Summer Fun

I thought I would give a quick update on all the activities over the last few weeks. I wanted to post a few pictures of my lucky finds, but haven't had much time for scouting out yard sales and such. I will let you in on a little secret...I'm working on opening up an Etsy store front...more exciting news about that to come!!

So, in the mean time, enjoy some of our family fun!

Here is Dane and Megan. We met Megan earlier this year when our Nephew came to visit. He lives in Alabama-over 100 miles away, comes over for one week, and ends up leaving with a new girlfriend!! The story is, I was making a trip to the grocery store and he was tagging along. He starts primping and I jokingly told him there was no reason for it, we were only going to the "grocery store". And he ends up leaving the store with this girls digits...of course there was not living with him after that. Just like his Uncle :0) But we ran into her at the park for the 4th of July festivities. And Dane just loves her! She is a really sweet girl.

If you look at the top, you can see Megan is right behind Dane...


Oh yeah, that's my son...the blur!

Baby Girl and Daddy

And Dane's Soccer Team Banquet. The Crestview YMCA Warriors. And he is just so tickled with that trophy. I mean "tickled"!!!

This is what we have done quite a few time within the last few weeks...

Gracyn wasn't too sure about this at first, but she gets real excited now when she sees me setting it up.

Too precious

I think that I am going to make a post soon about all the great books I've been reading lately. I just love getting lost in a good book. I hope all of you are having a great summer!!

Happy Fourth of July and Mad Tea Winner

I hope all of you are having a great 4th of July. Getting your fill of grilled foods, corn on the cob, baked beans, and of course, ice cream!! What I wouldn't give for some of my Mama's homemade pineapple ice cream! Oh, the memories of eating that yummy stuff (and the brain freeze! LOL) . I have been wanting to purchase an ice cream maker for a few years, but something else always intervenes and it still hasn't happened. Hopefully, one day soon.

I would also like to thank everyone who stopped by for my little Mad Tea Brunch. I am left some of my decorations up, and just this morning, was still enjoying the effect.

I sat outside this morning, drinking my coffee, reading my book, and enjoying the curtains that I had hung up around the porch. Just an old set of vintage curtains, but they provide just enough priacvy to give the tiny space an feeling of being in another world. Almost makes one feel like they are on vacation.

And in honor of the Mad Tea Party, I have the privilege to announce the winner of my Mad Tea Giveaway... FawnDear!!! Thank you so much for coming to my party. I must say that you look like you had your hands full with your own party. What a beautiful table set up you had! And all of the fun! Congratulations on winning!! Please send my your mailing info so I can get your goodies to you.

And I would like to thank Vanessa again for hosting such a fun time. It's really got me thinking of all sorts of excuses to come up with so we can all play dress up, make all sorts of yummy goodies to eat and invite all of our friends over. Speaking of, we are off to meet some friends to enjoy a fun-filled event at the park, ending with fireworks this evening. So, enjoy your day!

We're Late...But Not Really

Well, this little bunny isn't so much as late, as well, just has too many cookies on her plate. Today is the very last soccer game of the season and there will be an awards banquet afterwards, all taking place right in the middle of the day.

Time is a very funny thing,

You plan and plan but have to leave room to work in the unexpected. And sometimes, the unexpected things are the most fun and leave the best memories!


So, although the preparations are well under way,


Bowls are ready to be filled,

Goodies are ready for a winner ( I will be offering a giveaway)

And the flowers are awaiting the festivities,


this party will be starting a little later than most. But I wanted to have a late afternoon party anyway, outside on the porch, with flickering lights and a little cooler breeze. And for all of those attending, this just works out better. So, join me later for my magical little gathering. I can't wait!! In the meantime, hop over to Ms. Vanessa's to visit some other Mad Tea Parties going on.

Whatca' Gonna Do When They Come For You...

I am hoping that all of you had a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day. I know I had a nice little weekend. Mine started on Saturday evening when Charlie got off from work. After coming home & changing, I was chauffeured to Ft. Walton Beach where my sweet Hubby knew exactly what my favorite dinner in the world would be...crab cakes. So we drove to the Crab Shack and were able to walk out to the back deck & sit looking out over the water and see all of the watercraft and sea birds. And the meal was excellent. I actually ate too much LOL!!! Then we stopped at Blockbuster and purchased a few Previously Viewed movies. Again, Hubby knew what I liked and so I got to see my cutie movie-boyfriend Mark Walhberg in Max Payne :0)
Sunday was actually a very nice day for me because I was able to get some items on my "Honey-Do" list taken care of. And we were able to spend the day together, working side by side. And while on a trip to Lowe's for some much-needed items, I took a quick peak in the garden section & found a beautiful coral-colored geranium on the sale rack. So I got a beautiful flower for Mother's Day also!!
As of today, I have now walked 12 miles this week, 3 miles per day. And still nothing. So I'm going to have to resort to different measures. I'm thinking about going Tae Bo. Charlie has experience with this back in his days of Martial Arts. We had started trying to do some excerices together in the evenings since we had purchased a Wii Fit. But through some sort of mess up, we got out of the routine. Maybe if we can alternate between the Wii Fit and the Tae Bo, we can have a good workout and some family fun. And now Dane has started soccer practice, his first game will be this Saturday. Charlie has gone to his last twp practices and I'm not sure who is getting the most out of them, husband or son!!! I think Charlie totally loves being out there with the kids.

And for any of you out there that does have a Wii Fit, an infant, and a cell phone. The three don't mix. This is what happened. We were taking turns on the balance board. It was Charlies' turn and I was sitting in a chair, kinda in my own world (LOL) and had pressed "Key Lock" on my phone, since Gracyn has a habit of finding it & playing with it. Well, I'm just staring at the t.v., oblivious to anything else, when Charlie dives off the balance board and snatches the phone from Gracyn. Then I hear him telling the other person on the phone, "I'm so sorry, she's a baby and was playing with the phone. No Sir, there is no problem, we are all fine. Yes ,Sir, she's just a baby. Yes Sir, someone is here. Our address is... " By this time, I'm fully awake. My mouth is hanging open and I'm starting to get that cold sweat. I look over at Gracyn, she's just laughing. My daughter just called 911!!!!! At 10 o'clock at night!!! All of us are in our p.j.'s. Charlie runs and puts some sweatpants on. And within a few minutes, we hear a siren. And it gets closer and closer. Charlie and I are both looking at each other. I keep thinking, this can't be happening. And then the siren goes past our street. But both of us are still shaking, and it's not because we really didn't anything wrong. But just the adrenaline. A few minutes later, I hear Charlie and Dane both say, "They're Here." Like from Poltergeist. And all of us head out the door, in our pajamas. Thank the Lord, it was a woman, a mother. And when we told her what had happened, she just laughed and said that it happens a lot but that they have to check it out anyway. We apologized profusely and told her we were sorry she even had to come out. But she was very gracious about it. So remember: Wii, infant, cell phone = Bad ending.

Happy First Birthday Gracyn

Happy First Birthday Pickle!

(yes, it was on Saturday, I'm a little late :0)

I was going to bake cupcakes, but forgot that I had chunked my disposable pans tht I had been using for the last 3 years! Time for some new ones. So I pulled out the Bundt pan. Dane helped me mix up a white cake batter and we had purchased some "Strawberry Mist" frosting. Oh, the smell of that cake backing was just Divine! And the frosting was yummy. I was having some ideas about different ways to use it. Maybe involving fresh strawberries. But more about that later. We had a good time.

And as evidence that she enjoyed her birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Dane

Well, it was 6 years ago today that my first child blessed the world with his presence.

And through the years, he has grown..

Into quite a character!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANE!!

Black Book

I read one time in a scrapbook magazine that you could take all those weird and otherwise useless pictures and turn them into a "Black Book" album, for purposes of blackmailing!! I would never do that to my mother, but I just have to laugh every time I see this picture! If there is a nose around, Gracyn is intent on grabbing it. This is what she did to her grandmother at Thanksgiving!


This is a another funny picture!! On one of our trips home, we met my MIL & SIL for lunch. My niece was with us that day, the cute blonde with pig-tails. This was the greeting they gave my MIL!!


Can't leave hubby out, but since he always seems to take a good picture, this was about the best I could do. This was Dane's birthday party, earlier this year. I might have already posted this one.



I don't think I ever take a good picture, so a decent picture is a treat for me. And right after I finally got a new pair of glasses. I should have been wearing them for the last 12 years, and that was how old my last pair was. It had gotten to where I didn't like driving at night. When I got the job at the Preschool, they had eye insurance, so Hubby & I both got a new prescription & new glasses!!

All of this is giving me the idea to put a quick book put together for a few family members as a cute little gift. I hope you share your "Black Book" nominations! I'd love to see them!

It's My Birthday

eap, the Big 4-0!! (Actually, it was yesterday) but I felt so bad I didn't even make a post. Then one of my best friends, Rachel, called to wish me a Happy Birthday & to tell me to "Update the Blog!!" So here I am, 40 years old, thinking about the things I've done in my life & the things that I wished I'd done. I guess one good thing about having a birthday so late in the year is that it really helps you think about the things that you want to do for the coming year. I've written a few things down in my day planner, but I haven't made an "Official Goals for 2009" yet. Just been reflecting on older goals that I really wanted to achieve but haven't and trying to decide if I need to abandon them, tweak them some or push forward & make them happen. I'll get back to you on that one :0)

I've had a horrible cough. I've coughed so much that I feel like someone has punched me in my chest. And if I eat something a tad bit dry, it just makes it worse. Gracyn was sick last week. Dane has had a little cough. Thank goodness Charlie is okay, but he's been working so much, I don't think he's had time to think about it. If he ever gets an off day, he might get sick then LOL!

I haven't had much of a chance to explore around town. I did discover that the post office & the library are about a half mile from our house! We've already been to the library twice. Gotta have a book to read!!

We still have some stuff at the old house in Tallahassee, some of that being all of our Christmas ornaments! I had one Christmas bin that had lights & a few odd little decorations. So last weekend, we bought a tree & I pulled the lights out. Of course, out of 8 strands of lights, only 4 worked. Since we had no ornaments, I set out to make some. I saved two frozen pizza boxes, turned them inside out, browsed the internet for some pictures, printed them out as patterns then set down to trace & cut out. Ha! That took me a whole day! Then the next day was spent painting. Some other things I don't have yet, all of my paints, so a quick trip to Wal-mart (We don't have any kind of craft store here-Yikes!). We only bought 4 colors (Earlier, right after moving into the new house, I had climbed on top of the kitchen cabinets to place some knick knacks & found a bottle of bright blue paint!) & a pack of glitter paint. Our theme was for Sea Life, so we found pictures of dolphins, seahorses, octopuses, crabs & a shark (Dane loves sharks!)



Sorry that some of the pictures are sideways - Blogger is flipping some of them for some reason :0(

We've also made some snowflakes. I'm still working on painting those, so hopefully we can finish those today & I'll post some pictures. I love making the snowflakes. I'm going to have Dane make one for each of his grandmothers, one for his Aunt & one for his Big Sister.

Hope everyone has a Wonderful day!!

**This is my 40th post** How cool is that!!

Kids

I thought I would take some time today & do a little show & tell of my babies!! Hope you enjoy!







Charlie is off today & we are planning on going to a local church that has a Pumpkin Patch & picking out a pumpkin & taking some more pictures! It's the one thing we have done every year since living in Tallahassee. Hope you have a beautiful weekend!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Finally, it's stopped raining, at least for a little while. But as I'm typing this, it's looking cloudy again. And there is another storm out there, Gustov. The joys of living on the Gulf Coast. But I love it here, don't know if I could live in the snow!!

Fay really dumped a lot of water on us. We had one tree to fall due to the ground being so saturated. You can see how close the tree was to the house. We were thankful that it went into the yard instead of the house. The one good thing I can say, it that because we were inside the whole time, I got a couple of scrapbook pages done for Dane's scrapbook & we made cookies together!



A few weeks ago we went to Mobile for a job interview for Charlie. While there, I got to visit with my best friend, Kimberly. She & her husband own a seafood market & she had to work that day, but we did get to visit for awhile. She has a son, Aidan, who is one month older than Dane.
It was great getting to visit, but I wish we lived closer. We used to do so much fun stuff together! Maybe one day soon, we might get to move back home. I've been thinking how nice it would be to have family to help out. My Mom & Dad would love to watch the two kids. And it would be nice to actually eat dinner together sometimes. I've been praying & I know God knows what's best but sometimes it just so darn hard to be patient! There are a few things going on right now with this, but since it's so up in the air, I'll wait to post anything until I'm a little more sure.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend. Charlie was off for the weekend but has to work Monday. We went to the local Whatburger for the monthly car show last night. It wasn't a big turn out, but he enjoyed talking cars with the other guys. And Dane was invited to a friends' birthday party at Fun Station, so he had a blast. Now, if I could just sneak off to the local Antique store (and find some extra money from somewhere... LOL!!

Take care this weekend!!

Getting So Big

Due to all the craziness with the house selling & hubby looking for a new job, I postponed enrolling Dane in school because I had no idea where we would be. I would have loved to enroll him in the Kindergarten class at the school where I worked last year, and they even said they would hire me as a substitute again, but the cost for him to go until 1 pm (a full day for that school) & Gracyn going to the crib room was almost $500 a month! And there is no guarantee how much I will work. Good news is they need me to work there all next week for pre-planning where the teachers get their rooms ready for class. They start school in September. And I can take Gracyn with me. So that would be a blessing. But for Dane, I decided to check out the local elementary school. So on Tuesday (yes, a day after school started) Dane & I stopped by there to have a visit. Filled out the necessary paperwork & got a list of records that he needed to have & a supply list. And the poor boy was heart-broken when I told him it was time to go! He want to go to his classroom right then! I told him we had to make sure he had all of his current shots & current physical. So yesterday, Charlie was off & we went by there to drop off the medical information, plus I wanted Charlie to see the school. Again, Dane wanted to know why he couldn't go to class & we had to explain that they would get him a classroom & he could start the next day. All last night he kept asking me if it was tomorrow yet. I told him that he had to go to sleep & when he woke up, it would be time to start school. So this morning, I woke up about 6:45 a.m so I could have a cup of coffee & start packing a lunch. I wasn't up 5 minutes when he walked into the kitchen, saying "Mom, is it time for school yet?" Finally, I got to answer "YES!" He helped me with his lunch & gathering all of his supplies, helped me feed Gracyn while I got dressed & then gave Daddy a kiss bye & we were off! Got there early & meet his new teacher & visited the classroom. The teacher has two fish tanks, a turtle, some kind of lizard & a snake! I already think he is going to love it! So my little boy is now a Kindergartener!

(Not sure what the hand thing is all about)


And not to leave anyone out, here are some pictures of Little Miss.

The Family Man

I'm trying to order something for Charlie for Father's Day, so with him being on my mind, I thought I'd share a few pictures.

Here he is working on the Camaro. This is the day he got it running-Yipee! There are still a few more things that need to be done, but he's been driving it back & forth to work. On Sunday, there are a few car shows in the area, so we are going to those.Have you ever heard of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with potato chips? Well, it's a new one to me & this is how my hubby likes it- And he could eat this everyday!! He's even got Dane asking for them.
And I think I've posted this one before, but it's one of my favorites. This is from last summer when Krystin was here to visit. We all went to the park & took some pictures. Krystin always takes a good picture. So does Dane, so them must get it from Charlie, certainly not from me!!
Sorry for such a short post. Got alot going on right now. I really need to list some new items in my Etsy shop. I'll post once I get some things listed. And please keep us in your prayers. We still are trying to sell our house and the other house that we had as a rental. The people were unable to pay any rent for last month. And since we are trying to move back to Alabama, we decided to sell both of them. And we are going to try For Sale By Owner. So please send a little prayer our way. Thanks!!

Baby's Room

Just wanted to take a few minutes & share some pictures of the newest family member and some of her world. Heidi sent the sweetest sign for Gracyn. I love her signs, you can always find one for any occasion. Thank you Heidi {{hugs}}
Here is her crib. It was Dane's & was originally a dark cherry but I sanded it down & painted it a pistachio green color. I found the beautiful quilt at Marshall's.
And here is her big pink bear from her Aunt Angie. On the wall is one of my favorite finds. I wanted to do a mermaid theme for her but didn't want it to be too Disney feeling so I decided to go with seashells and more natural colors. I found the beautiful seashell mirror at a yard sale in our neighborhood about 6 months ago. And it was only $5!!! Gotta love that!