Drew's Shop

After what seems like an eternity of building this shop we are finally nearing completions. I am soooo excited about the completion for several different reasons but my main excitement is to finally get the garage cleaned out! We have been maneuvering around a giant lawnmower parked between our cars since last summer.

Here is the exterior. The roll-up doors should be installed later this week. (Emphasis on should).

Here are the interior walls; smooth plywood. 

Random Acts of Kindness

I was inspired earlier this year by a blog post I saw on Pinterest that featured a lady taking her 2 children around their community and performing random acts of kindness. Some of the acts were big and costly while some of the acts were small and simple but all were beautiful lessons and experiences that she shared with her children. When I initially started my own random acts of kindness (in November) I had hoped to complete 15 noteworthy acts,  as of today I am only up to 10. 

Here they are in no particular order: 

1.) Donate supplies to our troops. There is a website called www.anymarine.com that enables the commanding officers of deployed US Marines to reach out to anyone who wants to participate and help supply our Marines with things that they cannot get on deployments. I picked a small group of Marines that are currently located in a very remote area of Northern Afghanistan. These Marines were in such a remote location that it was hard for them to get their hands on hygiene products regularly. The regiment had 10 men and 2 women and I hope that my small care package brought them a little relief. Semper Fi. 

2.) Donate to the Good Will. This was the easiest (and cheapest) of all the acts I performed. I dropped of 7 bags of clothing and linens to the Good Will in Statesboro at the end on November. 

3. Purchase a stranger's lunch. When Lori and I get tired of our usual lunch joints we go to the Huddle House on Tobacco Road for something that is guaranteed to give us an upset stomach. There is an older lady that eats lunch at this particular Huddle House everyday, we see her every time we go and she is usually reading a novel while she eats. I had our waitress add her lunch to my check on this day and we creeped out before she realized that we paid for her lunch...

4. On Thanksgiving I brought the firemen at the Blythe Fire Station a few loaves of cinnamon bread from the bakery in Waynesboro. This bread is basically crack and it was a challenge for me not to eat it on my way there! They were all very excited and appreciative of this small gesture. 

5. I also left a treat for Mr. Bill (our mailman) the day before Thanksgiving.

6. Donate to By His Hands Ministry. The church that Drew and I attend is Waynesboro First United Methodist Church. WFUMC has a food bank program (By His Hands Ministries  that helps people in need in our community. 

7. Donate toys to MCG. MCG takes new toy donations year round to give to the pediatric patients of the hospital. Hopefully these toys will help a sick child feel a little better... 

8. Junkie and Pal. This is going to seem like a bizarre act to some... but...  as a lover of all things furry (except wolves) I wanted to reward 2 sweet dogs that I see everyday on my way to-and-from work. I have named the dogs Junkie and Pal (I'm not sure of their real names). Junkie is a golden retriever that lives at an equipment repair shop in Keysville (he is always sleeping near an old junky truck which is why I named him junky). He was without a companion for several years but within the past 6 months another dog has joined him (Pal). I have stopped in the past to give them some scraps left over from lunch but this time I delivered them both 2 giant bones this time. 

Here is where they live (I forgot to get a picture of the dogs!). Note: the man that owns the shop takes really good care of Junkie and Pal!

9. Mail a gift card to a stranger. A week before Christmas I drove around a neighborhood in Waynesboro and wrote down the address of a family (or at least I assume a family lived there) that I thought could use a little pick-me-up around the holidays. Inside the envelope was a Walmart gift card. It wasn't much, but hopefully they bought something fun with it.. like chocolate!

10. Toys for Tots. For almost a decade now my mother and I have been actively donating to the local Toys for Tots drives in the CSRA. Normally we go to whatever local Walmart that is having a toy drive that day and fill up a  buggy or two with toysto donate to our community. This is one of the best experiences that my mother has ever shared with me. This year my Gma, Bev, got in on the mix as well.

 

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 

It looks a lot like Christmas!

The day after Thanksgiving is the messiest day of the year at my house. Everything that goes on my tree apparently has glitter on it. Needless to say we still have glitter everywhere even after mopping and vacuuming, but it just seems to make everything a little more festive. Drew and I put the tree up on Friday (well he helped me actually set up the tree but I ran him off when it came to time decorate - no objection from him though). Here are a few pictures of the tree and the mantle/fireplace decorations lit up. It is a very fun and festive tree -- Ho Ho Ho!

This sweet angel-baby wanted to get in on the fun as well! 

Weekend Highlights

I love 3 day weekends! I have attempted in the past  to convince C4 that we need to move to a 4 day work week but no one else seems to be on board - go figure! I especially love weekends where Drew and I get to hang around the house and do as we please!

I got a little bit of baking done; highlights: cheesecake, cookies and some breakfast scramblers that Drew and I like to take for breakfast.

I LOVE CHEESECAKE!

Oatmeal cookies - not my prettiest work, but they were pretty darn tasty.

2 yolks from 1 egg -- that has to be good luck!

Drew and I also did some outdoor activities that included carrying heavy items through the woods, getting into briars, putting up a new deer stand and riding around on the Ranger. 

Carrying heavy stuff, view from the new stand, riding ranger (no clue where that Huddle House cup came from, we definitely did not eat there! wink wink).

I also got a jump on Christmas decorating, hopefully this will be enough to hold me over 'til after Thanksgiving.

I love Christmas! 

Outage Week 1

The fall outage officially started back last weekend; poor Drew-baby is having to work 12 hour shifts everyday with the exception of Tuesdays. He leaves the house at 6am and has been getting home a little after 8. What is the worst part about the outage you ask (in my opinion of course)? I have to cook dinner every night and it is HORRIBLE. Since I have a lot of free time on my hands, especially on weekends while Drew is working, one would think that I would be doing something constructive and productive (like writing papers for school) but no, I'm just hanging out and doing semi-fun stuff! Here are some highlights from the past week or so:

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken (a recipe Kristin found on Pinterest). It was amazing but I made such a mess in the process! Here is the recipe for anyone interested: http://madeitateitlovedit.blogspot.com/2012/03/sweet-and-sour-chicken.html
I used Splenda instead of sugar and it still turned out great.

                                          Finished product!                  What a messy process though!

My fun-filled Friday night involved cleaning windows while I waited on Drew to get home. Drew snapped this lovely picture of my weird cleaning habits and my monochromatic outfit when he got home. We tried to watch a movie this night, but we both ended up falling asleep!

Drew sent flowers to work on on Tuesday for no special reason (or he may have been guilted into it; I got flowers and that is all matters!) ;) Tuesday night me and mama met Kim and Parker at the Mexican restaurant in Louisville but I forgot to take a picture. :(

Pretty!

I washed Drew's NASTY truck on Sunday. It took me almost 2 hours just to clean the outside! I did not even attempt to start on the inside. I'm convinced that was the first time it was washed since he bought it 2 years ago! Shameful!

I also baked Drew-baby cookies on Sunday. 

I have finished stocking up on deco-mesh for Christmas... Yes, I over did it.. go figure..

Last night I met Kristin and West for dinner at Burke Perk and got Drew something to-go so I did not have to cook anything! Win!

Photography Update

This month I was lucky enough to get some additional practice to feed my budding photography interest by taking pictures of our friends (Ryan & Emily and Ryan & Amy's) children along with my nephew West for his first birthday (and some family shots too!). Here are a few of my favorites from both occasions: 

July 4th - On the 3rd

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Independence Day with some of our closest friends this year. We had everyone over Tuesday evening, since almost everyone had Wednesday off to recover! It rained on us for a little bit but turned out to be a mild evening after that. Here are some of the treats from the party (mostly inspired by pinterest)!

Peach Sangria - SO TASTY!

Special thanks to Kim and Ansley for your help!

Catch-up

Looks, like I have dropped the ball again in regards to keeping this blog up-to-date. So here are a few things I have been meaning to post about...




I baked daddy a lemon cake for father's day... I forgot to take a picture of the complete cake but it was gigantic and barely fit in the cake carrier!

Did you know that you can buy pre made frosting and beat it fluffy in a stand mixer? It makes it look so much fluffier! - Thanks again Pinterest!

After:

Drew and I received an espresso machine for a wedding gift but we have never had an opportunity to try it out until 2 weekends ago. I made a few espresso shots and a couple cappuccinos with it and I must say, it was fantastic!! Plus, several espresso shots later I had all of our closets cleaned out and reorganized. It is quiet labor intensive to make a cappuccino with this machine and it has to be cleaned after every use - so we will just store it away and only use it for special occasions (or slow weekends!). Here was my first attempt at a cappuccino:

I ordered Reagan a new bagel bed a couple weeks ago and she is NOT happy about this new bed, although it is almost identical to the old bed. She is so unhappy about it she would rather pout in the living room than sleep in the same room with us!

Enjoying old bed:

 Sulking in living room:

Annabelle thouroughly enjoying Reagans new bed.