9/20/2008

Sweet Potato Girls






Friday night was great! I headed up to A-town to hook up with Charity and Shawn for girls night. I had no problem finding Charity's house and when she met me at the door I realized that she hadn't changed one bit since high school. She has a beautiful family and her home was magnificent and right on the lake. Her hubby is currently serving in Iraq and she's just moved back here because he should get to retire from the military soon. Not long after I arrived Shawn showed up and she hadn't changed either. These two girls are just beautiful people inside and out. We enjoyed sitting out on the deck, enjoying some cold ones and catching up on everyone from AHS. We laughed, drank and reminisced for 6 hours and then unfortunately I had to make the trek home to B-town. Can't wait to do it again. Thanks girls! I had a blast!

9/19/2008

Roses for me!!!


Just had to post a picture of my roses! I have the best neighbor in the world...JR...he brought them to me just because I'm special...thanks neighbor...you are the best!

Congratulations Ryan!


Just wanted to send a shout out to Ryan who is the newest employee of Pal's Sudden Service in B-ville! Congratulations! Good luck on your new job!

9/18/2008

Autumn Leaves



Yesterday I started decorating for fall...that is one of my favorite things to do. I found the cutest lighted leaf garland and put it on my mantle, and a killer pumpkin spice candle with leaves around it. As soon as it cools down more outside I will get out the mums, hay bales, fodder shocks and pumpkins and start outside.

Reflections of Summer



It was extremely chilly when I got in the Xterra for the 10 minute drive into downtown B-town to work this morning. I started thinking to myself again about how summer is over and this coming Monday is the official First Day of Autumn. It made me decide to reflect on the summer today in my blog to see what I can recall from memory. So let's see...I consider May to be the beginning of summer mainly because Ryan gets out of school then...so I'll start there.

Wow the first part of May was crazy with the opening of the pool and the kitchen renovation. Brian and I put in a lot of long hard hours remodeling that room. We learned who our "Real" friends are during this process too...a handful of people came by to help us almost everyday without even being asked. We had a lot of fun with them. I turned 35 years young in May and at the end of the month we headed to Daytona for our summer vacation. It was a blast. We really enjoyed being back at our favorite beach and enjoying time with family.

May was also when I discovered the joys of myspace, and facebook. I have made contact with so many long lost friends from high school. I love it. As a matter of fact today I am getting together with 2 girlfriends that I haven't seen in probably 17 or 18 years, Charity and Shawna. We are going to have girls night. I also salvaged a relationship with a former close friend and I am thankful for that. Back to the subject at hand...I love seeing how everyone has changed, finding out what they are doing now, reminscing and rekindling old friendships.

Later in June we went camping in Pigeon Forge. We love camping in Dad's RV...It's so nice and the the campground was as well. We enjoyed the river and each other. It was a nice get away. We also spent alot of time on our boat as a family. We all enjoy the peaceful days on the lake riding around and fishing.

July started off with a bang and ended that way too. July 4th was a blast. I enjoyed the holiday with friends (Whitney, Daniel, Christy, GW, Jimmy, Ed, Amber, etc...)around the house, we laughed, cooked out, drank beer, went to the parade and had spectacular fireworks displays every night that weekend. It was a hoot. July is also the month of endless birthdays and more boat rides! At the end of that month the big bang went off when I lost someone I thought was a friend closest to me. I won't elaborate any further on that situation in order to protect the guilty...lets just say that my eyes were forced open by the experience, and I learned from it. Again I won't elaborate on what I learned so as I don't offend anyone. Ok enough reflecting on that ugly subject. The last weekend of the month of July is when Brian won 1st Place in the local Mud Bog! WE had so much fun that night, again with our closest friends.

August completely wore me out...too much fun!!! Every time I turned around we were into something. Whether it was plugging watermelons with Whit, or cooking out at their place, or partying with Pete from WVa and going to the races with him, partying at the August Nascar Races in the Edwards suite, or Pat K's baby boy being born, or learning to can the endless veggies that came from our garden this year, or just chillin' on the porch shootin' the breeze and enjoying a cold one with Bob. (That name has been changed to protect the innocent)...and more and more boat rides and laying by the pool. Oh yes and Ryan starting back to school.

Our Labor Day weekend was fun but also the reminder that summer is now over. The days are getting shorter, leaves are starting to fall, and I have to wear a jacket again as I head off to work in the dark and early mornings. OH well...goodbye to Summer 2008...I'll never forget it...it was fun, exciting and shocking at times but at the same time it was great!

Get the Poop!

I know this is awful but I have found a very interesting website (I'm even going to add it to my links on the sidebar of this page)...it sounds disgusting (www.poopreport.com) but there is some really funny and also some serious stuff on here...Anyway the reason I had to share it is because there's a new product out that many people aren't aware of I'm sure that would make life so much sweeter and I had to share...check it out at this website:

http://www.poopreport.com/Consumer/poo_pourri.html

I'm gonna buy some for my bathroom...sounds like a winner in my book! LOL.

9/17/2008

Prop us up.



A wonderful messaged I just wanted to share with everyone:

Lord Prop Us Up

Every time I am asked to pray, I think of the old deacon who always prayed, 'Lord, prop us up on our leanin' side.' After hearing him pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so fervently.

He answered, 'Well sir, you see, it's like this... I got an old barn out back. It's been there a long time; it's withstood a lot of weather; it's gone through a lot of storms, and it's stood for many years.

It's still standing. But one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit.

So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn't fall.

Then I got to thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn. I've been around a long time.

I've withstood a lot of life's storms. I've withstood a lot
Of bad weather in life, I've withstood a lot of hard times, and I'm still standing too. But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side, 'cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.

Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness, leaning toward hatred, leaning toward cussing, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn't . So we need to pray, 'Lord, prop us up on our leaning side, so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.''

Look at the picture above:
If you stare at this barn for a second you will see who will help us stand straight and tall again. Pass this on to others who might need Propping Up, if you wish to!

9/16/2008

Good luck Ryan!

I am crossing my fingers and saying prayers for Ryan...today he has his first job interview. Good luck son!

9/14/2008

Bonfire fun.



Saturday was a scorcher here in East Tennessee...the temps got up to almost 90 and it sure is hard to believe it is September. It was so hot that Brian actually got in the pool last night.

We spent the morning resting up from Friday night's excitement at the concert and then later that afternoon we went to E-town for the car show. It was nice...the guys looked at the cars while I shopped in the antique stores. When I caught back up to them they let me know that they saw my niece and she wouldn't even speak or look up at them after she first glanced their way. Such a shame that it has come to that. Being in that town really made me miss Noah. I'm sure he will grow up not knowing how much his Aunt Ashley, Uncle Brian and Cousin Ryan love him. We haven't seen him in almost two months now and I'm sure by now he wouldn't remember us at all if we did see him. I am really disappointed in my brother in law who always told me that he'd never keep my nephew away from us. I'm not surprised that we haven't heard from him either though.

I quickly got out of my funk when we got back home though. Whitney and Daniel came by and the guys shot their bows, getting ready for archery season, until they ran out of daylight. Brian loves his new crossbow that I bought for him. Then we had a bonfire some jello shooters and some beer and enjoyed the night. We laughed and laughed it was a really good time. Nothing like real friends! Thanks guys...I love ya.