I won! I won! I won!

I won a book called "Tiny Baby Jesus". This is probably going to end up being a Christmas gift for the two little kids. Thanks, Karen.

Thrift Store

I love thrift stores. One of my favorites is about 25 minutes from my house and I usually try to head that way about once a week. Today I was on a mission. Gabe is performing in a play at a local college and needs a costume. So I headed out this morning.
The only part of Gabe's costume I found was a white button up shirt but look at my other fantastic finds. I looked here and saw what Holly bought and was inspired to show you my finds today. You'll have to excuse the horrible pictures. The lighting in our house at night is horrible because of the placement of all the light fixtures.
I found these two great pillowcases. I love the borders so I will probably use them to make something. Probably a dress or skirt or shirt for MC.
I also found this great piece of fabric which was in a box labeled "Valances" but is not a valance. It is sewn to a red piece of fabric and looks like a topper for a round table cloth.
This cute dress with the fur trim is a Laura Ashley and was only $1. It was a great find and will fit Maci Clare perfect by the time it is cold enough to wear it.
This coat was only $2 and fits Maci Clare. This is the perfect coat to go with dresses. The boots in the background are really cute and were only .50
This shirt was only .50 too. I mostly bought it for the inspiration to make my own with a cute butterfly but MC will definitely wear this one.
I also bought Gabe a pair of jeans and the white shirt. I only paid $10 for all of it.

Trick or Treat

We had a great time last night even in the rain. We got the kids ready and tried to get a few pictures before we left. I never got one of the 4 of them together. We usually get pictures on the porch but it was raining so that kind of messed things up. But at least I got individual ones.Gabe was a football player. That was easy enough since he played football this year. He decided not to wear his cleats so that was all he left out of his uniform.

Zane was Harry Potter. This one was a little trickier. I couldn't find a Harry Potter costume so I had to piece it all together. The robe came from Craigslist. I made the tie. Jim popped the lens out of a pair of his old glasses. The broom came from Hobby Lobby. I painted the scar with lipstick. So we did end up pulling it off but not very easily.

Jack was Darth Vader. I bought his costume at Walmart and we already had the light saber. He did not want to cooperate. He didn't like the mask and he really wasn't thrilled about Trick or Treating. Maci Clare's costume ended up being my favorite. The plan was for her to be an elephant but I found this flower costume in her closet. I bought it last year and forgot that I bought until I was pulling out her costume to get her dressed.

We left our house and went to the nursing home to see my grandma. We got there pretty early. The older people really liked the kids. They had candy to give to the kids and we left some for them too.This is a picture of my grandma putting candy in Maci Clare's bag. I love this picture.

Next stop was my mom and dad's church. They had a soup supper and trick or treat. Normally it is set up outside but this year since it was raining, they set it up inside. It was great. This is our neighbor, Casey. Can you guess who he is?The Incredible Hulk

We left and went downtown to trick or treat but there wasn't much going on. So we went to one more church function and then headed home.

When we got back home we lit up our pumpkins which we had carved on Friday night but never put outside.

Gabe's is a football with his number carved in it. Jack's is the bat hanging upside down. Maci Clare's is the face. And Zane's is ... well, I'm not sure. I kept saying it looked like a evil Sonic the Hedgehog.

We had a great Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun.

I Can Breathe Again

I finally feel like I can let out a big breath that I've been holding for 2 months. We are finally winding down a little. Today will be a post of random thoughts because I just can't even fathom putting together a whole post. Maybe later. So here is what has happened in the past week.
*Football is over. Both teams lost the first games of their play-offs. (I was a happy momma but some of the moms were crying. Come on give me a break.)
*Today I am working on finishing up some Halloween costume details.
*Gabe has been sick for 2 days.
*Jim has been out of town.
*We had Fall Festival at the school last night and Gabe had to go walk around with the little kids. (I paid him $2 an hour to "babysit" while I worked. Cheap labor.)
*We have been so busy my house has definitely suffered. I have very few Fall/Halloween decorations up this year. (to the dismay of Jack).
*My blog has suffered because of the busy-ness (and I've been a little unfaithful- Facebook, need I say more?).
*It seems there is always lots of "girlie drama" when you deal with adult women. I have been dealing with this drama and I am sick of it. Is that the price you have to pay to do volunteer work?
*Jack is out of school today for a teacher work day.
*I have been to Greenville (40 minute drive) 3 times this week which has cost me about $60 in gas.
Now for the positive:
*I have cranked out several new things with my Cricut. I'm actually thinking about setting up an Etsy account. Anyone doing Etsy? Let me know if it is worth it.
*Trick or Treating tomorrow! Love Halloween and I can't wait.
*Sunday worship and Bible Study at church.
*Hopefully I will be able to keep up with my blog a little better now. I can't promise but if anyone out there is still checking my goal is 2 times a week.
Have a fun night tomorrow night and I hope my next post will be a little more coherent than this one.

Wasting a Little Bit of Time

Don't you think I deserve to waste a little after the past 2 weeks. I found this over at Julie's blog and decided it might be fun. If you do this, leave me a comment so I can read yours.


1. Where were you three hours ago? Church teaching 1st gradersr

2. Who are you in love with? My hubby

3. Have you ever eaten a crayon? No crayons, but I have eaten Elmer's glue.

4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? Yes, Post Its and a butterfly and flower picture holder.

5. When was the last time you went to the mall? Probably 2 or 3 years ago. Not sure. I'm too frugal to go to the mall.

6. Are you wearing socks right now? No

7. Do you have a car worth over $2000? Yes

8. When was the last time you drove out of town? July on a trip to the beach

9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days? No can't afford it.

10. Are you hot? I hope I am but I might just be a little too old to be hot. Unless of course you're talking about hot as in temperature. Yeah, I'm always having hot flashes. Does that count?

11. What was the last thing you had to drink? Diet Dr Pepper (my addiction)
12. What are you wearing right now? A purple t -shirt and blue jeans.

13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it? I have tried letting the kids do it the last couple of time but Hubby always takes over.

14. Last food you ate? Chicken and fries at Applebees

15. Where were you last week at this time? Napping

16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week? No

17. When was the last time you ran? Chasing Jack (go here for explanation)

18. What was the last sporting event you watched? Gabe and Zane's last football game.

19. Your favorite animal? Right now, my chickens

20. Your dream vacation? Jamaica

21. Last person’s house you were in? My mom's

22. Worst injury you ever had? Tripped and fell and split my head open on a rock. Hey, I was only 5.
23. Have you been in love? Yes I still am

24. Do you miss anyone right now? My great aunt

25. Last play you saw? Can't remember because it has been so long.

26. What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex? Not sure because it has been so long since I have tried to lure.

27. What are your plans for tonight? Baptism and Praise Night at Church

28. Who is the last person to send you a Facebook message or comment? My friend Mickey

29. Next trip you are going to take? Hopefully a long weekend to the beach or mountains with hubby

30. Ever go camping? Yes and I hate it.

31. Were you an honor student in school? No

32. What do you want to know about the future? Nothing

33. Are you wearing perfume or cologne? No, very allergic

34. Are you due sometime this year for a doctor’s visit? Yes, I need more than one doctor's visit
35. Where is your best friend? Mowing the lawn with Jack

36. How is your best friend? Great but tired

37. Do you have a tan? I have a little left from our last beach trip

38. What are you listening to right now? Julie's playlist

39. Do you collect anything? Used to collect pigs, now I'm not sure. I have so much clutter there are an endless amount of collections here.

40. Who is the biggest gossiper you know? I won't say just in case.

41. Last time you got stopped by a cop or pulled over? last year around Christmas and no he was not feeling any Christmas cheer. He gave me a ticket.

42. Have you ever drank your soda from a straw? Yes

43. What does your last text message say? OK

44. Do you like hot sauce? Love it had some today.

45. Last time you took a shower? This morning

46. Do you need to do laundry? I always need to do laundry

47. What is your heritage? I am adopted so I have no idea

48. Are you someone’s best friend? Yes

49. Are you rich? Not in worldly wealth and material things.

50. What were you doing at 12 AM last night? reading

NO!

I need to learn that word. Jim says I need to. My mom says I need to (although I find she doesn't use this word very much either.) The last two weeks have been a product of me not saying NO!

Starting Sept. 14:
Monday:
Coupon Class at 10:30am and my babysitter (my dad) had to cancel because something came up. Jim had to take some time off work.
Coupon Class at 6pm
Zane's Football Game at 6pm
Gabe's instrument lessons at 6:30pm

Tuesday:
PTO Meeting at school at 9:30 am
Gabe play music at Chamber of Commerce at 5:15
Zane's Football Game 30 minutes away at 6pm
Gabe's Football Game at 7:30pm
Coupon Class at 7pm.
Grocery Shopping (because I need to get some food coming from me instead of McDonald's)

Wednesday:
Visiting business for PTO asking for donations.
Church at 7pm

Thursday:
Coupon Class scheduled for 10:30 but it was cancelled
Worked on PTO stuff in the morning.
Zane's Football practice at 6pm
Gabe's Football practice at 6pm

Friday:
Took Maci Clare shopping and to eat in the morning (a nice girl's day)
Gabe went with a friend to spend the night
Zane had a friend over to spend the night.
Friend was homesick at midnight. Mom came and got him.

Saturday:
Jim took the 4 wheeler to be worked on at 9:30
I stayed home and tried once again to get organized.
Had a date night with hubby but ended up spending time running some necessary errands at Sam's and Target. We did have a nice dinner at Flat Rock Grill.

Sunday:
Bible Study at 9am
Teach 1st Grade class at 10am
Eat lunch with my Parents. (thank goodness mom cooked)
Trip to Publix and Bilo to try to pick up a few BOGO deals
Supper at Wendy's with my mom and the kids.

Monday:
Revisit some of the businesses
Meeting at school at 2:30
Gabe instrument lessons at 6:30
Zane's football game at 6pm (in the pouring rain)
Jim' Cub Scout leader meeting at 7pm(came home instead of going because he and Zane were so wet)

Tuesday:
Revisit businesses where other people had been and screwed up.
Ran errands in the morning.

Wednesday:
Store to get items to make 10 lbs. of chili.
Come home and make chili.
Go to school at 2:30 to organize for Thursday's fundraiser.
Church at 7pm

Thursday:
Load up car and take off to Presbyterian Church to set up for making 400 hot dog plates.
Work making and delivering hot dog plates until 1pm
Jim comes home to work on his truck because it is no longer driveable (and we cannot buy a new one)
When I pick up the kids from school, I go in with a load of stuff for the teacher's lounge (that doesn't belong to me and I don't know who it belongs to.)
Hair appt. 30 minutes away at 4:00
Run home and get boys ready for football practice (both have practice at 6pm)
Run to pick up some things I need to fax to someone for a bluegrass event that is coming up.
Go work at Pizza Inn for PTO Fundraiser from 6-9.
Come home exhausted but can't wind down.
Jack stays up most of the night coughing.

Friday:
Hope to get a little relaxing in tonight (at least a little crafting, I hope.)
I have to open up for the bluegrass jam at 5 but I will be back at home at 6pm

Saturday:
I don't think I will do anything. Possibly some yard sales.

Sunday:
9am Bible Study
10am: Teach 1st graders at church
Meeting after church

In between all the things that are scheduled are things like:
Taking kids to school by 8am
Picking kids up at 12 and 2:30.
And just the everyday stuff.

My house is trashed and my kids are ill and tired. We only have one football game and one doctor appointment next week and I refuse to go to the school. I am going to spend some time alone at home. So do you think that I will say No after the past two weeks? Probably not but hopefully my schedule won't be quite so full.

You Have To Try This Recipe

This is an awesome recipe for Crockpot Chicken that I found here. It is definitely going into my recipe rotation. Everyone in my family loved it and it is EASY!!!!

Crockpot Chicken
4-5 frozen chicken breasts
1 can of black beans (drained)
1 can of whole kernel corn (drained)
1 15-16oz. jar of salsa
1 8oz. cream cheese


Put the chicken breast in the crock pot. Dump beans, corn , and salsa on top. Cook on high for 5 hours. 1/2 hour before you are ready to eat it, throw in the cream cheese. AWESOME! WE ate it over brown rice and everyone loved it. I also thought you could use Velveeta instead of cream cheese. Maybe next time.

A Funny Story

I love our dog, Lucy. She was really good when she was a puppy and then as she got a little older we had a lot of trouble with her running away. We installed an invisible fence and it worked like a charm. She is a great guard dog (she holds her own with the bears, coyotes, cougars, and wild pigs that have recently been seen around our yard). And she is great with the kids. She loves to play with them. Anyway, Friday afternoon, Jack was awful. Jack is at the in between stage where he not really tired early afternoon but as the day goes on he gets really tired and ill. So do you make him lay down and force him to nap so that he can't sleep until late at night or do you let him stay awake and just deal with him in the afternoons? I usually make him take a nap most days but Friday was very hectic and he didn't get one. So he was really wild and getting uglier by the minute. I decided to spank him (Yes, I do spank my children!).
Anyway, he opened the back door and bolted. I took off running after him but I had on big clunky sandals and the grass was wet so I was really having trouble catching him. Lucy happened to be on the deck when he took off. She thought this was a good opportunity to play and took off after him. I yelled out, "Get him Lucy!" She stepped in front him and blocked him until I could grab him. What a good aid in discipline. And what a Dog!

I wanted to include a picture of our awesome dog but Lucy is terrified of the camera. I am going to keep trying but I can't promise anything.

First Day of School

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of the first day of school for everyone. It was a little staggered this year. Jack started first. His first day of school was August 25. I left everyone else sleeping and headed out to take him to school. When we got there, there was a boy screaming and kicking and Jack said, "What's wrong with him?". I am so glad that my kids do not have any separation anxiety. I have been lucky with all 4. Anyway, this is Jack walking in the school. No problem.

Then on Sept. 1, the other 2 big boys started school. Well, of course, they are just about "too cool" for pictures but I did manage to snap a couple before we headed out.Gabe insisted on wearing his football jersey so I did give in. I am learning to pick my battles.

I can't believe how big they are.

Maci Clare started on Sept. 3. She is going to a Mother's Morning Out 2 days a week. I love it and she does too. She just acted silly when I was trying to take her picture. But I finally got a couple of good shots. I had to take one of all 4 of them. And we had to get the shot of Maci Clare's back pack. It is almost as big as she is. She couldn't wait to get to school. And she loves it.

We are back in the swing of things and I will be posting some of the highlights of our summer and a few football pics soon. I'm trying to get back in t

Been A While

I promise I am here. I am reading and sometimes commenting but never posting. I decided for the summer it would be best if I let the blog go for a while. So that's just what I did. I have been hanging with my peeps and having a great summer and now it is over.
School starts tomorrow. (Jack started last week.) We are already very busy. Running to two football fields (most of the time not in the same town), Cub Scouts, music lessons and performances, and the other everyday things like trying to get enough groceries to feed everyone.
Maci Clare will be starting "school" on Thursday. This is a much needed break for mom. So there will be pictures to come and details of all the fun we had this summer. Just hang on! I'm coming back!

We Appreciate You, Cows!

We celebrated Cow Appreciation Day for the 2nd year in a row. We had a lot of fun and it was all free. I couldn't get any pics at Chicfila because the big cow was walking around so Maci Clare was terrified and wouldn't get out of my lap. There were a couple of families dressed up and getting free food. Lots of teenagers and college age kids. It was fun and we will do it again next year.

On a more exciting note, the Cricut is AWESOME! Here are some of my projects:
I found these cute reusable mesh bags at Dollar Tree. They come 4 to a pack and when I bought them I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but this is it. I put names on each one and we are using them to transport clothes and towels. Then you can put the wet clothes and towel back in them to bring them home.
This is what they look like with clothes and towels in them. All ready to go. I am also going to get some of them and lablel them to use as reusable produce bags at the grocery store. I can probably think of some other uses but right now this is what I am going with.

I also did this on my bedroom wall (over the bed)I love vinyl letters and this was perfect for my bedroom. I will definitely be making some more letters and things to put on the wall.

And these are my favorite.Paper Dolls! I can see Maci Clare and I (and the boys, too! But they won't tell you that.LOL) having hours of fun with these things. I also have lots of shirt making plans for these things.

I just can't get enough. We used the Cricut this year to make our 4th of July tshirts but I will post them later. (I forgot to take pictures so i have to get them on the kids again.)

And I don't know if you remember my creature post here. But here is our latest creature.
A beautiful king snake. Of course the snake was not very happy as Jim was trying to stretch him out for us to see. And he was very strong. Everyone got to touch him and then he was released in the woods behind our house.
I will do a post soon to show you what we did 4th of July weekend. It was a really fun experience especially for the two older boys. So hopefully I can get that up in the next couple of days.

Highlights of June

We have had a fun and busy summer (by choice, of course). I thought I would share some highlights since I haven't been posting very much lately.
At the first of June, I posted about Vacation Bible School at my dad's church. It was a blast. The last night there was even a big inflatable slide and a cute program performed by all the kids who had attended all week. Here is a picture of Jack and Maci Clare (not really performing more like just standing).Jack is in the brown John Deere shirt and camo shorts and Maci Clare is in the pink hat on the front row.

We started the summer off with a back yard campout. All the kids were inside by 11:45pm claiming to have heard a bear in the woods.




We have been to several of our library programs this summer. My kids are just reading, reading, reading. We are finishing (me included) 2 or 3 books every week or so. Their teachers would be proud. We attended the Mad Science program(geared more for the bigger kids), a marionette show (awesome for all ages), and a magic show (we love Tim Sonefelt).

We have been in the pool almost everyday. I love it. Jim has now put in the fence and added the solar lighting. It has been so much fun to spend time with the kids and their friends out there. Especially when it is 100 degrees outside.

My inlaws came from Iowa and spent a weekend. It was great but I didn't take one picture. I hope my MIL decides to share some of hers with me. (Hint! Hint!)

Jim and I went to an awesome 80's concert. Can you guess who it is? 38 SpecialREO Speedwagon

and Styx!

We went with our great, awesome friends.

This is me and my friend, Melonee. We wanted Cindy in the picture too but she was too busy talking on her cell phone. You can only see half of her.

This is Cindy's husband, Doug, and Melonee's husband, Brad.

And Jim and Brad are rocking out! BTW, we traveled to this concert in a mini van. That just struck me as hilarious. You know you are getting old when you go see a concert in a minivan. It was so hot! But we had a blast!

We finally have a chicken coop, otherwise known as a chicken tractor because it is movable. The chickies are happy and now I am waiting patiently for the laying to begin. We really are enjoying our chickens. I will be buying a few more soon.

And Finally! Last but certainly not least! I got what I have wanted for the last 6 months. TADA!
The CRICUT Expressions! I am in love with this machine. I can't wait to show you some of the things I have made with this thing. This is the best money I have spent in a long time. If you are thinking about buying one, DO IT!
So there you have it! Our favorite things from June. I hope that I will find a little more time to post some of the things we are doing and some of the projects we are working on. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Independence Day.

Giveaway Winners

The winners of the All Detergent coupons are:

Ashely from Lil Blue Boo and
Carol from Frugal Finds

Congratualtions, ladies! Email me with your address and I'll get your coupons in the mail.

Back With A Giveaway

I've been pretty scarce lately trying to establish a little bit of a routine for summer and blogging is on the back burner. I say I'm going to post everyday and then it is 12am and no post. So today all the kids are sleeping. Yep, even Gabe and Zane. We've had some really late nights the last week or so. So I am back (at least today) and I have a GIVEAWAY!


The wonderful people at Mom Select sent me a 96 load All Detergent to try and guess what?
Two coupons to giveaway to you. So if you leave a comment, you have the chance to win a coupon good for free laundry detergent. This detergent is great. It smells great and I love the bottle that it is in. So leave me a comment before Sunday June 28 and you could win your own All Small and Mighty.

Big Camping Party

The kids were supposed to camp out Friday night at our neighbor's house but it rained and stormed so much that they didn't get to. So they decided to do all the camp out activities they had planned on Saturday night without the actual camping out. We had a blast.

We got there at 6 after being in our pool all afternoon and went straight in their pool. Their pool has a slide and Maci Clare loved it. She would shoot off the end like an airplane. Because she is so little she flies.

We had hot dogs and chips and cookies for supper. Very Yummy. My mom made all the chili for the hot dogs so they were great. Her chili is the best.

Right after we ate, the kids were told a story about some rare bird (not sure because I didn't really hear the whole thing) and then sent off on a nature hunt. Of course, Jack found a "kicket" (cricket) and put it in his bag. He never bored of the nature hunt. He loved it.

Then the water games began. They had several water balloon relays and other water stuff. Girls against boys, of course. Then they all ran for the pool again, while our neighbor started a fire.

We ended up sitting around the fire telling silly camp fire stories until about 10:15. It was so much fun. But my kids were exhausted. We threw them in the bed and gave them showers this morning. What an awesome way to spend the first weekend of summer. (BTW, this was Bible School Kick off for my dad's church.) So we are off to VBS every night this week.