25 Things About Me

I thought since I've been tagged so often on Facebook, that I'd post these here too.

1. Contrary to what anyone else says, I have the BEST husband in the world.
2. I met my husband online and we got married 5 months after our first date.
3. I'm thankful that my parents raised me in a Christian home.
4. I won a blue ribbon at the county fair when I was in Jr. High for raising chickens for 4-H.
5. I lived in Tennessee for 4 years.
6. I've been to the Bahamas. (Hated it!)
7. I'm afraid of heights.
8. I taught myself how to knit one weekend when I was bored.
9. I've been known to walk barefoot in the snow on more than one occasion.
10. My fabric collection is bigger than my husband realizes.
11.I love the act of DOING laundry, but I HATE putting it away.
12. I learned how to quilt from my Mom (initially) and the fabulous ladies of Sew Unique (now).
13. I own 2 sewing machines, an embroidery machine and a serger.
14. I love to shop at Aldi.
15. I love to cook.
16. Even though I love going to the lake during the summer, I don't know how to swim.
17. Fall is my favorite season.
18. I love mowing the yard.
19. I'm still trying to come to terms with never being able to be a mom. (See #20)
20. I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2002.
21. My husband surprised me with Toby Keith concert tickets one year for Valentine's Day.
22. I am a huge procrastinator!
23. I spend way too much time on the computer.
24. My Mom is one of my best friends.
25. My Dad picked my middle name, Annette, because he liked Annette Funicello.

Now it's your turn. Leave me a comment with one thing about you.

The Ice Storm Cometh...and Goeth!

The ice storm came last week. School let out early on Monday and we lost power on Tuesday afternoon. Lee spent 2 nights where he works, while Madison and I stayed at the house with no power, which meant no heat. Thursday, Lee came and got us and we spent the next 3 nights at Good Samaritian, the nursing facitlity where he works. The administrator let employees, their immediate families, pets even, stay in the unoccupied rooms and apartments. They even fed us for free and trust me, after 2 days with no hot water, I really appreciated a hot shower! They were so awesome to us and really lived up to their name. We went home on Sunday night and the first 6 houses on our street had power...we are the 7th house :o( But we did finally get power back yesterday afternoon. Oh how I dread having to clean out the frig and freezer, but luckily we didn't lose as much as some others that we know.

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention, Madison lost her first tooth (bottom middle) Monday night! She pulled it herself after I "deaden" it with Ambesol. She was so proud of herself and so excited about the tooth fairy visiting (the fairy brought her $2, I only got a quarter when I was a kid).

Kindergarten Field Trip

Well, like I told you yesterday, I went with Andrea today to the Berry Farm for Madison's field trip and I took tons of pictures. I also bought a 3 pound bag of blueberries so Madison and I can make blueberry jam this weekend. She's already thinking about next year's fair entries.

Enjoy the pics...

Hayride to Mulch Mountain, the Corn Maze and U Pick pumpkin patch.

Petting zoo consisted of 2 little horses and a donkey.

Mulch Mountain

Madison's class (1 of 18 Kindergarten classes at Mountain Home Schools) on top of Mulch Mountain.

Madison and Allie hunting for the perfect pumpkin to take home.

Madison, Allie and Stormy showing off their loot.

General Store (I'm going back this weekend to get some pumpkin butter, apple butter and some of their fresh squeezed apple cider. YUM! I love fall!

Aren't these gourds beautiful!

This girl never has enough pumpkins!

Madison and Momma

Can you say, "Wipe out!"?

Holy cow! I just realized that it's been quite a while since I've posted anything new. Yesterday was my birthday...the big 39. Wasn't I just in high school??? They say "time flies when you're having fun", so I must be having a BLAST!

Lee's and my 8th wedding anniversary was last week. We went out this past weekend and had dinner and saw "An American Carol". We spent the weekend before that at his 35th high school reunion. He had a great time and I had fun watching him with all these people that look so much older than he does.

We got a phone call on Sunday from a potential birth mother. She lives in upstate New York and was wanting us to adopt her baby due in a few weeks. Unfortunately, I started getting the standard "red flags" of a possible scam, so I quickly got us out of that. I'm hoping that she's truly sincere in her desire to find a family for her son, but I've been burnt too many times where this is concerned to allow myself to become too emotionally involved too soon in the process. The emotional scars from what happened before are still too fresh for me and it's been almost 18 months. *SIGH* I cannot dwell...it still hurts and makes me angry all over again.

My mom came Sunday and will be headed home today. We always love when she comes for a visit and are always sad to see her go. Madison's kindergarten class is going to the Berry Farm tomorrow and she asked me this morning if I would go with her. I know that Andrea is going so I think I'll ride over with her and take pictures. Madison loves to see herself on my blog. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures.

Photos

Here is a picture of Madison waiting to get into the exhibit building to pick up her ribbon.

Here she is with her red ribbon peach jam. She is so proud (and so is Grammy!)

Oh my gosh! Is she too cute or what?

Also, here is a new picture of the lastest addition to my Etsy shop.

This little organizer is so cute and SO easy to make. I love it and I've already made one for myself in fall colors.

County Fair

Yesterday was our county fair parade and Madison asked me to ride with her on her dance studios float, so of course I HAD to. LOL My tail bone is so sore today. DH gave me a massage last night and that helped tremendously, along with 3 ibuprofin. After the parade, I took Maddie to meet Andrea at the fair. She (Mads) was soooo looking forward to riding the Sizzler. I told her not to throw up!

Madison also had her first fair entry this year. She asked me last year when I won some ribbons at the fair, if she could enter this year and I told her sure. So she kept reminding me over the past year that she wanted to make something to put in the fair. She decided that she wanted to make peach jam, so when the peaches started getting ripe, I took her to the farmer's market and let her pick out her peaches. She did everything herself, with minimal help from me. The only thing I really didn't let her do was pour the jam into the jars and seal them. So how did she do??? She won a second place (red) ribbon!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of her and she wants to make tomato sauce next year to enter. I think I've created a monster. LOL

Here is the recipe we used for her jam:

Spiced Wine Peach Jam

1/2 c. golden raisins
1/3 c. dry red wine or juice (pineapple or orange juice can be substituted)
4 c. finely chopped peaches (5 or 6 medium peaches)
3 T. lemon juice
1 box dry fruit pectin
5 c. granulated sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground allspice

Bring raisins and wine to a boil in small saucepan, remove from heat, drain and discard liquid.

Combine raisins, peaches, lemon juice and pectin in a very large stainless steel or enamal saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar and return to full boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and allspice.

Ladle into hot jars and **process for 10 minutes in hot water bath.

Makes about 6 cups.

**NOTE: I did NOT process in the water bath. I never do when I can. My mom never did and I learned from her. I have found that when the food item is boiling hot and you put it in HOT jars with heated lids, as the food cools, it seals itself. I always check the next day and if any jars haven't sealed, I promptly put those in the frig and use them first. PLEASE, do not follow my example if you are not comfortable doing so. Do as I say and not as I do!

This recipe came from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving 2nd edition by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.

I love this book!

Moving in...

Well, our home dynamic is changing. Lee's daughter, Andrea, and her daughter Madison are moving in! Andrea is so flooded with debt that she can't afford her apartment and be able to make payments on her other bills. She is also getting ready to start nursing school in January, so we told her to move in with us until she can get out of school and back on her feet. Madison is so excited! She has been telling us and her mom that she wanted them to move in with us since she was 2!

Andrea & I have been working on getting our basement fixed up for her. We started painting yesterday and today we're going to finish with that and since one of her brother's friends came and got his pool table out, she's going to have plenty of room for a living space. Luckily, the basement was already finished when we bought the house and we already have a living area (tv, furniture, etc), a bedroom and a full bath, so all we need to do is just paint and do some sprucing up. The only downside to this, that I can see so far, is that ONCE AGAIN, my sewing studio will have to wait. I was waiting for the pool table to go, so I could set up my new Koala cabinet, but now, it will be pushed to the side...again. *SIGH* Oh well, we will enjoy having them here and I know that a huge load has been lifted off Andrea's shoulders. That's what family is for, right?