Thursday Thirteen # 7

Since we will be going to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games this weekend, I give you thirteen things I love about these games.

1. Funnel cakes, duh! Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love my sugar! I always splurge and treat myself to a funnel cake!
2. The breathtaking views from McRae Meadows, where the games are held. I cannot tell you how majestic it feels to be on the mountain in the early morning, when the fog is still rolling off the hills. Just amazing!
3. The bands in the Celtic Groves. The groves are neat little places notched out in the hills where bands play. There are a few groves scattered on the grounds and each grove has a different band playing there. Although my favorite band, Off Kilter, is not scheduled to be at the games, I think I'll manage. I'll give one of the new bands a chance in hopes that they will take my mind off of Off Kilter not being there!
4. Watching the caber toss. Scroll down and watch video clip 6. This is amazing. They make it look so easy!
5. Watching the Scottish dancing competition. See video clip 7. The young ladies and men who compete in these things have to be in superb shape. It looks like alot of fun but I can tell it is very hard.
6. Not eating haggis. No way, no how. That stuff just shouldn't be eaten! Jeff tried it last year and I almost got sick watching him eat it. (I don't think he cared for it either)
7. Getting to see the Forrester clan from Georgia. Jeff and I are included in this photo but all the other members you see are from the Atlanta area. (Don't you just love our standard tartan!) Our hunting tartan is pretty cool too!
8. Seeing almost everyone in a kilt or Scottish attire. Some of the tartans are just lovely.
9. Watching the children during the kids activities. There are some really small children who show up dressed in their kilt and run around playing the games they have set up. It's way too cute!
10. Parade of Tartans. All the clans line up and walk around the field as they are announced one at a time. It's pretty neat because you get to see each clan and their tartan as they are announced, which helps you learn to associate each clan with their tartan.
11. Massed Bands. See video clip 9. This is where all of the pipe bands march and play together. It's really awesome to see so many bagpipers and drummers together in the open field. The sounds of their playing is even more awesome.
12. Getting to talk to Ben and Laura about their trips to Scotland. We hope to go one of these days and talking about it with Ben and Laura make us want to go even more! All of the places in the pictures belong to the Forrester clan or are important to Forrester history.
13. Knowing that although we have to say goodbye to the Forresters from GA after this weekend, we'll see them again in October at the Stone Mountain Highland Games!

For more Thursday 13 posts, go here.

Wordless Wednesday....Washed Out

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, go here.

Ten on Tuesday # 6

Ten Favorite Things

It's hard for me to only name ten of my favorite things but I'll try. I have lots of favorite things. I think I should be able to include at least twenty!

1. My bagpipe playing, kilt wearing, animal loving, computer genius, bluegrass music loving, sports loving, dog hugging hubby.

2. Chocolate Molten Cake from Chili's.

3. The Lady Vols!

4. Family. I did not have a picture of all of our family but they all know I love them! I thought I'd post this picture of my oldest daughter, my 84 year old grandma, myself, my youngest daughter, and my mom.

5. Homeschooling my kids.

6. Football. I am a big sports fan and I love many sports but football is my favorite. I love college and pro.

7. Pizza. Any kind of pizza is acceptable. I can't say I've ever had terrible pizza. I love it all. Especially the bacon and cheddar pizza and the alfredo pizza from CiCi's.

8. Anything pink. I love this color.

9. Pride & Prejudice. I have every version and I have watched them all multiple times. This one is my favorite :-o)

10. Last, by not least, kitties. We have 5 but I only have a picture of three of them together so it'll have to do!

For more TOT's, go here.

Menu Plan Monday July 9-15

I always say it's better late than never.....without further ado, my menu (and the crowd goes wild....raaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh):

Monday: Bowtie pasta w/tomato cream sauce, bread

Tuesday: Grilled brats, fried taters, leftover cowboy beans

Wednesday: Chicken fajitas, refried beans, queso-n-chips (I'm using sun dried tomato flavored fajita wraps)

Thursday: Salmon patties, potato wedges, pinto beans

Friday: Eat out

Saturday: Maybe be going to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games so we'll eat there.

Sunday: Church picnic so we'll have a light supper (Freschetta or Digiorno pizza probably)

I'm still stuffed from the bowtie pasta w/tomato cream sauce we ate tonight! A wonderful lady at church gave me the recipe and I lap it up every time we make it! Yum-O! All it requires is 1 quart of heavy cream and a bit honkin' jar (2lb jar)of Ragu traditional sauce (you can use something other than the traditional if you want). You heat the heavy cream (about 3/4 of the container) just slightly and then add the Ragu. Heat it on med/high heat until it starts to bubble and then turn it down to medium until it gets the consistency you want. You can add crumbled up hamburger, italian sausage, or whatever you want to make it to your liking. This stuff is just good! I also use it to dip bread in (the loaves you can buy at Walmart for $1.25).

Have a great Monday!

Can You Believe It?

Guess what? I won something else! Can you believe it? I hardly can! I am very excited about this one!

I learned about Sunshine's Creations from reading Jenny's blog. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately from all the blogs I try to keep up with and I hadn't read Wendy's blog lately. Over the weekend I decided to drop in. I love seeing her creations, as she is very talented. I noticed that it was her blogiversary and she was having a couple of giveaways. I missed the deadline for one of them but I quickly got in on the other one. Imagine my surprise when I checked my email this morning and found that Wendy had emailed me to say I had won the Yo-Yo quilt! I am very excited and can't wait to display this in my house! Jenny, I know you're probably jealous but you can come over and look at it anytime you want! LOL! You know I'm just giving you a hard time!

If you haven't visited Wendy's blog, you should make it a point to do so. If you love quilting, crocheting, or crafting in general, you'll really enjoy seeing her creations. Thanks again Wendy, for this wonderful hanging that will look just marvelous on any wall of my home!

Weekend Reflection # 22

Another week has come and gone and this one was just as full as ever!

Last Sunday we attended worship and afterwards, Jeff left for Valle Crucis, NC. The girls and I came home and relaxed all evening and watched Jump In together.

Monday, we got up early and by lunch time we were on the road to Greeneville, TN (one hour away) to meet up with some friends, the P's, at their house. Mrs. P and I did some t-shirt painting with the kids and talked, alot. They have four children so the girls enjoyed an entire day of playing with them. They were kind enough to ask us to stay for dinner and fed us the "ideal" hotdog (thanks to Mike!) and some wonderful homemade salsa. Yum-O! We had a blast and didn't make it home until about 11:15 that night. Thanks for having us you guys! We were also able to stop by the Amish store in Greeneville before meeting the P's. This is my favorite little store! It has all sorts of Amish baked goods and yummy dried fruit!! The dried pineapples and craisins are a big hit in our house and I stocked up on these!

Tuesday, Logan went to "babysit" for a friend (her kids are 11 and 9 so it's not really babysitting). She came home around lunch time and about 3:00, we drove Caroline to a sleep over at her ballet teacher's house. Logan and I rented Mansfield Park and came home and watched it that night. We had already seen it but, like all of Jane Austen's work, we love it!

Wednesday was a fun day. My FIL showed up around 9am to help me paint shutters and get them back on the house. We finished up around 3:00 and the house looks great! It was such a relief to finish it up so that we can finally take a little break from home improvement projects! I forgot to mention that about 10am, I had to sneak off to pick up Caroline from the sleep over. She had a blast! The birthday party had a spa theme and the ballet teacher (also mom to the birthday girl) gave them all foot scrub treatments. Apparently a neighbor brought over some sparklers for all of the little girls at the party the night before. Caroline, who hates to wear shoes as much as I do, wasn't wearing shoes and stepped on a sparkler ash that burned a blister on her foot. Needless to say, the ballet teacher was horrified and was extremely worried about telling me. It really wasn't a big deal though because it was such a small blister. After we talked for a few minutes, I found out that she dislikes the use of fireworks as much as I do. They just scare me. I'm always afraid that someone is going to lose a finger or an eye. Jeff sometimes buys sparklers for the girls and I tell ya, I can't watch. I'm afraid they'll set their hair on fire so I go inside while they do it! Speaking of fireworks, we didn't go out to see any because the traffic around here just gets mad. We stood outside about 10:30pm and watched our neighbors shoot off some pretty impressive ones though! It was fun and the girls thought it was cool!

Thursday was Logan's 13th birthday! Wow! A teenager! It's so funny because I feel so young! LOL! We spent the morning tidying up the house while anticipating the arrival of a couple of Logan's friends. They were dropped off about 12:15 and the girls decided to play Sorry for awhile. About 1:30, we loaded up and went to CiCi's for Logan's annual birthday treat. Afterwards, we headed to the movie theatre to see Nancy Drew. The girls had a good time and afterwards, we went back to the house for a few hours. We enjoyed some birthday cake, courtesy of my favorite Aunt Kat! She and my uncle drove all the way over from Dryden, VA to deliver this birthday cake! They dropped it off about 10:30 and stayed for about an hour. They hurried off though because they knew we had plans for pizza and the movie with Logan's friends. Anyway, after we had cake and opened gifts, we took the friends home. Thanks C and L for the wonderful gifts you gave Logan! Thanks Aunt Kat and Uncle Elb for the beautiful cake, card, 20Q, Ruby Tuesday gift card, and the cash! You are such thoughtful people! And Brooke, thanks for stopping your mom from buying the really "uncool" ball she wanted to buy Logan! LOL! Just kidding Kat!

Friday Jeff got home around 3pm. We all missed him like mad and were glad he made it home safely. He learned alot while he was away and was very tired. We stayed in for the night and actually went to bed by midnight! For those of you who know us, this is a huge deal! Our regular bedtime is about 2am on most nights!

Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful evening cookout with my MIL, FIL, BIL, two nephews (who brought a friend and a girlfriend), and our new neighbor, Sunday. We grilled 18 hamburgers and many smoked sausages. My MIL made her famous mac-n-cheese and Sunday was very sad that it was all gone before she got seconds! We also had cowboy beans, chips, grilled onions and green peppers, and birthday cake with ice cream. The guys of our family played some fine bluegrass music while we tried to digest our food! It was a great way to finish out the week!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from Thursday. Sadly, I didn't snap a photo of my aunt and uncle while they were here but I did take one of their gifts and the cake they brought over. In no particular order, here they are:

I hope you had a great weekend! Enjoy the new one that is upon us!

 

Home Improvements: Part Two

After finishing our back deck and screened porch, we tackled the front of the house. We put up vinyl siding and painted a little. It only took a few hours for the guys to get the siding finished. Jeff left the following day for his weeklong trip to Valle Crucis, NC (as I've stated before, I'm not bitter....he left me behind but really, I'm not bitter). While he was away, I was left to chose a paint color (this is a hard task for me to do alone...Jeff and I have different tastes sometimes on things like this) and paint the shutters and front door. It only took me 4 hours in Lowes to decide on the paint color (I told you this was a hard decision to make alone!). I finished up on Wednesday and was pretty excited to be done. The only thing I worried about was that Jeff would not like my paint choice. He had no idea what I picked and I chose to surprise him. I didn't give him any hints while he was away! I'm happy to say that he got home on Friday and he loved the color! Yay!

Here's a before shot (the house had light yellow wood siding with green shutters and front door):

Here's the after shot (the house now has Rosewood siding with Blue Zephyr shutters and door):

I didn't really mind the color scheme of the house beforehand with the exception of my green front door. I didn't really like that. The big problem was that the yellow wood siding looked horrible. Let me just say that birds loved that stuff! When you got up close to the house, you could tell because they had made a real mess on it. Woodpeckers especially loved it because they could peck all day on it. There were all kinds of little holes all over it from those little buggers. The new Rosewood siding is a neutral color (in the tan/gray family) which gives it an updated look. The Blue Zephyr was the "wild card" so to speak because it is something that I would never normally have picked. I'm pretty neutral and stay with "safe" colors for the most part. After saying that, I realize that my living room is Carmello (which is in the yellow family....it's very bright) and our extra bedroom is Jovial Orange! LOL! I guess you could say that those two colors are not so neutral! Anyway, my first thought for shutter and door paint color was something in the burgundy family. We've done that before and liked it. However, after driving around all week, I kept noticing that everyone had shutters that color and I wanted something different.

The after picture doesn't really do the house justice. Jeff says that the photo resizing program I'm using is making the pictures look terrible. For now, this is the best I can do but in the future maybe I'll figure something out and post better pics. You get the idea though! Lots of work but it was all worth every minute and every penny we spent!

Have a great Saturday!

Before and After: Back of the House

Back of the house before:

Back of the house after:

Hopefully this will give you a better idea of the vast improvements this project made to the back of our house! For the more detailed post of project, go here.

Have a great day!