The Hoffman's

Reagan turn's 3!

2012-01-14T21:21:00.000-05:00

Reagan at 12 hours old

1 year! After the Aquarium

2....reading a Pooh book!

My baby is 3!

Her 3 year old picture is not one that I would have wanted but it pretty much sums up our little miracle's personality. She gets her giggly self from Adam but everything else is pure me. We are in so much trouble.

Year of Change---an update!

2012-01-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

Ok so to update a bit...how am I doing with the things I want to change? Well I have grown my hair back out. Sorta. The more it grew out some the worse it looked so I decided to go back to my other haircut but changed up a bit. It's more tapered in the back and right now I am STILL (yes 6 months later) growing out the front and sides. It's almost there though. Clothing? I am doing fairly well not wearing cardigans with everything :-) I bought another pair of skinny jeans, and I am almost to a point where I am comfy tucking my pants into my boots. I am buying more of the slim style pants because if I wear it with the right top (not a tight fitting one) they actually look very nice. Pinterest has really helped with this :-)

Using my dslr??? It comes and goes. I practice quite a bit, taking random pictures and this Christmas I feel like I did that a lot. However, there are just some moments though that I can't bear to have bad pics of because I'm not proficient yet. I have found more things to sew. Not necessarily clothing, but little things, here and there. I can't wait to make the girls some Easter shirts! I've got to get my list going of the things I'm wanting to sew!

Forgiveness. Ahhhh the hardest one of all. To be forgiven you must forgive. So I have made efforts internally to do that. However, what I can't bring myself to do is put myself in those situations again. The way I see it, I do my part for the relationship and am cordial. By cordial I mean, being polite and speaking when I am spoken too. Adam is so much better at it than I am. We had already decided some things to not include those in because of the drama they ensue but at the last minute I had to bend and agree with him. It wasn't easy, but God and Adam knew how much those actions pushed me. I don't know what will happen this coming year, probably nothing but only time will tell.

Spiritually? Well I have begun my Heart Like David's, and we are starting prayer time at bed time for the girls. We'll see how that goes.

Oh the weight loss...well I started the 21 day cleanse and lost 7 pounds. Woop woop, not quite halfway to my goal! Then I tried to get back on it in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and it just never happened. I have been too scared to look, but the last I checked I had only gained about a pound or two left. I'm guessing that now that the b-days are over (SHEW) I can get back to that. I am also trying to find a time to do walking. I'm thinking that 5 am mornings are in my future.

Off the top of my head those are things that I could remember. I will update again in a month or so and see how much more progress I've made :-)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-13T01:56:00.001-05:00

So to briefly recap this past Christmas I'm going to use photos....this past season I decided that I was going to take a picture a day. I didn't exactly do that but I did manage to have 25 different pictures that represented this Christmas season for us. So to recap our 'schedule' of what we did and where we went...we started out with the Christmas tree coloring and the Walk Through Bethlehem. Then we moved towards the salt dough ornaments and going to Stone Mountain for a day. We had our Christmas dinner and opened stockings early because we headed up to East Tennessee for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was pretty nice! For the first time we went to Fantasy in Lights which is held at Bristol Motor Speedway and went to the Christmas Eve service at my home church. We saw family, friends, and had a wonderful time visiting everyone!!

Enjoy the pictures :-)

Christmas Crafts

2012-01-12T01:53:00.000-05:00

WOW.....we're coming up on mid January and there have been no posts about Christmas! With two birthdays a couple weeks after Christmas it gets a little crazy here from Thanksgiving until after MLK in January.

Anyways, I digress. During the holiday season I decided that I wanted to do some crafty type things with the girls. I didn't do as much as I wanted. I wanted to bake with them, but I didn't get a chance to :-( Anyways, we made some Christmas trees for the grandparents and then they made salt dough ornaments for us to have at the house....here are some pics--enjoy! The tree was a simple triangle that Reagan colored the green for the tree and Kathryn did the star and ornaments. The salt dough ornaments I found using pinterest and I halved the recipe, but I still had to add more flour to get the the dough the consistency that it needed to be.

Opryland Hotel

2011-12-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

So one of my favorite places in Nashville is The Opryland Hotel. It's so pretty! If you've never been there to walk around, you have GOT to go! Especially to stay there--so nice and wonderful :-) We got to stay there a couple years ago when they ran their anniversary special, alas no more...We hope to go back this summer after our last wedding in Louisville. Anyways, on our way out of Nashville for Thanksgiving we decided to stop there and look at all the pretty lights and decorations. We love walking around there and taking it all in. It was the first time the girls had been. Kathryn was a tad overwhelmed, Reagan loved anything and everything that she saw!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-15T01:48:00.001-05:00

Well we went up to Springfield for Thanksgiving---we love having Thanksgiving there! We drove up Tuesday night spent the rest of the week there, and came back Saturday. Below are some highlights from the day. The girls outside Nannie's house, Kathryn watching the parade, and Reagan playing outside in the bushes!

They had cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents to play with---they had a ball! From bbq to Black Friday shopping, we had a blast and can't wait until we all get together again!

Christmas Schedule

2011-12-02T22:12:00.003-05:00

Ok, so this isn't exactly a schedule per say but it's just kind of how we do things and when at our house...Christmas is one of our favorite times of the year and it's easy to get carried away with things. Plus who doesn't love Christmas music and movies? We don't watch them year round (except the occasional Veggietales) so below are kind of what we do. However, this is not a list of what we believe or why we do things the way we do...just how a teaching mama makes the most of a holiday season without going crazy!

We set aside money every month for gifts. It goes for Christmas and the girls' birthday gifts. We can access it at any time during the year, but we don't ever except for Kat's birthday presents
No Christmas music or movies until November 1. We don't watch/listen to them year round because then it's not special. The date used to be December 1 but after kids and everything else, it just gets hectic!
We put our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving. That's all we do, well we decorate it too but we get it up before Thanksgiving.
I refuse to step into Toys R Us after Thanksgiving. Therefore, every present for the girls and my nephew is done by the time Black Friday rolls around. If possible I'll get Reagan's b-day present too, if not I'll pick something up during December.
I stalk the websites and ads for leaks of Black Friday ads. I know exactly what I'm getting and where. I do not deviate, I don't go out to get the crazy cheap deals or go crazy on people but I go to get what I need and at the good prices. It's always kind of worked out where I'll go out with my mom in the morning then we'll meet my dad, Adam, and girls for lunch. Then Adam and I will head to Target to get the main bulk of what we need.
I have a holiday binder, and in the Christmas section I have a plastic page protector for all receipts, another one for copies of my ads, and so on. I have an inventory list of what we need and the master gift list where the prices I paid the budgeted amount is there.
We come home from TN on Saturday and Sunday is always spent decorating the house and Monday night we wrap as many of the gifts as we can.
I don't normally do Cyber Monday things because I'm not a huge fan of online shopping. Mainly because I find myself going crazier with shopping stuff because there is no visual in front of me. However, now that more and more places are accepting paypal it makes it much easier since it comes straight out of my checking account.
The rest of the holiday is spent baking, spending time with family, taking pics, etc....I plan everything like I do above so I can sit back and enjoy the Christmas season.
Oh, one more thing. If we go out of town for Christmas, we ALWAYS have a Christmas dinner here with the family. When it was just Adam and I, we would open gifts; we won't do that now, but we might do stockings and Adam and I exchange gifts or something. We want to make sure that some things we do, we do regardless whether we are in GA or East TN for the holiday.

Hope this helps and have fun planning your holiday season!! All of my printables come from www.christmas.organizedhome.com :-)

Pumpkin Flowers

2011-11-30T22:05:00.003-05:00

Love this!! Saw the idea on pinterest and knew it was something I could do! I thought it looked very classy and country chic :-) The pumpkin didn't start to go bad for a week or two. I already know I want to do it again next year!

Family Photos

2011-11-22T22:15:00.001-05:00

So while we were in the mountains a couple months ago, a friend came out and took some family photos of us at the Apple Barn. It was more of an extended family photo session but I just put the pics of our family on the page. There was a better one of Reagan, but the photo uploader kept saying that it was too big...Anyways, if you are getting Christmas cards from us then please ignore all photos :-) All photos by Leverton Photography

Turkey Shirt

2011-11-20T22:04:00.000-05:00

So I saw this picture on pinterest and KNEW I could do it! I got my fabric and ribbon together and appliqued the turkey on there. It's simple enough that I can do it again next year so I'll know what to improve....such as making the entire turkey bigger and finding a better way to get the ribbon to the turkey and shirt. I've done more pinterest things but I need to get on the ball posting them!

I said say cheese and this is her response.

Sweet Kat

Halloween

2011-11-14T20:09:00.001-05:00

Here are some pics of the girl's dressed up. We ended up not going out because Reagan was sick. Maybe next year! And yes, those dresses are the ones I made based off of a pattern I found on Pinterest!

Why, yes we did have a Pooh pumpkin

The girl's

CATR Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-12T20:08:00.000-05:00

So we had been trying to figure out where to go for a pumpkin patch and we knew right away that the place where we would get our pumpkin's was Church at the Ridge's pumpkin patch! That is the church we used to attend and we still have many friends there. So we packed up one Saturday and drove over there. Reagan LOVED it! She went moving pumpkins from one place to another. When we left I had her go back and put them back because they were separated out by price :-)

I love fall, pumpkin patches are my second favorite thing after Thanksgiving. I tried to get some pics of them but to say they weren't cooperative is an understatement! Here are some pics of the day, I hope you enjoy them!


This is what they did when I said 'SMILE'

Chattanooga Fun

2011-11-07T03:18:00.001-05:00

pretty flowers

So last Thursday (which was really 10/20) I was sitting at home minding my own business when I got a phone call from my parents. It had been about a month and half since they had seen the girls and they weren't going to see them again until Thanksgiving. They wanted to know if we could meet in Chattanooga for a night. It all worked out where we could meet so the girls and I rode up there and we were able to go to a Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze. It was a lot of fun--I don't know that we'll go back to that one but it was a fun experience. I've actually never been to a corn maze before (I know--right?? East Tn girl has never been to one????) Anyways, so as we finished one thing my parents kept trying to prolong the inevitable so I just threw out there....did they want to just take the girls back with them when they left? Well after a brief frenzy in working some details out the girls ended up going to their grandparents for the week!

They love it there and my parents love having them--what makes it all even better is that they get to spend the end of the week with their Mimi and Poppy!! I am so hoping that it all works out and we can move back there, but that is another post in and of itself :-) Praying for God's guidance in all this but oh if everything worked out how perfect it would be!

The girls, with Gran and Granddaddy

they look so happy

loves to swing!

mischievous

The barn

Edit Post(s)

2011-11-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is actually the title of this blog :-) As I went to check an update of a friends' blog, I saw that my last one was the 23rd.....that can't be right, I've written quite a few! Oh wait, I didn't finish them! So there are approximately 3-4 posts that have been sitting in my draft pile so I'll posting one of them now and I'll finish the others today and probably set them up to post later on so you're not slammed with updates. I think I might actually post how we shop for Christmas gifts...sounds crazy I know but it will make sense once I explain it all :-)

Also, I'm in need of a recipe to post, what to choose, what to choose......

Celebrating Halloween

2011-10-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

So as some of you may remember, we celebrate holidays a little differently down here :-) I just wanted to share with you all what we do for Halloween...I have to admit that when I was little I didn't really get the point of the holiday. I mean it was fun and we would dress up but it was never these ornate costumes you see people with now. I would go trick or treating in my neighborhood then come home, hang out, and go to bed. I never went trick or treating after the age of 11.

Fast forward 10 years and I'm teaching. Imagine 180 students all hyped up on sugar and caffeine from the candy on November 1st. You know what? I haven't worked a November 1st since 2006. Anyways, I digress. So when we found out we were pregnant with Reagan we started thinking about all these things differently...

So how do we as Christians celebrate a holiday that seemingly is bound with Pagan roots? There are two schools of thought on this one....one is that we should ignore it completely and pretend it doesn't exist. The other says that it's no harm no foul so go ahead and celebrate. Well neither of those worked for us. You can't just ignore a holiday. That's like sticking your head in the sand. Seriously! However, we didn't want to celebrate a holiday that we weren't 100% comfortable with. So if we are at home we will hand out candy. Nothing to crazy though :-) We don't decorate the house at all, except for some pumpkins. We are not taking the girls around house to house....that's another blog post in and of itself that has nothing to do with the holiday. Anyways, our plans are to go to some kind of trunk or treat. Costumes? Well we've never done one before and while I'm not crazy about it you can't exactly take kids dressed normally to a trunk or treat! So I made the girls some candycorn dresses so I'm going to play around with some face paint (heaven help us) and they'll go as candy corn.

So I may not have answered very much or explained things but I tried. We're just not comfortable going all out and celebrating holiday's that have so many dark things associated with it. Maybe when our kids are older we can differentiate more between them but that's light years away (I hope).

Please feel free to comment anything you may want to say, but just know that I would never try and change your mind about something you felt strongly about so please don't be rude in comments below.

Happy Halloween!

Rice Krispie Pumpkins

2011-10-21T22:24:00.002-04:00

These were SO much fun to do! When I saw these I knew it was something my girls and nephew could do! I have the recipe memorized from cooking with the kiddos at school so much so all I needed to do was add some food coloring. I made mine with a 2 year old and a 3 year old. So obviously they turned out a bit different than the original; but we had fun and that was all that matters. It was also good for Adam to watch because I had him take pictures the whole time and he said he couldn't believe how calm I was when they would do things that little kids would do. I've seen it all with cooking and kids!! Here are some pics of ours and the original.

The original

These are how ours turned out...quite a bit different but still good :-)

Remember all credit for the idea goes to the original poster :-)

Rice Krispie Treats

melt 1 1/2 tbsp of butter, then add two cups of marshmellows on medium low heat. After those have melted turn the stove off, add three cups of rice krispies and mix together thoroughly. Place in a pan and let set while you clean up. Enjoy your treats!

The National Park

2011-10-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

On our last day in the mountains, we decided that we wanted to drive through the mountains on our way out and eat a late breakfast in Gatlinburg. So that's what we did! We went to the Log Cabin and the girl's LOVED it!! Then we went through the mountains, Maryville, Lenoir City, among others.

The only place we didn't hit up this time was our old stomping ground of UT. Maybe next time :-)

S'mores!!

2011-10-19T21:27:00.001-04:00

So what does any trip to the mountains need? Why s'mores of course! When we went to the store I got the items needed to make s'mores, I don't know who was more excited-me or the kids! Well our fireplace ended up being a gas fireplace so we couldn't do it there, so we fired up the charcoal grill and made smores there. The kiddos did GREAT and so did the adults! It was the perfect way to spend our last night in the mountains. I will say that all it accomplished was make us all want to go back! Enjoy!

How can you not love this face?

Reagan preparing her first smore

The Old Mill

2011-10-11T20:16:00.000-04:00

Sooooooo on the last full day that we were there Adam and I decided to go out without the girls. Their grandparents 'took one for the team' ;-) and babysat for us! I was so stinkin' excited because do you know where our first stop was??? The Scrapbook Warehouse :-) Oh yeah! So I went in there and Adam said he was just going to go down to Vanity Fair and look around. So I bought 6 transparencies pages, 2 packages of fall cut out pages, 2 containers of ribbon, and 3 containers of felt/foam objects (to be put together for flowers or the like). I paid $38. For those of you that don't scrapbook that is a VERY good deal! Everything in the store is priced at about 40% or so down from what you would pay in your regular store. Then automatically everything is 50% off of that. So it says $8.99 you will be charged $4.50 for it :-) I was thrilled....so then I called Adam and said I was finished and what do I hear but 'They have khakis for $9 here...' so I met him in the store and we got Adam about 5 pairs of khakis, some shorts, and underwear all for $50. I wish I could get that many pants for $50!!

We stopped by the Titanic Museum (a must!). I won't go into detail because it's something that you should definitely try if you ever have the chance! Then we went to the wonderful, beautiful, Christmas Place. We got SO much stuff there! That is actually not an outlet....it's a store (a rather massive one at that) that sells Christmas things all the time. I got my annual ornament and got Reagan's as well. The big thing I got this time was the Shepard and animals set for my Willow Creek Nativity Set :-) It was at this point that we met up with Adam's sister and her husband! So we shopped there for a bit, and then Adam and I had decided that we wanted to try The Old Mill....we had never eaten there but heard great things about it so we went and his sis and bro in law decided to join us. WOW is all I can say about the food. It was great! Definitely a place that I want to return to :-) There were all kinds of neat little shops associated with it and you could go down to the bottom of the hill by the water and take pictures. So everyone else shopped and looked around---I took pictures! We made one last stop to Carter's where I got the girls some stuff for the spring and we went back to the cabin.

The Christmas Shoppe

The Old Mill

Betsy and Adam in front of the mill

Titanic Museum

Part 2 of this day will be tomorrow because what do you think we did that night? What every good 'camper' does.....made s'mores!!!

Cades Cove

2011-10-10T21:22:00.001-04:00

So on Day 2 of our trip to the mountains, we decided that we wanted to take the girls into Cades Cove. It was just the four of us, and we got up early, got dressed and packed lunch stuff for us to eat in the park. About 10 minutes down the road Kat fell asleep....Reagan was busy watching her movies in the car and Adam and just chit-chatted and enjoyed the view. Cades Cove is a definite must if you are in the National Park area...however, just a 'warning'...it's a loop. Meaning that once you get started there are only two 'shortcuts' to take to make it quicker. If you go in the next week or so, what is generally a 3-4 hour excursion (if that) can take F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

Adam was listening to the Titans game so I would get out at the different stops and Reagan would generally get out with me. Kat=still asleep. Reagan would put on the Reagan show and we would just go about our business. When we got to the visitor center and old mill area we all got out and walked around, visited the gift shop, and had our little picnic lunch.

The weather was perfect!!! It was cool enough that we wore long sleeves and we got pretty warm, but it was far from hot. Perfect fall weather. After we did that we went on back to the cabin and after dinner that night I made rice krispie treats that are supposed to look like pumpkins. Of course they didn't, but I'll more pics of that later when I do my comparison to the pinterest page :-) Enjoy these pics from Cades Cove!

So cute, but I was prepared to run for it if Mama Bear came upon us!


Frontier Cabin and the view

The Corn Mill

The Methodist Church

The Great Smoky Mountains

2011-10-09T17:20:00.000-04:00

So this time last year all of Adam's family decided they wanted to have the family reunion in the mountains. Works for us :-) We love it there, it's close, and the views no matter the time of year are always gorgeous! Well once we all got started making reservations the extended family started backing out. So the immediate family got together decided on a time that works for us and decided we were still going to go. The last weekend in September worked for everyone so away we went! The cabin was so nice and it was so peaceful!! It was the perfect ending to a whirlwind 6 weeks. So the next couple of posts are going to highlight what all we did while there...The only thing I didn't get to do was Laurel Falls. I'm beginning to think that God doesn't want me to go---I've been trying to go there for 3 years now :-)

So Day 1 consisted of pictures with Leverton Photography at the Apple Barn...our all time favorite place to eat! After that we went shopping at the outlets *woop woop*, went grocery shopping, and then hung out for the evening in the cabin...here are some pics of our fun! Oh I should also add that we celebrated our nephew's b-day while there, I'll post pics of that too :-)

All decorated for fall


The one and only Apple Barn

3 Cousins at play

Happy Birthday Parker!!

Oven Cleaner

2011-09-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

So here is another pinterest find for you....it's been about three years since I cleaned the inside of my oven. Don't judge. Pretty please! We don't have a self cleaning one, and it was so stinking difficult to clean it the last time it just got away from me. Well the more I searched on pinterest for other things I got the idea 'why don't I see if someone has it on here?' So I did; and found this:

1tbsp borax
1/2 cup vinegar
1/8 cup dish soap
1 cup boiling water

The only ingredient not listed is the baking soda. All you do is sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda all over your oven. Combine the ingredients above and spray liberally all over the oven and baking soda. Let sit overnight, then wipe clean. That's it. It's extremely easy and simple. All I did was wipe it all up, then took a wet rag and finished it up. I will be using this over and over again!

Here is a picture of my ingredients:

Remember, that you can find this on my pinterest page, all credit goes to the original poster!

Year of Change

2011-09-13T21:06:00.001-04:00

So I turned 29 a couple weeks ago. Over the past couple months there have been some things I've wanted to try, do, but basically it was things I wanted to change. Someone I went to high school with decided she was going to do 30 new/different things before she was 30; I didn't really want to do that for my 29th year. But as it happens on my birthday I got my hair cut, and ended up getting it cut off.

The next few days I went to the mall and wanted to get some jeans for my cowboy boots. Skinny jeans it is. Crazy right? So I decided that I wanted to try things different this year. Branch out. Do things that I swore I would never do (hello skinny jeans!). So as I commented to someone about it they coined the phrase 'year of change'.

What do I want to change? Well here is a quick list of things I want to change/have changed:

Physically

Cut my hair
Branch out more with my clothing
Lose about 20 pounds
Add walking to my routine every/every other day

Spirtually

Do a better job of doing quiet time for the girls
Get involed in a small group
Complete Beth Moore's 'Heart Like David' Bible Study

Emotionally

Forgive. God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. My question is this, I also believe in 'hurt me once shame on you, hurt me twice shame on me'. If I forgive but distance myself, am I loving my neighbor? I may be able to move on but that doesn't mean I forget. I am literally at a crossroads on this one

Creatively

I miss sewing, so I would like to sew more--especially things for the girls.
Utilize more of what my DSLR camera can do

So that is my list so far. I may add to it, I may delete from it, but those are the starting point.

Walking is my big step for now.

Notice I did not say 'drink less diet coke' ;-)

Pesto

2011-09-12T13:00:00.001-04:00

We love pesto at our house. It's so dang expensive though!! When reading Southern Living there were recipes in there for all kinds of pesto. When I saw the basil pesto, my heart skipped a beat! I finally got around to making it and it was so easy!! A jar that has probably half that much, maybe even just a third and is anywhere from $3-$3.50. I didn't have to spend that much on the ingredients, we already had olive oil, parm cheese, garlic, and lemon juice. I probably spent around $4 on the rest and it will make that recipe 4 times. Not to shabby :-)

Here is the recipe:
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 cup grated parm cheese
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
3 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

*recipe from Southern Living*

2011-09-08T20:23:00.002-04:00

Sooooooo I discovered pinterest this summer and I LOVE it! I like all the different ideas it gives me for different things. Not just crafty stuff, but clothing and such as well. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out a photo challenge for me to do but I do think I am going to add a pinterest label to my posts. I've done some things but there are soooooooo many more I want to do! Below is a picture of a ribbon wreath that I wanted to make for Kat's birthday party.


Pinterest Inspiration

Here is the one that I made, I already know what I would do differently the next time (think wider ribbon); I also know that I would want the diameter of the wreath to be thicker as well...I am happy with the results though :-)


The Hoffman Version

It is now hanging in Kat's room!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

2011-08-31T21:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet Kathryn! I can't believe she's a year old, makes me excited for the upcoming year but sad at the same time :-( I am having baby withdrawal majorly!

Her birthday party is this upcoming weekend, but we had a small little thing at our house with a little cake, and opening her nightly gifts.

We'll post more soon :-)

Couponing 103

2011-08-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

Ok, so here are some things to help along with the couponing and to help you run your home :-) I guess this could also be a 'Household Notebook: part 2' since it has to do with lists and printables. Both items I have in my notebook! These are things I do and I believe they work quite well---you be the judge for your home though, everyone's home is different!

Lists. I *heart* lists. That's all there is too it. There's not greater feeling of accomplishment than checking off something that was on your list! So here is another little thing to help you along with your couponing/shopping journey.

Organized Home is a wonderful website that is full of organizational ideas for your home and notebook if you have one. These are some printables that I use:

For planning out menus I use this printable. I use it in my notebook to plan out for the month. Then I take what I've planned and every Sunday I will copy it onto my weekly chart that's on the fridge. The fridge one is where I'll write down extras like 'snacks for small group' or 'zoo' or to remind Adam 'Betsy and girls in East TN' :-) I know it may sound like a lot of writing out but it's really not.
Then I will use this printable for my shopping list. Again, this is the one that's in my notebook. As the month goes on I will write down what we need for the month, and as coupons come along I'll note it and write the number of how many next to it.
This one is new to me...after my last trip to the store, I got everything we needed and we had room for it all, but I quickly realized that I had gotten some items that we didn't need (and didn't need to stock way up on) so I found this printable and I laminated it. That way I can take a dry erase marker and write down what we've got (like chicken and the number of chickens) and alter as we go through the month. That way I don't have to empty out the freezer just to see what we have and don't have.
This is one that I am going to print out and try out. I don't need it near as much as the freezer one because I can see everything easily in our pantry--the one upstairs and in our garage. But I went ahead and attached the printable just in case you wanted it :-)

I hope this has helped a bit and if not that you enjoyed looking at the printables---these get me through the school year when I don't have time to waste on ANYTHING :-)

Another year has begun...

2011-08-14T00:06:00.001-04:00

Well I wanted to give a brief update on things down here. School started up a week and a half ago and although it is the beginning of the year I think it's going to be an amazing year! I haven't had a year like this in a while. My soul 'needs' a year like this.

Again, it's only been a week but during a time where it's very easy to take your work home with you I've been very good about keeping it at school. The girls are doing wonderfully with their babysitter and our evenings are spent playing together before bedtime.

I feel like God is leading us somewhere this year. Don't really know where or what's going to happen but I feel like change is coming. We are being very prayerful and keeping open minds about everything at this point.

I am also very thankful that the area I have been praying about and 'working on' for the past year or so is finally becoming fruitful. That is seeing things and people for who/what they are. Being observant about situations and the like. So far, the hide button on facebook is my best friend. Yeah I still ~~stalk~~ check out pages sometimes but what I see doesn't bother me and to be honest it just makes me roll my eyes. It's amazing how insecure others are, and therefore treat others horrid to make themselves feel better. Since this process (which took full effect in Feb) I feel I am a much 'happier' person, my family is getting a better me. I am a better person.

This weekend begins the time of travel for us. Alabama this upcoming weekend, East TN, Knoxville (Lauren's wedding-YAY), Virginia, East TN, and the mountains; and that's all before October! We won't be traveling anywhere then but hopefully heading back up to Oktoberfest and finding an awesome pumpkin patch down here.

So that's that. I'm busy looking at photo challenges for myself, when I find more I'll let you know :-)

Sunshine on my shoulders

2011-08-05T21:26:00.000-04:00

makes me happy! I made these little matching jumpers for the girls-they were more of a practice thing for some cord. jumpers they're going to get this fall :-) We went out in the yard and I snapped these pics. I think this pretty much represents our summer :-)

Family full of readers....

2011-08-03T22:26:00.001-04:00

When we found out we were pregnant with Reagan we read all these books, talked to many different friends and did some research. After all that we decided that we really wanted to limit what the girls watch on tv. They only watch tv on PBS (when we do watch it) and the only movies they watch are Veggietales (which I know all the words since I've loved them since I was in high school, so it's all good for me) and Winnie the Pooh. At this point we limit what Disney stuff they watch as well...

So what do they do? We read :-) We're a family full of readers and I love it! Those are pics of their magazines they get (which Kathryn has destroyed hers) that they LOVE to read! We get books for them all the time--I dread having to go through them and figure out what to keep :-)

Enjoy the pic!

Consignment Selling: Pricing

2011-08-01T08:46:00.002-04:00

A few months ago my eerily similar minded good friend Ally posted this blog about shopping consignment sales. I have been doing consignment sales for the past year or two and have had some luck but not the huge success stories that others have had. Consignment selling is like a garage sale----you've got to decide whether you are wanting to get rid of items or make a profit.

I want to do both :-) Obviously I'm not going to make a profit, but I'll make more selling them than I would if they were stored away.

Finding the right sale can be rough. Consigning is a LOT of work and when you get a paltry check in the end it's quite disheartening---but it is a learning experience...the key is finding a sale that sells to people that are most like yourself. For me that meant finding a sale that sold quality things cheap but I wasn't afraid to pay for the items. Meaning, I paid $10 for a Strasburg dress. Ok, that's like 90% savings :-) Another time I went to a sale and got a two piece outfit from a Gymboree line I LOVED for $8. Those are two of the most expensive items that I have bought BUT I've explained about the Strasburg and the Gymboree outfit was a 2 piece so it was really just $4 per piece :-) From my experience those are pretty good prices so I didn't have any kind of buyers remorse. Oh yes, I forgot. I think the most expensive items I've bought was a set of 12 miniature books of Peter Rabbit sold as a set for $20. They were in excellent condition and I'm all about some books so I didn't mind paying that.

Ok back to the post at hand, you've essentially got to price your items into two different categories...the nicer ones you want to sell at the pre-sale, and all the rest that you will sell any other day. Basically what I mean is, the mothers that sell get to shop early. They know the bargains and good deals and what is worth what. I price my newer, nicer items for that day and everything else based on what the moms who don't know will pay. When you enter your items online you will have multiple options, but you will describe your items, list the size, tell whether you want it half price on Saturday, and whether you want to donate it if it doesn't sell. I always do half price for items on Saturday, therefore I price my items on that. Meaning if I am willing to accept $1 for something then I will price it at $2. If it sells the best case scenario it sells for $2, worse case scenario $1; I am fine with either of those!

If it is an item that I want G.O.N.E. then I will donate it. I have done that with all the shoes, dvd's and big items.

Now I have to admit that I don't do big shopping trips at Consignment Sales because I know that I'll buy items because they are 'such good deal's but in the end they will probably end up never worn and in the next sale. I am pretty strict with myself when I go to these things...I will only go to certain sections like shoes, books, jackets, etc...Those are generally the items I need and are hard to find out (like brown mary janes---they are IMPOSSIBLE to find!).

Expect to sell about 75% of your items...unless they are newborn-24 months (especially girls) because there are just HUGE amounts of those. Based off of that I price those items a little lower to ensure that they will sell. I want my items to stand out because they are good quality and cheap.

The last weekend in July I did the All 4 Kids Consignment sale. I had heard great things about it and I REALLY needed to get rid of some items. So I used the principles listed above and actually sold 80% of my stuff!! Almost all of my kids stuff sold, mostly what was left was the maternity clothes that I didn't plan on wearing again. Not to shabby! That won't always be the case and sometimes you could do better, but now that I know my pricing was pretty good I can hopefully do even better at the next sale!

Here are some pics of my favorite consignment sale finds :-)

Strasburg Dress

Adorable 2 pc Carter's

2 pc Gymboree...I already had the socks and she matched big sis!

Birthday Invite

2011-07-20T14:45:00.000-04:00

Here is a sneak peak of the birthday invite I just designed :-) Sorry Charlie but the important stuff is blacked out for obvious reasons :-)

Chicken Dip

2011-07-19T18:46:00.001-04:00

WOW this recipe is on demand! Adam is the one that usually makes it and after having numerous friends ask for it I'm copying it onto the blog :-)

Cook 3 chicken breasts (we usually do it in the crock pot)
1 cup of Ranch (add more if needed)
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 8 oz cream cheese bars
1 small bottle of hot sauce

Combine ingredients together and cook for 30 minutes at 350.

Our small group LOVES this recipe--more than the bacon roll ups!

Girl's Trip!

2011-07-17T00:02:00.000-04:00

So back in February during a particularly hairy day teaching middle school I sent my bff/other half an email saying these words 'girls trip. this summer. you in?' Famous last words :-) She said yes right away and the planning began!! We both went through places that we wanted to go and emailed each other and Savannah was somewhere we both wanted to go! I have been numerous times, but we decided that it was good because 1. I love it there and don't mind going there EVER and 2. It would be best to go someplace where at least one of us knows our way around!

So Jen came down on Thursday and ~~hung out with me~~ played with Kat and Reagan :-) ate dinner, and watched tv with us in the basement (which she had not seen finished)...Friday we left after lunch and got there early evening and we went out to get something to eat! We stayed at a quaint little hotel called the Thunderbird Hotel where there was 50's music playing in the parking lot. It was dark when we were walking down to River Street for dinner and I could tell Jen was thinking 'This is NOT the southern pretty town I thought it was'. I love Savannah. But the best way to describe it is the Historic District which is trying to resemble Charleston, and then River Street which is pretty much like Beale Street in Memphis or New Orleans. Not what you would expect.

However Saturday we wandered through the city, ate lunch at Paula Deen's, met some interesting folks, walked through the city some more and drove out to Uncle Bubba's for dinner. Jen didn't believe that there wasn't much to Tybee Island so we drove out there but she quickly realized I wasn't kidding ;-)

Me and Jen!

Christ Church

Juliette Gordon Lowe's Birthplace

We had a blast, and started preliminary plans for our next trip---to co-celebrate our 30th birthdays. We think we may take our husbands/boyfriends along too :-) Fun times! Can't wait to visit her in the Windy City!!

Historic Homes

2011-07-12T00:13:00.000-04:00

So I'm not quite sure how I only got pictures of only three different historic homes is beyond me but I guess we were too busy having fun! I guess there were other homes/buildings that were on previous posts that you can go back and look for.

Drayton Hall, predating the Revolutionary War

Heyward-Washington House

Boone Hall Plantation

Boone Hall Plantation....by far my favorite! I believe I wrote about it at length before but it can be said again that it's my favorite :-) We didn't get to tour the home because we had the girls with us in strollers and the house isn't exactly stroller friendly...

I believe this is my last post on our vacation to Charleston...I've looked through my pics and I believe I've sorted them fairly well and there's nothing more to tell...of course I could always be wrong ;-)

Charleston

2011-07-07T00:09:00.000-04:00

So Charleston is one of the prettiest places in the South. That's all there is too it. I love the South and a lot of things that come with it but Charleston is just about prettier than the Smoky Mountains in the fall. Below through some of the pictures I will take you through a stroll in Historic Charleston. To begin with, we start at Market Street. The shops have a horrible history, (think of what was sold there 200 years ago) but through remarkable renovations, including a recent one in which there are ceiling fans, air conditioning, and window coverings it is a wonderful place to begin your journey. I have bought lace table coverings, jewelry, cookbooks, and t shirts from the different vendors in the market. A very eclectic mix! The DAC museum marks the entrance and beginning of the market.

DAC Museum at the beginning of Market Street

The next thing you will come on is St. Phillips Episcopal Church. I love hearing the chiming of the hour and half hour. The church has quite a bit of property, and a cemetery to boot. I believe that some historical people are buried there, but touring cemeteries is not my thing and to be honest they creep me out.

St. Phillip's Episcopal Church

Rainbow Row. Along the Battery, townhomes are painted all different colors, thus the term Rainbow Row. It is primarily professional buildings now. The history behind it was the different colors represented the different professions. Thus making it easy for the businessmen to determine which one to go to. The Battery is the tip of the peninsula and to some is known as White Point Gardens. There were hangings there for pirates, and some of the most beautiful homes are along The Battery.

Rainbow Row

It's funny story time...So the first time Adam and I visiting Charleston it was 5 years ago. Obviously prior to kids. So to give it a try, we did a ghost tour. Not something I would recommend, not because it was scary but because it was a waste of money and a complete joke. Now, the particular we did, the one aspect that was kind of cool because we got to tour the Old Exchange and Provost. We also got to tour the dungeon which still had the walled part of the original walled city. So while we're there, the tour guide starts telling us about all the ghosts that are in the dungeon and in the city in general. I personally think ghosts are a joke. I don't believe in them. I think it is Satan using others, but that is not the point...anyways, he told us that if we took pictures in the dungeon if these certain things appeared in the pics (the power of digital cameras) then you were getting a ghost. So much to Adam's embarrassment all these kids and me start taking these random pictures. The tour guide is giving us a little while to do all this before he wrapped it up, when I took a picture and all of a sudden there was a HAND in the picture. Needless to say I freaked out, I called Adam and over and was just talking like an idiot when Adam looked at me and said 'Betsy, those are mannequins. Look over there' and sure enough there were mannequins that you couldn't see because it was so dark. We still laugh at that story today!

Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

The French Huguenot Church and the view down Church Street are just some added freebies. That church is another beautiful church in the city, and I loved that shot of Church Street when we were walking down the street. I thought the Church Street shot captured the timeless beauty of Charleston, cobblestone streets, palm trees, old townhomes, and the side windows! At one point in time, homes were taxed by the number of windows that faced the street. So for quite a few homes they are side by side, but the front of the home is actually the side of the building from what you see on the street. That way they were only taxed on about 4-6 windows instead of the 10 or so that would be on the front of the home. Make sense?

French Huguenot Church

A view down Church Street

Ahhh, my favorite part of the city. The Four Corners of Law. The Four Corners of the Law is what is commonly used to refer to the intersection of Meeting and Broad Streets. The photograph below has the southeast and northeast buildlings. These are St. Michael's Episcopal Church, and Charleston City Hall. The other two buildlings that are a part of the Four Corners but not shown are the United States Post Office, and the Federal Courthouse. The term "Four Corners of the Law" represents the presence of institutions representing federal, state, local and ecclesiastical law on each corner of the intersection. Pretty cool huh?

St, Michael's Church. Breathtaking,..

I hope you have enjoyed these favorite pictures of mine from Charleston. There were quite a few to choose from and it was hard, but these photos are ones that I take almost every time I go and I just love them.

Couponing 102

2011-07-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

Ok so I have some items to add to my first post in regards to couponing. Extreme couponing while fun to watch is a joke. You will more than likely only have one or two experiences like that. It's going to take about 2-3 months to get into a groove with it all. The first month I would recommend putting more in your food budget than you normally do. This will allow you to purchase what do you need for the month plus give you extra to stock up.

Stocking up is the MAJOR key. This may sound crazy but I have the laundry detergent we're currently using plus four more containers in our garage. I think I paid $3 for all of them. They were BOGO's at Publix plus I had coupons so it was way cheap. Our freezer is ridiculous the amount of food that it's in there. I've gotted to the point where I might be able to wait and not go again until mid August for our next trip, except for weekly trips for Milk...

When you figure out your savings don't include things like formula and diapers in your amount spent and saved. Kroger usually has good deals on diapers but it's one of those things you have to have. Formula rarely goes on sale so those things you just kind of put to the side.

I need to reiterate that you CANNOT be a brand snob! If there are some things that you can't negotiate on then do what's best for you, but there are VERY few things I'm a snob about!

According to Southern Savers sales and coupons rotate about 6 weeks. So whatever is on sale one week--if you use it then get enough for 6 weeks until it goes on sale again.

Ask for rainchecks. Most stores do them.

Check out the front of your publix store and they have pamplets of coupons. Those are like gold. EXCELLENT coupons that will match their bogo items (thus how I spent so little on the detergent above).

Don't get discouraged or overwhelmed. I am by no means an expert, but once you get in the hang of it it's easy! I saved about 40% today at Publix and used very few coupons. For those of you that coupon you may have noticed what I had...they were horrible. As one commenter put it "I can't live off of razors and tampons!" which is exactly how I felt! Take a break if you need to, talk to some that do coupon and see how you can improve your strategy. I know that I just look at the ads one week at a time and as it just so happens, the Publix one this week was awesome and I was able to go shopping for the entire month!

If I left your more confused or you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask !

Isle of Palms

2011-07-02T20:08:00.001-04:00

A wonderful beach! It was crowded Saturday and Sunday but come Monday morning it was almost empty! The mornings were usually hectic as we took the girls out and they played...and played...and played! I was really nervous about that part. I was afraid that one would love it and the other would hate the sand. WRONG. They LOVED it! We bought a canopy/tent for Kathryn so when it was time for her to play out of the sun or it was naptime, we put her in there and she would drift off to sleep. Best $30 I ever spent! I don't have many pictures yet of them playing on the beach. We decided before we went down there that we would go old school and get a water proof disposable camera to take down to the beach. That was for all the fun, playful pictures. When we went down one night for family pictures we of course used our nice Nikon :-) So for the moment, the only beach pictures I do have are ones that I got from my parents.

The Family...

Reagan and Kathryn

Isle of Palms

Playing!

Another note, I'm not sure I would do the disposable camera again. I really liked not having our way expensive DSLR out on the beach, but using a regular film camera again was not great. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I have absolutely no idea how the pics turned out. Not until I get them developed at least. So not sure what I would do on that part again. I don't have a point and shoot, and my phone camera is a joke so maybe by the next time we go I'll have an answer for you!

Augusta, Charles Towne Landing, and Mount Pleasant

2011-07-01T16:45:00.001-04:00

So.....we are home! I'm happy to be home where I can enjoy the rest of my vacation but I do miss relaxing on the beach reading my books :-) My family had the condo from Saturday to Saturday, however because of Adam's work we couldn't stay that long. So we improvised and left a couple days early and drove halfway Thursday night, and drove into Charleston Friday and spent Friday night there and met up with my family on Saturday.

Now, I'm all for paying for a decent hotel, don't get me wrong; but since these were only stop overs I didn't want to pay too much. So I started checking online. I found quite a few hotels that were ridiculously overpriced. I'm sorry, I can understand some prices and the hotel locations but some were just plain ridiculous. I finally found hotwire. Through them we ended up staying at a Baymont Inn, with free wifi, cable (WAHOOO), and breakfast. The cost? $14. Yeah, that's right, $14. So I talked it over with Adam and read the CUSTOMER reviews (which were all pretty good) so I decided to chance it and book. Here is a pic of our awesome room. Oh did I mention the mini fridge and microwave?

King Size!

Awesome tv and fridge/microwave unit

So the next morning we got up and drove into Charleston, I guess I should say West Charleston? We decided to go over to Charles Towne Landing. This is a park where the original settlement was and they have rebuilt things and brought other items in so that once you enter, what you see is what the English would have seen 400 years ago. They had an animal section with Bison, deer, wild turkeys, etc...There was a replica ship, a crop garden, a plantation home and of course the ever beautiful Live Oaks with Spanish Moss.

Live Oak with Spanish Moss

Small Crop Garden

So after we finished there, it was still a little too early for us to check into our hotel, but we had no desire to go into the city with the girls just yet. So we drove down to Folly Beach and went to see the Morris Island Lighthouse. Very cool history there! The downside is that you can't actually see the lighthouse from just anywhere. Because it is out in the ocean, you have to drive to the end of Folly Beach, park your car, and walk about 1/4 mile to the very tip of the beach where you can have a clear view of the lighthouse. I did not walk the entire way. We couldn't find a good parking spot, so Adam stayed in the van with the girls and A/C and dropped me off so I could go see it and take pics of it. The walk wasn't bad at all, very easy in fact. It was H.O.T.! So after I walked about 2/3 of the way and got the view of it that I had I decided to go ahead and get some shots. I didn't want Adam to run into any trouble, plus I didn't want the girls to get cranky and he would have to deal with them.

Morris Island Lighthouse

So at that point, we decided it was time to go to the hotel and just order some pizza and chill out. We had had fun, but were hot and tired and ready to just lay down for a while! We stayed a nice hotel in North Charleston. I got a great rate through hotwire again, but since it wasn't as great of a deal as the $14 room, I'm not going to go too much into it. We had had planned to go into Charleston Saturday morning, get a quick bite to eat, then head over to Boone Hall Plantation which is in Mount Pleasant on our way to Isle of Palms. To our surprise Gran and Granddad were almost to Charleston! So we 'scratched' our plans and got a late start into the city, walked around Market Street for a while, then we met Mom and Dad at a place called Fleet's Landing. WOW. Great food! It looks like a little dump, but be rest assured it is excellent food!! After lunch, we went over to Boone Hall with my parents. Boone Hall is probably one of the prettiest places I've ever been too. It is one of the most photographed plantations, and has been used for the location of many different tv specials and programs. The Avenue of Oaks is just breathtaking.

They have a butterfly emporium on site as well so we took the girls in there and let them play with the butterflies, then walked around the grounds some, went on an open air carriage tour of the grounds, and had a blast! To end our day, Dad and Adam went on to the condo to check in and unpack. Mom and I took the girls and went to the grocery store to get what we needed. When we got to the condo, guess who pulled in the same time as us? Katie and Dave of course! So those are our first couple days of vacation, enjoy the photos and know that we had a blast!

Butterfly

Adam and Betsy with the oaks

This doesn't hardly do it justice

A view of the home

Charleston

2011-06-30T19:37:00.000-04:00

We are back...and I am in a state of depression :-/ I love Charleston. That's all there is to say. I've never felt so sad leaving a vacation before...Oh well, we'll be back there soon I hope! Here is a pic until I can post more about it!

Stone Mountain

2011-06-18T18:35:00.001-04:00

So earlier in the week I discovered Stone Mountain was running a special that teachers could get in for free and bring up to 6 guests with them for only $20. Adam couldn't go, but since it was free and the girl's were already free I decided to just go ahead and go. I was afraid it was going to rain but it held off! We weren't there for too long because it was HOT, we got there later than planned, and there was only so much I could do with the girls by myself. We got there and then got our tickets, then I decided that it would be best if we went ahead and ate lunch. It was a little early, but not too bad. We beat the crowd which is what I
wanted anyways. We ate at Miss Katie's and they plopped down some fried pickles (yuck), fried onion slivers (YUCK), and some bits of sweet potatoes. Before I could stop her Reagan grabbed a fried pickle because she thought it was chicken. She did not care for it AT ALL! Kathryn had the sweet potatoes and LOVED them! She couldn't get enough of them! I have to admit that I was SO PROUD of them! They didn't pitch a fit, Reagan said thank you when it was appropriate for her too, and they both smiled at anyone who looked at them. It was the perfect time for them to misbehave but they didn't and made me so proud! So after lunch, we walked around a bit and we looked at the mountain, watched the train go by, and took some pictures. Reagan even got her camera out to take some pics! We only stayed for about 3 hours which I would have wanted to stay much longer if we had paid but it was free, it was getting close to naptime, and to be quite honest it was HOT :-)

Reagan and Kathryn in front of the mountain

Simple Moments

2011-06-15T23:20:00.002-04:00

To say that moments like this make my heart smile is the biggest understatement. I don't what I did to be able to deserve this, but I am so grateful, so blessed, and so humbled.

Whenever I have my moments, God sends simple moments like this to slap me in the face and remind me what's important :-)

Potty Training Days 4 & 5

2011-06-12T18:13:00.000-04:00

What a weekend! I wish I had written this over the course of the weekend so I could remember it all. From what I remember yesterday started off regularly but she did have an accident in the morning. We then went out and ran errands and she was diaper free the whole time with no accidents! When we came home she went three more times :-) Today, she didn't want to go before church but I tried to 'make her' and that just ended up making us late. I had to put her in a diaper, I didn't want to but since someone else was going to have to deal with it if she had an accident I didn't want to do that to them. So we got home and she did go potty before nap time. After nap time I kept asking if she needed to go and she said no but then she got this look on her face like 'uh oh' and started to have an accident. I quickly got her and put her on the potty. About 30 minutes later she went all by herself with no prompting at all!

I'm so proud of her!! She will still have accidents but we are about to travel through the light at the end of the tunnel :-)

Day out with Thomas

2011-06-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

Reagan loves Thomas the Train. We don't have cable (and we actually enjoy it) so the only shows that the girls can watch on 'real' TV is what's on PBS. In the Hoffman house we're all about some Cat in the Hat Knows a lot about that, and Calliou (not my fave), Sid the Science Kid, and of course Thomas. I think she really only got into it because of the music at the end of each episode, but with her getting the train set for Christmas a new favorite was born! I researched it a bit and found where a Day Out With Thomas was going to be...and we went! It was a lot of fun, but I have to tell you--the tickets are only for the train ride! Where we went that was the case at least! It was worth it and we'll go again I'm sure, but the cost was for the train ride only---everything else is free. That is a handy little piece of information that they don't share! So here are some pics...my parents decided that they wanted to meet us and share in the fun, which ended up being fine because Adam couldn't end up going.

What I did find funny is that whenever I went for a photo op, they had the photo op with the girls instead of me :-) I didn't care too much because I got some good ones anyways---gotta love long distance grandparents!!

Reagan enjoying the view

Kathryn wondering what is going on

Potty Training: Day 3

2011-06-10T17:10:00.000-04:00

So here is a map out of our day....Up to 10:45 Reagan got up and she had a full diaper (of course) and she ate (not drank anything) breakfast. Now, this is my opinion at the moment...According to some of what I have read I should be putting her on the toilet when we first get up. I am not doing that because her diaper is full therefore there isn't much in her and it would just become frustrating at this point. I mean, I don't want her to get in the habit of sitting there every morning but not doing anything. I figure (a novice I know) that if I can master (well Reagan can) the concept of actually using it, then we can move on to developing a schedule so to speak. So she at breakfast, then we all got dressed and I gave her her milk. I decided then to give her some potato chips because the saltiness of them will make her thirsty. It did and she drank a lot of fluids and in about 20 minutes: success! I tried to get her to come out and play but she said she wants to use the potty so we're just hanging out in the bathroom and Kathryn is napping.

Now I will tell you that I did buy a kiddie potty yesterday. I should have known that I would have to buy one when I swore up and down that I would never purchase one nor use it Famous last words. I really think it has helped but we'll see how the rest of the day goes

Ok it is now 5:07...we have had two successful potty trips! I think we may have had one accident, but I'm not sure because while she wasn't clean and dry I couldn't find the 'evidence' ANYWHERE in the house. So I'm going with us having an accident because it's easier for me to deal with it tomorrow if there is another accident than if I thought we did fine today and so on. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am SO HAPPY. I am quite tired of being held hostage upstairs right outside the bathroom door. I am also not happy with the bathroom having become a play room for the girls. Long story, don't ask.

Potty Training: Day 2.5 :-)

2011-06-09T17:24:00.001-04:00

Well today was interesting...Adam had the day off and there were some errands to run. So this morning we got up and went to the potty and of course nothing happened. So Reagan and I went out for a while and then when we got home we did the potty stuff again. Only 1 accident today. However there have been no times in the potty. I'm getting really frustrated but Adam says I'm being too hard to myself but I don't know. At first I thought she wasn't ready. Now I'm beginning to think that she's too smart for her own good. So while we did have a mini break this morning we did go back to full swing this afternoon. I feel like I'm running behind her with a sippy cup of milk to get her to use the bathroom.

Today is another day that I feel is a wash...no times in the potty but only 1 accident. Take that for what it's worth!

Potty Training: Day 2

2011-06-08T20:48:00.000-04:00

Well I don't know whether to label today as a success or failure. It's 12:48 pm, we are getting ready for naptime and she has not used the toilet at all. She has sat on it, said she needs to go or wants to go but then we just hang out in the bathroom...However, that being said there have been NO accidents. I have been checking her about every 30 min and she gets her treat for being clean and dry and always wants a cookie when she gets off the toilet but I tell her 'no you don't get one now unless you use the potty.

Also, another plus or minus to the situation is that she can pull herself up and and off of the toilet.
*that's it for the time being, I will have more to say after naptime*

Ok so after naptime, she had a little milk and then we went to sit (or well she did) on the potty. We were there about 30 minutes and she FINALLY went in the toilet today. We were both thrilled. So she got her treat and drank more milk, and I set the timer to give it time to 'process'. Well in the meantime I started dinner. My bad. A drawer messed up and I was in the middle of fixing it when the timer went off and I told myself that 5 minutes wouldn't be too late. WRONG. Accident and it was totally my fault :-( Although I did have her go around in the wet underwear for just a little while so she would see how uncomfortable it was. I figured if I kept changing her right away she would never really 'get' how uncomfortable it is.

So that is Potty Training: Day 2. I'm at a loss as to whether it's a success or failure. Thoughts anyone?

Potty Training: Day 1

2011-06-07T14:16:00.000-04:00

So I think I'm going to chronicle the potty training experience....Today was Day 1 and so far it has not been the easily successful experience that PottyWise told all about.

It started off well, and we did the doll and we checked to see if she was clean and dry and she was...then it was time for the toilet. So she sat up there for a while but what they don't prepare you for is the fact that they will want down after a while and if you let them down they are NOT going to want to go back on after 20 minutes. The morning was one big drawn out battle of the wills. Reagan does not sit still. Normally that is a good thing. That means she's busy playing, reading, or other things. She is too busy to get into trouble. That does not help out when it comes to potty training. I got her portable dvd player out and we watched Pooh, then Gigi, then Pooh again...she said she wanted down and that she didn't have to go. No less than 2 minutes later she had an accident. So back on the pot we went. This time I sat in front of her with the laptop, my lists, and pictures to sort through. We watched Pooh and she FINALLY went to the bathroom. We were all very excited.

Then I put her underwear and pants on her and for whatever reason 5 minutes later another accident. I got irritated, but tried not to show it because she's still learning but it's so frustrating that it all happens almost IMMEDIATELY after she gets off. Changed her again, and then she went over to the corner by our china hutch and I should have known what she was doing, but I didn't--I was busy getting lunch together. Anyways, yet again another accident. So we eat lunch, she goes to the potty again and after 30 minutes of Pooh and nothing and me still sitting in front of her so she'll stay put and not want to get down it's nap time.

It's not going as well as I had hoped, however I do like that she is completely aware of everything just not where she's supposed to do it.

So stay tuned for Day 2 and hopefully it will be better. Part of the problem is that I knew I would be putting my life on hold while we did this, but I never would have dreamed that I would sitting in front of her in the bathroom.

Strawberry Jelly

2011-06-02T19:24:00.002-04:00

So this summer Adam decided to plant a garden so we could have some fresh vegetables. That's when I decided that I really did want to learn to can and such. Well the fruits of Adam labor are starting to come in and we had fresh green beans the other night for dinner!

I haven't done much with canning, but I did get Adam's grandmothers Freezer Strawberry Jelly recipe and their sweet corn recipe. The sweet corn turned out amazing--I'm going to have to go get more! I was a little unsure of the strawberry jelly and just how many strawberries to get so I ended up doubling the recipe. That made 9 jars (yeah it was a lot) and at first I didn't think it had turned out well but Adam loved it and when his parents came to visit this past weekend they said it was great. I don't think they would lie to me :-) So here are my pics of the jelly, it's super sweet but SOOOOOO good!

**If you would like this recipe please comment and let me know. Because it is a family recipe I am not going to post it online.**

Reagan enjoying freezer jelly

The jars of freezer jelly

Enemies

2011-06-02T06:55:00.001-04:00

So a couple months ago, I posted this about praying for my enemies. Wow, it's amazing how after you make a resolution like that Satan just sweeps right on in and tests you for all you're worth. Some things had happened since and now to remove ourselves from unnecessary, childish, immature drama there are some that we just plain don't speak to anymore. Well that may be the case but there is the part of me that always wonders what's going on with their lives, and things of that nature. It just kills me about myself! So in the midst of that and the feelings that it all brings up I get very down on myself about things. About how our lives are so different than what we thought it would be. In so many ways. I dwell on the 'unfairness' of things. Nevermind the fact that I am more than aware that we are the root of our own problems. Try as I may to not ask God 'WHY' I do. I am always looking for the lesson to be learned. I will say that I always try to give God the glory He deserves which is another reason why I get so upset at things sometimes.

Anyways, before this post totally changes course, this excerpt from my friend Trisha's blog, who in turn got it from A Holy Experience post about blessing your enemies. It was too good not to share, and I think I need to print this out and keep it all over my house!

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.
Enemies have loosed me from earth more than friends have…
Enemies have made me a hunted animal, finding safer shelter than an unhunted animal does.

I found safest sanctuary in You…may too my enemies-made-grace.
I found greatest grace in You… may my enemies-made-grace find Your generous grace alive and radical in me.
I found fullest forgiveness in You… may my enemies-made-grace find faith and freedom in You and Your forgiveness working surprising ways in me.

The longer I walk with you, Lord, I find I have no enemies: only your gift of chisels etching me deep.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Camera Bag or Purse?

2011-05-17T15:18:00.001-04:00

So....among other things if I can make something or alter something that I already have instead of buying something new then I'm going to do it. I don't know whether that makes me crafty or cheap, but either way once you've done it a while it becomes second nature and it's quite fun to see what you can create! The first big thing I did was changing our computer desk. That didn't require too much work, just getting rid of our bulky desktop and then moving all my craft stuff onto it. It's worked out quite nice---I love it all the more because I didn't have to go out and buy a $200 craft desk!

That brings me to my next thing...my camera bag. A while bag I posted a post here about a camera bag I had made. It worked, but I hated it. It looked cheap, poorly made and just a plain old hot mess! I refused to spend a large amount of money on the bag because there are other things I would rather spend my money on...

So what was I looking for? Something that was more of a purse than bag, something that didn't scream "camera bag" or "expensive! Steal me!" :-) Well one day a couple weeks ago, I found in one of my craft blogs Sassy Sanctuary, this Inspiration File for the week that low and behold had directions on how to do just what I wanted! So below is my attempt. Of course, it's a trial and error type thing so I ended up completely redoing what I started with. I took her directions and put them in a word file and it's located here. However, please know that all credit goes to the original blogger. Here are some pics of the work...

This is the end result

Inside view of the bag


How the lining matches up


All the pieces of lining...the only thing missing is the velcro

All I ended up using is a 12x12 inch thick block of craft foam. That ended up being too thick and not enough. So I improvised and sliced it in half. I got a purse on clearance at Target, and fat quarters of fabric from Hobby Lobby. That was it! It was so simple to put together and make that I couldn't help but wonder why I hadn't thought of it before!

I have this tagged under 'housekeeping' because it involves reusing things that you already have in your home. Next on the to-do list? The old coffee table that is now Reagan and Kathryn's craft table!

*update 10/19* I have added the tag Pinterest on this because I found another version on there to compare to mine.

Where we live....

2011-05-16T15:12:00.001-04:00

So I am a firm believer in taking advantage of where you live....I know that some may think they live someplace where nothing goes on but BELIEVE me just look! For instance, when being a true Southern Belle this past weekend and reading through my Southern Living, I stumbled upon the fact that next weekend is the 2nd annual Biscuit Festival in Market Square in Knoxville!!! Do you have any idea how much I would love to go to that? The biggest pitfall (which I seriously intend on telling the planners) is that it occurs over Memorial Day Weekend. I don't know about the rest of you, but we have a standing tradition of spending that weekend with Adam's parents.

I digress...so since I believe that way I try and do that as much as possible. It helps that I have a husband who enjoys trying different things and two children who travel well. Two of the biggest things we do in our area are The Dogwood Festival and the Renaissance Festival. The Dogwood Festival is a 'free' event....it's free to get in, but you have to use and pay in their parking lot. There are art vendors, food vendors, etc...It's located in Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta, so even just
going to walk through it fun in and of itself. Maybe when our kids are older we'll take the MARTA in, but since we had the double stroller we just didn't want to deal with it.

Sisters


A view of Atlanta from the park

The second place that we LOVE going to is Ren Festival! This one is not free, but it is SO much fun! People dress up in Renaissance attire, there is jousting, acrobats, a meet and great with King Henry VIII with Queen Catherine. This past weekend was the Scottish Fling weekend--something I've been wanting to go to for YEARS but it's just never worked out. Adam always gets the turkey leg (which is so funny to watch him eat) and this year we got the girls so 'wings' to wear for when we go. There is historical stuff, artsy stuff, and just fun cheap stuff as well. Finally getting to go to the Coat of Arms store is what brought on the family history stuff that I am working on at the moment :-) So enjoy these pictures and stay tuned for another post from my to do list!


Festival Banner

Kathryn's all smiles

Reagan

Blog Post

2011-05-15T22:53:00.000-04:00

This is perhaps the saddest thing ever...every morning I check my blog and other blogs that I follow. In an effort to keep with my habit I am posting a list of ~~things I need to do~~, things for you to be waiting for :-) I know you're waiting in anticipation but you'll have to wait longer. The girls got sick a couple weeks ago, and have had lingering runny noses. Then I got it and it turned into a NASTY sinus infection (seriously I can't even open my mouth without it hurting). So here are the things to wait for

Dogwood Festival
New camera bag
Ancestor Research
Ren Festival
Update from Red Ruby Studio
Strawberry Jelly
Vacation Research (ok I'm probably not going to be sharing that but still...)

Please keep our family in your prayers. There is nothing going on, but we need prayers at the moment for guidance. Also, a job opportunity has come up for one of us that would be perfect (or what we think would be) and the waiting is just killing us. Please pray with us that God's will be done, and that we accept whatever the turnout is---and that we don't have to wait much longer ;-)

1 thing leads to another....

2011-05-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

This is how the evening started out...we made empty tomb rolls and they were a success! Reagan loved wearing her apron and sat up on the table to pose. Little did we know that in 2 hours it would all be turned upside down...

me: I'm going downstairs to pack the car, the girls are up here
Adam: Ok
*15 minutes later*
me, coming back upstairs: where's Reagan?
Adam, looking up from itouch: I thought she was with you
me looking at dread at our bedroom door that is closed: REAGAN
1 hour later
Adam: Well I'm sorry, this is somewhat my fault...

Do I really need to tell you how the rest of the story went?
It all came up and we find the humor in it--but I'm not quite at the laughing stage yet :-)

Easter 2011

2011-04-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some updates in photos of Easter. The girls and I traveled up to East TN for the holiday. This year was so much fun with all of my grandparents coming in to see the girls (and us I suppose), and Reagan participating in her first Easter Egg Hunt where she actually understood what to do. This year was also Kathryn's first Easter so that made it even more special.

We went to Cassidy UMC Easter morning and I swear you have thought it was 10 years ago! A couple that I keep in touch with regularly were there with their little girl, and so was a dear friend who is always in my thoughts. Then there was the boy who went off to med school.....wow. So many memories and good times it's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we were in school together!


Looking at their goodies from the Easter Egg Hunt

Making empty tomb rolls

Reagan at the Easter Egg Hunt

Back in business!

2011-04-18T12:06:00.000-04:00

Back in the fall I started a paper company Red Ruby Studio. Business started off REALLY slow but I enjoyed it so I kept up with it. Now to be 100% honest I wasn't completely happy with the work I was doing. The products were fine and it's not like I didn't put forth 150% effort but since I'm a perfectionist by nature and I was making this for other people (who I was SURE could see every little flaw) it was very easy for me to get discouraged.

Then, the computer meltdown happened. 1 month after I started my business our laptop died and we took it to get it fixed which was only supposed to last a day or two. Um....that turned into the entire month of November and resulted in a new laptop. Needless to say, I was so busy stressing and working on other things that I didn't have any stock ready to be put up for sale when the computer was returned AND since it had been so long my efforts 'had been in vain' for etsy and my facebook page so I slacked off. Actually, I told myself I wanted the month of December off to regroup (I had a 2 year old, a 4 month old, I had just gone back to work and of course Christmas was upon us). Well one thing led to another and I just never started it up again. I ended up deleting my facebook page (man I regret that now!) and the listings on etsy expired. I was so busy with life that I just forgot about it. Then some friends of mine asked me if I was still doing it and I had to tell them no. That got me thinking...then last month's All You magazine had an entire article about starting up your own business and what to expect and things of that nature. I wish I had read that back in the fall!

Other than that I really can't explain what happened, but Saturday night I felt like I was supposed to start it up again... I really can't explain it other than that. It's like all of a sudden it just hit me that I should start it up again---this time there shouldn't be that many interruptions. So I relisted what I had, put another item up on etsy, and created my facebook page. Within an hour someone had 'liked' my new item on etsy which while it didn't sell it was still the reinforcement I needed to keep going. On Sunday I placed an order for some new materials that I am anxious to try out and many new ideas were flowing through my brain.

So join me again as I try this out...my facebook page and etsy page are listed to the right. Check it out and tell me what you think. If there's anything you would interested in my adding to my shop PLEASE let me know. I'm planning on adding some children's plates and resealable bowl sets among other things.

:-)

Washington DC

2011-04-11T21:37:00.001-04:00

We have been really blessed to have some family that loves seeing the girls (and us I suppose) and Katie is the best :-) The girls and I traveled up to DC with my parents during Spring Break and visited Katie and Dave, saw their new house and of course went into the city. I think it will be another year or two before we visit again as it was ALOT of work taking them into the city but it was still well worth it. Below are some pictures from the trip. If you have the chance you should really get to DC during the Cherry Blossom Festival. There is nothing like it---they are just beautiful! The only thing that compares are the mountains of East Tennessee in October :-)

Enjoy!

Original Smithsonian

Reagan and Kathryn before Church

Betsy and Kathryn at the Merry Go Round


Betsy and the girls at the Cherry Blossoms

Betsy and Reagan eating lunch

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Vinyl Monogramming

2011-04-11T11:52:00.001-04:00

Reagan's Easter Basket

Kathryn's Easter Basket

These are the Easter Baskets I made for the girls...I never could find baskets that I liked that didn't cost an arm and a leg so I ended up making these. Got the tin buckets from the party section at Hobby Lobby, I wish they hadn't had the flowers at the top because that messed up my plans but I am MORE than happy with how they turned out :-) Complete with hot glued bows on the ends. I used my cricut to cut some pink vinyl and put that on the buckets.

The girls' snack bowls

Of course I had a tone of vinyl left over so I used some of it to monogram their bowls. We don't use the lids for traveling very much but now with two of them I think that we will be--especially considering all that we have coming up! I think when Kathryn gets older I'll get her the same plate set that Reagan has from IKEA and monogram those as well.

Enjoy :-)

Couponing 101

2011-04-08T11:31:00.001-04:00

So I have recently gotten back into couponing. Wow...it take's quite a bit of time. Well I'm sure the more I do it the easier and quicker it will get but tonight I spent way too much time looking through everything...but at the same time I was also on Southern Savers for most of the time double checking coupon match ups, sales at the other stores, and printing off others that I needed...Last month was my first month back on the wagon so to speak and I save about 30% of my total budget. So here are my tips for how I coupon.

If you REALLY want to save money, you cannot be a brand or store snob. We have everything from Kroger brand peanut butter to the VERY best (Peter Pan honey whipped--YUM) I also am going to three stores tomorrow. That's not exactly the norm but I'll explain later.
If you want to save the most money possible you have to be willing to go to different stores. I have found that there is one store per shopping trip that will have amazing deals with what I need and another one is secondary. Ingles always has little things here or there that I use, but overall I don't shop there that much. That is why I'm heading to three places tomorrow. Kroger for 'real's shopping, Publix for some items from bogo, and Ingles for the good chicken deal. It's not the best situation and not one that I do often but this should last us the rest of the month if not into May because of some of the items I'm getting.
Some stores offer facebook only coupons or savings. I am not going to tell you like those or get into those things because I don't do them myself. Facebook is 'my' thing. I am very particular about pages I add and even friends I add. I don't want my home page 'cluttered' with the best ways to use velveeta, or the many different crafts you can make with charmin. Sorry that's just a personal preference. I know I can hide them but I don't so oh well.
A lot of websites offer places where you can sign up for their coupon booklets. Definitely do that, but one thing I would suggest is creating and 'coupon only' email address. That way if you get spammed or anything of that nature it won't go out to all your contacts. Plus it's a GREAT way to keep track of all your coupon stuff.
This is the big thing that I do....match coupons with sale items. Every week I get the sales for Kroger and Publix and I check to see what is on sale. The best part of Southern Savers is that they will pull up the sales and then link the coupons to it. Sometimes it's really easy to do, other times it's not. But this is when the multiple stores come in. For instance, we need chicken. They have it for 1.98 a lb at Kroger, but if I am willing to use bone in chicken I can get it at Ingles for .98 a lb. For that price I can deal with the bones. Publix offers buy one get one, every week. My rule of thumb is this: if we use it a lot then I will get two or more (especially if I have coupons) However, it's not something we use all the time, just need some more or then I will only get one and it will be half price.
I do not have the huge massive savings that you see on Extreme Couponing because I have no need for 76 bottles of mustard. I mean, come on. It's one thing to store paper products or things of that nature because you never know, but mustard? I (and Adam) firmly believe that we will not buy something because it's a good deal. When I'm looking through the lists and sales when something catches my eye I always ask myself 'is this something I would get anyways, or only because it's on sale?'
KNOW YOUR SALE CIRCULATIONS!!!!! Kroger and Ingles Sun-Sat. Publix (down here) is Thurs-Wed. I don't shop at Food Lion but their's is different as well.
Know your coupon lingo.

Always know the stores policies before you go
You can use a store coupon and manufacturer coupon on the same item.
Check the writing on some coupons because if you have 2 .50 off 3 items, if allowed, you should be able to save 1.00 off of 6.
Most of the places I shop, (listed above) will double coupons that are .50 or lower. That is why those are GOLD and most that you see out are for.55.
Be VERY careful if you use ecoupons. They can be very nice, but Kroger is unloading new rules for using them and in most cases you can't combine ecoupon and paper coupons, and ecoupons don't double

Websites I use:
Southern Savers
Kroger
Publix

I have also heard good things about e-mealz and The Grocery Game, but I have not used or looked into either of them as you have to pay for their services.

I took a couponing class last year from The Clipsy Chicks with my small group. Honestly, about only half of the information above is what I learned from them. The rest I learned the hard way and personal conviction.

Woot Woot!!!

2011-04-07T23:27:00.000-04:00

Well Spring Break is winding down :-( We are heading home tomorrow and I hope to upload all my pictures and such tomorrow night---I hope to include some pics of the girls in their Easter Dresses. We had a really good time in DC with Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave visiting with them and seeing their new house; so happy that Reagan and Kathryn have some family that enjoy getting together and visiting!

After being off for the week it only makes me realize that I am MORE than ready for summer and all it entails :-) I'm beginning to get REALLY excited about our beach trip and getting things in order for it. I think all we lack are beach chairs and beach towels for the girls!

I've been busy making some things around the house, and I'm REALLY excited about my gypsy purchase. It's WONDERFUL!!! I didn't think I would want one or ever use it, but slowly became more open to it. Then they had an amazing sale at hobby lobby last week and Adam told me I could get it. It's been great! I took it with me on our trip and while in the car I planned out what I was going to cut out for the pages and other items. I'm busy working with vinyl at the moment :-)

I have gotten much support for a post below about distancing myself from particular people---just know that if you call/email/text me and I answer back and don't have Adam call you then it's not you :-) Please just keep us in your prayers there are some opportunities that are up in the air at the moment that we are praying about :-)

Stay Tuned...

Playing Outside

2011-03-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

She loves pushing her grocery cart around


Reagan and her styrofoam cup

Sisters playing...

Anyone seen that look before? Anyone? No?

I hate being outside. I am SO not an outdoors person; but Reagan loves it so I try and spend more time outside so she can play...a couple weeks ago I sat in the camping chair and read, while she played in the garage/driveway and Kathryn played in her jumparoo. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

What's up?

2011-03-25T08:39:00.000-04:00

Well I was checking some things out on the blog and realized that I've posted all these other things but nothing with what's going on with us! So here we go on an update in the Hoffman House:

Betsy: School is going fine, the ridiculousness of some things are still there but hey you'll find that anywhere right? Principals are supportive, the kid's behavior isn't too bad, and my team is AMAZING! At home I've been doing really well (well I think at least) at staying on top of laundry and everything while working. It's not easy but still very rewarding :-) There are some opportunities that have come up that we are still praying and waiting on. Wow waiting's hard, you would think we'd be pros at that by now ;-) Per my last post, I have gotten nothing but positive response in regards to removing people from my 'life'. It is going quite well so far! I am also trying to make a conscious effort to spend more time outside. I hate being outside. That excludes the beach of course :-) Give me a book by the fireplace any day over being outside with the bugs, sweat, etc...However that lovely picture aside, my girls love being outside so that means I need to do better doesn't it? *sigh* I am trying...we'll probably spend a good amount of time outside tomorrow afternoon after school.

Adam: Things are going really well at his job, it's starting to pick up for summer, and his side job is still going strong and quite well! God has really blessed us in that! Adam also did an AMAZING job finishing our basement. It was finished for the most part back in September when Kat was born but we had to do the trim work. So we finally got a chance for Adam to build and finish the shelving and other trim work. It's wonderful! It's so nice and I'm so happy that we're finally all finished! Now all that's left to do is the bathroom down there but it may be a while before that gets done.

Reagan: going strong. That's really all I can say about her :-) She is developing into such a fun person! She LOVES to play and still doesn't watch much tv. She's a girl after my own heart....she is developing into quite the OCD little girl! She can line her little people noah's ark animals up side by side and then put them in the ark, she also lines her crayons up and uses them in order. She is being to not only keep saying new words, but also put them into sentences! 'I want a big bath' 'hand me that please mama' and things of that nature. She's very strong willed but still so sweet at the same time! She has also started giving us kisses and they are the BEST. Before she would press her cheek up to ours or lean in. Now she smacks her tongue and touches her mouth to our cheek or whatever it is she is kissing. SO CUTE and I LOVE THEM!!

Kathryn: oh sweet Kathryn! Bless her heart she's been sickly this month! It all started with her eye....it was a clogged tear duct that I thought we could wait to check it out at her 6 month appointment but we couldn't...it was a blogged tear duct that led to an eye infection. The problem with this came when it started to drain through her sinus' leading to some major nasal and sinus problems! This got cleared up and off we went the next week for her 6 month appointment. It went wonderfully! We were told to stop the eye drops and continue on as normal. We did only to have her eye start acting up about 3-4 days later. This past Tuesday when I went to get her her eyes were puffy, not crusty-just puffy. I was hoping that it was because she had woken up early and was crying when I went in the nursery. Well when I picked her up that afternoon boy was I wrong. Off to the dr we went this time to find out that she had a double ear infection which led to sinus pressure resulting in the puffy eyes and majorly runny nose. Ok that's enough sickness! She's rolling over, grabbing her feet, giggling and laughing all the time, loving to play with Reagan, and LOVES her baby food :-)

So that is an update on US. The other bit of info you may be interested in is that we're going to DC to see Katie and Dave with my parent (WAYYYYY excited about it!) and since it's spring we've got the Dogwood Festival coming up as well as Ren Fest and Day Out With Thomas :-)

Just an insight....

2011-03-20T22:10:00.000-04:00

The time has finally come for me to share some of this. Well I guess I should go ahead and tell you that I'm not going to share everything. It's not the time for that nor is the internet the best places to open up these wounds. For the past 8 years I have been hurt repeatedly. I've dealt with it, forgiven and moved on. Trust me, I have moved on--you can't dwell on these things, it will eat you alive and in the end you are the only person that you're hurting. However, at what point does it become a matter of 'hurt me once, shame on you; hurt me twice, shame on me'?

So the decision that I have come to in the recent weeks is that I am going to distance myself from the situation. It may not always work out that way, but I am going to do my best. Call it self preservation. I can't be truly together for my family and serve them if I am always stressed out and wondering what is going on with the situation above. You might be asking yourself what is the big deal about all this? It's not exactly a situation. It's more like people. So that being said, I am in the process of trying to remove negative, non uplifting, unhappy, drama ridden people from my life. So far, I am making very good progress in that area. Having the schedules and notebooks has really helped me stay on top of things at home (and still have time to do the things I love and re-learn how to coupon). Having classes that aren't from the Devil at school (seriously, you have no idea how bad last spring was and the issues that went on) has really let me be able to actually do my job!

The next on my list is removing the people who are so incredibly self centered they can't even think how their actions affect other people. Harsh of me to say? Yes. Do I live in a glass house? No. Well I don't know if I answered that right, but what I'm trying to say is I know I'm not perfect and I am not being judgemental of these particular people; I am just doing what is best for my family and me by removing myself from them. It's not going to completely happen. I have always felt that whatever is done to me I can handle, but when it comes to my kids it's a whole different ball game. Being a mother has taught me that while that is true, when something affects me as badly as this situation does, it DOES affect my kids. I refuse to let that continue.

So I am sure I will become the pariah I am going to continue on with this measure. I have already taken steps on facebook. Ridiculous I know, but facebook is slowly but surely becoming the downfall of our society. There are no boundaries. People say and do things on there because they don't have to deal with people, it's like if they don't see them then they aren't really doing what they're doing. Anyways, I have begun the process of cutting myself off from these people and while it will never happen completely, it will be enough for me and therefore my family to live our lives peacefully.

So yes, that is all you're getting for now, but it should be enough to explain why I am not on things as much as before or while it even takes me longer to respond to you should you email me or something. God bless and thank you for your support :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

IKEA

2011-03-13T21:20:00.000-04:00

So I have never been to IKEA, I've heard it's wonderful but I've never been. It's probably a good thing because I'm sure I would spend entirely too much money. I guess it would be comparable to the Container Store *ahhhhhhhh, heartbeat is elevating just thinking about it*. A friend of mine went for her birthday last weekend and she sent me a message about their children's place settings. I checked the link out and it was all really cute so I had her pick it all up for me. A picture of one of the place settings is below...

So, this is the best part. How much do you think it was? I got 6 full place settings. That includes plates, silverware, cups, and bowls. $25? $30? $40?

Try $1.99 for each pack. That's right. $1.99 for the plates (set of 6), and the same for the all the rest. The silverware was an 18 piece set for $1.99. Cost me $8.50 for all of it (and that's including tax). Pretty good deal if you ask me! We've been using things like it for a while now, but having the matching set really sets my ocd mind at ease. Reagan especially LOVES the cups. We put a straw in it and it's her favorite :-)

Crafting Notebook

2011-03-10T20:32:00.001-05:00

So a couple months ago I posted something about a household notebook. I can't tell you how much of a lifesaver that has been! It has been so nice to have everything combined into one book. Then as I got the notebook in order and spent my days being a wife/mom/keeper of the home/teacher and getting those things done I found myself having more time on the weekends and in the evenings to do things that I enjoyed doing...such as scrapbooking! I was able to get and keep my area in order and keep my pictures organized by the albums. Yeah, I know it's a tad OCD but it REALLY helps knock the pages out!

Now one thing that I have begun doing is pulling the layout ideas from the magazines. When I first started getting some of my scrapbook magazines, I saw the layouts in there but didn't think much of them. But when I started all this I remembered the pull outs and grabbed all my old magazines (yay for being a hoarder) and pulled them out. Then the next day I went online to the Creating Keepsakes and found a whole list of other downloadable pages of sketches and ideas; printed them out and now have added to the scrapbook notebook. Now I don't use this for everything. I have 8x8 albums and 12x12 albums and almost all of the sketches are 12x12, so what I have started doing is Reagan's album (of special pics after her 1 year scrapbook) I have begun using the sketches. It has REALLY helped out in cutting out redundant pictures and stretching me creatively with the pages. The best part? It's so easy! Over the past couple years there really aren't any pages that I just flat out don't like or want to redo, but when I was doing hers about a month ago, I whipped out about 8 pages (no lie) using the book. When I was putting them together I had a bad feeling that it was just too easy and that looking back I wasn't going to like it. Well, I had to go add a couple more on Sunday and the ones I used the sketches for? LOVE THEM! So much better than others I had done! So it would appear I'll be using them for more than just Reagan's album.

I really like it because my time is short and valuable, so I can pull my pictures, know how many/which ones I'll use for a page, then sort through my book to find a layout that has that number of pictures that I can use.

Wonderful!

All that's in there now are scrapbook sketches, but I am contemplating putting all scrapbook ideas into it (i.e. the Psalm 139 book for Reagan) Which I hope to finish this weekend :-)

Chicken Casserole

2011-03-08T21:28:00.000-05:00

This is soooo yummy. It's one of our faves and it's just as good for leftovers as is it to begin with!

2 large or 3 small cans of chicken DRAINED
1 cup mayo
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup onions
1/2 cup celery
1 tbsp lemon juice
4-6 eggs chopped up (ok I like this amount, but for Adam even 4 eggs is too much so use your judgement)
1 sleeve crackers crushed

Combine ingredients and pour into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Then sprinkle cheddar cheese (I do enough so you can't see the casserole anymore) and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

We have with salad and bread/biscuits.

Kitchen Artwork

2011-03-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago I posted this blog about what to do with some empty space in my house. Well I thought about it and thought about it and I just couldn't find anything I liked for the top of the stairs. I just didn't like it how no matter where one stood you would be able to see the back of of whatever was on the ledge. So that left the kitchen. Well I went with the 'Be' artwork design, but decided to do the Fruits of the Spirit instead. I drew it out and liked the sketch, but then when it came time to cut the items out I decided to just go with the words, and then put them on the wall 'haphazardly'. I have to admit that I really like how it turned out! I used my cricut cutting machine and cut vinyl. I wanted black, but they didn't have any so I went with dark brown instead. It was SO much easier to cut than I thought it would be. I had imagined the vinyl being extremely thick, but instead it was almost thinner than paper! I had to actually adjust the pressure of the blade and have it lighter so as not to ruin the vinyl. I used the Stone Script cartridge for the words and lettering, and the Serenade cartridge for the apple.

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

2011-02-27T10:16:00.001-05:00

Ahhhhhh! It's been over two months since I've posted a recipe--and to think I was aiming to post once a week :-)

I had to go searching for one to post because the only recipe that I could think of to post was my pumpkin pie recipe and it's a family recipe so I'm not inclined to post it on here. Sorry guys!

This recipe is courtesy of All You Magazines, May 2010 (I think) issue.
Cake:
3 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
16 tbsp butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cup blueberries
Glaze:
2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp butter milk
2-4 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 12 cup bundt pan with melted butter, add a few tbsp of flour and rotate pan to evenly coat, tapping out excess.
2. Sift 3 cups flour with baking powder and salt into a large bowl, In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, vanilla and buttermilk.
3. In a second large bowl, beat butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each Add about 1/4 of flour mixture, followed by 1/4 of buttermilk mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Repeat, alternating dry and liquid ingredients, until batter is thoroughly combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Transfer batter to pan, spreading evenly.
4. Bake until a tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold cake.
5. Make glaze: mix confectioners' sugar, buttermilk and t tbsp lemon juice in a bowl, sitrring until smooth. Glaze should be pourable; if it's too thick, add lemon juice, 1 tsp at a time, until it reaches desired consistency. Pour half of glaze over warm cake. let cool for 1 hour, then pour remaining glaze over cake and serve.

Enjoy!

I am blessed

2011-02-27T09:56:00.001-05:00

So recently I have been putting facebook status' up about my girls then ending with 'I am blessed' Well lately I got to thinking about that. No one has said anything to me or anything of that nature but I felt the need to explain myself. So here goes...

I am blessed. God is continuously showing himself to me and revealing His ways constantly of late and it's more/better than I could have imagined. I don't see anything wrong or feeling as if I am blessed. I'm not saying everything is wonderful or that life is so great but I do see the joy in the everyday and am trying my hardest not to let others bring me down. I'm not bragging either. I am only saying that I am CHOOSING to see how God has blessed us and not focus on the trials that we face. So if you are choosing not to see how God has blessed you and are constantly looking at other's life's and feeling the need to compete or are trying to make your life look better than theirs. DON'T. STOP. Concentrate on living your life and finding all the ways that you are blessed and I promise that other people's lives won't look near as wonderful :-)

Lately...

2011-02-24T20:28:00.001-05:00

The past two weeks have been such a whirlwind! On the 12th, Reagan went to her first birthday party where she could actually participate! We all had so much fun!

Last Monday we celebrated Valentine's Day by grilling out and having a special dinner here at home and then watched some movies :-)

The rest of the week we spent getting ready for traveling to East TN for Kathryn's baptism! That's where I took the photos that were her 6 month pics, which you saw in a previous post. It was such a good weekend! My grandparents, aunt and uncle, sister and sister in law came (as well as my parents of course) and Adam's parents came too. We went to play in the park Saturday morning, then we went out to eat dinner Saturday night, then of course the baptism on Sunday. We stayed until Monday and then came on home to reality..

Posing in her Baptismal Gown

Family photo before church

This week we've been getting back into the swing of things...there have been the usual happenings and comings and goings. Fun times :-) We have the family day coming up at Lifeway in a week or so and hopefully dinner with one of our favorite families. Scrapbooking and keeping house will consume my time for the next couple weeks, then we're off to see Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave in DC. There are some opportunities that have come up that we are praying over...so enjoy this update and check back because I am in dire need of posting a recipe!

6 month photos

2011-02-22T09:02:00.000-05:00

So while we were in East TN this past weekend, I decided to take advantage of the time and help to get some 6 month photos of Kathryn. I was worried about it to begin with because it was February and I had no idea what kind of photos to take that was more than just her sitting on the couch. Well, when I sorted through Reagan's old clothes and found this Strasburg outfit it all kind of came together-especially when the weather was BEAUTIFUL while we were up there! Enjoy the photos!

30 day photo challenge, part 5

2011-02-21T21:02:00.001-05:00

With traveling to TN I didn't get a chance to update on the correct day so here is the past few days along with the upcoming ones!

Day 18: A picture of your biggest insecurity

My biggest fear is that I won't be a good mother to my girls and future kids. I constantly worry about every decision that I make is a wrong one and that they will suffer because of it.

Day 19: A picture and a letter

I would write a letter to a younger me. Telling me that God always provides and answers prayers. That people will constantly hurt me, but that I am still to love them, and they never go away so I can't just ignore it :-)

Day 20: A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Well we've been talking about going up to New England for a while now, but now I think instead of doing a driving tour we are going to do a cruise instead. We haven't picked one out yet, or even done too much research into it (shocking I know), but this is the preliminary cruise we want. I would prefer one out of Boston so we could spend an extra day or two there, but if not then I guess that's just a good reason to go back :-)

Day 21: A picture of something you wish you could forget

Ok so this may seem a little odd, but the first 2/3 of my pregnancy with Kathryn were awful. There were so many things going on that I won't get into on here. So as much as I love being pregnant, that time is one that I would like to forget.

Day 22: A picture of something you wish you were better at

I wish I was a better wife to my husband. I'm sure he would disagree and say all the things that men say when their wives say this, but I know I need to do better. I have tried very hard not to put him in the middle and lately I haven't done a good job of that. I am trying to improve as well as other things that I won't post for the whole world on here. Just know I'm trying!

Day 23: A picture of your favorite book

I wrote a post about this a month ago I believe. I don't think there is any more to say on the subject!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:27:00.006-05:00

30 Day Photo Challenge, part 4

2011-02-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Day 13: A picture of your favorite band or artist

Well there are so many different ones, but right now I think my favorites are Zac Brown Band and Darius Rucker. I loved Hootie when I was in school so naturally I would like his new country music; and Zac...well who wouldn't love that music?

Day 14: A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

My mom....need I say more?

Day 15: A picture of something you want to do before you die

Ireland...we plan on going for our anniversary in a couple years, but we'll see if that actually happens :-)

Day 16: A picture of someone who inspires you

Allie...I was her pledge mom in Gamma Sig and met a kindred spirit! When we were both going through tough times we had a 'day out' that I don't think either of us have forgotten. She's gotten me through a lot and I hope I have been of help to her as well. She's a stay at home mommy to two, and her little boy has some special needs; she handles it all so well that I can't help but be inspired, in awe, and proud of her at the same time. Love ya Allie :-)

Day 17: A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Kathryn. More of a shock than anything else. Not expected. Not planned for. Something we didn't think possible. Yet here she is, turning our world upside down and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Words, words, words

2011-02-11T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well many have asked 'So what all is Reagan saying now?' and of course I have told them but I thought I might attempt to write out everything she says. Plus she has her own way of saying some words so I wanted to keep that so I'll always remember :-) Here goes...

mama
daddy
mimi
ganda-ee (granddaddy)
pa (poppy)
nannie
ganking
go-go (The Cat in the Hat)
bye-bye
night-night
paci
baby-ky (baby's crying)
baby (Kathryn)
babeeeee (all other babies)
juice
pone (phone)
bath
outside
shoes
socks
tea
tv
yes
no
pooh
bow
dog
ball (football)
coat

That is all I can think of at the moment....I am sure there are a lot more that I'm forgetting but this will do for now :-)

Georgia Aquarium

2011-02-09T19:49:00.000-05:00

checking the fish out

So we went to the aquarium for Reagan's birthday a couple weeks ago. It was postponed for about 3 weeks because of snow, birthdays, sickness, and work. Kathryn slept the entire time and Reagan went back and forth between being a big girl and being, well a 2 year old and having her whiny moments. She loved the touch pools with the star fish and such in it. It was really hard to keep holding her up so she could reach down in it to play with the water. We didn't go into the Coral Reef section because by that time we were all done and ready to go home! Can't wait to go back!

Betsy and Kathryn

Beluga Whales

30 Day photo challenge, pt 3

2011-02-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

Here's part 3 :-)

Day 8: A picture that makes you laugh

Ok, I just became one of those people....here are some pictures of my kids. There are more pics that I've got that make me laugh/smile but these were the two I remembered off the top of my head.

Day 9: A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Adam...enough said.

Day 10: A picture of the person you do the craziest stuff with
The one. The only. JEN :-)

Day 11: A picture of something you hate

So I teach. Over the course of time this has become my biggest pet peeve. I don't know that it needs more of a description than that. I will say that it has carried over to my personal life as well. Unfortunately I have ZERO tolerance for it.

Day 12: A picture of something you love

I love a lot of things. But since there have been many people listed for some other questions, I'll post a thing/an item that I love. Of course scrapbooking! I started while in high school but then once I got to college it fell to the wayside and I didn't start it up again until about 4 (maybe?) years ago. I had comtemplated it, but the start up cost was so much that I didn't do it. Then through something at school I won a gift certificate for the scrapbook store in the area. I started then and now I love it! It's very relaxing and helps take my mind off of things. I also like how I am documenting our lives :-) I have scrapbooks for many different things, people do it different ways, I catagorize by event...Anyways here it is!

30 day photo challenge pt 2

2011-02-04T09:08:00.002-05:00

Ok so here is part two of the challenge :-) I hope you've enjoyed this---it's been harder to do than I thought it would be!! This time I have done days 4-7

Day 4: A picture of your favorite night

View of Savannah from The Westin

This picture was taken from our hotel in Savannah in November of 2008. I was about 7 months pregnant and this was our baby-cation. Through the PAGE Teacher Academy that I was a part of there was an annual Fall Conference that met in Savannah. Adam and I always went because it was an all expense paid 'trip' so this one was our last before having kids. It was bittersweet! We were so excited about having Reagan but at the same time trying to enjoy the last time we would get away before having kids

Day 5: A picture of your favorite memory:


PREGNANT!!

Ok so this may sound just a tad bit morbid, but it's not--I promise!! We had been wanting kids for SO LONG and had endured so much that while we hadn't given up hope we had definitely changed our way of thinking. In May of 2008, my grandfather was really sick and not improving. The beginning of the month, he passed away. Well a lot had been happening during this time and I really wasn't ok, but you do what you gotta do. I had an inkling something wasn't right so the morning that we had the burial, I took a pregnancy test and sure enough it came out positive!

Day 6: A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day:

Ok, so this may seem a bit silly, but while on maternity leave I fell in love with Kathie Lee and Hoda. They would present the news, then lifestyle sessions and the whole time they are having so much fun! Many may find Kathie Lee annoying and yes she does have her moments but I like her outlook on life, faith, and family. Hoda is the one I chose to trade places with because I like her style and attitude. I like that she is a journalist but isn't afraid to get down and have fun at the same time. Besides, I am extremely jealous that she *appears* to have all this time for work, working out, dates, just about everything and I just don't know how she does it!

Day 7: A picture of your most treasured item:

Hmmmmm...I wasn't quite sure what to do about this one. There were many things that I thought of but nothing tangible. Nothing that wasn't abstract. Sure I scrapbook but it's just pictures....all my books, but they're just things as well. What to choose, what to choose...so then I started searching through pictures and found this picture of my diplomas that were hung up in our apartment. I graduated with honors with my undergraduate degree and magna cum laude with my graduate. I have to admit that I am pretty proud of myself for this accomplishment and the degrees on the wall just show me of what I have worked for and completed so far and pushing me to continue doing the same.

30 day photo challenge

2011-02-01T10:37:00.001-05:00

So I saw that an old school mate of mine was doing this and thought it was a great idea! Especially since I have decided to try and take more pictures. Although, I have to admit that I think I might do these a couple days at a time...30 new posts in a row is quite a lot and that's in addition to regular ones that I do!

So here we go: Day 1; pic of yourself with 10 facts

Me and Paula Deen at The Lady and Sons in Savannah

1. I'm 28 years old
2. I have two red headed daughters, which is extremely rare because the gene for red hair is recessive. Most of the time it skips a generation but that is obviously not the case in our family
3. I teach home ec to middle school students
4. Beverly Hills, 90210 and Friends are my favorite shows ever
5. I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was 14
6. Gone With the Wind is my all time favorite movie
7. I love to scrapbook and sew
8. Traveling is wonderful and the beach is the only vacation I take where I relax :-)
9. We want more kids
10. I believe that cooking and sewing are becoming lost arts. I also believe and aspire to become a Titus 2 woman. I think that every woman in some sort or fashion is one.

Day 2: Pic of yourself and the person you have been closest to the longest

Katie reading to Reagan

Jennifer and I at the Georgia Aquarium

Ok, I'm having a cop out moment and using a family member and non (but might as well be) family member. My sis Katie, and bff Jennifer :-)

Day 3: A pic of the cast of your favorite show. Well even though I did two for the one above, I will have to make a decision and only choose one for this day. We'll go with Friends since their cast didn't change :-)

Here is the list in case you would like to do it yourself:

A picture of yourself with 10 facts
A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
A picture of the cast from your favorite show
A picture of your favorite night
A picture of your favorite memory
A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
A picture of your most treasured item
A picture that makes you laugh
A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
A picture of the person you do the craziest stuff with
A picture of something you hate
A picture of something you love
A picture of your favorite band or artist
A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
A picture of something you want to do before you die
A picture of someone who inspires you
A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
A picture of your biggest insecurity
A picture and a letter
A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
A picture of something you wish you could forget
A picture of something you wish you were better at
A picture of your favorite book
A picture of something you wish you could change
A picture of your favorite day
A picture of something that means a lot to you
A picture of yourself and a family member
A picture of something you're afraid of
A picture that can always make you smile
A picture of someone you miss

Stuff I Make part 2

2011-01-31T17:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a part two to this post that I did last month. It's been quite a busy month and not much down time, plus I've been trying to catch up with my scrapbooking since I've got so much to do :-)

These are paper doll cutouts of the Nativity that I made for Reagan. She didn't play with it too much this year, but next Christmas I think she'll love them. I made it using my cricut and Winter Frolic cartridge. I absolutely love my cricut. One of the best purchases I've ever made!

When we redid the furniture in the house when Kathryn was born I needed something to take up some space in the kitchen. So I got this Bakers Rack and on the rack and put all these canisters on it as well. Well since they aren't clear and I can't tell the difference between all the types of flours I needed some labels. Well after much searching and trial and errors this is what I came up with. I have to admit it turned out rather well and I'm pretty proud of it :-)

Lastly, here is the camera bag that I made. It's not perfect and far from what I want to use forever, but it will do until I can save up for the bag that I really want. There is no pattern for it. I have made other tote bags before so I took that basic pattern and wiggled it around some until I got what I wanted. As you can see with it is what will be used as a cash and card holder. I wanted something that was purse like but would carry my Nikon and lenses around as well. This is the best I could do. The cash and card holder came about because as much as I measured and cut and sewed and ripped out seams and then measured more, I couldn't get that one divider the way I wanted it. So I played around with it some and after trying it out, I saw that if I just sewed it in half it was the perfect fit for cards/cash.

So that's it for now :-) Enjoy!

Freebies!

2011-01-29T19:04:00.004-05:00

Sometime last spring I stumbled upon Tipnut's website. It is great! It has everything such as recipes, crafts, home items, printables, cleaning tips, diy projects, etc... They put a Christmas site up, and just recently added a Valentine's Day and Easter one. Tipnut is a great site anyways but these other sites are great for activities for you to do with your kids or loved ones!

I'm excited about the Easter one! I can never get enough Thanksgiving or Easter printables and ideas!

The little things...

2011-01-25T23:28:00.000-05:00

Monday's are exhausting at our house...it's amazing how quickly we get into our rest days and just hang out together. Monday comes around and Adam goes off to work and I've got to make sure everything is in order for the girls and make sure I get off on a good start for the week's cleaning. This semester so far has been absolutely crazy. Between the girls being sick, massive snow, dr appointment and cpr training I haven't worked a normal week yet...well this past Monday was a normal day. When I got home from work I was exhausted...all I wanted to do was just take a bath and soak and hopefully my aches and pains would go away. Well the girls were in their matching outfits, Kathryn was giggling away at Reagan and it wasn't anywhere near time for dinner yet, so I put the girls together for some pictures and one on one time before Daddy got home!

This picture best represents why with all the staying on top of cleaning and keeping a decent home that letting the clutter take over some is MORE than ok....

I would much rather have this picture to remind me of yesterday than a spotless kitchen and the (awesome) meatloaf and mac and cheese :-)

Gone With The Wind

2011-01-23T15:59:00.001-05:00

This post serves as two purposes, I am trying to play with some of the settings on here and I wanted to fill you in on something we did a while back.

Gone With the Wind is my absolute favorite movie Period. I first got interested in it when my grandfather bought me some piano music that was the theme to the movie. I was in 7th grade. Well we went to my grandparents house one weekend and it came on tv. Surprisingly my parents let me camp out in one of the spare bedrooms and watch it. I fell in love. From that point on I got movie posters, film trivia, and watched the movie as much as I could. When I got older and got married our spare room (at first) had Gone With the Wind black and white photos, but when Reagan came alone they were moved to make room for the transfer of items from the second guest room into the main guest room.

Scarlett's Honeymoon Dress

When we moved to Georgia there were SO many different Gone With the Wind things around here, but we just never got a chance to see them all. Well during the Christmas season we went over to Marietta Square to check out their Christmas decorations, well those were lacking so we headed over and went to the museum. It was filled with a wonderful quaint gift shop and a cute museum!

Poster up at the Movie Theater

While we were there we saw fliers for a showing of Gone With the Wind one Saturday night in a historic theater in the square.Well when we saw the date we knew that's when Adam's parents were coming down for Reagan's birthday! So we bought tickets and went for a date night. It was so much fun! They had a pipe organ that was playing the music from the movie before it began and it had a balcony which is where we sat. I wish I had brought my camera with me but I thought I would have looked silly---little did I know EVERYONE there was taking pics :-/ It was so great. I teared up when the movie started and I did cry when sweet Bonnie died. The movie is sad, but I'm not one that cries during those kind of things. So enjoy the pics of the museum and give it a try if you're ever at Marietta Square!

ps..I figured the settings dilemma out :-)

Doc Update!!

2011-01-22T13:07:00.001-05:00

We went on Tuesday for Reagan's 2 year appointment and Kathryn's 4 month appointment. Here are the stats:

Reagan-

23 lbs
32 inches
head circumference 46.5 cm.

She is done with her infant immunizations :-( but now every year at her appointments they will check her hemoglobin. Now I don't know about you all but that one gets me every time. I can give myself shots during pregnancy but the thought of them pricking my finger to check my iron freaks me out. Anyways, Reagan did wonderfully! She just sat there watching and when they put the bandaid on she kept fiddling with it with her thumb. Her weight was a little of concern because she's in the 10th percentile for her age. I found that surprising because she is wearing 24 month clothes. Even 2T in shirts! She only gained like 3 pounds this entire year but grew not quite 6 inches, so maybe that's the cause? While it's a little concerning, she is on par with her weight gain over the months and years.

Kathryn's stats:

14 lbs, 12.8 oz
23 1/2 inches
head circumference: 41 cm

She had two shots and one oral vaccine. She did really well and only cried when they gave her the shots, but wouldn't you? With her weight gain she falls in the 75th percentile for weight gain----geez louise!!! How is it possible for one child to be in the 10th and the other in the 75th? There is only an 8 lb difference between my 4 1/2 month old and two year old. Crazy!

Crafting and Decorating

2011-01-14T23:04:00.002-05:00

Well I'm writing this because I need advice :-)

The first dilemma that I have is we have an open space over the sink in our kitchen. I want to put something but I have no idea what. I'm not really a random artwork kind of person. Meaning almost all of the items on our walls have some sort of sentimental meaning to it....pictures of our family on our big wall, old family photos in our new bookshelves, framed wedding invites, etc...I'm not the type of person that buys artwork at Kirklands or something. Now please understand I'm not knocking it at all--just that's not what I'm into. But what in the world kind of photograph and frame do you hang up above your sink?? I found this and this, what do you think? I thought about doing the Fruits of the Spirit in stead of 'Be'...Do you have any suggestions for what I should do? Here is what my sad sink area looks like now....

Second dilemma. I am a neat and organized person. I despise clutter. I absolutely loved FlyLady's clutter removal to the point that I can't wait to do it with the girls' toys. Anyhow, we have an open banister that looks like this.

I am torn between whether that looks clean, or looks empty. What do you think? Keep in mind that while you will probably not be standing on the stairs looking up and thinking 'wow all I can see are the backs to all that stuff' that is exactly what would happen. I would look all fine and dandy from the living room, but from the stairs or even the other side of the living room or dining room you won't be able to see the items--only their backsides. That bothers me.

So give me your input....tell me what you think. I'm itching to do some crafty projects for the house instead of just scrapbooking--it's so rewarding!

Photos

2011-01-12T17:05:00.002-05:00

You know how when you have your second child people will tell you 'you'll never take as many pictures of them as you did your first'. Well I figured that was meant for everyone but me. I mean, how hard could it be? All you're doing is taking pictures...you just do the same thing as before!

How stinking naive of me. What you don't realize is that when you have your second + child, when they are napping or sleeping--the perfect time for photos-your older child(ren) need you! So taking pictures of Kathryn has been much more of a challenge than I could have imagined. Having her 1 year scrapbook has really helped me take pictures of her, but I really need to do better. My goal is try and get pictures of her at least once a week if not more.

Not to make excuses but we are still trying to get into a normal routine between Christmas, the whole family being sick, two birthdays, family coming to visit, and this ridiculous snow that we have gotten. I used to love snow. Then I moved to GA where no one knows how to deal with it and they freak out among other things...

Anyways, so that is my 'pledge'...here's to hoping I can stick with it!

I'll leave you with a current picture of Kathryn:

Birthday Fun

2011-01-08T12:13:00.000-05:00

If you read my post earlier about how we celebrate Christmas I mentioned that we do things a little differently around here...that applies to birthday's as well. If Christmas is all about Jesus' birthday then shouldn't our birthday's be all about us? Here are some of the things we do:

{1}We get a Birthday Week. Well the girls do. The reason Adam and I don't is because Adam's birthday is two days after Reagan's and my birthday is three days before Kathryn's. That's something huh?? Anyways, During the Birthday week, the girls get a small gift each night at dinner. It's not expensive or ornate...some of Reagan's were a coloring book and crayons, extra little people, a book, etc... Each of the girls have their own Birthday Plate that they eat dinner on during the week.
{2} Right now, they have a party when they turn one with family. Until they get older they probably won't have parties, but we do go somewhere. We went to the Aquarium for Reagan's birthday last year and this year we plan on going to the zoo for Kathryn's later on in the year.
{3}There is no budget or limit on gifts for them, but we do try to get them more for their Birthday than what they got at Christmas.
{4} We don't do cards. Don't worry, if you have mailed a birthday card to Reagan, it has been kept and is in her scrapbook. But instead of going through and trying to find the perfect birthday card we bought journals. I actually bought extra :-) We each have our own journal and when it's our birthday everyone in the family writes in it. Until the girls can actually write we'll either write what they say, or they will draw a picture or something.
{5}Meals...we try to fix their favorite meal for their birthday dinner and then all the other meals they like during the week.

If you have any questions about any of it just comment below :-) I feel like there is more that I didn't write, but if I think of any more I'll add to it...

Happy Birthday Reagan!

2011-01-06T20:33:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Reagan!!!

6 lbs 9 oz, 18 inches long; born at 7:53 am

She's 1! Taken right after our trip to the Aquarium :-)

She's two :-) Right before her birthday dinner!

Biltmore

2011-01-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

Adam and I love the Biltmore. We really like going in the spring or summer when the gardens are in bloom, but it's Christmas when it's easiest to go. Our families live about an hour from Asheville so we just tack that on the end of a trip up to East Tennessee. This year we decided to go and thought it would be a great time to do a couples trip with no kiddos. So we asked Adam's sis and her husband if they wanted to go along.

We were going to go to the Grove Park Inn to see the Gingerbread Houses as well but we just didn't have enough time to go--maybe next year :-) I would like to go back later this year but I don't know if I can convince Adam. We wanted to get the add on for the yearly pass but were afraid that if we did then we wouldn't be able to go back and then would be out the money. Below are some pictures highlighting the trip. Good times!

Side view of the front of the house

Clock Tower at the Winery

Adam and I in front of the house, my hair was doing something funky-oh well

Recap of Christmas in Photos

2011-01-04T18:58:00.004-05:00

It would take way too long to recap Christmas and all the fun times! So I just uploaded highlights of photos for you to enjoy. They aren't in order, but you get the drift :-) These are photos of places we went and things we did during the month of December. I'll post something later about our trip to Biltmore. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to All...

2010-12-22T15:46:00.001-05:00

and to all good night!

Pumpkin Crunch

2010-12-22T12:35:00.004-05:00

Baking is just about my favorite thing :-) The other morning I got on facebook where I am a fan of Paula Deen. Paula--we're on a first name basis ;-) had shared a recipe called Pumpkin Crunch. Now as silly as this may sound, anything with the word 'crunch' in it we will probably like, plus it had pecans AND pumpkin in it. Pumpkin is this 'odd' food that I always forget how much I like it until the fall---odd I know. Anyways, I made it yesterday and it is AWESOME!! I was going to take a picture, but we dipped into it :-) She wasn't kidding when she said this was easy to make!

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 12 ox can fat free evaporated milk (I goofed and used sweetened condensed and it still tasted fine)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 egg whites
1 large egg
1 16 oz sugar free yellow cake mix
1/2 cup chopped pecans
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Whisk the pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl until well mixed. Add the egg whites and egg, whisking until well blended. Scrape the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the batter to cover completely. Scatter the nuts and butter pieces over top. Bake, uncovered, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

The official name is Bobby's Lighter Pumpkin Crunch, which was taken from the original recipe 'Aunt Trina's Holiday Pumpkin Crunch'

I haven't looked at the original recipe, but if I had to guess I would bet there is less butter, maybe less sugar, the evaporated milk instead of whole milk, and the egg whites instead of more eggs...that's just a guess though!

Enjoy!

Celebrating Christmas

2010-12-16T14:52:00.001-05:00

Well this post has been a long time coming but here we go! A couple years ago our small group did a study called 'Genesis of a Legacy' which was about raising your children biblical. It ranged from everything like what mine and Adam's love languages were to discipline to a mini study on holidays and how they celebrate them and why.

It all discussed things that Adam and I had been had been thinking about for a while now but couldn't really put into words. So below is a brief description of what we do for Christmas...

1. Birthday Party for Jesus. I mean that's the reason we celebrate right?? So I found instructions for a 'Jesus' cake. Now that Reagan is old enough to have a basic concept of what's going on I'm excited to be able to do this! We won't go all out this year (some have decorations, and things of that nature but we won't). We'll probably read the Advent Book that we got last year (for $1 at Lifeway) that's a children's/toddlers Christmas book to talk about His birth, have some cake, and I got activity tablets at Lifeway that Reagan and I will do as well.

2. Advent Family Night. We are trying to have a family night once a week so during the Advent month it will be centered around Christmas/Advent/Jesus. From ideas and handouts we were given during the class, I made a book with suggested activities, snacks, prayers, sharing, and scripture for each week. It all will culminate Christmas morning with the next activity...

3. Well since Christmas is technically Jesus' birthday, and we give gifts to others for their birthday's, shouldn't we give something to Him? During December Adam and I will separately go out and pick out an ornament that represents a gift we want to give to Jesus the upcoming year. When our kids get old enough they will pick theirs out, but for now we are picking theirs out. We bought an ornament stand last year and we hung our ornaments up on it and we leave it up all year long in our dining room so we see it constantly and are reminded. We will share these with each other Christmas morning--it's a surprise!!

4. Well this is an obvious of course, but reading The Nativity Story on Christmas Eve.

5. Well since this is Jesus' birthday, he should get the most gifts! So, our kids only receive three gifts from us--the same as what Jesus got. Since deciding to do this we have heard so many different options that people do! What we heard at first was: something they want, something they need, and something you want them to have. We've also heard something for spiritual growth instead of something you want them to have. Then I heard this little rhyme: something they want, something they need, something for growth and something to read. Ok, I thought that was kind of cute but we were still sticking with the original thoughts. Then during our current study (Entrusted with a Child's Heart---great so far!) it was talking about devotion time, and having your children participate and things of that nature. So, Adam and I are doing the three listed at first, but the girls gifts to each other are little devotional books. They actually make them for toddler's and older so there were lots of options to choose from! When we have more kids they will start swapping names I'm sure and eventually we might just even have enough to let them choose from then instead of buying on--although I guess since Reagan is the oldest she will always get a new one. Trying to follow this is not as easy as it sounds! We are all born selfish creatures and when it comes to buying items for our kids we see things we know they would love and want to get it all! It has been a difficult transition for me because Reagan is older and there are so many things she would love but I know that we truly believe in what we're doing so I have to make a list and check things out before going shopping--that makes things much easier on me to not go overboard! This discussion of gifts leaves us to my next point....

6. Santa Claus. The verdict is still out on that. Adam says no, I am wavering :-) Since Reagan is so little we've got another year to figure it out I guess... Right now the gifts are from us and some will be wrapped, and some set up and out. We do have stockings though, so maybe that doesn't fall in the categories above but oh well.

7. Ok so this last part doesn't have much to with Christmas BUT since I shared about Christmas gifts above...birthdays! Well Christmas is about Jesus' birth and we want to celebrate to the max so shouldn't we do the same with us??? My family does!! I've actually just decided that this will be a different blog post all together so sorry to introduce you to this and then not follow through! You'll just have to keep checking back :-)

8. During the upcoming year I am going to collect the items needed for a Jesse Tree. I found some devotionals and ornaments online, and printed them out but when I realized that the length of advent changes yearly so next year I would have to find more ornaments and devotions I just about freaked out. I'm not really one to change traditions or do things my own way, but for this I trimmed a couple ornaments out and condensed it to 25, so we can begin on the 25th. That is one that will go in the girl's room or something like that...I am waiting for my copy of the Jesse Tree from the library so I can look into that also. I've got a tree to use, but no ornaments. Anyone know where I can get inexpensive charms for it?

If you are interested in the books we use, or information that we have please let me know! I will gladly email it to you :-)

Happy 3 Months!

2010-12-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

Stuff I Make

2010-12-13T19:53:00.004-05:00

So as most of you know I enjoy doing craft things...when the holiday's started to hit I found a lot of different items that I wanted to make. Here are some of them:

When I was visiting my parents a couple months ago, I noticed my mom's broach holder. I told her I really liked it and asked her where she got it, and she said it was a family heirloom from her aunt. I decided then that it was definitely something I could make, so with a hot glue gun, fabric, batting, and an old picture frame I wasn't using this was made...I took about 15 pictures trying to get a good photo but I think the dark colors keep the broaches from really showing up.

I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of this :-) I wanted to make something that was a thankfulness countdown of sorts, so after doing some research I somewhat came up with a plan...a piece of plywood, batting, fabric, and staple gun--that made the board. I used my cricut to cut all the tags and the 'give thanks' heading. When Thanksgiving rolls around next year we'll take the tags and write down things we are thankful for and share them at dinner time.

Ok, this may be a little hard to see. One of our Advent activity books has us read stories about Jesus and such every night. Each time it mentions a name of Christ we are to find the corresponding star to put on the wreath. I made the wreath and stars on my cricut.

Ok, there wasn't much to this I have to admit. This is our Family Advent Night book that I put together. The actual pages and activities I got from a friend, but I retyped it and made the front and back cover, laminated it and then used my zutter binder to bind it all together.

Things that I'm working on? The Jesse Tree for next Christmas :-)

Thanksgiving

2010-12-12T09:45:00.002-05:00

Wow! I can't believe it's mid December and I never posted Thanksgiving photos! This year we were really lucky and able to spend the entire week in Nashville--this was especially nice since we will not be able to go there at Christmas! Adam and Dave went to the Titan's/Redskins game where it went into overtime but the Titan's lost :-( We got our Christmas shopping started and finished as well as Reagan's birthday shopping finished-yay! Family came by to visit, Reagan got to play with cousins, everyone saw Kathryn for the first time-it was wonderful!

As much as we like hosting Thanksgiving, I think going to Nashville is our favorite!

Kathryn dressed and ready to enjoy her first Thanksgiving!

Reagan and the turkey on Nannie's front porch

Reagan and Pop reading abook

My girls...

2010-12-08T18:41:00.002-05:00

oh how I love them!!

Chicken Pesto

2010-12-08T08:43:00.004-05:00

This is yet again another recipe from the Campbell's Recipe Book! I knew that I would like this, but I could tell that Adam wasn't so sure. We're all about chicken at our house :-) but 'pesto' is quite a fancy word for Adam's palatte :-P Anyways, I made it and he LOVED it! Reagan did too---there were leftovers which I thought I was going to get for lunch the next day but when I went in to get them he had taken it! Guess he wasn't lying! Here is the recipe and some pictures to show how much Reagan enjoyed it :-)

2 tbsp butter
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 cup pesto sauce
1/2 milk
3 cups bow tie pasta (cooked and drained) *although we use the egg noodles*

Heat the butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until it's well browned, stirring often.

Stir the soup, pesto sauce and milk in the skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the pasta and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

Enjoy
*Taken from Campbell's Recipe Collection*

The Household Notebook

2010-12-03T18:07:00.000-05:00

WOW! Is all I can say about this! I frequently visit Habits for a Happy Home and I read the original post back in January. Well then it popped up two months ago (I think) in the top 10 posts of October. I reread it and again, all I can say is WOW...Now that I have two kiddos having this is a huge lifesaver!

What is a household notebook you might ask? It's a common place for all the information for the family to be kept. Notice I said FAMILY...not mom, not dad, not kids, but FAMILY. I still have my day planner that has appointments and things of that nature on it, but everything is in this little gem. There are MANY different things you could put in yours but this is what I did with mine:

General Information: {1} I keep blank budget sheets and the current month's budget in there. If you have certain bills that fluctuate then I would suggest keeping the budgets from years past so you can look back and know what to expect. We have a fixed rate mortgage and we have the levelized billing with our electricity so those are the same every month. {2} I have the monthly meal organizer in there as well as blank shopping lists. {3} Cleaning Schedule(s) for both weeks. {4} Our daily routine. I actually printed two of these out, one for when I'm teaching and the other for when I'm at home. It helps when grandparents come to visit and babysit for an evening or for when I take the girls over to their babysitter's house so she knows what we do and can plan the day accordingly.

Calendar: {1} I have a 2011 calendar that I ended up having to make on the computer because I couldn't find one I liked well enough to use. It's four pages, 3 months on each page. The purpose of this calendar is for me to write down vacations on there, Adam's tournament schedule down, and any breaks/holidays that I have coming up. I DO NOT put our daily activities on there (such as small group, dr appointments, meetings, etc...). That is all I have in this section, I would like to put more in there but seriously how many different calendars can you put in one section?

Holidays: THE BIG ONE at the moment :-) According to some of the blogs and such that I read you can make your own holiday notebook. I think as we do more, have more kids, and have more things going on we might need it but for now I'm content with this cute littel section in our current notebook. Here's what it's got: {1} Calendar of December. Who would have thought that our little family would 'need' one but once I got it on there I was shocked how it filled up! From travel plans, to Christmas Parties, to Church Services ours it quite full already! {2} Holiday menu planner--ok this one is a given but it's where I've written down stuff that I plan on us having for our Christmas Eve dinner {3} Holiday traditions...this one was a must for me! Since finding out we were going to be parents in the Spring of '08 we've been learning different ideas and things to do for the Holidays. I have gotten quite overwhelmed with them and had forgotten half of them. This template page has space for 5 traditions (which at the moment is all we needed) for me to write out and seeing it all laid out as such I realized that it wasn't that much at all! {4} Master gift list, with budgeted amount to spend and actually spent. {5} Black Friday/Christmas Ads. {6}Receipts in case anyone needs an exchange (although I highly recommend that you know the store's policy. Apparently even with a receipt Best Buy has become extremely difficult to return items too) {7} A weekly calendar for the week of Easter, this is so I can plan out our family's activities plus write in any Church/Community activities too. {8} Another traditions page for Easter with the menu planning page as well. {9} Birthday Party/Party planning pages. There is one template for guests, one that is a checklist, and the third that is the brainstorming page where you write items out.

Crafts: WOOOO HOOOOOO my favorite :-) Ok to start out with, it has a master to do list. I have written down here everything crafty that I want to do. There is everything from building 2x4 pumpkins, to scrapbook pages. I have been blogging for about 3 years now I believe but I have just recently discovered the wonderful websites that have crafty ideas and suggestions on them. What I have done is, if the item is listed on the to do this (except scrapbooking) then I put the instructions in the plastic sleeves. I do have a sewing notebook that my patterns and such as kept in, but this is great for keeping me on my toes about what I want to do. Ideas in there are: canister sleeves, Thanksgiving countdown banner, Jesse Tree, etc...
Travel: This page starts out with the places that we are traveling to. I am an avid planner so even if it's Charleston or Savannah (places we love and have been to numerous times) I will google items, whip out travel books, research places, etc...because I want to get the most out of our money. So what I find I put in the sleeves for that particular trip. For instance everything that I've got on Biltmore and Grove Park Inn are in the sleeve for me to whip out when we travel there in a month.

It doesn't have to be anything fancy---mine isn't! I went in our garage to find one and found not only that but the plastic page protectors, dividers, and paper. I would suggest to start out with items you have on hand and as you gradually work on your book then you can change it out with the good stuff'. I would also reccommend that you just start out with your sections. I would like to put more sections in mine, but can't think of any more for the time being. Can you think of any I'm missing?

Some websites stated that there are many homeschool and stay at home moms that use this. I'm not going to deny that but I think it's also great for working moms too! I'm a firm believer that we are to be keepers of the home whether we work outside the home or not, so having this will definitely keep me on track for doing what I need to do at home. Plus if I can stay organized then it will be much simpler to get the needed items done.

Don't get stressed by everything I've written!! It has taken me a month or longer just to get where I am now! Just like everything else in life, building this notebook up has taken a lot of start up time, but once it's complete and I can move forward then we're good to go!

Some notes I would like to add are: As stated above, there are some that have a separate Holiday notebook. If you have an exceptionally large home and need to figure out where/how to decorate then it might be a good idea for you. Right now I am happy and content with mine the way it is. Within my holiday section I have it broken into three holidays (so far): Christmas, Easter, and Birthday's. Everything is divided as such so that's why there are different traditions pages at different parts of the section. I think I will be on the lookout for Thanksgiving activities and such as well...we don't do much for Halloween but I guess if I combined them both for Fall that could work....hmmmmmm. Another thing is that I believe I am going to redo how I do the menu planning....I found a wonderful template that has a week schedule on it with menu space at the bottom that I believe I will laminate and put magnets on the back so I can use it as a wet erase board. Plus the list template has much more room for grocery lists :-)

Before you begin I would suggest following websites. They can give you ideas for sections, plus have FREE printables that help you even more!

Habits for a Happy Home

Everything Mom

Organized Home

TipNut