Bekah's American Girl Trip

We are back from a trip to Georgia. Bekah and I went with my MIL and FIL. Our main goal was to go to Augusta, for a cousin's wedding. Which was beautiful by the way. But on the way we stopped off so that we could take Bekah to the American Girl store. All she could do was smile! All we could do was smile just watching her. The store opened at 9AM and we were there, she looked at everything in there at least once and most things twice! :) She used her birthday monies to make her choices, and was very happy! We then had brunch in their cafe. A very tasty ending to a wonderful morning!

Rain, rain go away!

Well want a wet start to the month we've had! Almost 15 inches in 48 hours!

So on Saturday I took the children and we went to 2 Goodwills, here in our area. When we got back my oldest, how got a new golf club while we were there went downstairs to try it out and........found that the basement was flooding! So my sweet boys spent hours sucking water and dumping it out. So helpfull and precious! Well after it was all said and done we ended up having to rip out all the new carpet we just put down about 7 months ago. Oh well, that just means we get to start over! :) The insurance claims adjuster will be here tomorrow to check and see what can be done. So school has been supended yesterday and today. Today due to my not feeling well, hard to teach when you sound like a squeeky "Rocky"! LOL But I am the healed and will overcome this bleck. My sweet sister is completely land locked, she lives inAshland City and they are dealing with 3 differant creeks and rivers near there home. So this has been our May Day weekend, fun huh?

But life is good! We are all ok, our house is ok, just a bit soggy :). I'll update in a few weeks after our American Girl trip.
Until then,
Laura

SwagBucks

Just signed up with SwagBucks. Let me know if any of you have signed up, or know anyone who has. I curious if it is one of those things that you have to "keep up with" or does it work 'for' you? Let me know your impressions and first hand, or second hand, or even third hand knowledge. Thanks in advance!!

Just remembered!

Here I was reading a blog when it hit me! I hadn't posted for this month! Sorry!





Well this last month we went to South Lake Tahoe, CA. So beautiful!! The children had a great time skiing and snowboarding. They are gitting to be quite good, they all played at the terrain park and are starting to take some jumps. Makes me glad I don't ski, so all I do is hear about it AFTER the fact! LOL

I got to enjoy some quiet days at the house we rented. VERY RARE when you home school!

The boys also had their SATs just before we left. No scores yet, but I know we did well this year. They were ready to take the tests and thought they were boring! That's home schooling at it's best huh?

This next month is shaping up to be very busy too. Lots for scout camping, church functions, family stuff and a wedding. Plus a special girls trip to an American Girl store! Lots of fun things and hopefully I'll remember to actually take my camara out of my purse! LOL

Well until next month...be blessed!

Birthdays

This is a HUGE birthday month for our family, really it's about a six week span. First my brother, then my hubby's youngest brother, then my sweet SIL, Laryssa of Heaven in the Home and soon two more wonderfull blogs. Then my cousin, my sister, my hubby, and my sister's hubby. Then my neice, and finally my hubby's oldest brother. WOW!! Can you say cha-ching! LOL!! My sweet sister had a big-kid only birthday brunch. French toast, bacon, eggs, grits ( hey we are in the south, ya'll) and these delish little tart thingies. They were made with philio dough shells, a small bit of brie cheese, and fresh jam. YUMMY!! Lots of fun and famliy times.
So that has been our month in a nutshell. Birthdays, life, school, ya know stuff. We are getting ready to go to Tahoe again at the end of this month. But thats about it. Nothing big, nothing major. Maybe I'll have more exciting things next time. LOL!!

So until next time! Be blessed!

Hello Again!

Hello again! Well after talking to my sweet SIL Laryssa, at Heaven in the Home and soon to be others, I have been rejuvenated to blog. Funny I know, but that's what happened. :)

Ok, so I'll catch you up on our life since the first of the year. Life! lol!!

Well actually home school, housework, laundry, dishes....ya know life. lol We also found time to take our first family, just our five, to Tahoe, NV/CA. It's right on the state line. Kids loved that at the state line light that we can be in two separate states but in the same truck. A full week of family fun. Skiing/Snowboarding everyday. Spa day for me. No cooking!! The two nights we ate at the house Matt cooked. YEA!! Lots of fun and special family time. Then the weekend after we got back from that the guys went on their Boy Scout ski weekend. Alex had a fall and hurt his wrist. Just hyper-flexed it, BUT GOD..... we have prayed and he is healing super fast. Thanks to our awesome God!! So that's all for the last month, but there's more coming up.

So, I am going to start updating this the first of every month. So "see" you here the first of March.
Laura

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May everyone's year be filled with God and His blessings!

Girls day out

We just had the best day! We have an annual tradition, evey year after Christmas all of we girls get together and have a shopping day. So today was the day! We went to Franklin, TN and everywherewe went we had a great time of fun and fellowship. So I now want to publicly thank all our guys for allowing us the time, by watching all the boys in our family, and for providing the means, translate to cash, to buy some more treasures! Thanks!! We had a great time!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to one and all!! May your day be merry and bright!

We have already had a great morning and are waiting for the rest of the family to get here. Which reminds me that I need to start the food cooking. So I off to the kitchen. Merry Christmas all!

New stuff

So much is going on!! We are updating our home. YEA!! We are adding some new cabinets to the rear entry/laundry room area. This will help add some much needed storage. We have also updated our den and dinning room furniture. I will see if I can add some pictures next week. We will be working on a few more projects over the weekend, so I'll update here again next Monday or Tuesday. Have a great weekend!!

Oh, why don't we all start thinking about what we are thankfull for. Even if you can't get new, you can move what you have around. Change it up. Go to Goodwill, check the clearance at Walmart or Target. You can add a few small things for not much money, move some furniture around and have a "new" look. Think about this story, I read in a "FlyLady" email. Ok, to give this story a little depth, you have to know that "FlyLady's" mantra is "You can do anything for 15min.", and it's true! One of the first things she has us do, as a habit, is to shine our sinks every night before bed. There is just nothing like coming into your kitchen and the sink is clean and shinning. So, now back to the story.

Ok, so this lady was just writing in about how thankfull she was to even have a sink. You see when she was little they didn't have running water. No bathroom, think outhouse. yuck!! She never thought anything about it, that's just how she lived. Until.....school and other some children "enlightened" her. So helpfull, huh? Well she found out that they were so poor that their house wasn't even painted, just plain boards, unlike those "helpfull" children. So she had a wish to be well off enough to just have a white house. Well, it turned out that she married the right guy and now has a BRICK house with 3 cars. Oh, I forgot that part. They didn't have a car, they waited for a neighbor or family member to take them to church, or into town. Making you thankful yet? Ok, so she now has more that her wildest dreams and she was feeling like she needed more. Ever been there? I have! Well, she was looking around and realized that she had sooo much! And so she had to write in and say how thankful she was to have a sink to even shine and how silly she was being to have the "I wants".

God wants us to have the best, but we have to follow His path to get there. Hard on our flesh, but soooooooo much better in the long run. I had things in my life that I needed to get straight. Now that those are straight, God is showing me more things to fix. I almost said work on, but if you had been at church on Sunday, you'd know what I mean. Check out the website and you can see the video. There is a link on my blog page. BUT you would be better off coming and hearing in person.

Ok, now that I have gone on some more. Have a great weekend!!

Hello to my Aunt!

Hello to my wonderfull Aunt who has been bugging me to update my blog. Which is looooong over due, for sure.

So who is ready for Thanksgiving? I am almost. We are getting everything in order for now and for Christmas. I am endevering to continue following FlyLady's program, and motto. Well really 2 of her mottos: 1st "It won't get done, if it isn't fun", works for young and old alike, hehe.
And 2nd "You can do anyhting for 15 minutes!". This is a really great website, and the best part is that it's FREE!! All the printouts and email signup is free and all her products ar very reasonable and work great. Ok commercial over. Well i will update hopefully with pics in the next dy or two.

A Regular Week

You know what I did this week....Nothing! Well, not really nothing, it just seemed that way. We had a "regular" week. School for 3-5 hours, depending on the day. House work, laundry, yardwork, playing with my horse, setting up the slip and slide. So you see it was a very easy week. hehe We have really had a very relaxing week. After all the traveling we've done over the last two months it was nice to get back to our "regular" weekly schedule. I hope to enjoy another one before we have the business of the fourth.

I had a lovely day today, though. This morning my sister came over and we had a great play session with our horses. Then later in the day, I spent a wonderful hour with my Mom. We enjoyed just chatting and surfing the web. Looking at EBay and our favorite makeup, Bare Escentuals. Then I came home and had another wonderful visit with my SIL Laryssa, of "Heaven In the Home". we also had a wonderful hour to visit. I am so BLESSED to be able to call these Godly ladies family AND friends! Well now you are cought up on my week. See you next week.

WOW TWO Months

WOW TWO MONTHS!! I really am alive, just soooooo super busy! Since my last post I have been on two trips. The first one was with my Hubby. Just the two of us. So very nice. We went to Reno, NV. We have another facillity of our business there, but my DH didn't go in to work the entire time we were there. He even went into Sephora with me! WOW what a guy!!! We had a very special time apart.

Then on Friday I went to my second Parelli celebration. What is Parelli? Well to me it has been the way to trully enjoy my horse. It is a way to trully understand your horse. So if I have peaked you intrest in any way you can see way more at Parelli.com or read other peoples blogs at ShareParelli.com, or contact me here. I love to share.

Ok so now for the next trip. We just got back from Navarre, FL. We were there for a week with my DH's side. So much fun! Always a great time going to the beach, but getting there was intersting! On the way there we had a blow out on our trailer tire. Then when we got to the house, oh wow what a mess! There was a MOUNTAIN of trash out front, where they had had a wedding there the day before. Then there came the inside. the glass stove top was cracked all the way through on one side, read big burners! Now with fourteen people, six of them children, and that's not too good. Needless to say this trip had me thinking "But God" the whole time! We all overcame and had a great time, full of fun and fellowship. We all left happy and knowing eachother a little better. And what trip is all bad when you get t swim in th ocean, the guys get to play golf and we girls get to SHOP!

So, that gets me to now. We had a church picnic on Sunday, then went to a farm store on Monday. I bought some REAL eggs. Met the chicks that lay them and the children even got to collect them. They thought that was fun. Well now you are all up to date with me. So I will endever to post at least once a week with an update on our goings on.

Sunday Evening Ramblings

I have just read my sister's post from yesterday and can't wait to hear all the details. Check Sarah's blog out at http://livingtoworship.blogspot.com/. I am sitting here still kinda ouchy from yesterday. Ok let me give you the scoop of our weekend. Last weekend my DH won an ebay auction on a trailer, in W. Virginia. So, on Friday he and our boys went to get it. Although this was after we were at a local auction. Where of course we bought a truckload, literally! :) Later that evening my DD, Bekah, and I went and had a nice girls night out. And the boys went with their Daddy to get the trailer.

On Saturday Bekah and I finished putting out all our mulch and I got the yard cut, all two acres of it. So, now comes the ouchy, I wore a tank top and have burnt my arms, mostly my shoulders. But I now have a weed free front flower beds!! YEA!!! I am sooooo happy with that! Can you tell? I'll have to get pictures to post. I still have some things to add, but it's so much better. Then when the boys got back we went to eat and hit a buck of balls at the driving range. Always a fun thing with sun burnt shoulders. But we all had a good time.

So now it is time for me to go to bed. Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

Our 12 day trip or why I haven't posted in sooooo long

Oh WOW it's been so long since I have taken time to post anything!!


We have, I think :D, gotten back on track since getting back from our ski trip. We went to Reno, NV for 12 days, although 5 of those we spent in Tahoe. Where the kids and my DH skied. This picture is of my DS Alex who is 9 and snowboards like a champ. Cute isn't he? They all had a blast! I am really impressed with how much better they are this time. My oldest DS, Ryan who is 10, was probably the most improved. He did so well this time. And, if my DD, Bekah who is 8, had anything to say about it we would do this every day! Oh and no adult could keep up with her! She loves speed!!




This is the view out our bedroom,
while we were on the mountain. Gorgeous isn't it? There wasn't much snow, except on the slopes. Made it nice to shop though.
We also took the kids ice skating. First time for them. They made me ache, they fell so much and BOUNCED! :D But they had a blast! Well I hope you enjoyed reading an abbreviated version of our trip. We certainly enjoyed taking it!

Wow, I have been meaning to post since Wednesday! But here I am now. On Wednesday my "babies" and I went to the zoo. Seven and a half hours start to finish. We went with myMIL and 2 SIL's and their 3 children, all under 3. We had a BLAST! It was a trip from God. We had such good fellowship and hugs all around as we left. We all enjoyed see the baby tigers, they are only 3 months old. But they weigh around 80 pounds and have HUGE feet! They still don't know what to do with them. Aren't they cute?!

The children really enjoyed the carousal. The Nashville zoo has grown so much in the last few years. We now have camels, zebras, an anteater, red pandas, and many more. I added a few pictures from our day.

I have been thinking about how blessed I am to have such great fellowship with all of my in-laws, as well as my own family. I had a call from my MIL just today, just to talk. Because we love each other. How unusal is that? Yes, I am truly blessed with the family I was born to and the one I married into. Thank you God for my family!

Girlie night

Thanks to my sweet Mom I just had lots of fun getting new make-up. And what girl doesn't like that. Mom cleaned out her drawers and helped fill mine up some more. So I have decided to make tonight a beauty night. You know all the fun stuff. Mask, scrub, moisturize, and feeling relaxed and girlie.

So now here is my challenage to you girls out there. Pick a day or evening and have some girl time. You'll feel better and look better too!

So go do your nails, look strange and put on a mask, or take a nice hot bath and read your favorite book. Or better yet do all three, but make time for yourself. Especially us moms, we need time to recharge before the next day and all the adventures it holds. Have fun getting even more beautiful than you are now.

A fit woman is fit for anything

I read a statement that I'd like to share. It said "A fit woman is fit for anything". WOW!! I really had to stop and think about this for a bit.

I really started thinkg about my life. Not only in the relm of, are you ready for the dreaded word? Not only in the relm of exercise, but also about my spiritual fitness, my goals, and my emotional fitness. I have already started in on the, gulp, exercise. Love our wii fit! I am always working on my emotional fitness, it is what God calls walking in love. It is a moment by moment choice. My goals are in the works. But my spirit man is a little weak. That's not to say that I don't have strong faith, because I do. I trust God with all my heart, mind and spirit. But I haven't been reading the Word as I should. So, THAT is my first goal. To read and study the Word as I never have before.

As we are thinking about goals and our fitness I challenge you all to see what area of "fitness" you need to work in. Set your goals. Small and short time frame works well to start with. As we all grow and learn we are all made more perfect in His sight. Just where we should want to be.

Latest work of art

Just thought of something else. Check out what I finished today. I have worked on it off and on all week. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

I Live to Worship was tagged! Here is her post and then my response.

I got tagged today by Hannah at Set Apart For The Grandeur Of My MasterThe subject of the tag was, "What Did You Learn Today?"To tell you the truth I was expecting something goofy like, "Name your first pet.", or "What was your favorite song when you were 16?" or something else completely random like that. Then, Hannah hits me with this ultra-deep question and posts a wonderful lesson on what she learned today. WOW!So, I'm taking a deep breath and trying to analyze exactly what did I learn today. 1) I learned 4 new beautiful songs written by my SIL Laryssa.2) I learned what a truly remarkable man Paul Harvey was. He will be missed.3) I learned from Hannah that I should be learning something everyday!Now I tag my sis Laura at Love Reigns Here to do the same thing. Sis, what did you learn today?
Posted by ILiveToWorship at 4:44 PM

Wow! That is a deep question.
I can't say that I really learned something today. But, I remembered why I like some things so much.1) How much I not only love my sis but I LIKE her too. sniff sniff2) How much fun I have playing with my horse! :)3) How much I love to hear my children laugh.4) And last but most defiantly not least. My loving and wonderful God! How good He is to us!!
So even though I didn't necessarily learn anything new today, this is a good thing to do. Remember what and whom we like and love. This is a great way to help our love walk, too. Thanks sis for reminding me to look deeper for the good things in life and then to thank the one who gave them to us.