Making Monday Moments.

Oh the joys of Monday...Mondays seem to always be slow and just creep on minute by minute.  You know, sometimes it's all right to slow yourself down because we tend to notice more of the blessings GOD has poured out to us and how He is always faithful.  We spent the day with Quinn's Grandma Lila and his cousins, Kaitlyn, Riley, and Emily.  We didn't do much of anything special other than eat some KFC and sit on the front porch talking about everything under the Son.  We reminisced about some fond memories of Papa James and how he lived his life.  We walked down to his barn and his radio was still playing the Gospel music channel that he always listened to while he worked.  We all found comfort in that music knowing that he is in a better place now. We encourage you to be still and slow down, notice your surroundings, don't complain so much, and finally, be quick to give GOD praise.  Here's a quick quote we came across from Max Lucado, "Today, you will encounter GOD's creation.  When you see the beauty around, let each detail remind you to lift your head in praise to your Father in Heaven." Nothing but love for you all.  

Wedding Weekend!

This weekend was our last wedding weekend for the summer.   Our college friend, Avery, was the stunning bride.  She is the last of our college friends to finally tie the knot.  What's funny is that this time last year, she wasn't even dating Ryan. They met on eharmony.com and totally fell in love. You have to know Avery's personality to understand how in world she dated and married someone within a 1 year span.  She's totally fun, spontaneous, and exciting and all of us knew that once she met "the one" that it would be a short engagement and she'd be a married woman before long.  Avery and Ryan are a great couple and we truly wish them the best!

We had a great time getting to reunite with old college friends and eat some delicious food.  We were really excited because we got to finally see our friends Heather and Jared and their sweet baby boy, Boone. Besides just hanging out with old friends, we were totally stuffed from some incredible food all weekend! Ryan's uncle was the chef and definitely fixed up our meals right! We had everything from homemade salsa to incredible tasting chicken skewers. We had a wonderful weekend and can't wait to reunite with everyone again!

Girls Morning Out!

This morning, I went on a Girls Morning Out with some of my favorite people...Mama, Granny, and Hope.  I was super excited to get to hang out, eat, and get pampered together.  The morning started by a visit to St. Francis Hospital.  A good friend of ours, Sharon, has been in the hospital for almost a month from a sudden case of Pneumonia.  It has left her bed ridden and caused her to get blood clots in her legs. She is now having to start occupational therapy in order to move her arms and legs like normal again.  I think that it was a good time for us to just go and encourage her and lift her spirits.  Please keep her in your prayers as she continues to recover. After our visit, we headed out to Tips -n- Toes to get pedicures.  This is by far one of my favorite things to do.  When I was in college, I got to go get my toes done all of the time, but now that I am teaching, I usually don't have that much time to go.  I figured we would have to wait for quite a while for all 4 of us to get a pedicure, but we went right on in and sat down.  I always love going to nail places and listen to them talk in another language the whole time.  I know that they are probably all secretly talking about how nasty our feet really are.  I actually had my nail lady to ask me about my Jesus fish tattoo on my foot.  It was a neat little time to share with her that it represented my Christianity and faith in Christ.  Another lady also thought I was 16 years old and that Hope was way too blonde to belong to all of us brunettes. Needless to say, we had a great time.  Since Granny and Hope were starving we decided on a fabulous lunch, P.F. Changs! It was absolutely delicious! We left lunch to go to Whole Foods Market. I absolutely loved it there and would love to shop for groceries there all the time if I had all the money in the world.  But I don't have tons of money, so I spend what money I have at ol' Bilo. Anyway, I loved all of the different fruits and vegetables they had, some of which I have never even heard of or seen.  I ended up coming home with a few goodies though.  I brought Quinn some Pistachio crackers, sweet potato chips, and a baby seedless watermelon. Sadie got some sweet potato dog treats herself.  I love the grocery store way too much! Still waiting on my trip to the Farmer's Market before the summer is over.

A Couple Days Behind...

Well, what can we say?  We have been truly livin' it up over these past couple of days.  It all started with Bryce's birthday party which was totally gnarly!  Bryce had a bunch of his buds over to play every sport known to man.  The highlights of the party were the intense wiffle ball game and most definitely the pie throwing at Jamey's face.  We have to give major props to Jamey for letting a bunch of third graders pound him in the face with mountains of whipped cream.  Jamey just sat there and took it like a man.  He will be nominated for "Father of the Year."  

We think it is well worth mentioning that Bryce received a ventriloquist (spelling may be off) doll named "Charlie" for one his birthday gifts.  For some reason, Bryce has an incredible talent at speaking without moving his mouth.  He really can say the whole alphabet without even cracking his lips.  The boy has some major skills which will pay the bills someday.  All in all, Bryce had one cowabunga b-day bash.  Hope and Jamey, well done throwing a great party for a true Son of Thunder.  

Finally, we spent our whole Monday at Table Rock listening to some good ole church talk at the District Conference.  It was an interesting day and the best part was listening to Buddy Rampey.  Buddy Rampey is the man...a true man of God.  Another great part of the day was when Quinn saw two of his students at the conference.  What a small world it is!  Quinn told me that he kept hearing, "Mr. Pearson!" coming from somewhere.  Low and behold, out of the corner of our eyes, there were two of Quinn's students.  After the reunion and some more church talk, we headed back down the mountain to end the day walking our dog, Sadie, down mainstreet while the sun slowly set on the beautiful metropolis of Pelzer.  If that's not livin' it up, then we don't know what is.  Nothing but love and God Bless. 

The Jockey Lot Expedition.

Today we took a Jockey Lot Adventure with Rick, Neesie, and Mr. James.  We were extremely excited because neither of us had been in forever and we had high hopes of finding some neat things to go in our house.  Since we have all the time in the world with summer break, we have been busily working in our home constantly and are always looking for something to make it even better.  Anyway, the morning began at 6:00 a.m.  We haven't gotten up that early since school let out for the summer and boy was it a wake up call. Quinn immediately said that he couldn't do this every Saturday.  The first place we went was to the ol' Piedmont Cafe to get a scrumptious breakfast.  And boy was it delicious! Rick and Mr. James go there so often, the waitresses already know what to order for them.  The rest of us got the normal breakfast but with a grilled biscuit.  Mmmmm! It wasn't a healthy option but was very yummy. After breakfast, the venture to the Jockey Lot began.  Of course Rick and Mr. James got out of the car and left us and Neesie to find deals on our own.  We quickly caught up with Rick and made him stay with us because he is the one who can "wheel and deal."  Everyone knows at the Jockey Lot, you buy extremely random things.  Here is what we came home with: potato chips, Axe spray (can't ever smell too good now), basketball shorts, 4 childrens books, and Sadie a new dog toy.  So needless to say, we didn't find anything to spruce up our house, but we found some other random junk.  That's the joy of going to the Jockey Lot! The morning ended by a quick run to Anderson to a few yard sales that had a bunch of nothing because we were too late.  Then we headed on to Sam's to supposedly just get some croissants, but came home with much much more.  We had an adventurous morning and had a great time listening to Mr. James' stories about life. He also had some great quotes especially this one after we thanked him for a great morning, "Ya'll welcome as the flowers in May."  Maybe we can do it again before school starts back and find some more crazy junk to add to our collection. 

Life is Good at Twin Lakes.

Yesterday was an awesome day for the both of us. We headed up to Twin Lakes to hang out with the one and only Self and Beck families. The Selfs' and Becks' are truly some grand and genuine people. When we got there, Mrs. Self and her girls greeted us with some good ole ham sandwhiches with Mrs. Self's home-grown tomatoes. After a quick lunch, we took a swim in the lake and rode the jet ski. That jet ski was incredible. Quinn pulled the Self girls behind the jet ski on this float called the "UFO." Following a close encounter with the "UFO," we played some pretty intense card games and learned how to speed stack cups. Caroline Self is lightning fast at stacking cups. The best part of the evening was Mrs. Self's onion rings. Those onion rings were so lip-smacking good especially with our hamburgers and hotdogs. Mrs. Beck made some Southwestern chili that was flat out sensational. By then, our bellies were about to pop! We made our way back down to the lake to watch Catherine tear it up water skiing. Catherine looked like she was born to ski as she sliced through that Lake Hartwell water. We ended the night with a nice boat ride from Mr. Beck, home-made ice cream, and some campfire smores. As we drove back home last night, we both said to each other, "Now, that was just fun!" We would simply like to say a big thanks to the Self and Beck families for a great and memorable time. Here's something to sum it all up..."Life is Good."

Good Ole Jackie...

This could be the funniest guy that we know.  He always brings joy to our lives through his entertaining comments during dinner.  He is really known for the way he extends the last note to the song of "Happy Birthday."  Speaking of songs, he has two favorite ones and they are "Lonely Pilgrim" and "Let the Church be the Church."  He has a pretty awesome wife (Quinn's sister) and an amazing little boy by the name of Ellison.  All in all, life would simply...well, just be boring without our beloved Jackie.  We look forward to sharing some laughs with him this weekend.  Jackie, wherever you are brother at this very moment, we just want to say, "We love you Scooney Scooney!"

Mommer Delivered!

We both decided that we needed some curtains or something to go over the kitchen windows.  As you can see, we went with curtains.  By the way, if you are looking for some cool and good-priced fabric, Hobby Lobby is the place.  Well, when we got the fabric, we began to wonder who in the world can make us some curtains?  Quinn called his Mommer and boy did she deliver.  After we hung the curtains up, Quinn's Mommer said, "That's pretty good for my first set of curtains."  We both looked at Mommer and said, "That was your first set of curtains?"  She just laughed.  Mommer, we thank you for your great craftsmanship on these curtains.  They make the kitchen look great!

Front Porchin' It.

The other night, the Sanders joined us for an incredible scrumptious supper.  We (really just Amber) cooked a cheeseburger pie with some peas and carrots.  This meal was definitely a hit! The cool thing about this meal was that we were all able to sit at one table together.  In the past when other peeps join us for a meal, they would have to bring their own chairs.  That has all changed due to our new 15 dollar dining room table.  We extend our deepest gratitude to 8-Ball and Vegie for this extraordinary purchase.  After we ate, we all made our way to the front porch where we rocked into the summer sunset snapping some fresh, grown green beans.  It was truly a great time that we all shared.  As of right now, Summer '09 has been a great one.

The Heat is On!

Good Summer July Morning to all our fellow readers.  Well, our air conditioner is not wanting to cooperate with us.  For the past couple of days, it has been in the mid-80's in our home.  We've been sporting a lot of tank tops and those good ole cut off sleeve t-shirts.  Our air guy, Craig, is the man.  He fixed the capacitor and is currently working on replacing the compressor on our air conditioner.  In the process, Craig is teaching Quinn a few pointers on how an air condition unit works.  Bottom line is we can't even imagine what it was like back in the day without air conditioning.  I guess anyone can say we have a lot to be thankful for with today's advancements in technology.  For your listening pleasure, check out this video because it is a perfect description of how life has been for us over the past couple of days.  Take Care and Nothing but Love.