What a beautiful world we live in....

A picture IS MOST DEFINATELY worth a thousand words.....

The Appalachian Gray Fair!!!

We were able to go to the fair this year! We had to miss it last year, but this year, we got some friends to go with us! When Mark was little, his parents would get him out of school early on a Tuesday and they (along with several other friends) would head off to Gray, TN! They would usually stop at Pizza Inn in Elizabethton and eat before getting to the fair. This year, I thought it would be nice to do the same thing! We got to Pizza Inn around 5:30ish (maybe next year we'll go a little sooner!). We all ate LOTS and then off we went! There were 4 little boys total with us and 3 parents! (Dennis wasn't able to go with us(missed ya), but maybe next year we'll get him and a whole lot more people to go too!!). A really nice younger couple came up to us and asked us if we'd like the rest of their ride tickets...we had just purchased $20.00 worth (22 tickets) and were trying to figure out what 4 boys could ride for that.......they gave us an additional 23 tickets! That gave us 45 tickets total!! The Boys were able to ride 5 rides with those tickets! That was really nice!!!! Everything turned out GREAT!! The weather was GREAT and there weren't as many people there as in years past. It was a really good night!

Carrie & Joes' Reception & Tweetsie!!!

Yesterday was Carrie & Joes' Wedding Reception! It was Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! Everything was absolute perfection! Carrie really should be an event planner! She did all of the food and quite a bit of the "getting things ready" herself! More energy that I have, I tell ya! It really did turn out GREAT!!!! Here are a few of the pictures from the festivities!!

Terri getting some of the food together!

The Reception Hall at Roan Mountain State Park! REALLY something!!!

Beautiful flower arrangements!!!

This cake was to die for!!!! Really something to see!!!

The Bride & Groom cutting their cake!

Me, Carrie, & the boys!

Carrie restin' a bit while talking to Mark & Mackie!Terri, Juli, Carrie & Me! (we were all a bit under-dressed, don't you think???)

After the reception, Carrie and Joe traveled to Boone to spend a night there and do some site-seeing the next day! We popped up with a great idea to all go together to Tweetsie (Today) and they were up for it!!! After meeting them for lunch at Dos Amigos (REALLY GREAT MEXICAN), we all went to Tweetsie! Despite the rain that was falling in buckets when we got there, it soon stopped and we were able to get out of our cars and go into the park! Here are a few of THOSE pictures!!! Isn't this the cutest picture of them????

Mackie is looking at me through the bars in the chairlift!!!

All of us on Crestons favorite ride!! The Mouse Mine!!! Carrie & I decided to try the scrambler!!!

Carrie & Joe decided to try this thing!!! She's the one on top in the yellow sweatshirt!

All of us before we left!

It was a good day and I'm glad that we got to spend it with them! Nothing like taking your friends on your "Second Honeymoon" with you!!! We wish them MANY years of happiness to come!!!

Angel Food Ministries Shipment!

Mark stopped by to pick up our first ever shipment of Angel Food "Stuff" this morning on his way home from work!

I was pleasantly surprised! For only $30.00 you get all of the following:

(I forgot to include the lettuce and the pork and beans in the picture also!)

You get quite a bit of Meat and eggs and milk and veggies and some form of dessert! Can't beat that for the price!!! We purchased 2 boxes (only 1 box worth of food is in the pictures) so we'll have plenty to last us this month! For around $60.00, you can pretty much feed your family of 4 for a month! There are other things that you'll have to pick up to supplement, but if you're like us, we were used to spending around $250.00 each month for groceries! This will help out tremendously! Check it out at: www.angelfoodministries.com It really is worth the money!

GREAT Deals at K-Mart!!!

O.k......Here's the deal...

I've taken up clipping coupons......something I have done periodically over the last few years in an "Effort" to save some money. I've always clipped for about a month or so, become aggravated about how I'm not really saving anything since I had NO CLUE as to what I was doing....and then would let my coupons go to waste ~ along with the $ for the papers!!! (Mark REALLY loved that part of it all!).

So.......much to his joy, I recently decided that I would take this up once again...being a 1 paycheck family leaves a lot to be desired in the budget for groceries and such, so I figured that I would once again try to make this work!!

I decided to peruse the blogosphere to find some inspirational people who get good deals every day and try to mimic what they do to get our own good deals!!! I found several Blogs (some are listed in my side bar) who specialize in certain stores in our area and who post and list all of the "deals" pretty much every week! I started to study what they were doing, and found that I was in the Midst of a Harris Teeter Triple Coupon event!!! I discussed this with a friend of mine and together, we attacked HT! Coupons in hand and Children not in tow, we plodded through HT and eyeballed every deal we had on our Master List! (Blogs will list deals for items that are FREE or just under a dollar!) If you stick to your Freebies and stuff under a dollar then you can really clean up! The trick is to get as many things for free that you have coupons for! That way, you can stock up on staples like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, razors, ect. for FREE!! Things that you would be using anyway......but due to the deals, you won't have to pay full price for them again any time soon!!!

I didn't take pictures of my HT deals, but I got quite a few things for small change!!! (HT is doing another Super Doubles Event Starting 8/26-9/1!!!)

Just a few days after doing the HT thing, I saw where K-Mart was doing a Doubles Event up to $2.00! Our local store doesn't participate in those deals, though, unless you can bring in a flyer from a store that IS participating. I called the Boone K-Mart, found out that I could bring in a copy of the Johnson City Flyer from my computer, and proceeed to make another Master Shopping List for my next "Deal" adventure!!! Below is what I purchased! My total before taking off the coupons was $77.05. I walked out of the store only paying $5.27!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoooo Hoooooo!!!!! I was hooked!!! MARK looked at me and said "Why haven't you been doing this all along???" (I wanted to smack him!! :o) )

So......I loaded up again, and off I went a second time into the BEAUTIFUL K-Mart!!! THIS time, My total before Coupons was $102.68! I left only paying $5.40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it????? That's what I thought before going, but I'm a real believer in coupons now!!! This is the thing.......if you want to do this, then you need to start getting the newspapers that have the coupons in them........our local paper is starting to carry the Smart Source coupons on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have to get a Charlotte or Winston-Salem or Ashville paper on Sundays to get the other coupons. Johnson City puts theirs out on Wednesdays. Elizabethton puts theirs out on Sundays.

You've got to decide if you want to clip every coupon (I do this because I want to SEE everything in their categories) and take the time to do this when you get your coupons. If you don't do it then, then they will back up on you and you'll give up! You need to get several small (canceled check) file organizers OR....I just updated mine last night.......a binder notebook and several packs of Baseball Playing card sheet protectors! The ones with 9-12 holders in them so you can put the individual coupons in there to see easier!!

You also need to get online and find several sources to get "Master Lists" for the stores that you normally shop at. You can do this by typing in "Haris Teeter(whatever store you want to find out about), coupons, Blog" into your Google search bar.......It might even be good to list the month or date that you're looking for so you'll get current deals!

These blogs will also (very often) give links to online coupons that you can print right then and there in order to get the GREAT deals that are available currently!!!

It does take a bit of time at first to get used to everything, but once you know your way around the coupons, and the sites, and the stores and their coupon promotions, it'll get easier and take MUCH less time!!! :o)

If I know that I can get all of our non-perishables for free or for NEXT to free and that we won't have to pay full price again for a while (hopefully), then it's worth the x-tra time to get it all organized!!! :o)

I'm excited!!! K-Mart will be doing another Doubles up to $2.00 starting on 8/30 or 8/31! I'm getting ready for that one again! We'll never have to buy a lot of things again if I can keep this up! ((I'm not bragging.....I'm just really excited that I was able to figure this out!!! I'm proud of me!!!!!))

So............all you inspired people out there, go out and GET YOUR GREAT DEALS TOOO!!!!!

Introducing Willie!!!

Here is the newest addition to our family!!!

WILLIE!!!!!!!

Isn't he the cutest? He found his way to our area of the world and adopted Mack & Dorothy. He divides his time between their house and ours, so I consider him a 2-family doggie! He's still got a lot of puppy in him, and has been slow to let any of us touch him, but Mack finally was able to the other day! Hopefully, we'll all be able to show him that we won't hurt him and that he's safe with us!!!! :o)

Sunday Fun, and Aggravation!!!

Today started out well.....I got up when Mark did and stayed up after he left at 6:15am. Creston had spent the night with Nana & Paw-Paw last night, so I only had Mackie to get ready for church. We got ready (after realizing that one of Macks black boots had been carried off by the new stray puppy!!!!) and got to church in time for Sunday School. Mackie became extreemly restless during SS, so we went outside before church started. During the service, Mack was almost unbearable! Bless his little stinkin' heart!!! Lordy Mercy!! I really wondered if anyone in the sanctuary would mind if I just popped his little booty right there without leaving the room! He was fussing and screaming and hitting (me & Nana & Creston) and just generally being a nightmare! He ALWAYS does this to me when Mark is not there! Mark swears that it's because Mack KNOWS that Mark won't stand for that type of behavior, but I don't WANT to stand for it either! I correct them when they do wrong, and I'll put Mackie in his Crib to mull things over a bit before getting him back out again.....I explain why they have been punished and have even adopted a deeper voice when they need discipline! Nothing works! I'm just destined to lose my mind slowly.....little by little!!! Pray for my brain!!!



Well.....I had decided before Church that AFTERWARDS, we would go to the park and have a picnic and I'd let the boys play! I was ready to ditch that idea, but decided that maybe they just needed to release some energy, so off we went. They did calm down, and had quite a bit of fun! They decided that the slide in the picture below was their absolute favorite!!! Mackie complied when I asked him to say "Cheese"!
This is the first time that Creston has been big enough to climb this ladder! He LOVES anything that could possibly resemble anything Fire-related, so this was his Fire Ladder!!!

My fellers on one of the Bridges. I liked the barn with the quilt block in the upper part, but it dodn't show up as well as I had hoped it would.

And.....Playing in the creek!!! They LOVED this too! It was HOT today, and Mackie got in with his shoes on and I decided that it was perfectly FINE since they were no longer fighting with each other!

We had a good time, but once in the car, it all started again....the touching, the yelling, the smacking, the "Moooooooommmmmmmmmm"!!! AAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Will it ever end?????? I ask myself this alot here lately. Then I remind myself how horrible a person I am since I obviously do NOT appreciate the gift that God gave me of these two little men. It's not that I don't appreciate them or love them to pieces, it's just that after a certain period of time, when all you've heard is screaming and yelling and fighting mixed in with a chorus of "Mom!!!" and "WHY???" and "How 'bout.....", you kinda start to feel as though you're loosing it! Really......

Mark doesn't understand this......................he's not with them like I am. It's funny to try to explain to him why I resemble Attila the Hun every time he comes home from work. "New look, baby! Does it work for you????" I HONESTLY just need to have QUIET sometimes. Some time to myself that does NOT involve little people pushing stuff under the bathroom door at me, or hearing the light taps at the door followed by "Mommy????? When are you coming out?? Daddy said to come out now....." My ears actually pondered leaving me this last week.......they knocked on my brain and said "Hey! Buddy!! What's the DEAL with all the racket???? We're not geared for decibles like that! That's not in our contract! Cut the noise, or we're taking a hike!!"

It's a SAD day, when a grown woman looks at her 2 year old and BEGS for him to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, "If you love mommy" CALM DOWN!!!!!!!!! Followed by a impish grin and MORE noise! My mom used to tell me that she was going to give me to the Garbage Man if I didn't straighten up. I fully understand the reasoning behind that now.

So..........how do rational adults get through this phase of life with their sanity and ears intact??? I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure what route to take......with Mark's schedule, he really can't take them off my hands too often, and what would I do if he did? I just want to SLEEP for about 48 hours straight! He couldn't keep them quiet for that length of time........and if he can, then I'LL take up the Firefighting and he can stay at home, cause that's a talent he could bottle and sell! I tell ya!! Shew! Makes my ears ring just thinking about the noise! Both little sweetie-pies are currently sleeping, but mark my words, the second this typing stops and the lights go out so I can go to sleep, Mack will be rolling around and hollering something at me...........like clockwork! Who needs an alarm clock when you've got your very own Mackie!!!

Oh me.............I needed to vent, and I suppose that I now have....Please don't get me wrong, I ABSOLUTELY Adore my kids, love them as much as anyone could love their children.....I just need a reprieve! Some quiet time for my ears to heal! A few precious moments in my day to relax and unwind without the pitter-patter of those little boy feet roaming towards me at alarmingly increasing speeds until "POW!!!" Mommy's out cold again!!

Did I mention that I found out tonight that Rice can't be swept up........it must be vaccumed up........AND.....while I was getting the rice out of the floor (beneath his highchair), Mack decided to drip drop his milk onto my head and then took his hand and rubbed it in.........THAT was when I realized what he had done........I don't smell good now........I don't care..........I'm just tired and want to go to sleep which is what I'm going to go and do...........until Mack wakes me up again! Ready for the next battle!

Till next time!!!

Mom's Day Out!!!

Me and two of my gal-pals got together today for some much-needed Moms away from the kids time! We went to see the Time Traveler's Wife.....really good movie........sooooooo emotional.....you'll need TONS of tissues (which NONE of us had!!) (go here to watch it!!!)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUDlMBR-dQ

After that, we went to Cici's Pizza and pigged out!!!!! It was sooooooo good! I LOVE their salad and Cheese sticks with the Alfredo/Marinara Sauce!!! Yummy!!!!! Then Michelle had to go to a family get-together, so Paulette and I ventured out to Harris Teeter to see how good we could do with the Triple Coupons promo. going on at the moment!! I think we did VERY well!!! VERY WELL!!! It was a good day with good friends! It's good for us to be able to get out and away from the house and kids for a bit.....we love 'em, but sometimes we just need a little change of scenery for a few hours. It was a good time! Thanks, girls!!!

Wally & Creston

Here they are again......Creston sleeping while Wally lies inside his "you can't get away from me, CAT!!" grip! Creston absolutely LOVES this cat!

Thankful Thursday!

I think I will start listing 5 things that I am thankful for on Thursdays....I thought that this was very inventive of me since I didn't want to do a "Wordless Wednesday" like everyone else does, and when I googled Thankful Thursday.....found out that everyone does that too!!! Oh well!! (At least I came up with it BEFORE checking to see if there was such a thing!!) :o)

Some of the things that I am so very THANKFUL for:

1. A loving and caring God that sees to our every need even when we don't deserve it. I could NEVER begin to understand how someone could love me so very much, but he does. Are we sooo lucky or what???
2. My health and the health of my family
3. Good friendships that I have had for forever and also good friendships that are newly forming!
4. My two little boys, and their never ending energy.....we are lucky to have such healthy and exuberant children! I complain a lot that they keep US hopping, but I AM very thankful that THEY can hop!
5. The Sunshine! It is such a pretty day here today! We've not had a very "HOT" summer so far, and the garden has been suffering for it, but today is PERFECT! For that, I am Thankful!

Carrie & Joes' Wedding Day!!!

Carrie Ann VanDyke and Joseph Chiply Harrison

were married this afternoon in Las Vegas, Nevada. Congratulations, Carrie & Joe!!!

We all hope that you two have MANY happy years together!!!!! Congratulations!!!