Weekends

Orange Beach, Alabama – Part 1

I really want to be like those bloggers who can do multiple weeks in one post, but I just can’t. That’s just not my style. There are 51 photos in this post. People who do those week+ long posts usually have 25 total photos. It’s just not my style.

Now 2, this was about our vacation this last summer in August 2019. Yes, you read that right. I’m just now getting to it. I’m sitting here on a cold snowy day in January wishing I was in Alabama in summer enjoying our vacation. So without further ado, I bring you Orange Beach, Alabama

Headed to Orange Beach

From our house, there are two ways to head to Alabama. You can go through Arkansas into Mississippi, across to Alabama. Otherwise, you drive clear across Missouri to Memphis, then down. We chose to head through Arkansas. I did some research and it was supposed to be the “faster” route. Because we were headed through Arkansas, Jared told us to meet him in Rogers for lunch at a place called Hapa’s Hawaiian Bar & Grill. 

Now here is where I tell you that once I got just outside of Rogers it started POURING rain. So bad at one point I really could hardly see anything in front of me. I was driving this stretch. It was awful. Then our GPS took us to the wrong place. We were only 5 miles to the west of where we were supposed to be but traffic was so horrid that it took us 30-45 minutes for that 5 miles. By the time we got there, I was done.

Hapa’s Hawaiian Bar & Grill

105 S 3rd St
Rogers, Arkansas

This place is so totally worth the stop. Holy cow! I had Hawaiian food in Hawaii (imagine that) and this reminded me so much of that.

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The Little’s Tree

I mentioned in the Chiefs tree post that the little took over the original Chiefs tree. The white tree is like 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 feet tall. I kind of forgot exactly, but Abug wanted her own tree and we had the ability to make that happen. In like September or August maybe even, we were at Hobby Lobby and they had their Christmas ornaments out. With the help of my mom, we got her a bunch of new ornaments for her tree. Now, this is where I note that last year when it had all the Chiefs ornaments, she took it over. And so we were adding to her ornaments not starting from scratch.

The ornaments were focused around things she likes, ballet/dance, tball, unicorns, and mermaids. Oh and ketchup, we can’t forget the ketchup.

I wouldn’t let my mom give her the ornaments until we were ready to put the tree up. I knew if we gave them early, she’d get so excited she’d want the tree up in August or September. While I’m all about putting up the tree early, that might be a wee bit early.

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Chiefs Tree

Honestly, I’m quite late on this, but better late than never. Now that we are in our own house, we had a little more room to put up more trees. We put up 3 in fact. You’ve seen the family tree which housed all the presents. Then both girls got a tree. This one was the Chiefs Tree for Tbug. She had options and this was what she wanted.

Last year at the end of the season I bought this tree. The funny thing is if you look at it, it almost has a silver tone to it. However, it was bought to be gold. So looking at the box, what was printed directly on the box says silver. The label Walmart put on it said Rose Gold. With the lights on it looked more rose gold so who the heck knows what color this tree really is. (more…)

The Christmas Tree 2019

It would be funny if people didn’t know my favorite holiday was Christmas. Especially if you watch my Facebook page all year long. Now here is where I say that sometimes I post how many days/weeks/months until Christmas year-round just to be ornery for all the people who give me CRAP about it :). But somewhere along the way, this year hasn’t felt quite right. I haven’t been nearly as excited as I normally am.

A friend took it upon himself to try and help me get into the spirit. When it didn’t work, he eventually backed off. I told him not to but he did anyway. He said he shouldn’t cram it down my throat, but I told him that maybe he should. and while right now I’m still not 100% feeling it yet, I feel better about it. That might have come because I’ve been listening to Christmas songs since they came on Sirus XM radio. Or the fact that Hallmark has been playing Christmas movies around the clock since the weekend before Halloween. Quite possibly it could also be because our Christmas trees are up and decorated. Yes, I said trees, plural.

Whatever it is, I hope that it keeps coming! Last year at this time we were hanging in Limbo on if we were going to get our house bought or not. And I hung Christmas lights up the day we bought it. I got made fun of but I didn’t care. I threatened to put my Christmas tree up in our house but I didn’t. Instead, hubby and I got into a huge argument about actually putting the tree up and we almost didn’t. Then when it was up, the fight was still going on to the point I almost tore it all back down that day. And the fight… want to know what it was about? It was about putting up the tree. (more…)

4th of July Photo Journal – Family

I can’t believe we’re already on the downhill slope toward Christmas. Oy! If you watch Hallmark Channel, we’re on Christmas in July… round the clock Christmas movies. Gosh, I love Christmas movies, but that’s another post for another day. Right now, let’s discuss the 4th of July, again… one last time.

This will be in the form of hubby’s family. I only say that to distinguish between our two families although technically when we got married, they all became OUR family. Anyway… Just clarifying right there :).

Now one thing that I should point out just to remember is that Hubby and I were the last ones to the party for the most part. A couple of stragglers came in but, usually, we’re some of the first ones there. When we hosted it, we were first, now that we are just patrons (haha, jokes on them… just kidding) we’re still usually some of the first ones to show up. Then I had to leave to go back to my house to get a trailer to set up the fireworks on. 

When I got to the house, the joke was on me… hubby left his truck empty. I used his truck because at that time they were using the bed of mine to sort fireworks. I hopped in his truck and there were 27 miles to empty. Now, I could have made it to my sister-in-law’s and he could have made it from there to the gas station, but at that late at night, who wants to bother? So I stopped and got fuel for him. I might be nice sometimes, but don’t spread the word! (more…)

Life Lately…

And just like that, it’s the middle of June. I have now slept in my house, overnight, 2 times. WHAT?!?! When did that happen? Well, I’m glad you asked. It happened Friday and Saturday night. Now, here we are Sunday night and I’m sitting in bed at my house. I was in the shower a few minutes ago reminiscing the last couple of months. Wow, it has been a whirlwind.

We have had tball practice, tball games, ended tball, made a trip to Kansas City for a weekend, made a trip to Kansas City for a day, had the last dance class for the year, had dance rehearsal, had dance recitals, had dance pictures, had tball pictures, bought furniture, put said furniture together.

The furniture consisted of (but not limited to) 3 desks, 3 beds, 6 chairs, 1 bench, 1 coat rack, 1 coat bench, 1 storage bench, 2 bookshelves, 1 vacuum cleaner, and whatever else I’m forgetting.

We have slept in our house, put pictures on the wall, restained a floor, put down new flooring, replaced tiles, found new tiles to replace, washed umpteen million loads of dishes, washed 548,912 loads of laundry, most of which happened this previous weekend.

Then we ended preschool, had preschool graduation postponed, had preschool graduation canceled, had flooding, had tornadoes, had more rain, had severe thunderstorms, driven into severe thunderstorms, hid in the basement during tornado warnings, started summer school, about to finish summer school and then… (more…)

Smoke on the Border

The big shindig… also known as… Smoke on the Border in Gravette, Arkansas. So, we made it. The boys signed up, we hauled everything down, and bam, we were entered. I say we loosely. I helped when they said they needed it or by washing their dishes, but this was all them!

Saturday was the People’s Choice event. Basically, people were allowed to come and walk through the 2 streets blocked off for the event. If people had samples, obviously they could sample it. Samples were cut off around like 2 maybe. Then, the People’s Choice meat was dropped off to the church around the corner at 5 pm. People could buy wrist bands for $10 and they basically got all you can eat meat plus possible sides. Sunday was the main event. So they had the option of entering in 4 categories… pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and/or chicken. The awards were held at the Methodist Church as were all things turned in. And bam, it was all over but the cleanup. (more…)

Remodeling Journal: The Vanity

So… here’s a little back information for you about me and Vanities because I’m sure you wondered… My whole life I’ve never had a vanity with drawers. There, I said it.

Growing up at my parent’s house and now back there again, my bathroom sink doesn’t have drawers. I do remember when my parents were building the house I asked for vanity sink drawers, but it didn’t happen.

Moving on to the dorms at school… The sink was sort of free-standing in a way. It just hooked to the wall. It wasn’t completely down. Plus the one in our room I had to share with a roommate. It was the kitchen sink as well as the bathroom sink. It also had… you guessed… NO drawers.

We had community bathrooms in the dorm I lived in. They didn’t have drawers either. I was like vanity drawer deprived.

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Remodeling Journal: Demo Part 2

It just so happened there was an auction for home remodeling the Saturday after we bought our house. How convenient. It also happened to be one of the coldest days of the year thus far, other than when we had snow back in November.

The girls went with us. Poor them! We finally sent them out to the truck with the keys and my phone (Tbug had hers) for entertainment. It wasn’t going fast and boy was it cold. I think Cold is an understatement at this point. Holy cow!

They had cabinets, flooring, wood, paneling, sinks, fans, you name it… We walked away with the tile for the backsplash of my kitchen, which apparently at this point I can’t find a picture of. I didn’t have my phone (read above paragraph) and hubby never sent me the pictures I took :).

We called it quits long before the auction was over. It started at either 9 or 10. We left at 1. It was cold and boring, and the things we wanted still hadn’t sold. I talked to a couple who went to these often and they said that one of the previous auctions lasted until after 7pm the last time.

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Oh Socks…

Here we are, the last day of 2018. I’ve tried typing 2019 a few times and my fingers always slip up and I wind up typing 2018. Oy! I’ll wish you luck with that new task just as you should wish me luck!!

So being the last day of the year, I’ll leave you with a weird/funny story. I really should recap Christmas but I haven’t edited all the photos yet. I guess that’s what happens when you get busy remodeling a house…

Once upon a time, I think I told you the socks story but… My grandma used to always give me socks for Christmas. Then she passed away in 2007. Hubby and I didn’t start dating until 2009, but I swear I didn’t make this comment until I was dating him, but I questioned who would get me socks for Christmas now. So silly and stupid I know… But I did say that.  (more…)