Spring Days

Spring is officially here, although we’ve actually had spring like days for quite awhile now! So much for our persimmon seed weather prediction of lots of snow for the winter, huh?

With weather so beautiful, Jason was able to (finally) finish Amber’s cabinet! He put the finishing touches on it Monday evening and the cabinet is now in its new home at the salon. I really like the way it turned out!  (I snapped a picture of it before it was loaded up and ready to go).

Notice the addition on the side? It is removable if Amber so desires. It holds her hair styling equipment……..hair dryer, curling irons, and flat irons….etc….

Nearly two weeks ago, on another beautiful weekend, we were blessed to attend my Grandma’s 94th birthday party. She is an amazing woman! She has done remarkably well for her age. However, we did receive word last night that she is in the hospital. She apparently had a light heart attack and has pneumonia on one side. I’d appreciate it if you remember Grandma in your prayers!

That same weekend of Grandma’s birthday party, we were blessed to meet a very sweet blogging friend, Betty of Through My Back Door! Betty made time to meet with us even though she had been cooking brunch for her granddaughter, Amanda, and her family (whom we have all been praying for). She is such a bubbly precious person! I felt like I have known her forever! Blogging friends are just awesome! Betty also works part time at The Speckled Hen, which is a wonderful primitive store! But as I told her, I’m not sure how she keeps from wanting everything in the store when she goes to work! I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble if I worked there on a regular basis! Oh to have a store such as that near me! We have nothing of that sort near us. Sharon is the owner of The Speckled Hen and she is one talented lady! Her decorating skills are obvious by looking around her store!  It is such a charming place!

Sharon is a really sweet person too! She gave the kids a candle that they had been admiring (and smelling) the whole time we were there!  :) 

Thank you, Sharon, for opening your store to us, for the candle, and to you and Betty both for making us feel so welcome!

Here we are. That’s Betty next to Joy and Sharon next to Betty.  (Jason was there.....but he was the photographer).

This past weekend, while I was inside the house (all.weekend.long) nursing a migraine headache, and Jason was finishing up Amber’s cabinet, Joy worked with Luke on his baseball skills. The baseball set was a birthday gift from Uncle Richie and Aunt Missy. He loved it!

He had the stance down pretty well.

I don’t think he ever hit a ball though. But he never gave up trying!

I think he actually did more of this…….retrieving the ball.

Pitching was his favorite thing about baseball.  Can you tell by the grin on his face?

Along with spring comes the desire to give the house a good spring cleaning. That is definitely on my to-do list. (Bet you thought I was going to show you a nice clean house now didn’t you?) Not yet......remember I had a migraine all weekend!  We have a certain 4 year old around here that has somehow acquired quite a few toys that need to be organized and…….ahem….donated to kids that don’t have any toys.  :)  We haven’t taken a spring break (as such) from homeschooling, although we’ve had a little bit lighter load this week. I’m hoping to get a little of that spring cleaning done before this week is gone.

I hope you’re all enjoying this spring weather! Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great day!  :)

A Shopping Tradition......

This is the result of four women shopping for fifteen hours on Black Friday. :)

You should have seen all of this and us crammed into my little Mazda 3.  But we did it.  :)

My mom, sister-in-law, niece-in-law, and I left the house at 3:10 a.m. and came dragging back in at 6:00 p.m. (with pizza for supper). :)

Joy stayed home with the men and helped out with the little ones all day. The guys were very thankful for her help….and she was happy to be surrounded by babies. (Thanks for your prayers….she is much better).

We had a great time, found some great deals, laughed a lot, and came home exhausted. Next year we will plan to do it all over again. :)

What about you? Did you shop on Black Friday?

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

A Good Day at the Antique Gallery!

The Antique Gallery is one of my all-time favorite places to shop for my home.  I could stay in there for hours! Primitive and Country shops are few and far between in this area, but there are several booths in the Antique Gallery that I especially love.....and then some that occasionally surprise me with a great find.

On my last visit, something red caught my eye.  It's my favorite color so I already knew that red would be (at least) an accent color in The Cedar Loft (the backyard apartment/pool house).  So, when I saw this red clawfoot table and chairs, I knew it would look great in there.  I just wasn't sure if the space could handle a 48" table.  I quickly called Jason and he said it would work fine.  My heart did a little flip.   :)  And since it's important to me that Jason and I are in agreement on "big" purchases like this, even though he does leave the decorating to me for the most part, I still wanted to know what he thought of it, so I quickly sent him a picture via the cellphone.  He gave it his stamp of approval, so it became ours!  And for $250!  Since we're not ready for it just yet, they're keeping it at the Antique Gallery for us until we can bring it home.

This picture of it (still at the booth) was taken with my cellphone (I should have learned by now to take my camera with me to The Antique Gallery).  It's not the best quality, but here it is:

There has also been a red plaid/checked couch at The Antique Gallery for quite awhile that I've always admired.  This particular day, there was a sale which gave the couch a very attractive price tag of $112!  After a trip back over there for Jason to see it later, we also claimed it for The Cedar Loft!

Sorry for the poor quality....taken with my cell phone.

As The Cedar Loft is progressing, I can envision the red dining table and the red couch in their spots.  It's a very open plan and will all flow together.  It's exciting to see it all coming together!

Another bonus.....I couldn't pass this up either - a quilt!  And after 60% off, only $60!  This will be on the bed in The Cedar Loft too.  Notice it has that punch of red too?

Anyone know what this pattern is called?

It was one of those days when it just all came together.  I loved them; Jason approved; And now we have our inspiration pieces!

Oh, and these items came home with me as well:

The bee skep has a new home on the sunporch.

The grater and the sifter have a home in my kitchen.

And this, well I had to have it for the bar in The Cedar Loft, just because it was the exact same red color as the table and chairs (from the same booth).  I'm thinking I will replace the glass dome with a shoo-fly screen.

Before you think, wow, what a spender, let me just plug in here that this was definitely not a typical shopping visit (for me) to The Antique Gallery.  A typical shopping day mostly consists of "window shopping" and perhaps a small item or two comes home with me.  And I'm always excited about those too (things like the bee skep or sifter).  So that's why this day was especially exciting!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  :)

 

Reality....Signs That a Two Year Old Little Boy Will Soon Be Here!

You'll have to excuse me here....even car underwear....hee hee! :) (I know I don't need to count on him being ready for these right away; but they were so cute, I couldn't help myself).



And look what what a thoughtful gift....Luke is going to love this! It's from Linda of Behind My Red Door! The package arrived a few days ago and Joy beat me to opening it! Of course, she and Colt have "tried it out" many times. It's just so fun! The little screwdriver winds up the car in the back; then you push down on Handy Manny's head and off the car zooms! This little toy just may go to China with us as an icebreaker for Luke! Thank you so much, Linda! You're so sweet!



And Luke's bedroom is done! I'm just doing a little accessorizing (not much..I figure his toys added over time will do most of that). Hopefully pics of that will come later this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by today! And thanks for all the encouraging comments! I appreciate each and every one! Have a great weekend! :)

A Little Retail Therapy.....

I took a little advice recently, during this wait for LOA and did a little shopping....ummm.....I mean retail therapy. :) Honestly, it does help! It was fun shopping for little boy clothes again!

Most of my retail therapy, however, was actually in the form of ebay shopping and consignment store shopping. I'm always one for a bargain and why pay more, when you can get it for less is my way of thinking. Besides until I'm absolutely sure about sizes, I wanted (and needed) to find bargains. And so I did! I found lots of Gymboree and Gap items at great prices. Since we will travel to China in summer to bring Luke home, I've mostly purchased shorts and shirts for now.

I couldn't resist a little pair of Mini Boden swimming trunks, although Jason jokingly told me they were "a little violent" (sharks eating fish)! But I could just picture him swimming in those trunks and had to have them....



Most of these are polo shirts and tees and shorts, along with the "violent" swimming trunks, and a couple pairs of summer pjs.



I always loved putting caps and overalls on Colt as a toddler, so I was really drawn to these adorable Gymboree overalls (and the Gap cap):



And look at these adorable short/shirt sets with matching caps...one was a dinosaur set and the other a baseball....



I've been buying 3ts based on Luke's mesurements. I hope I'm getting in right. But in the case, I've not hit the size right, I'm going to try not to go too overboard with the clothes and take the advice of other adoptive moms and wait to shop a little more in China (if necessary). And shoes? I don't even know where to start! Hopefully, we'll get updated info and measurements after LOA (today is day 56 by the way) and I can guess a little closer!

I think now I'm going to focus more on acquiring a few toys I'd like to take along to China (and a few for home too).

Until time to go bring our little guy home....I will have to agree that a little (budget minded) retail therapy does a mama good! :)

Our Weekend Getaway

In spite of the weather, we were able to get away for our weekend with friends! The weather got a little scary here right before we left. I'm so sorry that Joy scared so many of you with the post on her blog! Can you tell how she feels about storms? Jason had gotten our computers for us, as we sat in the bathroom waiting it out. He was going in and out, checking on the weather. To answer someone's question, no, we don't have a basement. As a matter of fact, basements aren't very popular in homes in this area. I do wish we had a storm room though. If we ever build a home again, it will have a storm room built into it. Some friends of ours did that, and that's very nice to have! Anyway, we're fine. There was lots of water standing in our yard when we returned, and stuff blown everywhere. The pool was pretty yucky with leaves and debris, and some of my daddy's garden doesn't look so well, but our homes were fine and we we're fine. Thanks for the concern!

Now, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about our weekend! We drove down in the rain all the way and didn't get there until late, so we didn't do much of anything but talk and visit when we arrived. Betty always has brownies made (Jason and Joy's favorite) and has plenty of Diet Dew for me! :)

Betty is my friend that stitches all the time! Remember all those stitcheries she did and brought to me? I framed three of the stitcheries that she did and took them back to her. Here they are all painted and framed:



This one is for her sister!



The lemonade one will go in her kitchen. I love the cheery yellows of this!



But I guess this rooster had to be my favorite. Betty's kitchen is done in roosters, so it will look good in there. Of course, I'm partial to the reds in it too! The red frame matches her red cupboard in her kitchen.



I need to get to Goodwill and try to find more frames!

Saturday, the guys took Joy trout fishing, but she came home a little disappointed. There were so many canoers (partying canoers unfortunately), that the fish weren't biting. The place was just too busy. My daddy did catch one fish. She still was able to do a little "playing" in the river though.



Meanwhile, the ladies went shopping. The junk store really was a true junk store, and unfortunately, they were closed. There was a sign on the door saying they were gone to a graduation and wouldn't be back for a week.



Look at the name of this place. We thought it was unusual....and funny!



We did go in some other shops. The only thing I bought was this prim sheep.



I thought this picture of Mama and Betty in the big chair was cute and they gave me permission to show it....look at these two shopping chics!



That evening, we went back into town for dinner. We went to the same place we went last time. The food is really good. On the weekends, they have a band playing country music in the parking lot. Everyone brings their chairs and sits out and listens to the band. They have a place cleared for dancing. There were really only two different couples that really danced.



Notice Joy sitting there up front listening to the music. Well I knew that wouldn't last long.



Before too long, she was moving a little to the music. I remarked that if she ever got up the nerve, she'd be out there. Then the next thing I knew, Betty said, "There she goes...she's out there!"



And she did. She got out there and danced! I have no idea where she gets this because I don't like to do anything in front of a crowd that I don't have to. I guess it's from Jason. He's much more outgoing in front of a crowd than me. I have to get to know you first! :) Anyway, she had a great time and those people were just smiling as they watched! I guess she took to heart what I've always told her, "Dance like no one is watching!" :)

I wasn't able to get on the computer while we were there because Betty's computer was hit with a virus and going a little crazy. She has really missed her computer, but I just got word that her computer whiz nephew, Paul, helped her out and her computer is well now! So now she's telling me it's time to change my blog! :)

Saturday evening, the girls watched the movie, "Dreamer". I love that movie. I had seen it before and remembered liking it the first time. I think Dakota Fanning is just a little darling, and I've always loved Kurt Russell too. Our guys sat out on the porch, shooting the breeze, and enjoying the cooler evening weather (without mosquitoes).

Take a look at the "fur babies" there this weekend.

This is Taffy....Richard and Betty's baby. She's a bad to the bone Yorkie! She might look girly, but she's as tough as they come! She's now 9 years old and lived through many adventures!





This is Stinker....my mom and dad's baby. She's almost 8 years old. She has the sweetest disposition, especially for a chihuahua. She is quite spoiled!



And this is the newest member to Richard and Betty's family. She's the outdoor baby. Her name is Molly. We have no idea what kind of dog she is, although I think she has some German Shepherd in her. They went to Walmart shopping one day, and came home with Molly. Some people were giving dogs away in the parking lot! Molly and Joy got along really well this weekend!



Sunday was pretty much spent low key, around the house, because it had been raining. We headed on home later that afternoon. There had been more storms while we were gone and there was lots of water in the yard. My dad killed a snake. Snakes really seem to be bad here this year. Anyone else having lots of snakes in your area? Yuck! I don't like any kind of a snake! Jason found one lying across the motor of his truck this morning too and we think it might be a copperhead! I'm really paranoid now!

Oh, and today my dad dropped by and brought in our mail and my room spray came in that I ordered from Beth! She was so generous! She included an extra one. I ordered a cinnamon stick one and she also sent me a peach scent! I'm loving it! My house smells so good right now! Thank you, Beth! That was so sweet of you!



And that, my friends, is what we've been up to! I hope you all had a great weekend too, and that you have a wonderful week ahead and that you're safe in all the storms! :)

~ Tammy ~

Surprises!

Okay. I really had no intentions of buying a laptop for about a month or so. Really...I didn't! Jason and I had discussed it and that's what I thought. What I didn't know is that he's been looking and asking around (while I was doing my own research), with the hopes of surprising both Colt and me with new laptops.

Colt has been great to let me use his laptop. He doesn't take it to school with him anymore, and he works so much that we were able to share it. When he was home, I would just move to the desktop, and give him back his computer. His computer really needed more hard drive and remember how I told you in Friday's post that it had been doing strange things lately? Well, we took it in to the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy. They ran a diagnostic test on it and he said it's not the most infected computer he'd seen, but was pretty close. They were surprised we were still able to use it. A few months ago, Colt had clicked on something that said we needed to update virus protection or something like that. Well it turned out to be a virus itself. It became progressively worse by just shutting down, pop-ups, and really annoying things besides it was running slowly. Hopefully, they're going to be able to take care of that. If they do, Joy will have her a laptop! She's VERY excited about that. Colt told her he'd pass his down to her.

BECAUSE....he got this one! It's a Dell studio 15 with a 15.4" screen. That's the size he wanted.



And I got this one! It's a Dell Studio 17. It has the 17" screen I wanted and it's RED! I can't even tell you how much I'm enjoying this big screen and with 4 GB of memory, 320 GB of hard drive, it should last me awhile! I love my computer! (And Colt's has all the same features).



We decided on Dell for a few reasons. Asking sales reps in many stores, we were ALWAYS told that Dell and HP were at the top of the list for PCs. I read many reviews online, read all your comments (of course), and called friends that own The Computer Factory. The name Dell was always thrown out there. Jason had researched on his own and came to that conclusion for us, but wouldn't say so, until he saw what I wanted! I know there are many opinions, and sometimes in a particular brand, you just get a lemon sometimes too. But we also considered that we had two Dells already, a laptop and desktop, and never had any problems with them, other than this virus, and obviously that wasn't by fault of the computer. So we figure, if it has worked this long for us, why change? (Kind of like the cars we buy too)!

Jason took us out last night leading us to believe we were "looking" at computers. Little did I know, once we had made the decision of the brand, he had every intention of buying them then. So, I'm a happy girl today! (And Colt was very excited over his too)! Joy is very tickled that she will have her own too! He sure is good to us! :)

Thank you for passing along your advice, opinions, reviews, and comments on the laptops! I appreciate every one! And so, Kath, does that mean we have twin computers now? :)

And here's my other very pleasant surprise that came in yesterday's mail:




This afternoon I will sit back in my recliner with a cup of hot chocolate, and savour each page! But of course, I had to thumb through and find Linda's beautiful home! It is so exciting for me to see her home featured, as I love her decor, so I can only imagine how exciting it must be for her! Congratulations, Linda! I'm so proud for you! :)

Have a great Sunday everyone! Does anyone still take Sunday afternoon naps? :)

Black Friday Shopping & Two "Young" Chics

I can't believe it's been since Wednesday that I've posted! What a treat it was to come back home and read all the comments on Sunday! Thank you so much for stopping by for the dining room Christmas pictures and for the kind comments! I hope to catch up on blog reading late at night these next few evenings. I will be getting ready for our party here on Friday night, so it will be a very busy week for me. I am looking forward to it so much, though!

Just for a quick post today, I wanted to leave you with a picture that is a result of our Black Friday shopping. My mom, sister-in-law, and niece-in-law (if that is a correct word) and myself were out at Walmart at 4:30 a.m. on Friday. Although Black Friday shopping is a tradition for us, I have to say this was the first time to be at a Walmart, and I don't know that I ever want to be THERE again at that time! It was wild! When 5:00 a.m. rolled around, and they announced on the loud speaker to "go", I never saw such madness! People were throwing things over their shoulder into their carts and passing things over the head to the crowd behind them. I just stepped out of the way and watched. However, my sister-in-law, Missy, did manage to be one of the lucky ones to get a Wii. I just stood back and "watched our basket" from the things we had put in there before 5:00 a.m. All in all, it was fun though! The rest of the places weren't as bad. Later for lunch, we met with several other relatives, including my 90 year old Grandma, for lunch at Mama Blues.

So here's the result from four women shopping for 15 hours on Black Friday! Believe me, I didn't have one bit of trouble sleeping on Friday night! Oh, and you should have seen us trying to get all the stuff home (my mom's and mine) in one car because Jason and Colt had come home earlier because both had to work. Joy and I were packed in the back seat with LOTS of stuff! But would I do it again, yep, but I think I'd would think very strongly about starting at Walmart! :)



And one last thing....we had our Thanksgiving dinner at the church fellowship hall of the church attended by lots of our family members just because it's a HUGE family and there's more room there! These two pictures following are of my Grandma and Joy (her great Grandma). Joy walked up and was hugging her and I remarked that she was almost as tall as Grandma and they posed for these pictures laughing about it.



Joy is 9 and Grandma is 90! They are both blessings!



Next Christmas pictures I will be sharing is the foyer, staircase, and upstairs tree. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! :)

Weekend Trip....Fishing, Shopping & Eating...Oh My!

Well I guess you were probably expecting to hear about a real romantic anniversary getaway today....so I'm sorry to disappoint you! :) But in our defense, let me say that we do have date nights fairly regularly so we have our "romantic getaways"...but...this isn't one of them! :)

Jason and I did have a nice dinner out and a movie at home alone on our actual anniversary (last Thursday), but we (Jason, Joy & I....Colt had to work so he stayed home) spent the weekend at the home of our friends, Betty and Richard, in the Ozark foothills. My mom and dad met us there Friday night!

Along the way driving to our destination, we passed through the little town of Ravenden and Jason pulled over for me to get this picture. For all of you primitive lovers...that love crows...I had to get a picture of the giant raven welcoming visitors into their little town!



I've always loved this cabinet of Betty's. They found it in pieces in an old shed on their property. They brought it in and put it together, painted it, and added the curtain on the front (since it was minus the doors). She says she didn't intend or set out to collect roosters, she just had one or two and before she knew it...they multiplied! You know how is is..someone buys you one...another friend gives you another and so on...then you have a collection!



Jason, Joy & I spent Friday afternoon in the little town of shops. We just did some window shopping. I didn't buy a thing on Friday! Well I think we did buy Joy some candy and we had to stop by the ice cream shoppe!

Friday night I felt like I was in "computer heaven". Now mind you, they live in the boonies, probably 5-6 miles down a country gravel road (sure wish I had a picture of Black Beauty after that!)....they live that far out and have DSL....fast speed internet...I mean fast speed! Joy, Jason & I were all amazed at how quickly a page was "there" when we clicked on it! I was able to do my blogroll and make many blog visits. I was like a kid at Christmas or a kid at a candy store!

On Saturday, my dad, Richard, Jason & Joy went trout fishing. Joy had awaited this day with great anticipation....my dad had promised to take her trout fishing. Jason was the official photographer while Joy, Pop (my dad), and Richard fished. She absolutely loved it! She hung with the guys the whole time! I'm not sure they expected her to stick it out, but she did! Joy gave her trout to a nearby fisherman that was cheering her on to "catch him some more". He said, "Get em' girl", and that's all she needed to hear! She caught 4 trout that day!


Patiently waiting...

Hey, I got one!

It's SO cute! Poor fish!

Pop & Joy

Ankle deep...

Waist deep...

Okay, Joy...deep enough!

So she moved back a little..

And another catch...

Trying again...


They came home with lots of wet clothes and the flowers that Jason and Joy picked for me! (See I get romance everyday!) :) Well...almost.



While they were fishing, the ladies - my mom, Betty and I - went back to town to the shops. This time around I did buy some things. I picked up this little sign for my sunporch in a crafts mall booth and the double bucket carrier at my favorite shop, "Sassy Tree". (The lady at this store wants to put some of Jason's shutters in her store, by the way...We're excited about that!)



I also purchased some tarts (now I need a tart warmer..which I intend to order) in honeysuckle and harvest spice. I also bought the spinning bobbins at the same store. I haven't made up my mind for sure where I'm putting them just yet.



Then Saturday evening, we all went out to dinner at a local restaurant that featured a live band playing country music out front. Everyone had their lawn chairs spread out enjoying the music. After all of that eating, Betty made one of my dad's favorite finger foods...sausage and cheese balls...and one of Jason's favorites...brownies! I seriously have to diet now!

Sunday morning for the ladies was spent in Walmart. What trip to anywhere is complete without at least one stop in Walmart...whether you want to or not? We had to take my mom and dad's tire in for repair. It kept going flat. While we were there, Betty bought and gave me these yummy smelling candles for my kitchen! Wasn't that nice?



Meanwhile Joy was able to avoid the trip to Walmart and hang out with the guys again...trout fishing. She liked it so much..she asked to go back and they all took her again. This time she caught two more trout and she and her daddy also took a little swim in the Spring River!

Getting good at this fishing thing...

Very intent...

Working hard...

Pop and Richard...not working so hard...

A little help from Pop...

And another one!

Oh, and my dad (after seeing these pictures) wants to know if anybody can loan him a can of copper spray paint....for his white legs? :)

So as you can see..we had a very full weekend...and a fun one. Then when we got home Sunday evening..within an hour we met company coming to spend the night at our house and my mom's house next door. My sister-in-law lost her 42 year old sister. The funeral was Monday close by, so folks needed a place to stay the night. Monday was a busy and sad day.

In a nut shell, that's where I've been and what we've been doing the past few days. Now it's time to start thinking about school again...our homeschooling back-to-school meeting is this Monday evening so I've got lots of preparation for the group as well as our own personal school scheduling to do!

Thanks to everyone again for all your comments! :)