The fields are alive!

Well it is that most lovely and beautiful of seasons when everything is in bloom.
The season where I fight the daily headaches and other allergy "aches" that I live with!
But I do adore this time of year, I love the sights and smells of everything turning green after a long cold winter! The flowers coming into their best display.....who could not love it!

So of course it does slow me down a bit, does not stop me......I still love to work in the garden and be as active as ever only it does slow down a lil bit for me. Gives me more time to reflect on the things I want to do : )

Saturday again!

I got off work this morning and thought I would join hubby in the yard, or garden as my lovely daughter-in-love calls the yard. while hubby was cutting the grass I set my goal on the lil flower garden I have in front. My goal one day is to see it in it's full glory as a full English garden!
Our neighbors were working on their yard as well, it was a lovely morning. They informed us that their two trees are coming down due to the fact that a family of squirrels have taken residence in their attic! I am sad to hear the trees are coming down as I love to watch them sprout every spring.

Hubby and I spent some time together just enjoying the weather and each others company before I took a nap. when I woke up the kids meaning Dan and Tracy were in high gear getting ready for their road trip. The kids are going to Az to visit my parents and sister and brother and their families! I sure hope they have fun out there! Of course being a mom I asked them to make sure to keep me posted while they were on the road.

For dinner tonight I am making some ribs on the grill and pasta salad. I hope to enjoy the rest of the day stitching and relaxing : )

Busy Days

Today we started to get our budget in order. I read a book by the Economides and I really liked what they wrote about, so much so that I shared it with hubby and he also liked it so now we are following suit and making our own budget book. We hope to see an improvement in our savings in a few months!
I did my daily chores and also put our menu in order, what made that easier was asking each of the kids what they would have liked seeing on the menu for the week! So we are having
today- baked fish and chipolte rice with veggies
Wed- ribs and tator salad
Thurs- pepper steak and rice
Fri- shepherds pie
Sat- grilled chicken and pasta salad
Sun- roasted chicken and veggies
Tomorrow is another day when I check the sales ads and get my shopping list in order. I don't really shop the "normal" way, I bulk buy sales items and stock my pantry that way. I have run low on a few things so I need to recheck my pantry and update my list.

I have found out that getting organized takes a lot of time! I updated my "brain" which is my big binder, changed some of the things in there and added a few others that are needed. Today I also clipped a few weeks worth of coupons and put them in my coupon folder.

Finally now I can relax and maybe stitch a bit!

Wedding Anniversary Getaway!

For our getaway we picked Tennessee! Pigeon Forge to be exact, we wanted to see the mountains! Even tho' it was still early in the year the views were amazing!
We ate at Lineberger's restaurant, great seafood! Hubby had oysters which to be honest I am not a fan of but boy did he enjoy it.
I opted for bacon wrapped scallops with a lil bit of pineapple salsa on top. It was sooooooo gooooood!
Best sweet tea can be found in your local McAllisters! We ended up taking 5 gallons home with us since we are not fortunate to have one of these great places in our area.
Taken at one of the lookouts in Gatlinburg.
We took a lil back roads tour and they treated us to sites like this! We had a fun tour and saw things that most folks don't get a chance too. We even came home with moonshine jelly and each of us got a buckeye.

On one of our walks we found this! a Paw Paw tree! I thought this was neat, my kids call my Dad Paw Paw!
Hubby and I at one of the lil waterfalls.
Hubby treated me to this wonderful, wonderful place!
This is the front of the house, I love this place!
because it is a bird sanctuary! My favorite creatures are parrots! isn't he glorious?
I love the lil parrots too! I called the yellow ones sunshine with wings.
After playing with all the birds, there must have been at least a hundred of them! We walked the garden trail and found the prayer garden! We sat and prayed for a few minutes before we left. This parrot place has scripture plaques everywhere along the garden walk. Loved it!
So many flowers growing everywhere!
The Smith Family dinner show was great! A lot of talent here! Dinner was fabulous as well.
Hubby was picked to take part in the hoola hoop contest! he was a great sport bout it! I kind of worried about his back, but he did great! Of course the women won! But the men were great to laugh at!
Yup! We had a wonderful time in the mountains!