If you have a Harris Teeter near by, this week is the week to go. We do not usually shop at HT because generally their prices are a little higher than Wal-Mart or Food Lion, but there are alot of great things you can get for FREE or for less than $2 with their triple coupon week so I made the trip last night. Go here for a list of items on sale and coupons that match and see the great deals you can get. The sale ends on 3/31 so make your list and plan a trip. My total before coupons was 45.76 then after the coupons it came to 22.52! That is a huge savings in my book, I was thrilled! I will post tomorrow about how I did at Walgreens this week.

CVS Deals

As I mentioned yesterday, I have come across a great website that has helped me find some awesome deals this week. Today I went to CVS and here is what I got:

Transaction #1-
(1) Crest Pro Health Toothpaste $2.99
(2) Hydralicious products $2.88 ea
Use:
(1) -$1 off Pro Health PG 2/08
(1) -$3/2 off Herbal Essences PG 2/08
Total Due: $4.75
pay with $4 ECB and 1.07
Get Back: $4 ECB

ECB's are coupons that print out at the end of your receipt when you purchase certain items that qualify for them. I had $4 ECB's from last week.

Transaction #2
Buy:
(1) Cheerios Cereal 3.34
(1) Lucky Charms Cereal 3.34
(1) Fiber One Bars 3.34
Use:
(1)-.55 off Lucky Charms
(1)-.55 off Cheerios
(1)-.60 off Fiber One Bars
Total Due: $7.75
pay with $4 ECB from #1 and $4.50
Get Back: $5 ECB to use next week!
This week the deal was, when you buy any 3 of General Mills items, you get back $5 ECB's
Total spent for both transactions $5.57!!! And I have $5 ECB for next week!!!

My New Hobby

I have discovered the GREATEST website EVER and wanted to share it with you and show you how much I saved when doing what "Jenny" (the lady who finds all the deals) said to do. This site tells you about all the sales at various stores and where you can find coupons for the same items to make the item VERY cheap or even FREE!
Here is what I got today at Walgreens-

3 Huggies- $10 each

2 Glade Lasting Impressions- $7.99 each

2 Glade Sense & Spray- $7.99 each

2 Coffemate Creamer- $2.49 B1G1

2 Colgate Total Toothpaste- $3.49 each

1 Garnier Fructis Shampoo, 1 Garnier Fructis Conditioner- 2.99 each

3 pks. Orbit gum- .66 each

Wal-Zyr Tablets(allgery medicine)- 3.99

Headache Medicine 20 ct. (WG brand Excedrin)- 2.99

TOTAL W/ TAX--- 92.80

Then I used these coupons:

3) -$5 off Huggies printable (will work for any type)

(2) Glade B1G1 printable

(2)-$4 off Glade Manufacturer coupon

(4) -$4 off Glade Walgreens coupon (only need one, computer will take it off x 4)

(2)-$1.50 off Coffee Mate printable

-$2 Garnier Walgreens coupon

-$1 Garnier RP 2/08

-$1.50 Colgate Walgreens coupon

-$1 Colgate Coupon

-3/.99 for Orbit Gum Walgreens coupon

MY NEW TOTAL: 32.60

I also got $10 back in Register Rewards which you get for purchasing $25 or more of Huggies products, and you can use that on your next purchase.

Now I could have split up my items into 2 different transactions and used the $10 RR in the 2nd transaction and saved even more money, but I didn't want people behind me to have to wait too long, so I will just use it next time.

Also, Walgreens has a rebate program and every month there are new deals, some items during the month will go on sale and they will end up being free after the rebate. The Wal-Zyr(3.99) and the Headache Medicine(2.99) I will get for free when I submit my rebates for the month. I will do a post on that later this month so you can see how using the rebate system can actually make you a little money.

So after RR's and Rebates- I only end up spending- $15!!!!

Now, here is the link to this awesome site to whome all credit is due,

www.southernsavers.com

Check back tomorrow for how I did at CVS, more great buys!!

Winter Happenings

Well, alot has happened since I last posted. I guess the biggest news is that my step-daughter Kysia(Ki-sa), has come to live with us. She is 15 and is expecting a baby in April. We are blessed to be able to assist her during this hard time in her life. We believe that the Lord has brought her here for a reason.
We had a nice Christmas, my other step-daughter Alison came for two weeks and Al's mom came for a few days. Here is a nice family shot. You will have to excuse me, I got so carried away with the excitement of the morning, that I forgot to put on makeup or do my hair.

Kysia, Sam and I went to my mom's in Charlotte for a few days in December too. Here is Kysia holding my brother's baby, TJ.

We had a Christmas play at church and here is Caleb, Sam and Andrew doing their part. We will leave out pictures of Al and I playing Mom and Dad. How we got picked out of the church to do the adult roles, I don't know, but I bet we won't be picked again!

And here are pictures of the big January snow we had. It was beautiful! I do love the snow, but I was glad to get out again after it was gone.

I will try and be a little more diligent at posting, my goal is to post once a week even if I have no pictures to post. Have a good weekend!

Nan-Nan comes for a visit

My mom came Friday and we went to Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville, it was so cute! Sam had a blast running to this and that. We also enjoyed a hayride and got to pick out a pumpkin. The weather was perfect until it rained a little, but it shooed most people home so we had the place almost to ourselves. Thanks mom for the eventful weekend, we enjoyed visiting with you!

New Music!!!

Make sure your speakers are turn on and up, I loaded some new musice to my playlist and this time it is the full song, not just a clip. I didn't realize that until after I had loaded the last playlist, sorry about that.

More on Sam the Ice Skater

Ok, so lessons are going pretty well, I am surprised at how well he is picking up on new thigs. I think by the end of the 8 weeks he will be a pro. Ok, well not really, but he should be almost ready for hockey. I think one more class then in Jan we will be ready to learn hockey skills. I am just going to continue to post my videos on YouTube cause it is easy so check them out I have posted two more from this past weekend.

Ice Skating Lessons

Well most of you probably already know that Sam is in his second week of ice skating. He absolutely loves it! He is determined to be on a hockey team, so we will see how all this plays out. It is quite funny to watch him skate, he doesn't really skate, he walks real fast, so hopefully he will grasp the concept of gliding soon. Here is a little clip I was able to capture on my camera, hope it turns out ok. I had problems uploading to Blogger, so I had to upload it to YouTube and then imbed it here. Enjoy!
OK well I am going to just post the link to watch it on YouTube, cause it won't let me copy and paste the code and I am not sure I understand why, html, boggles my mind!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTlGBbhM2dM

Yesterday I turned 28, oh my goodness, I do not like the sound of that. I am not too thrilled about approaching 30, but I can't do anything to stop it so I need to learn to love my birthdays I guess. We did have a good time as a family. When Al got home from work he brought me a dozen roses and all day Sam kept making me things. We went out to Kanki for dinner and then walked around the mall which Al did with no complaints. Thank you to all of you for the birthday wishes and the gifts/cards, it really did make my day special.

Renovated Porch

We are FINALLY done with our screened in porch that we have been working on slowly for the past month. I am so tickled, I just love it! Now if it would just get a bit cooler so I can enjoy it. I could only find this one before shot(I forgot to take one) and this is from like 2 yrs. ago. The rocking chairs were dwindled down from 4 to 2 and also a stray cat took residence in there last winter so there was misc. cat stuff everywhere. It was in bad need of some TLC.

Before: Notice the carpet, this is newly installed here, it did not look this good after Mr. Kitty moved out.

AFTER!!! Pulled up carpet, stained floors and raillings, install new ceiling fan, new furniture, new rug, plants and of course you can't leave out the decor.

I love this lighthouse canvas I found at Carolina Pottery, great store for those of you who have never been. On the table sits a rock with a lighthouse on it with Psalm 119:105 , a reed diffuser, and a bowl of seashells underneath.

New Home!!

Well, not really in the sense that you may be thinking, but we have made some changes around here that make things look a little new to us. First of all I worked on our school area for two days to get everything organized and get rid of last years stuff(I know-- I should have done that at the end of the year). We have new decorations and I got rid of the piano in that room to give us a little more space in our little school niche. Sam is so thrilled about the look of the new school stuff he was begging me to start school on Friday. Strange child, but I love him anyways! When I moved the piano, I then had to move lots of other things so every room got a new look. And yes I did say "I", Al was at work when I decided to do all of this so he came home at 2 am Friday morning and was shocked! Needless to say I was moving furniture for about 3 hrs. We have way too much furniture for our little home, but anyways, here are some pictures!

Here is the living room/school area. I moved the longest couch to the right, the loveseat is turned a little to give me more room for my easel, and found a perfect spot for that little table behind the couch
I guess you can tell what this is. On the big wall it says Welcome to 1st Grade and the other wall says Learning is Fun. When I am teaching I bring over my rolly chair from the computer area and that little table beside Sam's desk is my "desk" that easily folds away.
The dining area has a sideboard in it now on the other side of the table. The table used to sit by its lonesome right under the light, but I kaddy-kornered(is that a word?) it and made room for the sideboard or buffet, whatever you call it. This is an inherited piece from Al's dad that we will never be rid of, along with many other things.
And the den-- Here is where I moved the piano--I know it is on an outside wall and that is a big no-no, but I really have no choice unless it goes back to its orginal home. The long couch on the right used to sit in front of the window and I like the openness of the window much better.
The couch is used as kind of a wall to separate the dining room and the den.

Birthday Week

Wow, what a week we have had! We had a birthday boy who had lots of fun! I tried to do a post with some baby pictures earlier in the week, but the lady at Rite-Aid messed up when scanning my pictures, so I wasn't able to load them. So here's what's been going on. Tuesday was his actual birthday, so in the morning we went to the Greene's and hung out there for a while then headed to Sam's favorite, Red Robin for lunch. We spent some time at The Factory watching people ice skate, then headed home. We opened presents then did our usual, yard work and house cleaning. On Friday and Sat. we spent 6 hours or so at church putting together John/Romans booklets in Spanish to send to the Canary Islands. Sat. evening we headed to the Buffalo Lanes North for Sam's birthday party. All the kids had a blast and even the adults bowled. My mom and her husband came up as well as Al's mom and Jim. Sam got to open even more presents when we got home. You should see all this stuff he got, it looks like Christmas around here. Boy we really do need another child so he won't be so spoiled!

New Recipes

Boy do I have some yummy new dishes for you all to try out! For those of you who do not know, I have been doing weight watchers now for about 7 weeks. I have been trying to come up with new and a little healthier options for dinner. Al is not dieting with me so I have to still be able to come up with things that are palatable for him as well as figure friendly for me. Most times I have to just forego one of the side items I have prepared for him. So anyways, I have a hard time trying to figure out the Points value of some of the things that I make, so I am always looking for recipes that have the nutrition information included. I found this one at the grocery store by Pillsbury and so far the two dishes I have made are wonderful, which is thrilling to me cause the past two weeks I have made some real bombers! Yuck! So here they are:

Chicken Saltimbocca- 4 servings

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts- the thin kind if you don't want to pound it thin

1/3 cup flour

2 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp. italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

4 slices prosciutto- pronounced pro-shoe-toe

4 slices mozzarella cheese

1 tsp. chopped sage- optional

3/4 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp. butter

1. If you didn't buy the thin breasts, then first pound the meat with a mallet between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap.

2. Mix flour, parmesan cheese, italian seasoning and salt.

3. Coat each piece of chicken with flour mixture, shake off excess.

4. Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, cook about 8 min., turning once, until browned and no longer pink inside.

5. Top each chicken breast with 1 slice of prosciutto and 1 slice of mozzarella, cover skillet and cook 1 to 2 min, or until cheese is melted. Remove chicken from skillet and place on serving platter.

6. Increase heat to high. Add broth to skillet. Heat to a boiling, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Boil for about 3 min or until broth is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and add butter, after it melts, give a good stir and then spoon this over the chicken. Top with freshly chopped sage if you wish.

Per Serving: Calories 460, Total Fat 24g, Sodium 1130 mg, Fiber 0g-Points value 11

The prosciutto gives the chicken a nice flavor. This is not particularly a low fat dish but if you pair it with some healthy sides as I did with the green beans and roasted potatoes it only adds 2 more points to the meal.

Chicken Florentine Skillet- 6 servings

8 oz. farfalle noodles or some sort of short noodle the orginal recipe called for wagon wheels

1 1/4 cups half and half

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tbsp. butter

1 pkg. of chicken breast tenders cut into bite-sized pieces

1 (14.5oz.)can diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 bag fresh baby spinach leaves

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Cook and drain pasta.

2. While pasta is cooking, stir 1/4 cup of half and half, flour, salt and nutmeg until smooth; set aside.

3. In a large skillet melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 mins. stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir in tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach. Cook about 5 min. stirring occasionally until mushrooms are tender.

4. Reduce heat to low. Stir in half and half mixture from earlier. Then mix in pasta. Cook about 1 min. Stir in remaining 1 cup of half and half. Sprinkle with cheese and cover. Serve after cheese is melted.

Serving Size: 1 1/3 cup

Per Serving: Calories 400, Total Fat 13g, Sodium 880 mg, Fiber 3g-Points Value 8

This one is the best out of the two and you can sneak in some spinach for those picky eaters. I served this with a ceaser salad and it was delicious!

OK, so here is the funny story. It might not be so funny reading it but it was hilarious at the time! So we were at Ober Gatlinburg, which is this ski and amusement park on top of a mountain over looking Gatlinburg. They have a bunch of water slides and a huge bob sledding track and a pirate ship ride. Well Sam knew about the pirate ship and had been planning to ride it. When we got there we saw that is was a pretty big one, now it didn't go upside down and flip over like some do but it did go up pretty high. Al didn't think Sam should ride it but he really want to ride. I convinced him to let him try it, cause he was above the height requirement so it couldn't be that bad. So they get on, Al, Sam, Alison and my brother George. It goes back and forth 2 times then the third time up Sam had this horrified look on his face.

Then the 4th time this is what I saw:

Can you find Sam? Here I will zoom in so you can see better.

Did you see him under the bar? Alison is laughing about as hard as I am right now. I had tears running down my cheeks and was about to wet my pants.

Here is another one, now this time it is going even higher. You can see Sam's shirt a little bit under the bar. And check out Al's face.

And this the smile after the ride.

Mom: Sam, how was it? You want to ride it again with Mom?

Sam: It was great!! Oh No, I'm not riding that thing again!!

Vacation Pictures

OK..... Well I have finally gotten with the program and found the time to post. We had a great time in the mountains, it was nice to get away from home for a bit, but very nice to get home, I am not sure I know which feeling is better. But anyways, like Sara M. I have tons and tons of pictures I want to post so bear with me, I will try not to bore all of you. Today I will just post some of my favs and tomorrow I will share a funny story and more pictures.

At an ol'timey diner

A bunch of sleepy kids on the way home

On the chair lift in Gatlinburg

My handsome brother George on the trolley

Enjoying the hot tub

Miss Alison hanging out on the deck

Grandma and Sam down by the creek

Al and I atop the mtn. at Ober Gatlinburg

Panning for gold in Cherokee

This is my favorite of all the pictures we took. We stopped at an overlook in the Smokey Mtn. National Park and took this one.

Good Times in Charlotte

Sam and I went to visit my Mom for a few days. We got in thursday late afternoon and came home today. Yesterday we got to ride the new light rail, called the Lynx, into uptown. It was very nice and classy, you know sometimes you feel kind of creeped out on those things, but it wasn't at all like that. We went to ImaginOn, a childrens library that has alot of hands on activites, like dress up areas, little cushion seats shaped like puzzles that the kids can play around with, and lots of video game corners, which seemed odd to me to be in a library, but kids were there instead of getting into trouble. The Taste of Charlotte was going on as well which is just where alot of restuarants have samples of foods for a fee of course, but the idea is you go around and try lots of different things. We didn't do that, but they did have a kids area with all sorts of inflatables that were free. It was only like 102 outside, but Sam managed to enjoy them a little. He was one worn out little man afterwards. So here are some pictures of our events.

The Kindergarten Graduate

Last night we had Sam and his buddy Caleb's Kindergarten graduation. They were so cute in their little caps and gowns! I am very glad everything was a success, everyone remembered their parts for the program and he is officially done with Kindergarten. Well not really, we won't be done until the end of the month or maybe first week of June. Al's mom and Jim came up for the ceremony and we went out to dinner at Sam's favorite place, Red Robin. It was a great day for all of us I would have to say! I am going to post lots of pictures for those who missed it.

Sam and Caleb

With Grandmama and Grandaddy

Dad and Sam

Doing the Pledge to the Flag and the Bible

Reading

Turning their tassels

Sam and Caleb are the presidents telling King Darius about Daniel praying

Taking Daniel to the Lion's Den

Singing

His cake minus the decorations

Here is one of the decorations

Daddy, oh how we love him!!

Favorite Pastime

I don't know if you would call this a pastime or not since we have only been doing it since we moved into this house, but one of our most favorite things to do is to sit on our front porch. Especially on Mon. or Tues. evenings when the whole family is home, after working in the yard all day and after dinner we will sit out there and just chat for an hour or two. Or until the bats start flying... Al is terrified of the bats, it is pretty funny actually. I am laughing just thinking about it! He will push anyone out of his way to get to the door so you better watch out. Here are a few pictures of Sam hanging out on the front porch last night.

Food

Usually when we have a service during the week at church we end up eating dinner at like 9:30 and I know that is horrible to do. So since I have decided for the umpteenth time to go on some sort of diet, I thought we should start trying to eat dinner before church. Well last night before revival Sam and I ate hamburgers, but Al was napping and said he would eat after church. It was funny cause usually I do most of the cooking at home, so I offered to cook while he put Sam to bed and he said and I quote, "Let me show you how to make a REAL burger!" As I was finishing up reading to Sam when Al came in very excited about his creation and holding it like it was a prized possesion. I just had to take a picture of this monster burger, and thought, Oh, I can have something to blog! So here he is saying, "This is what's really going on!" I had to remind him that you can hear no sound in pictures. He is a funny man.

I sure am glad he doesn't do all the cooking at home. He is a wonderful cook, but I would never be able to lose weight!

My Hair Dilemma** Updated**

I am very frustrated with my hair right now and something has to be done! I had been thinking of letting it grow out but I end up wearing it put up half of the time when it is long. I just don't know what would look best on me and I need some help. I am going to post some old photos of my hair when it is longer and then some of how it was last summer cut short with alot of layers and you will have to give me your opinion. I will post the pictures later on today after I have a chance to scan them.

Sorry it took an entire day to get these pictures on here. So now tell me what you think.
BTW- the picture of Sam and I to the right is what my hair looks like right now.

This is like almost 2 years ago

This is last summer- I really like this style but it is so much maintenence, but I guess it might take some work to look presentable

This is from about 4 yrs. ago- as you can see I am alot thinner so my face is not a fat, I think that makes a huge difference in the hairstyle I can wear.

We're Ba-ack!

Ok, well I think I have ended my blog sabatacal(sp?), so I will give a little update on what has been going on the past few months. Let's see since the last time I posted was Nov., I guess I should mention that we had a great Christmas. We had decided to not spend much money for gifts and such, but that somehow got thrown out the window. Alison came for about a week during that time as well. Sam was a shepard in a play at church, it was so cute!! Too late for me to post pictures now, but just take my word for it. We have been on quite a few field trips with the homeschool group, to the NC Natural Sciences Museum, NC History Museum, and to the NC Aquarium in Roanoke Island. Sam loves getting together with his friends each week for chapel. Al and I cooked for our church's Valentines Banquet and it went rather well, I think. Oh, and we had our first Missions Conference a few weeks ago which was great. School has not been so challenging anymore, granted it does take up 2 hrs. sometimes to get through phonics, but I have just come to accept that fact now. We should be done right on time as of right now. Sam is reading pretty well and can write anything you tell him to (you have to spell it too) and is doing very well in math.
So today we went to Sears cause I had a coupon, to get some Easter pictures taken. I wasn't too thrilled with the staff, but I wanted to try somewhere new. I have always taken him to the picture people and I think I may go back there next time.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Resurrection Sunday!!

Thanksgiving Trip

Well now that it is a week later I guess it is time I showed you some pictures of our little trip last week. Al had to work on Thanksgivng Day so rather than be at home alone, Sam and I went to my mom's in Charlotte on Wed. then after we had dinner with her on Thursday we headed to to the mountains to see my dad's family. Ever since I was born we always went to my Grandaddy's for Thanksgiving, so it was nice to be able to go again. Since I have been married things haven't been quite the same when it comes to holiday traditions, but I am sure you all know how that goes.

Here is my beautiful mother taking a small break from cooking.
It snowed Thursday night at at my dad's place! Very exciting!!
Here is Sam and his one and only cousin William
My dad playing pool at Aunt Marias (used to be grandaddy's house)
Brother George, Brother Thomas and new sister-in-law Sarah
Sister Grace and little William
Since all my dad's kids were in the same place for once in a very long time we decided to have an early surprise birthday party for him. He was very surprised and it was alot of fun getting ready for it.

When Sam grows up...

On Sat. when we were driving back from the mtns. Sam was telling me all about how his life was gonna be when he is "all growed up" as he puts it. He is going to marry a girl at our church, we will leave her unnamed for now and they are going to have 6 kids. They will have an all blue house, inside and out, everything except the furniture will be blue. Everyone in the family will share a room, all 6 kids and him and his wife, one great big room with a bunch of beds(your poor wife). He them tells me that his wife is gonna go to work at Taco Bell while he stays at home and cleans the house(again, your poor, poor wife). After a little lesson from myself he then decides that his wife can stay at home but he is going to find a job that is easy like taking peoples money at the store. He is going to take his kids to do fun stuff all the time like go to the fair and the circus and the go-cart place. They will eat popcorn and fruit roll-ups at the fair and ride all the rides. But some of the kids will have to just watch because there will only be enough room for one kid to ride with him. I thought it was so cute him thinking about all of this, but kind of scary at the same time. He adds a little more to the story everyday now as well.

Thanksgiving Program

Yesterday Sam had his first little program in school. His homeschool group did a program at church in the morningThey all dressed up as Indians and Pilgrims. Most of us moms got together and made their outfits. I was really proud of how Sam's turned out, it was my first sewing project ever completed. Much thanks goes to Kelly F and Kelly G for their assistance! My mom even came up to spend the day and watch Sam. Sam went back with her last night and I am headed to her house today. I will leave there tomorrow to head to my dad's where I will see all of my siblings and my little nephew. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Here is a latest picture of my little man. He is so funny when I try to take pictures of him, he trys to make all these different poses and faces. I know it has been forever since I blogged last, I haven't really been in the mood for it. But we are all doing well. School has been a little bumpy this past couple of weeks, so I will be gald for a little break next week. Sam and I are headed to my dad's in the mountains of NC on Wed. , we will be home on Sat. I am looking forward to seeing all of my siblings again, we haven't all been together in a long time. Today we are going on a field trip with the homeschool group to the Museum of Natural Sciences. We have been there probably a dozen times in the past 2 years, but I know Sam will enjoy being with his little buddies and I will definitely enjoy the fellowship with the other mom's. After the field trip we are going to work on our indian costumes for our kids thanksgiving program next week. This will be Sam's first program ever, I am so excited to watch him. We are also preparing for a Christmas one he has in Dec. I really do love the little homeschool group because it gives him the chance to do things that he would kind of miss out on if we didn't have it.

Fall Funtasia Slide Show!

Fall Funtasia

Today we had our big fall outing with our sending church, Calvary Baptist, at William B. Umstead State Park. The these was hillbilly, so everyone was dressed up in their hillbilly clothes, it was really quite funny. Al had to work so Sam and I went at it alone and got lost. We were an hour late, but that's ok, we made it. Sam had lots of fun playing with all the kids. There was fun little games and good food too. Although I am on a diet, I did have to splurge and have some dirt cake. I was good though, I took along my salad with grilled chicken and it was quite good too. Anyways, I am pooped from such a long day. Hope everyone has a wonderful Lord's Day!

It's our Anniversary!

Today we celebrated our 4 yr. anniversary. We had someone watch Sam and we went out to dinner at Outback, then we went to Lowe's, sounds like fun huh? You know you are getting old when going to home improvement stores has become good times. Anyways, we enjoyed getting out alone. Here are a few pictures Aunt Seece snapped before we headed out. Don't mind the one with Al's head chopped off, it was a good one of me so I had to include it.

Here is Sam watering the plants for me. These little monkey grass things we have out front have been planted for over a year now and still have not gotten any bigger, so I thought I would start watering them at least 3 times a week and we will see if that helps. Below are the pictures of the house with the newly painted shutters and front door. I couldn't find any good pics of before, so you will just have to imagine. The door was white and the shutters were black. Although, the blue isn't quite how I had hoped, it looks better than before.

I was going to post a few pictures of some school activities, but blogger will not let me today for some reason. Oh, well your not missing much, just Sam finger painting and riding on his 4-wheeler. We have been just busy busy busy around here! Al's mom came last weekend and we took Sam to Railroad Days in Slema, which was a big flop, I wouldn't waste your time going there next year. We had our monthly ladies mtg. tonight and we had a surprise birthday party for Kelly, the pastor's wife. We had alot of fun and I believe she was at least a little surprised!Anyways, I will let her post pictures of that one, so check out her blog (there is a link in my friends list, Kelly Greene). We are meeting up with her and Pastor and their kids bright and early to head to the fair for the day. Hopefully we can get school done after we get home, but if I know my son, he will be beat and will need a nap, and I probably will too. Oh, I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Sam is getting baptised. We are excited that he realized he needed to do this, he has been saved for over a year now and we decided to let him come to us and let us know when he was ready. It was evident that the Holy Spirit was dealing with him about it, so he has talked with Pastor and he will be baptised on the 21st of the month.
Well, it's late and 6:30 is going to come way too early. Have a nice weekend!

Marbles

On Sat we went to a new children's museum called, Marbles. They were having their grand opening and it was free all day and they had alot of cool things going on. So I decided to take Sam and let him play for a while. It was really a cute little place, all about using your imagination. Here are a few pictures of the adventures he had.

Goin' Fishin'
Ahoy Maties!!

Building a tower
Not too sure what this is but I thought it was cool

My Two Favorite Men

Aww, aren't they cute in their matching outfits!! I just couldn't resist yesterday when I was getting their clothes ready for church. We were finally feeling well enough to go to church last night and it sure was nice to be there. I am so thankful that we have such a loving church family. I feel so close to each and every one of them, that I hate even missing one service there. I am supposed to be going out of town tomorrow to visit my mom and some of her family, but I am thinking I will not go unless I start to feel alot better. I still have this horrible cough and my throat hurts. Oh,, I got my shutters and door painted finally, it looks so good! I will post a picture next week maybe after I get my flowers potted and everything looks complete. No, piano lesson today since Sam's teacher has got so much going on right now, so another day for me to work on my sewing I guess. School is still going very well, i am very impressed with how well his writing is improving. He is not struggling in any area really, I would have to say that writing is his worst subject(although it is his favorite), only because it is very sloppy, but that could be just because he is a boy. We are working on that though.