Yard Sale Finds

Yesterday while I was on my morning walk around the neighborhood, I went to a couple yard sales. I LOVE yard sales!!

Here are my great finds:

Rocking Horse, 5 packs of flash cards and 7 children's books

This all cost me $4!!!! Yay for great deals!

Check out Southern Hospitality to see bunches of other yard sale treasures!

Show Us Your Life - Our reception & honeymoon

This week over at Kelly's Korner, we're showing our reception and honeymoon!

Our church was doing renovations to the fellowship hall and kitchen, but we started in plenty of time to get it finished before the wedding. The problem was that our town had a really insane building inspector (she has since been let go from her job) who gave us tons of red tape just to get a building permit.

Anyway, we weren't able to get the fellowship hall finished in time for our reception. As you can see in the picture below there are white plastic table cloths covering the framing and ceiling. My brother, Jacob's brother and I spent almost 1 whole day putting up the table cloths with push pins!

I had to wear a mask because the dust was making me sick

Judah (Jacob's bro) and Luke (my bro) were such an amazing help!!!

We had a pretty simple reception: wedding cake, several kinds of cheesecakes (instead of groom's cake), fruit, coffee and coffee punch.

Our cake turned out beautifully. I loved the flowers around it and the strawberry filling!

I didn't do a very good job throwing my bouquet. I threw it up instead of back! Ha.

Leaving the church through bunches of bubbles.

The sweetest old man drove us away in his awesome mustang!

He made everyone laugh by cranking up the song "Pretty Woman" super loud on the radio!

We went to Charleston, South Carolina on our honeymoon. We really enjoyed it!

A yummy restaurant where we ate lunch one day.

We took a carriage ride and saw so many beautiful old houses!

Love those big swings by the water.

One day we toured this plantation. I think it was my favorite thing that we did! It was really hot outside, but we got so many great pictures of flowers and wildlife. It was so peaceful.

We learned to love the self-timer on our camera!

There were tons of huge old trees

I loved this bridge!

We ate at an old-timey restaurant one day for lunch

This is at Fort Sumter. Very awesome!

On our last night there we drove to a beach to watch the sunset.

After we left Charleston, we drove to New Jersey for a friend's wedding. Jacob had already committed to play in her wedding before we even got engaged, so we just planned our wedding and honeymoon around that. We got to drive through Washington DC and tour some in New York City, both places I'd never been before.

It was fun, but we were both sooo ready to be home!

10 Random Facts About Me

Lynnette over at Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground is hosting "Getting To Know You" for all her readers to link up their blogs so we can all get to know each other better. I think it's an awesome idea!

So here are 10 random (I don't know how random these are, but whatever) facts about me:

1. My hubby and I started dating, got engaged and got married all within 4 months! To read our "story" go here.

This is one of our engagement pictures

2. I have a super close (and crazy) family and hope it always stays that way!

My parents, all 5 siblings + Jacob (my hubby) and Ridley (my sister, Myra's baby). Myra's hubby had to work otherwise he would be in this picture.

See what I mean about crazy?! Ha.

3. I love to cook and bake and try new recipes, but I rarely follow a recipe completely. I like to add my own touch to it!

4. We are expecting our first baby in December! I'm 19 weeks along and the baby is about the size of a large mango. We don't have good health insurance (at all) so I can't have the baby in the hospital. Since midwives and home births are illegal in Alabama (where we live) we're traveling to Tennessee to a midwife clinic to have our baby.

5. Jacob and I decided to try our hand at square foot gardening this year.

This is what our garden looked like after we planted it (that's our chocolate lab watching over)

After only 1 month it looked like this!

Then a few weeks later we had a hail storm and now it looks like this! We've had lots of tomatoes and squashini (the squash and zucchini cross-pollinated). But most of the other stuff we planted got run over by the giant squash and tomato plants.

6. I work part-time from home as an administrative assistant for A&K Energy the company that does the lighting maintenance for TJMaxx, Home Goods, Marshalls, Publix, Weis, and many other stores.

7. I LOVE being a stay at home wife!

8. Jacob is a professional violinist, so I've probably been to more weddings and concerts in the last year than most people have been to in their lives! LOL. I love it though, and try to go with him to as many gigs as I can!

Us on a typical weekend

9. I love working out (I'm weird!).

10. I love love LOVE eating dark chocolate and natural peanut butter for a snack!

Head on over to Lynnette's blog to get to know lots of other bloggers!

Super Easy Key Lime Pie

This is one of the easiest pies I've ever made! It always gets rave reviews too! It's kind of a go-to dessert when I need something fast or spur of the moment since I usually have all the ingredients in my pantry.

What's neat about this pie is that you don't have to make it Key Lime, you can do Lemonade, Strawberry, or whatever Kool-Aid flavor you have a hankering for at the time you want to make it! Every flavor I've tried has been a hit with all who tried it!

I almost forgot to mention that a cashier at Walmart told me the recipe several months ago. She saw that I was buying Lemonade packets and cream cheese (for completely different things) and she said I just had to try this pie.

Super Easy Pie

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 packet (any flavor) Kool-Aid

1 (8oz) carton cool whip

1 graham cracker crust

In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese until smooth. Add condensed milk and Kool-Aid, beat well. On low speed of mixer, whip in cool whip until fully combined. Spoon into crust and smooth out to edges. Freeze for 3-4 hours before serving. Store leftovers in freezer.

Enjoy!!

One Day At A Time

My Mom came across this touching poem when she was going through some of my Granny's things. Granny is in Heaven now, but I know she'd be so happy for me to share this wonderful poem.

What an encouragement it's been to me to remember day by day that His grace is absolutely sufficient for me and His strength is made perfect in my weakness!

One Day At A Time

One day at a time, with its failures and fears,

With its hurts and mistakes, with its weakness and tears,

With its portion of pain and its burden of care;

One day at a time we must meet and must bear.

One day at a time to be patient and strong;

To be calm under trial and sweet under wrong;

Then its toiling shall pass and its sorrow shall cease;

It shall darken and die, and the night shall bring peace.

One day at a time - but the day is so long,

And the heart is not brave, and the soul is not strong,

O Thou pitiful Christ, be Thou near all the way;

Give courage and patience and strength for the day.

Swift cometh His answer, so clear and so sweet;

"Yea, I will be with thee, thy troubles to meet;

I will not forget thee, nor fail thee, nor grieve;

I will not forsake thee; I never will leave."

Not yesterday's load we are called on to bear,

Nor the morrow's uncertain and shadowy care;

Why should we look forward or back with dismay?

Our needs, as our mercies, are but for the day.

One day at a time, and the day is His day;

He hath numbered its hours, though they haste or delay.

His grace is sufficient; we walk not alone;

As the day so the strength that He giveth His own.

by Annie Johnson Flint

Pregnancy Update: 18 weeks

This pregnancy is flying by so quickly! When we first found out, 9 months seemed like such a long time, now I feel like I'm hanging on for dear life as I speed to the end! I've been feeling so good the last couple of weeks. It's such a blessing!

I've started walking about 2 miles 4-5 times/week as well as working out 4 times/week. I think all the exercise has really made a difference in how I feel. My joints haven't been so achy and I've had lots of energy. My midwife said that exercise also helps make labor and delivery somewhat easier.

The only thing I've noticeably been craving is Hershey's dark chocolate and natural peanut butter. Eaten together, a little chocolate and a little pb in each bite. LOVE it! Definitely have to keep this craving under control and keep the little bites realllllly little!

Our baby is about the length of a bell pepper.

Spring Cleaning - In July #3

It's technically not still July, but oh well. Here is the cleaning progress of the living/dining room. What a mess it was!! Alot of the stuff was leftover yard sale stuff that I needed to bag up and take to the thrift store. Thankfully Jacob was home yesterday morning and he was able to help me.

Before - the living room side of the room

Before - looking from the living room side to the dining room side

Before - the dining room side. You may wonder why we have no table. Well, we sold it in the yard sale. It was given to us when we got married and we've been wanting to get something else. We were also given a set of 6 chairs that didn't match the table.

After - Living room. So much better!

After - Dining room. Can't wait to get a new table and finish decorating this room!