Treasure Island

Madison's finished pirate map.
Sydney's Pirate map.

We've been reading 'Treasure Island' and decided to make treasure maps. Sydney is staining the paper with a tea bag to give it an old look.

They also had to scrunch it up into a ball afew time to give it some more age.

1. Draw your map.

2. Scrunch map up into a ball a few times.

3. Stain with tea bags.

4. Put map in oven @ 325 for 5 min. or until map is dry.

5. Mom takes fire and burns the edges of the map.

Gotcha.....

It's another nice day down here in NC. The girls and I had our lunch out in the driveway on a blanket. The grass was too wet (rained Sunday). Then I went inside and they stayed out to read. I looked out the window and saw this. I had to grab a pic. They don't even know I took it. I snapped it right thru the glass of the window.

Don't you just love the tank top sundresses? We went to the store earlier and there are people in winter coats. They thought the people in winter coats looked dumb (dumb is what they said). It is 65 here.......I think they are crazy and so are the winter jacket people.

Carolina Blue

Look at that beautiful Carolina Blue Sky!!!! Did you notice those little buds on the tree? YES!!!! Spring is on it's way. I know we still have some cold days ahead....ugh. It's days like today that make us thankful we live in NC. It will be 60 today and we are beyond excited!!!! We are going to meet Tom for lunch at a park and walk the trail. Thank you Lord for this little glimmer of Spring in January.

Snow?????

Because we got these.......

We didn't get this.
I'm okay with it but the girls are sad.

The After

Mom this last picture is for you. This little orange dish has been in my Mom's house as long as I can remember. Now it is in my house. One big difference is she kept it in her Dining Room and now it's in my Master Bathroom.

I got the idea for this project from www.thriftydecorchick.com . Her blog is great. This was our first project and it was a lot of work. We almost took everything down because we didn't think it looked right. In the end we fell in love and may become molding junkies.

Happy New Year!!!!

How did we ring in the New Year you ask?

PAINTING!!!!!

I'll try to get finished pics up in the next day or two. We still have some painting to finish tomorrow. I'm beyond excited!!!! We are trying something(technique) out in this room that I've wanted to do for a little over a year. I had dreams of doing this in our old house. Now I get to do in my sweet little house.

Happy New Year !!!

Oh yeah!!!!!

Tom got a Snuggie!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas !!!

We were all ready for a visit from Santa. We gave him cheesecake with a choice of regular or soy milk. We've had a BIG breakfast and opend presents and are now watching the Disney Christmas Parade. Our 2nd round of Christmas will happen in a couple hours. We will have 15 total in our little house. YIKES! I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas time!

C is for Cookie...

Madi had a friend come over the other day. Hmmm what to do so that little sister doesn't get left out of the fun. We made cookies!!!! These are just some of the MANY cookies we baked. I think we've made about 9 different types. We keep a few at home and send the rest with Daddy to work.

It snowed for about 5 minutes here today (HIUGE flakes). We are watching the 1949 movie of 'Little Women' now and then it's on to Hot Chocolate and Ginger Bread Houses and Trees. Merry Christmas!!!!

Nativity Giveaway on Simple Mom — Live simply, stay sane. Life hacks for home managers.

Simple Mom — Live simply, stay sane. Life hacks for home managers.

Posted using ShareThis

A Little Weight Update

Here I am at the end of May. I started working out on June 1st.
This picture was taken back in March. I look like yuck.
Another one from March.
Madison took some new pics of me today.
From July of 2007 to November of 2008 I had lost 20 lbs. Then in June we joined the YMCA and I've lost 30 lbs. A grand total of 50 lbs. I couldn't find any pics from 50 lbs. ago. Who wants to get their pics taken? These before pics are all with the 30 lbs. still on me. I haven't lost anything in the last month. I started with a trainer last week and I hope to shed some more pounds. I won't give my weight but I will say I've gone from a size 20 to a 14.

Happy 12th Anniversary

What Is & Has Been Going On........

For our Homeschool co-op I helped with a quilt/art class. This quilt belongs to Madison. I had to help sew 16 quilts and yes it was CRAZY.

Our 12th Anniversary is on Nov. 29th. My sister took the girls this weekend. :) I made the Hubbie go see New Moon with me. If you haven't read the books they are great. Yes they are vampire books but there isn't really any blood sucking going on. It's a teen love story. Just give them a try.

For dinner we went to PF Changs and it was FANTASTIC!!!!!

I decided to take advantage of a kid free day and do some painting. A few of the room in our new house had a nasty Baby Powder Blue in them. I'm painting the last room with that color today. The new color is Olive Martini. I'll post pics when I'm done.

By Wednesday afternoon I have to have 8 of these made. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.

200th Post

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God

All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God

Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God
Chris Tomlin

This is also my 200th post. WOW!!!!!! I just might have to do something special for that. Make sure you leave a comment. The pictures are of my backyard. This is our first fall in this house and we just LOVE the trees and they are beyond beautiful right now. Happy Sunday Everyone!!!!!

Spooktacular

We had a busy and fun Halloween weekend. We went to the Regency Amphitheater and saw the movie Casper and had a great time. The girls even entered a contest and won most spooktacular and best costume. The place went all out with a haunted trail as you entered, haunted bathrooms and a ghost who would sail thru the sky during the movie. They even had guys dressed up as ghost busters (remember that movie) they danced up on stage to the song and then came running down into the crowd to save us all from the ghosts.
On Halloween night Thomas took the girls door to door to get the loot. They bring extra bags with them as they fill up their pumpkins. They have about 4 grocery bags full of candy. CRAZY!!!! They walked all over our subdivision and the one next to us. Baxter and I stayed home to hand out the treasured candy. Everyone had a great time. Just pray for me as I try to stay out of the candy.

Happy Halloween!

This is a jib jab thing that my niece-in-law made of my sisters and I. I'm the werewolf. Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Just go to sleep!!!!!

Sydi spent the weekend with my sister. The girls love going to her house TONS of fun and TONS of snacks. Sydi IS the Energizer Bunny all the way. My sister said she went crazy at 10:30 pm on saturday. This is a child who goes to bed at 8 pm every single day. For the last week she has had a little cough at night and we have given her cough medicine at night. I sent it with her just in case. My sister can't get her to calm down and then she remembers the medicine...... YEP! Syd was asleep in 10 min. LOL!!!!

Empty Nest

We are empty nesters this weekend. Madison is at camp and Sydney is at my sisters. We miss them but life is good! I'll be a happy and refreshed Mommy when they come home. "sigh" Happy Weekend!!!!

A Little Funny!

Prayer Request

This is my niece Laura and she was diagnosed with Skin Cancer about 2 months ago. She has started receiving interferon IV 5 times a week for a month. My sister is down in Florida with her right now to help with her adorable red haired little twin boys. Thank you for your prayers.