She's Sun and Rain

 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...

There are several blog posts coming at you soon. One with how ridiculous I think it is our government has debt at all let alone the idea to raise the debt ceiling. If I said to you guys "we have 60,000 dollars debt this year but we're thinking of raising it to 70,000 just so we don't go over"....you would have me committed. Dear Lord, please let Dave Ramsey help our government. Or Ryan from Wisconsin-I like him too. Moving on... My sweet friend April tagged me in this 20 questions deal and since I think these are fun every now and then, I'm doing it! Rule #1: The tagged person must write their answers on their blog and replace any questions they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves. Rule #2: Tag 4 people to do this quiz. The tag-ee must state who tagged them. 1. What is one word that can best be used to describe you? Hodgepodge. I am somewhere in the middle of a free spirit and a nerd. I am organized, clean, and like things to make sense but I...

Oh lovely lamp. We received 2 of these for a wedding shower gift. We did not register for lamp shades. Long story short - until we either A. Get a gift card or B. Get out of debt, these will continue to be shade-less. I am not ashamed. If you come into my home and I show you our bedroom, I will say..."Dave says we can't have lampshades yet". And someday when we are completely debt free, I will remember these lamps and their nakedness. :-)

There was a time in my life (not so very long ago) that I thought I might have something meaningful to say and somebody somewhere might read it. Haha... the truth is, I am just a sinful human being like anybody else humbled that God would send his son to die on a cross for me so I can go to heaven. The craziest part is that there are people in this world that don't know that fact. You don't have to teach a kid to steal, you have to teach them to share. When a baby is crying, that baby is a sinner just like the rest of us. We aren't holy like God. We can't spend eternity with him unless we become holy like God. Such a concept. Realizing it, and realizing all the selfish things we do in this life is key to knowing we need God's grace and mercy and Jesus living a perfect life replaces our sinful non-perfect life. There are people in this world that don't know that. When you are alive, you are living for one of two things. Yourself or God. I want to help people know...

Yesterday I pulled weeds. Adam mowed the grass (what a man!) and I decided I'd get down in the dirt too :) I love planting flowers and trees and bushes. I am hoping to have a garden in the next year or two ish. And I even love pulling weeds. I probably love doing this because it's instant gratification. I enjoy painting, vacuuming, sweeping, and other things that make things look nice instantly. I even like washing my car! I know, I'm so weird. While I was pulling weeds yesterday I had a tough one. It's root was right near the root of one of the planted bushes. Low and behold, I pull out what looks like a huge onion bulb! I laughed out loud and of course had to show Adam. Look honey, a big root of a weed! It got me to thinkin'. When you pull a weed out, if you don't pull it completely out by it's root, it is going to come back. Such is life. When you have an issue, an argument, a problem you can't seem to get resolved...you have to get down to the root...

If you ever need a professional organizer, I am available. Here is a small glimpse of what I do. I just charge a flat hourly rate, and I work miracles :) Ok that doesn't sound humble, but I can help you get organized. This is a small closet in an entryway. Those are mobs of giftbags. Before 1 Before 2 After 1 After 2  Please spread the word if you know anyone in need :) xoxo

Consider this a blog of greatness. I like these... you can find them at my most fav store ever and here's the link to them at Pottery Barn . I just think they are fun. And I don't care if they have flowers. I used to think flowers were stupid, now I love them on this. Don't judge me :)

Therefore do not expect anything great out of the blog :-)

As most of my loyal readers already know, we are going through the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt. We sold Adam's truck this year to pay it off and save gas money. This past week we purchased a car from my great-grandmother...a great car for Adam to drive to work, save money, and it should be good for a while! But, as with all things, there is work to be done! Adam needed a new N.C. Driver's License, we needed to get inspection, the title changed over, and a new tag/registration. So much to do to get all the loose ends tied up but it is very worth it. It's kindof like getting married...it's great, but then there is all the name change stuff! Also in recent news, we are moving again! Only a few miles away though... into a house that we are renting from some friends. We are very excited about it and looking forward to not having to bring the groceries up to the 3rd floor, having a yard, a garage, more space, and just well....we're pumped! So for those of you who ...

This weekend Adam's parents are coming into town. It really is a huge blessing when you get along with your in laws. Seeing that we are on a budget, we decided to just cook this weekend instead of trying to go out to eat. I love cooking...really. Who would've thought? Before we got married, I rarely cooked. But I knew that most of the women in my family were great cooks and such wonderful hosts. My mom wrote my sister, brother, and I a cookbook last Christmas with all our family recipes in it. You see, my Dad taught my Mom how to cook (extremely awesome) and so having her recipes means I have a piece of him too :) If you're looking for a fabulous, easy, cheap meal (I promise)...then go for this. 2-3 pounds of lean stew meat 2 cans of golden mushroom soup some salt and pepper 1 crockpot Mix all the ingredients together and cook on high 5-6 hours or low 8-10. Then make some rice and you have Beef Tips over Rice! Voila! :) I hope everyone has a great Superbowl weekend...

This morning I woke up when Adam did (way earlier than I would ever want to) and typically I just go back to sleep. I'm not a morning person...shocker, I know.  However, on Wednesdays, the trucks at the plant across the street back up alot apparently. They are loud. Then the landscaping dudes come out and they have a contest to see how long they can hold their leaf blowers. After that, the longest train ever, really I think it won the guiness world record for longest trains, goes by. Then of course, there must have been an accident on the highway because the helicopters are flying over head checking out the traffic. After going to bed later than desired and then having a few interesting/bad dreams (I always have dreams, crazy ones for those of you who don't know) I was really hoping to sleep in a little this morning. Now, I realize there are a lot of people who have to get up early....I'm just sayin' it would've been nice on this one day if the sounds of the city we...

I just had a moment. One of those...what will we do? moments. Reading some of my friends blogs who went to N.C. State with me and so did their spouses, when they have babies...the babies all wear N. C. State gear! So here is my hope... Jay, Taylor, Shae, Rebecca, Shelly...someone who is a wolfpack fan. When we get pregnant and have a baby, I'm going to need an N.C. State onesie. You see, a lot of my family are Clemson fans (My uncle played on the team in 81 when they won the National championship - huge deal to my family and quite an accomplishment!) And, my husband is a Georgia fan. He grew up there and went to W. Georgia. Georgia is a red team, but I am kindof worried that I will not have N.C. State gear to put my kiddo in! Ok, there is my early request for someday. Please make a note of it! Haha :)

Give me a challenging cleaning task, I dare you. I will find a way to make it clean again. Hence, our most recent project...tile grout. I am not a fan of real tile just because of the difficulty of keeping grout clean and nice. We moved into our apartment in October. I already cleaned the guest bathroom tile grout. It wasn't really dirty so I didn't notice a huge difference. However, today when I started working on the kitchen...oooh la la what a difference! Mad props to Zep Grout Whitener. (Please read all directions on the container, use gloves and open windows for ventilation!) Thank you Zep for turning this... Can you believe how dirty this tile was?? And after! Love it. If it's possible to love tile grout. Well, I do. Into this! I also used a small clorox scrubber to scrub the grout. I just let it sit for about 15 seconds, scrubbed, and then wiped with a hot washcloth. Let me know what you think!

Well ladies and gentlemen. It was a project. My sweet husband offered to go with me to hancock fabrics to purchase fabric for our table and chairs. We purchase a new table when we were dating in Augusta and recently sold it in an attempt to get out of debt. Sold the table for 550 and then purchase 11 dollars worth of fabric to make the old one liveable again :) Back in college my roomate Rebecca and I recovered it from a blue funky pattern to a red solid. Let me know what you think about the new color! Out with the old! In with the new! I think the next time you see a new dining room of ours, it will probably not have this table. Because I seriously doubt Adam will help me cover these again. It was not easy, but in my opinion, it was well worth it!

Ok, I have to get this off my chest. The last few days I've been looking at wedding photos to print to put up in our home. I have been lying in bed this morning thinking about it. You see, I read a lot of blogs (hence out of control blogroll) and alot of photography blogs (that may or may not be on the blogroll) and one thing keeps coming to my mind. I wish we would have done the whole "at first sight" thing. Adam and I talked about seeing each other before the wedding, but I stuck with tradition for some reason. Well, I didn't want all traditional photos, just to stick to that tradition. I do think a certain amount of traditional photos are good to have. Now, let me clarify in saying I had an AMAZING photographer, and this is definitely not her fault or really has anything to do with her :) I just wish that we would've done the see each other before the wedding thing and taken all the romantic, sweet, just him and me photos before. After the wedding and before th...