My husband the surfer

I snapped this picture of my husband because this is what he looks like 90% of the time. The shinning light of the Web on his face, his eyes locked on Craig's list for hours.

Squash Bugs

I have one known enemy and that is the squash bug. My first year was bug free. Last year is when I first discovered the little buggers. But it wasn't a huge deal. I still had a good crop. This year was a huge difference. It started when I planted the pumpkin plants. (I won't be doing that again). After about a month I started to see more and more of them. More then I could pick and kill. They were mating faster then I could keep up.

Today I pulled up all my plants. Just couldn't take it anymore. It is very unlikely I will plant anymore squash or squash family plants again.

Update

Well it’s been a while since my last post but I am ready to start up again.

In my last post I talked about last year. Well we are well into March (boy time flies) and I have thought a lot about what I want to do this year and boy is it jammed packed.

First and foremost Hiking 4 Jesus is getting a new site. I could no longer afford the $45 every three months for the meetup site so it has moved to www.hiking4jesus.blogspot.com for now. We will see how that works out. I just created it so nothing is on there right now. I have the other site until May 10th. We had a good hike this month, five seekers including me.

I was fairly discouraged last month and wanted to quit but I am trying to quit quitting. Ok, that was just too funny.

As most of you know I am very good at quitting. I have decided to rename that and call myself a tryer not a quitter. I mean really, if you don’t try something how will you know if you like it or not. I have to admit I try a lot of things and decide I like it but just don’t have time for everything in my life.

One thing I know I love is my garden. And we all know it’s almost that time again and yes, you will see many many pictures of my garden on facebook. I already have my lettuce planted and going to put more in the ground this weekend.

Another thing I am really into is my couponing. LOVE it! I have saved a ton of money. And now that I am good at it I am going to put a twist on it. My freezer, fridge and pantry are full. So I am creating a $5.00 a week challenge. Try and see how much stuff I can get for $5.00 and at the end of the month donate it to a food kitchen, woman’s shelter or some other place that is similar. So from here forward I will clip and take all the coupons I can for anything. I am excited to see what I can turn my 20 bucks a month into to help others.

Please tell me about any places you know that can use this sort of stuff. I know if a few but and advice is welcome.

I’m going to take a picture every month and post it on here. I challenge all my friends to do the same. Let’s see who can give the most! This starts this weekend.

Year of 2010

I guess it is traditional to write about what’s happened in the year past and what you want to happen in the year to come. And I must say there was a lot that happened in 2010.

I had several things I wanted to do this past year and actually did them.

Ride a horse. I have always wanted to go horse back riding. I could just see myself sitting on top of this huge animal, galloping through the fields with my long blonde hair blowing in the wind. You know like on TV. That’s not exactly how it went down.

We went riding in the mountains, got loaded up on our horses. Mine was named buddy. So far, so good. Then things went down hill, literally. We traveled down a mountain in a single line with five other horses on an extremely muddy path. My horse ran me into a tree and scrapped my knee up and it took everything I had to keep my horses nose out of Scott’s horse’s but. Not to mention the enormous amount of poop. So, been there, done that. Not again.

 

We also went Zip lining and that was AWESOME. I suggest everyone, young and old, try that.

I finally went on a hot air balloon ride. Thank you daddy. My dad gave me this for my last birthday and I just got around to using it. I had the time of my life. Scott and I were both amazed at how much we loved floating over Anderson. It is a little pricy but so worth it.

 

My Garden! Oh my true love was so very productive this year. This was my second year doing it and I truly love having the fresh veggies to cook. I tried to start from seeds this year and it was a flop. So I won’t be doing that again. Buy plants!

This year by sweet baby graduated high school. It was a bitter sweet moment. I was so proud.

My youngest turned 16 years old.

 

We fried our first and not last turkey this Thanksgiving.

 

Christmas! I planned a trip to have Christmas in the mountains this year. Well it was actually the week before. It was the best this I have ever decided to do. We had a blast. We spent 4 days in Bryson City, NC at a cabin; it snowed 6 inched the morning after we arrived. We had snowball fights, made snow angels and played board games all day. This trip really brought our family together. I think this will be an every year event.

 

Thanks for a wonderful year 2010! Stay tuned for what’s to come in 2011!

Christmas in the mountains

Christmas in the mountains, something I have been dreaming about for years. So this summer I made reservations for a cabin for the week before Christmas. I thought it would be a great chance to become reconnected with the most important people in my life, my husband and kids. And boy was I right.

I planned and planned and planned. I had the perfect menu, the perfect gifts to give and if my wish came true the perfect location.

We packed up everything but the kitchen sink and headed off to Bryson city. I had heard there might be snow. About 10 minutes into the trip I realized I forgot the sleds. About 30 minutes later I realized I forgot three of the gifts. Oh well, life will go on. We stopped by Daddy’s to grab a cup of warm spiced Russian tea and next stop is Bryson City.



[caption id="attachment_232" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The Iron Skillet - our second trip there "][/caption]



We arrived just on time. Had lunch at our favorite restaurant, The Iron Skillet. I could eat every meal there and be just as happy. After our bellies were filled we headed off to the cabin.

Here is where my perfect Christmas started to crumble. We walked in and the cabin had not been cleaned. We called the company and was told someone was on the way but no one showed. We called again and was told to go into town for an hour and it would be clean when we returned. We had to get groceries anyways. When we returned, the cabin had not been cleaned. I was very upset. So we called again and someone finally came to clean the cabin. BACK ON TRACK!



[caption id="attachment_222" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kendrick Christmas Tree - Charlie Brown style"][/caption]



I realized we didn’t have a Christmas tree so I ran outside and clipped some branches off a tree next to the cabin. Sometimes you have to have a Charlie Brown tree. We unpacked everything and put all the gifts under the tree. I made a awesome pot of vegetable soup and we could not wait. We had to go ahead and open the gifts. YAY!

[caption id="attachment_228" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Scott got gloves u can use with a touch screen"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_230" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I got a Kinect"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_227" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The boys got all kinds of stuff"][/caption]

 

Grizzly Claus gave us some family board games to play, great clothes and much needed gloves. We had the best time playing Sorry, a very complicated Life game and the game Smart A--.



[caption id="attachment_226" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Snow!!!!This is what 1 degree looks like"][/caption]

To go or not to go

I've taken a break from the blogging world. My life was like scrambled eggs for a week or so. Christmas is full speed ahead and I can't wait. I always feel like this time of year just speeds by and it's so hard to enjoy it. One of my new-found loves is saying no. My life is usually busy with every kind of event I can get myself into but not this year. I came across this article that gave a list of things to ask yourself to decide if you should go or not.

1. Will I be glad I went?

2. Will there be people there that I like to be around?

3. Will there be food there I will enjoy eating?

4. Will I learn something new by attending?

5 Will the other guest make me feel good about myself?

6. Is this event important to me?

If you say yes to at least 4 of the 6 question then it's a go. If not stay home and read a good book.

25 Days of Thanks - Day 11

Today on this Veteran's day I am Thankful for our military and all the men and women that risk and gave their lives everyday for us.  Freedom does not come free. I am truly proud to be an American and to have the best of the best out there fighting for us.