It's official...

We are the proud new owners of this home!! If I'm scarce, you know why.

Squirrel lovin' and tagged again

For those of you who didn't/couldn't/wouldn't believe I have a squirrel tattoo and those of you who didn't doubt it, here it is. This is a photo of a photo and not very good. The original photo itself is a little fuzzy as it is. This picture was taken at one of my best friend's weddings. I would say this was my "heyday", when I was my cutest!!

Amy, from A little piece of Heaven tagged me.

1. Most of my good friends are named Amy. When I am talking about one of them(good things, of course) I always have to say, High School Amy, Church Amy, Southern Living Amy, etc.
2. A lot of my ex-boyfriends have been named Chris. Consequently when one would call, as I was still friends with them, my mom would have to ask Chris who? Um yeah, what a way to make me seem like a floosey.
3. I am called by my middle name. When I go to the doctor's office, they call me by my first name, which totally doesn't fit me, and incidentally happens to be my sisters-in-law's names also.
4. I am 30 this year.
5. I love fun socks and have quite the collection. My kindergarten friend, Shannon, and I used to give them to each other for our birthdays and Christmas.
6. I love coffee, but not when I make it.
7. I love Christmas and as soon as Halloween is over, I will be busting out the Christmas music!!

Okay, I tag...
Jenny, from Lipstick and Laundry
Kindra, from 3 Guys, a Girl, and a Prim Place
Mary, from Gettysburg Homestead
Leslie, from My Country Home
Robin, from The Robin's Nest
Lori, from Morning Glories and Moonflowers
Katy, from The Country Blossom

Just a little side note...I know I haven't been making my rounds like I want to or used to and I apologize for that. Things have been a little busy here and I definitely need to make my family more of a priority.
Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!!

Oh my, Thanksgiving goodness!!

Hmmm...these pictures loaded up backwards...maybe blogger is tired. Maybe I did it wrong. Whatever.
This is the wonderful package I received from Jenny, at Lipstick and Laundry. I love everything she made. Above you can see the fall banner she made. It is in its temporary home for now. Temporary, as in it will be getting a new home to grace come Saturday!! As in, we are closing on the home on Thursday at 11 o'clock!! Yay!!
Okay, back to the swap...Emilie decided to host a Thanksgiving Mini Swap since she has a derth of Thanksgiving decor. Jenny and I decided to throw mini out the window. And, seriously, I don't do mini well anyway.

I think this has got to be my favorite thing. Look at the squirrel love...So cute!! I believe Jenny painted this. The girl is talented-look at her blog!!

An acorn she handmade. Love it!! Y'all like my new quilt?? I got that thing for a steal at Marshall's for $33 and it came with shams!! I'm gettin' off track...

Here are all the goodies, minus the banner. Love the paper napkins. Slightly addicted to them, I am. She made the little turkey guy. He will go in my dough bowl with my pumpkins. A pottery pumpkin that says Thanks Giving, pumpkin s/p shakers, a raffia pumpkin, a mini pillow, and that gorgeous straw squirrel picture holder. I think Jenny did a great job!! Agree??


Here it was all packaged up so cute when I opened it. Told you my photos were flopped...
Thank you Jenny!!

Help a girl out.

Hey Y'all,
I meant to post this a week or so ago and forgot. Sorry sister-in-law...Anyway, my niece is going on a trip with her youth group and is trying to raise money for it. I told my SIL that I would post this and if any of you would like to help that would be great. They are selling calendars. If you would like to purchase one, you can email me at athomeelise (at) yahoo (dot) com. Otherwise, if you would just like to donate to my niece's trip that would be great, too!! If you cannot or don't want to do either that is fine, too.
Here is the info...
The products we are selling are the NIV wall calendar $10, Edition "F" greeting card set $6, and the pocket calendar $6.

http://www.ygp.com/

We need 22 more wall calendars, 21 more greeting card sets, and 18 more pocket calendars. We need to get as close to those numbers as possible w/o going over:)

Thanks for your help,

Enter SIL's and niece's name here...
Thank y'all so much in advance!!

A Fab Goodwill Find

I just love Goodwill, don't you?? I joke around that its my home away from home!! I especially love it when someone takes a perfectly good, vintage chest of drawers to Goodwill for me to find. One little secret(not a secret really) is if you see a piece of furniture there is to take the tag off of it and carry it with you. She who has the tag gets the goods. Learned that lesson the hard way when I missed out on a child's rocking chair. I had it in my cart, asked one of the workers the price, and another worker took it from her saying that someone else had the tag for it. Boo hoo...
But, seriously, look at this beauty. Even Heaven above was shining down on it!! $49. I love this piece. Several people were checking her out, but I had the tag!! Learned my lesson. It has a bow front-not sure if you can tell or not. I was wanting a chest for the foyer in the house we don't have yet. Can you just imagine the decorating possibilities?? Ok, I need help in deciding what color to paint her. My original thought was either antique white or black. I don't think I really want to paint her black. Another thought was sage green or blue. Have y'all seen the November issue of Country Home?? It has some great blue painted furniture and kitchen cabinets. Making me want something blue. Bring on the advice!!

Fun Mail!!

Ok, so I have been telling y'all about all the fun stuff the mail lady has been dropping off lately. I am finally ready to show you!! The above photo is some super fun stuff that I won from Joyfullness. I so love her blog. She is so hopeful, Joyful(duh!), and a great girl!! She has some super cute craftyness in her etsy shop as well. You can click here to see better photos of what she gave away. I only took one picture. I had little helpers if you know what I mean.

This I won from Carol at Pure Sugar. A knitting book-some neat projects in there!! Look at that yarn. If I was one for describing non-food items with an adjective that would pertain to food the word would be yummy!! So lovin' the green!!

Onto my swap items from Michelle. Here it is all neatly packaged. Before my "Little Helpers" ransacked it.

This picture is really more of an after. A much later after. A few weeks after. Love the little witchie. I all but begged for one of those. She is so cute!! I always name Lilly's dolls. I like to give them names that fit them. Of course, I do occasionally let the little dear name her own dolls. Anyhow, what shall we call the witchie?? Gelda?? I am open to opinions...
Oh, I also received some super cozy socks, a pot holder, pumpkin-y candle-yum..., a muffin and cupcake cookbook-we have already tried out a recipe, the House of Horrors is a cd for the computer that is a printable activity book. Oh, Michelle also sent window clings which Jackson promptly took and put on his windows.

Something that didn't make it to the "after" photo...Surely you can tell why-candy doesn't last long with "helpers"!!

A very fuzzy close-up of the pin. My fingers aren't quite that obese in person!!

Anyway, quiet a few weeks worth of fun mail!! I have signed myself up for so many swaps the fun mail won't end for a while!! Neither will the bank account recover.
See you soon!!

Some Housekeeping

Hey y'all!! Happy Tuesday to you!! I am officially a slacker as you can all have guessed by now. I did take my photos of my winnings and Fall Swap package from Michelle. I will share those. Promise.
Mama Llama asked about the swag in the background on my mantle. Emilie, my Halloween swap partner, made that for me. Her friend, Jenny, made one and has a tutorial on her blog, Lipstick and Laundry. The Nester also made one.
Nichole brought up a good point about McCain having met his current wife when he was still married to the previous one. Yes, I did know that and think it is wrong, certainly. I have to agree with another Michelle on this point. We are voting for the lesser of the two evils here. In my personal opinion. Though I did say that I really wanted Huckabee for president. I do have another interesting link for y'all to check out. You may have seen it by now. It does pose a good argument. Ok, done with politics now.
In house news, the funds have been allocated. I think we got the funding number yesterday-I can't always understand what the lender is talking about. Our lender called and said there was a test we had to take. A test?!?! Can we possibly fail it?? Not sure what's up with that. If all goes well, we should close the 30th of October.
That's all for now. I will(I think) come back and post about all the fun mail I have been getting lately!! Promise. I hope...

God Bless Our Country

I know that election day is getting closer and closer. Some days I am relieved, others I am terrified. I know that we don't all have the same views and values. I don't always choose my friends based on that either. However, I know lots of people have(in my opinion) been deceived by certain politicians. I generally like to keep things light and fluffy around here, but in real life I tend to speak my mind a little more. So here goes. The Bible says you will know them(Christians) by their fruit. I also know that he without sin can cast the first stone. I am not judging here, only showing the facts. I would love for you to read this link. I think it is very telling. I don't vote on economics, though I think they are important, I vote on values, who has basic morals in place. That is why I will not be voting for Barack Obama. I don't care that he went to church, that doesn't make him a Godly man with Godly views. I don't care that he believes in God or Jesus, Satan does too. Now, I am NOT saying that Obama is Satan's cousin or anything like that, but I cannot see how someone who professes to be a Christian can support abortion and other things that I will not get on my soapbox tonight about. I am NOT saying that Obama is not a Christian, I do not personally know him, only he and God know that. All I know is that I am praying hard for our country. I do not think he is the right man for the job. I personally wanted Huckabee, but that is obviously not going to happen.
I am not looking for a fight or debate. You can kindly leave your thoughts and opinions.

Fall Swap

Its Fall y'all!! I thought since I was somewhat late on taking and posting photos of what I received from the Fall Swap and giveaway that I would just show you what I sent to Michelle. Lori hosted the Fall Swap and I do think she got me addicted to swaps :) They are so much fun!!

I made this bag for Michelle to hold all her goodies. Her blog name is Gingham World and I thought it would be fitting to use gingham on the bag. I was trying to make a bag with bamboo handles and I could not figure it out. Of course, I was doing this the day before it was supposed to be mailed off and I was not sure what to do. I prayed and this came to me. I already had the fabric cut so I worked with the size and then made up the rest as I went along. I love this bag so much I plan on making more-probably just a little smaller. I will also line it with interfacing and put a covered piece of cardboard in the bottom to give it more shape and stability.

Here it is inside out. Its great because it can be reversible for a different look.

A full shot of the entire bag. Notice the pleat in the center and the handles are pleated where they meet the top of the bag.

All the loot. I made a wooden sign that says "BOO", a pumpkin-you can get the tutorial here. Some of the best hot chocolate ever, a fun Fall mug, a pumpkin cookie cutter, and a mulled cider candle. The candle came from Wal-Mart, but is highly fragranced.

Here is a close-up of the sign.

The pumpkin...

The princess-wait!! How did she get in there??

All packaged up and ready to go!! Hope Michelle enjoys all her Fall goodies!!

Baked apples and our newest addition

Gotcha on that one, didn't I?!?! Jackson was about to bust a gut for me to put his little goblin on my "email" so all my friends could see it. So funny!!
We had baked apples for dessert last night and my husband said, "I love fall." Me too...

You will want to assemble all your ingredients-apples, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon. This year I decided to put a little of my Pampered Chef Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle and Sweet Caramel Sprinkle. I also use The Corer-it cores the apples perfectly. Once you core the apples, cut little slices of butter and put down into the apples. I then spooned brown sugar on top of the butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and the other toppings. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the apples are tender.

Enjoy with ice cream!! Delicious!!

Fall Fun

Wow, I have so much to share!! No news about the house yet. We should know something by the end of the week, hopefully. If I had posted yesterday it likely would have been titled, "I'm not bi-polar, I'm just tired." I cannot burn the midnight oil anymore. It makes for an evil version of myself.
We took a fieldtrip with our homeschool group to the apple orchard. Then this past weekend the family and I went to another apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Sunday, my best friend from high school and I made applesauce. This year's batch didn't turn out as good as last year's. I think it will be edible though.
Between all the apple fun-ness, I received my Fall Swap package from Michelle and a giveaway I won from Carol. Gotta love fun mail!! I will post pictures of all that tomorrow when the sun is shining. Hopefully it will shine.
Anyhow, today we have photos from the first trip to the apple orchard. Above is Buttercup, the cow. Isn't she cute??

Jackson milking Buttercup. He and I got our hair cut right before the trip. Jackson's hair was way past cute little skater boy and mine had several inches of split ends. I know y'all were so interested in that little tidbit!!

Lilly's sticker..."I milked Buttercup". We even coordinated the shirt to fit the occasion. Too bad nothing else matched...

Jackson watching the pigs race. So jealous of his eyelashes. I wish I was half as gorgeous as he is.

Look at the piggies go!! Run Hamgelina!! Go Arnold Swhartzenhogger!! Go get 'em Tammy Swinenet!! The piggies had the cutest names!!

The kids got to feed baby goats, have a hayride, and play. We had a picnic lunch after all the fun.
See what I mean about the matching being optional?!?!

This goat was amazing!! She would pull the rope and up came her food.

Ah yeah, that's the stuff!!

The best Fall breakfast ever!! According to Jackson...
The little store at the orchard sold all kinds of apples-my favorite being Honey Crisp. We got the cider donuts from there also. Enjoyed with apple cider and hot chocolate-yum!!
Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip!! How have y'all enjoyed this Fall??

I'd like to thank the academy...

Or should I say Lori?!?!
I received this award from the awesome Lori!! She and I have become friends and if you go read her blog you can totally see why. She's fantabulous!!

I am supposed to give one word answers with no explanation and then tag five bloggers with the award. Here we go!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? couch

3. Your hair color? reddish

4. Your mother? awesome

5. Your father? hmmm

6. Your favorite thing? magazines

7. Your dream last night? ??

8. Your dream/goal? healthy

9. The room you're in? playroom

10. Your hobby? crafting

11. Your fear? bugs

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home

13. Where were you last night? bed

14. What you're not? organized

15. One of your wish-list items? Cricut

16. Where you grew up? South

17. The last thing you did? eat

18. What are you wearing? clothes

19. Your TV? off

20.Your pet? none

21. Your Computer? oldish

22. Your mood? Good

23. Missing Someone? yes

24. Your car? Van

25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes

26. Favorite Store? craft

27. You're summer? hot

28. Love someone? Yes!

29. Your favorite color? chocolate

30. When is the last time you laughed? Today

31. Last time you cried? September

I normally don't send these awards along, but since I love to read these tags, I choose Emilie, Robin, Cherry, Katie, and Angela. Can't wait to see y'all's answers!!

I also received this same award from Mary, so long ago that I am embarrassed to even post about it now.

Thank you so much, Lori and Mary!! I so appreciate the love!!

A Ray of HOPE

Our agent got together with the lender on Monday to see if there was any other programs or plans out there for us. There is a rural development something or another program out there. The agent sent my husband another contract to sign and they are sending it to the seller as well. If all goes well we should close the end of the month. Our agents told us to be cautiously optimistic. This actually works out to be a better deal for us, than the previous one. We will be praying a lot!!