Mother's Day 2009 Was the Best Yet!

Mother's Day 2009 was AWESOME! I actually got to be with my Mommy! It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for the short drive home to West Virginia. The scenery was absolutely beautiful as well. My Mother met us at the door without any assistance from a cane, walker or anything to lean on. It was wonderful to be with her on this day and to see how well she is recovering from her knee replacement surgery. We ate at our favorite Chinese Restaurant "Young Chows". The best Mother's Day present for me was just being with my Mom. I am making a vow that weather permitting I will drive up to see my Mom every Mother's Day from now on!

We came back to Tennessee and Brian presented his mom with a present that he made himself. Well almost. It was so neat! A couple of month's ago we found this old rusty planter underneath our house (we inherited our home from Brian's late Grandparents). This old planter belonged to Brian's deceased Grandmother. We had it sandblasted and Brian painted it and he painted some pots and packed them full of all different types of flowers and vines. It turned out really lovely. His mother was astounded. She loves flowers and plants and had a fit over how well he had restored Mamaw's old planter. He couldn't have done any better for his Momma on her special day.

Well I guess the next time I post it will be from Hilton Head Island, SC. I'm outta here!

I'm alright...Diverticulitis and all!

Wow what a life changing week I've had. Wednesday morning around 2am I woke up with the most excruciating pain I've ever felt in my entire life...this pain made labor and delivery seem easy! My sweet husband was a trooper...he stayed up with me and nursed me through the rest of the night and the next day when my sister finally talked me into going to my doctor. I'm so glad I listened to her...too often we women don't listen to our bodies or others and we just suck it up and dismiss it saying it will go away in a few days...don't do it...if our bodies tell us something we need to sit up and listen. I went to the doctor and was immediately sent for a CAT Scan...where it was determined that I was suffering from diverticulitis. If I hadn't gone to the doctor I would have continued to suffer with this pain in my stomach that I've suffered with for months but I didn't find out what the real cause was until it was severe. Needless to say...my diet changed real quick. So not only have I given up smoking but now it looks like I may have to give up eating as well. I'm joking of course but I have been on a liquid diet since then until today. I actually ate real food again...just watched what I ate. It wasn't too bad. I also had a totally different shopping experience at the grocery store today...there I found myself looking for foods high in fiber, with whole wheat and grains, and fruit but hold the seeds PLEASE! Oh and corn on the cob...forget it!

Well let's get to the good stuff that happened at the end of this week. Despite my health problem we managed to get down to my sister's and put together Noah's new swing set that his Grandma Dee and Papaw Mike bought for him (pictured above) he loves it! He is a huge fan of the trampoline that is on the end of it. Hey how come the swing sets we had when I was little didn't have a trampoline on them MOM? Huh? What's up with that? Special thanks to Uncle Brian and proud Papa Ed (pictured above) for getting it put together for us.

Also my sister in law Jennie (also pictured above) graduated from ETSU today. I am extremely proud of her for sticking with it and working full time and going to school at night to get her degree. My brother Doug held a party for her tonite at their house and we enjoyed everyone's company. Congratulations Jennie! You go girl.

Well tomorrow I am off to West Virginia to visit with Mom for a couple of hours on Mother's Day and then back here to visit with Brian's mom as well. Then Tuesday it's off to Hilton Head Island...Yay...beach trip! Can't wait for that! So for now...I'll just pop an antibiotic and sign off for the night. Hope all the moms out there have a Happy Mother's Day!

Noah turns Three & We set the chicks free!!!

Yesterday was Cinco De Meyo and a big day around our house. Brian finished up my lovely chicken coop...got all of the chicken wire up and raccoon proofed and then we were able to set the chickens out into their run area. It was so exciting to watch them scratch around on the ground and discover the world around them. I took a bunch of pics and video but these are my favorites.

My little buddy Noah turned 3 years old on this date as well so we had to go see him for a little bit. Took him a few little presents but we will take him his big present from Grandma Dee and Papaw Mike on Saturday when he has his official little party.

We had a very nice pot luck lunch at work also. We were raising money to support the Relay for Life program of the American Cancer Society. Make sure you arrange something like this at your place of employment. This is something everyone needs to support.

Brother Doug turns 30!!!

Saturday night we headed out to Fun Expedition in Johnson City for my brother Doug's surprise 30th birthday party. It was a hoot. I loved the go carts, bumper cars, and playing putt putt with the hubby. Can't wait to go back.

Still doing good on E-cigarette!

Just an update on my e-cigarette...I am still using it and doing GREAT! I am really proud of myself because I have never and I repeat never been able to come close to quitting smoking. I just love to smoke. Not anymore. Now I love to vape on my e cigarette. I am saving so much money too. I was spending $5 a day on cigarettes. This week I spent $10 on puresmoker.com you see I invested in the Marlboro refill liquid for my e-cigarette and now when I want to refill my cigarette I just drop two drops of this vaporizing liquid into my e-cigarette and I'm all set. It's just like smoking a marlboro but without the harmful effects. The funny thing is that after almost 2 weeks now...I actually forget about smoking. I even sometimes forget about the e cig too. The only times I have smoked are when I am drinking a cold beer or something and I got the urge but I can tell that is becoming easier not to do as well. When I have smoked I realized that I enjoy puffing on my e cig more. It's wonderful to be able to enjoy the same sensations as smoking but knowing that I'm not doing anything to jeopardize my health. Smokers take notice and try this...you won't regret it I promise.

My favorite blog of the week!

And the winner is....drum roll please.....

http://justmyphotosandjunk.blogspot.com

Great blog check it out...comment...great photos. Love this artist!

Baby Chicks Week 2-4

I just wanted to post an update on my baby chickies!! I brought them home on Good Friday April 10th and they were 5 days old. I have the pics above in order of the weeks 2-4...my how they've changed. Right now they are going through that awkward teenage stage where they look kinda weird...first pic above. They are no longer living in their metal tub they have their own house now. It is a nice white chicken coop with blue shutters just like my house...they have a big window to look out of. They love it! Hopefully today Brian and I will be able to start putting the chicken wire around the entire outside of their coop so that they can run around outside very soon. I will post pics of the coop tomorrow.

Beautiful lake weekend!!! Love it!

The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend which meant it was time...time for what you say? Time to pull the boat out of the garage and clean it up for it's first yearly maiden dip in the still waters of our local lake. Brian and I geared up and pulled out early Sunday morning and I have to say we had a very enjoyable, relaxing, romantic voyage. The water was like glass and so still it was like we had the whole lake to ourselves at first. We floated, fished, visited my step brother Doug and his wife Jennie at their camper, then we just cruised and cruised the lake. I loved the pics I got out there...check those out above. I always love a day on our boat. It's our time to do what we love and connect just the two of us. I am such a lucky girl.

Britney goes to Senior Prom

Just wanted to share these pics that I took of Britney before her Senior Prom. She wore the most beautiful lime green dress and it was a perfect fit for her. She was beaming and it was so easy to photograph her in all of her splendor. We are also very happy for her...last week she signed with a local college to play basketball. Congratulations Brit!

Update on YouData and my E-cigarette.

Ok...today was my first day trying out YouData and I made $4 in about 10 minutes looking at ads...the weird thing is that I actually found alot of them interesting to me and I almost ordered something from one of the sites because I liked it so much. So if you are interested in trying this out go to:

http://www.youdata.com/join/ashkendrick

and sign yourself up...it's quick, easy and interesting...and hey...you get paid for it.

I also received my e-cigarette today and I am totally blown away by this device. It works exactly as the videos described and I let a few other long time smokers try it today and they were impressed as well. Anytime I felt the urge to smoke this afternoon I just pulled out my Njoy Npro Electronic Cigarette and puffed on it and stuck it back in my pocket. It has a hint of a tobacco taste and I was completely satisfied while (I almost said smoking it...but the truth is...you aren't smoking) inhaling and exhaling the nicotine vapor. If you smoke or have a loved one who does...let them know about this. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I signed up for YouData

Thanks to a fellow blogger I was turned on to the YouData site. This site pays you to watch ads. I will keep you posted on how it goes. If you would like to join as well click http://www.youdata.com/join/ashkendrick

Tim Wilson Show was Hilarious!

I had the best day yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day so Brian and I headed to Lowes and bought all of the necessary items for building my chicken coop. Then we came home and were successful in getting it framed up and under roof. I enjoyed being outside doing a project in the sunshine!!! Then before we knew it some of our friends were here and we were hanging out enjoying a few cold ones. Then Brian and I got cleaned up and went to town. We enjoyed a scrumptions dinner at State Line Bar and Grille. Then we headed to the Paramount Theater for the Tim Wilson show. We had perfect seats right up front and let me tell you that I have not laughed that hard in years!!!! A comedian named Stewart Huff opened for Tim. This guy was a total riot! I didn 't think it could get more funny...then Tim came out and blew us away! Above is just an example of one of his songs. His songs are funny but if you get a chance to see his stand up show don't miss it! It's AWESOME!

Njoy Pro Electronic Cigarette

Pause the music player at the right and watch this video. I just ordered mine today and can't wait to try this out. Everyone I know that has used it has been completely satisfied and actually some chain smokers my husband works with have quit smoking altogether and don't hardly ever use the e cigarette. So if you smoke as I do, you have to see this.

Check out GiftTree.com

Have you ever wanted to send someone something across the miles and get it there on the same day but didn't want to send the usual flowers from a florist or have to pay excessive expediting fees? That's the situation I found myself in this morning. You see my Mom is recovering from surgery at a hospital 2 hours away and I had already sent flowers and wanted to send something else something she could acutally get use out of. So I found the greatest website www.gifttree.com and I placed an order for a fruit basked pictured above. They guaranteed same day delivery. It was 8am when I placed the order and by 9:45 it was out for delivery and by 10am my mom had her gift looking exactly as pictured and I was told it was a huge fruit basket.

An update on Mom...her knee replacement surgery went very well yesterday, the Doc ended up doing a full knee replacement instead of a partial. When I talked to her yesterday after surgery she sounded amazingly well. Then when I called this morning my Stepfather informed me that she had a really rough night battling the pain. She was sleeping earlier when I called. He advised that the physical therapist would be in around 10am to get her up. When I called at 12pm she had been up and walked outside her room and to a chair and then back to bed and that's when she got nauseated. I was able to talk to her at that time and she sounded very groggy...of course she is on a morphine pump and pain pills as well. It was so hard for me to hear that she had a bad night. I don't want to hear that my Mom is in pain I can't stand that. I will be leaving work early tomorrow morning and making a trek up there to the hospital. I have to see her and make sure she's ok. I will be staying with her next week when her husband goes back to work. I have everyone here praying for her speedy recovery!

Baby Chicks were a big hit at Easter!!

Easter was very nice this year...we enjoyed church services Easter morning and then went by Dad's for a bit to visit, then we headed to Brian's parents house where we had a lovely dinner with Mike & Susan. After dinner Susan and Betty convinced me to take my new baby chicks down so that Mamaw (who happens to love chicks and chickens and used to raise them) could see them. So we did and she had a fit...she calls them diddles. She is almost 90 years old and can no longer raise her own but this was the next best thing. I haven't seen her that tickled in along time. She played and played with the little chicks...so did all of the kids who were there. I also enjoyed looking through her old pictures with her, Susan, Betty and Sandra and listening to Mamaw tell us who all the people were in these old black and whites. We had a delightful time. Later when we got home my sister and her family came by and Noah got his first glimpse of my new babies. He was in awe. He was so good with them and would just sit and watch them scratch and peep and eat and sleep. It was a really cool Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter...He's Alive!

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and remember HE'S ALIVE!!!!