Homemade Apple Turnovers

I so love these. I grew up with my mom making these for us. While she was here the other day keeping Aidan for me, she made these. They are so simple.

You just take a can of biscuits, a can of fried applies, sugar, and cinnamon.

Usually we take and mash the applies and add sugar and cinnamon to the mixture. No measuring here, just to your taste.

Flour your counter or cutting board in order to roll out the biscuits. Each biscuit makes a perfect size turnover. Once you have the biscuit rolled out just put in a spoonful of your apple mixture, kind of off to 1 side, and then flop the other side over. Take a fork and crimp the edges, and Voila! Now I should mention here you should have a pan with cooking oil in it. Get that pretty hot, not too hot, probably about medium, but make sure the grease is hot or you will get greasy, doughy turnovers. Drop these in carefully as to not burn yourself or splash the grease on you like I usually do. Wait until they brown and then turn them over for the other side. Take them out and let them cool a bit and soak the grease up on a paper towel. Usually after this we sprinkle just regular sugar on them or even powdered sugar. Enjoy! I sure did that day. Not going to say how many of these I ate, but I think the magic number was 4.

Note to self, do not catch the paper towel on fire like my mom did. She will never get used to cooking with gas again. She almost caught the dishtowel on fire that day too when boiling the corn.

Teresa

Peek-A-Boo

Now I just had to upload this. Aidan has learned to play peek-a-boo. He just does this stuff spontaneously. Like I said, I expect him to walk soon. Not really, just becuase I think he is doing stuff so early. You can here us all in the background how excited we were. He did this 1st thing yesterday morning while my mom was holding him. You can tell how country we all sound.

Busy as a Bee

Been super busy here, as are most people. We are trying to get ready for our vacation next week to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Just a quick drop in to tell you about my new buttons I added to my blog on the right. Please click on these and donate for this adoption. The prizes are great and I am sure you will be blessed by helping this wonderful couple bring Lily home. Adrienne's story has touched my heart, and I cannot imagine her heartbreak. All of you who know the struggles of infertility can relate. Please give!

Teresa

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Now I don't think I will be wearing 1 of these next week, but hey, the song is quite catchy.

I am sitting here eating scoops with the pineapple mango salsa, which is my 1st time trying this, and I must say I love this stuff.

All this talk about food and bikinis, wow, seems to be what I am concentrating on right now. Next week we are going to the beach. We were planning on this for a while and then something came up to cancel these plans, but now here we are less than 1 week away from leaving, and I never got around to losing that extra baby weight. I never got around to running daily like I used to do. I did, however, get around to eating. After I had Gage I weighed less than I weighed before I got pregnant. I was only in my 20s then, and now here I am at 35, and by the way realized I will be 36 in October, and then in 4 years 40. Where did the years go? Back to where I was, after having Aidan, looks as though I am going to keep an extra 8 to 10 pounds, depending on the day.

When the swimsuits came out this year, I looked but never bought, saying to myself I am not wearing 1 of these this summer, maybe next summer, but no way this year. Oh my, here I am needing a swimsuit and none to be found. Well, they did have lots of size 0, 1, 3 and 5. Nowhere near that and probably never will be. I really do not like to parade around in swimsuits anyway, but sometimes you do need 1. Maybe when we get to Myrtle Beach I can find something. If not, I will wear my old suit from last year and a cover up, which would probably stay on over even the newest of suits.

Believe me when I tell you I did google "how to loose 10 pounds in a week." Yep, I did that. Now I know that would not be healthy and no earthly way for me. I don't have the time to exercise like 3 hours a day and eat about 1000 calories, or do some kind of crazy cleansing diet. I guess this a wake up call, I will not be losing 10 pounds. I can almost bet you that this time next year I will probably still have these 10 pounds. Just the thought of dieting makes me hungry. This was evident when I hit the local Wal-Mart today to fill our cupboards. Everything in the store looked good to me. I did practice some self control. No peanut M & M's here this week.

Teresa

P.S. On a lighter note, little 2-tooth boy, can now sit up. This baby is developing at a rapid rate. I figure next week he will be able to walk. Not really, but 1 can dream. Wait, would that be a dream or a nightmare. I keep saying 1 day he is just going to get up and run around.

Variety is the Spice of Life

How true. I do get tired of things easily, so I must admit, I grew tired of my blog background. I just wanted something with not so much color. I did not like how all the color interfered with my pictures. I do like things to match. I came across this little site, www.shabbyblogsblog.blogspot.com, see the button on the right. Love their designs, so I switched things up a bit.

We are literally getting tons of rain here today. I thought summer was for a time of great weather. Apparently not. Anyway, we are going to the beach next week, hopefully can do some posts from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Can't wait. By the way, the weather for Myrtle Beach next week, you guessed it, rain. Come on!

I have been enjoying learning to use my new camera and have already learned so much from it. I plan on doing lots of pics of our vacation and a few family type pictures for us too, can't wait.

I know this post is random, but I am trying to diligently work today and not get distracted. Working a little better today than yesterday. I desperately need a vacation so I am hoping next week helps me. Hopefully after while I can post some new pictures I have taken, plus go to the grocery store. Shew, the cockroaches are starving here!

Teresa

Little photo shoot and a quilt

Darrell surprised me with that new camera I had been wanting. I really hated to spend the money on it, but hey, now that I have it, might as well put it to use. We have been taking pictures like crazy with this thing. I will probably be on Social Security by the time I figure it all out. However, just before I got the new camera, well exactly 1 day, I decided to do some pictures of Aidan in our yard. I have so many bug bites from all the laying on the ground trying to get a good shot. Lucky for Aidan, I did put a quilt down. The quilt in many of these pictures was made by a lady we have known forever. It is called a cathedral window. She quilted on this for about 16 years just a little at a time and mostly only in the winter months. She did say she WOULD NEVER, understand me, NEVER make another quilt like this. When Darrell was a small child, about Gage's age, he told her he liked it while she was still working on it, and she told him that when he got married, she would give it to him. She kept her promise. Not long after we were married, she called him while I was working, and he went and picked the quilt up. Imagine my surprise when I came home and this quilt was on our bed. I love this quilt and will cherish it forever!

Anyway here are a few of our pictures from the other day. These are all just as I took them with nothing photoshopped except for the 1st one, and the lighting was off, so I tried to fix it as best as I could, since I loved the picture.

Did I mention Aidan has 2 teeth now. He is now my little 2 tooth, yes tooth, not teeth, boy. Remember, my blog, I can talk how I want to, and I am thinking I am going to start typing all my slang on here too!

We are still continuing to pray for Stellan and his family.

Teresa

No NOT ME MONDAYS Here!

All week long I kept a list of my "NOT ME" stuff for my post today, anxious awaiting to post it. However, in lieu of precious Stellan's condition, and since MckMama is the queen of all these "NOT ME MONDAYS", how could we all write these and talk about all the crazy stuff we "DID NOT DO" this week.

I have prayed for Stellan, checked MckMama's tweets feverishly. When I hold my little guy I think of Stellan as there is not a big age gap. Aidan is 5 months. Please continue to pray for Stellan, his mama and his family. He is in pretty bad shape as I type this. Pray for strength for MckMama, Prince Charming and all the MSCs and most of all for Stellan. Pray for his healing, and that people everywhere will see God's Amazing Work in this young baby boy.

Last night I held Aidan and caressed his little head as he slept. I do this many times but today with the thought of Stellan and his mama.

We love you Stellan!

The Burkes

Click on the button "Praying for Stellan" for his story. Check out the left hand side of the blog for the up-to-date tweets from his mama on his condition.

Love the One You're With!

UPDATE: I just got this big idea to post this. We did not have digital photos when I got married in 1993. You can really tell the age of this pic from our hair and my wedding dress. What were we thinking? Oh well, got to love those 90s. This picture is not that good since it is a picture of a picture but here goes anyway. All I wanted then was a long train, big veil, and puffy sleeves that the ends came down to points on my hand. Here you go. WOW, how our taste changes. Good thing I still like my husband and not this dress. I would so do things different today, much more simpler design and less over the top, and not such big hair. You know the 80s and 90s, the bigger the better. I again apologize for these pics.

Fastforward a bit to my mom's house in 2008, as you can see he does not like much pictures and I am ashamed that we have no current pics of us together. I hope to remedy that this weekend.

Sixteen years ago today I married the 1 I love, the 1 have spent my life with, the 1 I plan on spending the rest of my life with. Things have not always been a bed of roses, and I think most people who are honest will admit that, but overall, the big picture, the Lord has truly blessed us. We have a new home, good jobs, loving family and 2 beautiful, healthy sons, and well, each other. There have been times we have argued, disagreed and just not gotten along. There have been times I did not want to speak to him and I am sure likewise for him, but all in all, life is good. I pray to spend more wonderful years with my loving husband, and I want to thank Darrell for putting up with me, for thinking he can read my mind and all my little mood swings.

Teresa

,

Blogging My Life

Looks like I got the background blur here too. Love these feet!

This is what Aidan and I do a lot of in the summer. Any guesses?

Hooray for the red, white and blue.

Gage and Savannah, our cousin, doing some serious fishing. Bill Dance wannabes.

I am going to chew this little chicken's head off if you don't feed me. If you only knew how much this baby looks like his daddy. I hope to show you soon. He looks so much like Gage when he was a baby, if I only had my scanner hooked up to my new computer, you could see. This little chew toy was my sisters who is 20, and then Gage used it and now Aidan loves it.

The large fish Gage and Savannah caught, a blue gill, and there is my blurry background. Voila!

Our lab, Emily. She is about 10 years old but a great dog.

Emily just trying to ignore me, but got my background blurry.

I love to blog, and even more so love to read other blogs. I have found so many wonderful blogs that I enjoy to read, many I check 1st thing every day. I am wanting to change my blog up a little bit just trying to find the time. I could seriously make this a full-time job, but remember, I have 1 of those. Wait! I think I have many of those, cook, launderer, taxi driver, doctor, etc. You get the picture.

I have been working on my photography some, not much this week though since we are swamped with work. I have trials of Photoshop Elements and Lightrooom right now, and I have already learned so much. A friend of Darrell's has both of these programs and promises to let me borrow them for a longer time, and he also says he knows how to do all kinds of things. Now, if he can just get the time to come here and show me how to do all the stuff he knows on these programs, I will be set. I cannot even begin to tell you how many batteries my camera has gone through in the last few weeks trying to get that background blur down, and finally, I think I have it. The only thing is my camera is not the best for doing this, but now I know it can be done. My only regret is I finally made this happen with a picture of our dog and of a fish. Might I say the picture of the fish was bad, half cut off, but the blur was good.

Tomorrow is a special day for us, our 16th anniversary. We wanted to go somewhere for the day but I have to work and then they are also bringing the trusses for my mom's house, so it looks as though we will be here. I am not even sure we will be able to go out and eat somewhere nice but maybe Saturday. Meanwhile the house is still torn apart from all the painting. Aidan did go to bed early last night so I was able to get some things put back together. Hopefully with the weekend coming up, I can get more accomplished. I really am anxious to get some pics on here but not sure when.

Teresa

Kentucky Bourbon Balls

I must admit, I love these and can eat an entire box. We purchased these at Rebecca Ruth Candy and I loved them. I mean the combination of chocolate, nuts and bourbon, well who would not like them. I love the smell. Gage asked if they would make you drunk and be careful eating them while driving mom, you might get a DUI. I had to explain the entire concept of cooking with alcohol to him. Anyhoo, we all love them, and I ALWAYS pick these up when down around that area but you can get them at http://www.rebeccaruth.com/. Try some! By the way, we toured her factory while there, it was great. If ever in Frankfort, Ky, go by and pay them a visit.

Anyway, I have been so craving these and wanting to make these. I know when I do make these, I will probably eat these for 3 meals a day and even in between. I have been searching the web for good recipes for these, and I have come across this 1. This is the 1 I am going to make this weekend. I am posting this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/. I love this site and get many good recipes from here. I always read the reviews, and if the reviews are not good, I always pass on them.

This is the recipe they have that is rated the highest, and the 1 I have chosen to make.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup chopped nuts
5 tablespoons Kentucky bourbon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (16 ounce) package confectioners' sugar
18 ounces semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS
Place the nuts in a sealable jar. Pour the bourbon over the nuts. Seal and allow to soak overnight.
Mix the butter and sugar; fold in the soaked nuts. Form into 3/4" balls and refrigerate overnight. Line a tray with waxed paper. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over just-barely simmering water, stirring frequently and scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching. Roll the balls in the melted chocolate to coat; arrange on the prepared tray. Store in refrigerator until serving.

Make for sure you use the best bourbon you can get. I have also read that crushing the nuts and soaking in bourbon in the refrigerator for about 24 hours prior to making this candy makes the bourbon taste really pop.

I hope you enjoy these.

P.S. I love these so much, knowing I could not get to Frankfort soon or even Mt. Sterling. I contemplated when the delivery guys brings my mom's trusses for her house she is building that since they are located in Mt. Sterling, he could pick me up a box of these. Do you think he would think I was crazy? Probably so.

Teresa

TIME FOR SOME RECOGNITION

Having a baby is very time consuming, and sometimes we seem to forget, well not forget, but not really have the time or the energy for other people in our lives. I know I seem to blog more about the baby than Gage but Aidan is attached at the hip and well, Gage is quickly growing up. I know that eventually he will be doing things on his own and quickly moving toward being an adult.

I want to take this time today to recognize 1 special guy in my life. Remember, I have 3. This guy is my baby and will always be my baby. I can still remember his cute little face as a baby, things he did, things he said.

Gage is a really good kid. He does great in school, is very well behaved and we really do not have any problems with him. All the teachers say they wish they had an entire classroom of kids like Gage. He is aspiring to be a teacher, and this is fine with us. We do wish he would chose something that would make him a little more money since teachers deserve so much more money than they make.

Gage is a great helper. He gets me stuff for the baby, loads the dishwasher, vacuums, picks up laundry, feeds the dogs and many more countless tasks to which some are prompted and some are just on his own. He also cleans and vacuums the pool. He is so insistent it stay clean. He showers every day without us having to tell him. I mean, how many 12-year-old boys do that. We do have to remind on the teeth brushing still. And, I do still fix his hair. I joke I will be doing this until he is 30, but that is fine with me.

Lately I can see him changing, his voice is changing, he is taller than me now, almost wears the same size shoe as his dad, and they do wear the same size clothes. How did this happen? Can I change this somehow? Where did my baby go? Time goes buy so fast and I can see this already happening with Aidan.

I wanted to take this time to tell my #1 guy how much I love him and love having him as my son. Mommy is busy a lot with the baby, and you are moving on in things in your life. I know that in 3 years you will be driving a car. Scary, huh? I cannot even begin to imagine these changes taking place in your life. I just want you to remember I will always love you, you will always be my baby and I am always here for you no matter what.

Love,
Mom

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Wow, what a week. I have had so many "NOT ME" days, I could not even count. I seriously need to start keeping a list.

Yesterday morning while in church during the special singing, which happened to be my mom, Aidan was so happy to see her, smiling and cooing and all, I DID NOT so want him to scream out loud at her just so everyone could see how cute he was, Nope, not me.

I wish I had a picture of this, but I did NOT forget my camera on our road trip yesterday. Nope, not me. Anyway, I did NOT cover my infant son up with my pink scarf while he slept yesterday. Nope, not me.

We did not stop at a local store yesterday and buy fresh corn and tomatoes to only forget the corn. Nope, not us.

I did not go to the bathroom and hold Aidan while I sat on the toilet, Nope, not me.

I did not wear the same clothes 2 days in a row, sleep in them to only have Gage look at me and say, Mom, didn't you wear that shirt yesterday? To which I replied, yes, and I slept in it too. Nope, not me.

I did not almost get run over by a car in the church parking lot yesterday, Nope, not me.

I did not put some new plates in a hutch yesterday morning with the tags still on them to have Gage tell me, Mom, those look real good there, blue tags and all. Nope, not me.

I did not run to the grocery store to get ice cream to go with our fresh blackberry cobbler, vanilla to be exact, then get home and ask who bought this maple nut ice cream, Nope, not me, and we all did not eat that maple nut ice cream on our cobbler instead of the vanilla someone was supposed to buy, Nope, not us.

I am sure there are many more crazy things I have done this week

STOP THE PRESSES!

The news for Monday morning is, drum roll please, Aidan has a tooth. Yep, you heard me. My almost 5-month-old baby has his 1st little pearl breaking through the skin. You can feel it with your finger and he loves to bite down hard. You know that old adage, hurts so good. Must be the same for him. I have been diligently checking him for teeth for a while since he chews and drools all the time. I happened to be feeding him his supper last night, which now consists of 2 jars of baby food (man this kid is an eater!), when I discovered it. I could see his little gum had what appeared to be a little slice right where a tooth could be. As soon as he was finished eating, I mean you never interrupt his eating since he cries between each bite as it is, I checked and Voila! My Little Tooth Boy, his new nickname. I immediately got the phone and started calling everyone, and then everyone who called the house this evening I told them or kept telling Darrell to tell them Aidan has a tooth. I figure another will be close behind.

We are still very busy here right now, which I think is the general consensus for most people about now. We are trying to plan a vacation, helping mom with building her house, which by the way now resembles a house, and just trying to catch up on things here. The walls are up and the interior walls framed. Moving right along thanks to some wonderful contractors with so far some great work ethic. Let's not count our chickens before they hatch. The trusses for the roof should be here any day and then I will let you guys see.

We are still trying to get our house painted. Any other time this would have been done long ago but with a baby, things move kind of slow. You see, I have to work on his schedule. I am hoping this does not take me as long as my SIL who painted her house inside a few years ago, and I mean it literally took her an entire year to get this finished with kids, school and other chores. I don't think I could stand the mess that long. However, we have 1 room almost completely finished and some nice little projects to show you. We finally hung the curtains yesterday in the family room and I am going to post about them this week, hopefully.

Today I think will also be a painting day. I am changing everything pretty much to a white-themed farmhouse look with less stuff. I used to think more was better but with having to clean everything, I am now liking the saying, less is more. This is hard for me since I have so much stuff and I just hate to get rid of it, have no time for a yard sale and really don't live in a place to do such thing, so maybe Ebay. Will let you guys know if I post stuff on Ebay you might like. And, I definitely have a hard time just throwing things away. I keep thinking I can use this for something or do this with that. That is probably the reason we don't park our cars in our garage. You think? This also is soon going to change.

Well off to work for me.

Teresa

Struggles

If I could only have a dollar for every time someone asked me when I was going to have another baby, WOW, and then if I could have another dollar for every time someone asked me while I was pregnant, Why I waited so long?, WOW. I think you get the picture, I would be rich.

When we got married almost 16 years ago we did want to wait a while before having a baby but then when we decided to get pregnant, it took almost 2 years, and to say the least, we were surprised and not truly expecting it that month. Maybe that is what it takes, stop trying so hard and just live life. Who knows. Soon after Gage was around 4 months and he was growing out of that newborn stage, my motherly instinct kicked in again and I wanted to be pregnant again, knowing with working and financially this was just not something we could do at this point. Soon the feeling left me and I moved on from that feeling. I think they call it the terrible 2's. When Gage was 5 we thought about another baby and nothing happened. Again, this became on the back burner. A few years later, feelings crept up again, and again, nothing happened. By this time people were constantly asking me if I was going to have anymore children. I always dismissed this as I did not want anymore, and I must admit, for a while I did not, but I mainly said this because I did not want people to know my struggles with infertility. I was ashamed of this. It was like a dirty little secret that we were not getting pregnant. What was wrong with us? I decided to visit my doctor and ask for help to only get her response that 1 child was enough and I did not need to have anymore. What, you are making this decision for me. I continued on my journey just living life as if it happened, then we would love and enjoy a new baby. Here were are in 2008, I am 34 years old, knowing my age is not helping matters any, and longing for another baby. The difference now is that I have ditched my once-loved doctor and moved on to a new doctor, willing to share my struggles and asking God for a baby, praying if it is his will. The difference too, I had been diagnosed with thyroid disease, and the doctor was saying I had had this since Gage was about 5. What, that long. Could this be my problem? More than likely it was. I had been treating this thyroid disease for about 2 years now, since I was about 32 years old. Thyroid disease is something that can totally mess up your entire body functioning, as many of you know as you struggle with this disease too. When I think back to my life, I knew this was a possibility, all the signs were there, but just dismissed it and went about my day. Now that I had switched OB-GYN doctors and willing to do testing and take fertility drugs if need be, we were making some progress. I was thinking my body was getting back to normal after all this time of dealing with these thyroid issues. The wonderful migraine headaches had returned thanks to my hormones, and I was now getting a positive on my ovulation tests. My new doctor was saying to give it 6 months of ovulation tests and then we would move to the next step. Sounded like a good idea. Five months later, no pregnancy, lots of tests, lots of positive ovulation tests but no positive pregnancy test. I meanwhile was praying, asking God for a baby, fasting and doing all I could. I would see people just have babies constantly not even trying, people just dropping babies by the roadside, people using drugs while pregnant. Life did not seem fair. I tried to tell myself that life is not fair, I had a good life, I had a healthy child and a loving husband, be thankful. I was thankful but still the desire was there. I can remember 1 week in particular in my life, remember the clothes I had on and the events of the day. I was so very tired by around 7 that evening, showered and ready for bed, the thought did pop into my mind I had not been this tired since being pregnant with Gage, I was late, but probably just another stupid negative test. I waited until morning, woke with an excruciating headache, figured what the heck, 1 test left, and if negative, giving up again. At this point we had purchased the digital tests. We needed that definite answer. We got that, our definite answer: PREGNANT. What? How could this be? I was ecstatic. And then the panic set it, what if this is wrong, what if something happens to the baby. I think I carried this feeling throughout my entire pregnancy, letting it rob me of much of the joy I should have been experiencing. I prayed that everything would be okay, and then 1 day I came across a verse. Samuel 1:27, "For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted me this." This to me was my sign. The Lord works in mysterious ways. He knows our life. He has our plan, not us. I firmly believe Aidan is a gift from God. Children are a gift from God. God has a time and a place in our life and we know not what or when. I have tried to make for sure each and every time someone has asked me why I waited so long for another baby to remind them that God has a plan for us and he has given me this baby when the time was right for him, and we have to follow God's plan.

After having Aidan I can remember going back for my checkup, missing my baby inside of me, know he was home and healthy, but missing being pregnant, knowing I may never get to be pregnant again. Still wanting to be pregnant. Sounds crazy, I know, but I think I had longed for this so long I did not want it to be over.

On a lighter note, here Aidan is about 4.5 months, same feelings creeping up again, should I have another baby so Aidan has a sibling closer in age. I say yes, Darrell says no. I hang on to baby clothes, pack them away instead of instantly getting rid of them. I hang on to maternity clothes, pack them away instead of getting rid of them. Would it be hard, yes. Would we struggle, yes. Would we make it, yes.

This morning as I look at my children, I love them so much and today I am wanting to have that other baby. Some days are hard, I am tired and overworked, but I would do it all again.

Teresa

Just another Manic Monday

Except it is Tuesday and I meant to do this yesterday. Oh well, like I said, manic Monday, and not talking about the 80's group, The Bangles. Yes, I grew up with this kind of music and still like to listen to 80's music. Most of Gage's friends are amazed at how much he knows about 80's music too, but what can I say, we sing along together and act crazy to these songs.

Boy have we been busy, staining the porch, painting the entire house including trim and ceilings, being general contractor to my mom and dad's house, which has all the foundation laid and they are bringing the wood today, Yippee!!, moving right along. I think Darrell spent about 4 hours on the phone yesterday with companies getting price quotes and estimates. Saturday we spent all day going to a discount building supply store to get windows, and she got some of the most adorable glass doorknobs I have seen. I have coveted these knobs, I must say, even though I know I am not supposed to covet. Note to self, pray about this. These knobs remind me of old knobs on older houses, love them!

I have been so busy trying to pull off some of those artsy photos MckMama takes. I think I have used an entire package of batteries trying to get that blurry background down. I have come to the conclusion my camera will do this slightly but not so much. I have also been playing around with several Photoshop programs, and I must say, I am loving these. I have not had much time to do much with these, but working on it. I have a 30-day trial of the Photoshop Elements program before I decide to purchase this. I am so wanting to learn more about photography so I can choose to take more pictures of my children and family without all the expense professional photographers take, plus having to load them up and get there in 1 piece with everyone still having clothes on and no mishaps in the car seat with the poopie diapers. I am hearing a new more expensive camera calling my name, hint, hint to Darrell for our anniversary which is coming up.

Meanwhile our house is a shipwreck right now and not like the Titanic. I tried to get Darrell to just concentrate on 1 room at a time. This worked fine for a bit and then he decided to let the guy do all the trim and doors upstairs. At this time we have no doors on any of the bedrooms, family room and at 1 point even the bathroom. I did make him put that door back on as soon as it was dry so I could shower. I mean, I am not too crazy showering without a door on the bathroom with people in here helping to paint our house.

Aidan is growing so fast, sitting up great in his high chair we just got him, liking his exersaucer and his jumper and becoming oh so vocal. He smiles constantly at you and is my little hip baby so to speak. He is always on my hip while I am doing things.

Gage is growing too. He will be 13 in October, an official teenager, and just think, 3 more years he will be allowed to drive. Where has time gone? Right now he has just finished reading "23 minutes in Hell." Yes, you heard me right. He reads books that are more mature for him. He has read several along this line and is awaiting the "90 minutes in Heaven" book as soon as we come across this. He has also read "The Shack" and liked this book too. I would do links for all this stuff but I have not had time to figure this out yet. You could say I like to blog but I am lazy and just like to get it over with, but mostly because I need to be working and not blogging, speaking of which I need to get back to.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Teresa

Christmas in July

Gage has wanted this lamp for a while, just too expensive.

Aidan does not look too thrilled with Santa, but it won't take him long to figure out what this is all about.

No, we are not having a sale here, just a few more pictures from our vacation to Pigeon Forge.

Gage is my Christmas man. He has always loved Christmas from the beginning of life. Now don't get me wrong when I say he likes the presents because he does, but actually likes all the decorations. He has always been in awe of Christmas lights. He loves to look at them and actually play with them. Yes, you heard me right. He would string them literally all over our house all year long. He kept them in neat little rolled up balls ready for decorating at just about any time. We would buy these on Ebay, yard sales, junk stores and even new ones when they were out. Christmas to him was a time to play. As you got older he started to want Christmas lights that were old, and many times we have obliged him by buying them for him. I figured no different than buying a toy. At least he played with the lights longer. I can remember many times for presents family members would buy him miniature Christmas trees and even boxes of lights. My mom did bring to my attention once that there was a lead warning on the lights, and that did freak me out a little bit, but he is fine.

Over the past few years he has gotten out of playing with the lights especially since he got his own laptop, the lights are not cool now, but he does help with all the decorations here, all 9 trees he feels we need. He still feels like everything has to be over the top when it comes to Christmas, and still enjoys looking at the lights each year. I just know that when he is older his house will be like the house on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. And yes, he loves this movie. He just could never realize why we used light clips and did not staple our lights like Clark W. Grizwald. I have watched several Extreme Christmas shows on HGTV before, and a lot of these people started their decorating frenzy when they were younger so I know this will be Gage. He is destined to be on 1 of these shows.

These pictures are from Pigeon Forge at The Christmas Shop. He loves to go here and look, but this year he seemed a little less impressed. I knew this was coming, girls might be creeping into the picture, UGH!

Teresa

Upside down, topsy turvy

This is kind of how I have felt the past few days, still battling this cold, coughed so hard my ribs feel as if they are broken. I probably should go to the doctor but I really don't have much time off from work with just coming back from maternity leave, plus I am trying to save what I have in order to take Gage to the beach in August. Sacrifices a mother makes. Today I am feeling much better, less coughing but still my ribs are sore. I planned on pictures for our 4th of July celebration but I really did not feel like it. I did take a few of Aidan during the day but that is just about it. We did not even go to the 4th of July Fireworks display.

On Sunday I was scheduled to work and about midday my computer crashed. It had a virus. Now, I am not a computer expert and this just about freaked me out. I mean, here I am supposed to be working and no computer. It seems this happens to me about every 3 years, having to buy a new computer. This sucks as they are not cheap and I am pretty tight about stuff like this. But you see, as a dear friend at http://www.thekimmiefiles.blogspot.com/ once said, you have to spend money to make money, and so true that is. Without a computer, I have no job. I know the computer could have been cleaned up but waiting on the computer guy and waiting until Monday would have been more time off from work and less money made. At this point, I felt like my world was falling apart with not being able to work and having to spend money on a computer, the house needing cleaned, laundry to do, and working. It seems like it is never ending. Darrell just smoothed it over and said let's go get a new computer, so off we went. Needless to say I do love having this new computer, actually liking Windows Vista pretty well, but still not liking spending the money, or spending my entire Sunday reloading programs and getting things set back up in order to be able to work on Monday morning.

I kept trying to tell myself not to get upset about this. I kept trying to tell myself things could be worse. As we were driving to the local Wal-Mart we passed a house just below me, grass high, no curtains, trash still in the driveway and not a person or animal in site. You see, this home is in foreclosure. A young couple bought it just about 2 short years ago, he lost his job and they tried to sell with no luck. Wow, things could be worse. I also thought about a young girl named Kate who is battling a brain tumor. Wow, things could be worse.

God has a way of showing us that no matter how hard we think things can be, somewhere somebody has it worse. I was able to buy this new computer, I have a job, I am able to sleep in my own bed at night in my own home, I have food on my table and my family is healthy. What a blessing!

Teresa

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

I have been looking forward to a post about July 4th, so here we are and I am sick as can be. I have been fighting a terrible cold in the summer. I mean come on, summer colds are terrible, and this seems to be when I always get them. Because of this cold, my post will probably be short. I feel terrible, sneezing, stuffy head, runny nose and well, you get the picture, but I figured I could at least take the time to wish you guys a Happy Independence Day!

Yesterday Aidan got vaccinations and was a bit cranky the entire day so I pretty much just held him all day. He has gotten to where if he does not know you, he cries when you take him to hold. The little lip just puckers up and drops down and boo hoo hoo.

I am sure this will be busy weekend here at our house as it will be for many of you. Get out, enjoy your family and go see some fireworks. We are planning on it, but not sure how Aidan will react.

Teresa

Total Randomness to Wordless Wednesday

Let go of me, I can do this on my own!

What are you looking at?

Thank you father for this exersaucer and especially for this

flower that I so need to get in my mouth.

Yummy, yummy Cake!

Somebody please get me out of this thing!

I was just going to do a Wordless Wednesday post again, but seems like I always have something to say. Aidan and I have been fighting colds, and I think he is doing much, much better, but me, I think worse. My head feels as though it is going to explode so that is the reason I have not posted as much lately.

Anyway, here is some randomness to our week and weekend. Aidan attended his 1st Sweet 16 Birthday Party, and boy was that cake good!

He is beginning to like is exersaucer more and more, and can now even play with the stuff all around him. He is growing up so fast. He plays with his feet all the time, and yesterday, held his bottle. I mean literally held it all by himself until I decided to help him and that is when he decided I could just hold it.

I think probably 1 of my favorite flowers are black-eyed Susans. It just so happens, these grow wild on our farm and I love to cut them and put in vases, well in my case, an old ice-cream bucket. I just love using odd things for vases or containers.

Teresa