at all that white, but don't let it fool you - under all that pretty snow is packed ice and it is oh SO slippery!

Man, I am a SLACKER!

Really I have a few, tiny reasons why I haven't blogged:

1) Moving
2) Christmas
3) Cleaning
4) New Year's...nah, that doesn't work for an excuse
5) Dial-up (thank goodness that's done with!)
6) Okay...probably a little laziness too

I'm headed back to work Monday & am disappointed that it doesn't seem like I've gotten much done over the break. I mean, heck -I haven't even taken down Christmas decorations yet. That's bad...I know. Maybe that'll happen tomorrow. :)Or maybe not.

I little rundown of what's been happening. We moved into the house on December 15 & have had some really weird issues pop up (which are really getting kind of annoying). The heater kept throwing the breaker (we think that's now fixed), the water heater keeps tripping (still doing that), the electric bill is way way too high (and hopefully the freon release helps that issue), the stools and tub started backing up & the septic tank needed to be cleaned out. And other little things here & there. I mean - I love being in a house but jeesch! why is all this happening???

We had a great Christmas. We had Christmas at home & the kids were suprised when Santa brought them Rock Band & Wii Fit. I guess he must of thought they'd been good. After prying them from those games for a while, we celebrated at mother's. Then it was back home to fix Christmas lunch for Jerry's family. The following Sunday, we celebrated at dad's. It was a nice but exhausting Christmas. :)





I guess that's about all I can sum up. I had thought I had a lot to catch up on but apparently I'm not as long-winded as I thought I was going to be.

Picture HEAVY post....

Since I'm just now getting around to posting my pictures from the cruise, I'm doing a bit of touching the high points of the trip.

1) The ship was huge. Seriously we were on there 7 days & know that we did not see everything on the ship.

2) The entertainment was good. Loved the goofy cruise director & his assistant.
3) The food was a bit odd at times but I'll have to say that I've tried more in that 7 days than I usually do. Some good, some not so good.
4) I was shocked by the work atmosphere on the boat. Seriously those people work their tail end off & hardly get a break. Maybe some of these lazy youwhos around here should be put on a ship & taught how to wait on people!
5) Bahamas was beautiful. It was so cool that rather than pulling the big ship up to the island, they put us in smaller boats & drove us over. Very cool. This was where we got to eat the BBQ right on the island, shop at some vendor shops & then swim. During the swim we came across some friendly fish. :) It was so cool to be in water over waist high but see all the way through the water....just a little freaky when those Nemo looking fish started following us. I dread that I didn't have a water camera then to get pictures of them. There was a ton of them!

6) "At sea" days were okay but by time we hit shore, we were ready to get out & explore. We had a wonderful formal night on one of the at sea days. Really not my favorite thing but it gave us something to do. We also had a casino on board so we went there a few times but didn't win anything.

7) St. Maarten was the stop we had set up our shore excursion. From experience we know it's better to just arrange island travel there rather than those excursions. We got to hit a few shopping spots, see both the French & Dutch sides of the islands, and then make our last stop at Orient Beach. So very pretty! Still I was amazed at how beautiful the water was.

8) St. Thomas was seriously a WORK OUT! I don't think I've ever walked so much in my entire life. We walked & shopped & walked some more. Very cool place especially since we got to use our cells & call home.
9) Grand Turk was by far my favorite stop. Not a whole lot of shops & their items were priced & not argued. Plus there was a beautiful pool in which I spent a couple hours relaxing by. I only wish that I had explored a little more before time to board the ship. We came across a less traveled area along the edge of the island & got to watch the waves crashing into the rocks which was absolutely AMAZING!

10) Coming home we had a horrible time. We got off the boat around 8 am to be at the airport for our 11:10 flight. That flight ended up being delayed until 1:45 therefore causing us to miss our 3:00 connection in Atlanta. Our final flight home from Atlanta didn't leave until 8:40. And come to find out - my luggage was damaged. Thankfully though after hours in the airports, we were home & so happy to see our families!

Halloween snuck right up on me when I got home & we found ourselves scrambling to get the kids costumes. Kalli decided on a spider witch & Dylan was set on his bloody Scream face.

And I have to admit, they were pretty cute! :)

I don't think I've quite caught up on everything but did pick up a new love - the Twilight series books. I had the first book down in 3 days and am just waiting to borrow the 2nd to read. I'm usually not a big reader but this one pulled me in. And in finding this, I think I've found the perfect gift for my sister!

And I can't wait until it hits the theatre!