Happy 12th Birthday to my Sweet Girl Jazz

 It is hard for me to believe that my sweet girl is now 12 years old!  I actually had been telling everyone she was going to be 11 years old on her next birthday until I found her birth certificate.  Imagine my shock and Jazz' shock to find out that she was already 11 years old and turning 12! 

Happy Birthday Sweet Cheeks!  Jazz actually turned 12 on August 4th.  

Angela

First Day of School 2018

I hated to see My Young Man have to start school so early this year.  I sure miss having him hanging around with me this summer.  He sure has grown up on me.  Not only in age, but in height!  Around April I noticed he was shoulder to shoulder with me, but not as tall as me.  By August he is the same height as me!  If he keeps growing at the rate that he has been he will be taller than his dad.  

Angela

Applebarn Cafe ~ Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

 Before school started back for the year this year we went on a little trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  It had been around 23 years since my husband and I had been in that area.  So much has changed since then.  I don't know if the Applebarn was there back then or not, but we found it this year and we were glad that we did.

 We went to the Applebarn Cafe for lunch.  We had no idea that they would bring out these apple fritters with apple butter as an appetizer along with the glasses of what they called a julep that had orange juice, apple juice and pineapple juice mixed.  The apple fritters were so good.  I really liked the julep drink.  We all loved the apple butter.  We had to stop by the Applebarn Store on our way home to get a few jars.

 I don't know if it is just a Tennessee thing or not, but our lunch also came with soup.  We all ordered the vegetable soup. It was also really good. 

 My husband had the turkey with gravy and dressing with a side of mac and cheese and cranberry sauce. 

 My Young Man had grilled ham with mashed potatoes and green beans.

I had grilled pork with mashed potatoes and dressing with gravy.  We all sampled each others meals and everything was really good.  If we are ever in the area again we will be sure to stop by for lunch or dinner again.  

Angela

I'm Back!

I have been thinking a lot about blogging again.  I do miss it.  I'm going to make a better attempt at trying to at least put up something once a month if not once a week.  A lot of the blogs that I follow are no longer blogging from what I can tell.  I think fb consumed many of us.  I really don't like how fb works.  I get tired of seeing the same posts that friends in common share at the same time.  I still love seeing some corgi fb posts though.  I've also been working very hard on my family tree.  I love genealogy too much!  I've found a lot of distant cousins that are also working on their family lines.  We share information and have more complete trees that way. 

Here's a little update on a few things that have happened since I last blogged.  My young lady is now a married lady.  My young man is now a teenager.  My corgi, Jazz, is still corging along.  I'm still married to one of the best gifts that God has given me.  I recently lost my mom to copd.  I'm heartbroken over this and I might share more later.  If you followed me and know of the breast cancer I had 6 years ago then you'll be happy to know that I'm still doing great.  I did my 5 years on tamoxifen and so far every test my doctor put me through the past few months came back negative for any cancer in my body.  Praise the Lord!  My doctor put me through CT Scans, PET Scans, Bone Scans and I even had to have a MRI.  Everything came back negative.  I might share more about that at some point too.  Life has really changed a lot for me as you can tell from the updates.  It is different not having your children all living at home.  And now I have to get used to another new normal of not having my mom who was also my best friend to share my ups and downs with.  God is helping me get through it all.

I'll share more later.  I have been thinking of some posts that I want to do and I'm gathering information for that.  

Bathroom Remodel

 During Christmas Vacation we decided it was time to start the remodel of our master bathroom.  We built our house around 19 years ago.  In that time we haven't re-painted the bathroom at all.  This is as close as a before picture as I am going to have because my husband started taking stuff out of there before I thought he was going to and therefore I didn't get a good before picture.  The vanity in the picture above was purchased at 84 Lumber when we were building our house.  I had stopped in to look at something for the house and seen they had a few vanities on clearance.  I paid $75 for that vanity.  They delivered it that day when they brought some more of the lumber or something for our house. 

 It didn't take my husband and young man very long to get everything out of the bathroom.      

 We have needed to replace the flooring in our bathroom for a good 9 years!  That is how long it has had a hole in the floor.  My young man when he was 4 put some tape on it to fix it for me!  lol  Somewhere I'm sure I have a picture of that! 

 Flooring has came a long way since we built our house.  It is much thicker and more durable than one would imagine.  Our old floor was paper thin.  This new floor is cushion thick feeling.  I know most people like the real tile floor.  I personally don't.  I've lived with it in other places.  I didn't like it at all.  I don't like standing on it.  I don't like cleaning it.  When we stay at a hotel I always put a towel down on the floor because I do not like to stand on it.  Yep, I'm that crazy!  But, I do like the look of it so I picked out something as close to looking real as you could, but without all of the work that one has to do to install real tile.  With this flooring all we had to do was cut it to fit and lay it down.  It did not need to be glued or anything.  Nice!  Quick!  Easy! 

 We also decided it was time to get a new toilet.  The old one was leaking around the bottom at times.  It also was starting to stain from the iron in our well water.  I also wanted to replace it because we had replaced the toilet in our half bathroom a few years ago and I liked the height of it better. Looking at that picture above makes the bathroom look really small.  I believe the actual measurement is 9x12.  We did paint the bathroom a light sand color.  I like it, but I am so used to everything being all white that I kind of miss the all white look we had before.  I can not stand the smell of paint so I'm not going to be re-painting it anytime soon.  I actually have gotten really sick from a sinus infection which I believe was because of smelling all of the different smells associated with remodeling the bathroom which is one of the reasons why we have been putting it off. 

 We also bought a new light.  I loved the light that the old one put out, but I was ready for a new look in there.  This light puts out enough light, but it's not as bright as the old light.  

We are not finished with the complete remodel though.  We can not seem to find a new vanity that we like that is even near the quality of our old vanity.  We are still trying to decided on whether or not to replace it.  When we built the house we matched everything in our bathroom to go with that vanity.  The doors and trim are that same color oak.  The new modern look goes away from the real wood colors and you can mostly find gray, black or white.  We are going to replace the top.  We can't order that until we know for sure what we want to do about the vanity.  We did buy a new faucet, but that won't be installed until we get the new top.  Once I get it completely finished I'll share some more pictures then.  Everything has been put back together though.  

All in all I am happy with the new look.

Angela

9 Foods That Last Forever!

Oh Christmas Tree

 This year I decided I wanted to have my Angel Tree in the living room.  We had to move some furniture around in order to fit that big tree in there!  I absolutely love this tree.  Most of the Angels that I have on the tree I found at a local thrift store.  The Angel on the top of the first Angel that we bought 25 years ago.  There is one Angel that my mom bought my grandmother for Christmas a good 33 years ago.  Another Angel is probably 50 years old that belonged to my Granny. 

The fireplace is decorated with Angels too!  The little tree beside the fireplace has ornaments from Christmas Vacation that co-workers buy my husband for Christmas. 

 Yes, I'm a crazy nut with a tree in my half bathroom!  I have been doing this for a few years now and I just love it.  This tree has ornaments from A Christmas Story.  My Granny made Mr. & Mrs. Santa many years ago. 

I had an extra wreath that I decided to hang on the outside of the half bathroom door.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  

Angela

Trail Mix

Angela

Driving Miss Jazz

My Little Man is now 12 years old.  I think that given his age and all I probably should start calling him my Young Man.  Here he is driving Jazz and me around in our hay field.  Jazz loves going for a ride.  She thinks she is special when she gets to go for a ride!  

Angela

My Country Boy!

My favorite pictures I've taken recently of my Little Man.  It was spirit week at school.  The kids could dress up as either country or city.  He picked country.  So far he is really enjoying Middle School. 

Angela

Cape Lookout Lighthouse ~ North Carolina

 The first part of our vacation we went to Cape Lookout. 

We had to take a ferry boat ride over to the Island. 

It was a perfect weather day when we went. 

My Young Man and my Husband walked to the top of the lighthouse.  They love walking up the different lighthouses which is why we went to see this one so they could walk up to the top.

I'm not a fan of walking up that many stairs so I stay on the ground and take pictures of them when they get to the top and I take pictures of the scenery at the bottom of the lighthouse.

Angela

Green Bank Telescope

This past weekend we went to Green Bank, West Virginia to take a tour of the telescope there.  It is amazing to see in person.  You can go HERE to find out some more information about the telescope if you are interested in knowing more.

Angela

Outer Banks

We just got back from our vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina last week.  We had a great time!  I, of course, took way too many pictures and videos.  I will start out by sharing a video of the ocean waves.  It was so windy that there was a no swim order issued at all of the beaches in the area.

Angela

Crazy Weather 200 Year Anniversary!

I recently found an article that was very interesting as it pertained to the weather in our area from 200 years ago.  The title of it was 200 Years Ago: The Year Without a Summer.  You can read it HERE.  Then I found another article that gave the reason why there was not a Summer in 1816.  You can read it HERE.

After you read both articles, which aren't that long, tell me if you think something like that could happen in today's times?  I think it can happen again.  I hope that I am prepared if something like that were to happen.

Angela

West Virginia Hit by Devastating Flooding

I'm sure most people know that a week ago today many areas across West Virginia were hit by devastating flooding that destroyed many homes and businesses through out several counties.  51 out of 55 counties have been declared a disaster area.  Thousands of people have lost everything they own.  

I am amazed at all of the support we are getting in West Virginia after the devastating flooding that occurred last week. A lot of businesses not only local, but from other states, big and small are really doing a fantastic job stepping up and helping our people. I can't forget the support of the local churches and individuals that are also helping with this massive cleanup and rebuilding efforts. I've been seeing on the news that Tide has brought in their laundry trucks for people to do their laundry. Duracell has brought in a truck full of batteries and charging stations. Huggies is donating diapers. P&G has supplied personal hygiene products. Baby beds, car seats and playpens have been donated. Clay County has been donated an ambulance. Clendenin has been donated fire fighting equipment. The city of Hurricane has sent in their city workers with heavy equipment to help Richwood to get their water and sewer back in service to the people. Several restaurants like Chick fil a, PaPa Johns, Applebee's, etc. and food trucks have been providing meals for people. On the news they said they are feeding anywhere between 2,500 to 3,000 people just in Clendenin alone.  I seen yesterday where one lady drove around making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people. The need is great. It is overwhelming to see the pictures of the devastation of the homes that were lost, the roads and bridges that were washed away, cars that were lost, grocery stores under water, gas stations underwater and sadly there were lives lost. Things can be replaced, but life can not. The flash flooding didn't just happen in one small area. Entire towns were under water. Not a few inches of water, but several feet of water. The homes and businesses that were under water lost everything they had, but with the help of many generous people and businesses from all over West Virginia will rebuild and be better than we were before. We are Mountain Strong! 

May God Bless each and everyone who is helping out in any way shape or form!

Angela

PS  I know a lot of you that were regular readers of my blog know that the area where I live has flooded before.  I was so blessed when a sweet blogger wrote me to ask if I was ok.  I thought I'd let everyone know that it did not flood where I live.  We did have minor flooding where I live like the road was flooded that caused us to be flooded in and my husband was stuck sleeping on the floor at work.  That is nothing compared to what others experienced so I'm not going to complain about that one bit.  

Dancing with the Stars ~ Part 2

I can not believe that I forgot to put these pictures up!  I guess I'll go ahead and put them up now.  A few months ago my Little Man and I went to see Dancing with the Stars when they were in our area.  We had a great time!  Here is a few more pictures that I took that night.

Angela

Where does the time go?

Time is flying by so fast lately that it feels like my head is spinning.  It does not seem like it should be March yet with Easter right around the corner.  I wish time would slow down some so I could catch my breath.  I can't believe it's been a few months since I've last posted anything on my blog.  Hopefully things will slow down some and I will be more regular with my blogging.  

Angela