My Treasure Hunt

My new love is shopping at consignment sales. I don't mean the consignment shops, but the twice a year BIG sales from DuckDuckGoose and Jack & Jules. I consigned at Jack & Jules two weeks ago. I took about 98 items to sell and sold all but 15 of them, making myself a little over 160.00. YAHOO! That is money for the kiddos birthdays. And since I consigned and worked the sale, I was able to shop the sale early. Below are a few of my purchases.
Taryn in all about dressing up these days. The second I got into the store, I ran to the little girl section and grabbed 4 dress up outfits. I love this little Tinkerbell one.

Taryn likes it because it has wings and now she can fly!!

A Cinderella dress.

This Belle dress is my favorite. It came with a big hoop skirt underneath it and the crown was included.

My little girl loves Fancy Nancy and when she saw this Fancy Nancy dress, we couldn't pass it up.

Tyson found this Halloween mummy shirt that lights up in the eyes and mouth. I couldn't resist. Besides these few items, I bought Taryn some light up tennis shoes, Twinkle Toes, and most of her winter clothes. The older boy section doesn't always have that great of a selection but Tyson was happy to have the Halloween shirt. I only spent 60.o0 on all my stuff, which if I would have bought at cost I would have spent over 200.00. Love it! The whole process reminds me of a Treasure Hunt. You gotta look quick to find the good stuff, the loot, and grab it before another person. There is another sale in 2 months where I will consign at and definitely be a shopper as well.

A Truly Awesome Birthday

I have decided that I am no longer going to get older. HA HA HA Wouldn't that be wonderful, but such is life and mine has tacked on another year. Tyson woke me up by singing "Happy Birthday to Mommy". He had made me 4 different kinds of drawings and attached a sucker to each of them as my birthday gifts. I love these kinds of gifts. I had to quiet a cry because of his kindness towards his momma! Vaughn had the day off, but had to work the night shift, so all of us spent a day at the YMCA pool soaking up the sun and the water. Then it was an early dinner at Wok Hay in Turkey Creek. It is a new Asian restaurant that just opened up and I wanted to try it out.

Tyson loved the fact that he figured out how to use chopsticks. It took almost the whole time we were there, but he did it. However, he didn't actually eat much of his food. He said the teriyaki chicken didn't taste like "mom's" so he didn't want to eat it. It was nice to hear that he likes my cooking but, on the other hand, it was a waste of food. Thank goodness for To-Go boxes.

And here we have our little princess making her attempt at the usage of chopsticks. She was the entertainment of the evening. I had to borrow her chopsticks to show Tyson how to use them and she was less than pleased. She grabbed them out of my hand, while simultaneously knocking over her FULL glass of Sprite, sending it flying all over the floor beneath the table. Vaughn was steaming and I was laughing. "What else is new." This happens at home, during a meal, at least once a day. Why should eating at a restaurant be any different? (: So....we ate our meal with our feel stuck to the floor in Sprite. Oh well. It made for a memorable day.

I Have Been Blessed............

There is that song that says, "I Have Been Blessed," and I have been. I am so grateful that my little life, even though I have trials and tribulations, has been blessed beyond measure. My litany poem:

I have been blessed with a loving family,
I have been blessed with two beautiful, sweet and loving children,
I have been blessed with my husband who is my best friends,
I have been blessed with the life of my husband, (because I could have lost him six months ago),
I have been blessed with a house to live in,
I have been blessed with food to eat,
I have been blessed with clothes on my back and shoes on my feet,
I have been blessed with good health and a good mind,
I have been blessed with the opportunity to go back to school (even though it is harder now than it was before)
I have been blessed with the friends that I have made in life from elementary school, to medical school, MI, TN and beyond,
I have been blessed with my calling in the Primary Presidency,
I have been blessed with my membership in my church,
I have been blessed with my faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ,
I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a mom.
I truly have been blessed and sometimes I have taken these blessings for granted, but I hope to be better at realizing and being grateful for them.

(And on a side note: writing has always been very therapeutic for me and with this class that I am taking, I am able to write a lot, again. I have missed the process that goes into writing and am so grateful that I haven't lost the ambition to do it.)

My Gardening Efforts

My first attempt at being a gardener is paying off quite well. This is my green pepper plant that I planted out front of my house. I thought it would only be a pretty little green plant, but gosh darn it the little plant grew and has been producing nice peppers. I am not one to say I have a green thumb, my momma has one of those, but I didn't get that gene. I am chalking this up to sheer luck. But I will take it!

This is my mini pumpkin patch! It started out with a little mound of dirt and some pumpkin seeds, and look at it now! Holy Cow!

It is going to encroach my whole backyard and I love it.

A baby pumpkin. I have a few of these growing. How exciting. They start out as just a little pea and grow into this gorgeous fruit. (This picture was taken 5 days ago and the pumpkin is now twice that big).

This is my pride and joy of my little pumpkin patch. This is the first pumpkin that grew in our little patch. It is three times as big as this picture shows now. The kids are having a great time in helping to take care of the little pumpkin patch. If nothing else, we have shared some great bonding experiences. I just hope we have some nice looking pumpkins for the Fall Season. That would be the icing on the cake.

Happy 4th of July

My children woke up to BLUE pancakes for the 4th of July. I had to put them in the patriotic spirit and what better way to do it than with BLUE pancakes. (The red ones turned out to be pink, so I went with blue.)

Both of my kiddos loved the BLUE pancakes. Vaughn had to work all day on the 4th and Tyson decided to come down with a nasty cough and flu like symptoms the night before, SO......I had to make our day festivities my own way. We wouldn't be making it to Pigeon Forge's 4th of July celebration so I would bring the festival to us, at home.

After the hearty helping of the blue pancakes, we got ready and made star cookies.

We had planned on a picnic outside, but the weather decided to rain and we were stuck to improvise again. No worries! We turned our chairs around, sat on the floor and ate lunch while listening to the thunder outside. The kids thought it was cool!

The time came to decorate the cookies and Taryn gave them a generous DUMPING of sprinkles.

This particular handy work of my daughter's will give you enough sugar for the next two days! She informed me that she was decorating the cookie like Fancy Nancy would. AH HA! That is why there are so MANY sprinkles.

The finished product. We incorporated the red, white and blue theme of the day.

After cookie decorating and eating, Vaughn came home and we BBQ some hamburgers and hot dogs. We had a traditional 4th of July meal with macaroni salad, watermelon, lemonade, chips and lots of laughter. And what meal wouldn't be complete with some ice cream. We headed down the road to Bruster's for some black raspberry cheese cake and butter pecan ice cream. YUMMY!!

With ice cream in hand we got back into the car and set out to find some fireworks. We happened to find a big place with lots of people setting on blankets and chairs looking up into the sky. That will work! Vaughn found us a parking spot and we spread out our blanket among the other spectators. Here is Tyson asking his dad for the umpteenth time, "When are the fireworks going to start?"

And the rocket's red flare,

The bombs bursting in air,

gave proof to the night that our flag was still there. Loved it! They were awesome and we had front row seats to the show! Taryn was the only one that wanted to leave after the first firework blasted in the air. She didn't like the BOOM of the bombs in the air. I put my hands over her ears and she was content to watch the rest of the night sky show. (giggle, giggle) She cracks me up. It was a great 4th of July.