My New Loves

Ever since Little Britches (aka Tinsley)  was born, I have dreamed of having an embroidery machine. I would see monogrammed onesies and cute appliqued outfits and fall in love. I so badly wanted one of those machines, but knew I would have to save up for it. I didn't want just any machine, I wanted one that would last me years and would serve its purpose well.

Well....exactly a month ago my life changed forever!!! We were in Kansas City for the wedding of one of my besties, Natalie. It was Sunday after the wedding and we were at Natalie's parent's house eating lunch.  It was getting time for us to leave as we had to drive half way home that afternoon. (It's a 12 hour drive total) We were sitting around talking and dreading the goodbyes when Natalie's mom, Julie told me she needed to show me something upstairs. Julie has what every girl dreams of, a bedroom turned craft/sewing room. It is glorious!!! She quilts the most beautiful quilts you have ever seen and sent me the cutest monogrammed burp cloths when Tinlsey was born. I say that because I just assumed she was going to show me a project she was working on until she asked me if I had a certain amount of room in our car and told me she knew I had wanted an embroidery machine. I think at this point my mind was racing and I was speechless. She had inherited a Baby Lock machine from her aunt that was just sitting in her closet and she wanted to GIVE it to me. I was in SHOCK to say the least. It was at that moment the 12 hour drive instead of flying made it so worth it. I will never be able to thank her enough for her generous gift. So, the past month I have been getting the machine serviced, reading up on the machine, collecting free downloads from the internet for applique and trying to figure out software issues. Hopefully, this time next week I will be able to applique something. I did manage to practice a monogram last weekend. Maybe it will turn into a little side business one day. Ha! There is so much that goes into it and it makes me appreciate those hefty price tags on some of children's clothing now. You have to have this and you have to have that. Needles, yarn, fabric, backing, stabilizer, spray, etc. etc. etc.

Not only am I learning to embroider, I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. We have a knitting ministry at my church and the sweet ladies there have gotten me started with the basics. I completed my first project last night. I made Little Britches a hat for the winter. It took me about 5 sittings to finish the knitting part of it. Now I want to add a little ruffle at the bottom of it. At least it is Little Britches approved!  Sorry for the poor photo quality!

It is probably against most "crafting rules" to try to learn two new things at once, but hey, I'll roll with it!

I found the perfect blog for knitting, so if you ever want to learn and don't have anyone to show you, I highly recommend Lisa over at http://purllin.blogspot.com/ She has some awesome tutorials! So check her out!

What are some of your favorite crafts or projects???? Leave me some love below! Until next time....

And Then There Were 3

Since I managed to avoid my blog entirely throughout my entire pregnancy and the first 19 months of my precious child's life, I decided I would write a post on our "birth story".  I am one of those girls who has always felt a calling to be a mama. It just came natural to me. I grew up always loving babies and when I was just 11 years old I began to babysit my neighbors little children. I continued to babysit throughout my pregnancy every once in a while. Having Tinlsey put an end to that. It was somewhat bitter sweet.

I found out I was pregnant soon after my post in July 2012. We were over the moon! I was so sure from the beginning that I was having a girl. (I was ecstatic my 1st motherly intuition was correct! ha) I had a very easy pregnancy. I never had morning sickness. Sorry for those reading this that were plagued with that :( The only bump in the road I had was gestational diabetes. For those that have not ever been pregnant, that is diabetes that you have only when you are pregnant. It can sometimes lead to diabetes down the road, but not always. I was able to control the gestational diabetes through diet alone, which at the time seemed awful since I was not able to satisfy my sudden sweet tooth I had acquired. I had always been a salt girl. I could eat popcorn EVERYDAY. When I became pregnant my hormones decided that I was going to take on a sweet tooth and that sweet tooth still has not disappeared. I can count on one hand how many times I have had popcorn since August 2012. It would take several hands to count the amount of sweets I have consume. ha! I'm a very petite person, (5'0" tall) so from the beginning my doctor told me she was not sure I would be able to deliver the baby and I might have to have a c-section. I was devastated because, believe it or not, I had wanted to experience labor and delivering the baby without having to have a c-section. When the time came to start checking me, the baby had not dropped and never dropped. My doctor gave me strict instructions that if I went into labor to get to the hospital immediately because they would have to do a c-section. She was not going to let me labor for fear of the baby getting stuck in the birth canal. Fortunately for me, I guess, I never went into labor and had a c-section on Good Friday, March 29, 2013. (My due date was April 1, 2013.) She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 20 inches long. She was sent straight from heaven. It was an instant bond and love that I never knew possible. She was an angel! She was the perfect baby. We never experienced colic or any of the other hard baby things. Yes, it was an adjustment and exhausting in the beginning. but it was well worth it!

This was soon after she was cleaned up. 

The one and only time she would take a paci.

After having the c-section, I changed my mind on having to labor. Ha! It was nice to go in there and have a baby in 2 minutes! Unfortunately, the day I went in to have Tinsley, I had developed pre-eclampsia. Which is just pretty much high blood pressure. After having Tinsley, I had to have a magnesium drip for 24 hours (it was the devil) and take blood pressure medicine for 6 weeks. Ugh! It was a pain, but my body finally regulated it back to normal.

Newborn portrait

The first year was so fun and hard at the same time. You learn to roll with it. I went back to work when she was 12 weeks old and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I cried for days. Finally, I got used to the "new normal". She stays with wonderful nanny who is a good family friend. It makes it easier knowing that my child is loved and being cared for by someone I have known for 25 years. I still miss her during the day, but that makes the nights and weekends that much more special. 

Tinsley has brought so much joy in our lives and it is hard to imagine life without her. She makes us laugh every day. God has truly blessed us! 

4 months

Ladybug - 1st Halloween 

7 Months Roll Tide Roll!!! 

1st Christmas

9 month Portraits

1st Birthday!!! 

12 month Portrait

I PROMISE I"M STILL ALIVE

Ummm.....I have a blog?!?!?!?!  I can't believe it has been over 2 years since I have posted on my blog! Well.....life happened and I had a baby on March 29, 2013. Her name is Tinsley Elizabeth and she is 19 months old today. She is the joy of our lives. Here is a picture of her when she was 6 days old!

I can't believe that she is already 19 months old. It seems like just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant. Which I found out soon after my last blog post. Ha! It has been an awesome 19 months. She was and is the best baby. She started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old and has been a good sleeper ever since with the exception of a few nights here and there.  She has managed to be a happy, healthy baby with only a cold here and there. I credit this to her being a breast fed baby!!!! It was hard work at times, but we made it 15 months!!!! Whew! 

It has been so much fun to see her grow and become an active little toddler. She is a little chatter box these days. Her most common words are Mama, Dada, Bella (our dog), dog, thank you, car, and......ROLL TIDE. Here's a little video just to prove it and her love for Alabama football. Her mommy and daddy are so proud! (Excuse the outfit...she was in her jammies and LOVES her shoes, especially her boots).

This fall we have been enjoying the weather and fun family activities. We recently went to Boo at the Zoo and the Pumpkin Patch with some of her buddies. She had a ball. Here are just a few of the cutest pictures you have ever seen! 

First time to ride the Carousel 

Playing in the Corn Maze

With her buddies Garrison and Will

Hay Ride

Posing for Mommy in her Halloween outfit

I think she found the PERFECT pumpkin. Just her size! 

I know the holidays are going to be so much fun now that Tinsley is older and is more interactive than she was this time last year. It's amazing how quickly they grow at this stage in life. 

God has truly blessed us with Tinsley and we couldn't ask for a better little one! 

Faith

In life there are struggles and hard times. We are not promised a life of pure, constant happiness . There will be good times and bad times, happy times and sad times. I have had several seasons in my life that have not been so happy due to tragic events  that were out of my control. Although I have had to face many life atlering moments, I have chosen to make the most out of everything and eventually turn turmoil into happiness. At the age of 9 my dad passed away unexpectedly. Five years ago my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was just recently diagnosed with a recurrence that has spread to her liver, hip and abdomen. These are just three of the seasons, one of which I am currently going through, that I have not enjoyed by any means.   Losing a dad at a young age and watching your mom battle a nasty disease is heart wrenching.  I have also lost a best friend to suicide while I was in the midst of going through a very bad situation with an ex-boyfriend while in college. This was my lowest point in life. I do not wish any of the latter on ANYONE! I have become stronger through it all and hope to help others that might go through the same things because I have been through it. Sometimes it is just an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on.

I have always been a church-goer and had a relationship with God, but when the unexpected hits us like a ton of bricks it is so hard to not question God. In those times I seek God and dig into his word. It is what keeps me going. I have to say, I am not the best when it comes to reading my Bible daily and during the difficult seasons in life God is faithful and always points me to what I need to see and read in His word. It is so refreshing to know that when I am not always faithful, He is and his unconditional love for me gets me through this thing we call life.

No matter what you are going through know that God is there when no one else seems to be. I'll leave you with this quote that I try to live by daily!  Enjoy!



A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

It's Monday!!! Hope y'all had a great weekend! It was pretty darn hot here in the deep, hot, humid South.  Friday was my mom's birthday so we took her to dinner. Saturday we had a going away party and a baby sprinkle for some dear friends of ours. And Sunday we went to church and had a pretty relaxing day. So we had a pretty fun weekend.

I have started the early stages of learning all the tricks to becoming a successful couponer. I have always tried to go through the coupons in the Sunday paper and have always bought the Buy 1 Get 1 deals at Publix, but I have never figured out the true art of couponing and saving tons of money like some friends I know. I would just like to save money on things that I normally buy. I am not trying to become an extreme couponer by any means. I have watched the show and some of those people are just amazing and some I consider just down right INSANE!  Since it is just the two of us at the moment we live in a small house with NO room to  stockpile like those people. Nor do I want to spend 40 hours a week going through all the deals and driving across town to go to several stores. So earlier this week I went to Wal-Mart and bought a pretty purple binder, of course because purple is my all time FAVORITE color, and some baseball card holders to go in my binder to hold all my coupons that I AM GOING TO COLLECT! I am determined to go to Publix one day and save more than I spend even if it is just $1 more!  If you have any tips I am open to suggestions!! Help a sista out!

Happy Monday!

And They Lived Happily Ever After

March 26, 2011 was the BEST day of my life! I became a Mrs. The day was everything I had dreamed of for years and years. The planning was finished and the all the final touches were complete. I always wanted a Church wedding so we got hitched in the Methodist church that I grew up in. I had many memories from childhood in that church so it made it even more special to make another memory there. The day was full of primping and picture taking before the big moment. At 6:00 I walked down the aisle and we said our vows with 16 of our best friends at our side and in front of 400 family members and close friends. The ceremony was short and sweet! We laughed a lot during the ceremony due to some minor glitches, but nothing major! If nothing else, it relieved some stress from my sweaty palmed husband who can't stand being the center of attention.

After the ceremony we headed the reception in style in an antique convertible Cadillac. The reception was at a private venue here in town called The Club. It is on top of a mountain and overlooks the city. The view is breathtaking. We had a Motown band and lots of great food and drinks. Everyone had a great time dancing the night away and celebrating with us. It went by so quickly. I wish I could do it all over again!

Monday morning we headed to our honeymoon in Playa del Carmen, Mexico to an all inclusive resort. It was AMAZING! I can't wait to go back one day! We had so much fun meeting other honeymooners and hanging out by the pool relaxing everyday. The waited on you like you were royalty. It was the best thing ever.

Everyone said that the first year of marriage is the hardest. It was a breeze for us for the most part so I just hope that means that our marriage is going to be easy and laid back forever! My husband is so so good to me and brings a smile to my face one way or another everyday. I hate when we are apart. Some days I would rather both of us stay home from work and play hooky just so we can be together!
Stayed tuned for pictures of our one year photo shoot!

To see the rest of our Love Story go here:  Here

Happy Belated 4th of July

Happy Belated 4th of July! Hope you and yours had a fantastic 4th! We had a great time with family eating and frolicking about in a pool full of bambinos. I was water logged by the end of the day and "Marco Polo" was ringing in my head as I laid my head on my pillow last night! I wouldn't take those moments back for a minute! I love playing and hearing the joy of laughter amongst little ones. It brings much happiness to my ears. One day I hope that laughter will be coming out of the sweet mouth of one of my own! Until then I will just enjoy the neices and nephews. Right now it is nice to be able to leave them and be able to go home and relax, just the two of us!

We went to a friends house to enjoy a community fireworks show on Tuesday night. I just love fireworks, don't you? It amazes me every time I see them burst into bright lights in the air over and over again. I am like a little kid on Christmas morning when I know I am going to see fireworks. It takes me to some kind of happy place everytime.  Here's a little video of Macy's Firework Show!

Today it was back to work...blah. Thank goodness it is just for two days! Until next time....

Life Ain't Always Beautiful

Life has been pretty hard the last few of months. If you read my blog you know that my mom has had a recurrence of ovarian cancer that was found back in February. Last week she went to see her oncologist for a follow up from surgery. We thought she would be starting chemo last week or this week, but much to our surprise and shock we found out that the tumor has already come back just after 10 weeks after surgery removing it. She had a PET scan today to see if it has spread anywhere else. Treatment has been put on hold until we know more. Please say a prayer that it has not spread. Hopefully we will have the results back before the weekend.

Mom's spirits have been pretty amazing for the most part. I have had my ups and downs. Trying to stay positive and keep my mind off of it. Nothing good comes out of thinking about this nasty stuff and what it might be doing to her precioous body. Though I find myself many times at night praying and asking God why again? why us? how much more are you going to throw her way? hasn't our family already been through enough?

I can't express how great of a support system my family and I have. We have a great circle of friends and family. They have been great and many are there at a moments notice.

Through all of this, no matter the outcome, I know that God is making us stronger. Building a testimony out of this and using us for the god of others.

I leave you with the lyrics to a song that has been on my mind lately through all of this by Gary Allen. This song has great promise that life ain't always beautiful, but it makes us stronger and it is a beautiful ride.

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin it's sweet time

CHOURS
No, life ain't always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

Life ain't always beautiful
Some days I miss your smile
I get tired of walkin all these lonely miles

And I wish for just one minute
I could see your pretty face
Guess I can dream, but life don’t work that way

But the struggles make me stronger
And the changes make me wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin it's sweet time

No, life ain't always beautiful
But i know i'll be fine
Hey, life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride
What a beautiful ride

We're Back!!!!!

Hey Y'all!  We are back from our cross country road trip. Well, almost cross country. More like 1/2 country.  We had a great trip visiting friends and family and attending weddings. Now I can say I have been to Oklahoma.  Both weddings we attended were absolutely beautiful! While in Kansas the weather was great. As soon as we left Kansas I think the rain followed us the rest of the trip. It rained a good bit in Oklahoma and FLOODED at the beach so we didn't see too much of the sun or the beach, except from our balcony. NO FUN! But it was a great time with family! And guess what??? While driving through Texas, Kevin decided to buy some $1 scratch offs and we won $500!!! Oh yea, just paid for our trip. Thanks Texas!

I took some little snap shots with my phone along the way. One of these days I am going to get a nice fancy smanchy camera! :) I have a digital, but I think my phone can sometimes take better pictures. It's amazing how far the cell phone has come, isn't it?

The Arch in St. Louis on the way to Kansas.

Cows for miles in Kansas on the way to Oklahoma

More Cows and Pastures for miles!

We went to see the KC Royals play the Twins in KC. Very fun!! 

Toby Keith's Restaurant in Oklahoma City, I <3 This Bar & Grill

In Gulf Shore we got to play with this adorable little thing, my niece! Isn't she cute!!!

And this one, too. My nephew Lucas!

All in all the vacation was much needed and wonderful, but it is good to be back to a regular routine.  

Coming back to work was hard after being out of our routine for 10 days, but somebody has to pay the bills, right?  Although, I do miss playing with the two little bundles of love above. I could kiss and love on them all day long!

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Busy Bees

This week has been very busy for Kevin and I with work and things to do in the evenings. So I am deeply sorry I haven't posted until now. Now that the days are longer Kevin doesn't get home until later.  I have been going home and either going to the gym or working in the yard and garden. Our garden is doing fantastic! I'm so proud!

I am on a mission to lose some pounds and have had great motivation this week to do it.  I am very unhappy with my body at this moment in my and want to change it! I have been eating less and healthier and I managed to fit in some type of physical exercise every night this week, except last night. I was exhausted and decided just to go to dinner with some girl friends instead of going home.  I knew Kevin wasn't going to be home until after 7 so I treated myself! We all need treats every now and again, right??!?!

We leave next Thursday to go on vacation for 10 days! I'm so pumped. We are going to the wedding of a long time friend of mine next Saturday in Kansas City. While we are out that way we decided we would go visit some of Kev's family in Oklahoma City. Then the next Saturday my cousin is getting married down at the beach. We are driving the whole time so it should be an interesting road trip! I can't wait!! I'm promising myself I will take pictures, hopefully lots of them so I can share with you! 

So with that said, this long weekend will consist of me cleaning house and doing laundry! Fun times! NOT! If I were richer I would so have a maid. Really. I'm not ashamed to say it! I would even be okay with someone that just cleaned the bathrooms and did the laundry. I could handle the rest. I procrastinate while doing laundry. Instead of folding and hanging clothes as soon as they are finished drying like any normal human being would do I let them sit in the dryer or throw them on a chair in our bedroom. I used to not be this bad about laundry.  I'm not quite sure where this lazy beast inside of me came from! I'm blaming it on moving the big chair into our bedroom about 3 months ago! I'm determined that you will actually be able to see the chair after this weekend and I am going to try my best to not clutter it as soon as I get back from vacation.

I hope your Memorial Day weekend is a more relaxing and more fun than mine appears it is going to be! Stay safe! Until next time....

Closer to My Happy Ever After

August 2010: I was in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for work and Kevin back home. We decided before I left that we would meet up in Memphis at The Peabody Hotel for the  next weekend to see each other and have a quick trip in Memphis. We had not gone a weekend apart since we met so we thought it would be fun to meet in Memphis for a quick trip. When I got to Arkansas a little kink was put in our plan and I was told I would have to stay in Arkansas to work and would not be able to go to Memphis to work. After being in Arkansas through the week my boss told me on Friday morning that I could go to Memphis after all. I was ecstatic and called Kevin on the way to the courthouse and told him that we could go. He was somewhat hesitant which I thought was really weird, but told me to go ahead and book the room. So in the middle of the courtroom I am on my laptop booking a room at The Peabody for Saturday night. It was a 4 hour drive for both of us so we agreed that we would just get up early Saturday morning and head up there and just stay one night.

Saturday morning, August 21 I woke up and hit the road. We both got to The Peabody about the same time and checked in. Kevin was adamant about asking what time the rooftop floor closed, which at the time I didn't think anything of. I just thought he wanted to make sure we got to go up there and look at the city at night before it closed.  After we checked in and got settled in our room we decided we would grab some lunch from a local Bar-B-Q joint, walk  around Beale Street and then take a quick nap before our dinner reservation Kevin had made that night.

Fast forward to post-nap time....I get a shower and get ready and then Kevin gets ready while I'm finishing up. He is acting really weird and takes his bag in the bathroom with him and shuts the door. At this point I think something is up, but kind of ignore it (not really though). We go to dinner and it was yummy.  Kevin was a little quiet, but assured me he was okay. We go back to the room so I could change shoes because we were going to go to walk around Beale Street and experience the night life for a little while before calling it a night. We went up to the roof top on The Peabody to see where the ducks sleep, at least that's what I was told we were doing!  When we got to the roof top Kevin decides he needs to go to the restroom (later I found out he was taking the ring box out of his sock and putting it in his pocket)....Inside I'm screaming "we just went to the room, wouldn't you have used the bathroom there."  While waiting on him I manage to get the butterflies anticipating what may or may not be happening and tell myself to be cool and don't give away to him that I might know something is about to happen that is going to change my life forever!!!  We go outside and walk around and look at all the pretty lights and the skyline of downtown Memphis at night and then next thing I know Kevin is on one knee!!!! He said some stuff that I don't remember because I was more focused on what was happening and couldn't wait to see the ring!

It was beautiful and everything I had hoped for! The ring and the moment! We went back to the room and celebrated with some wine and called our parents and my best friend! Then made our way out to Beale Street to continue our celebrating. I hated that I had to go back to Arkansas and not go home with him to celebrate more with our friends and family. The week thankfully went by fast and I was home the next weekend!

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment or man!

To see the beginning of our Love Story go Here

Our Weekend

This past weekend was filled with a lot of fun activities for us. Friday we had dinner with my best friend Betsy, her boyfriend Matt, her mom and my mom. It was good to see them and catch up. Life gets busy for all of us these days so dinner and seeing each other doesn't happen as often as we like. Friday was also my mom's first time to get out since her surgery.  I was so glad she got to go to dinner with us and see something other than the walls of her house.

Saturday Kevin, Betsy, Matt, my brother, cousin and some others ran a 5k here in town called the Motherwalk to support Ovarian Cancer research. Friday after dinner, Betsy and I had a great time decorating shirts for our team to wear. Our team name was BeBe's babies. My mom also got to go go along with us to support all of us that were running in her honor. It was perfect weather for the run! It had rained the night before and cooled everything off. There were a lot of people running for the cause. It was such a good feeling to know that many people care about Ovarian Cancer Research. Our team pretty much rocked and we had a great time!

Later that afternoon Kevin and I went to his best friend's 3 year old daughter's (Anna Kyle) birthday party. It was probably the greatest 3 year old party I have ever seen. They had a pretty white pony giving all the little ones pony rides. They had a blow up jump thingy and to top it all off a hay ride. All the decorations were hand made and absolutely precious!  Thank you pinterest for all the fabulous ideas you give all these mamas! They even used hay bails as seats at the tables. I should have taken pictures, but completely forgot to take my camera and my phone in.

Saturday night we went to a friend's house down the street and had a crawfish boil. And finally Sunday we went to church and then spent Mother's Day with our mothers and my Grandmother!

As you can see it was a very busy weekend. We needed a weekend for our weekend. I enjoy having lots of fun things to do and events to attend on the weeekends, but sometimes it can be exhausting and make me more tired than I was at the end of the week. I'm ready for our vacation in June! 
Tootles for now! I will hopefully get out a more interesting post tomorrow!

Becoming Happy Ever After

I'm a romantic at heart and I love hearing everyone's love stories, friends and strangers.  I don't discriminate when it comes to hearing a love story. I like a good romantic book, movie or reality show. They always make you feel so warm and fuzzy and always put a smile on my face and sometimes bring a tear to my eye. Kevin always teases me when we watch a movie with romance in it because I usually end up crying at some point. I can't help it. Give a girl a break hubs!

Kevin and I met on a Saturday night in December of 2009. I was with some girls hanging out and he was at his usual place of interest, Buffalo Wild Wings. *Side note: Kevin is a sports fanatic! He's a little obsessed and might need therapy for it one day! Kidding, but he really does watch it EVERYDAY and is always on the computer reading about it. Some of are petty little arguments are over this.* Anyway, back to how we met. One of the girls I was with was dating a long time family friend of mine (they are getting married in June!) who was also at BWW with the same group of guys Kevin was with. The girls decided to stop by BWW to see what the guys were going to be up to the rest of the night. We got there and I did not pay ANY attention to Kevin because he was somewhat anti-social and zoned in to whatever team was playing on TV that night. Imagine that! (Kevin is one of the most social people I know, which is funny thinking back to that night.)

 A little while later our group decided to go to another local hang out and that is when Kevin came up to me and introduced himself and asked if I would like to go out with him sometime. I gave him my number and I honestly didn't think he would call. I was wrong! He called the next night and told me that some of the same group that he was hanging out with the night before were going out to eat that Monday night and asked me to go. So I went and glad I did because it was nice getting to know him a little better in a group setting and I wasn't as nervous. (Yeah right, who am I kidding! I could barely eat!) The night ended well and has asked if I would like to go on a date by ourselves the next weekend and I accepted the invite. We went to one of our favorite restuarants, Superior Grill and the to a movie, Brothers. And guess what? I cried. Yes on our first official date I balled my eyes out. If you haven't seen the movie it is a tear jerker!!!

We continued dating and getting to know each other and quickly realized that we had tons of friends in common and lots of common interests. How we had never met before then I will never know.  About 3 months into it dating we talked marriage. Little did I know that on that December night that I would meet the man I would marry. They always say that the one will come when you aren't looking and least expect it and boy did it!

I will post our engagement story next! It's a good one you won't want to miss! 
Happy hump day!

Home Grown

This year Kevin and I decided that we would try to grow our own vegetable garden! I have always wanted to try to grow some veggies, but wasn't sure if I would be able to give the TLC needed to grow a fruitful garden. I grew up eating fresh veggies out of my Grand-daddy's garden and there is no comparison to something fresh out of the ground, especially when you work hard for it! 

When my mom was diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer I decided it was definitely time to try to eat more clean and fresh. Thus putting all the procrastination aside and getting the garden in action! Here's to the beginning of our eating clean and healthy.

I'm so excited about my (I mean our :)) garden now and it gets bigger and bigger everyday. Not only is it going to be healthier for us, it is also going to save us a ton of money! I started everything from a seed and most of the seeds I got at Dollar Tree. The others I got at Wal-Mart and they only cost me about $1.50. Kevin builds houses so we fortunatly had access to cedar boards to build the garden box and an abundance of top soil.  We only had to spend about $25 total for this garden! The garden consists of green beans, squash, zucchini, okra, cucumber, tomato, jalapeno and habanero peppers. I know we will have an abundance and will either have to freeze some things and/or give them away! We will definitely get our moneys worth out of it!  Now I can't wait for some scrumptious veggies!!!

Here are some pictures of the progression of the garden for your pleasure! I hope this might inspire you to start your own garden adventure and to eat cleaner and healthier foods that haven't been drenched in pesticides and miracle grow!  Happy Tuesday!