She's Sun and Rain

A lot of people have been asking me lately, why are you a Clemson fan? I did go to N.C. State and was a Cheerleader there none the less. Let me explain. My uncle Kendall went to Clemson. Not only did he go, but he played for them during their amazing track to the National Championship in 1981. He was a wide receiver, #89. I love my uncle and am very proud of his accomplishments. My grandparents had orange everything...in their house in Salisbury there are still lots of remnants of those times. A pin my grandmother wore to the games, a clock with the National Championship team on it. My first college football games were in Death Valley. I have pictures of me, my sister, mom and dad with my uncle and my grandparents all out on the field after the games. When it came time for me to go to college...in my mind, I was going to Clemson. I applied, had letters written, and I got in. I made a trip down with my friend Katie over Valentine's weekend (which I don't recommend because ever...

Today I was having lunch with my sweet friend Katie and we were discussing finances. Money is on my mind a lot lately (lately, um, the last 5 years?) and a big part of our life is our 'get out of debt' plan. I'm sure you've read somewhere in here that we are doing the Dave Ramsey, My Total Money Makeover and debt snowball. We are working hard (and for me, that means working...after a long time of job hunting) at putting as much money toward debt as we can. We don't splurge a lot, we have a tight budget, and we are trying our best to stick to it. God has always provided for us. We are tithing 10%...something we refuse to stop doing. Here are a few things we're sacrificing to make this happen: - I went to my natural hair color, no more 100 dollar highlighting - We cancelled the gym membership, a savings of 64.99 a month - We cancelled Time Warner and went with Dish for a much less expensive deal - We coupon There's something to be said for living belo...

If you've known me any length of time or been to my house, you probably know that I am a photo freak. I love taking photos and I love putting them into scrapbooks for later viewing! I am behind, and I mean wayyy behind on scrapbooking. My mom did all of ours from birth to high school. When I got to college at N.C. State, I decided I would keep up the tradition. I scrapbooked my freshman through senior year and did a separate scrapbook for cheerleading. Since I graduated I have been struggling to keep up! I just finished my Alaska book from 2008. I had a conversation one time with Adam that put things into perspective. It went like this: Ginny "Babe, I love you. Can we be married forever?" Adam "I love you too. And no, there isn't marriage in heaven". Such is life when you marry a minister. See what seminary does to people? ;) I pouted. Like a 5 year old who was just told she can't have a candy bar. But it gave me some pretty good perspective that n...

Last weekend was the first week of fall, so we welcomed it in with some homemade Vegeable Beef soup made by yours truly and some cornbread. We eat outside on the screened in porch, so of course, that's where we were! Happy Fall everyone!

Hey ya'll... I am definitely keeping this blog for our personal updates, family, drama, and who knows what else. However, I have started a new blog and I need YOU to go and check it out. It's not pretty yet....but it will be soon. Made in U.S.A. Pride! Enjoy! Tell your friends, and check back often! Love, Ginny

For those of you who were just dying to know....Nope, I didn't win the pottery barn sweeps. Haha. I did, however, purchase a few frames that were on sale and cannot wait to get them in the mail. I ordered one of these:  And one of the 9 opening large frame :) Who doesn't love frames? In other news...life has been busy. We had Adam's family in town for Labor Day and then they left a day early so, of course, we left 30 minutes after they did and headed to the coast. We are spontaneous like that. I plan on posting some photos from that weekend as well as some others...coming soon!

Dear God, It would really be great if I would win the Pottery Barn Benjamin Moore Room Makeover. ~Ginny I have been going to the facebook post and entering every day to win this sweepstakes. It kindof bugs me that everyone writes their own sob story on the facebook page to try to get whoever decides the winner to 'pick them'. Most of these people write that they have had the same furniture 25 years, just bought a new house, or my favorite...every other room in their house is PB so they need the last one they have put off as the last one to decorate to match. LOL. So, if I were to write on their wall, I'd write something like... Pottery Barn, Adam and I moved 4 times last year, every piece of furniture in our house is a hand me down, we have three empty rooms, and we are on Dave Ramsey's plan to get out of debt, so furniture isn't something we'll be buying anytime soon. Since June 24th I have lost both my great grandmother's, my best friend's mom...

Most of you know that my Dad passed away 9 ish years ago in April of 2002. Saddest day of my life thank you very much. This year I have been on 'Project Dad' trying to collect and save some of the things that remind me of him and can be passed down when we have kiddos. My dad sang and taught people about Jesus a lot. We have him recorded singing the national anthem at a Charlotte Hornets game on VHS. We have tapes of him singing in churches and giving his testimony. I'm very thankful for my cousin Steph and my aunt Carol and uncle Mark for all their help after Dad passed to put those things together. Now, we're in the process of converting them all to current technology, DVDs and CDs etc. This past weekend after a wedding we visited my grandparents (Dad's parents). They are just awesome and fun to be around so we like spending as much time with them as we can. Their names are Ruby and Jewell and they've been married 66? years this November. My grandmother handed...

I feel like I haven't read a blog or gotten on here in forever. I have been adjusting to a new job! I am now working at a church here in town as an Administrative Assistant for an Outreach Center. It is great and I think I'm going to love it. The hours are great and the pay is great and well, it's just great. Changes like that always take some adjusting to. It's nice to feel like a productive member of society again. I don't know who I was kidding when I thought selling Mary Kay would bring in the type of money that a real job does. It doesn't, and it definitely doesn't have all the perks that come along with it. I never understood Multi Level Marketing companies like that and always said I would never do one, and now I'll still say, I shouldn't have done it. It took away valuable time with Adam and caused a lot of stress in my life. It took away money that I would have paid off debt with, and some of that I'll never get back. Now, we are making ...

My beautiful, wonderful, fashionista, loving, sweet, caring, fiesty, great grandmother went to be with Jesus last night. That is something I'm sure of, she loved the Lord. She was a member of Austin Grove Baptist Church since, well, a really long time.  In honor of her, I decided I would post. She and my great grandfather Arthur created an amazing, gigantic family. I literally had to plan our wedding around how massive my family is. We count off at Christmas and we never have less than 30 of our immediate family. They had 4 boys, who had lots of kids, who had lots of kids. They had one great-great grandson, my second cousin, Miles. I love these people. Clara and Art were married over 70 years! What a testimony to marriage. They lived in the same house forever. They had a farm, orchards, chicken houses. Now the chicken houses are all full of old furniture and just stuff. They have a "Christmas house" which hosts a Christmas tree all year round. It has photos all along the ...

Lord help me, I am reading the book Radical by David Platt. I am already an over the top person when it comes to radical thinking. I'd go live overseas in some remote area and help orphans if we didn't owe everyone else so much money. Which, is why we are getting out of debt. We don't want to be tied down by the things we owe people so that we can be FREE to go do whatever God calls us to do (not that he can't call you to do things while you have debt, but you are in some way in bondage to it). *Let me go ahead and be honest and say that I believe that health and wealth gospel, prosperity gospel, name and claim it gospel, etc....those are lies that devil has tried to make people believe and not the truth that our bible teaches. If you believe those, you seriously need to spend some time seeking the Lord and at minimum, read this book and a few others by Randy Alcorn on God and money.* While reading this book last night, I have come up with a new way to combat materi...

Harris Teeter Ad & Coupons 6/8-6/14 Printed at SouthernSavers.com Buy One Get Ones (price in parenthesis is if you buy only one of BOGO) Harris Teeter 93% Lean Ground Turkey, 20.80 oz, at $4.99 ($2.49) Crystal Light Drink Mix, 8 qt. or 10 ct., at $3.99 ($1.99) -$1 off Crystal Light drink mix, SS 6/12 Luzianne Family Size Bags, 24 ct., at $2.29 ($1.14) Kellogg’s Cereal 12-15 oz, at $3.69 ($1.84) Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, Honey Smacks, Rice Krispies -$1/3 Kellogg’s cereals, 8.7 oz +, RP 5/15 Mario Spanish Manzanilla Olives, 5.75 oz, at $2.45 ($1.22)  Sun-Maid Natural California Raisins, 9 oz, at $2.50 ($1.25) Nature Made Vitamins and Supplements, 30-300 ct., entire line -$1 off Nature Made product, (sign in) printable or printable Clorox 2 Laundry Stain Remover, 22 oz, at $3.99 ($1.99) -$1.50/2 Clorox2 product printable (makes it $2.50 for 2) Pace Picante or Salsa, 16 oz, $2 KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce, 18 oz, $1.50 -$1 off KC Masterpiece...

Over $500 dollars. That is our record high on grocery spending in one month. Never again will we do that! I thought that shopping at Wal-Mart was a good, inexpensive idea when we first got married. Having been single, I had no idea what it meant to really grocery shop or feed a man. I typically ate meals like cereal for dinner, or a combination of rice and peas with some salt and pepper. Perhaps that's how I stayed so skinny. I was only in Augusta, Ga from November after our wedding to June when we moved. I tried to keep our grocery budget to $100 a week, so $400 dollars a month for 2 people. That is too much. When we left Georgia in June and moved to Wilmington, NC (trying to figure out what we were doing) we spent some time with the Smith's. Thankfully Meg taught me a little about budgeting and couponing. We now shop at Harris Teeter and do not spend more than $60 a week on groceries. This includes toiletries, paper products, etc. Get an envelope, put your grocery money in ...

I have been having a hard time lately coming up with what I want to post because I think of so many things that I'd like to post. Today, I had some free time and was reading blogs for a bit. I am considering starting my own blog to try to make money. What I can't decide is what to write about, or if I should just continue it on this one. Organizing, family life, budgeting, cooking, funny marriage stories, my lack of exercise and all my intentions to exercise? What do you like to read about the most? Or, are you the kind of person who likes to see pictures only? :)

 I am no expert and I know several reports have a list out about the best time of the year to purchase specific items. What I do know....Memorial day and the week after Christmas have the best sales so far that I have seen. Really. Adam and I have held off on buying anything new for a year and a half while trying to pay off debt and get caught up from last year. Now that we are doing Dave Ramsey's financial peace university we actually have an envelope for clothing and it is high time that we replace some old things that need replacing. I also "had a growth spurt" after we got married, so shorts were in drastic need. You can find the best times to buy items at Kiplinger's , Lifehacker.com , or Real Simple . And next Memorial Day I suggest you hit the mall for some really great deals! Here are a few pictures from our Memorial Day. I hope yours was fabulous! Colin and Katelyn having a blast! Where there are guys, there are games. Me, Quinn, and Mama...

It just is. I love reading what other people are learning or doing in their families. I am really enjoying reading some blogs from some really awesome godly women that I mostly do not know. They are creative, fun, and entertaining to say the least. I enjoy writing in general, (probably should have gone into that line of work although not sure my skills are up to par) and so it gives me an outlet to express what's going on with us and our crazy lives, just chat about random things, or some days even, vent. I keep meaning to post some more recent pictures but today I am doing things like couponing, budgets, and cleaning. The not so exciting part of life, but having a lot of food in the pantry for not much money, knowing where our money goes and paying off debt, and having a clean home...those are exciting parts of life. The work pays off. Anyone have a half yearly goal? Those New Years goals are probably fading by now, what's something you're trying to accomplish this summer?...

 Love you Dad.

Greg on the other boat, I think he was posing for my picture :)   This Mother's Day we went down to visit my parents who now live at the beach. (I heard once that the wealthier you are, you either call it the beach, the coast, or the shore) Based on my earlier post, I think we will just call it the beach :) Adam and I on the "Wendy D" (my mom's name) Greg caught these, and they tasted yummy! Adam grilling out some burgers  We also went down to "The Day At The Docks" festival. I can't wait for the one coming in the fall (even though it is the one that prevented us from getting married down there!) called "Festival By The Sea". This is the picture I took to enter into the 96.9 flip flop photo contest to win Kenny Chesney tickets. But then I forgot to enter it. Oh well, it's a fun photo. What a fun weekend with family!

Truth: I think I offend people. Some people just get on my nerves. While I realize this is not a "godly woman" kind of comment...sometimes that is how I react to people. I get annoyed when people speak condescendingly to me. I get annoyed when others question my word. I get annoyed when people lie. I get annoyed when people try to tell what they are learning from the Lord to others as though that is what THEY should be learning at that exact same season of life. These things...ugh. I get annoyed when people who have kids talk to people who don't have kids like they are stupid or ignorant. Same goes with married people and single people. I cannot be the only person that struggles with this. And I try really hard to filter what I say...so usually I'm only thinking that I'm annoyed but occasionally it pops right out of my mouth before I have time to catch it. I think as I've gotten older I've gotten more and more jaded towards certain things. I love people, I...

Usually I am an avid blogger. This time of year for some reason is always the busiest. I don't know if it is because of the adjusting to time change, the celebrations, or spring fever piped in and now we want to 'do' more. Our computer crashed when we moved to our new place, so I haven't taken any pictures since then...well, literally since January and our birthdays. For those of you who know me well, this is unheard of. This weekend we will be going to visit my parents at Holden so there will most definitely be pictures! I will post them after this weekend. In the meantime, here is an email I sent to 3 of my friends updating them on life a week or so ago. Enjoy... This week has been hard for me. I am making it through of course but I am exhausted and so since I have had zero time this week to contact anyone really I thought I would send an email. A couple of weeks ago my old boss from Eola Capital (the real estate company) called and asked if I would come in and...