Saturday to Saturday….

the tale of two Saturdays.

It’s not a real exciting tale, but I do have some pictures. :)

Last Saturday (not the one that just past, the one before---How would you word that other than “Last Saturday”??), we wanted to do something outside. The weather looked like it was going to warm up so we decided to visit the Devil’s Millhopper state park. It’s close by, and I hadn’t been there since I was really little and DW had never been.

It’s basically a big sinkhole with steps all the way down to the bottom. I warned yall, this wasn’t exciting… ha…

AB was thrilled to be outside.

  

We decided to walk down to the bottom and it sounded like a good idea…

When we got to the bottom AB looked through the rails and pointed to every drop of water, and leaf she saw…

The idea went sour when we headed back UP the stairs. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back up and I was glad that I wasn’t the one having to carry our girl. Daddy didn’t mind though…

For two days my legs hurt and I couldn’t figure out why. It hit me one night laying in bed… and this isnt even ALL of the steps… times this by about 5!!!

Once we were back at the top, we let AB run around on the nature trail… 

and then run some more in the picnic area.

 

 

I love a state park. Ours here in Florida are usually really nice and well maintained, and our tax dollars have paid for them, so why not visit??? :)

The other Saturday in my story is just this past one.

Carrie and I hadn’t met up in TWO weeks. It’s unheard of yall, and this new job is cramping our style a little. We made a plan to meet on Saturday at the flea market. We’re some lovers of house-junk and old furniture that needs re-painting and thought for sure that the Waldo flea market would have some.

We met under the “big windmill, rocking chair and horse” just after 9:00, because I am perpetually late. We unloaded our strollers and the girls and made a bee line for the outskirts of the flea market. I was the flea market veteran in our group, since I had been once before, 8 years ago. Back then, I was on the hunt for an old fireplace mantle. We found one, too, and my Dad bought it and rebuilt it for me and DW and I hung it on the wall in our first house… awwww… I loved that mantle, so when we moved, we took it off the wall, repaired the drywall, and hung it at our second house… THEN, when we bought our third (our current and hopefully FINAL) house, we didn’t bring it with us. I figured my Dad & DW had repaired enough drywall over that mantle. :) ANYWAY, way back then, 8 years ago, the kind of stuff that Carrie and I were looking for, was on the edge of the flea market, not in the barns. So we headed that way…

We made our way through the barns of dusty restaurant supplies (which had me and Carrie cringing over the thought of WHAT restaurant buys their supplies (covered in dust) at the flea market? If yall know, PLEASE don’t tell me, because I like eating out.

We also managed to sneak by the Mickey Mouse children’s furniture, thank the Lord. I sure am claiming that blessing, because if my girl had seen the just-her-size, vinyl recliner with Mickey and friends on it, she would have HAD to had it.

Once we made it to the edge of the flea market, it didn’t take long to realize there was not one thing we had to have. Carrie and I were a little disappointed that all the “junk” was indeed, JUNK. Not just junk, though, but really old junk that had been rained on several times and was still soaked from the night before.

We decided to cut our trip short, but not before Allie Claire insisted on seeing about the giant concrete yard ornaments. There was a giraffe and an alligator that she needed to get a closer look at.

We finally managed to get back on track to the car. On the way, we passed a vendor who buys catalytic converters, and Carrie and I both were kicking ourselves for not bringing ours to sell. :)

The agony of forgetting our converters didn’t stop Carrie from browsing through the barn on our way out. I finally pried her away from the red be-dazzled tank top which was nothing but fringe on the bottom half. Ha. :) 

All of that, I’m sure leaves yall certain that we didn’t spend a dime at the flea market. I just wish I’d taken some pictures.

Since we still had time on our hands and money in our pockets, we decided to head East and check out the little town of Keystone. We had lunch at Johnny’s BBQ, and yall know it’s a good restaurant when they have the stick-on, disposable placemats for the kids. After some yummy lunch, we hit a few thrift shops and came home with a few treasures to re-do.

Here’s mine:

It’s all getting a fresh coat of paint/spray paint! :)

~amw~

Working Girl…

I’ve been quiet on my blog lately, because we’ve had some big changes the past two weeks…

I recently added a “W” to my “SAHM” title. Instead of “Stay-at-home-mom”, I’m now a “WORKING-stay-at-home-mom”! Not that I didn’t work before, because I think being a stay-at-home mom is definitely work! But now, I’ll be getting a paycheck (and I’m not talking about my weekly “mad money” from DW! Ha!)…

I applied for a position with a real-estate data company, interviewed, got offered a job, and accepted it! Of course it didn’t happen that fast! But it happened, and I spent all of last week in training, while AB was spoiled and doted on by her grandmothers.

This week has been my first week actually working from home. It’s going really well so far, with the exception of a few computer kinks and glitches. But those are to be expected, I’m sure.

The job itself is pretty interesting and I’ve always loved research, filling out forms and legal documents, so I think it’s going to be a good fit for now, even though it has NOTHING to do with my Elementary Ed degree! Ha…

The BEST part of the job is the flexibility and the location. There is NOTHING better than home to me! What I’m not too excited about is the waking up early part! I start early every morning, so that I can put my hours in and then clock out! I still want my afternoons! :) I guess there’s always a price to pay… and sleeping-in seems to be the one I’m paying. Ha…

I’ve spent the last 5 ½ years not working, so the whole routine thing has been an adjustment, but one that I think we’re going to be fine with. I like the structure that it’s going to add to our days, and of course the paycheck that will follow! Ha…

We’re very thankful and excited for this opportunity, and I’ll just tell ya, I feel like the Hannah Montana of housewives… “I’ve got the best of both worlds.” :)

And because I’ll want to see some pics in my blog book years from now, here’s a few fun pics from our week…

This first one was taken Sunday before church. It was AB’s first Sunday carrying a purse. Ha… and she had it packed down, too! :)

our girl loves her some sunglasses. We found these in the dollar bin at Target a few weeks ago, and she’s worn them almost daily since…even out to dinner on Wednesday night. :)

I found AB like this sitting in her room the other night…notice her jewels and jammies and then how she has arranged all the babies. Ha… she’s also made a stop by the pantry for a little can of pineapple juice for each one. HA…

The babies all lined up with their juice kills me. Too funny…

I love this one of Annabelle & her baby Abby, and the upside down paci. :)

Happy Friday! It sure has a new meaning again to me now that I’m a working girl again…

~amw~

Wordless Wednesday

 

~amw~

Mirror, Mirror on the wall…

Our girl loves headbands, sunglasses, necklaces, and bracelets, so it was no surprise that she loves some dress-up dresses, too!

AB’s had a few things hanging on her dress up bar since before she was born, just waiting on her to play with them.

After her birthday and Christmas this year, though, the bar is overflowing with sparkly frocks…

Her BFF, Allie Claire, gave her a precious princess dress and shoes for her b-day, Ho-Ho came through with a trunk of shoes and some big beads, and Pappy & Granny got her two different sets of dress-up stuff for Christmas.

For weeks, she’s been wearing her beads and cloppity shoes on a daily basis. To the point where, every time I tell her to go get her shoes, she comes back wearing her plastic play heels. I’ve decided one of my favorite sounds is the clippity-cloppity sound these shoes make when they hit our tile floor… Thankfully, we haven’t HAD to wear them out of the house yet. I’m sure the day is coming, and when it does, I will be making a “I dressed myself today” sticker for her to wear. :)

Last week and this week, we’ve actually been playing in some of the dresses, too. To say that AB loved herself in those dresses and jewels would be an understatement. She was too cute to watch looking at herself in the mirror and ooohing-and-ahhhing…  

 

Being a girl is so much fun! But watching your girl be a girl is even better!

~amw~

New Year–New preacher…

The new year at our church has started out to be an exciting one! We welcomed our new pastor this past Sunday. Like all good southern churches, dinner-on-the-grounds was held after the morning service. :)

Other than weddings and funerals, I’ve never (in my 8 years attending there) seen our church more crowded than it was on Sunday! So exciting! Some people even had to sit in the balcony, and we even had to sit in (gasp!) DIFFERENT seats than our normal ones! ha…

There was such a sweet spirit in the church that morning, too. So many smiles and hugs. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was wonderful. Such a breath of fresh air.

I pray that it’s just the beginning of big things that the Lord will do in our church.

I pray he grows us, changes us, and makes us more like Him.

Something fun they planned for the new pastor and his family was called, “Pound the Preacher.” Church members were asked to bring a pound of something to stock the preacher’s new pantry. Isn’t that fun and thoughtful?!?

Here’s what we took:

Since our new preacher is originally from Alabama, and is an Alabama fan, DW wanted to do something orange or blue to welcome them. :)  How much orange-er and blue-er can you get than oranges and blueberries?!?!

I am so excited to see what this new year holds for our church!

I never take pictures of AB on Sundays, but I actually did take one this week! Since she’s so adorable I’ll post it, too! :)

~amw~

Christmas Clearance…

Christmas is all packed away and our house, like it always does this time of year, feels so bare. It’s got me itching to do some projects, as well as some major organizing and purging. I spent the end of last week and a lot of this weekend cleaning out drawers, closets, and working on a few of the little projects on my ever-growing list.

I don’t go shopping the day after Christmas, but last week, I managed to still find some awesome deals on some stuff for next year. So much great stuff, that I’ve decided I won’t be able to wait until after Thanksgiving this year to decorate, I’m starting in November.

Every year, I try to add a few things to my decorations and I’ve made that a habit since we got married. Now, almost 8 years later, I’ve accumulated a pretty good stash. But, I’ve never added this much in one year. The deals I got, though, were so worth it.

I can’t believe how much money you can save on Christmas décor by buying the week after. Most of my stuff I got for 90% off!!! That just blows my mind…

I don’t want to be one of those people who buys something just because it’s dirt cheap, never mind that A.) I’m never going to use it or B.) its dog-ugly and that’s WHY it’s marked down 90% off. We all know those people, and Lord, bless them, but I don’t want to be them. So that’s why before I put anything in my buggy from the clearance section, I thought LONG AND HARD (as long and hard as you can think when your shopping buddy is two years old), about how and where I would use the item next year. When it was all said and done, I think I scored big time and made wise choices.

One of the things I was most excited about was the shatterproof ornaments from Target. The big boxes of silver ones were regularly priced at $15.00! I got them for $1.50! I almost squealed when I saw them, because I knew right where I needed them!

Last year, I fell in love with Pottery Barn’s decorated wreaths and garland. The six foot garland was I think, like $69.00! So,  I decided I would make my own. We spent about $50.00 on shatterproof ornaments and some garland. We ended up with enough garland to do a pretty swag on the roofline and do 4 wreaths.

Not too bad, but I just felt like the columns needed to be wrapped, too…they just looked naked. We didn’t want to spend the money on it, though, because we’d figured it up and it would cost us another $100.00 or more to do it. This year, when we were hanging it all back up, I loved it as much as I did last year, but I was still wishing for some ornament-decorated garland for the columns.

Last week, I got the garland 90% off at HobLob (it came out to be 79 cents each) and will use the ornaments to decorate it and wrap the columns, too! I got all of the stuff to do it for less than $20.00!!!! Yay! No more naked columns! I can’t wait!!!

I focused on two rooms in the house this year, when adding to my décor: the formal dining room and the playroom.

I chose these ornaments for our dining room. I don’t really do much in the dining room, so I’ve been wanting to add to it. I fell in love with the muted gold and cocoa colored glass ornaments. At 40 cents a box, who wouldn’t!?!? The ones in the tubes on the left are plastic, and while I’m not really big on shatterproof ornaments inside, the glitter won me over! The colors look perfect with my curtains in the dining room, and I think it’s just “dressed up” enough for in there. I got enough to be able to fill jars with them and put them on the tree in there. I also love the bird ornaments with the tail feathers.

I didn’t do anything in the playroom this year, so I knew I wanted to look for some things for it. AB will be so into Christmas next year, so I want it to be super cute and fun for her. I got a few things for it, and chose bright red and green whimsical and fun stuff for the playroom. I got the ribbon for less than $2.00 a roll and the “W” ornaments for 10 cents each. I’m going to use to use the stuff in the bottom picture to add to some garland to trim out the window in the playroom. I love those big jingle bells, the felt snowflakes and the pom-pom snowmen picks.

The last thing I kept an eye out for were matching stockings. I want really cute, nice ones one day, but needed some that matched and were good enough for now. I don’t want to pick out and order nice ones yet, because I don’t know how many to buy. Hopefully, we will need some more someday. So, for now, I bought these felt ones from JoAnn’s.They were marked down to $1.00, so I just bought six, because I know we won’t need more than that! :) I think they’ll be cute monogrammed, and then I may be-dazzle them with some fabric yo-yo’s or something. Carrie inspired that idea. Then, in the future, when we know for sure how many we need, I’ll order our nice matching ones.

I also found stocking holders for .60 cents per box (of 2). I’m going to give them a coat of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and they’ll be perfect!

A few other random things for around the house including: 

This nutcracker and felt tree from Target. Both were 90% off, so I paid…$1.29 each.

Red berry garland from Hobby Lobby. Regularly priced $39.00, marked down to $3.99.

I couldn’t resist these pale pink Country Living glass balls. They’ll be so darling on AB’s tree in her room! And hopefully by next year, she can be trusted not to touch them, since they are glass…OR they may stay packed up for a couple more years… ha… 

I also got some great wired ribbon at Michaels for less than $2.00 a roll. 

 

It will be hard to pay full price for something for a while after those steals and deals. :)

~amw~