Five on Friday

1. Stayed home today except for a quick trip to pick up the boys from school...still got very little accomplished, though. Guess I wanted a day to be lazy.

2. Ed took the day off and drove the kids to school this morning. He even got up early enough to scramble eggs for them (something I rarely do)!

3. I finally have my annual Christmas letter finished! Hopefully the computer will cooperate long enough to get them printed.

4. I have just a few gifts left to buy. Anyone have ideas on what to buy for an 86 year old man who has no real hobbies anymore?

5. Planning to go to Christmas at Breezy Hill tomorrow night. Hoping the rain holds off until "AFTER" we get done!

Is it December already?

I figured I was long overdue for another blog post. Since it's December (geez...already?), I figured I would update my playlist to include some of my favorite Christmas tunes. My all time favorite? "O Holy Night!" And yes, I love the versions by Celine Dion, David Archeleta, Johnny Mathis, and Martina McBride, but my all time favorite is by a good friend who sings like an angel at my church every year. I don't feel like it's Christmas until I've heard April Sturgell sing "O Holy Night."

When I have finished my Christmas shopping, I'll update this blog by sharing some of my Christmas decor. I LOVE decorating for Christmas...and I've been very busy! But never fear....it won't be long at all because I am nearly finished with my Christmas shopping! But first things first! I'm off to the stores TODAY! Meet ya back here soon!

Fall Decor

Oh, I know. I am totally pathetic when it comes to this blogging thing. The whole point is to be consistent though, right? Okay....so I'm consistently pathetic about updating my blog. Here it is a month later, and I finally have Fall decor to show you.

These are so cute and easy. It's simply toilet paper rolls inside a brown lunch bag. The top of the lunch bag is squished down into the toilet paper roll, and then the whole thing is wrapped with an 18x22 piece of fabric, again with the top squished down into the hole. I then stuck a cinnamon stick down in the center for the stem and used leaves trimmed from a Dollar Tree fall vine. I hot glued them in place, and voila! If you like yours rounder, just smash the top down a little before gluing the leaves and stem in place.

This is a photo of our entryway table. I just took an old Goodwill chair that we painted, threw a fall throw across it, and laid my pumpkins in the seat. The big acorn on the floor is from Kirkland's (love their stuff), and the basket is just faux pumpkins, gourds, and pinecones with berries mixed in that I have collected over time. The cute fall candle holder on the floor came from Target! I also bought the "Family" word for a buck and just spray painted it to fit the color scheme. The little square photo is of the boys at the pumpkin patch (taken years ago). The frame and the candle holder came from Goodwill.

This is my coffee table. The hydrangeas are dried from our yard. The pumpkin was purchased at Hobby Lobby. I love how the colors all work together.

These are part of our built-in bookcases. On the bottom is a Dollar store pumpkin that I spray painted brushed nickle. The black and white pear candle came from Hobby Lobby. And on top, the black and white Argyle patterned candle came from Hobby Lobby as well (all on sale)! The numbered pumpkins are Dollar Tree faux pumpkins that I decoupaged using pages torn from an old dictionary. The numbers are foam stickers from my scrapbooking stash. You like? Hopefully I'll have more to show you in a few days! :)

Countdown to Fall

It was a very busy (as evidenced by the lack of blogging) but wonderful summer. But now I am feeling fall in the air, well not literally...it's supposed to be 98 degrees here in SC tomorrow! GEEZ...enough already! This was one of the hottest summers we've had in a very long time! So I am ready for the cooler air.

Although it's still hot, I am in the mood for a little fall decorating. I started dragging some of my stuff out and buying some odds and ends. Here's the START of what I'm doing. I'll show you more later. This is just a teaser.

When I get some of these things done, I'll show you the finished products. Only four more days until the official start of fall! Love the colors of this season!

Staycation Days 5 and 6

On the fifth day of our staycation, we drove to Statesboro, GA to Splash in the Boro, a family water park. It was our first time, but definitely not our last time there. I don't have pictures to share with you because I took them with a waterproof film camera. But maybe one day I'll scan them and post (but don't hold your breath). To see the park, click on the link and check them out. We had a wonderful time, once we got there. I would not recommend their driving directions from their website. We took a wrong turn and it cost us at least an extra hour of time we could have had at the park. But it was worth it. The best part? It was only ten dollars per person. We were famished on the way home, so we stopped at Dairy Queen in Burke County. After supper, we each got an ice cream. What a fun summer trip!

On the sixth day, we did something else we had never done. We drove to Monetta to see our first movie at a drive-in movie. We saw a double feature, Despicable Me and Toy Story 3. Although a strong thunderstorm rolled through while we were there and delayed the start of the movies, and we didn't get in bed until after 2 AM, I'd still do it all over again. It was a lot of fun!

Staycation: Day 4

On the fourth day of our staycation, we headed two and a half to three hours southeast to Hunting Island Beach. We got there about lunch time, ate subs, and then headed to the sand! We swam, soaked up (too much) sun, and collected shells. The boys got stung by jellyfish for the second summer in a row, but they sucked it up and got back into the water. When we got ready to leave, there was a little afternoon shower (around five or so), and as we were leaving St. Helena's Island, we had to stop to let a gator cross the road! Can you believe it? We asked the park ranger to recommend a good seafood place and then headed to Steamers Crab and Steakhouse. I don't usually do seafood, but I wanted Ed and Jonathan to be able to eat it. So I ordered grouper (it was recommended as a nice white fish without the fishy taste). It was excellent. The food was good, but the service was a little slow. I would still highly recommend this place if you are ever on Lady Island in SC. Below are some of the highlights in photos.

We love that the beach at Hunting Island is seldom crowded. And this was the week after July Fourth! We nearly had the place to ourselves.

At Steamers, Ed enjoyed Frogmore Stew (no frogs in it)! Jonathan enjoyed an appetizer of grilled shrimp.

We plan to do this at least once more before the summer ends.

Staycation: Day 3

On day 3 of our staycation, we drove to a place called Graystone Ranch. They have a petting zoo, and lots of other animals to see, including 2 tigers. They also have a spring fed pond/lake. Our plan was to fish a little and let the kids swim a little. The problem was that we didn't get started early enough, and baby was it hot! And of course the fish weren't biting, and poor Ed spent more time untangling our lines than fishing. The swimming went better. I enjoyed reclining in the shade while watching the guys swim. Ya see, I don't do lake or pond water. I don't swim in stuff I can't see through! But the guys enjoyed it, and I was totally amazed at Matthew's bravery. It was his FIRST time swimming out of a pool. He did great!





Overall, it was a great day! I think the boys will always remember it. I know I will.

Staycation: Day 2

Although it was two weeks ago, I wanted to continue telling you about our week long "staycation!" The second day of our staycation happened to be the Fourth of July. So we stayed home for the most part, but we didn't sit around and do nothing. We had a cookout with yummy burgers and potato salad. We played baseball in the backyard, and then we enjoyed the pool all afternoon. I so love having a pool! Did I ever tell you that Ed built the pool himself? Okay, that's another topic completely, and I digress.

Finally, we went to Augusta's Riverwalk that evening for the annual fireworks show. It was good, but not as good as usual. They used to play patriotic music in the background, but this year someone else was in charge, and it was kind of dull. But it was still a good way to end the day, celebrating our country's freedom. GO USA!

Our Staycation: Day 1

Ed and I decided not to wander far from home this summer. We had just been on a cruise in December and took a trip to Dollywood in April. So this summer, Ed took the week off from work, beginning with the Fourth of July. That allowed us to do several things we had been wanting to do together, but hadn't had the time.

Our first mini trip was on the 3rd of July. We drove a little over an hour to McCormick, SC to visit an actual gold mine. It isn't active anymore, but we got the tour and actually panned for gold in a sluice. It was hard work! Matthew got bored with the gold panning, but he loved "mining" for gem stones to add to his rock collection.

This is the tunnel you go in to see where they actually mined in the 1850's.

Here's Matthew "mining" for his gem stones.

It was a whole lot of work for just 6 teeny pieces of gold. It was fun though!

My reward for the hard work? No cooking!

Father's Day Weekend

Okay, I am almost a week late, but I still wanted to post about Father's Day weekend. We really enjoyed it. I had taken Ed to the mall and got him clothes for work (yes, a tad boring, but that's what he wanted). Matthew got him a Free (except for S&H) 8x10 Canvas from The Canvas People that pictured Ed and the two boys in the pool, and a Family Handyman magazine (with subscription on its way). Jonathan got him a t-shirt that said, "Dad Rocks" and some good smelling man soap. Ed liked all of his gifts. What dad wouldn't?

On Saturday, Matthew went to a free baseball clinic at Lake Olmstead stadium with the Augusta Greenjackets. When it was over, we drove our rental car (a whole other story) to my mom and dads' house. We ate out Saturday night at one of our favorite places, Pizza Inn. Then on Sunday, Granny and Papa (my mom's parents) came over for lunch. Afterward, we had homemade banana ice cream! Double YUM! Below are some of the other highlights of our trip.

We picked blueberries in Papa's backyard! YUM!

Ed and the kids rode Papa's four wheeler!

Sleeping on the air mattress at Papa and Grandmas.

Parting shots on Sunday of my dad and the kids.

Oh...and check out this rental car! Wowza!