WOW!!! It's Been 10 Years

Ten years ago today I married the biggest pain in the b--- of a boy I had ever met, I guess that's why I knew it was gonna turn out right. He had to be to put up with me for all these years.
We did come pretty close to not making it. I Thank the Lord for helping us. He intervened almost 4 years. The day we moved to Tennessee was the day our marriage was renewed. Tommy and I had to learn to make it on our own. We always had a lot of negative influences tearing at us. With the Lord's guidance we needed to learn how to turn to each other for strength, support, trust, Love and Friendship. The past 4 years have allowed us to do this and grow to be a strong family.
4 years ago I wouldn't have even called him my "Best Friend" I don't even think I liked him all that much, but today he is my Best Friend, my strength and my weakness ;-).
Although he is still the biggest Pain in the B---. He has also grown to be such a wonderful Husband and Father, THE BEST. I am truly honored to be his wife.

Here are a few pic's of our Wedding Day

My Man

Me and my Daddy and my BIG HAIR

Our Wedding Party

I had to fix the car

YES, We Danced at Our Wedding

Cake anyone?????

Ashley's First Riding Lesson

First of all I want to give Nicole a BIG "Thank You!!!" for telling me how to send my camera pictures to my email so I could download all the pics I took on Ashley's first riding lesson.
So then I put together a little collage. I know the pictures aren't to great as quality goes, so for that I am sorry. The good thing however is that I have pictures of this memorable event for Ashley. So here is Ashley with Pepe.
Enjoy!!

My New Time Killer

Since Tommy wasn't feeling good today we stayed home from church. Stomach stuff...YUCK!While Tommy was in bed SNORING, the girls swam and played with the cats most of the day. What did I do? Well I have a new hobby... If you look at my sidebar will see a copy of my very first scrapbook page that I created for my Desktop. I am not one for a lot of busy stuff going on and I am pretty new to doing anything creative. So be honest...What do you think.

I had a lot of fun doing it and thanks to Nicole's blog with all her Scrap booking links.

After I was finished creating we had dinner and watched a movie together called Penelope.

We loved the movie. Allie was so sweet the whole time getting upset at the people that treated Penelope wrong because of how she looked.

This past week has been busy being back to school.

Monday night was Ashley's first actual riding lesson. It went great! I took some pictures with my phone but I have to still figure out how to download them to my computer. I'll bring my digital camera tomorrow. She has her lesson every Monday right after school. While Allie was at cheer practice, Tommy took Ashley and her friend Abby out fishing. Abby got to spend the night.

Tuesday we went out on the boat. It was a good day full of Family and Friends, with the occasional laugh so much you almost pee your pants moments. Luckily the bathroom isn't too far for #1 :-).

Wednesday we thought Awana started...WRONG... We went to church and ended up helping with TEAM Kids and getting the gym ready for when Awana starts up NEXT week.

Thursday is my laundry day. This will have to change soon because when football starts, Allie will be cheering Thursday nights.

Friday after Tommy got home from work we headed over to Sam's to stock up. Then we went over to some friends for a few rounds of Dominoes.

Saturday, I had to reorganized my Kitchen, since I needed more room for all the bulky food. Allie was a BIG help. She even swept and mopped the floor for me and then vacuumed the carpet. After we were all done with that the girls went out to swim. I went out to clean up all the Apples that were falling off the neighbors tree. I caught Ashley throwing some, so I made her pick up all the green ones from our tree. Needless to say she was not happy about that. I told her she needed to change her attitude or we wouldn't go anywhere when Tommy got home from work. Since I was collecting the Apples for The Duncan's horses, and that we were heading there to feed them and a bonfire, Attitude GONE.

Well that bring me back to today. The crew is all asleep but me and since I have to go to work tomorrow, I will say GOODNIGHT!

First Day Of School

Well that this dreaded day has arrived.

Yep Allie is officially a 4th grader and Ashley is a 3rd grader. I had to go to work before they were completely ready for school so I didn't get pictures so here is a few from after school today.

This is the backpack that Dena got for Ashley's birthday. She put the horse on the back. I added the name. It didn't turn out as straight as I would have liked, but Ash likes it so that is all that maters.

They both had a great day, yes me too. I got lots of hugs from the kids that I ran into in the halls. The girls LOVE their teachers, so I pray for a good year.

I am off to take Ashley to her riding lesson then straight over to take Allie for Chargers cheer leading. Tommy and I are both off tomorrow so that means one thing...BOATING!

To My OLDer Sister

It's my MUCH OLDER sisters Birthday today. so this post is strictly for her.

I wish I could spend the day with you Jul. I hope you have a great day

I Love and Miss you very much.


HAPPY 38TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Summer Vacation coming to a end :-(

Well it's here the last weekend before we go back to school/work. I for one am NOT ready.

I have tried to stay busy since my family left. We have gone to the pool, went to fun fest, and of course some more boating. The girls had a couple of birthday parties to attend.

Ashley started her horse riding lessons last Monday. Which she LOVES. Her first lesson was on how to groom and tack up her horse. She loves it so much that she said she can't wait till Monday, not because she is excited about school but because she will get to ride a horse.

Allie said she can't wait till Monday because she is very excited about the teacher she got and Cheer leading Monday night. I am very happy with the teacher Ashley got too.

Tommy and I are doing good too. He has been very busy with work. I had more dental work done...YUCK! I also changed up my hair color a bit.

Last night we went to the Eastman Cabins for a church cookout and Miller Perry Faculty Cookout. They were right across from each other so it worked out great. The kids and Tommy enjoyed playing in the creek and the play ground. They caught some Crawdads, Water Spiders, Minos and a Salamander. I enjoyed getting to know some of the other people from our church and catching up with others. Allie enjoyed going over to meet her teacher before Monday. She got a nice big bear hug and a welcome for Mrs. Warner. With all Allie's anxiety issues this was great for her. It's nice working at the place your kids go to school. Ashley's teacher wasn't there when we walked over, so she didn't get to meet her, but I assured Ash that her teacher is wonderful. She was even Teacher of the year for Sullivan County 2 years ago. Ashley will be OK with any teacher though.

Today the girls and I are going to The Duncan's to pick green beans and then the church for a back to school event. Hopefully Tommy will get to meet us there after work. Sunday Tommy and I are heading back to our adult Sunday School class. After teaching the past 2 years we thought we would take a break from teaching. We heard the our Youth Pastor is going to start a marriage class, so I am very excited about that.

Have a great weekend

What's been going on

Well despite Ashley's best effort...

Our Family visit came to a end.

We had a very good visit with them. I forgot my camera for most of the time, which I could kick myself for.

The visit with my dad was very different from the last time he was here. But it was still good.

Since my last post we haven't done too much. Ya right, we stayed busy. Fun Fest started this week with the parade and just like last year Jennifer and I went out early to save to spots before her doctor appointment. From there we took My Family to the city of Jonesborough. We walked the streets and went in a few stores. The girls really liked the candy store. I played Ms. Pacman while they shopped. I think the girls got tired of me taking pictures of them but I loved the scenery so I didn't want to pass it up. After we got home I made the girls rest up for the Parade then at about 5:00 we were off.

Saturday morning Allie woke up with a fever so we chilled at home for the weekend. Mamaw came back from her visit with her Family and her Sister and Brother in law stayed the night too. We played dominoes till early in the morning (again). Sunday Allie was still sick so I stayed home from church with her and the rest of the day we just chilled out. Monday I took Al to the Dr's. It is just a virus but since she had a fever I made her stay home from Blake's party. Tommy went with Ashley and had a good time. Tuesday we took the kids to the Duncan's to feed the goats and horses. Then we went back home to get ready for the cook out I planned for my family before they had to go. My dad was really happy because he got one last visit with most of his favorite Tennessee People. He said he thought James was gonna break his neck when he hugged him (in a good way). He also said he it made him feel really good and loved by all that came. So I give a big Thank YOU to the Fox, Allen and Wallen Families for coming. He (and me) really loves you all. I tried to make the last night last as long as we could, we even stayed up to watch the final Bourne movie.

Well Wednesday was very hard and came all to fast. We too them to the airport to see them off. It was a tearful and quiet ride home. I sent the girls up for a nap. At around 6:00 i woke them up to get ready for the Movie at FunFest. Allie woke up with another fever so Tommy stayed home with her. Nicole picked Ash and me up. After we got the food we found a place to sit. It was so crowded. I am so confused about how all this Fun Fest stuff works, so I am so grateful that Nicole is an OLD PRO at it all. Of course after we go situated the girls had to go to the bathroom so off I went to find one. When we got back the Fox Family along with our youth pastor and his family where there too. Sadly they didn't stay long. I can't blame them, it was hard to watch the movie with everything else going on. We stayed because the kids where having fun running around. I was just happy that Ash was having a good time too. Of course when we got home that all changed, her tears started again. My goal this week is to keep her busy and happy for the most part. wish me luck!

Check out the slide shows from our visit and Ashley's Birthday

Family Visit

Ashleys 8 Birthday

Enjoying the time I have.

Today is my first down day in over a week. After I get my laundry done we will head to Dena's to visit my Grandpa. Please pray for him, he is 88 and took a tumble at Warriors yesterday while walking with my Uncle. Anytime there is a fall in our family the worry meter goes in high gear. It has been almost 10 years since my Grandma passed away after a fall she had. My Aunt says he is doing OK, just real sore.

We have been going non-stop. We have been to a few cook-outs, bonfires, tubing, swimming and all that was before the 4Th.

The 4Th we started the day off at the 4Th of July Parade. Allie was in it with her cheer squad. It started off as a nice beautiful day, perfect for a parade. Then as soon as Allie's float passed and I was walking to get her and Emily the TYPHOON hit. It rained so hard. Luckily where I had to meet them was a Dollar General so we stopped in to get a few umbrellas to get us to the truck.

From there we headed home to get the food ready for the cookout at my Aunts house. The food and company were great. Even though another down poor hit we all came in the house for some great "getting to know you better" time.

From my Aunts we went home to change then met the Wallens and McKays at the mall for the fireworks. The fireworks were a huge disappointment but the company was good so no harm done. We all had a good time. Duffer had brought lots of glow sticks for the kids, but I think the BIG KIDS had the most fun with them. We had a very late night with the Wallens playing dominoes. til 3:30 AM! We ended up having a major sleepover since all 7 kids were already passed out. I was so tired the next day I didn't even want to get up but it was Ashley's 8Th Birthday and I had stuff to get. She finally decided after learning that the weather was not gonna be good for the pool that she wanted to go to Chucky Cheese and then back at home for BROWNIE Sundaes (YUM) instead of cake. She got lots of horse stuff and had a great time and that's all that matters.

Sunday after church we headed off to Chattanooga to visit with my Stepmoms family. It was a nice mini vacation. Monday went to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It was beautiful. Allie LOVED the Penguins, Ashley was all about getting to pet a Shark and Sting Ray. We also went to see a 3D movie on dolphins and whales. My dream is to actually swim with Dolphins but this was pretty close. It was amazing! Tuesday we went to a cook out and swam all day. I was a nice visit.

Yesterday after we got back home we did have intentions on going to the block party for our church but when we drove by we noticed that we were VERY early SO we headed to the Duncans to kill some time and visit them before they go on vacation. We ended up staying there until late last night. Kelly made a awesome dinner with LOTS of home grown vegetables. I wasn't too thrilled at first about the menu. I am NOT a vegetable person. But I was pleasantly surprised and even had seconds, it was yummy!

I will post pictures as soon as I get them downloaded. I hope you all are having a safe and fun summer!