WE MOVED!!!!!

Crossing the Mississippi River!

Mountains of Tennessee

Our loft apartment above my dad's gallery and workshop

The kitchen area

Never too old for a tire swing

Can't go anywhere that doesn't have a gorgeous view

Setrock Creek Falls

Creek below our window

Living area on the landing

Kittehs on the old portion of the barn

Riverboarding!

What is Riverboarding?

Weekenders....

After careful consideration we decided to wait until the kids were back before we took on the major project of removing our carpet. Ryan is 16 and 6 feet tall so he needs to be in on this rather than his mom!! We've had other things to do, like clean the utility room, the kitchen, the girls' room, bookshelves, etc. It hasn't been all work though, we've done some listening....



And laughing too...



Next Saturday we'll head out to collect the kids from my parents. They are having a good time but I suspect at least Ryan is really ready to be home.

Apples don't fall far...

My kids are taking after me in ways I'd sometimes rather they did not. This is a water snake of some kind that had been about to enjoy a meal of bullfrog... Until Ryan yanked it from the water and stuck it in this bucket. It measured about 33 inches long. They did release it after an hour or so, it was too aggressive for them to hold.
(click any image to see it bigger)


Remember this cutie pie that I found in the woods back in early April?...



He has turned into a giant hair-eating monster!!!


**
And his cohorts have taken up all the good places to sit.


**

In other news...

We've decided to start on the carpet next weekend. We found the tools we'll need and have been encouraged by other folks' successes. I think we're going to paint the kitchen this week, at night. I've also got plants to pot and some yardwork to get done during the days. Fun, Fun!!

** taken with Mark's phone camera.

The kids are here....

We took off for Tuscaloosa, Alabama early Saturday morning to meet my parents and brother there for a kid hand-off. They'll be staying 2 weeks. Right now I'm not sure if my parents will bring them all the way home or if we'll meet again in Tuscaloosa to retrieve them. Meanwhile, I'm nursing a very out of whack back and have to seriously consider not doing all the projects I had planned to tackle. Ouch. I. Hurt. Bad. So bad that it hurts to breathe sometimes. Anyway, I'm going to rest as much as possible and see what happens toward the end of the week.

(click to biggify the pics)

(playing in a creek we hiked to)


(mom and dad's house)


(firepit for marshmallow roasting in front of the new master bedroom suite)


(Shuford creek, in the backyard)


(the narrow window above Amy's head is the same as the one in the firepit picture-far right of the pic)

Crazy Times...

If anyone ever tells you that toddlers are harder than teens, please smack them immediately. They are NOT. Teens have to be driven around, watched like a hawk, and fed lots of pizza(or other junk). I swear I'm in the car more in a month than I was in a year before anyone turned thirteen. My kids didn't do soccer or gymnastics or music or art lessons, or anything else extra-curricular so their childhoods were blissful. Now that two of them are teens(and the youngest a very social nine), they still don't participate in those kinds of activities but I find myself hauling them around almost daily!! To a friend's house, to work, to the mall, to church activities, to homeschool activities, etc, etc.

Hauling kids along with real life have overwhelmed me to the point that my blogging is getting neglected! I hate that! Anyway, here's a catch-up:

Mark's job is going well. Slower paced than he is used to but very stable. He is driving an hour one-way to get there and back so that's been an adjustment. Things he used to do on his lunch hour here in town, I'm having to do.



I'm still in decluttering mode. It is amazing how much STUFF we have! Items that have been stored on shelves for years and years that we don't have a need for. I've taken bags and bags to the local thrift store(Hope's Closet). The bad thing is that I can't even tell anything is gone!! Where was I keeping all the other stuff before? I have no idea.

One of my favorite blogs shared this a while back...

The Story of Stuff. It has certainly opened my eyes!


Our pool is finally up and running! Usually we're swimming by the last part of May. This spring was cool so we didn't even start on the summer prep til mid-June. Ryan had a pool party the last weekend of June and the water was horrible, even after lots of chemicals. We ended up having to drain it and start with clean water. So far so good and Ryan's hosting another party in a few weeks!

The kids are going to North Carolina at the end of August. I'm still deciding if I'll join them. There is SO much to do here that I'd love to have that "free time" to work in the house.

Hopefully things will click soon and I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis. I definitely READ blogs almost daily!!LOL

a new blogger in town...

My Mom has a NEW BLOG!!! Check it out!! Not much content yet but she'll get there. I hope she finds as much goodness in blogging as I do!

In other news...

Mark and Ryan went fishing with friends today while the girls and I stayed home and did NOTHING. Oh it was nice. They are still an hour from home with a flat tire on the trailer so I don't imagine we'll see them before dark. Luckily Mark thought to take his trailer jack(can't remember what he called it) so he can change it easily, he just has to find one! Hopefully the rain will hold off til they're home.

Scenes from a North Carolina Winter...

Since I was in such a snit all winter I didn't get a chance to post pictures from our wonderful trip to visit my parents! We left a day or so after Christmas and came home on the 12th of January. There was a tiny bit of snow but not like our last trip durng the winter. Anyway, here are some scenes from around the house and yard. Click to see them better, its worth it!



(kids exploring in the boxwood patch)


(same mountains the morning after a snow dusting)


(bottles in the mud/laundry room)



(side landing in the morning sun)



(barn from the boxwoods looking down)



(Buckaroo in the snow)



(Amy at the kitchen sink from the mudroom)