BIG ROCK

Well, Sorry I've been gone all weekend and no post, but its been a exciting one!! We were able to make it to the Big Rock Taxidermy Competition in Raleigh, NC.  There were so many taxidermist there competing this year, from Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina, just all over.  We met some really, really nice folks!  Ones that we hadn't talked to since last years event to new ones that we hope to see again next year. 

This is just some of the art work that you see as soon as you walk in the door. 

Its very exciting to see what all people are going to bring to enter. 

Eric was entering a closed mouth white tail deer and a non-water fowl, which was a turkey. 

This is us enjoying the event after we stressfully got everything set up. 

My husband is a perfectionist.  This is our third year entering this competition.  He has brought home 2nd place from the other years and he has worked hours on end to try and bring in a first place ribbon which I can report he did this time!!! I'm so so proud of him! What is even better is that he brought home a first place ribbon with both animals in two different categories!

Aren't these animals great!  He did a awesome job!

Once all the ribbons are displayed then the banquet begins to decide who had the highest score in those categories.. See, there are others who also made first place ribbons, so they take the first places and who ever has the highest score is given a trophy for Best In Class! Which I'm proud to say he won those for both areas!!

So then we get to go back to our hotel in a daze because we totally weren't expecting for the night to be this awesome!!! So thankful to God for allowing us to go and have this experience and fellowship with awesome people.  The next day he can go back and talk with the judges and get advice on how to keep continuing on improving their mounts... This is a picture of Eric and the turkey judge talking about the turkey.

Over all it was a awesome weekend! One I will never forget!

HUNGER GAMES---PRETEND

This year I told myself that I wanted to be better at taking pictures... I am not a Photographer! But wanted to be better at having those pics for memory books (ughhhh), see earlier post.  So during Christmas I walked around with a camera around my neck or used my cell phone to take pictures of stuff so I would have them for later.  This is some that I just had to share because I love my kids and all their friends.  These gals love to play pretend hunger games (which is freaky if you know how the movies ends) not something that I would have wanted to play as a kid, but they love it.  They will run around in the woods for hours playing Katniss and Petta LOL.  So here is a picture first of them after a round of hunger games.

As you can see they are all tired but love each other dearly!

Then since my two girls play it at home all the time, Santa brought them official katniss outfits and a wig(yes) a wig for Emma so she would have long hair since her sister already has long hair.  oh me

Yes they are ready for battle..... Oh how I miss being a kid, when all you had to worry about was what do I play next, or what is the next meal gonna be! (sigh)

THANKFUL FOR GREAT FRIENDS AND PRAYERS

I just wanted to say Thank You for all my great friends, that have been messaging me, posting comments, or texting me to check in on Isaiah.  He has been running a fever since this past Thursday.  The doctor said that some of these viruses have been lasting 7 to 14 days. Ahhhhhhh...... But as of (wait, hold your breath) the last 2 hours he hasn't had a fever and hasn't had any motrin since 8:30 this am.  

Thank you Lord for answering prayers, and for my wonderful friends that have been lifting him up and checking on him because lets face it, if you know me close, then you know I'm that freak that worries about my kids and sickness.  I have major anxiety when it comes to that.  This is something I hate about myself.  I'm one of those crazy people you see riding down the road, praying to God asking him to please let it be something simple and then that song Lord I Need You Now comes on K Love and you go by said car and the person is singing like they are in a concert to a 1000 people with no microphone. oh me, so anyways, we get back home and no he doesn't have a fever, hoping it stays that way and I'm doing my Thank You Lord dance and the fighting begins!  Oh yes, the fighting.  He is already running around the table chasing his sister threaten to hit her with his light saber that he got for Christmas, and by golly its the best sound ever... Yes you heard right, the best sound to come out of my mouth, that "Do you want a whippin for hitting your sister?" Oh, its the best!

So hopin that all stays well here and that no one else in this household gets this funk! I pray that all of you stay well too! Thanks again to all my gal pals out there, I love you all dearly!

I wrote this yesterday and wasn't able to publish it because within a hour of writing it out Isaiah's fever returned.  I'm so thankful to say he slept all night and woke up this am fever free.  I hope and I pray that it doesn't come back tonight, this adnovirus that is going around makes the fever come back every night and it can last a long time.  Please continue to pray that he stays well.  I hope none of you guys out there get this mess!!!

AWESOME FRIEND

Hey, I just have to give a shout out and Thank YOU!! To my awesome friend Kristin the writer of "June Cleaver Would be Shocked!"  She made this Awesome sign that I have to the right as a link to my site, with the green lettering... I"m so Excited!!! She is a homeschooling mom just like me and is trying to do Gods Will by leading her kids and family.  She has been blogging lots longer than me and has some hilarious post that you won't want to miss.. you should check out her site, there is a link in my favorite blogs! Thanks again girl your are the best!!

http://junecleaverwouldbeshocked.blogspot.com/

YUMMY WHITE CHOCOLATE PRETZELS

I was looking back over my pictures this afternoon and found where I had made White Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzels!!! These things are supper yummy, (under my Smack Yo Mama board on pinterest).  I found these little Delicious things on pinterest under a site called yourhomebasedmom.com  You can go directly to her site to get the recipe.  They were EASY which is what I like and would be low in calories since they are pretzels and just a little chocolate. (ok, so yes some sugar and butter).  I'm looking to make some of these this week, so that as I try to do more clean eating if I have a sugar crash, I will have a little something I can snack on and not fail miserably and eat one of the kids snickers from Christmas which is what I've been known to do many time. (huff, puff, huff)
I have a couple of my pictures on how they turned out. So cute and yummy!
Check out the recipe http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/cinnamon-toast-white-chocolate-pretzels-quick-holiday-gift-idea/

The First Picture is with the first few ingredients then the 2nd is after I added the white chocolate.  If you are not a fan of the chocolate, they are delicious even before you add the chocolate.  

I actually took a couple and added peanut butter to the middle then dipped the whole thing in white chocolate.  I only have a picture of them with peanut butter because the kids ate them all before I could snag my camera!!! Kids!!!

Oh what a Mess! Country Signs and shelf

So today, since I had to miss church. (my baby Isaiah is still sick) I was trying to decide what I wanted to post.  I was looking back through my photos and found where I had taken a picture of the sign I had made out of the left over pallets from the bathroom wall project...

In my past post you can tell that I talk a lot about messiness, and well, boys! They make messes! My girls too, guess I shouldn't let my boys get all the credit.  So I made a sign to explain our mess! 

I took the pallets and used Liquid Nail (I Love this stuff) and put it between each one and placed it between the saw and my chair outside and let it sit over night to glue together.  I also took 2 small pieces of wood and screwed it down the back side to help it to stay sturdy and together.  I added a little metal bracket to the back to hang it.  I used paint markers to write the words on the front.  (my handwriting is not something you would see on pinterest, but hey its about being messy!!) so anyways, this is it!

This is hanging in my office, so I built a little shelf for underneath it to hold bills and such. 

AHHHHHH......IDEAS NEEDED

That's what I think about when I think of a new year! A loud scream.  The reason I think that is because my brain is usually on overload at the beginning of a new year.  How many of us fall into that same ol routine of feeling like we need to start everything anew, everything fresh, loose weight, revamp our homes, lives, ect.  That's what I fall into.

The last 3 days I have been confined to the house, which I'm usually at home, but I mean confined to the inside of the house because I've had a sick one.  My smallest has had a virus and boy its been one.  He has felt pitiful.  But during this down time I have been able to work on 13 years worth of old photos of all the kids to try and make photo books for us to look at anytime.  I have made this horrible habit of saving them all on memory sticks and saying well one day I will use them all to make books.  Well, the day arrived and boy am I wishing I had been making these so called memory books all this time.  I have loaded over 2000 pictures into accounts.  Ughhhhhh ..... anyways, looking back into these books I see how I've done the same routine every year, gain, loose, change, redo.

What happens when we run out of ideas? Well, that's part of why I wanted to do this blog.  I hope that I will have people to actually read and take a look at it and put in their ideas!  Kinda like pinterest, but here where lots of other mamas can come to one place and say, "Hey, there it is, a easy idea lets go with that!" That's why I am posting foods and crafts that are EASY!  I want my kids to remember me having fun and doing things around the house and not thinking man all she did was work herself to death and we just have old pictures to show for it.  I want to start next week with clean eating and a better attitude about the way I do things.  I want stuff to be healthy but easy.  I want your ideas!!! I need others to help out with easy good foods, or crafts!

We all know that you can look on pinterest and get tons of ideas, but how many of them are nowhere near as easy as they look, OR you click on the picture and there is no instructions!! ughhhh.   Well, I hope that someone out there feels my frustration and will want to post some ideas here to get us started... I'm excited to see what this new year is gonna bring!!!
Post any ideas in the comments below.