Tweetsie Pics

 

Click on any of them to see them larger.  Also, a few shots with the K-man’s face are over on the private blog. 

Picture commentary:
1. AHHH…I’m in jail.
2. Cowboys ‘N Injuns {corniest quote from the train shows: I think that engine (pointing at Thomas) is talking to THEM Injuns (gesturing at the Indians)}. 
3. Nonna and K-man in the cars (I’m sorry, but these bumper cars make the typical bumper cars look cheesy.  I LOVE these bumper cars…you actually have to drive on a “ROAD.”)
4. Munchkin and Poppa – Munchkin puts the BUMPER into these bumper cars.  Poppa was having flashbacks to MY early driving days.  HAHA!!!
5. My feet on the ferris wheel. 
6. The view from the top of the ferris wheel.  Long way down!  See our car in the little white box (bottom center)?
7. Munchkin and Sir Topham Hatt.  K-man freaked out and was climbing up my head trying to get away when I tried to put him in the picture.  So he stayed with me.  He did later wave when we went by again, but he would not go near.  LOL!
8. Bouncin on the Giant Inflatable Thomas.  I laughed at the mid-air shot. 
9. Awww…getting ready to leave…they decided to walk together. 
10. The Official Tweetsie Train
11. Thomas: close up
12. Thomas coming back into the station…as we were getting ready to ride a second time before leaving.

Most notable quote:
"I guess Thomas really IS real.” *awestruck sigh* (overheard Munchkin talking to herself on the way home)

We missed KC on this trip.  We went in the middle of the week (6/11) to avoid some of the crowds and he didn’t have any spare vacation days that weren’t already scheduled, so I took my parents to help me with the kids.  Actually my dad really wanted to go just because we hadn’t been since I was Munchkin’s age and he has a bit of free time right now, so I decided that would be a nice thank you for all his hard work on the playground out back.  *grin*  It was funny though because when the train leaves the station, the conductor on the train says, “LET’S RIDE, KC!” And the kids were like, “WHERE?  Daddy’s up there?  I don’t see him!?!”  We laughed. 

Except for the rain, it was a fun trip.  I didn’t take pictures of the giant emergency ponchos that dad bought (because it was such a downpour and we were on top of the mountain with no decent indoor places to hide out in to wait out the rain).  I thought about taking a picture of them but decided I didn’t want to remember that part.  I looked like a giant yellow thing and you could have easily fit me, the two kids, AND THE DOUBLE STROLLER inside it….and the hood wouldn’t stay on my head, which rather defeated the purpose.  And then the rain stopped.  But aside from being a fashion disaster, it did prevent me from getting wet even after the rain stopped (cuz you know, there were still wet seats from the rain).  Ah well.  I say I don’t want to remember it, and then I blog about it.  Oops. 

Kay, I’m done with this topic.  We went to Tweetsie.  We had fun.  The End.

Gardens, Consistency, Love…

And other random thoughts…

I just picked the first cuke off my cucumber plant.  It is officially the first fruit of my little bed of plants.  I would take a picture, but in a rare turn of events, this blog has been picture heavy lately, so I think I’ll skip it.  It’s just an average size cucumber that is nothing extraordinary, so I’m sure I don’t need to document it. 

I will say that Munchkin was super ecstatic when we picked it though!  “WOW, mom, that growed FAST,” she says.  Well…I guess so, if your definition of fast is 2 months.  HAH.  LOL.  But she didn’t plant it, so I guess in her mind, we have cucumbers as of today.  That’s fast. 

I went up to my garden spot after church tonight.  Life is crazy busy these days and the house/yard is suffering (well, suffering as in: progress is halted, not as in it’s getting worse, laundry pile excluded).  But I haven’t had time to get up there and check the plants in a few days.  Thankfully it’s rained, so I haven’t worried about that so much, but I haven’t checked them either.  Anyways my neighbor went out of town for a couple of days so she wanted me to pick her blueberry bush every day to keep the birds from getting them.  Well, I missed doing that yesterday so that’s why I went up there tonight and I checked my little garden on the way back down the hill.

All I know is it is amazing what a couple of days will do.  I weeded on Thursday and there were weeds up there that were almost as big as the plants (And the plants; OH MY.  The tomatoes DEFINITELY need some more tying up…they’ve totally outgrown the last ties).  I was thinking, surely I didn’t miss a weed that big on Thursday…but how in the world could it have grown that large in three days, so I must HAVE missed it.  I’m sure on Thursday I did see it and it was probably small, so I thought…well, that’s not a big one, I’ll get it later. 

How like life that is.  We weed things out of our life, but we don’t get every last root, even the small ones.  Then we look away for a few days and we turn around and we can’t understand where that LARGE UGLY WEED that is cluttering up our garden came from.  And when you pull that large ugly weed out, it disturbs a large clump of soil that if you had only pulled it when it was small, would never have been disturbed at all. 

And that is a perfect segue into tonight’s message at church.  Consistency Vs The Up and Down coaster.  I won’t even put it on anyone but myself. 

I get all ambitious and pull all the weeds out of my life, then get busy and miss a day or two of Bible reading (or do/not do something else that is equally important, like letting a thought slip through and rest in your mind for awhile, or having a bad attitude…whatever the case may be) and next thing you know, you turn around and think.  OH MY.  I thought I pulled these weeds.  Where did that come from? 

And like Bro K preached tonight (although he didn’t liken it to weeds and I may have totally missed the point – things get a little scattered when you have two little ones distracting you in church – it’s just what I got out of it) instead of being consistent, you’re on one day and off the next.  And that affects people’s view of your garden.  One day they see your garden and the weeds are competing with your fruit and the next, you’re getting rid of all the weeds, and the next, HEY…all the weeds are back…….hum.  Can people see my fruit through the weeds?  Or are they confused as to what my garden is supposed to be growing because one day they see fruit and the next week it’s weeds?  It’s a challenging thought. 

Also on challenging thoughts, Bro R preached on the Love of God this morning and while it’s hard to sum it up in a few sentences, I’ll just put it this way.  I was challenged. 

Taking the love God has for us is one thing (you know, the part where He loved us so much that He sacrificed His BEST to save us)…but turning around and showing that kind of Love to others is another thing entirely.  Because I like to think I LOVE everybody, but I sometimes don’t LIKE some of them very much.  Just being honest.  But the scripture that Bro R. used this morning was in 1 John I think, about he who loveth not, KNOWETH NOT GOD.  I am the type of person who tries to get along with everybody, even those who don’t like me, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who drive me nuts. 

I’ll just confess my faults and say that there are times when I DO the right thing and do my best to show the Love of God, but then gripe privately about it.  I’m  sure that probably negates the whole Love thing, but at least the LOVE chapter in the Bible doesn’t say anything about “charity never complains” it just says that love has to endure, hope, believe, suffer long, and not be easily provoked (among other things).  I’m sure it’s a good thing for me that it doesn’t say love CAN’T be provoked, it just isn’t EASILY provoked.  HAHA. 

Seriously though…one other thing in this morning’s message that struck me was what he said about how it’s not having the Love of God when you refuse to speak to someone over whatever the matter or whosever fault.  It’s not even if you bite your tongue and be polite when you run into them.  The Love of God reaches past all that and says, “how can I sacrifice myself?”  I know people who say they have the Love of God and…well…I can’t see the heart, but I never saw any evidence that they had what they claimed.  But one thing I do know for sure, I don’t want to find myself in that category of people.  Help me, Lord.

Just some thoughts I’ve been pondering today. 

PS Thank you, Lord, that the headsplitting throbbing has finally subsided and I can think straight again.  Not that anyone would ever think THIS was thinking straight…since my most straightest (ha) thinking is still absolutely scattered and random, but thanks, Lord, that I can now THINK that I’m thinking straight.  =)

I Have

Lots of things…LIKE….

• An extremely obese feline!
  This picture does not do his excess weight justice…really.  He is sunk into the couch here and all of his back legs that are sticking out 
  are his paws.  That. Is. Fat.  And he is totally giving me the drop dead glare. 

 

• An infatuation with objects in the clouds:

        Disney princess anyone???          And what would you see in this one???
         Give up?  Well…how bout a flying duck on a surfboard.  HA.  Or a flying
         funny looking dragon?  Bwahaha

         This one was easy…could be a plane OR a rocket ship…I decided on the
         rocket since you couldn’t really see wings….lol.

• A really really cool find from the thrift store this week.  But I’ll share that later.  =)
• A lot of pictures from our day trip to Tweetsie this past week.  Gotta get those edited but here’s one:My feet high up on the ferris wheel.  I rode with both kids…they did good.  On the very last spin around, K-man and Munchkin finally let go of the deathgrip on my arm and I actually heard a “Yeehaw” from K-man.  Hahah!More on the Tweetsie trip later.

• SUNTAN LINES!

        Here’s my clean (even if they might not appear to be…lol) and slightly 
        glowy feet in my coca-cola pajamas.  It’s outside on the deck and it’s
        almost dark, which may have helped the increased brilliance of the
        white flip-flop-hidden area of my feet.

• And of course, a million other things that I have been abundantly blessed with, but I’ll end here for this post.  *grin* 

Ya Know

Just ignore my last post.  That’s why I don’t post when I’m grouchy.  Anywho.

Mommy Boot Camp…well, let me just say, I didn’t realize doing toe touches or spitting in the sink were such terrible things.  She thought they were anyway.  I wasn’t cut out to be a drill sergeant, although I’m sure Munchkin would say otherwise.  LOL.  The whole point, though, is for her NOT to enjoy it, otherwise she’d think it was fun.  Whatever.  There’s a fun day on the schedule for tomorrow, so I wanted to get the MBC consequence out of the way today so she wouldn’t think she was getting rewarded for bad behavior.  LOL! 

On a completely different topic…have you ever seen a fox?  One that wasn’t in a zoo?  I HAVE.  And if you can’t tell just HOW close, check out the second pic of the fox…RIGHT outside the door.  With a wary Snowball watching.

Oh yeah, and if you wonder what she was doing on our back porch, well…let’s just say I microwave popcorn like I photograph weddings.  Not so good.  LOL!

I popped that bag about a week ago and didn’t realize it was burn till I opened it, so I set it outside the door to keep from stinking the house up…and forgot about it.

But…apparently foxes like burnt popcorn. 

Who knew?

NOT a Good Day.

I am totally frustrated. 

With my child.  With my photography skills (totally unrelated to the frustrating child)…see this post for the photography frustrations.  With not being able to take a deep breath (heaven knows I NEED a deep breath with this child). 

Suffice it to say, the Munchkin is in Mommy Boot Camp for the afternoon.  Mommy is SO mean. 

I’m in the middle of fixing supper, so I can’t really go into detail on the Mommy Boot Camp, but here’s an example: She was spitting on a kid at school today and when she got in trouble and the teacher told her to spit in the trash can, she told her no and threw a fit.  So when she got up from nap today, her first assignment was to spit in the sink.  Until I told her to stop.  Well, she didn’t want to and said she couldn’t spit and started throwing a fit again, so I put a little taste of pepper on her tongue to get her started.  By the time she finished, she decided spitting was not fun.  ARGH…why does she have to have consequences to figure this stuff out?  But more on that later….gotta get to supper.

Hmmm.

I was thinking the other day about blogging.  You’d think when you’re busy it would be a good thing, because you’d have plenty to blog about.  This is true.  But when you’re busy, you don’t really have time to WRITE.  When you do get a chance to upload pictures, it ends up being more of an “update” and not so much of a thoughtful or in-depth piece of writing (not that I claim to EVER have that kind writing abilities even when I do have time to really think about what I’m posting).  LOL. 

Anyways, it goes without saying that I really need to get busy on the blog stuff again.  I’m feeling the need to update and refresh my look again, too.  BUT.  To find the time….where?

I have a lot on my plate right now and I could totally make a giant list but I wouldn’t want ya’ll to get tired reading it.  The biggest thing is pictures…I have a lot that I need to get uploaded.  I have a lot that need to be edited.  And then after all that, I need to get some of them on a cd.  I just need to take a day and sit down and do it.  *sigh*

So much on my mind.  One of these days it is going to blow.  LOL. 

But right this minute, my tutor-ee is on her way to do some math.  I haven’t had any lunch.  KC is home for the morning because his class was cancelled.  He’s getting ready to leave.  He had a sandwich just now.  And he made me HUNGRY. 

G’bye.

Saturday Night Random-ness

Ya know.  There’s some major differences between my hubby and me.  We went on the church youth trip to Carowinds today (as chaperones, not youth…LOL…that’s when you know you’re getting old…but anyways) and we just got home about half an hour ago (around 9-ish).  Well, we both are exhausted and said we’d unload the car, take a shower, and chill for a few minutes until bedtime (the Munchkin and K-man are still at mine and his parents until in the morning).  We come in and what does he do?  He pulls out all his t-shirts and socks and starts going through them.  So I take a shower.  I come out and he’s organizing the change on his nightstand.  Um.  I’m not even bothering to put away the stuff we took with us today…I’ll deal with it later.  I’m tired.  So WHY is he organizing his t-shirt collection?  Strange.  Oh well.  LOL!

Someone remind me of what to do for chigger bites?  I have three.  I’m sure you don’t want to know where, so I won’t tell you.  I’m not sure how I got them either.  Weirdness.  No, scratch that. Not weirdness, ITCHINESS!  (HAH.  SCRATCH THAT…GET IT?)  I will say this, I did wonder why my new leggings were making my skin crawl.  Now I know it wasn’t the leggings.  OR my imagination.  UGH.

I took an Aleve while we were in line for the first ride to prevent the coaster headache (not to mention the neck and shoulder issues) before they started.  Somewhere on the first ride, my stomach wrenched a knot around my esophagus and for the rest of the day, it felt like I was trying to swallow around that Aleve.  Not the most pleasant feeling in the world.  Actually, it still feels like there is a giant pill stuck in the middle of my esophagus and I know it can’t be the Aleve because it went down fine—AND it was a tiny pill—AND it was ages ago.  Only me. 

Sidenote: KC just read the first paragraph over my shoulder and said it’s because he’s just weird.  And because he said he’d go through his t-shirts yesterday, but he didn’t, so he thought the minute he got home from Carowinds would be a fantastic time to do it.  And his socks as a bonus.  So it’s official.  He’s weird.  I’m not sure but I think he might have caught it from me. 

And I have a flip flop tan line.  But no sunburn.  Hooray.  ;-)  And I’m tired. 

The End.

*scratch scratch*  *sigh*

 

K-man quote from last week:
As he was getting his jammies on and I was helping him:
”Momma?  You my BESSSSTTT girl!”  Awww.  Then “Momma” melted into a big puddle right there. 

I Might Be A Spider

Cuz I am loving these things I found on the web….

A whole BUNCH of people doing cool (and cheap) decorating things.
Lots of inspiration in these links…it took me three days to get through all of them.

ReInvented Blog
What a brilliant place to go…this whole re-working of cheap finds is totally sparking my creative side…

The Shabby Nest
An amazingly cool place even when she’s not throwing a blog party like in the first link…

Another Photo Scavenger Hunt
Yay…this is fun!  Can’t wait to get started again.
PS if you missed my last photo scavenger hunt entry, click here.  And if you want to vote for me, click HERE.  *GRIN*

Tip Junkie’s Personal Assistant – June
Oh, I totally NEED a personal assistant.  And how cool with links for Father’s day ideas, too!!  Must go back and check out these ideas. 

I Have

The best dad in the world. 

See what he did?

Isn’t this the coolest?

 

It will be even cooler when I get something pulled together to put on the roofs (rooves? LOL)

Another pic of the kids climbing on the playground. 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s our leftover wood mess.  This will be on my project list to neaten back up tomorrow.  Woohoo!  LOL!

Maybe I can find a “before” picture of the towers when I get back tonight…but for now I have to go get ready to go to Sister’s Night Out…=)

Later!

 

PS I’m back.  Sister’s night out was fun.  And here’s the before/after pics…

Before: Playground parts and lumber – After: bits and pieces of leftover lumber. 

The pallets came from the block wall stuff, they just happened to be stacked near our playground lumber stack.  In the before picture, you can kinda see them over at the back left corner of the picture.

Before: the sad towers need help ----  After: 10 zillion times better.

That back tower was especially rough…you couldn’t even climb on it because the floor was actually broken and it was falling apart.  Now it is repaired, the side deck on the back tower is concreted into the ground, there are steps and rails to the second tower and deck, the swings are hanging and there are two of the three slides hooked up and useful. 

Oh yeah, and when the kids came home and I told Munchkin that Poppa was there to help me put the playground back together, Poppa (my dad) laughed.  He was absolutely right.  LOL…he didn’t help me put it back together.  HE put it back together and I helped HIM.  *GRIN*  There is absolutely no way I could have done it. 

Although I did use the sawsaw once.  And the 80lb bag of quick-crete…that was me.  LOL.   

PPS to the next owners of this house.  Enjoy your playground, cuz we ain’t moving it.

Oh Where?

Do I begin?

Dear K,
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy BIRTHday, dear K----….
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuu!  (Just pretend I can sing, okay?) 
LOL!  Seriously, you are the best friend ever and I hope your day rocked!  Thanks for being such an awesome person and for the incredible job you do as Sunday School teacher and for all our fun times of hanging out with (and without) our kids.  You amaze me with your patience and grit, not to mention your incredibly positive personality.  To borrow a phrase from the K-man, “You’re the BEST!” and I love you like the sister I never had.
Your friend,
Faith

Dear M-I-L,
Asheville was fun today.  I’m so glad you got the hillbilly cast off and got a real one on your broken wrist, and I’m also glad you don’t have to have surgery either.  I’m sure that I’m not as glad about that as you are.  I’m still laughing about the nurse laughing at the “cast” they put on you in WV… And here’s the picture you were afraid I was going to post on my blog.  Hehe!  LOVE YOU! 
Sincerely,
the D-I-L

Dear Letters,
So far I’ve had to erase three of you.  This is not coming as easily as I’d like tonight. 
Sincerely,
Letter Writer

Dear KC,
HEY…you are so….hmmm…g-rated blog….BRILLIANT!  And I LOVE that you let me take pictures of you yesterday.  Such a rare event that I couldn’t help snapping 50 within a matter of seconds.  So what if you wouldn’t crack a smile?  LOL!  See what I mean?  At least you looked slightly amused in a couple…hahaha.

   

And although I’m sure you probably will disagree (cuz you usually do when it comes to this sort of thing), that last one was my fav.  I love you!
LOVE,
Always.Faith

Dear Sewing Machine,
So glad you were able to lend me your helpful assistance once again.  Terribly sorry you’ve been relegated to the garage, but I’m sure you enjoyed your trip out of storage.  I don’t know that you enjoyed your time in my kitchen as much as I’ve enjoyed the re-styled skirts that came out of our time together, though.  Move over, Martha, I’m getting all domesticated!

Sincerely,
Feeling wonderful that I ruffled something besides KC’s feathers. 

Dear Fellow People,
Is it weird to see shapes and objects and animals in cloud formations?  Am I weird to enjoy looking?  No, don’t answer that. 

What’s this one?

Don’t know about you, but I see a fish!

 
How bout this one?

What?!?  You don’t see the elephant??!?

Okay.  I guess we’ve established that I’m weird.  Oh.  I think I already knew that.
Sincerely,
Weird Cloud Gazer

Dear Yard sale…
   I am happy because that giant Melissa and Doug train set that appeared to be brand new, and still had the instructions and papers, was only $30.  KC was happy about that, too.
   My kids are happy because we set it up for them on the coffee table in the living room. 
   They are also happy because it has lots more bells and whistles (hahah) than his last train set, which…um…went in a circle.  A single circle. 
   I was also happy because I looked it up online after I got home and the cheapest I found it there was $80…not including shipping. 
   It is so nice when everybody is happy.
Love,
A happy Mommy

Dear Blog,
Goodnight.
Sincerely,
Always.Faith

PS Here’s my best KC impression…

I think it comes across more as dreadfully pained than slightly amused…LOL!