Trees of Glass

It definitely is a winter wonderland in the Upstate of South Carolina.

That winter storm that swept the country finally paid a visit and left us with some beautiful scenery if not some trecherous roads.

Take a look around.

When I looked outside this morning with the sun shining bright, I realized that God had left us with trees that looked as if they were made of glass.

Hope you are enjoying this last weekend of January (can you believe that?). 

Now I say let's bring on the spring blooms and warmer temps.

Good-bye Mr. Winter - thanks for dropping by.

Sticker Shock

I'm in a state of shock and denial right now.

I had this wonderful little project in my head.

The kids and I headed out to Lowe's this afternoon to pick up all my supplies.

Paint. Check.

Corbels. Check - whoa!

Wait just a minute.

I check the sticker underneath one more time.....Yep, no change.

$58????  For ONE corbel?

Seriously?

I had NO idea!

This perfect little carved chunk of wood costs $58.

I needed THREE.

I was so disappointed.

You probably can figure out the rest of the story - got paint but left without beautiful corbels and came home to formulate how to make my wonderful little project become a reality without spending $174 on unfinished corbels.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to get around this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

He's playing bas-ket-ball.

Does anybody else remember that song?

Anyone?

Ok, I guess it's just me. I am a product of the 80's afterall.

Now, onto the look into one of our weekend activities.

My son is on a church basketball league this year. The age range is from 6th thru 8th grades.

Here are a few pictures for friends and family members that don't live close by:

(Sorry some of them don't look so good. I was playing with my camera & it's really difficult to get good shots when they're moving so fast.)

They lost.  They've lost every game they've played but they have fun doing it and I guess that's really the whole point.  Looking at the kid in the bottom right picture - are you really surprised our little guys lost against that?  He's almost hitting his head on the backboard!  Oh, well....there's always next week.


Hope you had a good weekend - I'm off to get school started.

A Quick Trip

Hope everyone enjoyed the three-day weekend.

We did although it happened to be a busy one.

G had a gymnastics meet scheduled bright and early Monday morning, so that meant an overnight trip was going to be necessary since we had to be in Knoxville, TN at 7:30 am.

Hubby wasn't able to make this little adventure so the kids and I packed up and left town on Sunday.

Here are a few pictures from our quick trip:

We saw a lot of frozen waterfalls even though the temp was in the 50's. I guess it takes a few days of warmer weather to thaw those out. They were pretty though.

One thing I learned on this trip - it's really difficult to get good, clear pictures while driving.

We made it to our hotel. I thought the room was cute with the apple green, black & orange.

Since my son was forced to come along on this trip and would be around girls & gymnastics all the next day, I let him have his choice of things to do once we arrived.

This may have included a trip to Bass Pro Shops and dinner at his favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel.

Another thing I learned on this trip - it's really hard to get good, clear pictures while trying to be discreet in a busy store.


It may have included a little swimming back at the hotel, as well.

Before the meet started.

It was a tough meet with a lot of tough competition from around the country. She did place in a couple of events and came in 6th overall. Not too bad and she had a great time in the process.

We had some friends that now live close to Knoxville and were able to come to the meet, as well. She really enjoyed that.

One final picture from our trip to Knoxville.

What did you do over your weekend?

It's a home tour.

I don't know about you, but I love to go looking around in other people's houses.

It's so fun to get new ideas or just be nosey.

I've posted before about our local magazine, Talk Greenville. They have a section where they spotlight beautiful homes in our area and I thought you might like to take a peak at this adorable quirky "cottage".

Come along won't you......

I love how "lived-in" this home feels and how the homeowner has let her quirky personality shine through with the furnishings. (I can't imagine dusting all of those things but maybe she doesn't have to either.)

Well, that ends our tour for today. So tell me.....what did you think?

a sad day....

Today we got some sad news.

My daughter's head gymnastics coach and gym owner passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

The next few months of competitions are going to be tough for these girls, but especially for the older ones who worked directly with her.

Please say a prayer for those she left behind and a special one for her husband/partner as he continues on at the gym without her by his side.

Mrs. Tamara, you had a wonderful impact on a lot of lives and you will be missed!

Because it's my blog & I can.

I know a lot of people don't like to "bog down" their blogs with controversial subjects like politics or religion but I'm not one of those people. I do like to paint my walls, re-arrange my furniture, tell you about my kiddos and fluff my pillows as good as the next girl, HOWEVER I do believe we need to take action when and where we can so that's what I do from time to time.

If you don't agree with my views, that's just fine & it's what this great country was founded on, HOWEVER don't leave any ugly comments - I don't really care and we've probably heard it all before on the network news.

Have a great day and remember - it's my blog & I can!

Using my Imagination

Happy Friday!!

Not much to blog about here. We've got a busy weekend of sports planned. Tomorrow we're heading to Columbia, SC for a gymnastics meet and then quickly back for B's basketball game.

I'm kind of glad things are getting started again after the holidays. My children love to be busy and active.

I think we all get cabin fever a little during this time of the year - especially since the weather's being so weird and freezing. Trust me when I tell you that mild winters are one reason I've chosen to stay in the South and right now I'm thinking of moving even further south - like Australia!

So, I'll leave you with the image I keep in my head so I don't lose my mind completely.



Summertime's calling me......What do you have planned over the weekend?

Rebel without a cause

I need HELP!

My house is rebelling against me.

I know it seems so hard to believe.

I try my best to love her.

I take care of her and decorate her.

I try my hardest to keep her reasonably clean and tidy.

Oh no, that must be it!

She's tired of looking cluttered and dusty.

That's the only reason I can think of for her to rebel against us all of a sudden.

Let me tell you all about her latest antics......

Well, it all started on Christmas Eve. Hubby and I were bringing in some things from the garage and then all of a sudden - BLAM! "What in the heck was that?" I say. "Ummm, the garage door." he says. So, we investigate the problem and apparently this spring/coil thingy is an important part of operating the door up and down.

Take a look:

Yep, my official diagnosis is.....It's Broken.

But, that's not all. Let's move on to Christmas Day.

We all got up to open gifts amid a torrential rain storm. That was ok. We enjoyed staying inside in front of the fireplace with all of our new loot. That is until I was in our bathroom and happened to notice some "water" in our bathtub. Hmmm. That doesn't look normal.

Yea, well I've since discovered that septic systems don't really like torrential rain storms.

It tends to fill them up. Completely.

That's really fun when you have out of town guests staying with you. Thankfully, it was just my mom and we survived until we could get the appropriate people out here to fix it.

Let's move on, shall we?

While we're discussing the potty. See the one above? Well, a couple of months ago, it sprang a leak. Not from the bottom but from the tank when it was refilling. It would be a pretty little fountain of spray that would come out and onto the wall. Lovely.

Let me ask a question. Does anyone know what happens to wood floors when they get wet?Anyone?

Right! They decide they want to buckle.

Here's a picture of it - you may not be able to see exactly what I'm talking about but trust me. It's buckled.

This is only a few of the problems that have developed around here lately. I won't give you stories with all of the following pictures but let's just say that something is wrong with each one.

We may even be able to make a game out of it.....you know - kind of like "Where's Waldo" or "What's Wrong with this Picture?"

Sorry for such a long post but trust me, it's much worse when it's on a to-do list. At least you can just read about it and go on with your life - I have to walk all the way out the front/back door to get to my car.

I've gotten so spoiled and lazy.

{Sigh}

Ahhhhh.

Do you feel it too?

It's a sense of calmness.

The holiday rush is over and now I can take a deep breath and set my sights on all the possibilities of a new year.

It's so refreshing and I always love a new beginning.

Here's hoping there are good things in store and God blesses you and your family in 2010.