What is your gift?

Your Gift is Imagination

You are constantly dreaming. You are always thinking about what could be. You love to express yourself in many ways. You have a way with words and tell vivid stories. You love to be amused. You are good entertaining yourself, and other people find you hilarious. You're the type of person who finds staying happy easy. There's always fun to be had!

What's Your Gift?

Rich's Wedding/My Vacation

Last week was so much fun!! We went to Gatlinburg, TN for my brother's wedding and we stayed for the weekend and had a great time! We (Me, Kevin, my mom and dad, my brother Dave and his son Jake) drove to Gatlinburg Wednesday. When we got there, we met with Rich's fiance's family for a BBQ (kinda like a rehearsal dinner). We decided to take pictures of all the women there on both sides. (Pictured are Me, Jackie (Amanda's sister), Liv (her neice), Amanda (the Bride!), Marcie (her mom), Von (her grandma) and Alice (my mom).)


The next day was the wedding! It was so beautiful! We were worried that it was going to rain, but it rained early in the morning and cleared up around 10 am. The wedding was at noon and it was sunny and beautiful! There was a small reception afterward and once we got back to the cabin it started pouring again around 3. God was definitely watching over this wedding :) They did not allow us to take pics of the wedding, but we took a few before the wedding at the cabin. Here is a pic of Rich (the Groom!), my dad, and my nephew Jake.




That evening, we decided to go to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg. It was fantastic!!! I just love marine life (I always wanted to be a marine biologist), so I took about 200 pictures (really!), but here are just a couple of the awesome life in the sea. I think jellyfish are absolutely gorgeous.. I know they are poisonous, but so beautiful!!!




And my favorite marine life besides the dolphin is the stingray. They are so graceful and majestic! I even got to pet one :)


The next day, we went to Dixie Stampede. It was a pretty cool show with lots of horses and stuff. Great tricks and lots of glitz and showmanship. The dinner was fantastic, too! Here is a pic of me and Kevin before the show.



Then we went to play mini golf. But not just mini golf, Hillbilly Golf, and it was up the mountain! We rode a car up the mountain and we started at the top on Hole 1 and worked our way down a mountain to Hole 18. It was loads of fun, and (if you can believe this) Jake (the 4 yr old) was the ONLY person to get a hole in one, and it was unassisted!! He is really good at sports, but WOW! This is a pic of all of us (minus me of course) after we played.



On Saturday. we went to Dollywood. It's kinda like 6 Flags. We had a good time there, too. We rode the train, the old cars, saw a show and rode a few rides. Here is a pic of me and Kevin at Dollywood.



Dolly was even there that day, and she drove through the park in a car. This is the only pic I got of her, and it is blurry but it was cool!



There was a place at Dollywood called the Sweet Shoppe, and they made fudge, ice cream and taffy. This is the taffy machine, pulling it before it gets shaped into the candy.


And this is Richard, the taffy guy. He was really funny and we really enjoyed watching him make taffy. He was making licorice when we were there.



And this is Charlie, the machine that finishes and wraps the taffy. It is all fed into the machine by hand, and the wrapped candies fall into the bucket and they package it to sell. How cool!



We left Sunday morning and drove back. We had such a wonderful trip.. one I would take again...

Got me a pedi :)

So I went today to get a pedicure so my feet look human for my brother's wedding on Thursday. And for the first time, I got a special design put on my toes. It is so cute I had to take a picture :)

Progress!!

Boy, I love progress! Especially when you can SEE it. And when it is improving something you think to be a problem or an eyesore.

I am so thankful that I have great friends! My friends that are helping us clean up our yard were here yesterday, and they removed the stumps (bases) of the bushes, as well as the trunk of the tree. They were also going to remove the tree in our front yard, because it was taking over! Well, after they started removing branches from the bottom, they asked if we wanted to keep the tree because now it was actually quite pretty and you could see the house, yet still get shade. Well, I think we will keep it! Here are some pics of what it looks like today.


This is the front of the house. They are coming back today to remove all the branches. No more bushes, yay!


This is the tree. I really think after it has been trimmed, that we are going to keep it. It looks nice now...

New Hair!!!

I got new hair! I am so excited :) My brother is getting married next week and I wanted to look cute for the wedding pictures. So I went to my mom's hair stylist (who rocks!) and she made me new! It's shorter and I got highlights - way cute!!




I know, I am not smiling, but it is really hard to take a picture of yourself in a mirror... :)

Ugh!!

Yea, that was me Thursday and yesterday. Apparently, I got the flu. It all started Wednesday night. Kevin and I have been trying to eat really healthy so we can lose weight. But we decided we needed a treat so we went out for Mexican food. Well everything was fine until Thursday morning. As soon as I woke up, my stomach didn't feel right. And I spent the day feeling really bad and the restroom was my friend. I initally thought it was the fact that I ate mexican food after eating healthy for so long. I started feeling better by the evening, so I went to my friend's party and came home and tried to eat something. Yea, bad idea. All I can say is that by the time I went to bed that night, I was not feeling good again. I spent all night tossing and turning, or in the restroom. By morning it was even worse and I ended up praising the porcelain gods. Needless to say, it was not the food but a flu bug. The rest of the day was spent lying on the couch resting. But Saturday was a new day...

June is Zoo Month!!

Yes, June is Zoo Month :) Do you like going to the zoo? I love going, but my kids are grown so we don't go much. But I would have to say my favorite animal would be tigers - specifically white tigers. I am a cat lover, and it bleeds over to big cats, too! And I found a cute little picture of some white tiger cubs!! Aawwww....

I have a house after all!!

That's right, the landscaping in front of my house has taken over - until now :o) A friend of ours is helping us get rid of all the bushes in front of our house that have gotten way too big. Here is a before picture:


As you can see, they have gotten away from us (and quite frankly, I never liked them, especially the two red ones in the middle. The leaves are only about a foot in, and the rest is sticks, so it's impossible to trim back. And it was taking over my rhododendron bush on the right, which I love! They are so pretty! So our friend came over and got rid of all those crazy bushes so we can plant something that we WANT and will let us see our house. After everything but the bases are removed, here is the result.

SO much better!! You can see the brick, even. I am so excited!! Tonight, he will be back to remove the bases of the bushes, and to get rid of the tree in the front yard (you can see some of the branches in the foreground of this photo). I will show before and after's of that tomorrow...

Weekend Recap

Oh yes, that's right. Star Trek, baby! We went to see it Saturday, and it was everything I had heard about the movie - awesome!! Zachary Quinto is really the only person that could ever play Spock. He was fantastic!! And Chris Pine was a great Kirk, too. And the movie itself was very well written. I was happy!

And Sunday, we went to see Mom and Dad like usual. My dad made some amazing ribs!! He marinated them in margarita mix - best ribs I have ever tasted.... ever....