Off to Camp!

Tomorrow Sadie and I will head out to our Young Women Girl's Camp for the week. Our church bought the land and built this camp especially for the girls between the ages of 12-18yrs old and this year is Sadie's first year to attend. She is so excited and has been packed for a couple of days now. I wished I could say the same as this year procrastination and family affairs have taken my time when I should have been packing. I went out today and bought all the food and supplies and have the majority of my things packed. This is my fifth year going as Camp Director and my second year going as both Camp Director and Young Women's president. I'm very thankful it will be 10 degrees cooler than last week. I'll take 90 degrees over a 100 anyday! Off we go!

Under the Influence

I created this page under the influence of my friend Rachel. She is an awesome scrapper who has been such an influence to me for over the past couple of years. I absolutely love everthing she creates and am amazed at her talent. I needed some inspiration for my layout and thought to myself, "What would Rachel do?" So I went to her blog The Scrappy Side and decided that her Week 1 Challenge called "Magical" hit the spot. I went to scrappin' and after three hours, I was done with my scraplift. Thanks Rachel for your influence!

The journaling reads: Sadie absolutely loves Mustangs. She goes crazy everytime she sees one. This Mustang show brought tears to her eyes as she told us, "They're beautiful!"

Cookies & Obstacles

I've never been a cookie lover and up until a couple of months ago, I have been very satisfied with Keebler and Nabisco taking care of my family's cookie needs. But since I became a stay-at-home mom this past year, I thought I should fulfill my motherly duties and learn how to make cookies! I was really impressed by my friend Ashley and how much she enjoyed baking cookies weekly for her family. I do not enjoy cooking, much less baking, but after watching her in action and the joy she has making cookies for her family, I decided I wanted the same joy for my family. After adjusting my attitude towards baking and learning through trial and error over the last couple of months, I can honestly say I am totally in love with baking cookies! Seeing my family gooble up the cookies I make and hearing the words, "Thanks mom!", I am hooked. The best part of adjusting my attitude toward baking, and the most unexpected, is the change in my attitude toward cooking for my family. What a blessing it is to finally overcome two obstacles in a couple of months that have plagued me for sixteen years of marriage. Never would I have guessed it would come in the form of an oatmeal-butterscotch cookie!

(btw, we didn't eat all of these cookies. I gave most of them away! lol)

And It Came to Pass...

Happy Father's Day Dad! You're the best dad ever.

I love you! (And you too, Mom!)

Forrest gave me a big hug when I picked
him up from Boy Scout Camp. He earned several merit badges
and is close to begin working on his Eagle.


Forrest wasn't thinking of the consequences of
eating the first piece of Sadie's birthday cake
without asking. He made her another cake
to make restitution! Sadie forgave him.


I absolutely love Willowtree, so I thought Sadie's 12th birthday
was the perfect time to give her her first Willowtree.
I picked out the "Spirit of Giving" because Sadie has so
much to give to others!

Sadie has been waiting to turn 12 so that she could
"graduate" from primary to Young Women at church.
She was very excited when we came to kidnap her
for good!


Up the road from our house is a new subdivision
that has only two houses and a one mile loop that
I allow Sadie to drive around. She is actually
pretty good! I can see her being a soccer
mom in her future!



Sadie and I thought it would be fun to look up our marriage
license while we were in the Fayetterville, TN courhouse.
It's been 16 years and the memories were there as if it were yesterday!

The past couple of weeks have come and gone so fast that I was thinking only a week had past from coming home from my sister's but in reality, it has been two weeks! "Business" has really crept in along with a calendar of events and that has left me no time to be on the computer. Entertaining the kids is an art and is neccesary so that boredom doesn't set in!

The pictures above are just a couple of things that have filled the days in the past couple of weeks. The kids and I went and stayed a couple of days with Mom and Dad this past weekend. I cooked dad a Father's Day dinner and spent some time him and mom. Sadie is officially 12 and with that she is officially a teenager! She is really loving being in Young Women at church and not in Primary with the little kids. Forrest is working on merit badges to get done with Scouting. THis weekend, he and Dad will go on a camp out and he'll finish a couple of merit badges and will only lack two from being able to start on his Eagle. Last week, George was able to build shelves for my scrapbooking closet and I was able to slap a coat of paint and I am so ready to make some time for myself!

THe next several weeks will be filled with the following: next week, Sadie and I will be going to Girls Camp for the week, the next weekend will be Youth Conference at Troy State, the weekend after that, we'll head back to my sister's and when we come back from Georgia, I'll drive Forrest to Especially For Youth in Bowling Green, KY. When he comes back, we'll have a week before school starts back to shop for school cothes and supplies. And in between all of the above, I'm going to be scrapbooking!

Home Sweet Home!

We're headed home today to Sweet Home Alabama! After two weeks in Georgia, it's time! We have had an absolute blast living my sister's identity while she is away with her family visiting in the Phillipines. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, so we are Bama bound! (Thanks Chris for entertaining us! love ya!)

Check it Out!

Go check out http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/ at Feeling Scrappy and see a couple of my pages on today's blog post! Wow! I took a class called "Get INked" recenty and learned lots of fun ways to use inks on my pages. The class was awesome and next week they will have a new class to get you "shimmering" on your pages!

No Obie!

We are house sitting my sister's puppy, Obie, at her house in Georgia while she and her family are in the Phillipines for a few weeks and let me tell you, it's no walk in the park! Obie is so sweet when you look at him, but let me tell you, his teeth are sharp and he will bite the hand that wants to pet him! He loves to chew on anything, including my legs when I walk by! He loves chewing up any paper products and plastic bottles he can find. He has even discovered a corner of the couch he likes to knaw on! No telling how many times I have cleaned up after him. Oh, and getting him to go to the bathroom outside is impossible! We will walk him and he does just that. Walk. And at his own speed and his own time! He hasn't hit the potty pad once! And as you can see in the pictures, he snuck up behind me and took my camera bag when I wasn't looking! I couldn't tell you how many times we have said "No Obie!" in the last week and a half. But I can tell you it's almost as much as we have said, "I love you" and "You're too cute" to Obie when we weren't having to pick up after him!