Blogger Quote Challenge #1

Katie is my fabulous blogger friend and last week she tagged me in the blogger quote challenge.  My job is to share three quotes with you all at once or over the course of three posts that relate to me in some way.

I know how so many of ya'll love a good quote.  How in the world could I pass this up?  

So here's my post numero uno.

Thanks, Katie, for the challenge!

My first quote...



Gosh this hits home.

My husband giggles when he talks about me going off the deep end.  He loves to tell people how I can get so enraged and go semi Rhonda Rousey on people.  Okay, no I don't beat people up and break arms but I can get very animated and scary.  It's ok, I'm just admitting it.

Over the past year I have been working on that side of who I am.  Instead of believing it is just part of my make up - being hot headed - I'm realizing it is actually a part of me I can control with great efficiency if I put forth the work it takes to control it.

That's the problem - so many people use that as a crutch - "Oh I can't help it."

Oh but you can.  I am a living, breathing testament to that one.

Lately, this side of who I am has been tested.  I'm watching someone go "ape" and I know they're looking for a fight.

I'm not giving it.

I'm taking that proverbial higher road.

Yes, it involves lots of deep breaths and counting to ten (over and over).  It takes a lot of prayer and whispering Carrie Underwood's coined term of, "Jesus, take the wheel, STAT!" - of course I added the STAT part.

But it works.

I can sit back and let the circus go on and just be a spectator and not a fool who feels ridiculous for losing my cool over something that wasn't worth my time.

If you are one of the hot headed chicks of this world - I feel ya - but its so much more gorgeous to just learn to chill out, take a few belly breaths, and then just laugh at those people trying to provoke you....then pray for them.

xo -

This weekend in North Carolina....

No tid bits this week.  We're going straight into a busy and fun filled weekend in North Carolina!

Asheboro - If you love baseball and seeing the good guys way before college and pros warp them (haha) then you will want to be make plans to be at the American Legion Baseball Southeast Tournament.  

Littleton - Swimming across Lake Gaston sound like fun?  How about kayaking or canoeing?  This weekend is the weekend of The Crossing at Lake Gaston.  Register today!


West Jefferson - It seems cycling is all the rage these days.  How hardcore of a cycler are you?  Are you tough enough to do the Blue Ridge Brutal?  You pick your poison - you can do a 3.1 mile ride or a 100 mile ride on Saturday.  This isn't for the faint of heart.

Carolina Beach - Do you have a volleyball junkie in your house?  If so you should go to the beach this weekend so they can watch the pros spike, bump, and serve it up.  There's also time to interact with them between matches.  The EVP Beach Volleyball Tour is Saturday!



Shelby - My husband, very badly, wanted to attend this event for the simple reason that Kelly Pickler is the highlighted act.  <sigh>  The 3rd Annual 7th Inning Stretch Festival is this weekend in Shelby.  Music (Walker County with special guest Kelly Pickler), food, fun, and baseball.

Guys, that's a lot of sporting events for the weekend....

Let's switch gears....



Sneads Ferry -  Ahhh fresh shrimp....ahhh the Shrimp Festival of Sneads Ferry is this weekend.  Parades, music, shrimp, the cast of Swamp People, fireworks, vendors....it is going to be a fun time celebrating the shrimping business of North Carolina.

Gibsonville - Grove Winery is hosting the Red, White, and Blues Festival on Saturday.  Enjoy great music, good wine, and the beautiful Lake Cabernet.  Also in Gibsonville, on Sunday, is the Food Truck Rodeo.  Food trucks are a current rage across the country and I'm sure we all have our most favorite.  Visit Gibsonville on Sunday and be prepared to find new favorites or just find out what deliciousness lies behind the wheel.  This event is also at Grove Winery.

And that my friends is a snap shot of some of the things you can do, see and enjoy in North Carolina this weekend.  Enjoy!

Do you have an event you would like shared on this weekly post?  If so please email me by using the form on the side bar.  Thank you!

Around the Home

Well it has been a hot second since I said I would post more on this topic.

Just admitting...

This may be a jam packed post...

Have you ever made a very small change in your home and seen a huge impact due to it?

Well this past weekend was the weekend of small changes, big impacts!

Over the weekend we did a little sprucing up around the outside of the house.

Guys, it is amazing the difference some shutters can make!

Before

After

So aside from the fact the summer butchered our yard can you tell the impact of the first set of shutters?  All I could say was, WOW!  We have one more set going up on the second story windows soon.  Maybe it was a little premature to put this on the blog....sorry had to!

I am just thrilled to have this set up.  By the way, my husband and son did this while I was at church on Sunday.  Our daughter was sick so they stayed home to hang out with her and I got a break.  My little guy (who will be three this month) was very proud of "building windows".  I thought that was so cute.

While we are looking at the front of the house....

Another small change we made a few months ago was moving our patio table and chairs a whopping eight feet.  We had it on the open air side of the deck and thus weren't using it but every now and then.  Face it, the North Carolina sun can beat you down pretty hard!  After staining the deck I decided to put the table and chairs on the covered "porch" side of the deck.  It made such a HUGE difference.  

I use this table all the time!  Since we adore being outside now weather doesn't really stop us from coming out to read the paper, eat dinner, or just sit and chat.  I also really love to work on the blog out there too.

I love to have flowers around the table.  Earlier in the summer I had planted a few of the already put together planter assortments that Lowe's has to offer.  They lasted much longer than I expected (three months to be precise).  When I went back to purchase a couple more last week, I was not very impressed with their selection.

One thing you must know about me (that I say on repeat) is that I am Queen of the Tightwads.  So when I go to buy flowers (at Lowe's) I always spend about five minutes up at the front of the garden center and probably twenty at the back.  The excitement I get when I see racks of nearly dead plants marked down to $1-$5 just makes my heart skip a beat.

I live for bringing those lifeless flowers back from their near death experience.

And sometimes, you find flowers that don't need any resuscitation!

This hanging basket was reduced to $3.  Yes, $3 and its thriving!  My friend Jennifer, who was over on Saturday night, said:  Where did you get a hanging basket for $3!!!

This was a prearranged planter that I also scored for $3.  It needed some water and to be out of the direct burning sun.  I cannot wait for the flowers to bloom soon!

Speaking of flowers....

Back in May, when I was planting flowers like a crazy woman, I purchased some coleus to just toy around with.  I ended up getting burned out on planting that Memorial Day Monday and just dumped my coleus in a back corner flower bed.  There was really no rhyme or reason to my planting of it.  I also figured it would die since coleus loves shade.  The spot I had placed it in doesn't get too much shade.

Boy was I mistaken.

My coleus took off this season!  It is so beautiful that I'm going to tell you it is my new go to plant.  I'm hoping I can make it last until at least the second week of October.  Fingers crossed!

And now to deep thoughts....

This really excited me.  It is a baby sunflower.  I did not plant any sunflowers this year nor have I ever planted sunflowers.  I'm not really sure why I have not planted them because I find them to be so shabby chic pretty!

It just so happens I feed my wild birds sunflower seeds.  I never really thought much about the fact that those seeds turn into sunflowers if I don't go weed my back flower bed.  Painstakingly, this summer I weeded that flower bed like a mad woman.  Pulling out everything I thought did not belong.  I would be so angry as I spent so much time ripping out those weeds.  I had even thought about just stopping and letting it grow over.  Maybe next season I would hoe it all up and just plant a flowering ground cover in it.  

Over the weekend I noticed that I had missed one of those seed sprouts, aka weeds, and now its preparing to bloom.

Did you know all flowers are weeds?  

Every single flower we can identify and pick or choose for weddings, gardens, corsages, bouquets, to express sorrow or love....is a weed.  I spent so much time in that flower bed picking out the weeds - just assuming they were all bad - and they weren't.  There was beauty to be beheld if I would have just given it some time.  

You know we can probably correlate that to our lives.  We see things we have to pick at and remove because we think they look bad or serve no purpose; when in reality we should have let them simply be.

They may have turned into something strikingly beautiful and wonderful.  Don't be so critical of yourself or others.  You'll miss out on the gorgeousness you cannot see yet.

And finally....

Nothing annoys me more than forgetting the day that I need to pull the trash cans and the recycle bins to the end of the drive....

My husband and I both neglected to remember trash and recycle carry out night.  Last week was a complete headache because of it!

Sorry Mr. Recycle Guy!  We're going to have a whole lotta compacting for you!

Question of  the day - Please share!!!!  Here or on Facebook.

Have you made any small changes around your home that have made a huge impact?

Click here to go to my page!

Tasty Tuesday

Last week I shared my favorite pool food with you.

It was pretty healthy.

This week I'm sharing my favorite beach food with you.

It is not healthy.

It is real, dirty, bad for you, so delicious food.

So if you're looking for healthy treats then just go away.

1.  Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips

Salt & Vinegar potato chips are my most favorite of all time.  I don't eat them but twice a year and both times fall in the summer and are normally around beach trip time.  I've never been a big fan of Kettle Style chips but these are pretty good!

2.  Lance Snack Crackers

It could be a Southern thing but I love a pack of Nabs at the beach.  I also like them when I need to eat but am not terribly hungry.  I think several of us girls can attest to days when our lunch consisted of a sweet tea and pack of crackers.

Yep, uh huh.

They are easy to eat on the beach.  Packaged so you don't get sand in a bag.  You can get a little protein...and you can get a low cal/fat option.

Look at me trying to make these a health food.

3.  Corona Light

Well duh.

4.  Trail Mix

Mmmm I love trail mix....especially this one at Walmart.

5.  Capri Sun

Even though Capri Sun got some flack over their pouches and mold I still use it.

I'm not stressing over it because I drank CS as a kid and lived to tell about it.  With little hands it is easy to hold on the beach and easy to gulp down too.

That's what we have in our beach bag.  What snacks and drinks do you pack?

While I'm on the topic of junk food (thus this whole post) I wanted to share a couple recipes I spotted over the weekend....

Click here for the recipe!

Click here to get the recipe!

Minion Trail Mix....Beach Worthy! Click here for the recipe!

Yum yum!  What are you eating that's not so great for you this week?  Oh let's just celebrate it!

I missed BFF day...

So yesterday (Sunday) was Friendship Day.

Oops, Hallmark, I forgot.

Actually, I really had no friggin' clue there was such a day.

I mean, duh, I should have figured it out since we do have this thing called Hallmark who can churn out a holiday like none other.  And maybe I was clued in when I saw a Starbucks ad on Facebook (and tagged my bestie) that said Best Friends.

Oh well...

I felt obligated by my heart to write a little ditty about my best friend.

***

I'm not a friend collector.  You know, the person who has like a posse of girls behind them and walks around with them like you did in 7th grade.  I guess it is because I have major trust issues and hate girls who live for drama.

You would think at 30 something that would be a trait that has been shed.

I'm here to tell you females keep that trait going strong for years and years.

Anyway, all through my life I've kept just a couple of friends as my closest, got your back no matter what, buddies.

Sometimes it is lonely and I wish I had that posse.

I've mentioned my bestie numerous times before.  We met 10 years ago in one of our many nutrition classes in college.  I sat down in front of her and eventually turned around and chatted her up.  She was the cutest thing with her Wilkes County accent.

Sometimes people just hit it off.

We did.

We're both scorpios so I figure that's why we connected so quickly.  Seriously, I'm not a big sign person but it is pretty neat how that stuff does make some sense when it comes to personalities.

My bestie and I made a lot of fun memories in our last couple of years of college.  We had some fun adventures.  Lucky for us we took even more adventures together.  She was my maid of honor at my wedding and I was her 9 month pregnant friend sitting in the back at her wedding.

I had a baby girl and a year and a half later she'd welcome her first little boy.

We would complain to each other about the perils of life after marriage....boys can be so dumb.  We would giggle at strange gifts at the holidays and unfortunately we would cry together when true, honest, and complete heartbreak would hit.

It did so twice for her.  And each time I dropped what I was doing to be there for her.  Crying the entire drive because my friend didn't deserve to have to go through this once let alone twice.

We're the friends who live just under an hour from each other but only seem to be able to get up three times a year with one another.  However, our emails are like a religion and completed daily.

When we are in a proverbial bind it doesn't take long before a call is made. Then ,over an hour later, all our problems are back burner because we've distracted each other enough to be giggling and happy at conversation's end.

I was not given a sister by blood or marriage.  I always thought it would be awesome to have had one to share things with in life.  However, God granted me a best friend that so easily has taken the place of that sister role in my life.

For that, I am forever indebted.

Monday, May I?

First full week of August babies....let's kick some tail together shall we?

First off, let's see how I did with last week's set of goals.

1.  Go to the bookstore, with the kids, it is called a field trip.  Get the Dobson book.

OK - so I did this.  We went to Lifeway and the book was there but guess what....the book is cheaper on Amazon.  So I did go to the store with the kids but we did not get said book.  Hello Amazon, thanks for being cheap!

2.  Attach the tags to the clothes I tagged...or made tags for and put on hangers.

I did not attach the tags because I sold nearly every single girl's size 7/8 piece.  I purchased the safety pins for the little boy 3T clothing.  It isn't a goal this week.

3.  Pray for some direction on a couple things going on in my life that I'm lost over.  We all have them but right now I have two that are burning my brain up.  

Did it.  Done it.  Still doing it.  Of course the direction is coming to me slowly because God is pretty remarkable.    He threw a few more things on my plate but I am done with stressing over it.  I gave it back to him and said, please fix it.  He said He'd let me know when its ready for me again.  God's cool like that.  You should chat with him.

4.  12 mile goal for pavement pounding this week.  I can do it, right?

How about 14.26 miles?  Yay a little happy about that one!  

Now about this week....

1.  Call the real estate place about our vacation rental.  I'm nervous because prior to last month the place we rented was through an individual.  I'm sure there are going to be some changes in places now that its a new owner.  Boo!

2.  Get my exercise in.  This week is going to be a little different and yet another adjustment week for us all.  I hope I can still make time to get my sweat on.

3.  Make doctors appointments for all of us.  It is physical time and well child time.  

Alright, its your turn!  What goals do you have for the week?

xo

Saturday Editorial and Recap

Well I'll be...it is August.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with this month.  As a kid I hated it.  It meant summer's ending and school is starting.  That turned my stomach.

When I got older it meant:  summer's ending and school is starting.  Though, I loved college I still felt those pangs in my heart and stomach of sadness when facing the fact summer would be drifting away.

Now I'm the oldest I have ever been (get it?) and once again I'm feeling sadness.

I realize that summer will stick around until at least the third week of September.  It is just that summer isn't the same when you're back to the routines of school.  I can appreciate a child-free pool visit but I can tell you it is kind of empty.  Where's the giggling and constant splashing?  Sitting in the classroom;  learning or something like that.

There's something mildly nauseating about homework when the sun is still shining and it is 97 degrees out.  I vote for ice cream and running around the yard over fractions and diagramming.



Don't get me wrong, I love school.  I thoroughly enjoy the fact it brings schedule back to our lives and routines are pretty sweet to me too.  I just have big issues with looking at the hand we are dealt in August....back to school, so long summer.

Now, check this out.  Summer officially has three more weeks with us until school buses roll again. That means this blog isn't going to be back to school focused until the first two are up.  We have a summer to continue to celebrate. We're not looking at book bags.  Oh, no we're looking at our beach bag.  We aren't picking out school supplies.  We're making the birthday lists.  We're enjoying another week of VBS.  We're still sleeping late.

So this is the safe zone (at least for two weeks) from back to school chaotic activity.  Sure, I'll have my back to school posts going strong when I'm ready but right now is not the time.

Now is the time to enjoy summer.

Swim, laugh, giggle, stay up late, sleep in, play outside, eat too much ice cream, grill out with friends.....and just relax.



*****

Now here this....



I posted my August goals on Friday.  I think I need to add "make pickles" to them.  I was given a TON of okra and I love my okra pickled.

If you're headed to the pool then you need to take plenty of great snacks.  Tuesday, I shared my {favorite "healthy" pool snacks} with you!.

Are you grocery shopping this weekend?  Then check out the {Tasty Tuesday} post of two great recipes that are tried and true in our house.  One is a crock pot, throw it in and forget about it meal!  I also threw in my own zucchini bread recipe.

{Thursday was a random day} (that's how we like our Thursdays) from dealing with jerks to feeling like you need to be committed...yep that was Thursday!

And finally Friday was a recap of my {5 favorite things from the past 7 days} :)  I bought some awesome new shoes too <wink> :)

{Every week I post things that are popping around North Carolina for the weekend ahead.}  Sometimes I get it out on Wednesdays and sometimes it isn't published until Thursdays.  I hope you'll take time to check out all the fun and sometimes strange things we are doing across this fabulous state.

As usual, {Monday, May I} was the goals I had for this week...I have forgot my goals but that's cool it makes checking in on Sunday night even more fun.

So there's a recap of the blog this week!

*****

End notes....

I visited some awesome blogs this week and hope to throw in some love to them next week as I link you over to great posts on those sites.  Until then....