Garage Sale finds

This years adventures in garage sales has been fun and fruitful with Christmas stuff.
As you can see this weekend we found another house for the village, a checker board with Santa's and several Santa's.

This week we found more Santa's, glass ornaments with old boats in them and a doll for 50 cents


We found this stuff on Memorial weekend before going to the lake house for a party. A red blouse, Charles Dickens Christmas stories and a plug in light up ceramic Christmas tree.

We have been lucky to be able to enjoy this time together a lot this year. One Saturday morning we got to go to a neighborhood yard sale with Kati Ann. She was fun cause she really got into it. She would see the stuff in a driveway and yell out ready another one. She liked looking at the stuff and the stuff people would give her.

Ledgens and the weather

OK, so I haven't been keeping up with everything. So many things have happened in the past two months. I guess I can spend the time to catch up.

Kenny asked me to take photos of the Ledgens of the Pit.

The first Sunday night in April it was Tower of Tubes. I didn't know what to expect but it was a blast. Got a few good photos and a change to talk with some students. The the next two Sunday nights were in the pit at church and They were fun! More time to talk with the students and a good chance to get to know a few more. The rains have come for most of a month now. The first night for tubes we didn't get rain. The next Sunday night it rained at the very end. The third Sunday we were stormed out and had to make up the next week. That night it rained as well. The following Sunday we played inside because of tornatos in the area. We still have the finals this weekend.

Speaking of tornados we had many come through Alabama and some were close to the lake house. Here are a few photos of the damage

The Wedding in Paducka

I made the cakes and all the flowers ahead of time so that when we got to David's apartment I would be able to just decorate the cakes and make the grooms cake before going to the site. Darrin and I both got off early and headed to David's before 2 p.m. Arriving around 6 p.m. We unload everything and went out to dinner at Texas Road House. We enjoyed the time with David.


After getting back to David's I started icing the cakes. I only needed to put the smooth layer on the wedding cake layers. That didn't take long. I put the cake together on site. That was interesting to have an audience. The flowers were made of fondant and on toothpicks. Really is a pretty cake and I was surprised that everybody ate the roses. It was a hit! The top layer and bottom layer were vanilla and the middle layer was chocolate.


Then I started on the grooms cake and worked on it for hours. I think it turned out cool. I assembled it at the wedding site. I made myself finish the wedding cake first. This was the cake I really wanted to do. I had fun thinking about what to do for this cake.

David and I split a lunch that was awesome.


The wedding was Saturday evening and I took lots of photos. I danced with Darrin a few times. I had fun with David's co-workers. The food was very good at the resort. The room was wonderful and I loved the cabin feel to the whole site.

Thanks David for this adventure.

My Childhood "Sandlot"

I love the movie Sandlot. It is a great story about childhood and the best times we have. I have been thinking about the best times in my life.

I remember times in South Alabama as a child. Visiting my Grandparents was always a treat. The traveling from where ever (on the east coast mostly) we were living in the US to the Mobile area was always fun. Dad would drive most of the night and I would try to stay awake with him. I don't think I was ever able to make it till dawn. Mom would drive during the day. The cool thing was that you always seemed to spend most of the time asleep. I remember in the middle of the night several times going by the Mr Peanut sign all lite up. I believe it was in Raleigh, South Carolina.
We seemed to always arrive on the river during the afternoon. I knew we were close when we would get off the interstate and drive down a long road that had cotton fields on both sides. When we would turn on to River Road my heart would race and I would get so excited for two reasons. One, I was going to see my Grandparents and Aunt Kathy and two, I was going to get out of that station wagon. You need to know that my Grandparents lived next door to each other. My dad married the girl next door literally.

Anyway when we turned onto Murray Road excitement would build for everybody. It was a shell road with the trees grown over it so it was like a 1/4 mile long tunnel to the houses. The first house was Barbara and Bill Shrout's, Mom's parents. Kathy lived there with them. The next house was the Bullard home where Larry and Beverly lived. Then the next house was the Shiff house where my Dad's parents lived, Charles and Helen. On down was the Rutz home. There was a trailer in on a small section of land where Debbie Broadway and her parents lived next to the Bullard home. Many times when we would arrive there would be signs to greeting us all down the shell road.

The Shrout's house was very popular for us kids to hang out. Kathy was there to play with us and teach us how to ski. Kathy would build forts with us and teach us all about the plants and things. She would also take us swimming two or three times a day. Kathy would sleep on the dock with us and out on the porch if it was raining. There were many rides in leaky up and down the river and many stops at Bellengraph Gardens.

I spent a lot of time at the Shiff's. I would play cards with Grandmother and Granddad. I would make card houses to beat all card houses using literally hundreds of decks of cards and cover the entire living room floor. I liked staying the night with the Shiff's because I was the only one and would just get spoiled with love and attention. I like to sleep in Uncle Charles and Dad's room because the attic fan was right above the beds. I liked to get into the stuff in Aunt Helen's room. She had the coolest paper dolls cut from magazines.

But there was one summer in particular that brings back the fondest memories. It was to be my turn to spend the summer at the Shrout's alone. I was thirteen. Some how Wendy again managed to weasel her way into my summer. I really didn't care she was so much older than me (3 years) that we really had nothing in common. At least that was what I thought. We played a game all summer where we would call each other names. They were not bad names just names We spent hours reading the Thesaurus looking for synonyms & antonyms to call each other. Kathy would bring out all kinds of interesting books to find words in for us.

Kathy arranged for us to go horse back riding at a stables on range line road. I think she traded photos for our experience. We got to help in the stable and ride every morning on some brood mares. The stable was known for the Tennessee Walker "Black's Jack Rebel" a world Champion. I got to watch him one day for a filming for the local TV station and be in the background for the news. One of the days we were going to the stables Wendy was learning how to drive. We were in the VW bug and one of the neighbor boys was not paying attention and ran into the back of us. Those boy's took us water skiing the rest of the summer.

On night Wendy and Debbie invited me to stay the night at Debbie's house and eat spaghetti for dinner so I did. I remember that spaghetti because of the shrimp that was in the sauce. It was good but different. We stayed up very late and laughed at stupid stuff.

Many evenings we would go over to watch Masterpeice Theater with Beverly. Kathy would come along and get us later. Larry and Beverly had lots of little puzzles and we would have contest on who could put them together the fastest. Wendy or Beverly would win. I loved the competition but would never win. One night we were at Beverly and Larry's watch twilight zone or some scary show like that and the zombies would scratch on the windows before they would attack. So that night Kathy decided to scratch on the window to announce she was there and we all screamed.

We took the jeep out to Dolphin Island many times, but once we took it all the way to the end. We drove half the day out and walked along side most of the way. We would stop and play in the water and Granddad would take pictures. He always had his camera around his neck. I found lots of shells and still have some of them today.

That was just a great summer and I discovered that Wendy and I had things in common.

Spring?

This weekend was great. What great weather! In the 70s. I set out this weekend to accomplish as much as possible.

Saturday we woke up early and went garage saleing. There were none in our area. We decided to drive to south Huntsville and check out that area. Darrin and I had great conversation. We went to many sales in the area. I purchased another mixer for $1. I guess I am collecting them for above my cabinets in the kitchen. I also bought another book (25 cents) for the lake house. I only have books that are about the water/boats or have that in the title or have a picture on the cover that is "lake house." I bought a duck statue for the back yard(25 cents) and Darrin bought a trolley for the Christmas village for $5.

After garage saleing I baked all the cakes for Terry & Kim's wedding cake for next weekend. I made the bottom layer white 12 inch then chocolate 10 inch and the top is 6 inch white. I also baked the grooms cake in lemon because there was already plenty of chocolate. While I was baking I cleaned out the flower beds in the back and transplanted three trees. I also set-up and cleaned David's tent the I used for the Freze Out.. When Darrin got back home we went to the home show. That was fun and I enjoyed looking at all the new ideas. I am really excited about spray foam for the attic that makes the attic the same temp as the house. They say that saves money. I also like the lift that would make Christmas so much easier.
Sunday morning I woke up early and dyed my hair. I also baked the last of the cakes for the wedding I thought. It didn't rise like I wanted so I had to bake another cake later in the day. When Darrin got up we went to the lake house and Darrin put down weed control on the lawn and I went through some of the stuff at the lake house and brought back home 8 boxes of stuff. When we got home I baked that last cake and put all the stuff away from the boxes. I like the kitchen now. I love my stuff. I also put up the stuff up in the bathroom.

I spent the evening making the fisherman for the grooms cake. This has been a great weekend and I am ready to go back to work.

Kati Ann's Visit

I looked forward to Kati Ann's visit for weeks. I was going to get to have her from 4 p.m. Friday until sometime on Saturday. She has been in my office many times to stay while her Mom, Bobi Ann (Our 5th & 6th grade director) or her Father, Jared (Our 7th & 8th grade minister) so many things at the church. Kati Ann will be 2 the first of May. I enjoy her great big smile. She has always been such a happy baby. I have taken Kati Ann to school a few times. She is special to me.

I thought that all that was going to fall apart. With Dad having kidney cancer and just getting the news that the cancer is back I thought I was going to have to drop everything to go be with him. Dad called on Thursday and said that the VA wanted him to come in the next morning. We didn't know why. I tried to get everything together so I could go to the VA with him on Friday morning. Nothing was working out except my job. Working at the church has its benefits. Any way they just wanted to check him cause his voice is hoarse and he will be going to Florida for school.

I got to bring Kati Ann home and we played with the little people toys and went outside to play. We learned penny and quarter. That was fun to watch her put things together. We worked on potty training. Just like all little girls that come to visit they all like Bobby Sue doll that she made and they all want to play with it. We spent Saturday baking cakes and playing with the toys. We went for a ride to the store and Kati Ann took a nap. She is so fun and I love to hear her laugh! I look forward to the next time we can play.

Sunday morning Darrin and I went for a ride down to the lake house just to check things out and grab a few items. Then we came home and I have made chocolate covered cake balls and started on Terry's flowers for his wedding cake.

The weekend

After having a very successful Thursday and getting all my work done. I decided to take Friday off work and make Bailey's 10th birthday cake. Mad Hatter is the theme and the child is ten. This was my first attempt at a tipsy turvy cake and it turned out ok but needs improvement!!! Bobby Sue and her friend KK got to the house around 7 p.m. and we got to spend a little time together.

On Saturday morning Darrin and I drove to Talking Rock, GA to see Maria and Dad for Valentines day. We went for dinner and got to talk with Dad and Maria. Dad is on a new drug for the cancer. It causes hoarseness and he has lost his voice mostly. It is encouraging that some of the outward signs of the cancer are going away. Tells me that the new drug is doing what it is designed to do. We stayed the night and got up in the morning and Maria made us breakfast including bacon (she is vegetarian). So that was cool even though she didn't understand it needed to be hot or at least warm.

We drove back on Sunday morning and I went to set up my tent for the Freze-out. Darrin then took me to dinner and we watched the Dayton 500. We ate at Indago Joes. After that I went to church and hung with the kids and got to spend time with Kati Ann. Then we all left the church and went to the camp site and built a big fire and just hung out. the students all played capture the flag. While they were playing we put the Christmas tree on the fire and it was so cool how it just blew up. It was a hot fire!!!

The students all went to bed at midnight Diana, Lindsy, Kenny and I just hung by the fire for a while to get it to die down and then we went to our tents. I dozed here and there but it was to cold to sleep. 28 degrees overnight. At 6 a.m. I got up and went inside for a minute and we (two girls) then went back out and built a fire.